Rami's Readings #24

The latest on Apple WWDC, LLMs, Cities for Expats, College Admissions, and more.

Welcome to Rami’s Readings #24 - a weekly digest of interesting articles, videos, Twitter threads from my various sources across the Internet. Expect a list of reads covering technology, business, culture, fashion, travel and more. Learn about what I do at ramisayar.com/about.

---

Are you enjoying this newsletter?

If yes, I have a favor to ask you. If you know someone else who would benefit, please forward or share it with them!

If you received this newsletter from a friend, subscribe here to get the next one.

---

Unsurprising news out of WWDC this week, the least secret "secret project" was finally revealed to the world. Apple's Vision Pro is gorgeous - a sci-fi ski mask. I imagine some ambitious entrepreneur is fast at work making an actual ski mask inspired by the Vision Pro hardware design. Apple did not take any design or engineering shortcuts. As beautiful as it looks, what problem is it solving? At best, the Vision Pro is a new way to have 2 gigantic 4K iPad screens directly in your eyesight. Why buy a $4297.99 8K TV when you can have an this directly attached to your face for $3500? Am I being too optimistic? I don't know. It is too early to judge and certainly too early to judge Apple. Their track record speaks for itself. For once, I am excited to try on a VR headset. (Yes, I know they call it an AR/VR headset, but is it really?)

Apple WWDC 2023 keynote in 26 minutes

But Would You Wear It?

Notes: I am wondering what Amy Odell will say.

Apple finally made a TV

Notes: 🤣

But there’s no question that Apple just built its first TV: a screen that can be almost any size, go almost anywhere, and play almost anything.

🤖 AI Reads

Welcome to the new surreal. How AI-generated video is changing film.

“We’re very into the aesthetic,” says Boyle, adding that it’s a change from the dominant imagery in digital culture, which has been reduced to the emoji and the glitch effect. “It’s very exciting to see where the new aesthetics will come from. Generative AI is like a broken mirror of us.”

Faster sorting algorithms discovered using deep reinforcement learning

Notes: Sorting is critical in computing. To discover faster sorting algorithms - even for a fixed length so small as 5 - matters.

We have discovered fixed and variable sort algorithms from scratch that are both new and more efficient than the state-of-the-art human benchmarks. The fixed sort solutions for sort 3, sort 4 and sort 5 discovered by AlphaDev have been integrated into the standard sort function in the LLVM standard C++ library.

4 dangers of artificial intelligence—and why they won’t end the world

Notes: A good read for how to think of AI dangers.

Diminishing Returns in Machine Learning Part 1

Read this ☝️ - I covered Nvidia hardware last week in case you missed it.

Google Launched a New Generative AI Learning Path (Free)

💼 Business Reads

These Are the World’s 20 Most Expensive Cities for Expats in 2023

Notes: New York City is back on top. Dubai ascending, matching Global Real Estate prices reported earlier.

A Big Problem With College Admissions Could Be About to Get Worse

Notes: Read this.

Black students believe that college counselors and admissions officers link their racial identities to trauma.

All the features Apple didn’t mention in its WWDC 2023 keynote

Notes: Missed among all the Apple Vision Pro.

Apps can add events to the Apple Calendar app without being able to actually view the calendar.

Looking at you Delta… 👀

Sign in with any email address or phone number listed in your Apple ID account.

Hmmm… this sounds like a security risk.

Collaborative playlists. Though you could always share playlists, iOS 17 will let you fully collaborate on them with others. Anyone sharing the list will be able to add, reorder, and remove songs, and they will be able to react to song choices with emoji.

I need this feature today! 💒

You can add links from one note to another … iPhone finally gets multiple timers … You’ll be able to ping your Apple Watch from Control Center.

Finally.

iOS 17 will let you auto-delete verification codes in Messages and Mail.

Thank you Apple!

✈️ Travel Reads

With iOS 17, Apple lets you share AirTags with friends and family

Notes: I placed this article under Travel Reads. Without any factual numbers, but a whole lot of belief, I'm almost sure that 80% of AirTags' missions involve keeping tabs on wandering suitcases and curious pets. Soon, my whole family will be transforming into Ruby’s (my 🐶) personal paparazzi, ready to track every little adventure she embarks on.

The Sleeper Train Awakens

Notes: I enjoyed traveling by sleeper train between Trondheim and Oslo. Exciting to see sleeper trains make a come back across Europe!

🔀 Other Reads

John Coltrane recordings lost in New York Public Library will finally be heard

Notes: Beautiful find!

Your Portable SSD May Require a Firmware Update

Notes: I covered the SanDisk SSD issues in #22. A firmware update is available now. I wonder if this will resolve the issue.

That is all for this week.

---

I wrote a disclosure for this newsletter in #7. Please consider reading it.

Reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

---