TLDR 2021-08-17

US government regulators are opening an investigation into Tesla's Autopilot system. The investigation will cover 11 crashes that have happened since 2018. All of the crashes involved Teslas hitting first responders' vehicles that had been parked and marked with flashing lights and other traffic markers. The investigation will cover how the Autopilot system monitors and enforces driver attentiveness and engagement, as well as how it detects and responds to objects and events on the road. Automakers have been able to develop these systems without significant regulatory oversight, but the investigation suggests that this is about to change.

T-Mobile has confirmed that hackers gained access to its systems. A post was made recently on an underground forum offering to sell private data from T-Mobile customers, including Social Security Numbers, phone numbers, addresses, driver license information, and more. The seller claims that 100 million people had their data compromised in the breach. They are offering data on 30 million people for 6 bitcoin. The entry point used to gain access to the data has been closed. T-Mobile is coordinating with law enforcement to investigate the issue.

Microsoft researchers recently released a paper on using a blockchain-based incentive system to fight piracy. The Argus system relies on the transparency aspect of blockchain technology to provide a trustless incentive mechanism while protecting data collected from piracy reporters. It enables backtracing of pirated content to the source. Tech companies have become increasingly concerned with digital piracy and some have turned to blockchain-based solutions.

CodeVox is a tool that can generate lines of code from natural speech. It works with Python and JavaScript. CodeVox uses OpenAI's Codex AI system to translate natural language to programming languages. Codex is trained on a data set of publicly available code. Its current version can execute about 37 percent of tasks users give it, and it is prone to bias. CodeVox demonstrates how Codex can be used to help make coding accessible to a larger audience. A video demonstration of CodeVox is available in the article.

swc is a super-fast TypeScript/JavaScript compiler. It can consume JavaScript or TypeScript files with new features and emit JavaScript code that can be executed on old browsers. swc supports all published TypeScript versions and all valid ECMAScript as input and supports es3 or higher as output.

Lemonadejs is a super lightweight vanilla javascript micro-library that helps with the integration between JavaScript and HTML. It supports two-way binding and integrates natively with Jsuites to make it easy to create interfaces. Lemonadejs can be run in-browser without dependencies, servers, or transpiling. Examples are available.

Yik Yak, an anonymous messaging app that was shut down in 2017, is back in the iOS App Store for people in the US. The app lets people connect with others anonymously within a five-mile radius. It doesn't allow users to post personal information or engage in antisocial behaviors. There were previous reports of widespread bullying and harassment on the app, which the developers seemed to be aware of. Square bought some of the app's intellectual property after it shut down in 2017, but it is not yet clear who is behind the new version.

Blue Origin is suing NASA, accusing the agency of wrongly evaluating its lunar lander proposal. The case could delay NASA's plans to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024. Blue Origin claims that NASA had negotiated with SpaceX before awarding them with the contract, without giving the same opportunities to other applicants. NASA had originally said that it would pick two companies for its lunar landing systems, but it ended up only choosing SpaceX because Congress had only funded roughly a quarter of what NASA had requested for the program. Blue Origin's protests have already delayed SpaceX from starting its contract for several months.