Meta's image-generation AI 🖼️, Firefox's decline 📉, Nintendo's animation studio 🎮

Daily Update 2022-07-15

Sampling sucks. You can do better (Sponsor)

Here’s a secret that many observability vendors don’t want you to know: throwing out data has serious consequences. Sampling might sound like a good way to lower costs or a workaround for systems that can’t handle large volumes of data—but it can make you miss critical issues such as bursty moments where latency spikes above 5 seconds.

In any observability system, you need all the data you can get. Sampling data makes it harder to get answers. Read the new blog post by Greg Leiffer, Observability Practitioner Director at Splunk, to understand why sampling must be avoided in observability

📱

Big Tech & Startups

Meta’s latest generative AI system creates stunning images from sketches and text (3 minute read)

Meta has unveiled an advanced generative artificial intelligence system called Make-A-Scene. The system generates images through a combination of text descriptions and freeform sketches. Make-A-Scene is part of a wider research project aimed at exploring how AI can empower creativity. Examples of images generated by Make-A-Scene are available in the article.

Nintendo acquires animation studio that’ll become ‘Nintendo Pictures’ (2 minute read)

Nintendo has acquired Dynamo Pictures and will rename it to Nintendo Pictures. Nintendo Pictures will focus on the development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP. The acquisition is expected to close on October 3. Nintendo is gearing up for its release of the new Super Mario Bros. film starring Chris Pratt in spring next year.

🚀

Science & Futuristic Technology

A new sodium-ion battery breakthrough means they may one day power EVs (3 minute read)

Sodium-ion batteries operate well in colder temperatures and are energy dense, nonflammable, and made out of cheap and abundant materials. However, their performance has always been limited by poor durability. US-based researchers have developed a sodium-ion battery that can go through over 300 charging cycles while retaining over 90% of its capacity. The battery's temperature-change resistance, stability, and long cycle life could make it valuable for electric vehicles or energy storage applications.

Physicists Find The 'Missing Link' That Could Provide Quantum Internet Technology (3 minute read)

New research shows that certain defects in silicon qubits, known as T centers, can act as light-based links between qubits. T centers could make scalable, distributed quantum computers possible by combining high-performance spin qubits and optical photon generation. They can handle processing and communications together, which makes systems more efficient and easier to build. T centers emit light at the same wavelength used by fiber communications and telecom networks, making rolling out quantum internet technology potentially more straightforward.

💻

Programming, Design & Data Science

GPU Puzzles (GitHub Repo)

GPU architectures are critical to machine learning, but people can become experts in machine learning without ever touching GPU code. This notebook teaches beginner GPU programming in an interactive way. It covers the basics up to understanding the real algorithms that power 99% of deep learning today.

Patterns.dev (Book)

Patterns.dev is a free book on design patterns and component patterns to building web apps with vanilla JavaScript and React. The book contains patterns, tips, and tricks for improving app architecture. A preview of each section is available on the website. The full book can be downloaded as an ePub or PDF on a variety of platforms, including Apple Books and Google Play.

It’s About Time! Building IoT Applications on InfluxDB (Sponsor)

Working with IoT data? Learn how you can use a time series database to unlock its potential. Watch the discussion between InfluxData CEO Evan Kaplan, Director of IoT Brian Gilmore, and a panel of customers, as they discuss real life challenges and use cases. Watch the video.

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Miscellaneous

Why Firefox Deserves Its Sad Decline… (8 minute read)

Firefox was a legend, but most people are now using Chrome, especially with Brave browser targeting a similar audience. This article discusses the birth of Firefox, how it developed, and its downfall. The browser didn't keep up with the market and what users wanted. By the time Firefox started paying attention to its audience, many users had already switched to Chrome.

GM is building a 'coast-to-coast' EV fast-charging network (3 minute read)

GM has partnered with EVGo to construct a coast-to-coast national DC fast charging network. The network will offer 2,000 charging stalls at 500 stations located every 50 or so miles along America's highways. Each station will offer a 350kW maximum charge rate and be accessible to all EV brands. GM owners will receive added perks such as exclusive reservations and discounts. The stations will feature amenities such as Wi-Fi, restaurants, coffee, and secure shower facilities.

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Quick Links

Stripe is the latest fintech to falter, taking a 28% internal valuation cut (3 minute read)

Stripe has cut the internal value of its shares by 28%.

ML code generation vs coding by hand - a hypothesis of the future (8 minute read)

This article discusses what tools like GitHub Copilot mean for the future of programming.

Engineers Have Grown a Major Piece of The Human Heart in Miniature, And It Beats (3 minute read)

Canadian researchers have reverse-engineered a millimeter-long vessel that pumps fluid just like the exit chamber of a human embryo's heart.

Owl: Distributing content at Meta scale (9 minute read)

Owl is a system for the distribution of large data objects to hosts in Meta's private cloud.

Samsung introduces 24 Gbps GDDR6 DRAM for GPUs (1 minute read)

Samsung is sampling the industry’s first 16-gigabit Graphics Double Data Rate 6 DRAM with 24 Gbps processing speeds.

Google’s Chrome OS Flex is now available for old PCs and Macs (3 minute read)

Chrome OS Flex is designed for businesses and schools to install and run on old PCs and Macs.

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InfluxData CEO Evan Kaplan scalable distributed quantum computers latest generative AI system new sodiumion battery breakthrough Data Science GPU Puzzles New blog post spring next year long cycle life Quantum Internet Technology optical photon generation wider research project real life challenges IoT Brian Gilmore many observability vendors highperformance spin qubits beginner GPU programming Sponsor Daily Update Time Series Database energy storage applications Observability Practitioner Director

Meta's image-generation AI 🖼️, Firefox's decline 📉, Nintendo's animation studio 🎮

Daily Update 2022-07-15

Big Tech & Startups

Science & Futuristic Technology

Programming, Design & Data Science

Miscellaneous

Quick Links

What did you think of today's newsletter?

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GPT-3's open source competitor 💻, Magic Leap AR headset 🕶, clever CSS tricks 👨‍💻

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iOS 16 beta 📱, Amazon cancer research 💉, Meta pushes out low performers 👨‍💻

Elon pulls Twitter deal 🐦, Uber internal docs leak 🚗, GPT-3 explains code 👨‍💻

Tesla to open charger network ⚡, Twitter layoffs 🐦, electron whirlpools ⚛

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