MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by alabastervlog | 2025-04-15 16:56:07+00:00
I'm a long-time politics nerd and spend more time than most people digging into the right's "evidence" for various things they believe.

So much of it's simply made-up that any attempt to engage one of them is incredibly tedious, and it's the exact same bullshit every time you start talking to a new one. You'd need weeks, at least, of consistent and very-careful engagement to fix the fact-gap so you can even begin discussing actual issues. For each one of them.

It's like trying to talk politics with someone and they keep bringing up how the real problem is the lawless Rebel Alliance and we need to trust Emperor Palpatine to set things right, and after a while you figure out they aren't joking or just trying to get under your skin and sincerely believe we live in Star Wars, so now you can't even talk about actual issues in the real world until you manage to convince them that they do not live in Star Wars. You try to talk about crime & policing or whatever and they start talking about how we need to clear all the criminals out of the pirate moon Nar Shaddaa, and... what the fuck do you even do with that? It's disheartening.

[EDIT] Real world example: Local republican politician comes to my door while campaigning and is talking about how local crime (in our amazingly safe, rather rich small town) is WAY UP and out of control and that's why we need more money for the police. I have my strong suspicions based on practically every other time this claim has been made by a Republican, and also the fact that our town is conspicuously safe and rich, but I don't fact-check her on the spot and just let her finish the spiel and politely disengage, but that was like half of her message (the rest was, I shit you not, about trans athletes, JFC).

Of course the police department's own stats fail to back up any of what she was saying, when I check right after the conversation. I mean, obviously they do, there was no reason to expect otherwise, but I did check, because that's how I roll.

Without even digging into the other half of what she was presenting, half of her message right off the bat, half of what she chose to present as important, was over a completely made-up issue. Not real at all.
by numbers_guy | 2025-04-15 16:56:12+00:00
I guess the author is mentioning public funding to try to make a political point, but it does not fit the narrative, because publicly funded research is the norm worldwide.

The glaring difference in how the US approached R&D is rather the way in which they manage to integrate the private sector, manage to convert research into products and manage to get funded for these rather risky private projects.

Also, with regards to why researchers flocked to the US, post-WWII, it was for the same reason that other people were flocking to the US (and Canada, and Australia): the new world had good economic prospects.
by pharrington | 2025-04-15 16:56:35+00:00
Yes, it was my mistake assuming he was in the US. I only read the blog post and did not see this was KMart Australia. The poster asking "Isn't the use of USB-C promotion without at minimum basic USB compatability disallowed?" is explicitly a social/political issue. KMart lying about its products is explicitly a social problem thats larger than just one person replacing a circuit board in his lamp. Hopefully there are legal remedies that can be taken in Australia for violating industry regulations.
by throwup238 | 2025-04-15 16:56:38+00:00
In my experience, a non-finetunable closed source API is a complete nonstarter for a large fraction of possible use cases, especially the higher value ones like law and engineering. Most of these embedding models are trained too much on colloquial use of language on the internet that has little overlap with how terms of art are used, and without the ability to fine tune it to a specific use case, they're only really useful for generic use cases and even then they can be limited.
Show HN: AnuDB – Embedded database with native MQTT support for IoT/AI use cases
by hashmak_jsn | 2025-04-15 16:56:49+00:00
Hi HN!

I've been working on AnuDB, a lightweight embedded key-value database written in C++ with a focus on simplicity, performance, and small footprints. It now has native MQTT support, allowing you to write directly to the database by publishing to an MQTT topic.

but it’s designed to work well on embedded devices, edge nodes, and anywhere you need local persistence without spinning up a full database server.

Highlights:

MQTT-based data ingestion (zero setup DB writes via publish)

Small and fast (single binary, no external dependencies)

Append-only write-ahead log for durability

Demo: https://github.com/hash-anu/AnuDB/blob/main/demo.gif

Use cases I have in mind:

Offline-first IoT data collection

Local state storage in embedded ML workflows

Data sync in remote/low-power environments

Would love feedback, use case ideas, or thoughts on what to prioritize next. Thanks!
by efsavage | 2025-04-15 16:57:13+00:00
Basically the difference between sympathy and empathy. You can validate someone's feelings by simply acknowledging them (sympathy, "I'm sorry you feel upset about that, how can I help?"), or you can participate in that emotion (empathy, "Yeah, that pisses me off too! Let's fix it.").

Neither is definitively better or worse, sincerity is paramount, and it's all contextual, including the personality of the person involved. I think aligning on what mix to use is possibly the most important thing in a relationship, especially a professional one.
by waterhouse | 2025-04-15 16:57:36+00:00
One danger with "factually proven issues" is cherry-picking facts or otherwise taking them from context. For example, there might be stats on which a president sucked for most of his term, but in the last few months those stats were decent (or vice versa); and then supporters of the president might shout those last few months' stats from the rooftops, and then do polls that show that supporters know but opponents don't know about those last few months' stats, and gleefully report, "Gosh, well, we're trying to reason with our opponents, but unfortunately they're just so ignorant, what can we do..."

Another danger is people playing with definitions. A third is people claiming things to be "facts" based on cherry-picked studies (and possibly some dubious interpretations thereof).

Progress can be made, but I think it requires a sophisticated approach. Paying attention to all the above dimensions, and probably to the motives of the people involved.
by zephius | 2025-04-15 16:58:36+00:00
Old SysAdmin and InfoSec Admin perspective:

Dev guys think everything is solvable via code, but hardware guys know this isn't true. Hardware is stuck in fixed lifecycles and firmware is not updated by the vendors unless it has to be. And in many cases updated poorly. No hardware I've ever come across that supports SSL\TLS (and most do nowadays) offers any automation capability in updating certs. In most cases, certs are manually - and painfully - updated with esoteric CLI cantrips that require dancing while chanting to some ancient I.T. God for mercy because the process is poorly (if at all) documented and often broken. No API call or middelware is going to solve that problem unless the manufacturer puts it in. In particular, load balancers are some of the worst at cert management, and remember that not everyone uses F5 - there are tons of other cheaper and popular alternatives most of which are atrocious at security configuration management. It's already painful enough to manage certs in an enterprise and this 47 day lifecycle is going to break things. Hardware vendors are simply incompetent and slow to adapt to security changes. And not everyone is 100% in the cloud - most enterprises are only partially in that pool.
by connicpu | 2025-04-15 16:58:58+00:00
For the most part I just stick to zigbee devices and I can be sure they're fully under my local control because their only gateway to the network is the zigbee modem attached to my Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant. Sometimes requires messing with some quirks to get the full functionality I need out of them, but the community is pretty good about supporting most devices out of the box.
by matthewdgreen | 2025-04-15 16:59:06+00:00
I went looking for exactly this information the other day. I was surprised to find that it's hard to come up with recent, detailed explanations of what Apple is doing for telemetry collection. When they announced their DP systems back in 2017, they were clearly doing something like Google's RAPPOR [1]. But it's been several years since then and their writeups haven't been updated very much at all [2].

This is pretty important, because these systems aren't so robust that you can just assume everything is working without review. (See, for example, this paper [3].) Apple should at least document what kinds of data are being collected, and precisely how the collection process works.

[1] https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.c... [2] https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Differential_Privacy_Over... [3] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1709.02753
by jvanderbot | 2025-04-15 16:59:29+00:00
You'd be hard pressed to find a conservative college dean, non-profit CEO, or even a librarian. There's a belief (which I think is mostly true), that most government agencies are left-leaning in practice if not in appointed leadership. Add to that the growing (perceived!) left-leaning policies in the military and major industrial players, and you might see what they mean.
by californical | 2025-04-15 16:59:42+00:00
I somewhat agree with your point, but it’s also important to include the other side of that pricing.

If it actually costs $60 (really more like $25 for made-in-America t-shirts I’ve bought) to make a t-shirt, with environmental regulations and human costs accounted for, then isn’t that the actual cost of a t-shirt? And they were artificially cheap at $10 for imported ones due to ignoring externalities? In that case, producing these simple products is actually a bit more valuable than you suggest.
by geye1234 | 2025-04-15 16:59:47+00:00
It takes time to have a serious debate. You both need to figure out what your unstated premises are. If you disagree on these, you won't get anywhere by arguing downstream of them. Politics is even worse, because you are supposed to have an opinion, but at the same time, most matters require a detailed understanding of the facts that few people have the time, brains or inclination to understand. Add the tribalism and this gets even worse. It's incredibly rare to find someone whose general political opinions are well thought-through. Mine certainly aren't. I could regurgitate the argument for the free market or for heavy gov control of the economy, for example, and even understand them as internally-consistent syllogisms, but really all I'm doing is linking concepts together in my mind; I doubt any of them apply to any really-existing concrete situation that any given country is in. Hence I try not to comment on political threads.
by srveale | 2025-04-15 16:59:51+00:00
As someone who uses LLMs every day for general questions/brainstorming, more efficient coding, and building a product used by doctors to improve their documentation (saving them hours per week and freeing them to interact with their patients more personally), I would like more of this hot air please. Would you begrudge disabled people their new assistants? Language learners their translators? I could go on.

LLMs have some very important downsides, and I fully agree that they are dangerous, but we should dispel the notion that they don't have positive use cases. That leaves the benefits on the table, while the bad actors will continue with their destruction anyways.

Anyway, my original point was indeed just about the semantics of the word "vapourware", which if I'm interpreting the author correctly, would be better replaced with "malware" (not that I agree with such a stance).
by kmoser | 2025-04-15 16:59:53+00:00
I think that's an oversimplified metric when comparing the ability of an AI to analyze and describe code. Imaging you're reading a book on a challenging new topic. Even if the book is 100% right, there will be many passages you don't understand, and may even misinterpret. A book won't correct you, offer alternate explanations, or break down concepts any further than what was already written.

An LLM, for all its flaws, can do these things exceedingly well (provided it has good source material, of course). This gives you the ability to get answers to your questions and correct your mistakes. I'd argue that these benefits far outweigh the errors an LLM makes in breaking down and explaining material, and make an LLM better than a book in many (not all) cases.
by mtlynch | 2025-04-15 17:00:07+00:00
>We have an Apache licensed project. You absolutely can use it for anything you want, including AI analysis. I don't appreciate third parties deciding on their own what can be done with code that isn't theirs.

That's not what the Apache license says.

According to the Apache license, derivative work needs to provide attribution and a copyright notice, which no major LLMs do.
by fwip | 2025-04-15 17:00:31+00:00
Interestingly (and I'm not sure if it was intentional or not), but the first thing kimbernator did here was validate your feelings.

"It definitely sucks when..."

Like ziddoap points out in another reply, the way it's said has a lot to do with whether it sounds patronizing and insincere.

If you speak like you're talking to a toddler "It sounds like you're feeling really angry," then yeah, they're going to hate it. Or therapy-speak like "You're angry for a valid reason" can equally sound condescending. But saying "that sucks, dude." accomplishes the same goal, in a way that sounds, and is, sincere.
by jedberg | 2025-04-15 17:00:35+00:00
> Notion being SOC 2 Type 2 and Notion Email only being Type 1 is a red flag that they're doing something weird or not re-using policies and infrastructure.

No it's not. It's a new product. As you aptly pointed out, Type 2 is "over time". It's a fixed time period (at a minimum three months) that you have to be observed. That means you can't get a type 2 until you've been live for 3 months, and that's assuming you've already engaged the auditor on day one.

Given that this is a new space for them, they probably had to add new infra or policies that weren't under consideration before.
by phkahler | 2025-04-15 17:01:08+00:00
>> There's a problem to be solved, so let's attempt to solve it or at least compromise in good faith.

Validating their position is a form of acknowledgement that we understand it. That's a prerequisite to a "compromise in good faith". If someone feels we don't understand their position, they will not feel we are arguing in good faith.

>> The resolution to the problem is the most likely way to elicit positive emotions from me anyway.

But when you lose an argument does it feel better (less bad) if the other person understood your point rather than just ignoring it? It kinda sucks more to make a concession when the other person doesn't even know we've made one.
by f38zf5vdt | 2025-04-15 17:01:16+00:00
Personal enrichment? There's already an enormous amount of evidence here to indicate that DOGE is working on behalf of a foreign nation state. It is seeming more and more likely that members of the DOGE team are simply secret agents for a foreign military.

> Within minutes after DOGE accessed the NLRB's systems, someone with an IP address in Russia started trying to log in, according to Berulis' disclosure. The attempts were "near real-time," according to the disclosure. Those attempts were blocked, but they were especially alarming. Whoever was attempting to log in was using one of the newly created DOGE accounts — and the person had the correct username and password, according to Berulis.
by m4tthumphrey | 2025-04-15 17:01:20+00:00
"AI" is just a buzzword most of the time. So many companies have literally just added it to their product name, or in to some description of the product. In all likelihood, nothing has really changed other than maybe a thin OpenAI API wrapper doing something nobody asked for.

Also, "AI" in it's majority current form, has been around for decades it's just cool now to use the word "AI" when branding a product/company.
by asimpletune | 2025-04-15 17:01:21+00:00
From a rhetorical point of view, yeah it may have a better chance to change their mind. Start out the idiot, assume they're right, but then ask sincerely why. After they've explained why then go back to trying to understand how their solution does that.

Many people have been conditioned to gain energy and meaning from confrontation. But when you let them explain their views they suddenly become a lot more open to being wrong about some but not all of the details.

Slowly slowly this leads to minds being changed.

I think a lot of technical debates can also be solved this way. Ask people to help you understand what they’re saying, repeat back what they said so they know you got it, and then ask about how it world work in x, y, z scenarios. Talking like this has the best chance of success.
by netsharc | 2025-04-15 17:01:37+00:00
> The US debt is starting to become an existential problem.

Really...? Until Liberation Day the other week, I would doubt this. The whole world holds the US dollar, if the USA fails (side-glare at Donald and Elon), the whole world goes into chaos. If President Harris had said "OK world, we need to borrow x more dollars to keep this country running", people (private creditors and nations) would say "I'm pretty sure the USA will still be a solid economy in 10 (or 30 years), x% ROI if I lend them money? Sure!".

And as this chart says, it's not all owned by "Chaina": https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-heres-who-owns-u-s-...
Ask HN: Why is OpenAI pivoting to social networks?
by pera | 2025-04-15 17:01:39+00:00
According to The Verge, OpenAI is building a new social network:

https://www.theverge.com/openai/648130/openai-social-network-x-competitor

This seems a quite unusual decision for an AI company, specially given that they just closed a $40b funding round.
by turtlebits | 2025-04-15 17:01:43+00:00
AQ sensors add cost. I've also never seen a reliable AQ sensor on a air filter. I have several Coway which go into turbo mode at random times and a couple of others that never go above fan speed 1, even when my dedicated AQ sensor shows elevated PM2.5.

A dumb device without leds/screens/connectivity that I can control with a smart plug via HA is much easier to deal with.
by const_cast | 2025-04-15 17:01:51+00:00
No, however WHY you want to preserve your culture and HOW you intend to do it is what determines if it's racist.

A lot of people want to preserve their culture because they view it as superior. Historically, they view other cultures as lower-level, that of savages. They think themselves civilized. This is, obviously, racism.

And in regards to the how, what is the methodology? Do we perhaps build camps to put people of a certain brown complexion in? Do we round them up in the streets? How do you even tell who is who - by their skin tone? As you can see, there's a lot of potential for racism there.
by endominus | 2025-04-15 17:02:04+00:00
Your original issue with the article was that once you've "settled" an issue, there is no reason to argue about it. I pointed out that a number of people do not "settle" issues in the way that you describe, and that argument serves to update their information and beliefs constantly.

You stated that a mind "cannot be changed if it was never made." I disagree; one does not need to have an absolute belief in something to "change their mind." By definition, any update of beliefs is changing one's mind. My mind changes often, but usually by small increments. A key part of that is argumentation; I constantly seek out counterarguments to my own beliefs to see if new data or points of view will sway me. In the absence of that, I argue against myself, to see if I can find flaws in my logic and update accordingly.

By that logic argument, as described by the original article, is extremely useful for ensuring that one's beliefs accurately reflect reality.

To me, your position that an issue must be "settled" in one's mind (whatever that means, because I don't think you're perfectly clear on that) before you can be said to "change your mind" doesn't make sense.
by drewlander | 2025-04-15 17:02:11+00:00
Former racker here. When RAX laid me off, I was told there was no other place for me to go (which was not true). I loved my time there and the people I learned so much from and loved working with. It hurt. I had fantastic managers who did care, but the company changed and looking back I shouldn’t have been surprised. Cog in the machine. When I was a manager elsewhere I tried to show the same care my previous managers did. I cared even if those at the top didn’t.
by vunderba | 2025-04-15 17:02:55+00:00
Yeah, we all have our own workflows. For me, I usually have a very specific visual concept in mind (which I will block out roughly on graph paper if need be). I can usually get to where I want to go with a combination of inpainting and various types of controlnets.

Like this: (Created by noted thespian Gymnos Henson)

https://specularrealms.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Gorgon...
by sixo | 2025-04-15 17:03:45+00:00
That's just not validating your emotions—trying to, but doing badly. If ever someone actually did validate them it would feel validating, which feels good—rather tautologically, but hopefully you see my point.

Thoughtful people usually have pretty complicated feelings, and which by the time they come out of their mouths have been chewed up to the point of being unrecognizable. It can be very hard to get to the bottom of them. Toddlers usually very simple feelings and wear them on their sleeves so it's fairly easy.
by arghwhat | 2025-04-15 17:03:49+00:00
That tariffs are in use is not proof that it is untrue. Even with the current dumpster fire we still trade with the US, but that obviously does not mean there has been no harm.

For countries, tariffs is not something that is just shrugged off as it impacts their economy, there will always be political countermeasures to strongly discourage that tariffs are applied that harms them. Retaliatory tariffs, impact on other negotiations and relationships, etc.

For companies, tariffs harm profits and fair competition on both supply chain and consumer side, depending on where the tariffs are located. The company would strategize for maximum profit margins, circumventing tariffs, remove countries from their supply chain, and focusing on more profitable markets.

It wouldn't be a boycott the same way it is now of course. It would be a slower process. But tariffs is a way to force the market and always have wide negative effects. One just hopes that certain long-term side-effects (like high import cost causing focus on driving down local supply cost) is worth the impact (local cost of living increase, drop in investments, drop in friendly reputation).
by burningChrome | 2025-04-15 17:03:51+00:00
Ooooof. They got me. Ironically, this is the first article in many different search results with several other articles about how Ford will deal with the tariffs. With another article from Ford Authority on the same topic:

https://fordauthority.com/2025/03/ford-taking-broad-steps-to...

In addition to scrutinizing its supply chain, Ford is also in the process of stocking up on parts that comply with the current U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and it’s also taking a second look at its operations in those countries, according to Automotive News. Ford is “strategically stockpiling components where it is cost-effective and parts that are not pending engineering changes,” supply chain chief Liz Door told suppliers in a recent memo.

This is what got me. They had this article talking about looking at its operations in those countries and then the April Fools article which essentially described them doing just that.

Although I already knew Ford does most of its manufacturing in the US, I should've known better.

Thanks for the heads up regardless.