MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
Show HN: DBOS Python 1.0 – Lightweight Durable Workflows Built on Postgres
by KraftyOne | 2025-05-07 17:31:53+00:00
Hi HN – this is Peter from DBOS here with Qian (qianli_cs) and Jeremy (jedberg). We’re building an open-source, lightweight durable workflows library on top of Postgres.

Ever since we first launched on HN last year, we’ve been blown away by the support, feedback, and response we’ve received from the community. We've realized durable workflows are critical for everything from business processes to AI automation to data pipelines, but most existing durable orchestration tools are either too heavy or too complicated for most applications. Instead, we're building something lightweight, simple, and easy to drop into any existing app.

The core of DBOS is durable Postgres-backed workflows. The library checkpoints the state of your program (which workflows are running, what steps have completed) directly in Postgres. If your program fails, when it restarts your workflows use these checkpoints to automatically recover from the last completed step. What we really love about DBOS is how lightweight it is–you don’t need to deploy a separate workflow orchestrator or manage new workers, just install this open-source library, connect it to Postgres, and annotate workflows and steps in your program to make them durable.

Today, we’re releasing DBOS Python 1.0. This enhances workflows with many powerful features we’ve been building over the last few months, including:

- Durable queues. Postgres-backed queues with all the queuing features of BullMQ/Celery (concurrency limits, rate limits, timeouts, priority, deduplication, etc.). Plus, they integrate with durable workflows, so you can write a workflow that enqueues 1K tasks, waits for and processes their results, and automatically recovers from any interruption. - Programmatic workflow management. Your workflows are stored as rows in a Postgres table, so you have full programmatic control over them. Write scripts to query workflow executions, batch pause or resume workflows, or even restart failed workflows from a specific step. This makes it much easier to diagnose and recover from bugs and failures that affect thousands of workflows. - Full support for both sync and async Python–write your workflows and steps as code either synchronously or asynchronously, it all works out of the box. - Improved tooling, including dashboards, workflow graph visualization, workflow management via web UI, and more.

We’d love to hear your feedback and hope you can try DBOS out!
by autoexec | 2025-05-07 17:31:54+00:00
Students aren't able to get into classes when bots are taking all the spots. Teachers actually care about educating students so they don't want to have their time wasted by bots. There's only so much loan money to go around and the schools want to get that cash into their own pockets, but the schools don't get any when scammers are running off with it to funnel money to other countries or whatever else they're doing. Similarly, students who really need the help can't get it when it all goes to someone who isn't interested in paying for education.

Schools have another problem with "ghost students" in general which is that there's a lot of other stuff going on at schools that depend on real students being there. Vendors, club activities, sporting/social events, nearby bars and restaurants etc. There's an entire ecosystem on and around campus which is created or supported by real students. All that non-classroom stuff helps make the school more attractive to students and often directly generates income for the school as well, but little of it would exist or be worthwhile if the campus is a ghost town.
by alganet | 2025-05-07 17:32:03+00:00
It sounds strange.

Which countries actually want this?

One would expect such announcements to say "we've been talking to.leaders from..." followed by a list of potential partners. In the spirit of openness and transparency.

My assessment is that most countries are afraid of AI, with good reason.

But let's not be pessimistic. I think there's a way to gain confidence in it: sharing the research, training local researchers through technology transfer, and establishing an international, multilateral framework for accountability.

Without that, no one can actually gauge whether investing in it would be a shared international peace project or a Trojan Horse.

I understand many in the internet audience see those security guarantees and multilateralism as slow bureaucracy. Well, fuck them. Not everyone thinks that way, and it will spark paranoid competition initiatives. I don't think it's a good way to go about it.

I also understand the concerns about technology transfers of such magnitude. It implies an obvious conclusion: developments needs to slow down, so we can all understand it better.

These announcements in times of war are hard to digest. You must understand the healthy skepticism.
by carlosjobim | 2025-05-07 17:32:40+00:00
> And the overhead of fighting this eats into school resources

Not if they continue to ignore it, because once again, it's not their money being sent to scammers.

> And loan fraud just drives up the cost of loans for everybody else.

Doesn't sound like a problem for the involved parties.

> So, sure, without putting much thought into it, an individual might not care. But after any thought at all, one should see that fraud drives up the cost for all of us.

You might care. I might care. But I guarantee that the involved parties do not care for even three seconds of their day about it. They have much more important things to think about, such as what color of the ballons for their kids next birthday party.
by krapp | 2025-05-07 17:33:13+00:00
>You would expect most non-programmers to at least want to make their own games.

"non-programmers" comprising the entirety of the human race not currently engaged in computer science as a hobby or profession. No, most non-programmers don't want to make their own games. Most people on the planet have other interests and concerns.

Some "non-programmers" do want to make their own games, and they learn to use one of the many available game frameworks, and sometimes they even succeed.

I think the set of people passionate enough to want to make their own games, but also lazy enough to refuse to put in even the minimal effort necessary to learn how to do so, is small enough that all of those people are already "vibe coding" and, I mean, call me when any AI-generated game is actually worth playing.
by hereonout2 | 2025-05-07 17:33:50+00:00
Yep, it's using docker as a means of delivery really. Especially in larger organisations this is just the done thing now.

I understand what the OP is saying but not sure they get this context.

If I were working in that world still I might have that single binary, and a script, but I'm old school and would probably make an RPM package and add a systemd unit file and some log rotate configs too!
by spyder | 2025-05-07 17:34:56+00:00
Here is a cool demonstration to do voice-to-instrument or instrument-to-another instrument (The inconvenient thing is that for a new kind of output sound you have to train a model for around 1 hour for good quality, but after that you can use it with different inputs quickly):

https://youtu.be/lI1LCfTx2lI?t=525

There is also Kits.ai https://www.kits.ai/tools/ai-instruments
by tastyface | 2025-05-07 17:35:04+00:00
> believes world government comes from the antichrist

> participates in world politics that seek to entrench and unify conservative elites

Is Thiel’s corpus callosum severed or something? I have a hunch he genuinely does not see a contradiction here.

These “leaders” need to be institutionalized before they literally cataclyze the end times.
by crazygringo | 2025-05-07 17:36:08+00:00
You seem to be making the assumption that local reporting is better in some way; i.e. that it will be more accurate?

You might be interested to know that the UK publication The Economist tries to have non-UK reporters covering the UK, and non-US reporters covering the US. The idea being that non-local reporters are both more neutral and have a wider perspective to bring.

The Guardian is one of the world's top newspapers, along with the New York Times, Le Monde, etc.

HN is international. And honestly I'll take reporting from The Guardian over a local ABC 15 affiliate any day. This is a national story. A random local affiliate has less resources to report the story, not more.
by cjbgkagh | 2025-05-07 17:36:40+00:00
When giving a generalization it's important to constantly note that exceptions exist. On the percentage of exceptions I think it's higher than commonly thought for a few reasons, most autoimmune disorders are still undiagnosed and will remain undiagnosed for the duration of the persons life. Consider hEDS for example, a walking bag of symptoms yet still 20 years to get diagnosed from onset of symptoms for those who are eventually diagnosed - again most are never diagnosed.

The other reason is that autoimmune conditions can be induced - it's not a genetic switch where you have it or you don't though there is a substantial genetic component especially with regards to susceptibility. People with my genetic background hEDS from multiple TNXB SNPs are extremely susceptible. The US population is also in new circumstances - we're several generations into the generally accepted medical advice that intermittent fasting will impair your metabolism. Prior generations would fast much more frequently than todays, they would just call it skipping meals.

While what you are saying is technically correct the framing of it leads to poor conclusions and suboptimal strategy, it will meet the stated aim of weight loss but not meet the implied aim of a maintainable lifestyle. The source of the calories is incredibly important given the effect that has on the hormones, and the cadence of calories is also very important. Instead of counting calories a person would be better of eating one meal a day of heavy caloric foods with the occasional multi-day fast would be far more productive. Augmenting this with a GLP-1A would be even more productive.
by rozap | 2025-05-07 17:36:43+00:00
Or exfiltrating enriched nuclear material from NUMEC in the US to get their weapons program underway (Apollo affair) in 1976, or violating the nuclear test treaty off the coast of South Africa (Vela incident) in 1979, or blackmailing Clinton in 1998 (Jonathan Pollard incident). Or any number of other things. And these are just the things we know about.

But we know why they are special and get away with things that any other country would be in serious shit for. AIPAC does not fuck around. They play to win. And the evangelicals support it because of their belief about the second coming of christ.
by name_taken23 | 2025-05-07 17:37:03+00:00
Location: London, UK Remote: Yes Willing to relocate: Yes Technologies: Kotlin, Java, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Spring AI, Node.js, Angular, React Native, Flask Résumé/CV: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tgWo_CUnqKrs66RvmBYqe7m8kZsloBjrWRAw5I2HfFg/edit?usp=sharing Email: jamesrreeddev@outlook.com

I've led, architected, developed and deployed various bleeding edge products across a broad spectrum of industries

Connect to create for the future
by eminence32 | 2025-05-07 17:38:01+00:00
This seems neat, I guess. But whenever I try tools like this, I often run into the limits of what I can describe in words. I might try something like "Add some clutter to the desk, including stacks of paper and notebooks" but when it doesn't quite look like what I want, I'm not sure what else to do except try slightly different wordings until the output happens to land on what I want.

I'm sure part of this is a lack of imagination on my part about how to describe the vague image in my own head. But I guess I have a lot of doubts about using a conversational interface for this kind of stuff
by bicx | 2025-05-07 17:38:48+00:00
My first reaction is that this just pushes up the price point for an entire segment of the industry for U.S. customers, but it doesn't seem like it would outright _kill_ companies like this.

But then I thought a bit deeper.

Any small company that relies on profits from the last batch to fund the next batch will certainly just be killed or need to acquire debt to fund purchasing of parts/stock under new tariffs. That really sucks for small manufacturers.
by luckylion | 2025-05-07 17:38:51+00:00
I feel that. I have very mixed feelings about updates of products, and Jetbrains is no exception. It's a mix of "maybe this and that has been improved" and "they probably added a bunch of things I really don't want and have to fight for a day to get rid of".

Granted, they're not the worst offenders. When I read that Jira has been updated, I need to work up the courage to look at it because I expect it to just be worse on every level.
by smileybarry | 2025-05-07 17:38:53+00:00
> There is Windows Server Core which removes everything but a CLI, but you still have the normal login experience, you still have a "desktop" (no start menu, taskbar, etc), you can still launch normal Win32 apps... for the most part (task manager, notepad, and so on).

Yep, they've replaced nearly every UI with text (the login window is a TUI), though there's still some shell DLLs and the whole thing still uses a window manager. That's honestly for the best, since it allows you to migrate full installations with some UI-based apps to a Core installation with them intact.

> That said, with a bunch of modifications, NTDEV did get Windows 11 down to it's bare minimum, and text only to boot. So I guess it's technically possible, though not useful.

Windows has had a "text mode" since at least Windows XP IIRC, but it's really not that useful, if at all. Even for rescue operations you're better off with Windows PE.
by drewbeck | 2025-05-07 17:39:10+00:00
I disagree with this. I think there's probably a baseline "capacity for delusion" we all share, but the very wealthy are insulated from the negative repercussions of their actions in a way everyday folks are not. They also hold so much power by virtue of their wealth that they end up surrounded by sycophants, creating the conditions for a level of self-belief that is deeply delusional, and that only the most narcissistic among the rest of us could ever dream of attaining.
by 542354234235 | 2025-05-07 17:39:15+00:00
I just do not agree with the libertarian mindset. It is a “tragedy of the commons” situation for me. We live in a complex society and share/use the same resources and infrastructure, and the net effect of individual use can be huge. Power grid capacity is a perfect example, where each individual using a bit more energy doesn’t cost them much directly and there is little market pressure one way or the other. The overall effect requires higher infrastructure spending, that everyone pays regardless of if you use a bit more or less energy. Never mind how much pollution comes from energy production, and we all breath the same air. “The market” is absolutely terrible at solving for indirect effects like that.

I also don’t have the time, energy, and knowledge to be an expert on every single thing I buy or use. I know nothing about roofing materials, so having some bare minimum standards and left and right limits balancing societal harm/good and individual choice is perfectly reasonable to me.

Natural resources and infrastructure are a shared resource “owned” by everyone, collectively known as the nation. Protecting that value is what the government should be doing.
by mrandish | 2025-05-07 17:39:25+00:00
I've had problems with modern monitors shutting themselves off if they don't detect a signal in something like five or ten seconds, which is far too short when I'm trying to debug a PC having boot issues, configure a multi-monitor setup (like a 3-screen virtual pinball cabinet) or even just figure out which HDMI cable is which on the PC end. I don't mind the auto-off feature but the incredibly short time period is unnecessary and the delay time isn't adjustable (at least on the LG monitors I have).

This over-aggressiveness turns a good feature into a problem forcing me to completely disable power saving. Which is sad because the biggest savings of the feature are when a screen is left on for hours when the PC is off or disconnected (which I don't do anyway, as the entire system is on a smart power strip). A monitor should hunt for a valid signal for at least 45 or 60 seconds by default before auto-offing itself.

Another "power saving gone awry" issue is that USB selective suspend can cause wireless mice to stutter after not moving for just a few seconds. I think this is due to lag in the wake-up time. Unfortunately, the interface doesn't have any time adjustment, so I have to just turn selective suspend.
by ronsor | 2025-05-07 17:39:27+00:00
Most of the criticism is from bandwagoning and emotion rather than critical thought. People screech and gnash their teeth as if the evil developers and AI researchers are conspiring to destroy all art ever; it's quite frankly ridiculous.

You narrowed down the important aspect: personal freedom. It's not about AI, or cameras, or samplers, or synthesizers, or automated this or that, it's about giving people the freedom to do an activity how they want. It's terribly sad that others cry for the removal of this freedom and brand it as some noble cause.
by standardUser | 2025-05-07 17:40:10+00:00
Personally, I can't indulge in the cliche "getting older" attitude and I have little patience for people who do. I've watched Boomers and GenX talk themselves into being decrepit before their time, a habit that in my mind amounts to self-harm. And I've seen it among my millennial peers starting in our 20's (I'm currently early 40's).

The problem is, aging as I have experienced it bears virtually no relation to the aging that Boomers (and the media) insisted we would endure. I look around at my friend group and dating pool and I see people in the prime of their lives: full of energy, not totally stupid anymore, and usually with a decent career figured out. Boomers at that same juncture in their own lives were self-identifying as "over the hill" and obsessing over retirement.

I'd go as far as to say that one the happiest surprises of my life so far has been learning how the aging I was raised to fear is almost entirely a myth. (not to say it was a myth for older generations, who did live and age in a somewhat rougher world)
by dredmorbius | 2025-05-07 17:40:14+00:00
Re-reading your comment again, this time with the "more comprehension" bit set.

The relationship of Judge Timmer's statement to the proceedings in which the AI fabulation was presented are less than clear, and I suspect that ABC 15/Arizona's article, by Jordan Bontke and Ashley Loose, suffers from some poor composition or editing. The reference to Timmer sounds as if there should have been a prior mention of her, though there isn't (I've checked this several times).

And your comment that an S.C. justice would comment on a case that's only just been decided, and not yet appealed (IMO it should be, based on this evidence/testimony alone, and regardless of other merits), is also bizarre.

Given that the AI testimony was given at sentencing, an obvious remedy would be to retain the initial jury verdict and re-do the sentencing with a different judge.
by 90s_dev | 2025-05-07 17:40:16+00:00
> You stop performing. You stop pretending. And that’s freedom.

Reminds me of a talk Ian McKellen gave somewhere, where he says that we're always wearing costumes and acting.

I can relate, I've acted when I was younger, to try to fit in, be acceptable, make friends.

A while ago I stopped caring. I have no friends on earth, and I'm fine with it. The few times I tried to connect with people while allowing myself to fully be myself, it never worked.

I wonder if they were still just acting.
by ugurturgut | 2025-05-07 17:40:30+00:00
Framer has always been great especially when it comes to animations and interactions but it never felt fully practical to handle the entire design process inside it. If Figma can handle this new load without slowing down, and keeps things affordable, then honestly I’d do everything in Figma from ideation to publishing

This changes the game. It removes so much friction. If the tool just works smoothly, then creativity becomes the only limit. With these new features, Figma isn’t just a design tool anymore, it’s a complete platform. Super exciting stuff.
by toast0 | 2025-05-07 17:40:39+00:00
I've got a NHTSA letter bookmarked [1] that says

> According to a document by SafeLite of America, Inc., that you enclosed, its product Safe-T-Stop "will pulse [the center high mounted brake light] for approximately 6 seconds and reactivate if the brakes are reapplied." You read S5.5.10(d) of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 as requiring "that the third brake light must be wired to be steady-burning," and that you believe that Safe-T-Stop "contravenes this requirement of the standard by varying the brightness of the light."

> We confirm your interpretation. S5.5.10(a), (b), and (c) list the motor vehicle lamps that may flash when they are operated. No stop lamp is among the lamps listed. S5.5.10(d) requires all other lamps to be wired to be steady burning, thus including all stop lamps. Standard No. 108 does not allow a stop lamp that pulses, and a vehicle with a stop lamp that pulses does not meet Federal requirements.

It's clear that there's not much enforcement, since all the dealers I've visited near me install these things by default. If you commit to a car that's not yet delivered, you can negotiate to exclude these, or you can have them remove it (but they'll most likely have cut into the factory harness to install it, so the wiring harness has been modified, which is a negative IMHO).

Personally, I find these devices to be pretty terrible. I would be fine with flashing for high intensity braking, but the flashing is attention grabbing by design, and it's inappropriate in a lot of situations as it distracts from gathering awareness of the surroundings.

[1] https://www.nhtsa.gov/interpretations/20288ztv
by Damogran6 | 2025-05-07 17:40:52+00:00
There's something like 6 one way valves that let your heart pump the blood out of your leg a little bit at a time. When they wear out, there's not enough pumping action at times to replace the blood as often as necessary. (also, the veins aren't rated for the pressure, which is why they blow out, and you get varicose or spider veins.)

But there are alternate paths for the blood to flow. If you mangle the larger deep veins, the blood will still circulate out secondary paths. And literally the next day, my foot was pink, and I wasn't winded climbing the stairs, and my legs weren't lead weights by the end of the day.
by jdbernard | 2025-05-07 17:41:12+00:00
Yes it does, it's just dressed up in corporate speak:

> Our vision at Meanwhile is to build the world's largest life insurer as measured by customer count, annual premiums sold, and total assets under management.

We think we can be bigger (more customers, more sales, more money) than all existing players.

> We aim to serve a billion people, using digital money to reach policyholders and automation/AI to serve them profitably.

We're looking to eclipse the population of any one country and we're going to use something like Bitcoin to side-step national currencies (and maybe also to avoid existing regulatory structure, not clear from the ambiguous language).

> We plan to do with 100 people what Allianz and others do with 100,000.

We believe we can automate or use AI to eliminate the need for people to actually support these billion customers.

All three of those are very bold statements/goals.
by ghaff | 2025-05-07 17:41:31+00:00
A legal job I once did paid billable hours. There was something to be said for being paid for travel in off-hours, etc. But it does create this always on-the-clock mindset. On the one hand, you're basically never working for "free." On the other, as you say, you're always cognizant of the fact that you could be being paid if you work another hour.