Google worldwide outage ⚡, SoftBank loses $21.6B 📉, what's the next big thing 💡

Daily Update 2022-08-09

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Big Tech & Startups

SoftBank posts a $21.6 billion quarterly loss on its Vision Fund, one of the highest in its history (3 minute read)

SoftBank posted a 2.93 trillion Japanese yen loss at its Vision Fund investment unit for the June quarter. The company posted a total net loss of 3.16 trillion yen for the quarter, a record quarterly loss for SoftBank. SoftBank authorized a 400 billion yen share buyback program on Monday. The company will go into a defensive mode and be more conservative with the pace of its investments. It has sold its stake in some of its companies to raise funds.

Google hit by worldwide outage as users report search engine down (2 minute read)

Google has apologized for a major international outage. Users from all over the world reported outages with Google's services, including Search, Google Maps, and Gmail. The outage affected at least 1,338 servers across more than 40 countries. Users trying to use Search were presented with 502 or 500 errors. The outage was caused by a software update and the issue was quickly resolved.

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Science & Futuristic Technology

Gigantic "Jet" Lightning Bolt That Reached Edge of Space Puzzles Scientists (2 minute read)

A gigantic jet lightning bolt recorded over Oklahoma in May 2018 carried 100 times as much charge as an average lightning bolt and reached 50 miles into the air, almost to the official boundary of outer space. These types of lightning bolts remain a mystery to scientists as they occur so rarely. The bolt in 2018 was recorded using cutting-edge mapping technologies. It was mapped in three dimensions with really high-quality data, allowing the scientists to see the phenomenon with a new level of detail.

Giant Viruses Called 'Jumbo Phages' Could Help Us Fight Antibiotic Resistance (3 minute read)

Jumbo phages are viruses, named for their large genomes, that infect bacteria. Some jumbo phages are able to grow a shield around their genetic material, preventing bacterial immune systems from attacking their DNA. These protective casings are constructed from a single type of protein called chimallin. They can selectively allow molecules to pass through and grow as the phage's genome replicates. Research into these barriers could help scientists develop better therapies against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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Programming, Design & Data Science

Apprise (GitHub Repo)

Apprise is a library that allows developers to send notifications to almost all of the most popular notification services available. It features a common and intuitive notification syntax and it supports the handling of images and attachments. A list of notification types and services supported by Apprise is available.

Oncall Compensation for Software Engineers (21 minute read)

This article looks at data on how much companies pay for oncall. It discusses oncall philosophies across the industry, which companies pay for oncall, how much companies pay, which companies don't pay, and poor oncall cultures. Employers who pay higher compensation tend to expect oncall work as a given. Companies that care about healthy oncall practices or want to minimize attrition usually make oncall additional and offer compensation for oncall work.

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Miscellaneous

Taiwan chip industry emerges as battlefront in U.S.-China showdown (12 minute read)

Taiwan has become indispensable to both the US and China due to its ability to fabricate advanced semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC) has technology crucial to cutting-edge digital devices and weapons. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would threaten US military and technological leadership. Both the US and China are spending billions to break their dependency on TSMC's Taiwanese foundries. This could affect Taiwan's future position in the global supply chain.

Ask HN: What's the next big thing that few people are talking about? (Hacker News Thread)

This Hacker News thread talks about trends that few people are talking about. The top replies discuss preimplantation polygenetic testing (genetically screening embryos before implantation), issues with abandoning internal combustion engine vehicles (there are still many problems to solve to make the switch to electric cars sustainable), and deglobalization (countries dependent on imported food or energy need to look for more sustainable solutions).

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Quick Links

Musk wants public debate with Twitter CEO instead of that upcoming court trial (6 minute read)

Elon Musk has challenged Parag Agrawal to a public debate about Twitter bot percentages.

Intel launches Arc Pro GPUs that are designed for workstations and pro apps (2 minute read)

The GPUs are capable of hardware-based ray tracing and AV1 hardware acceleration.

unblob (GitHub Repo)

unblob is an extraction suite that parses unknown binary blobs, extracts their content recursively, and carves out unknown chunks.

Apple Expecting to Ship 1.5 Million Units of $2000+ AR/VR Headset in 2023 (2 minute read)

Apple's AR/VR headset is nearing its final stages before launch and Apple plans to announce it during an event in January.

A startup will use underwater drones to find treasures 33 feet beneath the seabed (3 minute read)

The SeaSearcher can perform high-resolution 3D imaging on objects at the sea bottom to several meters below the bottom.

Lyft creates media division to cash in on in-car ads (3 minute read)

Lyft media will help the ride-hailing company to cash in on the growing market for in-vehicle digital ads.

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Google worldwide outage ⚡, SoftBank loses $21.6B 📉, what's the next big thing 💡

Daily Update 2022-08-09

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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