🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #94

Happy Friday! Time to wrap up the week on a high note!

#Bluesky - X(Twitter)’s competitor Bluesky said in a post that it had attracted two million new users in a span of a week. The company also said that users from Brazil were setting new all-time highs for activity. This is after a Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered a nationwide suspension of the X platform.

#SearchGPT - ChatGPT’s own search engine, SearchGPT aims to rival Google Search by offering a new AI-driven approach to finding information online. A new report by The Washington Post suggests that the tool may not yet be ready to challenge Google’s dominance. We heard SearchGPT is still figuring things out, it's like that one friend who thinks they're an expert but keeps getting facts wrong.

#LLMStandards - Heard of robots.txt - that fancy file that tells web scrapers and search engines (like Google) what they can and cannot do with the website? A new standards, just like robots.txt, named llmstxt is being developed. The proposal is to add a /llms.txt file to sites, like a markdown file that provides background info and links to more detailed stuff. It's all about helping AI helpers find the important stuff quickly!

#YouthWellbeing - YouTube is adjusting its algorithm to restrict videos showing non-violent aggression and idealized physical appearances from being promoted to teenagers. The restrictions aim to prevent younger users from falling into harmful “rabbit hole” content pipelines.

Google's $7 Billion Bet on India's AI Future
Google has signed an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government to create impactful and scalable AI solutions in key areas. The Andhra Pradesh government has also announced its plans to sign an Mou with Google for the initiative ‘AI for Andhra Uttar Pradesh, powered by Google’ Google is also working with the Indian government to source speech data from almost 800 dialects, while building a unified model that can handle 100 different Indian languages.

Software Engineering Jobs Are Evolving Faster Than Expected
TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and other Indian IT giants are struggling to keep up with the pace of AI adoption. AI tools like Cursor and Claude are changing the game, making manual coding redundant and decreasing the demand for low-end coding jobs. High-end coding jobs are still safe, but the rest are under threat.

Intel Unleashes the Core Ultra 200V Series
Intel has announced its new Core Ultra 200V lineup, a series of laptop chips that aim to take down Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and AMD's Strix Point in terms of performance, power efficiency, and features. With Intel claiming its new chips can meet or beat its competitors in almost every way, it's a big deal for laptop buyers.

Wasp | The fastest way to develop full-stack web apps with React & Node.js.

Tinybase | The reactive data store for local‑first apps.

The Future of Angular: Standalone Development
Angular v19 will make standalone: true the default for components, directives, and pipes. Standalone has been stabilized, and has become the recommended way to write Angular code.

WhatsApp August Features Update
A summary of all changes that happened in WhatsApp in August. WhatsApp has rolled out several exciting changes to its instant messaging app. The company has added community group descriptions, Giphy stickers, and voice chat mode with Meta AI. The update also includes list feature for customizing contacts, and hidden visibility for community group chats.

The Power of Looking Stupid
Being willing to ask dumb questions and think seemingly obvious thoughts can lead to a deeper understanding of complex topics. The author shares their personal experiences, including asking about computer sizes at an Apple Store and considering COVID-19 precautions, to demonstrate the benefits of embracing a willingness to look stupid.