TLDR 2023-07-14

Meta's AI for business 🤖, VCs are shrinking 💰, GitHub Merge Queues 👨‍💻

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Big Tech & Startups

Meta could soon make its AI model available for commercial projects (1 minute read)

Meta reportedly plans to release a commercial version of its language model, LLaMA. It may also release AI chatbots for different types of users. Access to Meta's commercial AI model will likely be free at launch. Meta plans to charge enterprise customers for custom versions of the model.

Stability AI releases Stable Doodle, a sketch-to-image tool (3 minute read)

Stability AI is launching a new service that turns sketches into images called Stable Doodle. Stable Doodle leverages the latest Stable Diffusion model to analyze the outline of a sketch and generate an artistic rendition of it. It is available now through ClipDrop. Examples of images generated with Stable Doodle are available in the article.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

A Look at SpaceX’s Starship Upgrades as it Prepares for Second Flight (2 minute read)

SpaceX has made over a thousand modifications to Starship since its first orbital flight test. The changes include significant adjustments to the thrust vector controls, staging, liftoff, and flight termination system. Elon Musk says that Starship will be ready to fly again by August. There are several regulatory hurdles to overcome before the next test flight can receive launch approval.

100x Faster Than Wi-Fi: Li-Fi, Light-Based Networking, Standard Released (2 minute read)

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has added 802.11bb as a standard for light-based wireless communications. The formalization of 802.11bb will help speed up the rollout and adoption of the light-based transmission technology standard. Li-Fi delivers faster, more reliable, and more secure wireless communications compared to conventional technologies. Now that the standard has been released, it is hoped that the issue of interoperability between Li-Fi and Wi-Fi can be fully addressed.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

Kuma UI (GitHub Repo)

Kuma UI is a headless, utility-first, zero-runtime UI component library. It features style autocompletion, headless components, RSC support, and a familiar developer experience. A short demo video is available.

GitHub merge queue is generally available (3 minute read)

GitHub's merge queue is now generally available, meaning that there will no longer be traffic jams on the busiest branches. The feature streamlines pull requests and allows multiple developers to commit code on a daily basis without frustration. Merge queue makes sure that pull requests are compatible with other changes ahead of it and alerts users if something goes wrong. This means that teams can focus on the good stuff: writing, submitting, and committing.
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Miscellaneous

VCs Face an Existential Threat: There Are Too Many of Them (12 minute read)

VCs are seeing the most challenging fundraising market many have seen in years. The number of VCs that had raised a fund in the previous eight years grew from 883 to 2,718 between 2010 to 2022. Many people in the industry agree that there are too many VCs and that the industry needs to shrink. It is estimated that up to 80% of venture firms are sitting in strategically challenged positions.

Co-founder of Stability AI, worth billions, says he was tricked into selling stake for $100 (3 minute read)

Stability AI co-founder Cyrus Hodes claims he was deceived into selling his 15% stake in the company for $100 to CEO Emad Mostaque. He says that Mostaque made him believe that the startup was worthless by hiding the company's work on Stable Diffusion. Hodes spent countless hours working for the company before it was bought out. Stability AI says that the suit is without merit.
Quick Links

Advice for Operating a Public-Facing API (7 minute read)

Host the API on its own hostname, be strict in what you accept, avoid OAuth if possible, use unique IDs with every request, be descriptive with error responses, use prefixed tokens, and stay on top of failures.

OpenAI’s Code Interpreter Is About to Remake Finance (12 minute read)

Code Interpreter can do the majority of tasks required to do finance work.

The Looming Demise of the 10x Developer (17 minute read)

The next generation of programmers are less likely to be motivated by a love of programming than previous generations.

Meet Microsoft Office’s new default font: Aptos (2 minute read)

Aptos, which will replace Calibri as the default font in Microsoft Office, is inspired by mid-20th-century Swiss typography.

How Hype Will Turn Your Security Key Into Junk (14 minute read)

The hype around passkeys will prevent, or severely hinder, security key users from choosing the authenticator they want to use.

Telly starts shipping its free ad-supported 55-inch TVs (2 minute read)

Telly plans on shipping 500,000 free TVs to customers by the end of 2023 and millions more in 2024.
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