ResearchAtPlay

Do you happen to know if German citizens can obtain a certificate to sign PDFs (from the government / for free)?

Several paid providers for X.509 certificates exist but document signing certificates cost around 80 € per year [0]. And if I want duplicate X.509 certificates for my redundant Yubikeys then the cost doubles.

Other providers require an initial deposit and then charge per signature [1], which leads to intransparent pricing. In the interest of open commerce, I strongly believe that securely signing an electronic document should cost the same as my manual signature, i.e. nothing.

A partial solution already exists because I can use my electronic ID card with the AusweisApp to prove my identity when interacting with German authorities. This feature is generally useful because I live outside of the EU, but I especially appreciate that I can have my OpenPGP key signed by Governikus (a government provider) to prove the key belongs to my name [2].

Technically, I should be able to use my certified PGP key to sign documents, but in practice most non techies don't know how to validate my signature. For the average user opening my signed PDF in Adobe Reader, I would need an X.509 certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority for users to see the green check mark.

[0] https://shop.certum.eu/documentsigning-certifcates.html

[1] https://www.entrust.com/products/electronic-digital-signing

[2] https://pgp.governikus.de/wizard/requirements

Fascinating work and inspiring application of the underlying DINOv3 image segmentation model!

The blog post and paper [1] describe a promising approach to solving related problems at previously impossible scale and quality: I am currently exploring methods to better represent seasonal land cover changes that would improve wind power generation forecasting and this paper provides a great starting point.

I hope DINOv3 can inspire more work like this - and I would encourage any curious mind to play with that model! I was amazed by its capability to distinguish between fine object details. For example, in a photo of a bicycle, the patch embeddings cleanly separated the background from the individual spokes of the wheel.

[1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06382

This article discusses the DGX Spark GB10 GPU architecture from a hardware engineering perspective. The authors explain the trade-offs between datacenter Blackwell and consumer Blackwell chips, list key hardware features that evolved between GPU generations, and highlight some of the challenges that have resulted on the software side with incomplete support from Triton, Flashinfer, and various kernel incompatibilities.

This is great! I've forwarded the site to my wife.

Would you mind sharing how you trained the model to produce the vectors? Are you using a vision transformer under the hood with contrastive training against price, product category, etc.?

EDIT: I see that the training script is included in the repo and you are using a CNN. Inspiring work!

Makes sense. My main takeaway from the ColPali paper (and your comments) is that ColPali works best for document RAG, whereas vision model embeddings are best used for image similarity search or sentiment analysis. So to answer my own question: The best model to use depends on the application.

Thanks for the link to the ColPali implementation - interesting! I am specifically interested in evaluation benchmarks for different image embedding models.

I see the ColiVara-Eval repo in your link. If I understand correctly, ColQwen2 is the current leader followed closely by ColPali when applying those models for RAG with documents.

But how do those models compare to each other and to the llama3.2-vision embeddings when applied to, for example, sentiment analysis for photos? Do benchmarks like that exist?

Yes, you could implement image similarity search using embeddings: Create embeddings for the entire image set, save the embeddings in a database, and add embeddings incrementally as new images come in. To search for a similar image, create the embedding for the image that you are looking for and compute the cosine similarity between that embedding and the embeddings in your database. The closer the cosine similarity is to 1.0 the more similar the images.

For choosing a model, the article mentions the AWS Titan multimodal model, but you’d have to pay for API access to create the embeddings. Alternatively, self-hosting the CLIP model [0] to create embeddings would avoid API costs.

Follow-up question: Would the embeddings from the llama3.2-vision models be of higher quality (contain more information) than the original CLIP model?

The llama vision models use CLIP under the hood, but they add a projection head to align with the text model and the CLIP weights are mutated during alignment training, so I assume the llama vision embeddings would be of higher quality, but I don’t know for sure. Does anybody know?

(I would love to test this quality myself but Ollama does not yet support creating image embeddings from the llama vision models - a feature request with several upvotes has been opened [1].)

[0] https://github.com/openai/CLIP

[1] https://github.com/ollama/ollama/issues/5304

This article fundamentally misunderstands the role and purpose of bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy is tool to manage large, complex, and heterogeneous systems. Ideally, efficient and effective bureaucracy goes unnoticed. Why can I plug my laptop into the power outlet anywhere in Miami or in Vancouver and it just works? Why can I drive on the right side of the road from Toronto to San Diego and be reasonably sure that everyone else will drive on the right side as well?

Because humans have self-organized into a multitude of governments, standards organizations, and corporations that all align to produce the same shape of power plug and teach compatible rules-of-the-road across vast geographical distances and unrelated communities. Without bureaucracy, we humans would not be capable of building a global society.

Pointing to broken, ineffective, and inefficient processes to scapegoat “the bureaucrat” reveals an ignorance of the underlying mechanisms that make human society function.

EDIT: To those of you downvoting this comment, please let me elaborate.

I am tired of the trope of the lazy bureaucrat because I refuse to believe that inefficient government and corporations are inevitable.

I do believe that we must strive for efficient and effective government to improve our society because the potential benefits are immense.

Those improvements must be driven by competent and qualified leaders who understand and foster the advantages that result from collaboration, communication, and making choices that benefit society as whole.

A failure of bureaucracy is a failure of leadership!

The purpose of this tool is testing if a domain name system follows (or does not follow) the correct specifications:

IBDNS fills a gap in the universe of DNS test tools by offering the possibility of deviating intentionally and on demand from the DNS specifications, and thus simulating incorrect behaviour of authoritative name servers.

Voluntary carbon markets typically trade in both avoidance and removal (i.e. sequestration) credits. Since this site is called Carbon Dioxide Removal I would assume listed trades only cover sequestration, and my cursory review of the listed removal methods appears to confirm that only sequestered carbon trading is listed (but the methods section does not state this explicitly).

Regarding "is it paying for stuff that would have happened anyway, or is it somehow net removal?": One of the requirements for generating carbon credits is additionality, i.e. a project should only receive carbon credits if it were not viable without the revenue from those credits. But as you point out, determining additionality is rather difficult and often fuzzy.

Fantastic! This site provides an intuitive overview of carbon dioxide removal purchases sourced from six different market places and two registries. Metrics include carbon credit sales and deliveries, prices, names of suppliers and purchasers, and the method of carbon dioxide removal (e.g. direct air capture or biochar production).

I find this site useful to get an overview of the development of voluntary carbon markets and their recent rapid expansion. Voluntary carbon markets are fractured into several market places and registries, so getting an aggregate overview over all markets was somewhat difficult prior to discovering this site. Thank you for the submission!

This paper analyzes measurements of sound pressure levels on construction sites in Brazil to argue for better worker protection. The measurements provide valuable evidence to support better worker protection, but the manuscript would benefit from a more comprehensive discussion of the effectiveness of control measures.

For example, the authors suggest rearranging machinery to limit the number of workers exposed to their noise, but I would have liked to read at least a cursory analysis of how much such measures can reduce noise, and whether administrative or engineering solutions can sufficiently meet safe noise thresholds. If such analysis wasn't conducted within the scope of this work, then literature review could inform such discussion.

Edit: added lit. review recommendation

Does the article mention what type of natural gas facilities were shut down?

Large loads (compressors, pumps) usually consume a share of the gas they transport because gas is so much lower cost than electricity. I wasn't aware that any facilities have a large enough electrical load to become part of the voluntary load shedding program.

According to IRCC, 80% of Express Entry applications for permanent residency are approved on less than 6 months [1].

There are many different residency programs, some of which take longer than others, but the Express Entry program is probably the default option for most HN readers.

[1] https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se... economic immigration > skilled worker (federal) > I haven't applied yet

I am also in Canada and cannot load DDG via my university's vpn, but DDG works fine on my home internet connection.

I believe point 12 advises to avoid slides that try to impress by obscure complexity.

An offending example might be a slide showing complicated equations that remain unexplained by the presenter. I've observed many presentations where such slides are introduced as "this is the equation used to derive value X from earlier, but I am just going to move on to the next slide..."

edit: format

OP is probably correct, maybe even high in their 10 to 20 W/m^2 estimated average output for car mounted PV systems.

Rooftop mounted, optimally oriented PV systems at Seattle latitude have an annual capacity factor of ~ 14%. That means a 1 kW system will average 140 W output over a year. That system has a module area of about 4-7 m^2, equivalent to the area available on a sedan.

On a car that has suboptimal module orientation and solar exposure, "power density" (RE: Smil) is really low.

Efficiency improvements amplify cost reduction per kWh electricity: An ever growing share of PV system costs stems from every item that is not a a module (inverter, cables, labour etc). Modules are becoming cheaper faster than other components, so reducing module costs further has diminishing returns.

In contrast, taking your module efficiency from 20% to 21% increases electricity generation by 5% and thus reduces costs per kWh by 5%.

The Inter Planetary File System has the potential to radically change content hosting to become truly decentralized. This report names some of the most pressing barriers to widespread adoption of ipfs.

In my opinion the biggest issue is terrible documentation on ipfs.io (as noted by the report). The "Getting Started" page fails to explain the basic structure of ipfs and uses jargon that isn't defined. This lack of documentation prevents even tech savvy users from adopting ipfs.

Their model uses night-time lighting data collected by the SUOMI-NPP satellite to infer medium-voltage grid connections. Grid paths are based on Dijkstra’s shortest path, with accommodation to follow roads and avoid water. The authors state an accuracy of 70 % of their model predicting grid paths within 1 km of existing power lines. Prior attempts to model grid paths using satellite imagery failed due to the diversity of shape and orientation of poles, and false positives attributed to vegetation, shadows and similar infrastructure.

The rationale for creating this model is the lack of up-to-date electric grid location data, especially in developing countries. While I find the approach fascinating and well documented, I think the error in this model’s results is much too high for further use. I would not want to rely on any electricity system planning that utilizes these model results, because the model may omit entire branches of the grid.

Can anyone think of any useful applications of these model results?

148 g/km seems to be the default number. I got that same number for two different routes that were entirely located within British Columbia and Alberta, respectively. The problem is that British Columbia has an electricity emissions intensity of about 30kg/MWh while Alberta's is about 600kg/MWh. Hence, this website does not use correct electricity emissions data.

Maybe you can partner with the folks over at https://www.electricitymap.org/ to improve the emissions data?

I imagine that they've done a lot more good for the world recently than the UN has

No, they have not! I am not sure by what metric one can compare FIFA and the United Nations, but I don't think you you are familiar with the breadth of the UN's work. Selected achievements from their results page [1]:

-Every year we mobilize about $7 billion in humanitarian aid to help people affected by emergencies.

-Every year we assist over 34 million refugees and others fleeing war, famine and persecution.

-We vaccinate 40% of the world’s children, saving 2 million lives a year.

-In 2011 the UN will provide food to around 90 million people in 73 countries.

-In the past few years, the UN has expanded legal international rights to indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, migrants and their families.

FIFA is merely better at marketing...

[1]http://www.un.org/en/strengtheningtheun/results.shtml

I can confirm that Scotia Bank, another major Canadian bank, does not support 2FA. This has always bothered me and is especially concerning because Canadian bank accounts can be used to log into Canada's immigration services (CIC). That immigration account is protected only by one more layer of self-selected security questions, after which the intruder potentially has access to a swath of personal data, including passport numbers, and a very detailed personal history section.

In my opinion, Canadian banks are way overdue to switch to 2FA.

The problem boils down to: What is a fair electricity price to charge a company that adds very little benefit to the local economy? Two approaches would be: 1) charge the going local rate and treat them like any other business. 2) Charge the export rate to recover the lost revenue from outside electricity sales.

1) This is unfair, because it drives up local costs for everyone without providing local economic benefit.

2) I argue this is still unfair, because the export rate alone does not capture the value and revenue of the ability to provide backup power services (i.e. load shaping+ and firming generation++).

Across the northern border, BC Hydro has also been flooded with miners asking to purchase power. The province is powered ~98 % by hydro and residential electricity rates are ~0.07 – 0.09 $US/kWh. Power export services subsidize local rates. Revenue from export services (~15 %) & revenue from local rate payers are set to recover utility costs, while maximizing economic benefit to the province. The export rate (i.e. the price of electricity that physically flows across the border) represents only a fraction of the revenue from export services. Hydro exports have the ability to shape load+ and firm contracts for power++. The key is that power doesn’t necessarily flow across the border when load shaping and firming contracts are in place. But customers pay good money for the ability to call upon that power when it is needed. That ability is diminished by the additional electricity demand of miners. The value of that ability is not captured in the raw export rate.

+load shaping service: Import/export power so that the net-load a customer sees matches that customer’s contracted or self-generation.

++firming generation: Provide backup power to a customer who has agreed to provide power to a third party at a certain time. Should the generators of the customer fail, the exporter will quickly ramp up production to fill the gap.

---

To those calling for “free markets”:

Determining a fair rate to charge miners is difficult, because the economics of hydro power systems work differently than most other liberalized electricity markets. In liberalized markets, all generators bid how much electricity they are willing to supply at which cost, for the next hour or so. Then you stack all the cheapest generators until your demand is satisfied and, voila, that last dispatched generator dictates your market price for that hour. Large consumers can buy electricity at that fluctuating market rate, or choose to shut down. Here, miners would pay the marginal cost, fair enough. Markets with large hydro power stations can’t work like that. Withholding a large dam from generating electricity gives the operator enough “market power” to be the price-setting generator every hour year round, which gives that operator the ability to dictate prices.

(edits: formatting)

When looking through job postings I watch out for this type of statement: “Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.” which means that I can’t expect any reply if I am not selected for an interview. Dear recruiters, this is not OK, ever!

I put a day or two into a job application. (Which may be excessive, but it leads to a high conversion rate). Preparation includes researching the company, their products and projects, their history and my possible contribution – and tailoring my application package to their needs. If the company can’t be bothered to write me a short email “Nope, sorry. HR.” then that company is not worth my time.

In effect, “Only short-listed candidates will be contacted” tells me: “1) We are too lazy or incompetent to set up a mass email reply. 2) We don’t care about candidates enough to save them the time and stress of unnecessary follow-ups.” By extension, I will assume that company does not care about its employees either and has effectively disqualified itself from my becoming a part of their team.

Every form of electricity production consumes an array of limited natural resources. Wind and solar power don't have no direct CO2 emissions, but minerals need to be mined, plenty of clean water is consumed during manufacturing, and wildlife habitats are impacted by land-use change (wind and solar plants have a comparatively larger land footprint than fossil fuel plants).

Fun Fact: The article says Bitcoin mining consumes ~1.1 GW of power. There is currently a massive political struggle over the construction of "Site C", a 1.1 GW Hydroelectric dam in British Columbia, Canada. Construction on that dam began last year, but public opposition caused a new provincial government to review the dam construction. The dam will flood 93 square kilometers of land but produce 5.1 GWh of low-carbon electricity annually, about 53% of the articles assumed Bitcoin mining consumption of 9.6 GWh (which is = 1.1 GW x 8760 hours/year). Whether construction of the dam will be cancelled or resumed, the decision will be controversial! (The decision will be announced before the end of the year).

In summary, bitcoin mining from renewable energy sources is desirable, but bitcoin mining (and all other forms of computing) will always have some negative impact. That is something we need to be aware of.

Perhaps this membrane is also interesting for electricity production. From the abstract:

CNTPs block anion transport, even at salinities that exceed seawater levels

High salinity levels that occur in some mining processes could produce electricity via pressure-retarded osmosis. Reaching adequate flow rates through membranes has been a barrier to this tech in the past [1].

As a slightly off-topic question: Does anyone know of any industrial processes where high volumes of fluids with high salinity concentrations occur? I am doing some research on where this technology could be applied.

[1] www.nature.com/articles/nature11477