News

Introducing kepler.gl, Uber’s Open Source Geospatial Toolbox

Created by Uber’s Visualization team, kepler.gl is an open source data agnostic, high-performance web-based application for large-scale geospatial visualizations. At Uber, we leverage data visualization to better understand how our cities move. Our solutions enable us to embed maps with rich location data, render millions of GPS points in the blink of an eye, and, most importantly, derive insights from them.

Reconciling GraphQL and Thrift at Airbnb

For several years, we had a few eager advocates for GraphQL at Airbnb, but the project never quite made it through the gates largely due to the perception that “GraphQL the Religion”—a worldview where all data is a graph all the way down—would be incompatible with our particular services-oriented architecture (SOA) strategy, which defines service-to-service communication using Thrift Interface Definition Language (IDL) and delivers data to clients via dedicated Presentation Services. We recently reframed a case for “GraphQL the API Layer.” Embracing how GraphQL could complement rather than compete with our Presentation Services, it found much more traction.

Evidence Found for a New Fundamental Particle

An experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago has detected far more electron neutrinos than predicted — a possible harbinger of a revolutionary new elementary particle called the sterile neutrino, though many physicists remain skeptical. Inside the MiniBooNE tank, photodetectors capture the light created when a neutrino interacts with an atomic nucleus. Physicists are both thrilled and baffled by a new report from a neutrino experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago.

Tracking CubeSats for $25

CubeSats are tiny satellites which tag along as secondary payloads during launches. They have to weigh in at under 1.33 kg, and are often built at low cost. There’s even open source designs for these little spacecrafts.

Drone Delivery Becomes a Reality in Remote Pacific Islands

Currently, health workers in Vanuatu often hike over mountains to deliver vaccines–but drones can fly over them. This September, delivery drones will begin to fly the friendly skies of Vanuatu. And this isn’t a one-shot demonstration, like many of the stunts we’ve seen from the likes of Amazon and Google.

Toxic Chemicals From E-Waste Are Working Their Way Into Our Food Packaging

Microsoft is now worth more than Alphabet

Well done, Clippy: Microsoft has passed Google in market valuation for the first time in three years,CNBC reports. Microsoft is now valued at $753 billion, while Alphabet (Google’s parent company) is valued at $739 billion. While Amazon and Apple still top this particular list, Microsoft now rounds out the top three and gosh it just feels so good when rich people become richer.

China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data

GENEVA (Reuters) – China has overtaken the United States in healthy life expectancy at birth for the first time, according to World Health Organization data. Chinese newborns can look forward to 68.7 years of healthy life ahead of them, compared with 68.5 years for American babies, the data – which relates to 2016 – showed. American newborns can still expect to live longer overall – 78.5 years compared to China’s 76.4 – but the last 10 years of American lives are not expected to be healthy.

AI winter is well on its way

Deep learning has been at the forefront of the so called AI revolution for quite a few years now, and many people had believed that it is the silver bullet that will take us to the world of wonders of technological singularity (general AI). Many bets were made in 2014, 2015 and 2016 when still new boundaries were pushed, such as the Alpha Go etc. Companies such as Tesla were announcing through the mouths of their CEO’s that fully self driving car was very close, to the point that Tesla even started selling that option to customers [to be enabled by future software update].

China just invited the world to its space station

At a time when NASA and its partners are trying to decide how long to maintain the International Space Station, China has taken the significant step of inviting the world to its planned orbital station. The China Space Station, or CSS, could become operational as soon as 2022. Such an announcement represents potentially the greatest soft power threat of the last six decades to US and Russian dominance of spaceflight.