Crypto Superbowl 🪙, AI chip design 💻, the urge to quit tech

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Big Tech & Startups

Coinbase’s bouncing QR code Super Bowl ad was so popular it crashed the app (2 minute read)

Coinbase's Super Bowl ad was so popular its app temporarily crashed. The 60-second ad featured a colorful bouncing QR code that brought viewers to a promotional website with a limited time offer. New users signing up to the site before February 15 receive $15 worth of free Bitcoin as well as an entry into a $3 million giveaway. Many other crypto companies also used the Super Bowl to promote services, NFTs, and projects.

Why Salesforce is sending its employees to the forest (3 minute read)

Salesforce is sending its employees to the Trailblazer Ranch, a forested location in the Santa Cruz mountains. An employee survey found that the change most wished for in the company was more connection with colleagues. The company has onboarded tens of thousands of employees since the beginning of the pandemic who have never met their manager or teams in person. The ranch will have several activities and group experiences for the employees. Salesforce is planning to make the ranch a permanent location.

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Science & Futuristic Technology

Q&A: Here’s How AI Will Change Chip Design (6 minute read)

This article contains an interview with Heather Gorr, senior product manager for MathWorks’ MATLAB platform, discussing how AI will change the future of chip design. Engineers and designers are starting to run out of ways to miniaturize transistors and pack as many of them as possible into chips, so they are turning to other approaches to chip design, such as using AI. AI can be used at many levels of chip manufacturing, for example, design and defect detection. It helps solve many problems faster and cheaper, but there are also drawbacks to the tech.

Behold! NASA captures groundbreaking images of Venus’ surface (4 minute read)

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has captured images of Venus' surface. Venus' surface is blocked by a thick atmosphere, which makes it hard to take pictures of. However, the surface is very hot and it makes the planet glow a faint red during the night when there is no Sun. The solar probe used the red light to capture images of the surface as it flew past at night. Some of the images are available in the article.

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Programming, Design & Data Science

Server-Sent Events: the alternative to WebSockets you should be using (16 minute read)

Server Sent Events (SSE) are a simpler and often more superior alternative to WebSockets for developing real-time web applications. WebSockets enable the creation of two-way low-latency communication channels between the browser and a server, but they don't work on top of HTTP, which means they do not support many HTTP features. SSEs let the server send low-latency push events to the client at any time. They are only one way, from the server to the client, but they work on top of HTTP. This article discusses the two protocols and compares the technologies through the coding implementation of a simple service.

Android 13 deep dive: Every change, thoroughly documented (25 minute read)

Google has released the first developer preview of Android 13. The full OS is expected to be released in Q3 2022. There will be 2 Developer Previews and 4 Beta releases before the final release. This article takes a look at all the new features, including the new photo picker, per-app language preferences, and Hub mode. Screenshots and videos of some of the new features are available. More changes are expected in future preview versions.

Shortcut puts the "can" in Kanban and the agile in Agile (Sponsor)

Imagine how much more you could get done if your project management tools didn't make you sigh. Shortcut (formerly Clubhouse.io) is the ideal solution for task management, bug tracking, iteration planning, and reporting. Sign up for free.

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Miscellaneous

Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber/electrician/brickie? Anyone done this? (Reddit Thread)

Being a developer can be difficult with the constant upskilling required to stay in the game. The grass may look greener in other fields where people can leave work at work. However, the trade-off is usually not worth it. This thread is full of anecdotes on what it is like working in other professions and reasons why software development is really a good career to be in.

A Hacker Group Has Been Framing People for Crimes They Didn't Commit (3 minute read)

A hacker group that researchers have dubbed 'ModifiedElephant' has been planting evidence to frame human rights activists, defenders, academics, and lawyers throughout India. The group is largely focused on spying, but it sometimes intervenes to frame its targets for crimes. They use common hacking tools and techniques to access victims' computers, for example, phishing emails loaded with malicious documents. While the group's actions sharply align with Indian state interests, their identity is still unknown.

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Crypto Superbowl 🪙, AI chip design 💻, the urge to quit tech

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