thw_9a83c (u/thw_9a83c)

thw_9a83c commented on A love letter to the CSV format (2024) medialab.sciencespo.fr/en... · Posted by u/jordigh

joz1-k · 12 hours ago

Except that the "comma" was a poor choice for a separator, the CSV is just a plain text that can be trivially parsed from any language or platform. That's its biggest value. There is essentially no format, library, or platform lock-in. JSON comes close to this level of openness and ease, but YAML is already too complicated as a file format.

thw_9a83c · 11 hours ago

The notion of a "platform" caught my attention. Funny story: About five years ago, I got a little nostalgic and wanted to retrieve some data from my Atari XL computer (8-bit) from my preteen years. Back then, I created primitive software that showed a map of my village with notable places, like my friends' homes. I was able to transform all the BASIC files (stored on cassette tape) from the Atari computer to my PC using a special "SIO2PC" cable, but the mapping data were still locked in the BASIC files. So I had the idea to create a simple BASIC program that would run in an Atari 8-bit PC emulator, linearize all the coordinates and metadata, and export them as a CSV file. The funny thing is that the 8-bit Atari didn't even use ASCII, but an unusual ATASCII encoding. But it's the same for letters, numbers, and even for the comma. Finally, I got the data and wrote a little Python script to create an SVG map. So yes, CSV forever! :)

thw_9a83c commented on Chat Control Must Be Stopped privacyguides.org/article... · Posted by u/Improvement

latexr · 2 days ago

> I already explained that I did my part and the result was hopeless. Perhaps you should do your part, too.

What I see in your post is that you tried to explain to a few people in your life what Chat Control is, it was an utter failure, and now you’re spreading defeatism to strangers on the internet.

In contrast, everyone in my life I explained it to understood that it is an urgent problem and that it must be stopped. Consider that your explanation might’ve been the problem, and that truly doing your part involves learning from the mistake and improving the messaging, or at least encourage others who can do it better, or at the very least not discourage them, which has the same effect as supporting the bad outcome. We need people ready for action, not defeatists bringing everyone down. You’re hurting yourself and the cause by doing so.

> Besides, I'm not a defeatist at all, because I know GnuPG!

That is incredibly naive. What does that even matter, in a world where everyone around you is surveilled.

thw_9a83c · 2 days ago

> ...and now you’re spreading defeatism to strangers on the internet.

It's more like I took a bit cynical view about the current situation. However, this view is based not only on my own experience, but also on what I read in the linked article.

  - 14 EU countries in favour of Chat Control
  - 5 EU countries not in favour 
  - 8 EU Undecided / Unclear

So this technologically absurd solution to a given problem is clearly gaining traction. Perhaps it's a good thing that my cynical perspective is so triggering to random strangers on the internet.

> That is incredibly naive. What does that even matter, in a world where everyone around you is surveilled.

I think this comment was unnecessary. My notion of GnuPG was humorous satire.

thw_9a83c commented on Chat Control Must Be Stopped privacyguides.org/article... · Posted by u/Improvement

latexr · 2 days ago

> Chat control is going to happen sooner or later.

Even if that is true—which you don’t know, because you cannot predict the future—later is definitely better than sooner. Later is worth fighting for.

Your defeatist attitude is exactly what these bad actors want, you’re playing right into their hands. Thankfully not everyone thinks like you, or Chat Control would have passed first time and no positive change would have been enacted ever about anything.

thw_9a83c · 2 days ago

I beg your pardon. :) I already explained that I did my part and the result was hopeless. Perhaps you should do your part, too. Don't bother arguing on Hacker News, because it has no material effect on the EU population outside the narrow IT crowd. Besides, I'm not a defeatist at all, because I know GnuPG! However, the non-IT EU civilians who also coincidentally agreed with this, are unfortunately lost.

thw_9a83c commented on Chat Control Must Be Stopped privacyguides.org/article... · Posted by u/Improvement

asdff · 2 days ago

Of course the elephant in the room is all of this content and bad behavior predates the internet entirely. The internet is used because it is more convenient than mailing polaroids to a dead drop address. Not because it enables anything that wasn't happening previously. Makes it a little easier perhaps, but even that is arguable given the oversight today.

thw_9a83c · 2 days ago

This "bad behavior" could easily regress into encrypted files stored on CD-R discs and distributed via the postal service at any time. However, we will all suffer from an invasion of privacy due to constant, non-transparent online monitoring. The real criminals won't notice anything, and the rest of us will simply accept that we are being constantly watched by mega-corporations, the police, and the government.

thw_9a83c commented on Chat Control Must Be Stopped privacyguides.org/article... · Posted by u/Improvement

eigenspace · 2 days ago

I dont think it should be taken as a given that it'll happen. While this may be something the public is generally in favour of or ambivalent towards, there's a LOT of EU countries and MEPs that are not at all in favour of this, and already a few EU countries whose courts have ruled that this would violate their constitutions.

While its certainly possible it'll happen, it's far from certain. It can be stopped. Of all the currently 'undecided' countries, if just Germany came out against it, that'd be enough to sink it. Germans are pretty pro-privacy people, and the government would win no popularity by supporting it. Even if the German government supported it though, the German MEPs would likely still end up mostly voting no

thw_9a83c · 2 days ago

I know there are some countries that are surprisingly sane in this respect, and Germany is one of them. Also, the EU parliament is probably still mostly against it, too. So it will certainly be some time before this happens. However, we should never underestimate the "salami" method, this matter will certainly go through.

thw_9a83c commented on Chat Control Must Be Stopped privacyguides.org/article... · Posted by u/Improvement

thw_9a83c · 2 days ago

As both an EU citizen and a computer programmer, I applaud this article, and I generally agree with its sentiment. But let's be realistic. Chat control is going to happen sooner or later. This is a Hacker News forum. The audience here is very knowledgeable about computer science and fully aware of how technologically impractical the idea of fighting CSAM in this way is. But the general public is somewhere else entirely. They genuinely believe that this will help, to whatever they think it will help. They have no idea that real CSAM distributors will simply adapt by encrypting files into ZIP (or whatever) with strong passwords or using different channels. I've tried explaining this to some of my non-IT friends and family members. I think they now think I'm a pedophile. It's kind of stupid for a father of two teenage daughters, but that's the general public. They want it; they'll get it.

thw_9a83c commented on An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia simonwillison.net/2025/Au... · Posted by u/tosh

bodge5000 · 9 days ago

The thing I always tell those who heavily trust its output is to ask it something you either already know the answer to or are something of an expert in; the flaws become much more evident.

The old joke is that you can get away with anything with a hi-vis vest and enough confidence, and LLM's pretty much work on that principle

thw_9a83c · 9 days ago

A super heavy overconfidence of any LLM is what confuses a lot of people.

thw_9a83c commented on An LLM is a lossy encyclopedia simonwillison.net/2025/Au... · Posted by u/tosh

thw_9a83c · 9 days ago

Yes, LLM is a lossy encyclopedia with a human-language answering interface. This has some benefits, mostly in terms of convenience. You don't have to browse or read through so many pages of a real encyclopedia to get a quick answer. However, there is also a clear downside. Currently, LLM is unable to judge if your question is formulated incorrectly or if your question opens up more questions that should be answered first. It always jumps to answering something. A real human would assess the questioner first and usually ask for more details before answering. I feel this is the predominant reason why LLM answers feel so dumb at times. It never asks for clarification.

thw_9a83c commented on Search engine referral report for 2025 Q2 radar.cloudflare.com/repo... · Posted by u/vgeek

thw_9a83c · 9 days ago

Apparently there is only a single country from the list where Google is not the first player: Russia (Yandex). China and most Asia are not listed.

And the only country where Google has less than 90% market share and the 2nd options is not Bing: Czechia (Seznam).

Other countries with less that 90% Google market share are: Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, United States (Bing)

thw_9a83c commented on C++: Strongly Happens Before? nekrozqliphort.github.io/... · Posted by u/signa11

jcranmer · 9 days ago

No, that's not the thing I'm talking about. Those are the different ordering modes you can specify on atomic operations.

Rather, there's a panoply of definitions like "inter-thread happens-before" and "synchronizes-with" and "happens-before", and those are the ones I don't follow closely. It gets even more confusing when you're reading academic papers on weak memory models.

thw_9a83c · 9 days ago

Those are also described on that page:

    Sequenced-before, Synchronizes with, Inter-thread happens-before, Simply happens-before, Happens-before, Strongly happens-before

..and more definitions.