Microsoft's futuristic data storage 📊, how FTX blew $8B 💰, Pytorch on the edge 👨‍💻

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TLDR 2023-10-18

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Big Tech & Startups

Microsoft’s futuristic ‘Project Silica’ stores data on glass plates for 10,000 years (4 minute read)

Microsoft Research's Project Silica is testing the storage of huge amounts of data on glass plates using three-dimensional pixels called voxels. The plates can store data for thousands of years. Each plate can store several terabytes of data. The data inside each plate can't be changed once written. Project Silica is still in its early stages and it will be some time before the technology can be used commercially.

Netflix's first live sports broadcast will be a golf tournament between PGA Tour pros and F1 drivers (3 minute read)

Netflix will broadcast the Netflix Cup golf tournament on November 14. The eight-hole tournament will pitch a team of four PGA Tour pros against four Formula 1 golfers. All eight participants were key participants in the Netflix docuseries 'Drive to Survive'. The tournament could set the stage for a future foray into live sports rights for Netflix.

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Science & Futuristic Technology

Figure's humanoid is already walking and performing autonomous tasks (20 minute read)

Figure has released video footage of its humanoid robot. The robot was designed with the aim of making it useful as quickly as possible. Figure's team achieved bipedal walking in less than 12 months, a record for a brand-new humanoid initiative. The company aims to show the prototype doing useful work by the end of the year. This article contains photos and a video of the robot as well as an interview with Figure's founder Brett Adcock.

This startup CEO claims he can completely decarbonize the cement industry (3 minute read)

Brimstone Energy is trying to reduce carbon emissions from the production of cement by using calcium silicate rock, which contains no CO2. It will use a patented technology to remove the calcium from the rock. The company has received certification that its product is essentially the same as Portland cement. Its technology produces cheaper cement than what is currently available. Brimstone hopes that its process will lead to the industry using a fully decarbonized system.

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Programming, Design & Data Science

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What's happening in Chrome Extensions? (8 minute read)

This article looks at some of the changes the Chrome extension team has made over the past few months and some of the new features that will come out later this year. Some of the highlights include improved Service Worker stability and the launch of the Runtime and Side Panel APIs. Upcoming changes include the addition of a UserScripts API, a ReadingList API, and an increase in the limit on enabled static rulesets. The Chrome Web Store has been redesigned.

ExecuTorch (GitHub Repo)

ExecuTorch enables on-device inference on mobile and edge devices including wearables, embedded devices, and microcontrollers. It enables efficient deployment of PyTorch models to edge devices. ExecuTorch is compatible with a wide variety of computing platforms and it can fully utilize hardware capabilities such as CPUs, NPUs, and DSPs. Step-by-step tutorials on how to use ExecuTorch are available.

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Miscellaneous

FTX execs blew through $8B — testimony reveals how (6 minute read)

FTX executives spent $8 billion worth of customer funds on real estate, venture capital investments, campaign donations, endorsement deals, and a sports stadium. Former senior FTX executive Nishad Singh's testimony provided details about exactly where the money went. Singh says that there was a coding error that prevented the correct accounting of user deposits by around $8 billion.

Superlinear returns (28 minute read)

The returns for performance in business are superlinear. This is caused by exponential growth and crossing thresholds. Crossing thresholds leads to exponential growth and exponential growth helps cross thresholds. The general rule for finding situations with superlinear returns is to look for work that compounds.

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Quick Links

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The Impact of ChatGPT on Programming Education (18 minute read)

This page presents the results of a survey on the impact of ChatGPT on program education with over 10,000 respondents.

Citing slow Starship reviews, SpaceX urges FAA to double licensing staff (9 minute read)

SpaceX's programs have had to compete with each other for reviews at the FAA in recent months, significantly slowing down the Starship program and putting the development of a Human Landing System for NASA's Artemis program at risk.

Hallucinations in AI (15 minute read)

The fear around new AI technology creates hallucinations of hope, cope, and mope.

“Netflix effect” is back as studios license old shows to competitors again (2 minute read)

Some of Netflix's competitors are licensing their old content to the streamer, boosting its programming offerings but also potentially squeezing its profit margins.

oterm (GitHub Repo)

oterm is a text-based terminal client for Ollama that supports multiple persistent chat sessions and custom models.

Qualcomm announces first-ever mass-market RISC-V Android SoC (3 minute read)

Qualcomm says it's developing a RISC-V Snapdragon Wear chip in collaboration with Google.

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Microsoft's futuristic data storage 📊, how FTX blew $8B 💰, Pytorch on the edge 👨‍💻

TLDR 2023-10-18

Big Tech & Startups

Science & Futuristic Technology

Programming, Design & Data Science

Miscellaneous

Quick Links

Older messages

GitHub Copilot's terrible economics 💰, Apple VR neck strain 🌎, ergonomic dev setups 👨‍💻

Meta's plan to beat Apple 🌎, building pop-up mini-cities 👬, engineering workflow hacks 👨‍💻

OpenAI explores AI chips 🤖, Apple discussed ditching Google 🔍, how computers tell time ⏰

Apple NameDrop ⌚, OpenAI's residency program 🤖, how Pixel upgraded cameras 📱

Amazon's secret price algo 📈, SpaceX's laser-enabled satellites 🛰️, safe Postgres migrations 👨‍💻

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