Meta releases the biggest and best open-source AI model yet (7 minute read)
Meta has released Llama 3.1, its biggest open-source AI model yet. The company claims it outperforms GPT-4o and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet on several benchmarks. The largest version has 405 billion parameters and was trained with over 16,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. Meta is making its AI assistant available in more countries and languages and adding a feature that can generate images based on someone's likeness.
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Apple's first foldable iPhone could arrive in 2026 (2 minute read)
Apple's first foldable iPhone could arrive in 2026. It is rumored to fold horizontally, similarly to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. The phone is now in development with suppliers. Apple is still reportedly working to flatten the crease that appears when the phone is unfolded. Next year's iPhone is rumored to have a mechanical aperture that will let users achieve a depth-of-field effect.
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Science & Futuristic Technology
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Is Cultivated Meat For Real? (27 minute read)
While the cultivated meat industry is releasing increasingly optimistic projections, well-informed commentators remain skeptical. It is difficult to make cultivated meat at affordable prices and at a large enough scale to compete with conventional animal products. Cultivated meat is possible, but it will take decades and hundreds of billions of dollars in investment. In the meantime, companies could pursue cheaper products that combine cultivated meat and plant-based components.
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Chinese researchers create four-gram drone that might fly forever (4 minute read)
Chinese researchers have created a solar powered drone that weighs just over four grams. It uses an electrostatic motor that weighs just 1.52 grams and is powered by solar cells that produce 4.5V. Its design has a lift-to-power efficiency two to three times better than that found in traditional drones. Adding batteries to the drone would make it capable of 24-hour flying operations.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
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Software engineers are not (and should not be) technicians (4 minute read)
Great software engineers automate repetitive/manual labor. Most large software engineering organizations incentivize anti-automation due to their desire for predictability. Predictable work is work that could have been automated but was not automated. The more predictable and routine a developer's job is, the more they tend to slide into becoming a technician. Teams that get into predictable flows are likely ignoring a promising opportunity for automation.
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Where Should Visual Programming Go? (9 minute read)
We shouldn't try to replace all code with visual programming but instead only add graphics where it makes sense. Most visual programming environments fail to get any usage because they try to replace code syntax and business logic, which developers never try to visualize. Developers visualize things like state transitions, memory layouts, and network requests. Those working on visual programming would be more likely to succeed if it started with aspects of software that developers already visualize.
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Inside the 78 minutes that took down millions of Windows machines (5 minute read)
Businesses around the world experienced outages starting shortly after midnight on Friday. This was caused by a faulty update to CrowdStrike's Falcon security software, which is used widely in Windows machines to prevent cyber threats. The update exposed a massive flaw in the company's product that could have been easily avoided. The issue could have been prevented if CrowdStrike had properly tested its updates with a small group of users and rolled out the update gradually, a fairly standard practice in the industry.
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Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there? (Hacker News Thread)
The gap between FAANG and non-FAANG salaries can be quite substantial. While it is possible to make FAANG-level salaries elsewhere, these opportunities are usually in less well-known companies that rarely hire. Most of these jobs also require some kind of specialty. The finance industry pays well, but the job will likely be more stressful. One other option is to learn how to build a business rather than optimizing to being a well-paid employee.
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