TLDR 2023-06-30

YouTube is running a small global experiment that prompts users with ad blockers to allow ads or try YouTube Premium. Some users have reported that video playback is being cut off after viewing more than three videos when an ad blocker is active. YouTube says that users will receive multiple warnings before playback is disrupted. Users can dispute their bans if they feel that they have been falsely flagged as using an ad blocker.

Reddit has given its moderators deadlines to lay out plans for reopening. Subreddits will not be allowed to remain closed. The company claims that moderators are violating the Moderator Code of Conduct, which says that they need to be active and engaged. Many subreddits have switched from private to restricted, so while content can still be viewed by the community, only certain users are allowed to post or comment.

Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial spaceflight on Thursday. Galactic 01 took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico with a pair of pilots, four passengers, and 13 research payloads. The company plans to fly its spacecraft once a month after a second mission in August. It currently has a backlog of about 800 passengers, many who bought tickets for between $200,000 to $250,000 over a decade ago. Ticket sales reopened two years ago, with prices starting at $450,000 per seat.

A prototype reactor in Everett, WA is already producing high-energy neutrons from nuclear fusion. Zap Energy's Fuze-Q prototype, which is an office-desk-sized device, is designed to reliably produce enough power for 30,000 homes all day and night, year-round. The system has no cryogenics, no superconducting coils, no auxiliary heating, and no magnets. Zap believes that gargantuan systems are unnecessary, undesirable, and impractical for fusion power. The company is betting that it will be easier to produce practical amounts of power by stringing together short pulses of fusion activity rather than trying to create a continuous fusion reaction.

TypeID is a modern and type-safe global unique identifier. It is type-safe, K-sortable, and compatible with UUIDs. TypeID's encoding is URL safe, case-insensitive, clear, easily selectable, and compact.

GitLab's AI-assisted Code Suggestions helps teams create software faster and more efficiently. Developers can use the tool to complete entire lines of code, generate tests, and more with a single keystroke. The tool keeps source code secure - it is not used as training data. GitLab's AI-powered Code Suggestions supports 13 languages, including C/C++, Go, Java, Python, and Rust.

Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccarino is preparing a series of measures to bring advertisers back. The plans include introducing a video ads service, attracting more celebrities, and increasing headcount. Twitter's new ad format, which focuses on video, is still in a beta stage. Yaccarino, known as the 'velvet hammer' in the ad industry due to her tenacity in dealmaking, plans to make commerce easier on Twitter and will seek to mend relations with partners.

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, has authored three seminal essays: 'Why Software is Eating the World', 'It's Time to Build', and 'Why AI Will Save the World'. This article contains a transcript from an extensive interview with Andreessen about these essays, with a particular focus on the most recent one about AI. There was also some discussion of a16z-related topics. A link to the audio is available.

Neuroscientist Christof Koch bet philosopher David Chalmers that humans would discover how the brain's neurons produce consciousness by 2023 - and lost.

The economic landscape doesn't look very good right now - venture capital is drying up and many startups don't have the cash to continue for much longer.

SAE International has announced support for Tesla's North American Charging Standard port, making it easier for electric vehicle charging station manufacturers and operators to implement the port.

Palmer Luckey is mostly positive about the Vision Pro, but thinks that he would have done a few things differently.

chatgpt.js is a client-side library that makes it easy to interact with the ChatGPT DOM.

Boba AI is an experimental AI co-pilot designed to augment the early stages of strategy ideation and concept generation.