MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by jerf | 2025-05-13 18:48:00+00:00
AIUI, the main problem in the cell phone era is that by the time you create a notebook shell with an even halfway-decent screen, keyboard, battery, and the other things you'd want in your shell, it's hard to sell it next to the thing right next to it that is all that, but they also stuck a cheap computer in it (and is therefore no longer a dock). Yeah, it's $50 more expensive, but it looks way more than $50 more useful.

What may shift the balance is that slowly but surely USB-C docks are becoming more common, on their own terms, not related to cell phones. At some point we may pass a critical threshold where there's enough of them that selling a phone that can just natively use any USB-C dock you've got lying around becomes a sufficient distinguishing feature that people start looking for it. Even just treating it as a bonus would be a start.

I've got two docks in my house now; one a big powerful one to run the work-provided laptop in a more remote-work-friendly form factor, and fairly cheap one to turn my Steam deck into a halfway-decent Switch competitor (though "halfway-decent" and no more; it's definitely more finicky). We really ought to be getting to the point that a cell phone with a docked monitor, keyboard, & mouse for dorm room usage (replacing the desktop, TV, and if whoever pulls this off plays their cards right, the gaming console(s)) should start looking appealing to college students pretty soon here. The docks themselves are rapidly commoditizing if they aren't there already.

Once it becomes a feature that we increasingly start to just expect on our phones, then maybe the "notebook-like" case for a cell phone starts to look more appealing as an accessory. We've pretty much demonstrated it can't carry itself as its own product.

That would probably start the clock on the "notebook" as its own distinct product, though it would take years for them to finally be turned into nothing but shells for cell phones + a high-end, expensive performance-focused line that is itself more-or-less the replacement for desktops, which would themselves only be necessary for high-end graphics or places where you need tons and tons of storage and you don't want 10 USB-C drives flopping around separately.
by evrimoztamur | 2025-05-13 18:48:04+00:00
Talking about unwrapping: I’ve been using a rather aggressive list of clippy lints to prevent myself from getting panics, which are particularly deadly in real-time applications (like video games). unwrap/expect_used already got me 90% of the way out, but looking at the number of as conversions in my codebase, I think I have around 300+ numerical conversions (which can and do fail!)

[lints.clippy] all = "deny" unwrap_used = "deny" expect_used = "deny" panic = "deny" indexing_slicing = "deny" unhandled_errors = "deny" unreachable = "deny" undocumented_unsafe_blocks = "deny" unwrap_in_result = "deny" ok_expect = "deny"
by ndriscoll | 2025-05-13 18:48:20+00:00
You can do this in Scala[0], and you'll get type inference and compile time type checking, informational messages (like the compiler prints an INFO message showing the SQL query that it generates), and optional schema checking against a database for the queries your app will run. e.g.

case class Person(name: String, age: Int) inline def onlyJoes(p: Person) = p.name == "Joe" // run a SQL query run( query[Person].filter(p => onlyJoes(p)) ) // Use the same function with a Scala list val people: List[Person] = ... val joes = people.filter(p => onlyJoes(p)) // Or, after defining some typeclasses/extension methods val joesFromDb = query[Person].onlyJoes.run val joesFromList = people.onlyJoes

This integrates with a high-performance functional programming framework/library that has a bunch of other stuff like concurrent data structures, streams, an async runtime, and a webserver[1][2]. The tools already exist. People just need to use them.

[0] https://github.com/zio/zio-protoquill?tab=readme-ov-file#sha...

[1] https://github.com/zio

[2] https://github.com/zio/zio-http
by probably_wrong | 2025-05-13 18:48:31+00:00
IMO Mercurial is (was?) more user-friendly.

Here's a quick example: when I create a Mercurial repository Mercurial doesn't say anything, while Git yells at me that it's using "master" as its branch name but I can change it with a cryptic command. After a first commit for a file Mercurial once again doesn't say anything, while Git gives me three lines of information including the permissions for the file I just added. Editing and committing a file in Mercurial with "hg commit" yields (again) nothing, while typing "git commit" in Git let's me know that it knows there's a modification but it won't go through until I "stage my change for commit".

Now, imagine you're a new user. Mercurial just did what I asked, and it even guessed that "hg commit" should mean "commit everything that's been modified". Git, on the other hand, has yelled at me about default branch names (what's a branch?!), file permissions, and bickered about me not staging my commit (what's a stage?!!). They both did the same thing but, for a new user, Mercurial did it in a friendlier way.
by sorcerer-mar | 2025-05-13 18:49:44+00:00
Re coin flip: yep! Very true. So even small things matter, and having foreign intelligence services hacking and leaking internal documents from one side is far from a "small thing" IMO.

> So which high-level co-conspirators are serving life in prison?

I thought you said there's no evidence! Are we moving the goal posts to "convicted to life in prison?"
by mayapugai | 2025-05-13 18:50:09+00:00
This is really cool!

Prof. Steve Brunton's YT channel is a treasure trove of material for you folks, with course-like playlists for controls, data-driven engineering, and dynamical systems: https://www.youtube.com/@Eigensteve/playlists

He should be a featured creator, much like 3b1b is for math!
Show HN: AI and Energy Efficiency Hackathon – 1 BTC to top team (SF, June 21)
by hickoryhashrate | 2025-05-13 18:50:15+00:00
We’re organizing a one-day hackathon in San Francisco on June 21 focused on a specific technical challenge:

How can AI agents reduce energy waste in compute-heavy systems?

The rapid growth of AI workloads is creating a serious mismatch between performance and power. MARA wants to explore solutions that fix this problem.

This event is for engineers and builders who care about AI and energy. The hackathon is capped at 100 selected participants. The exact challenge will be revealed live on the day of the event.

Prize: 1 bitcoin

Location: San Francisco

Focus: AI, compute, and energy

Application: https://www.mara.com/hackathon-2025

This is not a pitch or a party. It’s a real build day for people serious about AI infrastructure. I’m happy to answer questions here and would love any feedback.
by Sammi | 2025-05-13 18:50:18+00:00
If you're a single person living in a flat in a city, then you can get in the habit of rinsing your tableware right after using when stuff still easily comes off, and therefore not use much effort at all on washing, and you just reuse the same tableware over and over. This is common and the reason why dishwashers aren't much needed for some.
by SilasX | 2025-05-13 18:50:28+00:00
I'm just ... dumbfounded at why it isn't "anti-personal computing". Like, as a riff on "personal computer/computing".

Related: the scene in Bojack Horseman:

"And this time, it's personnel!"

'Uh, shouldn't the line be, "It's personal"?'

"No, because it's like, he's saying it's an inside job, so, personnel."
by stronglikedan | 2025-05-13 18:50:32+00:00
> Why is a repository called 'Microsoft Store' being hosted on a seemingly random github account?

Why not? I could spin up a repo called "Bradford Store" or "Google Store" or whatever I want. The maintainer just wanted "Microsoft Store"

> Why doesn't the README file explain what this repository is doing?

It does, and also answers your first question.

> OP, what did you hope to accomplish with this submission?

Because they knew HN would be interested. Same as every other OP that submits something.

> I'm open to the possibility that I'm misunderstanding something....

It does seem to be the case.
by sabellito | 2025-05-13 18:50:37+00:00
Overall I'd agree with your sentiment, but it depends on the market.

I only know personally of one counter example to your message. In my career, I've reviewed, interviewed, and hired a few hundred people for somewhat known companies and startups. I also helped many friends find jobs in the past, before the market became what it is today, without any issues. So I like to think I understand what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for.

End of last year, a friend with 12 years of relevant experience started looking for a job. I reviewed his CV (which he tweaked for some of the applications) and cover letters (he wrote one for each company). Everything was as good as it can be for the position he was applying for.

Out of ~20 applications he got a total of 4 replies: 3 generic rejections and one screening that led him to being hired. He killed it during the interviews, but just getting his foot in the door was so hard. Maybe in some parts of the world we're back to 2015-2020 levels of recruiter "harassment", but in others it's super dry, even for senior positions.
by spauldo | 2025-05-13 18:51:09+00:00
When most people use the term "serial port" they're referring to a DB-25 or DE-9 port you find on older computers or USB dongles. It's also seen in 8P8C (aka "RJ45") form sometimes, especially in industrial equipment. It can send and receive "characters" (anywhere from 5-8 bits each) one at a time at a fixed rate, either half duplex or full duplex. They usually implement one or more of the RS232, RS422, or RS485 standards.

Originally, you communicated with the computer using a teletype or video terminal connected to a serial port. Whatever you typed went to the computer, and whatever the computer sent back was printed on your terminal screen (or paper in the case of a teletype).

The UNIX (and thus, Linux) command line environment still works this way, except the serial line is virtual.
by fullstop | 2025-05-13 18:51:09+00:00
I have a few embedded devices which have just 128MiB of flash, and they can run tmux just fine. I wouldn't even consider zellij for this purpose, of course, and having tmux down there is more of a "this is a nice thing for development purposes" thing.

Regarding memory usage, Zellij appears to take up 63 MiB versus tmux's 3.8MiB. It's nice and all, but quite a pig. This is on Linux, maybe Mac is different.
by alabastervlog | 2025-05-13 18:51:20+00:00
> They said, “Ugh, we use this tool—it’s garbage.”

I'm still waiting to experience a version of this conversation where I'm not informed that the tool they want doesn't exist or all the ones they have are bad because they lack X and Y and include Z, am treated to a description of the tool they want, and then am able to find a half-dozen options for that exact thing on my very first try, all of which seem to be struggling for sales :-/

Mine are always "you're a developer? You should build X, you'd make so much money, I'd buy it!", then me: "really? That's great! Here are several options I just found for X, is this what you meant, and if not, what are they missing?", "Oh yeah, what do you know, that's exactly it!" and the topic is dropped, with them displaying so little interest in the existing solutions I showed them that it's clear they never would have paid for mine, either.
by tjader | 2025-05-13 18:52:10+00:00
But is this cache trustworthy or will it eventually lead you to click in the wrong place because the situation changed and now there's a new button making everything change place?

And even if every information takes a bit to figure out, it doesn't excuse taking a second to even draw the UI. If checking bluetooth takes a second, then draw the button immediately but disable interaction and show a loading icon, and when you get the blutooth information update the button, and so on for everything else.
by trinix912 | 2025-05-13 18:52:27+00:00
I think it's both because of the Instagram glamourization of this sort of remote work, and the fact that more and more people are starting to work online but the public coworking spaces are still scarce and expensive.

The city I work in (Ljubljana) has recently opened a new public facility with desks, wi-fi and power outlets for anyone to use without any restrictions. They're crowded every single day. Same for all public libraries in the area, but every time such a space opens it frees up the other ones a bit.

While I don't agree with squatting coffee shops for days on end, I think we should be building more free to use public coworking spaces and libraries to accommodate this change.
by kazinator | 2025-05-13 18:52:33+00:00
Many kinds of stains are darker at the edges. It's because the capillary action slows down there. The area of the stain increases in proportion to r^2, and there is evaporation also. Thus the stain only spreads to a certain size. As the solvent thins out, it's not able to carry the pigment quickly, and so the pigment particles pack closer together. Pigment is still arriving from the center of the stain, but not moving farther out any more, so it has to accumulate.
by JohnFen | 2025-05-13 18:52:44+00:00
I don't accumulate tabs (I rarely have more than two open at a time), so I don't have to do anything to allow them to be closed. I just close the browser.

With your larger question, though, if there's specific information that I feel the need to keep locally, I add that to a wiki that I run. If information is in a non-online form (books, etc.), all I need to do is remember that it's in there. I don't need to remember the information itself because I can look it up at will. For everything else, I don't worry about it at all. If I found it online once, I can find it online again should I need it again.
by Bender | 2025-05-13 18:52:56+00:00
NIO went this way. [1] I suggested it at the start of EV's becoming popular and HN was not a fan. My childhood toys were my inspiration. I could put them on the charger and wait forever or swap to a recently charged set and have instant gratification. Now if they could just build cars to be as durable and safe as my childhood toys most accidents would just be a fun way to meet people.

One of the reasons I like the idea is that instead of being on the hook for a crazy expensive battery pack I just swap it for one that in theory has been tested and when it falls below some standard it gets refurbished by someone else and I would never have to deal with it. This also opens up the options for swapping to newer generations of batteries such as 3D printed solid state for more than double the range, or same range with half the weight possibly useful for short-haul heavy duty trucks.

[1] - https://www.nio.com/nio-power
by jajko | 2025-05-13 18:53:22+00:00
A lot of people think like that, thats true. Not really grokking them, the systems in western countries is much more advanced, be it social or medical services, better education for kids, much safer and so on.

But as an expact myself who decided he left his home country for good and for good reasons, I've seen it often, more often in blue collar jobs. Its a lot easier if such folks never actually left and didnt experience better life as a whole elsewhere. Then accepting lower standards becomes much harder, there is only so far one can get by throwing money at problems.
by quelup | 2025-05-13 18:53:46+00:00
It doesn't offend me, I'm just not sure if you're trolling me or not haha. This is one of the more bizarre threads I've seen. I don't have a forum website. It's a site to post projects. You're right, I do want users. That's why I posted. Please reread the above. This is a free site. I'm paying for it out of pocket. I'm working on it in my own time on the side. I want users AND I think it's interesting. If people find it interesting they'll use it, if not they won't. No tricking, but you have to make users aware of your site to validate or invalidate the idea.

> Anyone could create and host that kind of site now, for any topic and they could do it for free. No one does though for obvious reasons.

You're implying that any site that could be created and isn't, is because they're all bad ideas. I disagree. It might be in this case, but the idea that you shouldn't test ideas is wrong.
by EpochAI | 2025-05-13 18:53:51+00:00
Epoch AI is hiring a talented senior engineer to lead the engineering efforts for our AI Benchmarking Hub. This platform provides independent evaluations of leading AI models on challenging benchmarks, helping researchers, developers, and policymakers understand what AI systems can do and where they are headed.

Strong candidates will have outstanding engineering skills, and several years of professional experience building and maintaining complex systems, with a total of about ten years of engineering experience. We’d be especially excited to hear from you if you already have hands-on experience running LLM evaluations.

Applications are rolling. The role is fully remote and we are able to hire in many countries.

If this role sounds like a good fit for someone you know, let us know—we’re offering $5,000 as a reward for whoever refers the successful candidate! Email careers@epoch.ai
by kerkeslager | 2025-05-13 18:53:52+00:00
This fundamentally misunderstands the problem. Effective OCR predates the popularity of ChatGPT and e-Discovery folks were already using it--AI in the modern sense adds nothing to this. Indexing the resulting text was also already possible--again AI adds nothing. The problem is that the resultant text lacks structure: being able to sort/filter wiretap data by date/location, for example, isn't inherently possible because you've obtained text or indexed it. AI accuracy simply isn't high enough to solve this problem without specialized training--off the shelf models simply won't work accurately enough even if you can get around the legal problems of feeding potentially-sensitive information into a model. AI models trained on a large enough domain-specific dataset might work, but the existing off-the-shelf models certainly are not accurate enough. And there are a lot of subdomains--wiretap data, cell phone GPS data, credit card data, email metadata, etc., which would each require model training.

Fundamentally, the solution to this problem is to not create it in the first place. There's no reason for there to be a structured data -> PDF -> AI -> structured data pipeline when we can just force people providing evidence to provide the structured data.
by unmute-sh | 2025-05-13 18:54:33+00:00
Thank you! The TTS and ASR are our own unreleased models, but we'll open-source them soon :)

The latency is about 500ms once we detect that it's the bot's turn to speak (roughly 200ms for the LLM's time-to-first token and 300ms for the TTS audio to start), plus a variable time for the semantic pause detection (VAD).

If it's clear that you're done talking, like when you ask a question, the model will reply very fast. If you stop mid-sentence as if you have more to say, it will wait for longer to avoid interrupting you.
by Hizonner | 2025-05-13 18:54:42+00:00
You know, if you believe all the cryptocurrency stuff, then Coinbase is actively destructive to the goal. It's basically a traditional financial institution wedged into the cryptocurrency system. Not your keys, not your coins, remember? Not to mention the centralized, censorable USDC.

I'm a double heretic, because I manage to believe that (a) cryptocurrency, and maybe even a limited number of smart contracts, could, if done right, actually be useful and important, yet (b) almost everything that anybody actually puts energy into in the space is idiotic, a scam, or both. Usually both.
by andersmurphy | 2025-05-13 18:54:43+00:00
That's a good idea. I should probably mention it's hypermedia too.

At some point I'll write up a blog post. Virtual scroll was surprisingly simple in the end and mostly leverages CSS grid.

The funny part, is it't not really about Datastar (I use a fraction of its features). It does make pushed based hypermedia simple which opens up a lot of options.

Clojure/JVM and SQLITE is where the interesting stuff is happening for me at least. I guess that's the nice thing, Datastar gets you back to programming in your favourite backend language of choice and then gets out of the way.
by bredren | 2025-05-13 18:55:43+00:00
I am very interested in this, and I have personally built manual workflows to do Youtube video -> rip audio->transcript->llm context.

For example, taking a video about building garden retaining walls and generating detailed system prompts for Q&A with the expert in the video.

I reference ~home improvement or tool videos and often comments contain points of wisdom or even corrections of mistakes (errata) on videos that are otherwise good. For example, setting up a hand plane and ways to mark a board you're working on.

Do you use video comments in your context? I've (manually) scraped content on educational videos and built prompting to assess signal and incorporate what are likely important errata in LLM context.

> video/resource —> transcript/text —>

For this step in your pipeline, are you multi-modal? I mean, are you using the LLM to interpret what is shown in the video itself? How is that content used?

Do you have any sense for allowing people to generate educational content off arbitrary videos?
by Shekelphile | 2025-05-13 18:56:09+00:00
So they've fully capitulated and just copied Apple's UI/UX fully now.

Why exactly would anyone buy an android when you get UX that is a poorly made clone of the real thing, much worse battery life (despite batteries on mid-range and high-end android phones being 30% larger than apple's), far worse software support, and on top of that you're expected to pay the same premium price that an iPhone already commands?

What a joke. Within ten years the only people left using these android devices will be third world.
by more_corn | 2025-05-13 18:56:38+00:00
Full remote PHP Single letter name

I assure you the problem here is not “AI” The problem is that the world has changed and some of your prior assumptions are no longer valid (full remote is very challenging right now, property is the path to generational wealth with notable exceptions which you are experiencing, weird names are cool and hip among cool and hip people but that might not be who you find yourself among). You’ve painted yourself into a corner, change some self-imposed boundaries and the corner goes away.

I can’t help but wonder if there’s a word for doing something repeatedly and being baffled at a negative response when the problem is so blindingly obvious to an outsider.

Maybe the word is just stuck. Many of the self-imposed problems seem intractable, but are not.

Maybe a step back is in order. What has been tried is obviously not working. There are ~10 items in play and solving for all ~10 is impossible. Stack rank the items desired and start checking them off?

I suppose I’d start by getting a job come hell or high water. go by a reasonable sounding name (reserve legal name for paperwork) 50% of initial screening is rejecting the name (your hell with onboarding proved that nobody’s name parsing gets it without help, in job interviews you get dropped silently). There is zero overlap between hip companies who appreciate a cool name and php.

Focus resume detail on current languages and frameworks (see above re php)

Start applying for in-person in palatable places. Land and negotiate enough remote to stay sane.

Sell cabin (need cash, and it’s not cashflow positive) You didn’t mention where your mom is living but you have equity somewhere. Cash it out to move forward with the free capital.

Finish remodel or sell (needs cash to be cash flow positive)

You haven’t been displaced you’ve experienced a change of the state of the world and you’ve failed to adapt…

I’m going to leave the next line as an exercise for the reader. A hint though: adaptation is necessary for survival.