MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by remus | 2025-04-22 11:14:19+00:00
This matches my experience. In practice there's just a lot of stuff (libraries, function names, arguments that go in, library implementation details etc.) you need to remember for most of the programming I do day to day, and AI tools help with recalling all that stuff without having to break out of your editor to go and check docs.

For me this becomes more and more relevant as I go into languages and frameworks Im not familiar with.

Having said that you do need to be vigilant. LLMs seem to love generating code that contains injection vulnerabilities. It makes you wonder about the quality of the code it's been trained on...
by palata | 2025-04-22 11:14:43+00:00
Most software developers I know have no clue how open source licences work.

Hell, I have been reading a lot about them (including the licences themselves and stuff like the GPL FAQ) many times, and in situations like this it's still not entirely clear to me what Microsoft should do (surely there are different valid ways to handle this).

Would you consider yourself competent as a lawyer regarding open source licences? If not, can I say that "you apparently never learned it" and aren't better than the rest of us?
by wantoncl | 2025-04-22 11:16:29+00:00
This reminds me of driving home after seeing The Matrix in the theater in 1999. I was on the parkway wondering why everything was moving so slowly, not quite bullet time but definitely slow.

I look at the speedometer and I'm doing 95-100 mph on Southern State Parkway. I then had the "snap" and slowed back to normal. Everything felt even slower, the sensation lasted for about an hour after I got home.

Inception also had a strange drive home after, not speed, but the trees didn't seem real, the sky, everything was heightened, almost dreamlike. It had rained too, so there was some more similarity to the movie, minus the car chases and rollovers.
by neural_thing | 2025-04-22 11:16:47+00:00
I tested o3 on a medical issue I've had that 50+ doctors couldn't diagnose over the span of 6-7 years, ended up figuring it out through sheer luck. With my first prompt, it gave a list of probabilities, with the correct answer being listed as the third most likely. It also suggested correct tests to run for every option. I trust it way more than I trust human doctors who were confidently wrong about me for years.
by jmye | 2025-04-22 11:16:55+00:00
> by an HHS secretary with no qualifications in medicine or science.

Yup. Even if they perfectly secure the data and there’s somehow no grift involved, this is a nonsense study led by an idiot who has no credibility or capability to interpret any of the data he sees in the first place.

I’m not sure if it’s a comfort that I think he truly believes he’s helping, or if that makes it more terrifying that someone this clearly and obviously incompetent is in appointed leadership.
by MauryMarkowitz2 | 2025-04-22 11:17:43+00:00
> DEC could have ruled the world

No way.

DEC's entire corporate structure was based on a particular business model that demanded their products sell for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands per sale.

They tried many times to break out of this box, but failed every time. There was simply too much of the company invested in selling into a particular size of customer, and its weight meant that they could not survive, for instance, selling individual small computers to end users.

You can see this right to the end: even when they came out with Alpha it was targeted 100% to what was then the high-end of the new server-based market. Sure they made workstations, but only grudgingly, and with the hope that it would be part of a network containing at least one of their higher-end servers.
by mehulashah | 2025-04-22 11:18:55+00:00
I find that people often conflate search with analytics when discussing Deep Research. Deep Research is iterated search and tool use. And, no doubt, it’s remarkably good. Deep Analytics is like Deep Research in that it uses generative AI models to generate a plan, but LLMs operations and structured (tool use) are interleaved in database style query pipelines. This allows for the more precise counting and exhaustive search type use cases.
by ignoramous | 2025-04-22 11:18:59+00:00
> ... small slice and find some payloads append large amounts, write your own append that preemptively is more aggressive in cap bumping before calling the builtin append ...

gVisor netstack (userspace TCP/IP) uses a copy-on-write, reference-counted, tiered-pool for their arena-like alloc needs: https://gvisor.dev/blog/2022/10/24/buffer-pooling/ / https://archive.vn/YzB1C

The downside of their approach is, the client code is no longer dealing with just []byte (although, both the View and the Buffer type can vend out []bytes).
by daeken | 2025-04-22 11:19:54+00:00
> (Imagine if we protected against SQL injection or XSS using statistical methods that only caught 99% of attacks!)

For what it's worth, we do that all the time: WAFs (web app firewalls). I can't begin to tell you the number of applications whose protections against XSS and SQLi were a combination of "hope we got it right" and "hope the WAF covered us where we didn't".

Once consulted on an M&A vetting gig, where they pulled me after a day because the sheer number of critical findings meant that there was no way that they would move forward. They used the WAF+prayers method.
Show HN: I made a documentation tool for Jira projects
by fabienfr | 2025-04-22 11:20:16+00:00
For the past 6 months, I’ve been building Docai, a tool to automate project documentation from Jira.

As a dev, I’ve worked on too many projects where documentation was missing, outdated, or written too late. Most of the time, we had to dig through Jira tickets to understand what was built and why. It was painful.

So I decided to fix that.

Docai reads your Jira releases and generates clean, structured documentation automatically.

Here’s what it does:

- Generates documentation from Jira tickets (based on versions/releases) - Builds an incremental feature tree to follow the evolution of your product - Multi-language support (docs can be generated in English, French, Spanish, German… more to come) - Everything is editable — both the tree and the textual docs - PDF export for sharing outside your org - Syncs with Jira — no need to copy/paste anything

We’re still early so would love your feedback and opinions. Feel free to try us out for free (free trial/no credit card needed) – and there’s a demo project so you can test the tool before connecting your Jira.

Website: https://docai.so Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y25e1RhkwSI
by fc417fc802 | 2025-04-22 11:22:06+00:00
See my note about physical hardware. Ignoring the possibilities of nanotech for the moment the appropriate analogy is most likely mechanized warfare between groups of humans. The point is that if they are in conflict with some subset of humans then it seems likely to me that they are also in conflict with some subset of AGI and possibly in league with some other subset of humans (and AGI).

Rather than covid picture armed Boston Dynamics dogs except there are multiple different factions and some of them are at least loosely in favor of preventing the wanton murder of humans.

Nanotech takes that scenario and makes it even more opaque than it already was. But I think the general principle still applies. It isn't reasonable to assume that all AGI are simultaneously hostile towards humans while in perfect harmony with one another.
by Cthulhu_ | 2025-04-22 11:22:25+00:00
You can still get netbooks or "small laptops" with 10-12" screens from Asus, Lenovo, etc. But they're not very good, definitely aimed at a budget market.

The next best thing is e.g. the Surface Laptop Go with 12.4" screens. Any higher and you have e.g. the Macbook Air.

But as another commenter pointed out, a tablet with stand / keyboard is likely the best alternative nowadays.
by Akasazh | 2025-04-22 11:22:29+00:00
The use of the word 'insane' is a bit strong of you don't mean disrespect.

I do support your enthusiasm for the topic and applaud your critique of the article.

But your argument seems to be: the authors didn't pay much respect to the science, in favor of clickbait; they should've read work of fiction instead.

I cannot asses how scientifically accurate Kim Stanley Robinsons' writing is, but he's a doctor of literature rather than a astrobotanist.
by Calwestjobs | 2025-04-22 11:25:03+00:00
another insane thing is having 40 Gbps USB ports used as a networking cable between two PCs... Why there is still no project which can do this by simply installing trivial driver (in windows) and 4 line patch to enable this in linux? just charge 2 dollars per year and youll be milionaire (until LTT / MS catches up and steals it from you )

It is even possible to have linux machine act as a display port sink to be used as a capture card, for streamers, youtubers,... with 0 dollar investment, 0 hardware...
by HALPER_AI | 2025-04-22 11:25:22+00:00
Hi HN! We're Launching HALPER: a digital assistant designed to help beauty professionals (like hairstylists, barbers, nail techs, and massage therapists) automate bookings, client management, and reduce burnout. Many beauty pros struggle with juggling appointments, cancellations, follow-ups, and staying consistent on social media. HALPER solves this by offering: - AI-powered scheduling - Auto-reminders and rescheduling - Pre-filled templates for posts & stories - A clean dashboard that keeps everything in one place

We’re currently in beta and looking for early testers , freelancers, salon owners, or anyone offering beauty services. Feedback is more than welcome on the idea, the product, or the landing page: https://www.halperr.com

Thanks for checking it out!
by InsideOutSanta | 2025-04-22 11:25:25+00:00
Yeah, same. I have had three Synology boxes over the last 20 or so years, and they have been super reliable, easy to use, and easy to update. The last one is important to me because I would, over time, add more disks and, when the drive bays were all full, replace smaller disks with larger ones.

The first one I bought is still in service at my parents' place, silently and reliably backing up their cloud files and laptops.

I was fully expecting to buy more in the future, but this is a dealbreaker. If a disk goes bad, I want to go to the local store, pick one up, and have the problem fixed half an hour later. I do not want to figure out where I can get approved disks, what sizes are available, how long it will take to ship them, etc.

I've recently installed Unraid on an old PC, and the experience has been surprisingly good. It's not as nice as a Synology, but it's not difficult, either. It's just a bit more work. I've also heard that HexOS plans to support heterogeneous disks, and I plan to check it out once that is available.

So that's the direction I'll be going in instead.
by Longwelwind | 2025-04-22 11:26:19+00:00
> Berulis found that on March 3 one of the DOGE accounts created an opaque, virtual environment known as a “container,” which can be used to build and run programs or scripts without revealing its activities to the rest of the world. Berulis said the container caught his attention because he polled his colleagues and found none of them had ever used containers within the NLRB network.

This feels funny to read, for some reasons.
by throwaway743 | 2025-04-22 11:27:04+00:00
From the article:

> “However, this is not a study that anyone should look at and say, ‘Jury’s in, and cannabis use causes dementia,’” Myran said. “This is a study that brings up a concerning association that fits within a growing body of research.”

From the study:

> Individuals with acute care due to cannabis use were at lower risk than those with acute care due to alcohol use.
by pyfon | 2025-04-22 11:27:48+00:00
I am on holiday now and want something similar. Get me from A to B but with a memorable heuristic that I can use if I leave at any time. E.g. "if you catch a 134 or 175 bus to Kings station then get the metro 3 stops to Cental station.". Even better if you add some landmarks.

This may exclude some clever routes that shave off 3 minutes if you do the correct parkour... but it means I can now put my phone down and enjoy the journey without tracking it like a hawk.
by fc417fc802 | 2025-04-22 11:29:30+00:00
My prediction is approximately that all of the above get created in various quantity by different groups of people at approximately the same time. Hardware fabrication in the real world is a (relatively) slow process. In such a scenario it seems far from certain that a single AGI would decisively gain the upper hand. The ensuing chaos seems completely impossible to predict much of anything about.
by sz4kerto | 2025-04-22 11:29:49+00:00
If we ever sell this (which we don't plan to), I know what to install (it'll be quite good, just not this perfect). I have it in a cupboard (a Siemens Connected Home thermostat system), the downside of that is that the combined UFH+radiator rooms will be less comfortable.

(But still more comfortable than 99% of the houses I've been in.)

I haven't mentioned in the parent comment but as a test I've dismantled the HA system and installed the Siemens system and it works well, just not 'perfectly'.
by kqr | 2025-04-22 11:30:31+00:00
What does it even mean to "output pixel"? The SVG format can be displayed with pixels, as can TARGA, JPEG, PNG, PostScript, and many others. Which format do you expect it to do, and why is that specific format the benchmark? Did your nephew produce the correct JPEG bytes in a minute?

Surely you don't expect a language model to move a child's hands and arms to produce the same pencil strokes. It would be the "do submarines swim like fishes" mistake again.
by est31 | 2025-04-22 11:30:45+00:00
> All objects within our universe rotate, including planets, stars, solar systems, galaxies, and galaxy clusters. Moreover, black holes, spherically symmetric objects with horizons, display near maximal rotation as presented by Daly (2019). The idea that everything revolves [...] naturally extends to the whole universe, as hinted by recent claims of anisotropic Hubble expansion in X-ray observations by Migkas et al. (2021). Furthermore, a plausible syllogism is that the universe has near-maximal rotation, motivated by cosmologies where the universe is the interior of a black hole (Pathria 1972).
by jbverschoor | 2025-04-22 11:31:42+00:00
Synology sells hardware and you get the software without yearly license.

Investors want bigger returns. They know they will not get away at this point by selling a monthly license. A large percentage would not buy anymore.

What other options do you have for recurring revenue? Cloud storage, but I don't think that's a great success.

And then... yes, harddisks. They are consumable devices with a limited lifespan. Label them as your own and charge a hefty fee.

The disks in a (larger) NAS setup are more than what the NAS costs. They want a piece of that pie by limitting your options.

No more syno for me in the future
by isp | 2025-04-22 11:32:16+00:00
I agree on both points, and with the earlier comment:

> I would love to know what processes MS is considering to prevent this in the future as well as what kind of auditing might be done to look at other projects that started as forks.

In response to:

> ... going to make sure we improve our processes to help us be better stewards in the open-source community.
by itiwaru | 2025-04-22 11:32:44+00:00
The drives I have obtained ahead of failure only after drives have been used past the 8 year mark are for a rebuild. I would hardly call them spares.

I did end up with a spare before at the 3 year mark but the bathtub curve of failure has held true and now that so-called spare is 6 years old, unused, too small of a drive, and so never planned to be used in any way.

The conventional wisdom is that you should not store drives that don't get spun up infrequently, so what does it mean to have spares unless you are spinning them up once a month and expecting them to last any longer once actually used?
by InsideOutSanta | 2025-04-22 11:33:03+00:00
I would count supported third-party apps like SyncThing as part of the app ecosystem. You can add the SynoCommunity repository to your Synology and install SyncThing directly, which is pretty nice.

It's a bit more convenient than how other solutions, like Unraid, handle this, where you manually configure a Docker container.
by tux3 | 2025-04-22 11:33:27+00:00
The LHC also has a public Grafana (mostly for cryo stuff): https://dash.web.cern.ch/dashboards/

And there used to be a very fancy LHC dasboard at http://meltronx.com/index.html

Unfortunately the site breaks with HTTPS and modern browsers (mixed content isn't allowed anymore, and they never updated it). It has to be http://.
by robertlagrant | 2025-04-22 11:34:11+00:00
This is a very good idea. I see a lot of friction (and lack of process) with product -> UX -> dev than with product and dev able to iterate on things like screen flows very quickly, and UX feeding in more from the user research angle.

Currently a lot of UX work is "translate what you said into Figma and wait for comments" which is very automatable, and I think frustrating for UX people as much as anyone.
by Red_Tarsius | 2025-04-22 11:34:26+00:00
Cybersecurity is not my main field but this sounds beyond suspicious.

> Berulis [...] and his colleagues grew even more alarmed when they noticed nearly two dozen login attempts from a Russian Internet address (83.149.30,186) that presented valid login credentials for a DOGE employee account — one that had been created just minutes earlier. Berulis said those attempts were all blocked thanks to rules in place that prohibit logins from non-U.S. locations.

> “Whoever was attempting to log in was using one of the newly created accounts that were used in the other DOGE related activities and it appeared they had the correct username and password due to the authentication flow only stopping them due to our no-out-of-country logins policy activating,” Berulis wrote. “There were more than 20 such attempts, and what is particularly concerning is that many of these login attempts occurred within 15 minutes of the accounts being created by DOGE engineers.”

Somehow each paragraph reveals something even worse than the last.

> Berulis [...] and the associate CIO were informed that “instructions had come down to drop the US-CERT reporting and investigation and we were directed not to move forward or create an official report.” Berulis said it was at this point he decided to go public with his findings.
by bluGill | 2025-04-22 11:34:26+00:00
Tests and proofs cover very different things. For large code bases getting all the requirements rights is nearly impossible while tests tendto be obvious - even if we don't have the requirements right (or at all) this one fact is true in this one case. However the marjority of cases are not covered at all and so you only hope they work.

both have their place.
by sschueller | 2025-04-22 11:34:55+00:00
The Russian IPs may also be a ploy by people at DOGE to cause doubt about the security of the NLRB to get play at a court in order to not disclose company secrets required for cases.

I guess DOGE wanted to write a report how they saw Russian IPs login in but it back fired because the people at NLRB have proof DOGE created the accounts.

EDIT: edited for clarity.
by memsom | 2025-04-22 11:36:10+00:00
Yeah - but they were there when I was a kid in the 70's and 80's so predates the notion of Estuary English. They come more from the fact Portsmouth had a big influx of dock workers from East end of London at one point. The vowels are completely different. Where london would take "town" and make it "taahn" (like a long ah sound) we say "teihn" (to rhyme with plane, but not pure, more breathy, hence my h) - it's not a pure. I would "oy" like in "boy". The vowels are very Hampshire.
by SpaceNugget | 2025-04-22 11:36:17+00:00
The part I was indicating was incorrect was your usage of "could" It's not something they "could" do, it's something they MUST do.

Like saying I choose to not be the richest person in the world. Sure it could be technically true, but the statement is incorrectly implying that it's up to me, or within my power to make the alternative choice.

It's very strange that you keep using these intentionally awkwardly phrased, misleading-adjacent statements.

The rest of your comment is attempting to refute something no one made a case for in the first place, which coupled with the rest of it makes it seem like you are just trying to argument-bait, so I'll tap out here.
by Woodi | 2025-04-22 11:37:27+00:00
No, christianity is not only for poor. Jacobins do jacobins propaganda.

In article "rich young man is mentioned" - uh, oh, hi should give everything! Let's see:

- first Jesus answered: obey commandments in your life - that rich man duty too.

- then when he answered he do that since his young years Jesus proposed him to leave everything behind - it was explanation what this man was looking for: heart tied to earthy things. And invitation.

Not everyone should be monk but definitely we need more peoples devoting lives for others good: nurses, teachers.

And that story shows bright like sunlight that riches make your life miserable - and this article tries to state exactly reverse thing :> Who you trust? I recommend Jesus over Lucis.
by K0balt | 2025-04-22 11:38:49+00:00
The only bar to using local is having the hardware and downloading the model. I find it nominally easier to use than using the openAI API since the local API isn’t picky about some of the fields (by default). Agentic flows can use local 90percent of the time and reach out to god when they need divine insight, saving 90 percent of token budgets and somewhat reducing external exposure, though I prefer to keep everything locally if possible. It’s not hard to run a 70b model locally, but the queue can get backed up with multiple users unless you have very strong hardware. Still, you can shift overflow to the cloud if you want.
by moooo99 | 2025-04-22 11:40:00+00:00
> The counterargument is, people won’t listen and then blame Synology when their data is affected. At which point it may be too late for anything but attempting data recovery.

Is it though? Most (consumer) NAS systems are probably sold without the drives which are bough separately. When there is an issue with the drive and it breaks, I’m pretty sure most people technical enough to consider the need for a NAS would attribute that failure to the manufacturer of the drives, not to the manufacturer of the computer they put their drives into
by mohsen1 | 2025-04-22 11:40:24+00:00
I’ve had the opposite experience from some of the skepticism in this thread—I’ve been massively productive with LLMs. But the key is not jumping straight into code generation.

Instead, I use LLMs for high-level thinking first: writing detailed system design documents, reasoning about architecture, and even planning out entire features as a series of smaller tasks. I ask the LLM to break work down for me, suggest test plans, and help track step-by-step progress. This workflow has been a game changer.

As for the argument that LLMs can’t deal with large codebases—I think that critique is a bit off. Frankly, humans can’t deal with large codebases in full either. We navigate them incrementally, build mental models, and work within scoped contexts. LLMs can do the same if you guide them: ask them to summarize the structure, explain modules, or narrow focus. Once scoped properly, the model can be incredibly effective at navigating and working within complex systems.

So while there are still limitations, dismissing LLMs based on “context window size” misses the bigger picture. It’s not about dumping an entire codebase into the prompt—it’s about smart tooling, scoped interactions, and using the LLM as a thinking partner across the full dev lifecycle. Used this way, it’s been faster and more powerful than anything else I’ve tried.