TLDR 2021-07-12

Virgin Galactic launch 🚀, Tesla self-driving v9 🚗, first US DAO launches ₿

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Big Tech & Startups

Tesla finally releases Full Self-Driving Beta v9: here’s what it looks like (3 minute read)

Tesla has released its Full Self-Driving Beta v9 update. It uses Tesla Vision, a computer vision system that relies on optical imagery. The release notes do not reveal many details about the improvements to the driving system. Full Self-Driving must still be used with caution and drivers are required to stay alert on the roads. The update features driving visualization improvements that display an expanded visualization to show additional surrounding information. Video and screenshots of the new update are available in the article.

Exclusive TED chats are coming to Clubhouse (2 minute read)

TED will be bringing weekly exclusive chats to Clubhouse starting on July 12. It will start with one room at 11 AM ET on Mondays, with plans of launching more rooms soon. TED is free to sell brand partnerships or ads without giving Clubhouse a cut. The company has been successful with its podcasting efforts, with 1.65 million downloads per day from all over the globe. Companies are locking down talent as a strategy to win in the social audio market.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Watch Virgin Galactic launch Richard Branson to space (2 minute read)

Richard Branson and three company employees flew to the edge of space on the morning of July 11. The event was livestreamed and featured Stephen Colbert as the host and a performance from Khalid. It was delayed by 90 minutes due to overnight weather over Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic has already sold roughly 600 tickets at around $250,000 each. Jeff Bezos will be flying to space on July 20. Virgin Galactic's livestream is available in the article.

Northrop to build homes on moon orbit under $935 mln NASA contract (1 minute read)

Northrop Grumman Corp has acquired a $935 million contract from NASA to develop living quarters for its planned outpost in lunar orbit. The Habitation And Logistics Outpost (HALO) will be a vital component of NASA's lunar Gateway. Gateway will support science investigations and enable surface landings on the moon. Eight countries have signed a pact as part of the Artemis program. NASA is aiming to launch the spacecraft in November 2024.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

hck (GitHub Repo)

hck is a cut clone that can use a regex delimiter instead of a fixed string. It makes common things, such as reordering output fields or splitting records on a weird delimiter, easy. hck is fast, and benchmarking results are available.

Earthly (GitHub Repo)

Earthly is a build automation tool that executes builds in containers, making them self-contained, repeatable, portable, and parallel. It uses the same technology as Docker, but Earthly is designed to be a general-purpose build system. Earthly builds run the same for everyone, making it easier to debug and deploy apps.
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Miscellaneous

The strange, sketchy emails a browser extension developer receives (6 minute read)

Chrome extensions can be exploited in many ways, as can be seen in the numerous malware-ridden extensions that have spread over the past year. Up to 3 million devices were infected by malware identified in Chrome and Edge extensions in December 2020. Chrome updates extensions as soon as they pass the automated review, so any extension can suddenly become a Trojan horse. Extension developers are being contacted by companies to either sell their extensions or insert code into their extensions for payment. Examples of these requests are available in the article.

America’s First DAO Approved in Wyoming (3 minute read)

The American CryptoFed DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) is the first legally recognized DAO in the US. It is based on the EOS protocol instead of Ethereum, the cryptocurrency most commonly associated with DAOs. Wyoming lawmakers voted in March to pass a bill, which came into effect in early July, allowing DAOs to be officially registered in the state. The law gives DAOs the same rights as a limited liability company. DAOs are governed by smart contracts and do not have the hierarchical control structures seen in traditional companies.
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