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Amazon's recent announcement of 14,000 job cuts has sent ripples through the tech world, sparking debate about the underlying cause. Is the online retail giant streamlining operations to fuel its massive AI investments, or is it bracing for a potential economic slowdown signaled by shifts in consumer spending?
Navigating the gauntlet of Big Tech interviews is a challenge many engineers face. A Principal Software Engineer candidate, Puneet Patwari, recently shared his experiences from over 60 interviews at 11 companies, offering a rare glimpse into the hiring processes of tech giants like Meta and Atlassian.
The GKR protocol is a powerful tool in the field of secure multi-party computation (MPC), enabling efficient verification of computations without revealing sensitive data. This comprehensive guide unravels the intricacies of the GKR protocol, exploring its underlying principles, applications, and potential impact on data privacy.
A groundbreaking theoretical result suggests that memory access complexity might be significantly lower than previously assumed. Researchers have demonstrated that memory access can potentially scale at O(N^(1/3)), a sublinear rate, opening doors for novel computer architectures and algorithms. This could revolutionize fields heavily reliant on fast data retrieval, such as machine learning and data analytics.
In an era dominated by complex software and intricate hardware ecosystems, the call for full-stack openness and verifiability is growing louder. This push towards transparency aims to foster trust, enhance security, and empower developers to innovate without constraints, potentially revolutionizing how technology is built and used. But what exactly does 'full-stack openness' entail, and why is it so important?
A new narrative suggests that the key to Ethereum's mass adoption lies in providing accessible, low-risk decentralized finance (DeFi) lending opportunities. This approach aims to emulate Google's success by offering a user-friendly entry point to a complex technological landscape, potentially unlocking vast liquidity and attracting a wider audience to the Ethereum ecosystem.
The call for open source software is growing louder, with developers and users alike increasingly demanding transparency and community-driven innovation. This movement emphasizes the benefits of collaborative development, auditability, and freedom from vendor lock-in. But what's driving this shift, and what are the potential implications for the future of technology?
The tech world often glorifies the 'big idea' as the starting point for innovation. But is this 'idea-first' philosophy hindering progress by overlooking the crucial role of execution and iterative development? Experts are increasingly questioning whether focusing solely on groundbreaking concepts is the best path to real-world impact.
Steve Ballmer's tenure as Microsoft's CEO is often overshadowed by the company's resurgence under Satya Nadella. However, a closer look reveals that Ballmer laid crucial groundwork, making significant long-term investments and strategically positioning Microsoft for future success despite facing considerable criticism at the time. Was the narrative of a failing Microsoft under Ballmer simply inaccurate?
About eight years ago, I was playing a game of Codenames where the game state was such that our team would almost certainly lose if we didn't correctly guess all of our remaining words on our turn. From the given clue, we were unable to do this. Although the game is meant to be a word guessing game based on word clues, a teammate suggested that, based on the physical layout of the words that had been selected, most of the possibilities we were considering would result in patterns that were "too
There've been regular viral stories about ML/AI bias with LLMs and generative AI for the past couple years. One thing I find interesting about discussions of bias is how different the reaction is in the LLM and generative AI case when compared to "classical" bugs in cases where there's a clear bug. In particular, if you look at forums or other discussions with lay people, people frequently deny that a model which produces output that's sort of the opposite of what the user asked for is even a bu
A decade after the FTC decided against pursuing antitrust action against Google, newly released internal memos paint a concerning picture. The documents suggest a significant disconnect between FTC economists' understanding of the tech industry and the realities on the ground, potentially influencing a pivotal regulatory decision.
In 2017, we looked at how web bloat affects users with slow connections. Even in the U.S., many users didn't have broadband speeds, making much of the web difficult to use. It's still the case that many users don't have broadband speeds, both inside and outside of the U.S. and that much of the modern web isn't usable for people with slow internet, but the exponential increase in bandwidth (Nielsen suggests this is 50% per year for high-end connections) has outpaced web bloat for typical sites, m
The conventional wisdom is that tech giants are best equipped to combat spam, fraud, and harmful content due to their vast resources. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that these platforms often struggle more than smaller entities, highlighting the diseconomies of scale when it comes to content moderation and user support.
On large platforms, it's impossible to have policies on things like moderation, spam, fraud, and sexual content that people agree on. David Turner made a simple game to illustrate how difficult this is even in a trivial case, No Vehicles in the Park. If you haven't played it yet, I recommend playing it now before continuing to read this document. The idea behind the site is that it's very difficult to get people to agree on what moderation rules should apply to a platform. Even if you take a muc
This is a set of notes on the Quinn Emanuel report on Cruise's handling of the 2023-10-02 accident where a Cruise autonomous vehicle (AV) hit a pedestrian, stopped, and then started moving again with the pedestrian stuck under the bottom of the AV, dragging the pedestrian 20 feet. After seeing some comments about this report, I read five stories on this report and then skimmed the report and my feeling is that the authors of four of the stories probably didn't read the report, and that people wh
Despite the rise of blogs, newsletters, and in-depth articles, platforms like Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram continue to thrive. This isn't just about shorter attention spans; it's a complex interplay of engagement, community, ease of creation, and monetization that keeps creators and consumers flocking to microblogging and video platforms.
Are search results getting worse? One tech expert puts Google, Bing, and alternative search engines to the test, alongside ChatGPT, to uncover the truth about search quality in the age of SEO farms and AI-generated content. The findings reveal a landscape rife with scams, misleading information, and the prioritization of revenue over relevance.