That is immediately’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on the planet of expertise.
How the search to sort Chinese language on a QWERTY keyboard created autocomplete
—That is an excerpt from The Chinese language Pc: A World Historical past of the Info Age by Thomas S. Mullaney, revealed on Could 28 by The MIT Press. It has been flippantly edited.
When a younger Chinese language man sat down at his QWERTY keyboard in 2013 and rattled off an enigmatic string of letters and numbers, his forty-four keystrokes marked the primary steps in a course of often known as “enter” or shuru.
Shuru is the act of getting Chinese language characters to look on a pc monitor or different digital gadget utilizing a QWERTY keyboard or trackpad.
The younger man, Huang Zhenyu, was considered one of round 60 contestants within the 2013 Nationwide Chinese language Characters Typing Competitors. His keyboard didn’t allow him to enter these characters instantly, nonetheless, and so he entered the quasi-gibberish string of letters and numbers as a substitute: ymiw2klt4pwyy1wdy6…
However Zhenyu’s prizewinning efficiency wasn’t solely noteworthy for his spectacular typing velocity—one of many quickest ever recorded. It was additionally premised on the identical form of “extra steps” as the primary Chinese language laptop in historical past that led to the invention of autocompletion. Learn the remainder of the excerpt right here.
In case you’re eager about tech in China, why not take a look at a few of our China reporter Zeyi Yang’s current reporting (and subscribe to his weekly publication China Report!)
+ GPT-4o’s Chinese language token-training knowledge is polluted by spam and porn web sites. The issue, which is probably going because of insufficient knowledge cleansing, might result in hallucinations, poor efficiency, and misuse. Learn the total story.
+ Why Hong Kong is concentrating on Western Large Tech firms in its ban of a well-liked protest tune.
+ Deepfakes of your lifeless family members are a booming Chinese language enterprise. Persons are in search of assist from AI-generated avatars to course of their grief after a member of the family passes away. Learn the total story.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to seek out you immediately’s most enjoyable/essential/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
1 Election officers need to pre-bunk dangerous on-line campaigns
It’s a bid to forestall political hoaxes from ever getting off the bottom. (WP $)
+ Pretend information verification instruments are failing in India. (Remainder of World)
+ Three expertise tendencies shaping 2024’s elections. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
2 OpenAI has began coaching the successor to GPT-4
Simply weeks after it revealed an up to date model, GPT-4o. (NYT $)
+ OpenAI’s new GPT-4o lets individuals work together utilizing voice or video in the identical mannequin. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
Three China is bolstering its nationwide semiconductor fund
To the tune of $48 billion. (WSJ $)
+ It’s the third spherical of the nation’s native chip funding program. (FT $)
+ What’s subsequent in chips. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
Four Nuclear crops are extraordinarily costly to construct
The US must discover ways to minimize prices with out slicing corners. (The Atlantic $)
+ How one can reopen a nuclear energy plant. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
5 Laser programs could possibly be the perfect line of protection towards navy drones
The Pentagon is investing in BlueHalo’s AI-powered laser expertise. (Insider $)
+ The US navy can also be pumping cash into Palmer Luckey’s Anduril. (Wired $)
+ Contained in the messy ethics of creating warfare with machines. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
6 Klarna’s advertising campaigns are the product of generative AI
The fintech agency claims the expertise will put it aside $10 million a 12 months. (Reuters)
7 The US has an EV charging drawback
Would-be automobile patrons are nonetheless nervous about investing in EVs. (Wired $)
+ Micro-EVs might provide one answer. (Ars Technica)
+ Toyota has unveiled new engines suitable with different fuels. (Reuters)
eight Good luck betting on something that’s not sports activities within the US
The result of a significant election, for instance. (Vox)
+ How cell cash supercharged Kenya’s sports activities betting habit. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
9 Perfectionist mother and father are Facetuning their youngsters
It goes with out saying: don’t do that. (NY Magazine $)
10 Why a film model of The Sims by no means received off the bottom
The beloved online game would make for a significantly bizarre cinema spectacle. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“As soon as materialism begins spreading, it might probably have a foul affect on youngsters.”
—Chinese language state media Beijing Information explains why China has began cracking down on luxurious influencers recognized for his or her ostentatious shows of wealth, the Monetary Instances stories.
The large story
Recapturing early web whimsy with HTML
December 2023
Web sites weren’t all the time slick digital experiences.
There was a time when browsing the online concerned opening tabs that performed music towards your will and sifting by partitions of textual content on a coloured background. Within the 2000s, earlier than Squarespace and social media, web sites had been manifestations of individuality—constructed from scratch utilizing HTML, by customers who had some information of code.
Scattered throughout the online are communities of programmers working to revive this seemingly outdated method. And the motion is something however a superficial attraction to retro aesthetics—it’s about celebrating the human contact in digital experiences. Learn the total story.
—Tiffany Ng
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Take pleasure in this potted historical past of why we are saying okay, and the place it got here from.
+ There’s something very humorous about Elton John calling The Lion King’s Timon and Pumbaa “the rat and the pig.”
+ The perfect of British press images is all the time value a peruse.
+ I had no concept that Sisqo’s Thong Music used an Eleanor Rigby pattern.
