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Absorbing and then summarizing very large quantities of content in just a few seconds truly is a big deal. As an example, a while back I received a link to the recording of an important 90 minute business video conference that I’d missed a few hours before. By David Clinton.

The article explains:

• How to use GPT for business analytics
• How to prepare a dataset
• How to apply LlamaIndex to the problem
• Wrapping up

GPT – and other large language models (LLMs) – are capable of independently parsing, analyzing, and deriving insights from large data sets. But, overall, you can accomplish more and faster than you can probably imagine right now. While all that greatly simplifies the data analytics process, success still depends on understanding the real-world context of your data and coming up with specific and clever prompts. That’ll be your job. Nice read!

Following the announcement at I/O 2024, Google is now rolling out Contextual Smart Replies to Gmail for Android and iOS. Compared to Smart Reply, which dates back to 2017, the contextual version is “meant for detailed responses.” Gemini “can analyze the context of an email” and suggest replies that are “tailored to your conversation.” By Abner Li.

The three Smart Replies appear in a carousel, with the first line noting the high-level direction of each generated option and how they differ from one another. You can long-press on “each response to get a quick preview of the text.” Tapping inserts the suggestion, which includes a greeting and closing, into the body of the email for you to make further edits.

As of launch, only English is supported, while you need to be on one of the following paid tiers:

• Google One AI Premium
• Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, Education Premium

Contextual Smart Replies are rolling out starting today and will be fully available in the coming weeks. Interesting read!

An approach for creating masonry layouts in vanilla CSS is one of those “holy grail” aspirations. I actually tend to plop masonry and the classic “Holy Grail” layout in the same general era of web design. They’re different types of layouts, of course, but the Holy Grail was a done deal when we got CSS Grid. By Geoff Graham.

That leaves masonry as perhaps the last standing layout from the CSS 3 era that is left without a baked-in solution. I might argue that masonry is no longer en vogue so to speak, but there clearly are use cases for packing items with varying sizes into columns based on available space. And masonry is still very much in the wild.

The article explains:

• What is masonry layout?
• Examples, please?
• There are two competing proposals
• The case for merging masonry and grid
• The case for keeping masonry separate from grid

There are two competing proposals for CSS masonry at the time of writing and many opinions are flying around advocating one or the other. Both proposals have merits and come with potential challenges — it’s a matter of what you prioritize which, in this case, I believe is a choice between leveraging existing CSS layout features and the ergonomics of a fresh new approach. Interesting read!

Explore the job-leveling matrix for Web Development. Understand the roles and skills needed to advance from beginner to leader. By Coursera.

The article does a good job explaining:

• What is a job leveling matrix for web development

• How to use this job leveling matrix for web development

• Example of a web development job leveling matrix

• Typical web development career progress and roles

• Educational requirements for a career in web development

• Recommended web development courses

Web development is a dynamic and creative field that requires a blend of artistic flair and technical prowess to build and maintain websites and web applications. This guide provides a structured pathway for career development in web development, detailing essential roles and skills needed to progress from an entry-level developer to a senior leader. Good read!

Agile and DevOps Approaches: Agile focuses on iterative development and flexibility, while DevOps emphasizes continuous delivery, automation, and collaboration between development and operations teams. Agile and DevOps are two distinct but complementary approaches to software development, each with unique strengths. This article explores their differences and helps you decide which approach—or combination of both—is best suited to your organization’s needs. By Niranjani Manoharan.

The article also reads about:

• Agile software development practices
  • Has the industry really transformed from a waterfall approach?
  • Agile frameworks and its variants
• DevOps approach
• Should you use Agile or DevOps?
• The ideal software development methodology
• CI/CD

The choice between Agile and DevOps depends on your organization’s goals, team structure, and project needs2. Many organizations find success in combining both approaches to maximize efficiency and quality. Nice one!

AMD plans to release its next-generation MI350 series chips in the second half of 2025. These chips include an increased amount of memory and will boast a new underlying architecture that AMD said will improve performance significantly over the prior MI300X and MI250X chips. By Reuters.

Announcement also covered:

• New AI Chip Production: AMD plans to start mass production of its new AI chip, the MI325X, in the fourth quarter of the year. This chip aims to compete with Nvidia’s offerings and will be shipped to customers in early 2025
• Future Chip Releases: AMD announced the MI350 series chips, expected in the second half of 2025. These chips will feature increased memory and a new architecture for improved performance
• Market Reactions: Despite the announcements, AMD’s shares fell nearly 5% due to the lack of new cloud-computing customers. In contrast, Nvidia’s shares rose by 1.5%
• Additional Announcements: AMD also unveiled new server CPUs and PC chips based on the Zen 5 architecture, designed to enhance AI processing and data center performance

Distributed systems offer numerous benefits such as scalability and fault tolerance but also present challenges like complexity and data consistency. This article explores both the advantages and disadvantages of distributed systems, providing insights into their impact on modern computing environments. By geeksforgeeks.org.

Distributed Systems are a class of computing systems where components located on networked computers communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages. These systems aim to achieve a common goal, often functioning as a single coherent system despite being physically distributed.

Some advantages mentioned in the article:

• Scalability
• Fault tolerance and reliability
• Resource sharing …

And example of disadvantages:

• Complexity
• Network dependency
• Data consistency challenges …

Distributed systems offer compelling advantages, including scalability, fault tolerance, and enhanced performance, making them ideal for handling large-scale, dynamic applications. They facilitate resource sharing, global accessibility, and flexibility. However, these benefits come with challenges such as increased complexity, network dependency, and data consistency issues. For more follow the link to full article!

Google has released Android 15, which includes several significant security enhancements. These updates focus on privacy and theft protection, such as Private space, which allows users to create a separate, secure area on their device for sensitive data and apps1. Additionally, theft protection features include automatic device locking if theft is detected and preventing factory resets without authentication. By Parth Shah.

Partial screen recording is another new feature, allowing users to record only specific apps, enhancing privacy2. Android 15 also introduces enhanced OTP protection, blocking one-time passwords from being viewed remotely or recorded. The Privacy Sandbox aims to improve user privacy by limiting third-party tracking and enhancing transparency and control over personal data3.

Key Points:

• Private space: Secure area for sensitive data and apps1.
• Theft protection: Automatic locking and prevention of unauthorized factory resets.
• Partial screen recording: Record specific apps only.
• Enhanced OTP protection: Blocks remote viewing and recording of OTPs4.
• Privacy Sandbox: Limits third-party tracking and enhances user privacy.
• MAC address randomization: Improves privacy on Wi-Fi networks5.
• On-device live scanning: Detects phishing and deceptive behavior6.
• Unencrypted network warnings: Alerts for unencrypted cellular networks.

Other notable features include MAC address randomization for Wi-Fi connections, on-device live scanning for phishing and deceptive behavior, and warnings for unencrypted cellular networks. These updates collectively make Android 15 a robust upgrade in terms of security and privacy. Good read!

New research claims that locally run bots using specially trained image-recognition models can match human-level performance in this style of CAPTCHA, achieving a 100 percent success rate despite being decidedly not human. By Kyle Orland.

Recent research by ETH Zurich PhD student Andreas Plesner and colleagues has shown that AI can now solve Google’s reCAPTCHA v2 with a 100% success rate. Using a fine-tuned YOLO object-recognition model, the AI was trained on 14,000 labeled traffic images and could identify CAPTCHA images with high accuracy. This breakthrough demonstrates that AI can now match human performance in identifying objects in CAPTCHA grids.

To bypass reCAPTCHA’s defenses, the researchers used additional techniques such as VPNs to avoid detection, mouse movement models to mimic human activity, and fake browser and cookie information. These methods helped the AI appear more human-like and successfully solve the CAPTCHAs. The success of this AI model highlights the growing challenge of creating effective CAPTCHAs. As AI continues to improve, traditional CAPTCHA methods may become obsolete, pushing developers to find new ways to distinguish between humans and bots.

Google has already started shifting towards more subtle methods of user verification, such as reCAPTCHA v3, which analyzes user interactions rather than presenting explicit challenges1. This shift aims to enhance security while minimizing user inconvenience.

This research underscores the ongoing battle between AI advancements and security measures, emphasizing the need for continuous innovation in human verification methods. Good read!

In today’s fast-paced and interconnected digital world, the need for robust and efficient communication between different components of a software system is paramount. Messaging queues have emerged as a vital solution to this challenge, providing a reliable way to manage and coordinate the flow of messages between various parts of an application. By Sean Coughlin.

The article also discusses:

• What are messaging queues?
• How messaging queues work
• Synchronous vs. asynchronous messaging
• Types of messaging queues
• Benefits of using messaging queues
• Common messaging queue implementations
• Messaging queues in the design stack
• Best practices for using messaging queues

Popular messaging queue systems like RabbitMQ, Apache Kafka, and Amazon SQS each have their strengths and are suited to different use cases. Best practices for using messaging queues include ensuring message durability, handling message duplication, and monitoring queue performance. By following these practices, developers can design efficient, resilient, and maintainable systems. Nice one!