Boeing Starliner returning empty as NASA turns to SpaceX to bring astronauts back from ISS (5 minute read)
Boeing will return its Starliner capsule without the NASA astronauts that it delivered to orbit. The two astronauts will return via SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on a mission launching on September 24. They will stay at the International Space Station for about six more months before flying home in February. The test was originally intended to last about nine days. This decision was made due to NASA's commitment to safety - Starliner's crew flight test faced problems, most notably with its propulsion system. NASA officials still support Boeing and Starliner will likely be able to launch with a crew again someday.
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Shocker: French make surprise arrest of Telegram founder at Paris airport (2 minute read)
French authorities have detained Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app. They plan to hit him with charges related to abetting terrorism, fraud, money laundering, and crimes against children. There is a near-total lack of moderation on the platform, making it a top tool for organized crime. Durov's arrest has led to widespread panic in Russia - Telegram is used by Russian forces to communicate, and Western intelligence services may be able to obtain sensitive information about the Russian military if they gain access to it.
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Science & Futuristic Technology
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World-first lung cancer vaccine trials launched across seven countries (5 minute read)
BioNTech has begun trials for BNT116, an mRNA lung cancer vaccine, in 34 research sites across the UK, US, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and Turkey. The vaccine works by presenting the immune system with tumor markers to prime the body to fight cancer cells expressing those markers. It aims to strengthen a person's immune response to cancer while leaving healthy cells untouched. The treatment is simple to deliver - patients receive a round of shots every week for six consecutive weeks and then every three weeks for 54 weeks.
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China's own Tesla Optimus? Beijing's ambitions in humanoid robots in full display at expo (4 minute read)
Chinese technology companies unveiled more than two dozen humanoid robots at the five-day 2024 World Robot Conference in Beijing last week. The show attracted 400 industry experts and academics and more than 160 domestic and overseas robotic firms. While there seems to be growing interest in robots from consumers, there are still several hurdles to overcome before their use can become widespread. These include a lack of sufficient data to train the AI used in the robots, limited use cases, and high prices.
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Programming, Design & Data Science
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buffdb (GitHub Repo)
buffdb is a lightweight and high-performance persistence layer for gRPC. It is designed to be used in environments where bandwidth is limited and performance is critical. buffdb uses protobuff as its messaging format of choice but support for other formats is planned. It has full support for SQLite and partial support for DuckDB and RocksDB.
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ruroco (GitHub Repo)
ruroco is a tool that lets users execute commands on a server by sending UDP packets. It contains several security features that prevent port scanning and clients running unauthorized commands. It encrypts data sent from client to server using RSA and it runs server software in a way that uses as little operating system rights as possible. ruroco can be used for single packet authorization, enabling webservices, and more.
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Why does getting a job in tech suck right now? (Is it AI?!?) (29 minute read)
A lot of new CS graduates are finding it really hard to get a job. There is a massive confluence of factors, both on the demand and supply side of the market, that are contributing to it being harder to land a job in tech. There are more CS graduates than ever and employers are hiring fewer software engineers. AI is not replacing engineers' jobs yet and it probably won't happen for an incredibly long time. This article looks at all these factors in detail.
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Merchants of complexity (2 minute read)
It's hard to sell simple because it looks easy. Clever and sophisticated beats basic and straightforward most days in the market. These products imply there is something special, which allows them to command premium prices. Tech companies tend to turn basic problems people could easily solve for themselves quickly and cheaply into challenges that only a sophisticated solution can solve - usually with a subscription. People can escape this cycle by deciding that all the extra complexity isn't worth it and daring to be basic.
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Create an internal CLI (11 minute read)
Some companies use their own internal CLIs for org-wide things like installing useful tools, generating boilerplate code, or running complex AWS commands - this article discusses how to get started with your own CLI.
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CORS is Stupid (10 minute read)
CORS is a giant hack to mitigate legacy mistakes, but none of its protections are actually sufficient to solve the intended problem.
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