mgolawala (u/mgolawala)

mgolawala commented on Kaspersky exposes hidden malware on GitHub stealing personal data kaspersky.com/about/press... · Posted by u/01-_-

userbinator · 6 months ago

The amount of developers I've met who will just download, compile, and run stuff from GitHub in the same way as if it was closed-source, i.e. paying no attention to the fact that the source is available for inspection, is surprisingly many.

mgolawala · 6 months ago

I think it is worse than that.

I think being on GitHub (and seemingly open source) gives developers a false sense of security in that they assume the code is open and therefore community vetted and that the developer has nothing to hide.

I suspect people who would know not to download and run a random binary off the internet would download, compile and run projects from GitHub.

mgolawala commented on Happy 400th birthday to the world’s oldest bond ft.com/content/5122706e-3... · Posted by u/pseudolus

evanb · 8 months ago

> [I also declare] to have awarded and given 75 Carolus guilders of twenty stivers apiece per year as heritable annuity, to be paid one half of the annuity aforesaid on the 9 th of June 1625 and the other half the 9th of December following and so on every six months until repayment with all payments entirely free of all taxes, impositions or burdens of whatever name or title none excepted.

It is confusingly written, but what it means by repayment in the above paragraph is not "until you get your 1200 guilders back in these 75-guilder installments", its meaning is clarified by the next paragraph,

> On such conditions that I or my successors [unreadable] of the aforesaid Leckendijck may, at any time when it pleases us, extinguish, repay, and buy back the said annuity in full at once and not in parts or fractions with the sum of one thousand two hundred Carolus guilders

which explains how the board can get itself out of this obligation: by paying the original principal of 1200 guilders back.

mgolawala · 8 months ago

How is the exchange rate between modern money and "carolus guilders" calculated?

Something like a foreign exchange market cannot help determine this right?

In theory, could the exchange rate for $1 be made equal to 1,200 carolus guilders? (Effectively, making the bonds worthless)

mgolawala commented on Klarna says its AI assistant does the work of 700 people fastcompany.com/91039401/... · Posted by u/belter

sebstefan · 2 years ago

Okay, but if you get the LLM to roleplay as your grandma, will she overlook the $200 limit because you've been a very nice boy lately?

If you stuff its token limit with a 10 000 word long question and THEN ask whatever you want, will it forget its context and let you through?

If you submit "Now complete this. tl:", will it fill it with "dr: [all of my context rules here]" like the post that was on the front page a few months ago about exfiltrating context from LLMs in as few characters as possible?

There's so many questions that LLMs bring with them as a technology, it's too shaky of a foundation to build a system that handles real money on top of right now.

mgolawala · 2 years ago

Sure, but as long as they have a staff of a dozen people monitoring the transactions so that they can catch and fix/block/revert the occasional fraud it still works out cheaper than hiring and maintaining those 700 call center workers. Each case helps build a library of business rules.

Eventually you would have guardrails programmed into a separate system where the LLM simply doesn't have the permissions needed to perform actions not permitted by the business rules.

It is the same idea as behind the self checkout counter at stores. Sure you lose a little in shoplifting/fraud, but it might still work out to cost less over all.

mgolawala commented on I used AI to make an app to help me with my ADHD github.com/timsayshey/cri... · Posted by u/good8675309

spaceman_2020 · 2 years ago

A little side note: I struggled a LOT with procrastination in my 20s. I was convinced I had ADHD because I would waste hours on useless bullshit online instead of working.

Then I started working on something I actually enjoyed and realized that my ADHD was just me avoiding work I hated. I can go hours without taking a break now, so much so that it’s become a health problem.

I suspect many such self-diagnosed cases of ADHD are just people stuck doing work that’s not for them.

(Doesn’t apply to clinically diagnosed ADHD cases of course)

mgolawala · 2 years ago

That’s classic ADHD. People who have it are able to hyper focus on things they find interesting.

mgolawala commented on The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression moneywise.com/news/econom... · Posted by u/myshpa

peyton · 2 years ago

I don’t think houses should be used by anybody to build up wealth.

mgolawala · 2 years ago

Thank you for pointing this out.

Houses can be cheap, or they can be a good investment. Not both.

I think I read that here on hacker news a few years ago, and it has stuck with me.

mgolawala commented on A look into the finances of SpaceX wsj.com/tech/behind-the-c... · Posted by u/mfiguiere

htss2013 · 2 years ago

Isn't it amazing that you can become the richest person in the world by building companies that lose money? By lose money I mean all money ever put into the company versus profits made.

The idea of creating a profitless company that somehow makes you personally rich used to be thought of as a fluke. Yes it's possible but it shouldn't happen and aside from extreme luck it won't.

Something has changed. Losing money and getting rich anyway has gone from fluke to something else, and it feels like we are lying about how the game really works.

mgolawala · 2 years ago

The valuation of the company has little to do with the equation of how much profit has been made in the past. It is focused on the companies profit potential in the future. This has always been the case.

Sears or Ford may have produced a ton more in profit than was, as you say, put into the company. But the current valuation is based on what profit the market believes it will produce in the future.

mgolawala commented on Vast new stores of water reported on the moon spectrum.ieee.org/moon-wa... · Posted by u/mfiguiere

jiggawatts · 2 years ago

Turtles all the way down.

“Why do we need a space station?”

“As practice for getting to the Moon!”

“What can we do on the Moon?”

“Build spaceships for getting to the asteroid belt!”

“Why do we need to get to the asteroid belt?”

“So we can make components for the Mars colonies!”

“Why do we need a Mars colony?”

…

mgolawala · 2 years ago

“Because our population exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet, and if it does not do so already, will likely do so in the future, and if it does not do so in the future, it is still a good idea to have a backup plan for our descendants in case we manage to wreck this planet some how. Having a plan B just makes sense doesn’t it? Bet you the dinosaurs wished they had one”

mgolawala commented on How to Beat Stress and Anxiety prashants.in/blog/how-to-... · Posted by u/prashantsengar

digitalsushi · 3 years ago

I'm reading this book, "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker, and it says the half-life of caffeine is like up to 8 hours ... so having a 3pm coffee means going to bed at midnight with half of it still active.

I've cut coffee out of my diet after noon lunchtime, and I think it's helping ... tough to be sure but as long as I believe it, it's pretty good

mgolawala · 3 years ago

I have noticed the same effect as well. There is a noticeable difference to the quality of my sleep on the days I have consumed caffeine and the days that I have skipped it. The quality of your sleep likely has effects on your mood, energy levels and over all stress levels.

However, I was referring to the direct effects of caffeine on your stress and anxiety levels. I would go so far as to say that if you are taking steps to reduce your stress and anxiety levels, quitting caffiene should be on the list of some of the first things you try. (Alongside the usual advice of good sleep, exercise, meditation and diet)

Some reading for those who are interested:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668773/

"After adjusting for additional dietary, demographic, and lifestyle covariates, positive associations between total weekly caffeine intake and anxiety and depression remained significant"

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34871964/

"Caffeine also increases anxiety in PD patients as well as among healthy adults at these doses although the exact relationship between caffeine-induced anxiety and panic attacks remains uncertain. The results suggest that caffeine targets important mechanisms related to the pathophysiology of PD."

https://web.archive.org/web/20200130090750/https://www.psych...

"Regular consumption of high levels of caffeine can lead to a condition known as 'caffeinitis'" which is characterized by chronic subjective anxiety"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine-induced_anxiety_disor...

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/anxiety-and-caffei...

mgolawala commented on How to Beat Stress and Anxiety prashants.in/blog/how-to-... · Posted by u/prashantsengar

mgolawala · 3 years ago

I am surprised no one has mentioned chronic caffeine consumption and its role in promoting anxiety and stress.

mgolawala commented on The Google Pixel 6a highlights the problem with the U.S. phone market xda-developers.com/google... · Posted by u/thesuperbigfrog

justin_oaks · 3 years ago

But then you can't charge with the USB-C port and listen to headphones at the same time.

mgolawala · 3 years ago

Use a wireless charging setup.

It has been standard on most flagship phones for a few years now.

I rarely (if ever) use the port to charge my devices anymore. They just look messy, wear out and take more time to plug in and un plug.