That is at the moment’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a every day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of know-how.
How the hunt 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, printed on Might 28 by The MIT Press. It has been calmly 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 one among round 60 contestants within the 2013 Nationwide Chinese language Characters Typing Competitors. His keyboard didn’t allow him to enter these characters immediately, 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 pace—one of many quickest ever recorded. It was additionally premised on the identical form of “further 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.
When you’re excited about tech in China, why not try a few of our China reporter Zeyi Yang’s latest reporting (and subscribe to his weekly e-newsletter China Report!)
+ GPT-4o’s Chinese language token-training knowledge is polluted by spam and porn web sites. The issue, which is probably going as a result of insufficient knowledge cleansing, may result in hallucinations, poor efficiency, and misuse. Learn the total story.
+ Why Hong Kong is focusing on Western Huge Tech firms in its ban of a well-liked protest track.
+ Deepfakes of your useless family members are a booming Chinese language enterprise. Persons are searching for 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 search out you at the moment’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
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 know-how traits shaping 2024’s elections. (MIT Know-how 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 Know-how Evaluation)
3 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 Know-how Evaluation)
4 Nuclear vegetation are extraordinarily costly to construct
The US must learn to lower prices with out chopping corners. (The Atlantic $)
+ Easy methods to reopen a nuclear energy plant. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)
5 Laser techniques may very well be the most effective line of protection in opposition to army drones
The Pentagon is investing in BlueHalo’s AI-powered laser know-how. (Insider $)
+ The US army can be pumping cash into Palmer Luckey’s Anduril. (Wired $)
+ Contained in the messy ethics of constructing struggle with machines. (MIT Know-how Evaluation)
6 Klarna’s advertising campaigns are the product of generative AI
The fintech agency claims the know-how will reserve it $10 million a yr. (Reuters)
7 The US has an EV charging downside
Would-be automotive consumers are nonetheless nervous about investing in EVs. (Wired $)
+ Micro-EVs may provide one answer. (Ars Technica)
+ Toyota has unveiled new engines appropriate with different fuels. (Reuters)
8 Good luck betting on something that’s not sports activities within the US
The end result of a significant election, for instance. (Vox)
+ How cell cash supercharged Kenya’s sports activities betting dependancy. (MIT Know-how 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 critically bizarre cinema spectacle. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“As soon as materialism begins spreading, it might have a nasty affect on youngsters.”
—Chinese language state media Beijing Information explains why China has began cracking down on luxurious influencers identified for his or her ostentatious shows of wealth, the Monetary Instances reviews.
The large story
Recapturing early web whimsy with HTML
Web sites weren’t at all times slick digital experiences.
There was a time when browsing the online concerned opening tabs that performed music in opposition to your will and sifting by partitions of textual content on a coloured background. Within the 2000s, earlier than Squarespace and social media, web sites have been manifestations of individuality—constructed from scratch utilizing HTML, by customers who had some data 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. (Obtained 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 pictures is at all times value a peruse.
+ I had no concept that Sisqo’s Thong Track used an Eleanor Rigby pattern.
