thisislife2

I completely share your sentiment about feeling irked about open source code being used to train commercial AI models. However, I think the battle is already lost - the nature of copyright and open source code philosophy (currently) means that there isn't any real way of preventing your code being used to train AI. Look at the legal precedents being set in courts where many of the BigTechs have actually pirated copyrighted media to train their AI, and the court has said "that's acceptable". (Ofcourse, the actual act of piracy - like Facebook did by downloading copyrighted material through torrents - may not be legal, but the courts may be lenient here too as there seems to be an undercurrent of government approval to do anything to win the "AI Race").

And, even if you move your repository somewhere else, can you really prevent anyone from uploading it to Github? To do so, you may have to create your open source license.

It's just not with AI though. It's who they get their advise from. One of my friend was cribbing to me about his company management - apparently someone in management discovered that PostgresDB is a real good database and free, and so they authorised the IT department to migrate their application from Oracle Cloud to PostgresDB as it will "save a lot of money" (true, but...). However, they aren't willing to shell out for the commercial solutions (like EnterpriseDB, which would be still a lot cheaper than Oracle), and are insisting that the team also recreate "all and every" feature that Oracle DB has and is used by their application, but is lacking in PostgresDB - after all, "If Oracle can do it, why can't you!?".

I was thinking more of the memory usage. As another project posted on HN described, they were running the web server in the RAM of an RPi ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48064312 ). Without a full-fledged OS, and a tiny (and fast) webserver coded in Assembly, more RAM would be available for the webserver and they could serve more users.

Your snide comments make me think that you are trying to create a parody account that matches your nick here (@hatefulheart). Just a heads up, unlike Reddit or other SMs, such things are not appreciated much here on HN.

Yes, I do know that some Assembly is used in systems programming and other niches where it makes sense. To be clear, I was talking about the phase some of us go through (as amateurs) when we think everything would be "faster, smaller, better" if written in assembly - Python is slow. What about C or Pascal? Wouldn't asm be faster? ... but, as we all realise sooner or later, there's a reason we prefer to code in high-level or very high-level languages, and why pre-mature optimisation can be a real handicap.

No idea, but there's Zoho.com ...

If I put on my tinfoil hat, it seems to be something deliberate, to push us all towards accepting hardware / software attestation and better "online id" stuff - "Don't you want to identify and stop the spammers and phishers?".

Email scanning and file scanning (on our computer) became acceptable when the level of spam and malware became intolerable. But it was at cost of our privacy. Today, Gmail scans all your mails and makes money from it. Both Windows and macOS have built-in anti-virus or malware scanners, and file indexers, and thus know all the applications and files in your system (which provides for more data on your profile with them). Now with both OSes, and even browsers like Chrome and Firefox, including AI, they will now use our own computers to not only collect our personal data, but even process it on our system and use it to build even better profiles to more profitably exploit us.

This is an interesting project - kudos for executing it. I have to admit that when I was starting out in this field, I too fantasised about, "Would this software be faster, smaller and better in assembly?". Ofcourse, assembly programming made some sense in embedded electronics, which can be very resource constrained and even specialised for one particular application. Thinking from that aspect, perhaps you should consider making this a specialised program that runs on something like a Raspberry Pi - running such a web server directly on it, without an OS (or a very minimal OS), would make for a real cool and interesting project.

Can you share some sources for the claim on Soviet union disintegrating because of sanctions? As far as I am aware, the USSR collapsed because its economy was mismanaged and extended, and the planned US move to depress oil prices finally pushed it over the edge. Moreover, Gorbachev was also an important factor to this.

No. While Iran is heavily sanctioned, the current "uprising" was foreign-instigated, and a poorly executed intelligence operation that tried to hijack what was otherwise a normal political protest (that is actually a usual occurrence in Iran, despite western media claims of "no democracy"). The hope was that just as in Ukraine, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, peaceful political protests could be transformed into violent ones through planted intelligence operatives in them, which would naturally force the government to use state violence to control it. Amidst a disinformation campaign, this would result in an escalation of violence from both sides, which could then be fanned further through foreign-controlled social media platforms to instigate young idiots to join the "mass" protest and foment a "revolution".

The reason it succeeded in Ukraine and Bangladesh was because of a clear polity divide amongst the population, and huge local support from one of the political sides (including, very importantly, the army), which meant the double goal of (1) getting rid of an "unfriendly" government and (2) installing a "friendly" government could easily succeed. In Sri Lanka and Nepal, it has meant a regime change, but it isn't clear if whoever fomented the "revolution" - the west or the Chinese - have managed to get the desired "friendly" government. However, in all 4 cases, the so-called "revolution" has replaced experienced democratically elected leaders with inexperienced politicians at the helm (which is the second-best option you could hope for, if you can't install a puppet, as inexperienced leaders are more susceptible to political manipulations).

In Iran, what went wrong with this "revolution" is that, first, there is no real local support for pro-west or pro-Israel polity. All those who remember the Shah's regime (when Iran was an ally of the west) and had fond perceptions of the west are now either old or dead. Most of Shah's political supporters were either purged or left with the Shah to the US (or elsewhere). The later, and current, generation has only grown up experiencing American and Israeli hostilities. Irrational western Islamophobia and Israeli-right's hostility to Islam also doesn't help. Along with an understanding of imperialistic history, they despise repeated western attempts of interference in their politics and thus, overall, have have no goodwill to either regimes. Thus, those hoping for a regime change and the installation of the Shah were always delusional that any hostility for the Ayatollah could be translated to support for the west and the Shah. (Moreover, the current "Shah" - the son of deposed Shah - who the west hope to install in power, chooses to stay in US or Europe and thus has no support or understanding of the domestic politics of Iran, and he largely perceived as a puppet of America and Israel amongst the local Iranians).

Second, Trump and Netanyahu's regime underestimated the Ayatollah regime. They figured that just as in Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the government would somehow cave-in under the violent protests rather than opt to suppress the political violence because of the high death toll. Perhaps they might have partially caved-in, if not, for Trump's and Netanyahu's very public "appeal" to the Iranians to "seize the moment" and overthrow the government. This immediately made the Ayatollah regime resolute that the revolution was foreign-instigated, and gave it a public excuse to unleash State violence as an emergency measure (that any State would normally do when faced with a foreign backed insurgency) against protestors. And as Trump's regime claims, the "revolution really failed because the guns that were supposed to be distributed amongst disgruntled Iranians never reached them. Moreover, Iran, that has been surrounded by west and western allies, that has repeatedly sought to undermine it, has been studying western imperialism and destabilisation strategies for decades now. After seeing what happened in Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka (who were genuinely unprepared for an unexpected violent political protests, in their political planning), it probably already had a contingency in place for a similar situation that the west never anticipated.

Also, if the Americans and Israelis had been more patient, and not immediately attacked Iran, the high death toll (around 3000 or so) of the Iranian protestors could have been used against the Ayotallah regime. The deaths (and arrests) had resulted in a rise of anger and hostility against the regime, which could have been tapped in by the local opposition (who have been demanding further reforms in Iran's pseudo-democracy). All that political potential has been forever lost now because of the rash decision to kill the Ayatollah (who is now considered a martyr, and even more revered) and invade Iran.

Everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong, with the current political strategy against Iran ...

I agree with you that war can easily become unpopular and turn people against their government. But is there any country, whose economy has been sanctioned by the foreigners and crippled by it, where the people then decided to overthrow their government? As far as I know my history, no. Foreign sanctions easily give every country an easy excuse to blame all economic problems on the foreigners. In every instance, they've actually united nations against their "common" enemy (i.e. the foreign sanctioner). They also provide an excuse to stifle criticism using state powers as any criticism on the government handling of the economy can be conveniently labelled as speaking the language of the "enemy" and / or supporting the "enemy".

While I understand that the true purpose of sanctions is to weaken a country's military, sometimes I do wonder if it is a war crime as it also ends up effectively "punishing the people".

> But there is zero indication anywhere that India specifically considers Hamas not to be a terrorist organization - you are making that up ... Your view is a fringe view ...

Here you go - Former Hamas chief addresses pro-Palestine rally in Kerala - https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2023/10/28/hamas-leader-ad... (and it's not the first time a Palestinian leader was invited to speak in India). No action has been taken, despite the noise Modi's political party made because legally no law was broken as neither the Hamas speaker nor Hamas is banned in India ... And here's another example, of an opposition leader, showing solidarity with Palestine and even public rebuking the Netanyahu government for the Gaza genocide - Priyanka Gandhi expresses solidarity by carrying bag emblazoned with 'Palestine' to Parliament - https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/priyanka-gandhi-expre... ...

As an Indian, I support both Israel and Palestine, but not their right-wing extremism often laced with religious fundamentalism. Unfortunately, the Netanyahu regime is the worst of Israel-right and I do feel sorry that he is dragging all of Israel down with him.

You are however probably right that we don't see eye to eye here on Israel-Palestine politics.

We Indians, in general, despise political violence, and so we do sympathise with the Israeli victims of Palestinian violence. We however also recognize that the political violence is of Israeli-right's own making - one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. That is why PLO or Hamas is not officially recognized or banned as a terrorist organisation by India (or the most of the Global South). Israel's pursuit of being a settler-colonial state has been criticised since the time of Gandhi, who has never supported Zionism at the expense of Palestinian's right:

> “My sympathies are all with the Jews… They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close. Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them,” Gandhi wrote in the Harijan article ... “It is wrong and inhumane to impose the Jews on the Arabs…,” he wrote. “It would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home,” Gandhi said ... “A religious act [the act of Jews returning to Palestine] cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb,” he wrote ... “The Jews have a good cause. I told (British Zionist MP) Sidney Silverman that the Jews have a good case in Palestine. If the Arabs have a claim to Palestine, the Jews have a prior claim.” ... “But for their [the Jews’] heartless persecution, probably no question of return to Palestine would ever have arisen,” he wrote in “Jews And Palestine”. “They have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism,” he wrote.

(Note that India's current one-sided bonhomie with Israel is an exception and based more on the rapport of shared political values between Modi, Netanayhu and their respective political parties - Sanghis, i.e. Hindu religious fundamentalists, in India, and religious fundamentalists Zionists in Israel share a common political ideology - https://youtu.be/mZhugTmSrMo?t=1696 ).

And this will then be used by the Apple and Google to make "security" on the OS "stronger" so that "we can protect the children" better (i.e. lock down the OS even more and take control away from us consumers). In this new idiocracy, this this is how corporates and government work together to take away our rights ...

India.

In my country, Qatar is not considered as a "terrorist" sponsor. Neither is Hamas considered a terrorist organisation (like in most parts of the Global South). Neither is RT nor MEE nor Al-Jazeera banned or considered a part of any "terrorism network" - I treat them the same as any State run media outlet (including the BBC, DW, or NPR).

Israel to pour $730m into propaganda arm amid reputational crisis - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-pour-730m-propagan...

"Reputational" crisis. Not the depravity of genocide and colonialism.

Also a good read - The West’s bubble of illusion about Israel - and about itself – is finally being burst - https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/west-bubble-illusion-i... - The genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in Lebanon exhausted the West’s moral legitimacy. Now Iran is slowly exhausting the West’s military primacy.

Yes, the Iranian government has indeed targeted Jews suspected of working against Iran, especially when things were in a turmoil post-revolution, and that did lead to around 70%-80% of the community migrating to US and Israel. But I don't believe it is just the fear of persecution that was their motivation in migrating - for some it was zionism, for others it was more of the political ideological difference with the revolutionaries (they were in the Shah's camp) and the real uncertainty and lack of political stability and violence during and after the revolution.

> the Iranian diaspora is conspicuously absent from anti-Israel protests in the US

Iranians who migrated to the west are largely supporters of the Shah, who was overthrown by the revolutionaries, and thus they despise the revolutionary government. Israel hates the Iranian revolutionaries too and so the Iranian diaspora found themselves in favour of Israel because of this shared sentiment of hate against the current Iranian government. However, anti-Israeli sentiments in Iranian diaspora has increased now because of Netanyahu's foolish genocide in Gaza, and the supporters of Shah (and Israel) have now increasingly have resort to intimidation to suppress many of them from speaking out for Palestinains and against Israel. As this MEE article outlines - How pro-Israel Iranian Americans are silencing Palestine supporters - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-how-pro-israel-i... :

> Several Iranian-American activists who spoke to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity have said they fear speaking out in support of Palestine, saying that anyone who does so publicly has been faced with doxxing campaigns and even threats to their lives. "It's one of those things where it's caused a huge divide in the community," said one Iranian activist ... They say the reason that it appears that most Iranians in the diaspora are pro-Israel is because most of the ones who do support Palestine are afraid to speak up. "The vocal presence of Iranian Zionists online and at rallies might create a misleading perception. In reality, many Iranians are afraid to speak out and do not align with this viewpoint," said one Iranian activist who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity. "The loudness on social media doesn't accurately represent the broader sentiment."

> But let's be clear: Jews in Iran live in a state of submission and fear ... jews are eternally suspected of duplicity and disloyalty, and must continuously prove that they are not secretly "zionists".

This is a common propaganda for fear mongering amongst the minorities. Interestingly, Pakistanis say the same thing about Muslims living in India. And yes, while there are isolated incidents of minority violence against Muslims in India too (just as there are against the Jews in Iran), it is not a common occurrence in society driven by hate against these minorities.

For me the key point was how the frog is slowly being boiled and macOS is being converted slowly to ios / iPadOS with increasing restrictions. Case in point, now system developers cannot build and sell custom virtualisation solutions for Macs:

> For vendors like VMware and Parallels ... there’s no scope for either of them to engineer better or faster graphics support, as that’s determined by features provided in both guest and host operating systems, via Virtio or an equivalent. That puts Apple in charge of what hardware and features are supported by virtualisation on Apple silicon.

> which states that peace is better than war for Ukraine

No, what it is saying is that Ukraine has no hopes of defeating Russia and thus should accept that reality and settle, however unjust the terms, because otherwise it would lose more territory and / or soldiers, while its economy keeps getting crippled.

> Ukraine are losing minuscule amounts of land to the Russians,

The fact is that they are losing land (albeit at, as you say, a slow pace due to good defence). But as the Ukrainian military has no real ability to launch a counter-offensive against the Russian to take back these lands, it is now effectively Russian territory. They have already lost around 20% of their territory and anyone with some common sense about warfare will tell you that Ukraine has no real hope of ever getting back these territories - Ukraine simply doesn't have enough men or the right weaponry to launch a counter-attack. (Yes, you are right somebody should help Ukraine to win this war - and the only way Ukraine can win this war is if the west send in their soldiers to fight alongside Ukrainians. But they will not do that. That is why Ukraine should surrender, to retain what territory and soldiers it it still has before it loses more of them - everyone of you who is urging Ukrainians to keep fighting the Russians alone, never tells me how much territory and men should Ukraine lose before it decides to pragmatically end the war?)

(Either you are ignorant about these facts, or are just peddling falsehood here when you say "Ukraine is winning the war").

> I guess the Ukraine wins are complete fantasy

Yes, it is fantasy when you still talk about a few battles that Ukraine won, what 2-3 years ago? Since then, their counter-offensive to take back Russian occupied territory has failed, they've been forced to withdraw from even the Russia territory they had captured, and during this same period, Russia has slowly kept advancing and occupying more and more of Ukraine's territory.

> I guess the burning oil depots and ports across the Black Sea that can be seen on satellites are also absolute fantasy.

Yes, it is a fantasy if you think burning a few oil depots or damaging refineries or pipelines will suddenly make Russia give up all the territory they have captured in Ukraine and result in the military defeat of Russia. Understand geopolitics - this whole war started because Russia doesn't want Ukraine in NATO because then Russia would lose access to the Black Sea and any NATO missiles in Ukraine can reach Moscow within a few minutes. And that is why Ukrainian strategists are stupid if they think drone and missile attacks deep into Russia will make Russia give up - no, it won't because every successful drone and military strike deep into Russia keeps reminding them of how vulnerable they will become if NATO comes to Ukraine! Every successful drone and missile strike thus means that Russia will keep fighting ruthlessly to destroy the Ukrainian army (demilitarisation), and that is what they are doing.

> I guess the fact that Russia has gained almost no territory in a year, and doesn’t have even claimed to gain any territory is also a fantasy.

ISW itself reports that Russia's average monthly gain (in the last 12 months) has been around (roughly) 171 sq. miles / month (in the last 12 months). As for your claim of "silence" from Russia on newly occupied territories, RT reported recently that ‘A few kilometers’ left to liberate Donbass – Kremlin - https://www.rt.com/russia/638343-peskov-donbass-kilometers-l... .

There is no doubt that the Russians are advancing slowly. And that is partly due to the good defence by the Ukrainian military. But it is also partly Russian strategy to advance slowly because their goal is not just to occupy territory but to de-industrialise and demilitarise Ukraine - In other words, Russia wants to drag this war as long as possible till it either achieves victory through diplomatic surrender or military surrender. It knows time is running out for Ukraine as it is economically crippled, and its military is running out of men.

> I guess Kim Jong Un now admitting and celebrating the fact that Russia is using North Korean mercenaries is also fantasy.

The Russians and the North Koreans have military alliance to help each other. That Russia can rely on North Korea as an ally to join and fight with it should worry the Ukrainians as it shows what a true military alliance is. Compared to how the Koreans have helped the Russians take back the territory that Ukraine had captured, Ukraine's American and European NATO allies look like cowards in not joining them to fight the Russians.

> Russia has made almost no progress in the last 2-3 years.

Shows what you really know - "Since February 24, 2025 ... Moscow’s troops have taken 4,524 square kilometres (1,750 square miles)" - Russian gains in 4th year of Ukraine war exceeded previous 2 years combined: Analysis - https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2026/02/24/russian-...

Ah, true. Good catch.

> The UAE may be the only Arab country where Jews are not only allowed to live, but can do so safely without fearing either their neighbors or their government.

That's not entirely true. Judaism is one of the legally recognised minority religions of Iran and Iran still retains an ancient Jewish community of 10,000 - 15,000 Iranian Jews that also have 30+ synagogues in Iran - Tehran’s embattled Jewish community endures despite Israeli bombing of synagogue - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/22/tehran-embattl...:

> By the time he got up the next morning to get ready for work, an Israeli airstrike had completely destroyed the synagogue ... “We condemn this attack. It disrespects our faith. Iran’s Jewish community doesn’t have good relations with the Zionist Israeli government,” he said. Iran’s Jewish community is the largest and oldest in the Middle East outside Israel, dating back about 2,500 years to when Jews were exiled eastwards by Assyrian and Babylonian rulers ... About two decades ago, Israel encouraged Iranian Jews to emigrate, offering cash incentives in an attempt to prompt a mass migration. At the time, the Society of Iranian Jews dismissed the offer as “immature political enticements” and said their national identity was not for sale.

No, way off on Egypt aligning with UAE. It is Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt who are considering forming a military alliance, specifically against Israel, because they don't trust today's deranged Israeli politicians and the American military when it comes to Israel - The Security Pact America Was Not Invited To - https://houseofsaud.com/turkey-saudi-egypt-pakistan-security... . And, according to a Pakistani journalist, UAE asked Pakistan to attack Iran (activate the Saudi-Pakistan defence pact) or pay back all it owes to UAE. Pakistan decided to pay back because it didn't really want to be seen joining Israel in attacking a muslim nation with which Pakistan has no enmity - https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/525590/Iran-s-military-stre... .

Thanks for clarifying it - does this alternative therapy have a name?

Ah, the periodic "Ukraine is winning the war" propaganda by western media to keep their citizens in a "warmongering" panic mode so that they don't oppose the hike in defence budgets. And to make the Europeans feel less guilty about not suing for peace ( https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/why-unjust-peace-bett... ) and egging the Ukrainians to keep fighting even though Ukraine is losing and being systematically deindustrialised and demilitarised ( https://www.russiamatters.org/blog/4-years-later-what-russia... ). History is repeating itself with the re-militarisation of Europe and it looks like we'll experience another World War. For all the progress they have made, the big 3 of Europe - UK, France and Russia (and emerging power Germany) - all still have a shitty imperialist mindsets which leads to this kind of repeated confrontation that drags us all into their muck. I am really beginning to believe the American pitch that they were the one who kept them all in check, after WW2 with their military bases in EU.

But the key question is will the court accept it as an AGP License or accept the argument that it shouldn't be considered an AGPL licence but a derivative one with extra terms (because it has been modified)? If it is the latter, then everyone using their code would need to comply, in my opinion.

I understood that. Just wanted to know if the masseuse specifically pitched the idea to OP, after hearing his complaint or whether it was just a happy co-incidence.

Or you can drink camel milk and then slowly move on to bovine milks.