Microsoft Research's Project Silica is testing the storage of huge amounts of data on glass plates using three-dimensional pixels called voxels. The plates can store data for thousands of years. Each plate can store several terabytes of data. The data inside each plate can't be changed once written. Project Silica is still in its early stages and it will be some time before the technology can be used commercially.
Netflix will broadcast the Netflix Cup golf tournament on November 14. The eight-hole tournament will pitch a team of four PGA Tour pros against four Formula 1 golfers. All eight participants were key participants in the Netflix docuseries 'Drive to Survive'. The tournament could set the stage for a future foray into live sports rights for Netflix.
Figure has released video footage of its humanoid robot. The robot was designed with the aim of making it useful as quickly as possible. Figure's team achieved bipedal walking in less than 12 months, a record for a brand-new humanoid initiative. The company aims to show the prototype doing useful work by the end of the year. This article contains photos and a video of the robot as well as an interview with Figure's founder Brett Adcock.
Brimstone Energy is trying to reduce carbon emissions from the production of cement by using calcium silicate rock, which contains no CO2. It will use a patented technology to remove the calcium from the rock. The company has received certification that its product is essentially the same as Portland cement. Its technology produces cheaper cement than what is currently available. Brimstone hopes that its process will lead to the industry using a fully decarbonized system.
This article looks at some of the changes the Chrome extension team has made over the past few months and some of the new features that will come out later this year. Some of the highlights include improved Service Worker stability and the launch of the Runtime and Side Panel APIs. Upcoming changes include the addition of a UserScripts API, a ReadingList API, and an increase in the limit on enabled static rulesets. The Chrome Web Store has been redesigned.
ExecuTorch enables on-device inference on mobile and edge devices including wearables, embedded devices, and microcontrollers. It enables efficient deployment of PyTorch models to edge devices. ExecuTorch is compatible with a wide variety of computing platforms and it can fully utilize hardware capabilities such as CPUs, NPUs, and DSPs. Step-by-step tutorials on how to use ExecuTorch are available.
FTX executives spent $8 billion worth of customer funds on real estate, venture capital investments, campaign donations, endorsement deals, and a sports stadium. Former senior FTX executive Nishad Singh's testimony provided details about exactly where the money went. Singh says that there was a coding error that prevented the correct accounting of user deposits by around $8 billion.
The returns for performance in business are superlinear. This is caused by exponential growth and crossing thresholds. Crossing thresholds leads to exponential growth and exponential growth helps cross thresholds. The general rule for finding situations with superlinear returns is to look for work that compounds.
SpaceX's programs have had to compete with each other for reviews at the FAA in recent months, significantly slowing down the Starship program and putting the development of a Human Landing System for NASA's Artemis program at risk.
Some of Netflix's competitors are licensing their old content to the streamer, boosting its programming offerings but also potentially squeezing its profit margins.