MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
Show HN: DualMix128 – A fast, simple PRNG passing PractRand (32TB) and BigCrush
by the_othernet | 2025-05-05 10:04:54+00:00
Hi HN,

I'd like to share DualMix128, a pseudo-random number generator I developed. It's written in C and achieves very high speed while maintaining strong statistical properties for non-cryptographic use.

GitHub (MIT License): https://github.com/the-othernet/DualMix128

Key points:

* *Fast:* Benchmarked at ~0.36 ns per 64-bit generation on GCC 11.4 (-O3 -march=native). This was over 2x faster than `xoroshiro128++` (~0.74 ns) and competitive with `wyrand` (~0.36 ns) in the same tests. (Benchmark code/results in repo).

* *Robust:* Passes the full TestU01 BigCrush suite and PractRand up to 32TB with no anomalies reported. (Test harnesses/logs in repo).

* *Simple Algorithm:* Uses a 128-bit state (two `uint64_t`) with simple mixing based on addition, XOR, rotation, and a final multiplication by the golden ratio constant.

* *C Implementation:* Minimal dependencies (`stdint.h` for core), straightforward C code.

This came out of exploring simple constructions for efficient PRNGs that still hold up under heavy statistical testing.

Curious to hear feedback on the design, performance, potential applications, or any weaknesses you might spot. Thanks!
by lucianbr | 2025-05-05 10:05:08+00:00
> Ultimately we can't change this behavior if no one is willing to defect from "conventional wisdom"

To me it reads as if you're contradicting yourself. It can be plainly seen that almost nobody is willing to defect. So change is impossible, you claim. Also change is possible, you claim. Which is it? You think people will change their choices as a result of you writing this comment and "winning" the argument?

I agree that people are responsible for the current situation, since their choices brought it about. That does not constitute a solution, though.

One or a thousand individuals changing their choice by themselves will do nothing. For tens of millions to change some external factor is required. If it was not, then it would have already happened. You say no external factor is required, so why do you think it didn't happen already, and why would it happen in the future?
by blitzar | 2025-05-05 10:05:35+00:00
> $ENTERPRISE_BIGCO, it just saved you 6mo+ of fighting with IT / Legal / various annoying middle managers

What's the point of working at $ENTERPRISE_BIGCO if you don't fight with IT & Legal & various annoying middle managers.

Anyway let's table this for now and circle back later after we take care of some of the low hanging fruit. Keep me in the loop and I will do a deep dive into how we can think outside the box and turn this into a win-win. I will touch base with you when I have all my ducks in a row and we can hop on a call.
by rickdeckard | 2025-05-05 10:07:08+00:00
I was looking for a similar experience, where I take a picture only to immediately go back into the moment, without disrupting anything.

All those compact cameras were still too large for that purpose, because as the saying goes: "The best camera is the one you always have on you"

After some searching I found an AWESOME gem of a little camera: The DxO One, a camera from back in 2016 from DxO, a company actually specialized in benchmarking camera-quality.

The device was built to be sold at ~700 USD, but flopped and can still be purchased as old-stock for ~110 USD now.

Size is fantastic, Pictures are great, I can only recommend it if someone just wants to capture a moment like it is without people getting pulled out of it.

The device is also somewhat hackable [0], as it's based on the Ambarella platform (RTOS and Linux).

I started collecting infos about it to preserve it [1], there's still alot of potential in this little gem.

[0]: https://github.com/rickdeck/DxO-One/wiki/1.-Hardware

[1]: https://github.com/rickdeck/DxO-One/wiki
by JoshTriplett | 2025-05-05 10:07:41+00:00
The EU's legislation has been decidedly mixed, and not an unalloyed good. Makes me wish there was a functional mechanism by which different jurisdictions could have an overall collaborative framework and experiment with different approaches without eventually deciding to force others to comply. I had some hope of the EU being that, but both the US and the EU have trended towards homogenization. I wonder if, in a hundred years, the EU government will claim as much power at the EU-wide level as the US federal government.

So much harm has been done in the name of AML/KYC. Money laundering is auxiliary to some other activity that governments define as "evil". Laundering the proceeds of some activity a government does not approve of is exactly as good or evil as whatever the activity itself is, and as always, law and morality are two different things. When passing such provisions, governments will always cite the worst possible activity whose proceeds might be laundered, but the resulting powers are far too easy to abuse.
by lukan | 2025-05-05 10:08:27+00:00
"Anyone who actually struggles to solve problems and learn themselves is going to have massive advantages in the long term."

Looking forward towards is, but I fear that might be wishful thinking in part.

Also pre LLMs I have seen too many deep thinkers fail and pretenders succed. I don't see how LLMs can change that. Unless we all collectivly grow tired if pretenders and fakers amd value deep understanding. I just see not many indication of that.
by rsolva | 2025-05-05 10:09:34+00:00
As with anything in life, there is a balance.

I have rekindled my love for the small digital pocket cameras. I love using it when observing every day events unfolding. I try not to let the camera get in the way of my own interactions, like a good conversation when walking with friends or loved ones.

The small 14 year old Samsung W2000 I use is slim enough to easily slide into any pocket, and has a 5x optical zoom that allows me to take really nice pictures and videos from a comfortable distance, allowing life to unfold without the awareness of the presence of a camera.

The pocket camera has just enough megapixels (10) and supports RAW images and 1080p videos. It allows me to leave my smartphone at home, avoiding any distractions when out and about. If I need to be available I bring my old Nokia as well.

I would argue to rather leave your smartphone at home, not your camera :)
by tpmoney | 2025-05-05 10:10:38+00:00
One thing missing from the reddit story is how the author knows their sister is using ChatGPT to obtain the answer as opposed to validating work. I'll often punch a calculation I've already done in my head into a calculator to confirm for myself I landed on the right answer. Or come up with a solution to a problem, find myself wondering if there's a better solution or just feel like it doesn't quite look right and search for solutions online to compare and contrast. I'm not using the calculator or search to replace my work, I'm using it as the sniff test. But you couldn't determine that just by knowing my inputs to the calculator and google. You'd have to see the entire process.
by monocasa | 2025-05-05 10:11:15+00:00
My understanding was that the main benefit of quaternions in computer graphics was representing rotations in a way that doesn't result in gimble lock.

And beyond that, for those rotations, a quaternion doesn't scale nearly as well as you add dimensions. Complex numbers are a complex representation of two space, quaternions are a complex representation of three space, and to go to four space you have octonions, which have eight elements.
by Jach | 2025-05-05 10:11:22+00:00
I wouldn't even call myself an amateur photographer, I've never really had the obsessive "Move out of the way!" or "Hold that thread of conversation, let me take this shot" thoughts that the article describes. I don't take my photos that seriously. Still, I've gotten more into it as a light hobby in the last few years. The thing that really changed my perspective was using a friend's fancy Canon camera and nice lenses. (I later got my own somewhat fancy camera but apart from a small 50mm I still bum off his nice lenses.) What I noticed is that I sometimes can cultivate memories more if I have a goal to take some photos at some place in addition to just walking around. And of course going through them much later lets me remember and reminisce a lot more than otherwise. With nicer lenses taking photos kind of does have to be a goal, too, I largely agree with the article about not doing two things at once. Only with my little 50mm can I manage to stuff the camera into a hoodie pocket for opportunistic snaps, otherwise it's a whole backpack and shoulder strap affair. Especially with the nice high zoom lenses, but with those it's quite nice how in many instances I can see details well beyond what I can make out with my own eyes. Or with fast action, I'll capture things in a spray-and-pray burst that are fun to look back on and I didn't notice happen in front of me. (And not just because of focusing more on the photo taking than the scene -- have someone else take photos next to you instead and compare. I find the same phenomenon, moments that passed by too quickly for me to really register and remember on my own, but the camera caught them.)

The skill aspect of photography is also kind of fun, like if you have time or repetition to fiddle with shutter speed and aperture/depth of field and lighting compensation and so on, trying to get something you like yourself despite a challenging environment adds a bit of spice. (Idol concerts in Japan are a pretty fun challenge.) And honestly some places or moments aren't the most exciting on their own, without a camera I'd pass through more quickly, but with a camera I might slow down and take my time more. Like a little nature park with colorful trees is nice and relaxing on its own even if not particularly exciting, but if I decide to bring a camera along, I'm probably going to spend more time there and in the end enjoy things a little bit more. Then there are places like museums or zoos or aquariums, which are also all fine on their own and I've probably gone through more without taking photos than with. But if an animal is just chilling there, without a camera I might just look at it for a bit and move on, but with a camera I might instead spend more time. More time also ups the odds for something surprising to happen.

When it comes to cellphone camera shots, I continue to rarely take them. My first phone wasn't even until 2013, when I was ~halfway done with college.
by thomaskoopman | 2025-05-05 10:13:01+00:00
A matrix is a representation of a linear function (e.g. a function that plays nice with + and scalar multiplication). A specific subset can be used to describe rotations in 3D space. Quaternions can (arguably) do this better. But quaternions cannot be used to describe any linear function. So I do not think this makes sense for LLMs.
by Etheryte | 2025-05-05 10:13:50+00:00
First off, glad it worked out nicely for you and there were no complications.

I'm gonna stretch the alcohol analogy a bit here, because that's most likely to be relatable to everyone, but of course the situation is a bit more nuanced with anesthesia. If you're a healthy adult, you could probably down a bottle of vodka. You might not enjoy it nor have a good time, but you'd most likely make it out the other end with a wicked hangover and some questions about life choices. If you're a small child, you might leave with permanent brain damage. If you have an underlying condition, you might have a kidney fail. Etc. Anesthesia is the same way. The fact that you, I'm assuming a healthy adult, walked away with few issues, doesn't make it any less risky.

Most healthy adults walk away from general anesthesia without longlasting effects. But for everyone else, you can already find a number of unfortunate experiences in this comment section alone. A large portion of people who go under do so because they're already in some dire state and need emergency help. Adding general anesthesia on top of that is a large source of risk.
by bonoboTP | 2025-05-05 10:13:56+00:00
If the exam is made well, it's not just regurgitation. It's not multiple choice, but I agree this doesn't test programming skills. But programming is also a quite small slice of the CS curriculum. It has so many other things like linear algebra, real analysis, formal logic, graph theory, automata, coding theory like Reed Solomon, compression, complexity, operating systems like scheduling and virtual memory, how flip-flops and adders and CPUs work. A self taught web developer who can program well still wouldn't know most of these. Programming knowledge is neither fully necessary nor sufficient for a CS degree. I hear American colleges are more vocational, but in most of Europe it's understood that you gain practical experience either in internships, side jobs, doing hobby projects or simply after graduation at your first job.
by rickdeckard | 2025-05-05 10:14:37+00:00
I would really like to have a (better) version of the Google Clips [0]: A compact camera I can clip on to capture some moments without me having to think about it, with a little bit of AI to identify good scenes to capture.

Unfortunately the device was rather weak in picture quality and also flopped, so it seems nothing came after it.

For now I settled on a (also quite outdated) DxO-One for that purpose, a very compact no-display camera with great hardware, just for quickly capturing a moment without disrupting it. It's a great little gem with fantastic sensor and lens for its (now) ~110 USD pricetag (and also has some hacking-potential [1])

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Clips

[1] https://github.com/rickdeck/DxO-One/wiki
by amos-burton | 2025-05-05 10:15:18+00:00
> ... cognitive empathy requires that we make a conscious effort to imagine ourselves in someone else’s shoes, to adopt their perspective.

it is a pain in the ass to be empathetic in today's world. Got to put myself in the choose of specie who wants to transcend, another words for suicide, depends your take on the matter. anyway, it is NOT fun at all.
by cranium | 2025-05-05 10:16:48+00:00
I've found really saddening to see students submit written-by-ChatGPT arguments to the department council when their university spot was on the line (for failing grades). This was their ultimate chance to prove their worth and they left it to ChatGPT.

At first, I thought they didn't care. However, it was so pervasive that it couldn't be the only explanation. I was forced to conclude they trusted ChatGPT more than themselves to argue their case... (Some students did not care, obviously.)
by op00to | 2025-05-05 10:17:25+00:00
You’re not actually engaging with what I wrote. Instead, you’ve narrowed the definition of eugenics to exclude anything that doesn’t fit a 1920s textbook, ignoring how the term is used in current ethical, medical, and disability policy discussions. That’s not a rebuttal, it’s reframing the terms to make them easier to dismiss.

You claimed the quotes I cited are cherry-picked or out of context, but didn’t explain how. That’s just hand-waving. If there’s something inaccurate about them, point it out. Otherwise, saying “it’s all subjective” is just the typical maga evasion bs.

And finally you said if I made credible points, you’d respond… after ignoring multiple sourced, factual examples already given. You sound like a Markov chain Fox News talking point generator.

That kind of posture, where nothing is ever quite good enough to warrant engagement, is exactly the sort of bad-faith behavior we expect from conservative trolls.

If you disagree, fine. But engage with the content, not just the framing.

I heard what I wanted to hear, a confirmation you’re posting to troll and spread misinformation, not actually engage.
by StanislavPetrov | 2025-05-05 10:17:38+00:00
>Pretty sure the "experts" only became "skeptical" of face masks when the government told them there was a shortage and they had to parrot the US Surgeon General's claim that "masks don't work and if you hoard masks then medical professionals won't have access to the stuff that doesn't work".

This boils down to, "the experts had a rationale behind their lies". It certainly isn't an argument for trust.
by codingdave | 2025-05-05 10:18:10+00:00
This is one of the quieter yet transformative changes I've seen tech bring to life - digital cameras removed the cost and hassle of film. Photography before the mid 90s was about deliberate choices of whether a shot was worth the actual cost of the film as well as being one of a couple dozen shots available to you without having to change film rolls. But now, whipping out 50-100 photos while out for the day is quick, easy, and almost free.

Consumption of the photos changed as well, but I'm going to let the idea of negatives, prints, and literal slide shows wait for another day. The point is that photography today is not the same as photography in the prior century.
by benob | 2025-05-05 10:18:16+00:00
I think you are mixing things. Quaternions are in the same category as complex numbers. They can be represented as matrices, and there are probably nice uses of matrices where the element is a quaternion (such as QDNNs) instead of a real number. My experience is that in massive architectures such as LLMs, simpler forms are more successful unless there is a true benefit to representing things with more elaborate types of scalars (such as in physics, or 3d graphics).
by doix | 2025-05-05 10:19:22+00:00
To be fair when a company says they use C++, it can mean anything from "C with classes" to crazy metaprogramming with almost automatic memory management. Since they have over 10 years experience, they are almost definitely in the former camp.

I would never utter the phrase "I know C++" because it can mean so many different things to so many different people, and I don't think anyone truly knows the whole language.

Not using templates nor smart pointers doesn't sound that bad to me(unless the entirety/majority of the codebase was written with them in mind), the duplication thing is more questionable.
by scrollop | 2025-05-05 10:19:46+00:00
I sold my lenses and fullframe camera and now use a sony zv-1 - has f1.8 and a 24-70 lens, and you can attach a small 19mm, so 19mm to 70mm, 1 inch sensor, films 4k, and not much larger than the samsung

samsung: Width: 99.5 mm Height: 59 mm Depth: 21.7 mm

Zv-1: Width: 105.5 mm Height: 60.0 mm Depth: 43.5 mm
by Akronymus | 2025-05-05 10:20:24+00:00
Techbically even those hidden phrases arent permitted by law, and you have the right to get those phrases removed/have it be turned into a basic evaluation (just from when to when + what job)

The employers that do use those hidden phrases just hope they arent challenged/the employee doesnt notice.

Thats also why most evaluations are entirely written in the superlative.
by Robotbeat | 2025-05-05 10:20:36+00:00
I’m a huge Prusa fanboy as well, but Bambu does deserve credit. There’s clearly a before-Bambu and after-Bambu era for 3D printing. Prusa had to adapt (and did, IMO, pretty quickly), and now so have a lot of the other Chinese printer manufacturers.

I totally don’t trust China from a manufacturing perspective. I think it’s literally an intentional policy of the Chinese government to try to de-industrialize the rest of the world (in particular the West and the US, geopolitical rivals), and this is most clearly seen with how China has dominated drone manufacturing and rare earths mining and (just as important) processing. Rare earths is relevant not because it’s irreplaceable or incredibly rare (they’re not, in spite of the name)but because it’s super easy to see the Chinese govt use access to what would otherwise be a kind of niche mineral group as a geopolitical trade weapon. DJI leveraged corporate espionage and stolen IP of rivals (like Parrot) as a launching platform for absolute dominance of what has become a national security relevant sector. And Bambu Labs was started by former DJI folks, so they’re playing some of the same game. But geopolitical motivations aside, they legitimately HAVE upped the game dramatically, bringing to bear just an insane level of electrical engineering, software, and mechanical design and manufacturing expertise on what was not long ago a hobbyist driven sector, producing machines superior to the industrial Statasys machines at a hobbyist price with an Apple-like polish.

But I do think Prusa has, against all odds, actually kept pace. The Mk4S and XL, and then especially the Core One really are comparable machines that keep most of the core of the open source Prusa ethos (although diminished as Prusa got burned by cheap Chinese clones in the past & now doesn’t open source as much) and far less of the corporate control and surveillance embedded in the IoT-ified Bambu machines. The ONLY non-Chinese company to still make competitive machines.
by goku12 | 2025-05-05 10:21:27+00:00
> As long it is orbiting the sun

The body must also be large enough to clear other bodies in the same orbit, except at the Trojan positions (L4 and L5), to be considered as a planet. Otherwise it would just be a Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO) or a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) at these distances.

It obviously does in this case. But this pedantic detail is rather important. It was used to demote Pluto a few years back.
by DeborahWrites | 2025-05-05 10:22:01+00:00
Most guides to docs like code, even the ones for non-devs, assume you have some developer knowledge: maybe you're already using version control, or you've encountered build pipelines before, or you're working alongside developers.

This guide is for the people who read that paragraph and wished it came with a glossary. This is docs like code for people who don't know what git is and have never installed VS Code.
by dev_l1x_be | 2025-05-05 10:22:47+00:00
For me Typst replaced Latex years ago.

pros:

- one small compiler that can output: pdf, png, svg, html

- compilation is fast (see below)

- syntax is much cleaner than Latex

- few ways of to a thing

- already has all the templates most people need

- tooling is good enough with VS Code

- supports SVG images

cons:

- less users?

time typst compile cv.typ ________________________________________________________ Executed in 126.21 millis fish external usr time 93.66 millis 0.07 millis 93.58 millis sys time 37.97 millis 1.51 millis 36.46 millis
by hi_hi | 2025-05-05 10:24:13+00:00
So it seems like the future is people to write in a command prompt style for llms to better parse and repeat back our information. God I hope that isn't the future of the internet.

How about an emoji like library designed exclusively for LLMs, so we can quickly condense context and mood without having to write a bunch of paragraphs, or the next iteration of "txt" speech for LLMs. What does the next step of users optimising for LLMs look like?

I miss the 80's/90's :-(
by LeafItAlone | 2025-05-05 10:25:31+00:00
>criminals

By definition, they are criminals because they are breaking the law. And therefore the EU government had something to “go after” them for.

Remember, it was tax evasion that the government was able to convict Al Capone on, not his other activities. And also a simple traffic stop for an expired registration or inactive taillight that has put many possessors of a small amount of marijuana in jail.
by figassis | 2025-05-05 10:26:04+00:00
I might be a good thing. Colleges have become complacent and too expensive. Costs of an education have been increasing while employment opportunities decreasing for some degree categories. People have been sounding alarms for a while and colleges have not been listening. The student loan market is booming.

Now if students can shortcut the education process, they can spend less time in it and this may force colleges to reinvent themselves and actually rethink what education looks like in the new era.
by Onavo | 2025-05-05 10:26:43+00:00
> since our input data comes from multiple sensors and the the output pose has six components (three spatial positions and three spatial rotations)

Typo: two "the"

For robotics/inverse pose applications, don't people usually use a 3x3 matrix (three rotations, three spatial) for coordinate representation? Otherwise you get weird gimbal lock issues (I think).