🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #7

Daily dispatches from the world of technology.

May 08, 2024

Cheers to a fantastic Wednesday! May it be filled with success.

Don’t let others convince you that the idea is good when your gut tells you it’s bad.

— Kevin Rose (co-founder Digg)

🤫 Geek Goss 🤭

#StereotypeSnapshots - Meta AI's latest quirk? Dressing every Indian man in a turban! Whether cooking, swimming, or just walking down the street, it seems Meta’s algorithm missed the memo on diversity. Oops! Guess it's turbans all day, every day!

⌛ The Past 24 hours

Instagram has launched new interactive stickers for Stories, including a 'Reveal' sticker that blurs images until a viewer DMs the poster. This feature, alongside others like musical templates and Polaroid-style frames, aims to increase user engagement.

Stack Overflow and OpenAI announce a partnership to integrate Stack Overflow's OverflowAPI with OpenAI's models, enhancing access to validated technical knowledge and improving AI development tools. This collaboration aims to boost developer efficiency and engagement through better data and community insights.

Apple unveiled several major updates at its "Let Loose" event, including a new 13-inch iPad Air with the M2 chip, an OLED-equipped iPad Pro with the M4 processor, and a redesigned Magic Keyboard. Other highlights include a cheaper starting price for the base iPad and advanced features in Apple's creative suite, like Final Cut Camera and AI enhancements in Logic Pro.

GitHub Copilot Workspace, currently in technical preview, has shown its capability to assist developers throughout the software development lifecycle. Early reviews suggest it effectively handles tasks from coding to troubleshooting with integrated GitHub actions, improving productivity. While less flexible than tools like ChatGPT, its structured environment offers high-quality code generation and direct integration with GitHub, proving valuable for both simple tasks and complex feature developments.

The Open Source Security (OpenSSF) and OpenJS Foundations have issued an alert regarding the rise of social engineering attacks targeting open source projects. Following the XZ Utils backdoor attempt, these foundations have identified similar patterns and are urging maintainers to be vigilant. They recommend stringent security measures like using strong authentication, enabling two-factor authentication, and enforcing clear code readability standards. Additionally, they emphasize the importance of transparently sharing any suspicious activity to safeguard the community and maintain trust in open source ecosystems.

👩🏾‍💻 Bit Boutique

fastfetch | Like neofetch, but much faster because written mostly in C.

tech-interview-handbook | Hundreds of curated coding interview preparation materials for busy software engineers

🎲 Miscellaneous

Chip Huyen reflects on measuring personal growth beyond conventional metrics, proposing three innovative approaches: rate of change, time to solve problems, and number of future options. He suggests every 3-6 years, one could evolve significantly, mirroring life’s phases or educational cycles. Huyen also considers accelerating resolution of life's major challenges—career, family, finance—to free up capacity for more complex issues. Lastly, he emphasizes maximizing future possibilities, valuing decisions that open more doors and diversify potential pathways, a concept borrowed from empowerment maximization in AI. These methods offer a structured yet flexible framework for understanding personal development.

CanIUse.com, but for emails

In an exploration of the influence of SEO and ad-driven content on the internet, a website owner shares the transformation of their specialized site, the Apportionment Calculator, into a content-heavy page to meet Google AdSense requirements. Initially dedicated to a straightforward algorithmic tool, the site had to adopt unrelated, expansive content ranging from apportionment-themed recipes to blog posts about congressional apportionment, aiming to satisfy Google's demand for extensive and diverse content. This shift highlights the often absurd lengths required to monetize through ads, reflecting broader concerns about the quality and relevance of internet content shaped by advertising pressures.