MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by y42 | 2025-04-28 12:50:18+00:00
Hardest thing for me to understand is: No one really like ads or the current situation with some exceptions. To understand that let's break down all stake holders here:

We have publishers who rely on the money stream to finance their online products. But they probably complain about how ads have overtaken their content. We have a couple of "wanna be publishers" that built a busines model around ads (who are the root cause of why ads fail in these times). They don't really complain about the current situation, but I'd say that's the minority here. We have advertisers who need ads to "advertise" (apparently). They also complain about "ad saturation".

We have a HUGE ecosystem, which promises to improve advertising, mostly it's just bullshit buzzword bingo to make a busines out of it. (good read on that is https://chiefmartec.com/2024/05/2024-marketing-technology-la...) They probably complain about what they built themselfs: a complex ecosystem that no one understands anymore.

And we have end users who most probably don't like ads. Most common users probably just ignore them, a couple of tech savvy users installed counter measures to avoid ads.

This is the status quo. And there are so many posts and opinions and rants about ads and online marketing. Still we suffer from them.

Why isn't it changing? I don't see even an aproach of someone who actually want's to change it. This is weird.
by lotsofpulp | 2025-04-28 12:50:29+00:00
There is a very large gradient. Even all of those symptoms, while lower quality of life than when they were in their prime, are a far cry from being in a hospital/nursing home, with random people poking needles into you all the time, and that is a best case scenario.

I know from seeing my grandparents, who lived into upper 90s. At home, they were still happy. Being poked and prodded in a hospital is a material step down in quality of life. On top of that, imagine having a breathing tube/catheter/etc.
by estsauver | 2025-04-28 12:50:31+00:00
No, but it's on my roadmap! https://feedback.universalestimator.com/p/calibrationnorms-f...

Right now, it asks you some follow up questions and assumes you're a medium sized org, but I'd like to start to move that into configuration and do some sort of time/bayesian expiration of memory/information as part of the questions it asks.

I think a ton of the variance between teams is probably captured by some version of a few calibration questions, aka: - How large is the org? - What region is your org based in? - How long does it take to get the smallest possible change into production?
by ty6853 | 2025-04-28 12:50:31+00:00
This all seems like a moot point to me until there is actual consequences for people who ACTUALLY cause accidents. We all know someone (maybe ourselves) who had their car totaled, seriously damaged, or been harmed by people that hit and run, had no financially responsibility for their damage, intoxicated, etc. And jack shit happened to them.

When an illegal hit my car and totalled my car (and then ran off), the police told me to fuck off and would not even write a report.

I don't give a single shit about speeding limit enforcement because the yield seems just so incredibly low compared to the yield of the same effort actually going after people who generate real victims rather than hypothetical ones.
by xlii | 2025-04-28 12:50:32+00:00
Depending on the country it’s not that easy. Maybe something changed in the meantime but where I am those blocks are prefilled-numbered and stock needs to be controlled.

It’s not like you can (could?) keep a block „just in case” and thus many shopkeepers wouldn’t even bother in case of outages.

Depending where you live a good old trust can be a currency. Humans are great when it comes to adaptation, I bet I could just write on paper name, CC number and leave it on a paper for shopkeeper and everything would resolve just fine..
by mike_hearn | 2025-04-28 12:50:43+00:00
This sounds big enough to require a black start. Unfortunately, those are slow and difficult.

If an entire nation trips offline then every generator station disconnects itself from the grid and the grid itself snaps apart into islands. To bring it back you have to disconnect consumer loads and then re-energize a small set of plants that have dedicated black start capability. Thermal plants require energy to start up and renewables require external sources of inertia for frequency stabilization, so this usually requires turning on a small diesel generator that creates enough power to bootstrap a bigger generator and so on up until there's enough electricity to start the plant itself. With that back online the power from it can be used to re-energize other plants that lack black start capability in a chain until you have a series of isolated islands. Those islands then have to be synchronized and reconnected, whilst simultaneously bringing load online in large blocks.

The whole thing is planned for, but you can't really rehearse for it. During a black start the grid is highly unstable. If something goes wrong then it can trip out again during the restart, sending you back to the beginning. It's especially likely if the original blackout caused undetected equipment damage, or if it was caused by such damage.

In the UK contingency planning assumes a black start could take up to 72 hours, although if things go well it would be faster. It's one reason it's a good idea to always have some cash at home.

Edit: There's a press release about a 2016 black start drill in Spain/Portugal here: https://www.ree.es/en/press-office/press-release/2016/11/spa...
by pvcnt | 2025-04-28 12:51:19+00:00
Critic (https://getcritic.dev) - An improved inbox for GitHub pull requests

The experience with GitHub can be terribly frustrating when it comes to managing the stream of incoming pull requests. The default inbox and notification systems are not so good, and not flexible. Critic allows to create any number of sections, each section being defined by an arbitrary search query.

I would now like to expand it to provide a better code review experience, similar to what Graphite or Reviewable may provide - but under as an open source project. Source code is available at: https://github.com/pvcnt/critic
by alok-g | 2025-04-28 12:51:59+00:00
Lovely.

This is on my mind too.

Am an engineer (EE + CS) with 25 years of work experience, with a passion for Physics. Am widely known in my circles as a scientist/physicist, however, I do not actually know much. Learned some Lagrangian and Hamiltonian classical physics recently.

I personally do not mind going for even an undergrad in Physics if that would be a better fit for me to learn. :-)
by pjc50 | 2025-04-28 12:52:17+00:00
Report on a smaller event in the UK: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/investigation-9-august... (see linked pdf)

That started from a combination of a lightning strike and generator trip, but turned into a local cascade failure as lots of distributed generation noticed that the frequency was under 49Hz and disconnected itself. I suspect the Spanish situation will be similar - inability to properly contain a frequency excursion, resulting in widespread generator trips.

(I suspect this is going to restart a whole bunch of acrimony about existing pain points like grid maintenance, renewables, domestic solar, and so on, probably with the usual suspects popping up to blame renewables)
by bko | 2025-04-28 12:52:34+00:00
Claude gets the right answer but misplaces the pieces in its initial analysis which means the answer is incorrect.

Whats going on? Did it just get lucky? Did it memorize the answer but misplace the pieces in its recall? Did it actually compute anything?

https://claude.ai/share/d640bc4c-8dd8-4eaa-b10b-cb3f83a6b94b

This is the board as it sees it (incorrect):

https://lichess.org/editor/kb6/pp6/2P5/8/8/3K4/8/R7_w_-_-_0_...
by taylodl | 2025-04-28 12:52:39+00:00
A man has a problem with his neighbor's cats and now wants to rid the world of all cats. And dogs. My community hasn't allowed free-range cats in decades. Animal control will pick up a cat roaming outside and the owners are fined. As a result, there are practically zero cats roaming the neighborhood. That means I get to watch birds lay eggs and raise their young - right outside my window! I also get to enjoy listening to the bullfrogs at night from the pond across the way. Maybe this guy just needs to have a chat with his neighbor?
by shinycode | 2025-04-28 12:53:04+00:00
I mean I do check absolutely everything an LLM outputs. But following the analogy of the calculator, if it goes that way, no one will in the future check the result of an LLM. Just like no one ever checks the result of a complex calculation. People get used to the fact that a large percentage of the time it’s correct. That might allow big companies to manipulate people because a calculator is not plugged to the cloud to falsify the results depending on who you are and make your projects fail
by K0balt | 2025-04-28 12:53:04+00:00
An example of a system that works well is usually the target of low-fidelity attempts to copy without understanding the fundamental principles that make it possible, I.e. copying the obvious form, but ignoring the cultural underpinnings. Also, muh freedoms. And I don’t need no edumacation, I ken drive jest fine.

Unfortunately, the USA has a weird version of the noble savage mythos that enshrines ignorance.
by donatj | 2025-04-28 12:53:12+00:00
Many places in the United States use speed traps as revenue streams, and in many of the same places in the US it's nigh impossible to get around without a vehicle.

Taking someone's license away for getting caught doing 5 over a few too many times on the freeway where literally everyone is always doing 5 over and you are more of a danger by not going the speed of traffic doesn't in any way serve the public interest as far as I can tell. It's a death sentence for a victimless crime.

Aggressive driving, reckless driving, major speed infractions (15 mph+ over), etc are far more dangerous and worthy of major penalties.
by bdangubic | 2025-04-28 12:53:31+00:00
Of course! I did not mean that anyone should ever drive any speed that is too slow for given conditions, I have driven 5-10mph on higways with minimum speed of 45+mph during inclement weather.

I live in the USA and can tell you with 100% certainty that if I drove 15mph on a highway drivers that pass me will call 911 and I will be pulled over. driving 30-40mph over the limit is unlikely to trigger the same concern from other drivers unless I am “street racing” other cars or driving erradicaly
by cchianel | 2025-04-28 12:54:10+00:00
As someone who did a CPython Bytecode → Java bytecode translator (https://timefold.ai/blog/java-vs-python-speed), I strongly recommend against the CPython Bytecode → PySM Assembly step:

- CPython Bytecode is far from stable; it changes every version, sometimes changing the behaviour of existing bytecodes. As a result, you are pinned to a specific version of Python unless you make multiple translators.

- CPython Bytecode is poorly documented, with some descriptions being misleading/incorrect.

- CPython Bytecode requires restoring the stack on exception, since it keeps a loop iterator on the stack instead of in a local variable.

I recommend instead doing CPython AST → PySM Assembly. CPython AST is significantly more stable.
by SnazzyUncle | 2025-04-28 12:54:34+00:00
> Compulsory preferential voting is a much better protection against tyrants.

This guarantees worse outcomes. You will be effectively forcing people to participate that typically don't care about politics and will be ignorant of many of the issues they are voting on.

The reality is that most elections are won in the same way the X-Factor, or "I'm a celebrity get me out of here". It is nothing more than a popularity contest.
by domysee | 2025-04-28 12:55:06+00:00
Lighthouse (https://lighthouseapp.io/) - a different take on RSS readers, focusing on inbox zero

RSS readers show content based on the feed they're coming from, and show read and unread items in the same list. That makes it difficult to know which items you've already seen, and is especially annoying for managing items that you want to read at some point but not anytime soon.

Lighthouse splits it into Inbox (new items) and Library (bookmarked items). This makes it possible to process new items quickly, and take your time with reading them.
by _heimdall | 2025-04-28 12:56:46+00:00
Without power or an internet connection you can't validate that the btc hash is unspent, avoid double spends, or validate that your taking ownership of it made it to the blockchain and was confirmed for a few blocks.

Sure you can transfer the private key from one device to another, but (a) you can't know the other person didn't retain a copy of it and (b) you would be limited to spending the exact amount you have in an existing transaction because you couldn't send a transaction to the chain that splits it.
by bibin765 | 2025-04-28 12:56:54+00:00
We have built a note taking app which allows asking questions to your notes. Hey Reddit, I usually use a private WhatsApp group just to save a random idea, note, or reminder, this is where the idea stemmed from. What if I could do the same, add a piece of text somewhere and later ask questions to it. Thoughtcatcher is a simple note-taking app, that allows you you add notes and ask questions to your notes later. It's notes, but searchable and smarter than a giant pile of sticky notes. Available on android in play store. For Ios you can go to the website, click on share and add to home screen and then use it. Looking for feedback on this
by richev | 2025-04-28 12:57:10+00:00
I worked as a cashier at a large UK supermarket when I was a student. In our training we were told that if there was an outage with the cash registers we should ask shoppers to estimate how much their groceries cost and accept what they told us. Payment could be by cash or cheque.

Apparently when this had been done in the past shoppers were generally honest & relatively accurate.
by leomca | 2025-04-28 12:58:01+00:00
It seems Spain lost 15GW of load, but is still running 10GW of load: https://transparency.entsoe.eu/load-domain/r2/totalLoadR2/sh...

Would this suggest the grid hasn't snapped apart, or is it just not possible to tell from the data?

Coal, pumped hydro, and nuclear generation all went to 0 around the same time, but presumably that's those sources being disconnected from the grid to balance demand? https://transparency.entsoe.eu/generation/r2/actualGeneratio...
by hwpythonner | 2025-04-28 12:58:40+00:00
You're absolutely right — today, PyXL only supports pure Python execution, so C extensions aren’t directly usable.

That said, in future designs, PyXL could work in tandem with a traditional CPU core (like ARM or RISC-V), where C libraries execute on the CPU side and interact with PyXL for control flow and Python-level logic.

There’s also a longer-term possibility of compiling C directly to PyXL’s instruction set by building an LLVM backend — allowing even tighter integration without a second CPU.

Right now the focus is on making native Python execution viable and efficient for real-time and embedded systems, but I definitely see broader hybrid models ahead.
by matheusmoreira | 2025-04-28 12:59:03+00:00
> Why is abolishment always the first reaction to any system with flaws?

Because we're sick of it. We're tired of pretending this stuff is artificially scarce while they rob us of our rights. The reality is intellectual property is fiction and public domain is its natural state. We'd like to start living in reality.

Nearly two hundred years ago, one man warned everyone this would happen.

https://www.thepublicdomain.org/2014/07/24/macaulay-on-copyr...

> once it ceases to be considered as wrong and discreditable to invade literary property, no person can say where the invasion will stop. The public seldom makes nice distinctions.

> The wholesome copyright which now exists will share in the disgrace and danger of the new copyright which you are about to create.

> in attempting to impose unreasonable restraints on the reprinting of the works of the dead, you have, to a great extent, annulled those restraints which now prevent men from pillaging and defrauding the living.

Not only did nobody listen, people doubled down on this bullshit. These are the consequences.

> Copyright provides an incentive for artists to dedicate their life to their creative endeavors

False. It is absolute rent seeking.

The original social contract was we'd all pretend for a few years that intellectual works couldn't be trivially copied so that creators could turn a profit. And then, and this part is the key, and then the works would enter the public domain.

When was the last time some work you enjoyed entered the public domain? It's not happening. They keep postponing it. You'll be dead before your culture enters the public domain. They've all made a zillion dollars off of it already but they think it's not enough.

Artists? They defend this stuff. They deserve the consequences. They are monopolists, just like the corporations you are decrying. On this very site I've run into artists who think it's absolutely just that they and their families get to enjoy centuries of rent from the government granted monopolies on their creations.
by aeonik | 2025-04-28 12:59:10+00:00
In my experience, math majors can do some pretty incredible acrobatics (in a good way), but their documentation, systemic performance awareness, and overall design sense often lag behind. These are things they usually pick up outside of the degree, and they have to break some bad habits learned during it (e.g., single-character-variable soup).

I agree with a sibling comment that physicists often seem to make the best coders, for some reason.

My hypothesis: it's because physicists are rigorously trained to model real-world systems directly. What would be considered an "advanced" modeling problem to most would be an intro problem to a physics student.

Math is absolutely related, but I think the secret ingredient is "mathematical maturity" — the ability to fluidly jump between layers of abstraction. Mathematicians are good at this too, but physicists go a step further: they are trained to ground their abstractions in concrete physical phenomena.

Mathematicians ground systems in axioms, sure. But physicists have to tether models back to reality — to processes and measurements — which turns out to be exactly the skill set that makes for good programmers and system designers.

Huge generalization, obviously.

But personally, I've noticed my own programming ability increases the more physics I learn. Physics gives you a systematic framework to reason about complexity — and physicists get the luxury of a "relatively simple" universe compared to fields like chemistry or biology. They're working with rich systems described by just a few tightly-coupled parameters. And the kicker: a lot of those systems are 100% repeatable, every time.

That kind of structure — and the habit of respecting it — is priceless for engineering.
by Xylakant | 2025-04-28 12:59:13+00:00
The german autobahn demonstrates exactly the opposite. Everywhere that speed limits are introduced, the number of accidents drop. Less injured people, less fatalities. One example is the A24 https://www.geo.de/wissen/vergleich-auf-a24-weniger-verletzt... where the number of fatal accidents dropped by 50%.
Show HN: Reddit Anywhere – Find Reddit discussions for any webpage
by smurfysmurf | 2025-04-28 12:59:48+00:00
Hey HN! This is my first development project, and I wanted to share it with you all

I built Reddit Anywhere because I kept manually searching Reddit for discussions about articles and videos I was reading/watching, and I wanted to automate it.

The extension is pretty straightforward: it adds a small Reddit icon to any webpage you're on, and when clicked, it shows relevant Reddit threads discussing that page, or searching for related or relevant topics.

How it works:

-First tries to find the exact URL match on Reddit -If that fails, falls back to looking for discussion based on the page title and domain -For YouTube videos, it extracts the video title and channel name to find more relevant threads -Everything runs in browser

Technically -Built with vanilla JS -Uses Chrome storage API -Implemented Reddit's 0Auth through Chrome identity API -Basic caching to avoid hammering Reddit's API

Some challenges -Reddit's API limits were a pain, so I implemented exponential backoff -I'm still struggling with getting the Reddit icon to display on ALL websites, on some sites it's not viewable

This is a completely free and has no tracking, any feedback is appreciated!
Show HN: Git-chain – Simplify branch dependency management in Git
by hammadfauz | 2025-04-28 12:59:51+00:00
I built Git-chain because managing dependent branches and open PRs was becoming painful. This tool helps automate and track those relationships easily.

I made some usability improvements: * Made chain storage more robust. * Added a way to clear a chain * Added tab completion for branch names * Changed github workflow to show error instead of warning (more obvious, can be bypassed via github UI)
by lotsofpulp | 2025-04-28 13:00:02+00:00
> There is a complete lack of asking why

The answer to this seems obvious to me. Buyers seek the lowest price, so sellers are incentivized to cut their cost of goods sold.

Investors seek the highest return on investment (people prefer more purchasing power than less purchasing power), so again, businesses are incentivized to cut their cost of goods sold.

The opposing force to this is buyers prefer higher quality to lower quality.

The tradeoff between these parameters is in constant flux.
by twobitshifter | 2025-04-28 13:00:06+00:00
It’s also a strong argument (maybe stronger) for both Federal Funding of health research and encouraging international students to study and complete phDs in the US.

> The study co-authors (from left to right) Sheng Zhong, Junchen Chen, Wenxin Zhao, Ming Xu, Shuanghong Xue, Zhixuan Song and Fatemeh Hadi

>This work is partially funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants R01GM138852, DP1DK126138, UH3CA256960, R01HD107206, R01AG074273 and R01AG078185).

Universal Health Care would be great but we are at a place where the research itself may vanish from the US.
Show HN: Albums Backup – Offline tool to back up iPhone photos via USB
by piaoying | 2025-04-28 13:00:07+00:00
Hi everyone ,

Albums Backup is a simple offline tool I built to back up iPhone and iPad photos and videos to PC or Mac via USB — without needing iCloud, without compression, and keeping Live Photos, GIFs, and 4K videos at full quality.

At first, I built it for someone I love. She had thousands of photos and was tired of expensive cloud subscriptions. I just wanted to make a simple, fast, and private way to save memories.

Today, I made it available for others who might have the same need.

- No account needed - No cloud storage involved - Supports original Live Photos, videos, and RAW files - Works on both Windows and Mac

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Website: https://albumsbackup.framer.website/
by mike_hearn | 2025-04-28 13:00:39+00:00
They're definitely doing a black start:

https://x.com/RedElectricaREE/status/1916818043235164267

We are beginning to recover power in the north and south of the peninsula, which is key to gradually addressing the electricity supply. This process involves the gradual energization of the transmission grid as the generating units are connected.

I see load dropping to zero on that graph, or rather, load data disappears an hour ago.

If the grid frequency goes too far out of range then power stations trip automatically, it's not an explicit decision anyone takes and it doesn't balance load, quite the opposite. A station tripping makes the problem worse as the frequency drops even further as the load gets shared between the remaining stations, which is why grids experience cascading failure. The disconnection into islands is a defense mechanism designed to stop equipment being too badly damaged and to isolate the outage.