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40 CREATIVE ADS EVERY MARKETER SHOULD STUDY

A carousel of ads from IKEA, JBL, LinkedIn, and more.

FROM SELLING ACCESS TO SELLING WORK (AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU)

Annual recurring revenue (ARR) is losing relevance as AI-driven companies shift to charging for work completed rather than software access.

FORBES TOP CREATORS 2024

A list of the top 50 social media stars based on estimated gross earnings, follower counts, engagement rates, and entrepreneurial activities.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM A SUCCESSFUL RUST REWRITE

This developer rewrote a C++ codebase to Rust and, while it was mostly successful, there were still some interoperability challenges. Using raw pointers and unsafe blocks in Rust proved to be a major source of undefined behavior that was often undetected by the compiler and required tools like Miri for validation. The Rust borrow checker and the lack of native arena allocators created challenges when managing memory resources.

USECONTEXTSELECTOR: SPEEDING UP REACT APPS WITH LARGE CONTEXT

Using large contexts in React applications can lead to performance problems, as changing a single value in a large context can cause unnecessary re-renders of components. There are several proposed solutions: splitting components, splitting contexts, and using state management libraries. The `use-context-selector` library, which this article dives deeper into, provides a way to optimize performance by selecting and re-rendering only the parts of a context that have changed.

HOW TO ROLL YOUR OWN AUTH IN JAVASCRIPT & TYPESCRIPT

Rolling your own session-based auth in JS/TS is useful for understanding core web authentication concepts. This article goes over cookie management, password hashing using Argon2, and framework-agnostic examples for sign up, sign in, and sign out functions.

WHY SPRINTS ARE TAKING THE JOY OUT OF BUILDING SOFTWARE

Sprints are a core element of Scrum, but can be detrimental to software development. Sprints are too rigid, prioritizing processes over individual creativity and customer value. Instead, allow teams to be more flexible about timelines and give engineers more autonomy in their work.

IS PATRICK MACKENZIE'S SALARY NEGOTIATION GUIDE RELEVANT IN TODAY'S MARKET? (HACKER NEWS THREAD)

Patrick Mackenzie's classic blog post on salary negotiation is still relevant today. However, negotiation is becoming more challenging in this market due to companies' cost-minimization strategies and the reduced leverage of candidates. Negotiation is still done best when there are multiple offers to choose from.

I ATTENDED GOOGLE'S CREATOR CONVERSATION EVENT, AND IT TURNED INTO A FUNERAL

Google hosted a "Creator Conversation Event" for independent site owners who had been shadowbanned by Google's algorithm updates. At the meeting, Google representatives offered reassurances while subtly deflecting and avoiding addressing the core issue of shadowbanning and the negative impact on these creators' livelihoods.

NEW TO THE WEB PLATFORM IN OCTOBER

The web got updates in October like synchronous iterator helpers, text fragments, and cookies with partitioned storage in Firefox 131. Beta releases of Firefox and Chrome have WebCodecs API support, worker navigator permissions, and CSS highlight inheritance (Chrome-only).

MODUS

Modus is an open-source serverless framework that allows developers to build APIs powered by WebAssembly. It simplifies the integration of AI models, data, and business logic by using a sandboxed execution environment. Modus supports multiple programming languages, like AssemblyScript and Go.

WAZUH

Wazuh is an open-source security platform that offers endpoint and cloud workload protection, XDR, and SIEM capabilities.

THE KARMA CONNECTION IN CHROME WEB STORE

A large-scale scheme involving malicious Chrome extensions disguised as legitimate tools was discovered. Eleven extensions, seemingly developed by a mysterious individual with no online presence, have been found to contain hidden code for affiliate fraud and user tracking.

CREATING A LLM-AS-A-JUDGE THAT DRIVES BUSINESS RESULTS

LLM-as-a-judge systems have LLMs evaluate LLM responses in order to make LLM applications better. This article outlines seven steps to building a great LLM-as-a-judge system: find a “Principal Domain Expert”, create a diverse dataset, have the expert review and critique the data, fix errors, build the LLM judge, perform error analysis, and create specialized judges if needed.

CHAIN-OF-THOUGHT CAN REDUCE PERFORMANCE ON TASKS WHERE THINKING MAKES HUMANS WORSE

Chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting LLMs reduces performance in cases where thinking also negatively affects human performance. Experiments across three task categories where thinking harms human performance (implicit statistical learning, visual recognition, and classification with exceptions) consistently demonstrate that CoT reduces model accuracy. This suggests that model reasoning, like human deliberation, can lead to detrimental outcomes when applied to certain tasks.

STATE OF FRONTEND 2024

The State of Frontend 2024 report shows the rise of AI, the continued dominance of React, and the growing importance of developer experience and accessibility.

QUALITY MEANS THE FLEXIBILITY TO CHANGE

The ability to easily change code is the true definition of quality in software development as it means a non-committance to irreversible decisions.

NEW MACBOOK PRO FEATURES M4 FAMILY OF CHIPS AND APPLE INTELLIGENCE

Apple has announced the new MacBook Pro, which features the powerful M4 family of chips, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, an advanced camera, and Apple Intelligence.

AN UPDATE FROM DREW

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston announced a 20% reduction in the company's global workforce due to softening demand, an overly complex organizational structure, and underperformance in some areas.

EZCRYPT

Ezcrypt is a secure and portable file encryption tool that uses strong cryptography.

Read now or bookmark for later 🔖

OPENAI WILL START USING AMD CHIPS AND COULD MAKE ITS OWN AI HARDWARE IN 2026

OpenAI is reportedly working with Broadcom to develop custom silicon designed to handle large AI workloads for inference. It has secured manufacturing capacity with TSMC. The custom-designed hardware will likely not start production until 2026. OpenAI's chip development team reportedly includes lead engineers who have previously worked on Google's Tensor processors for AI.

ELON MUSK'S XAI IN TALKS TO RAISE FUNDING VALUING IT AT $40 BILLION

xAI is in talks with investors regarding a funding round that would value it around $40 billion. The startup was last valued at $24 billion just a few months ago. The funding discussions are in the early stages, so terms are still subject to change and the talks could fall apart. The company's current revenue sources include the X Premium subscription and an API developers can use to build applications with Grok.

THE BATTERY REVOLUTION IS FINALLY HERE

Solid-state cells, an emerging, ground-breaking technology, are already hitting the market. These batteries solidify the traditionally liquid electrolyte, enabling advantages such as higher energy density and lower cost and weight. There are many different types of solid-state cells. This article looks at several of the competitors in this industry and their approaches to developing solid-state batteries.

“IMPACT PRINTING” IS A CEMENT-FREE ALTERNATIVE TO 3D-PRINTED STRUCTURES

A team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich claims to have developed a robotic construction method that is better than 3D printing. Impact printing uses Earth-based materials such as sand, silt, clay, and gravel to make homes. It is less carbon-intensive and much more sustainable and affordable than 3D printing. Earth-based materials are abundant, recyclable, available at low costs, and can even be excavated at the construction site. The researchers plan to commercialize this technology once they have a prefabrication facility.

GITHUB COPILOT MOVES BEYOND OPENAI MODELS TO SUPPORT CLAUDE 3.5, GEMINI

Google Copilot is switching to a multi-model approach over the coming weeks. It will roll out Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet to Copilot Chat's web and VC Code interfaces over the next few weeks, with Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro coming a bit later. GitHub is also adding support for a wider range of OpenAI models, including GPT o1-preview and o1-mini. Developers will be able to switch between the models to tailor the model to fit their needs. Organizations will be able to choose which models will be usable by team members.

TRENCH

Trench is an event tracking system that can handle large event volumes and provide real-time analytics. It is no-cookie, GDPR, and PECR compliant. Trench is compliant with the Segment API and can be deployed quickly with a single production-ready Docker image. It can process thousands of events per second on a single node, query data in real time, and connect data to other destinations with webhooks.

MORE THAN A QUARTER OF NEW CODE AT GOOGLE IS GENERATED BY AI

Google's third quarter 2024 earnings call highlighted how important AI is to the company. More than a quarter of all new code at Google is generated by AI, then reviewed and accepted by engineers. The company reported $88.3 billion in revenue for the quarter. While many people feel Google isn't as reliable as it once was, the company continues to operate a very strong business. Google faces a potentially tough road ahead - a breakup is on the table following a ruling that the company is a monopolist in the search and advertising markets.

INSIDE INTEL, CEO PAT GELSINGER FUMBLED THE REVIVAL OF AN AMERICAN ICON

Pat Gelsinger took the reins as Intel CEO three years ago with hopes of reviving the American industrial icon. At the time, Intel had a deal going with Taiwan's TSMC where TSMC would make chips that Intel designed but could not produce at a deep discount. Gelsinger offended TSMC by calling out Taiwan's precarious relations with China, resulting in TSMC deciding to no longer honor the discount. Gelsinger's affront to Taiwan was part of a series of missteps, covered in this article, during his time as Intel CEO.

IPHONE 17 EARLY MANUFACTURING SET FOR INDIA, MARKING NEW MILESTONE FOR APPLE

Apple is using an Indian factory to do the early manufacturing work for the base model of next year's iPhone 17.

GITHUB SPARK LETS YOU BUILD WEB APPS IN PLAIN ENGLISH

GitHub Spark allows developers to quickly build small web apps using nothing but natural language.

USING AN 8K TV AS A MONITOR

8K TVs are better than multi-monitor setups for writing code all day or staring at Excel spreadsheets.

ZEROX OCR

Zerox is an OCR tool that converts documents for AI ingestion.

WHY SLIGHT FAILED: A SLIGHT POST-MORTEM

Slight failed to get enough traction to raise its seed round for several reasons, including a lack of 'big company features', issues with distribution, a lack of funding, and over-engineering.

META'S AI ABUNDANCE

Meta is the most well-placed company to take advantage of generative AI due to its abundance of content - every part of its business benefits from AI.

📑 Get the report to see the full findings

AN INTERVIEW WITH SALESFORCE CEO MARC BENIOFF ABOUT AI ABUNDANCE

Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff recently discussed the company's new AI initiative, Agentforce, highlighting its potential to revolutionize enterprise applications and customer interactions. Benioff criticized Microsoft's Copilot, positioning Salesforce's approach as more integrated and effective due to its robust platform and data architecture. In the interview, he emphasized the importance of AI-driven "agentic" layers, which aim to enhance customer service and operational efficiency across industries.

CHOOSE YOUR MODEL FOR GITHUB COPILOT

You can now use Claude, Gemini, o1, and other models in GitHub Copilot.

APPLE RELEASES FIRST BATCH OF APPLE INTELLIGENCE FEATURES

Apple launched new AI features, called Apple Intelligence, on recent devices for text processing and photo editing. The revamped iMac is powered by the M4 chip, which features a Neural Engine and boasts triple the AI performance of past chips. Future AI updates will enhance Siri and integrate with ChatGPT for more complex inquiries.

A LITTLE HELP GOES A LONG WAY: EFFICIENT LLM TRAINING BY LEVERAGING SMALL LMS

DeepMind shows in this work how you can use a small language model to provide soft supervision labels and select informative/challenging data points for pretraining. This small helper model can dramatically speed up pre-training time.

DECODING BRAIN ACTIVITY INTO SMOOTH VIDEO

The new NeuroClips framework advances the reconstruction of continuous videos from fMRI brain scans by decoding both high-level semantics and low-level perceptual details.

AI TACKLES VEHICLE ROUTING PROBLEMS

Researchers introduce a Proactive Infeasibility Prevention (PIP) framework aimed at improving neural networks' performance on Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) with tough constraints.

customer support, and data analysis. Get the guide.

UNLEASHING THE POWER OF AI ON MOBILE

PyTorch has done excellent work on ExecuTorch, which allows for edge deployment of AI models. This deployment can dramatically improve a variety of end systems.

AN OPEN-SOURCE EVALUATOR FOR LLMS

CompassJudger-1 is the first open-source, all-in-one judge model designed to improve the evaluation of LLMs.