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Understand and Troubleshoot Your Migration to abctl | Airbyte


Airbyte

December 5, 2024

  • When using servicesabctl, you may notice it doesn't have start or stop commands, but instead use abctl install to set up the latest version of Airbyte, or a specific one by specifying a version flag.
  • If you uninstall with abctl, your local cluster will be deleted, but data will remain and can be reused when installing again.
  • When upgrading, make sure to check the Artifact Hub for updates on configuration parameters, especially if custom values.yaml is used.
  • It's also essential to plan carefully and consider resource requirements during migration.

Health media: How consumer content informs the future of healthcare


Mckinsey

December 3, 2024

Web
Algorithms
  • Healthcare organizations have a huge opportunity to create and share valuable health-related content with consumers, similar to how retail companies use advertising to engage customers.
  • This "health media" trend can help healthcare organizations grow their brand, attract new patients, and generate additional revenue through advertising.
  • To succeed, they need to develop a consumer-centric strategy that creates high-quality, trustworthy content, and serves relevant ads in the right places at the right times.
  • By doing so, they can improve the overall care experience for consumers, build loyalty, and ultimately drive better health outcomes.
  • This approach requires careful planning, including building a business case, establishing guardrails to ensure responsible advertising practices, and aligning with consumer preferences for high-quality content and relevant ads.

Data hoarding vs data offboarding? Why letting go matters


Thoughtworks | By Markus Buhmann

December 3, 2024

  • Data hoarding refers to holding onto large amounts of data that may no longer be useful or necessary, while data offboarding involves getting rid of it.
  • Letting go of unnecessary data matters because it can help reduce clutter, improve storage capacity, and increase security by minimizing the risk of sensitive information being compromised.

Open Source Developers Guide to the EU AI Act


HuggingFace

December 2, 2024

AI
  • The EU AI Act is a new law that aims to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and make sure it's used responsibly.
  • If you're an open-source developer, this law might affect your work, but don't worry, most of what you do already follows its guidelines.
  • The act has different rules depending on the type of AI system or model you're working with - if it's a "limited-risk" system that interacts directly with people, you need to disclose when they're interacting with an AI and mark any synthetic content as artificially generated.
  • If you're creating open-source models that don't pose a high risk, you need to provide detailed information about the data used to train them and make sure you have permission to use copyrighted material.
  • The EU AI Act also ties into existing laws on copyright and personal data, so you should already be following those rules as well.
  • Don't worry if all this sounds confusing - there are tools available to help you comply, and the act's provisions are still being developed through public consultations and working groups.

Unlocking New Horizons in AI and HPC with the Release of AMD ROCm™ 6.3


AMD | By Ronak_Shah

December 4, 2024

Performance
AI
Backend
Hardware
Robotics
Coding
Algorithms
  • AMD's ROCm 6.3 is a significant update to their open-source platform for AI and High-Performance Computing (HPC) workloads on AMD Instinct GPU accelerators.
  • It introduces advanced tools and optimizations that enhance developer productivity and empower businesses to innovate faster, scale smarter, and stay ahead in competitive industries.
  • The key features of ROCm 6.3 include seamless SGLang integration for accelerated AI inferencing, a re-engineered FlashAttention-2 for optimized AI training and inference, direct GPU offloading with the AMD Fortran compiler, multi-node Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) support in rocFFT, and enhanced computer vision libraries.
  • These features aim to simplify development, improve performance, and scalability for various industries such as AI, media and entertainment, autonomous systems, oil and gas, and climate modeling, ultimately driving faster and more accurate decision-making.

Customer Case Study: How to use Elasticsearch Vector Store Connector for Microsoft Semantic Kernel for AI Agent development


Microsoft Devblogs | By Sophia Lagerkrans-Pandey

December 6, 2024

Cloud
AI
Backend
Algorithms
  • The Elasticsearch Vector Store Connector for Microsoft Semantic Kernel simplifies building AI agents by enabling developers to easily interact with vector stores like Elasticsearch.
  • The connector provides essential features such as creating and managing collections of records and uploading individual records.
  • By using this connector, developers can create a RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) application that takes a user's question as input and returns an answer generated by a Large Language Model (LLM), with context retrieved from the Elasticsearch vector store.
  • The connector also supports text search attributes, allowing users to retrieve relevant information from the vector store and include it in the LLM prompt.
  • With this integration, developers can easily implement advanced search features like hybrid search and build prod-ready GenAI applications in .NET.

The forces behind the rise of real-time payments


Stripe

December 5, 2024

  • The rise of real-time payments (RTPs) has transformed the way people pay for everyday transactions around the world.
  • In India, for example, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was launched in 2016 and now has over 350 million users, making it a revolution in the payments world.
  • To understand why RTPs have been so successful, researchers identified three key ingredients: infrastructure that provides access to funds and a way to move money, motivated consumers who want to change the way they transact, and buy-in from businesses that need to accept new forms of payment.
  • Historically, banks provided this infrastructure by investing in instant bank rails, while governments like Brazil's and India's supported RTPs through mandates and upgrades to infrastructure.
  • As a result, RTPs have taken off globally, with countries like Spain, Brazil, and Thailand seeing significant adoption rates, and even other types of payments methods like buy now, pay later (BNPL) leveraging these same ingredients for success.

How Webflow users build smarter websites with Zapier


Zapier | By Candice Hyytinen

December 4, 2024

  • Webflow is a website builder that allows marketers, designers, and developers to create dynamic and beautiful websites without needing extensive coding knowledge.
  • Recently, Webflow has integrated Zapier into its platform, allowing users to automate essential processes directly from within the website builder.
  • This means users can connect their Webflow site to over 7,000 tools and services, such as CRM software, social media, and email marketing platforms, and automate tasks like lead capture, content publishing, and customer support.
  • With Zapier, businesses can save time and boost conversions by automating repetitive tasks and focusing on more important work.
  • Two successful Webflow users, Paidnice and Soon, have seen significant benefits from using Zapier to streamline their website's functionality and improve their marketing efforts, with Paidnice saving hours of work every week and Soon generating over 130 blog posts in a year alone.

Java 24 Language & API Changes - Inside Java Newscast #81


Java | By ["NicolaiParlog"]

December 5, 2024

Security
Backend
  • Java 24 brings 24 new features, including changes to the programming language and APIs.
  • These updates include pattern matching for primitive types, allowing more flexible constructor bodies, stream gatherers for easier data processing, a class-file API for direct access to compiled code, quantum-safe encryption for secure data transfer, and structured concurrency for handling asynchronous tasks in a more organized way.

Semantic Search for LangGraph Memory


Langchain | By Ankush Gola

December 5, 2024

AI
  • LangGraph has added semantic search to its BaseStore, allowing agents to find relevant information based on meaning rather than exact matches.
  • This feature addresses challenges like recalling user preferences, learning from past mistakes, and maintaining consistent knowledge.
  • To use it, you can configure your server by adding an index configuration in the langgraph.json file, which specifies how to embed new items for search.
  • You can also define a custom embedding function if needed.
  • Once set up, you can add semantic search to your LangGraph Platform deployment, memory template, or agent by using natural language query strings to return documents sorted by semantic similarity.

Revenue Automation Series: Modernizing Yelp's Legacy Billing System


Yelp | By Simon Zeng, Payments Tech Lead; Supriya Lal, Commerce Platform Group Tech Lead

December 6, 2024

DevOps
Backend
Algorithms
  • Yelp's legacy billing system was causing issues as it had outdated design choices and didn't align with industry standards, making it difficult to integrate with third-party financial systems and resulting in data discrepancies.
  • To address this, Yelp decided to overhaul its billing system over a two-year period involving more than 50 people from various teams.
  • They developed an execution plan with seven steps: requirement gathering, target architecture, project planning, incremental delivery, rollout testing, user acceptance testing, and system observability.
  • This structured approach allowed them to deliver the new system on time, meet their revenue automation deadline of July 2024, and ensure a seamless transition for customers while maintaining high accuracy and system integrity.

Snowflake’s AI & Data Predictions for 2025


Snowflake | By Daan Bakboord

December 2, 2024

  • The original post about & Data Science on Medium has sparked further discussion among readers who are continuing to engage with it by highlighting and responding to the story, likely sharing their thoughts and insights related to the topic.

2025 Predictions: Enterprises, Researchers and Startups Home In on Humanoids, AI Agents as Generative AI Crosses the Chasm


Nvidia | By Cliff Edwards

December 5, 2024

AI
Hardware
Robotics
  • In the next year, AI technology will become more widespread and powerful, making it easier for people to use and interact with machines that can think and learn on their own.
  • This will lead to breakthroughs in fields like architecture, engineering, education, agriculture, and even entertainment, such as creating hyper-realistic games and movies.
  • Generative AI models will be able to learn from the world around them, allowing digital humans, robots, and cars to navigate complex situations with little human intervention.
  • As a result, we can expect to see more efficiency in industries like data analytics, where machines will be able to process large amounts of information without needing significant changes to code or configuration.
  • This increased productivity will also lead to new job categories, such as prompt engineers and AI personality designers, and companies will start focusing on how each employee contributes to revenue growth rather than just hiring more staff.

Catching Flaky Tests Before It's Too Late


Sentry

December 6, 2024

  • To fix a flaky test, the author swapped a query from `getAllByRole` to `findAllByRole`, which introduces a promise that resolves when list items are present on the page, and then waits for this promise to ensure the test runs after the data is fetched, making it resilient to time delays.

Hack the Base! with Supabase


Supabase

December 6, 2024

Security
  • We're launching our first-ever Capture the Flag challenge called Hack the Base, where you'll get to solve cybersecurity puzzles and earn points by finding hidden "flags" in a website.
  • Whether you're new to hacking or experienced, there are challenges for all levels, from easy to hard.
  • You can win prizes, show off your skills on a leaderboard, and learn about common security vulnerabilities along the way.
  • The challenge starts on December 8th and ends on December 14th, and if you enjoy it, we also have a Bug Bounty Program where you can find vulnerabilities in our platform year-round.

Rethinking LLM Evaluation with 3C3H: AraGen Benchmark and Leaderboard


HuggingFace

December 4, 2024

AI
Backend
  • Researchers have created AraGen, a new benchmark for evaluating large language models (LLMs) in Arabic, which addresses the challenge of comprehensively assessing both factuality and usability in LLMs.
  • The AraGen Leaderboard uses a dynamic evaluation strategy where test sets remain private for three months to prevent data leakage and biases, ensuring fair and unbiased assessments.
  • It evaluates model performance across six dimensions using the 3C3H measure: Correctness, Completeness, Conciseness, Helpfulness, Honesty, and Harmlessness.
  • The AraGen Benchmark consists of a dataset with 279 human-verified questions designed to test model capabilities in question answering, reasoning, orthographic & grammatical analysis, and safety.
  • The leaderboard uses a chosen LLM as a judge to evaluate the generated answers against pre-verified ground truth answers, ensuring consistency and reliability.
  • Claude-3.5-sonnet is selected as the primary judge due to its high consistency, minimal self-bias, and relatively high agreement with human annotators.

NVIDIA NIM on AWS Supercharges AI Inference


Nvidia | By Anne Hecht

December 4, 2024

Web
Performance
Cloud
AI
Backend
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) has partnered with NVIDIA to make it easier for developers to use generative AI models efficiently and securely.
  • They've extended NVIDIA NIM microservices across key AWS AI services, allowing faster AI inference and lower latency.
  • These prebuilt containers are built on strong engines and support a wide range of AI models, from open-source ones to custom ones.
  • Developers can now deploy these microservices on various AWS services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Amazon SageMaker, using over 100 NIM-optimized models available in the NVIDIA API catalog or directly through AWS Marketplaces like Bedrock Marketplace and SageMaker JumpStart.
  • This partnership aims to help developers get their generative AI applications to market faster while maintaining security and control, and lowering costs.

Scaling Database Storage: Introducing High Performance Disks


Supabase

December 5, 2024

Performance
  • Supabase has introduced high-performance disks for Postgres databases, allowing users to store up to 60 TB of data with improved durability and provision up to 5x more IOPS than their default disks.
  • These new disks can handle up to 80,000 IOPS, a significant increase from the general purpose disk limit of 16,000 IOPS, providing faster database operations for data-intensive workloads.
  • The high-performance disks also offer increased durability with a 99.999% success rate, minimizing the need for recovery from backups.
  • Supabase has also redesigned their disk management interface to make it easier to manage and understand the costs associated with these new options, including real-time cost updates and clear breakdowns of how each change affects your bill, helping developers build powerful applications at scale while maintaining simplicity and ease of use.

Latest NVIDIA AI, Robotics and Quantum Computing Software Comes to AWS


Nvidia | By Alexis Bjorlin

December 3, 2024

Web
Performance
Cloud
AI
Security
Backend
Hardware
Robotics
  • NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are teaming up to make AI and robotics breakthroughs easier and faster by launching new solutions at the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas.
  • These solutions include NVIDIA DGX Cloud on AWS for large-scale AI training, advanced robotics simulation with NVIDIA Isaac Sim, and AI-powered drug discovery using NVIDIA BioNeMo.
  • The companies are also making quantum computing more accessible through NVIDIA CUDA-Q integrated with Amazon Braket.
  • Additionally, they're simplifying the use of AI in various industries by partnering with enterprise software platforms and consulting leaders such as Cloudera, Cohesity, and DataStax to help businesses rapidly scale their generative AI applications built with NVIDIA AI on AWS.

Transforming mindsets: Nathan Bostock on banking transformations


Mckinsey

December 5, 2024

AI
  • Nathan Bostock, a veteran of the financial services industry with over 40 years of experience, shares his insights on the transformation of banking and how digitalization plays a part in these changes.
  • He highlights that technology has become the fastest-moving aspect of banking, with mobile connectivity and data-driven interactions becoming the norm.
  • Regulation, fintechs, and other forms of corporate financing have also had significant impacts on the industry.
  • To drive their transformation goals, retail banks need to focus on five principles: speed, simplicity, reliability, personalization, and value.
  • C-suite leaders must be bold, take risks, and adapt to changes while engaging their organization towards an endgame and defining a culture that fits into the company they've built.
  • They should also consider how to access skills when needed, bring remote working capabilities, and establish a cadence for decision-making using the "Debate, debate, decide" approach.
  • The introduction of AI can revolutionize high-cost manual processes and increase opportunity gains by 35-40%, making it essential for leaders to have a greater ambition and focus on customer experience, employee experience, reliability, control, and all holistic dimensions where transformation can come through.

How we seamlessly migrated high volume real-time streaming traffic from one service to another with zero data loss and duplication


Grab

December 5, 2024

DevOps
Backend
  • Grab's tech team needed to improve their system by splitting its read and write functions into separate services to handle high traffic efficiently.
  • They migrated the stream processing (write) function to a new service without losing or duplicating data, which was a challenge due to the high volume of real-time data.
  • To achieve this, they implemented a custom time-based switchover logic that allowed both old and new services to run in parallel for a short period, then switched to the new service with no downtime or data inconsistencies.
  • This process took about three weeks to complete and was successful, but it also had some limitations, such as potential data inconsistency if a rollback was needed.

LLMs in Snowflake: Discovering Cortex Functions (Part 2)


Snowflake | By Lucija Tokić

December 5, 2024

  • There's a conversation happening on Medium about & Data Science where people are continuing to discuss and share their thoughts by highlighting and responding to specific stories related to this topic.

Learning to read C++ compiler errors: Nonsensical errors from a function declaration


Microsoft Devblogs | By Raymond Chen

December 6, 2024

  • When including certain header files, you might encounter a problem with a macro called "ErrorMessage" which tries to do its job but ends up causing a chain of errors due to missing or incorrect parameters.
  • This happens because the macro thinks it should handle things on its own and doesn't let your code provide the necessary information.
  • To fix this issue, you have two options: either remove the macro when including the header file using special commands like #pragma push_macro and #undef, or get rid of the macro altogether by replacing it with a regular function that handles the task correctly.

Won’t waiting for multiple threads one at a time introduce a severe performance issue?


Microsoft Devblogs | By Raymond Chen

December 5, 2024

Algorithms
  • When working with threads, you have two options to wait for them all to finish: waiting one at a time or in bulk.
  • Waiting in bulk may save some processing power, but it's more complicated and might not be worth the extra effort.
  • The author argues that since tests are usually about accuracy rather than performance, and most production code doesn't deal with huge numbers of long-running threads, the simpler solution of waiting one at a time is often the best choice.
  • Even if it means slightly slower processing, this approach is easier to understand and maintain, which is more important for software development.

Introducing Code Referencing for GitHub Copilot Chat in Visual Studio


Microsoft Devblogs | By Rhea Patel

December 5, 2024

AI
  • Visual Studio 2022 now includes a new feature called code referencing in GitHub Copilot, which makes it easier for developers to know where their AI-generated code suggestions come from.
  • When GitHub Copilot suggests code that matches public repositories on GitHub, this feature displays a list of those repositories along with their licenses directly in the editor, giving you valuable context and transparency about the code you incorporate into your projects.
  • This allows you to make informed decisions about whether to use the suggested code, consider dependencies, acknowledge similar work, or learn from existing implementations, ultimately fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and transparency among developers.

Scaling Generative AI: How Salesforce Supports Millions of Users Seamlessly


Salesforce | By Scott Nyberg

December 2, 2024

Performance
AI
DevOps
Backend
Data Science
  • Swapna Kasula leads the AI Apps team at Salesforce, developing innovative AI solutions to revolutionize customer experiences across various workflows such as Service Replies, Service Email, and Case Classification.
  • Her team's mission is to scale predictive and generative AI applications by enhancing machine learning pipelines, improving model quality, conducting experiments, automating testing and evaluation, and utilizing real-time monitoring to address customer issues.
  • To achieve this, they use advanced techniques like retrieval-augmented generation, autoscaling, containerized solutions, and load-balancing algorithms to handle millions of concurrent requests efficiently while minimizing latency and ensuring scalability.
  • The team also employs modular architecture, comprehensive E2E testing, impact analysis, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to ensure that enhancements in one area don't compromise others.
  • Additionally, they use pipelines for automated testing and evaluation, incremental rollouts supported by feature flags, and real-time monitoring tools like Splunk and Grafana to track application health and alert the team to anomalies.

Model produces pseudocode for security controls in seconds


Amazon Science

December 6, 2024

Web
Cloud
AI
Security
Algorithms
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) has a security system called AWS Security Hub that helps protect customer cloud environments by gathering and prioritizing security alerts from various sources.
  • However, creating these security controls can be a time-consuming process that involves analyzing service documentation and writing code to ensure secure configurations.
  • A new model using advanced AI capabilities is being developed to automate this process, allowing for faster and more efficient generation of rules that help safeguard cloud infrastructures.
  • This AI-powered system uses large language models to generate specifications automatically, reducing the time from days to seconds, and can even produce accurate security control specifications in a matter of seconds by prompting it with service documentation and security requirements.

A Journey Towards Unified Data Governance at bp


Databricks

December 3, 2024

Game Dev
  • Effective data governance is key for organizations to manage their data properly.
  • bp, a large company, uses Databricks Unity Catalog as part of their data governance framework to control and monitor their data assets.
  • By implementing this system, they're able to identify challenges such as data duplication and inconsistent naming conventions, develop strategies like standardizing data names and locations, and reap benefits including reduced errors and improved data sharing among teams.

Radar Trends to Watch: December 2024


Oreilly | By Mike Loukides

December 3, 2024

Web
AI
Security
Backend
Blockchain
  • New technologies are emerging in various fields such as programming, security, and artificial intelligence.
  • In programming, Rust's Ractor framework allows developers to create Actor-based systems, while GitHub Copilot now uses multiple AI models for code suggestions, but the generated code may not be secure due to potential vulnerabilities in the training data.
  • Meanwhile, Java needs a faster build tool, with Mill claiming to be 5-10 times faster than Maven or Gradle.
  • In security, hackers are using SVG in phishing emails and rebuilding botnets, so firewalls and routers need to be updated.
  • Additionally, language models are being used to automate hostile attacks, but tools like Mantis can disrupt these attacks.
  • Other advancements include AI-powered trashbots, touch perception projects from Meta, and a virtual machine that runs Linux in the browser.
  • Furthermore, Google's DeepMind has developed an AI system to detect errors in quantum systems, while Google's latest protein folding model is now open source.

Passkeys: The Future of Login at HubSpot


Hubspot | By Jordan Aron

December 3, 2024

Mobile
DevOps
Security
  • HubSpot has introduced a new way to log in called "passkeys" that replaces traditional passwords with biometric capabilities on your device, such as Face ID or fingerprint recognition.
  • This method is more secure and convenient because it doesn't require remembering complex passwords or dealing with forgotten login issues.
  • Passkeys work by using public key cryptography, where you have a private key stored on your device and the website has a corresponding public key, making it virtually impossible to guess or phish your way in.
  • By leveraging this technology, users can log in faster and with greater security, reducing support overhead for password-related problems.
  • Currently available in beta for HubSpot's web version, with mobile app support coming soon, passkeys offer a promising future for account sign-ups and login processes, making it an exciting feature for customers to elevate their security posture.

The best video conferencing software for teams in 2025


Zapier | By Justin Pot

December 5, 2024

Web
AI
  • Jitsi is a free and open-source video conferencing app that allows you to host meetings with up to 200 people, featuring good video quality and integrations available.
  • It's easy to use, requiring only creating an account to start a meeting, and has features like screen sharing, polling, and a GIF search feature.
  • You can also install the code on your own server for added security and privacy.
  • However, Jitsi lacks advanced features like transcriptions or AI integrations, but is perfect for simple meetings without any fuss, and it's completely free to use with no requirement to download desktop clients or create accounts for participants except the moderator.

AI for IT modernization: Faster, cheaper, better


Mckinsey

December 2, 2024

AI
Backend
Robotics
  • Many large companies have outdated technology systems, known as legacy systems, which slow them down and prevent innovation.
  • These systems were built years ago and are difficult to update, but modernizing them is crucial for businesses to compete in today's technology-driven world.
  • A new approach using generative AI (gen AI) can help simplify the process of updating these systems by automating tasks and making complex code easier to understand.
  • By using gen AI agents that work together like a team, companies can identify what needs to be updated, prioritize their efforts, and achieve significant cost savings.
  • To get the most out of this technology, companies should focus on scaling up their use of gen AI, develop a central capability to manage multiple agents, and establish clear plans for tracking value and adapting their talent strategy and operating model as needed.

Java 17 is now Generally Available on Snowflake


Snowflake | By Jason Freeberg

December 2, 2024

  • People are discussing and adding to the conversation about & Data Science on Medium, where others are highlighting this story and responding to it by sharing their thoughts and ideas.

The 5 best calendar apps in 2025


Zapier | By Harry Guinness

December 4, 2024

  • Choosing a digital calendar app depends on your personal preferences and needs, as it helps keep both work and home life organized.
  • Most of these apps offer free versions or trials of their best features, so you can try them out to see which one suits you best.
  • This will help you decide which calendar app to use for organizing your tasks and events.

Planning to be around in 2050?


Thoughtworks | By Dr J Harrison

December 5, 2024

  • Planning to be around in 2050? This phrase seems to be setting up a conversation or question about long-term goals and aspirations, possibly even considering what needs to be done to survive or thrive on Earth by then.
  • However, without more context, it's unclear what specific aspect of being "around" in 2050 is being referred to, such as personal longevity, environmental sustainability, technological advancements, or something else entirely.

Databricks Brings AI to the Enterprise using NVIDIA AI and Accelerated Computing


Databricks

December 3, 2024

  • Databricks and NVIDIA are teaming up to make artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics better.
  • This collaboration will bring new capabilities to these fields, making it easier for people to work with big amounts of data and create more intelligent systems.

database.build v2: Bring-your-own-LLM


Supabase

December 6, 2024

Database
Cloud
AI
Backend
Hardware
  • database.build has been updated with several new features to help users create and manage databases more easily.
  • The platform now allows users to bring their own Large Language Model (LLM) via any OpenAI-compatible provider, giving them greater control and flexibility over their database experience.
  • This feature includes no login required, no rate limits, and more control over how AI messages are handled.
  • Additionally, the platform has introduced Live Share, which enables users to connect to their in-browser databases from outside the browser using any PostgreSQL client, making it easier to deploy and manage databases.
  • The update also includes a new deployment option that allows users to easily deploy their databases to cloud providers like Supabase with just one click.
  • Other features include drag-and-drop SQL files, mobile support for creating and managing databases on-the-go, and the ability to download databases via pg_dump in a more compatible format.

The Power of AI in Business Intelligence: A New Era


Databricks

December 3, 2024

  • Business intelligence is changing into something called data intelligence, where anyone in an organization can easily access and use data to make informed decisions, rather than just experts or a select few having this power.

Solving LLM Challenges: Agentforce’s AI Approach to Reliable Agent Recommendations


Salesforce | By Scott Nyberg

December 5, 2024

AI
Backend
Robotics
  • Annie Zhang, a Software Engineer Architect at Salesforce's AI Cloud team, is leading the development of Agentforce, an AI for autonomous task management that provides personalized and intelligent recommendations to users.
  • Her team faces challenges in interacting with large language models (LLMs) due to their non-deterministic nature, but has overcome this by conducting exhaustive testing, fine-tuning the models, and implementing safety layers to filter out harmful or biased content.
  • To ensure scalability, they use a microservices architecture that allows services to scale individually without impacting the entire system.
  • They also have a rigorous strategy in place to balance rapid deployment with maintaining high standards of trust and security.
  • Currently, the team is focused on enhancing personalization in Agent Recommendations by integrating contextual signals such as language settings, interaction history, and tonal analysis to match user communication style, enabling adaptive and personalized recommendations that bridge the gap between generic functionality and user-specific experiences.
  • The team gathers user feedback through internal testing and customer interviews, which influences future development and ensures the platform evolves to meet user needs effectively.

Pipedrive vs. Zoho: Which CRM is best? [2025]


Zapier | By Miguel Rebelo

December 5, 2024

AI
  • When it comes to customer support, Pipedrive offers more flexible and available options, including 24/7 support on their Power plan and above, while Zoho's Classic Support is only available 5 days a week with an initial response time of 8 hours.
  • However, Zoho has better AI features, although they're not accessible in lower paid plans, making it a good choice for those prioritizing functionality over user experience.
  • Pipedrive on the other hand, has a more polished interface that simplifies sales processes and is easier to adopt, but lacks the breadth of Zoho's features and depth of AI capabilities, ultimately deciding which CRM is best depends on your specific needs and priorities.

Announcing Azure Cosmos DB Integration with Spring AI and Langchain4J!


Microsoft Devblogs | By Theo van Kraay

December 5, 2024

Performance
Database
Cloud
AI
Backend
  • Microsoft has made it easier for Java developers to build AI applications by integrating Azure Cosmos DB's scalable vector search with two popular frameworks, Spring AI and Langchain4J.
  • These frameworks allow developers to efficiently manage fast and accurate data retrieval with Azure Cosmos DB's scalability and efficient vector indexing and search capabilities.
  • By using Azure Cosmos DB's vector store, developers can seamlessly integrate with Spring AI or Langchain4J for advanced vector search queries.
  • The integration brings several benefits, including efficient batch loading of vector embeddings, vector indexing with DiskANN for optimal performance in similarity searches, and a function calling API that allows developers to connect LLM capabilities with external tools and APIs.
  • Additionally, Azure Cosmos DB provides a fully managed and serverless NoSQL and vector database for modern app development, ideal for real-time applications requiring high performance and distributed computing over massive volumes of data.

Deletion of Outdated Azul Zulu for Azure Container Images for Better Security


Microsoft Devblogs | By Bruno Borges

December 6, 2024

  • Microsoft is reminding users to remove outdated and insecure container images from their systems by June 30th, 2025, for security reasons.
  • To help with this transition, they suggest auditing dependencies, using tools like Docker Scout and ORAS to inspect image lifecycles, and updating to modern supported container images, which aligns with industry best practices and strengthens system defenses against vulnerabilities.
  • They also urge the container ecosystem to work together to improve End-of-Life (EOL) communication by standardizing lifecycle metadata, registry-based notifications, and automated alert systems for image deprecations, ultimately building a secure future for containerized applications.

How a wedding marketplace grew 900% with Zapier


Zapier | By Sadie Hochfield

December 4, 2024

AI
  • Andrew Bowker co-founded wedissimo to make wedding planning easier by streamlining how couples book suppliers.
  • However, their initial lead management process was manual and time-consuming, prone to errors, and unscalable for growth.
  • To solve this issue, Andrew's team turned to Zapier to automate follow-ups and create a more efficient workflow.
  • They built an integration with CatchApp and connected it with ActiveCampaign, ChatGPT, Fireflies.ai, and WhatsApp to analyze messages, review meetings, and send personalized emails after calls.
  • By automating these tasks, wedissimo saw their conversion rates increase from 30% to 50%, boosted revenue, and saved time on manual efforts, ultimately future-proofing their growth with AI and Zapier.

My Journey To Airbnb | Vijaya Kaza


Airbnb | By Lauren Mackevich

December 5, 2024

AI
Security
  • The author's journey to Airbnb as Chief Security Officer (CSO) began with a background in engineering and product development in various companies, including Lookout, a mobile security startup.
  • They were drawn to Airbnb because of its mission-driven approach, technical excellence, and social consciousness.
  • As CSO, they led both the Trust and Safety team and the Security team, which share the common goal of safeguarding users and the platform, but have different focus areas - Trust focuses on providing peace of mind for guests and hosts, while Security focuses on securing Airbnb's assets and data.
  • The author also shares lessons learned from their experiences, including the importance of embracing an improv mindset to think on their feet and responding to challenges with a steady head, maintaining perspective and persisting forward undeterred.

A Robust Open Ecosystem for All: Accelerating AI Infrastructure


Google Open Source | By Open Source Programs Office (noreply@blogger.com)

December 3, 2024

Cloud
AI
Backend
  • JAX is an open-source software library used for machine learning and numerical computing that allows users to run their code on various platforms, such as CPUs, GPUs, or specialized chips like AWS Trainium and Inferentia.
  • By being modular and extensible, JAX can easily integrate with new hardware, making it a great tool for innovation in AI.
  • Recently, AWS Trainium has been added to the list of supported platforms, allowing users to run their code on this powerful chip accelerator.
  • This openness and collaboration enable faster progress in machine learning development and make JAX an attractive choice for researchers and developers.

Powering AI innovation by acccelerating the next wave of nuclear


Facebook

December 3, 2024

AI
  • Meta is working on a project to help power the next wave of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation by leveraging advancements in nuclear technology.
  • This is because AI requires massive amounts of energy and computational power to process large amounts of data quickly.
  • By harnessing the immense energy potential of nuclear reactors, Meta aims to accelerate AI development and make it more efficient, which could lead to breakthroughs in areas like healthcare, climate change, and more.

Using Dependabot to Manage .NET SDK Updates


Microsoft Devblogs | By Jamie Magee

December 5, 2024

  • Keeping your .NET SDK version up to date is crucial for maintaining secure and efficient applications because regular updates include security patches for known vulnerabilities, bug fixes, performance improvements, and the latest development tools and features.
  • You can manage your .NET SDK version using a global.json file in your project, which specifies the version of the SDK to use.
  • This file allows you to configure updates from Dependabot, such as checking for updates only once a week or ignoring major and minor version updates, by adding sections like schedule and ignore.
  • Additionally, you can also configure Dependabot to manage your NuGet package dependencies using the global.json file.

The long journey to Apache Ranger


Trino | By Manfred Moser

December 2, 2024

Web
DevOps
Backend
  • Apache Ranger has finally arrived with Trino release 466, bringing access control to data lakes and modern data platforms powered by Trino.
  • This collaboration between Apache Ranger and Trino has a long history, dating back to 2019 when early support was implemented.
  • However, it wasn't until July 2024 that a mature plugin was created and merged into the Trino codebase after over four months of development, testing, and review involving many contributors.
  • The new plugin allows for easier integration and adoption of Apache Ranger with Trino, making it possible to manage access control on a Trino-powered data platform.
  • Now that the plugin is available, users can test it out, migrate from old versions, improve documentation, and even contribute to the codebase to make the integration even better.

Context is key: Tanguy Catlin on advancing the future of insurance


Mckinsey

December 4, 2024

Web
AI
Hardware
Robotics
  • At the recent ITC Vegas insurance conference, McKinsey senior partner Tanguy Catlin discussed the future of the insurance industry and its challenges, particularly with the emergence of generative AI (gen AI).
  • Gen AI can solve complex problems by making sense of context and data, but insurers must have a different approach to architecture and think about dialogue rather than just automating tasks.
  • The technology has four primary applications: code creation, creativity, knowledge management, and customer care, and will be transformative in the insurance industry.
  • However, adoption and behavioral change require significant investment and time, and the industry is still working on post-disaster situations like climate change and catastrophic events.
  • Other key topics include autonomous driving, where car manufacturers may become major players in insurance, and aging populations, which requires life insurers to evolve and offer relevant services such as retirement, health, and wealth management solutions.
  • The future of insurance also involves creating value across liabilities and assets management, with leading companies implementing a flywheel approach to achieve efficiency and differentiation.

Tackling heat electrification to decarbonize industry


Mckinsey

December 2, 2024

Backend
  • The world's industries consume around 37% of global energy, with about two-thirds of this energy used for heat generation.
  • Currently, most industrial heat is produced by burning fossil fuels, but there are technologies available today that can electrify industry and reduce emissions.
  • Heat pumps, electric boilers, mechanical vapor recompression technology, and others can cover over 80% of the market across various industries.
  • For example, breweries can be fully decarbonized with existing industrial heat pump technologies, while other industries like chemicals and cement may require more innovation in high-temperature heat processes.
  • Companies (OEMs) considering investing in these technologies need to answer questions such as whether to specialize or offer a broad portfolio, innovate or scale up, focus on specific geographies and industry sectors, and choose the right go-to-market approach to gain customer trust and provide necessary services.
  • By carefully analyzing their options and making the right technology choices, OEMs can help industries decarbonize today and stay ahead of the curve in reducing emissions.

How many gigabytes are in a terabyte? Storage capacity explained


Proton | By Jasmine Linford

December 5, 2024

Hardware
  • When it comes to storing and sharing files, business needs vary based on size and types of files handled.
  • Small businesses may need 50 GB to 500 GB for documents and basic file sharing, while medium-sized businesses require 500 GB to 1 TB per team or department.
  • Larger businesses handling big data might need 1 TB or more per employee.
  • Traditional physical storage devices like external drives have limitations and can be expensive when dealing with large amounts of data.
  • Cloud storage offers convenience and flexibility by being easily scalable, allowing you to start small and grow as needed.
  • Proton Drive is a secure cloud storage solution that lets you share files of any size without risk of damage or unauthorized access, offering 1 TB of free storage for personal use and up to 1 TB per user for businesses, with the option to upgrade based on growing needs.

How to Contribute to Open Source Projects as a Beginner


freeCodeCamp | By Fanny Nyayic

December 4, 2024

Web
Backend
Coding
Algorithms
  • Contributing to open-source projects can seem intimidating, but it's actually more accessible than you think.
  • Open-source software is used daily in many tools and services, and contributing to these projects allows anyone to view, modify, and distribute the code.
  • You don't need to be an expert coder to contribute - there are plenty of non-technical ways to help, such as improving documentation, answering user questions, designing logos or interfaces, translating content into different languages, marketing the project, organizing events, testing usability, and helping with legal aspects like licenses and terms of service.
  • To get started, you need to set up your development environment by installing tools like Git and creating a GitHub account, then understand version control with Git, find a beginner-friendly project to contribute to, make changes, submit them for review, and respond to feedback from project maintainers.
  • With these steps and a willingness to learn, anyone can start contributing to open-source projects and grow as a developer while making a difference in the world of software.

Amazon Nova and our commitment to responsible AI


Amazon Science

December 4, 2024

Web
Cloud
AI
DevOps
Backend
  • Amazon has developed a new family of AI models called Amazon Nova, which focuses on safe and responsible AI practices.
  • The company has identified eight core dimensions for responsible AI, including privacy, safety, fairness, transparency, and explainability, and has implemented these principles throughout its model development lifecycle.
  • To ensure the models are trustworthy and align with human values, Amazon uses automated methods such as supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning with human feedback to govern model behavior.
  • The company also evaluates its models using internal and public benchmarks to measure responsible AI performance, including fairness, privacy and security, and veracity and robustness.
  • Additionally, Amazon conducts red-teaming exercises, a type of adversarial testing, to identify vulnerabilities in its models and improve their safety and security.
  • The goal is to create AI systems that are both powerful and trustworthy, and Amazon is actively engaging with the academic community to advance responsible-AI practices and drive innovation.

Predictive Optimization Automatically Delivers Faster Queries and Lower TCO


Databricks

December 2, 2024

Game Dev
  • Predictive Optimization (PO) is a tool that helps improve how data is stored and organized in Unity Catalog managed tables, making it easier for computers to quickly find and use the information they need when you ask questions or run queries.
  • This optimization can lead to significant improvements in how fast your queries are completed, allowing you to work more efficiently with your data.

BCBS 239 2.0 resurgence: Strengthening risk management and decision making


Mckinsey

December 6, 2024

AI
DevOps
  • The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) issued Standard 239 (BCBS 239) in 2013 to improve banks' risk management through better data aggregation and reporting.
  • Despite nearly a decade passing since the deadline, many banks still haven't fully complied due to various challenges such as inadequate prioritization of requirements, technical issues like legacy systems, and lack of buy-in from business leaders.
  • To succeed, banks should adopt a business impact mindset, focusing on how BCBS 239 can benefit their operations beyond just regulatory compliance.
  • This involves creating visibility for regulators, engaging key talent, balancing data needs with business objectives, and remedying data issues at the source.
  • By following these principles, including taking a risk reduction approach, accelerating execution through tools like generative AI, and being transparent in regulatory dialogue, banks can position themselves for success and reap benefits such as improved digitization initiatives, enhanced risk management, and stronger relationships with regulators.

The voice of the future of remote and asynchronous work


Thoughtworks | By Daniel Negrete

December 3, 2024

  • The voice of the future of remote and asynchronous work refers to the perspective or opinion on how technology will shape the way people work from anywhere and at any time, without being present in a traditional office setting.

Stream ‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’ at Launch With RTX Power in the Cloud at up to 50% Off


Nvidia | By GeForce NOW Community

December 5, 2024

Hardware
  • GeForce NOW is offering a holiday treat for its members with new game releases and discounts.
  • This month, users can play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in the cloud, which requires NVIDIA's ray-tracing technology to run smoothly.
  • Additionally, GeForce NOW is offering a limited-time deal of 50% off the first month of Ultimate or Performance memberships, allowing gamers to experience premium features like high-resolution streaming and extended session lengths.
  • The service also includes new titles like Path of Exile 2, Fast Food Simulator, and Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1&2 Remastered, which will be available in December.
  • Existing members can upgrade their membership with a Day Pass sale, offering 25% off Ultimate and Performance passes, while new members can join the cloud gaming community with a discounted first month of membership.

How Cleric’s AI SRE leveled up with continuous learning through LangSmith


Langchain | By LangChain

December 3, 2024

AI
Robotics
  • Cleric is an artificial intelligence (AI) agent designed to help engineering teams debug complex production issues by automatically investigating and identifying problems in multiple systems simultaneously.
  • It uses existing observability tools and infrastructure to examine database metrics, network traffic, application logs, and system resources, then communicates its findings through Slack and asks for guidance when needed.
  • The Cleric team uses LangSmith's tracing capabilities to compare different investigation strategies, track performance metrics, and determine which approaches work best for different types of issues.
  • As Cleric resolves incidents, it learns continuously from interactions with each customer environment and generalizes successful investigation strategies across all deployments, while maintaining strict privacy controls and data anonymization, ultimately advancing the shift towards autonomous, self-healing systems that free human engineers to focus on strategic work and product development.

LLMs in Snowflake: Discovering Cortex Functions (Part 1)


Snowflake | By Magdalena Valveny Juncosa

December 4, 2024

  • The text refers to an article on Medium about & Data Science, where people are discussing and responding to it by highlighting certain points and adding their own thoughts and opinions, continuing a conversation started by the original story.

Linux Foundation Research Addresses the Value of Open Source in Health Data Management


Linux Foundation | By ahermansen@linuxfoundation.org (Anna Hermansen)

December 5, 2024

AI
  • The author's experience with blockchain technology in healthcare led to the realization that there's a huge gap between data needs and access, hindering advancements in care.
  • To address this issue, open source solutions can be used to improve health data accessibility and portability by promoting collaboration, transparency, and innovation.
  • However, regulatory risk aversion, systems complexity, and vendor dominance have slowed down innovation in healthcare.
  • The author suggests building a precompetitive architecture as the standard protocol for data sharing, allowing different solutions to compete without reinventing the wheel.
  • This approach would enable research and innovation to flourish by making health record-keeping more collaborative and standardized, ultimately benefiting patients and society as a whole.

Simplifying Datastore Provisioning with Kubernetes Operators


Zendesk | By Bruno Marques

December 2, 2024

Database
Cloud
Backend
  • The company Zendesk created a system called "Datastore Genie" to make it easier and faster for their engineering teams to get the data storage they need to develop products.
  • The old way was manual and took days or weeks, but now with the Datastore Genie, they can provision a new datastore in just seconds or minutes by simply writing a few lines of YAML code specifying what they need.
  • This system uses Kubernetes operators, which are like automated helpers that take care of all the complex tasks involved in provisioning and managing datastores.
  • The operators work behind the scenes to handle security compliance, configure networking and security groups, automate user creation and rotation, and more, freeing up the engineering teams to focus on developing products rather than getting bogged down in provisioning tasks.

Introducing new training courses for SQL Analytics and BI, with AI-powered self-service analytics


Databricks

December 4, 2024

  • In data analysis and visualization, dashboards are user-friendly interfaces that display key information at a glance, helping users make quick decisions or explore data further.
  • Genie Spaces, on the other hand, are interactive environments where users can freely move around and discover insights within their data, often using intuitive navigation tools and visualizations to guide them.
  • While both dashboards and Genie Spaces aim to simplify data exploration, they differ in approach, with dashboards typically focusing on specific, pre-defined metrics or views, whereas Genie Spaces offer a more immersive, self-directed experience that allows users to explore their data from multiple angles and perspectives.

React v19


React | By The React Team

December 5, 2024

Web
DevOps
Backend
Algorithms
  • React 19 is now available and brings many new features to improve performance, user experience, and developer workflow.
  • The main additions include Actions, which simplify data mutations and provide a pending state, optimistic updates, error handling, and form management; useOptimistic, a hook for managing optimistic updates; useActionState, a hook that makes common cases easier for Actions; and new React DOM static APIs for static site generation.
  • Additionally, React 19 introduces ref as a prop for function components, improved error reporting for hydration errors, support for rendering document metadata tags in components natively, built-in support for stylesheets, async scripts, preloading resources, and compatibility with third-party scripts and extensions.

Learn Continuous Integration, Delivery, and Deployment with GitHub Actions, Docker, and Google Cloud Run


freeCodeCamp | By Prince Onukwili

December 5, 2024

Web
DevOps
Backend
Coding
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5 ways to automate Kraftful with Zapier


Zapier | By Michael Toth

December 5, 2024

  • Product managers face the challenge of gathering and organizing customer feedback from various sources, but manually consolidating this data is slow and prone to errors.
  • To solve this problem, AI tools like Kraftful can be used in conjunction with Zapier's automated workflows to centralize feedback into one cohesive system.
  • By connecting Kraftful with tools such as Zendesk, Typeform, Zoom, and others through Zapier's workflow automation software, product managers can save time, reduce errors, and gain a real-time view of user needs.
  • This allows them to focus on prioritizing features that will make the biggest impact and deliver products that truly delight their users.

The McKinsey Crossword: Lives & Legacies | No. 209


Mckinsey

December 3, 2024

  • You can either play an interactive puzzle online or download and print it out when you're ready to solve it.
  • To get new puzzles, you can check back every Tuesday or sign up for a weekly alert so you don't miss any challenges.

6 ways we supported learning and education in 2024


Google Chrome | By Shantanu Sinha

December 4, 2024

  • Google for Education made significant changes to its products by releasing over 65 updates in 2024.
  • These updates were created based on feedback from millions of educators and students who shared their ideas and suggestions with Google.

Mastering Teradata VARCHAR migration to Snowflake (Tera Mode)


Snowflake | By Kuo Lun Lo

December 6, 2024

  • This article about Data Science on Medium has sparked further discussion among readers who are adding their thoughts and responses to the conversation by highlighting key points from the story and sharing their own insights, allowing them to engage with others who have similar interests in data science.

NVIDIA Advances Physical AI With Accelerated Robotics Simulation on AWS


Nvidia | By Akhil Docca

December 3, 2024

Web
Cloud
AI
Backend
Hardware
Robotics
Algorithms
  • Leading robotics startups are using advanced technologies from NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services to create autonomous robots that can work alongside humans.
  • These companies, including Field AI, Vention, Cobot, and others, are leveraging Isaac Sim, a powerful simulation tool, to train and test their robots in physically accurate virtual environments.
  • Isaac Sim allows developers to simulate complex robotics workflows, generate synthetic data for perception model training, and even build custom pipelines using generative AI.
  • By harnessing NVIDIA's accelerated hardware and software on the cloud, these teams can scale their physical AI workflows, reduce costs, and accelerate breakthroughs in industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare.

Investing in Performance: Fine-tune small models with LLM insights - a CFM case study


HuggingFace

December 3, 2024

Cloud
AI
Backend
Data Science
Hardware
  • Capital Fund Management (CFM) used large language models (LLMs) and Hugging Face's ecosystem to improve named entity recognition (NER) for financial data by leveraging LLM-assisted labeling with Inference Endpoints and refining data with Argilla.
  • They fine-tuned compact models like GLiNER, which achieved 87% accuracy in zero-shot settings, and improved its performance to 93.4% after fine-tuning on a labeled dataset.
  • The team also compared the performance of small models against LLMs like Llama 3.1-70b, which scored 95% F1-score but costs significantly more for inference.
  • By investing in fine-tuning small models with LLM insights, CFM achieved cost-effective and scalable solutions for financial NER tasks, making it an ideal approach for real-world applications where both accuracy and resource efficiency are crucial, reducing operational costs by up to 80 times compared to large LLMs alone.

Eliminate handoff headaches with automation


Zapier | By Ayman Kotob

December 3, 2024

Web
  • Account handoffs between teams often cause problems because of lost notes, missed voicemails, and forgotten tasks.
  • To fix this issue, you can use Zapier to create a seamless automated workflow that connects your tech stack.
  • This workflow can be triggered when a deal stage is updated in your CRM, such as HubSpot or Salesforce, and then automatically hand off the deal to the right team member by notifying them via email and Slack.
  • It also creates a customized sales deck in Google Slides with information from the deal metadata and builds a list of follow-up tasks in Asana to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
  • This basic Zap can be customized further using Zapier's built-in tools, making it a digital multitool for automation that helps you prioritize handoffs according to urgency or assign them to reps based on industry.

Welcome PaliGemma 2 – New vision language models by Google


HuggingFace

December 5, 2024

  • Google has released a new version of its vision language model called PaliGemma 2, which combines powerful image encoding with advanced text generation capabilities.
  • This model comes in three sizes - 3B, 10B, and 28B parameters - and supports different input resolutions, making it flexible for various tasks.
  • Pre-trained models can be fine-tuned for downstream tasks like captioning, question answering, and more, and the community is encouraged to build upon this new technology.
  • The PaliGemma 2 team has also provided resources such as demo code, a fine-tuning script, and a technical report to help users get started with using the model, which is distributed under an open license allowing for redistribution, commercial use, and creation of derivatives.

McDonald’s cybersecurity apprentices: Where are they now?


McDonald's Tech Blog | By Global Technology

December 3, 2024

Security
  • The McDonald's Cyber Apprenticeship Program has helped transform three women from apprentices to full-time cybersecurity professionals.
  • Bianca Harmon now works as a Cybersecurity Engineer 1, focusing on ensuring that only authorized people have access to sensitive information and systems.
  • Takeisha Hamilton is a Senior Associate on the Penetration Testing team, where she identifies potential vulnerabilities in the company's internet-facing technical assets.
  • Kimberly Simms is an Associate Cybersecurity Analyst on the Cyber Defense team, helping to mitigate cyber incidents and ensure suspicious activity is addressed.
  • All three women credit the apprenticeship program for preparing them for successful careers in cybersecurity, citing hands-on experience, mentorship, and exposure to various projects as key factors in their success.
  • The program will continue to welcome new cohorts and empower early talent in cybersecurity to shape the future of digital security.

How media, publishing and entertainment organizations can master data governance in the age of AI


Thoughtworks | By Chris Moore

December 5, 2024

AI
  • In today's digital landscape where artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the media, publishing, and entertainment industries, mastering Data Governance is crucial for success.
  • This involves having a clear plan to manage and secure data from collection to disposal, ensuring it remains accurate, reliable, and compliant with regulations.
  • Effective Data Governance helps organizations make informed decisions, build trust with customers and stakeholders, and stay ahead of the competition by leveraging AI-driven insights and analytics.
  • By prioritizing data quality, security, and transparency, media, publishing, and entertainment companies can unlock the full potential of AI and drive business growth while mitigating risks associated with data misuse or breaches.

Masking and Scheduling LoRA and Model Weights


ComfyUI | By Jedrzej Kosinski

December 6, 2024

  • There are different ways to run models with LoRA (short for Low-Rank Adaptation) features.
  • The base model uses LoRA without any scheduling, while scheduled LoRA runs at specific times and allows you to adjust its strengths.
  • Unscheduled LoRA also applies LoRA features but doesn't follow a schedule.
  • You can even combine masking (hiding certain parts of the model) with scheduling, allowing for more control over how and when your model is trained or run.
  • This flexibility enables users to customize their workflow and achieve desired results.

Abstracts: NeurIPS 2024 with Weizhu Chen


Microsoft Research | By Brenda Potts

December 7, 2024

  • Amber Tingle from Microsoft Research invited listeners to join them next time on Abstracts, mentioning their previous episode with Weizhu Chen about NeurIPS 2024, and people can find related paper information on arXiv and the NeurIPS conference website.

MarS: A unified financial market simulation engine in the era of generative foundation models


Microsoft Research | By Brenda Potts

December 4, 2024

AI
DevOps
Backend
Algorithms
  • A new technology called MarS has been developed by Microsoft Research to simulate and predict financial market trends more accurately than traditional methods.
  • This engine uses artificial intelligence to generate realistic scenarios of how markets might behave under different conditions, allowing researchers and regulators to identify potential risks and anomalies.
  • MarS can also be used to create controlled environments for training algorithms that learn from experience, making it easier to develop and test new financial systems.
  • By providing a more detailed and accurate understanding of market dynamics, MarS has the potential to help prevent market manipulation and crashes, while also enabling "what if" scenario planning and improving the development of new financial tools and services.

Supabase Edge Functions: Introducing Background Tasks, Ephemeral Storage, and WebSockets


Supabase

December 3, 2024

  • We're excited to announce three new features for Edge Functions: Background Tasks, Ephemeral File Storage, and WebSockets.
  • These features allow you to build more complex projects by executing long-running tasks in the background, storing temporary files without worrying about storage limits, and establishing real-time connections with clients.
  • With Background Tasks, you can run jobs that take up to 6 minutes and 40 seconds on paid plans or 2 minutes and 30 seconds for free projects.
  • Ephemeral File Storage lets you store intermediate results without paying for extra storage, and WebSockets enable secure, two-way communication between your Edge Function and clients.
  • These features are designed to make it easier to build scalable and efficient applications with Edge Functions, and more improvements are on the way in 2025.

How to automate your note-taking app with Zapier


Zapier | By Elena Alston

December 5, 2024

AI
  • Note-taking apps and tools can become disorganized easily, leading to lost ideas, forgotten tasks, and missed information.
  • To manage this chaos, you can use automation with Zapier, a platform that connects various apps and services to create workflows called Zaps.
  • With just a few clicks, you can turn notes into tasks in project management tools, send meeting notes to teams, save important notifications as notes, generate AI content from your notes, collect resources in one place, and even back up your notes elsewhere.
  • These automated workflows will help streamline your note-taking process, saving time and reducing stress, so you can focus on what matters most.

Enterprise technology’s next chapter: Four gen AI shifts that will reshape business technology


Mckinsey

December 2, 2024

AI
DevOps
Backend
Robotics
  • As generative AI (gen AI) becomes more prevalent in enterprise technology, companies will need to adapt their approach to maximize its benefits and minimize its risks.
  • This includes restructuring teams and workflows to integrate human and AI collaboration, with two emerging patterns of interaction - the "factory" model, where gen AI agents perform autonomous tasks, and the "artisan" model, where gen AI tools assist experienced professionals in complex problem-solving.
  • New roles and skills will be necessary, such as factory supervisors who oversee AI output, and enterprise technology experts who can broaden their strategy, judgment, and execution skills to work effectively with AI.
  • As AI scales within IT, organizational structures may shift from traditional hierarchies to flatter models that capture the full productivity benefit of gen AI.
  • Additionally, cost structures will likely change, with a greater focus on compute spend to support gen AI agents, requiring close attention to optimize costs and prevent runaway expenses.

Join Canonical in Mumbai at HPE Discover More


Canonical | By Felipe Vanni (Felipe Vanni)

December 2, 2024

AI
  • Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, is partnering with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to host HPE Discover More in Mumbai.
  • At this event, attendees will learn how Canonical and HPE can help businesses advance securely using comprehensive open-source solutions for infrastructure, AI, and more.
  • Canonical's participation will showcase its cutting-edge open-source solutions that offer innovation, cost savings, and top-notch security.
  • The event features various key highlights such as AI by Canonical, Ubuntu Pro, Open Source Cloud, MicroCloud, and more, presented by experts like Andrey Grebennikovn.
  • This partnership aims to promote the adoption of open-source technology worldwide, helping customers achieve significant cost savings, optimize operations, and enhance performance while prioritizing security in physical and virtual environments.

How to password-protect a Google Drive folder


Zapier | By Abigail Sims

December 5, 2024

  • You can't directly put a password on a Google Drive folder, but there are workarounds to keep your files private.
  • You can use Google Drive's built-in security features to manage access and permissions for folders, such as sharing only with specific people and setting expiration dates for shared links.
  • If you need more advanced security options, you can explore third-party solutions like browser extensions or encryption tools that add an extra layer of protection.
  • Alternatively, you can use services like Zapier to automate workflows and integrate Google Drive with other apps, but keep in mind these might require additional setup and costs.

New Amazon Nova image- and video-generating models


Amazon Science

December 4, 2024

Web
  • Amazon recently announced Amazon Nova, a new technology that allows computers to generate high-quality images and videos based on text prompts.
  • The technology includes two models, called Amazon Nova Canvas and Amazon Nova Reel, which can create realistic images or videos from simple text descriptions.
  • For example, you could type "a fancy French restaurant" into the system and it would generate a detailed image of one.
  • Amazon Nova uses artificial intelligence to learn how to associate words with visual signals, allowing it to improve its ability to generate images or videos over time.
  • To make this technology work efficiently on computers, Amazon also developed new techniques for speeding up the process of generating images or videos, such as using multiple computer chips and optimizing the way the program makes calculations.

EVPassport: Charging Ahead to the Future with Databricks


Databricks

December 4, 2024

  • EVPassport, established in 2020, focuses on improving the experience of charging electric vehicles by providing solutions for various settings such as multi-family homes, hotels, stores, office buildings, and public parking lots, aiming to make it more convenient and accessible for people to use electric vehicles.

How to Write Code That's Easy to Read – Tips for Developers


freeCodeCamp | By Orim Dominic Adah

December 4, 2024

Web
DevOps
Security
Coding
Algorithms
  • When writing code, it's essential to remember that programmers spend more time reading code than writing it, so making code readable and enjoyable to read is crucial for maintainability.
  • A real-life example of a JavaScript function called createOrUpdateUserOnLogin was analyzed and found to be hard to understand due to deep nesting, complex conditionals, and haphazard flow.
  • To refactor the code, the author suggests handling failure cases first, rearranging the flow to make it more logical, using everyday grammar with clear variable names, and avoiding nested code blocks.
  • By applying these principles, the code becomes easier to read, understand, and maintain, making software development a more enjoyable activity for both developers and non-technical team members alike.

Canonical announces Ubuntu Security Research Alliance Program


Canonical | By Canonical (Canonical)

December 4, 2024

  • Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, has announced its new Ubuntu Security Research Alliance Program, a partnership with open source vulnerability scanning organizations to improve security for Ubuntu users.
  • The goal is to provide more accurate, timely, and actionable results on vulnerabilities in open source software, making it easier for developers and users to fix issues and stay secure.
  • This program aims to enhance transparency and standardization of vulnerability data, reducing false positives and providing clear indicators of how to fix problems.
  • By working together, Canonical and its partners will make the pathway to consuming open source more reliable, trustworthy, and secure.

Canonical announces public beta of optimized Ubuntu image for Qualcomm IoT platforms


Canonical | By Canonical (Canonical)

December 2, 2024

  • Qualcomm and everything related to it, such as its smaller parts called subsidiaries, are trademarks or officially registered with Qualcomm Incorporated.

Ideas: Economics and computation with Nicole Immorlica


Microsoft Research | By Brenda Potts

December 5, 2024

  • A scientist named Nicole Immorlica was on a podcast called Microsoft Research Podcast to talk about her work, specifically how economics and computer science intersect.
  • The episode, titled "Ideas: Economics and computation with Nicole Immorlica", highlights her research in this area.

Dynamic SQL in Snowflake with EXECUTE IMMEDIATE, Jinja Templates, and Git Integration


Snowflake | By Shivali Naik

December 3, 2024

  • This article is being discussed on Medium's & Data Science platform where users are engaging with the conversation by reacting to it and sharing their thoughts.

Microproductivity: How to get mundane tasks done, finally


Zapier | By Elise Dopson

December 6, 2024

AI
  • To be more productive with small tasks, also known as microproductivity, you need to break down large tasks into smaller ones and make time for them.
  • One way to do this is by using a timer with time blocks, which means scheduling specific times for urgent tasks or deep work on your calendar app.
  • You can then see spare time blocks to use for microproductivity, such as 15 minutes before a meeting to check off small tasks like updating your social media logins or printing postage labels.
  • Another way is to batch mundane tasks together into one time block, making it less overwhelming and allowing you to do more in less time.
  • Additionally, using habit stacking can help make new habits second nature, while limiting distractions with tools like noise-canceling headphones or focus apps can prevent procrastination.
  • You can also outsource or automate tasks that are repetitive or boring, and take breaks if you're showing signs of burnout, allowing you to have more bandwidth for the things you love.

Learn Arduino in Spanish - Course for Beginners


freeCodeCamp | By Estefania Cassingena Navone

December 5, 2024

Hardware
  • Arduino is an open-source platform that lets you control the physical world through programming by connecting sensors and electronic components to its board.
  • With Arduino, you can create interactive projects, learn about electronics and programming fundamentals, and build a wide range of projects from simple circuits to complex robotics systems.
  • A new course on freeCodeCamp.org's Spanish YouTube channel teaches you the basics of Arduino step-by-step, covering key programming concepts like variables, functions, and loops, as well as electronics topics such as digital input-output, sensors, temperature, and more.
  • The beginner-friendly course is perfect for those just starting in programming and electronics, with the option to use an Arduino simulator if you don't have a board available.

Unlock the Predictive Power of Your Time Series Data


Databricks

December 5, 2024

  • Time series forecasting helps businesses make informed decisions by predicting what will happen in the future based on past trends and data.
  • It's used to forecast things like demand or user behavior, which can be really important for companies that want to stay ahead of the game.

New NVIDIA Certifications Expand Professionals’ Credentials in AI Infrastructure and Operations


Nvidia | By Ann Sheridan

December 3, 2024

AI
DevOps
Hardware
  • NVIDIA has introduced two professional-level certifications to help professionals enhance their skills in working with AI technologies.
  • The certifications, NVIDIA-Certified Professional: AI Infrastructure and NVIDIA-Certified Professional: AI Operations, are designed for network and system administrators, DevOps engineers, and others who need to understand AI infrastructure and operations.
  • These exams test expertise in deploying AI infrastructure, managing AI data centers, and optimizing AI operations, and can be prepared for through hands-on training workshops provided by NVIDIA.
  • By getting certified, professionals like Saleh Hassan, an embedded software engineer at Two Six Technologies, can gain a competitive edge in high-demand fields and advance their careers.

Implementing Evaluation platform on Azure Machine Learning


Microsoft Devblogs | By David Lee

December 6, 2024

Cloud
AI
Backend
Algorithms
  • The Evaluation Platform was designed to help developers run experiments and validate their configurations for a Copilot chatbot solution using Azure Machine Learning (AML).
  • The platform allows users to define multiple iterations of inference runs on ground truth data, store results in Azure Blob Storage, and evaluate the output using various metrics.
  • AML's Parallel Job capability abstracted away the complexity of processing files in parallel, allowing developers to focus on scripting the inference and evaluation processes.
  • However, there are some limitations, such as no support for streaming or retrying failed jobs with AML's built-in functionality, which were addressed by implementing custom solutions like Polly-based retry mechanisms and rate limiting on the .NET inference service level.
  • Additionally, MLFlow was used to capture experiment parameters and job logs, making it easier to review and reproduce results.

How to record Discord calls


Zapier | By Dylan Reber

December 6, 2024

  • To access and save your recorded Discord calls, tap the "Jump to DM" button found in Craig's message, then select download or delete your recording.
  • You can use third-party apps if you want to record both audio and video; popular options include Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) and Bandicam.
  • To use OBS, go to the OBS homepage, download and install it, give permission for screen recording and microphone usage, then select "recording" mode and choose to capture your Discord window under Sources.
  • For Bandicam, go to its homepage, click the free download button, install it, and follow on-screen instructions to start and stop recordings.
  • Once you have a recorded file, you can access it and save it to your phone or computer.

2024 Duolingo Language Report


Duolingo | By Cindy Blanco

December 2, 2024

AI
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Shaping the Future of Generative AI


Linux Foundation | By Hilary Carter

December 5, 2024

Performance
AI
Backend
  • A new report on Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) reveals its significant impact on businesses and industries worldwide.
  • With over 90% of surveyed organizations using GenAI for tasks such as process automation, content generation, and code generation, it's clear that this technology is transforming how we work and innovate.
  • The report highlights the importance of open source and cloud-native technologies in accelerating GenAI adoption, with 71% of organizations citing transparency, cost efficiency, and regulatory alignment as key benefits of using open-source tools.
  • As a result, GenAI has improved productivity for 79% of organizations, enabled creativity and new skills development, and is driving a more collaborative and sustainable future for businesses and industries alike.

Meet Canonical at the Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona


Canonical | By Canonical (Canonical)

December 5, 2024

AI
  • Companies are using advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make their business models more efficient and productive.
  • For example, AI can help with tasks such as customer service and network maintenance for telecommunications companies.
  • However, these systems also need to be secure to protect sensitive data, which is where a new technology called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) comes in - it helps keep data safe while still allowing the AI system to learn and improve.
  • This security feature is made possible by "confidential computing," a new way of protecting data that can be used in both public and private cloud environments, and companies like Canonical are offering this technology.

How We Integrated Native macOS Workloads with Kubernetes


Agoda | By Vitalii Horbachov

December 4, 2024

Mobile
  • To manage macOS workloads at scale, Agoda uses a Kubernetes-based solution called macOS Virtualization Kubelet (macOS-vz-Kubelet).
  • This project leverages Apple's Virtualization framework and integrates with Kubernetes to run native macOS workloads efficiently.
  • The setup involves provisioning Mac Minis using JAMF for initial configuration, followed by integration with Fleet-Compute, Agoda's internal system for managing bare-metal infrastructure.
  • The solution automates tasks such as deploying macOS-vz-Kubelet, generating kubelet certificates, and managing Kubernetes machine lifespan.
  • To get started, users can refer to the project's README file, which includes a usage guide, examples folder with sample workloads, and links to additional resources like the oras-macos-vz repository.

Advancing AI-Powered Intelligent Writing Assistance across Multiple Languages


Grammarly

December 6, 2024

AI
Hardware
  • Researchers from Grammarly explored the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) to perform editing tasks such as grammar correction, simplification, and paraphrasing across multiple languages.
  • They fine-tuned several LLMs, including BLOOMZ, PolyLM, and mT5, on a dataset called mEdIT with instructions in various languages.
  • The results showed that multilingually trained models outperformed other models, regardless of the instruction language, and performed well even when evaluated on unseen languages.
  • The study found that model size was crucial for performance, with larger models showing improved results across all tasks.
  • Additionally, human feedback from expert annotators indicated high ratings for model outputs across most languages, although some languages like Arabic and Chinese had lower quality training data and accuracy issues.
  • Overall, the research demonstrated the potential of LLMs to perform editing tasks at scale and suggested that further exploration could lead to more accessible and ubiquitous writing assistants.

Supabase Queues


Supabase

December 5, 2024

Performance
Database
DevOps
Backend
Algorithms
  • Supabase Queues is a tool for managing background tasks in your applications, allowing you to process tasks asynchronously and improve performance and resilience.
  • It's built on top of Postgres, a reliable database system, and uses a Message Queue with guaranteed delivery to ensure that messages are processed exactly once.
  • With Supabase Queues, you can create different types of queues, such as Basic, Unlogged, and Partitioned, each suited for specific use cases.
  • You can add messages to queues using the Dashboard, SQL, or client libraries, and manage access control with Row-Level Security (RLS) policies.
  • The tool also includes features like monitoring, archiving, and deletion of messages, making it a powerful solution for managing queues directly in your database without additional costs or infrastructure.

The top 3 cybersecurity threats business face in 2025


Proton | By Kate Menzies

December 6, 2024

Web
DevOps
Security
  • Cybersecurity threats are on the rise and businesses are more vulnerable than individuals.
  • In 2024, there were several high-profile incidents of targeted attacks, including a Russian state-sponsored hacker group breaching Microsoft's systems to steal sensitive data, and a data breach affecting 2.7 billion Americans through National Public Data.
  • Small businesses are particularly at risk due to limited resources, with 89% reporting that a cyber breach impacted their reputation and 93% saying it affected their ability to operate.
  • Businesses face financial losses, potential legal consequences, and damage to their reputation if they fall victim to cyber threats such as weak passwords, phishing, and ransomware.
  • To combat these threats, businesses can implement measures like enforcing two-factor authentication (2FA), creating strong password policies, performing regular data backups, and using a secure password manager like Proton Pass for Business, which offers features like dark web monitoring, secure vault sharing, and built-in 2FA to help protect against cyber threats.

Supabase CLI v2: Config as Code


Supabase

December 4, 2024

Performance
Cloud
AI
Coding
  • Supabase CLI v2 allows you to manage your project environments using a configuration file called config.toml, which makes it easy to ensure consistent development experiences between all services in staging and production.
  • With this feature, you can commit your configuration settings into version control, like git, so that everyone on your team has the same setup.
  • The CLI also supports Configuration as Code, allowing you to manage edge functions, storage objects, database settings, webhooks, branches, and multiple "remotes" from a single file.
  • This makes it easier to detect changes in remote configurations, configure authentication services for preview URLs, set up automatic deployments of edge functions, and manage database settings and webhooks.
  • By using the Supabase CLI v2, you can streamline your project environments and have more control over how your development setup is managed.

Supabase AI Assistant v2


Supabase

December 2, 2024

Database
AI
Coding
  • Supabase has released an updated version of its AI assistant called Supabase Assistant v2, which provides various new abilities to help users work with their database more efficiently.
  • The assistant can guide schema design, write SQL queries, debug errors, run data insights queries, and even convert SQL code into client library calls.
  • It also allows users to create or edit PostgreSQL policies, functions, and triggers using natural language prompts, providing context based on the specific page they're working on in the dashboard.
  • This new assistant is designed to be extensible and can be accessed by pressing cmd + i or clicking an icon in the top right toolbar within a project in the Supabase dashboard.

7 ways to automate spreadsheets


Zapier | By Tyler Robertson

December 5, 2024

AI
  • Spreadsheets are essential for business operations, but manually moving information between apps and spreadsheets can slow you down.
  • Zapier solves this problem by connecting your spreadsheet tools to your tech stack, allowing you to automate workflows with just a few Zaps.
  • You can automatically add leads from advertising tools like LinkedIn or Facebook Ads to a shared spreadsheet, create tasks in apps like Trello or Notion from rows in your spreadsheet, and even keep multiple spreadsheets in sync.
  • Additionally, you can use webhooks to send information between apps, add form responses to a spreadsheet for backup and analysis, get notifications when changes happen in your spreadsheets, and power your sales and marketing efforts by seamlessly connecting your CRM and marketing apps to Google Sheets or Excel.

Google Calendar vs. Apple Calendar: Which should you use? [2025]


Zapier | By Harry Guinness

December 4, 2024

Mobile
  • When choosing between Google Calendar and Apple Calendar, it ultimately comes down to your personal preferences and devices you use.
  • If you have multiple devices or operating systems, Google Calendar might be simpler with more integrations and features.
  • However, if you only use Apple devices, Apple Calendar is likely the easier option since it's often set up automatically when you sign into iCloud.
  • But don't worry too much about switching - both calendars work similarly once set up, and there are ways to automate Google Calendar on Apple devices or vice versa, so it's not a huge reason to switch unless you want slightly different features.

Intuit’s AI Research Program: Producing Concrete Results for Applied AI at Scale with LLMs


Intuit | By Kamalika Das

December 4, 2024

AI
Backend
  • Intuit's AI Research Program is an internal team that develops and incubates cutting-edge AI technologies to solve complex financial problems for its customers.
  • The team has been working on foundational large language models (LLMs) and has made significant breakthroughs in improving their accuracy, reliability, and transparency.
  • They've developed novel methods for detecting hallucinations and uncertainty qualifications, and have also created a framework called "Ski" that refines LLMs' capabilities to handle previously seen knowledge or integrate new knowledge from external sources.
  • Additionally, they've introduced various techniques such as characterizing knowledge relevance, evaluating generation consistency, secure prompt optimization, ranking contexts with hypothetical query embeddings, holistic evaluation for interleaved text-and-image generation, and mitigating hallucination in fictional character role-play.
  • These advancements have been showcased at the 2024 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP), and are expected to benefit the industry at large by fostering a global collaborative open source community to build upon these cutting-edge AI advancements.

The best productivity apps in 2025


Zapier | By Jessica Lau

December 2, 2024

  • There are many productivity apps available to help you work more efficiently, such as Zapier which offers multi-step Zaps and webhooks for automating tasks, Microsoft Lens for scanning documents with OCR, PhraseExpress for text expansion, and dictation software like Apple Dictation or Windows Speech Recognition that lets you type by talking.
  • Additionally, mind mapping software like Coggle helps you brainstorm ideas.
  • The key is not to focus on the specific app, but rather finding a system that works best for you.

Capex excellence in oil and gas: Innovations for market challenges


Mckinsey

December 5, 2024

Web
Robotics
Algorithms
  • The upstream oil and gas industry is facing various challenges, including volatile commodity markets, geopolitical instability, competition for construction talent, and pressure to accelerate new production online, which are driving up costs and requiring more efficient capital deployment processes.
  • To address these challenges, some companies are adopting innovative procurement strategies, such as expanding their supply base, testing new tendering models, and using the should-cost methodology to determine a fair price for projects or services by considering underlying cost drivers and expected margins of suppliers along the value chain.
  • This approach provides granular cost transparency, enabling companies to make informed investment decisions, negotiate better prices with suppliers, and identify opportunities to optimize costs and improve operational efficiency.
  • By adopting this methodology and developing new capabilities within their organizations, oil and gas players can enhance operational efficiency, optimize cost structures, improve supplier negotiations, and drive sustainable value creation in the face of global volatility and changing market conditions.

Unconventional partnerships: The real estate developer’s innovation edge


Mckinsey

December 4, 2024

AI
Security
Backend
  • The real estate development industry has become more complex due to increasing demands for sustainability, technology, and innovation, which many developers may not have the expertise or resources to tackle on their own.
  • To overcome these challenges, developers are turning to unconventional partnerships with companies from various industries, such as clean energy, tech startups, and sustainable waste management firms.
  • These collaborations can bring significant benefits, including access to new technologies, expertise, and capabilities that expand the traditional definition of a developer's role.
  • By partnering in non-traditional ways, real estate developers can create more resilient and sustainable business models, attract a wider range of investors, and diversify their revenue streams.
  • To succeed in these partnerships, developers must conduct thorough due diligence, define clear objectives, develop a strong governance model, establish performance metrics, and plan for exit strategies, ultimately enabling them to evolve into future-proof real estate developers.

Author Talks: Tony Blair on leadership essentials


Mckinsey

December 4, 2024

  • Tony Blair's new book "On Leadership" offers practical advice for aspiring leaders on how to cultivate optimism, adaptability, and success in the 21st century.
  • As a former UK Prime Minister with 15 years of experience working with leaders globally, Blair shares his accumulated knowledge on essential leadership qualities such as clarity of direction, prioritization, policy-making, and personnel management.
  • He emphasizes that effective government is not just about delivering what people want but also about giving them what they need to lead fulfilling lives.
  • Blair discusses the importance of humility, curiosity, and resilience in leadership, and how to avoid pitfalls like hubris and paralysis by change.
  • He also explores the role of technology in governance and the challenges of democracy, highlighting the need for leaders to be optimistic, adaptable, and open to challenge.

Introducing Uniffi for React Native: Rust-Powered Turbo Modules


Mozilla Hacks | By Mark Mayo

December 4, 2024

Web
Performance
Backend
  • Developers are working on a new tool called Uniffi to help fix performance issues in React Native apps by using Rust, a powerful programming language.
  • This will allow them to easily find and replace slow parts of their code with faster alternatives, making it easier to optimize app performance without needing extensive knowledge of Rust.
  • By combining the strengths of Rust and React Native, Uniffi is expected to unlock new possibilities for app developers and make cross-platform development more efficient.

“How good are LLMs at fixing their mistakes? A chatbot arena experiment with Keras and TPUs


HuggingFace

December 5, 2024

AI
Backend
Data Science
Hardware
Coding
  • The author wanted to see if Large Language Models (LLMs) can be used as interactive coding assistants, able to generate code and fix mistakes when pointed out in plain English.
  • To test this, they set up a simple chatbot arena where multiple LLMs could interact at once and even pause one side while asking another to fix its mistake.
  • The results showed that some models performed well, such as Gemma 9B, which managed to get through the test almost perfectly by correctly answering questions and fixing mistakes when asked.
  • However, other models struggled with making mistakes or not being able to correct them, including smaller models like Llama 3.2 1B and older models like Vicuna 1.5 7B.
  • The author concludes that while fine-tuning could improve the results, only one model showed great potential for this task, and it's worth exploring further to make LLMs a useful interactive coding assistant.

ComfyUI statement on the Ultralytics crypto miner situation.


ComfyUI | By comfyanonymous

December 5, 2024

Mobile
  • To fix the issue with the compromised ultralytics package, we recommend deleting the file and making sure all versions of the package are removed.
  • We've also updated our ComfyUI manager to flag any compromised versions, automatically pin a safe version (8.3.40), and notify users if they have a vulnerable one.
  • Our desktop app has been updated with this new manager.
  • In addition, we're planning to add sandboxing in the future to better protect against similar attacks, but for now, deleting the file and updating should resolve the issue.

How to use ChatGPT for brainstorming


Zapier | By Hsing Tseng

December 2, 2024

AI
  • ChatGPT is a great brainstorming partner because it's always accessible and can generate new ideas based on its training data, but you should use it wisely by understanding its limitations - it can't do original research or replace human-to-human interactions.
  • It's best to treat ChatGPT as a supplemental tool, not a primary source for the latest data or research findings, and prioritize data security and privacy by keeping sensitive topics out of your conversations.
  • Instead, use ChatGPT as a sounding board to get starting points and then take its ideas and run with them, using human creativity to develop and refine them into full-fledged solutions.

How the healthcare industry can weather ongoing challenges


Mckinsey

December 5, 2024

AI
Security
  • The US healthcare industry has been facing various challenges such as supply cost inflation, workforce shortages, and regulatory changes which have put pressure on provider organizations to improve their operating performance.
  • Despite these challenges, providers can focus on adopting a patient-centered approach and leveraging digital technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity and reduce costs.
  • Payers are also facing headwinds including rising utilization rates, inflationary pressures, and reimbursement changes, but they can explore new opportunities for growth and efficiency by managing their medical and administrative costs through core operational improvements enabled by technology.
  • Meanwhile, the pharmacy sector is expected to grow driven by specialty drugs, cell and gene therapies, and innovative models like direct-to-consumer delivery and integrated medical and pharmacy care delivery.
  • The healthcare services and technology (HST) sector has been growing steadily but remains highly fragmented due to limited interoperability between data sources and systems.
  • Despite these challenges, the industry offers opportunities for sustainable improvement through digital transformation, cost reduction, and innovation in care delivery models, which can ultimately benefit patients, communities, and healthcare organizations.

Supabase Cron


Supabase

December 4, 2024

Database
Cloud
AI
  • Supabase Cron is a tool for scheduling tasks, called Jobs, to run automatically at set intervals on your database.
  • With Supabase Cron, you can create recurring tasks to perform various tasks such as deleting old data, generating reports, sending emails, and more.
  • You can define schedules using standard cron syntax or natural language and choose from four types of Jobs: SQL snippets for running queries, database functions for batch processing, HTTP requests (webhooks) for external integrations, and Supabase Edge Functions for serverless custom logic.
  • You can view the history of all Jobs and their logs in the Dashboard to debug any issues, making it easy to automate your workflows with a simple click.

The best team collaboration tools in 2025


Zapier | By Jessica Lau

December 2, 2024

AI
  • When it comes to team collaboration tools, there are many options available to help your team stay organized and on the same page.
  • These include password manager apps for secure login, AI productivity tools that can automate tasks, CRM software for marketing and sales teams, and AI chatbots that can assist with research and data analysis.
  • By connecting these collaborative platforms and setting up automations for repetitive tasks, you can save time and focus on more important things.
  • This includes scheduling meetings, sharing documents, and more, all while keeping your team's work organized and efficient.

How a breakdancing injury launched a coding empire with Scott Tolinski [Podcast #152]


freeCodeCamp | By Quincy Larson

December 6, 2024

Web
  • On this week's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, founder Quincy Larson interviews Scott Tolinski, a developer who created a popular programming tutorial YouTube channel called LevelUpTuts after injuring himself breakdancing 14 years ago.
  • They discuss Scott's perspective on web development, his transition from video editing to software development, what he's learned from creating over 2,000 tutorials and hosting 800 web dev podcasts, and share productivity tips for maintaining a high pace without burning out.

Reclaim the internet: Mozilla’s rebrand for the next era of tech


Mozilla | By Lindsey Lionheart O’Brien

December 4, 2024

Web
  • Mozilla isn't just any ordinary tech company - they're a team of people from all over the world working together to keep the internet free and accessible for everyone.
  • They've been fighting for this idea for over 25 years, believing that the web should be available to anyone, no matter where they come from or who they are.

Catching an Edge — December


Snowflake | By Josh Reini

December 3, 2024

  • People are discussing a topic related to & Data Science on Medium, where they're continuing the conversation by pointing out and responding to a particular story or article about this subject.

Industrial cybersecurity: the journey towards IEC 62443 compliance


Canonical | By Edoardo Barbieri (Edoardo Barbieri)

December 2, 2024

Security
Backend
  • Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, recognizes the importance of industrial cybersecurity and is committed to advancing its capabilities in line with the IEC 62443 standard, a comprehensive framework for cybersecurity in industrial automation and control systems.
  • By combining expertise from automotive standards like ISO 26262 and its contributions to industry-wide initiatives, Canonical is well-positioned to bridge the gap between IT and OT security, enabling industrial enterprises to adopt robust, compliant cybersecurity frameworks.
  • The company's open-source platforms, designed with security at their core, provide industrial companies with the flexibility and resilience needed to navigate an increasingly complex cybersecurity landscape, while its partnerships with leading semiconductor companies and collaboration with industry leaders help to drive innovation and compliance in industrial cybersecurity.

How Pinterest Leverages Honeycomb to Enhance CI Observability and  Improve CI Build Stability


Pinterest | By Pinterest Engineering

December 3, 2024

Mobile
Cloud
DevOps
  • Pinterest uses Honeycomb to enhance observability and performance in their mobile builds and continuous integration (CI) workflows.
  • With Honeycomb, they've built dashboards to track build metrics, analyze trends, and make data-driven decisions.
  • The platform's intuitive query builder allows them to drill into granular details with ease, pinpoint bottlenecks, diagnose issues in near real-time, and implement improvements faster than ever before.
  • They use Honeycomb's trace view to analyze specific builds, identify problematic jobs and root causes, and optimize their CI processes.
  • Additionally, they utilize correlation feature to identify potential root causes of build time spikes and error categorization to gain deeper insight into build failures and streamline on-call duties.

Developing a resilient, adaptable workforce for an uncertain future


Mckinsey

December 6, 2024

  • In today's fast-changing business world, leaders need both resilience and adaptability to navigate uncertainty and stay ahead of disruptions such as automation, AI, climate change, and social justice trends.
  • While many organizations underinvest in developing these skills, research shows that employees who are resilient and adaptable demonstrate better holistic health, higher engagement, and increased innovative behaviors.
  • To build resilience and adaptability at scale, leaders can take four actions: set a clear direction or "North Star" for the organization, create a psychologically safe community where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas and taking risks, ensure that leaders themselves model resilience and adaptability skills, and encourage teams to learn and develop these skills in groups through social learning.
  • By doing so, organizations can increase their ability to innovate, respond to change, and achieve business success in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.

Supercharging Private Equity Portfolio Returns


Databricks

December 2, 2024

  • This blog post explains how private equity firms can use data intelligence to make their investments more profitable.
  • It aims to highlight ways for these firms to use data to improve the performance of their investments and increase returns on them.

The Pragmatic Engineer: Cyber Monday Deals


The Pragmatic Engineer | By Gergely Orosz

December 2, 2024

  • It's Cyber Monday and I'm offering special discounts on my ebooks.
  • You can get The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter for 20% off annual subscriptions, or buy individual ebooks at a discount: "The Software Engineer's Guidebook" is 40% off directly from me, while "Building Mobile Apps at Scale", "The Tech Resume Inside-Out", and "Growing as a Mobile Engineer" are all 60% off.
  • All of these deals allow you to gift the ebooks too, so be sure to check out more details on each one if you're interested!.

Research Focus: Week of December 2, 2024


Microsoft Research | By Brenda Potts

December 4, 2024

AI
  • Researchers from Microsoft and their collaborators have been working on several innovative projects to improve artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications.
  • They've developed LLM2CLIP, a new approach that combines language models with visual representations to enhance AI's ability to understand and generate text.
  • Another project, called LORASC, aims to make large-scale models more efficient by adapting their parameters in a way that improves performance without sacrificing accuracy or increasing computational costs.
  • Additionally, Microsoft has been working on a weather forecasting model called Aurora, which can produce accurate predictions faster than traditional methods, and a new architecture called Binet that makes one-bit language models more efficient.
  • These advancements have the potential to revolutionize various fields such as science, medicine, and healthcare.

Thailand and Vietnam Embrace Sovereign AI to Drive Economic Growth


Nvidia | By Isha Salian

December 6, 2024

AI
  • NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been visiting Southeast Asia to discuss sovereign AI initiatives with prime ministers from Thailand and Vietnam.
  • Sovereign AI allows countries to develop and harness AI using domestic computing infrastructure, data, and workforces.
  • Huang met with the prime ministers to talk about accelerating AI innovation in their countries through education and training programs.
  • He also announced NVIDIA's collaboration with Vietnam's government on an AI research and development center, and its acquisition of a health technology startup, VinBrain.
  • These events are part of a growing trend where countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Canada, Denmark, Indonesia, India, and Japan are developing sovereign AI infrastructure powered by NVIDIA technology to drive innovation in sectors such as finance, healthcare, and manufacturing, which is expected to contribute nearly $20 trillion to the global economy through 2030.

How I reduced an API call from >5 seconds to under 100ms


Sentry

December 5, 2024

Database
Coding
  • The original code for a leaderboard API was slow because it made many unnecessary database calls and queries.
  • It fetched data from the database multiple times, which caused delays when the production database grew with more players and items.
  • The developer made three mistakes: not testing with real production data, reusing a helper function that called the database too many times, and copying code that wasn't suitable for the task.
  • To fix this, they refactored the code to make only two database calls, one to fetch all item data at once and another to get player information.
  • This reduced the API call time from over 5 seconds to under 100 milliseconds, making it much faster and efficient.

Customer summaries: Automatically send prospect insights right to your reps


Zapier | By Danielle Lapierre

December 3, 2024

AI
Security
  • To automate tasks and save time, a Zapier workflow is set up with multiple steps to process user data, remove formatting, and search for existing customers in various databases such as CRM or HubSpot.
  • The workflow then uses OpenAI to summarize support tickets from the past 90 days and extract company information from email addresses.
  • Based on this info, it looks up account owners, determines top-paying accounts, and sends a DM with all collected data back to Slack.
  • This process can be repeated using Sub-Zaps, which are reusable parts of workflows that allow for modular automation, making it easier to update or extend the workflow if parameters change, and saving even more time in the long run.

What is a context window?


Mckinsey

December 5, 2024

  • To access some digital content or information, you need to scan a special code called a QR code with your phone's camera.
  • This will allow you to download and open an app that contains what you want to read or view.

MSVC Compiler Language Updates in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12


Microsoft Devblogs | By Cameron DaCamara

December 6, 2024

  • The MSVC compiler team has released a new version of Visual Studio 2022 (version 17.12), which includes fixes for customer-reported issues in C++.
  • This update also adds support for one feature from the upcoming C++23 standard, specifically the multidimensional subscript operator, allowing for more convenient array access syntax.
  • The team welcomes feedback and encourages users to report any problems or make suggestions through Developer Community or by contacting them directly via email or Twitter.

How to Write Better Names for Your Variables, Functions, and Classes – With Examples


freeCodeCamp | By Asfak Ahmed

December 4, 2024

Web
Backend
Hardware
  • Naming is a crucial part of coding as it affects how easily others can understand and work with your code.
  • Good names should be descriptive, concise, and follow consistent conventions like camelCase for variables and functions or kebab-case for class names.
  • A well-chosen name can act as self-documenting code, saving time in understanding the logic, while a poorly chosen one can lead to confusion and bugs.
  • To create good names, consider the purpose of the variable, function, or class, use verbs for functions, be specific about functionality, and avoid ambiguity, redundancy, and magic numbers.
  • Use prefixes like 'is', 'has', or 'can' for boolean variables, uppercase letters for constants, and domain-specific terms to make your code self-explanatory and maintainable.
  • By following these principles, you can significantly improve the readability and quality of your code, making it a joy to work with whether you revisit it later or collaborate with others.

Next.js vs React – Differences and How to Choose the Right One for Your Project


freeCodeCamp | By Okoro Emmanuel Nzube

December 4, 2024

Web
Cloud
Backend
Algorithms
  • React and Next.js are two popular tools used by developers to build fast and interactive web applications.
  • React is a JavaScript library that helps you create reusable components for your user interface, while Next.js is a framework built on top of React that provides additional features like server-side rendering, which allows the server to generate the HTML for a web page before sending it to the browser.
  • The key differences between them lie in their rendering methods - React uses client-side rendering, where the browser generates the HTML, whereas Next.js supports both client-side and server-side rendering, making it better suited for SEO-friendly websites and applications that require fast loading times.
  • Ultimately, whether to use React or Next.js depends on your project's needs, with React being ideal for highly interactive applications and API integration, while Next.js is best used for content-driven websites, e-commerce sites, and applications that require server-side rendering and improved load times.

The New Way of React Native Debugging


Sentry

December 3, 2024

Web
Mobile
DevOps
Coding
  • When debugging a React Native app, local tools have limitations and might not catch all issues that users experience.
  • To solve this problem, you can use Sentry, a powerful application monitoring platform that gives you detailed information about your app's performance and crashes in production.
  • With Sentry, you can track what happened before, during, and after an issue on a user's device and even replay it to see exactly what caused the problem.
  • This tool also includes features like Session Replays, which allows you to visually see what a user did to cause a crash or slow app behavior, making it easier to fix issues that you wouldn't have noticed locally.

Restore to a New Project


Supabase

December 6, 2024

  • Supabase's "Restore to a New Project" tool allows users to easily copy data from one project to another, making it perfect for testing, development environments, or even creating backups.
  • This feature integrates with daily physical backups and Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) to provide flexible restoration options.
  • To use it, you need to enable physical backups on your paid plan, which triggers daily automatic backups of your project data.
  • You can then restore this backup to a new Supabase project that matches the original's compute instance size, disk settings, and other attributes.
  • This process is automated, but may take time depending on the size of the source dataset, and new projects will incur standard compute and disk costs.
  • The feature is currently in Private Alpha, but you can reach out to Supabase support for early access or to report any issues.

I did a LinkedIn 30-day challenge—here's what I learned


Zapier | By Kiran Shahid

December 4, 2024

DevOps
Algorithms
  • The author of this article struggled to post consistently on LinkedIn, but after a 30-day challenge where they posted every day except Sunday, they saw significant growth in their audience and engagement.
  • They gained over 9,300 followers and had 2,554 total engagements during the challenge, with an average of 91 daily engagements.
  • The author learned that consistent posting is key to growing on LinkedIn, but it's also important to have a sustainable and realistic schedule.
  • They discovered that not all content formats are created equal, and what works for one person may not work for another.
  • By mixing up their content types and keeping a content buffer, the author was able to avoid audience fatigue and maintain engagement.
  • The challenge was worth it for them, but they're scaling back to a more sustainable rhythm of four quality posts per week because they don't want LinkedIn to become their full-time job.

Equiniti: From Zero to AI


Databricks

December 6, 2024

AI
  • Equiniti, a company focused on operations, wanted to make sense of its large amount of data and use it to improve how it works with customers and come up with new ideas.
  • To do this, they used two tools called Databricks Data Intelligence Platform and Mosaic AI to help them gather insights from their data and create a better experience for the people they work with.

How to Build Multilingual Apps with i18n in React


freeCodeCamp | By Ayantunji Timilehin

December 4, 2024

Web
Backend
  • To make your website accessible to people all around the world, you need to "localize" it, which means adapting its content and features to fit different languages and cultures.
  • This involves more than just translating words - it's about creating an experience that makes users feel at home no matter where they're from.
  • To achieve this, you can use a library called react-i18next in combination with tools like React and Tailwind CSS.
  • By following some simple steps, such as setting up a project, configuring internationalization, building components, and using translation files, you can create a website that allows users to switch between languages seamlessly and even offers features like dark mode for better usability.
  • This way, your website becomes more inclusive, user-friendly, and accessible to a global audience, making the web a more welcoming place for everyone.

Abstracts: NeurIPS 2024 with Pranjal Chitale


Microsoft Research | By Brenda Potts

December 6, 2024

  • The video "Abstracts: NeurIPS 2024 with Pranjal Chitale" is available on arXiv and the NeurIPS website, and those attending NeurIPS can also hear about it in person.

Deliver strategic success with cloud-native retail banking


Thoughtworks | By Davnit Singh, Omar Bashir

December 6, 2024

  • Delivering strategic success with cloud-native retail banking means using modern technology to make banks more efficient and customer-focused.
  • This approach involves moving bank systems and operations to the cloud, allowing for faster development, better security, and improved scalability.
  • By going cloud-native, retail banks can provide customers with seamless digital experiences, respond quickly to changing market conditions, and stay ahead of competitors in a rapidly evolving industry.

How to Use WPScan to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure


freeCodeCamp | By Marco Venturi

December 5, 2024

Web
Database
DevOps
Security
  • WPScan is a powerful tool used to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen security on WordPress sites.
  • It scans for outdated plugins, misconfigurations, and other common issues, providing actionable insights into site security.
  • To use WPScan effectively, you'll want to tailor its usage to your site's specific needs, establish a robust strategy for monitoring results, and choose the right scans based on your site's type and sensitivity of data handled.
  • You should also keep WordPress core, plugins, and themes updated, address configuration issues, harden user accounts, secure sensitive files, and consider implementing additional security measures like Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), a web application firewall (WAF), and security headers.
  • By following best practices and integrating WPScan into your workflow, you can reduce the risk of attacks and keep your WordPress site safe, making it an essential tool for any website administrator or developer managing a WordPress site.

Abstracts: NeurIPS 2024 with Dylan Foster


Microsoft Research | By Brenda Potts

December 6, 2024

  • Amber Tingle from Microsoft Research invites listeners to join them next time on Abstracts and mentions that they have published a paper which can be found on arXiv and the NeurIPS conference website, referencing their previous podcast episode.

Instagram automation: The 4 most popular ways to streamline your social media


Zapier | By Nicole Replogle

December 5, 2024

AI
DevOps
  • If you're a content creator trying to manage your social media presence on multiple platforms without sacrificing all your free time, automation is the answer.
  • You can use Zapier's automated workflows (called Zaps) to connect your Instagram for Business profile with other apps and automate tasks such as cross-posting to Facebook, LinkedIn, or other platforms, sending notifications to Discord or Slack when you post new content, publishing on websites like Webflow or Google My Business, and even backing up all your posts in Dropbox, Google Sheets, or Airtable without any manual effort.
  • By setting up these Zaps, you can save time, stay organized, and focus on creating more engaging content while keeping your audience informed about your activity.

Svelte i18n and Localization Made Easy


freeCodeCamp | By Alex Tray

December 5, 2024

Web
  • Localization is the process of making your Svelte app accessible to people worldwide by translating text into different languages and adapting it to their cultural preferences.
  • To start localizing your app, you need to install a library like svelte-i18n that helps with translation and internationalization.
  • You then create translation files for each language in JSON format and set up an i18n configuration file to tell Svelte how to use these translations.
  • Next, you update your components to use the translated text by calling the $_ function from svelte-i18n.
  • As your app grows, you can add advanced features like formatting numbers and currencies, dates, and pluralization using libraries like Intl.DateTimeFormat or svelte-i18n's ICU message syntax.
  • It's essential to handle missing translations, organize translations logically, use a translation management platform for large projects, and thoroughly test your app with real users across all supported languages.
  • By following these steps, you can make your Svelte app more inclusive and natural for users from different cultures and regions.

Tune in for #FlutterInProduction — coming soon to a screen near you!


Flutter | By Kelvin Boateng

December 3, 2024

  • A virtual event called #FlutterInProduction will take place on December 17, 2024, where Flutter developers and tech leads will share user stories, showcase new features, and discuss the future of Flutter app development.
  • The event aims to celebrate the community's journey in making Flutter a powerful production-ready framework.
  • Attendees can expect live Q&A sessions with Flutter team leads, insights from companies using Flutter in enterprise environments, and possibly some surprises and announcements.
  • To stay updated, set reminders on your calendar or YouTube, and follow Flutter on social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Medium.

Documentation, development and design for technical authors


Canonical | By Daniele Procida (Daniele Procida)

December 3, 2024

  • When technical authors are involved in product development, they bring value to it by identifying problems and weaknesses with user journeys and tools through effective critique and feedback.
  • This collaboration allows them to contribute to design conversations, pointing out potential issues that might affect a product's success, such as pricing models or tutorial experiences.
  • As a result of their involvement, we see consistent benefits in the development process.
  • If you're interested in learning more about technical authors or even joining Canonical's team, there are opportunities available through hiring and the Canonical Open Documentation Academy.

Meta Andromeda: Supercharging Advantage+ automation with the next-gen personalized ads retrieval engine


Facebook

December 2, 2024

Performance
AI
Backend
Hardware
Algorithms
  • Meta's Andromeda is a new machine learning system designed to improve personalized ad recommendations on its platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook.
  • It uses advanced AI technology, including deep neural networks and hierarchical indexing, to quickly process a massive number of ads in real-time, while also maximizing the return on investment for advertisers.
  • The system leverages custom-designed hardware from NVIDIA and Meta's own Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) to achieve significant performance improvements over previous systems.
  • Andromeda allows for more efficient scaling, handling billions of ad candidates with high accuracy, and can adapt its complexity in real-time to serve high-value ads segments effectively.
  • By integrating with other AI-driven technologies like Advantage+ automation and generative AI, Andromeda aims to provide the best possible experience for both users and advertisers while driving better business outcomes.

Using trusted execution environments for advertising use cases


Mozilla | By Burns Smith and William Wang

December 3, 2024

  • Mozilla acquired Anonym's technology over the summer of 2024 to improve online privacy in advertising, and this article provides more information on how their technology works, specifically focusing on using trusted execution environments for certain uses in advertising.

5 ways to automate Unbounce with Zapier


Zapier | By Juliet John

December 2, 2024

Algorithms
  • Unbounce helps you create high-converting landing pages for marketing campaigns, but managing leads after capturing them can be time-consuming and prone to errors.
  • To streamline your lead management workflows, you can automate tasks using Zapier, a workflow automation software that connects various apps and tools.
  • With Zapier, you can track form submissions in a spreadsheet or database, create or update contacts in your email list, keep your CRM up to date, send notifications to your team, and even send follow-up emails automatically.
  • By integrating Unbounce with other tools like Google Sheets, Airtable, Pipedrive, Hubspot, and Salesforce, you can save time, reduce human error, and focus on what matters most - improving your marketing campaigns and converting leads into customers.

The best audio editing software for Mac, Windows, and the web in 2025


Zapier | By Tim Brookes

December 3, 2024

Web
  • AudioMass is a free and easy-to-use browser-based audio editor that allows you to record, edit, and export your sounds without needing any software downloads or subscriptions.
  • It has a simple interface with features like trimming, cutting, moving, and duplicating audio, as well as effects such as noise reduction, equalizers, compressors, and more.
  • While it's limited compared to other free editors like Audacity, AudioMass is great for quick edits and can be accessed directly from the web without needing to log in or register.
  • If you need more advanced features, consider paid options like Adobe Audition or start with a free editor and move to a premium product when needed; overall, finding the best audio editor depends on your specific needs and preferences.

The 5 best time tracking apps in 2025


Zapier | By Kiera Abbamonte

December 6, 2024

AI
  • The best time tracking app makes it easy to schedule and account for your workday by allowing you to start and stop timers, manually log time entries, and export or review data for accurate invoicing and planning.
  • It also helps save time by automating data flow between other apps and the time tracker.
  • Options like Harvest offer advanced features such as unlimited users and projects, team reporting, and accounting integrations, while simpler alternatives like Everhour provide integration with project management apps to make logging time easier.

Announcing Public Preview of Cross Platform View Sharing


Databricks

December 2, 2024

  • We're excited to announce that a new feature called Cross-Platform View Sharing is now available for public preview.
  • This means data providers can share views across different platforms, allowing them to be accessed and used by multiple users or applications simultaneously.

The 7 best to do list apps in 2025


Zapier | By Harry Guinness

December 3, 2024

  • There are many options beyond dedicated to-do list apps to help you stay organized and on track, such as project management tools like Trello or Asana, note-taking apps with task features like Evernote or OneNote, and time-blocking apps that combine a task list with your calendar.
  • You can even use Google Sheets or Gmail as your to-do list if it suits your needs.
  • Some people also prefer using sticky notes, a notebook, or paper to keep track of their tasks.
  • The key is finding the tool that works best for you personally, so don't be afraid to experiment and try out different options before settling on one that fits your productivity style.

Duolingo 101: How to learn a language on Duolingo


Duolingo | By Cindy Blanco

December 2, 2024

AI
  • At Duolingo, we believe learning a language should be fun and we combine gamification with learning science to keep you motivated while helping you reach your goals.
  • To get started, download the app from the App Store or Google Play Store, pick a language, and answer some questions about your motivations and goals.
  • Our courses are made up of units that focus on communication goals, with bite-sized lessons covering vocabulary and grammar needed to achieve that goal.
  • You'll interact with the language through speaking, writing, reading, and listening exercises, and personalized practice lessons will help you review content you've already learned and fix mistakes.
  • Duolingo offers gamification features like earning XP, competing in leaderboards, staying on track with your streak, and using gems to buy fun extras.
  • You can also include friends and family for support, and there are two subscription options - Super Duolingo and Duolingo Max - that offer extra perks like unlimited hearts and GPT-4-powered features.
  • By making learning fun and accessible, Duolingo helps you improve your language skills in just three months, with learners who complete five sections scoring as well as students who took five semesters of university language classes.

Companies Hiring for AI Skills Outperform Market by 13%


Hackerrank | By Nicole Littlejohn

December 6, 2024

Performance
AI
DevOps
  • Companies are now hiring for AI skills more than ever because it has become a critical driver of business performance.
  • According to our report, companies actively hiring for AI-related roles outperformed the market by 13% in share price growth between Q2 2023 and Q2 2024.
  • This is because AI can drive not just the bottom line but also increase value.
  • However, some companies remain hesitant to adopt AI due to compliance or security risks, which can lead them to fall behind competitors who are investing in AI hiring.
  • To overcome challenges like the AI skills gap and unmonitored generative AI use, companies should future-proof their hiring strategy by staying informed and proactive, and establish policies, training, and oversight to ensure responsible AI use.
  • By doing so, they can gain a competitive edge, achieve exceptional growth, and position themselves as leaders in their industries.

Siemens Healthineers Adopts MONAI Deploy for Medical Imaging AI


Nvidia | By David Niewolny

December 2, 2024

Cloud
AI
  • NVIDIA's open-source research platform, MONAI, helps doctors and data scientists work together to create artificial intelligence (AI) models for medical imaging tests such as X-rays and CT scans.
  • Siemens Healthineers, a major player in medical imaging technology, has adopted MONAI Deploy, a tool that makes it easier to integrate AI workflows into clinical environments.
  • With this adoption, researchers can quickly turn their AI models into real-world applications that can be used by radiologists, speeding up the process from months to just a few clicks.
  • This collaboration aims to improve health outcomes and make medical imaging more efficient, with over 3.5 million downloads of MONAI in five years and contributions from around the world.

Easier evaluations with LangSmith SDK v0.2


Langchain | By LangChain

December 5, 2024

Backend
  • The LangSmith SDK has been updated to make it easier to use and more efficient.
  • Now, instead of defining evaluators as separate functions with multiple arguments, you can define them in a simpler way using just one argument or even without writing a function at all, depending on what type of evaluation you want to run.
  • You can also pass in the dataset name as either a string value or a UUID, and the SDK will automatically determine which one it should use.
  • Additionally, the update drops support for Python 3.8 since it reached its end-of-life in October 2024, so make sure your project is using a supported version of Python.

Artificial Intelligence in manufacturing


Databricks

December 4, 2024

  • Artificial intelligence has become a real game-changer in manufacturing, moving from just being an idea to actually making factories more efficient and innovative.
  • It's now driving change in how things are made, helping companies improve their production processes and work more effectively.

How AI Can Enhance Disability Inclusion and Education


Nvidia | By Noah Kravitz

December 3, 2024

AI
Hardware
  • A recent survey shows that while many students with intellectual disabilities and their parents believe AI has potential to transform education, only about one-third of educators think AI developers consider their needs.
  • To address this issue, Sara Minkara from the U.S.
  • Department of State and Timothy Shriver from Special Olympics discussed on a podcast the importance of including disability voices in AI development and policy conversations.
  • They highlight how AI can enhance inclusive education and build an inclusive future culturally, financially, and socially.

The 21 best generative AI tools in 2025


Zapier | By Hachem Ramki

December 5, 2024

Web
AI
  • Generative AI tools are changing how we create content, design, and solve problems by helping us generate ideas, images, videos, text, music, and even websites without needing to be experts in those areas.
  • These tools can automate tasks such as writing marketing copy, creating videos, editing images, generating realistic voices or music, designing presentations, and building websites.
  • The best generative AI tools are ones that excel at specific tasks like writing, video generation, image creation, voice or music generation, presentation design, website building, or app development, with some offering a broader range of capabilities.
  • There are many different types of generative AI tools, including AI writing assistants, video generation tools, image editing software, voice and music generators, presentation apps, website builders, and app developers, each with their own unique features and abilities, making it easy to find the right tool for your specific needs.

Boost your Microsoft 365 app performance: Introducing tree shaking in TeamsJS


Microsoft Devblogs | By Adam Li

December 6, 2024

Web
  • Microsoft has made its Teams JavaScript client library (TeamsJS) fully tree-shakable, allowing developers to eliminate dead code and reduce their app's package size by up to 44%.
  • This means that when you bundle your app, unused parts of the TeamsJS library will be automatically removed, resulting in a leaner and faster app.
  • To use this feature, simply enable tree shaking with your favorite bundler like Webpack or Rollup, and only include the code your app actually needs.
  • Note that if your app uses the CDN to consume TeamsJS, it will still be using the non-tree-shakable version, but you can switch to the new ESM package by updating your bundler to support ECMAScript Modules.

Databricks Wins Four 2024 AWS Partner of the Year Awards


Databricks

December 3, 2024

Cloud
  • Databricks has been chosen as one of the best partners by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for multiple achievements in 2024, indicating its success and excellence in working with AWS to deliver innovative solutions.

Reimagining procurement


Mckinsey

December 2, 2024

AI
Algorithms
  • Dominique Lebigot, a procurement expert, believes that procurement is on the cusp of a revolution and will play a crucial role in driving business growth and revenue generation in the next decade.
  • With the rise of artificial intelligence, procurement activities will shift from being transactional to strategic and more focused on managing supplier ecosystems rather than individual suppliers.
  • The future buyer will need to have strong leadership skills and be able to influence markets, control volatility, and create value through circular economy practices.
  • Lebigot suggests that procurement should stop asking for power from executives and instead take the lead in driving changes such as implementing AI, creating ecosystems, managing volatility, and promoting circularity.
  • He believes that this will require a holistic approach, with procurement professionals tackling multiple priorities simultaneously and being proactive in embracing change.
  • Overall, Lebigot is optimistic about the future of procurement and sees it as an exciting time for the profession to evolve and play a more strategic role in driving business growth.

Top 10 Launches of Launch Week 13


Supabase

December 6, 2024

AI
Backend
  • Supabase has had a big launch week with many new features and updates, including Supabase Cron for managing recurring tasks, improved AI Assistant, Edge Functions with WebSockets, ephemeral storage, and background tasks, and a re-released CLI with Config as Code.
  • Other notable updates include high-performance disks for storing large amounts of data, the ability to restore projects from backups, and major features in database.build such as bring-your-own-LLM, Live Share, and deploying pglite to Supabase.
  • Additionally, they've announced a collaboration launch week with over 20 other devtools, and upcoming events like Hack the Base and Launch Week 13: Hackathon where users can participate in challenges and win prizes for building projects using Supabase.

Customer spotlight: Personify Health’s thoughtful approach to AI adoption


DataRobot | By Amit Jain

December 5, 2024

AI
  • Personify Health is a company that helps people manage their health with personalized recommendations and content using AI technology.
  • To achieve this, they're working on over 15 AI projects and use DataRobot to improve the efficiency of their team of data scientists, engineers, and analysts.
  • By unifying all their teams and predictive models in one place, they've reduced the time it takes to get an acceptable model from three weeks to just 21 hours and increased productivity.
  • They're also using generative AI to drive productivity with helper bots for different business functions and plan to integrate conversational hubs into their products for greater responsiveness.
  • Throughout this process, they prioritize accuracy, governance, and ethics in AI adoption, ensuring that their models are transparent, fair, and comply with regulations, ultimately providing better health and wellbeing recommendations to their customers.