What I'm Reading This Week (2024/9.8-9.14)
• By vski5 • 4 minutes readTable of Contents
- Trends
- 1. Chinese Stock Market Stops Publishing Daily Foreign Capital Flow Data
- 2. IT Industry Salaries in the First Half of 2024 from Russian Blog Хабр
- 3. Turing and the Turing Machine
- 4. Characters in Dostoevsky’s Works Often Have Symbolic Names
- 5. Spending More on Prices Ending in .99
- 6. AI That Replicates Voices
- 7. A Tool for Localizing Videos into Chinese
- 8. What Is Fair: Shoes Banned from the Olympics
Trends
1. Chinese Stock Market Stops Publishing Daily Foreign Capital Flow Data
A look back at the news from August 18, 2024.
- Halt on Daily Capital Flow Data: The Chinese Stock Exchange will stop publishing daily foreign capital flow data starting Monday, depriving investors of a key market sentiment indicator.
- Ongoing Foreign Capital Outflow: Global funds have been net sellers of Chinese stocks for several months, and 2024 may mark the first annual net outflow since 2016.
- Reason for Data Halt: Analysts believe the government is aiming to reduce market volatility and shift investor focus to long-term indicators.
- Weak Market Performance: The CSI 300 Index has dropped more than 9% since May, and China’s stock market has significantly underperformed compared to Japan and India.
2. IT Industry Salaries in the First Half of 2024 from Russian Blog Хабр
3. Turing and the Turing Machine
- Turing Machine and Modern Computing: Alan Turing’s invention of the Turing machine in 1936 laid the foundation for modern computing and is a major contribution to computational theory.
- Decision Problem: Turing addressed Hilbert’s Entscheidungsproblem, defining computability and proving that some problems are undecidable.
- How the Turing Machine Works: The Turing machine reads and modifies symbols on an infinite tape, determining whether to stop or continue based on rules.
- Universal Turing Machine: Capable of simulating any other Turing machine, providing the theoretical basis for modern computer design.
- Von Neumann Architecture: The 1945 architecture, based on the universal Turing machine concept, became the foundation of modern computing.
- Probabilistic Turing Machine: Generates different results based on probability, with practical applications in cryptography, optimization, and machine learning.
4. Characters in Dostoevsky’s Works Often Have Symbolic Names
From the academic review of Crime and Punishment:
The protagonist Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov (Родион Романович Раскольников): Raskol means ‘split,’ accurately capturing the character’s dual nature and worldview—kindness and cruelty, meekness and volatility coexist. He is extreme in everything, wavering between faith and doubt, bearing a lofty ideal of salvation while believing that the end justifies the means.
5. Spending More on Prices Ending in .99
Prices Ending in .99:
- Increased Spending: Studies show that .99 prices lead to higher consumer spending. For example, a $39.99 dress generated 48% more revenue than a $44 dress.
- Purchase Stimulation: Consumers are more likely to buy items priced at .99. For example, in a French cheese study, the purchase rate was 51.2% at .99 compared to 44.1% at .00.
- Budget Impact: Consumers spend more with .99 prices and find it harder to manage their budget. For example, a group exposed to .99 prices spent $75.38, compared to $71.70 for those exposed to .00 prices.
Psychological Factors:
- Anchoring Effect: Initial numbers influence perception. For example, Social Security numbers affected auction bids.
- Left-Digit Effect: Left digits impact perception. For example, $2.99 feels closer to $2.00 than $3.00.
Additional Information:
Stevens’ Power Law:
Brightness: To make light appear twice as bright, the bulb’s power may need to increase by four times.
Sound: To make sound appear twice as loud, the actual sound intensity must increase by 10 to 20 times.
Weight: To feel a weight as twice as heavy, the actual weight may need to be doubled or more.
Sweetness: To double the perceived sweetness of sugar, 1.7 times more sugar is needed.
6. AI That Replicates Voices
- Can train models in multiple languages with just a brief original voice sample.
7. A Tool for Localizing Videos into Chinese
- Video Download: Supports downloading YouTube videos via links. Whether it’s a single video, a playlist, or multiple videos from a channel, everything can be easily downloaded.
- AI Speech Recognition: Uses advanced AI to efficiently convert video speech into text. It provides accurate speech-to-text conversion, automatically aligns timestamps, and identifies different speakers, significantly enhancing the richness and accuracy of information.
- Large Language Model Translation: Combines large language models like GPT for fast and accurate Chinese translation. Whether it’s slang or technical terms, appropriate translations are provided, ensuring accuracy and authenticity.
- AI Voice Cloning: Uses AI voice cloning technology to generate Chinese voices similar to the original video narration. This improves the viewing experience while retaining the original video’s emotion and tone.
- Video Processing: Integrates multiple functions such as audio-video synchronization, subtitle addition, video playback speed adjustment, and frame rate settings. Users can generate high-quality final videos according to their needs, ensuring a seamless viewing experience.
- Auto Upload: Supports automatic uploading of the final video to the Bilibili platform. Users can upload videos to Bilibili without leaving YouDub-webui, achieving one-click video localization.