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Comment by dontbenebby | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for dropping a citation, when the CPU cost is low and the code is on Github it's relatively easy to add a tool or two to a script if you're benchmarking. (IMHO)

But speaking as a paranoid hacker: why is it more common to run unknown code in the graphics world than others?

|I've noticed a lot of trust in that community, versus the felonious infosec mantra of "oh, you typed something from the internet into the terminal without understanding it? Of course someone stole everything on your hard drive, why didn't you've have seven layers of veracrypt volume around your diary or whatever?" mentality.

I don't know a ton about image visualization, but I'm super appreciative of tools like GIMP and VLC that save me time and money in a variety of ways.

(Remember back when downloading a keygen meant risking a trojan? Or is that something the next generation of hackers has only heard about in stories? :-) )

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Their Windows binary comes up clean on VirusTotal. Running on Linux under strace is squeaky clean. There should be a rule against fud like this from anons because open source is built on trust and without trust open source couldn't exist. Worst case scenario I imagine is you forget to use --strict when compressing your manga collection and since it's pre-1.0 you get an artifact here and there.

>Their Windows binary comes up clean on VirusTotal. Running on Linux under strace is squeaky clean. There should be a rule against fud like this from anons

I'm not anonymous. Someone very purposefully tied my legal name to this nym when I signed the anti-Stallman petition.

I've had two accounts (Reddit, and Twitter) shut down very purposefully as retaliation for reporting extremely serious felonies.

There should be a rule that if I can prove someone's abusive gaslighting causes me to overshare, the person who purposefully distorted the truth is responsible for anything I purchase to return to a positive emotional state.

I am one of the strongest allies of open source on the planet.

It's not my fault if folks who use it for evil have conspired against me, then literally shot themselves when they realized I'll just go back to pounding espresso and posting twice as hard within less than 24 hours of their soul exiting their body.

Folks from the so called "free speech" community cannot handle truly free expression, they just want to hear their own talking points repeated.

Someone shot themselves over a png compressor? Gotta get outside more.

It sounds like those events greatly affected you, because you are losing your composure retelling them. Maybe you should get some professional help processing it all.

Nah, I'm not going to pay someone any longer when the main issue is lack of income. I'd be offline if I had something to keep me busy.

Want code samples and a CV?

This is going a huge tangent, but...

I don't much believe in antivirus, as crooks can often find ways around them.

Traditionally, trust is based on knowing someones name and place of residence so you can call the cops on them and/or take matters in your own hands if they try any funny business. For anonymous people, an established reputation can also work.

In this case the repository is 7 years old. The owner states a full name (that if we are paranoid may or may not be the real one). A person with that name has published a scientific article about compression.

I generally agree but give me more credit. I monitored the system calls myself. Also VirusTotal isn't a virus scanner but rather a community driven aggregator. People leave comments and downvote when binaries do evil things.

"People leave comments and downvote when binaries do evil things."

There are just way, way, way too many binaries out there for even a large fraction of them to be commented on.

I would definitely not rely on such comments for my security.

Anecdotally, I've scanned a ton of stuff through VT and very rarely saw any comments on them at all. It happens sometimes, but not a lot.

The binary has to be used for evil a lot before people notice.

Sorry, I wasn't questioning your integrity, it was more a meta level question since I lack that ability to start looking at system calls and thought to myself "this looks cool, I can probably trust it, but am I making a rational choice or just being reckles because it's on a well known site and I think the concepts are cool".

(And sorry I posted hard today, I had too much caffeine and my weed supply dried up -- if I didn't have those issues you'd see most of my comments be more like this one.)

> I lack that ability to start looking at system calls

Let's fix that then. Which operating system do you use?

>I don't much believe in antivirus, as crooks can often find ways around them.

I have mixed feelings. It can be good to spot check things, but I think things like checking the firewall for odd traffic are probably better uses of resources.

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