TLDR 2019-10-21

Wing begins deliveries in US, Tesla enters China

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Big Tech & Startups

Alphabet’s Wing begins making first commercial drone deliveries in the US (2 minute read)

Wing has started to service US customers starting with a partnership with FedEx Express, Sugar Magnolia, and Walgreens. Michael and Kelly Collver were the first customers to receive a package from the service. They ordered a cough and cold pack to be delivered to their home in Christianburg, Virginia. Wing obtained its Air Carrier Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this year, which allowed Wing pilots to manage multiple aircraft flying without any human pilot on board. Earlier this month, UPS also secured FAA approval to operate a commercial drone delivery service.

Tesla gets the go-ahead to build cars in China (2 minute read)

Tesla is building a $2 billion factory in Shanghai which will manufacture at least 1,000 Model 3s each week. The factory could be up and running within weeks. Tesla will now be able to avoid the high import tariffs that are imposed on cars made in the US in the world's biggest car market. The Gigafactory 3 will be the first fully-foreign owned car plant in China. Shanghai authorities have offered help to speed up construction of the plant. China has excluded Tesla vehicles from its 10% tax on cars. The plant may be a sign that China is looking to open up its car market.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Want $125k? Just Donate Your Face to Some Humanoid Robots (2 minute read)

An additive manufacturing and machine startup in London is offering $125,000 to own the rights to a face that will appear on all of its robots. Geomiq is working on a line of robots for elderly care that will be produced next year. It has partnered with a client who they cannot disclose due to a non-disclosure agreement. The face that is chosen will be potentially mass-produced on thousands of robots. These robots are designed to work as a virtual friend for elderly people. Details for where to send in your face are provided.

NASA must rework planetary protection plans, panel advises (3 minute read)

NASA's rules for preventing the spread of earthly microbes, as well as the spread of alien life on Earth, require rethinking, according to an independent agency advisory panel. Current rules are costly and some procedures do not make sense, considering the scientific knowledge we have gained since the rules were created. The Moon is classified as potentially of interest for research on the origins of life, but few scientists now see it as an important site for studying these questions, except for at its poles. Reclassifying the Moon as nonessential for biological studies would simplify exploration for space agencies. Mars has been treated as if microbes could survive on the planet, but many scientists now think that it is unlikely. Earth has been bombarded by meteorites that originated from Mars with no known biological harm in the past, so its guidelines for returning samples should be reviewed. NASA is not a regulatory agency, and commercial actors, for example, Tesla, have launched objects into space with no planetary protection evaluation in the past. Humans will eventually contaminate Mars, so research into water-rich regions should be explored as soon as possible.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

DevOps Interview Questions (GitHub Repo)

This repository contains 300 questions on various DevOps related topics. Interviewers may focus on different things, for example, some might focus on your resume and others might focus on your problem-solving skills, so the repository attempts to cover different types of questions.

TinaCMS (GitHub Repo)

TinaCMS is an open-source site editing toolkit that allows developers to edit their websites in real-time. It can be easily installed in five minutes, and once installed, developers can open the sidebar to edit their websites and watch the content update in realtime. An example video is available that shows TinaCMS in action.
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Miscellaneous

Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro? (Hacker News Thread)

While the Macbook Pro has amazing specs, Apple has demonstrated its inability to be reliable. The original poster has had to repair their MBP three times since they purchased it in January 2019 and they are worried about being charged for repairs after the warranty runs out. Top recommendations are for the Dell XPS series. Most of the discussion centers around an analogy between macOS and Linux, comparing it to living in a hotel vs living at home. On the Mac ecosystem, everything is stylish and cared for, but there is little freedom to change things. However, on Linux, you need to do many things yourself, but it is completely yours.

We asked some of the boldest thinkers what the world will be like in 50 years. Here’s what their answers tell us about the future (Website)

Thinkers around the world were asked questions about the future of our world. These questions include: Who will run the world? Which country will have the most powerful economy? What kinds of companies will be most important? What will cause the biggest conflicts? How will people earn a living? There are many more questions. The top three answers are displayed on the main page. More answers are linked to provide deeper insight into how people think the future will turn out.
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