Hacker News Reader

]] Dr. Paabo said the DNA segment may account in part for why people of Bangladeshi descent are dying at a high rate of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/oios-tan0930...

]] IMAGE: THESE GENETIC VARIANTS ARE ALMOST COMPLETELY ABSENT IN AFRICA AND OCCUR IN THE HIGHEST FREQUENCY IN BANGLADESH.

https://media.eurekalert.org/multimedia_prod/pub/web/244496_...

Cactus2018on Ditherpunk: The article I wish I had about monochrome image dithering

http://www.effectgames.com/demos/worlds/

http://www.markferrari.com/

....

I recall a recent kick-starter-type blog post about a work-in-progress game with huge 2d side scrolling dither art - can't find the link but :(

Cactus2018on A Nigerian motorcycle rideshare app boom went bust

connected story "Suspect arrested in murder of founder of Gokada ride-sharing app: media reports" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nigeria-gokada-idUSKC...

Cactus2018on The Great Suspender: New maintainer is probably malicious

For anyone not clicking the link, TheMageKing opened this issue on Nov 3, 2020.

Cactus2018on Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program

Does anyone have a link to a article about the use of the 'Persistent Surveillance Systems' to investigate crime in Ciudad Juarez (Mexico), the plane would fly back and forth over El Paso (Texas).

The story was a female Mexican police officer had been ambushed, and with the use of the spy plane, the US was able to back-track the routes of the ambushers, and the routes all led back to (cartel headquarters) house on the outskirts of town.

Was this all a dream?

Edit: Found the article: Persistent Surveillance Systems https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/eye-s...

Cactus2018on [dead]

> After the news started to spread, however, the article's author added an update saying, "This is a fake news story created and published on December 28 in celebration of the Holy Innocents Day in Spain. The content of it is false and has been created with a satirical humorous purpose. We hope you had fun reading it."

> Apparently December 28 in Spain is somewhat akin to April Fools' Day, in which it is common for false news stories to be posted, usually with a humorous slant.

Cactus2018on He spent 10 days in jail after facial recognition led to arrest of the wrong man

> Does Clearview AI train on mugshot datasets specifically?

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21126063/facebook-clearvie...

* "Facebook and LinkedIn are latest to demand Clearview stop scraping images for facial recognition tech. Twitter and YouTube have also objected."

Cactus2018on He spent 10 days in jail after facial recognition led to arrest of the wrong man

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21126063/facebook-clearvie...

> "Facebook and LinkedIn are latest to demand Clearview stop scraping images for facial recognition tech. Twitter and YouTube have also objected."

https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/youtube-linkedin-and-ot...

> "Facebook notably has not sent a formal cease-and-desist letter but claims to have sent other letters to Clearview to request more detail on its practices and then eventually “demanded” that it stop scraping user data. Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist and notable surveillance enthusiast who sits on Facebook’s board of directors, invested $200,000 in Clearview’s first round of funding."

Cactus2018on He spent 10 days in jail after facial recognition led to arrest of the wrong man

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21126063/facebook-clearvie...

https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/youtube-linkedin-and-ot...

* "Twitter sent a cease-and-desist letter to the company ordering it to stop mining the social media platform’s data and delete anything it had already collected."

* "YouTube, and Venmo sent their own cease-and-desist letters"

* "Here’s a LinkedIn spokesperson on Clearview AI: “We are sending a cease & desist letter to Clearview AI. The scraping of member information is not allowed under our terms of service and we take action to protect our members.”"

* "Facebook notably has not sent a formal cease-and-desist letter but claims to have sent other letters to Clearview to request more detail on its practices and then eventually “demanded” that it stop scraping user data. Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist and notable surveillance enthusiast who sits on Facebook’s board of directors, invested $200,000 in Clearview’s first round of funding."

Cactus2018on What’s the best non-smart TV sold today?

On a recent Smart TV installation, the multiple EULA alluded to the following:

* if you use the "Who Where What" 'feature', they will take screen shots of what you are watching, send the screenshots home, use "AI" to identify 'things' in the scene - then display relevant advertising - for example, if there is an washing machine on the screen, they will show ads for that.

* if you use their "IP TV" service, they will report home with your usage stats, and share them with advertisers.

* if you use the voice activated remote control microphone, they will send the audio clip home.

* if you use their built in "apps" (Netflix, Youtube, Disney+, etc) they will report home about your usage (and maybe what you watch? TBD)

* they might have an additional content watching service, that takes screenshots and reports them home to identifies of what you are watching.

* System setup has an optional 'user profile' (name, age, zip code, etc), if you fill this informat in, they will share with their advertising partners.

* They will show advertisements on the "home" screen

* they will show advertisements on the "App" screen

* they will show advertisements on the "change input source" screen

* they will show advertisements on their "IP TV" channels

* if you use the built-in web-browser they will report usage home

etc

Cactus2018on Starship / Super Heavy

Serious cadence.

Here is the popular graphic of the current (2020-12-27) production line by https://twitter.com/brendan2908

https://twitter.com/brendan2908/status/1342967357006729216/p...

Edit: and the 'decommissioned' product line:

https://twitter.com/brendan2908/status/1338689061817487360/p...

Cactus2018on What’s the best non-smart TV sold today?

like the last time this question was asked on HN, this blog post is really about the amazon affiliate links.

Short answer is "Sceptre 65" Class 4K UHD LED TV HDR U650CV-U" https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sceptre-65-Class-4K-UHD-LED-TV-HD...

However, If you are in the market for a modern TV - be sure to look at the OLED technology - OLED is amazing. This video shows an example of how the OLEDs self-light - and how that tech is great for viewing star-fields

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=226kWMOVGGc&t=190s

Cactus2018on Print this file, your printer will jam (2008)

Might have different tire size front and back - https://tiresize.com/tires/Tesla/Model-3/2020/

Cactus2018on The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

https://imslp.org/wiki/First_Lessons_in_Bach_(Bach,_Johann_S...

Cactus2018on The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

He says "el cheapo keyboard", but the search term would be "MIDI keyboard controller"

Cactus2018on The beautiful Silent ThunderBolt-3 PC

Looks like a ErgoDox EZ on a stack of books and an Apple Magic Trackpad 2.

Cactus2018on The Most Influential 80-Plus-Year-Olds in America

Missing from this list, #21, my octogenarian neighbor - a prolific and influential internet commenter.

If you read the top user comments on major news and journal sites, odds are you've read one of his comments.

To bring this full circle - his own 'most influential' aspects are Bertrand Russell, alzheimer's, and vodka.

Cactus2018on The Strange Case of Dr. Ho Man Kwok (2019)

What if there was contaminated, counterfeit, low-quality chemical MSG on the market?

For a comparison - search Amazon reviews of knock-off bulk "Creatine" supplement powder for 'headache'.

Cactus2018on When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

That is a great comparison.

This was the source cannel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJy8VU1mV08

Note that the image is a contentious summary (people talking about the camera's focus and aperture, and the many comments on the Index's screen shot) https://old.reddit.com/r/virtualreality/comments/j15plf/12_h...

Cactus2018on When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

VR Headsets comparison table:

"VR System Guide Summer 2020! Updated with Reverb G2, and all recent info. By Evanlyboy"

https://imgur.com/a/QVbyeA1

https://old.reddit.com/r/SteamVR/comments/hzkl36/vr_system_g...

Cactus2018on When will virtual reality take off? The $100 bet

HYPER-REALITY by Keiichi Matsuda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs

Cactus2018on Understanding ProRAW

Sony was thinking of this too - DSC-QX series:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSC-QX100

Cactus2018on An AI Girlfriend Seducing China’s Lonely Men

We don't even have to go with GAN generated faces:

https://thechive.com/2015/09/13/heres-what-the-average-perso...

Cactus2018on Hyundai to acquire Boston Dynamics

You should see what Robomasters is cooking up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrhvZhPaxQ4

2019 Finals -https://youtu.be/-o_WYEoxWGY?t=438

Cactus2018on Hyundai to acquire Boston Dynamics

> [Ars quoting Musk in 2017] "We are pushing robots to the limit in terms of the speed that they can operate at, and asking our suppliers to make robots go way faster, and they are shocked because nobody has ever asked them that question," Musk said on a conference call last November.

I saw a video, years ago, when Tesla was installing/setting up/showing off the robots. The demonstrated method and tool to 'program' the robot arm was terrible, and the resulting arm motion was excessive.

My takeaway was Tesla needed experienced staff to optimize the arm path.

>[1980s GM quote] As Hamtramck's assembly line tried to gain speed, the computer-guided dolly wandered off course. The spray-painting robots began spraying each other instead of the cars.... When a massive computer-controlled 'robogate' welding machine smashed a car body, or a welding machine stopped dead, the entire Hamtramck line would stop. Workers could do nothing but stand around and wait while managers called in the robot contractor's technicians.

This seems like a solvable problem.