TLDR 2020-02-13

Facebook's WhatsApp messaging service now has two billion users worldwide, up from one billion users in 2018. WhatsApp used the milestone to remind people of the importance of encryption in messaging services, a practice that is facing increasing pressure from governments worldwide. CEO Will Cathcart has confirmed that the company has no plans to remove encryption from its messaging service. WhatsApp will provide metadata when it is useful for an investigation, but it believes that the contents of people's private communications should remain private. Facebook plans to make all of its messaging apps interoperable in the future, but the company has had some issues porting features across platforms.

Windows has released its first emulator for Windows 10X, its operating system designed exclusively for foldable and dual-screen hardware. Developers will have a chance to start optimizing apps before devices launch later this year. It feels like a slightly more modern version of Windows 10 with a simplified look. The Start Menu behaves like a task launcher where you can search for apps, documents, and web content. Cortana is missing from the operating system. The biggest changes can be found in the way Windows 10X handles multitasking. Apps will open by default on a single screen and can be stretched across dual-screen devices. The old Windows desktop and File Explorer have both been replaced. A new Wonder Bar, designed to sit above or below a hardware keyboard, will allow similar functionality as Apple's Touch Bar.

In the past few years, job seekers have noticed that companies are responding to their applications with automated responses that direct them to online tests. Many of these tests contain questions that the applicant has already answered, and they are sent so quickly to the applicant that no human could've possibly assessed the applicant prior. This experience can be demeaning, and the automation of the process of hiring is just beginning. Some companies are now using automated recorded phone interviews or video interviews where an AI is assessing the applicant based on vocal and facial cues. The career-training industry now teaches applicants strategies and techniques for beating bots. Job applicants consider these systems tedious, but companies claim that it saves them valuable time. There have been cases of biases from some of these bots, mainly caused by the data that the bots were trained on.

A new text-generating system created at MIT is able to update outdated Wikipedia pages with information gathered from the internet in a human-like style. The system only requires a few pieces of information to rewrite a relevant article on any topic. It is able to analyze style and grammar and make sure that the output matches the desired style. The system also has a fact-checking and neutrality component that scans for polarizing words and can remove information. At the end of the day, the system will still need a human to review its output to make a call on whether the information is correct.

GitHub CLI is now in beta for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It can filter lists using labels, quickly view the details of issues, create pull requests, and easily view the status of a project. Examples of how to use GitHub CLI are provided.

DeepSpeed is a deep learning optimizing library that makes distributed training easy, efficient, and effective. It can train DL models with over a hundred billion parameters on current-model GPU clusters while achieving over five times the system performance of state-of-the-art technology. DeepSpeed helped produce Turing-NLG, a language model with over 17 billion parameters.

New luxury cars now use keyless entry technologies to enter and start vehicles. As with all other technologies, some people have developed methods of breaking through the security used in car technologies in order to break into or steal cars. Devices that can perform these hacks sell for thousands of dollars each. Police departments have seen an increase in vehicle robberies which involve a variety of electronic tools. These devices use different techniques and they can work on many vehicles as long as they have the same vulnerability. The devices can be very cheap to make as long as you have the knowhow. It is not illegal to buy or sell them in the US.

Google has updated its Google Earth View collection with 1,000 new images of some of Earth's most stunning landscapes as seen from space. The collection now boasts over 2,500 landscapes from across the globe with images optimized for 4K screens. Google Earth View images can be used as wallpapers and screensavers for a range of devices. A link to Google Earth View is available in the article.