hackernews

1. Monodraw Total comment counts : 43 Summary Monodraw is a text-based art creation tool that allows users to create diagrams, flow charts, and other visual representations using plain text. It supports exporting as images and offers features like entity-relationship diagrams, text banners, custom fonts, line tools, shapes, and alignment guides. Monodraw also includes a command-line interface and is designed specifically for macOS. Users can provide feedback via email or Twitter....

1. Fine tune a 70B language model at home Total comment counts : 42 Summary Answer.AI has released a fully open-source system that allows the efficient training of a 70 billion parameter language model on a regular desktop computer with gaming GPUs. This collaboration between Answer.AI, Tim Dettmers, and Hugging Face’s Titus von Koeller and Sourab Mangrulkar aims to make better models accessible to the open-source community. The system enables small labs to access large models and brings high-performance gaming GPUs, which are much cheaper than data center GPUs, into the training process....

1. Nikon to acquire RED Total comment counts : 26 Summary Nikon Corporation has announced that it will acquire RED.com, a company known for its digital cinema cameras, and make it a wholly-owned subsidiary. RED has been a pioneer in the industry and has earned accolades for its innovative products. The acquisition aims to combine Nikon’s expertise in product development and image processing with RED’s knowledge in cinema cameras, resulting in distinctive products for the professional digital cinema camera market....

1. Leaving LinkedIn Total comment counts : 37 Summary The article discusses the story of Chris Krycho, a senior staff engineer at LinkedIn who faced a dilemma due to a clash between his dedication to doing things right and the company’s fast-paced environment. His journey highlights the challenges of remote work, influencing company culture, and maintaining project health while prioritizing innovation. Chris ultimately chose to leave LinkedIn in pursuit of work that aligned with his principles....

1. Radicle: Open-Source, Peer-to-Peer, GitHub Alternative Total comment counts : 41 Summary error Top 1 Comment Summary The co-founder of a project called Radicle shares a link to a document explaining how the protocol works, but notes that it is still a work in progress. Top 2 Comment Summary The article discusses the idea of embedding project metadata into Git itself to address certain functionalities that are currently missing in Git....

1. French court issues damages award for violation of GPL Total comment counts : 23 Summary A French court has ordered Orange, a major telecom provider, to pay €500,000 in compensatory damages and €150,000 for moral damages for infringing the copyright of Entr’Ouvert’s Lasso software and violating the GPL. This case, which began in 2010, involved Orange using the Lasso software in a government portal without passing on the rights to its modifications or making the source code available....

1. ShotSpotter: listening in on the neighborhood Total comment counts : 44 Summary The article discusses the company formerly known as ShotSpotter, now called SoundThinking, and their outdoor acoustic gunfire detection system. The system involves installing acoustic sensors throughout a city to detect gunfire and determine its source. The company has been criticized for its secrecy in not disclosing the locations of its sensors and for attempting to suppress research into the civil rights impacts of its product....

1. Ente: Open-Source, E2E Encrypted, Google Photos Alternative Total comment counts : 45 Summary Ente is a platform that allows users to store, share, and rediscover their memories with absolute privacy. They are end-to-end encrypted, meaning they have no access to user data and only the user can see their photos. The company’s open source code has been audited by reputable cryptographers. They store three copies of user data in three different locations, including an underground fallout shelter....

1. Elon Musk sues Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI [pdf] Total comment counts : 121 Summary error Top 1 Comment Summary The article discusses the possibility of OpenAI, a company focused on artificial intelligence research, becoming a non-profit organization. The author expresses doubt about the company’s ability to align its actions with its stated objective of benefiting the public and making technology open-source. The author implies that OpenAI may not fulfill its commitments as a non-profit entity....

1. How video games use lookup tables Total comment counts : 20 Summary This article discusses the use of look-up-tables (LUTs) in graphics programming, using WebGL as an example. LUTs allow for creative techniques in manipulating video footage, such as turning grayscale footage into color or creating variations of images. The article explains the use of LUTs in the fragment shader, where each pixel’s final color is determined. The article also mentions the performance implications of using LUTs and provides examples of how they have been used in games like Left 4 Dead....