Gooooooood morning, Population!!! Hey, this is not a test, this is a tech roundup. Time to rock it from the Delta to the DMZ.
AI, bots and robots
- Forced social isolation causes neural craving similar to hunger
New research highlights the profound effect of severe social isolation on the brain - Problems with Remote Learning
- Tensorflow.js: Machine Learning in JavaScript
- Neuropod – Uber ATG’s open source deep learning inference engine
- Repetition and Learning – misconceptions about effective studying
- FB AI TransCoder converts code from one programming language into another
- Stanford Class on Deep Multi-Task and Meta-Learning
- A Neuroscientist’s Theory of Everything
- ACLU accuses Clearview AI of privacy “nightmare scenario”
- Machine Learning Field Guide
We all have to deal with data, and we try to learn about and implement machine learning into our projects.
But everyone seems to forget one thing… it’s far from perfect, and there is so much to go through!
Don’t worry, we’ll discuss every little st… - Emotional Blocks as Obstacles to Learning
My goal was to come up with a system for reading a book. I eventually identified that as the wrong goal, but came up with a pretty great system for doing the much better goal of “how do I answer a … - New Lego Mindstorms Robot Inventor
- AI vs. AI
- Boston Dynamics shop: Spot Explorer
- Towards an Untrepreneurial Economy? Rise of the Veblenian Entrepreneur
- Making AI Better by Making It Slower
Blockchain and decentralization
- Solving Jepsen with OpenCensus Distributed Tracing
- Why Kubernetes is not part of our stack
Why Kubernetes is not part of our stack - Scaling and Developer Productivity at Coinbase
At Coinbase we care about developer productivity. As we’ve scaled from a single service to many, we’ve invested in tools that give us the… - Reproducible Distributed Random Number Generation in Spark
- Pentagon Planned for a Bitcoin Rebellion
- I built an IPFS crawler with libp2p
- Coin Flip Decides Material’s Fate
Woman computer scientist of the week
Margaret M. Burnett is a computer scientist specializing in work at the intersection of human computer interaction and software engineering, and known for her pioneering work in visual programming languages, end-user software engineering, and gender-inclusive software. She is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Oregon State University,, a member of the CHI Academy, and a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Cloud and architecture
- Gaia-X: Technical Architecture
- Cloudflare TV
I’m excited to announce the upcoming launch of Cloudflare TV. A 24×7 live television broadcast, streamed globally via the Cloudflare network. You can tune in to the pre-broadcast station and check out the upcoming schedule at: cloudflare.tv - Amazon sues former AWS marketing VP Brian Hall after he takes Google Cloud job
- Why skyscraper architects always return to Art Deco
- Build your own PaaS in minutes
Build your own PaaS in a few minutes! - XgeneCloud – Instant REST and GraphQL APIs on Any SQL Database
- IBM Cloud down as well as their status page which looks to be hosted there
- Deep learning of physical laws from scarce data
- AWS Ruins Own Attempt at Sabotage
- U.S. states accuse 26 drugmakers of generic drug price fixing lawsuit
- AWS CodeArtifact: A fully managed software artifact repository service
- Activists rally to save Internet Archive as lawsuit threatens site
- Probing a Cloud of the Fifth State of Matter (Bose-Einstein Condensate) on ISS
- Koyeb – Simple serverless processing workflows, on any cloud
- Map of Computing Architectures for AWS
- The rise of embarrassingly parallel serverless compute
- Serverless LAMP stack
- Architects have designed a Martian city for the desert outside Dubai
- A sort-middle architecture for 2D graphics
- AWS’s Share of Amazon’s Profit
- Kumologica – Low-Code Integration Toolkit for Serverless Compute
- Google faces $5B lawsuit for tracking people in incognito mode
- AWS said it mitigated a 2.3 Tbps DDoS attack, the largest ever
Development and languages
- Parenscript compiles a Common Lisp subset to JavaScript
- Cron.weekly issue #137: Kernel 5.7, TrueNAS, LibreSSL, Drupal and more
- Python Wheels Crosses 90%
- Western Digital’s SMR disks won’t work for ZFS, but they’re okay for most NASes
- Gravity: An embeddable programming language without any external dependencies
- Easily rename your Git default branch from master to main
- My first Android App – order-taker for family company that sells wood
- How to write good Git commit messages
- Android 11 beta is available now
- Speeding up a Git monorepo
- Removing “Annoying” Windows 10 Features Is a DMCA Violation, Microsoft Says
- Windows Explorer Through the Years
At a glance comparison of every major Explorer release - Understanding JavaScript Execution Context like never before
- The Hamler Programming Language
- GitLab acquires Peach Tech and Fuzzit
- Dexplot: Python library for data visualization
- Async Python is not faster
- A survey of recent iOS kernel exploits
- Hot-swapping Python 3 code
hot reload your python code! Contribute to say4n/hotreload development by creating an account on GitHub. - Ansible Alternatives in Python
- Weird Keyboards, Programmable Keyboards
- A multi-markup reader in less than 100 lines of Python code
- Microsoft: Rust Is the Industry’s ‘Best Chance’ at Safe Systems Programming
Microsoft has deemed C++ no longer acceptable for writing mission-critical software. The industry sorely needs to move to a performant, memory-safe language for its low-low system work. And the best choice on the market today is Rust, Levick said. - High-Resolution 3D Human Digitization
- WebRTC Insertable Streams and server processing
- Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 updates come with nasty printer bugs
- How to create a video call application with WebRTC
Find out the details behind a WebRTC video chat application and consider the challenges of a large scale video call - Briefing – Anonymous, secure, open source WebRTC group video chat
- Bypass kernel lockdown/UEFI secure boot on Ubuntu 18.04 with ACPI SSDT injection
- Stanford JavaScript Crypto Library
- Nigeria is not doing enough to improve youth digital literacy
- After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract
At Microsoft-owned GitHub, the parent company’s decision to stop offering facial recognition software to police reinvigorated internal opposition to a deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. - Remembering Windows 2000, Microsoft’s Forgotten Masterpiece
- GitHub abandons ‘master’ and ‘slave’ terms to avoid row
- IRS Programming Mystery Continues
IRS now has a patent on a technology it won’t use to solve a crucial problem in IT modernization. - Functional Programming for Array-Based Parallelism
- Do Not Follow JavaScript Trends
- A Jupyter Kernel for SQLite
- 100% offline Shamir’s Secret Sharing GUI
- Loglo: Experimental spreadsheet and stack language for vector graphics
- Venezuela is a testing ground for digital dollarization, Zelle doesn’t like it
- A WebAssembly System Interface Implementation for Deno
- Practical Python Programming
Practical Python Programming (course by @dabeaz). Contribute to dabeaz-course/practical-python development by creating an account on GitHub. - The first intuitive programming language for quantum computers
- Mutant garden (cartesian genetic programming)
- Deep JavaScript: Theory and Techniques
- A tiny smartphone company just brought a new Android version to a 2015 device
- PyPy: A Faster Python Implementation
- Using Frida for Windows Reverse Engineering
- A lightweight, customizable omnibox in JavaScript
- Caffeine: Livecoding environment for web browsers, Node.js, and WebAssembly
- GitHub Super Linter: one linter to rule them all
Setting up a new repository with all the right linters for the different types of code can be time consuming and tedious. So many tools and configurations to choose from and often more than one - Apple Music on Android requires its own payment details to avoid Google 30% cut
- gRPC over WebRTC
- The first intuitive programming language for quantum computers – ETH Zurich
- Tragopan – Minimal, dependency-free pan/zoom JavaScript library
- Europeans vow to pursue digital tax plans after US “provocation”
- Better Python 59 Ways
- A step-by-step guide for your company’s Git master to main migration
Quote of the week
There’s nothing in computing that can’t be broken by another level of indirection.
— Rob Pike
Enterprises
- Google Chromium, sans integration with Google
Google Chromium, sans integration with Google. Contribute to Eloston/ungoogled-chromium development by creating an account on GitHub. - WhatsApp Phone Numbers Pop Up in Google Search Results
- Intel and ARM Performance Characteristics for S3 Compatible Object Storage
- VS Code without Microsoft branding/telemetry/licensing
- Toto’s “Africa” Played on Tesla Coils
- Google got rich from your data. DuckDuckGo is fighting back
In July 2018, Google was fined â¬4.34 billion for limiting search on Android phones. Almost two years later, its rivals claim little has changed and the company is as dominant as ever - Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First
Brands have long been able to bid for the premier slot at the top left of Amazon’s listings, but during the pandemic the online retailer has begun using this position for its private-label items, raising antitrust concerns. - How I Sold My Company to Twitter, Went to Facebook, and Screwed My Co-Founders
- How Google Meet’s noise cancellation works
Google Meet is getting AI-powered noise cancellation for Android, iOS, and the web. Here is how Google built its cloud denoiser and how it works. - Fremont Tesla workers tested positive for coronavirus days after plant reopened
- All Roger Ebert’s Great Movies That You Can Watch on Amazon Prime
- Wikipedia Lost 3B Organic Search Visits to Google in 2019
Since Wikipedia was founded in 2001, people worldwide rely on the online encyclopedia to expand their horizons and read information on just about anything. As true as that is today, however, the site’s traffic trends tell a very different story. - Intel Discloses Lakefield CPUs Specifications
- Just Eat Takeaway to acquire Grubhub for $7.3B
- Google-backed drones will drop library books to kids in SW Virginia
- Microsoft won’t sell police its facial-recognition technology
- The antitrust case against Google
State and federal authorities are reportedly preparing to bring antitrust charges against Google, focusing on anti-competitive behavior in the company’s online advertising business. Yale SOM’s Fiona Scott Morton, former chief economist in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department, recently co-authored a paper laying out a roadmap for potential action against the company, drawing on information released in an investigation in the UK. We talked to Scott Morton about Google’s role in online advertising and how it limits competition. - Jim Keller to Depart Intel
- Jim Keller Resigns from Intel, Effective Immediately
- Former Amazon engineer Tim Bray calls for antitrust breakup of company
- ProsperStack – Use Stripe to automatically prevent cancellations
- Disney almost bought Twitter in 2016
- Apple’s Mac Chip Switch Is Double Trouble for Intel
- Design electronics like it is 70s at CERN
- How we scrape 300k prices per day from Google Flights
- Tesla’s U.S.-made Model 3 vehicles now come equipped with wireless charging
- Google hides full addresses in URL bar on Chrome 85
Google has tried on and off for years to hide full URLs in Chrome’s address bar, because apparently long web addresses are scary and evil. Despite the - Amazon added a non-compete after the employee entered the U.S. on an L1B visa
- George Floyd Protest – police brutality videos on Twitter
- Apple, ARM, and Intel
ARM Macs are imminent; why they make sense, and why the implications could be far-reaching, for not just Apple but also Intel. - AMD to Launch New Ryzen 3000 XT CPUs: Zen 2 with More MHz
- Google bans ZeroHedge and The Federalist from its ad platform
- Shopify goes after Amazon with new Walmart deal
- MetricsDB: TimeSeries Database for storing metrics at Twitter
- Microsoft Pitched Facial Recognition to the Drug Enforcement Administration
Last week, Microsoft said it would not sell its facial recognition to police departments. But new documents reveal it was pitching that technology to at least one federal agency as recently as two yea - Massive spying on users of Google’s Chrome shows new security weakness
A newly discovered spyware effort attacked users through 32 million downloads of extensions to Google’s market-leading Chrome web browser, researchers at Awake Security told Reuters, highlighting the tech industry’s failure to protect browsers as they are used more for email, payroll and other sensitive functions. - The Intelligence of Earthworms
- UK virus-tracing app switches to Google-Apple model
Government now intends to launch an app in the autumn but it may still lack contact-tracing tech. - YouTuber creates fake Nirvana song using artificial intelligence
A YouTuber has utilised artificial intelligence to create a fake «new» Nirvana song, which they’ve called ‘Smother’ - Evolution of the precise code intel backend
- Amazon’s Enforcement Failures Leave Open a Back Door to Banned Goods
- Why Apple ditched PowerPC, and what it says about Apple ditching Intel
Looking back at Apple’s transition from PowerPC to Intel CPUs, and considering why Intel now finds itself in the same position PowerPC did 15 years ago. - Microsoft calls for a closer look at app stores
Microsoft’s chief legal officer calls out Apple’s walled garden approach - Google quietly launches an AI-powered Pinterest rival named Keen
- CityLab has been relaunched under the Bloomberg umbrella
The redesigned site will remain unpaywalled — at least through 2020. - A Nvidia Engineer Wrote a Vulkan Driver That Works on Older Raspberry Pi
- Watch AMD Threadripper 3990X Use 128 Threads to Render a Video in Task Manager
- Odds of communicating with 36 other possible intelligent civilizations are small
Other news
- Using React, Redux and SSR to acommodate users without JavaScript
- Weylus – Use your tablet as graphic tablet/touch screen on Linux
- Quantum Dots Shift Sunlight’s Spectrum to Speed Plant Growth
- I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You
- Interactive Map of Linux Kernel
- Running Linux on My MacBook
- “Pain Is the Only School-Teacher”
- Watch what files any Linux process accesses
- Logic.ly – Digital logic simulator for teaching logic gates and digital circuits
- Learn to read Middle English
- Linux Sucks
- First U.S. woman to walk in space dives to deepest point in the ocean
- Teaching My MIT Classes with Only Free/Libre Software
- Nintendo said a total of 300k accounts have been hacked
- Pinetab – 10.1″ Linux Tablet with Detached Backlit Keyboard
- The Looming Bank Collapse
- A free educational live stream platform for kids
- Quantum Matter Orbits Earth
- What to write down when you’re reading to learn
- Crux: Open-source document database with bi-temporal graph queries
- FBI warns hackers are targeting mobile banking apps
- University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
- Hermes – package manager and deployment tool for Linux
- Pine64 launches the cheapest Linux Tablet ever priced at just $99.99
- Biohacking Lite
- Bankrupt Hertz targets Robinhood traders in plot to dump $1B in stock
- Venmo and Paypal Are Stalling Urgent Efforts to Bail People Out of Jail
- Universities Targeted by NetWalker Ransomware
Cybercriminals successfully targeted three colleges and universities using ransom tactics new to higher ed. Experts say more institutions are likely to be affected. - Install Linux from a running Windows system, without need for a live USB
- ULX3S: Hackable FPGA that runs Linux on RISC-V
- TwilioQuest – A RPG game to help learn JavaScript
- Learning How to Learn
- Linux Sucks 2020
- Questions to help people decide what to learn
- Facebook refuses to pay revenue to Australian media
Facebook on Monday rejected calls from the Australian government and news companies that it share advertising revenue with the media, suggesting it would rather cut news content from its platform. … - The First Woman PhD in Computer Science Was a Nun
- Hackers use an ordinary light bulb to spy on conversations 80 feet away
- Guix Further Reduces Bootstrap Seed to 25%
- Hertz Fills the “Intial Bankruptcy Offering”
- ‘All lies’: how the US military covered up gunning down two journalists in Iraq
- Find journalists, bloggers and webmasters covering your niche
- Harvard University Won’t Require SAT, ACT for Admissions Next Year
- EU opens Apple antitrust investigations into App Store and Apple Pay practices
- CIA hacking unit failed to protect its systems, allowing Vault 7 disclosure
- Washington Post public editor: Jeff Bezos could solve pay equality tomorrow
- Zoom to bring end-to-end encryption to all users, including non-paying
Since releasing the draft design of Zoom’s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on May 22, we have engaged with a number of organizations to gather feedback. - Booting embedded Linux in 0.37 seconds on an ARMv7-A CPU at 528 MHz
- State of Linux Desktop Security
- A free introduction to quantum computing and quantum mechanics
A free introduction to quantum computing and quantum mechanics - Micropayments will never be a thing in journalism?
- How Much Should You Pay Your Engineers to Ensure They Stick Around?
The key to employee retention isn’t just about pay. Instead, you need to create a culture that fosters growth and development. - CUDA on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2
- Slavery existed in Illinois, but schools don’t always teach that history
- Android isn’t based on Linux. It’s based on DangerOS
- Quantum Computing for the very Curious
- Payment processor Visa blacklists free speech software company Gab
- Private Pilot Ground School
This is a three-day workshop that took place during the MIT Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January, 2019. This workshop aims to provide information for students to prepare for the FAA Private Pilot Knowledge Test. Topics include airplane aerodynamics, aircraft systems, navigation, meteorology, aircraft ownership and maintenance, aircraft performance, multi-engine and jets. - Teach Yourself Computer Science
