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MAILROOM

Mailroom is a framework for creating, routing, and delivering user notifications based on events from external systems.

BRAIN STIMULATION HELPS PEOPLE WALK AFTER SPINAL INJURY

Two people with long-standing spinal cord injuries can now walk thanks to scientists using deep brain stimulation in the lateral hypothalamus, an area of the brain associated with a variety of basic functions.

CLOUDFLARE 2024 YEAR IN REVIEW

This post looks at trends and patterns Cloudflare observed throughout the year at both a global and country/region level across a variety of metrics.

I CAN NOW RUN A GPT-4 CLASS MODEL ON MY LAPTOP

Meta's new Llama 3.3 70B is a genuinely GPT-4 class large language model that can run on a MacBook Pro M2 with 64GB of RAM.

Y COMBINATOR, A16Z TO DOUBLE DOWN ON CRYPTO, STABLECOINS, AND AI STARTUPS IN 2025

Both firms see vast potential in crypto, stablecoins, and artificial intelligence - these technologies will shape how industries will function and how consumers will interact with technology in the coming years.

Check out QA Wolf to see how the magic happens ✨

APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS U.S. BAN OF TIKTOK

A federal appeals court has ruled that TikTok can be banned in the US over national security concerns. The ruling rejected arguments that the ban was an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. The ban was intended solely to limit a foreign nation's ability to gather data on people in the US. TikTok claims US security fears are speculative and overblown. It is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the justices are not obliged to hear the case.

APPLE 'INVESTIGATING' MACS WITH CELLULAR CONNECTIVITY

Apple is investigating the possibility of adding a modern chip to a future Mac, but a cellular Mac isn't likely to launch until 2026 or later. The company plans to introduce its custom-built 5G chip early in 2025. It will be added to the iPhone SE, low-cost iPad, and iPhone 17 Air. The chip will be expanded to other iPhones and iPads over a three-year period. The first-generation chip will be limited to sub-6GHz 5G speeds, but the second-generation version will support faster mmWave technology.

LOWER-COST SODIUM-ION BATTERIES ARE FINALLY HAVING THEIR MOMENT

CATL, the world's largest battery manufacturer, has announced its second-generation sodium-ion battery, which has an energy density of 200 watt-hours per kilogram. The company plans to start mass production of the battery in 2027. Sodium-ion batteries perform better than lithium-ion batteries in extreme cold and they carry a much lower risk of fire. The process for manufacturing sodium-ion batteries is similar to that of lithium-ion batteries, so existing assembly lines can be reused without having to spend heavily on retooling. Their biggest disadvantage is low energy density, but they have the potential to be cost-competitive with lithium-ion batteries.

INTEL LOOKS BEYOND SILICON, OUTLINES BREAKTHROUGHS IN ATOMICALLY-THIN 2D TRANSISTORS, CHIP PACKAGING, AND INTERCONNECTS AT IEDM 2024

Intel's Foundry Technology Research team has announced technology breakthroughs in 2D transistor technology. It plans to unveil its research at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting 2024 conference. The research includes enhancements in gate-all-around transistor scaling and performance both with silicon and with atomically-thin 2D transistors that use beyond-silicon materials. It also outlines Intel's subtractive Ruthenium technology, which improves interconnect performance and scalability, ultimately enabling smaller wires between transistors, and a chip packaging breakthrough that improves chip-to-chip assembly throughput by 100x.

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THE BIGGEST SHELL PROGRAMS IN THE WORLD

This page contains a list of the biggest shell programs in the world. It only contains non-repetitive and non-generated programs. The biggest shell programs that aren't repetitive tend to be in the 10,000+ line range.

INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS OF AI MODELS AND API PROVIDERS

Artificial Analysis ranks different AI models to help developers choose the best model and provider for their use case. It has sections for language models and speech, image, and video models as well as leaderboards and arenas for image, video, and speech. Artificial Analysis supports a lot of models and APIs from a wide range of providers.

HE INVESTIGATES THE INTERNET'S MOST VICIOUS HACKERS—FROM A SECRET LOCATION

Brian Krebs is a 52-year-old cybersecurity researcher who has investigated and outed some of the worst actors on the internet over the past 20 years. He makes most of his money from banner ads on the website where he shares his findings, which pulls more than a million visits a month. Krebs is currently part of an investigation looking at members of an anarchic online community linked to home invasions designed to steal cryptocurrency at gunpoint and other cybercrimes known as the Com. This article goes into Kreb's career, the events leading him to live a secretive life, the investigation into Com, and more.

INTELLIGENCE ARBITRAGE

We are currently watching the biggest transformation yet in how businesses scale: the separation of intelligence from service delivery. This is being driven by investors who understand that AI is about operating leverage. This article looks at the interesting ways private equity is separating the 'intelligence layer' from service delivery. The real opportunity isn't in building AI or buying companies, it's in creating entirely new financial structures.

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GROK IS NOW FREE FOR ALL X USERS

X now allows users 10 free prompts every two hours, but they're restricted to analyzing three images per day.

THE 6 MISTAKES YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE AS A NEW MANAGER

Every new manager makes mistakes, but each one is an opportunity to grow - becoming a skilled manager takes time and continuous learning.

OPENAI CONSIDERS DITCHING PROVISION THAT WOULD PREVENT AGI FROM BEING USED FOR COMMERCIAL GAIN

The provision was intended to prevent AGI from being misused for commercial gain, but OpenAI is under immense pressure to raise capital to continue its R&D.

THE MOST SURPRISING TECH CHAMPIONS OF 2024

This article looks at six tech champions that stood out for their growth this year.

OPENAI'S NEW AI REINFORCEMENT FINE-TUNING COULD TRANSFORM HOW SCIENTISTS USE ITS MODELS

Reinforcement Fine-Tuning is a method for improving how AI models work through their reasoning for responses.

THE 70% PROBLEM: HARD TRUTHS ABOUT AI-ASSISTED CODING

AI allows developers to iterate and experiment faster, but the hard parts of software development still require human judgment.

OPENAI CONFIRMS NEW $200 MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION, CHATGPT PRO, WHICH INCLUDES ITS O1 REASONING MODEL

OpenAI's new ChatGPT Pro subscription tier provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI's models and a pro version of its o1 reasoning model. It was created for those pushing the models to the limits of their capabilities on tasks like math, programming, and writing. The pro version of o1 is faster, more powerful, and more accurate than the preview version released in September. All paid ChatGPT users can still access the standard o1 model, which can now reason about image uploads. o1 will soon be available in OpenAI's API.

COPILOT VISION, MICROSOFT'S AI TOOL THAT CAN READ YOUR SCREEN, LAUNCHES IN PREVIEW

Microsoft has started rolling out a limited US-only preview of Copilot Vision, a tool that can understand and respond to questions about sites visited in Microsoft Edge. The feature requires a subscription to Copilot Pro, which costs $20 per month. Copilot Vision can handle tasks like summarizing and translating text, spotlighting discounted products in store catalogs, and serving as a game assistant. It deletes data after every session to preserve privacy. Copilot Vision is limited to a pre-approved list of popular sites during the preview.

PROTECTING UNDERSEA INTERNET CABLES IS A TECH NIGHTMARE

A lot of the global communications and financial system hinges on a few hundred cables of bundled glass fibers strung across ocean floors around the world, each about the same diameter as a garden hose. Defending these undersea fiber-optic cables from damage and sabotage is increasingly challenging. While there are plans to create future internet backup routes through satellites, the technology is still only in a preliminary proof-of-concept stage and may be many years away from being deployed. It is currently not possible to monitor all 1.5 million kilometers of communication cables in the water, but new technologies are emerging that will make it easier to monitor activity where damage is most likely to occur and potentially prevent disruptions.

BITCOIN HITS $100,000

Bitcoin hit $100,000 on Wednesday. The cryptocurrency has been experiencing a massive upswing since Donald Trump, who is a crypto supporter, won the 2024 presidential election. Trump recently announced his intentions to nominate Paul Atkins, a crypto advocate, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission after Gary Gensler, a noted crypto critic, resigns on Inauguration Day. Trump has vowed to create a national stockpile of bitcoins to help wipe out US national debt. Atkins has said before that the US' tough stance on cryptocurrency has driven investors to other markets where regulations are clearer. Shifting US regulations to be more accommodating could bring those investments back to the US.

REACT V19

React v19 is now available on npm. This post provides an overview of the new features in React 19 and how to adopt them. New features in React 19 include Actions, a new hook called useActionState, new form features for react-dom, a new API for reading resources in render: use, and much more. React 19 adds full support for custom elements. An upgrade guide with a full list of breaking and notable changes is available.

VECTORCHORD

VectorChord is a PostgreSQL extension designed for scalable, high-performance, and disk-efficient vector similarity search. It is entirely based on Postgres storage, enabling effective SSD usage to reduce memory requirements. VectorChord can easily handle vectors ranging from hundreds of millions to multi-billions of entries. It provides the best defaults out-of-the-box so users don't need to tweak quantization or rerank parameters.

SUNDAR PICHAI HITS BACK AT CRITICISM OF COMPANY'S A.I. LEADERSHIP

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at The New York Times' DealBook Summit that Google will be changing profoundly in the next year and that the pace of AI development would slow in 2025. He called out Microsoft for not using its own models and using OpenAI's technology instead. Google currently faces multiple legal fights that could force the company to break itself up.

TECH PREDICTIONS FOR 2025 AND BEYOND

Technology is augmenting human ingenuity in inspiring ways. Clean energy innovations are unlocking new avenues for sustainable development and AI tools are tipping the scales in the fight against disinformation. Intention-driven technologies are reshaping our relationship with the digital world. A mission-driven workforce is emerging that is eager to tackle hard human problems without chasing the bottom line. Technology will redefine the way we think about success in the coming years.

AI GENERATED BUSINESS: THE RISE OF AGI AND THE RUSH TO FIND A WORKING REVENUE MODEL

This report looks at the business models behind the generative AI companies that are drawing hundreds of billions of dollars in investment.

THE UC BERKELEY PROJECT THAT IS THE AI INDUSTRY'S OBSESSION

Chatbot Arena lets users ask questions, get answers from two anonymous AI models, and rate which one is better.

APPLE TAKES OVER THIRD-PARTY APPLE PASSWORDS AUTOFILL EXTENSION FOR FIREFOX

Apple has taken over 'iCloud Passwords for Firefox', an extension that supports syncing and autofilling passwords in macOS Sonoma and macOS Sequoia.

ELON MUSK'S XAI LANDS $6B IN NEW CASH TO FUEL AI AMBITIONS

xAI has now raised a total of $12 billion - it reportedly told investors it plans to raise more money next year.

SEQUIN

Sequin is a tool for change data capture in Postgres that supports native sinks, making it easy to stream Postgres rows and changes to streaming platforms and queues.

A TRANSPORT PROTOCOL'S VIEW OF STARLINK

This article looks at how TCP, the workhorse transport protocol of the Internet, interacts with the characteristics of the Starlink service.

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SPOTIFY WRAPPED 2024: TAYLOR SWIFT IS MOST-STREAMED ARTIST, WOMEN DOMINATE GLOBAL TOP 10 ALBUMS CHART

Taylor Swift ranked as the top most-streamed artist globally in 2024 on Spotify, generating more than 26.6 billion streams on the platform this year. Women landed the top eight of the 20 most-stream albums worldwide on Spotify. Spotify's top podcasts of the year include The Joe Rogan Experience and Alex Cooper's 'Call Her Daddy'. Sarah J. Maas' 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' was the most streamed audiobook this year.

AMAZON ROLLS OUT BUY WITH AWS BUTTON TO LET SOFTWARE VENDORS MORE EASILY SELL TO ITS CLOUD CUSTOMERS

Amazon Web Services has introduced a Buy with AWS button designed to make it easier for buyers to make purchases of third-party cloud software using their AWS credentials. The button was created to increase customer and partner loyalty and win rates. Software companies wanting to use the button must sell their products through the AWS Marketplace. It is free for software companies to embed.

GOOGLE'S DEEPMIND TACKLES WEATHER FORECASTING, WITH GREAT PERFORMANCE

Google DeepMind claims that its GenCast system outperforms traditional computing methods of weather forecasting out to at least a week and often beyond. GenCast merges some computational approaches used by atmospheric scientists with a diffusion model, resulting in a system that maintains high resolution while cutting the computational costs significantly. It has relatively low computational requirements, so individual academic research teams will likely be able to experiment with it.

GPS-ALTERNATIVE TECH SWAPS SATELLITES FOR EARTH FINGERPRINTS

Australian firm Advanced Navigation and European missile manufacturer MBDA are developing a new navigation system for planes to replace GPS in situations where the system fails, such as when signals are intentionally jammed by enemy forces. Their system uses a downward-facing neuromorphic camera to read the terrain's 'fingerprint'. This data is cross-referenced against an existing database of fingerprints, allowing the aircraft to ascertain its exact geographical location. The system is reportedly simple enough that it doesn't use any AI. The companies have planned a real-world demonstration of its system later this year in Australia followed by a commercial rollout of the technology.

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