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0 pointsembedding-shape1d ago0 comments

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.

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jack_pp23h ago

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

Demiurge21h ago

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.

jack_pp21h ago

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

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