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2024-08-25

Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested at French airport

  • Pavel Durov, co-founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Bourget airport near Paris, based on an arrest warrant in France.
  • Durov, who resides in Dubai and holds dual citizenship in France and the UAE, is expected to appear in court on Sunday.
  • The arrest has drawn attention due to Durov's history of defying Russian authorities and Telegram's significant user base of about 900 million active users.

Reactions

  • Telegram founder Pavel Durov's arrest at a French airport has ignited discussions on whether it is linked to Telegram's non-cooperation with law enforcement or its use by criminals.
  • The incident underscores ongoing debates about privacy, government surveillance, and the extent to which tech companies should moderate their platforms to prevent illegal activities.
  • Some argue that Western nations are pushing for backdoors in messaging apps, while others point to Telegram's relatively lax moderation compared to other platforms.

What are you working on (August 2024)?

Reactions

  • Engineers from France have developed a DIY battery for e-bikes that can be repaired and refilled, compatible with 90% of bike/motor brands, aiming to combat planned obsolescence.
  • The battery features a fireproof and waterproof casing, with extensive testing to ensure safety, and is set to launch on Kickstarter in September with a 25% discount for early backers.
  • The project has garnered interest from the DIY e-bike community, with discussions on safety, potential applications, and suggestions for additional features like LORA transceivers and integration with existing bike systems.

Arrest of Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO, charges of terrorism, fraud, child porn

  • Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested at Le Bourget airport in Paris due to a French search warrant citing serious charges including terrorism, drug trafficking, and more.
  • French authorities allege that Telegram, under Durov’s leadership, facilitated organized crime through its encrypted messaging services, leading to his detention and potential 20-year prison sentence if convicted.
  • The arrest has caused a significant impact on Toncoin, Telegram's associated cryptocurrency, which dropped over 15%, and may influence future regulations on digital platforms and cryptocurrencies.

Reactions

  • Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, has been arrested on charges of terrorism, fraud, and child pornography, sparking significant debate and controversy.
  • Critics argue that service providers like Telegram should not be held responsible for user-generated content, comparing the situation to past cases like Kim Dotcom's.
  • The arrest has raised concerns about government overreach and the potential for targeting individuals who resist compliance with law enforcement requests for user data and content moderation.

Defenders think in lists, attackers think in graphs (2015)

  • Defenders often use lists to protect assets, but attackers exploit the interconnected nature of networks, which are better represented as graphs.
  • Effective defense requires visualizing the network as a graph, reducing unnecessary connections, minimizing admin privileges, using two-factor authentication, and regularly rotating credentials.
  • Adopting a graph-based mindset helps defenders better protect their networks, as attackers study the real network, not outdated diagrams or incomplete inventories.

Reactions

  • Attackers focus deeply on a single mission, while defenders, such as SOC (Security Operations Center) teams, track multiple signals and prioritize threats based on regulations.
  • Some experts suggest defenders should adopt graph-based thinking, similar to attackers, to better identify potential attack paths, with tools like BloodHound aiding in visualizing these paths in Active Directory (AD).
  • Despite the potential benefits, defenders often face organizational constraints and compliance requirements, making it difficult to implement more dynamic, attacker-like strategies.

Anthropic Claude 3.5 can create icalendar files, so I did this

  • Greg Wilson used Anthropic Claude 3.5 to extract and create calendar entries from a JPG image of his jazz piano lesson schedule.
  • Claude 3.5 accurately listed the dates and generated an ICS file for Google Calendar, scheduling events at 2:00 PM Pacific Time.
  • ChatGPT could identify the dates but required additional steps, such as providing Python code, to create the ICS file.

Reactions

  • Anthropic Claude 3.5 can generate iCalendar files, but users should verify the results due to occasional errors that may appear plausible.
  • Some experts recommend using Large Language Models (LLMs) to write Python validators to ensure the accuracy of generated data.
  • The stochastic nature of LLMs can lead to "off by one" errors, which can undermine trust in the information provided, making verification essential, especially for critical data.

Study: Air purifier use at daycare centres cut kids' sick days by a third (2023)

  • A study at two Helsinki daycare centers found that using air purifiers reduced children's sick days by approximately 30%.
  • The research, led by E3 Pandemic Response and Enni Sanmark from HUS Helsinki University Hospital, tested various air purifiers during cold and flu seasons and will continue until April to assess their impact on stomach ailments.
  • The study aims to create an effective air purification scheme for daycares, with final results expected next spring.

Reactions

  • A study revealed that air purifiers in daycare centers reduced children's sick days by a third, indicating potential broader applications in schools and public spaces.
  • Despite the benefits, there is resistance to implementing air purifiers, akin to historical opposition to handwashing in medical settings.
  • The findings emphasize the importance of air quality and ventilation in reducing disease transmission, with suggestions to combine air purifiers with UV light and masks for enhanced effectiveness.

Strandbeest

Reactions

  • Strandbeest is an application of Jansen's linkage, which aims to reduce rubber/microplastic emissions from tires by creating efficient legged vehicles.
  • Theo Jansen's Strandbeest is celebrated for its artistic and technical achievements, including its ability to store and use wind power for movement.
  • Miniature versions of the Strandbeest are available for purchase, showcasing its innovative design on a smaller scale.

Facebook Banned Me for Life Because I Help People Use It Less (2021)

  • Facebook permanently banned a developer for creating "Unfollow Everything," a tool that helps users unfollow all friends, groups, and pages to reduce time spent on the platform.
  • The tool received positive feedback for allowing users to enjoy Facebook's benefits while avoiding its addictive elements, but Facebook issued a cease-and-desist letter and disabled the developer's accounts.
  • This ban also disrupted a University of Neuchâtel study on the News Feed's impact, highlighting how platforms use terms of service to limit user control and suppress empowering tools.

Reactions

  • Facebook banned a user for life for helping others use the platform less, sparking a debate on the platform's usability and algorithm issues.
  • Users report Facebook's algorithm shows irrelevant and inflammatory content, leading many to reduce their usage or switch to other platforms like Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
  • Some users are developing or using alternative tools and platforms, such as open-source projects and content filters, to avoid Facebook's drawbacks and improve their social media experience.

Papersway – a scrollable window management for Sway/i3wm

  • Papersway is a scrollable window management tool for Sway/i3wm, inspired by PaperWM, arranging windows in a row with two visible at a time.
  • Key features include changing the number of visible windows, toggling monocle mode, and jumping to a fresh workspace.
  • Installation is straightforward via CPAN or apt-get for Debian/Ubuntu, with usage instructions and key bindings provided in the papersway(1) manual.

Reactions

  • Papersway is a new scrollable window management tool designed for Sway/i3wm, gaining significant attention on Hacker News with 160 points and 36 comments.
  • Users are comparing it to similar projects like PaperWM for Gnome and Karousel for KDE, highlighting its potential benefits, especially for widescreen monitors.
  • There are discussions about renaming the project to avoid confusion and requests for more visual demonstrations, indicating strong community interest and engagement.

Postgres as a Search Engine

  • The post discusses building a robust search engine using PostgreSQL, combining traditional lexical search and modern semantic search techniques.
  • Key techniques include full-text search with tsvector, semantic search with pgvector, and fuzzy matching with pg_trgm.
  • The implementation details provide SQL code for setting up tables, performing hybrid and fuzzy searches, and tuning the search system for optimal performance.

Reactions

  • PostgreSQL is being discussed as a potential search engine, with tools like vector search and trigrams, but it lacks advanced search ranking control compared to specialized search systems like Solr and Elasticsearch.
  • ParadeDB's pg_search integrates Tantivy, a Lucene-inspired library, into PostgreSQL, offering features like BM25 ranking and tokenizers for multiple languages, while keeping data normalized.
  • Alternatives like pgroonga and custom indexing in PostgreSQL are mentioned, but specialized tools are recommended for critical search functionalities due to PostgreSQL's limitations in handling complex search requirements.

Lidl's Cloud Gambit: Europe's Shift to Sovereign Computing

  • Lidl's owner, Schwarz Group, is transforming its internal IT unit, Schwarz Digits, into a standalone cloud computing division, competing with AWS, Google, and Microsoft.
  • This move is part of Europe's shift towards sovereign cloud computing, driven by stringent privacy laws and GDPR compliance, with initiatives like Gaia-X supporting secure, EU-compliant cloud frameworks.
  • Schwarz Digits, with €1.9 billion in sales and major clients like SAP and Bayern Munich, offers a range of services, while AWS is investing €7.8 billion in a European Sovereign Cloud, launching in Germany by 2025.

Reactions

  • Lidl's Cloud Gambit highlights Europe's shift towards sovereign computing, focusing on the Gaia-X initiative.
  • Gaia-X is criticized for being overly bureaucratic, lacking clear technical standards, and producing minimal tangible outcomes.
  • Despite the criticism, there is a significant market demand for European cloud services, driven by a desire for alternatives to major US cloud providers.

AMD's Radeon 890M: Strix Point's Bigger iGPU

  • AMD has introduced the Strix Point mobile chip, featuring a larger integrated GPU (iGPU) and slight architecture upgrades, continuing the success of previous iGPUs used in devices like Valve’s Steam Deck and Asus’s ROG Ally.
  • Strix Point’s GPU includes eight Work Group Processors (WGPs), an increase from previous generations, and uses LPDDR5-7500 memory, providing 120 GB/s bandwidth, resulting in significant performance gains.
  • Strix Point outperforms Intel’s Meteor Lake and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite in various benchmarks, particularly in gaming performance, demonstrating AMD’s effective strategy of incremental improvements.

Reactions

  • AMD's Radeon 890M, part of the Strix Point series, features a newer graphics architecture than AMD's desktop counterparts, indicating a focus on mobile integrated GPUs (iGPUs).
  • Users report mixed experiences with AMD's software support, particularly in machine learning (ML) applications, where Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem remains dominant.
  • The Strix Point iGPU is seen as a potential competitor to Intel's integrated graphics, with some users noting its promising performance for low-power gaming and compute tasks.

Neurotechnology numbers worth knowing (2022)

  • The post provides a comprehensive list of neurotechnology-related measurements and statistics, covering various scales from molecular to hardware levels.
  • It includes detailed data on biological structures, cellular components, genetic information, and operational costs, making it a valuable reference for those in neuroscience and related fields.
  • The extensive range of metrics, from neuron counts to brain wave frequencies, offers a broad understanding of the physical and functional aspects of neurotechnology.

Reactions

  • The post discusses the importance of memorizing key neurotechnology numbers for better understanding and idea generation, emphasizing the benefits of rote learning in scientific fields.
  • It highlights the connection between knowing specific facts and the ability to traverse complex idea pathways without constant reference checks, drawing parallels to everyday measurements like kilometers and miles.
  • The discussion includes references to resources and books that aid in understanding cellular processes and the significance of having foundational knowledge in various scientific disciplines.

Looming Liability Machines (LLMs)

  • The discussion focused on using Large Language Models (LLMs) for automatic root cause analysis (RCA) of cloud incidents, highlighting both potential and concerns.
  • Concerns include the risk of superficial analyses, decline in developing new experts, and unexpected behavior from automated systems, known as "automation surprise."
  • While LLMs can save time, skepticism exists about their effectiveness in complex tasks like RCA, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach to maintain human expertise and operational culture.

Reactions

  • Large Language Models (LLMs) are being debated for their effectiveness in analyzing cloud incidents and determining root causes, with skepticism about their ability to reason over complex systems and evidence.
  • Some suggest fine-tuning LLMs on specific datasets, like outage data, to improve their performance in specialized tasks, though concerns about their limitations and potential misuse remain.
  • The discussion highlights the broader issue of LLMs' capabilities and limitations, emphasizing the need for empirical evidence and careful consideration before deploying them in critical applications.

Ruby's official documentation just got a new look

  • Ruby is an interpreted, object-oriented programming language commonly used for web development, known for its simplicity, extensibility, and portability across platforms.
  • Key features include simple syntax, advanced object-oriented capabilities (mix-ins, singleton methods), operator overloading, exception handling, iterators, closures, garbage collection, and dynamic loading of object files.
  • Created by Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz) in 1995, Ruby's resources include installation options, documentation, a mailing list, and avenues for feedback and contribution.

Reactions

  • Ruby's official documentation has been updated with a new design, but users have mixed reactions, citing poor mobile support and excessive white space.
  • The new green color scheme is criticized for deviating from Ruby's traditional red, and there are concerns about font readability and contrast.
  • While some appreciate the new code block design, the update has sparked debate about the overall design choices and functionality.