🪅 Heap Heap Hurray Ed. #287

Cheers to Wednesday! The weekend is just around the corner!

#Privacy - Meta and Russian social network Yandex have been caught abusing web identifiers, allowing them to bypass security and privacy protections provided by Android OS and browsers that run on it.

#Pixel10 - So, you know how Google was supposed to announce the Pixel 10 series on August 13? Yeah, that's been pushed back to August 20, and the devices won't be available in stores until August 28. Guess we'll just have to wait a bit longer for the latest Google goodies!

Kiranapro Hacked, All Data Wiped
KiranaPro is an Indian grocery delivery startup that operates on the Indian government's Open Network for Digital Commerce, allowing customers to buy groceries from local shops using a voice-based interface. The company's data, including app code, customer info, and payment details, has been wiped after hackers gained access to their AWS and GitHub accounts, likely through a former employee's account.

India Becomes Largest User Of ChatGPT
India has now surpassed US to become the country with the most number of users of ChatGPT.

Meta Aims To Fully Automate Ad Creation Using AI
Meta is developing AI tools to help brands create ads from scratch. This means that with just an image and budget, AI will generate ads, including imagery, video, and text, and decide which users to target. This move is part of Mark Zuckerberg's vision to evolve Meta's business, which relies heavily on advertising revenue.

Bill Gates Pledges To Donate Fortune To Africa
Bill Gates pledged to donate most of his $200bn fortune to Africa over 20yrs to improve health & education, calling on young innovators to leverage AI to drive progress.

Bing Video Creator - Added ability to create short videos up to 5 seconds using text prompts, powered by OpenAI's Sora model, with options for Fast and Standard generation speeds.

Character AI - New releases - AvatarFX, CharacterAI’s video-generation model, plus Scenes and Streams, which allow users to create videos featuring their characters and then share them on a new social feed.

Photoshop - Now available on Android with a free beta version featuring layering, masking, AI-powered editing tools, and more.

DigitalOcean MCP Server - Added support for natural language deployments, allowing users to manage deployments, restart services, and fetch logs using simple text prompts.

Absurd Design - A whimsical visual playground blending surreal illustrations with sharp web design inspiration. Absurd design is where creativity breaks free from convention - perfect for tech pros seeking unique design assets or a spark of offbeat brilliance. Dive in for a refreshing break from the ordinary.

Small - A tiny treasure trove for performance-obsessed devs: small is a minimalist HTML page (~0.5 KB!) showcasing just how lean the web can get. If you love pushing limits and optimizing every byte, this one's a must-click. See how small small really is.

Model Context Protocol Explained Without Hype Or Fluff
Learn about the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a protocol that allows AI client applications to integrate with multiple platforms without needing custom code for each one. Discover how MCP servers and clients work, and explore a concrete example of an MCP server for open data access, including a Python implementation using the official MCP SDK.

The Software Engineering Kawagara
The software engineering industry is experiencing a significant shift with the rise of coding agents and language models, which are automating tasks and transforming the way code is written, tested, and maintained. Companies are slowing down junior engineer hiring and investing in AI-powered tools, leaving some engineers underestimating the magnitude of the change.

The Dilemma Of Debugging: Knowing When To Step Back
Exploring the tension between problem-solving and reflection, a software engineer shares their experience with getting too invested in a task and the importance of setting aside time to reassess goals and direction, drawing parallels to the exploration-exploitation dilemma and the need for a balance between persistence and perspective.