Happy Thursday! One more day to the weekend—stay strong!

🤫 Geek Goss 🤭

#YUDontLikeMe - YouTube’s “Like” button is playing hide and seek! A glitch is making the button disappear after you click it. But it doesn’t affect functionality—just visibility. Hopefully, YouTube will fix this vanishing act soon!

#YUDontUnderstandMe - Google's AI overviews are missing the mark on why people actually use Google. Instead of enhancing search results, the AI summaries are sometimes irrelevant or confusing. Users are scratching their heads, wondering if Google’s AI really understands them.

#YUDontRememberMe - China, already notorious for its censorship policies, seems to have added a new chapter - chinese netizens are reporting that they are not able to view any content created online between the years 1995 - 2005.

⌛ The Past 24 hours

Google Sheets Adds Conditional Notifications

Google Sheets now features Conditional Notifications, allowing Workspace users to receive email alerts when specific conditions, such as cell value changes, are met. Users can set up these alerts via Tools > Conditional notifications or by right-clicking on cells. This feature supports up to 10 email recipients and is available for select Google Workspace tiers, excluding personal accounts.

YouTube Tests AI-Generated Green Screen Feature 'Dream Screen'

YouTube is experimenting with a new AI tool, "Dream Screen," which generates green screen backgrounds for YouTube Shorts videos. This feature allows creators to produce custom backgrounds from text-based prompts within the app. Currently in testing with a select group of creators, Dream Screen aims to expand creativity and is set to roll out more broadly later this year.

Aging Hubble Telescope Moves to ‘One-Gyro’ Operations

Due to gyroscope failures, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will operate on a single gyroscope, reducing productivity by over 12% and limiting some scientific capabilities. This mode aims to extend Hubble's lifespan, allowing continued observations through 2035. The reduced efficiency will impact target tracking, simultaneous observations with the JWST, and the portion of the sky Hubble can observe.

Google Maps to Sunset Timeline Web Access

Google Maps will soon discontinue web access for its Timeline feature, which tracks users' location history. The company is shifting to an on-device approach for enhanced privacy, with data unique to each phone. Users will be notified to migrate their location history to an on-device database. A new backup feature will allow encrypted copies to be saved and restored. Deadlines vary, but one is set for December 1, 2024.

Asana Introduces ‘AI Teammates’ to Assist Human Employees

Asana, the product management tool, has launched a beta version of "AI teammates" to enhance workplace efficiency. These AI tools can autonomously handle tasks, such as evaluating and advancing work steps or seeking additional input from human workers.

Substack Adds Video Sharing to Chat Feature

Substack, the newsletter platform that competes with Medium has introduced video sharing in its Chat feature, allowing writers to send up to five-minute videos to subscribers. This follows the addition of video to Substack Notes. Writers can upload or record videos, add captions, and place them behind a paywall. Subscribers receive push notifications about new videos.

👩🏾‍💻 Bit Boutique

ChatTTS | A generative speech model for daily dialogue. Basically a text to speech model designed specifically for scenarios like an LLM assistant.

Marker | Convert PDF to Markdown quickly, with high accuracy

React-glow | A very cool library that gives you a mouse tracking glow effect for your Reactjs components. Check their demo out - it is seriously a cool feature!

📢 In case you missed it

• Check out this schedule for various live events related to learning more about the Github platform. Great resource to upskill yourself.

• A new hackathon is on the horizon - Build an AI powered Mental Wellness Support Chatbot

💼 Job Board

🎲 Miscellaneous

Mastering Javascript Promises

Promises require a bunch of context. If you jump straight into the syntax, it doesn't make much sense, because it's not clear why it works or what problems it solves. This blogs starts from the ground up - helping you understand Javascript Promises in depth.

Why I Retired From The Tech Crusades

David Heinemeier Hansson shares his reasons for stepping back from active involvement in tech industry debates. He reflects on the toll it took on his mental health and the importance of focusing on meaningful, balanced work rather than relentless advocacy. Hansson emphasizes the value of contributing positively without the burnout associated with tech crusades.

CLI Tricks Every Developer Should Know

GitHub's blog post covers essential command-line interface (CLI) tricks to enhance developer productivity. It includes tips on efficient navigation, advanced searching with grep, customizing the command prompt, using aliases for common commands, and leveraging tools like fzf for fuzzy finding.

My Mentee Went From Junior to Senior Engineer in Less Than 2 Years

Jordan Cutler shares how his mentee achieved a Senior Engineer position within two years. The approach involved weekly 1:1 meetings using a structured framework, creating a detailed growth plan, tracking accomplishments, and maintaining open communication with the manager. Emphasizing hard work, effective mentorship, and continuous self-reflection were key factors in this rapid career advancement.