TLDR 2022-05-16

This ebook is meant to be a step-by-step guide for you to learn how to use some of the most in-demand IaC tools that exist: Terraform, Ansible, Puppet (and Puppet Bolt), Chef, and Salt. Each tool is covered as mostly a stand-alone-project that focuses on deploying a simple Docker-based Python web application from Github. Download for free.

Uber is launching two test programs to deliver UberEats in greater Los Angeles this month. It will use a combination of four-wheeled robots and self-driving cars, depending on how far the delivery needs to go. Customers will receive instructions in the Uber app on how to retrieve their food. A safety driver will be present for car deliveries and the robots will be monitored remotely. Automated deliveries could make deliveries more affordable in the long term and create markets for more types of services.

Netflix is exploring live streaming for its unscripted shows and stand-up specials. The platform has lined up competition series and talent contests that could use the feature. It may also use live streaming to bring back its Netflix Is A Joke festival. It is unknown whether Netflix intends to roll out live streaming for sports. The product is still in its preliminary stages of development and there is no timeline for its release.

A study by researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago has found a potential gene-editing treatment for anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adults who were exposed to binge drinking in their adolescence. Binge drinking in adolescence alters brain chemistry in the enhancer region of the Arc gene and reduces Arc expression in the amygdala for both rodents and humans. This contributes to a predisposition to alcohol use disorder in adulthood. Rats that had been exposed to alcohol during adolescence showed fewer indicators of anxiety and lower alcohol consumption when Arc gene expression was increased using CRISPR technology. Normal rats showed more indicators of anxiety and increased their alcohol consumption when Arc gene expression was decreased.

Researchers from Switzerland and the US have published a study in which they woke up light-sensing cells from deceased human organ donors. The cells responded to light stimulation up to five hours after the organ donor's death. The technique could be used to reverse some types of blindness. It could also be used to extend the shelf life of donor organs.

The best issue tracking software is one that software developers are actually happy to use. Shortcut provides the ease of use of a simple project management tool with the power of an overly complex one that you wish you weren’t being forced to use. Learn more.

FormKit is a form-authoring framework for Vue developers. It makes building high-quality production-ready forms 10 times faster. FormKit features built-in validation, powerful form generation, theming, Tailwind support, and plugins. Interactive examples are available.

Bud is a full-stack Go framework for web development. It reduces the cost of building, launching, and maintaining rich web applications by providing a well-tested set of building blocks that every serious website needs. It is the Ruby on Rails for the Go ecosystem. A video on how to build a Hacker News clone with Bud in 15 minutes is available.

Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter has been put temporarily on hold while Musk waits for the company to show how it calculated the number of false or spam accounts on its platform. Musk is still committed to the acquisition and it will proceed after Twitter provides satisfactory information on its numbers. Twitter has miscalculated the number of daily users on its platform in past reports. The number of false or spam accounts could be higher than estimated. Cutting down on false and bot accounts is a key part of Musk's pitch for improving the business.

Gato is a general-purpose AI that can complete 604 different tasks, including captioning images, engaging in dialogue, and playing games. It performs 450 of those tasks better than an expert more than half the time. Gato only has 1.2 billion parameters, compared to GPT-3's more than 170 billion. It was designed to be able to handle any task if scaled up. The model still has the same weaknesses that other artificial intelligence models have, such as having biases and an inability to remember context.