MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by trinix912 | 2025-05-19 15:24:08+00:00
Aren't these points similar to the problems Plan9 tried to solve and the ideas it presented (eg. distributed filesystems)? The key point with Lisp Machines was the specialized hardware which we don't seem to need anymore. But attempts have definitely been made, it's just that it usually ends when you don't have enough vendor support (be it hardware, or software).
by p4bl0 | 2025-05-19 15:24:26+00:00
> To me, KDE's job should be to organize and render windows, application launcher icons, and the like

I believe you are confusing Plasma, which is KDE's desktop environment, and the KDE Project, which also hosts a lot of applications that can be used with or without Plasma, many of which are multiplatforms. Even on Windows one can use a lot of KDE apps without using their desktop environment, Plasma. It's also totally possible to use Plasma without any of the KDE apps, not even the file manager (Dolphin), the VTE (Konsole), or the simple text editor (Kwrite).

Historically, the desktop environment was KDE (Kool Desktop Environment), but it's been quite a long time since the DE is one among many software that the KDE project works on.

That said, I 100% agree with you on icons, and never used an icon theme :).
by dlubarov | 2025-05-19 15:24:47+00:00
Yes, but if it's a much worse insulator, the extra heat transfer through studs might be more significant?

I'm not sure if it's been measured, but I imagine this densified wood would probably have at least twice the thermal conductivity of typical construction lumber, since naturally dense hardwoods already approach that.

So it seems like we'd basically need to replace 2x studs with 1x studs, assuming the same stud spacing, in order to match the thermal performance of a traditional wall.

I don't think this would be a dealbreaker at all though, one could always use continuous insulation instead of cavity insulation, which has a lot of benefits anyway. Maybe it can end up being a competitor to metal studs for commercial builds, at least.
by redeye100 | 2025-05-19 15:25:13+00:00
This is just bad design. Or a faulty tool. Why should the job market shift to accommodate this gap in the functioning of LLMs? This is a bug that needs to be fixed.

I have a personal gripe about this bringing an unfinished tool to market and then prophetizing about its usefulness. And how we all better get ready for it. This seems very hand-wavey and is looking more and more like vaporware.

It's like trying to quickly build a house on an unfinished foundation. Why are we rushing to build? Can't we get the foundational things right first?
by mikewarot | 2025-05-19 15:25:41+00:00
I wonder if it could be used to make machine tools. The wood grain structure that remains should be inhomogeneous enough to dampen vibration, and the treatment should make it dimensionally stable, so that it might be better than cast-iron for machine beds, frames, etc.

It's possible that this could replace 1950s and 1960s US made cast iron as the best possible material for large machine tools. (Lathes, mills, jig borers, etc.)
by dragontamer | 2025-05-19 15:25:44+00:00
Reverse engineering the mindset....

In the 90s, a cryptography paper was published that more quickly brute forced DES (standard encryption algorithm back then) using SIMD across 64-bit registers on a DEC Alpha.

There is also the 80s Connection Machine which was a 1-bit SIMD x 4096-lane supercomputer.

---------------

It sounds like this guy read a few 80s or 90s papers and then got stuck in that unusual style of programming. But there were famous programs back then that worked off of 1-bit SIMD x 64 lanes or x4096 lanes.

By the 00s, computers have already moved on to new patterns (and this obscure methodology was never mainstream). Still, I can imagine that if a student read a specific set of papers in those decades... This kind of mindset would get stuck.
by RetroTechie | 2025-05-19 15:25:55+00:00
To those here familiar with RISC OS (like, having used it as daily driver for extended period, past or present), what about it would you regard as most worthy of preservation?

Things about its low-level internals? Specific aspects of how its parts inter-operate? Particular nifty features in the UI? General look & feel / user experience?
by clcaev | 2025-05-19 15:26:36+00:00
What about all of the things made today? Some of them require web services or an ipad/android app. I have lovely automatic shades; the app is used to adjust open/close timing to track sunrise/sunset. Without app, we'd be stuck with last timing, perhaps closed too often in summer or open too much in winter. I'll be interested to see where it gets stuck, how the product becomes disabled. Or perhaps I have to keep an "ancient" iphone charged...
by netsharc | 2025-05-19 15:27:01+00:00
Living in Zurich (German part of Switzerland for those who don't know), Windows 10 in English, the built-in Microsoft Store used to offer content in... French.

Now it's a mix of German and English, e.g. 1 heading is "Spiele-Bestseller", and the next is "Best selling apps". And prices displayed as "28,00 CHF" (correct would be to use the decimal point).

Like Van Halen's brown M&Ms, it just shows how sloppily this thing is programmed: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brown-out/
by Jemaclus | 2025-05-19 15:27:20+00:00
Certainly. There are many paths to victory here.

One thing to consider is whether you _want_ your producers to be aware of the clients or not. If you use SQS, then your producer needs to be aware of where it's sending the message. In event-driven architecture, ideally producers don't care who's listening. They just broadcast a message: "Hey, this thing just happened." And anyone who wants to subscribe can subscribe. The analogy is a radio tower -- the radio broadcaster has no idea who's listening, but thousands and thousands of people can tune in and listen.

Contrast to making a phone call, where you have to know who it is that you're dialing and you can only talk to one person at a time.

There are pros and cons to both, but there's tremendous value in large applications for making the producer responsible for producing, but not having to worry about who is consuming. Particularly in organizations with large teams where coordinating that kind of thing can be a big pain.

But you're absolutely right: queues/topics are basically free, and you can have as many as you want! I've certainly done it the SQS way that you describe many times!

As I mentioned, there are many paths to victory. Mine works really well for me, and it sounds like yours works really well for you. That's fantastic :)
by dfxm12 | 2025-05-19 15:27:50+00:00
I was never all that good at arcade Asteroids. I think it was the controls. Rather than using a joystick, Asteroids used buttons for all it controls.

I always wondered why it didn't use a 2 way joystick (or even a spinner). Was it just meant to be awkward because it was too easy with a stick? Were they trying to save money? Did they think it would look different to attract people? Were people at the time complaining that they didn't like sticks?
by belter | 2025-05-19 15:27:54+00:00
The mainframe in 2025 is absolutely at the edge of technology. For some algorithms in ML where massive GPU parallelism is not a benefit, could even get a strong comeback.

I got so jealous of some colleagues, once even considered getting into mainframe work. CPU at 5.5 Ghz continuously, (not peak...) massive caches, really, really non stop...

Look at this tech porn: "IBM z17 Technical Introduction" - https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg248580.pdf
by mppm | 2025-05-19 15:27:56+00:00
For all those who are peeved by "stronger than steel" claims: No it's not. Or only in an extremely specific, not very practically relevant way. Their Nature paper [1] has the details, but let me summarize:

Tensile strength along the fiber direction is up to 600 MPa, which is higher than mild steel used for ordinary construction (~400 MPa). Except that mild steel is isotropic and highly ductile, i.e. it will deform by 50% or so before finally breaking, while the densified wood will snap as soon as its strength is exceeded. There are also steel grades that are way, way stronger than mild construction steel.

Flexural and compressive strength is up to half as high (300 MPa, below mild steel).

Strength in the weakest direction (across fibers) is around 50 MPa, or 1/8 of mild steel.

This densified wood is essentially a rather weak fiber composite. With careful planning it can be used instead of steel in construction, but their marketing is simply BS.

1. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25476
by 542354234235 | 2025-05-19 15:27:59+00:00
Expense? Just hiring a car would not be much more expense but would require more logistics, as you would have to manage scheduling and calling cars. To get a dedicated driver, or team of drivers (to cover 24 hours) and vehicle would be significantly more expensive than a couple extra vehicles. Plus handling the logistics of setting them up to be ready and waiting for you each time you travel would be something else to manage, or would be something to pay a personal assistant to manage. Plus you could still use car services as needed whenever you didn’t want to drive.

Unless you had reached a level where you were having almost everything in your life managed by assistants, and you were the type of person that wanted to give up all that control, then have “your car” ready to go whichever house you were at would be the lower mental overhead solution.
by primitivesuave | 2025-05-19 15:28:00+00:00
Better Auth is awesome and I didn't even realize they hadn't publicly launched yet - I'm using it in production apps, and have seen it being used in all kinds of real-world use cases. IMO it's the best open-source option for a TypeScript developer who wants to implement authentication.

About the dashboard - would this just be an interface to my existing Better Auth setup (e.g. if I had customized the underlying data storage) or are you hosting credentials yourself?

You have my sincerest gratitude for building this incredibly useful library and documenting it so well.
by dingnuts | 2025-05-19 15:28:17+00:00
This was true years ago but Gnome slowly removed every feature I liked and put me on an update treadmill for each and every plug-in, and I needed a bunch of them for basic functionality normal desktops provide.

A trivial example: keeping a working weather widget on my taskbar for an update cycle without breaking it was too much to ask for Gnome. I put up with this kind of thing for YEARS before switching to Plasma. Widgets for your taskbar and stable plug-in APIs should be table stakes for a desktop environment, especially if its whole philosophy is one that the core product should be minimal and most functionality should be in plugins.

You know what KDE has? Features. You know what it doesn't have a lot of? Bugs. Maybe you've tried it four times over the years but after a short trial three years ago I've been using exclusively Plasma.

It's way better than Gnome at this point, and I say this as a Gnome 2.x user. I laughed at KDE 4 back in the day.

But I'm pretty sure everyone in this thread who is bitching about Plasma has not used it in recent times. It's an absolutely fantastic, solid, polished, featureful desktop. To say otherwise is just to display your ignorance, frankly.
by harshreality | 2025-05-19 15:28:28+00:00
Do you have en-US or en-GB as an alternate, lower-priority language?

If an English variant is in your Accept-Lang: headers, I'd hope YT wouldn't auto-translate English titles.

The other thing that Google might properly use is account-specific language settings. But if they're using GeoIP as has been suggested, I agree they're doing it wrong.
by wellUc | 2025-05-19 15:28:48+00:00
A predict a lot of circumlocutions about AI but most people not noticing since they blindly follow the TV/politics as-is anyway.

A lot of people (still a tiny proportion of the population) will be loud in opposition but ultimately overwhelmed by the nihilism and indifference of the aggregate.

The loudest will be those who perceive some loss to their own lifestyle that relies on exploiting other’s attention, as AI presents new risk to their attention grabbing behaviors.

Then they will die off and humanity will carry on with AI not them.

Circle of life Simba.
by tr81 | 2025-05-19 15:28:56+00:00
> how simultaneously stern everybody looks with no fake smiles

They still have stern looks in photos back home in Asia. But when they immigrate to America, everyone starts smiling in photos.

My parents had a theory. They noticed that even in real life, Americans smiled more than back home. They think and I agree with them, that back home life is hard for most people and it is hard for people to put a smile on. Sometimes life is too hard for even a fake smile. And even if you have a pretty good life, you do not want to stand out by smiling, especially with a big smile that shows your teeth. People will mock you if you smile too much in photos.

In the US, life is easy, comparatively, people are happier and it is easy to smile. And if someone is unhappy, they still want to fit in, so they, at least, put a fake smile on.

And I think this can extend to older photos too. Back then life was harder and people did what was natural to them.
by thrance | 2025-05-19 15:29:08+00:00
> Our tools for communicating, identifying, and correcting the evils in this world are better than ever.

Are they really? It feels like fascist propaganda never spread so fast and so far than with social media. X is infested with neo-nazis casually discussing the jewish question or fantasizing about a coming race war on the front page. Fox News is a well-oiled oligarch-funded lie machine that never stops spinning narratives in service of power.

To me, that such a large portion of the country is gleefully cheering on ICE parting sick children from their parents [1] is proof enough of the absolute failure of our systems of information and free speech laws in addessing the rising issue of right-wing populism.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g8yj2n33yo
by thijson | 2025-05-19 15:29:35+00:00
This move sort of parallels what Germany did in the last decade or so, and we can already see how that worked out for them. I remember seeing research in Japan about extracting Uranium from sea water. It's not very economically feasible, but it's still possible, and can't be blockaded. With breeding and reprocessing, reactor fuel can be used for much longer than it currently is.
by Retr0id | 2025-05-19 15:29:51+00:00
Making non-trivial things work in Scratch can be fun for similar reasons that it's fun to develop games for the NES in 2025, using modern tooling [0].

NES development would be easier if you upgraded the hardware to be more capable, but that would defeat the purpose. It could still be an interesting project in its own right, but it's not "solving" the same problem.

With Scratch, there are also fundamental practical limitations. Dragging stuff around with a mouse becomes a chore, once your code passes a modest size. Maybe you could invent a system of keyboard shortcuts, but that sounds even harder to use.

We already have mountains of excellent tools for working with text, from IDEs to git forges. It'd be really hard to build something competitive, for scratch blocks, from scratch.

[0] https://github.com/llvm-mos/llvm-mos-sdk
by everdrive | 2025-05-19 15:30:09+00:00
That's definitely true, but I guess what I mean is that we sort of keep eating up new efficiency gain with more capacity. It's not uncommon for modern PCs to have much larger PSUs than in the past -- it's just that these PCs are doing far _more_ with their power. We could have moved both directions, though -- hit a stasis capability, but keep improving and refining efficiency.

But, to your point, ARM and Apple's M line are really exciting in this regard.
by bawolff | 2025-05-19 15:30:33+00:00
> Well, it's in an order, but I don't know about alphabetical. I clicked on today's English featured article and looked at the languages

This depends on whether you are viewing desktop site or mobile site. It also depends on if you have a non-default skin set in your preferences.

Seems like desktop (vector-2023) does the region thing.

Mobile does alphabetical by language name (i imagine codepoint order but i didnt check)

Some other skins are alphabetical by bcp47 code.
by 9wzYQbTYsAIc | 2025-05-19 15:30:57+00:00
I understand where you are coming from - I’ve gone so far as to try to regularly write at work in E-Prime in the past. I definitely found that it forced me to think hard about what I was trying to convey, which ultimately improved the vocabulary I was using. I also definitely found it to be a lot of trouble the maintain with consistency.

The thing is, though, that LLMs don’t appear to trouble themselves at all when following E-Prime!

After a lot of conceptual refinement for the overall idea I had (minimizing hallucinations by prompt alone), it was almost trivial to make the LLM consistently use E-Prime everywhere.

You raise an interesting thought though: how to tweak this prompt such that it gets the LLM to avoid using E-Prime where it significantly reduces readability or dramatically increases cognitive load.

A classifier for “bullshit” detection has been on my mind.
by magicnubs | 2025-05-19 15:31:23+00:00
There do seem to be parallels to America's rise to the dominant global power. In particular, they have so much of the global manufacturing infrastructure, like the US did after WW2 destroyed much of Europe's, and I don't see a way for the US to compete with China's cheap labor and agglomeration economies. And they are generating more and more of the research in high-value sectors, kind of like the US scooping up all of the physicists during the war.

There are other roadblocks that the US didn't have to be sure, their very top-heavy population pyramid and they have less arable land (which probably doesn't matter so much except in wartime or as a national security concern). It still feel like the only things that might derail the current trends are internal social unrest or a major war.
by tuetuopay | 2025-05-19 15:31:52+00:00
I think the issue is not speaking more than one language, but not preferring your native language over the original content's language. This is a very American-English-centric view of the world, where content is made for your language and your demographic. Consumption from outside the US is the exception.

In the rest of the world, and especially in Europe, this is the norm, not the exception. On one hand there is the prevalence of US English media (hello hollywood), US english literature (esp. in tech); and on the other hand cross-consumption between EU countries is much more common.

Oh, and the content ends up being in English too, because that's how to reach many people. We don't want those to be translated, because we don't want a double translation. This is something that the US / Silicon Valley mind cannot comprehend.
by elzbardico | 2025-05-19 15:32:27+00:00
It must be fun being a hardware engineer for IBM mainframes: Cost constraints for your designs can be mostly be left aside, as there's no competition, and your still existing customers have been domesticated to pay you top dollar every upgrade cycle, and frankly, they don't care.

Cycle times are long enough so you can thoroughly refine your design.

Marketing pressures are probably extremely well thought, as anyone working on Mainframe marketing is probably either an ex-engineer or almost an engineer by osmosis.

And the product is different enough from anything else, that you can try novel ideas, but not different enough that your design skills are useless elsewhere, and you can't leverage other's advancement idea.
by arscan | 2025-05-19 15:32:45+00:00
Very cool, the interactivity of this makes this a much better learning tool than a set of static images (for me, at least).

One minor suggestion: on mobile put the date scrubber on the bottom, otherwise my thumb gets in the way of the UI while sliding back and forth through time :)

Also, I’m not sure if a log scale for time makes sense in this case. It confused me for a second, at least.

Great job, thanks for sharing!
by genocidicbunny | 2025-05-19 15:33:28+00:00
You would have to provide every parking spot an outlet unless you're willing to deal with having to potentially reshuffle renters' parking spots whenever someone needs one with an outlet. A lot of apartments also have outdoor or carport parking, which means the outlets are easily accessible to others. You can mitigate that somewhat by putting locks on them, but that's only useful when they're not being used. When in used they will by necessity need to be unlocked and can then be hijacked by someone else. You would also have the massive capital outlay from the owner(s) to install the infrastructure, since it will be a significant amount of electricity that is being used, and will thus need to be attached to each units' electrical meter. Not every building may have room for adding that kind of service as well, plenty of older apartment buildings that are maxed out on how many amps each unit gets. I've lived in places where I had to choose between running the heater or running the stove because both at the same time would blow the master breakers. And even if that's not the case, the building/complex as a whole may not be able to install even 50% outlets that support the full 15A. In a 100 unit building, even with just a single spot per unit, if half those spots add 15A per spot, the incoming service from the street may not be able to handle that without upgrades either; another massive capital outlay that no one will want to do unless forced to.

I think there are too many edge cases to outright ban ICE cars so soon. That's why I say that there needs to be a push to also improve infrastructure, including forcing older infrastructure to also be improved. It can be done, but with the scope of the problem, it will not be nearly as soon as the proposed bans would have taken effect. It would also take probably an impossible amount of political will. You'd have to grab the proverbial third rail and hang on long enough to make things happen before it fries you, but fry you it will.
by sleepyguy | 2025-05-19 15:33:41+00:00
The consensus is that Trump blinked and folded, XI knows he won, and the outcome of the trade war will not be the big and beautiful deal Trump speaks of. China has managed to avoid most of the U.S. trade tariffs by pivoting to factories across Asia.

The current administration doesn't have a playbook, or at least one they can stick to. Their entire strategy is created on the fly and typically without any thought. America's adversaries are celebrating; they can finally sit back and watch the President and the MAGA party cede power and influence while weakening America and Democracy in general.

-Independent.
by evanjrowley | 2025-05-19 15:33:41+00:00
The SR-IOV part is the most exciting for me[0]. Often times SR-IOV comes up in the context of high-performance virtualization networking[1]. I'm keen to leverage it for hardware-video accelleration for multiple VMs. There's been a lot of speculation about it for newer Intel GPUs[2], partly fueled by the support Intel added for their iGPUs begining with Alder Lake[3].

I'm a little confused by how the article worded this. The paragraph ending with "and also will support SR-IOV" begins by discussing the Arc Pro B60, so I'm not sure if that feature is specific to the B60 or if it's the whole Arc Pro B-Series. I guess we'll find out in 2025Q4.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-root_input/output_virtu...

[1] https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/design/products/ethe...

[2] https://forum.level1techs.com/t/intel-arc-sr-iov-hack/200804

[3] https://github.com/Upinel/PVE-Intel-vGPU