Google Stream 🎥, Discord Forums 🗣️, a year with Linux phone 📱

Daily Update 2022-02-07

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Big Tech & Startups

Google Stream is what Stadia should have been from the start (3 minute read)

Google Stream is a backend cloud gaming technology that Google is pitching to businesses. Instead of putting effort into getting more games on Stadia, Google is getting companies to use Google Stream to release rebranded products. The service could eventually also be used for other applications like 3D modeling. Stadia's biggest problems were its limited game library and Google's lack of commitment to the platform.

Discord is testing forums, new mod tools and homepages that surface hot topics in some servers (3 minute read)

Discord is testing three new features starting this week aimed at helping users stay on top of the conversation. It will test a forum-like channel for more organized conversations, a homepage-style feature that collects hot topics, and automated moderation tools. The experimental features will only be available via a close beta on some large servers. A screenshot showing the forum-like feature is available in the article.

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Science & Futuristic Technology

Hydrogen-soaked crystal lets neural networks expand to match a problem (7 minute read)

Neuromorphic computing hardware is special hardware developed to model the behavior of biological neurons. A group of researchers from the US have developed a non-silicon version of the hardware that uses hydrogen and a nickel alloy. Controlling the amount of hydrogen can switch the device among four different states, which is useful for neural-network operations. The resulting hardware can train many types of systems with fewer resources than silicon hardware without losing performance. While the hardware shows significant improvements over silicon systems, it is unlikely that it will be used commercially anytime soon.

Psychedelics Without the Trip Could Be ‘Healing Magic’ for Mental Health (6 minute read)

While psychedelics are starting to be seen by doctors as a tool for treating mental illness, their mind-altering effects can be a serious detriment to patients. Treatment using traditional psychedelics requires the drugs to be administered and monitored inside clinics instead of the patient taking a pill at home like for many other conditions. A team of scientists recently engineered several synthetic cousins of LSD that could quell depressive symptoms in mice without getting them high. It will take a long time before the drug can be tested in humans, but the research could result in an entirely new treatment regime for mental health issues.

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Programming, Design & Data Science

Inside the JavaScript Engine (6 minute read)

This article is the second in a series that takes a deeper look into JavaScript and how it actually works. It discusses the internal parts of the JavaScript engine and why JavaScript isn't an interpreted language anymore. Topics discussed include the memory heap and call stack, interpretation, and just-in-time compilation.

High-order Virtual Machine (GitHub Repo)

High-order Virtual Machine (HVM) is a pure functional compile target in Rust that is lazy, non-garbage-collected, and massively parallel. It can be exponentially faster than most functional runtimes. Benchmark results comparing HVM to Haskell's GHC are available.

Unlayer - Embeddable Email Editor & Page Builder (Sponsor)

Unlayer is an easy way to add a drag-n-drop email editor and page builder into your product. With Unlayer, your users can create awesome emails and websites with ease without you having to build and support a home-built creative tool.

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Miscellaneous

Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of a game changer than you expected? (Hacker News Thread)

The original poster of the thread asks readers for things that helped them more than expected or in ways they wouldn't expect. This thread is full of recommendations on hardware with anecdotes on the usefulness of the items. Top replies and threads discuss monitors, SDD drives, iPads, and dishwashers.

I Used Linux-Based PinePhone Daily For A Year. Here’s What I Learned! (9 minute read)

The PinePhone is a phone designed specifically to run desktop Linux. This article details an experience of using the phone over a year. As Linux is a desktop operating system, many apps had to be developed and optimized to make the PinePhone useful as a phone. The camera on the phone takes low-quality pictures and is not capable of taking videos. While there are almost 400 confirmed working apps on the platform, this pales in comparison to the millions available on other platforms. The biggest weakness of the phone is its battery life. Turning on the phone just to check the time can cause it to drain quickly.

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Google Stream 🎥, Discord Forums 🗣️, a year with Linux phone 📱

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