Web Review, Week 2024-40
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-40.
W3C 30th anniversary clip
Tags: tech, web, history
Excellent clip for the W3C 30th anniversary. Shows the big milestones and evolution of the WWW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TfUBuIZkmQ
OpenFreeMap
Tags: tech, foss, map
An excellent service to provide. Let’s hope it stays sustainable, the risk is commercial leeches not giving back a dime. Be responsible, sponsor it if you use it commercially.
Why laptop support, why now: FreeBSD’s strategic move toward broader adoption | FreeBSD Foundation
Tags: tech, freebsd, laptop
Unexpected but definitely welcome. Let’s wish them luck in this endeavor.
The Public Domain Problem
Tags: tech, copyright, public-domain, commons
Putting things in the public domain voluntarily is indeed more difficult than it should be. The best tool we got is CC0, but it still raises (probably unwarranted) concerns for software.
Patent troll Sable pays up, dedicates all its patents to the public!
Tags: tech, patents
Always happy to see a patent troll bite the dust.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/patent-troll-sable-pays-up/
Improving online advertising through product and infrastructure
Tags: tech, mozilla, advertisement, surveillance
Mozilla is clearly loosing its way, this is sad to watch. I guess the forks which remove the online advertising measures will become more popular.
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/improving-online-advertising/
Microsoft details security/privacy overhaul for Windows Recall ahead of relaunch
Tags: tech, microsoft, ai, machine-learning, surveillance, privacy
They’re trying a come back… of course they added layers of security to pretend it’s all solved and shiny. They totally ignore the social implications or if something like this even needs to be done. At least one can remove it… for now…
Don’t believe the hype: AGI is far from inevitable
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, cognition, neuroscience, philosophy, mathematics, logic, research
This is a short article summarizing a research paper at the surface level. It is clearly the last nail in the coffin for the generative AI grand marketing claims. Of course, I recommend reading the actual research paper (link at the end) but if you prefer this very short form, here it is. It’s clearly time to go back to the initial goals of the AI field: understanding cognition. The latest industrial trends tend to confuse too much the map with the territory.
https://www.ru.nl/en/research/research-news/dont-believe-the-hype-agi-is-far-from-inevitable
The insatiable hunger of (Open)AI
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, energy, ecology
If you run the number, we actually can’t afford this kind of generative AI arm race. It’s completely unsustainable both for training and during use…
https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/the-insatiable-hunger-of-openai/
New AI trick: ‘synthetic human memories’
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, fake, fake-news
Maybe extrapolating a bit more than it should. Still this leads to worrying uses of AI generated images.
https://machinesociety.ai/p/new-ai-trick-synthetic-human-memories
Ethical Applications of AI to Public Sector Problems - Jacob Kaplan-Moss
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, ethics
Good article about the ethical implications of using AI in systems. I like the distinction about assistive vs automated. It’s not perfect as it underestimates the “asleep at the steering wheel” effects, but this is a good starting point.
https://jacobian.org/2024/oct/1/ethical-public-sector-ai/
Devs gaining little (if anything) from AI coding assistants
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, copilot, productivity
Unsurprisingly the productivity gains announced for coding assistants have been greatly exaggerated. There might be cases of strong gains but it’s still unclear in which niches this is going to happen.
Lies, Damn Lies, And Surveys About AI – ideatrash
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, copilot, marketing, criticism
Or why we shouldn’t trust marketing survey… they definitely confuse perception and actual results. Worse they do it on purpose.
https://ideatrash.net/2024/09/lies-damn-lies-and-surveys-about-ai.html
Sorry, GenAI is NOT going to 10x computer programming
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, copilot, productivity
How shocking! This was all hype? Not surprised since we’ve seen the referenced papers before, but put all together it makes things really clear.
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/sorry-genai-is-not-going-to-10x-computer
Inside Elon Musk’s AI party at OpenAI’s old headquarters
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, business
The arm race is still on-going at a furious pace. Still wondering how messy it will be when this bubble bursts.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/3/24261160/elon-musk-xai-recruiting-party-openai-dev-day-sam-altman
I am tired of AI
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, marketing, criticism
I definitely agree with this. I’m sick of the grand claims around what is essentially a parlor trick. Could we tone down the marketing enough so that we can properly think about making useful products again?
https://www.ontestautomation.com/i-am-tired-of-ai/
Were RNNs All We Needed?
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, research
OK, this paper picked my curiosity. The limitations of the experiments makes me wonder if some threshold effects aren’t ignored. Still this is a good indication that the question is worth pursuing further.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01201
I-XRAY
Tags: tech, social-media, scam, ai, machine-learning
Doxxing will get easier and easier. Con men are likely paying attention.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iWCqmaOUKhKjcKSktIwC3NNANoFP7vPsRvcbOIup_BA/mobilebasic
Hacking Kia: Remotely Controlling Cars With Just a License Plate
Tags: tech, automotive, security
More details about the KIA security issue. Clearly securing the embedded systems is not worth much if it is then all exposed via unsafe web services.
https://samcurry.net/hacking-kia
Attacking UNIX Systems via CUPS, Part I
Tags: tech, linux, security
This one is definitely a bad one. Looks like CUPS is a weak part of the ecosystem, especially when coupled with zeroconf. I wouldn’t be surprised to see macOS being affected too.
https://www.evilsocket.net/2024/09/26/Attacking-UNIX-systems-via-CUPS-Part-I/
Collaborative Text Editing with Eg-walker: Better, Faster, Smaller
Tags: tests, crdt, collaborative
This could be a game changer to collaborative editing. Clearly a good competitor to CRDTs, should make it easier to build such features without a central server.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.14252
Modes Considered Harmful
Tags: tech, distributed, reliability
Interesting point. You likely need to be careful with fallback modes especially in distributed systems. They might bring even more issues when the system is already under stress.
https://a-nickels-worth.dev/posts/modesharm/
std::array in C++ isn’t slower than array in C
Tags: tech, c++, programming, safety, performance
If you still needed to be convinced you need to use std::array and std::span, here is the proof.
https://pvs-studio.com/en/blog/posts/cpp/1164/
Code Generation in Rust vs C++26
Tags: tech, c++, rust, metaprogramming
Interesting comparison of the different choices made in Rust and the upcoming C++26 for code generation. It’s fascinating how they managed to have such facilities in Rust while having no introspection. C++ going the opposite direction will have a very different feel both in term of use or of implementation.
https://brevzin.github.io/c++/2024/09/30/annotations/
The Fastest Mutexes
Tags: tech, multithreading, performance, system
Nice results. Interesting implementation too. I wonder if some of it will make its way to the glibc or musl.
Less htmx is More
Tags: tech, web, frontend, htmx
As it gets more adoption people are figuring out ways to use htmx properly and not abuse what should be niche features.
https://unplannedobsolescence.com/blog/less-htmx-is-more/
Three small proposals for putting “hyper” back in the hypertext
Tags: tech, web, frontend, html, htmx
Interesting proposals, let’s see how far they go. They could bring most of the benefits of htmx and similar straight in HTML.
https://alexanderpetros.com/triptych/
Changelogs and Release Notes
Tags: tech, foss, project-management
We keep saying they’re not the same. This article does a good job highlighting the differences and explaining why you need both.
https://harihareswara.net/posts/2024/changelogs-and-release-notes/
Learning to Call BS
Tags: tech, product-management
Good idea on how product managers should behave to facilitate requirements handling. I wish more of them would do this.
https://kevinyien.com/blog/bs.html
The world will need less energy after the energy transition
Tags: tech, energy, ecology, economics
Interesting analysis… I wonder if and how Jevons paradox will get in the way though.
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/electrification-energy-efficiency
Bye for now!