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A MYSTERY CEO AND BILLIONS IN SALES: IS CHINA BUYING BANNED NVIDIA CHIPS?

Singaporean firm Megaspeed is being scrutinized by US officials for its ties to China. US officials are investigating whether Megaspeed is helping China sidestep US export restrictions by diverting some of its Nvidia chips to China. Megaspeed has funneled most of its Nvidia chips to data centers in Malaysia and Indonesia to remotely serve customers in China, which is not illegal, but could be found unlawful if it is done on behalf of a Chinese company. Nvidia says there is no evidence that its chips have been smuggled into China and that Megaspeed is a company wholly owned and operated outside of China with no Chinese shareholders.

GOOGLE STRUGGLES WITH REMOTE WORK, DRASTICALLY CUTTING ‘WORK FROM ANYWHERE' POLICY

A single Work from Anywhere (WFA) day logged by Google employees in a standard workweek will now count as a full WFA week, deducted from the yearly balance. Employees are allowed to work from a non-main office location for up to four weeks per calendar year. It is now best for employees to spend the whole week working remotely to make the most out of their WFA allowance. The WFA policy is designed for people taking trips - Google maintains a separate work-from-home policy that allows employees to work from home two days per week.

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SPOCK

The Spock extension provides multi-master replications for PostgreSQL versions 15 and later.

NEURALINK: WE HAVE A BACKLOG OF 10K PATIENTS WHO WANT OUR BRAIN IMPLANT

The company has implanted its N1 device into 12 clinical trial patients so far, but expects the number to grow to 25 by year's end.

CAN THESE SELF-FLYING PLANES TRANSFORM THE SKIES?

Reliable Robotics is attempting to revolutionize air travel by automating flight on cargo, military, and maybe even passenger aircraft.

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THE FREE-THREADED (OR NO-GIL) VERSION OF THE PYTHON INTERPRETER IS NO LONGER CONSIDERED EXPERIMENTAL

The global interpreter lock limited multi-threaded concurrency in exchange for simplified safety guarantees.

STATE OF AI REPORT

The State of AI Report, now in its eighth consecutive year, is the most widely read and trusted open-access publication tracking progress in artificial intelligence.

AMERICA'S MANUFACTURING RESURGENCE WILL BE POWERED BY THESE ROBOTS

The push to bring manufacturing back to the US is driving automation adoption and innovation.

GOOGLE WANTS RIGHT TO BUNDLE GEMINI AI APP WITH MAPS, YOUTUBE

Google wants to retain the right to bundle Maps and YouTube with its Gemini AI service. It claims that there is no evidence that it has gained a monopoly or market power in the AI market. Maps and YouTube have not been found to be monopoly products. Google says its bundle of Gemini with YouTube and Maps is similar to Microsoft's inclusion of its Copilot AI within its Office productivity software.

AMAZON LAUNCHES PRESCRIPTION VENDING MACHINES AT ONE MEDICAL CLINICS IN LOS ANGELES

Amazon is launching prescription drug kiosks at some One Medical offices in Los Angeles. They will work similarly to a vending machine and distribute prescriptions for patients within minutes of their doctor visit. Each machine can stock hundreds of prescriptions. By bringing the pharmacy directly to the point of care, Amazon is allowing patients to start treatments right away. Amazon plans to also deploy its prescription vending kiosks at pharmacy chains like Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens.

PLANET LABS TO LAUNCH SATELLITES PROMISING IMAGES IN AN HOUR

Planet Labs PBC's Earth observation satellites promise to deliver high-resolution, AI-analyzed images within the hour. The new Owl monitors will track changes ranging from the impacts of natural disasters to the movements of vessels and aircraft. Owl satellites are equipped with Nvidia chips, enabling them to use AI to identify objects and detect events faster. Planet Labs plans to build and deploy about 40 Owl satellites in the next few years, with an initial test launch slated for the end of 2026.

HOW ULTRASOUND IS USHERING A NEW ERA OF SURGERY-FREE CANCER TREATMENT

Histotripsy is a cancer treatment in which ultrasound waves are concentrated onto a small area of a tumor to destroy it. The ultrasound is delivered in quick bursts, creating tiny microbubbles that expand and then collapse in milliseconds, breaking apart the tumor tissue as they do. The patient's immune system then cleans up the remains. The treatment is fast, non-toxic, and non-invasive. Patients receiving it can usually go home on the same day, with most procedures over in one to three hours. Histotripsy has been approved by the US FDA for the treatment of liver tumors.

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INTRODUCING THE REACT FOUNDATION: THE NEW HOME FOR REACT & REACT NATIVE

React has grown into one of the world's most popular open source projects since Meta open-sourced the project over a decade ago. The incredible growth is thanks to its community. The React Foundation was created to help the React community and its members. It will maintain React's infrastructure, organize React Conf, and create initiatives to support the React ecosystem. The React Foundation will be part of the Linux Foundation.

A PRAGMATIC GUIDE TO MODERN CSS COLOURS

A lot about colors in CSS has changed over the last few years, including updates to the syntax of familiar features and all-new ways of working with colors. These new features can help developers who don't necessarily focus on design. This article looks at the most useful features for developers who aren't trying to pick their own colors or do any color manipulation.

AN INTERVIEW WITH OPENAI CEO SAM ALTMAN ABOUT DEVDAY AND THE AI BUILDOUT

In the last seven months, OpenAI has unveiled GPT-5, launched the viral video app Sora, and made several announcements about a massive AI buildout with a variety of partners. This article contains an interview with OpenAI's Sam Altman, where he discusses all of those infrastructure announcements, why Altman's investor skills are particularly useful as CEO, apps in ChatGPT, Instant Checkout, Sora, and how OpenAI thinks about user feedback. Altman and OpenAI are presenting an increasingly coherent vision about what OpenAI is building towards. The interview is also available as a podcast.

SHAYNE COPLAN BECOMES YOUNGEST SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE AFTER POLYMARKET'S $2B INVESTMENT: BBG

Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO of Polymarket, a blockchain-based prediction market, has become the world's youngest self-made billionaire at 27. His company will receive as much as $2 billion in investment from Intercontinental Exchange. Polymarket lets users wager on real-world outcomes using cryptocurrency. Users wagered more than $3 billion on potential outcomes during the 2024 US presidential election.

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OPENAI'S RISING TIDE STRATEGY

OpenAI's strategy may create a virtuous cycle where AI demand funds AI build out, which fuels AI demand.

IN DEFENSE OF RUTHLESS MANAGERS

While most engineers would prefer an empathetic manager, there are still several upsides to having a ruthless manager.

TOYOTA AIMS TO LAUNCH THE ‘WORLD'S FIRST' ALL-SOLID-STATE EV BATTERIES

Toyota claims its all-solid-state batteries, which could arrive as soon as 2027, significantly enhance driving range, charging times, and output.

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THE REMARKABLE RISE OF EBIRD—THE WORLD'S BIGGEST CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT

eBird allows ornithologists around the world to document bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends within a simple scientific framework.

HOW WI-FI SIGNALS CAN BE USED TO DETECT YOUR HEARTBEAT

Pulse-Fi, a new heart rate monitoring technique that uses ambient Wi-Fi signals, is low-cost and easily deployable, and it removes the need for people to wear devices on their bodies.

HUMAN-ORIENTED MARKUP LANGUAGE

Human-oriented Markup Language is a serialization language for documents, datasets, and configuration that prioritizes strict form for human readability.

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NVIDIA TO FINANCE MUSK'S XAI CHIPS AS PART OF $20 BILLION DEAL

xAI has raised its ongoing funding round to $20 billion, more than initially planned. The financing includes equity and debt in a special purpose vehicle that will buy Nvidia processors and rent them to xAI for use in its Colossus 2 project. Nvidia is investing as much as $2 billion in the equity portion of the transaction. The funding effort may continue to grow.

TESLA REVEALS CHEAPER VERSIONS OF ITS CARS

Tesla has revealed cheaper versions of its Model Y and Model 3. The new Model Y will cost $40,000, and the Model 3 will sell for $37,000. They have the same basic body shapes as the existing models, but have cloth interiors, fewer speakers, and less soundproofing. The cheaper Model Y has dual headlights rather than a continuous illuminated bar. Both vehicles can travel 320 miles between charges, slightly less than the costlier versions.

ENGINEERED PROTEIN THAT RESPONDS TO LIGHT COULD HELP RESTORE SIGHT

Science Corp., a Californian company, has created an engineered protein that could help blind people see. The protein, opsin, creates electrical currents when hit with light. Opsins usually need a powerful light source to generate a current, but Science's scientists were able to create opsins that generate an electrical current when exposed to regular indoor lighting. Science is currently building several things, including a device to restore vision and a chip that plugs into the brain using living neurons instead of wires - the new protein could help with both pursuits.

2025 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS AWARDED FOR MACROSCALE QUANTUM TUNNELING

John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of macroscopic quantum tunneling and energy quantization in an electrical circuit. Their work opens up opportunities to develop next-generation quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors. They will split the prize money of $1.1 million. The presentation ceremony will take place in Stockholm on December 10.

BIRTH OF PRETTIER

It's been almost 10 years since Prettier was released. This post tells the story of its birth and how technological innovation made an underlying source of tension - spaces versus tabs - no longer a thing. Prettier solved formatting, one of the most controversial engineering topics, in the span of just a few years. It is now rare to see a mainstream programming language that does not have a formatter that's widely adopted by its community.

JSON SCHEMA COMPATIBILITY AND THE ROBUSTNESS PRINCIPLE

Developers using a lenient policy with JSON Schema may prefer backward compatibility over full compatibility. Full compatibility doesn't allow developers to evolve sum types. The most common way to evolve a sum type is by adding a new variant, which is a backward-compatible change, but now a fully compatible one.

OPENAI'S WINDOWS PLAY

OpenAI is making a play to be the Windows of AI. While Apple's strategy of integrating hardware and software was immensely profitable, it left the door open for a competing platform to emerge. Microsoft's DOS operating system put IBM in a dominant role and secured Microsoft's position. OpenAI is trying to make ChatGPT the operating system of the future. It has the users, and now it is trying to attract developers.

QUALCOMM IS BUYING ARDUINO, RELEASES NEW RASPBERRY PI-ESQUE ARDUINO BOARD

Qualcomm is acquiring Arduino, an Italian company known mainly for its open source ecosystem of microcontrollers and software. Arduino will retain its independent brand, tools, and mission. The acquisition still needs to be approved by regulators and go through other customary closing conditions. While Arduino is committed to open-source hardware and software, there are concerns that the acquisition will mean that its ecosystem will eventually be locked down.

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ASK NOT WHY WOULD YOU WORK IN BIOLOGY, BUT RATHER: WHY WOULDN'T YOU?

Working in biology means you will be working to either prevent or, at the very least, alleviate the inevitable moment that Mother Nature decides to extract a pound of flesh from you.

I'M BUILDING A BROWSER FOR REVERSE ENGINEERS

This post looks at how a developer created a real web reverse-engineering Swiss Army knife.

FCC MIGHT OPEN THE FLOODGATES FOR STARLINK AND OTHER SATELLITE EXPANSIONS

The Federal Communications Commission has announced a new effort to fast-track approvals for satellite systems, a process that typically takes a year or more.