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Australia passes social media law penalising platforms for violent content . A new bill passed by the Australian government will make it an offense for service providers and hosting services to fail to notify the Australian Federal police regarding, or fail to remove, content which contains 'abhorrent violent conflict’. The Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material bill was met with opposition by the tech industry as it would punish companies for content uploaded by users. However, the aim of the bill was to make companies more responsible for the content that is hosted, as it seems that some companies do not care about hosting offensive content, even after requests for the content to be removed. |
I spent a week in a VR headset, here's what happened (17 minute video). What would happen if you spent a week in Virtual Reality? Jak Wilmot sets out to answer that question by spending 168 hours inside a VR headset. He planned to eat, sleep, work, and play for a week all while inside VR, even when showering. The windows of his room were blacked out so that he couldn’t tell whether it was night or day, and he was only allowed 5 seconds at a time to switch headsets. The whole experience was live-streamed, showing his daily life. He could exercise in one environment, then switch to an office that overlooked a sunset in another. He could explore the world of Skyrim, and then experience what it was like to be blind in a simulation after. In the end, he concluded that virtual reality is whatever you want it to be, with its many possibilities, even though a week may be a little too much. |
Simple Tensorflow Cookbook (GitHub Repo). The Simple Tensorflow Cookbook contains general architectures and functions that are useful for Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and classification. GANs are unsupervised machine learning algorithms where a neural network aims to create a result, while another network tests to see whether the result is ‘correct’. Users can quickly develop neural networks using the code contained in the Tensorflow Cookbook. A quick description of how to use the code is provided along with diagrams of how each architecture works. |
Automate the Debugging Process With Airbrake (Sponsor). Airbrake Error and Performance Monitoring automates the process of finding bugs quickly. When you install Airbrake, you’ll be alerted to any errors within your application, right down to the exact line of broken code. Add Airbrake to your tech stack, today! Learn more. |
Central Bank of Bahamas Launches Landmark ‘Sand Dollar’ Digital Currency . The Central Bank of the Bahamas has launched the sand dollar, a digital version of the Bahamian dollar. The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) was designed to create more inclusive access to regulated payments and other financial services. China, the US, Russia, and the European Union are also looking at launching their own CBDCs. Funds will be accessible via a mobile app and secured with multi-factor authentication. The Sand Dollar is backed 1:1 to the Bahamian dollar. |
New from Satellite 2020: GitHub Discussions, Codespaces, securing code in private repositories, and more . GitHub has announced four new products this week to help software communities work together. Codespaces is a fully-featured, cloud-hosted dev environment that loads directly within GitHub. It can be configured to load code, dependencies, developer tools, extensions, and dotfiles. GitHub Discussions is a place for the community to discuss ideas, help new users, and collaborate on best practices. Code scanning is now available as a GitHub-native experience. Secret scanning is now available for private repositories. GitHub has announced GitHub Private Instances. Private Instances will provide enhanced security, compliance, and policy features for enterprise customers. |
Hedy (GitHub Repo). Hedy is a gradual programming language aimed at teaching programming and Python. It increases its syntactic elements as the student progresses, building to more complex syntax and additional concepts. There are currently 13 levels, covering topics such as printing and input, variables, code blocks, colons, brackets, and more. Hedy follows design principles based on research on learning. |
My Ordinary Life: Improvements Since the 1990s (10 minute read). Many things have changed since the 1990s, especially in our quality of life. It is difficult to see how new things change our lives when they first come out, but one can see the impact of an invention by looking back at their downstream effects. Many small inventions have added up to create the lives that we live in today. The internet, human genetics, AI, and VR now exist, and many small changes have made everything faster, more easily usable, and more organized. People no longer need to carry around a lot of equipment to do basic tasks - in fact, almost all machines are now smaller and much more convenient, for example, hearing aids. We wear better clothes, with specially designed fabrics. Medical procedures that used to be out-of-reach for average citizens are now affordable, for example, LASIK surgery. Society is now a lot safer and interconnected. Food is widely available in many places, and food quality and cleanliness are high. Most public places now have smoking restrictions. |
tfquery (GitHub Repo). tfquery is a framework for running SQL queries on Terraform code. It can analyze Terraform infrastructure, locate resources, run security compliance checks, and more. tfquery allows developers to have full coverage of their infrastructure without being locked to a specific provider. |
Microsoft surprises with new foldable Surface Duo phone running Android . Microsoft has announced a new foldable Surface Duo phone that runs Android. It resembles the dual-screen Surface Neo, except that its displays are smaller. Each display is 5.6 inches and can rotate 360 degrees, allowing it to unfold into an 8.3-inch tablet mode. The displays can run different apps at the same time, or one of the displays can be used as a keyboard or game controller. Some details on the phone are unknown, such as whether the device will have a rear camera. The device will be out during the holidays in 2020. |
sish (GitHub Repo). sish is an open source alternative to serveo/ngrok. It implements an SSH server that only handles forwarding. sish supports multiplexing connections over HTTP/HTTPS with WebSocket support, multiple types of forwarding, authentication, custom domains, and more. |
Magazine Layout (GitHub Repo). This is a nifty open source library from AirBNB that makes it really easy to display images in a grid on iOS. If you're making anything that needs a nice directory layout like AirBNB this library looks pretty cool. |
Payload (GitHub Repo). Payload is a TypeScript headless Content Management System and application framework built with Express, MongoDB, and React. It features powerful function-based access control, hooks for every action, conditional logic for showing and hiding fields, customizable components, and more. Payload allows developers to build websites, SaaS apps, native apps, and anything else without hitting any functionality roadblocks. |
Miller (GitHub Repo). Miller can edit named fields in CSV, TSV, JSON, and positionally-indexed files without needing to count positional indices. It can add, drop, and sort fields, aggregate statistically, pretty-print, and more. A screenshot is available. |
Open Source Insights (Website). Open Source Insights is a service that helps developers better understand the structure, construction, and security of open-source software packages. It constructs a full, detailed graph of a package's dependencies and properties to provide data on how the software is put together and what effects its dependencies have. Open Source Insights has scanned millions of open-source packages and updates the data regularly. |
After Uproar, Instacart Backs Off Controversial Tipping Policy . Instacart, an app that allows users to have groceries and other household items delivered, has changed it’s tipping policy. The previous tipping policy included tip amounts in it’s minimum payouts, which resulted in delivery drivers missing a large portion of their pay. Delivery drivers will now receive their tips on top of the expected payouts and Instacart has promised to implement the new policy retroactively so delivery drivers will be paid fairly for their previous work. |
Researchers Say They Caught an iPhone Zero-Day Hack in the Wild . ZecOps, a San Francisco-based startup, recently revealed that it had discovered two zero-day exploits for iOS that were being used in the wild. The exploits will be patched in an upcoming release of iOS 13. One of the vulnerabilities could be triggered remotely, while the other required an additional vulnerability to be triggered remotely. They were used widely to target individuals working in companies. The hacks were discovered after ZecOps investigated a series of suspicious crashes on customers' iPhones. 🚀 Science & |
Undesign (Website). Undesign is a collection of free design tools and resources for makers, developers, and designers. There are 21 categories available, and each tool is listed with a short description. Users can register to be notified of any updates to the collection. |
Google Stadia now free to anyone with a Gmail address . Google Stadia is now free to anyone with a Gmail address. New users will receive two months of Stadia Pro for free. Existing Stadia Pro users won't be charged for the next two months. Nine games are included with the offer. Access to Stadia previously required purchasing a Google Stadia Premier Edition bundle for $129. Stadia Pro will cost $9.99 a month after the two-month trial period ends. Users can cancel their subscriptions online at any time. |
FoldnFly (Web Tool). This is a tool that gives you schematics for building the paper airplane of your dreams. You can select whether you want to build one optimized for things like distance, time aloft, aesthetics, etc. and also select a difficulty. The internet is awesome. |
LG's latest CineBeam 4K projectors promise improved daytime viewing . LG's new CineBeam 4K projectors have upgrades that improve their daytime viewing capabilities. The HU710P peaks at 2,000 lumens of brightness and the HU715Q delivers a 2,500-lumen output. The HU715Q can produce a 100-inch picture from just 8.5 inches away. Both projectors feature three HDMI ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and support for AirPlay 2, HomeKit, and screen sharing. While they aren't cheap, the new brightness upgrades may make the projectors suitable as replacements for large-screen TVs. |
I tried a $7,600 desk that lets you get horizontal at work . The Signature Altwork Station is a highly-adjustable desk that retails for $7,650. It allows the user to sit in a horizontal position, giving them a sense of relaxation and weightlessness. It comes with a magnetic keyboard and mouse setup, but no other hardware is included. A one-minute video showing off the features of the workstation is available in the article. |
Data-thieving hackers strike again, stealing EA source code and police data . EA Games and the Presque Isle Police Department in Maine have both been hit by a ransomware attack. The hackers stole 780GB of source code and tools for FIFA 21 from EA. No player data was stolen. EA is working with law enforcement on the case. The Presque Isle Police Department refused to pay its ransom and 200GB of data was published on a website hosted on the dark web. The data includes emails, police reports, witness statements, files documenting cases, and personal information belonging to victims and defendants. |
YouTube’s TikTok clone, “YouTube Shorts,” is live in the US . YouTube Shorts is now rolling out in the US. The feature was first launched in India in September. It functions just like TikTok, except that you can dislike videos. Shorts will also show up on the channel's page and in subscription feeds like normal videos. TikTok is expected to hit one billion users in 2021. A majority of its users are in China, with only around 40 million users in the US. YouTube Shorts receives more than 3.5 billion daily views in India, where TikTok has been banned since June. |
Google developing own CPUs for Chromebook laptops . Google is developing its own central processors for its notebook and tablet computers and plans to roll them out around 2023. It is also ramping up its efforts to build mobile processors for its Pixel smartphones and other devices. Google's new CPUs and mobile processors are based on the blueprints of Arm chips. Many tech companies are racing to build their own semiconductors to differentiate their offerings. Building chips requires massive investment and long-term commitments, and there is limited production capacity. |
Uber will now let users book rides 30 days in advance and pick a favorite driver . Uber riders in 20 US cities will soon be able to reserve rides up to 30 days in advance with their favorite driver. The feature will show up in the app from next week. Drivers will not be penalized for not accepting rides. The fare and driver will be shown to the user ahead of the trip. Riders are given a 15-minute grace period in case they are running late. If a driver is more than one minute late, the rider will receive $50 in Uber Cash as compensation. Drivers will receive the full fare of the trip if the Reserve ride is canceled within an hour of the trip. A list of the initial launch cities is provided at the end of the article. |
China to ban online gaming, chatting with foreigners outside Great Firewall . The Chinese Communist Party recently blocked Animal Crossing from being distributed in China due to custom items and scenes that players created in the game that supported the 'Free Hong Kong' movement. Players were also mocking the Chinese government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak. The CCP has now noticed a vacuum in its authority on online gaming platforms and is starting to draft laws to expand the scope of online censorship to video games. These laws may even prohibit gamers from meeting and chatting with people outside of the country. Online one-player games will be subject to surveillance. The new laws also ban games that feature zombies and plagues, map editing, roleplaying, and the organization of unions. |
Linux SysOps Handbook . This book contains notes on common knowledge and tasks for Linux system admins. Topics include processes, user management, permissions, distros, network essentials, and storage. A small list of recommended books, websites, and blogs is available. |
Elon Musk's Boring Company is reportedly pitching freight tunnels . The Boring Company wants to build freight-focused tunnels for moving shipping containers underground on battery-powered freight carriers. It is unclear how many clients the idea has been pitched to. The company has envisioned freight almost from the beginning, so it is mostly just a shift in focus from its commuter plans. Its Las Vegas Convention Center Loop system did not turn out as hoped. The larger freight tunnels might be more attractive to clients. |
Innovative capsule allows mRNA vaccines to be delivered orally . Scientists from MIT have demonstrated a technique that can deliver mRNA therapies directly to the digestive tract using a capsule. The technique uses capsules coated with microneedles that inject their contents directly into the wall of the gut. It was first used to deliver insulin into pigs, but new studies have demonstrated that it is also effective for mRNA delivery. More work is still needed to determine whether mRNA vaccines administered in this way can lead to systemic immune responses. |
Filament (GitHub Repo). Filament is a real-time physically based rendering engine for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, and WebGL. It offers a set of tools and APIs for Android developers to enable them to create high-quality 2D and 3D rendering with ease. Examples of rendered scenes are available. |
Airbnb says it plans to temporarily house 20,000 Afghan refugees . Airbnb will house 20,000 Afghan refugees around the world in the properties listed on its platform. The stays will be funded by Airbnb, but the company has not specified how much it plans to spend or how long the refugees will be housed. The US has evacuated roughly 48,000 people from Afghanistan in recent days. The Taliban has set an airlift deadline of August 31, and thousands are still trying to escape. Brian Chesky, Airbnb's CEO, hopes that his company's actions will inspire other business leaders to help the refugees. Airbnb has hosted 75,000 people in times of crisis since 2012. |
Woman successfully treated for depression with electrical brain implant . A woman with severe depression was successfully treated using an experimental brain implant. The implant works by detecting patterns of brain activity linked to depression and interrupting them using tiny pulses of electrical stimulation. It has only been tested on one patient. The experiment demonstrated for the first time that the brain activity underlying the symptoms of mental illness can be reliably detected and nudged back into a healthy state. While the success was significant, the device would only ever be suitable for those with severe illness. |
SpaceX wins launch contract for NASA mission to study unique metal asteroid . NASA’s Psyche mission will study a unique metal asteroid that is between Mars and Jupiter. SpaceX has been awarded a $117 million launch contract for the mission and will be lifting a 5,750 lb spacecraft named 16 Psyche into space sometime in 2022. Psyche is an asteroid that is composed of iron and nickel and it is interesting as it could potentially be a metal core from a dead planet. As it is currently impossible to study Earth’s core directly, Psyche could provide insight into our own planet as well as others. The spacecraft will use an experimental laser technology that was designed to improve communications over vast distances. There will also be two secondary payloads destined for Mars-based missions. |
Every Single Patient in This Small Experimental Drug Trial Saw Their Cancer Disappear . Every patient in a small trial for a drug that treats rectal cancer had their cancer successfully go into remission. The drug is an immunotherapy drug already used in the treatment of endometrial cancer. It may be the first time that successful cancer remission was seen in every trial patient. The trial is still ongoing, so the success rate may be lower when the final results are tallied. The success of the trial may mean that an immunotherapy approach could be a viable option for treating other types of cancer. |
Git Alias (GitHub Repo). GitAlias is a collection of git version control alias settings with short aliases such as s for status, command aliases such as chart and churn, and lookup aliases such as whois and whatis. This repository contains a collection of GitAlias commands, sorted into sections such as workflow aliases, tooling aliases, and convenience aliases. An index of all the aliases in alphabetical order is available. |
Guide to Kotlin (GitHub Repo). This is a beginner's guide to Kotlin for people who already know Java. I really like this idea, since most people thinking about picking up Kotlin will already know Java. It explains a lot of the differences between the two, and since the two are quite similar, assuming knowledge of Java actually helps a lot when teaching Kotlin. |
The ambitious Android tablet option Google tossed away . While Android is the world's most popular operating system, Android tablets have failed to gain popularity. Chromebooks are almost always better purchases as they are updated much more often than tablets, so users are supported with the latest privacy, security, and performance standards. 12 years ago, Google bought a company called BumpTop that created a computing interface that made desktops look and act like a physical desk. This article tells the story of the acquisition and how the software could have changed the way people interact with touchscreen devices. |
Galaxy S10 photo leak shows Samsung wireless Galaxy Buds . Samsung is expected to announce its new Galaxy S10 phone in a few weeks. A photo has been leaked showing small wireless earbuds (nicknamed ‘Galaxy Buds’) resting in a case on the back of a Galaxy S10 Plus. It appears that the headphones may charge wirelessly from the back of the phone, similar to how the Huawei P20 charges Huawei’s Freebuds 2 Pro wireless earbuds. It is unclear whether these form a new line of products, or whether it is a continuation of Samsung’s Gear IconX headphone range. |
Cloned mice created from freeze dried skin cells in world first . Researchers have cloned mice from freeze-dried skin cells. Storing skin cells for cloning in liquid nitrogen can be expensive and risky. Freeze-drying the samples allows cells to be preserved cheaply and safely, even in developing countries. While the process can produce both males and females, it can be used to create only females to revive endangered species where only males survive. The resulting clones are fertile. |
Apple to establish North Carolina campus, increase U.S. spending targets . Apple will establish a new campus in North Carolina, expand its operation in several other US states, and increase its spending targets with US suppliers. Most of the jobs at the new site are expected to focus on machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, and other technology fields. Apple could receive as much as $845.8 million in tax reimbursements if it hits job and growth targets. The company will fund several local projects. |
What technologies did you learn in 2018? (Hacker News Thread). Pretty good mix of old and new technologies in here. A lot of new hotness like Rust and Elixir like you would expect, but also a lot of people still learning PHP and Perl! If you're looking for new technologies to check out, this thread has a lot of good inspiration. |
Amazon launches CodeWhisperer, a GitHub Copilot-like AI pair programming tool . Amazon has launched an AI pair programming tool similar to GitHub's Copilot. CodeWhisperer can autocomplete entire functions based on comments or a few keystrokes. It currently supports Java, JavaScript, and Python. The tool can scan code for potential security issues. CodeWhisperer is available in preview as part of the AWS IDE Toolkit. It works for developers outside of the AWS ecosystem. |
Supreme Court deals Apple major setback in App Store antitrust case . The Supreme Court has ruled that iPhone users can pursue their antitrust lawsuit against Apple and its App Store. Apple charges a 30 percent commission on sales through the App Store. This charge is usually passed onto consumers. iPhone developers and users are claiming this system is an unfair abuse of Apple’s monopoly on the marketplace. Apple claims that it is up to developers to set prices for their apps and that their business in the App Store is fair. The results of this case may affect how all online marketplaces structure their business, and there may be millions of dollars of fines for Apple if they are found guilty of unfair practices. |
Resources-for-Beginner-Bug-Bounty-Hunters (GitHub Repo). This repository contains resources for new hackers learning the basics of Web Application Security. It covers the basics, as well as topics like Mobile Hacking, Smart Contracts, and Hardware. |
TabFS (Website). TabFS is a browser extension that mounts browser tabs as a filesystem on macOS and Linux systems. It has full support for Chrome, with lesser support for Firefox. TabFS allows you to apply all the existing tools on your computer that deal with files and use them to control and communicate with your browser. |
Lip-reading CCTV will have people 'cupping hands over their mouths' in street, warns surveillance watchdog . Technology that can read lips and recognize people via their gait, among other things, could have a large suppressive effect if they aren't regulated. People may start covering their mouths when having conversations outside, as football managers currently do while giving instructions for the fear of being exposed. Facial recognition is being increasingly used in the UK in shopping centers, museums, conference venues, and other public areas. Millions of people are having their faces unknowingly scanned and stored in databases. These technologies could be an important tool for law enforcement, but we are currently at risk of losing a free and open society due to the impact of technology. |
Pwning Ebay - How I Dumped Ebay Japan's Website Source Code . So this guy was basically scanning for vulnerabilities in Alexa's Top 1 Million websites. He found that Ebay Japan ran a version control system that wasn't properly secured, so he just went to www.ebay.co.jp/.git/HEAD and used GitTools to dump their entire codebase including production database passwords. He informed them of the bug, and Ebay didn't have a bug bounty program, but one employee was nice enough to donate $500 to Doctors Without Borders in his name. Happy ending all around, yay! |
Huawei’s foldable Mate X2 leaks just before launch . Huawei has unveiled the Mate X2, a new foldable device with a large screen that unfolds from the inside. The phone features a second screen on the outside for use when the device is folded. As it is a Huawei device, the Mate X2 will launch without support for Google's apps or services. The phone will be available in China starting at around $2,785 for 256GB of storage or around $2,940 for 512GB of storage. Images of the device are available in the article. |
Inside Google's Civil War (22 minute read). Google has recently faced many employee protests in its offices across the globe, with employees disagreeing with the company’s handling of sexual harassment within the business. While working at the tech giant may seem like a dream, many employees are starting to see issues with the company’s growing power and reach. Employees previously were able to suggest changes for the company, but the power structure has changed and more decisions are now made ‘from the top’. After the initial protests, many employees believed they experienced retaliation by the company. Employees continue to rally against Google in order to bring about a change in the company’s culture. |
TikTok confirms pilot test of TikTok Stories is now underway . TikTok is piloting a new feature called TikTok Stories. The feature works similar to how Stories work on other social media platforms, except that comments are public and users can see how many other people have viewed a story. Stories will disappear after 24 hours. The pilot has only been running for a few days in non-US markets. Screenshots of the feature are available in the article. |
tfsec (GitHub Repo). tfsec spots potential security issues using a static analysis of your terraform templates. It supports terraform v0.12+. tfsec checks for sensitive data inclusion across all providers, scans modules, evaluates expressions as well as literal values, and checks for violations of AWS, Azure, and GCP security best practice recommendations. Example outputs are available. |
Prototyping an IoT Application with InfluxDB (Sponsor). It's easy to stand up an IoT monitoring app in InfluxDB. Here's a step-by-step tutorial. The prototype is serverless, with zero infrastructure to manage and free — we built this app on the free tier of InfluxDB. Learn more. |
Apple and Amazon Cut a Deal that Upended the Mac resale Market (11 minute read). On January 4, a deal between Apple and Amazon went into effect where only the largest companies and specially authorized providers were allowed to sell Apple products. Sellers logged onto the platform that morning to find that all their listings had disappeared. Small businesses without brick and mortar stores are completely barred from doing any business on Amazon, as to qualify as an authorized reseller, a business is required to have a physical store. Apple resellers are now forced to move to other platforms to sell their stock. In the past, Apple has been against people’s right to repair their own devices and this move echos that sentiment in that it attempts to block third parties from repairing and reselling hardware. |
How Nextdoor Courts Police and Public Officials (16 minute read). Nextdoor is an ad-supported social network that connects people within neighborhoods, creating a sort of digital 'neighborhood watch', as well as a local message board. Users can share urgent alerts, community events, and other information to residents who have verified that they live in the area. The company works with public agencies so that both the social media platform and the government can do their jobs better. It recruits police departments to help grow the service. Nextdoor plans to build a monetized, premium version of Nextdoor for public agencies. Its marketing strategies generally do not conflict against city policies, but there are concerns about the company's practices. Endorsements by public officials can cause issues as the company exists for profit, rather than public welfare. |
Centering in CSS . This article explores five different CSS centering techniques and stress tests each strategy to see the limits of each technique. The stress test sees how the technique performs through five criteria: squish, squash, duplicate, edit, and flow. A 12-minute video version of the article is available. |
Alpine.js (GitHub Repo). Alpine.js is a framework for composing JavaScript behavior in markups. It offers the reactive and declarative nature of big frameworks like Vue or React at a much lower cost. A small guide to use the 12 directives and 3 magic properties in Alpine.js is available. |
Uber Black launches Quiet Driver Mode . Uber Black and Uber Black SUV premium rides will now have a new ‘Quiet Mode’ feature that allows users to signal their preferences to a driver in-app. Users can now select ‘Quiet preferred’, ‘Happy to chat’, or ‘No preference’ when hailing a ride. This is a feature that has been often requested, since many users would prefer to have a quiet ride, but may not want to directly request it to a driver. Other options have also been recently added, such as a ‘Bags’ option that lets the driver know that the rider has luggage that will require the driver to pull over to help with, and a ‘Temperature control’ option that allows the customer to request that the air conditioning be set to their preferred temperature. |
MoviePass cofounder Stacy Spikes has bought the company back and is planning a relaunch . MoviePass is coming back under the ownership of cofounder Stacy Spikes. The company was acquired out of bankruptcy for an undisclosed amount below $250,000. Spikes plans to relaunch the business sometime next year. Customer data and emails were not part of the sale. Spikes currently runs a company called PreShow Interactive that offers gamers the ability to unlock in-game currency by viewing branded content. It is unknown if PreShow tech will be part of MoviePass. |
The drone boat of ‘Shipwreck Alley’ (10 minute read). Many ships have wrecked along the Thunder Bay, off Michigan's northeastern coast, and some of these ships are still intact, despite being underwater for a long time. Divers flock to Shipwreck Alley each year, and last spring, they were joined by an autonomous boat named BEN. BEN was developed by researchers to make underwater maps. Mapping the ocean requires the use of boats, which usually means maintaining a crew, so our oceans have largely remained unmapped. An autonomous ship would be able to cheaply and efficiently collect data compared to a crewed vessel. BEN is equipped with sonar, radar, cameras, LIDAR, and GPS systems. |
FastAPI (GitHub Repo). FastAPI is a web framework for building APIs with Python 3.6+ based on standard Python type hints. It is one of the fastest Python frameworks available, fast, easy, and intuitive to code, and based on the open standards for APIs. |
Apple Hiring Engineers to Develop 6G Wireless . Apple recently posted job ads looking for wireless system research engineers for current and next-generation networks. The people hired for the positions will research and design 5G wireless communication systems for radio access networks. 6G isn't expected to be rolled out until around 2030, but Apple wants to be involved in the earliest stages of development. Apple currently relies heavily on Qualcomm for its 5G modems. It started development on its first custom modem last year. |
Karate (GitHub Repo). Karate is a tool that combines API test-automation, mocks, performance-testing, and UI automation into a single framework. It uses BDD syntax and has powerful JSON and XML assertions built-in. Developers can use Karate to write tests in a simple and readable syntax designed for HTTP, JSON, GraphQL, and XML. Examples and detailed documentation are available. |
5 coding interview questions I hate . This article covers five common types of tech interview questions. They include trivia-type questions, questions asking about technical specifics, questions obfuscated with fuzzy wording, and questions with unspecified behavior or missing context. The article also discusses how interviewers can improve on these questions and the best way for candidates to answer them. |
New UI tools and a richer creative canvas come to ARCore . New tools and features have been released for ARCore. An Augmented Faces API allows developers to create high-quality effects for human faces, and users can now create animations in Sceneform, allowing scenes to come alive. In the new version of ARCore, the workflow to create AR apps has been simplified, and new UI components such as plane finding and object manipulation have been added so users do not need to reinvent the wheel for every app. Shared camera access has also been added so developers can pause their AR experience to access the camera more conveniently. A short video that demonstrates the application of features on ARCore Elements is available. |
SwiftUI (Website). SwiftUI is a method of building user interfaces across all Apple platforms using Swift. It uses declarative syntax, so developers can easily state what the UI requirements are. Xcode 11’s design tools work seamlessly with SwiftUI, so changes are displayed immediately in the preview as soon as code is typed. It also works in reverse, so code is updated as soon as design elements are changed in the preview. |
Level 4 aerial autonomy: Drones can now fly themselves . Exyn Technologies, a company that develops autonomous drone technology for industry and defense, recently demonstrated level 4 autonomy in an aerial system. Its drones are now capable of free-flight exploration of complex spaces at speeds of up to two meters per second. The company will roll out its new level 4 autonomous capabilities in the next few months. A 1-minute video that shows one of Exyn's drones autonomously mapping out an area is available in the article. |
What Glassdoor interview reviews reveal about tech hiring cultures (12 minute read). Chip Huyen used interviews from Glassdoor in order to answer the question of what percentage of people who attended machine learning interviews received an offer, as well as what percentage of people accepted the offer. While Glassdoor data suffered from many biases, it was hoped that the volume of data helped to smooth out the noise. 15,897 reviews from 27 major tech companies were analyzed. It was found that the difficulty of interviews rose depending on the level of expertise required. 18.83 percent of candidates at Google received offers, with 70 percent of applicants accepting these offers. There was a high correlation between onsite offers and offer acceptance rate. Companies tended to select candidates more often through referrals for senior roles, whereas candidates for junior roles were sourced mainly through campus recruiting. Candidates who were interviewed for junior positions were more likely to report a better experience than ones who interviewed for more senior roles. |
Twitter’s Jack Dorsey wants to build an app store for social media algorithms . Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants people to be able to choose which algorithm controls their social media content from a marketplace, rather than relying on a single company to get it right. This will be a part of how decentralized social networks will work. Companies will have access to much more data on a decentralized network. They will compete based on how they can serve relevant content to users. Decentralization could help platforms deal with laws around user-created content. Twitter has been developing Bluesky, a decentralized social network, since the end of 2019. It is still firmly in the research phase. |
Apple secretly buying ads for their apps, say big developers – and they aren’t happy about it . Apple is secretly buying ads for apps on its platform to drive customers to use its in-app subscription service instead of the developer's website for subscriptions, giving Apple its 15% or 30% cut. The ads appear without developer consent and Google won't delete them. Apple's ad purchasing is creating more competition for ads, which is driving up the cost of ads for other developers. Its anti-competitive behavior is likely to prompt more antitrust scrutiny. |
Scapy (GitHub Repo). Scapy is a Python-based interactive packet manipulation program and library. It can forge or decode packets from a wide range of protocols, match requests and replies, and send, capture, read, or store requests using pcap files. Scapy can handle most standard tasks like scanning, tracerouting, probing, unit tests, and more. |
AT&T Suspends Broadband Data Caps During Coronavirus Crisis . AT&T has suspended all broadband usage caps in preparation for millions of Americans self-isolating in order to slow the rate of COVID-19 expansion. Consumer groups and a coalition of Senators are pressuring other service providers to follow suit. Broadband caps and overage fees don't serve any real technical purpose and are a result of ISPs taking advantage of an uncompetitive market. Internet usage is expected to go up as people start using video-conferencing and other bandwidth-heavy applications while they work from home or try to entertain themselves for an unknown period of time. |
MindGeek: The secretive owner of Pornhub and RedTube (13 minute read). MindGeek is the company behind some of the world's largest porn sites. Despite its size, it is relatively unknown as it tries to keep itself out of the spotlight. This article discusses the many controversies that the company has been involved in over the years, including how it built its empire on stolen content, how it forced many production studios and performers out of business, its handling of content takedown requests, and more. MindGeek boasts access to big data on the next level, allowing its employees to uncover user habits overnight that might take other companies months to find. Around 15 terabytes of data is uploaded to its sites every day. |
Toyota announces new capabilities for domestic robots . The Toyota Research Institute has developed new capabilities for its line of domestic robots, including the ability to recognize and manipulate transparent objects and to wipe down counters and tables. Japanese robot manufacturers have made it clear that they plan to create robots that will serve as domestic helpers. Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world. Robots will be able to perform tasks that people find more challenging as they get older. A video from Toyota showing off the new capabilities of its robots is available in the article. |
Hosting SQLite databases on Github Pages . Using private backend servers for small projects that need to use a database can become annoying. Hosting a static website is much easier. There are many free and reliable options, and it can scale without any effort. This article presents a tool that allows statically hosted websites to use real SQL databases. It is a full SQLite query engine and it can use SQLite JSON functions. |
‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,’ Better Known as UFOs, Deserve Scientific Investigation . The Pentagon officially released videos earlier this year showing 'unidentified aerial phenomena' (UAP) in our skies. While there was a lot of interest in studying UAPs in the 1960s, interest has waned for various reasons. An international and interdisciplinary approach to studying UAPs would be more viable now. UAPs are generally ignored due to their transient nature and the topic being taboo, but there may be many things we can learn from them using a modern scientific approach. |
A Google VP Told The US Senate The Company Has “Terminated” The Chinese Search App Dragonfly . Information about a secret project by Google to launch a search engine in China was leaked in August, causing internal backlash from employees who did not want their work to be used unethically. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Google's vice president of public policy said that Project Dragonfly had been terminated. Google has been saying since March that it has no plans for a search engine in China and that the employees working on Project Dragonfly have moved onto other projects. Employees at Google have been active in voicing their opinions on controversial projects through protests and petitions. |
Amplication (Website). Amplication is a development tool that helps you develop quality Node.js applications. It has simple interfaces for creating data models and configuring role-based access control. Amplication can continuously push to Github and create Docker containers. |
SpaceX now offers Starlink for RVs for remote travels . SpaceX now offers Starlink for RVs, campers, and other large vehicles. The antenna is too big for cars to use. The service will provide high-speed, low latency internet in areas marked 'available' on Starlink's map. Regions on the waitlist will experience notably slower speeds during peak hours. The service is not designed for use while in motion. It will be available for most of the US and some areas of Canada, South America, the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. |
Ask HN: How to come up with monetizable side project ideas? (Hacker News Thread). A user (sunilkumarc) on Hacker News asked for ideas to come up with side projects that would generate a few hundred dollars of revenue a month. I think a lot of the advice in this thread (especially the top comment by a13n) was really informative. Definitely worth checking out if you're thinking about starting a side project to generate some passive income. |
Huawei tops Samsung as world’s No. 1 smartphone company for first time . Huawei has surpassed Samsung as the world's number one supplier of smartphones. It shipped more smartphones in the second quarter of 2020 than any other company in the world. Apple and Samsung have competed for the top spot for the last nine years. Analysts say that Huawei managed to achieve this feat by taking advantage of China's economic recovery after COVID-19 shutdowns. A majority of Huawei's smartphones are sold in China. |
Luminary has launched. Is the latest “Netflix for podcasts” worth it? . Luminary, a new platform for podcasts that offers its own original content, has launched at $7.99 a month. Apple Podcasts has been losing market share in the podcast space as more companies move in. While Luminary offers access to hundreds of existing shows, some popular shows such as ‘The Daily’ and ‘Reply All’ will not be available on the platform. The article contains reviews on five of the exclusive shows that Luminary has produced. |
Google Rumored to Soon Launch 'Pixel Buds Pro' to Rival Apple's AirPods Pro . Google is planning to launch a high-end version of its Pixel Buds. The Pixel Buds Pro will come in four colors and will likely feature Adaptive Sound, a feature that adjusts volume level depending on a user's surroundings. More details about the earbuds could be announced at Google I/O next week. |
House Democrats are considering a bill to ban Facebook from the finance industry . A new bill dubbed the ‘Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act’ is currently being considered by Democrats in Congress. The bill states that large platforms, tech companies with an annual global revenue of $25,000,000,000 or more, may not be affiliated with a financial institution. This would mean that Facebook would not be able to continue with its Libra cryptocurrency project. It is unclear how this will affect companies like PayPal if their annual revenue reaches $25 billion. Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin expressed concerns over the Libra cryptocurrency, saying that it could be misused by money launderers and terrorist financiers. The bill has not yet been introduced to Congress, so its contents are not final. |
China Deploys World's First Commercial Hydrogen Streetcar . The world's first commercially operated hydrogen energy streetcar is officially in use in Foshan, China. Running for 17.4 kilometers, the hydrogen energy trolley line has a top speed of 70 km/h and can accommodate up to 285 riders. Each tram car has six gas storage tanks of 20-kilogram storage capacity. Foshan has pledged to add another 80 hydrogen-powered buses to their fleet. |
Salesforce enters the streaming wars . Salesforce+ is a new video streaming service aimed at business professionals. It will debut at Salesforce's annual mega-conference Dreamforce in September. The free service will show original content from Salesforce and its clients. There will be 6 original series premiering at launch. Salesforce has built its own in-house studio and hired around 50 editorial leads to help launch the service, with plans to hire more as it builds up its programming slate. The company has no plans to sell ads or charge for the content. |
Ask HN: Advice for a new and inexperienced tech lead? (Hacker News Thread). When you become a tech lead, your role becomes all about creating your team, nurturing your team, training them, and teaching them how to think critically. As a tech lead, your aim is for your team to create a good product - which means having to push against the company sometimes in order to maintain quality. Good communication between the team is key to making sure everything is running smoothly. The role involves a lot of social ability, not just tech expertise, as it is more about being a good leader than a good developer. |
self-driving-desktop (GitHub Repo). self-driving-desktop is a desktop automation framework written in Python. It uses steps (instructions) within playlists (groups of actions) to automate tasks. A list of example uses is available, and users can customize playlists to complete their desired tasks. |
2020 State of Software Engineers (13 minute read). In 2019, the average salaries for top engineering roles went up by nearly 13% in London, 7% in Toronto and New York, and 6% in the SF Bay Area. Demand for AR/VR is up by 1400%, similar to blockchain's strong demand last year. Many companies are evolving into becoming tech companies and demand for front and backend engineers is growing steadily. The full impact of AR and VR technology will be seen in the next five years. Salary growth for the top engineering roles in San Francisco and New York is double the rate of most Americans. Most software developers choose their careers due to passion for the role, rather than just for the pay. Half of all software engineers point to machine learning as the most interesting field in software today. More than half of engineers wouldn't hesitate to hire a candidate without a computer science degree. |
Facebook now lets most users opt-in to dark mode & desktop redesign . Facebook has officially released its desktop redesign which features a dark mode, a tabbed home screen, and a cleaner profile. Users can now start to opt-in to the new design before it becomes the default for everybody later in the year. Facebook has dedicated itself to simplifying its apps after a decade of making them more visually complex. |
Klio (GitHub Repo). Klio is an ecosystem built by Spotify for its large-scale audio intelligence systems. It is an ecosystem for processing audio or binary files at scale. Klio jobs are opinionated data pipelines in Python built upon Apache Beam, tuned for audio and binary file processing. |
Inside BitClout, the Dystopian Social Network with Big Backers and Vocal Critics (11 minute read). BitClout is a decentralized social network that tokenizes its personalities. Every BitClout account is tied to a 'coin' that changes in value depending on how many people use it, allowing users to monetize themselves. The company created 15,000 profiles based on popular Twitter personalities without asking for anyone's permission. Users who want to claim their profiles need to publicly tweet that they have joined BitClout. The company was criticized for using people's profiles without permission. This, in addition to other controversies, has unnerved some investors. |
MuseNet . MuseNet is an AI that can generate musical compositions. The AI can generate four minute musical compositions made up of 10 different instruments. It can also combine different styles of music ranging from country to Mozart to the Beatles. There are many examples of compositions the MuseNet has produced available, and people are invited to try MuseNet now through to May 12. |
Classify This Robot-Woven Sneaker With 3D-Printed Soles as "Footware" . Adidas’s Futurecraft.Strung running shoes have customized 3D-printed soles that are made up of around 2,000 threads from 10 different sneaker yarns. The design process uses motion capture of the wearer's foot and feedback from the wearer to customize it to the person's specific gait. With Strung, each thread's properties are accounted for and serves a purpose. Adidas' robots can weave a pair of Strung sneakers in one hour and 30 minutes. It plans to bring the shoes to market by the end of 2022. |
Apple, Big Sur, and the rise of Neumorphism . Neumorphism is a focus on how light moves in three-dimensional space. In the context of a GUI or simulation, Neumorphism focuses on how light interacts with a variety of objects in a purely digital space. Apple introduced macOS 11 Big Sur, its newest version of macOS, at its WWDC event this week. It features a new user interface design that has been criticized for its use of Neumorphism. However, despite the criticism, Neumorphism is said to be the next wave in UI design, and there will likely be an explosion of development around the possibilities of the system soon. |
Next.js 11 . The Next.js 11 update is now live. It features Conformance, improved performance, Webpack 5, the ability to code in the browser in real-time with a team, and more. The update introduces a few breaking changes for legacy features, which should not affect the majority of users. |
Elon Musk overtakes Bill Gates to become world’s second-richest person behind Jeff Bezos . Elon Musk is now the world's second-richest person in the world with a net worth of around $128 billion. Musk ranked 35th on the list in January. A visual of this level of wealth compared to the average American household is linked. Tesla's market cap has gone from under $100 billion at the beginning of the year to almost $500 billion, despite producing a fraction of the cars of most established automakers. SpaceX has also seen recent success, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station last week. Bill Gates was on top of the Billionaires Index until 2017 when Jeff Bezos took over. Gates has donated over $27 billion of his wealth since 2006. |
Apple promises ‘white glove experiences’ for its most helpful community members . Apple is rewarding the most active and helpful members of its support forums with its New Community Plus program, which will offer members access to exclusive perks and experiences. Only a small group of people will be added to the program every year. There aren't many details about what the Community Plus program will give members. The program could be similar to Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional award program, which has rewarded its members with trips, subscriptions, and free training materials. |
The weird rise of cyber funerals . After we die, our physical affairs may be easily taken care of, but our digital footprint is much more difficult to remove. Specialist companies exist that provide ‘digital undertaking’ services, where the company will track down and remove information about the deceased, and failing to do so, will flood search engine results with false information to hide real information about the deceased. Social media companies such as Facebook have introduced features such as allowing a legacy contact to delete or memorialize a deceased person’s page. With the increasing amount of data that we volunteer to the internet, removing the information after we die is increasingly important. |
AI Gahaku (Website). AI Gahaku is an AI artist that can generate artwork from photos that you upload. You just have to upload a photo that shows your entire face and then select the art style that you want. Uploaded images will be automatically deleted from the server. Give feedback by replying here or messaging me on Twitter @tldrdan! If you don't want to receive future editions of TLDR, please click here. |