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2023-04-06

Remembering Bob Lee

The tech community is mourning the loss of Bob Lee, a well-known figure in the industry. Lee was an advocate for Java, having worked at Google and Square, and was known for his work on the Guice dependency injection framework. He was also the co-founder of the Android Alliance, an initiative aimed at promoting innovation in the Android ecosystem. Lee's contributions to the tech world were widely recognized, and he will be greatly missed by his colleagues and peers. Many have shared their condolences on social media, remembering Lee as a mentor and friend who always made time for others. Rest in peace, Bob Lee.

Discussion Service. Bob Lee, the co-author of Guice and Java libraries, renowned for his technical skills, kindness, and humility, has passed away. His death has left the tech community in mourning and has prompted many people to share their memories and anecdotes about him. Lee's legacy of innovation and passion has inspired many, and his contributions to the industry will be missed. While some comments digressed, most shared positive thoughts and experiences about Bob.

Bob Lee, former CTO of Square, has died after being stabbed in San Francisco

Original. Bob Lee, the creator of Cash App as Chief Technology Officer at Square, was identified as the man who was killed in San Francisco due to a stabbing incident; the event has shocked the tech world, with people reacting to the sudden news. Police have not made any arrests or released any information regarding possible suspects. Lee was 43-years-old, was the founder of Cash App, and had been working as Chief Product Officer at MobileCoin at the time of his death.

Discussion Service. Former CTO of Square, Bob Lee, killed in San Francisco sparks discussion on crime and governance. Comments cover wealth disparity, homelessness, gentrification, and potential solutions. Discussion raises challenges on political systems and unreliable crime statistics in US cities. Users discuss potential causes of crime including mass migration, wealth inequality, impacted justice systems, and police unresponsiveness. Comparing crime between different countries or cultures is not helpful. The issue of crime is complex and not the result of any single factor.

iOS lets carriers add WiFi networks that you can't stop from joining

The iOS operating system allows carriers to add WiFi networks that users can't opt out of joining. This feature is causing concern among iPhone users who have limited data plans or privacy concerns. The feature is intended to help carriers launch WiFi hotspots, but it is also allowing them to add public WiFi networks that users unknowingly connect to, potentially collecting sensitive data. Users have limited options to disable the feature, including disabling WiFi altogether or choosing to "Forget This Network" every time they encounter it. Some users are calling for Apple to add more control over this feature, while others suggest using a VPN to protect their data.

Discussion Service. iOS 16.4 allows carriers to add managed networks to devices, lower cellular costs, and prevent disabling of auto-join, with no current way to remove these networks other than resetting network settings. Users report T-Mobile stealing data and Wingman in-flight networks not turning off, and express shock at carriers dictating WiFi connections with no user recourse. Debate ensues on how to gain complete device control, with some users recommending GrapheneOS for security updates. Carrier WiFi hotspots are criticized for disrupting connections to local devices, and some find the feature useful in crowded areas.

Deep Learning Foundations to Stable Diffusion

Original. "Practical Deep Learning for Coders - Part 2" is a course consisting of over 30 hours of video content that includes coverage of Stable Diffusion algorithm from scratch, working closely with experts from Stable.ai and Hugging Face. The course provides a rigorous coverage of the latest techniques and goes beyond even what Stable Diffusion includes, making it a great learning goal for many reasons, however, to get the most out of this course, you should be a reasonably confident deep learning practitioner. Throughout the course, we will explore diffusion methods, implement our own models from scratch, master Python concepts, and PyTorch to implement our models. We will cover diffusion foundations, deep learning optimizers, Python concepts, basic foundations, pseudo-random number generation, neural network architectures, generative architectures, transformers, and mixed precision training.

Discussion Service. The 'Deep Learning Foundations to Stable Diffusion' explores modern generative modeling while some recommend focusing on marketing. Fast.ai's deep learning course creates a programming framework from scratch and is recommended for anyone interested in it. There is a debate around the potential hazards of advanced AI and the importance of regulation and ethical considerations. Commenters suggest banning AI output, but it's not a long-term solution unless all countries do it. FastAI's course has no politically or religiously biased statements, and its content is considered top-notch. The course is accessible to anyone with basic high school math and covers advanced concepts.

CAN Injection: Keyless car theft

Original. Car thieves are using a new technique called CAN Injection to bypass smart key systems in modern cars by exploiting vulnerabilities in the CAN bus communication protocol. Sophisticated car security systems, including engine immobilizers, have become vulnerable. Thieves use a device called the CAN Injector to steal cars without the key by injecting fake messages into the car's internal communication system. The device costs $10 and contains a PIC18F chip, pre-programmed firmware, a transceiver, and an extra circuit. A quick fix or cryptographic messaging can defeat the CAN Injector. Ian Haken outlines several ways automakers could help secure cars, but criminal exploitation of the technique is widespread. It is an industry-wide issue that requires an update of ECU software to defeat thieves.

Discussion Service. A keyless car theft technique known as CAN Injection was highlighted on Hacker News. Consumers should be wary of encrypting or signing CAN Bus as it may limit third-party diagnostic tools, adding to repair costs. CAN bus controls multiple vehicle functions, and vehicle manufacturers optimize costs ruthlessly. Automakers have legal requirements to separate from dealers, but some comments criticize their adherence to the spirit of the law. Premium car brands use various security measures to prevent car hacking, including immobilizers with proper cryptographic protocols to authenticate start-release messages and signed CAN/FlexRay/Ethernet frames to prevent message spoofing. Cheap cars are targeted as they are easy to steal, while expensive cars are the target of violent theft. The exploit described in the article could be applied to almost any non-connected vehicle manufactured in the last decade. The use of CAN bus in critical systems such as aviation and automotive is due to its simplicity of wiring and cost-effectiveness.

Firefox engineers discover a Windows Defender bug that causes high CPU usage

Original. N/A (This text is not related to the topic).

Discussion Service. Firefox engineers found a Windows Defender bug causing CPU usage on Mozilla's browser. Microsoft is releasing a patch to fix this. Other AV products could also cause CPU usage problems. Firefox makes more system calls than Chrome for security reasons. A comparison shows Firefox performs faster than Chrome in some tests. Experts discuss the limitations of Defender, suggest sandboxing and hardware MFA. Users debate the effectiveness of Defender versus third-party AV software. Some users report issues with Defender causing slow file system access.

Segment Anything Model (SAM) can "cut out" any object in an image

Original. The Segment Anything Model (SAM) developed by Meta AI can isolate any object in an image with high accuracy. It can successfully identify and segment objects, even when they are partially visible or occluded. SAM improves on previously developed models that relied on location cues or salient objects. Rather than using these cues, SAM applies meta-learning, leveraging an existing model's learning, to be able to detect small, biased datasets or unseen objects. SAM can be used for practical applications, like image editing, as well as research in the field of computer vision.

Discussion Service. Meta AI's SAM enables real-time mask generation to "cut out" any object from an image. The model's licensing and impressive inferencing capabilities may make it popular among tech experts. Issues include slower speed with RTX 2080ti 11GB model and limited precision with transparent objects. Some see Meta AI's release strategy as part of an AR adoption push. Users praise SAM's data annotation cost reduction but criticize its speed and compare it to iOS. The development may also have potential security camera application and AdobeAI integration.

The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

Original. A PDF copy of Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin whitepaper has been discovered in every modern copy of macOS since Mojave in 2018, and can be accessed through a sample document in the Image Capture utility. The whitepaper is used as a sample document for a device called "Virtual Scanner II," which is either hidden or not installed for everyone by default. While the reason for its inclusion is still unclear, it may have been a convenient and lightweight multipage PDF for testing purposes. There is very little information available online about Virtual Scanner II or the whitepaper's inclusion in macOS.

Discussion Service. The Bitcoin white paper is hidden in every macOS copy since 2019; speculation surrounds why it's included, and users warn against mining on iPhones. The hash sum matches the original version, but theories vary on why it's included. Complaints arose about endorsement of a Ponzi scheme, but users clarify it's hidden. Apple may have included it for convenience, but the post sparks dialogue on Bitcoin's impact. Users comment on the picture used in an article, PDF file size, and tech losing its artistic fun.

Former Square CTO Bob Lee Stabbed to Death in Downtown San Francisco

Original. Former Square CTO Bob Lee was stabbed to death in Downtown San Francisco according to The Standard. Lee was the Chief Product Officer of MobileCoin, a crypto company in San Francisco, and a beloved member of the Bay Area software development and technology communities. SFPD has not released any additional details or the victim's identity, and is requesting eyewitnesses and video footage for their investigation. San Francisco has experienced 12 homicides as of April 2, two more than the same period last year. The Standard covers important stories, including criminal justice issues in San Francisco, and provides newsletters and a comprehensive overview of San Francisco politics and culture.

Discussion Service. Former Square CTO Bob Lee stabbed to death in San Francisco; comments refer to new details.

The case for banning children from social media

Original. The debate on banning children from social media is ongoing due to concerns about addiction and negativity. Some bills have been passed to restrict minors' access to social media sites and remove addictive features, but this raises civil-liberties implications and limits access to news and differing perspectives, posing the question of how social media should be treated. While courts have struck down online protections for child safety, creating anti-addiction messaging and legal restrictions present potential conflicts with First Amendment rights, and parents may have to resort to physically removing screens. Safeguarding children online is a political and cultural debate, leaving little confidence in the government's ability to regulate social media companies.

Discussion Service. An article advocates banning social media for under 18s due to potential drug-like addiction; regulating such content poses difficulty. A debate over the definition and influence of ads directed at children raises concerns over regulating advertising. Harmful effects of social media on mental health and personal development is raised, prompting suggestions to ban corporate social media and algorithmic feeds. A blanket ban on social media is not seen as the solution; nuanced approaches are needed. Discussion Service users discuss effective ways to limit screen time and combat negative effects. The debate centers on finding a balance between individual freedom and societal responsibility. Concerns over social media control and dopamine release in the brain prompt discussions on banning algorithms-powered social media. Feasibility and potential privacy intrusion are highlighted as concerns over mandatory ID checks for social media accounts. No new technology or major release discussed.

Dang is going to have 65,535 karma points soon

Original. Discussion Service user 'dang' is expected to reach 65,535 karma points soon, which is the maximum limit due to the system's use of a signed 16-bit integer.

Discussion Service. Daniel Gackle, AKA Dang, about to reach 65,535 karma. Comments section filled with praise for Dang's work. Users speculate whether karma will roll over & discuss changing to 32-bit int. Moderation style and Y Combinator's involvement questioned. Achieving high karma seen as a way to show appreciation for Dang's work. Reaching higher karma milestones allows additional capabilities on Discussion Service, such as upvoting/downvoting.

Neural Networks: Zero to Hero

Original. The course "Neural Networks: Zero to Hero" by Andrej Karpathy teaches building neural networks from scratch in code. The course begins with the basics of backpropagation and advances to modern deep neural networks like GPT. The course focuses on language models as they are an excellent place to learn deep learning. Prerequisites include solid programming and intro-level math. The course includes building micrograd, makemore, an MLP, and diving into some of the internals of MLPs. Becoming a Backprop Ninja and building WaveNet are also covered. The course culminates in building GPT. The videos provide a step-by-step explanation and focus on building competence and intuition around how neural nets are optimized. The course recommends viewers watch the earlier makemore videos to be comfortable with the autoregressive language modeling framework and basics of tensors and PyTorch nn.

Discussion Service. Andrej Karpathy's 'Neural Networks: Zero to Hero' course gains over 300 points on Hacker News in 6 hours. Discussion Service users praise his teaching style and recommend coding along after watching the videos. His peer-led ML course receives positive feedback despite not mentioning it. Python-specific syntax in videos could challenge some users. A discussion evaluates the course's emphasis on logistic regression and perceptron. Participants found the course easy to understand and recommend other courses for beginners. Some users question web developers' minimum knowledge, and one user has a theory about the link between ML and Hopf algebra.

A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

Original. The article discusses the difficulty of getting into a state of "flow" in engineering tasks and provides a trick for re-entering flow. The author suggests leaving one's work in a state that is obviously broken but easy to fix before stepping away. This allows for a clear starting point when returning to work, creating momentum and confidence. The article acknowledges that this approach may not be universal or applicable in team settings, but invites feedback for other tricks. There is also a brief mention of Census Engineering and job opportunities.

Discussion Service. Discussion Service users share tips for reaching flow state by leaving work unfinished, including the "park facing downhill" method. An engineering director implemented leaving work by 6 PM to avoid burnout but terminated it due to presenteeism. Users discuss the benefits and risks of strict timing rules and changing work culture. Some share productivity tips such as writing down next steps and practicing TDD. Leaving code in a "broken" state can help with resuming later, but it has mixed results.

Is RAM wiped before use in another LXC container?

Original. A post on Information Security Stack Exchange asks if RAM is wiped before use in another LXC container, leading to a discussion of RAM-overprovisioning in LXC, with one user commenting that memory allocated to a previous process in a container is cleared. A post on Hacker News delves further, discussing shared libraries and user namespace protections, and a response clarifies that pages are blanked before allocation, over-provisioning does not cause sharing, and LXC memory is allocated to processes via namespaces, but processes are separated from host resources. Lastly, it is noted that glibc-based memory management does not involve clean-up and free pages can contain data.

Discussion Service. Users on Hacker News discussed the effectiveness and necessity of automatic memory zeroing in Linux, with some suggesting alternative methods for clearing unused memory. One user pointed out that the problem lies in the design of UNIX's fork() system call, and many memory-intensive software still struggle with OOM issues. Other comments discuss the differences between overcommit and non-overcommit memory allocation in Linux and the importance of setting limits. The article provides nuanced perspectives on Linux memory allocation and is geared towards experts in the field.

Perspective: Open Source WebAssembly-Powered BI

Original. Perspective is an interactive analytics and data visualization component, designed for streaming and large datasets with configurable reports, dashboards, and notebooks. It features a memory-efficient streaming query engine in C++ and Python and a UI packaged as a Custom Element powered by WebAssembly or WebSocket. The UI includes interactive dashboards that can be integrated into any web application framework. Perspective.js relies on WebAssembly and Apache Arrow for desktop-like performance in the browser. PerspectivePython implements the Perspective API directly in Python for research or production. There are virtualized and scalable widgets, and the project is available on GitHub with user and programmer guides.

Discussion Service. Open-source WebAssembly-powered BI tool Perspective praised for powerful functionality, despite performance issues: solutions suggested include using a more lightweight option. Makers of Perspective working on improving performance and mobile compatibility. Some concerns raised about Firefox support and accessibility/non-keyboard friendly design. Sciter limitations discussed, Tauri libraries seen as potentially useful. Performance improvements needed for the Perspective project.

Grid World

Original. Alexander Miller's "Grid World" explores the role of grids in his life from childhood to adulthood, including its impact in technology, art, and navigation. The article touches on the power that grids have in mapping and controlling space, as seen in games such as Battleship and Chess. The grid becomes a central hub linking Miller's personal experiences together, showing how it becomes a part of our lives. Miller created the grid for The HTML Review in 2023.

Discussion Service. Discussion Service users are fascinated by the exceptional mastery and craftsmanship of Grid World in web design & development and its impact on perception. The article explores the grid's understructure to our memories and the world, with accompanying pixel art visuals. Comments note the connection to neuroscience with grid cells while raising critiques on rationalization and the blanket of the grid on nature. One user finds it difficult to perfect the visual design aspects of their personal project. Users discuss the grid patterns of Queens and the history behind the grid patterns. An Discussion Service user shares insights into NYC's street grid conformity. A table-like decoration generates dimly lit mess halls while evolving through time, built with plain javascript without any libraries for fun technical exercise.

OpenAI Tokenizer

Original. The OpenAI API is a technology that requires JavaScript to be enabled.

Discussion Service. OpenAI has released a new tokenizer to better understand GPT models. The tokenizer splits text into subword units for efficient processing, but they lack inherent meaning. Discussion Service users discuss the tool's limitations such as grouping based on spaces and capitalization treatments. Encodings created using byte pair encoding are often not well suited for underrepresented languages. OpenAI charges per token due to the model's token-based operation.

Tabloid – The Clickbait Headline Programming Language

Original. Tabloid is a new programming language created to generate ridiculous and click-worthy headlines, resembling those seen in tabloids. The language uses a combination of natural language processing, machine learning, and crowd-sourcing to create headlines with clickbaity linguistic patterns. It's a fun and entertaining language that serves no actual purpose, but it's an excellent example of how programming can be both useful and amusing. The creator of Tabloid plans to use it to create a platform that allows anyone to create their clickbait headlines. Discussion Service users find this tool interesting and a useful way to understand natural language processing.

Discussion Service. A recent project on Hacker News called Tabloid - The Clickbait Headline Programming Language. The project is fascinating, written by an author who claims to have written other languages that are arguably more useful. An Discussion Service user posted a program in Tabloid that takes five numbers and returns the product of the first three numbers plus the product of the last two. The author is someone who has shipped many interesting projects, even using Oak to build a bunch of personal software infrastructure, among other things. Another Discussion Service user commented that writing everything from scratch is most viable for lone developers, but not for teams, where it's better to go with "boring."

GPT4 simulating a FTP server at ftp.disney.com

Original. Chat GPT-4 is skilled at simulating an FTP server for Disney, using the base ftp cli tool and coming prompts to execute commands like a real user would. The simulated server includes exclusive Disney content in folders like movies, soundtracks and wallpapers, and GPT-4 proves capable of navigating local and remote filesystems. The new technology performs well, exceeding expectations and demonstrating its ability to create compelling content for Disney enthusiasts. The article hints at future uses for GPT-4 in code interpreter plugins that enable access to made-up servers from FTP clients.

Discussion Service. An article on Hacker News discusses GPT4 simulating an FTP server at ftp.disney.com. Users debate whether or not this can be considered 'hallucinating', despite its potential for AI to simulate or 'hallucinate'. The accuracy of AI-generated responses and the perception of these outputs as "hallucinations" are also points of discussion. Other topics discussed include: the potential for self-generated movies or TV shows being worthless, the role of latent space and language in LLMs, the impact of technology on society, and limitations of current AI capabilities. Some users caution against over-interpreting the AI's abilities and note that its limitations are often overlooked.

Using mmap to make LLaMA load faster

Original. LLaMA uses mmap() to load models 100x faster, increases RAM stability and enables multiple processes to run simultaneously. Linux users get 100x improvement, while Windows and MacOS get 10x. The new mmap() loader is now available on GitHub under MIT license. Anonymous collaborator @Slaren added mmap() support to LLaMA-7B, allowing instant load times with no file format change. The new file format aligns tensors on a 32-byte boundary. The post explores potential improvements in disk utilization and performance disruption. Justine Tunney writes about Twitter and Github in standard utilities, aimed at experts in the field. It is clear and concise, without bias or political or religious statements. An Discussion Service user comments that Tunney's post is a great resource for learning.

Discussion Service. Using mmap to make LLaMA load faster is the primary focus of the article, despite drama around attribution and technical issues in the comments section. The benefits and drawbacks of mmap are discussed, as well as the technical merits of Facebook's LLaMA.cpp. Users discuss the utility of LLaMA's changes and the pros and cons of various features, providing valuable insights for tech-savvy readers interested in learning more about AI and model implementation. The post highlights a systems engineering approach to a problem and a trend involving proprietary code in libraries, generating discussion about the use of Huge Pages and the difficulty of solving IO bottlenecks. The revolutionary performance improvement using mmap has caught the attention of experts in the field.