2023-04-14

Arrest made in SF killing of Bob Lee – alleged killer also worked in tech

Original. An arrest has been made in the killing of tech executive Bob Lee, and the alleged killer also worked in tech and was known to Lee. The police reportedly found Lee and the suspect driving together in a car registered to the suspect, and allege that some kind of confrontation took place while in the vehicle and potentially continued after Lee left. The coverage of Lee's death has been packaged with other recent San Francisco misfortunes and crimes, though this does not accurately represent the actual lived experience of most San Franciscans.

Discussion Service. The murder of a tech executive in San Francisco has sparked discussions about factors such as homelessness, mental health, drug addiction, and poverty that may have led to the crime, but commenters caution against making generalizations. There is also debate about the use of statistics versus personal anecdotes when assessing crime rates, and a need for a community-involved approach to address the complex issues of homelessness, addiction, and crime. Users highlight the importance of evaluating crime levels in relation to poverty rather than comparing different cultures and not jumping to conclusions based on one case.

YouTube-DL Hosting Ban Paves the Way to Privatized Censorship

Original. A German court has ruled Uberspace liable for hosting the website of youtube-dl - an open-source tool that allows for downloading YouTube content. Uberspace warns the verdict could lead to privatized censorship and is appealing the decision, though the court held that Uberspace "can be held liable for doubting the validity of a takedown request," even when it was not clear that the tool violated the law.

Discussion Service. The banning of YouTube-DL hosting is seen as a push towards privatized censorship, with the RIAA and MPAA prioritizing money and power over decency. Intellectual property's role in limiting information flow is debated, with a range of views offered, including limitation of scope and duration. Users propose alternatives and denounce reliance on GitHub while discussing decentralization and problems with security by obscurity in copy protection.

The art of auto engineering

Original. The Art of Auto Engineering is a complete video course composed of 122+ lessons with 20 hours of footage explaining every single part of a car in great detail, covering the basics to advanced automotive engineering. The course is accompanied by a 200-page handbook and is available online or in iOS and Android apps for a one-time payment of $25 with lifetime access, and is professionally filmed in 4K quality with full subtitles. The course is praised by viewers for its engaging instruction and excellent production value.

Discussion Service. Hacker News users share experiences and recommend resources for learning about automotive engineering, including interactive video courses and specific car models. Commenters discuss the benefits of understanding car mechanics, the limitations of relying solely on AI, and provide tips for DIY car repairs. Additionally, users debate the usefulness of paid courses and tools, and some criticize the appearance of pay-to-use class advertisements on the site.

Apple will use 100 percent recycled cobalt in batteries by 2025

Original. Apple has announced its plan to use 100% recycled cobalt in all Apple-designed batteries by 2025, alongside entirely recycled rare earth elements for magnets and 100% recycled tin for circuit boards. Their aim is to use only recycled and renewable materials and they already source more than 95% of tungsten, nearly three-quarters of rare earths, and over two-thirds of aluminum from 100% recycled material. Apple uses augmented reality (AR) to guide the disassembly of devices for recycling partners and increase rare earth element recovery, thereby driving industry-wide change towards reducing reliance on newly mined minerals.

Discussion Service. Apple announced its plan to use 100% recycled cobalt in batteries by 2025 and reduce plastic waste, but users debate the efficacy of these changes and whether the company should make its recycling tech public. The debate over user-replaceable batteries continues, with arguments that they are environmentally negative, while others suggest recycling methods and extending durable product lifespan can solve this problem. Apple's commitment to recyclable materials and a carbon-neutral supply chain is praised, but criticized for its design and cobalt supply chain. Users discuss the lifespan of iPhones and Android phones, and recycling methods for batteries. Some users suggest MagSafe batteries as the primary battery for iPhones, while others question its efficiency.

We achieved a 6-fold increase in Podman startup speed

Original. Red Hat's container engine, Podman, achieved a 6-fold increase in startup speed by removing unnecessary processes and addressing minor inefficiencies that impact critical applications like cars, where near-real-time container startup is essential. The team used transient storage and provided workarounds for kernel issues, resulting in faster container startup. The use of --transient-store option is ideal for edge devices, although mixed mode containers are not supported.

Discussion Service. Red Hat's Podman sees a six-fold increase in startup speed for cars, though Discussion Service users discuss the overcomplication of modern cars and raise concerns over reliability and maintenance. The discussion diverges into debates on the right to repair, the use of microservices and containers, and the balance between technological advancements and practicality.

Improving Tailscale via Apple's open source

Original. The Tailscale team used Apple's open source to debug network-interface related bugs for their 1.36 release, relying on ifconfig to determine the active network interface. When Tailscale is configured to use an exit node, it becomes the default route, necessitating a fix to consistently "bind" network requests to the active network interface without causing looping traffic. SIOCGIFDELEGATE, available via ioctl, allows for the underlying physical interface to be obtained and was implemented into Tailscale's code for macOS and iOS.

Discussion Service. Discussion Service users discuss the benefits and challenges of open and closed source software in Tailscale's improvement via Apple's open source. Some pay customers prioritize the reputation of Tailscale's open source core product, while some raise specific issues with Tailscale such as difficulty accessing network shares on Windows 11 and potential battery drain on iOS devices. The discussion highlights the importance of considering various perspectives and Tailscale's gaining traction over Zerotier due to its mesh system and continuous deployment of new features, but revenue and moat concerns exist for some product users.

Animated Drawings

Original. The 'Animated Drawings' repository on Github implements the algorithm described in the paper 'A Method for Automatically Animating Children's Drawings of the Human Figure', allowing users to create custom animations featuring their own hand-drawn characters. The installation process is straightforward, and configuration files can be modified to change various options, including output formats and background images. The repository also provides scripts and models for animating personal drawings, and a browser-based demo is available for quick and easy use.

Discussion Service. The Fair Animated Drawings project animates drawings with code, available in a browser-based and GitHub version. Users are interested in its potential for business ideas and hope for an Android app version. A relevant work on non-photorealistic pose estimation called Gesture3D seems applicable to a specific use case, and YC Summer 2023 applications are open.

Amazon CodeWhisperer, Free for Individual Use, Is Now Generally Available

Original. Amazon CodeWhisperer, a real-time AI coding companion, is now generally available and includes a CodeWhisperer Individual tier that's free for all developers to use. The tool helps developers write code quickly and securely and without leaving their IDE. CodeWhisperer offers suggestions for general-purpose use cases across a variety of languages and can filter or flag code suggestions that may resemble particular open-source training data, helping to reduce the risk of using potentially biased or flawed code.

Discussion Service. Amazon CodeWhisperer is now generally available, supporting several languages, including Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, and C#. Although Copilot is reportedly better than CodeWhisperer, the latter is a useful tool that may lead to AI-generated code becoming the norm. Additionally, Amazon has launched CodeGuru Reviewer, an AI tool that scans code to identify issues and recommend fixes for efficiency and cost reduction.

Google has already pulled six products in 2023

Original. Google has shut down six products in the first four months of 2023, including the Code Jam programming competition, social media platform Google Currents, the Street View app, wearable tech Google Jacquard, cloud gaming service Google Stadia, and wireless router Google OnHub. While some of these products were over a decade old, Google has faced criticism for its habit of abruptly ending popular services.

Discussion Service. Google has discontinued six products in 2023, with concerns over transparency and product labeling, and lack of support for failed endeavors including Google Glass and Google Plus. While the cloud unit is growing with 10% market share, concerns are raised about customer and developer engagement and the account-killing algorithm. Users debate solutions and costs for improving ChatGPT's accuracy, while Google's reputation for abandoning projects draws criticism on product support for consumers.

Nvidia RTX Remix Runtime Open Source Available Now

Original. Nvidia has released the RTX Remix runtime, an open source modding platform for remastering classic DirectX 8 and 9 games with path tracing, AI-enhanced textures, and user-created assets. The RTX Remix creator toolkit enables modders to assign new assets and lights within a remastered scene, and use AI tools to rebuild the look of any asset. The RTX Remix runtime, on the other hand, captures a game scene, replaces assets at playback, and injects RTX technology, such as path tracing, DLSS 3, and Reflex into the game.

Discussion Service. Nvidia has released its open-source RTX Remix Runtime allowing users to play older games with ray tracing in real-time, though not all games will work. Hacker News users discuss the importance of open-source drivers versus proprietary drivers, Nvidia's reputation, and the poor performance of RTX on non-Nvidia hardware. Users also speculate on potential favoritism and suggest supporting cryptocurrency developers that implement GPU-only proof-of-work schemes. One user notes Remedy's development of Max Payne PC games remakes using Remix and discusses the tech's frame pacing and stuttering issues.