Today we’ll dive into the potential of Rama, a new programming platform that has drastically reduced the cost of building large-scale applications. We'll also discuss the formation of the Open Enterprise Linux Association, a group dedicated to providing free and open access to Enterprise Linux source code. Lastly, we'll update you on the upcoming payouts in the $500 million iPhone batterygate lawsuit. Also follow the instagram for quick daily news.

— Forrest Knight & Meghanadh Vasireddy

How To Reduce the Cost of Building Twitter or ‘X’ by 100x

In a recent blog post, Nathan Marz, the founder of Red Planet Labs, revealed how his team managed to reduce the cost of building a Twitter-scale application by 100x using a new programming platform called Rama (made by Red Planet Labs by the way). Rama's abstractions allow developers to sidestep the complexity that often inflates the cost of building large-scale applications. As a result, Rama is not only inherently scalable and fault-tolerant but also requires significantly less work to build a backend compared to other technologies.

To demonstrate the power of Rama, the team at Red Planet Labs built a Twitter-scale Mastodon instance from scratch in just 10,000 lines of code. This is an achievement considering that Twitter's original consumer product, which is similar to Mastodon, required approximately 1 million lines of code. The Mastodon instance, which is open for anyone to use, has 100 million bots posting 3,500 times per second at an average fanout of 403 to showcase its scalability.

The development of this scalable Mastodon instance took only nine person-months, a fraction of the time spent by Twitter and Instagram on their respective products. Twitter spent around 200 person-years to build and scale their original consumer product, while Instagram spent about 25 person-years building Threads, a recently launched Twitter competitor. The numbers shared by Marz are indeed hard to believe, but they demonstrate the potential of Rama to change the way large-scale applications are built.

Open Enterprise Linux Association

CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE are teaming up to create the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA). This group's goal is to support the development of versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that anyone can use. They will do this by offering free and open access to Enterprise Linux (EL) source code. This move comes after Red Hat made changes to how they share their RHEL source code, which has caused concern in the open-source community.

Working Together: OpenELA will provide all the necessary resources for others to create their own versions of RHEL, focusing on RHEL EL8 and EL9, and also considering EL7. The association will have an open process for organizations to get the source code they need to make RHEL-compatible versions.

Thomas Di Giacomo from SUSE emphasized the importance of working together for innovation and keeping community standards open. Wim Coekaerts from Oracle said that OpenELA is a response to the need for community-driven source code for EL as a basis for compatible versions.

Redefining Openness: OpenELA wants to change what it means to be open and build a stronger future for Enterprise Linux. They invite everyone to join this effort and help keep community standards open. By offering source code, tools, and systems through OpenELA, CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE aim to work with the open-source community to ensure a stable and strong future for everyone using Enterprise Linux.

Studious for Notion: The Best Way to Organize Your Studies

What's Included?

• All-in-one Dashboard

• Courses & Semesters

• Project & Task Management

• Notes & Flashcards

• Agenda

• Job Tracker

• Student CRM

• Development Resources

• Resume Template & More

• Includes Tutorials and Examples

• Lifetime Access to Updates

Check out the website and video for a more detailed walkthrough.

Payouts to Begin Soon in $500 Million iPhone Batterygate Lawsuit

Apple is set to start issuing payments to iPhone users who filed claims in the $500 million class-action lawsuit over the "batterygate" controversy. The lawsuit accused Apple of secretly throttling the performance of older iPhone models to preserve battery life. The affected devices include the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, and 7 Plus.

The batterygate issue began in 2017 when users noticed that some performance issues were resolved after replacing their iPhone batteries. Apple admitted to slowing down devices when iOS detected battery degradation, claiming it was to prevent unexpected shutdowns. The company faced over 59 class-action lawsuits and eventually agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle the case in March 2020.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently dismissed two cases from people appealing the terms of the settlement, clearing the way for payments to be sent out. Approximately 3 million claims were submitted by October 2020, and those who filed and were approved can expect a payment of around $65. The exact amount may vary as some claims are still under consideration.

Apple has denied any wrongdoing in the case but agreed to pay claimants between $310 million and $500 million. The company also issued a rare apology, offered discounted battery replacements, and introduced new features to iOS to mitigate long-term battery degradation.

It is important to note that only those who filed claims before the October 2020 deadline will receive compensation.

Youtube Spotlight

Elon Musk's Next Big Project: Building a "Super App"

Tech Altar talks about how Elon Musk is attempting to build a "Super App" with Twitter, now renamed to X, aiming to integrate various features and services into a single platform. Super apps have been successful in some countries, particularly in Asia, where apps like WeChat and Alipay have become dominant platforms for a wide range of services. However, the super app model has not been successful in Western countries, where attempts by companies like Meta, Uber, and Snapchat have failed. Elon Musk's ambitious plan for X includes creating a core payments use case within the app, but the adoption of paid features has been unimpressive so far.

• Elon Musk is trying to create a "Super App" with Twitter, now renamed to X, aiming to integrate various features and services into a single platform.

• Super apps like WeChat and Alipay have been successful in some countries, particularly in Asia, where they offer a wide range of services, from payments to instant messaging, within a single app.

• The super app model has not been successful in Western countries, where attempts by companies like Meta, Uber, and Snapchat have failed.

• Elon Musk's ambitious plan for X includes creating a core payments use case within the app, leveraging paid subscriptions and advertising revenue share models.

• The adoption of paid features in X has been unimpressive so far, with only about 640,000 people signing up for the paid subscription service Xblue in the first half-year, and high churn rates reported.

• There are speculations about Elon Musk trying to turn Twitter into an investment platform similar to Robin Hood, but this remains uncertain.

More Notes

• Opendream: Extensible, easy-to-use diffusion web UI.

• OpenTF Foundation: Supporting open, community-driven Terraform.

• Python URL parsing flaw enables command execution.

• Redis 7.2: Redefining real-time performance.

• Risky giant steps solve optimization problems faster.

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