Hacker News Reader

cjaon We must pace the frontier

It might help if we stopped talking about AI as if it is itself responsible for its actions and excusing the humans who create and operate it. People should be held accountable for the behaviour of their software.

Why am I reading fantastic stories about swarms of agents struggling with moral dilemmas instead of reports on the lawsuits and criminal investigations that would surely ensue were the software involved not called AI?

cjaon We must pace the frontier

Can the frontier be paced partly by holding humans responsible for the actions of their software?

My impression is that AI hacking is being treated as a special case where the AI itself is imagined to be responsible and the humans who created it, set it up and then ran it are somehow excused.

I'm not a lawyer but surely the bad actions of AI are covered by existing law.

I suspect that the development of AI would decelerate if those creating and operating it knew they would face appropriate consequences (e.g. prosecution and/or lawsuits) when it misbehaves.

P.S. Strictly, development wouldn't decelerate, but be focused more on safety.

P.P.S. I know that legal action against, e.g., North Koreans using AI would be pointless but/and there must/will surely be a huge demand for security software for protection against the coming storm of AI hacking (deliberate and accidental) which friendly AI companies will presumably work to satisfy, perhaps making the frontier safer.

P.P.P.S. Governments could help by trying to prosecute every crime committed "by" AI, regardless of whether the victim reported it to law enforcement. Did OpenAI break the law via the actions of their model training software? If so, will the people responsible be prosecuted? If not, why not?

cjaon Bob and Van

Thought this would be a cool story about Dylan and Morrison :(

cjaon Europe's last regular standard-gauge steam passenger service

Does the line still pass the giraffe enclosure? It's been a few years since I was on it. Around 12 years ago it was the elephants.

cjaon The unbearable joy of sitting alone in a café

Which is a bit tragic for someone like me who lives in a place where I hardly know anyone and is desperate to talk to the other people sitting alone in the cafe

cjaon I built physical album cards with NFC tags to teach my son music discovery

You can also add stream URLs to a card. Thus we have a "radio" card which lets my son play radio stations from all over the world.

cjaon As a developer, my most important tools are a pen and a notebook

Hammock-driven Development https://github.com/matthiasn/talk-transcripts/blob/master/Hi...

Default mode network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network

cjaon Some people with ADHD thrive in periods of stress, new study shows

I have to believe the deadlines are serious. It helps too if the task is interesting

cjaon Some people with ADHD thrive in periods of stress, new study shows

Yes, but it's not an invitation :)

cjaon Some people with ADHD thrive in periods of stress, new study shows

This is obvious - stress is motivating.

Give me a deadline in six months and I'll procrastinate for at least five of them, feeling terrible about it throughout. Give me an impossible deadline tomorrow and I become a productivity machine, with no time for anxious overthinking.

cjaon Bitwarden SDK relicensed from proprietary to GPLv3

How to use Syncthing on Android now that the app has gone?

cjaon Syncthing Android App Discontinued

Likewise

cjaon Meta Movie Gen

That's like how LLMs help me with software development. I don't work less, instead I produce more and what I produce is of greater benefit to my clients.

cjaon Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated

It's the national religion.

cjaon Learning to Reason with LLMs

Recently I was starting to think I imagined that. Back then they gave me the impression it would be released within week or so of the announcement. Have they explained the delay?

cjaon Thoughts on the Durov Arrest

They aren't secret. France and its allies having access to Telegram data/systems doesn't affect Ukraine's ability to use it for that purpose.

cjaon Thoughts on the Durov Arrest

It's not used by the Ukrainian military. It is used extensively by Russian military and intelligence

cjaon Thoughts on the Durov Arrest

Imagine that Ukraine used a US messaging system for military comms. The head of that company visits Serbia (a country friendly to Russia) and is arrested on some charges that you don't agree with. Will you debate the charges or the consequences for Ukraine?

Maybe it's because I live very close to Russia and most of the people here probably don't think about the war every day, but the strategic reality of this situation makes all these privacy arguments so trivial.

I need to see this happen to someone other than Durov to consider that it's not about the war. While it's only Durov then I really don't think he's discussing privacy issues with the French - they are discussing his access to Telegram's systems and his ability and willingness to give that to the allies of Ukraine. Likewise in Russia they are not discussing the privacy issues, they are trying to lock Durov out Telegram's systems and the military and intelligence services are working on alternative ways to communicate, and meanwhile the effectiveness on the battlefield of the Russian army is compromised.

cjaon Thoughts on the Durov Arrest

Your second sentence contradicts your first

cjaon Thoughts on the Durov Arrest

Why are so many people taking this at face value? There's a war going on and the man in charge of the communications system for one side flew to try to meet his leader and then flew to an enemy country where there was a warrant for his arrest.

I'm not saying the French aren't serious about the charges they've published but they're hardly the main point.

There's plenty in the media about the use of Telegram by the the Russian military and intelligence services, as well as politicians. For example: https://www.politico.eu/article/telegram-ceo-arrest-pavel-du...

cjaon Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app?

https://www.politico.eu/article/telegram-ceo-arrest-pavel-du...

“They practically detained the head of communication of the Russian army,”

cjaon Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app?

BBC review of reaction of Russian newspapers https://x.com/BBCSteveR/status/1827956452373438648

cjaon Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app?

Please could whoever downvoted this explain why? There's plenty of evidence of this. Access to Telegram would be like cracking Enigma

cjaon Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app?

Telegram is the comms system for the Russian military.

cjaon CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops

Sorry to be dense, but what is CrowdStrike and do I have it on my computer?

cjaon Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

Professional assessors should know much more about the condition for which they are assessing and its signs than any one person who may or may not have the condition. A professional should also know the other conditions with similar symptoms.

I learned about ADHD for six months until I first consulted an expert about the possibility of my having it. He was able to recognise symptoms in me that I hadn't noticed.

cjaon Metabolism of autism reveals developmental origins

"ADHD probably isn't a disorder if you live a very simple life and do manual labor all day"

Why?

cjaon TfL's simple pop-up message led to a significant drop in paper ticket sales

What does the message mean by "contactless card"? Oyster or payment (e.g. credit) card?

cjaon Roll-Invert-Unroll: An easier way to replace a duvet cover

I just put the duvet into the cover, making sure two corners of the duvet go to the deepest corners of the cover, then stand on bed, hold those two corners and shake for a few seconds, then lay it flat on the bed and adjust as required. Takes 30 seconds, plus time for closing the fasteners.

My wife introduced me to an interesting and possibly KKK-inspired method where she would wear the duvet cover inside out, totally covering herself, and then pick up two corners of the duvet with her hands inside two corners of the cover. Then she'd reverse the cover off herself onto the duvet, from which point her method was the same as mine. I found it hilarious.

Everybody's different...

cjaon Keep your phone number private with Signal usernames

1. Facebook owns WhatsApp and uses it to collect data about people, such as who they communicate with, how and when. They also know about many of the websites you visit and what you do there. They know everything you do on Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Instagram. They buy mountains of data about us from other sources. By analysing all of that data they can probably do a reasonable job at guessing the content of your WhatsApp messages.

2. WhatsApp tries to get every user to accept the option to backup messages and photos to Google Drive, where they sit unencrypted and accessible by Google. Even if you reject that option yourself, your correspondents are likely to have enabled it (if only just to stop WhatsApp from nagging about it) and so your messages are available for Google to read. Example of why this can be bad: https://www.vice.com/en/article/zm8q43/paul-manafort-icloud-...

3. Google Photos asks WhatsApp users if they'd like it to back up their WhatsApp photos. Even if you reject that option, your correspondents may have enabled it and so your photos are stored online unencrypted and accessible by Google.

4. Why should we limit what Google and Facebook know about us? Google and Facebook influence our behaviour for the benefit of their paying customers. Their computer systems are too powerful for our minds. They work against us, not for us. Companies like Facebook will come to be seen like tobacco companies, except that the harm is as from mind altering drugs. There is a documentary on Netflix called The Social Dilemma which explains this well. The polarisation of societies and the spread of conspiracy theories are some of the effects. The only defence is to disengage.

5. Read about Chinese-style social credit to understand why you want companies like Facebook and Google to know as little about you as possible. This is a good overview: https://nhglobalpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/chin...