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NEW FIBER OPTICS TECH SMASHES DATA RATE RECORD

Researchers from Japan and the UK have smashed the world record for fiber-optic communications through commercial-grade fiber by producing data rates four times as fast as existing commercial systems. They achieved this by using optical amplifiers to boost signals across less frequently used communication bands. The system can push 402 terabits per second (Tbps) through the kinds of fiber-optic cables that are already in the ground and underneath the oceans. The researchers believe that it may be possible to push even further and reach up to 600 Tbps speeds.

REVERSE ENGINEERING TICKETMASTER'S ROTATING BARCODES

TicketMaster issues tickets via a system called Mobile Entry, or SafeTix. The system displays a form of rotating barcode that refreshes every few seconds. It prevents people from printing or screenshotting the tickets they purchased. This article explains how the system works - it's possible to duplicate these barcodes in custom apps and even resell tickets outside of TicketMaster's closed marketplace.

DEVREL'S DEATH AS ZERO INTEREST RATE PHENOMENON

DevRel's excesses in 2020-2022 was a Zero Interest Rate Phenomenon and we are now seeing a relative right-sizing of expectations. The bad behavior during that period contributed to a crisis of confidence in DevRel. This post looks at the mistakes made by companies in those years and suggests ways to improve DevRel so the field stays relevant.

‘WE'RE LIVING IN A NIGHTMARE:' INSIDE THE HEALTH CRISIS OF A TEXAS BITCOIN TOWN

Residents in Granbury, Texas are experiencing negative health effects from a nearby Bitcoin mining facility. The facility generates a hum that exceeds legal noise ordinances on a daily basis. At least 10 people have gone to urgent care or the emergency room due to symptoms caused by the facility. While there are no major medical studies on the impacts of living near Bitcoin mining facilities, there is an increasing body of research that links prolonged exposure to noise pollution with cardiovascular damage.

THE RIGHT KIND OF STUBBORN

Persistence and obstinance may seem similar, but they're different kinds of behavior. Obstinate people won't listen - that's not true of all determined people. Persistent people are attached to goals, whereas the obstinate are attached to their ideas about how to reach them. Obstinate people are often disproportionately likely to be attached to the wrong details. Persistence often requires one to change their mind. Successful people are often most engaged when you disagree with them.

VALUATIONS OF STARTUPS HAVE QUIETLY REBOUNDED TO ALL-TIME HIGHS. SOME INVESTORS SAY THE SLUMP IS OVER

Prices investors were willing to pay for new deals of US-based companies reached an all-time high in 2024 for median early- and late-stage deals.

IOS 18 HAS A NEW ‘DYNAMIC' COLOR-SHIFTING WALLPAPER

The third developer beta of iOS 18 includes a dynamic wallpaper that shifts color over time - a video of it is available in the article.

THE TRAGEDIES OF REALITY ARE COMING FOR YOU

Large language model practitioners keep discovering pain points that robotics has hit before.

THE VR WINTER CONTINUES

Meta has spent at least $50 billion developing AR and VR, but devices are still not good or cheap enough and the user base is flat.

THE E.U. GOES TOO FAR

The EU is leading the world in tech regulation, but it doesn't build anything pertinent to technology.

WHY I KEPT MY STARTUP JOB FOR SEVEN YEARS (AND COUNTING)

This article looks at how to build a company that employees don't want to leave.

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* How automation tools like Vanta [4] can get you there faster and with much less hassle

GOOGLE CONSIDERED BLOCKING SAFARI USERS FROM ACCESSING ITS NEW AI FEATURES, REPORT SAYS

Convincing iOS users to use Google's own apps instead of Safari has been a challenge for Google. Google hired former Instagram and Yahoo executive Robby Stein to oversee the push from Safari. The company reportedly considered limiting its AI Overviews feature to its own apps, excluding Safari users, but ultimately decided against the move.

APPLE GREEN LIGHTS EPIC GAMES STORE IN RAPID REVERSAL

Apple has given approval for the Epic Games store for iOS in the EU. Epic's submission was rejected twice previously. The latest decision was reversed just hours after reports started circulating about it. Apple objected to Epic's inclusion of a download button and related copy and has asked the company to fix the buttons in a future submission of the app. Epic still has a lot of work before its app store will be ready - it plans to bring the store to iOS in the next couple of months.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

ErythroMer is an experimental blood substitute developed by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. It is made from recycled human hemoglobin wrapped in a membrane to mimic a tiny cell. ErythroMer comes as a freeze-dried powder that remains usable for years. It can be reconstituted by simply mixing it with saline. ErythroMer should be safe for any blood type as its membrane doesn't include the red blood cell surface proteins that cause mismatches. It is still in preclinical testing, but it is possible that ErythroMer could be more durable and versatile than real blood.

THE WORLD'S FIRST ANODE-FREE SODIUM SOLID-STATE BATTERY

The Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion has created the world's first anode-free sodium solid-state battery. The battery brings the reality of inexpensive, fast-charging, high-capacity batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage closer than ever. It has an architecture with stable cycling for several hundred cycles and is more affordable and environmentally friendly to produce than lithium batteries. Sodium, common in ocean water and soda ash mining, is an inherently more environmentally friendly battery material.

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PONGO

Pongo is Mongo on Postgres with strong consistency benefits. It treats PostgreSQL as a document database with JSONB support, adding significant performance and storage efficiency. Pongo takes the MongoDB API and translates it to native PostgreSQL queries. Using JSONB means that data is preparsed, allowing faster read and write operations. JSONB retains the flexibility of storing semi-structured data while allowing users to take advantage of PostgreSQL's robust querying capabilities.

DUCKDB COMMUNITY EXTENSIONS

DuckDB has a new extension mechanism that allows users to register new functions, support new file formats and compression methods, handle new network protocols, and more. Extensions can be published via the DuckDB Community Extensions repository. The repository makes it easier for users to install extensions using a simple syntax. Extension developers can use the repository to avoid the burdens of compilation and distribution.

A NEW AGE OF MATERIALS IS DAWNING, FOR EVERYTHING FROM SMARTPHONES TO MISSILES

Composite materials have the advantage of being lighter than the metal parts they typically replace while being just as strong and requiring fewer resources to make. The labor-intensive nature of their manufacturing has made them expensive and limited their application to a handful of areas. New manufacturing techniques that can churn out composite parts quickly and cheaply are changing the field. This article takes a look at emerging composites technologies and the materials and products they are creating.

HERE'S HOW QUALCOMM'S NEW LAPTOP CHIPS REALLY STACK UP TO APPLE, INTEL, AND AMD

Microsoft's 12-year-long attempt at making Windows on Arm happen is starting to pay off. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips are turning Windows on Arm into a viable platform. While the chips don't outright beat Apple's M3 chip in every benchmark, this is the closest Microsoft has been able to compete so far with MacBooks in price, performance, and battery life. Microsoft's new lineup could make Intel and AMD scramble to catch up.

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SOMETHING HAPPENS TO EVERYONE

You or someone you love will inevitably go through a tragic situation at some point - knowing this reminds us that suffering is a universal human experience, not a personal failing or unique misfortune.

HOW AND WHY WE BUILT OUR STARTUP AROUND SMALL TEAMS

Small teams enable a startup to scale while retaining the culture and speed of an early-stage startup.

NEW AI TRAINING TECHNIQUE IS DRASTICALLY FASTER, SAYS GOOGLE

Google's DeepMind researchers have developed a new AI training method that significantly reduces the computation resources and time needed to do the work.

I'M FUNDING LADYBIRD BECAUSE I CAN'T FUND FIREFOX

An open web requires a healthy system of several competing browsers where each has enough market share that no one vendor has de facto control over web standards.

WHY HAVEN'T BIOLOGISTS CURED CANCER?

There are signs that feedback loops are getting slower and fewer in number in medicine and upcoming regulations may mean that the US will spend less on drug development.

SYNCHRONIZATION IS BAD FOR SCALE

Synchronization locks create synchronization points, which are typically bad for scaling horizontally.

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LEAK CONFIRMS APPLE'S WORK ON 'HOME ACCESSORY'

Apple is working on a new home accessory. The accessory's internal identifier name suggests that it will receive Apple's upcoming A18 chip, which means it will have the power for Apple Intelligence. The home accessory will likely run a software variant of tvOS. Apple may be launching an updated Apple TV later this year.

A HACKER STOLE OPENAI SECRETS, RAISING FEARS THAT CHINA COULD, TOO

A hacker gained access to OpenAI's internal messaging systems early last year. They accessed details from discussions in an internal online forum but did not get into the systems where the company houses and builds its artificial intelligence. Details of the incident were revealed to employees in April 2023. Executives decided not to share the news publicly because no information about customers or partners was stolen. It is believed that the hacker was a private individual with no known ties to a foreign government. OpenAI did not inform the FBI or anyone else in law enforcement about the incident.

FIGURE 01: COFFEE-MAKING HUMANOID ROBOT NOW SHOWS CAR ASSEMBLY SKILL AT BMW

Figure has released a video showcasing its 01 humanoid robot participating in the vehicle assembly process. The 01 robot is fully autonomous and can execute a wide range of manufacturing jobs, including handling sheet metal, operating in the body shop, and overseeing the warehouse. It is fully electric and is 1.6 meters tall, weighs 132 pounds, and can run for 5 hours on a charge. The video is available in the article.

JAPAN INTRODUCES ENORMOUS HUMANOID ROBOT TO MAINTAIN TRAIN LINES

Japan Railway's new humanoid robot employee is being put to use for maintenance work on the company's rail network. The 12-meter-high robot can carry objects as heavy as 40kg, hold a brush to paint, and use a chainsaw. Its current primary tasks are to trim tree branches along rails and paint the metal frames that hold cables above trains. The technology is aimed at filling worker shortages in the aging country as well as reducing worker accidents.

YOU'RE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK: THE ONLY 6 DNS CONCEPTS YOU REALLY NEED

There are only six core concepts (A records, CNAMEs, MX records, TXT records, NS records, and TTL) needed to understand DNS. This article looks at these essentials, which will cover most DNS needs. It includes a table that contains a complete list of DNS functionality with descriptions.

0X.TOOLS

0x.tools is a set of utilities for analyzing application performance on Linux. It allows users to measure individual thread level activity and drill down into the CPU usage of any thread or the system as a whole. 0x.tools enables users to be systematic in their troubleshooting. Some of the tools work on over-decade-old Linux kernels.

APPLE M5 CHIP'S DUAL-USE DESIGN WILL POWER FUTURE MACS AND AI SERVERS

Apple will reportedly use a more advanced System on Integrated Chip (SoIC) technology for its M5 chips. SoIC technology allows for the stacking of chips in a three-dimensional structure. It provides better electrical performance and thermal management compared to traditional two-dimensional chip designs. Apple intends to start mass producing the chips in 2025 and 2026 for new Macs and AI cloud servers. The M5's dual-use design is believed to be part of Apple's plans to vertically integrate its supply chain for AI functionality across computers, cloud servers, and software.

AGAINST INNOVATION TOKENS

The idea of using innovation tokens to identify which technologies are innovative implies that everyone knows which technologies are innovative. It also assumes that innovative technologies are inherently costly and that their supply should be restricted. This model is reactionary and borders on anti-intellectualism. It is better to look at whether using a particular technology will introduce a boundary between two different technologies with different conceptual models.

SAMSUNG GALAXY RING LEAK: 5 REPORTED HEALTH-TRACKING FEATURES, INCLUDING SNORE DETECTION

The Galaxy Ring is reportedly able to track and measure heart rate, stress, skin temperature, menstrual cycles, and snoring.

META DROPS AI BOMBSHELL: MULTI-TOKEN PREDICTION MODELS NOW OPEN FOR RESEARCH

Meta has released pre-trained models that leverage a novel multi-token prediction approach that forecasts multiple future words simultaneously, promising enhanced performance and drastically reduced training times.

SPACEX PUSHES AHEAD WITH A SECOND TOWER LAUNCH SITE IN SOUTH TEXAS

SpaceX has started building a second launch tower in Boca Chica.

GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY: UPON THE THRESHOLD

AI development isn't a steady curve but a series of thresholds that, when crossed, suddenly and irrevocably change aspects of our lives.

BATTERIES: HOW CHEAP CAN THEY GET?

We will have long-lasting batteries for less than $50/kWh everywhere by 2030 - this will enable renewable energy to grow while also protecting against blackouts, voltage fluctuations, and grid congestion.

I RENEWED MY US PASSPORT IN A SINGLE WEEK WITH THE GOVERNMENT'S SPEEDY ONLINE BETA

You can now renew your US passport online as long as you meet certain requirements - the whole process can take less than a week.

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