In tech gadgets, Apple faces a potential import ban on certain smartwatch models after a federal trade ruling. A user on GitHub raised an issue with Microsoft's Visual Studio Code, arguing that the software should require user consent before sending any telemetry data. The internet domain .yu, representing the former country of Yugoslavia, outlived the nation itself. Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company, has decided to halt all driverless operations across its fleets. Lastly, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has decided to stop print publication of its journals and transactions from January 2024.
Key takeaways:
- A study by the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research found that 83% of the German population has antibodies against polyethylene glycol (PEG), a substance used in cosmetics, food, and medicine, which could impact the effectiveness of certain drugs.
- The author discusses the author's decision to donate a kidney, inspired by a Vox article about a journalist who donated his kidney to a stranger. The author describes the process as a rewarding experience and encourages others to consider it.
- Mathematician Terence Tao discovered a minor but significant error in his recent paper while using Lean4, a formalization project.
- The article provides an interactive introduction to shaders, small programs that run on a GPU and transform pixel coordinates into colors, which are used to enhance lighting and special effects in video games and computer graphics.