1. Any sufficiently advanced uninstaller is indistinguishable from malware
Total comment counts : 56
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article is discussing two CodeProject links that provide examples of self-deleting executables. The author questions whether the code in these examples follows the licensing terms, and suggests that one of the examples using a bat file may be a better option. The two links mentioned are https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/17052/Self-Deleting-Executables#Whereartthou,Oh%20greatentrypointoftheremoteprocess2 and https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/4027/Writing-a-self-destructing-exe-file.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author discusses a binary that appears to be malware due to its self-deleting, sleeping, and interaction with an uninstaller component. However, the script proposed by the author, which would also be triggered by the same actions, exhibits similar behavior. The author dismisses the injection aspect as it could occur within legitimate processes. The article questions whether the proposed solution is actually better than the original behavior and suggests that the determination of maliciousness may rely on flawed heuristics. Ultimately, the author concludes that with a more comprehensive rule or heuristic, it would be evident that the binary is non-malicious.
2. Credit card debt collection
Total comment counts : 45
Summary
The article discusses the waste streams of various industries and focuses on the waste stream of the finance industry, specifically charged-off consumer debt. It highlights the debt collection industry as an underbelly of finance and explains how debt collection works. It discusses the process of debt collection, the defaulting of credit card debt, and the sale of debt portfolios. The article also mentions the odious nature of the debt collection industry, the lack of reform despite years of trying, and the violation of debtors’ rights. Additionally, it explains how debt collectors prioritize debts based on credit scores, utilize skip tracing to locate debtors, and engage in extensive calling campaigns.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses a case during the 2008 recession where a man used the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to make a living from the aggressive and dishonest practices of debt collectors. The man would let the collectors lie to him while recording the calls, then file legal claims for compensation and consistently win. For instance, if the collectors implied that he could be jailed for not paying his debt, he would ask them to confirm what they said and use it as evidence of a violation. The man’s reasoning was that during prosperous times, credit companies were eager for him to take on debt, but when he lost his job due to the economic crash, they were not understanding of his circumstances.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a personal experience where the author received a last-minute offer from a credit card company to clear their debt at a discounted rate before passing it on to a collection agency. The author had accumulated a substantial balance and had been struggling to make payments. The offer allowed the author to pay only a portion of the debt and have the rest forgiven if they made four monthly payments on time. The discount was significant, and the author was relieved to have the opportunity to be free of the debt. They successfully made the payments, and the credit card company honored their promise by wiping the entire balance and closing the account. No further communication was received from the credit card company or any collection agencies.
3. Interactive Map of Linux Kernel
Total comment counts : 17
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the idea of incorporating a system map into user space programs and animating it using eBPF or audit logs. The author suggests creating a visualization where different parts of the system respond to changes in load by blinking or changing colors. They also propose making the visualization 3D and using VR goggles to navigate through the running system.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article suggests creating a 3D version of SGI’s fsn file manager for Linux, as it would give users a sense of familiarity and allow them to say, “This is Linux, I know this” to themselves.
4. Stable Audio: Fast Timing-Conditioned Latent Audio Diffusion
Total comment counts : 28
Summary
The article discusses the use of diffusion models for generating audio and the challenges that arise when generating audio of varying lengths. The authors introduce Stable Audio, a latent diffusion model architecture that allows for control over the content and length of the generated audio. The model is conditioned on text metadata, audio file duration, and start time, enabling the generation of audio of specified lengths. The authors use a variational autoencoder (VAE) to compress stereo audio into a noise-resistant latent encoding, which allows for faster generation and training. They also incorporate a text encoder and a U-Net-based conditioned diffusion model. The text encoder is used to provide information about the relationships between words and sounds, while the U-Net is responsible for denoising the input conditioned on text and timing embeddings. The model is trained on a dataset of over 800,000 audio files containing music, sound effects, and single-instrument stems, along with corresponding text metadata. The authors highlight that the Stable Audio model offers fast inference times and high-fidelity outputs. They continue to improve their model architectures, datasets, and training procedures to enhance output quality, controllability, inference speed, and output length. The future releases from their generative audio research lab, Harmonai, will include open-source models and training code for audio generation.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author finds the solo piano interesting because of its clean sound. They believe that it is easy to convert the piano sound into sheet music and that once it’s in a symbolic format, it becomes more flexible and reusable. The author hopes that artificial intelligence in the audio and visual fields will produce more structured and symbolic output. They suggest that models should be trained to generate layers, brush strokes, and tools, rather than full images. The same concept applies to organizations that work with different tracks of music.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article finds the technology discussed interesting, but they were not impressed by the musical pieces generated by it. They believe that the music sounded repetitive and lacked imagination. The author also mentions that this is a common issue with diffusion-based artificial intelligence (AI) in general. They suggest that the AI-generated music could be used as background music in games where quality is not as important. However, they doubt that the AI generator could be run directly inside a game but could be generated as an asset. The author briefly mentions that singing would be an interesting experiment but does not see it explored in the article. They conclude by stating that established composers like Hans Zimmer and Ludwig Göransson have nothing to worry about.
5. LÖVE: a framework to make 2D games in Lua
Total comment counts : 40
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The author of the article expresses their love for using LÖVE + Zerobrane for IDE to develop software that displays graphics on the screen. They appreciate the lightweight nature of both the IDE and the framework, as they can comfortably run on a Raspberry Pi. The author also praises the documentation for being concise, well-made, and full of examples. They highlight the friendly and helpful community on the forum, although it has been overshadowed by the project Discord. Additionally, the author mentions the great ecosystem of available libraries. However, they note a few areas where LÖVE could be improved, such as frequent API changes and potential rendering slowness, especially on Android. The author also mentions a lack of resources for utilizing threading features effectively for better performance. They conclude by stating that LÖVE has spoiled them for other software development tools and compare it to the nostalgia some people have for QuickBASIC and TurboPascal workflows.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article discusses their experience creating a successful game using the LÖVE framework. They enjoyed the flexibility of Lua and the framework itself, which provided core components such as audio, input, physics, and rendering. However, the author acknowledges that the freedom to design and customize came with the drawback of having to spend more time on design and workflow. Despite this, they were able to create a flexible engine that allowed them to shift from a 2D puzzle platformer to the multiplayer game Move or Die.
6. How long it took different companies to find product-market fit
Total comment counts : 23
Summary
This article is part of a series on how to kickstart and scale a B2B business. The author shares insights from over 20 successful B2B founders on how to find product-market fit (PMF). They found that there is no step-by-step guide to finding PMF, but there are ways to increase your odds. The article discusses the time it took for these founders to reach PMF, which varied from 2 years to 4+ years. It also highlights that PMF is not a binary yes-or-no moment, but rather a gradual process of finding fit with larger segments of the market. The article emphasizes the importance of focusing on getting one company to love and use your product, as well as the need to talk to customers more. It concludes by mentioning that PMF is never a finished state, but rather an ongoing journey of continuous improvement.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author warns about the danger of “chasing the whale” in business. This refers to a situation where a company becomes overly focused on serving a large, influential client at the expense of other customers. As a result, the company’s development timeline and features are skewed to only benefit this client. This can lead to the company acting more like a contractor for this client, causing technical debt to accumulate and other customers to leave when they feel ignored. The author emphasizes that they have witnessed this occurrence multiple times.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the concern in Silicon Valley about companies that reach $150-200 million in revenue but struggle to grow further. While it acknowledges the challenges faced by companies that fail to meet investor expectations, the article suggests that people should have a more balanced perspective on the issue.
7. Exllamav2: Inference library for running LLMs locally on consumer-class GPUs
Total comment counts : 22
Summary
The article discusses the release of ExLlamaV2, an inference library for running local LLMs (Large Language Models) on modern consumer GPUs. The library is still in the initial release stage and requires testing and tuning. It includes a console chatbot and supports multiple prompt formats. ExLlamaV2 relies on a Torch C++ extension for its CUDA functions and supports 4-bit GPTQ models as well as a new “EXL2” format that allows for mixing quantization levels. The article also mentions the possibility of a PyPI package in the future and provides instructions for installing and using the library.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article highlights the significance of running the largest Llama model at competitive speed on a consumer GPU or a similar device. It emphasizes that in certain tasks, a fine-tuned Llama model can outperform GPT-3.5-turbo or even GPT-4. However, it points out that a naive approach to serving, such as using HuggingFace + FastAPI, may struggle to beat the cost of GPT-3.5-turbo, even with smaller Llama models, especially if the utilization is low.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article addresses several questions about consumer GPU cards. Firstly, it asks if there are architectural differences between the Nvidia 3090 and 4090, and if there are any feature incompatibilities between the two series. Secondly, it questions the raw speed of the 4090, wondering if it is roughly twice as fast as the 3090, and if there are specific architecture changes that enhance certain operations. Thirdly, it asks whether a 2x 3090 rig is comparable in speed to a single 4090. Lastly, it queries whether a 2x 3090 rig can train larger models that require more VRAM, or if a larger card like the A4000 with 48GB VRAM is necessary.
8. A CD Spectrometer (2006)
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
The article discusses how to build a simple spectrometer using a CD and a box. By cutting a slit in one side of the box and placing the CD at a 60-degree angle on the other side, one can view the spectrum of various light sources. The article provides examples of the spectra of different light sources, such as the sun, incandescent light, fluorescent light, and neon bulbs. It also mentions how the solar spectrum changes with the sun’s altitude and explains the presence of dark lines in the spectra. The article concludes by mentioning other light sources and their corresponding spectra, such as computer displays, LED lights, and candles.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author recently acquired a spectrometer with a fiber input and has been experimenting with it. They used a tiny ruby stone and a tungsten halogen light to observe a dip in the spectrum around 694nm, which is the same wavelength emitted by ruby lasers. The author plans to use the spectrometer to measure the Alcohol by Volume (ABV) of beer and spirits, but has noticed that cuvette holders with fiber inputs are expensive, so they may need to create their own. The author also previously obtained a small spectroscope that they attached to a camera to generate a graph from.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The Public Lab’s Paper Spectrometer was popular in citizen science workshops or forums. It was created by peeling the diffraction grating off a DVD-R disc. It is a fun activity that can be done in an afternoon.
9. Openmoji
Total comment counts : 25
Summary
The article discusses the availability of open-source emojis for designers and developers. It mentions the OpenMoji project, which is a collaboration between the HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd, Benedikt Groß, Daniel Utz, and over 70 students and contributors. The article provides a link to the OpenMoji website and mentions that all source files and exported png/svg files of the project can be found on GitHub. It also discusses attribution and licensing requirements for using the emojis.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the creative use of Zero-width joiner (ZWJ) to create unique characters. It provides examples such as the nail and gear flag, the United Federation of Planets flag from Star Trek, and HAL 9000. It also includes links for reference to each example.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses OpenMoji, an open-source project by HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd, which involves over 70 students and external contributors. The project aims to create new emojis that are currently missing from Unicode. The students are assigned to come up with different emoji ideas, including UI elements, field-specific concepts, regional foods, and animals. The author provides a link to the OpenMoji library, showcasing some of the created emojis.
10. The Pirate Preservationists
Total comment counts : 8
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The author is determined to revive Murfie and establish a system where physical media ownership guarantees legal digital access that cannot be revoked by copyright holders. Despite the challenges and unexpected delays, the author remains committed to this solution.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article discusses the author’s memories of bootleg albums, specifically the Dylan/Cash bootlegs. They recall receiving one of the original “white cover” bootlegs in Scotland during the 70s, noting that if the album was covered in mud, it meant it was one of the first shipments. The author remembers two specific bootleg albums titled “40 red white and blue shoe strings” and “Motorpsycho nightmare.” They also mention a double album featuring Dylan on piano performing “I’ll keep it with mine.” The article also highlights the Nashville recording of Cash singing lead on some songs from Dylan’s album “Nashville Skyline.” The author concludes by noting that Grateful Dead recording owners are even more obsessive than Dylan bootleg owners.