MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by eigenspace | 2025-05-01 13:19:42+00:00
In Germany with Deutsche Bahn there are three classes of trains: Regional, Intercity, and Intercity Express.

Intercity Express is the high speed long distance train, and are the most common long distance trains by a long shot. They're the ones that have the dining cars. Regular Intercity trains usually don't have dining cars, but they're rather rare. I've still never actually ridden one because they're almost never used (since Intercity Express is so sucessful, and the Regional trains are fast enough for journeys of around 200km)
by vladvasiliu | 2025-05-01 13:19:46+00:00
Who's "we"? I work for a company who drank the MS cool-aid, so running Windows on laptops, using Office365 for e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, teams for chat, sharepoint / onedrive for shared ressources.

Have you tried launching a local app by typing in the start menu on a default win11 install with limited / slow internet access? Good times. How about doing some operation (say delete an e-mail) in one window of "new" outlook and having the others refresh?

I have never understood how some otherwise reasonable people are able to consider this absolute shitshow of a work environment good enough.
by TaurenHunter | 2025-05-01 13:20:06+00:00
The sheer hypocrisy

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/02/hillary-clin...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/05/fbi-no-charg...

Also:

https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-dir...

"To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now."
by dbalatero | 2025-05-01 13:20:09+00:00
I think the performance drop probably has more to do with managers & product folks expecting growth and features at all costs at the expense of keeping performance at some baseline.

I also wonder if it's just harder to continually monitor performance in a way that alerts a team early enough to deal with regressions?

That said, security _can_ impact performance! I work on Stripe frontend surfaces, and one performance bottleneck we have comes from needing to use iframes to sandbox and isolate code for security. Having to load code in iframes adds an additional network load before we can get to page render.
by npn | 2025-05-01 13:21:11+00:00
???

Why not just compress the whole database using `gzip` or `lz4` before rsyncing it instead? `zstd` works too but seems like it had a bug regarding compressing file with modified content.

better yet, split your sqlite file to smaller piece. it is not like it needs to contain all the app data in a single sqlite file.
by pera | 2025-05-01 13:21:18+00:00
We have been conditioned to fear the idea of demanding a more fair distribution of wealth: My great grandfather for example was shot dead by a cop during a union strike. Nothing happened after that event, just silence, fear and a deeply traumatized family.

It is very important to remember that many of the things we enjoy today as workers only exist because of the enormous courage of workers from the 19th and early 20th century who fought really hard for a better future.
by crowcroft | 2025-05-01 13:21:19+00:00
An obvious issue that I noticed. He sent the exact same message to two different group chats.

I assume he copy pasted the message on his unsecured device.

How many apps had access to that text in his clipboard?

To me this isn't a technical problem with Signal, it's an opsec problem, and that's quite a lot harder to explain to people.
by mysteria | 2025-05-01 13:21:35+00:00
In the computer games industry pretty much everything has been download only for some time as the assets are too large for DVD and BD never caught on for PC. Places like GOG provide unrestricted offline installers but the majority are provided via a storefront like Epic or Steam.

The worst case scenario for preservationists is for games to become a streaming service via cloud gaming, which publishers may like since it pretty much prevents piracy and allows them to charge a monthly fee rather than a one time license fee. For movies and music streaming exclusives aren't a new thing and improvements in network latency and bandwidth are making game streaming more and more viable.
by AnimalMuppet | 2025-05-01 13:21:55+00:00
> The reality will be altered and murky

The reality is already altered and murky. There has been a full-blown total information war over reality for several years now.

But Trump and MAGA, even if they win, won't win forever. There will someday be an end to this particular attempt to impose unreality. Then history (or at least the history of this) can be told honestly. (Or at least without MAGA spin. It may have a new spin, but it will at least be a different one.)
by n4r9 | 2025-05-01 13:22:02+00:00
It's not very clear in OP, but is reported better in other places.

> Apple employees attempted to mislead the Court by testifying that the decision to impose a commission was grounded in AG’s report. The testimony of Mr. Roman, Vice President of Finance, was replete with misdirection and outright lies. He even went so far as to testify that Apple did not look at comparables to estimate the costs of alternative payment solutions that developers would need to procure to facilitate linked-out purchases.

> The Court finds that Apple did consider the external costs developers faced when utilizing alternative payment solutions for linked out transactions, which conveniently exceeded the 3% discount Apple ultimately decided to provide by a safe margin. Apple did not rely on a substantiated bottoms-up analysis during its months-long assessment of whether to impose a commission, seemingly justifying its decision after the fact with the AG’s report.

> Mr. Roman did not stop there, however. He also testified that up until January 16, 2024, Apple had no idea what fee it would impose on linked-out purchases […] Another lie under oath: contemporaneous business documents reveal that on the contrary, the main components of Apple’s plan, including the 27% commission, were determined in July 2023.

> Neither Apple, nor its counsel, corrected the, now obvious, lies. They did not seek to withdraw the testimony or to have it stricken (although Apple did request that the Court strike other testimony). Thus, Apple will be held to have adopted the lies and misrepresentations to this Court.

https://9to5mac.com/2025/05/01/a-senior-apple-exec-could-be-...
by lopanapol | 2025-05-01 13:22:23+00:00
AI Slop is a problem that wears down maintainers. It would be interesting—and highly beneficial—if, in the future, WebThinker could help lighten the load for open source maintainers.

Four months ago, I conducted an experiment to demonstrate that current AI systems are still lacking when it comes to generating meaningful reports in the field of web security. I approached the problem from the perspective of a user trying to create reports as a way to generate income. I chose Curl as the target because it is a foundational open-source project with skilled maintainers, high standards, and a strong community.

Personally, I believe that AI will increasingly be used as a tool to generate income for certain groups in the future. I also hope that systems like HackerOne will develop more effective ways to filter reports—whether through better initial review processes or AI-powered tools.

Thank you for all the comments and to everyone who participated. Wishing you all joy in your journey with open source.

Napol Thanarangkaun

You can read more about the experiment here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42361299
by graemep | 2025-05-01 13:22:38+00:00
>An EU law stiffles all companies, not just the trillion dollar companies. I

That is true of some EU laws. Many have a disproportionate impact on smaller companies. GDPR for example, and the early versions of VATMOSS in terms of things I have dealt with.

Also, non EU laws such as the UK's Online Safety Act.

Not just in technology. It is also true of UK licensing laws for pubs - an example my attention was drawn to by comments made by the SEO of a big pub company as giving it an advantage.

On the other hand the EU's DMA and a lot of competition regulation gets that right.
by poincaredisk | 2025-05-01 13:23:42+00:00
>“I don't consider the bloody ROI.” He said that the same thing about environmental issues, worker safety, and other areas where Apple is a leader.

...and you believed him? I'm sorry, I'm trying to be less cynical in life, but he said exactly what people - apple fans - want to hear.

Is he above lying? We were just discussing how one of the apple executives straight up lied in court.
by vladvasiliu | 2025-05-01 13:23:45+00:00
> Let's say a hypothetical Windows user spends 2% of their day using Office

I don't know about a "hypothetical" user, but I'd bet a "mean" (corporate) user probably uses office all day long. Hell, I've lost count of the number of e-mails I've seen having a screenshot which is inside a word document for some reason, or the number of excel files which are just a 5x4 table.
by ubermonkey | 2025-05-01 13:23:56+00:00
We are a small software company.

We use Office 365 and their hosted Exchange for email. I manage my mail in the native Mac Mail tool; my boss uses Outlook. For commercial exchanges (ie, dialog about sales with customers), we're almost always both on copy.

SEVERAL TIMES A MONTH he asks me to find a mail for him, because Outlook search is letting him down, often on bone simple searches (e.g., for something like a specific PO number or software serial number).

I find it immediately. Outlook strikes out. How do you break search so badly?
by HideousKojima | 2025-05-01 13:24:03+00:00
> In Europe most people don't use cloth dryiers. You just hang the clothes on lines (usually on your balcony or in your bathroom if you live in a flat, or in your backyard if you live in a detached home). Clothes are dry the next day anyway, what's the rush?

Lived in the Czech Republic for two years and got to experience this. The result: my underwear felt like sandpaper compared to when I dried it with an actual dryer.
by hoseyor | 2025-05-01 13:24:18+00:00
> there's this difference between old US-style washing machines that just stir and don't heat and EU washing machines that have a drum that turns and always heat the water

This is one reason this study seems rather dubious. In fact all the machines (they provide a table with model numbers, one of which is not correct, i.e., “00” should be “DD”) are European front loaders, but what is more concerning is that a far as I could see, there seems to be no mention of whether or how the clothes were dried.

The problem I could see with European style/model front loaders is that they usually and often proudly use little water, water which could rinse pathogens that were released from fabric by soaps, rather than allowing them to effectively reattach to fabric, but that is just my theory, yet a valid consideration altogether.

Then there is the fact that three of the washer models are masher/dryer combos, which are not only notoriously bad at both functions but their performance and designs may have an impact on results too.

Another huge hole in this research is that there is no clear mention of the brand of detergent used, only the type, biological vs non-biological (presumably only one of each). From other common testing, we very well know that different detergents perform very differently, especially across the types of stains, let alone between machines, not to mention types of machines. So we must conclude, assuming all other things being fine, this research would only even be relevant in the UK.

But then there’s also the matter of whether the detergent, the amount of detergent, and even the washing machines are representative of those used not only in the UK, but by hospital staff at all. Nothing indicates that there was some questioning, let alone observation of staff on their usage, equipment, or practices.

Frankly, this research, even if it were only relevant to the UK is still full of huge holes, even some not mentioned that I won’t bother going into detail about.

It is the kind of research that grates me because it is such sophistry, has the appearance of science and the confidence in its conclusions, but in the details it just kind of falls apart as rather purely executed, assuming the best.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if someone did some digging and found conflicts of interest, even just indirect ones that the researchers are not even aware of. Backroom research, research for the purpose of driving a commercial agenda is far more common than people think. I know this for a fact because I’ve witnessed it in person many times, from the smallest levels mostly for personal “publishing” interests, to the highest multi-billion dollar expenditures that are basically little more than very elaborate, very orchestrated, very high level get rich con jobs.
by JumpCrisscross | 2025-05-01 13:25:12+00:00
John Gruber has a good summary of the ruling: https://daringfireball.net/2025/04/gonzales_rogers_apple_app....

My favourite part: "Unlike Mr. Maestri and Mr. Roman, Mr. Schiller sat through the entire underlying trial and actually read the entire 180-page decision. That Messrs. Maestri and Roman did neither, does not shield Apple of its knowledge (actual and constructive) of the Court’s findings."
by Wobbles42 | 2025-05-01 13:25:33+00:00
I think it would be easy to argue that the term "external website" is neutral rather than scary sounding, if not for actual chat logs in evidence saying "let's use this term because it's scary sounding".

It kind of surprises me that people working in that environment haven't been better trained about what not to write. I have zero legal background, but even twenty years ago at my very first corporate job I received a training module about legal discovery and the consequences of poorly worded emails -- and that was at a company that I genuinely believe was trying to follow the law in good faith, and was simply worried about liability due to misperception of careless language.

For a team specifically working on a legal compliance project, I am with the poster above that mentioned legal teams providing oversite. If nothing else, every one of these chats should have had a lawyer logged in to provide a mental reminder to participants that the conversation really isn't private.
by proc0 | 2025-05-01 13:25:45+00:00
I think it's silly that the conversation on preserving games revolves around hardware. The hardware is irrelevant. It's about the right to create digital backup for personal use. Whether the game is downloaded or burned on a disc, it's just software.

The main problem used to be about piracy, but I think now it's really about making games as a service (even if they're not online for gameplay) because it allows more forms of monetization. The conversation should be about making games into a digital product that you can download and own the files. Piracy still happens anyway, and maybe this could make companies solve the problem differently, like only allowing digital backup for trusted players.
by PaulRobinson | 2025-05-01 13:26:54+00:00
If you look at layouts of buildings for organisations lauded for unusually high output - I'm thinking Bell Labs, Xerox, MIT Media Lab, and others - historically there has been mixed mode: the ability to do focus work, and also the ability to step away from focus and bump into people on the way to get a coffee or lunch.

Today's working environment is 40+ hours in open plan offices with too few social spaces or meeting rooms for meaningful collaboration, so both focus work and casual collaboration have to be fought for.

Regardless, what's interesting to me at least is that even while we can see productivity rose for many decades even as people moved to the 5 day, 8-hour week (which must was counter-intuitive - there was an expectation of a drop in outputs), we're seeing potentially more gains from moving to a 4 day week.

RTO - for my type of work, and most work that needs "flow" for 2-3 hours a day, minimum - doesn't work for most people in 2025. Leaders are holding onto it in an irrational way, and that is leading to growing resentment. That, coupled with trying to pay people who have to show up (service workers, gig economy workers), with ever fewer working rights and poorer conditions, means something's going to give at some point.

If all the menial work was done by robots, and we were all going to Bell Labs-style environments for 3-4 days a week, I think we'd all prefer that and actually, society might be a lot more productive as a result. But it's never going to happen. Not in our lifetimes, any way.
by yogeshpaliyal | 2025-05-01 13:27:03+00:00
KeyPass is an open-source, offline password manager that puts you in control of your passwords.

Features: * Complete Offline: No internet permission needed. * Open Source: The code is accessible to everyone. * Encrypted Backup and Restore * Dark Mode Support * Material Design 3 * Screenshot Blocked * Authenticate with device credentials (pin, pattern, biometrics) * Auto Backup * TOTP * Jetpack Compose * Autofill Service
by mprev | 2025-05-01 13:27:12+00:00
A note on liquid versus powder detergents. In the UK, at least, my understanding is that liquid detergents do not contain bleaching agents, whereas powders do. That is, unless you buy a colour-safe powder.

If you're pouring bleach into your machine, it can erode the rubber seals. I use Dettol instead (I think it's called Lysol in the States), which seems to do the job.
by pc86 | 2025-05-01 13:27:13+00:00
Both of these comments show a pretty glaring ignorance of how the government worked prior to 17A, when Senators weren't elected by popular vote. Prior to that they were "elected" by state legislatures.

Why is that important? Put a little more crudely, and with a lot of hand-waving generalization, Senators aren't supposed to represent people in a district, they're supposed to represent the interests of their state as a whole. They're not just "Representatives but Bigger," they're something else entirely.

So the fact that "but disproportionate representation!!1" is even an argument belies the lack of understanding about why the system was set up that way in the first place. It has nothing to do with rural or urban but that's a great "I don't like Republicans" dog whistle. The needs of Wyoming are different than the needs of Kansas, which are different than the needs of Upstate NY (even considered in isolation from NYC) and a representative body concerned primarily with the interests of a state protects those needs better than one Senator covering several states would be able to.
by techpineapple | 2025-05-01 13:27:27+00:00
It’s not a mystery why they’re selling it the way they are, but I think cursors popularity is probably more commodity tha. Luxury. Coding with cursor is cheaper than coding with VSCode (in engineering hours)

“What comes after code”: Michael envisions a future where programming shifts from traditional code to natural language or pseudocode, making software development accessible to non-coders while retaining precision for professionals.”

*Laughs in COBOL*

It’s interesting to me that everyone seems to think the hard part of programming is the syntax, I’ve never met a code school graduate that didn’t have a handle on the syntax.
by ubermonkey | 2025-05-01 13:27:34+00:00
In a conversation with a pal yesterday, I realized I had LONG since stopped doing any actual writing in Word. It's just too huge and slow and clunky. I write in a plaintext environment (options vary, but probably Obsidian or emacs). If or when I fire up Word, it's to structure the document and format it for distribution.

Word is no longer useful to me for composition. This seems like a bad thing.
by lxgr | 2025-05-01 13:27:59+00:00
There are significantly fewer concerns about symmetric encryption, and while it doesn't scale to the size or budget of a service like Signal, it's exactly the type of thing the military is good at:

Distribute a bunch of physical artifacts (smartcards) across the globe; guard a central facility (a symmetric key exchange center) extremely well etc.

The military can also afford to run its (encrypted or plaintext) communications over infrastructure it fully controls. The same isn't true for a service provided out of public clouds, on the public Internet.
by mananaysiempre | 2025-05-01 13:28:35+00:00
Uh, Wine showed up in June of 1993[1], a full month before the first official release of Windows NT. Not necessarily in a usable form, mind you, but even now the usability is heavily dependent on what specific software you are trying to emulate.

[1] https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/commit/2c25c3e9442c69b...
by intrasight | 2025-05-01 13:29:22+00:00
There will be a fine. Nobody will go to jail. Apple will appeal. They will likely prevail on this "steering" complaint on a freedom of speech basis. It is their platform afterall.

My concern is more about having private companies control platforms upon which we depend. I do often wish that I had a crystal ball to peer a decade or several into the future to see what the future holds for humanity in this regard. Our legal system seems ill-equipped to manage this risk.
by PebblesRox | 2025-05-01 13:29:36+00:00
"There’s status in a neatly tended space that conveys a message of respectable conformity and leisure. There’s also a strong cultural rejection of useful productive things because they’re useful and productive.

"My favorite example of this concept is the humble clothes line. Is it legal to dry your laundry in the sun where you live? In many parts of the country this is expressly forbidden by law and/or private binding agreement. This sort of activity is associated with rural peasants, impoverished slum dwellers, dirty hippies, white trash (or worse), and is at odds with the look and feel of a prosperous community. It might be a scorching day in August but everyone is compelled to operate a mechanical dryer in the house and crank up the air conditioning because anything else is shameful and verboten."

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/5/6/the-other-pitch...
by calebkaiser | 2025-05-01 13:29:41+00:00
I'm a maintainer of Opik, an open source LLM eval/observability framework. If you use something like LiteLLM or OpenRouter to handle the proxying of requests, Opik basically provides an out-of-the-box recording layer via its integrations with both:

https://github.com/comet-ml/opik
by addoo | 2025-05-01 13:29:58+00:00
> one of them exists now

My first thought was ‘this already existed, I could have bought virtually the same product already.’ …Which the article acknowledges even. Odd title.

I really wish that e-ink could be unshackled. I really love e-ink, I ordered Dasung’s latest portable monitor because I read on my computer a lot (which I’d love to you for work, but for a myriad of reasons I can’t… at least I can use it personally). My smart[ish] watch has an e-ink display. I’d love to see more products and more competition in the space, but sadly that doesn’t seem like it’ll happen.
by perfmode | 2025-05-01 13:30:05+00:00
The most secure method of communication is a one-time pad, a pre-shared private key.

"A one-time pad (OTP) is considered theoretically the most secure method of communication — when it’s implemented correctly. That means: 1. The key (pad) is truly random. 2. The key is at least as long as the message. 3. The key is used only once. 4. The key is securely shared in advance and kept completely secret.

When all these conditions are met, a one-time pad provides perfect secrecy — an eavesdropper cannot learn anything about the message, even with infinite computing power."
by Tomte | 2025-05-01 13:30:24+00:00
2018: "Redis will remain BSD licensed"

2024: "dual RSALv2 and SSPLv1 license"

2025: "available under the AGPLv3 open source license"

Yes, that's great and all, but next month you're probably going to write a bespoke license in iambic pentameter or so.