SpaceX: Starship Gigafactory!

 The Real Reason SpaceX Is Building A Starship Gigafactory! (Starfactory) - YouTube

to produce one Starship per day! (at cost of $10M, vs NASA $4B)

node.js web server: fastify vs express vs koa

alternatives to Express.js?

NPMCompare.com - Comparing connect vs. express vs. fastify vs. hapi vs. koa

express vs fastify vs koa | npm trends

Nest, Koa or Fastify? : node

Top 10 ExpressJS Alternatives - Which is the best?

Forget Express.js — opt for these alternatives instead - LogRocket Blog

Using Node.js as a simple web server - Stack Overflow

fastify - npm

fastify/fastify: Fast and low overhead web framework, for Node.js @GitHub

"Highly performant: as far as we know, Fastify is one of the fastest web frameworks in town, depending on the code complexity we can serve up to 76+ thousand requests per second."

Omnivore.app

Omnivore.app

Omnivore is the free, open source, read-it-later app for serious readers.
Distraction free. Privacy focused. Open source. Designed for knowledge workers and lifelong learners.
Save articles, newsletters, and documents and read them later — focused and distraction free. Add notes and highlights. Organize your reading list the way you want and sync it across all your devices.

including text-to-speech on iOS only

omnivore-app/omnivore: Omnivore is a complete, open source read-it-later solution for people who like reading. @GitHub (AGPL-3.0 license)

mentioned here:

Episode #349 Djangonauts: Ready for Takeoff! - [Python Bytes Podcast]

"X" Super App ?

Why Elon wants to build a "Super App" - YouTube

Elon Musk said he wants to turn X (formerly Twitter) into a WeChat clone - a super-app, or everything app for the West that he claims could revolutionize payments and could take over half the world's financial system. 

Super-app - Wikipedia

A super-app (also written as super app or superapp) is a mobile or web application that can provide multiple services including payment and financial transaction processing, effectively becoming an all-encompassing self-contained commerce and communication online platform that embraces many aspects of personal and commercial life. Notable examples of super-apps include Alipay, Tencent's WeChat in China, and Grab in Southeast Asia

Tesla as energy company

 $20B revenue stream - Analysts still haven't figured out Tesla's chess game - YouTube

as it should be, after all Nikola Tesla invented all of this platform for electric energy!

fast node.js file crawler: fdir

 thecodrr/fdir: ⚡ The fastest directory crawler & globbing library for NodeJS. Crawls 1m files in < 1s @GitHub

The Fastest: Nothing similar (in the NodeJS world) beats fdir in speed. It can easily crawl a directory containing 1 million files in < 1 second.

SQLite + NoSQL + TypeScript = Neboa

Neboa | Neboa

What is Neboa | Neboa

Neboa (pronounced /ˈnɛβo̯a̝/, from Galician: «fog») is a simple, yet powerful, type-safe NoSQL database library for Node.js. It is built on top of SQLite with better-sqlite3. It offers seamless data managment with compile-time type checking and a seamless query API.

Leveraging the power of SQLite, Neboa ensures efficient and lightweight performance, making it ideal for small to medium sized projects, to be used in Electron apps, or to be used as a local database for a web app or your next prototype.

Avoiding GoLang Pitfalls

useful...

 Avoiding Pitfalls in Go | DoltHub Blog

"By using Go, we get the benefits of a modern language, although we also share in its growing pains. It has a learning curve, to be sure.

While it shares many syntactic similarities to C-like languages, it isn’t one, and acting like it is is an easy way to end up deep in a pit without a shovel. Programmers coming from a language like C++ or Java need to take extra note of these pitfalls."

Tesla Cybertruck is coming

nothing like it: top or flop?

Cybertruck release date confirmed by Tesla employees - YouTube

coming in October?

2024 Tesla Cybertruck Tri Motor Electric($80,000) - Exterior Interior Walkaround - 2023 LA Auto Show - YouTube

Tesla Cybertruck Orders Surpass 1.9 Million, 5 Year Wait Times

Tesla Cybertruck - Wikipedia

Tesla Cybertruck spotted with colorful wrap – is Tesla going to offer wraps? | Electrek

 Tesla Cybertruck teased as 'next-gen police vehicle' by former TSLA board member | Electrek

Sandy Munro reveals Cybertrucks HUGE advantage over Ford & GM - YouTube
(it will be lighter => more efficient => more profitable)

autonomy will be a big change...
John McElroy - Host of Autoline Network | Munro Live Podcast - YouTube

EV: Rivian Amazon Van

Rivian's Electric Delivery Van is Sick! - YouTube

Rivian EDV - Wikipedia

JavaScript Execution Time

How to Measure JavaScript Execution Time - DEV Community

If measuring in Node, process.hrtime.bigint() returns accuracy in nanoseconds.

Standard timers return number of milliseconds from 1970-01-01T00:00:00

// DATE TIMER

const start = Date.now();

await functionToBeMeasured();

const end = Date.now();

console.log(`Execution time: ${end - start} ms`);

// CONSOLE TIMER

console.time('Execution Time');

await functionToBeMeasured();

console.timeEnd('Execution Time');

// PERFORMANCE. TIMER

const start = performance.now();

await functionToBeMeasured();

const end = performance.now();

console.log(`Execution time: ${end - start} ms`);

Fusion making electricity is coming!?

There are about 70 companies currently working on making commercial solutions for Fusion producing electricity. And the "100%" expectation is that at least one of them will produce a functional, price competitive solution in the next 10 years! This is a big news, since typical expectation is the last 60 years was always that Fusion for energy will be available in the next "20 years". This is after recent IEEE news of making "net energy positive" Fusion experiment. This, with recent AI breakthroughs, the "singularity is even nearer." Here is an exciting discussion with some people working on it. 

All-In Summit: Nuclear fusion and the potential for energy abundance - YouTube

Robert Mumgaard presentation: Commonwealth Fusion Systems

David Kirtley presentation: Helion Energy

Relevant links:

https://twitter.com/CFS_energy

https://cfs.energy/

https://twitter.com/dekirtley

https://twitter.com/Helion_Energy/

https://www.helionenergy.com/

Fusion Is Having a Moment - IEEE Spectrum

Last December, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility finally succeeded in forcing the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium to undergo a self-sustained fusion reaction. It was an encouraging advancement, though not exactly a breakthrough. NIF’s small net energy gain didn’t factor in the energy it took to fire up the 192 ultraviolet lasers that initiated the reaction, which lasted “for the briefest blink of a moment,”

business story: COSTCO (podcast)

Costco: The Complete History and Strategy @acquired.fm

Costco is not only Charlie Munger’s favorite company of all time (plus he’s on the board, natch), it’s an absolutely fascinating study in how seemingly opposite characteristics can combine to create incredible company value. For instance: Costco has the cheapest prices of any major retailer in America — and also the wealthiest customer base. They pay their hourly workers 30% above the industry norm (and give them excellent healthcare + 401k benefits) — and are almost 3x more profitable on labor than Walmart. Speaking of Walmart, Costco stocks 40x fewer SKUs than their Bentonville-based rivals — yet sells an average of 15x more volume of each.

Geo APIs

Geocoding API overview  |  Google for Developers

Platform Pricing & API Costs - Google Maps Platform

$200/month "free" = 40K geocoding api calls
300K/month = $1300

Geocoding API overview  |  Google for Developers

Geoapify.com Maps, APIs and components | Geoapify Location Platform
Develop location-aware apps for your business with our user friendly APIs and location services

Pricing | Geoapify Location Platform

3K calls/day free = 90K/month
10K/day = 300K/month = $59 = 22 times less than Google!

Geocoding API Playground by Geoapify

py4e-data.dr-chuck.net Data Sources

py4e-data.dr-chuck.net/opengeo
Python For Everybody Open StreetMap / GeoAPIfProxy Server

Powered by Geoapify at the free level. 

free access to OSM data on AWS

OpenStreetMap on AWS - Registry of Open Data on AWS

registry.opendata.aws/osm/

AWS TLD! 

AWS Marketplace: OpenStreetMap on AWS

Maps - Amazon Location Service

node.js: get EXIF info from img files

Exif - Wikipedia

Exchangeable image file format (officially Exif, according to JEIDA/JEITA/CIPA specifications)[5] is a standard that specifies formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras (including smartphones), scanners and other systems handling image and sound files recorded by digital cameras.

JPEG and EXIF Data Manipulation in Javascript | Getaround Tech

EXIF Tags

Getting image metadata (EXIF) using Node.js

exif - npm search

exif-parser - npm Weekly Downloads: 830,159

exif-parser is a parser for image metadata in the exif format, the most popular metadata format for jpeg and tiff images. It is written in pure javascript and has no external dependencies. It can also get the size of jpeg images and the size of the jpeg thumbnail embedded in the exif data. It can also extract the embedded thumbnail image.

bwindels/exif-parser: A javascript library to extract EXIF metadata from JPEG images, in node and in the browser. @GitHub

exif - npm (MIT license)

gomfunkel/node-exif: A node.js library to extract Exif metadata from images.

convert to js promise to be able to use with async/await

import exif from 'exif'

export async function getExifAsync(imgPath) {

    return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {

        new exif.ExifImage({ image : imgPath }, function (error, exifData) {

            if (error) {

                reject(error)

            } else {

                resolve(exifData)

            }

        });

    }) }

const exifData = await getExifAsync(imgPath)

console.log(exifData)

here is another library that also provides assess to "thumbnail" image that is embedded into the EXIF

exifreader - npm (MPL)

mattiasw/ExifReader: A JavaScript Exif info parser.

ExifReader is a JavaScript library that parses image files and extracts the metadata. It can also extract an embedded thumbnail. It can be used either in a browser or from Node. Supports JPEG, TIFF, PNG, HEIC, and WebP files with Exif, IPTC, XMP, ICC, and MPF metadata (depending on file type).

the "popularity winner", but not useful for reading EXIF

sharp - npm

Weekly Downloads: 3,308,475

lovell/sharp: High performance Node.js image processing, the fastest module to resize JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and TIFF images. Uses the libvips library. @GitHub

Visit sharp.pixelplumbing.com for complete installation instructions, API documentation, benchmark tests and changelog.

Getting image metadata (EXIF) using Node.js

Turns out the exif, iptc, and xmp fields contain the raw data, rather than parsed data. Hurm. It's an opaque object from which we cannot access the fields. This is not the hoped-for result, nor does it fit with other features in Sharp.

30 years of Debian Linux

 30 years of Debian with Jonathan Carter, Debian Project Leader (DPL) (Changelog Interviews #553) |> Changelog (podcast)

• A Brief History of Debian
• Debian Free Software Guidelines
• The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)
• DPL Platform (2022)
• Debian project leaders
• About Debian
• debconf.org
• PinePhone
• Software in the Public Interest (SPI)
• Changelog Interviews #237: Reproducible builds and secure software
• hackclub.com

AI: Microsoft Copilot

Announcing Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion - The Official Microsoft Blog

fancy new logo; $30/month/user; expensive?

Bun 1.0 vs node.js

 Bun 1.0 | Bun Blog

Bun is a fast, all-in-one toolkit for running, building, testing, and debugging JavaScript and TypeScript, from a single file to a full-stack application. Today, Bun is stable and production-ready.

A Quick Look at Bun 1.0 – The Node.js Alternative

Bun is fast because it uses the JavaScriptCore (Safari) engine,
while Node.js uses the JavaScript V8 (Chrome) engine.
The former has been optimized for faster startup time.

link from:

Node Weekly Issue 501: September 12, 2023

performance-oriented server-side JS runtime built atop JavaScriptCore is a big deal in the Node world nonetheless as the only other runtime to claim it’s “a drop-in replacement for Node.js.” It’s worth a look, though folks have had mixed results so far regarding the drop-in claim.

Reports of Node's death are greatly exaggerated with Matteo Collina & James Snell (JS Party #294) |> Changelog

API: Spotify

Getting started with Web API | Spotify for Developers
"Build with Spotify’s 100 million songs,
5 million podcasts and much more"

Web API Reference | Spotify for Developers

app: mp3 player with speed control: Music Speed Changer

 Music Speed Changer - Apps on Google Play

Tesla Semi Truck range

Tesla Semi Truck range and charging speed far better than expected - YouTube

Impressive Tesla Semi Data Released about PepsiCo Fleet - YouTube

Tesla Semis Shine on PepsiCo’s Long-Haul Electric Routes - Fuel Smarts - Trucking Info

About Run on Less — Electric DEPOT - Run On Less

Wall Street Veteran Sees Tesla Beating Out All Competition - YouTube

in-security: Azure storage

 Microsoft leaks 38TB of private data via unsecured Azure storage

"The Microsoft AI research division accidentally leaked dozens of terabytes of sensitive data starting in July 2020 while contributing open-source AI learning models to a public GitHub repository.

Almost three years later, this was discovered by cloud security firm Wiz whose security researchers found that a Microsoft employee inadvertently shared the URL for a misconfigured Azure Blob storage bucket containing the leaked information."

no more AWS no-code Honeycode

A great team, good product, cool name, and no profit = no more Honeycode

There is a reason that "real" startups produce more success products than "internal startups" in large organizations. It is called "survivor bias". When there is no option but to survive or die, 
the end result is close to what market / customers "really" need, not what large org, like Amazon,
may "think" the customer may "like". Plus, for a product to be useful for Amazon it needs to make $ billions, and that is very hard, at least not quickly. And that is too bad for Honeycode is an interesting tool, that in some other conditions would be likely to be successful. Instead, it is a "NO" for this "no-code" tool.

Honeycode Ending Soon FAQ - Community Discussions - Honeycode Help & Community

"After careful consideration, we have made the decision to end the Amazon Honeycode beta service, effective February 29, 2024. New customer sign-ups and account plan upgrades are no longer available."

Amazon Honeycode Shutting Down | Hacker News

Build a Better Way to Work | Amazon Honeycode

What is Honeycode? - Getting Started - Honeycode Help & Community

Adam Bosworth - Wikipedia

Rate limiting with Redis cache

Rate Limiting - What is Rate Limiting? | Redis

Building a rate limiter with Redis is easy because of two commands INCR and EXPIRE. The basic concept is that you want to limit requests to a particular service in a given time period. Let’s say we have a service that has users identified by an API key. This service states that it is limited to 20 requests in any given minute.

peterkhayes/rolling-rate-limiter: Rate limiter for node.js that supports a rolling window, either in-memory or backed by redis @GitHub

rolling-rate-limiter - npm

This is an implementation of a rate limiter in node.js that allows for rate limiting with a rolling window. It can use either in-memory storage or Redis as a backend. If Redis is used, multiple rate limiters can share one instance with different namespaces, and multiple processes can share rate limiter state safely.

Understanding and implementing rate limiting in Node.js - LogRocket Blog

Rate limiting with Redis — Ramp Engineering
Python solution

free book: 
Redis for Dummies | Redis
Redis™ For Dummies®, 2nd Limited Edition

China indicators

China's weakening economy in two Indicators : Planet Money : NPR

What decreased tourism and slower spending reveal about China's economy : The Indicator from Planet Money : NPR

troubling stats

travel to China with travel agencies is less than 52K in first Q of this year, compared to 3M least year (99% drop!)

20% of young people (in 20's) are unemployed

GoLang: katana: web crawling and spidering

projectdiscovery/katana: A next-generation crawling and spidering framework.

A next-generation crawling and spidering framework

Svelte.js: TypeScript => JSDoc

recent: some widely adopted packages go completely Type free or remove TypeScript in favor of JS with type annotations; a great discussion with creator of Svelte

 Type War (what is it good for?) (JS Party #292) |> Changelog podcast

• News article from May 2023 when Svelte switched from TS to JSDoc type annotations
  
  
• DHH’s blog post “Open Source Hooliganism and the TypeScript Meltdown”
  
  
• DHH’s tweet announcing Turbo’s removal of TS
  
  
• Rich’s quote tweet of DHH Turbo announcement
  
  
• JSDoc docs
  
  
• Official TS docs highlighting support for JS Doc type annotations
  
  
• ECMA proposal for Type Annotations
  
  
• Principles of Writing Consistent, Idiomatic JavaScript
  
  
  

jsdoc/jsdoc: An API documentation generator for JavaScript.

An API documentation generator for JavaScript.

JSDoc 3 is an API documentation generator for JavaScript, similar to Javadoc or phpDocumentor. You add documentation comments directly to your source code, right alongside the code itself. The JSDoc tool will scan your source code and generate an HTML documentation website for you.

/**
 * Represents a book.
 * @constructor
 * @param {string} title - The title of the book.
 * @param {string} author - The author of the book.
 */
function Book(title, author) {
}

d3-graphviz: WASM + Graphviz

 magjac/d3-graphviz: Graphviz DOT rendering and animated transitions using D3

Renders SVG from graphs described in the DOT language using the @hpcc-js/wasm port of Graphviz and does animated transitions between graphs.

Rendering of SVG graphs from DOT source

Software Architecture books bundle, help charity

Humble Tech Book Bundle: Software Architecture by O'Reilly

(pay what you want and help charity)

up to 15 books, including

in-security: Microsoft Azure & Office

nOAuth Microsoft Azure AD Vulnerability | CrowdStrike

Adversaries Can “Log In with Microsoft” through the nOAuth Azure Active Directory Vulnerability

the repeated vulnerabilities in its identity infrastructure can make organizations susceptible to breaches. While Microsoft recently changed the name of Azure AD to Entra ID, the security concerns remain.

Microsoft Office Zero Day RCE

Why did the code go to therapy? Because it couldn't handle all the "stress"!

The vulnerability, unveiled by Microsoft on July 11, allows malicious actors to execute remote code on the victim's computer by crafting a specially designed Microsoft Office document. For the exploit to succeed, the unsuspecting victim must open the malicious file.


US senator blasts Microsoft for “negligent cybersecurity practices” | Ars Technica

HTMX and NextJS Streaming AI examples

 jherr/htmx-nextjs-ai: HTMX and NextJS Streaming AI examples

HTMX: The Game-Changing Alternative to React - YouTube

Apple iPhone 15/15 Pro

iPhone 15/15 Pro Impressions: Not Just USB-C! - YouTube

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus - Apple

Apple Event - September 12 - YouTube

Everything announced at Apple’s iPhone 15 event @engadget

Marc Andreessen @ podcasts

Marc Andreessen: How Risk Taking, Innovation & Artificial Intelligence Transform Human Experience - Huberman Lab

Marc Andreessen: AI will save the world | Lex Fridman Podcast Clips - YouTube

#386 – Marc Andreessen: Future of the Internet, Technology, and AI | Lex Fridman Podcast

#1840 - Marc Andreessen - The Joe Rogan Experience | Podcast on Spotify

Marc Andreessen - Wikipedia

a16z - YouTube

GNSS: GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BEIDOU

 What's The Differences Between the 5 GNSS Constellations?

Many people get GNSS and GPS technology confused. A good way to think about the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is as the backbone (or underlying technology) behind GPS. The Global Positioning System (GPS) GPS is a GNSS constellation, but GNSS is not always GPS. GPS is one of the 5 GNSS constellations used around the world.

The 5 GNSS constellations include GPS (US), QZSS (Japan), BEIDOU (China), GALILEO (EU), and GLONASS (Russia). 

GLONASS - Wikipedia

Amazon.com: Garmin GLO 2 GPS and GLONASS Receiver for Precise Position Information on Mobile Devices, Black : Everything Else

Amazon Best Sellers: Best Vehicle GPS Units & Equipment

RISC-V business ++

RISC-V - Wikipedia

RISC-V[b] (pronounced "risk-five",[1]: 1 ) is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles. Unlike most other ISA designs, RISC-V is provided under royalty-free open-source licenses. A number of companies are offering or have announced RISC-V hardware; open source operating systems with RISC-V support are available, and the instruction set is supported in several popular software toolchains.

Leading Semiconductor Industry Players Join Forces to Accelerate RISC-V | NXP Semiconductors

Establishing a new company to drive RISC-V ecosystem and hardware development

Germany – August 4, 2023 – Semiconductor industry players Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP® Semiconductors, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., have come together to jointly invest in a company aimed at advancing the adoption of RISC-V globally by enabling next-generation hardware development.

Formed in Germany, this company will aim to accelerate the commercialization of future products based on the open-source RISC-V architecture. The company will be a single source to enable compatible RISC-V based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish solutions widely used in the industry. Initial application focus will be automotive, but with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT.

related

RISC-V International

Episode 435: How Honeywell is approaching TinyML - IoT Podcast - Internet of Things

Tech war: China bets on RISC-V chips to escape the shackles of US tech export restrictions | South China Morning Post

Tesla cyber-car ?

NEW Tesla Model 2 inspired by Cybertruck design - will look SUPER futuristic - YouTube

This is Tesla's Robotaxi. - YouTube

will Tesla Model 2, scheduled to be produced in new Gigafactory in Mexico, resemble Cybertruck?

Cybertruck | Tesla

there are already concept cars from other vendors that do resemble this controversial design,
while likely not having a technical reason to do so.
Cybertruck is designed to leverage thick stainless metal that is very hard do bend, so it needs to have flat surfaces, and matching design... Very unlikely that Honda would be using similar material... 

Honda Debuts Five e:N Concepts Showing The Future Of Its EVs

IoT, Open Source: Home Assistant

 Home Assistant - Wikipedia

Home Assistant is free and open-source software for home automation designed to be a central control system for smart home devices with a focus on local control and privacy.[2][3][4][5] It can be accessed through a web-based user interface by using companion apps for Android and iOS, or by voice commands via a supported virtual assistant such as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.

After the Home Assistant software application is installed as a computer appliance, it will act as a central control system for home automation, commonly referred to as a smart home hub,[6][7][8] that has the purpose of controlling IoT connectivity technology devices, software, applications and services

home-assistant/core: :house_with_garden: Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. @GitHub

Python 100%

Home Assistant.io

Home Assistant Archives - IoT Podcast - Internet of Things

npmgraph: NPM module => SVG graph

npmgraph - redis

npmgraph/npmgraph: A tool for exploring NPM modules and dependencies @GitHub

Nvidia AI "platform": a new IBM?!

Wow! Another fascinating story from @Acquired podcast, a must listen!

part 3 of story about Nvidia business (with links to Apple, Spotify, Google, YouTube etc)

Nvidia: The Dawn of the AI Era: The Complete History and Strategy 

"...Over the past 18 months Nvidia has weathered one of the steepest stock crashes in history ($500B+ market cap wiped away peak-to-trough!). And, it has of course also experienced an even more fantastical rise — becoming the platform that’s powering the emergence of perhaps a new form of intelligence itself… and in the process becoming a trillion-dollar company.
Today we tell another chapter in the amazing Nvidia saga: the dawn of the AI era."

here are previous, equally great episodes!

Nvidia Part I: The GPU Company (1993-2006): The Complete History and Strategy

Nvidia Part II: The Machine Learning Company (2006-2022): The Complete History and Strategy

links: Episode sources

quote: “The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed." is fully applicable here!

here is the "real deal" keynote with all the details, very inspirational, a must watch!
NVIDIA Keynote at COMPUTEX 2023 - YouTube

and even most recent presentation

NVIDIA Keynote at SIGGRAPH 2023 - YouTube

more about Nvidia - Wikipedia 

Jensen Huang - Wikipedia

The Secret to Nvidia’s AI Success - IEEE Spectrum

Nvidia Cloud Data Centers

Nvidia is now also directly selling "Cloud Data Center" solution,

hosted by major cloud providers (Microsoft, Amazon). 

Modern Data Centers to Accelerate All Workloads | NVIDIA

Nvidia is not only a major computer hardware provider (up to 70% margins!)
but also, a real "platform" including software and integrated cloud solutions,
something that was a major attribute of IBM in its best days.

Enterprise Software Solutions for Modern Data Centers | NVIDIA

NVIDIA AI Software Platform for Enterprise

AWS and NVIDIA Collaborate on Next-Generation Infrastructure for Training Large Machine Learning Models and Building Generative AI Applications | NVIDIA Newsroom

Nvidia stock price

Nvidia stock value is now around Trillion dollars!

nvidia stock price - Google Search

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) Stock 5 Years History [Returns & Performance]

Tech Platforms

Quote by Seneca: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” 

Creating Your Own Luck: How Preparation Meets Opportunity

In case of Nvidia "luck" and "quick success" there was a long and persistent investment in the "platforms" that are now finding effective use everywhere.

The opportunity here: AI and related data processing.

Please listen to part II of the podcast story for the details. 

The word "PLATFORM" is becoming trendy. 

define platform - Google Search

"1. a raised level surface on which people or things can stand"

platform - Explore - Google Trends

In the case of technology, world platform changes are not very frequent, for a good reason.
A good platform provides a lot of value, and after significant investment switching cost becomes high.
On the other side a new, better, platform provides a significant advantage,
so much so that not adopting a better platform on time is often a cause of failed businesses. 

See: The Innovator's Dilemma

Case in point: after failing to adopt "mobile" platform trend on time,
Microsoft "survived" by managing to adopt "cloud computing",
and in processes significantly expanded its value in recent years.

It did a similar "pivot" before by accepting web / internet challenge,
and now it is doing it again by pushing to AI transition.

IBM has created the first major "computing platform".

"During the 1960s and 1970s, the IBM mainframe, exemplified by the System/360, was the dominant computing platform, and the company produced 80 percent of computers in the U.S. and 70 percent of computers worldwide".

Accordingly, IBM created, and captured, a lot of value, and enabled many successful businesses. 
It was time of "turnkey" solutions including hardware, software, solutions, training, consulting.

In the next wave of computing platform changes industry moved to smaller and much more affordable, while still relatively expensive, "minicomputers", during the 1980s, like those produced by Digital Equipment Corporation. A smaller price enabled a significantly larger market. That didn't replace the market for mainframes, but it did create many modern technology companies and solutions, including Oracle for example.  

Next, in the 1990s the technology world was changed significantly again not one, not two, but three major computing "platforms": personal computers (PCs), "workstations", and "web/internet". It was again a case of much smaller price and much larger market, which created or expanded major tech companies like Microsoft and Intel, Sun and Cisco, and then Netscape and Google. It was a real "revolution". 

In mid 2000s things accelerated again with crating "mobile" platforms: IPhone and Android,

as well as "cloud platforms" like AWS, Azure and GCP. 

And since, the technology world is waiting patiently for a new "tidal wave",
with many incremental and important improvements, like "social", IoT, blockchains...

Will the next wave be "AI?"

And could Nvidia become the "next IBM?"

It is very unlikely that any single company (except TSMC that manufactures the most advanced "chips") can have market dominance anywhere near IBMs at that time. 
But it is certainly possible that Nvidia can dominate high-end computing solutions for a while.
Google tensor-chips, as well as Tesla Dojo, and Amazon and Apple chips may compete. 
China is investing heavily to its alternatives, but very unlikely to be anywhere near Nvidia, for now.

How many computers does the world need? 
In the early 1940s, IBM's president, Thomas J Watson, said:
"I think there is a world market for about five computers."

How to create a "Platform?"

Quote by Victor Hugo: “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come."

Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

(from top acorn quotes)

Human society runs on "powerful stories". And a story is an idea, a vision, well presented. 
And the one who presents the vision, idea, dream, story is a leader.
But the vision is not enough, a productive action is necessary,

and a capable team/organization to execute the vision, and the market that needs the results. 

Nvidia has all the elements.

"𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦.
𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞
Japanese Proverb”

market / customers (tree branches)
vision / lead (tree trunk)
team / organization (tree root)

web public proxy: ngrok free static URLs

ngrok is a very useful tool for web developers,
providing public proxy URL for app running on a local computer,
without need to open ports on router and firewalls.

it is a system including a small (CLI) app running on a local computer connected to
a public server with unique URL,
so web app running on local port becomes visible on public internet for testing

ngrok blog: Static domains for all ngrok users

Static domains are unique domains that are yours and don’t change. With your free static domain, you can focus on developing your application, and no longer need to worry about broken links caused by agent restarts. There’s no need to constantly keep updating webhook providers or mobile apps with new URLs or send new links to your team.

all ngrok users can claim one static domain for free

besides CLI app, ngrok also provides a SDK for direct integration with app,
as well as Kubernetes ingress container.

WASM: Sharp.js native lib in web browser

 Bringing Sharp to WebAssembly and WebContainers

WebContainers is an environment that allows you to run Node.js directly in your browser. It can easily handle any JavaScript, including npm modules. However, when it comes to image processing and optimisation, users of toolchains such as Gatsby, Astro, Next.js and others were facing difficulties. The most popular libraries used for this task are @squoosh/lib derived from Squoosh.app - sadly, no longer maintained as a library - and Sharp, which uses a native Node.js addon for the expensive processing under the hood. => porting Sharp to WebAssembly,

AI: Mojo lang available for download!

after $100M funding round... 

Modular: AI development starts here

Mojo 🔥 - the programming language for all AI developers - now available.

Developer Console

Mojo is not available for Windows yet, but you can use it on a Linux container or remote system.
Here's one way you can do that with WSL

EV RV Lightship: self-propelled, with Tesla engine

A new startup and remarkably interesting vehicle, a new product category!

It is an RV trailer, with EV batteries and engine, self-propelled

This Ex-Tesla Engineers' All-Electric RV is the Future of Travel - YouTube

Moving road trips to the electric age. — Lightship

L1 Trailer — Lightship

very aerodynamic, lowering 3" in travel mode!

solar panels on top, it can even change EV car as needed!

very bright interior, like a high-end yacht (light + ship name)

from $125K, available for pre-orders

Google Project IDX: VS Code + AI

 Introducing Project IDX, An Experiment to Improve Full-stack, Multiplatform App Development — Google for Developers Blog - News about Web, Mobile, AI and Cloud

Project IDX is a browser-based development experience built on Google Cloud and powered by Codey, a foundational AI model trained on code and built on PaLM 2. It’s designed to make it easier to build, manage and deploy full-stack web and multiplatform applications, with popular frameworks and languages. Project IDX is also built on Code OSS, so it should feel familiar no matter what you’re building.

Project IDX

energy: Fusion?

Fusion Is Having a Moment - IEEE Spectrum

Last December, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility finally succeeded in forcing the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium to undergo a self-sustained fusion reaction. It was an encouraging advancement, though not exactly a breakthrough. NIF’s small net energy gain didn’t factor in the energy it took to fire up the 192 ultraviolet lasers that initiated the reaction, which lasted “for the briefest blink of a moment,”

AI: Tesla Dojo supercomputer

 Tesla Reveals The New DOJO Supercomputer! - YouTube

Tesla Dojo - Wikipedia

Tesla Dojo is a supercomputer designed and built by Tesla for computer vision video processing and recognition.^[1] It will be used to train Tesla's machine learning models to improve its Full Self-Driving (FSD) advanced driver-assistance system. According to Tesla it had begun to be used in production in July 2023

EV: THE fastest car ever! Rimac Nevera (VW Bugatti)

2000 HP, quad-motor EV, $2.5M

"Tesla who?" :)

Driving The New Fastest Car Ever Made! - YouTube

Rimac Nevera is the quickest/fastest production car ever made (0-60 in 1.74s) and solidifies the future of electricity in automotive 

Now part of VW Bugatti group

interesting that it didn't come out with Porsche brand, that is also part of VW "family"

@AutoFocus tour of inside the Rimac: • Inside the Rimac Nevera: The $2.5 Mil... 

Behind the Scnes with @TheStudio: • How We Shot the Quickest Car in the W... 

Shoutout to the Triple F collection! @TheTripleFCollection

EV: Tesla GigaFactory Mexico

 The Real Reason Tesla Chose Mexico.. - YouTube

Tesla Cleared To Begin Gigafactory Mexico Construction

Gigafactory Mexico will reside outside Monterrey, a sizable city in the Northeastern portion of the country. Tesla selected Nuevo León for its upcoming manufacturing site.

Gigafactory Mexico - Wikipedia

EV: new Tesla Model 3

more than 2 million sold so far!

NEW Tesla Model 3: The Best Just Got Better! - YouTube

among the very first to experience the refreshed Tesla Model 3. With revised styling, a drastically improved cabin, increased range and much more, has Tesla's cheapest car reestablished itself as the world's greatest EV?

Tesla Model 3 Highland officially unveiled with new design and unexpected features @electrek

Just hours after photos leaked of the upcoming Tesla Model 3 refresh, codenamed “Project Highland,” Tesla has officially unveiled its highly-anticipated facelift in Europe.

increased range largely comes from improvements in aerodynamics, with a lower and less bulbous front end, channeling air around the vehicle more effectively. This has resulted in a Cd of .219, Tesla’s lowest yet (down from .225 on the current Model 3), which improves range by 5-8% on its own.

Tesla Just Made MASSIVE Changes to its Lineup - YouTube

Tesla Model 3 Highland spotted near Fremont with Camouflage.. - YouTube

quote: Coding is to programming what typing is to writing. Leslie Lamport

“People confuse programming with coding. Coding is to programming what typing is to writing.” - Leslie Lamport

Programming and coding are two different things, even though they’re terms often used interchangeably.

Coding is the act of typing out code, usually in a popular language such as Python or Javascript.

Programming is the act of problem solving. It involves thinking, forming the steps you’re going to take to solve a problem in a way that a computer can understand.

Put another way, it’s the difference between writing well and typing. Typing is a skill that lets you formulate words using a typewriter or keyboard. You learn the layout, where each key needs to be pressed to form words.

The Man Who Revolutionized Computer Science With Math - YouTube

Leslie Lamport revolutionized how computers talk to each other. The Turing Award-winning computer scientist pioneered the field of distributed systems, where multiple components on different networks coordinate to achieve a common objective. (Internet searches, cloud computing and artificial intelligence all involve orchestrating legions of powerful computing machines to work together.) In the early 1980s, Lamport also created LaTeX, a document preparation system that provides sophisticated ways to typeset complex formulas and format scientific documents.

Thinking outside the box of code with Leslie Lamport (Changelog Interviews #552) |> Changelog podcast

• Leslie Lamport - A.M. Turing Award Laureate
• The Man Who Revolutionized Computer Science With Math - YouTube
• TLA+ Helps Programmers Squash Bugs Before Coding - IEEE Spectrum
  The TLA+ Home Page

Leslie Lamport - Wikipedia