MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by graemep | 2025-04-14 12:51:32+00:00
My own vehicle is already annually inspected as required by the law. Its being done this week.

I am broadly in favour of this requirement, although it is a cost and a nuisance, maintenance is a necessity, and I am happy that all the vehicles that might be a danger to me and to other people are also inspected.

I am pretty sure that virtually all cyclists are happy that cars are annually inspected (and have to pass to remain road legal BTW) so you are saying they should put their money where their mouth is?
by bhouston | 2025-04-14 12:52:12+00:00
> If a non-US citizen disrupted your commute or college class for a position you found reprehensible, it's likely you might feel the same.

First: Just to be completely clear, there is a leaked memo from the US state department yesterday on this particular student I am referring to and there was no evidence the US State Department could find of anti-semitism or law breaking, but they are pushing to deport her anyhow because of she peacefully expressed views that disagreed with US foreign policy:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/13/...

> US citizens enjoy rights non-US citizens do not, the same way membership conveys benefits

Second: Trump has spoken about wanting to denaturalize and then deport US citizens abroad. Citizenship is clearly not a barrier to this administration: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trum...
by wrasee | 2025-04-14 12:52:18+00:00
Absolutely get this. And yes there's no doubt that a dedicated tool can bring features and a UX that's hard to replicate with a general purpose text editor with the same degree of polish, if at all in some cases. Some of the stuff in Obsidian does look compelling (shrug)!

I think what matters more is like you say - how the data is stored. It's been nice to see this convergence towards markdown and it's this that's seems the real sweet spot (or plain text, more generally). Separate the data from the logic and you're free to operate on your notes with whatever fits at the time, or even with different tools at the same time (on mobile, say).

Not news to many folk here on HN but a refreshing contrast to other PKM that use proprietary formats, often along with monthly subscription fees for what is essentially variations on "editing a plain-text database".
by nzach | 2025-04-14 12:53:30+00:00
> why we not just use API

Did you meant to write "a HTTP API"?

I asked myself this question before playing with it a bit. And now I have a slightly better understanding, I think the main reason was created as a way to give access of your local resources (files, envvars, network access...) to your LLM. So it was designed to be something you run locally and the LLM has access.

But there is nothing preventing you making an HTTP call from a MCP server. In fact, we already have some proxy servers for this exact use-case[0][1].

[0] - https://github.com/sparfenyuk/mcp-proxy

[1] - https://github.com/adamwattis/mcp-proxy-server
by DannyBee | 2025-04-14 12:53:32+00:00
I'd wager they didn't.

Lowest person who generally will know will usually be a senior director. Sometimes director. Sometimes VP.

Google is pretty careful about this. While it's true sometimes those people share stuff, it's definitely not en masse, and you can get yourself in significant trouble if you share it when you shouldn't, so it's less times than you think.

At most other places i worked it was different.
by globular-toast | 2025-04-14 12:54:06+00:00
Right, so you essentially use mini 16:27 screens which is a better aspect ratio than 16:9.

What you really have to ask yourself is why 16:9 is a better choice than anything else. It wasn't picked because 3 16:27 columns is ideal for text. The main reason we have them is because it's easier for the screen manufacturers to have just one aspect ratio to deal with. With 16:9 we're forced to have three columns per screen, but what if I only need two? What if I want more lines of text per screen? Square seems like a much more obvious middle ground.
by bvdmitri | 2025-04-14 12:54:08+00:00
RxInfer is specifically designed for real-time Bayesian inference, which sets it apart from many other approaches. You can’t reliably compare it to “competing Bayesian inference methods” because most of them rely on sampling, which is simply too computationally expensive to be used in real-time. While RxInfer may introduce some approximation error, sampling-based methods are often too slow to produce any result within the required time frame.

For example, in our portfolio we have a comparison with NumPyro on Bayesian linear regression: https://examples.rxinfer.com/categories/basic_examples/bayes.... While this isn’t a real-time signal processing use case, it still shows that RxInfer can match the quality of NumPyro’s results—at a fraction of the computational cost
by dogleash | 2025-04-14 12:54:08+00:00
My opinions became trusted in decision making because I spoke up only when I had well-founded thoughts on things I understood. Now that I'm looked to for opinions on a wide breadth of topics, apparently "let's find (or train) someone qualified and ask them instead" is not a decision anyone wants.

Telling me to just be as useful as a generalist doesn't work when it was the specialization that made me worth listening to. It's a setup for failure. And I know the platonic ideal of management understands the team has different capacity on different topics and yadda yadda yadda, but I have a job in reality.
by gruez | 2025-04-14 12:55:02+00:00
>How did that happen without being networked?

See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43680387

>I know when I am being recorded in a meeting and it's in a professional setting, not a casual one. Not comparable.

Irrelevant if you're trying to not get deepfaked. It's like complaining about Lyft recordings possibly used to train deepfakes or whatever, when you work as a podcaster. Sure, the recording might be bad because it was done without consent, but it's risible to object to it on the basis of "possibly leaked in the future in a world where you can trivially create vocal deep fakes with a few samples"
by gwbas1c | 2025-04-14 12:55:13+00:00
> A trivial example, I have very strong preference on using tabs instead of spaces for indentation. However, I don’t force people on my team to also use tabs because I realize that’s subjective, and doesn’t affect the product we’re developing. These white spaces are ignored by the compiler after all.

Until people start touching each others' code; then it makes sense to pick one or the other and stick with it.

Ironically, when I implemented .editorconfig at my job, (code formatter and checker in CI), I decided that we were going to pick one or the other. I did a little bit of research, and found the silliest little detail that made me pick one over the other.

I won't say what the detail is; but I will say it's a lot easier when CI enforces one approach, and I can run a simple code reformatter if I accidentally violate the rule. Otherwise, it's super-annoying if, every time I get into a new area of the code, sometimes its tabs, and sometimes its spaces.
by jmyeet | 2025-04-14 12:55:51+00:00
Other commenters are corect: you are a cog in a machine. You are replaceable. Many people in tech have for too long fallen for the delusion that, as an engineer (or just in tech in general), you are somehow immune to this, that the company does care about you.

All of these big tech companies have never not been insanely profitable. These layoffs aren't necessary for the survival of the business. They're simply suppressing labor costs by cutting 5% of the employees, pushing their duties on the remaining 95% (for no additonal pay of course) and the 95% aren't asking for raises if they fear losing their jobs. It's permanent layoff culture.

Google, Meta, Microsoft, etc all have a ton of inertia, just like IBM did. And that's their future. They are sowing the seeds of their own destruction with short-term profit-seeking. These companies are nothing without the employees that sustain them.
by _heimdall | 2025-04-14 12:55:58+00:00
And that's really a core of the problem, we don't well understand how the human mind works and we can't really define or identify "intelligence."

I mentioned I don't like the stochastic parrot argument, and that I find this article's argument lacking. Both are for the same reason, the arguments are making claims that we simply can't make while missing the fundamental understanding of what intelligence really is and how human (and other animals) brains work.
by mppm | 2025-04-14 12:56:03+00:00
It would probably have been more correct to say "requires fewer allocations in some cases". As you point out, in terms of layout, the old generic version is just as intrusive as the new version, and requires just as many allocations (one). However, the new version gives extra flexibility for you to move a long-lived object in and out of lists without copying or allocating, at the cost of having the pointer field baked into it permanently, rather than on demand.

I think the reasoning behind this change is that (from Zig's perspective), if you are using linked lists you are probably doing something wrong, unless your application requires the above-mentioned kind of juggling, which favors explicitly intrusive LLs. In addition, this change de-generifys the lists's methods, like `prepend`, which reduces code size a little.

At least that's my understanding.
Show HN: Proflect – A personal growth platform built around reflection
by Bramhoven | 2025-04-14 12:56:37+00:00
Hey everyone!

I’ve been working on a side project called Proflect, a platform to help people grow personally and professionally through reflection, not just action.

The idea came from a simple frustration: I was setting goals, journaling separately, and getting feedback from people I trust, but none of it was connected. So I built something that brings it all together. Hopefully ensuring that you stopping to ask, “Is this working?” or “What am I learning?”.

Here’s what Proflect does:

- Set goals and break them into subgoals

- Journal daily and link entries to specific goals

- Request feedback from friends, colleagues, or mentors

- Tag entries and feedback as positive/negative

- Track patterns and get reminders to reflect or take action

It’s not live yet, but I’m opening a closed beta later this month, and there’s a waitlist open now at https://proflect.io.

Would love feedback on:

- The concept — would you use it?

- The landing page — does it make sense?

- Any features you’d love to see?

Happy to answer questions or exchange side project tips too. Thanks for checking it out!
by InitialBP | 2025-04-14 12:56:37+00:00
A company that has to "follow the rules" is way less desirable to work for then a company that embraces the spirit of the rules. I'm in the US so can't really speak for companies in other countries, but many US companies are doing everything they can to skirt the letter of the law and spending a ton of money to have them rewritten to be less favorable to employees and more favorable to the business. Finding a company that truly cares for employees is a very rare treat!
by danadam | 2025-04-14 12:56:37+00:00
I have a bookmarklet, since forever, labelled "sane width", with the following code:

javascript:(function(){var newSS, styles='body { width: 800px ! important; margin: auto !important } '; if(document.createStyleSheet) { document.createStyleSheet("javascript:'"+styles+"'"); } else { newSS=document.createElement('link'); newSS.rel='stylesheet'; newSS.href='data:text/css,'+escape(styles); document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(newSS); } })();

It forces the body width to 800px and centers it. Crude but it is enough for me.
by addicted | 2025-04-14 12:57:16+00:00
So just we’re clear, there are countries where U.S. citizens have no rights or very limited.

So you’re perfectly fine with these countries, for example, executing US citizens without due process if they visit those countries right, because the standard you apparently want to hold the government to is basically the bare minimum rights an individual has vis a vis that government.

Also, you overestimate the rights US citizens have as well. Under Obama, for example, the government targeted a U.S. citizen for assassination. After Trump 1 the SC essentially said everything the President does is legal.

There is absolutely no reason that the President couldn’t completely target a U.S. citizen for assassination for no reason other than they didn’t like the color of their hair, and by your standard you’re absolutely fine with that.
by justaswede | 2025-04-14 12:58:15+00:00
I did like me some Petsson och Findus. Besides agreeing with sibling commenter, the melancholic story with the fox and the fireworks was impactful. The dark moments and their resolution were in general the most meaningful. Fully agree with the notion that it's misguided to deprave ("spare") children from struggles and difficult questions of life. Nothing graphical or depraved but you get the point.

As for the Moomins, I don't know what you all are on about in the comments. I'm with OP on this one. Lasting child Moomin impressions:

- Original comic: Dark, heavy, existential, anxious, depressed, sarcastic, "this is probably not for kids". Still loved them and still find them underrated and wish more people read them.

- Mainstream TV cartoon: Fun fantastical times. And Groke (aka Mårran) was indeed nightmare material

- Newspaper comic: Couldn't keep track

- TV live action: Now this was the true nightmare material. I think it was supposed to be lighthearted but my brother at 37 still talks of how it traumatized him.
by theGeatZhopa | 2025-04-14 12:58:20+00:00
i think, its more then convenient to click on a link and being logged in. No account creation, no risk of leaking hashes/pwds/info. I don't have to remember what password is used where (minimizing the risk of one big password for all sites), no monolithic mammoth-authentication-systems with a single/multiple point-of-failures, no auth-gate-keepers.

The problems with passwords you mention, are valid. But, the same situation will happen for authentication - your mom can't remember her email account's pwd, but then you want her to remember facebook, google and all the other services' pwds?? Just think about where is the difference of "remember email pwd" and "remember 1Password pwd" ?? absolutely no difference.

So, while I understand your points, I'm thinking, magic links are the easiest and failure proof and user friendly way, to verify the user.

Another point is: Onboarding is very fast. The new user doesn't even need to bother with input of pwds, verfication, etc ...

for me:

please no account creation in the old style. Give me magic links. Implement a 2nd factor to check, if necessary - but just let them passwords dieeeeee
by viraptor | 2025-04-14 12:58:23+00:00
"what do we do with this part?"

Not committing: "I don't have enough info, don't know".

Decision: "We can only finish it once X is known. Until then we assume it behaves like (…). For code that relies on it, we're prioritising flexibility to change over perfect solution at this point. Y is responsible for announcing when X is known."
by Cthulhu_ | 2025-04-14 12:58:31+00:00
I found using "architectural decision records" to be helpful; it's not a panacea and I'm sure there's other approaches, but the gist of it is that you make a document, write down your thought processes, consider the different options (demonstrate you did your homework), and get the team together to proverbially shake hands on it.

It's not set in stone; if anything, the writing reflects "what we know right now" about a problem and its possible solutions, but it's a message to the future when either the context of the problem changes, the problem is better understood, the underlying assumptions and/or requirements change, or something changes in the solution.

It's both committing to a thing "in the moment", while leaving it open for updating down the line. It's much preferable to someone just picking something because of gut feeling / hype / assertiveness / cool factor which is how a lot of projects end up in the bin after a few years.
by nickpsecurity | 2025-04-14 12:58:51+00:00
Yeah, CompCert will certify a binary for those willing to buy it or use a GPL license. Empirical testing showed it had no bugs in its middle end, unlike other compiler.

On Astree, I couldn't believe it supported all language constructs. I found this on your link:

"and is subject to the same restrictions as Astrée for C.

The high-level abstraction features and template library of C++ facilitate the design of very complex and dynamic software. Extensive use of these features may violate the established principles of safety-critical embedded software development and lead to unsatis­fac­tory analysis times and results. The Astrée manual gives recommendations on the use of C++ features to ensure that the code can be well analyzed. For less constrained (less critical) C++ code, we recommend using the standalone RuleChecker."

So, it still does require a language subset that reduces complexity to benefit from the full analysis. They have greatly expanded what errors they catch since I first read about them. So, thanks for the link.
by nderim_r | 2025-04-14 12:59:16+00:00
Location: North Macedonia

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: PHP, Laravel/Symfony, MYSql, Javascript, React, Vue.js, jQuery, HTML/CSS.

Résumé/CV: https://bit.ly/nderimcv

Email: nderim.rahmani@gmail.com

Experienced Full-Stack Developer with 6+ years in delivering high quality software solutions. With a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a Master’s degree in Software Engineering, and experience in the software development process using PHP/Laravel to develop and implement complex software solutions. Committed to delivering efficient client-focused software solutions that align with business goals.
Show HN: I built an app to generate quizzes on any topic
by noemit | 2025-04-14 12:59:21+00:00
This is a free tool that helps you learn and refresh your knowledge on any topic.

A 12-question quiz is generated for you in seconds. Each question has rich feedback - research shows that reading feedback after guessing is the moment of true learning. Depending on how you do on your quiz, you can do a follow up quiz that is harder or easier.

Your quizzes are saved to your account and you can re-do them later.

It's a fairly basic MVP - if you like it, I'm curious to know what else you'd want to see.

Would love feedback from the HN community!
by rad_gruchalski | 2025-04-14 13:00:01+00:00
I would recommend that you verify your claim with a very simple google search: first amendment for non-citizens. This cursory search will tell you that:

> Yes, the First Amendment applies to non-citizens within the United States, protecting their freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and the right to petition the government. This protection extends to all individuals within the country, regardless of their citizenship status.

Your own government is trying hard to sideline your own constitution.
by qsort | 2025-04-14 13:00:14+00:00
I think he's referring to C specifically, not C++. It's true that modern versions of MSVC are compliant (and they're also typically faster at implementing features than gcc and clang), but for the longest time there were subtle differences in their C library. To this day I don't think they support VLAs, which are technically standard C (At least until recently, I'm not sure about the latest versions, hopefully someone more knowledgeable can say more).
by seanhunter | 2025-04-14 13:00:37+00:00
Yes, and the people involved in all this stuff have also reinvented SQL injection in a different way in the prompt interface, since it's impossible[1] for the model to tell what parts of the prompt are trustworthy and what parts are tainted by user input, no matter what delimeters etc you try to use. This is because what the model sees is just a bunch of token numbers. You'd need to change how the encoding and decoding steps work and change how models are trained to introduce something akin to the placeholders that solve the sql injection problem.

Therefore it's possible to prompt inject and tool inject. So you could for example prompt inject to get a model to call your tool which then does an injection to get the user to run some untrustworthy code of your own devising.

[1] See the excellent series by Simon Willison on this https://simonwillison.net/series/prompt-injection/
by gavinray | 2025-04-14 13:01:03+00:00
Is the title slightly misleading?

The abstract concludes with:

> "On the other hand, our results show that it is just impossible that this Universe is simulated by a universe sharing the same properties, regardless of technological advancements of the far future."

It seems reasonable that the energy and computation requirements to simulate our universe couldn't be done in an equivalent universe.

But isn't the assumption that the "encapsulating system" must inherently be more "powerful" than our own, in the same way that computer systems running simulations function?
by michaeljx | 2025-04-14 13:01:27+00:00
We have 5 different engineering teams in our company.

The 4 are being led by benevolent-dictator-type of engineers, the 5th by a person extremely non-commital. This person avoids exerting any technically authority, so as not to disturb the team's balance. All decisions are made democratically, all votes being equal regardless experience/seniority. Same goes when being called for estimates.

Two of the 4 teams have become so big and independent, that the dictator-leads no longer need to participate in the d2d operations/decisions, to the point where they now work mostly on individual RnD projects.

The other 2 are small specialized teams, whose members have become domain experts in specific areas, to the point that they can talk with the business and move on development, with little need of interaction with their lead, and absolutely no need for a PM/PO layer.

The only team that struggles to perform is the one with the non-commital lead. It became so bad, that the current discussion is to dissolve the team, and have it's members/responsibilities be absorbed by the 2 big ones.
by hylaride | 2025-04-14 13:02:38+00:00
They've started to drop the ball, but Apple also was really good at simplifying things to the point that its infamous "just works" slogan was apt.

I switched to mac circa 2003 and reliably connecting to wifi was simple, clean, and intuitive. This was the height of the shitshow that was wireless networking on windows, where half the time windows would fight with the vendor software, etc.

I was even more shocked when I hit the "advanced" button and there was full and working advanced BSD networking settings cleanly laid out, from overriding IP/netmask/router, 802.1X, etc. Windows made it difficult and frustrating to apply these kinds of settings, because they wanted to hide it from the user.
by juliuswaldmann | 2025-04-14 13:02:52+00:00
I love to see KATRIN represented here. I am a student at the university this is at. The area (nothern campus) this is at is a bit secluded and normally not accessible to students but I managed to take part in a tour of the northern campus. I even got some points (ects) for it which is nice.

It was really impressive. The whole northern campus is full of giant science experiments like this one, old nuclear test reactors and so much more. I'm glad I got the opportunity to see it. They even got an entire water treatment plant, direct heating and direct cooling networks and produces more electricity than it uses on average.

I was really fascinated by the scale of everything. The direct heating plant for example uses a few giant room sized gas-burning generators and uses their excess heat. But just for backup, in case gas drops out there are also 2-3 absolutely massive tanks next to the building that hold something like 2 million or so liters diesel fuel each, just as a backup. One of the technicians joked "yeah, we fill up a few thousand liters now and then when its cheap"

All in all absolutely amazing experience and really cool campus.