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Snap's new Spectacles πŸ‘“, Salesforce's AI pivot ✨, Neuralink Blindsight πŸ‘€

TLDR <dan@tldrnewsletter.com>

September 18, 10:23 am

TLDR
Snap's fifth-generation Spectacles have a richer, more immersive display. They feel faster and last longer on a charge. It is not for sale 

TLDR

Together With Sky QuarrySky Quarry

TLDR 2024-09-18

Final Day: Invest Before Planned Nasdaq Listing (Sponsor)

Today, 9/18, is the final day to invest in Sky Quarry's current round ahead of their planned Nasdaq listing. With over 15M tons of waste asphalt shingles dumped in landfills each year, Sky Quarry is working to turn them into oil and other valuables with their proprietary technology. It's an estimated $4.4B revenue opportunity. Since the acquisition of their refinery, their revenue increased 211% in 2023. They expect to produce 2,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025. The deadline is tonight – become a Sky Quarry shareholder before their current rounds ends.

This is a paid advertisement for Sky Quarry's Regulation A Offering.  Additional information on the company and risk factors related to the offering can be found in the Form 1-A offering circular.

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Big Tech & Startups

Snap's new Spectacles inch closer to compelling AR (8 minute read)

Snap's fifth-generation Spectacles have a richer, more immersive display. They feel faster and last longer on a charge. The new Spectacles will not be sold but will be instead distributed to developers making AR lenses for Snapchat. Developers will have to apply for access through Lens Studio, Snap's desktop tool for creating AR software, and pay $99 per month to rent a pair of Spectacles for at least one year. This article takes a look at what it's like to wear the new Spectacles.
Salesforce's New AI Strategy Acknowledges That AI Will Take Jobs (4 minute read)

Salesforce says that its AI tools can handle tasks without human supervision. The company plans to charge $2 per conversion held by its new generative AI agents. Salesforce is insulating itself from customer job cuts by pricing its new AI features based on outcomes rather than the number of employees using it. Its new AI agents will allow companies to increase their workforce capacity during busy periods without having to hire additional full-time employees or gig workers.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Musk's Neuralink gets FDA's breakthrough device tag for 'Blindsight' implant (2 minute read)

Neuralink's experimental 'Blindsight' device, which is designed to enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see, has received the US FDA's breakthrough device designation. The 'breakthrough' tag is given to certain medical devices that provide treatment for or diagnosis of life-threatening conditions. It is aimed at speeding up the development and review of devices. Neuralink is currently testing an implant designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking - it is unknown when it expects Blindsight devices to move into human trials.
Why United chose SpaceX's Starlink to power its free Wi-Fi (7 minute read)

United Airlines has signed an agreement with SpaceX to bring Starlink internet services to its entire fleet and offer free Wi-Fi to all passengers. United is currently using a mix of four different providers, all with different capabilities and limitations. Starlink is the only service that provides global coverage with enough bandwidth. Its hardware is also easy to install, with the satellite terminals being much smaller than the ones United currently uses. The first passenger flight with Starlink Wi-Fi will take off sometime in 2025.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

A historic data breach may have leaked your personal info to hackers. Protect your data for just $3.19/mo (Sponsor)

CBS reports that a massive data breach in April may have released the personal information of β€˜billions of individuals' to hackers on the dark web. Avoid becoming a cautionary tale with Surfshark - the one-stop browsing protection app offering data-breach Alert, Antivirus, adblock, VPN, and more.

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Opik (GitHub Repo)

Opik is an open source end-to-end large language model development platform. It allows developers to confidently evaluate, test, and monitor LLM applications. Opik can be used for tracing, annotations, evaluations, production monitoring, and more.
Void (GitHub Repo)

Void is an open source alternative to Cursor, an AI code editor. It allows developers to write code with AI tools and access powerful AI features while retaining full control over their data. Void has many built-in and community features - anyone can build their own AI integrations. Developers can choose to host their own models or use popular hosted models.
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Miscellaneous

Unfortunate startup pivots. A short list (5 minute read)

Going from B2B to consumer doesn't work as the founding team's strengths usually lie in selling to enterprise customers and having a deep network in a specific vertical. Adding more social features rarely helps. Neither does chasing trendy tech like AI or web3. Other common mistakes include building platforms prematurely and going from paid to free.
What are the best options for Amazon SDEs thinking about leaving over RTO policy (Hacker News Thread)

This thread is for SDEs thinking of leaving Amazon over the 5-day return-to-office announcement. It discusses the best options for work-from-home, flexibility, interesting projects, and salaries. There are a lot of good options out there, but workers may have to accept lower pay. Talented Amazon engineers should basically have the 'pick of the litter' and companies will likely be fawning over them. Amazon recruiters periodically ping previous employees to see if they're interested in returning, so it's worth leaving the company on good terms.
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Quick Links

⚠️ Take the Software Release Risk Assessment (Sponsor)

Is your next software release likely to crash, glitch, or fail to load? Answer a few questions to identify potential customer-impacting risks like poor UX, latency, and outages. Get a free assessment (2 minutes)
23andMe independent directors quit board over unsatisfactory buyout plan from CEO (1 minute read)

23andMe went public in 2021 - its CEO has been trying to make the company private since April, but their proposal was deemed insufficient and not in the best interest of shareholders.
Musk says SpaceX will sue FAA for "regulatory overreach" (2 minute read)

SpaceX is facing upwards of $630,000 in fines for allegedly violating launch requirements during two missions in 2023.
Snapchat is getting its biggest redesign in years (2 minute read)

Snapchat is simplifying its interface from five tabs to three tabs to bring Stories closer to conversations, simplify content discovery, and allow quick access to the camera.
OpenTelemetry Tracing in 200 lines of code (20 minute read)

Tracing libraries are a lot simpler than you'd expect - it's just fancy logging combined with context propagation.
Why To Not Write A Book (20 minute read)

A book commits you to a single task for years, cutting you off from other opportunities, and there is a serious risk that it may not work out.
Open Source Needs to be Financially Symbiotic (4 minute read)

This post looks at how Eleventy evolved from a side project to an independently full-time community-funded open source project.

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Dan Ni & Stephen Flanders


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