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RELIABLE

Commands or functions trapped in EXIT can ensure that bash scripts always perform necessary cleanup operations even when something unexpected goes wrong.

TESLA UNVEILS NEW GIGA LABORATORY CONCEPT

Tesla's Giga Laboratory retail concept appears to be a showcase of its manufacturing capacity. There are now 1,000 Tesla retail and service locations, more than double the number from three years ago. The announcement about the Giga Laboratory invites customers to come to the store to meet up with friends and experience the magic of building a car in 45 seconds. Pictures of the new store are available in the article.

REDDIT HACKERS DEMAND $4.5 MILLION RANSOM AND API PRICING CHANGES

A ransomware group that claimed responsibility for a hack on Reddit's systems earlier this year is demanding money and policy changes. BlackCat claims to have stolen 80GB of data from Reddit. It wants a $4.5 million payout and for Reddit to roll back its planned API pricing changes in exchange for the data. The attack occurred in February. Reddit says that the hackers hadn't accessed private user data.

PARKER SOLAR PROBE IMAGES THE LAUNCH OF THE SOLAR WIND

Solar wind is not very well understood despite its importance. Its immense strength has, up until now, made it nearly impossible for spacecraft to determine where it is generated. NASA's Parker Solar Probe was recently able to image the region where solar wind originates. It found that solar wind starts close to the surface and then gushes through holes in the Sun's corona before being ejected into space. The discovery could help humans predict when solar wind will head towards Earth and enable us to protect sensitive equipment.

PRETTY GREAT

_Temnothorax nylanderi_ ants that contract _Anomotaenia brevis_ tapeworms end up living up to over three times longer than their peers. Uninfected ants end up pampering the infected ants' and do their chores for them. The infected ants barely have to leave their nests. The tapeworms appear to pump antioxidants and other proteins into their hosts. Their goal is to eventually be eaten by a bird, so that might be why they keep infected ants young and plump.

VINEJS

VineJS is a form data validation library for Node.js that can be used to validate HTTP request bodies in the backend. It is one of the fastest validation libraries in the Node.js ecosystem. VineJS provides both runtime and static type safety, first-class support for defining custom error messages and formatting errors, and an extensive suite of over 50 validation rules and 12 schema types.

YOU CAN'T TRUST GOOGLE

Google will eventually kill its services if it can't find a way to directly monetize them with ads at a scale of billions. The company is paid for advertising rather than for its products. Google's recent shutdown of Google Domains, a $180 million/year business servicing 10 million domains, is an example of this. People using Google products and services outside of the ad space should prepare a backup plan as the company is one major reorganization or promoted executive away from shutting them down.

FSD

A Tesla hacker has uncovered a unique feature in Tesla's Full Self-Driving Beta software named 'Elon Mode'. Elon Mode switches the vehicle from using steering wheel 'nags' to a more advanced driver monitoring method that uses the internal camera to watch the driver and ensure they are not distracted. It is unclear when the hidden mode will be publicly accessible. A video showing Elon Mode in action is available in the article.

AI HAS POISONED ITS OWN WELL

Tech companies have essentially established a threshold for the maximum improvement of AI products as their early release will lead to model collapse, an effect where irreversible defects are created in models due to being trained on model-generated content - something that will happen once LLMs contribute to much of the content found online.

THE FEDERATED APP PROBLEM

While federated apps allow users to jump onto any server and even create their own, many of them will end up on the same central instance.

SUPERWHITE

superwhite displays a white color around 7 times brighter than #FFFFFF on HDR-enabled displays using ~1 KB of video.

APPLE IS TRYING TO TRADEMARK DEPICTIONS OF ACTUAL APPLES

Apple has been trying to trademark images of apples in Switzerland since 2017, with the Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property partially awarding Apple's request in 2022.

EU: SMARTPHONES MUST HAVE USER-REPLACEABLE BATTERIES BY 2027

The European Parliament approved new rules earlier this week that stipulate that all portable batteries used in devices such as smartphones, tablets, and cameras must have easily removable and replaceable batteries.

WHEN DYING PATIENTS WANT UNPROVEN DRUGS

The FDA requires two adequate trials before it approves a drug, a process that can take years, but some patients don't have that time.

DON'T REOPEN

Some moderators participating in the protest against the Reddit API changes received messages from the company saying to reopen their subreddits or be removed from their positions. Many large subreddits have reopened out of fear that their mod teams will be forcibly replaced. A Reddit spokesperson has confirmed that moderators taking part in the protest may be in violation of the code of conduct. The company is planning to pursue changes that would let regular users vote moderators out more easily.

INTRODUCING VOICEBOX: THE MOST VERSATILE AI FOR SPEECH GENERATION

Voicebox is an AI model from Meta that can perform speech generation tasks that it wasn't specifically trained to do through in-context learning. It can produce high-quality clips and edit pre-recorded audio while preserving the content and style of the audio. Voicebox is multilingual and can produce speech in six languages. Examples of clips generated by Voicebox are available in the article.

BPClip is a cell phone attachment that can measure blood pressure with comparable readings to those taken with a traditional cuff. It consists of a plastic clip with a spring mechanism that lets the user squeeze the device. An ultra-low-cost blood pressure device could help make diagnosis and treatment for hypertension more accessible to marginalized populations. The design still needs to be refined before it is ready for mass production. Details about how the device works are available in the article.

NEW NANO-TATTOOS DON'T NEED BATTERIES OR WIRES

Researchers from Istanbul have created nanotattoos capable of passive wireless communications with nearby devices without the need for an external power source. Backscattering-based nanotattoo sensor (BNTS) tattoos are made by painting a zinc oxide ink containing embedded nanowires on top of a graphene aerogel conductive ink using separate needles. As the tattoos change shape, they convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Data from the tattoos can be extracted using a smartphone. The tattoos can be placed on any surface, not just on the human body.

GPT ENGINEER

GPT Engineer can generate entire code bases based on a prompt. It is easy to adapt and extend and it can learn code styles. GPT Engineer will ask for clarification before it starts to build. A video demo is available.

PANDA

Panda is a universal styling solution for the modern web. It allows developers to write type-safe styles with ease. Panda has TypeScript support out-of-the-box, a low learning curve, and a great developer experience. It generates modern CSS code at build-time with features like cascade layers, :where selectors, and CSS variables. Panda works everywhere, including in server components.

MARK ZUCKERBERG WAS EARLY IN AI. NOW META IS TRYING TO CATCH UP.

Mark Zuckerberg saw the promise for artificial intelligence a decade ago and invested large amounts of money into its advancement, hiring one of its early visionaries, Yann LeCun, to lead the charge. Meta fell behind in the field and is now scrambling to refocus its resources to generate usable AI products and features. It previously prioritized academic discoveries while struggling to capitalize on their commercial potential. Meta had attempted to launch several chatbots before ChatGPT was released but these systems were criticized for their incorrect and biased answers.

GPT-4 CAN USE TOOLS - NOW THAT'S A BIG DEAL

The GPT API was recently updated with a tool called function calling. Function calling allows GPT to call out to external code, databases, or other APIs whenever it needs to. GPT can decide which tools to use and when. This ability makes GPT models significantly more powerful as it helps them overcome many of their limitations. It also makes some open-source projects obsolete. OpenAI's release should remind developers that projects built at the infrastructure layer can be easily obviated by a future OpenAI update.

HEADQUARTERS

The 30-year project will include over 3 million square feet of office space and 7,000 residential units.

LANGUAGE MODELS

This package makes it easy for learners and educators to explore how large language models intersect with modern software development on any computer with 512MB of RAM.

THIRD-PARTY DATA

Similarweb reported a 6.6% drop in traffic for Reddit on June 13.

IMAGINARY PROBLEMS ARE THE ROOT OF BAD SOFTWARE

Intelligent people will make up imaginary problems when tasks are boring - this can lead to the creation of solutions that ignore clients' basic requests.

HOME, SMART HOME

Homes built in California's first planned smart solar-powered residential microgrid community can proactively respond to and manage energy use, for example, by changing power sources or reducing energy use when prices and demand spike.

MODERN CSS FOR DYNAMIC COMPONENT-BASED ARCHITECTURE

This article explores modern web project architecture, features to improve code organization, and examples of context-aware components that use cutting-edge CSS techniques.

APOLLO-RELATED BLACKOUTS

Reddit has informed moderators that it plans to replace resistant moderation teams to keep spaces open and accessible to users. Reddit's Moderator Code of Conduct says that Reddit has the duty to keep communities operational if users rely upon them. Many subreddits went dark between Monday and Wednesday to protest Reddit's pricing for its API. Some have made the decision to continue the blackout indefinitely. Reddit's CEO said that the blackouts had no significant impact and that there were no plans to change the API pricing.

WITH FORD AND GM'S HELP, TESLA REIGNITES THE CHARGING STANDARD WAR

The Combined Charging System Type 1 (CCS1) standard seemed like it had become the charging system for electric vehicles until recently, when Ford and General Motors both signed deals to adapt their electric vehicles to use Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS). While the majority of new EVs in the US will use the NACS in the future, recently passed legislation will mean that CCS1 charging infrastructure will still be built into public charging network charging ports. Updating the regulation would cause extensive retrofit costs for public charging networks.

VIRGIN GALACTIC STARTS COMMERCIAL SPACEFLIGHTS IN TWO WEEKS

Virgin Galactic is starting commercial spaceflight services at the end of the month. The company plans to begin working through its ticket-holder backlog through monthly launches after two initial missions. The first will be a scientific research mission and the second will be the first real private astronaut flight. Virgin Galactic plans to increase its launch cadence to reduce scarcity and lower the price. Its launch method involves dropping a spacecraft from a custom carrier jet at a high altitude and taking off from there.

INTEL TO START SHIPPING A QUANTUM PROCESSOR

Intel is starting to ship its Tunnel Falls processor to research labs. The 12-qubit chip will be sent to the Universities of Maryland, Rochester, and Wisconsin and the Sandia National Lab. Intel hopes that researchers will help the company characterize sources of error and determine which form of qubits provide the best performance. Details about the Tunnel Falls processor and how it works are available in the article.

VERCEL AI SDK

The Vercel AI SDK is a library for building edge-ready AI-powered streaming text and chat UIs. It features React and Svelte helpers for streaming text responses and building UIs, first-class support for LangChain, OpenAI, Anthropic, and HuggingFace, Edge Runtime compatibility, and callbacks for saving completed streaming responses to a database. The SDK can be used to build a ChatGPT-like app with just a few lines of code.

THE NEW LANGUAGE MODEL STACK

The adoption of language model APIs is creating a new stack. This article looks at data from a survey across 33 companies in the Sequoia network to better understand the applications people are building and the stacks they are using. Almost all the companies surveyed use OpenAI's GPT and believe that a retrieval system is a key part of their stack. The field is moving too quickly for anyone to be confident in predicting what the end-state stack will look like, but LLM APIs and frameworks like LangChain are likely here to stay. It is still early days for the AI industry and there will be more opportunities for founders as the technology continues to develop.

FERN - INSTANTLY CREATE A STRIPE-LIKE API EXPERIENCE (GITHUB REPO SPONSOR)

Fern is an open source tool to automatically generate idiomatic client libraries and Stripe-like API documentation. Find out why companies like Scale AI and Flatfile already use Fern to develop their APIs and generate their SDKs, click here [https://danni763618.typeform.com/to/c4o3Nwrq] to learn more.

BUYOUT

Wargraphs, a Paris-based company with one employee and two products, League of Graphs and Porofessor, was acquired by MOBA Network last week for 50 million Euros. The company's tools can be used to help players see and understand invaluable statistics for the game League of Legends. Wargraphs made 12.3 million Euros in sales during the year leading up to November 2022 by selling advertisements. Its apps have over 800,000 daily users. MOBA Network plans to further develop the assets and expand into new games and markets.

VISION PRO

While we now have practical VR devices that are far beyond prototypes or proofs of concepts, we haven't yet seen mass-market adoption. VR devices will get a lot better in the future, but it is still unknown whether they will become popular like smartphones or PCs. Apple has decided it isn't worth making or selling a device without the capabilities that the Vision Pro has. Unlike Meta, which is working to deliver hardware at the right price, Apple is creating the right hardware and waiting for prices to drop.

SQUARESPACE

Squarespace has entered a definitive asset purchase agreement with Google and will acquire the assets associated with the Google Domains business, which include approximately 10 million domains spread across millions of customers.

UNSUCKJS

UnsuckJS progressively enhances HTML with lightweight JavaScript libraries without any build tools or compilers.

AI 'GODFATHER' PROF YAN LECUN SAYS IT WON'T TAKE OVER THE WORLD

Prof Yan LeCun says that while there is no question that AI will surpass human intelligence, we are still many years away from reaching that level, and people won’t build something if they realize it's not safe.

~BIG~ NEWS IN AI LAND

Meta wants to make the next version of its open source large language model LLaMA available for commercial use.

LLMS FOR SOFTWARE PORTABILITY

AI coding assistants excel at building compatibility layers between multiple specifications.

OFFICIAL OPENING

Amazon's Metropolitan Park headquarters features two 22-story towers, sustainable green spaces, and local retailers.

BLACKOUT INDEFINITELY

Moderators of many Reddit communities are pledging to keep their subreddits private or restricted indefinitely. The majority of subreddits were to resume on Wednesday, but a thread on the r/ModCoord subreddit indicates that a growing number will continue the protest. Not all subreddits will be able to go dark indefinitely for various reasons. More than 8,400 subreddits have gone dark. Reddit briefly crashed on Monday due to the protest.

AMD REVEALS NEW A.I. CHIP TO CHALLENGE NVIDIA'S DOMINANCE

AMD's MI300X GPU for artificial intelligence will be available for sampling later this Fall and start shipping in greater volumes next year. Nvidia currently dominates the AI chip market with an over 80% market share. While AMD hasn't disclosed a price for the chip yet, its release could put pressure on Nvidia's GPUs, which can cost $30,000 or more. Lower priced GPUs could help drive down the costs of AI applications.

FLEXIBLE BRAIN IMPLANT TESTED IN PEOPLE FOR THE FIRST TIME

Precision Neuroscience, a startup co-founded by a founding member of Neuralink, has tested its safe, easy-to-place brain implant in people for the first time. The implant is made out of a flexible film and is placed into the space between the brain and skull through an incision less than a millimeter wide. It contains 10 times as many electrodes per square centimeter as a standard brain implant without the need for highly invasive surgery. The implant was able to read, record, and map the brain's electrical activity when tested on humans. Precision Neuroscience has yet to test its implantation procedure on people, but it has worked on miniature pigs.

THE SATELLITE RENAISSANCE

There are now over 7,000 active satellites in orbit. Thanks to companies like SpaceX, private enterprises are able to launch machines into space. Many aspects of our world will change as the number of satellites and space-based services continues to grow. This article looks at what life might be like in the future and the opportunities that the Satellite Renaissance brings.