1. Windows 10 wallpaper was physically built and photographed (2015)
Total comment counts : 62
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the process of creating a cover for a genealogy book. The author wanted a vintage look, so they built a wall with wallpaper and added old photos of their relatives. They initially tried to create the cover digitally, but it didn’t work out, so they decided to physically build the wall. They purchased materials like insulating foam, wallpaper, and paint from Lowe’s. While they made mistakes with the lighting, they were still satisfied with the end result. The article includes a link to an image of the book cover.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s recent interest in photography, specifically with film cameras. They mention that they had not realized that this specific image was a photograph until recently, possibly due to being a long-time Linux user. The author disagrees with the idea that visual effects would have made the image easier to create, as it contains convincing details that would have taken a long time for skilled VFX artists to replicate. They argue that using a camera allows the natural world to do the work for them, and that the studio setup for the project was simple and easy to experiment with. Overall, the author believes that photography was the right tool for this project.
2. Number 16 (spider)
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
Number 16, a trapdoor spider that lived in Australia, died at the age of 43, making her the longest-lived spider on record. The spider was studied by arachnologist Barbara York Main for over four decades. Number 16 spent her entire life in the same burrow, feeding on insects that walked on her silk roof. The spider was eventually killed by a parasitic wasp. The spider’s death received widespread attention when a research article was published in 2018. Barbara York Main, who now has Alzheimer’s disease, still remembers Number 16 but forgets that she has died.
Top 1 Comment Summary
Spiders exhibit complex behaviors without learning, as their trap and web building abilities are genetically programmed. This challenges the Tabula Rasa theory and suggests that humans also possess innate behaviors, such as language acquisition and emotional understanding. Determining intelligence requires choosing what to measure, but this measurement is subjective and based on human cognitive abilities rather than an objective universal standard.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is about a research assistant named Leanda Mason who wanted to give a mealworm to a spider on its 40th birthday as a special treat. However, her request was denied by someone named Main because it would interfere with the study. The author admires the professionalism it takes to refrain from giving the spider a mealworm after observing it for such a long time.
3. OpenAI didn’t copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT, records show
Total comment counts : 131
Summary
OpenAI hired a different actress to voice their artificial intelligence system, ChatGPT’s “Sky,” rather than using a clone of actress Scarlett Johansson, as was rumored. OpenAI had issued a casting call for the project, specifying that actors should be nonunion and possess warm, engaging, and charismatic voices.
Top 1 Comment Summary
I apologize, but I am unable to access or summarize articles from the internet. If you provide me with the text of the article, I would be happy to help summarize it for you.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a situation involving OpenAI, an organization that wanted an artificial intelligence (AI) voice that sounds like SJ, likely referring to a high-profile actress. However, SJ declined to provide her voice. Despite this, OpenAI still ended up with an AI voice that sounds similar to SJ. The article questions whether this outcome happened without any suspicious actions or hidden agendas. It suggests that although records might not explicitly show OpenAI’s intention to find an SJ sound-alike, it is possible that the decision-makers purposely kept this information confidential due to legal concerns. The article also assumes that OpenAI was aware of the potential voices that resembled SJ, considering they were pursuing her and likely had a good understanding of their desired outcome. Ultimately, OpenAI chose a voice that closely resembled SJ for release.
4. WinDirStat – Windows Directory Statistics
Total comment counts : 39
Summary
WinDirStat is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows. It reads the entire directory tree and presents it in three views: treemap, extension list, and directory structure. The program is open-source and can be redistributed or modified under the GNU Public License, version 2. For Linux alternatives, users can try KDirStat or QDirStat, while for MacOS X, Disk Inventory X or GrandPerspective are available.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article discusses a software called WizTree that is significantly faster than WinDirStat in measuring the files on Windows NTFS drives. WizTree achieves this speed by reading the Master File Table (MFT) instead of traversing the entire file tree. Although not open-source, WizTree is free to use, and there is an alternative version of WinDirStat available that is patched to read the MFT. However, it is unclear how widely this alternative version is used.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the upcoming release of “WinDirStat-next,” a revised version of WinDirStat, which is a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows. The new version promises improved performance, reduced memory usage, faster scanning of network paths, and a less pushy approach towards donations. The article also mentions that Oliver Schneider, the current maintainer of WinDirStat, is collaborating with the author of the revisions to eventually release the new version. The author encourages users to provide suggestions and report bugs through the GitHub Issues tracker. Interested individuals can find more information about the changes in the queued up version on the GitHub page and in the subreddit for WinDirStat.
5. Disappointment
Total comment counts : 10
Summary
The article is about a personal experience of the author’s disappointment in failing to make the Australian team for an international math competition. The author reflects on the nature of disappointment and how it can lead to a transformation of one’s worldview and self-image. The article explores various ways people deal with disappointment, and suggests that disappointment is important because it reveals the gap between reality and our desires. The author also discusses the role of perception and the benefits of experiencing grief.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses how failure has made mathematics stronger and provides a link to the original article.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author reflects on their experience with mathematics as a hobby and the opportunity cost it had in terms of not learning more useful things. They no longer consider math as a hobby and focus on more practical knowledge. They still teach math to their children when necessary but do not engage in math for its own sake. They also mention commenting less on public forums, which they view as another non-useful activity.
6. Drone Flying 101 – An interactive tutorial for beginners
Total comment counts : 10
Summary
This article is a tutorial for beginners on how to fly a drone. It explains the main differences between flying a drone and driving a car, such as the 3D movement of a drone compared to the 2D movement of a car. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to control the drone using the joysticks, including throttle, yaw, roll, and pitch. It also mentions the need for calibration and practice to improve flying skills. The article promotes FPVSIM, a professional FPV simulator, as a tool to enhance the drone flying experience.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article discusses the two main families of drones, which are FPV (First Person View) and non-FPV (sometimes called cinematic). Non-FPV drones, such as the DJI Mavic family, are easy to fly as they are GPS stabilized and require little training. On the other hand, flying FPV drones in acro mode is more challenging but considered more enjoyable. To learn FPV flying, it is recommended to use a simulator like Liftoff, which costs around $20. It is also advised to buy a dedicated drone controller, as normal game controllers are not as suitable. The author suggests spending at least 20 hours on the simulator before flying in real life, and it typically took them around 100 hours to feel comfortable. The skills learned in the simulator tend to transfer well to real-life drone flying.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the increasing use of FPV drones in the Ukraine war. Initially used against tanks and groups of soldiers, the drones have now become cost-effective enough to be deployed against individual soldiers. These drone soldiers operate in small teams from underground bunkers near the frontlines. Ukraine plans to build one million drones domestically this year. The only effective defense against drones is to stay underground or move fast enough to evade detection. Drones have the capability to spot and track targets from kilometers away, move at high speeds, and even pursue individuals inside buildings and at night using infrared vision. The article highlights an interview with a skilled drone operator who couldn’t recall how many enemies he had killed, drawing a comparison to remembering the number of cups of coffee consumed. The article concludes by acknowledging the intriguing nature of these developments.
7. Why Are Sloths So Slow?
Total comment counts : 24
Summary
This article discusses the misconceptions about sloths being lazy and slow-moving creatures. It explains that being slow is actually a successful survival strategy for sloths. The article explores two factors that contribute to their slowness. Firstly, sloths have a genetic condition called “rod monochromacy” that makes them colorblind and have poor eyesight. This adaptation developed when they transitioned from being ground-dwellers to tree-dwellers. The second factor is their low-energy diet consisting mostly of leaves. Sloths have a four-chambered stomach and an extremely slow rate of digestion, taking anywhere from 157 hours to 50 days for food to be excreted. This slow digestion rate limits their ability to eat more leaves, resulting in minimal energy availability. Overall, sloths have one of the lowest metabolic rates amongst mammals, surviving on the edge of their energy budget and constantly conserving energy.
Top 1 Comment Summary
Last year, the author’s tree fell down during a rainstorm, and they were helping to cut it up. While working, a gardener called the author over and showed them a sloth that was holding onto a branch of the fallen tree. They cut the branch and carried it, along with the sloth, to a nearby large tree. The sloth quickly moved onto the trunk of the tree and then climbed up into the canopy, disappearing from sight.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article suggests that the word “sloth” is to “slow” what “warmth” is to “warm”.
8. Emacs Easydraw – drawing tool inside Emacs
Total comment counts : 8
Summary
The article is about Emacs Easy Draw, a drawing tool that can be used within Emacs. The tool allows users to create drawings and save the data in the buffer. It provides various features such as inline display mode, editing image links, and exporting in different formats. The format used by Emacs Easy Draw is a subset of the SVG specification, and the recommended file extension is .edraw.svg. The article also mentions customization options and provides code examples. The software is licensed under GPLv3, and the author encourages users to make modifications and publish improved versions.
Top 1 Comment Summary
I’m sorry, but you haven’t provided any article for me to summarize. Could you please provide the article you would like me to summarize?
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article has developed something impressive on Windows, which is not related to Linux utilities.
9. S3 is showing its age
Total comment counts : 27
Summary
The article discusses the limitations and feature gaps of Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), comparing it to its competitors. It highlights that S3 lacks a compare-and-swap operation and other features like multi-region buckets and object appends. These missing features are becoming more problematic as object storage is increasingly being used as the primary persistence layer for new infrastructure. The article suggests that developers are forced to use separate transactional stores like DynamoDB to compensate for S3’s shortcomings. It also discusses the limitations of S3 Express One Zone (S3E1Z) and the challenges it presents for developers. The article concludes by stating that engineers face a choice between abandoning S3 or designing workarounds to overcome its gaps. It mentions a company called Turbopuffer that has abandoned S3 and highlights the potential benefits of using DynamoDB as a metadata layer. Ultimately, the decision to abandon S3 or work with its limitations depends on the specific system’s use cases and design goals.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article highlights the importance of simplicity in software development, using the example of Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3). It argues that adding too many features and complicating the technology can negatively impact documentation, learnability, performance, and introduce more bugs. The article suggests that a simpler abstraction layer is often created to address these issues, but warns against accumulating unnecessary complexity. It concludes by praising S3’s simplicity.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses how Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) was optimized for specific use cases due to limitations in Amazon EC2’s hypervisor. S3 had to fulfill storage needs that should have been met by proper block or file storage due to EC2’s lack of features. S3 became popular because it was the only practical object store available. However, the article points out that S3 has a significant drawback - it does not allow writing parts to a file, only replacing the entire file. The article suggests that this limitation is intentional and will likely remain in place.
10. Faking William Morris, Generative Forgery, and the Erosion of Art History
Total comment counts : 18
Summary
The article discusses the issue of fake art prints being sold on Etsy, specifically focusing on prints attributed to artists like William Morris, Monet, Van Gogh, Klimt, and Matisse. The author describes the appeal of these prints, which appear to be more vibrant and detailed than the original artworks. However, they eventually realize that these prints are likely generated using neural networks and are not authentic. The author highlights the intentional deception by the sellers, who label these prints with the artists’ names and include details that make them appear legitimate. The article raises questions about the authenticity of art and the blurring lines between genuine and fake creations in the digital age.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article suggests that in the future, physical buildings may be necessary for people to verify the authenticity of objects. These buildings would display a curated collection of objects gathered from around the world by knowledgeable connoisseurs. However, even these experts may be fooled by well-executed forgeries. The proposed concept is likened to browsing through a website’s image library, but in a physical space called a “gallery.”
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article suggests that the author’s art has become brighter, more colorful, more dramatic, and aesthetically pleasing over time. However, the reader points out that European art from the past 500 years has already showcased these elements to varying degrees. The article also mentions William Morris’ art and design philosophy, which contradicts the notion that muted colors were used due to a lack of access to bright materials. Additionally, the reader argues that the recreations of the Impressionists’ art misrepresent their intention, as the lack of detail was deliberate in order to evoke certain impressions.