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S32 UNIX CLOCK

A hexadecimal clock that counts down until Unix time hits the 2038 problem - a time formatting bug in computer systems representing times after 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038.

BREAKTHROUGH

Tesla's new manufacturing process could significantly reduce costs and increase production of its electric vehicles. It can die-cast almost an entire vehicle underbody as a single piece. Tesla's mold-making process involves building molds layer by layer with sand. The automaker still has several hurdles to overcome before the process is complete. Tesla reportedly plans to use the process on its long-awaited $25,000 electric car.

MICROSOFT OPEN SOURCES EVODIFF, A NOVEL PROTEIN-GENERATING AI

Microsoft has introduced a general-purpose framework that can be used to create new proteins. EvoDiff can generate high-fidelity and diverse proteins given a protein sequence. It is a diffusion model, similar to image-generating models like Stable Diffusion. The research behind EvoDiff hasn't yet been peer reviewed.

HUMAN TRIALS OF ARTIFICIAL WOMBS COULD START SOON

Researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are seeking approval for the first human clinical trials of its artificial wombs. The technology is not designed to support development from conception to birth. However, it may help improve outcomes for extremely premature babies. The FDA will convene a meeting of independent advisers on 19-20 September to discuss regulatory and ethical considerations around what human trials for the technology might look like.

THIS EV SMASHED THE WORLD RECORD FOR DISTANCE ON A SINGLE CHARGE

A team of students from the Technical University of Munich has set a new distance record on a single charge for a non-solar electric vehicle. The team's coupe traveled 1,599 miles with a battery capacity of just 15.5 kWh. It has a top speed of 26 mph and weighs 374 lbs without a driver. Pictures and more information about the vehicle are available in the article.

POSTGRESQL 16 RELEASED

PostgreSQL 16 is now available. It features notable improvements to query parallelism, bulk data loading, and logical replication. PostgreSQL 16 has more SQL/JSON syntax, new monitoring stats, and greater flexibility in defining access control rules. The release also adds several security-oriented client connection parameters and support for Kerberos credential delegation.

GAME DEVELOPMENT POST-UNITY

Unity is retroactively changing its license terms to charge game developers a per-unit fee. Developers are understandably upset by the move. Many are considering switching engines. This article discusses alternative game engines. It ranks engines by how often they are mentioned and provides a summary for each one. The most mentioned alternative to Unity is Godot.

THE TYRANNY OF THE MARGINAL USER

Nearly all popular consumer software has been trending towards minimal user agency, infinitely scrolling feeds, and garbage content. This is because companies have strong incentives to gain more users. The push for more users results in the development of features for marginal users while ignoring the needs or desires of existing users. This results in a design that caters almost entirely to the marginal user.

HOW I GOT PAID TO LIVE IN ANTARCTICA

This article talks about how to get a job in Antarctica and what living at the McMurdo Station is like. It covers the types of jobs in Antarctica, how to get one, the living conditions, seasons, the food, and more. While it is possible to live in Antarctica by working in a research facility, people can also visit the continent through a handful of tourist expeditions.

SOME FACTS ABOUT SOLAR DEPLOYMENT

We are now deploying roughly 3-4 acres of solar per minute across the globe.

LIMITATIONS OF SCOPED CSS

Scoped CSS is useful, but you can't style children components or slot content.

WHAT I WOULD DO IF I WASN’T AT ARC EVALS

A member of the Alignment Research Center Evaluations Team shares a list of 9 projects that they would consider doing if they weren't in their current position.

MASTODON

WordPress has released ActivityPub 1.0.0 for WordPress, which allows WordPress blogs to be followed by others on fediverse apps and receive replies as comments.

NUE JS

Nue JS is an exceptionally small JavaScript library for building web interfaces.

ARM AND A LEG: ARM'S QUEST TO EXTRACT THEIR TRUE VALUE

Arm is increasing prices to extract value closer to what they actually deliver, a pivot from its previous strategy of discounting prices to secure market share growth.

MICROSOFT OPEN SOURCES EVODIFF

Microsoft has open-sourced EvoDiff, a novel AI model that the company claims can generate high-fidelity, diverse proteins given a protein sequence.

PATRONUS AI RAISES $3M SEED TO RAISE CONFIDENCE IN ENTERPRISE LLMS

Led by Lightspeed, the team wants to build real world scoring to help understand how useful LLMs are for enterprises.

STORAGE

MLPerf has released results from two benchmark suites: MLPerf Inference v3.1, which showcases record participation and performance gains, and MLPerf Storage v0.5, which assesses storage system performance for ML training workloads. The Inference benchmark suite introduced a large language model and updated recommender tests, reflecting emerging AI trends.

ALIGN A LANGUAGE MODEL WITHOUT TRAINING

Alignment helps make language models more helpful and harmless. It can sometimes hurt performance, but in general is a positive. Alignment is expensive and requires substantial alignment data. However, if you allow the model to rewind during generation after evaluating its own output, it can improve alignment performance on the frozen model by up to 81%.

PUSHING MIXTURE OF EXPERTS TO THE LIMIT WITH PARAMETER EFFICIENCY

Mixture of experts (MoEs) is a cool way to increase the capacity of a model without increasing per token runtime. However, they're still tricky to run quickly and fine-tune. Researchers find that if you modify dense model parameters efficiently fine tuning to work with MoEs you can dramatically reduce tuning costs without hurting performance too much.

MAKING BETTER RECOMMENDATIONS

Researchers have developed a new model called HAMUR to improve how models make suggestions or "recommendations" across multiple subjects or domains, like music, books, or movies. Unlike older methods that mix up information between these domains, HAMUR uses a special technique to keep data separate and more flexible.

LLM APPLICATIONS

A comprehensive guide to building RAG-based LLM applications for production.

MAKING JPEG PLAY NICE WITH DEEP LEARNING

JPEG images are everywhere, but they don't work well with deep learning because you can't easily tweak them during training. This project reviews existing solutions and introduces a new method that fixes these problems, making JPEG images fully adjustable and compatible with deep learning systems.

A NEW DATASET TO SPOT FAKE CELEBRITY IMAGES

DeepFakeFace (DFF) is a collection of fake celebrity photos made with advanced technology designed to help us get better at telling real pictures from fake ones.

NEW STATE OF THE ART TEXT TO SPEECH MODEL

Coqui has released weights for its xtts model, which can clone voice parameters and synthesize in different languages.

THE BUMPY ROAD TOWARD GLOBAL AI GOVERNANCE

Researchers suggested a global AI ethics agreement a few years ago, emphasizing its feasibility despite philosophical differences. As the U.S.-China AI competition grows, challenges like misperceptions and language barriers persist in achieving global AI regulation.

Scientists have developed RETFound, an AI tool capable of diagnosing and predicting the risk of developing multiple health conditions, from ocular diseases to heart failure to Parkinson’s disease, from just retinal images.

ENTITIES

Genesis, a crypto firm and subsidiary of DCG, is discontinuing its spot and derivatives trading operations. The change will take effect immediately, with existing open derivatives positions being honored until expiry. A spokesperson confirmed that the company no longer offers trading services through any of its business entities. This decision follows a similar move last week, when Genesis Global Trading ended its crypto spot trading operations, citing strategic reasons.

DEUTSCHE BANK TO HOLD CRYPTO FOR INSTITUTIONAL CLIENTS

Deutsche Bank has partnered with Swiss crypto company Taurus to offer cryptocurrency and tokenized asset custody services for its institutional clients. Even though the firm hasn’t publicly announced any immediate plans to roll out crypto trading, the move marks Deutsche Bank's entry into crypto custody. The initiative comes with careful considerations around regulation and risk management, ensuring it does not impact the bank's other activities.

SUI NETWORK LAUNCHES GOOGLE, TWITCH, AND FACEBOOK LOGINS FOR DAPPS

Sui has streamlined web3 onboarding by introducing a feature that enables users to log into decentralized applications using their Google, Facebook, or Twitch credentials, eliminating the need for an external crypto wallet or seed phrase. This development aims to overcome the common difficulties users encounter when signing up for blockchain services, such as confusing transaction signatures and maintaining seed phrases, ultimately making using crypto more accessible to mainstream users.

CIRCLE AND GRAB PILOT WEB3 EXPERIENCES IN SINGAPORE

Circle announced that it had teamed up with Grab to trial new web3 services to consumers through the “Grab web3 Wallet.” The wallet enables users to create a blockchain-based wallet, accumulate rewards, and use NFT vouchers. This partnership presents a practical application of the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Orchid initiative, allowing the use of the SG Pitstop Pack NFT vouchers at select places during the upcoming F1 Singapore Grand Prix.

COME FOR THE POINTS, STAY FOR THE FRENS

Friend.tech has been gaining steam over the past couple of weeks after a couple of weeks of cooling off. This report breaks down how the decentralized platform permits users to monetize its social media presence and is currently generating more revenue than established protocols like Lido and Aave. The app is built on Base, an Ethereum L2, and recently announced a funding round led by Paradigm. While the initial traction has been impressive, this report suggests that Friend.tech needs to lessen its dependency on speculation and token incentives to have staying power.

LIQUID STAKING TOKEN DESIGN

This report covers the concept of two-tiered staking for Ethereum. The mechanism separates staked Ethereum into two groups, slashable node operator bonds and non-slashable delegated stake, each earning different rates. The two-tiered system allows for more capital efficiency and removes slashing risk for delegated stakeholders. However, it raises questions about interest rate sensitivity, further centralization, implications of having all Ethereum staked, and possible dynamic setting for interest rates.

HOW SAM BANKMAN-FRIED’S ELITE PARENTS ENABLED HIS CRYPTO EMPIRE

Sam Bankman-Fried's parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, have had long, distinguished careers in law. Their reputations and connections were considered instrumental to the company's success, raising questions about their roles and involvement in the scheme. Despite charges against their son, including fraud, money laundering, and bribery, prosecutors have not accused Fried or Bankman of wrongdoing.

CRYPTO FRIENDLINESS WILL LAST

Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has warned crypto projects looking to set up in Hong Kong to first consider the stability of the city's crypto-friendly attitude. Speaking at a summit in Singapore, he highlighted that future regulatory, political, and other uncertainties may change the landscape. Buterin also expressed his admiration for the level of engagement in Asia’s developer communities.

THE INSANITY OF THE SEC 'STONER CAT' ACTION

The SEC’s lawsuit against the celebrity-backed Stoner Cats NFT collection raises plenty of questions about how these types of cases should be resolved.

SINGAPORE CENTRAL BANK BANS ZHU, DAVIES OVER THREE ARROWS

Singapore's central bank has banned Su Zhu and Kyle Davies for nine years due to their failures at their crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which collapsed in 2022.

LEGAL BATTLES WITH CRYPTO FIRMS

Joseph Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys CEO, believes US regulators will eventually see blockchain and cryptocurrency as aligned with US philosophies, despite current legal disputes regarding crypto securities.

FTX OPPOSES BLOCKFI’S BANKRUPTCY PLAN

FTX has challenged BlockFi's bankruptcy plan, citing that it has fundamental flaws and unfairly discriminates against FTX.

Johnson & Johnson’s new logo no longer relies on cursive script and includes a different shade of red. According to Vanessa Broadhurst, company executive vice president, the move reinforces the company’s shift into a “pure play health care company.”

AMAZON UPDATES VISUAL SEARCH, AR SEARCH, AND MORE

Amazon has improved its search experience. The new features include searching with a combination of images and text, visualizing products in their own space, and discovering popular products with sales trend information.

GOOGLE’S EMOJI MASHUP MAKER IS NOW AVAILABLE IN SEARCH

Google has launched its Emoji Kitchen feature on the web, which enables users to create their emoji combinations directly in Google Search. The emoji maker also works on mobile browsers and the Google app.

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE PRINCIPLE OF LEAST ASTONISHMENT

A product that frequently astonishes its users — in the wrong way — can be frustrating and hard to navigate. The underlying idea of the principle of least astonishment (POLA), deeply rooted in cognitive science, establishes that our brains rely on mental models to predict how something should behave based on experience. Designers should prioritize core actions, use familiar patterns, strive for multi-platform consistency, and prioritize clarity over style to incorporate POLA in their work.

FACILITATING INCLUSIVE ONLINE WORKSHOPS

Running a workshop can be an effective alternative to traditional, long-standing meetings. However, if workshops aren’t designed with inclusivity in mind, participants may feel apprehensive about contributing, fearing criticism from others. To run an inclusive online workshop, the facilitators need to understand the participants, recognize their goals, and plan an engaging experience to achieve these goals.

HOW TO FIND YOUR BRAND VOICE

A brand voice is the combination of words, sounds, images, lighting, taste, and touch a company uses to attract its brand community. Brand expression through multiple senses is a powerful approach for making brands closer and more differentiated to their audiences.

FREE IPHONE 15 PRO MOCKUPS

Update your design presentations with these free high-quality iPhone 15 Pro mockups. The download includes PSD and Figma formats, with a front-facing and two additional perspective views.

EXPLORE WELL-DESIGNED LOGOS

Search beautifully designed logos by type, style, color, and even specific letters.

THE ULTIMATE CALL TO ACTION EXAMPLES LIBRARY

Designing effective calls to action is one of the lowest-hanging fruits in conversion optimization. However, it can be challenging to create them. This website features more than 100 calls to action, organized by use case.