1. Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma leading to SSH server compromise
Total comment counts : 94
Summary
The article discusses the Open Source Software Security Wiki and provides information on mailing lists and their use. It recommends reading about mailing lists on Wikipedia and following guidelines for proper formatting of messages.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The apparent author of a backdoor was in communication with the person writing the article, trying to get xz 5.6.x added to Fedora 40 & 41. They claimed it had great new features and even helped fix a valgrind issue, which was later discovered to be caused by the backdoor they had added. The author suspects that even older versions of xz should be viewed with suspicion until proven otherwise, given the level of sophistication displayed.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses an incident where one of the authors of a backdoor disabled a feature that the exploit relied on in order to prevent accidental discovery. The author found a security issue while benchmarking changes to postgres.
2. The race to replace Redis
Total comment counts : 45
Summary
Redis Ltd. has announced that the Redis “in-memory data store” project will now be released under non-free, source-available licenses starting with Redis 7.4. This move has led to the emergence of several Redis alternatives, including KeyDB and the Linux Foundation’s Valkey project. Redis has a complex history, starting as a project by Salvatore Sanfilippo to create a different kind of database. It gained popularity as part of the NoSQL movement and was used by high-profile companies like Twitter and Pinterest. Redis Labs, previously known as Garantia Data, started offering Redis services and adopted a new license for its add-on modules in 2018. The company settled on a dual-license scheme of Server Side Public License (SSPL) and Redis Source Available License (RSAL) and dropped “Labs” from its name in mid-2021. Now, all future versions of Redis will be released under source-available licenses.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article explains that Redis will continue to provide a free “community edition” of their software that will be supported and improved. This means developers don’t have to worry about replacing Redis in their SAAS apps and web-based software. The article also mentions that the main purpose of this move is to prevent AWS from offering Redis-as-a-service without compensating the Redis developers.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author suggests that license compatibility is often overlooked. If projects currently use the BSD license for Redis, they would be unable to include the SSPL license for Redis without either changing their own license or not including it at all if other components are incompatible with SSPL. However, the author sees this as good news because it ensures that there will likely be a well-maintained open-source alternative to Redis.
3. Simon Riggs has died
Total comment counts : 31
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article is a personal reflection on the author’s memories of a man named Simon, whom they met in Tokyo in 2009. They recently saw Simon in Prague and had a conversation about life. The author expresses sadness at Simon’s sudden passing and sends condolences to his family and friends.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author met Simon at a past conference and received advice on public speaking. Simon reassured the author that it is not necessary to be entertaining, but rather to effectively communicate the key points to the audience. This advice was greatly appreciated by the author.
4. Doom Captcha (2021)
Total comment counts : 30
Summary
The article “Your Email Unsubscribe Restart” discusses strategies to effectively manage email unsubscribes. It emphasizes the importance of respecting the unsubscribe requests of recipients and outlines steps to restart email communication after someone has unsubscribed.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses how someone recently modified the Mistral-7B LLM to be able to play DOOM.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article explains how the author was surprised that a portable device allowed them to play Doom in a browser, even though they initially attempted to attack a cacodemon with a pistol. The author expected the device to run the game smoothly and complete a simple map.
5. Facebook let Netflix see user DMs, quit streaming to keep Netflix happy
Total comment counts : 23
Summary
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has received criticism for discontinuing its original shows on Facebook Watch. Recently unsealed court documents in an antitrust suit against Meta claim that the decision was made to appease Netflix, one of its biggest ad customers. The lawsuit alleges that Netflix and Facebook had a strong business relationship, with Facebook providing Netflix access to users’ private messages. Meta has not responded to the allegations, but it previously stated that it rolled out end-to-end encryption for personal chats and calls. The case is still ongoing.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article highlights the fact that the context is omitted to make the situation appear worse than it actually is. It clarifies that Facebook did not randomly give Netflix access to people’s messages. Instead, users would have to voluntarily log into the Netflix app with their Facebook account to grant Netflix access to the chat functionality. This was intended to send movie recommendations to their Facebook friends within the Netflix app. The summary emphasizes that the assistant providing the summary works at Facebook but not in the messaging department or anything related to the article.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the contradiction between Facebook’s claim of not using private messages for ad targeting and the report that Facebook allowed Netflix and Spotify to read users’ private messages. Facebook introduced end-to-end encryption for personal chats and calls on Messenger and Facebook. However, it is unclear how Facebook is able to use these messages if they are encrypted and inaccessible. The exact activities Facebook is undertaking with private messages are confidential, and speculations can be made but not verified. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is considered a third party and there seems to be an attempt to redefine terms like “end-to-end” and “third party”.
6. OpenVoice: Versatile instant voice cloning
Total comment counts : 28
Summary
OpenVoice is a versatile instant voice cloning approach that can replicate someone’s voice with just a short audio clip and generate speech in multiple languages. It allows for granular control over voice styles like emotion, accent, rhythm, pauses, and intonation, while also replicating the tone color of the reference speaker. OpenVoice is computationally efficient and achieves zero-shot cross-lingual voice cloning for languages not included in the training set. It costs significantly less than other available APIs with comparable performance. The technical report and source code can be found at the provided links.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article describes the experience of running a Gradio demo locally. The demo appears to be faster than XTTS2 and uses around 1.5GB of VRAM. The Gradio demo is limited to 200 characters but runs at around 8x realtime. The author patched the demo for longer text and found that one minute of speech took about 4 seconds to render. The voice clarity is better than XTTS2, but the speech can sound somewhat robotic compared to it. The cloning consistency of the Gradio demo is better than XTTS2, with fewer pitch shifts or plosives in the speech.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author questions the non-questionable uses of a specific technology, as all the applications they can think of seem problematic, including pornography, identity theft, impersonation, replacing voice actors, stealing their likeness, and using bots for customer support without disclosure. The author mentions the possibility of providing realistic voices for individuals who have lost their own, but doubts this would justify the investment.
7. The rev.ng decompiler goes open source
Total comment counts : 9
Summary
This article provides an update on the rev.ng decompiler and its features. It mentions that the decompiler can be installed easily without requiring root access and demonstrates how to compile and decompile a simple program. It also provides information on the documentation, tutorials, and UI of the decompiler. The article mentions that rev.ng supports multiple ABIs and platforms, with initial testing focused on Linux x86-64 binaries. It highlights the data layout analysis feature of the decompiler, which allows for the recovery of struct layouts interprocedurally. The article also mentions that rev.ng emits syntactically valid C code and can be used in conjunction with VSCode. It notes that the UI is available for participants in the closed beta and that multiple users can work on the same project simultaneously using the rev.ng Hub. The article briefly explains how rev.ng supports multiple architectures using a similar approach to QEMU’s emulation and dynamic binary translation.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The rev.ng framework is an open-source tool for decompiling code, which means it can be used to analyze and understand the structure of software programs. It offers a command-line interface for decompiling, and also has a user interface that can be accessed for free in the cloud for public projects. For private projects, users can subscribe to access the UI in the cloud. Additionally, the framework is available as a standalone, offline application for a cost. In comparison, Hopper, another similar tool, costs $100 with one year of updates. The tools Ghidra and Radare2 are free and open-source, while IDA Pro is expensive.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses an issue with using a tool called “revng” to analyze an ELF file. The user tries to use the tool on a file called “maytag.ko” but encounters an error message indicating that only ELF executables and ELF dynamic libraries are supported. The user then realizes that the issue is likely due to the fact that the file is a kernel module, rather than a simple executable.
8. Math writing is dull when it neglects the human dimension
Total comment counts : 35
Summary
The article discusses the importance of making math writing interesting and engaging for readers. It suggests that math papers can benefit from techniques used in storytelling, such as quickly grabbing the reader’s attention and setting the scene. The article emphasizes the need for clear and enticing introductions, as this is usually the part of the paper that readers are most likely to read. It also suggests simplifying technical terminology to make the paper more accessible.
Top 1 Comment Summary
In this article, the author discusses their thoughts on self-promotion in mathematics. While they believe that excessive hype should not be tolerated, they feel that many mathematicians do not provide enough detail or motivation in their arguments. The author also expresses frustration with mathematical exposition, particularly with the omission of important details and the use of phrases like “obviously” and “it is easy to see.” They argue that these phrases indicate the presence of information that needs to be filled in, causing confusion for readers.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article agrees and feels disappointed when they come across old mathematical papers that are difficult to understand and lack practical applications. They have discussed this issue with other mathematicians who believe that conciseness and elegance are the same thing, and those who are supposed to read these papers don’t need explanations. The author also suspects that some professors may criticize them if they include more explanatory material, but acknowledges that this is an unspoken concern.
9. The Great Migration from MongoDB to PostgreSQL
Total comment counts : 38
Summary
The article discusses how Infisical underwent a database migration from MongoDB to PostgreSQL. The decision to migrate was driven by the need for a more universal database that could cater to the growing demand for self-hosting Infisical. MongoDB was found to have limitations, including lack of support for transactions and issues with schema-less database design. PostgreSQL was chosen as the new database due to its vibrant community, extensive documentation, and availability of managed services from cloud providers. The article also mentions the selection of Knex.js as the query builder for interacting with the PostgreSQL database. The migration process involved rewriting data structures and queries.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author has experience using both Postgres and MongoDB at large scales. They state that they like both databases and believe that, in terms of data modeling, both can build similar applications with the same schema. However, they express frustration with the lack of out-of-the-box support for high availability (HA) and horizontal scaling in Postgres. They argue that Postgres installations often require a combination of extensions, third-party software, and custom scripts to fill this gap, which can be problematic due to the issues with third-party software and the pain of upgrading. The author believes that there is little interest in improving these features in the Postgres core because companies that contribute to Postgres make money selling HA and sharding solutions. They compare Postgres unfavorably to MySQL, which they believe is significantly better in terms of HA and scaling. Despite their frustrations, the author still believes Postgres is suitable for single node setups where HA and scaling are not a concern.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s migration from MongoDB to PostgreSQL and provides more technical details, including examples and graphs. The focus is less on the business aspects of the migration.
10. Arraymancer – Deep learning Nim library
Total comment counts : 6
Summary
This article discusses a fast and ergonomic tensor library in the programming language Nim. The library is designed for deep learning applications and can be used on CPU, GPU, and embedded devices. It supports various backends, including OpenMP, CUDA, and OpenCL. Feedback from users is taken seriously, and the documentation provides information on available qualifiers.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s desire for a non-Python based deep learning framework to gain popularity. They express concern that some frameworks try to do too much, which may result in not doing any of these things well. They contrast this with other frameworks like Jax and TinyGrad, which focus on specific functionalities and reducing complexity. The author also mentions that while PyTorch is popular, its complexity has grown beyond what is necessary, in their opinion.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the usefulness of the Nim programming language for machine learning (ML) on embedded devices. The author believes that Nim provides a practical and effective alternative to compiled languages such as C and C++. They predict that in the future, solid libraries for deep learning will become common in most programming languages, just like JSON parsers and web servers are today.