MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by rahimnathwani | 2025-04-29 16:00:20+00:00
I made no claim about the morality of taxation and government spending.

I'm merely observing that, when we attempt to measure economic activity via GDP, we run into a fundamental valuation problem with the government component (G). Private consumption (C) and investment (I) are valued using market prices derived from voluntary exchanges. These prices, imperfect as they are, provide at least some signal about the perceived value placed on those goods and services by willing participants.

Government spending, for the most part, lacks this direct market-based valuation mechanism derived from voluntary choice.

Because there are usually no market prices for government outputs (like defense, regulatory agencies, or infrastructure projects before user fees), GDP accounting defaults to valuing them at cost. So, if the government spends $1 billion, it adds $1 billion to the 'G' component of GDP. This is convenient from an accounting perspective, but it doesn't actually tell us whether that $1 billion expenditure generated $1 billion (or more, or perhaps much less) in genuine economic value or utility *as perceived by the citizens who ultimately fund it*.

Therefore, questioning whether government spending represents "good value" or is truly "productive" in the same sense as market activity is relevant if you're trying to get a useful measure. (This is true irrespective of your opinion about the morality of taxation.)

It's a well-known limitation in how we construct and interpret GDP figures.
by jorvi | 2025-04-29 16:00:21+00:00
Not really, because many cheaper phones don't have mmWave antennas. Nor do some international iPhones.

Aside from that, mmWave's biggest application is high-speed connections, not necessarily large client capacity per cell (although there is correlation). For subways I'd probably want the lowest band 4G or 5G cells for maximum penetration.

Convention centers are not really a good application for micro cells, as you have ample time to do a professional WiFi setup. Something like 5000 people should be serviceable by a 10Gb/s backhaul.

I could see stadiums being a good application for mmWave. Scant few foreigners visit American sports games, media wants/needs lot of backhaul, peaks of 30 000 visitors is definitely very hard to manage with WiFi.

mmWave in American cities is a horrible application though. Americans love building vertically, which greatly hampers mmWave viability.
by watwut | 2025-04-29 16:00:52+00:00
I am old enough to remember them. Comparably, you got maybe 4 hours of media - meaning sentences from the book being read and short boring dialogs. You cant compare it to what is currently available. It is like comparing a puddle of mud to Atlantic Ocean. And I mean it in a positive way - those audio tapes were almost nothing comparably.

Beyond projects like Dreaming Spanish, you have around infinite amount of French, Italian, Spanish or German Youtube about whatever topic you want to. There are even dedicated playlists for total beginners you can start to consume with zero knowledge. You have thousands of shows on Netflix in foreign language with various difficulty - some actually suitable for beginners. Some you have already seen in own language, so you can understand them more easily.

For major languages, there are dozens if not hundreds of podcasts with simplified news, "for beginner" discussions. Some of them are useable with literally miniscule amount of knowledge.
by aaronbaugher | 2025-04-29 16:01:00+00:00
I had a misread X-ray once, and I can see how a machine could be better at spotting patterns than a tired technician, so I'm favorable too. I think I'd like a human to at least take a glance at it, though.

The mistake on mine was caught when a radiologist checked over the work of the weekend X-ray technician who missed a hairline crack. A second look is always good, and having one look be machine and the other human might be the best combo.
by hilbert42 | 2025-04-29 16:01:21+00:00
Right, for example naturally occurring arsenic, which is commonly found in soils across large areas of the planet, can be dangerous if concentrated.

To put that into perspective, I recall seeing one estimate that put the typical levels of arsenic in a cubic meter of soil that if concentrated would kill the average human.

Now, a cubic meter of soil is a very large amount, so the effective concentration is what actually counts. How relevant to human health is this 'typical' amount/quantity? Well, I don't know as it's not my field. I'd suggest however it cannot have a big effect on human health as we've lived and evolved for hundreds of millennia with that level of arsenic in soils—that's long before anthropogenic sources would have had time to kick in.

That said, we know that in some locations natural arsenic levels are high enough to cause significant health problems, in fact sometimes concentrations are so high as to be life-threatening. Such high levels are especially dangerous when leached out of rocks and soils and they end up in water supplies (contaminated bore water being the main culprit, it's a well-known problem).
by spondylosaurus | 2025-04-29 16:01:24+00:00
> Text editors (people that edit/proofread prose, not computer programs) will be replaced by LLMs.

This is such a broad category that I think it's inaccurate to say that all editors will be automated, regardless of your outlook on LLMs in general. Editing and proofreading are pretty distinct roles; the latter is already easily automated, but the former can take on a number of roles more akin to a second writer who steers the first writer in the correct direction. Developmental editors take an active role in helping creatives flesh out a work of fiction, technical editors perform fact-checking and do rewrites for clarity, etc.
by jhp123 | 2025-04-29 16:01:25+00:00
The thing about AI is that it doesn't work, you can't build on top of it, and it won't get better.

It doesn't work: even for the tiny slice of human work that is so well defined and easily assessed that it is sent out to freelancers on sites like Fiverr, AI mostly can't do it. We've had years to try this now, the lack of any compelling AI work is proof that it can't be done with current technology.

You can't build on top of it: unlike foundational technologies like the internet, AI can only be used to build one product, a chatbot. The output of an AI is natural language and it's not reliable. How are you going to meaningfully process that output? The only computer system that can process natural language is an AI, so all you can do is feed one AI into another. And how do you assess accuracy? Again, your only tool is an AI, so your only option is to ask AI 2 if AI 1 is hallucinating, and AI 2 will happily hallucinate its own answer. It's like The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Cat E trying to clean up the mess Cat D made trying to clean up the mess Cat C made and so on.

And it won't get any better. LLMs can't meaningfully assess their training data, they are statistical constructions. We've already squeezed about all we can from the training corpora we have, more GPUs and parameters won't make a meaningful difference. We've succeeded at creating a near-perfect statistical model of wikipedia and reddit and so on, it's just not very useful even if it is endlessly amusing for some people.
by meragrin_ | 2025-04-29 16:01:32+00:00
Bureaucrats write what falls under the CFR. Congress writes the US Code. Unless there is something in the US Code which specifies the period in which the licensee must have 50% of the satellites in place, the bureaucrats can change the rules in the CFR. Somehow I doubt Congress was that detailed. They likely just passed the buck to let the bureaucrats specify the details.
by dragonwriter | 2025-04-29 16:02:11+00:00
> Eventually you will have to build out the rail line in densely populated areas (especially near San Francisco and LA).

The SJ to SF run is on existing rail right of way.

> At that point, you're going to have to start using imminent domain.

They’ve been using eminent domain the whole time, they aren't going to have to start at some point in the future.
by vinceguidry | 2025-04-29 16:02:13+00:00
When I went looking for this in Ruby, I eventually landed on RubyTree[1]. Being able to subclass the TreeNode makes everything so much friendlier. Sure, I could implement them myself, but getting converters to/from primitives for free is a lot off my mind. Would be nice to have it built into the language but honestly Ruby has a whole lot of stdlibs and default gems already.

1: https://github.com/evolve75/RubyTree
by justlikereddit | 2025-04-29 16:02:43+00:00
Superluminal information transfer would be more useful for other areas than grid synchronization, but yeah we don't have crazy tech like that. And if we attempt to synch to a 50hz frequency over the internet means a 10ms latency difference results in 180 degree out of phase input.

And even if we did have the superluminal grid sync signal the propagation of electricity itself is slower than C and you'll need to consider perceived phase synchronization over distance.
by alabastervlog | 2025-04-29 16:03:04+00:00
I'm not consistent about going back and closing tabs. By the time I've browsed on a couple topics, I have enough tabs open I can't see the titles any more, and it's downhill from there. Some of them, I think "this is good, I'll come back to this when I get a chance" so I don't want to mass-close them. Eventually I'm opening new tabs of tabs I already have open, because it's faster than finding the original.

Every now and then, I declare tab bankruptcy, mass bookmark them (to get over the feeling that I'll be closing something important), and close them all.

I've never, ever, once, in 15ish years of operating this way, looked at any of the bookmarks.

[EDIT] I guess the main issue is that deciding to close tabs I'm not currently looking at takes time, because I have to evaluate each one, and when I'm down to just favicons on the tab itself, that means actually looking at each page. Just periodically mass-bookmarking and closing is less work. It's a UI issue. Plus, if I'm looking at my browser, it's because I'm doing something, and that something is basically never "playing tab-gardener". My very first action is gonna be "new tab" and go from there.
by hangonhn | 2025-04-29 16:03:15+00:00
That's a repeating pattern with technologies. Most of the early investments don't pay off and the transformation does happen but also quite a bit later than people predicted. This was true of the steam engine, the telegraph, electricity, and the railroad. It actually tends to be the later stage investors who reap most of the reward because by then the lessons have been learned and solutions developed.
by danfunk | 2025-04-29 16:03:20+00:00
Visual workflow tools, particularly those that are able to support a human-in-the-loop, MUST exist for the world to adapt and effectively use LLMs.

Literate Programming - coined by Donald Knuth and at the heart of Jupyter Notebooks - is powerful means of making software development a tool in the pockets a lot of people. I agree that just pressing "run" is critical to making a tool like this accessible.

I'm one of the core contributors to SpiffWorkflow. We are also visual programming platform and echo your belief of the power of combining visuals with programming. I shared this article here a few months ago that delves into our methodology. - https://medium.com/@danfunk/5-ways-bpmn-python-will-simplify...

conartist6 mentioned elsewhere in the comments of a need for a common standard for editors - I think BPMN could be that standard, or new revolutions of it, such as POWL.

collingree mentioned "good visual programming makes the software development process more accessible to other smart people" -- I think this maybe the MOST important long term benefit of these tools. More people in organizations need to understand what the hell is going on - and stop shrugging their shoulders when it turns out all the business logic is buried in 100k lines of code. Important shit should be easy to find and change.

As many others have mentioned here, visual tools are not likely to see wide adoption by software engineers for all of their work. But as middle groud in which to plant business rules, so those rules can be cultivated - it could change the world and the way we collaborate on software efforts.

Would love to talk to you both sometime, share war stories, dreams, and go to market strategies.
by fikama | 2025-04-29 16:03:21+00:00
More or less what you written + sometimes toxic multitasking I would leave one work half done and start something different. Also sometimes I open new tab is tead of working in the already opened one (that could be solved by some kind of tab dedup). Fun Fact IOS Safari has a limit of 500 pages per group then you have to open a new one.
by sheepscreek | 2025-04-29 16:03:34+00:00
BEWARE! On iOS, the app will have access to a five-page-long list of data, including your browsing history, purchase history, phone number, physical address, precise location, photos, videos, and more. I almost wish they’d stop f’ing around with advertising and make it a paid subscription app. I might even subscribe to it then (like I have with SuperGrok and ChatGPT Plus).

Maybe their audience is people who can’t be bothered or can’t afford it.
by 72deluxe | 2025-04-29 16:03:36+00:00
I suppose you are right. I worked with MFC/C++ and COM and it was horrible. Delphi and C++ Builder things were nicer to use but fell by the wayside, particularly after Borland lost their focus and didn't bother supporting VCL correctly in themes and also had major issues with their C++ compiler. They suffered a brain drain.

I remember Windows Explorer opening swiftly back in the day (fileman even faster - https://github.com/microsoft/winfile now archived sadly) and today's Explorer experience drives me insane as to how slow it is. I have even disabled most linked-in menu items as the evaluation of these makes Explorer take even longer to load; I don't see why it can't be less than 1 second.

Anyway, I do recall Netscape taking a long time to load but then I did only have a 486 DX2 66MHz and 64MB of RAM.... The disk churning did take a long time, now you remind me...

I think using wxWidgets on Windows and Mac was quite nice when I did that (with wxFormBuilder); C++ development on Windows using native toolkits is foreign to me today as it all looks a mess from Microsoft unless I have misunderstood.

In any case, I can't see why programs are so sluggish and slow these days. I don't understand why colossal JS toolkits are needed for websites and why the average website size has grown significantly. It's like people have forgotten how to write good speedy software.
by Macha | 2025-04-29 16:04:04+00:00
This many tabs are a temporary todo list, basically. Bookmarks are permanent and the interface is worse for cleaning them up when you're done with them.

Also, some sites, and especially app-like sites, are terrible at preserving your state if you close and navigate back. This could be something as simple as highlighted text in a document, or as advanced as the settings for the piano practice app session I'm in.
by netdevphoenix | 2025-04-29 16:04:19+00:00
As I type this, I have about 20 HN tabs open. Why do I have so many tabs open? Many of them are 200 plus comment posts about stuff I really care about. HN has lots of quality content and I actively consume it. I don't use bookmarks because I plan to consume the content, derive insights and discard the tab. While I use bookmarks for stuff I plan to check regularly.
by ericmay | 2025-04-29 16:04:36+00:00
I haven't yet - I want to but honestly just haven't had any good ideas on how to do so. I could just create a website and maintain it for other people I guess?

If you have any recommendations or ideas I'd be happy to collaborate! Doesn't need to be something that makes money, though hopefully something that doesn't cost money either! Lol
by inverted_flag | 2025-04-29 16:04:53+00:00
Trump called Bezos and Bezos bent the knee

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-presidency-news...

> President Donald Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos this morning to complain about reports that his company was considering displaying the cost of US tariffs next to prices for certain products on the company’s website, two senior White House officials told CNN.
by mathattack | 2025-04-29 16:05:54+00:00
https://archive.is/rhweZ

They are different both as individuals and companies.

Microsoft lives to bleed their corporate customers dry with inferior products. It's filled with armies of company soldier who follow the rules of their narrow silos. OpenAI is a disruptor.

Sathya is the ultimate company man as CEO working most of his life at one place. Sam Altman is all over the place.

Seems like the fallout is natural, and likely inevitable.
by idiotsecant | 2025-04-29 16:06:02+00:00
That's easy enough to say but big iron power electronics are orders of magnitude more expensive than copper windings and magnetic steel laminations , both in terms of capital cost and maintenance. It's also dramatically harder to extinguish DC arcs so switching gear and substations need more expensive designs as well. The grid could not exist at present, let alone 100 years ago, if we operated it all DC. Over time more and more of it will shift to DC, particularly for long haul, but AC has enough advantages that's it's unlikely to ever go away.

I'm short, it's this way for a reason. The complexity is nessessary.
by vineyardmike | 2025-04-29 16:06:06+00:00
Tons of people use Metas existing products. Like an astonishing amount of people, despite the attitude of the typical HN crowd.

Many of those people aren’t particularly tech savvy, and aren’t hip to the latest technology. By embedding “Meta AI” into each app, they’re reaching an audience far greater than can be reached by most non-Google AI products.

Once they get hooked on using Meta AI (because it was there, and they didn’t know to search for others), they’re reaching may want a dedicated app.
by addoo | 2025-04-29 16:06:07+00:00
For context, my experience is colored by the kind of work I do: building codebases from scratch that tackle ‘niche’ (read: not readily available as FOSS or described online) problems, usually in small teams or solo.

For a completely inexperienced dev, they may delegate to having AI draft the entire project for them. If a part doesn’t work, they just keep repeating the prompt until it does. They’re not tweaking and twiddling, so the mindset is ‘if it works then I’m done’.

For an experienced dev, usually they will define a structure and have a clear understanding of what the inputs and outputs of each component are. They’ll also write what are known to be critical code sections themselves. AI is usually used here as they might take advantage of an intern—to do the busy work—and because they have adequate experience it’s fairly trivial to review the code and manually fix problems before adding it to the codebase.

For people in the middle ground, they end up with hybrid of these qualities, and it generally doesn’t turn out well. They might define a structure, but not well enough to know exactly what components to create from an LLM, nor knowledge of which sections need to be done by hand, nor be adept at finding deficiencies in the code they’re given. Because they have the ability to debug, they spend time debugging failures instead of just promoting again, and because they let bad code slip into the codebase failures happen just as often as if done by hand, but with the disadvantage of not having authored the code in the first place.
by glitchc | 2025-04-29 16:06:14+00:00
I'm not sure how capitalism crept into the discussion, since neither the article nor my comment and its parents touch on it.

But since you have, absolutely, capitalism only works well when there are guardrails in place. Our greatest success is creating a society based on the adherence to law and order that preserves individual freedoms. If it solely relied on capitalism, it would become possible for a person to pay someone to kill someone else. Maybe we'll get there eventually once enough safeguards are eroded, who knows?
by reginald78 | 2025-04-29 16:06:40+00:00
I use tree style tabs and typically have anywhere from 20 to hundreds of tabs open. My workflow is basically opening anything I find interesting for further review which naturally opens in a tree so the main task grouped together. I use them as soft bookmarks to come back to where I am, generally closing the sub tabs when I'm done with them or closing the whole tree if I'm done with the main topic.

I use bookmarks for infrequently used items that I know I will come back to at some point, the tab groups are more transient.
by hollerith | 2025-04-29 16:06:51+00:00
Yes, most cans are lined with plastic, but some are lined with tin, which I consider safe enough. And cans of pineapple are often lined with zinc, which I consider safe enough. Unfortunately, the only way to tell which cans have these tin and zinc linings is to buy one, open it, empty it and look at the lining.

Also, Eden Foods uses cans linings free of phthalates:

https://www.edenfoods.com/about/values.php
by mcbishop | 2025-04-29 16:06:56+00:00
A framework for Excel spreadsheets, written in Excel VBA. A nine-minute demo video is here: https://www.cabin.wtf (the file is 4mb, not 4kb)

If nothing else, this shows that the Excel UX can be radically changed thru one small Excel file... so much of the object model is exposed to VBA.
by surajrmal | 2025-04-29 16:06:57+00:00
Why did it take so long? It was their number one request for 3 years and chrome pushed this feature nearly 5 years ago. The design looks like a straight copy of chrome so it's not like there was a large design process to work out. It feels like it was finally prioritized so that they could "improve" it with ai, similar to what chrome is doing.
by ctvo | 2025-04-29 16:07:05+00:00
As a long time Kagi user, the thing I miss the most is Google Maps integration for search results. It's nice to search for a restaurant or an address, see results for it, and with one click open up Google Maps to see how to get there and nearby attractions. Google Maps is such a large moat for Google, especially in locations that Apple Maps (the only real alternative) has poor coverage.

Outside of that use case, I enjoy using Kagi and recommend it to most people.
by koolba | 2025-04-29 16:07:35+00:00
Wouldn’t this type of concentration happen directly as a result of any irrigation system? If you keep transferring water to the same land, anything that doesn’t get absorbed by plant matter and picked or evaporate would stay in the soil. So without some other process to leech the metals, it’d keep building up. Main determinant would be the baseline rate of the source water.
by Tade0 | 2025-04-29 16:07:47+00:00
Several months ago I was dealing with huge audio interruption issues - typical sign of some other, blocking, high-priority process taking too long.

Turns out Adobe's update service on Windows reads(and I guess also writes) about 130MB of data from disk every few seconds. My disk was 90%+ full, so the usual slowdown related to this was occurring, slowing disk I/O to around 80MB/s.

Disabled the service and the issues disappeared. I bought a new laptop since, but the whole thing struck me as such an unnecessary thing to do.

I mean, why was that service reading/writing so much?
by furyofantares | 2025-04-29 16:07:50+00:00
Yeah, same.

I had a more complicated prompt that failed much more reliably - instead of a mirror I had another person looking from below. But it had some issues where Claude would often want to refuse on ethical grounds, like I'm working out how to scam people or something, and many reasoning models would yammer on about whether or not the other person was lying to me. So I simplified to this.

I'd love another simple spatial reasoning problem that's very easy for humans but LLMs struggle with, which does NOT have a binary output.