TLDR

TLDR 2025-01-16

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01GENERAL

Sponsored

🗺️ OFFSHORING IS TEMPTING - BUT OFTEN FAILS TO PAY OFF

You might be tempted to save a few bucks by offshoring IT staff to a developing country on the other side of the world. But things tend to look very different when the rework bills start piling up…

growthaccelerationpartners.comSponsor

02BIG TECH & STARTUPS

LEAKED SAMSUNG GALAXY S25 SLIM IMAGES SHOW OFF ITS SUPER-THIN DESIGN

Images of what appears to be the Samsung Galaxy 25 Slim have leaked. The super-thin smartphone has a flat front, flat back, flat sides, and three cameras on the back. It will be 6.4mm thick, about 1.2mm thinner than the Galaxy S24 and nearly 2mm thinner than the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The phone's camera system will include a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 50-megapixel telephoto lens with 3.5X optical zoom and a special design. It will have a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and 12GB of RAM. The phone will apparently launch in May and may be showcased at Samsung's January 22 Galaxy Unpacked event.

theverge.com2 min read

TIKTOK SAYS EMPLOYEES WILL HAVE JOBS EVEN IF BAN TAKES EFFECT

TikTok employees in the US will still have jobs even if the app is banned in the country. The company is apparently not planning to leave the US in the near term even if it is banned. The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on whether to overturn the ban before the law takes effect on Sunday. TikTok's leadership team remains laser focused on planning for various scenarios and is continuing to plan the way forward.

nytimes.com2 min read

03SCIENCE & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY

SPACEX LAUNCHES 2 LUNAR LANDERS ON PATH TO THE MOON

SpaceX's 100th launch of a Falcon rocket from pad 39A yesterday sent two landers on their way to the Moon. The mission also featured a successful landing of the Falcon 9 first stage on the Just Read The Instructions drone ship. It will take about 45 days for Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander to reach lunar orbit, after which the landing process will take just over an hour. The Resilience lander, which is carrying a 5kg rover dubbed Tenacious, will reach the moon in approximately four to five months, after which it will complete a lunar flyby before entering orbit around the Moon.

theregister.com2 min read

CHINA PLANS TO BUILD ENORMOUS SOLAR ARRAY IN SPACE — AND IT COULD COLLECT MORE ENERGY IN A YEAR THAN 'ALL THE OIL ON EARTH'

Chinese scientists plan to build an enormous, 0.6-mile-wide solar power station in space that will beam continuous energy back to Earth via microwaves. The project has been dubbed 'another Three Gorges Dam project above the Earth'. The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest hydropower project. Based in China, it generates 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. The US, EU, and Japan have also been investigating solar satellite array technology - Japan's JAXA is set to launch its proof-of-concept satellite this year.

livescience.com3 min read

04PROGRAMMING, DESIGN & DATA SCIENCE

DESIGNING FOR DEVELOPERS MEANS DESIGNING FOR LLMS TOO

Most large language models (LLMs) aren't great at using less popular frameworks. This shouldn't be surprising, but it is an important developer experience problem. A simple and effective solution is for the framework to tailor instructions specifically designed for LLMs, rewriting documents, adding conventions and rules, and packaging the instructions. This can make LLMs much better at building apps for less well-known frameworks.

encore.dev3 min read

STRUCTURED LOGPROBS

This Python library enhances OpenAI chat completion response by adding detailed information about token log properties. It works with OpenAI Structured Outputs, a feature that ensures models will always generate responses that add here to a supplied JSON Schema. The library provides utilities for analyzing and incorporating token-level log probabilities into structured outputs to help developers understand the reliability of structured data extracted from OpenAI models.

github.comGitHub repository

05MISCELLANEOUS

THE DOWNFALL OF INDIA'S HOT STARTUP IS WIPING OUT US DEBTHOLDERS

Byju's, the most valuable startup in India's history, was willing to pay handsomely to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars in the US. It received $1.2 billion towards a global expansion. The company collapsed, setting off legal proceedings that may leave investors recouping only a small fraction of what they're owed. The case is a lesson about the perils of lending when money can rapidly disappear across borders.

bloomberg.com6 min read

NYC CONGESTION PRICING: EARLY DAYS

This article looks at the effects of congestion pricing and its impacts on traffic, time, enforcement, rideshare services, the people living in congestion pricing zones, and more. New York City now has congestion pricing - people have to pay $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. This has dramatically improved traffic in tunnels and bridges. The policy is aimed in part at getting people to switch from cars to trains, but trains have not seemed more crowded than usual.

links.tldrnewsletter.com28 min read