1. Thanks FedEx, this is why we keep getting phished

Total comment counts : 75

Summary

The author of the article discusses their experiences with phishing attacks disguised as parcel delivery messages. They mention receiving a suspicious SMS and sought the opinion of others on its legitimacy. The majority considered the message to be “dodgy AF” based on various signs. Despite their skepticism, the author was actually expecting a package from FedEx and wanted to verify the message. They found that the link in the SMS allowed users to manipulate the tracking number and other details. The author also noticed inconsistencies in the link and questioned its authenticity. They decided to call FedEx directly to confirm, but the response they received was not helpful. The article highlights the confusion and concern surrounding these messages and encourages caution when encountering similar situations.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article discusses issues with FedEx’s digital platform, suggesting that it may be the worst and least secure among major companies. The author shares two examples of problems they encountered. Firstly, they were able to access the previous tenant’s delivery instructions and the building’s private garage code without any verification when setting up FedEx Delivery Manager. This lack of security could easily be exploited by thieves. Secondly, when the author tried to add their new address to the delivery manager after moving out, the site consistently errored. It was discovered that special characters in the password caused parts of the site, including the change password flow, to be permanently broken. Consequently, the author had to create a new account with a weaker password. These instances highlight significant vulnerabilities in FedEx’s digital platform, which appear to be unprofessional for such a reputable company.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The author’s wife applied for a home equity loan and the author received a call from someone claiming to be from the bank, asking for approval for the loan. The caller requested personal information, including the author’s social security number. The author became suspicious and refused to provide the full social security number, asking for official contact information. The caller became annoyed and threatened to reject the loan application. The call ended abruptly and it was later discovered that the caller was indeed from the bank and canceled the loan application.

2. Vice website is shutting down

Total comment counts : 72

Summary

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Top 1 Comment Summary

The author argues that it is important to let websites remain available in an archived form for future generations. They suggest that the cost of maintaining these archives could be easily covered by advertising. The author also proposes a way to donate websites to the Internet Archive, allowing them to run an online archive and keep the sites preserved indefinitely. They argue that this would be a better alternative to relying solely on the Wayback Machine, which they believe has a less user-friendly interface.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article expresses sadness over Vice relying on social media and YouTube for value. It highlights a perceived decline in the quality of online content, with written detailed content being seen as valuable while short-lived, low-quality, clickbaity content on social media is seen as thriving.

3. Show HN: Real-time image generation with SDXL Lightning

Total comment counts : 40

Summary

The article states that the playground hosted on fal.ai is only for demonstration purposes.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The author used a combination of Groq and a Chrome extension called + Groq to enhance a game by generating actual images instead of emojis. They believe this technology represents the future of near real-time image and LLM generation, using Mixtral from Groq as a prompt writer and Fal API for real-time generation. The full article can be found at the provided link: https://x.com/altryne/status/1760561501096575401?s=20

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article explains that SDXL Lightning, a tool developed by ByteDance, has been made open source and is available on Hugging Face. The tool is licensed under a relatively-permissive license. The article also mentions that there are other user interfaces (UIs) available for SDXL Lightning, including one on replicate.com.

4. Intel Processor Instability Causing Oodle Decompression Failures

Total comment counts : 31

Summary

The article discusses a problem with Oodle Data decompression failures and crashes in games built with Unreal. The issue primarily affects Intel 13900K and 14900K processors, with a small percentage of these processors experiencing instability and unpredictable behavior under heavy load. This problem is believed to be caused by a combination of BIOS settings, high clock rates, and power usage. The article suggests that the problem is not due to software bugs in Oodle or Unreal. Machines experiencing this instability may also exhibit failures in benchmark and stress test programs. The article provides some workarounds, including returning the processor to the manufacturer for a replacement or using tuning utilities to modify BIOS settings. It is important to note that incorrectly changing these settings can cause damage to the system. One suggested workaround is to use Intel XTU and lower the Performance Core multiplier. The article also advises disabling any overclocking and XMP settings in the BIOS. Additional troubleshooting steps are provided for specific motherboard manufacturers.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article discusses a personal experience with the AMD Threadripper 3970X processor. The author encountered a problem with the processor under heavy AVX2 load and went through several months of investigation with AMD. They were eventually compensated for the troubles and have been running with a custom BIOS image provided by AMD. The author believes the issue was caused by a fault on Gigabyte’s side.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The author suggests disabling several features like hyper-threading, turbo mode, C states, and efficiency cores to address security and memory corruption issues. They humorously state that by doing so, we would go back to using a feature set from over 20 years ago.

5. Intuitive Machines successfully lands on the Moon

Total comment counts : 15

Summary

This article discusses the successful landing of the privately-built spacecraft called Odysseus on the moon, marking the first time in over 50 years that the US has returned to the moon. The lander, operated by Intuitive Machines, carried six NASA science instruments and technology demonstrations. The landing was delayed due to unexpected glitches, but communication was eventually established. Flight controllers are still analyzing data to determine the circumstances and status of the landing. This achievement highlights the power and promise of NASA’s commercial partnerships.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article states that after fixing communication issues, flight controllers have confirmed that the lunar lander Odysseus is upright and beginning to transmit data. The focus is currently on downloading the first images from the lunar surface.

Top 2 Comment Summary

This article discusses a remarkable achievement made by a team who were initially worried when they couldn’t establish contact with a device. However, it was eventually revealed that they had indeed made history. The article also mentions that the project may have been funded by NASA with $118 million, while India’s similar mission cost around $74 million.

6. Form to DB

Total comment counts : 20

Summary

The article discusses a tool called Retool that allows users to build customizable forms on top of their SQL databases, such as Postgres, MySQL, or MSSQL. Users can customize the forms through a component library, styling, and validation logic. The tool offers over 100 pre-built components and the ability to customize the styling to match branding. Users can also use built-in validation rules or write their own logic with JavaScript. Additionally, Retool allows users to create CRUD apps and BI dashboards to view, filter, edit, and visualize responses. Users can also connect their responses with other data sources using SQL or API integrations.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The engineer behind Retool Forms is seeking feedback on their new product. They recognized the need for a form builder that allows developers to have their data in their own database, rather than in another SaaS app with a limited API. With this form builder, users can send data directly to their chosen database, write custom JavaScript for validations and conditional logic, run arbitrary code for form submission or validation, store data in their own database, and self-host it in their VPC. The product is currently free and the engineer plans to add more features such as integration with REST APIs and additional styling options. Feedback is welcomed.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article mentions that certain projects, such as the one described, remind the author of Microsoft Access. Access is a user-friendly database software that the author finds easy to use. The author believes that although Access has its limitations, no other software has come close to it. The author also expresses confusion as to why Microsoft didn’t capitalize on Access by expanding and enhancing its capabilities.

7. A Distributed File System in Go Cut Average Metadata Memory Usage to 100 Bytes

Total comment counts : 11

Summary

JuiceFS is a cloud-native distributed file system written in Go that can manage tens of billions of files in a single namespace. It achieves remarkable memory optimization by using an all-in-memory approach for its metadata engine, reducing memory usage by 90%. The metadata engine is designed for ultimate performance, using real-time transaction logs and the Raft consensus algorithm for replication and failover. To improve efficiency, JuiceFS uses a lock-free mode similar to Redis, where core data structure operations are executed in a single thread. It achieves horizontal scaling by distributing metadata across multiple nodes in virtual partitions, allowing for larger data scales and higher performance. JuiceFS also implements a dynamic subtree splitting mechanism to minimize metadata operations within a single partition, reducing the need for distributed transactions. Reducing metadata memory usage is crucial for system stability and cost control.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article discusses the importance of integrity in managing a large number of files using JuiceFS, a file system written in Go. The author emphasizes the need for a robust integrity feature, such as having a cryptographic hash of the contents of each file. They suggest making this hash part of the inventory and allowing the entire file system to opt in to mandatory hashing. The article notes that even popular systems like S3 have limited support for this feature, while some competitors have no support at all.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article discusses the implementation of a Slab allocator and suggests additional ways to improve performance on modern machines. Some of the suggested improvements include reducing TLB stalls with hugepage awareness and reducing cache sharing on SMPs. The article also mentions the possibility of using OS-managed memory compression for the compression part. It provides references to further reading on these topics.

8. Data will not tell you what to do

Total comment counts : 25

Summary

The article discusses the limitations of relying solely on data for generating ideas and problem-solving. It emphasizes the importance of intuition, exploration, and taking small steps to discover new insights. The article provides examples of situations where the combination of intuition, experimentation, and data analysis led to successful outcomes. It also suggests focusing on solving bigger problems and thinking in small bets to make progress in the right direction. The article concludes by highlighting the value of thinking in terms of one-way and two-way door decisions and the need to rely less on data when it slows down the decision-making process.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The author states that they have never worked at a company that conducted A/B testing on customers. They believe that relying solely on intuition may indicate a lack of helpful ideas. They emphasize that talking to real customers and helping them solve their problems can be more powerful than just testing the color of a button. The author suggests that one reason for the lack of testing is the perception that it takes too long and the importance of quickly responding to various challenges. While data collection is not inherently bad, the author suggests questioning whether the right problems are being solved before investing time in it.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The author admits to wasting time and effort but has come to the same conclusion as Warren Buffett. They argue that it is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong, and believe this should be a mantra for all companies working with data.

9. Beyond A*: Better Planning with Transformers

Total comment counts : 23

Summary

The article discusses arXivLabs, a framework that enables collaborators to develop and share new features on the arXiv website. It emphasizes the values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy that both individuals and organizations working with arXivLabs embrace. It also states that arXiv is committed to these values and collaborates only with partners who share them. The article also mentions that interested individuals can learn more about arXivLabs if they have project ideas that can benefit the arXiv community. Finally, it highlights the availability of status notifications via email or Slack for arXiv’s operational status.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article discusses the use of transformers for robot motion planning. Traditional planning methods for getting a robot arm from one point to another are computationally intensive and not very effective. This new approach using transformers, however, shows promise in providing near-optimal paths faster, making robot motion more natural and improving robot performance.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article suggests using the modified J* algorithm for games graph/path-finding as a possible alternative to the current research route. The algorithm is discussed in Game AI Pro 2, and the link provided directs readers to where they can find more information about it.

10. FOSDEM 2024: PineTime Talk

Total comment counts : 4

Summary

The author shares their experience at the FOSDEM conference in Brussels, where they attended talks, gave a presentation on the PineTime smartwatch, and showcased their projects, NemoMobile and AsteroidOS. They discuss their discussions with other attendees and exciting developments on the horizon. The article also mentions their sightseeing experiences in Brussels and concludes with a thank you to the conference organizers.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article discusses a potentially impressive project based on the slides provided. However, the author expresses the belief that very low-cost full-blown Linux devices may soon be available. They provide an example of a low-cost board that supports multiple features. The author questions the need for developing for restricted devices like the one mentioned in the article if more capable devices are on the horizon.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The author of the article describes their experience with the PineTime smartwatch. They initially had trouble getting it to boot up properly and update the firmware, but eventually discovered that they needed to shake it in a specific way to get it to start. Even after a firmware update, the issue persisted and they had to continue shaking it to get it to boot. The author also mentions their previous experience with another Pine product, the PinePhone Pro, which had activation and audio problems. Despite wanting to support the company, they express frustration with the lack of functionality and suggest that building their own device would be a better option.