This records the weekly technology content worth sharing, released on Fridays.
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Cover image
Night cruise on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, allowing visitors to experience the poem by Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu: "Misty water shrouds the cold river, moonlight lingers on the sand, night mooring near the Qinhuai River, close to the taverns."（via）
Intel's View on "American Manufacturing"
Last week, Intel's stock price, in just one day, dropped by 26%, marking the worst single-day decline in the company's 50-year history.
Intel is a benchmark company for "American Manufacturing." The U.S. government is promoting "American Manufacturing" to bring high-tech manufacturing back to the homeland, and Intel is a key part of this initiative.
Intel was once the world's largest semiconductor company, and even today, it remains the most advanced semiconductor manufacturer in the U.S. (TSMC's U.S. factory is not yet built).
Only if Intel thrives can the U.S. have an independent domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry; otherwise, it will ultimately have to rely on TSMC.
But Intel just can't seem to get its act together, with its products failing to break through and losses increasing steadily. After this sharp decline, its market value is only 4% of Nvidia's and half of that of its rival, AMD.
The latter two are semiconductor design companies, which don't help U.S. manufacturing. So, Intel's sharp stock decline has dealt a significant blow to "American Manufacturing."
The cornerstone of "American Manufacturing" is semiconductors.The policy goal is to ensure that the most advanced chips are produced on U.S. soil.
To this end, the U.S. has ordered TSMC to build a factory in the U.S. while also providing Intel with substantial subsidies (over $10 billion), after all, it's "their own child."
So, why can't Intel, despite receiving "all sorts of care" from the U.S. government, still perform poorly?
Generally speaking, the success of manufacturing has three factors, and at least one must be secured.：（1）Your product is unique，（2）Your product is more user-friendly，（3）Your cost is lower.
These three factors, Intel cannot achieve.
（1）Its core product x86 chip has stagnated, without breakthroughs for years, and the market is continuously shrinking. It has no chance in the mobile market and is even being eaten away by ARM chips in the desktop market. Windows has even launched ARM versions this year.
（2）Its manufacturing process has never improved, and the x86 chips it produces lag behind competitors AMD (manufactured by TSMC). Recently, it was revealed that its 13th and 14th-generation high-end chips have manufacturing defects that can cause software crashes, completely shaking market confidence.
（3）Production costs in the United States are far higher than in Asia, so it is unrealistic for Intel to develop an outsourcing business.
What's even worse is that there are no signs of improvement in the three points mentioned above, and they are still deteriorating. Therefore, Intel has not yet reached the bottom, although it has announced that it will lay off 15,000 employees, it will still be very difficult to turn things around.
It's clear from Intel that "Made in America" is unlikely to succeed. The semiconductor industry is a strength for the US, with advantages in technology, talent, and capital, as well as strong government support.If semiconductor manufacturing were to fail, let alone other manufacturing industries.
Intel is not an isolated case; it is a microcosm of American manufacturing. The problems it faces are also common to factories across the United States.
Intel is out of the woods, and there is actually a simple way. Currently, the U.S. governmentProhibited IntelSelling high-end chips to China, alsoForbidden to HuaweiSelling all CPU products. These measures have hit Intel particularly hard, as it lacks advantages in other markets, while China is the world's largest gaming market, with gaming PCs exclusively using x86 chips. Banning sales in China would cut off Intel's revenue stream.
To save Intel, the simplest solution would be to lift the ban on Intel's sales in China. However, politicians in the U.S. certainly won't do that, so Intel's comeback is likely to be a distant prospect.
Tech News
Yushu Technology has introduced a set of wheel kits for its robot dog, enabling it to move not only on four legs but also using wheels.
The 7-inch inflatable tires make the robot dog's movement more stable, reducing vibrations on bumpy roads and during jumps.
The tires also offer the advantage of allowing vertical rolling, making it easier for the robot dog to climb walls.
2、 Fiber Drone
Recently, a drone was shot down on the Russia-Ukraine battlefield, containing a hollow plastic ball (red box in the image below). What's the use of it?
After investigation, the plastic ball houses fiber optics, and the drone flies dragging extremely thin fiber cables.
All communication is transmitted through the fiber, returning to the operator. The advantage is that there is no need for radio, thus avoiding enemy radio identification and interception.
The drawback is that the drone becomes like a kite, with its flight range limited by the fiber. Additionally, optical communication increases the drone's weight, reducing its payload capacity.
The men's 100m final at the Paris Olympics was extremely intense, with multiple runners crossing the line at the same time, making it impossible for the naked eye to determine the champion.
Even the athletes themselves didn't know if they had won or lost. In the end, high-speed photography confirmed that the gap between the first and second place was only 0.005 seconds.
In the photo, the athlete from the United States crossed the line first with their foot, but the rule is that the touch should be made with the clavicle.
4, Others
(1)Domestic StarlinkThe "Qianfan Constellation" project, with its first batch of 18 network satellites, was launched in Taiyuan on August 5.
(2)ShenzhenAnnounce that by the end of 2025, the city will have built more than 1,000 low-altitude aircraft take-off and landing platforms.
(3)uBlock OriginSoon it will be unable to be used on Chrome, and you need to install uBlock Origin Lite.
(4)Chrome BrowserAdded monetization interface to help website owners accept payments.
Article
1、Specify the jump page of PDF（English）
Many people don't know that you can specify in the URL link which page of the PDF file the browser should jump to.
2、Learn Go Language from Test-Driven Development（English）
A beginner's tutorial that teaches you how to learn Go language starting from writing test cases.
3、Preparation Record for Senior Architect Examination of Software Examination（Chinese）
The author participated in the "System Architect" advanced qualification exam in the first half of the year and passed successfully.（@jerrylususu Submission）
4、What is vector search?（English）
This article explains with simple examples how to convert text into a vector for search.
5、PostgREST Tutorial（English）
The PostgREST tool adds a REST interface to the PostgreSQL database, allowing users to operate the database directly via HTTP requests. This article is a detailed tutorial.
6、Step-by-Step Guide to Generating a TLS Certificate（English）
In this long article, the author demonstrates how to manually generate a TLS certificate for a website, explaining the meaning of each field in detail.
7、My Heretical Thoughts（English）
A long article by physicist Freeman Dyson explaining why he is not concerned about global warming. This article is a bit challenging to read but very insightful, though the conclusions may not be entirely correct.
Tools
1、CodeBrew
An iOS app, a Java IDE development environment for mobile phones and tablets.
2、Penpot
A web-based open-source design tool, a Figma alternative.
A Bash script for generating Markdown tables, as writing them manually is too cumbersome.
An open-source tool for various PDF operations, web-based, requiring self-hosting.
5、DNS.fish
This tool provides an API for DNS queries, returning DNS records for specified domains in JSON format.@airylandSubmission)
6,GammaRay
An open-source tool used to transfer desktops from phones and PCs to other devices, supporting features like remote desktop and video capture.@RGAA-SoftwareSubmission)
A tool that compares the search results returned by Google in different regions and languages, codeOpen source。（@expertbeacon submitted）
8、wanderer
an open-source tool for managing GPS paths, requiring you to set up the service yourself.
9、Citadel
a personal e-book management system, can replace Calibre.
this tool can re-draw input images using geometric shapes, seeauthor's self-description。
11、AsmBB
a forum application written in assembly language, with strong performance and low requirements for machine configuration.
this library can synchronize the content of browser localStorage across multiple devices and browsers, requiring you to set up a server yourself.
Resources
1、OpenBSD Beginner Installation Guide（English）
introduces beginners to how to install OpenBSD.
a website to query IP geographical information.
3、Linux System Administration Manual (English)
an introductory book about Linux operations, this is the original repository of the book, which can be read for free.
this website specializes in collecting vehicles with different numbers of wheels, from unicycles to 72-wheeled engineering vehicles, the image above is a nine-wheeled car.
Image
1、beautification of power towers
Many people think that power transmission towers are not aesthetically pleasing, so there have always been efforts to design them to be more beautiful.
Below is a German tower designed by an artist in 2010.
Some artists try to design the Eiffel Tower in more interesting shapes.
Here is a conceptual design that won an electricity pylon design competition but has not been put into practical use.
2,The most rewarding way to learn
What are the ways to learn more knowledge?
In the image above, from left to right, they are "Learning from theory," "Learning from practice," and "Learning from mistakes."
The meaning of this picture is that book knowledge is just the foundation, and practical application can teach you more. If there is a mistake in practice, it is the best learning opportunity.
Abstract
1、the simplest way to get email replies
Netlify, a company, wanted to send emails to users, asking them to provide product feedback.
However, the company knew that the response rate for mass emails was very low. They hired a marketing consultant, hoping he could find a way to increase the email response rate.
The consultant believed that there were two reasons why users didn't reply: (1) The emails were too long, and most people didn't bother to read them. (2) Mass emails were all in template format, and users felt they were sent by machines, so there was no need to pay attention.
He decided to shorten the email content and use a more conversational tone to see if it could improve the response rate.
He designed an A/B test. Format A was a traditional-style email with over 150 words.
The result was a 1% response rate, with only 1 out of 100 recipients replying.
Format B was a shorter email, only 37 words.
Result, the response rate increased to 4%. The email length was reduced to a quarter, but the response rate became four times higher.
He went all out and shortened the email to 14 words, posing a direct and straightforward question.
This time, the response rate further increased to 8%.
Therefore, the simplest way to improve the effectiveness of marketing emails is to delete any unnecessary words and keep them as short as possible.
Speech
1,
The danger of AI lies in making you skip thinking and letting machines fill the gaps in your thoughts. We need AI to enhance our thinking, not reduce it.
Every idea we outsource means missing out on a growth opportunity.
-- "Twisting the Situation of Artificial Intelligence"
2,
Imagine a scenario where Oppenheimer successfully detonated the first atomic bomb, yet other countries in the world felt nothing and continued their normal lives.
I think, this is what has recently happened in the music industry. A few weeks ago, a company named Suno released an AI music model that generates music based on whatever you describe you want to hear.
I believe this marks the end of one music era and the beginning of the next. Just as the atomic bomb changed all warfare, AI has now arrived at the moment to change all music. However, it seems that musicians are still unaware of this.
-- "Music Will Never Be the Same"
3,
Humans may become radio silent in about 50 years. We have passed the peak of radio wave usage and are increasingly using narrowband communications and fiber optic cables, no longer broadcasting television and radio signals into the sky.
-- The Guardian
4、
Fermat's Last Theorem is an extremely difficult mathematical conjecture, which was proposed in 1637 and not solved until 1993.
This theorem has no practical applications, merely serving as a reminder of how profound mathematics can be.
5、
Simplicity is an advantage, but unfortunately, complex things sell better.
-- Edsger Dijkstra, a renowned computer scientist
Year in Review
WiFi's back is LiFi（2023 #265）
The Internet's favorite behavior pattern（2022 #215）
The era of full-end apps（2021 #165）
Protect your DNA, don't leak（2020 #115）
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