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	opus6: format more articles - tgtimes - The Gopher Times
	git clone git://bitreich.org/tgtimes git://enlrupgkhuxnvlhsf6lc3fziv5h2hhfrinws…
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	---
	commit a4635b292a3162295158a6ebf1a182dd04bcb1a7
	parent a490b2664631b88b9b72da536fc98f46af996d35
	Author: Josuah Demangeon <[email protected]>
	Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2022 21:39:41 +0200

	opus6: format more articles

	Diffstat:
	M opus6/article-ig0r-I-Hate-Modern-T… \| 18 +++++++++---------
	M opus6/article-katolaz-formatting-p… \| 2 +-
	M opus6/article-mort-the-tar-archive… \| 21 +++++++++++++++++++--
	M opus6/article-seirdy-An-experiment… \| 302 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++…
	M opus6/article-tgtimes-byte-mag.mw \| 4 ++++

	5 files changed, 335 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
	---
	diff --git a/opus6/article-ig0r-I-Hate-Modern-Technology.mw b/opus6/article-ig0…
	@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ I Hate Modern Technology
	.
	.PP
	Modern technology sucks.
	-This might be me behaving like a pathetic little angsty hipster or trying to L…
	+This might be me behaving like a pathetic little angsty hipster or trying to L…
	.
	.SS
	Planned Obsolesence
	@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Technology is being designed to fail.
	Apple purposefully makes batteries fail on their devices and solders them in s…

	.PP
	-Lenovo’s quality has gone down the shitter.
	+Lenovo's quality has gone down the shitter.
	Thinkpads used to be thick, bulky, and rugged such that a caveman could use it…
	New models bend and creak, the hinges breaking after several years of use whil…
	.
	@@ -28,10 +28,10 @@ Modern Software Sucks
	.
	.PP
	Modern software is just bad.
	-Here’s a few reasons why…
	+Here's a few reasons why...
	.
	.IP \(bu
	-It’s idiot proof, in that I have little control over settings and configurat…
	+It's idiot proof, in that I have little control over settings and configuration
	.
	.IP \(bu
	Software has become synonymous with adware (see Microsoft putting ads into exp…
	@@ -43,26 +43,26 @@ I have to pay money for it (fuck you, if I could copy-paste…
	Smartphones
	.
	.PP
	-Smartphones are the most annoying little shits, and for some reason they’ve …
	+Smartphones are the most annoying little shits, and for some reason they've be…
	.
	.PP
	Restaurants are starting to ditch regular menus in favor of QR codes to be sca…
	Why?
	Paper is more reliable.
	This is a step backwards in my opinion.
	-What if I don’t have a data plan?
	-What if I don’t carry a smartphone?
	+What if I don't have a data plan?
	+What if I don't carry a smartphone?
	.
	.PP
	Also why does everything have to be an app?
	Why does my passport have to be an app?
	-I’m perfectly happy carrying around paper ID (paper ID doesn’t spy on my).
	+I'm perfectly happy carrying around paper ID (paper ID doesn't spy on my).
	.
	.SS
	People are idiots
	.
	.PP
	-Most companies justify making technology suck more by saying it’s ‘easier�…
	+Most companies justify making technology suck more by saying it's ‘easier' a…
	.
	.PP
	Stop making easy and more convenient.
	diff --git a/opus6/article-katolaz-formatting-paragraphs.mw b/opus6/article-kat…
	@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ case, as you might have noticed, the magic number is 72). But…
	they manage to do that?
	.
	.PP
	-Most common editors have a command to format a paragraph ('M-q' in
	+Most common editors have a command to format a paragraph (`M-q` in
	Emacs, 'gwip' or '{gq}' in vim normal mode, etc.). But obviously,
	there are several Unix tools that can help you getting the right
	formatting for your files. We are talking of fold(1), fmt(1), and
	diff --git a/opus6/article-mort-the-tar-archive-format.mw b/opus6/article-mort-…
	@@ -1,7 +1,24 @@
	-.SH mort.coffee
	-The tar archive format
	+.SH tgtimes
	+GNU tar(1) extraction is quadratic
	.
	.PP
	+When implementing something from the ground, it gets possible to build-up a si…
	+Easy to implement, fast to adopt, supporting everything you need from it, and …
	+Likely an alternative to a huge elephant in the room: the current standard in …
	+.
	+.PP
	+Why bother, then, with implementing the huge and difficult file format or prot…
	+Maybe because it would be used by many software, and writing data in this slig…
	+.
	+.PP
	+In this compromise, a limit can be drawn, across which the big and bloated for…
	+.
	+.PP
	+.\fImort\fR is exploring this limit in the context of the GNU tar(1) archive f…
	+.
	+.PP
	+The result is a new tar implementation written for the single special-case of …
	+.
	.FS
	https://mort.coffee/home/tar/
	.FE
	diff --git a/opus6/article-seirdy-An-experiment-to-test-GitHub-Copilot-s-legali…
	@@ -1 +1,303 @@
	+.SH seirdy
	+An experiment to test GitHub Copilot's legality
	+.
	+.QS
	+This article was posted on 2022-07-01 by Rohan Kumar
	+.FS
	https://seirdy.one/posts/2022/07/01/experiment-copilot-legality/
	+gemini://seirdy.one/posts/2022/07/01/experiment-copilot-legality/index.gmi
	+.FE
	+and is now republished on this newspaper, with permission (CC-BY-SA 4.0).
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Preface
	+.
	+.PP
	+I am not a lawyer.
	+This post is satirical commentary on:
	+.
	+.IP \(bu
	+The absurdity of Microsoft and OpenAI’s legal justification for GitHub Copil…
	+.
	+.IP \(bu
	+The oversimplifications people use to argue against GitHub Copilot (I don’t …
	+.
	+.IP \(bu
	+The relationship between capital and legal outcomes.
	+.
	+.IP \(bu
	+How civil cases seem like sporting events where people “win” or “lose”…
	+.
	+.PP
	+In the process, I intentionally misrepresent how the judicial system works:
	+I portray the system the way people like to imagine it works.
	+Please don’t make any important legal decisions based on anything I say.
	+.
	+.PP
	+The only section you should take seriously is “Context:
	+the relevant technologies”.
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Introduction
	+.
	+.PP
	+GitHub is enabling copyleft violation \fBat scale\fR with Copilot.
	+GitHub Copilot encourages people to make derivative works of source code witho…
	+This facilitates the creation of permissively-licensed or proprietary derivati…
	+.
	+.PP
	+Unfortunately, challenging Microsoft (GitHub’s parent company) in court is a…
	+their legal budget probably ensures their victory, and they likely already hav…
	+How can we determine Copilot’s legality on a level playing field? We can cre…
	+.
	+.PP
	+A chat with Matt Campbell about a speech synthesizer gave me a horrible idea.
	+I think I know a way to find out if GitHub Copilot is legal:
	+we could use its legal justification against another software project with a s…
	+Specifically, against a speech synthesizer.
	+The outcome of our actions could set a legal precedent to determine the legali…
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Context: the relevant technologies
	+.
	+.PP
	+Let’s cover the technologies and actors at play before I start my evil monol…
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Exhibit A: GitHub Copilot
	+.
	+.PP
	+GitHub Copilot is a predictive autocompletion service for writing software.
	+It’s powered by OpenAI Codex,
	+.FS
	+https://openai.com/blog/openai-codex/
	+.FE
	+a language model based on GPT-3.
	+.FS
	+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPT-3
	+.FE
	+It was trained using the source code of public repositories hosted on GitHub, …
	+In response to a Request for Comments from the US Patent and Trademark Office,…
	+.FS
	+See Comment Regarding Request for Comments on Intellectual Property Protection…
	+https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/OpenAI_RFC-84-FR-58141.pdf
	+.FE
	+.
	+.PP
	+Many of the code snippets it suggests are exact copies of source code from var…
	+For an example, see this tweet:
	+I don't want to say anything but that's not the right license Mr Copilot.
	+.FS
	+https://nitter.net/mitsuhiko/status/1410886329924194309
	+https://twitter.com/mitsuhiko/status/1410886329924194309
	+.FE
	+by Armin Ronacher
	+.FS
	+https://lucumr.pocoo.org/about/
	+.FE
	+It contains a screen recording of Copilot suggesting this Quake code.
	+.FS
	+https://github.com/id-Software/Quake-III-Arena/blob/dbe4ddb10315479fc00086f08e…
	+.FE
	+When prompted to do so, it obediently fills in a permissive license.
	+That permissive license violates the Quake code’s GPL-2.0 license.
	+Copilot provides no indication that a license violation is taking place.
	+.
	+.PP
	+GitHub performed its own research into the matter.
	+.FS
	+I doubt anybody worth their salt would count on a company to hold itself accou…
	+.FE
	+You can read about it on their blog:
	+GitHub Copilot research recitation,
	+.FS
	+https://github.blog/2021-06-30-github-copilot-research-recitation/
	+.FE
	+by Albert Ziegler.
	+.FS
	+https://github.com/wunderalbert
	+.FE
	+I’m not convinced that it accounts for the fact that suggested code might ha…
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Exhibit B: The Eloquence speech synthesizer
	+.
	+.PP
	+I recently had a chat with Matt on IRC about screen readers and different type…
	+I mentioned that while I do like some variety, I always find myself returning …
	+.FS
	+https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/
	+.FE
	+He shared some of my fondness, and also shared his preference for a similar sp…
	+.
	+.PP
	+Downloads of Eloquence are easy to find (it’s even included with the JAWS sc…
	+Nuance acquired Eloquent Technology, the developer of Eloquence.
	+Microsoft later acquired Nuance.
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Eloquence sample audio
	+.
	+.PP
	+Matt recorded this sample audio clip of Eloquence reading some text.
	+.FS
	+https://seirdy.one/a/eloquence.mp3
	+.FE
	+The text is from the introduction of Best practices for inclusive textual webs…
	+.FS
	+https://seirdy.one/posts/2020/11/23/website-best-practices/
	+.FE
	+.
	+.QP
	+My primary focus is inclusive design.
	+Specifically, I focus on supporting underrepresented ways to read a page.
	+Not all users load a page in a common web-browser and navigate effortlessly wi…
	+Authors often neglect people who read through accessibility tools, tiny viewpo…
	+I list more niches in the conclusion.
	+Compatibility with so many niches sounds far more daunting than it really is:
	+if you only selectively override browser defaults and use plain-old, semantic …
	+.
	+.PP
	+I like the Eloquence speech synthesizer.
	+It sounds similar to the robotic yet predictable voice of my beloved eSpeak NG…
	+Unfortunately, Eloquence is proprietary.
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Exhibit C: Deep learning speech synthesis
	+.
	+Deep learning speech synthesis
	+.FS
	+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_learning_speech_synthesis
	+.FE
	+is a recent approach to speech synthesizer creation.
	+It involves training a deep neural network on voice samples, and using the tra…
	+One synthesizer using deep learning speech synthesis is Mozilla’s TTS.
	+.FS
	+https://github.com/mozilla/TTS
	+.FE
	+.
	+.PP
	+Zero-shot approaches could allow a pre-trained model to generate multiple diff…
	+YourTTS
	+.FS
	+https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2112.02418
	+.FE
	+is one such example.
	+This could allow us to synthetically re-create a person’s voice more easily.
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+My horrible plan
	+.
	+.PP
	+My horrible plan revolves around going through two different lawsuits to set s…
	+.
	+.PP
	+If this succeeds, we have new legal justification that GitHub Copilot is illeg…
	+It’s a win-win situation.
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Part One: set a precedent
	+.
	+.IP 1.
	+Train a modern text-to-speech (TTS) engine using the voice a proprietary one m…
	+Keep the model’s internals hidden.
	+.
	+.IP 2.
	+Then release the final TTS under a permissive license.
	+Remember, we’re still keeping the machine-learning model hidden!
	+.
	+.IP 3.
	+Wait for that company to file suit.
	+.FS
	+If the stars align, you could file an anticipatory suit against the company.
	+It’s common for declaratory judgement regarding intellectual property rights.
	+
	+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaratory_judgment
	+.FE
	+.
	+.IP 4.
	+Win or lose the case.
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Part Two: use that precedent against Microsoft’s Nuance
	+.
	+.PP
	+Our goal here is to get the same legal outcome as the low-stakes “trial run�…
	+.
	+.PP
	+Microsoft owns Nuance.
	+Nuance previously bought Eloquent Technology, the developers of the Eloquence …
	+.
	+.IP 1.
	+Repeat Part One against Nuance speech synthesizers, including Eloquence.
	+Go to court.
	+.
	+.IP 2.
	+Have the ruling from Part One cited as legal precedent.
	+.
	+.IP 3.
	+Achieve the same outcome as Part One, demonstrating that we have indeed set pr…
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Implications of the outcomes
	+.
	+.PP
	+If we \fIwin\fR both cases:
	+Microsoft has the legal high ground.
	+Making a derivative of a copyrighted work using a machine-learning algorithm a…
	+.
	+.PP
	+If we \fIlose\fR both cases:
	+Microsoft does not have the legal high ground.
	+We have good judicial precedent against Microsoft to use when filing suit for …
	+.
	+.PP
	+Either way, it’s an absolute win for free software.
	+Taking down Copilot protects copyleft from enabling proprietary derivatives (a…
	+But if we accidentally win these two low-stakes “test” cases, we still gai…
	+we can liberate huge swaths of proprietary software, starting with speech synt…
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Update: on satire
	+.
	+.PP
	+This post isn’t “satire through-and-through” like something from The Oni…
	+Rather, my intent was to make some clear points, but extrapolate them to absur…
	+I don’t think I was clear enough when doing this.
	+I’m sorry.
	+.
	+.PP
	+Copilot has been found to suggest significant amounts of code that is dangerou…
	+It does this without disclosing obligations that come with those works’ lice…
	+Training a model on copyrighted works may not be wrong in and of itself; howev…
	+Copilot’s users could apply proprietary licenses to the generated works, def…
	+.
	+.PP
	+When a tool almost exclusively encourages problematic behavior, the makers of …
	+GitHub and OpenAI have not demonstrated a sufficiently careful approach.
	+.
	+.PP
	+I don’t think that “going after” a smaller player just to manipulate our…
	+The fact that this idea seems plausible to some of my readers shows how warped…
	+Even if it’s accurate (I doubt it’s accurate, but I’m not certain), it�…
	+Judicial systems incentivise too much predatory behavior.
	+.
	+.
	+.SS
	+Corrections
	+.
	+It’s come to my attention that Eloquence may or may not still belong to Nuan…
	+Further research is needed.
	+Eloquent Technology was acquired by SpeechWorks in 2000.
	diff --git a/opus6/article-tgtimes-byte-mag.mw b/opus6/article-tgtimes-byte-mag…
	@@ -1,2 +1,6 @@
	+.SH tgtimes
	+BYTE Magazine Covers
	+.
	+.PP
	https://bytecovers.com/
	https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine