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REACT POSTGRES COMPONENTS

This post presents an experimental project on deploying remote functions that run inside Postgres to illustrate the possibilities of Framework-defined Infrastructure.

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TESLA OPTIMUS ROBOT CAN’T BUILD CARS YET, BUT IT IS FOLDING CLOTHES

Elon Musk has shared a video of Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot folding a shirt. The project has come a long way since a very early prototype was shown at Tesla AI Day 2022. Tesla aims to eventually have the robot in people's homes performing a wide range of tasks, but it first plans to have them in its own manufacturing operations for repetitive and or dangerous tasks. The video of the robot folding a shirt is available in the article.

YOUTUBE APPEARS TO BE REDUCING VIDEO AND SITE PERFORMANCE FOR AD-BLOCK USERS

YouTube appears to be slowing down the site for ad-block users. Turning off ad blockers immediately improves loading performance for affected users. The ad-block detection causes strange issues, like a lag that makes full-screen and comments not work or Chrome being unable to load other webpages while YouTube is open. The slowdowns may be due to ad blockers altering YouTube's code and unrelated to YouTube.

NEW SOLID STATE BATTERY CHARGES IN MINUTES, LASTS FOR THOUSANDS OF CYCLES

Researchers at Harvard John A. Paulson SEAS have developed a new lithium metal battery that can be charged in minutes and lasts at least 6,000 charging cycles. Lithium metal batteries offer far better energy density and much lower weight than their lithium-ion counterparts. The team has a list of other materials that could potentially yield similar performance. The technology has been licensed through a Harvard spinoff company that has scaled it up to build a smartphone-sized pouch cell battery.

ID OF FIVE SUBTYPES OF ALZHEIMER'S HAS HUGE IMPLICATIONS FOR TREATMENT

An international team of neuroscientists has identified five distinct subtypes of Alzheimer's disease. The finding has breakthrough implications for treatment approaches and efficacy. The subtypes can be identified by the categories of fluid surrounding the brains of patients. Each of the five subtypes is linked to a unique genetic risk profile. They reveal different molecular pathways to what has traditionally been considered as one overall disease.

SURYA

Surya is a multilingual document OCR toolkit that can provide accurate line-level text detection. Text recognition and table and chart detection are coming soon. Surya works on a range of documents and languages.

SLASHING DATA TRANSFER COSTS IN AWS BY 99%

One of the easiest ways to accidentally spend too much money on AWS is by carelessly transferring data. Any application that involves sending data between resources in different availability zones will incur such charges. These prices easily add up and are an extremely high-margin source of profit for cloud providers. This article looks at how to set up cross-availability zone infrastructure without paying for data transfer costs. It suggests using S3, which already replicates data between availability zones as part of its service.

ELON MUSK WANTS MORE CONTROL OF TESLA, SEEKS 25% VOTING POWER

Elon Musk said on Monday that he wants about 25% of voting control over Tesla. Musk already owns around 13% of the company. He says that he is uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI and robotics without having the control. He wants to be influential, but not so much that he can't be overturned. The bid for more control will add to the pressure on Tesla's board of directors, who is already facing investor concerns over several issues, including Musk's split focus, the use of company resources, and federal probes.

ASK HN: WHY AM I SUDDENLY UNEMPLOYABLE? (HACKER NEWS THREAD)

People with a lot of coding experience and good referrals are suddenly finding it hard to get employed. The job market has been difficult for many job seekers. It appears that companies are looking for very specific skills. The market is much slower than it was between 2020-2022. Several commenters in this thread provide CV and job-searching advice for those struggling to find work.

SCREENS KEEP GETTING FASTER. CAN YOU EVEN TELL?

LCD monitors have been pushing 500Hz for around a year now, and multiple OLED monitors hitting speeds of 360Hz and 480Hz were introduced at CES 2024.

HIGH-SPEED 10GBPS FULL-MESH NETWORK BASED ON USB4 FOR JUST $47.98

Gaining knowledge about hardware is equally important to learning code - this post by a software engineer explains how they learned how to build a bare-metal Kubernetes cluster and set up the network for it.

COMPRESSING TEXT INTO IMAGES

Image compression algorithms are generally good at finding patterns in images and squashing them down - it looks like they're a pretty efficient way to compress ASCII text as well.

APP STORE TO BE 'SPLIT IN TWO' AHEAD OF EU IPHONE SIDELOADING DEADLINE

Apple plans to split the Apple Store in the EU from the rest of the world by March 7.

MICROSOFT’S NEW COPILOT PRO BRINGS AI-POWERED OFFICE FEATURES TO THE REST OF US

Copilot Pro, which provides access to AI-powered features inside Office apps, is launching today as a $20 monthly subscription.

AI SLEEPER AGENTS

A deeper look into a recent study where researchers tried and failed to remove 'sleeper agents' from AI.

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APPLE VISION PRO CUSTOMERS FACE A 25-MINUTE IN-STORE SALES PITCH

The Apple Vision Pro will be available from February 2 starting from $3,499. Customers waiting to buy an Apple Vision Pro may have to sit through a lengthy sales pitch that includes a 25-minute in-store demonstration on how to use the headset. More than a dozen demo units will be available at any one time at some of Apple's largest stores to accommodate the appointments. Customers will be able to purchase the Apple Vision Pro online without visiting a store to try the headset out.

HOW THREADS WILL INTEGRATE WITH THE FEDIVERSE

The Fediverse consists of small social networks that can be hosted by an individual or company whose users can communicate and interact with users on other similar networks. This article details how Meta plans to integrate Threads with the Fediverse. Meta engaging positively with its user base is difficult due to its size. Integrating with the Fediverse will let Meta step back and focus instead on engaging with organizations that represent the interests of the Fediverse.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS ON THE STARSHIP SIDE OF THE ALL HANDS

Starship's second flight almost made it to orbit - if it had a payload, that payload would have made it to orbit. SpaceX thinks it has a good shot at reaching orbit with the third flight. It will then focus on achieving full and rapid reusability. There are two towers at Starbase so one can be upgraded while the other is used for launches.

NEW ANTHROPIC PAPER: SLEEPER AGENTS

Anthropic recently trained large language models to act secretly malicious. It found that despite best efforts at alignment training, deception still slipped through. The alignment training only made models look safe. Anthropic's research shows how standard safety training might not actually ensure safety and might end up giving people a false sense of security.

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HIDDEN CHANGES IN GPT-4, UNCOVERED

Recent changes made to ChatGPT's GPT-4 interface significantly altered the model's web browsing tools. The changes prevent the model from directly citing quotes from webpages and limits viewing of full content. This article analyzes the underlying mechanism of GPT-4 web browsing, the hidden changes, and their implications. OpenAI is increasingly under scrutiny regarding copyright laws and the reproduction of content on the internet. These changes seem to be aimed at eliminating the issue.

REMOTESTORAGE

remoteStorage combines the localStorage API with a remote server to persist data across browsers and devices. It allows apps to easily read and write data on the fly while maintaining state across browsers and devices. remoteStorage features a simple API and it works with all JavaScript frameworks.

INSTAGRAM’S CO-FOUNDERS ARE SHUTTING DOWN THEIR ARTIFACT NEWS APP

Artifact, a news app created by Instagram's co-founders, is shutting down a year after launch. The app used an AI-driven approach to suggest news users might like to read. The company decided that the market opportunity for the app wasn't big enough to warrant continued investment. Artifact will still let users read news until the end of February, but users can no longer add new comments or posts.

MY AI TIMELINES HAVE SPED UP (AGAIN)

This article is an update to a post in 2020 that made predictions on when artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be achieved. It defines AGI as an AI system that matches or exceeds humans at almost all economically valuable work. The previous post predicted a 10% chance by 2035, but this has now changed to a 10% chance by 2028 and a 25% chance by 2035. The author believes there is a 90% chance that humans will develop AGI by 2070.

MARIMO

marimo is a reactive notebook for Python that allows users to rapidly experiment with data and models, code with confidence, and productionize notebooks as pipelines or interactive web apps.

COMPRESSION ATTACHED MEMORY MODULES MAY MAKE UPGRADABLE LAPTOPS A THING AGAIN

Compression Attached Memory Modules are replaceable and support high-speed low-power LPDDR memory and both single- and dual-channel speeds.

TRIPLIT

Triplit is a database that syncs data between servers and browsers in real time.

WHY AUTONOMOUS TRUCKING IS HARDER THAN AUTONOMOUS RIDESHARE

There are many truck- and freeway-specific challenges that require advances in sensing and machine learning and a lot of hard work to overcome.

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH STACKOVERFLOW? (X THREAD)

The total questions on Stack Overflow by year dropped in 2020 and has been declining since.

THE GLOBAL PROJECT TO MAKE A GENERAL ROBOTIC BRAIN

The generative AI formula doesn't easily carry over to robotics because the Internet isn't full of robotic-interaction data - the RT-X project aims to assemble data, resources, and code to make general-purpose robots a reality.

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GOOGLE CONFIRMS IT JUST LAID OFF AROUND A THOUSAND EMPLOYEES

Google has eliminated around a thousand positions across its Pixel, Nest, Fitbit, Core engineering, and Assistant teams. The company may still be planning further layoffs. Google's parent company Alphabet employed 182,385 employees as of September 30 last year. The layoffs so far represent around half a percent of the company's total employees.

“SUCH SIGNAL, MUCH WOW”: STARLINK’S FIRST TEXTS VIA “CELLPHONE TOWERS IN SPACE”

SpaceX has successfully sent and received its first text messages using the T-Mobile network spectrum through one of its new direct-to-cell satellites. The new satellites are expected to provide text messaging services around the world sometime this year, with voice and data services beginning sometime in 2025. They are equipped with custom silicon, phased array antennas, and advanced software algorithms. The satellite-to-phone service should work just about anywhere on the planet, but it will be most useful in areas with no coverage due to terrain limitations, land-use restrictions, and other factors.

MEET THE ETH, AN EXPANDABLE ELECTRIC RV THAT TURNS INTO AN OFF-GRID LUXURY MINI-HOME

The Electric Transformer House is an expandable luxury mini-home with 400 square feet of living space, solar panels, and much more. The RV features a luxurious interior, smart tech, and clean energy for off-grid capabilities. It has a gourmet kitchen, a spacious living and dining room, and a private bedroom. Its cockpit features a flexible dashboard/office desk, integrated entertainment, drive assist tech, and a Starlink connection. Pictures and videos showing the RV in both its vehicle and mini-home modes are available in the article.

CHINESE RIVAL TO SPACEX PULLS OFF ROCKET LAUNCH AT SEA

Orienspace declared a complete success after launching a rocket at sea into low-Earth orbit on Thursday. Its rocket deposited a total of three satellites into orbit using its Gravity 1 commercial launch system. The three-stage, 100-foot-tall spacecraft is the world's largest solid launch vehicle. Launching from the sea offers several advantages, including less chance of damage and lower costs.

GITHUB ACTIONS AS A TIME-SHARING SUPERCOMPUTER

GitHub Actions can be used for batch jobs. Developers can submit work to the service and receive the results later on asynchronously. actions-batch is a command-line tool that is essentially an API that turns GitHub Actions into a time-sharing computer. It creates new GitHub repositories, writes a workflow that runs 'job.sh' upon commits, and triggers jobs when a local bash file is written to the repository as 'job.sh'. actions-batch can be used for jobs like building kernels and running machine learning inference using Llama2.

GOOGLE CHALLENGES CLOUD RIVALS BY MAKING IT FREE FOR CUSTOMERS TO TRANSFER DATA WHEN THEY LEAVE

Google's cloud unit will stop charging data transfer fees when customers want to leave. The change applies to all customers globally. Data transfer fees are a profitable source of revenue for tech companies and they can reduce churn as they punish clients for going elsewhere. Google is part of the Bandwidth Alliance, a group of companies whose aim is to reduce or eliminate data transfer fees. Alibaba, Microsoft, and Oracle are also members of the alliance.

CHROME USERS NOW WORTH 30% LESS MONEY THANKS TO GOOGLE'S COOKIE KILLING, AD FIRM SAYS

Google disabled tracking cookies for 30 million Chrome users last week, about 1% of the browser's user base. Analysts estimate that the change made cookieless users bring in 30% less revenue. Google plans to block cookies for all users by the end of the year and replace them with a new tracking system called the Privacy Sandbox. The new system will keep all user data on users' devices but let companies still know what topics they're interested in.

UNDERSTANDING BRIDGE-BASED RANKING

Bridge-based ranking is a way to score and rank content by adjusting for user polarization. The algorithm works by attempting to model why content receives the reactions it gets and then correcting for bias. It can cancel out the effects of bias. This article explains Bridge-Based Ranking and shows how and why it works. Bridge-based ranking allows communities to self-moderate by preventing influence from user polarization.

APPLE VISION PRO LAUNCH QUANTITIES RUMORED TO BE FAR TIGHTER THAN PREVIOUSLY ESTIMATED

Renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo thinks that Apple will have between 60,000 and 80,000 Apple Vision Pro units available on launch day.

META REPORTEDLY LAID OFF 60 TECHNICAL PROGRAM MANAGERS AT INSTAGRAM

The affected employees will be given the chance to be interviewed to be considered for a position as a product manager.

LOTS OF PPL WERE ASKING, WHY NOT AN APP?

Making the Rabbit R1 a piece of hardware allowed the company to create something capable of all the potentials of its LAM technology while lowering entry barriers for early adopters.

MICROSOFT BRIEFLY TOPS APPLE AS MOST VALUABLE PUBLIC COMPANY

Microsoft's shares rose in 2023 partly due to hope from investors that the company would be able to expand by selling AI services to businesses.

DISCORD IS LAYING OFF 17 PERCENT OF EMPLOYEES

While Discord isn't in dire financial straits, it has yet to become profitable and is still trying to revive user growth after the pandemic surge.