Hacker News Reader

virgulinoon FBI boarded Texas-bound oil tanker to investigate cyberattack

"On Aug. 21, a specialized team of Coast Guard law-enforcement personnel, a vessel inspector, Coast Guard Cyber Protection Team members and FBI Cyber Action Team operators boarded an inbound foreign-flagged commercial vessel, the Coast Guard said. The team examined both the vessel's operational technology and information-technology systems, working with the crew and the ship's corporate operators to oust the threat."

virgulinoon The Origins of Agar

Unrelated but in name:

Agar-Agar, the Parisian artsy synth-pop duo - "How do we find out if we already live in a simulation?"

https://youtu.be/7Qp44a0uaeU

virgulinoon A party balloon shut down El Paso International Airport; estimated cost –$573k

We posted simultaneously! :)

virgulinoon A party balloon shut down El Paso International Airport; estimated cost –$573k

"99 Luftballons", Mariachi remix.

virgulinoon The Day the Telnet Died

> The sky is not falling.

Great analysis, thank you!

New thread: Reports of Telnet's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46980355

virgulinoon The Day the Telnet Died

Never mind telnetd. Tier 1 transit providers doing port filtering is EXTREMELY alarming. They have partitioned the Internet, and in a way that automatic routing (BGP) can't get around.

virgulinoon Pentagon clashes with Anthropic over military AI use, sources say

"The Pentagon is at odds with artificial-intelligence developer Anthropic over safeguards that would prevent the government from deploying its technology to target weapons autonomously and conduct U.S. domestic surveillance, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters."

virgulinoon Cannibal Modernity: Oswald de Andrade's Manifesto Antropófago (1928)

Some good information in video form:

What was the Anthropophagic Movement and how did it EAT European art? // A 1m30s video: https://youtu.be/oh0gZxX1WNM

How Brazil Redefined Modern Art (And Why It Matters) // By a Brazilian historian: https://youtu.be/VDeIH1r5IZ4

Tarsila, the mother of Brazilian Modern Art // Short CBS report: https://youtu.be/9prEjZUG63Y

virgulinoon LLMs develop social norms like groups of people

Groups of large language models playing simple interactive games can develop social norms, such as adopting their own rules for how language is used

https://archive.is/moB6H

virgulinoon Wikipedia’s nonprofit status questioned by D.C. U.S. attorney

I agree. The pages on Brazilian politics are often grotesque propaganda. There was even a famous case in which a slanderous and fraudulent edit on two journalists' pages was traced back to an IP address in Dilma's Presidential Palace (Dilma was Lula's hand-picked successor).

virgulinoon Making any integer with four 2s

There's the classic “four fours”, which I learned as a child in the book “The Man Who Counted”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_fours

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Counted

virgulinoon Early Iron Age horse sacrifice at a royal tomb in southern Siberia

Tuva or Bust!

virgulinoon The Difference Between a Standard DIMM and a Cudimm or Csodimm

"STH may say “home” in the title which confuses some. Home is actually a reference to a users /home/ directory in Linux. We scale from those looking to have in home or office servers all the way up to some of the largest hosting organizations in the world. This site is dedicated to helping professionals and enthusiasts stay atop of the latest server, storage and networking trends."

https://www.servethehome.com/about/

virgulinoon 18,000 Miles Later, an American Woman Has Cycled the World

RIP Iohan Gueorguiev, my tragic cycling poet! He is a great inspiration, as an earthling, as a human being and as a cyclist.

https://www.cyclingabout.com/tribute-to-iohan-gueorguiev-bik...

virgulinoon Windows NT vs. Unix: A design comparison

Inside Windows NT, the 1st edition, by Helen Custer, is one of my all-time favorite books! A forgotten gem. It's good to see it being praised.

virgulinoon Telum II at Hot Chips 2024: Mainframe with a Unique Caching Strategy

"Why Do Mainframes Still Exist? What's Inside One? 40TB, 200+ Cores, AI, and more! - Dave explores the IBM z16 mainframe from design to assembly and testing. What's inside a modern IBM z16 mainframe that makes it relevant today?" - by Dave Plummer.

This is an amazing 23-minute video by the Microsoft programmer who developed the Windows NT Task Manager, among other things. He visits IBM and talks to engineers about the Telum chip architecture (Hot Chips 2023), used in the z16 mainframe. Special attention is paid to the cache.

https://youtu.be/ouAG4vXFORc

virgulinoon Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?

For anyone interested in the basics of nuclear weapons, I highly recommend the "Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work" lectures by Matthew Bunn, a man heavily involved in nuclear arms control.

His lectures are always highly entertaining, a real pleasure to watch.

This is a clip from his lecture explaining the basics of thermonuclear warheads:

https://youtu.be/YMuRpx4T2Rw

And the full “Nuclear 101” lecture, in two parts:

https://youtu.be/zVhQOhxb1Mc

https://youtu.be/MnW7DxsJth0

virgulinoon Brazil's X ban is sending lots of people to Bluesky

Starlink will not block X-Twitter in Brazil:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41421531

virgulinoon Brazilian court orders suspension of X

Starlink will not block X-Twitter in Brazil:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41421531

virgulinoon Starlink will not block X-Twitter in Brazil

Starlink tells Anatel (Brazil's FCC) it won't block access to X

Elon Musk's satellite internet company says it will not comply with Alexandre de Moraes' decision until its accounts are unblocked.

Musk's company is currently the largest satellite internet provider in the country. It has more than 42% of the segment's market share, with 215,000 customers, including schools, government offices, entire villages and communities in the Amazon, ships and Armed Forces bases.

https://www.poder360.com.br/poder-tech/starlink-diz-a-anatel...

Judge Moraes ordered all 20,000 ISPs and backbone providers in Brazil to block X-Twitter. He also ordered a fine of US$8900 per day for any Brazilian citizen who uses a VPN to access Twitter.

Judge Moraes had also ordered Apple and Google to remove all VPN apps from their app stores, and for Apple and Google to block all VPN apps already installed on users' phones. A few hours later, Judge Moraes issued a new court order, temporarily suspending Apple and Google from that order. But the fine of US$8,900 per day for any citizen who uses a VPN to access Twitter is still valid, still in effect.

Excellent background information on the importance of Starlink in Brazil, from the NYT's excellent correspondent Jack Nicas. In addition to remote tribes, Starlink has been a revolution for many disadvantaged communities in Brazil:

The Internet’s Final Frontier: Remote Amazon Tribes Elon Musk’s Starlink has connected an isolated tribe to the outside world — and divided it from within.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/02/world/americas/starlink-i... https://archive.is/v0Zwq

Starlink has had all its accounts frozen by the same judge, on behalf of X-Twitter (a completely separate company), and cannot receive monthly payments from subscribers. Starlink has formally declared that it will continue to provide Internet access, free of charge, to all its current customers:

https://www.axios.com/2024/08/29/brazil-starlink-x-shutdown

virgulinoon Brazilian court orders suspension of X

It sure looks that way! He has just issued a new court order backtracking on the removal of VPN apps from stores. But the fine still stands: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41405776

virgulinoon Brazilian court orders suspension of X

THIS JUST IN: Judge Moraes has backtracked on the removal of VPN apps from stores and phones. He has just issued a new court order.

But the ban and the fine of US$8,900 for users who use a VPN to access X-Twitter still apply!

virgulinoon Brazilian court orders suspension of X

And what about Anti-Viruses / Security apps, that usually have VPN functionality?

This is Kafkaesque!

virgulinoon Brazilian court orders suspension of X

I did NOT violate the law.

How come he is deleting the VPN apps on my phone??? That I need to remote to my overseas job???

How come I I'm now banned from reading what Zelensky, Kasparov, Yann LeCun, and thousands of others world leaders have to say?

How come my neighbor, who makes a honest living through X-Twitter, has now lost her job?

virgulinoon Brazilian court orders suspension of X

Thank you very much for posting this document.

From what I'm reading, it also orders Apple and Google to DELETE VPN apps already installed on users' phones!

(I think this has been done in the past, in Brazil)

virgulinoon Brazilian court orders suspension of X

"People who use VPN to access X will be subject to daily fines of US$8,900"

Edit: Thanks for this user https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41404325 for posting the court order and bringing this new information:

Apple and Google must remove all VPN apps from their stores!

Apple and Google must DELETE all VPN apps already installed on users' phones!!!

https://apnews.com/article/brazil-musk-x-suspended-de-moraes...

virgulinoon Brazil top court threatens to suspend X within 24 hours

No, that's not what the law says.

The law says that you need legal representation to be able to do business in Brazil. To sign contracts and pay taxes. Twitter no longer does business (i.e. doesn't sell ads) in Brazil. Twitter fired everyone and left Brazil a few weeks ago.

Twitter is now like Hacker News. A billion-dollar American company (Y) that hosts user-created content, free to be used by anyone on the global Internet.

Hacker News/Y does not need legal representation in Brazil.

virgulinoon Brazil top court threatens to suspend X within 24 hours

X no longer has any business or legal representative in Brazil.

virgulinoon Brazil top court threatens to suspend X within 24 hours

In 20 hours Brazil could join China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, as the only countries in the world where their citizens are banned from reading Twitter.

We will no longer be allowed to read what Biden, Kamala, the European leaders, the hundreds of thousands of institutions around the world and 350 million fellow earthlings have to say.

All this by way of the sudden and unappealable decision of a single judge this night.

virgulinoon X says it is closing operations in Brazil due to judge's content orders

> Do you have references to which cases those are?

The most infamous case is the gigantic "fake news inquiry", which is still going:

https://www.estadao.com.br/politica/inquerito-das-fake-news-...

https://archive.is/FerHx