Curated Commons // Edition 50
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 50th edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in ($ indicates potential paywall).
China, IP, and rule of law
This story is as wild as they get. And why every company should, and will, think twice about setting up their R&D units in China. ARM China went rogue, and has now called itself a new company! Fascinating read! - Read here.
A successful startup is an incumbent in the making…
…or as the Atlantic calls it - Amazon appears to have discovered that the fastest, freest shipping is picking stuff up in person. Amazon is now looking to open brick and mortar stores. - Read here ($)
Up for eating cubes?
A new startup is betting there’s a market for people who can’t be bothered about everything about food, but the nutrition. Cubes as a subscription service! - Read here
Chips, by the dinner plate!
This is a fascinating read on a startup, Cerebras, which is making the next gen of chips to be used for deep learning systems. - Read here ($)
Instead of making chips in the usual way—by printing dozens of them onto a large wafer of silicon, cutting them out of the wafer, and then wiring them to one another—the company has made one giant “wafer-scale” chip. A typical computer chip is the size of a fingernail. Cerebras’s is the size of a dinner plate. It is the largest computer chip in the world.
Our bodies are brilliant riddles
If you, like me, have developed a heightened interest in all things life sciences post the pandemic, this is a must-read. - Read here
A guide to platform fees
If you are a creator, or are planning to become one, Verge has a good summary of platform fees across a wide variety of content. Watch out for anything over 30% to come down in coming months. - Read here
Buy Now Pay Later, repent when?
There’s a growing recognition of what BNPL means to consumers. Convenience aside. - Read here
It’s hard to shift vaccine supply chains
The pandemic is driving most countries to try and bring vaccine manufacturing home. But they are increasingly realizing - it’s not easy. - Read here ($)
Self-driving agricultural combines are taking over Russian farms
Robots are everywhere, taking jobs humans don’t want to! - Read here
Netflix and Game
Good long read on why gaming is important for Netflix. Remember, sleep is Netflix’s biggest enemy. - Read here
Whose TV is it anyway?
Samsung apparently has built in a mechanism to remotely disable its TVs if it believes they are stolen from a retailer. And obviously, like all good companies, they believe such a backdoor is a good thing! - Read here
"TV Block is a remote, security solution that detects if Samsung TV units have been unduly activated, and ensures that the television sets can only be used by the rightful owners with a valid proof of purchase," Samsung said.
The British empire, the world’s longest shrubbery, and a salt tax
This is a fascinating read on how the British empire grew the world’s longest shrubbery, so they could tax Indians more for salt! - Read here
Drone deliveries are a thing already
Alphabet’s drone-delivery company, Wing, is on the verge of a 100,000 deliveries. Like Waymo, Google trudges along without making a lot of noise in some of these emerging spaces. - Read here
Wing currently operates in three countries: Australia, the US, and Finland. Its biggest success has been in Logan, Australia: a suburb of Brisbane where more than 50,000 of its total deliveries have been carried out. Logan is home to around 300,000 residents, and Wing’s service is accessible to just over a third of this population. Users can download the Wing app and order a small selection of goods, including coffee, groceries, sushi, cakes, pet food, and sportswear. Deliveries are generally made in under 10 minutes, and Wing’s record for a delivery is two minutes and 47 seconds from order to arrival.
Facial recognition, whether it works or not, gathers pace
From the USA - https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/08/24/1032967/us-government-agencies-plan-to-increase-their-use-of-facial-recognition-technology/
From India -
Can you get your CV past the AI system?
More companies are using automated systems to screen CVs. Which can only mean one thing - there’s more advice out there on how to get past the algorithm! - Read here
Our future is human smarts taking on algorithmic ingenuity!
More good reads:
MIT scientists made a shape-shifting material that morphs into a human face - Read here
The digital transformation of the gold pawn broker. A startup that uses gold saved at homes to create credit lines- Read here
Fear of Missing Out is out. It’s all about Fear of Going Out now - Read here
Solid data on the risk of blood clots from covid vaccines - Read here
TikTok challenges continue to showcase the ultra-smart planet that we inhabit! - Read here
Carbon air capture edges forward. - Read here
How does YouTube duck controversies, unlike its other social competitors - Read here ($)
More evidence that bias-free algorithms are a myth - Read here
When experts disagree, languages suffer. The Unicode drama over Tulu - Read here
And finally, the thread of the week!
Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, please do share on your social networks. My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.