Microsoft AI PCs 💻, Android Find My Device 📱, using LLMs in products 👨‍💻

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TLDR 2024-04-09

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Big Tech & Startups

Microsoft is confident Windows on Arm could finally beat Apple (5 minute read)

Microsoft will unveil its vision for AI PCs at an event in Seattle on May 20. The company is confident that its new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple's M3-powered MacBook Air in both CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks. The laptops will feature Snapdragon X Elite processors from Qualcomm. Microsoft is planning to ship consumer models of its Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 with Snapdragon X Elite processors instead of the Intel Core Ultra processors that the business-focused versions have.

Google Launches Android Find My Device Network (2 minute read)

Google has launched the Find My Device network for Android-based products. The Android Find My Device network can use the millions of existing Android devices to track down lost, stolen, and missing Android products. The network uses Bluetooth and works even when Android devices are offline and do not have a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. The network will also work with third-party Bluetooth trackers starting in May.

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Science & Futuristic Technology

Elon Musk just gave another Mars speech — this time the vision seems tangible (6 minute read)

Elon Musk gave a 45-minute speech at SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas last weekend about making life multiplanetary, the booster for Starship, the upper stage, and SpaceX's plans to ultimately deliver millions of tons of cargo to Mars for a self-sustaining civilization. SpaceX has now completed 327 successful launches, with 80% of those involving used boosters. This performance has given Musk confidence that reusability can be achieved with the Super Heavy booster that powers Starship. While SpaceX's goals seem audacious, the company has proven that rocket reusability is a very viable thing, so its other goals appear a lot more achievable.

A secret climate experiment in Alameda (7 minute read)

A group of scientists launched a stream of microscopic salt particles off the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier last Tuesday in Alameda, California, as part of an experiment to limit global warming by increasing cloud cover to reflect sunlight away from Earth. Very few people knew about the project beforehand as geoengineering projects are controversial and the team was concerned that critics would try to stop them. The experiment will run through the end of May, and visitors are able to view the experiment.

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Programming, Design & Data Science

Sentry’s new AI-powered Autofix is here to fix your broken code (Sponsor)

There are many genAI tools that can help you write code. But do they have the contextual data to help you fix errors in production?

Sentry’s Autofix understands what your users are doing when an error occurs, analyzes the error, generates a fix and even opens a PR. It’s like having an extra junior developer.

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Meta’s X competitor Threads invites developers to sign up for API access, publishes docs (3 minute read)

Meta's Threads has introduced developer documentation and a sign-up sheet for interested parties ahead of its API's public launch planned for June. The documentation details the API's current limitations and endpoints. Developers can use the API to track analytics and publish posts and media, among other things. Threads accounts are limited to 250 API-published posts and 1,000 replies every 24 hours, with a text post limit of 500 characters.

Open Parse (GitHub Repo)

Open Parse lets users easily chunk complex documents the same way a human would. It provides a flexible library capable of visually discerning document layouts and chunking them effectively. Open Parse supports Markdown and tables. It is extensible, intuitive, and easy to use and learn. Sample notebooks are available.

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Miscellaneous

How can I accelerate my personal growth? (3 minute read)

Growing quickly requires a job that surrounds you with people who are smarter than you and gives you opportunities to fail, with a company that has a history of giving massive responsibility to people similar to you. Choose companies that are selective with hiring and target positions where success is not guaranteed. Look for people in the company who have similar profiles as you and see if they have been given outsized responsibility in the company to see if you have a chance to get promoted quickly. These selection criteria are heavily weighted towards startups.

Notes on how to use LLMs in your product (17 minute read)

It's easy to make an argument that large language models can improve internal efficiency in companies somehow. It's much harder to describe a believable way for them to make products more useful to customers. This article discusses ways to meaningfully integrate large language models into existing products. It covers how to think about the technology, revamping workflows, different ways to implement models, and more. The article also covers potential issues such as copyright law, data processing agreements, and provider availability.

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Quick Links

TikTok’s Instagram competitor likely to be named TikTok Notes (3 minute read)

TikTok has been working to launch a photo-sharing app.

llm.c (GitHub Repo)

llm.c trains large language models in C/CUDA.

Interviewing my mother, a mainframe COBOL programmer (14 minute read)

Some banks would go under in a matter of weeks if their COBOL programmers were to quit.

Xbox President Sarah Bond has set up a new team dedicated to game preservation and forward compatibility (8 minute read)

The new team will ensure that Microsoft's games remain accessible long into the future.

What it’s like to run HTMX in Production - Stories from Experienced Software Engineers (11 minute read)

HTMX provides most of the capabilities of a Single-Page Application with the simplicity of a Multi-Page Application.

Big Tech passkey implementations are a trap (8 minute read)

Big Tech is using passkey technology to lock people into walled gardens rather than to provide a secure solution to everyone.

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Microsoft AI PCs 💻, Android Find My Device 📱, using LLMs in products 👨‍💻

TLDR 2024-04-09

Big Tech & Startups

Science & Futuristic Technology

Programming, Design & Data Science

Miscellaneous

Quick Links

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