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Not everyone is working with state secrets or user personal data (or even more closely guarded, company secrets) on a daily basis, most of what I hack on is either FOSS already, or will be, not much to keep secret here.

Obviously, if you do deal with any sort of secrets, then using local LLMs over OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek or whoever is obviously preferred, and in the case of personal data of users, probably a requirement.

by jack_pp2 hours ago|

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either this or you work on software that even if copied won't get you far since the business relies on network effects or pure networking.

Getting the source code of facebook or instagram doesn't mean you could compete with them.

I work for a company that has built relationship with event organizers over the past 10 years. The code I maintain could be written from scratch in maybe 2-3 months even though it was built over the past 10 years but besides that you have frontend / DB / hardware / logistics etc

by Demiurge44 minutes ago|

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I actually agree with you, for the most part. The code I work with actually does contain some valuable algorithms, but Im pretty sure the effort of integrating them into a larger system is pointless without the data. It’s almost like stealing half-life 2 source code without any assets.

Still, “Getting the source code of facebook or instagram doesn't mean you could compete with them.” I think to giants like that, having access to their source code could open up some very interesting loop holes for manipulating the ranking algorithms, or even security vulnerabilities.

by jack_pp38 minutes ago|

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True, haven't thought of that. However very few actual projects / companies are in a situation where the chinese GOVT would be interested to spend resources to hack your platform. For the ones that are afraid of that there's always self hosting of course

by oldmanhorton3 hours ago|

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You’re not a novice, there are a lot of us who know exactly what we are doing and see this as a huge downside. We are just being told to go faster, faster, faster lest we miss out on… something?

by jijji3 hours ago|

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there's laws on the books in China that says that every company operating in China must aid and abet the Chinese government in espionage against the rest of the world. given those facts, I find it deeply troubling to be using anything coming out of China, especially a program that runs in the context of a Linux terminal on a machine that might have something important on it. I'd argue it's a back door waiting to happen, if not sooner than obviously later.

by tim-projects31 minutes ago|

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Is it not better to have a country far away spying on you than your own country?

by goobatrooba55 minutes ago|

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As a European I have to admit I am these days more worried about the US than China. See yesterday's article about the US government forcing Microsoft to give them lists of Dutch government officials. Utter madness. At least the Chinese mainly care about the money and power levers, the US about strange worlds of revenge and manipulation, trying to change or influence your government. E.g. which of the two countries has put crippling personal sanctions on staff of the international criminal court?

Honestly I'd love to love the US again, but basically after Obama things have just gone down and down and no soul will trust the US again in the next generation or two.

by _3u101 hours ago|

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FISA section 702 / Five eyes / Room 641A.