skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Do you trust your government to not abuse "But they could?" types of capabilities?

I don't. I've seen what the FBI claims, that they then magically find ways around the "impenetrable encryption" they claim they can't break (but then do), and I don't trust them to not require Apple to add hashes of "things they find problematic," and include a gag order with it so Apple can't report it.

I've worked computer security long enough to know that it's always worse than advertised, always will be abused, etc.
Concerning economies of scale, usually AFAIK the more coins you stake, the more of a say you have in how blocks are propagated.

That's to me similar, if not worse than with PoW.
It is because natural variation (including a variety of multi-year cycles) far exceeds the long-term warming trend. So global warming shows up as an increased frequency of extreme events when natural variation and warming coincide. But variation is still dominant.

However extreme events become more extreme. We are now seeing extreme events that simply would not have been possible without global warming. For example the 2011–2017 California drought was the most extreme drought in at least 1200 years. And yet, here we are again in what's shaping to be an even more extreme one. And going forward, droughts like this one are going to become common.
There are many truths.
Ive already had covid. I am immune and don’t spread it. I already meet your requirements. But why must I go further and modify my body unnecessarily?
I'm happy to see people held accountable for being scummy human beings but this does raise the question of where the line will be drawn and who gets to make that decision.
Lawsuit incoming? How this is possible if this seems to go 180° against them previously pretty much putting a privacy guarantee in EULA.

Will they announce an EULA change, reversing the guarantee, and freeze anybody who haven't clicked it through?

I thought Apple was one of a kind company brave enough to put such a guarantee in writing.
There is no solution to searching private data that I am going to find acceptable.

* If the "target" database is secret, then government entities are free to use a "CSAM" database to monitor dissidents by adding their own items of interest to the target list.

* If the "target" database is public, the only way to validate its contents is to ... traffic in child sex abuse material. That's not great.

Basically, there is no way to create and validate this database in public view. I don't need yet another flavor of secret policing in America.

This doesn't seem like a problem that can be solved without compromising my privacy.

I would rather the problem went un-solved than allow the state to rifle through all of my private files to "prevent the distribution of child sex abuse material," knowing full well the state will define that "material" however they like, then use parallel construction to prosecute dissidents whenever they have gotten information illegally.
@dang why?
No, but I am in favour of communication this beforehand during the interview. There are on-site companies and companies who allow remote as well as companies working only remote. Also, I am in favour of making exceptions if you can prove that you are more productive within the course of several months and afterwards while being completely remote.
You can tell that I am suspicious to the remote == productivity mantra. Because we are working in a team unless you’re a freelancer or a one man project guy (which in a well managed company is a rare thing) and as human beings need eye to eye communication to work efficiently.
I believe the Canadian carbon tax is revenue neutral, and the amount collected is returned via income tax credits.
It seems presumptuous to speculatively be outraged and it seems unfair to assume that because a person was once employed by Facebook, their efforts at Mozilla will be corruptive. Lets wait and see.
It's also possible to put a two-stroke engine on a mountain bike and ride it on a limited access highway. But that's really not what the bike is meant for, and would almost never be the right way of going about things.
Yes, but the big exception to the fourth amendment are private searches. As long as it's not the government, or someone working on their behalf searching, it's not covered by the fourth amendment. The trend these days is to eliminate constitutional protections by farming the violations out to private corporations.
Yeah I guess that’s what I’m saying - whatever version of “lockdown” we’re currently in (which is simply recommended but not required masking in my city) is probably the “new normal”. The economy has proven it can function effectively and even grow GDP at this level. And covid is probably never going away given the intransigence.

I don’t think there’s political appetite to lock down things again. The left won’t go along with lockdowns this time; they’re too bitter at the right for causing this to drag out.
you seriously think they are going to stop at CSAM? that just their foot in the door. a Generation ago, they would have used this to identify lgbt people for instance.
What about letting each person choose for themselves. If I want to work remote 100% of the time, I can. If I want to work only in the office, I can. If I want to work remote 3 days and in the office 2 days, I can. If I want to work 10 hours 4 days and take the 5th off, I can.
This is brilliant misdirection. The crypto is great, but where and how your content is scanned was never the problem to begin with, or at least, a small part.

The accuracy of not just the detection rate (there are some outlandish claims of once in billion here), but also the accuracy of the NCMEC database are really the main concern, as well as Apple keeping this system limited to this specific scope.

Interesting aside: I once attempted to get access to PhotoDNA, essentially the only insurance against malicious actors abusing upload fields on your website to "digitally swat" you (as has happened to a twitch streamer with an open Dropbox folder), and there is no way you'll get access without a department of lawyers. Why is NCMEC is so protective of an API with rate limits and automated reporting features and then would let Apple ship a bloom filter.
> getting your kids a phone in this day and age is a pretty terrifying experience

there is a really easy solution to this problem
>it would really suck to live in a world where just one entity had more than half ownership of a currency used by the people.

You mean, kinda like in the real world?

[1]:https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/worlds-billionaires-...

[2]:https://www.oxfam.org/en/5-shocking-facts-about-extreme-glob...
Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Already Sucks
I personally found the B.1.1.7 or B.1.351 nomenclature to be more understandable. This "Alpha" or "Delta" thing is so arbitrary. I don't even know what constitutes a variant of concern (Okay, I know a collection of scientists are sitting around in a committee deciding which variants "deserve" a Greek name... but given all the Greek names that have come out, they seem to have given out too many)

Ex: Why are we calling a variant "Delta-plus" ?? Shouldn't it just take the next Greek letter?
Algorithms can absolutely do the police work for crimes, provided they only perform searches that are supported with probable cause.
"""In 1970, the book The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species was published, written by David Mech. It was a success. The book helped to popularize the alpha concept, because many people referred to Mech's work.

Mech has written on his website that he repeatedly asked the publisher to stop printing the book because much of the information is outdated — including the concept behind the alpha wolf. Nevertheless, the book is still being sold."""

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-wolf-dont-alpha-males-females....
If this even comes close to doing any “recognition” on local content and isn’t just (as the article says) a simple lookup of known images through hashes, then that would be a massive scandal. So I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt until it’s clarified, as the only confirmed way it works is the image hash lookup.

There are words like “neural” and “trained” here, but no clear sign that there is actually any kind of image recognition that would risk false positives other than hash collisions.
You’re already completely trusting them if you’re using their device? I mean I get the privacy concern, but it’s odd that this is the line if you were fine with things before. That said I’m all for ditching the smartphone and best of luck to you
Fantastic, so is Apple going to notify me if someone is looking at the pics on my phone? No?

How about when Apple gets a NSL or other non-disclosable warrant and searches my phone with this tool? Still no?

Probably going to be a lot of leaked nudes by Apple soon.
OK. So if he gets paid a very large cash settlement, and maybe the people responsible for his case are disciplined or fired or sent to jail, then that solves the problem?

Or are you asking for something more general?
I really don’t understand why Apple is doing this. The vast majority of their customers aren’t involved in any of these illegal activities, so it only provides potential downside through false positives.

I’m also struggling to imagine scenarios where a child predator is clever enough to acquire illegal photos without triggering any number of internet monitoring mechanisms (e.g. honeypots, server logs with their IP address) who would then turn around and upload those photos to their iCloud account. Doesn’t make sense.

This is a really strange move.
If the reporting requirement was implemented, yes it would provide the IRS with more data that could be used to catch tax evaders. However, they should be able to get nearly all of the information they need from the USD-BTC edges (exchanges).

Effectively, I think what would have happened if this was enacted would be that all legitimate mining operations would move out of US, and the IRS still wouldn't get much data, just less tax revenue because those profits are no longer occurring on US soil by US entities.
It sure seems like this is two different techniques/technologies at work. There is a CSAM deterctor using a known database and then, it looks like, there is a separate model in messages for detecting pornographic content without a known database.
Yeah but that just blurs the image and notifies the parents. Pretty low impact for false positives.
This isn't about children! Children mean fuck all to these people. This is the surveillance state building more instrumentation and monitoring into the fabric of society. "Thinking of the children" is the time cherished tradition for pushing through abusive tech.

This will be used in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. And soon, it will be used against you.

The only relief I have is that Millennials and GenZ aren't having kids and many couldn't give two fucks about them "being protected" from imagined goblins at a cost to their convenience. Maybe this argument won't work anymore.
Oregon examines spyware investment amid controversy
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and iCliniq Launch MSKCC India
Would you upload your pictures for us, so you can demonstrate how you don't value your "privacy over children", whatever that meant?
Been writing code for pay since about 2000.

I think I've bit-shifted in anger, like... twice.

I 1000% could not do anything useful with them without consulting a reference, as with most anything else I don't do on an ~weekly basis.

[EDIT] rather, that's all bitwise operators. I know I've used them once (in a "write it once, never touch it again" kind of context) and maybe one other time but recollection's hazy. Just a basic bit-packing thing IIRC, for the one I recall.
What about the victims of the apple employees and government officials that exploit this?
I should have said really only benefits the rich/middle class.
The other giants put the tech pressure on Amazon, lol. Amazon was the last domino to fall for 2022
The lead eth developer Vitalik has an excellent blog post addressing what it takes to fork a blockchain- https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/03/23/legitimacy.html

The key takeaway is that yes, it's ultimately just controlled by majority agreement between users.
It never occurred to me before reading this post that someday child porn will inevitably be completely vanquished. Open to contradictory views, but my thinking is that someday, eventually, AI will be advanced enough to identify an image's content unambiguously and without error, just like a human user.

No human could possibly be unable to correctly identify an image of child porn, and someday algorithms will reach that point too. And once they do....it's probably not a big leap from there for browsers and operating systems to start denying the images altogether, just blacking them out and preventing their transmission over networks.

The flipside is that it is impossible for even a human to tell the difference between a 17yo and an 18yo, and moreover impossible for a computer (and arguably for a human) to know whether the user of a device is sending images of themself (i.e. a 17yo sexting with their bf/gf) or whether it's exploitation. That's harder.

So for like this new post from apple, this is going to be pretty shitty for high schoolers trying to sext their boyfriends and girlfriends.
This is incredibly disappointing. The sick criminals that run child pornography rings are not storing their material on iCloud.

The "This could be sensitive to view" screen is downright Orwellian. This technology could be used to scan for ANYTHING, completely undermining user privacy. It might just be CP today, but tomorrow it could be screenshots of protest material, whistleblower content, or anti-government memes.

I cannot express how sad I am Apple has decided to do this. It doesn't protect children, it won't catch any pedophiles, but it certainly WILL be misused in the future and create a chilling effect on what (politically dissident) content people are willing to store on their phones.
I’m calling the cops.
The US is also very good at issuing travel warnings that are very explicit about the risks [1] I am not aware of the DoS ever going from 'its all ok' to 'see ya, y'all on your own now!' Anyone that was in Yemen prior to 2/15 had (or should have) a very good idea of where things were going.

[1] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/...
Wow! I remember Kid Pix! The Wacky Brush implementation is excellent!!
I feel like I'm in the minority here as a tech worker, I can't wait to return to office full time and hopefully will be able to work in the office 5 days a week. WFH has just never worked well for me personally. I enjoy the physical separation between work and home, and even given the opportunity to work from anywhere in the world, I would still choose to live where I currently do (nyc).
You're tacitly giving consent by using their device and services.
Remember, Apple doesn't actually control the CSAM database (NCMEC). They almost certainly don't (and wouldn't want to) even have access to a reverse mapping between hashes and original images. A/The government(s) could (yes, theoretically - this is cryptography we are purportedly talking about, the onus is on them to prove they can't) easily slip in pictures/screenshots of political materials to have your account flagged. Even if it requires manual human review on Apple's end, the government could still (and has in the past) serve them with a warrant + gag order for "false" matches in the past.

Yes, it's all "they could" but with current technical solutions already providing some measure of protection against a corrupt or malicious government from cracking down on its citizens, anything that erodes from that freedom deserves to be held to such a high standard.
You are wrong. It's AI.

Citation: https://www.apple.com/child-safety/pdf/CSAM_Detection_Techni...
DtkshDemos
Does this include or exclude DEXes? It sounds like C) could mean that DEXes are not included (which would be good), but I'm not entirely clear on the legal definitions of some of these things.
They don't have the same amount of "their own" or "unobligated" time
It is a slippery slope argument, but wouldn't you agree that it's been proven by the past decade of events (e.g. Snowden) that we can expect governments to try (and succeed) to abuse originally well intentioned technologies to spy on anyone?
I think we've learned from experience that tech companies will happily exploit anything they’re capable of exploiting, and this new capability has plenty of potential for exploitation.

Searching everyone's media for evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but setting only one example of the kind of wrongdoing you're looking for is very susceptible to an actual slippery slope, given that there are plenty of other criminal activities they could start looking for should they decide that it's part of their mission.

The only thing that makes CSAM so attractive to go after is how disgusting society feels that it is. Up next could be reporting drug-related texts of known convicts to parole officers. Next could be drug-related texts of everyone to police officers. Next could be letting the police officers make their own searches, where they find everyone talking about a certain kind of political organizing.

We should refuse to accept even the first instance of this kind of thing.
> Using another technology called threshold secret sharing, the system ensures the contents of the safety vouchers cannot be interpreted by Apple unless the iCloud Photos account crosses a threshold of known CSAM content. The threshold is set to provide an extremely high level of accuracy and ensures less than a one in one trillion chance per year of incorrectly flagging a given account.

Are they saying that they physically can’t access your iCloud until the threshold is reached, or just that they “promise not to”?
Oh I know. I'm the parent who's kids constantly complain "everybody else has one" and keeps holding out.
pg_auto_failover is pretty great.
At some point, we're going to have to make a call about whether we want to live with the risks or continue distancing. Considering how much more contagious delta is, I suspect masks won't be enough on their own, beyond signaling that it's not safe and scaring people away.

Considering how not especially deadly covid is, I personally don't see masks and distancing as a long-term solution, but a lot of people disagree and seem perfectly happy spending the decade getting meals delivered and working from home.
> Emacs was famously used by “secretaries”

As a law student in 1980-81, I wrote a custom user manual for the law review editors and our admin to use Emacs and Brian Reid's Scribe formatter (on the Computer Science Department's TOPS-20 machine using a VT-100 terminal over a 9600 bps line). I was the only even-remotely technical person on the editorial board, but even so, we were all in heaven: Once manuscripts were typed into Emacs / Scribe by our admin, we didn't have to literally cut, paste, hand-mark, retype, etc., on paper as the editing process progressed. And it speeded up the production process because we sent "clean" edited manuscripts to the printer, as opposed to manuscripts with significant pen-and-ink proofreader marks; this dramatically reduced the time we spent reading and correcting galley proofs. (Electronic transmission to the printer was next on the experiment list but we graduated and left.) I'm sure that's why I've been an Emacs user ever since, and wrote keyboard emulators for WordPerfect and MS Word.
Nice summary 100%.
Against the use of your product for something harmful.
Might be my machine or whatever but Figma is significantly more pleasant to work with for me. Sketch is just "sticky" to the point that I really hate to use it.

Btw you can import Sketch files in Figma, so you can quite easily compare the two.

As a side note: I also really like the Figma design, auto layout is a game changer imo, component variants are also very nicely done. For UI it's really good, makes me very productive.

(For graphics I do still prefer Affinity Designer)
The "slippery slope" argument is not a fallacy. If you were in 2001 and told people what the state of data collection and privacy would look like in 20 years, they'd call you an absolute conspiracy nutjob. It was a national news story then that a printer driver phoned home. Now look at where we are at, and every loss of privacy has had some seemingly reasonable excuse.
Every wave in Poland happened roughly 3 weeks of opening schools (with new school year or after a lockdown).

There were just 3 waves and there wasn't a 4th one after last opening, but this might be due to vaccinations (esp of teachers) and horrible first 3 waves that might have infected most children and their families.
Its now well known that Giraffes pee on the shorter creatures after a video taped confession from one of them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IHhAKnCtKc
I'm pretty confident you're referring to the license change from the article and not an earlier license change, but June 30th is no longer 6 days ago.
If they're complaining about that then they haven't grown up enough to realize they don't need one right now.
You're putting words in my mouth. I said as blind as a coinflip.

And you've managed construe a total misapprehension of my intended point. A fairly simple medicine that has been deployed for a very long period of time, very well studied and understood, can still generate novel information. My point wasn't to squeeze mortality rates or make positions on the use and importance of penicillin, simply to evince readers the point there are still unknown unknowns, in practice, of something that's been widely proliferated for nearly a century.
A baker buys an oven which they use to bake bread. They sell the bread for dollars. Is that capital gains?
Seriously? For one, this is basically a warrantless search which is illegal (obviously they get around this because Apple is a private company). Also, trusting algorithms for critical things like this is beyond absurd.
And this creates a bad dichotomy. If half team is remote and other has is in office it creates a really unbalanced interaction pattern.

I agree with both perspectives and not sure what I prefer but do think the team should be consistent (all remote or all in person). I don't want to have standup with 8 engineers in person and 1 engineer remote on VC.
Covid Tracking Project Data Now Available in Dryad
> … but you now write twice the amount of code…

We could take some JavaScript programs —

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

— and try to transliterate them into Dart —

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

— and see how much or how little boiler plate is required when a language supports null safety, local type inference, implicit-dynamic: false ?
Safetyism, particularly with children, is the vehicle that is most often used to enable bad precedent-setting policies, because it can seem virtuous and morally acceptable in that single application. Here, Apple is using a "think of the children" argument to open the door on their intrusion into customers' private data and policing/moderation of the same. Google started doing this themselves recently (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23275308) and it is just as unacceptable here. I guess that's the end of me using or recommending Apple products.
I am no one. I have greatest respect for all Turing award winners.

But one thing I am wary is that LeCun - while special and excellent - is just as many others, working at a place where "AI" is already used to "engage people up" - it is just the nature of the business if you are in the engagement business. And your "AI" will gladly help you in all kind of subtle ways. What is also nice is that it's uncharted territory now, so you can freely roam - and engage the heck out of your audience.

And LeCun is just - as a "neutral" scientist - just doing his part.

Why can't he not work at FB? Money? Data?