MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by modeless | 2025-05-22 14:43:54+00:00
There's nothing wrong with using a logarithmic system, that's not the complaint here. The complaint is that using decibels instead of bels is weird, and also that it's a scale and not a unit but people use it as if it was a unit without specifying a reference point, and also that the scale changes for different base units. Crazy how many people here are missing the point.
by monster_truck | 2025-05-22 14:43:55+00:00
RDNA3 cards also have AV1 encode. RDNA 2 only has decode.

With the bitrate set to 100MB/s it happily encodes 2160p or even 3240p, the maximum resolution available when using Virtual Super Resolution (which renders at >native res and downsamples, is awesome for titles without resolution scaling when you don't want to use TAA)
by palmotea | 2025-05-22 14:43:56+00:00
>> The economy isn't going to be destroyed even if AGI were round the corner.

> Interesting - how do you reconcile mass unemployment with working economy? (And this is honest question from one that is invested and hopeful that their life savings won’t evaporate overnight)

Define "working economy." Ultimately, "the economy" is the market and the market is about satisfying the desires of the people with the money to participate.

The economy will keep working if there's mass unemployment. You reconcile that by realizing the economy isn't a system for taking care of everyone, or optimizing for mass human flourishing. Unemployment just means the money-havers have no use for you anymore, and you can go FOAD.
by pavel_lishin | 2025-05-22 14:43:59+00:00
I get half a dozen calls a day from random phone numbers in my area code; there's always a (pretty decent) computer-generated woman's voice with an American name who asks me some screening questions - either about health insurance, auto accident claims, or home security - and then passes me along to a person with a non-American accent.

I wonder how many of those are trafficking victims.

I usually try to keep them on the phone for awhile, without being obnoxious about it - every minute they spend on the phone with me is a minute they don't spend scamming my grandparents.
by tarentel | 2025-05-22 14:44:16+00:00
> I was not learning to name the key signatures

It was mentioned the person was trying to memorize all these with anki or something. There's actually no need. You only need to memorize 2 key signatures and the rest follow a pattern.

C major has 0 sharps/flats F major has 1 flat

Every sharp key is a half step up from the last sharp shown. G major has 1 sharp F#. G is a half step up from F#. In A major the last sharp is G#, etc.

In flat keys, it's the second flat to the right. Bb has two flats in the signature. Bb and Eb. Ab has 4 where Ab is the 3rd.

All minor keys are a minor third down from their major key. Of course, you have to look at more of the music to determine if it is a in major or minor key.

If you can remember that you can tell what any key signature is pretty quickly.
by pjmlp | 2025-05-22 14:44:24+00:00
And the foundation of one of the very first memory safe systems programming languages, with automatic resource management, using a mix of reference counting with a cycle collector, Cedar.

"Eric Bier Demonstrates Cedar"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_dt7NG38V4

Mesa also provided the very first IDE experience for strongly typed languages, with code completion, typo correction, dynamic code loading, a REPL, incremental compilation,...

"The Mesa programming environment"

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/800225.806843

Indeed, so many still catching up to Xerox PARC vision.
by BenjiWiebe | 2025-05-22 14:44:39+00:00
Exactly! I have seen temperatures specified as degrees, without specifying Fahrenheit or Celsius. It's a bit like that.

My exposure to dB is mainly the RF field, and it's simple. dB is gain/loss (power ratio, just like the dictionary says!) and dBm is relative to a milliwatt. In software defined radio, you've got dBFS - relative to maximum representable. And they're all labeled correctly.
by delusional | 2025-05-22 14:45:20+00:00
I agree with this in general. In specific though:

> We can't stop the middlebox from saying well, Bob publishes a trans rights blog so now all Bob's blogs are inaccessible just in case.

Seems incorrect. Bob could publish a single key without any indication of what is behind that key. Alice would get that key (from DNS), but since it was just for talking with Bob in general, nobody knows what Bob has. Alice and Bob are then free to talk about their trans rights.

The particular point is that there's no reason the middlebox would even know there is a subdomain called trans-rights.bob.example.
by aimor | 2025-05-22 14:45:31+00:00
Yes, dB is a mess and if we could do it again we ought to use something more explicit like just annotating the units with log10 such as log10(W). Then it's easy to use other convenient units like log2(W) or if you want to reproduce dBV: 20log10(V). dB is fine shorthand, but it gets used all the time in places where things should be explicit.
by behnamoh | 2025-05-22 14:45:37+00:00
So, we’ve come full circle to symbolic AI! This article essentially suggests that LLMs could be effective translators of our requests to command-line code or input to symbolic AI software, which would then yield precise solutions. However, I feel this approach is overly mechanical, and I don’t believe AGI would be achieved by creating thousands, if not millions, of MCP servers on our machines. This is especially true because MCP lacks scalability, and anyone who has had to send more than three or four function schemas to a language model knows that excessive JSON schema complexity confuses the model and reduces its performance.
by epistasis | 2025-05-22 14:45:42+00:00
When I first saw your comment there were no replies, and I thought you were critiquing Trump supporters, and it seemed fairly misplaced with too many absolutes to be an accurate depiction of reality. But I didn't engage because it seemed fruitless to provide minor corrections.

But apparently the partisanship is reversed! You think that I am demanding "perfect empathy" (I am not) and you think I have now shown empathy for my family members (which, you don't know the history). You are describing narcissistic behavior, which is quite endemic in my family members, and having dealt with it for decades I also recognize the attempt to blame others for one's own failing.

Yes, it is all breathtaking, but not in the way you think.
by gavinray | 2025-05-22 14:46:16+00:00
I use VS Code for everything BUT Kotlin.

I begrudgingly use IDEA because it was the only option if you wanted a decent IDE experience. The fwcd VS Code LSP for Kotlin that existed somewhat works, but it's very barebones and hasn't seen much development.

Before there was VS Code, I used Atom, so I've been on the VSC train for about as long as you can get.
by aposm | 2025-05-22 14:46:48+00:00
A human working on an existing codebase does not have any special signal about what is _not_ in a codebase. Instead, a (good) human engineer can look at how a problem is handled and consider why it might have been done that way vs other options, then make an educated decision about whether that alternative would be an improvement. To me this seems like yet another piece of evidence that these models are not doing any "reasoning" or problem-solving.
by steveBK123 | 2025-05-22 14:47:27+00:00
Right.. shove your data in our data platform.

OK now you need PortCo1's company analytics platform, PortCo2's orchestration platform, PortCo3's SRE platform, PortCo4's Auth platform, PortCo5's IaC platform, PortCo6's Secrets Mgmt Platform, PortoCo7's infosec platform, etc.

I am sure I forgot another 10 things. Even if some of these things were open source or "open source", there was the upsell to the managed/supported/business license/etc version for many of these tools.
by opwieurposiu | 2025-05-22 14:47:29+00:00
I do group fitness classes, like CrossFit, body combat, spin class. When you have a room full of people all doing the same thing you can quickly tell which things you are above or below average at. Not very scientific perhaps but this is my current strategy.

For me I am below average at endurance, so that is where I assume the mitochondria come in.
by hedora | 2025-05-22 14:47:36+00:00
This also feels like yet another boom-bust cycle to me.

During the boom, many people that couldn’t write a for loop got degrees and somehow got entry level jobs. After the dot com bust, many people avoided CS because such jobs evaporated.

This cycle will be a bit worse because four things are hitting simultaneously: (1) Hangover from idiot over hiring during COVID (2) AI is going to replace a lot of incumbent businesses with startups (3) The real economy shows every sign of collapsing due to the trade wars (4) The US is intentionally giving up its position as the best country for skilled workers to move to.

I can’t say what will happen with (4), but it seems unlikely (3) is going to win many elections for the incumbents.

Anyway, this year, firms are probably going to be simultaneously too conservative (eliminating job positions instead of retraining people to use AI with more aggressive product targets) and too aggressive (betting the magic AI genie will grant middle management’s wishes and also somehow not simultaneously commoditize all the stuff it automates away).

Anyway, I think there’s plenty of opportunity this year for any company that’s borderline competent. My personal experience with middle-manager-dominated large firms makes me pessimistic about their futures.
by KennyBlanken | 2025-05-22 14:47:51+00:00
Please stop with this nonsense you can 'work your way up' or that if only you work hard enough your efforts will be rewarded. That's long, long gone.

Companies don't care if you work hard or not. You're disposable to them. If you work hard, you only get given more work. By turning employment into "gig" work, they've shifted as much of the risk and costs onto workers, too.

Companies have weaponized employment practices and now they're just burning everything to the ground because they figure there will always be someone desperate enough. Turns out that doesn't quite work - Amazon for example has had internal memos circulating that say in various communities they're pissing off or injuring so many people they are having trouble finding workers.

"Gig" companies care so little, will suspend or cancel workers at the drop of a hat, intentionally or unintentionally. Even Uber's CEO, when he tried going 'undercover' as a driver to see what it was like, admitted he was scared he'd get a less than 5 star rating because it almost instantly torpedos you, especially if you're new. Because the "customer is always right", these companies offer no way to challenge a customer's complaint even if it's obvious nonsense. Why investigate anything, which costs money, if you've got a long line of people desperate to make $6 delivering a cheesebuger 5 miles?

Our legislators let silicon valley roll right over a century worth of worker protections because it was "innovative" (ie they got lots of lobbyist cash.) Voters let them do it because they want their delivered cheeseburger, groceries or makeup as cheap as possible....and voters don't care about the "losers" who work those jobs. It's not them, after all...
Show HN: ScrollSnap – Open-Source macOS App for Scrolling Screenshots in Swift
by brkgng | 2025-05-22 14:47:52+00:00
Hi HN,

I built ScrollSnap, a free, open-source macOS app to capture scrolling screenshots (e.g., long web pages, documents, or chats) in a single image. It’s built in Swift using Apple's native APIs for a lightweight, seamless experience.

Features: - Auto-scrolls and stitches content with no manual effort - Customizable capture area with a visual overlay - Multi-monitor support

GitHub: https://github.com/brkgng/ScrollSnap

This is v1.0, so expect some rough edges (e.g., occasional stitching glitches on complex pages).

I'd love feedback, especially from macOS and dev tool enthusiasts. It’s very early (v1), so bug reports or pull requests are more than welcome.

Thanks for checking it out!
by rahimnathwani | 2025-05-22 14:47:55+00:00
I don't use Windows as my daily driver, so I had no idea Import-Csv existed until last week, when I pasted a shell command that I had run on my Mac, and asked it to write something that would work for Windows (for my colleague).

I hadn't understood how different Powershell is, compared with cmd.exe of old.
by ryandrake | 2025-05-22 14:48:56+00:00
Infuriating. The developer is just making excuses and refusing to address the users' actual concern. And why are they phoning home in the first place? What is this critical use case that requires this intrusion?

"This daily count of users is what keeps us working on the project, because otherwise we have feel like we are coding into a void."

So, they wrote code to phone home (by default) and then digging in and defending it... just for their feelings? You've got to be kidding me!
by qazxcvbnmlp | 2025-05-22 14:49:06+00:00
Couple things...

'Sticking to a task' is an emotional problem not a willpower problem. Often times uncomfortable activities prompt us to switch to something else less painful in the moment. Eg, 'I don't want to write this email (because I will potentially say something dumb and be judged)' can be alleviated by playing mobile game (now I don't feel the discomfort of writing the email).

'Everything's falling apart' -> There is a tendency to point towards the extremes in this comment (and others). You would need to speak to a licensed professional to get a full diagnosis with proper treatment (lots of underlying conditions that can be associated with this). However, in general Id recommend a couple things: 1) Focus on getting enough sleep, eating properly and meeting your other human needs: connection, purpose, stability. 2) Focus on building empathy with both others and yourself. Focus on why other people do things that aren't perfect, accept that. Focus on why you do things that aren't perfect, accept that.

It seems weird. Like why do I have to smile at someone who wrongs me. They don't deserve it. However, executive disfunction is an emotional issue. There's not any one trick that will solve it. To do well as a human your subconscious needs to know that your conscious will meet your needs. When that doesn't happen it will take over whatever you 'think' you should be doing and lead you to do something else. Getting back in touch with your executive function means getting back in touch with what your body subconsciously needs.

Practically, I would recommend these concrete actions: 1) Focus on a consistent wake up time, this is easiest if you commit to something else in your life that requires you to be present. 2) Focus on having at least one healthy meal a day. 3) Do at least 20 minutes of physical activity a day. This can be as simple as walking to the donut shop and eating a donut. 4) Make a log of what you do instead when you fail to do a task. Review it without judgement.
by BuckRogers | 2025-05-22 14:49:06+00:00
The answer to this is easy. Rewind time and put a 200K minimum salary on visa talent, and ban products sold here to utilize overseas employees. Sell it here, you build it here. Then you have all the jobs you need and more.

To fix it today, you do the same thing. But you'd have to also cancel all the visas, and invalidate citizenship that was founded on fraud. Not much more to this story, if your concern is having jobs in the USA for people already here.
by lynndotpy | 2025-05-22 14:49:35+00:00
Yes, I meant the words I said. I haven't used OCaml, and some C projects are "just make" but that's not the rule like it is with Rust projects.

The time I spend doing things is much more valuable than the time my computer spends doing things.

I can only speak for why I like to know a project is written in Rust. I didn't add the build time because I didn't care.
by nyarlathotep_ | 2025-05-22 14:49:44+00:00
> This forum doesn’t want to believe this because their identity is wrapped up in it. But I talk to people outside software, and very few feel they get real value out of all this technology. That ultimately it’s just been a big distraction from their lives.

Re: LLMs--this has been my experience as well. People aren't thrilled with adopting something that has been sold to them as a replacement for intellectual labor either, and don't see the immediate benefit (outside of the programmer types that seem to often have an almost masochistic relationship with software that's only viable use case is 'replacing' their skillset).
by Wololooo | 2025-05-22 14:49:51+00:00
The same as matter basically.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10533407/

The interesting idea behind it is basically that for antimatter a potential wall, imagine a step function which is 0 for negative and 1 for positive and a wave that hits the wall from the negative to the positives, in theory it cannot propagate in the wall, turns out that one solution can propagate in that wall and that's antimatter: It basically sees the potential as inverted.

So since people were thinking about that they started considering that if it happens for EM interaction it could be the case for gravitation, that lead to wonder if the antimatter had different properties in that department.

From a pure theory point of view the mass of the particles and anti particles should be identical but they might have "fallen up" instead of falling down.

Note that if there are significant differences this would be extremely interesting but I am not deep enough into exotic theories that take into account those exotic cases to make more statements about the matter.
by michaelmrose | 2025-05-22 14:49:59+00:00
We should replace manual work with automation we shouldn't chop off the tree of industry knowing we will continue to need non entry level knowledge workers after current workers retire.

Also the we haven't actually replaced truck driver's at this point so nobody was actually told to reskill on their own dime yet and the "we" that specuated on this point is largely merely pragmatic.
by CGMthrowaway | 2025-05-22 14:50:07+00:00
>I am mostly counting the number of sharps and flats and translating that to the keyboard through a pattern I figured out early on. The sharps “activate” from left to right across the groups of black notes, starting with F♯, alternating between the two groups of black notes. This is easier to get into your fingers than any other memorisation technique. The order for flats is mechanically symmetrical – you just start from the right and move left, again from the “first” note in the group of three, which in that case is B♭. I am still not quite sure how other people are learning this, since most of the materials I’ve seen have focused on learning the actual names by rote, using mnemonics like “Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle”

Is this what self-taught looks like? I have never heard of that mnemonic and it was never hard to learn the order of sharps/flats in a key signature. You just look at the way it's written on the staff - two lines of sharps a 4th apart going up progressively, two lines of flats a 4th apart going down progressively.

I don't want to discourage the guy, but practicing every day for 4 years straight and he's only gotten to 60bpm... there are better methods to learn piano sight reading.
by gus_massa | 2025-05-22 14:50:46+00:00
> Its neutrons are antineutrons made of a positron and antiproton.

Neutrons are made of on up quarks and two down quark (and a lot of gluons).

Antineutrons are made of on up antiquarks and two down antiquark (and a lot of gluons).

There are no (anti)protons or (anti)electrons inside (anti)neutrons.

> Of course, antimatter has opposite electrical attraction.

Nitpicking: attraction -> charge

> If an antimatter plastic comb attracts antimatter styrofoam crumbs, those crumbs will be repelled by the matter plastic comb (luckily for them).

IIRC the charge in the comb induces a charge in the crumbs. If the charge of the comb is X, the -X charges move closer to the comb, and the X charges move far away. And that those displaced charges create a dipole that is attracted to the comb.

So I think the anti-comb would attract the normal-crumbs and create a huge explossion.
by JohnFen | 2025-05-22 14:51:32+00:00
The key is to remember that you're an Outsider, an unknown quantity, and so you present an inherent risk from the outset (especially in the genAI field, which brings a lot of additional suspicion all on its own). What you need is an advocate who is already established and respected in the industry you're targeting. That gives you a bit of "social proof".

You have one customer... assuming that they are happy with your offerings, perhaps you can get them to be your advocate? Offer them a great deal in exchange for being able to use their name in marketing materials, to get them to write up an article about your product in a trade journal, to talk you up at trade shows, etc.
by palmotea | 2025-05-22 14:51:37+00:00
>> you should be working to burn it all the fuck down to the ground.

> ...which is literally never the correct answer.

But it's the answer chosen all the time. If "entry-level tech jobs are getting wiped out," some (usually distributed) group made the decision to burn those new-grads plans to the ground. Why should they be insulated from similar decisions?

Working "to burn it all the fuck down to the ground" is just spreading that "love" to those groups. Those groups should be threatened with that, because otherwise they're not going to restrain themselves.
by hedora | 2025-05-22 14:51:38+00:00
I wouldn’t look to the white house for solutions.

Instead of discouraging offshoring, they’re threatening the physical safety of highly skilled foreigners. Those people have been the glue that holds the US economy together since, what, WWII?

If the US is no longer an attractive destination, they’ll set up shop overseas. Fast forward ten years, and the jobs they create will definitely not be in the US.

Concretely: Silicon Valley’s white collar workers are 66% first generation immigrants, and it’s the 4th largest economy on earth. (The US, including Silicon Valley, is number one). Just about all of my native born coworkers moved here for work.
by tialaramex | 2025-05-22 14:51:40+00:00
"easily" in the sense that in the proxy mode, where the Fortigate gets to make any arbitrary change it wants, it can indeed make this change too.

I guess "Use the American spelling for words" would be a slightly more invasive change than "strip ECH" in this context, but it's not that different. This is a full proxy, your client has (likely because it was configured by corporate IT) agreed that all your communication will run through a proxy, probably somebody will swear they're definitely not logging everything you do† but obviously it could do absolutely anything.

† Actually if you work in trading they might tell you it does log everything, the regulators for these industries want records of everything because they don't trust traders as far as they can throw them, and having met a few traders I know why - they tend to make Boris Johnson look like Forest Gump.