Good morning! Antitrust investigations are opening for Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA as the U.S. government raises concerns over their dominance in the AI sector. Meanwhile, a community of hackers is breathing new life into Spotify's discontinued Car Thing gadget, proving that with a bit of ingenuity. Lastly, the latest Developer Nation survey reveals that Rust's is having a huge rise and that JavaScript is still hanging on.

— Forrest Knight & Meghanadh Vasireddy

Antitrust investigations may be on the horizon for Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA

The U.S. government's about to turn up the heat on some of the biggest names in AI: Microsoft, OpenAI, and Nvidia. Why? Well, the US is worried these guys might be getting a bit too cozy and powerful in the AI world.

Here's the deal:

• The Department of Justice is eyeing Nvidia. The chip makers who make the GPUs that every AI project seems to need. They've got, like, 88% of the graphics card market.

• Over on the other side, the Federal Trade Commission's looking into Microsoft and OpenAI. Microsoft's pumped $13 billion into OpenAI (the ChatGPT folks), and now OpenAI's tech is all over Microsoft's products.

Now, you might be thinking, "So what?" Well, here's the thing: The government doesn't want any one player (or a few players) running the whole AI show. They're worried it could mess with fair competition. Remember back in January when the FTC said they'd be keeping a close eye on AI deals in tech? This is them walking the walk.

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Spotify Car Thing hacking community could keep the gadget useful after Spotify ends support

Spotify rolled out this cool little gadget called the Car Thing back in 2022. It was supposed to make listening to songs in your car easier. But they're pulling the plug this December.

Enter the Car Thing Hax Community who saw potential in this device. Sure, it's doesn’t have the latest and greatest hardware - just a basic ARM chip, a smidge of RAM, and a tiny bit of storage. But these hackers? They're all about that "waste not, want not" life.

Check out what they've cooked up so far:

• Superbird Custom Webapp: Think of it as a Car Thing facelift. You pick the web app, it runs it.

• Macro Deck: Turn that little screen into a command center for your gadgets.

• Superbird Debian Kiosk: They squeezed in a mini Linux and Chrome. Pair it with a Raspberry Pi, and bam! Smart home control on wheels.

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Rust Growing Fastest, But JavaScript Reigns Supreme

SlashData just released their Developer Nation survey, and it's shedding light on the programming language landscape. As of early 2024, we're looking at a global force of 43 million developers. That's a massive number, highlighting the ever-growing importance of staying informed about industry trends.

Rust is making waves with impressive growth:

• User base doubled to 4 million in just 2 years

• Key attractions: memory-safe design and high performance

• Notable endorsement: NSA and CISA are advocating for memory-safe languages like Rust

JavaScript isn't going anywhere. It's still the most popular language with 25.2 million active developers. Its versatility keeps it at the top, being useful in pretty much every type of project out there.

The Contenders:

1. Python overtook Java for second place, largely thanks to the surge in AI and machine learning.

2. Java's still strong with 17.7 million devs, especially dominating in backend services.

3. Go grew by 10% last year. Backend devs love it for its speed and ease in handling concurrent tasks.

The takeaway? The field is dynamic. Languages rise and fall based on technological shifts and industry needs. The key to thriving is adaptability. Keep learning, understand the strengths of different languages, and choose the right tool for your projects. Whether you're diving into Rust, sticking with JavaScript, or exploring others, there's exciting work happening across the board.

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🔥 More Notes

• “I wrote a Monty Hall simulation in c++ to help demonstrate why switching wins 66.6% of the time.”

• Ada Lovelace’s Endnotes Foretold the Future of Computation

• What is PID 0?

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