HackerNews Summary (2023-06-08 07AM)

Source: Former exec at TikTok’s parent company says Communist Party members had a ‘god credential’ that let them access Americans’ data

Summary
A former head of engineering for ByteDance in the US, Yintao Yu, has alleged that Chinese Communist Party members accessed data held by the company to locate protesters in Hong Kong and had access to US user data using a “superuser” or god credential. ByteDance has denied the allegations.

Fact

📉 Yu’s wrongful dismissal court filing in San Francisco alleges that ByteDance violated California labor law, state data-privacy regulations and international human-rights law.

📱 The filing states that the Chinese Communist Party members viewed users’ data including their network information, SIM card identification, IP addresses and communications.

🚫 ByteDance has called the allegations baseless and claimed that Yu had “never raised these allegations in the five years since his employment” was terminated.

---

Source: The open source Vector Toolkit for Postgres

Summary
Vector Toolkit for Postgres using Supabase client libraries for embedding storage, indexing and querying at scale. Enables AI app development with existing Postgres and pgvector.

Fact

🔧 Vector Toolkit for Postgres using Supabase client libraries.

🏬 Enables storage, indexing and querying of vector embeddings at scale.

🧠 Enables AI app development with existing Postgres and pgvector.

---

Source: High paying tech jobs directory

Summary
The Sr. Product Specialist at PitchBook Data owns the EMS product area, serving as the subject matter expert and ensuring alignment with business and customer needs through regular check-ins and documentation.

Fact
💼 Owns EMS Product Area
💬 Serves as a Subject Matter Expert
🔍 Ensures Alignment with Business & Customer Needs
📝 Prepares Necessary Documentation
👥 Holds Regular Check-ins with Teams & Sta
💻 Skills: SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java

---

Source: Ask HN: What is the most cost effective way to do backups?

Summary
User wants to backup 500GB VM images optimally and with lowest cost. User doesn’t require 5 9s reliability and prefers to pay less and take the risk of service being less reliable. User is considering rsync.net and pCloud for this task.

Facts

💻 User wants to use a tool like rsync to backup VM images and doesn’t prefer closed source GUI.

💰 Rsync.net option costs $15/mo for 700GB.

💵 PCloud has a lifetime cost of $199 for 500GB.

🔍 User is looking for other cheaper options and willing to take a discount for slower retrieval and less reliable service.

💻 One option is to buy a used desktop with 1TB drive off Craigslist for $200 and pay for power themselves.

---