TLDR 2025-08-07

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OPENAI IN TALKS FOR SHARE SALE AT $500 BILLION VALUATION

OpenAI is in early talks about a potential sale of stock for current and former employees at a value of about $500 billion. Investors have approached OpenAI about buying some of the employee shares. If the deal goes ahead, OpenAI's on-paper price would rise by roughly two-thirds. The company expects to reach 700 million active weekly users this week, up from 500 million at the end of March.

INSTAGRAM TAKES ON SNAPCHAT WITH NEW ‘INSTAGRAM MAP'

Instagram's new map feature lets users share their most recent active location with others and discover location-based content. The feature also allows users to leave short messages on the map for others to see. Location sharing is off by default in Instagram Map, and users' locations only show up when they open the app, so it doesn't provide real-time location updates. The new feature has launched in the US and will be available globally soon.

NEW METHOD IS THE FASTEST WAY TO FIND THE BEST ROUTES

One of the most iconic problems in computer science is finding the shortest path from a specific starting point in a network to every other point. A team of researchers has devised a new algorithm that solves the problem without sorting, and it runs faster than any algorithm that does, including Dijkstra's algorithm. The new algorithm's runtime breaks the previous sorting barrier, and it can likely be streamlined to run even faster. This article tells the story of how the algorithm was developed.

INSIDE CHSN01: CHINA'S HIGH-STRENGTH STEEL POWERING NEXT-GEN FUSION REACTORS

Fusion projects such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) rely on 316LN or JK2LB cryogenic stainless steels, which hold up well at liquid-helium temperatures, but their yield strength limits the magnetic field of ITER at 11.8 tesla and forces a large, expensive machine design. Chinese developers created CHSN01 (China High-Strength, Low-Temperature Steel No. 1) to withstand 20 Tesla fields and 1.3 GPa combined electromagnetic stress while still stretching about 30% before breaking. It keeps those properties after 60,000 on/off cycles, the lifetime workload of China's Burning-Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST). CHSN01 can be used in MRI scanners, particle accelerators, maglev trains, and even quantum-computing dilution refrigerators - swapping in a stronger and tougher steel could shrink magnet footprints and extend service intervals across the board.

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WE SHOULDN'T HAVE NEEDED LOCKFILES

The concept of lockfiles is unnecessary, and it complicates things for no reason. Maven, a 20-year-old Java library ecosystem, has never once needed a lock file. Dependency managers can and are working without lockfiles just the same.

COMPTIME.TS

comptime.ts is a simple TypeScript compiler that enables compile-time evaluation of expressions marked with 'comptime'. It can help optimize code by moving computations from run time to compile time. comptime should not be used for complex runtime logic, side effects, or non-deterministic operations. It is useful for computing constant values, generating static content, and optimizing performance-critical code.

SO LONG TO TECH'S DREAM JOB

The world of tech is changing: long-term employees are reporting a completely different work environment from what they experienced years ago. Pay and bonuses are declining, as well as other perks, like a relaxed atmosphere and occasional fun office activities like Nerf gun fights. Tech behemoths have aged into large bureaucracies. While many of them still provide free food and pay well, they have little compunction about cutting jobs, ordering mandatory office attendance, or clamping down on employee debate.

PARADIGM SHIFTS AND THE WINNER'S CURSE

The two most important companies of the last two decades of tech were Apple and Amazon, specifically AWS. Apple created the smartphone paradigm with the iPhone, and AWS' cloud platform enabled a universe of applications that ran everywhere. Microsoft and Nokia failed in the smartphone era because they both deluded themselves into thinking that their previous domination was an advantage. AI is a paradigm shift, just like mobile was. While the winners of the previous paradigm are not automatically fundamentally handicapped because of their previous successes, they need to be careful about making the wrong choices for years before it's too late.

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MUSK SAYS TESLA IS TRAINING AN UPGRADED FULL SELF-DRIVING MODEL WHICH COULD BE RELEASED NEXT MONTH

The new Full Self-Driving model has around 10 times the parameters as the previous version, with a big improvement to video compression loss.

WE'D BE BETTER OFF WITH 9-BIT BYTES

This post looks at what would be different if the world had gone with 9-bit bytes instead of 8-bit bytes.

LLM INFLATION

Large language models can be used to turn short, simple content into something long and seemingly profound - this should make us consider why we find ourselves inflating content.

NEW APPLE TV STILL LAUNCHING THIS YEAR

Apple is highly likely to introduce a new Apple TV, with a newer chip, support for Wi-Fi 7, and an Apple-designed Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip, later this year.

MULTI-DOOR PRODUCTS

Multi-door products offer multiple, distinct entry points to the same core value, allowing products to serve more users without adding new features.

WE REPLACED PASSWORDS WITH SOMETHING WORSE

Many services use a login method that involves sending a 6 digit code to users for login, which causes many accounts to be stolen.