TLDR 2021-06-23

Facebook is in the early stages of building camera-based search tools for Instagram. The feature will help users find products inside the app. Facebook Shops will soon arrive on Marketplace and WhatsApp. Businesses will be able to create storefronts in WhatsApp. The company is also working on a feature that will allow businesses to target ads based on people's individual shopping preferences.

Brave's search engine has been launched in global beta. The non-tracking search engine is built on top of an independent index and is marketed as a privacy-safe alternative to products like Google search. Brave will make Brave Search the default search for its browser later this year. Pro-privacy consumer tech has been building momentum over the last few years as the public is becoming more educated on surveillance-based business models.

Masten Space Systems is a Californian-based startup that is developing a robotic rover system to mine ice on the Moon. The Rocket M rover will extract lunar ice using controlled rocket blasts. It can travel at speeds of up to 2.14 mph and climb 20 percent inclines. The rover can electrolyze stored water for power. Lunar ice can be used for vital resources in future missions. A 5-minute video explaining how the rocket mining system works is available in the article.

The Toyota Research Institute has developed new capabilities for its line of domestic robots, including the ability to recognize and manipulate transparent objects and to wipe down counters and tables. Japanese robot manufacturers have made it clear that they plan to create robots that will serve as domestic helpers. Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world. Robots will be able to perform tasks that people find more challenging as they get older. A video from Toyota showing off the new capabilities of its robots is available in the article.

This repository contains a collection of DeFI and Blockchain research and tools. It covers topics such as dApps, frameworks, security, DeFi, NFTs, stable coins, side chains, and more. The tools it contains include Ethereum clients, smart contract libraries, patterns for smart contracts, storage, and APIs.

Blockchain is a genuine innovation in computing paradigms, where everyone shares a running computer and anyone anywhere can use it in an open and permissionless manner. This article walks through how to make a transaction in pure Python from scratch with zero dependencies. A jupyter notebook version of the article is available.

Bumble's 700 employees were given this week off as paid vacation to help them with burnout. The week off is in addition to the company's normal vacation allowance. Bumble was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in February, raising $2.2 million in its initial public offering. It has been a busy year for the company. Social media management platform Hootsuite also made a similar announcement recently, but it will stagger schedules for staff so that customers don't experience interruptions in their services.

Live Eye Surveillance is a surveillance camera system that lets a remote human operator intervene whenever they see something suspicious. The operators can speak through store speakers to interact with people in the store. Live Eye's system has caused some concern with workers, especially as it could potentially make dangerous situations worse. A link to a 2-minute sample video from Live Eye demonstrating the system is available in the article.