TLDR 2023-07-25

TikTok text posts 📱, Starship space station 🚀, Apple Reality Pro Dev Kit 👨‍💻

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Big Tech & Startups

TikTok is adding text posts (1 minute read)

TikTok users can now make text posts. Users can edit posts to change how the text appears and add background colors, music, or stickers. There is a 1,000-character limit. Users can engage with other users' posts in the same way they interact with other TikTok content. A screenshot of the feature is available in the article.

Sam Altman launches eyeball-scanning Worldcoin to ‘drastically increase economic opportunity’ (2 minute read)

Worldcoin has started rolling out its services worldwide. The startup aims to build a reliable solution for telling humans from AI apart online to enable global democratic processes and drastically increase economic opportunity. Anyone wanting to receive a World ID will need to download World App and access one of Worldcoin's Orb eyeball-scanning verification devices. Worldcoin was previously onboarding individuals in countries like India by giving them 25 Worldcoin tokens to verify their World IDs at an Orb.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Could SpaceX turn Starship into a space station? (11 minute read)

SpaceX and NASA are in the early stages of seeing whether Starship can be repurposed into a commercial space station. NASA has a keen interest in commercial space stations as there are no plans for a government-owned research lab in low-Earth orbit after the International Space Station is decommissioned. It previously passed over a bid by SpaceX for a funded space station development agreement due to several issues with its plans. NASA will not provide any funding for the new effort, but instead will provide technical expertise.

Transplant of fresh brain cells replaces diseased and aged ones (4 minute read)

Researchers who transplanted cells capable of forming specialized brain support cells into mice brains found that the cells competed with and replaced unhealthy and aged cells. The study’s findings opens the door to the development of an effective treatment for a range of diseases affecting the brain. The researchers plan to conduct clinical trials to test the effectiveness of the technique in Huntington’s disease, primary progressive multiple sclerosis, and Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease. They aim to restore aspects of normal function in these degenerative diseases by replacing diseased and aged cells.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

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TLDR is hiring a part-time curator to join our TLDR Design newsletter curation team. The newsletter already has over 250,000 subscribers pre-launch, it's a great way to build a personal brand within the designer community.

The ideal candidate would work as a designer and enjoy keeping up with designer news and trends through channels like Twitter, Reddit, blogs, podcasts, and online communities.

Time commitment is ~5-10 hours/week (Sunday through Thursday) paid at a rate of $100/hr, to apply please send your LinkedIn or resume to jobs@tldr.tech along with a couple sentences on why you'd be a good fit!

GitHub Repository Rules are now generally available (6 minute read)

GitHub's repository rules feature allows developers to easily define branch protections in public repositories. It allows for flexible targeting options to protect multiple branch patterns using a single ruleset. Everyone collaborating on a repository will be able to view the rules through an overview page. This article contains examples of how to set up rules and suggests some typical rules for production repositories.

Apple is taking applications for Vision Pro developer kits (3 minute read)

Developers can now apply to get a Vision Pro headset on Apple's website. Apple's Vision Pro developer kits include help setting up the device, code-level support requests, and check-ins with Apple experts. Developers creating apps that take advantage of visionOS features and capabilities will be prioritized on the waitlist. Unauthorized persons, including household members, are not allowed to access, view, or handle the development kit. Apple has released a compatibility checklist on its website to help developers ensure that their apps are ready for visionOS.
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Miscellaneous

I have a big story about AI and the human future drawn from conversations with Sam Altman and others (5 minute read)

Sam Altman believes that the AI revolution is at hand and that it will be different from previous technological changes. The technology will likely change society and require humans to adapt to new ways of living. There will be automated organizations that are exponentially more powerful than the biggest tech companies today. It is hard for anyone to currently comprehend nonhuman power of that magnitude.

The rise of makers (6 minute read)

There is a cyclical nature to technology progress. A part of this is the rise of makers, a time in the cycle when those who tinker and prototype emerge as the best candidates for finding the Next Big Thing. We hear fewer stories about makers not because we run out of them, but rather due to the fact that the prominence of makers is a function of the cycle of technological progress. Makers' contributions are only significant during one part of the cycle.
Quick Links

The IBM mainframe: How it runs and why it survives (24 minute read)

Mainframes are purpose-built to process enormous amounts of data and are used almost exclusively by the largest companies in the world - most of the world's estimated 10,000 mainframes come from IBM.

Publishers want billions, not millions, from AI (2 minute read)

Tech companies are hoping to placate publishers with eight-figure payouts, but publishers believe that the number should be much higher.

The Fall of Stack Overflow (1 minute read)

Stack Overflow has lost around 50% of its traffic over the last one and a half years.

Flip phones are having a moment — and all eyes are on Samsung now (3 minute read)

This year's lineup of flip phones will have cover screens that are much larger and way more useful.

Google proposes a new tracking superpower in Chrome (3 minute read)

Google's proposed Web Environment Integrity API will identify the user at the computer to reduce bot usage.

What Vitalik Buterin thinks of biometric proof of personhood (37 minute read)

Proof-of-Personhood is a limited form of real-world identity that asserts that an account is controlled by a real person without revealing who that person is.
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