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MY PERSONAL C CODING STYLE AS OF LATE 2023

This article presents a C coding style that has produced significant productive and organizational benefits.

UNITY CEO JOHN RICCITIELLO STEPPING DOWN, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

John Riccitiello had served Unity as president and CEO for nine years.

‘UKUHUMUSHA’—A NEW WAY TO HACK OPENAI'S CHATGPT

Various restrictions in ChatGPT can be bypassed by using less common languages like Zulu and Gaelic.

AMAZON LAUNCHES FIRST INTERNET SATELLITE PROTOTYPES

Amazon launched its first Project Kuiper satellites on Friday. The project, which was announced more than four years ago, aims to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit to provide high-speed internet access anywhere in the world. Amazon plans to invest more than $10 billion to build the network. The company has kept the size and design of the satellites secret, only sharing photos of the shipping containers that carried them to the launch site.

AND NO CONTROLLERS

Meta's Quest headset marketing plans changed in response to Apple's Vision Pro announcement. The company plans to release a VR headset without controllers next year. It will shift away from a heavy focus on the metaverse and lean more into pushing the practical uses of the headset. The next headset should be cheaper than the Quest 3.

DECOMPOSING LANGUAGE MODELS INTO UNDERSTANDABLE COMPONENTS

Neural networks are trained on data and not programmed to follow rules. While we understand the math of trained networks, we don't understand why those mathematical operations result in the behaviors we see, making it hard to diagnose failure modes and certify that a model is truly safe. This article presents a method for analyzing language models to determine how they work that involves looking at units in small transformer models rather than at individual neurons.

The SP80 and Syroco teams have built two boats designed to beat the current world sailing speed record of 65.37 knots. Both teams are using huge kites attached to the boats and aim to achieve a target speed of 81 knots. This article takes a look at how both teams are progressing with their projects. Pictures and videos of the sailboats are available.

SURREAL

Surreal is a mini jQuery alternative with dependency-free animations and locality of behavior. It pairs with HTMX. Examples, plugins, and resources are available.

🧰

An hour of efficiency gained per day can save one month per year. This article provides tips on how to optimize software engineering workflows. The tips include optimizing everyday tasks every day multiple times a day, making aliases and autocompletions for commands, and using tools to help remember things.

WHY I BUILT ZUZALU

Zuzulu was an experiment that blended the idea of hacker houses and conferences. The project involved a pop-up mini-city that housed two hundred people for two whole months. During the event, participants built technologies and developed a community that brought together a new combination of cultures. This article talks about Zuzulu from Vitalik Buterin's perspective and discusses the lessons learned from the experiment.

UNBUNDLING AI

LLMs allow users to ask anything and almost get an answer to everything. However, the answers it returns could be wrong, and even if the answers are correct, they might not be the right way to solve the problem. They are probabilistic models that provide the most probable answers. Large language models are currently a general-purpose technology that can do some theoretically magic stuff, but for many people, they still look a bit like the PC ads of the late 1970s that promised computers could be used for anything.

HOW RENDER SCALED KNATIVE TO100K+ WEB APPS

Render is a cloud infrastructure provider that saw a surge in popularity after Heroku announced the end of its free offering in the second half of 2022.

23ANDME SAYS PRIVATE USER DATA IS UP FOR SALE AFTER BEING SCRAPED

The data allegedly contains origin estimation, phenotype, health information, photos, and identification data - 23andMe's CEO was aware the company had been hacked two months earlier but never revealed the incident.

AI-ASSISTED DECISION-MAKING

A guide on how to use ChatGPT to make better decisions.

MICROSOFT REPORTEDLY PLANS TO LAUNCH ITS OWN AI CHIP NEXT MONTH

Microsoft's new artificial intelligence chip will be similar to Nvidia's GPUs and is designed to run data servers that train and run large language models.

MEANINGLESS

Google's Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro come with the promise of seven years of OS upgrades, security updates, feature drops, and AI innovations.

FETCHBOOK

Fetchbook is a command-line tool for managing collections of HTTP requests that is based on the standard RequestInit object and runs in TypeScript with bun.sh.

DUCKDUCKGO REVEALED IN UNSEALED COURT TESTIMONY

Newly unsealed court testimonies reveal that Apple held talks with Microsoft and DuckDuckGo to use their search engines across Apple devices. The company even considered buying Bing. An internal email suggests that the talks were a negotiating tactic to extract more money from Google. Microsoft was aware that it was being used for leverage.

EXCLUSIVE-CHATGPT-OWNER OPENAI IS EXPLORING MAKING ITS OWN AI CHIPS

OpenAI is exploring making its own artificial intelligence chips. It has evaluated a potential acquisition target for the move. The scarcity of graphics processing units is making it difficult for OpenAI to solve its chip shortage issues. It may take several years for OpenAI to develop its own chip if it decides to go ahead with the plan. Success in developing a custom chip is not guaranteed - many companies, including Meta, have been building their own processors for years with limited results.

WATER

A team of engineers from MIT and China have designed a solar desalination system that passively turns seawater into drinking water. It circulates water in swirling eddies, which when combined with the sun's heat drives water to evaporate and leave salt behind. The resulting water vapor can be condensed and collected while the leftover salt circulates out of the device rather than accumulating and clogging the system. A small suitcase-sized system could produce up to 6 liters of drinking water per hour and last several years.

NEW 3D PRINTING APPROACH OFFERS HOPE FOR BRAIN INJURY REPAIR

Scientists from the University of Oxford have created brain tissue using human stem cells through 3D printing. They were able to replicate the structure of the brain's cerebral cortex using the technique. The technology will provide researchers with new ways to explore the workings of the brain. It also offers hopes to individuals who have brain injuries as there is evidence that the printed tissue can integrate with live brains.

CLOUD COSTS EVERY PROGRAMMER SHOULD KNOW

This article contains a list of cloud costs every programmer should know with a detailed breakdown of the costs. Knowing these numbers will help programmers make quick cost estimations for a variety of different projects. They will only need an idea of the architecture and size of the completed project to calculate a ballpark cost without needing any complex cost calculator.

I’M NOT A PROGRAMMER, AND I USED AI TO BUILD MY FIRST BOT

This tutorial guides users through how to build a Slack Bot that uses Google LLMs to provide daily channel summaries using Replit. Replit's AI is able to generate and explain code. It speeds up the process of development and can act as a tutor. The tutorial was written by someone with no programming experience other than some Python for basic data manipulation and scraping.

ALAMEDA HAD A $65B LINE OF CREDIT AND ‘UNLIMITED WITHDRAWALS’

FTX co-founder and CTO Gary Wang took the stand recently, admitting to wire fraud, securities fraud, and commodities fraud and naming Sam Bankman-Fried, Nishad Singh, and Caroline Ellison as the individuals he committed the crimes with. Wang had pleaded guilty in December 2022 as part of a cooperation deal. This article provides a detailed look at Wang's testimony. It covers Alameda's $65 billion line of credit, how Bankman-Fried controlled the coding process, Alameda's naming process, and more.

HOW I STAY MOTIVATED AS A SOLO-CREATOR

It can be challenging to stay motivated when working on your own. Things that can help include finding engaging work, building routines, being intentional with down times, staying active in communities, and writing. Working solo means there isn't anything specific you have to do. No one will notice if you decide not to work - but things will start falling apart if you continue to skip work for too many days.

ELON MUSK SAYS

The FAA has yet to award a license for another Starship test launch - SpaceX also needs to receive environmental approval from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

SAYS OPENAI’S CHIEF TECH OFFICER

A revolution in the way we work is coming - this could mean that we end up working less and the workweek may change entirely.

WHERE DOES MY COMPUTER GET THE TIME FROM?

An deep dive into the chain of time sources.

ROBOT ACTIONS

The Open X-Embodiment is a database of more than 14 million images created by Google's DeepMind robotics team with help from 33 research institutes.

LLMS ARE INTERPRETABLE

Large language models are the most interpretable form of machine learning that has come into broad usage.

TIDBITS

Code found in the beta 4 release of visionOS 1.0 indicates that Apple's Vision Pro headset will support screen mirroring via AirPlay or FaceTime.

GOOGLE PIXEL EVENT 2023

Google announced the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel Watch 2, and many other goodies at its Made By Google event yesterday. This article contains summaries of the most important part of the keynote. The main draw to this year's Pixel phone upgrades seems to be the camera specs and the new Tensor G3 processor. Android 14 has started rolling out to supported Pixel devices and will roll out to other Android devices later this year.

YOUR CONTACT INFO

NameDrop is a new way for iPhone users to share contact information with each other. It allows users to simply tap their phones together to swap information. The feature is available to all users with supported iPhones on iOS 17. Users will be able to select what information they share with other people. The feature can be turned off via a toggle in the settings.

LAUNCH

Amazon is gearing up to launch two demo internet satellites on Friday. The satellites will ride aboard United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Amazon aims to provide Internet service to both individual users and large corporations. It will safely deorbit the two satellites after the mission's conclusion.

TELESCOPE’S FINAL MIRROR FABRICATION BEGINS

The Giant Magellan Telescope aims to surpass current space telescopes in sensitivity and resolution, promising unparalleled astronomical insights by the decade's end. It has begun the four-year process of fabricating and polishing its seventh and final primary mirror. The mirror will complete the telescope's 368 square meter light collecting surface. Pictures showing some of the mirror fabrication processes are available in the article.

🌘 CSS SCOPE INLINE

CSS Scope Inline monitors the DOM and scopes styles to whatever the parent element is the moment a new style tag is seen. It doesn't touch existing styles, allowing users to mix and match at their leisure. CSS Scope Inline pairs well with HTMX and Surreal. It provides an easy inline vanilla CSS experience without Tailwind CSS.

IT

The Google Pixel 8 Pro has an ultrawide angle camera, a main wide-angle camera, and a telephoto camera. A new Video Boost feature improves videos taken in dim and dark conditions. Implementing the feature required a new image sensor technology in the main camera. The Tensor G3 GPU is responsible for preprocessing video for Video Boost. Video Boost relies on compute from Google's data centers to reduce noise, stabilize video, and sharpen low-light images.

OPENAI LAUNCHES RESIDENCY PROGRAM WITH $210,000 ANNUAL SALARY

OpenAI's Residency is an initiative to empower exceptional researchers and engineers from diverse fields to transition into the world of AI and machine learning. It is especially beneficial for researchers specializing in fields outside of deep learning and welcomes software engineers seeking to pivot into AI research roles. Residents will tackle real AI challenges while receiving a full salary.

SPACEX IS ALREADY USING TESLA CYBERTRUCK AT STARBASE

Tesla's Cybertruck was spotted towing a rocket engine at StarBase.

SOLVE THE PROBLEM, NOT A DIFFERENT MORE DIFFICULT PROBLEM

Sometimes it's best to solve today's problem and move on.

AN INTERACTIVE INTRO TO CRDTS

Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) are a kind of data structure that is great for building rich collaborative apps without requiring a central server to sync changes.

ARCHAX IS A $2.7 MILLION PILOTABLE ROBOT FOR THE ULTRA-WEALTHY

Tsubame Industries, a Tokyo-based startup, has made its Archax pilotable robot units available for preorder for around $2.7 million - a video of the robot is available in the article.

DESTROYING DEVICE FROM TACOMA STARTUP

A startup called Aquagga has successfully deployed a PFAS destruction unit housed inside a modest 10-feet-long by 8-feet-wide shipping container - PFAS chemicals are great at deflecting water, stains, and grease, but the long-lived chemicals have contaminated drinking water everywhere.

THE HYPER-PERSONALIZATION OF EVERYTHING

A combination of individualistic culture and being chronically online has caused some people to come to expect every experience to be hyper-personalized.

GMAIL IS GETTING EMOJI REACTIONS 🤩

Google is bringing emoji reactions to its Gmail service. It will roll out gradually starting with Android users and to other platforms over the next few months. Users with access will see a smiling emoji at the bottom of messages. Some emojis will enable full-page animations. Emoji reactions will only show up in the Gmail app - people using third-party email clients will receive emojis as separate emails. The feature is not available to users on school or work accounts or for large group messages.

AMAZON REPORTEDLY USED A SECRET ALGORITHM TO JACK UP PRICES

Amazon deployed a secret algorithm called Project Nessie to gauge how high it could raise prices before competitors stopped increasing their prices as well. The algorithm would inflate prices and monitor whether other retailers would follow suit. If retailers maintained the lower price, the algorithm would revert back to the normal price. Amazon reportedly stopped using it in 2019. Project Nessie is just one of the many ways the FTC has accused Amazon of illegally maintaining its market dominance in the e-commerce industry.

STARLINK LAUNCHES V2 MINI-SATELLITES WITH 'SPACE LASERS'

Starlink has launched new versions of its satellites that can communicate via lasers. The service has an estimated one million subscribers and is looking to improve its offering as competition warms up in the sector. While Amazon's Kuiper project has so far failed to take off, another rival, OneWeb, is expected to begin offering services soon. Starlink's new satellites will be able to transfer data through laser links at speeds of 100 Gbps over thousands of miles.