MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by MyOutfitIsVague | 2025-05-12 03:50:16+00:00
I disagree with it being cheaper. One of the major costs is that we have an entire ad-driven ecosystem, aggressive attention economy, and the many potential alternatives that could never compete with a gargantuan ad conglomerate that has the leverage in one field to completely make all competition infeasible in others. It looks cheaper to us, but only because the price we have paid is that great things that may have existed never had a chance to.

There are many difficult-to-estimate costs for monopolies, especially ones like this. That does not mean that the costs do not exist. That's the entire point in making people believe that things are "free" or "cheap", you rob them of even the opportunity to even evaluate alternatives to realize how much better it could be. There are very good reasons that these kinds of things should be illegal.
by grumpy-de-sre | 2025-05-12 03:51:13+00:00
Yeh the congestion on Beijing's ring roads is pretty awful. Orderly but awful, also less EVs than ideal.

Have a friend from Shanghai here in Germany that had a really hard time getting a drivers license due to her old driving habits. Aggressively cutting in front of people and horning isn't looked upon too highly here.
by phendrenad2 | 2025-05-12 03:52:06+00:00
The fact that you can do everything in C when developing a Windows app always makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Building up from the lowest-level primitives just makes sense.

Meanwhile, on MacOS, everything is an ObjectiveC Object, so if you want to write an app in pure C you can but it's about 1000x more verbose because you've gone an abstraction level deeper than Apple intended, and you essentially have to puppeteer the Objective C class hierarchy to make anything happen. It's incredibly icky.

I don't know why they can't rebase the ObjectiveC class-based API onto a basic win32-style procedural API (technically win32 is also "class-based" but it's minimal). It's part of why I don't see myself porting any of my C code to MacOS any time soon.
by 90s_dev | 2025-05-12 03:52:10+00:00
It's not about excess.

Look at some of the most famous success stories in comedy, art, music, theatre, film, etc.

A good number of them did their best work when they were poor.

"Community" is a great example. Best show ever made, hands down. Yet they were all relatively broke and overworked during the whole thing.

It's because they believed in the vision.
by garyfirestorm | 2025-05-12 03:53:44+00:00
Yes sometimes it’s a dollar or two and it really adds up quick. Sometimes 10’s of dollars. That door speaker can be few dollars cheap - you may get 2% more THD in a frequency band… the conversations can be really reduced down to ‘meh subjectively not noticeable’ but will save us a million. Add few of these things and now you have a shitty radio system but 5 mil in bank.
by analog31 | 2025-05-12 03:53:44+00:00
To some extent, the NSF did that. My graduate education was funded by the NSF, and my research didn't have an obvious practical purpose, except to enable further research.

Today, I'm in a corporate research role, and I'm still given a lot of freedom. I'm also genuinely interested in practical applications and I like developing things that people want to buy, but my ability to do those things owes a lot to the relatively freewheeling days of NSF funding 30+ years ago.
by leoc | 2025-05-12 03:54:20+00:00
Speaking of which https://substack.com/home/post/p-115930233 :

> John Pierce once said in an interview, asserting the massive importance of development at Bell:

>> You see, out of fourteen people in the Bell Laboratories…only one is in the Research Department, and that’s because pursuing an idea takes, I presume, fourteen times as much effort as having it.
by muzani | 2025-05-12 03:54:42+00:00
We do have some like the Homebrew Computer Club, but not (yet) as elite. Kuala Lumpur has some talent, but not the density of talent. I may join once every two years. Every time I do there's a founder who ends up public listed. One even had enough success rate to become a VC, but it's hard to tell which one will be who.

But so far the sales events have had a higher hit rate. There's very talented people joining whatever new thing AWS is launching, or the hackathons.

If anything, founders are good at building things. Hackathons are an excuse to experiment with a new tool for some, a sport for others. I think a lot of friendships today are forged in the heat of the hackathons. I met this guy who wanted to build an "AI assistant" with Gemini, which I dismissed as a dumb idea because Google has been building AI assistants for years. But his idea went much deeper than that and he won the hackathon car.
by MyOutfitIsVague | 2025-05-12 03:55:10+00:00
> What's going on with immigration for instance has been in the planning phases for years.

Then how do they still manage to mistakenly deport the wrong people and have to cover it with a smoke screen of lies? If this is what their "careful and thoughtful" planning looks like, I'd hate to see what their recklessness looks like, because it all looks like the same level of shit show from my angle.
by theamk | 2025-05-12 03:56:30+00:00
Imagine a validation logic error that allows an evil actor to pass credit checks with arbitrary personal details.

Hackers use this to make many orders using fake personal information. In BNPL, all losses are covered by the BNPL provider - so merchants get their money, criminals get random stuff for resale, and BNPL have to foot the bill.
by walrus01 | 2025-05-12 03:56:45+00:00
> Food is a basic human need, paying someone to make a burrito for you and then hand deliver it to your house is not. There is no shortage of food in america.

Do some googling about what is a "food desert", plenty of lower income people in the USA live somewhere that the grocery store options and fresh, nutritious ingredient shopping options are VERY poor. Or a costly distance away to drive on a regular basis.

I am not saying this excuses ordering $25 burritos on doordash or uber eats but it is an influencing factor.
by nine_k | 2025-05-12 03:57:01+00:00
There's a catch. If enough people opt for not working, the level of UBI may go below the level of survival for some time. This will push those who can work and don't want to tolerate it to go find work. But those who cannot work much, or at all, like disabled people, would be facing hunger, and would be unable to afford the special stuff they need to survive (like medicine or home aid). They might just die from that.

This returns us back to the problem of some guaranteed payments to those we don't want to let die, and maybe want to live not entirely miserably, and the administration thereof.

Another danger is the contraction of the economy: businesses close, unable to find workers, the level of UBI goes down, people's income (UBI + salary) also goes down, and they can afford fewer goods, more businesses close, etc. When people try to find work because UBI is not enough, there may be not enough vacancies, until the economy spins up again sufficiently. It's not unlike a business cycle, but the incentive for a contraction may be stronger.
by bitmasher9 | 2025-05-12 03:57:30+00:00
But McDonalds doesn’t really offer OT, which is a huge draw. Many fast food workers work multiple jobs because they need the hours for money, and none of their employers give OT regularly.

Working 40 hours at $20/hr = 800/week.

Work 40 hours at $25 and 20 at $37.5 = $1750 which is enough to live in the Bay Area.
by koolba | 2025-05-12 03:58:16+00:00
> The national average salary is $63,795 [0], so they're making about $4k more. Just because they're not earning 6 figures working in their first tech job doesn't mean that it's bad.

The average rent nationally is $1860. In the Bay Area it’s $2650.

That’s not to say it’s bad. But the numbers are meaningless without some localized pricing or cost adjustment.
by aspenmayer | 2025-05-12 03:58:53+00:00
To say that the crux of their dissent is envy of their betters is an unfounded assertion. Most teachers I know are underpaid, and yet still argue more for $15 nationwide minimum wage than they do for pay raises for themselves. And many of those same teachers have to work those same minimum wage jobs when classes aren’t in session just to pay rent.

I’m not sure who you’re arguing got such a great deal here, as I can definitely identify a few benefitting parties, but it isn’t the teachers, or the middle or lower class folks.

Finger pointing won’t solve the problem, and individuals have unique circumstances and abilities to pay. I’m not sure if you have to work for a living that it is even reasonable to use the word “wealth” in the same way that those who make money from returns on capital use the word.
by cryptonector | 2025-05-12 03:59:23+00:00
Ahh, JAAS... Java applets were removed, but JAAS, which only existed to support applets, could not be removed because there was lots of code that depended on the Login and Subject classes and the runAs() method. Why would such code exist though, if JAAS existed only to support applets? Well, because the Login class could be used to acquire credentials. For example the Krb5Login class could be used as a Java kinit in Kerberos environments.

Anyways, JAAS' Permission class and model are weak, but yeah, they could be used to limit libraries' capabilities. A capability model would be much better than a permission model.
by int_19h | 2025-05-12 03:59:28+00:00
Imagine if instead you could write:

w̲i̲n̲d̲o̲w̲* window = new w̲i̲n̲d̲o̲w̲(...)

(that's the original ALGOL 60 reference language syntax, for the curious; although it didn't have user-defined types, so it was keywords that were underlined)

Then there's the Smalltalk approach:

aWindow := Window new ...
by jhanschoo | 2025-05-12 03:59:46+00:00
I don't quite understand the full argument that you are trying to make. You seem to assume that it is more justified to "protect someone from themselves" than to "protect stupid people from loan sharks", and that the situation at hand resembles the latter more than the former.

To me the justifiability of these two imperatives seem to be reversed. But to the extent that "protecting stupid people from loan sharks" is unjustified, we also think that we should "protect weak people from robbers and bandits", and protect people from frauds.
by gotoeleven | 2025-05-12 04:01:16+00:00
I didn't look at every one on the list of these 1000 NSF grants that were cancelled:

https://airtable.com/appGKlSVeXniQZkFC/shrFxbl1YTqb3AyOO?jnt...

but I think if you skim the titles you can sense a theme.

Here's the very first one: "Cambio: A Professional Development Approach for Building Latinx-focused Cultural Competence in Informal Science Education Institutions" for a whopping 2.8 million dollars.

This is not basic research, this is not important research, this is left wing politics parasitically attached to scientific institutions.
by jmb99 | 2025-05-12 04:01:43+00:00
Fortunately that is incorrect. I mentioned in another comment, but I’m well over $100k USD equivalent in salary alone as an embedded engineer, working in a relatively low cost of living area in Canada, graduated 3 years ago. Working for a “regular” company.

Maybe things just really suck for embedded in the states? But since my last year of university I’ve been inundated with recruiters for embedded positions, and I’ve never had a problem finding work. ~75th percentile in salary alone for software engineers in my area, ~55th-60th for Canada. I make more than every JS developer I know who graduated with me, except for the ones who moved to Seattle, Vancouver, or the Bay.
by bix6 | 2025-05-12 04:03:11+00:00
The US gov has allocated money and resources to help build infrastructure on the Mexico side. King Groceries is obviously delaying it though.

People do view this as a major issue but comparing it to the Bronx when it’s in another country drastically oversimplifies the issue. I’m sure many people would be unhappy for the US gov to spend money on Mexico…
by poincaredisk | 2025-05-12 04:03:18+00:00
Only if we assume that the existence of BNPL won't change consumer habits.

I think food is easy to buy impulsively ("I'm hangover and hungry - let's order some pizza delivery"), and removing barriers like "I don't have money right now" may cause - hypothetically - some people to spend more on food delivery and (by necessity) less on other things. I'm not sure how sound this model is, but I think it can't be ruled out.

Needles to say, I'm not sure if such change would be a good thing.
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by lucashaper | 2025-05-12 04:03:21+00:00
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Check it out and let us know what you think! Enjoy
by fsckboy | 2025-05-12 04:04:46+00:00
>...putting it nicely. The magnetron was one of several technologies that the UK transferred to the USA in order to secure assistance in the war effort.

how is that not in the spirit of wartime cooperation? with spirited cooperation, each side contributes in order to get what they want from cooperation

if you want more nuance, the American administration, completely upper class https://oldlifemagazine.com/look-magazine-april-12-1949-fran... was 100% behind helping the UK and got the job done, but we have a political system that has to respond to the common people, and just as the English labour party has never thought "oh, what can we do to help the US?", neither has the American populace in reverse, on top of the traditional American individualism and revulsion toward European monarchical and imperial wars.

Difference is, we don't bitch about it.

Britain is completely entitled to be proud of its absolute grit, prowess, and determination wrt the second world war, but the US did right by them too. America was already on the rise, but not entirely self-confident (that had begun wrt WWI but had not become a birthright till after WWII.) We didn't have a 19th century empire that collapsed (although we were in certain respects a self-contained 19th century western empire), and we were perfectly positioned (geography, population, GDP, English Common Law legal system plus bill of rights, but lacking other tired old ideas about class) to assume the mantles not only of British hegemony, but also French, German, Dutch, Belgian and the other "imperial thrones" that were now unoccupied. it was to our benefit but it was not "our fault" or even "our doing"
by verisimi | 2025-05-12 04:05:39+00:00
How do you mean you can opt out of the economy? And why would you want to do that? Government does not provide the economy and everyone should be able to freely associate, right?

I'm glad you put 'social contract' in quotes, because it is not social or a contact. If you do not agree or sign a contract, this does not make you anti-social or something. In reverse, being forced to agree to some terms (without a choice to do otherwise), is coercion. This is immoral.

This is the situation we have - immoral use of force by an exclusive monopolist (ie the existing governance system) - but it's immoral nature cannot be made right however many people argue for it. It can never be right to exhort or force others.
by hliyan | 2025-05-12 04:05:40+00:00
Because LLMs successfully emulate a subset of our brain's functions: memory and imagination (the generative/mixing function). What's missing is our brain's ability to validate the generative output against a model of the environment described by memory and output (the real world), which is built on sensory input. In short, we have a concept of true/false, LLMs don't.
by voidspark | 2025-05-12 04:06:01+00:00
That is your assumption and it is wrong.

https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5_ab498084-58c4-4345-9140-07b5...

Biological Neuron: Processes information through complex, nonlinear integration of thousands of excitatory and inhibitory inputs across dendritic trees, producing spiking outputs with rich temporal patterns. It adapts dynamically via synaptic plasticity, neuromodulation, and structural changes, operating in a probabilistic, energy-efficient manner within oscillatory networks.

Artificial Neuron: Performs simple, linear summation of weighted inputs, applies a static activation function, and produces a single scalar output. It lacks temporal dynamics, local plasticity, or neuromodulation, operating deterministically with high computational cost and fixed connectivity.
by Aurornis | 2025-05-12 04:07:03+00:00
> I understand your sentiment but it was perfectly normal to pump gas before paying in the U.S. for a very long time and still is in many places.

I had a friend who worked at a gas station in high school. Filing police reports for people who filled up and left without paying was a standard part of operations.

This was in a nice area, too. Often people just forgot and drove away. They had recourse because they had security cameras and people had license plates. The cities where you’re forced to pay inside first probably have police departments that don’t respond to non-payment as gas stations.

If someone showed up with a gas can or something they were instructed to shut off the pump and make them come inside to pay. It wasn’t as much of an honor system as it seems if you’re not familiar with it.

You can’t have a pay-later business without an amount of non-payment, which has to be compensated by higher prices (which other customers shoulder).

These are all choices a vendor can make. Something like this usually lasts right up until the secret gets out to a wider audience where the people who don’t care about social norms have no problem abusing a system left wide open.
by robocat | 2025-05-12 04:07:49+00:00
> On a first date, you can bet both people involves are trying to read each other every minute of the date

I'm sure some people do that, although I would find it disturbing. I haven't been on a date for a while, but for my last one other factors were way more important to me.

Some delightful comments on the topic here (I found the article distubingly fascinating - maybe due to my stereotype of US female daters in 30s): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43780269

> whether intentionally or unconsciously.

I think that pondering too much about subconscious drives, is a dismal dangerous road. Not that everyone can correctly identify why they do things (or why others do).

> A long-time partner probably doesn't try to read you every time you talk.

I would guess some people do it all the time - trying to analyse the reasons behind what their partner says or does. It can be a problem for both e.g. someone who has been made hyper-self-conscious about their every action because they are frightened of the reaction of their overanalytical partner.

Personally, I intensely dislike psychlogical analysis (doing it myself, or seeing others do it) because few people like to be academically analysed.

I'm rather cynical after dealing with the dangerous opinions of acquaintances (psych students, professional acquaintances, pop-science head-readers, and a few quite frankly mentally-fucked-up people that I know that just "want to help others"). Modern day watchword: trauma (especially childhood).

Labels are dangerous. I've even made an internal rule for myself to avoid all professional psychological words and only speak about behaviours. I'm definitely breaking that rule here by trying to write down my opinions (meta: sometimes difficult to avoid analysis).

I'm unsure I could summarise what I look for during a date. I can't provide an example of what I prefer instead: too much risk of wordy overanalysis!
by protocolture | 2025-05-12 04:09:11+00:00
Whats your metric for "Successful, value add" because I get the distinct impression that you are poised to disregard anything from the space.

Also, nothing I have said disagrees with you. I havent said that all AI projects are useless, just identified the cause of the rush. I have seen some toe curling LLM implementations that could only exist thanks to executive stupidity.
by lacker | 2025-05-12 04:09:21+00:00
It's not even about paying more. Think of email. Every time you send an email, there's an AI that scans it for spam.

How could there be a system that lets you opt out, but keep sending email? Obviously all the spammers would love to opt out of spam filtering, if they could.

The system just fundamentally does not work without AI. To opt out of AI, you will have to stop sending email. And using credit cards. And doing Google searches. Etc etc etc...
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by fsckboy | 2025-05-12 04:09:47+00:00
part of why "radar" does not have the mystique of other superweapons is that it was first of all not exclusive/unknown/secret technology, all of the combatants on both sides knew about it and were working on it before the war started, while paradoxically at the same time during the war it was ultra top secret, because small details of the technology were quite significant in deployment; and "good defense" is never as exciting as good offense. (modern radar today is more fully offensive)
by ziml77 | 2025-05-12 04:10:28+00:00
The downside to me knowing how small programs can be if I don't link the CRT is that I can't help but feel like what I've written is terribly bloated if I don't make an effort to avoid the CRT.

I blame people who constantly comment about how bloated software is now for making overly conscious of program size even when its down at a point where it doesn't matter :')