Year: 2021

Late Week Reading

Posted By: SKPosted On:
  • Chip Shortage Creates New Power Players.  The shortage has also sharply bolstered the influence of lesser-known chip makers such as Microchip, NXP Semiconductors, STMicroelectronics, Onsemi and Infineon, which design and sell thousands of chip varieties to thousands of customers. These companies, which build many products in their own aging factories, now are increasingly able to choose which customers get how many of their scarce chips. (NYT)
  • The coming battle over electric-trucks. Hydrogen fuel cells create electricity via a chemical reaction between hydrogen, which is stored in tanks just like diesel, and oxygen. The electricity generated by the fuel cell powers the electric motor in the truck. The hydrogen tanks can be refilled, just like cars and trucks fill up at the pump today. (WSJ)
  • Bitcoin For the Open Minded Sceptic. There has been no shortage of writing about Bitcoin over the past 11 years. This paper does not claim any novel insight. Instead, it is a summary of the conversation we often have with investors seeking to understand Bitcoin for the first time. (MattHuang)
  • How Data is Reshaping Real Estate. Tech start-ups are offering new tools to help retailers and entertainment venues be more efficient by counting crowds, tracking foot traffic and following local shopping habits. The growing volume of data on consumer and crowd behavior is having significant implications on real estate design. It’s making even physical space more interactive for marketers (NYT)
  • AI-driven search engine You.com plans to reimagine search in the coming years with a completely new approach to finding information online. We’re constantly searching for answers to our questions, be it at work, when interacting with other people or in our personal lives. This is exactly what You.com is trying to solve. (Medium)
  • How NFTs Create Value. NFTs have fundamentally changed the market for digital assets. Historically there was no way to separate the “owner” of a digital artwork from someone who just saved a copy to their desktop. Markets can’t operate without clear property rights: Before someone can buy a good, it has to be clear who has the right to sell it, and once someone does buy, you need to be able to transfer ownership from the seller to the buyer. NFTs solve this problem by giving parties something they can agree represents ownership. In doing so, they make it possible to build markets around new types of transactions — buying and selling products that could never be sold before, or enabling transactions to happen in innovative ways that are more efficient and valuable. (HBR)

Last Updated on August 25, 2022 by SK

Early Week Reads

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  • Evolution of search engines architecture – Algolia New Search Architecture
  • Databricks Sets Official Data Warehousing Performance Record. Databricks SQL delivered 32,941,245 QphDS @ 100TB. This beats the previous world record held by Alibaba’s custom built system, which achieved 14,861,137 QphDS @ 100TB, by 2.2x. (Alibaba had an impressive system supporting the world’s largest e-commerce platform). Not only did Databricks SQL significantly beat the previous record, it did so by lowering the total cost of the system by 10% (based on published listed pricing without any discounts). (Databricks Blog)
  • Is Bitcoin Too Big to Fail? The hand-wringing has been at its fiercest over Bitcoin’s possible exposure to systemic risk, both existential and otherwise. Chief among those concerns is whether a crypto crash, taking place in what is effectively a parallel, decentralized financial universe, might spill over into the traditional financial system. The fact that so many exchanges and crypto intermediaries remain offshore and unregulated continues to fan fears. (Institutional Investor)
  • Why the Chip Shortage Hasn’t Been Fixed Yet. As with any complex supply-chain quagmire, there are a number of different factors that are building on one another, which means there isn’t one simple fix to the semiconductor shortage. Here’s a breakdown of what’s likely to making it so bad—and a clue to when you’ll finally be able to get your hands on a Nintendo Switch. (Slate)
  • Need a New Knee or Hip? A Robot May Help Install It. Today, Mr. Cohen says, models of a bone implant can be superimposed on a 3-D model of a patient’s joint. “This information is imported directly into the robot in the O.R.,” he said, which then “executes the procedure with a level of accuracy and precision that we have never seen.” ( NYT )
  • On the 100th Anniversary of ‘Robot,’ They’re Finally Taking Over. In a century-long dialogue between inventors of fictional and actual robots, engineers have for the most part been forced to play catch-up, either realizing or subverting the vision of robots first expounded in books, movies and television. Now, the reality of robots is in some areas running ahead of fiction, even ahead of what those who study robots for a living are able to keep track of. WSJ


Last Updated on November 9, 2021 by SK

Nikola Motors Fraud

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How to Lie Your Way to $34 Billion. If you want to understand what happened to the Tesla’s challenger in the EV trucking industry, this short video is a great start. It is astonishing that even after federal lawsuit and proving that the entire thing is fake, this company is still worth $5B!. Hopefully they’ve something substantial that is not known to general public.


Last Updated on August 25, 2022 by SK

Weekend Reads

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  • Raspberry Pi Foundation launches $4 microcontroller with custom chip. Meet the Raspberry Pi Pico, a tiny little microcontroller that lets you build hardware projects with some code running on the microcontroller. Even more interesting, the Raspberry Pi Foundation is using its own RP2040 chip, which means that the foundation is now making its own silicon. TechCrunch
  • Loon, Google’s Balloon-Based Internet Scheme, Loses Altitude. A Google venture you may never have heard of is the somewhat unfortunately named Loon, an attempt to bring internet access to underserved communities using high altitude balloons. In theory, the idea sounds appealing but it hasn’t worked well in practice. Now, economic realities have taken the air out of Loon’s balloon, causing Google to ground it permanently. CleanTechnica
  • If It Looks Like a Bubble and Swims Like a Bubble…This month Elon Musk’s call to use Signal, an alternative to Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging software, led to the unrelated biotech stock Signal Advance (ticker: SIGL) leaping from 60 cents a share to $38.70. It has plunged since but is still at $6.25, bafflingly. WSJ
  • An Australia With No Google? The Bitter Fight Behind a Drastic Threat. In a major escalation, Google threatened on Friday to make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the government approved legislation that would force tech companies to pay for journalism shared on their platforms. NYT
  • The Unauthorized Story of Andreessen Horowitz. From 2009 through 2015, Andreessen Horowitz earned a run of truly phenomenal press coverage, catapulting itself into the very top echelon of venture capital firms – at least based on its reputation. The media loved that bald headed internet geek and his gruff business guru sidekick. And over cocktails or lunch at the Battery, reporters probed Wennmachers for information, even if she rarely earned a mention in their stories. newcomer.

Last Updated on August 25, 2022 by SK

Mid-Week – Reads

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  • What termites can teach us. Termite mounds are among the largest structures built by any nonhuman animal. They reach as high as thirty feet, which, proportional to the insects’ tiny size, is the equivalent of our building something twice as tall as the 2,722-foot Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. The mounds are also fantastically beautiful, Gaudíesque structures, with rippling, soaring towers, in browns and oranges and reds. The interior of a termite mound is an intricate structure of interweaving tunnels and passageways, radiating chambers, galleries, archways, and spiral staircases. NewYorker.
  • How Much Can Your Brain Actually Process? Don’t Ask. Since their development, digital computers have become a standard metaphor for the mind and brain. The comparison makes sense, in that brains and computers both transform input into output. Most human brains, like computers, can also manipulate abstract symbols. (Think arithmetic or language processing.) But like any metaphor, this one has limitations. Slate
  • Inside Twitter’s Decision to Cut Off Trump. Mr. Dorsey was concerned about the move, said two people with knowledge of the call. For four years, he had resisted demands by liberals and others that Twitter terminate Mr. Trump’s account, arguing that the platform was a place where world leaders could speak, even if their views were heinous. But he had delegated moderation decisions to Ms. Gadde, and he did so again. NYT
  • Social-Media algorithms rule how we see the world. What you see in your feeds isn’t up to you. What’s at stake is no longer just missing a birthday. It’s your sanity—and world peace. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when we lost control of what we see, read—and even think—to the biggest social-media companies. WSJ
  • The joys of being an absolute beginner – for life. The phrase ‘adult beginner’ can sound patronizing. It implies you are learning something you should have mastered as a child. But learning is not just for the young. Guardian


Last Updated on January 20, 2021 by SK

Weekend Reads

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  • Why People Won’t Change Their Mind? After the aliens failed to show, the group sat motionless in her living room. They were all confused, trying their hardest to come up with reasons for the no-show by their alien brethren. After being at a loss for words, Martin finally garnered up the energy to talk to her believers. – awealthofcommonsense
  • Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes. Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million. The problem is that Mr. Thomas years ago lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his IronKey, which gives users 10 guesses before it seizes up and encrypts its contents forever. He has since tried eight of his most commonly used password formulations — to no avail. – NYT
  • Beginner’s Guide to ANN, CNN and RNN. AI is not a lexicon anymore, it’s an all-encompassing world of rapidly evolving technology. AI isn’t just Tony Stark fighting Thanos, it’s the one that guides Netflix to offer recommendations based on your viewing history or the self-driven Tesla at your home, AI is ever-present in our lives. INSAID

Last Updated on January 18, 2021 by SK