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2023-07-30

If we want a shift to walking we need to prioritize dignity

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IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)

  • The author praises IRC for its decentralized nature and privacy compared to Discord.
  • Discord is criticized for its proprietary and surveillance practices.
  • The author recommends using IRC instead and promotes their own IRC network.
  • The benefits of using IRC for communication are discussed.
  • An announcement is made about a Comic Chat event.
  • The importance of using free and open protocols to preserve the old internet is emphasized.

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  • The discussion compares IRC and Discord, highlighting the limitations and drawbacks of IRC.
  • The importance of logging and search capabilities in chat platforms is emphasized.
  • Discord is criticized for its limitations in logging and search functionality.
  • The advantages and disadvantages of IRC and Discord are explored, including factors such as simplicity, searchability, privacy, and company control.
  • The use of IRC bouncers and alternative communication tools is discussed.
  • The risks of using Discord for sensitive discussions are addressed.
  • There is a suggestion for IRC to modernize and add features.
  • Other communication platforms and protocols like Matrix and XMPP are mentioned as potential alternatives.

Critical theory is radicalizing high school debate

  • The article discusses the increasing use of critical theory, specifically kritiks, in high school debate formats.
  • Judges and debaters are showing a preference for these arguments, which is impacting the activity.
  • Concerns are raised about the potential negative consequences of promoting radical ideologies in debate.
  • The influence of these arguments on students' political views is also examined.
  • The article provides a historical perspective on debate formats and includes personal reflections from former debaters.

Reactions

  • The article examines the role of critical theory in high school debate and emphasizes the importance of rhetoric and understanding different perspectives.
  • It discusses the impact of the debate format on critical thinking skills and highlights its limitations.
  • The influence of critical theory on debate and the flaws in the judging process are also explored.
  • The effectiveness of debate as a learning tool and the value of diverse perspectives are debated.
  • The discussions provide a balanced view of the benefits and drawbacks of high school debate and its impact on students' skills and knowledge.

What happened to Vivaldi Social?

  • The Vivaldi Social Mastodon instance experienced a bug or possible attack that resulted in the deletion of 198 user accounts.
  • The accounts were merged into one account on a different Mastodon instance due to a replication delay in the database.
  • The Vivaldi internal security team investigated the issue and developed a patch to address the problem.
  • The website was restored, and the issue was resolved with the help of colleagues and Mastodon developers.
  • Some minor issues remained, but fixes and warnings were provided to prevent similar incidents in the future.
  • The article also covers various topics related to web technologies, including privacy policies, code of conduct, terms of use, and the community.

Reactions

  • The discussions encompass a range of subjects including databases, programming practices, system design, logging and metrics, and the decentralized social media platform Mastodon.
  • Specific topics discussed include the use of NULL values, error handling, performance optimization, and the significance of logging and metrics for debugging and troubleshooting.
  • The stability and popularity of Mastodon in comparison to centralized platforms such as Twitter are also discussed.

Big Tobacco knew radioactive Po210 in cigarettes posed cancer risk, kept quiet

  • UCLA researchers discovered that tobacco companies were aware of the presence of radioactive particles in cigarette smoke since 1959 but chose not to disclose this information to the public.
  • Internal industry documents indicate that the tobacco industry conducted investigations into the cancer-causing potential of these particles as early as the 1960s.
  • The study found that tobacco companies opted not to implement a technique that could have eliminated these particles from cigarettes.
  • The researchers recommend that the FDA focus on removing alpha particles from tobacco products to safeguard public health.

Reactions

  • The discussions cover health risks, ethical concerns, and societal implications of tobacco use and addiction.
  • Participants debate the need to take action against Big Tobacco and the role of corporations in society.
  • The responsibility of individuals to boycott harmful products is also a topic of discussion.
  • Navigating the complexities of politics in addressing tobacco use and addiction is another point of debate.
  • The addictive nature of tobacco and its comparison to opioid addiction are discussed.
  • Opinions differ on the level of regulation and personal responsibility in addressing these issues.

GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

  • GNU Boot is a fork of the Libreboot project by the GNU project.
  • It was created due to a disagreement with Libreboot's Binary Blob Reduction Policy.
  • The author expresses support for GNU Boot and even creates an unofficial release for the project.
  • However, they criticize GNU Boot for using outdated code and not having a website.
  • The author received a cease and desist email from GNU Boot for trademark infringement, despite their efforts to help the project.
  • The author concludes by expressing their willingness to send patches and support GNU Boot, despite not personally using or recommending it.

Reactions

  • The GNU Boot and Libreboot projects are in a dispute over the use of the Libreboot name.
  • The communication between the parties has been criticized as unprofessional, with accusations of name stealing and unethical behavior.
  • Cultural and language differences have contributed to the poor handling of the disagreement.
  • The discussion raises questions about the importance of trademark protection and the use of the term "unofficial."
  • There is frustration with drama and conflicts within the open-source community.

Functions are vectors

  • Functions can be represented as vectors and analyzed using linear algebra tools.
  • Different types of vectors, vector spaces, and the standard basis for functions are explored in the article.
  • Eigenfunctions, diagonalization, inner products, and the Laplacian are discussed in relation to functions as vectors.
  • The applications of these concepts include Fourier series, image compression, computer graphics, and geometry processing.

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  • Functions can be treated as vectors in mathematical analysis and control theory.
  • There has been a historical development and ongoing debate about the need for an inner product in functional analysis.
  • Different types of mappings and properties are considered in this field.
  • Functions have a defined definition and properties, and they can have multiple values.
  • Vectors can be used to express functions and their properties.
  • Abstract vector spaces, bijective functions, and Fourier transformation are relevant concepts.
  • Functions also have applications in big data analysis.
  • The interchangeability of kilograms and joules, the pigeonhole principle, and the relationship between functions and computer programming are touched upon.
  • Different disciplines of mathematics have various perspectives on the nature of functions and their connections to vectors.

Gzip beats BERT? Part 2: dataset issues, improved speed, and results

  • The article provides an update on a previous analysis of a paper proposing gzip and kNN for text classification.
  • The update discusses dataset issues, improvements in speed, and presents additional results.
  • The previous analysis revealed that the classification method used in the paper was unfair.
  • The author explores the implementation of zlib compression in Python and suggests ways to enhance performance.
  • Despite concerns about the accuracy of the original paper's findings, the author recognizes the potential of text compression techniques for text classification.

Reactions

  • The article critiques a paper that falsely claimed gzip compression is more accurate than the BERT language model for text classification.
  • The paper's implementation is questioned, and its deceptive approach is defended.
  • The lack of accountability and the pressure to publish in academia are highlighted.
  • Compression algorithms are deemed interesting for text classification but may not be suitable for complex NLP tasks.
  • A conversation thread on an online platform covers a range of language, communication, and machine learning topics.
  • The discussion includes compression in poetry, text-similarity embeddings, data processing speed improvements, research ethical standards, dataset validation, and the role of HuggingFace in dataset reviews.
  • ZSTD is proposed as a superior alternative to GZIP and bzip2 for compression purposes.

US Army Field Manual on Leadership (1990) [pdf]

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Universal and transferable adversarial attacks on aligned language models

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