DALL-E opens beta 🤖, Google hiring freeze 👨‍💻, next-level CSS art 🖼️

Daily Update 2022-07-21

Free eBook: Build a Digital Wallet and Two Other Fintech Products in <1 Day (Sponsor)

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📱

Big Tech & Startups

DALL-E's powerful AI image generator is now available in beta (1 minute read)

OpenAI's DALL-E image generator will be made available in beta to one million people from the waitlist in the coming weeks. Users will receive 50 free image credits in their first month and 15 every following month. Each credit will offer four pictures based on one original prompt or three if there are edits or variations. Users can purchase 115 credits for $15. They will have some commercial rights to the images.

Amazon is slowly turning Alexa into a totally automated virtual assistant (4 minute read)

Amazon will make Alexa easier to use by allowing developers to create and recommend Routines to users. Alexa will also start coexisting with other manufacturers' assistants. Users who use Routines are some of the stickiest and most consistent Alexa users, but not all users want to make their own routines. Amazon is incentivizing developers to create more features by increasing revenue and launching a Skill Developer Accelerator Program.

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Science & Futuristic Technology

A New Antibiotic Can Kill Even Drug-Resistant Bacteria (4 minute read)

A new antibiotic developed using computational models of bacterial gene products appears to kill even antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The scientists developing the drug used algorithms to predict the structure of antibiotic-like compounds from genetic instructions within a DNA sequence. The resulting compound reliably killed Gram-positive bacteria in the lab, did not harm human cells, and successfully treated bacterial infections in mice. The study demonstrates a scalable method that researchers can use to develop new antibiotics.

Earthgrid aims to re-wire the USA using super-cheap tunnel tech (5 minute read)

Earthgrid is a startup that is developing a plasma boring robot that it plans to use to start rewiring America's energy, internet, and utility grids. Its robot will be able to tunnel up to one kilometer per day in its high-speed configuration. The robot's low-cost configuration will cost as little as $300 per meter, making previously unfeasible projects economically viable. Earthgrid will sell drilling as a service and build, own, operate, and maintain tunnels for customers on long-term leases or toll arrangements.

💻

Programming, Design & Data Science

Djot (GitHub Repo)

Djot is a light markup syntax based on commonmark. It supports definition lists, footnotes, tables, inline formatting, math, smart punctuation, and much more. Tools are available for converting other formats to and from djot.

superstate (Website)

superstate is a micro state management library for JavaScript apps. It is compact enough for prototypes while still being able to scale. superstate features a simple API, a built-in drafts system, easy integration with React apps, full extensibility, and more. A demo todo app with superstate is available.

We worry about video infrastructure and capabilities so you don't have to (Sponsor)

Live streaming production API for developers. We power your global cloud production pipeline and creative toolkit so you can do what you do best, focus on your customers, product, and growth. Learn More.

🎁

Miscellaneous

Google reportedly pauses hiring for two weeks to ‘review our headcount needs’ (2 minute read)

Google's senior vice-president reportedly sent out a company-wide email announcing a two-week hiring freeze. The company will use the time to review its headcount needs and align on a new set of prioritized staffing requests. The hiring freeze won't affect existing job offers. Google added 10,000 workers in the second quarter of 2022.

Google Calendar’s ‘known senders’ filter should help stamp out spam invites (2 minute read)

Google Calendar has a new 'known senders' option that makes it easier to keep spam from appearing on calendars. Toggling the option prevents invites from people who are not on the user's contacts list, who have not interacted with them through Workspace, or who aren't in their company or organization. The option can be accessed through Events Settings in Google Calendar settings. Choosing the setting may reveal to a sender that the user doesn't have them on their contacts list.

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Quick Links

7 Next-Level CSS Codepens (5 minute read)

This article contains a compilation of seven CSS artworks that prove the power of CSS and show what it can achieve.

Soft Deletion Probably Isn't Worth It (7 minute read)

Soft deletion is supposed to make deletion safer and reversible, but the technique has some major downsides.

Found a tool that converts any scientific jargon to plain English built on GPT-3 (Twitter Thread)

This Twitter thread links to Explain Jargon, a tool built on GPT-3 that can convert any scientific jargon into plain English.

Update on the new Next.js router (2 minute read)

This Twitter thread discusses the features of the new Next.js router.

"Youth" protein refreshes photoreceptor cells to protect aging eyes (3 minute read)

A 'youth' protein promotes a cellular recycling process that maintains our vision.

StereoKit (GitHub Repo)

StereoKit is a mixed reality library for building HoloLens and VR applications.

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Skill Developer Accelerator Program micro state management library global cloud production pipeline Live streaming production API powerful AI image generator Two Other Fintech Products DALLE image generator one million people multiple payment methods payment ops architecture one original prompt automated virtual assistant other manufacturers assistants to one kilometer light markup syntax prioritized staffing requests existing job offers simple RESTful APIs supercheap tunnel tech bacterial gene products invoice factoring service Modern Treasury API API call examples twoweek hiring freeze Sponsor Daily Update plasma boring robot Data Science Djot consistent Alexa users

DALL-E opens beta 🤖, Google hiring freeze 👨‍💻, next-level CSS art 🖼️

Daily Update 2022-07-21

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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Google AR glasses 😎, Instagram Maps 🗺️, Google's C++ competitor ‍💻

Instagram Payments 💳, Prime Video's redesign 🎥, are personal blogs worth it? ✍️

Tesla + Steam integration 🎮, Amazon considers ending Basics 🛒, de-anonymizing web visitors 🕵️

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

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

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