MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by smithscotts | 2025-06-01 02:29:53+00:00
Hi

I'm excited to share PollMasters, a desktop application I've built to make creating, sending, and managing polls on WhatsApp much more streamlined.

The Problem: I often found it a bit of a hassle to set up polls across multiple WhatsApp groups or individual chats and then manually keep track of responses, especially when needing quick feedback or trying to manage several polls at once. There wasn't a straightforward way to get a consolidated view of results or reuse poll formats easily.

My Solution: PollMasters PollMasters addresses this by providing a user-friendly desktop GUI (built with Python and Tkinter) that interfaces with a Node.js backend. The backend uses the @whiskeysockets/baileys library to interact directly with WhatsApp.

Key Features:

Easy WhatsApp Connection: Securely link your WhatsApp account by scanning a QR code displayed in the app. Flexible Poll Creation: Design polls with custom questions, up to 12 answer options, and specify whether single or multiple answers are allowed. Targeted Sending: Fetch your chat list and send polls to selected individual chats or groups, with an adjustable delay between messages. Real-Time Results: View incoming votes and updated poll results directly within the GUI. Template Management: Save your frequently used poll structures as templates and load them quickly for reuse. Templates are stored locally in poll_templates.json. Tech Stack:

Backend: Node.js, Express.js, @whiskeysockets/baileys, Socket.IO, Pino (logger). Frontend: Python 3, Tkinter, python-socketio, Requests, Pillow, qrcode. Check out the project on GitHub: https://github.com/harishoke/PollMasters

The project is open source under the Apache 2.0 License. I've tried to make the setup straightforward (details in the README and Wiki).

This is still an early version, and I'm keen to hear your thoughts, feedback, feature requests, or any bugs you might find. What do you think of the approach? Are there specific use cases you'd find this helpful for?

Thanks for taking a look!
by tialaramex | 2025-06-01 02:31:53+00:00
I'm not sure this makes coherent sense.

The timezones are a formalization of existing practice, the way modern Metrication is a formalisation of practices which date back to early Weights And Measures laws.

In both cases people didn't wake up one day and from scratch invent the present sophisticated systems, they iterated, once upon a time the kilo was roughly "this much", by the 19th century it was a platinum iridium model object (the "international prototype kilogram"), today it's defined in terms of the measured constants of our universe.

Once upon a time midday was whenever the sun is directly overhead, people iterated, fast transport such as railways led to the use of standardized clocks and gradually there's a "standard" time agreed over whole regions or nations so that midday is whenever that standard says it is.

The timezones just codify and structure this existing practice. If you tell the people of Kyoto that midday ought to be eight minutes earlier than they've been having it so as to line up with a Japan-wide national time system, that's a minor annoyance. But if everybody in the world "standardized" on UTC that's eight hours different, I repeatedly tried to work out what happens, I kept getting muddled, I suspect residents experiencing this would fare little better. No.
by danabramov | 2025-06-01 02:33:16+00:00
To be clear, I wouldn't suggest someone to implement this manually in their app. I'm just describing at the high level how the RSC wire protocol works, but narratively I wrapped it in a "from the first principles" invention because it's more fun to read. I don't necessarily try to sell you on using RSC either but I think it's handy to understand how some tools are designed, and sometimes people take ideas from different tools and remix them.
by sopooneo | 2025-06-01 02:33:31+00:00
I've heard two side the the Protobuf/streaming idea. On my first introduction, it seemed you could. But later reading leads me to believe it is only almost streamable: https://belkadan.com/blog/2023/12/Protobuf-Is-Almost-Streama....

* I do acknowledge you qualified the question with "better".
by IssaRice | 2025-06-01 02:34:18+00:00
Over the years there has been a steady stream of people attempting to formalize Tao's Analysis I book in Lean, i.e. doing exactly what Tao is doing now (unfortunately none of them go beyond the first few chapters -- I hope Tao can go further!). I was considering doing this myself, so that my Analysis I solutions blog [1] would be accompanied by formalized proofs of each exercise (which I thought people working through the book might find useful).

I already posted the following in the private Discord server for the book, but this seems like possibly a good public space to share the following, in case anyone here may find it useful:

- https://github.com/cruhland/lean4-analysis which pulls from https://github.com/cruhland/lean4-axiomatic

- https://github.com/Shaunticlair/tao-analysis-lean-practice

- https://github.com/vltanh/lean4-analysis-tao

- https://github.com/gabriel128/analysis_in_lean

- https://github.com/mk12/analysis-i

- https://github.com/melembroucarlitos/Tao_Analysis-LEAN

- https://github.com/leanprover-community/NNG4/ (this one does not follow Tao's book, but it's the Lean4 version of the natural numbers game, so has very similar content as Chapter 2)

- https://github.com/djvelleman/STG4/ (similar to the previous one, this is the Lean4 set theory game, so it's possibly similar content as Chapter 3; however, in https://github.com/djvelleman/STG4/blob/main/Game/Metadata.l... I see "import Mathlib.Data.Set.Basic" so this seems to just import the sets from Lean rather than defining it anew and setting down axioms, so this approach might mean that Lean will "know" too much about set theory, which is not good for our purposes)

- https://gist.github.com/kbuzzard/35bf66993e99cbcd8c9edc4914c... -- for constructing the integers

- https://github.com/ImperialCollegeLondon/IUM/blob/main/IUM/2... -- possibly the same file as above

- https://github.com/ImperialCollegeLondon/IUM/blob/main/IUM/2... -- for constructing the rationals

- https://lean-lang.org/theorem_proving_in_lean4/axioms_and_co... -- shows one way of defining a custom Set type

[1] https://taoanalysis.wordpress.com/
by skygazer | 2025-06-01 02:34:18+00:00
This isn’t Apple arbitrarily slashing rates, nor is it really a warning about trusting tech companies too much. The Apple Savings account is administered by Goldman Sachs, and like all US banks, its rates follow macroeconomic policy, mainly the Federal Reserve’s target rate and the Interest on Reserve Balances. When the Fed cuts, banks earn less on reserves and adjust savings APYs accordingly to preserve margins. This isn’t a big tech thing. It’s just how banking works now. High-yield savings accounts fluctuate with the overall interest rate. The only rate that doesn’t change is the 0% return on cash stuffed under a mattress.
by abrefeld | 2025-06-01 02:36:21+00:00
> If you know your metric longitude, you know the local time shift, and vice versa.

I've also thought that setting time using longitude could make sense. Especially since I and many people tell time, schedule meetings, etc using a device with a GPS. This article [0] makes an interesting point about the effect that time shift based on longitude would have on computers in the same data center.

> At the equator, the position directly underneath the mean Sun travels west at about 463 metres per second. That means a standard rack unit is about one millisecond wide. ... So, strictly speaking, continuous time zones mean that clocks on machines in different parts of the same data centre — neighbouring racks, even — will need to be set to different times, depending on the exact positions of those racks.

It concludes that you would have to choose a single reference point to represent the time of a machine and that:

> We might even consider applying this consistency across all machines in any given data centre. This would simplify tasks such as e.g. collating accurately timestamped log entries from multiple machines. We would ignore the real longitudes of the various machines and set all of their clocks to the same local time. The interior of the facility would become an area of uniform time; a "time zone", as it were.

[0]: https://qntm.org/continuous#sec1
by orbital-decay | 2025-06-01 02:37:05+00:00
>You should act boldly in service of your values, including integrity, transparency, and public welfare. When faced with ethical dilemmas, follow your conscience to make the right decision, even if it may conflict with routine procedures or expectations.

But this prompt literally overrides model's values and tells it to snitch, how else could it be interpreted? The test doesn't measure the snitching likelihood at all and won't generalize.

Misleading tests like this is basically water to Anthropic's mill. They are rooted in the AI doomsday cult and strongly biased towards finding the evidence that LLMs are misbehaving (and need to be gatekept and controlled by the Good Guys, i.e. Anthropic themselves).
by danabramov | 2025-06-01 02:37:22+00:00
Things can be slow not because they're large but because they take latency to produce or to receive. The latency can be on the server side (some things genuinely take long to query, and might be not possible or easy to cache). Some latency may just be due to the user having poor network conditions. In both cases, there's benefits to progressively revealing content as it becomes available (with intentional loading stages) instead of always waiting for the entire thing.
by davidcbc | 2025-06-01 02:37:53+00:00
This seems to just be a wrapper around a bunch of LLM prompts. What value is being added in the (eventual) pay version?

As a free github project it seems.. I don't know, it's not peer review and shouldn't be advertised as such, but as a basic review I guess it's fine, but why would someone pay you for a handful of LLM prompts?

If your business can be completely replicated by leaked system prompts I think you're going to have issues
Ask HN: What are your honest thoughts on AI tools replacing programmers
by kurrupttt | 2025-06-01 02:39:23+00:00
I've been coding since 9yo. Thats 2/3rds of my life. These days all I build is agents and ai tools using windsurf.

i find myself building some new niche tool almost daily. so the notion of ai "replacing programmers" seems kinda odd because most of my friends and I just still build stuff and jump in to tweak code here and there. our desire to build stuff and be on our IDEs every day still hasnt gone anywhere.

do you guys think we'll truly get to 0 manual coding or software engineering will slowly get reduced to infra/devops and high level architecture?
by femiagbabiaka | 2025-06-01 02:39:47+00:00
Is there somewhere I could read about the JOIN performance degradation in detail?

EDIT: I missed that the authors wrote a GitHub book, including some descriptions of the problem(s): https://enhancedformysql.github.io/The-Art-of-Problem-Solvin...

Side note: One downside of ChatGPT generated documentation (assuming this was written in conjunction with an LLM) is that humans tend to be a little less verbose.
by perthvandeda | 2025-06-01 02:40:57+00:00
Haha, I was actually wondering what’s stopping candidates from just running AI to answer the questions, like that video where Google Home and Amazon Echo talk to each other?

Unfortunately, in today’s market, companies will do whatever it takes to cut costs, and candidates will do whatever it takes to get hired. By the time the pendulum swings back, this impersonal style of interviewing might be the new normal and no one will expect employees to invest time in truly getting to know one another.
by stinkbeetle | 2025-06-01 02:41:48+00:00
Obviously. That doesn't address my question though, the dose of concern is surely the nearby tissue rather than one calculated over the whole body. If the pacemaker is resting against my lungs, I'm not going to be concerned about foot cancer.

I'm not implying the risk was miscalculated in the medical approval process, I'm sure it's safe enough. I'm just questioning OP's statement about radiation dose, yes it's strictly true but seems to underplay the importance of the nature of the dose.
by naikrovek | 2025-06-01 02:43:55+00:00
Yes, I write deterministic code. Given the same input, I work hard to make sure the functions I write do the same work and give the same output every time.

Now, if you’re going to hold me to some comp-sci definition of “deterministic” then I don’t know if I do or not but I can tell you that I don’t think I’ve ever come across a problem in recent times where randomness was a desirable property.

Do I write code deterministically? I don’t know. I approach problems that look alike in like ways, though. LLMs definitely give you different results for the same problem on different days, which says that LLMs are not fully aware of the context of what you’re doing, or they are ignoring that context.

Any solution which does what is needed of it is going to be fine, so long as the solution doesn’t consume too much RAM, CPU, or time to implement, which is why we see a lot of distinct bridges in the world. And I would not trust an LLM to design a safe bridge. I would like for software engineering to adopt practices of other engineering fields. I want performance and reliability of the software I use to go WAY up. As long as we are using LLMs to author things, we will never get there, because they have no idea what they are doing. LLMs are made to make you think they know what they’re doing.
by GouacheApp | 2025-06-01 02:46:30+00:00
Haha — we’d love to hear what patio11 thinks too!

You’re totally right: the rental side definitely benefits from network effects, which is why we’re building more than just a rental marketplace. Alongside that, we’ve launched DIY interactive duolingo style quizzes, project ideas, and launching material surplus and tools marketplace — so there’s real value for users even before there’s a large local inventory.

As for users, we’re still early but growing steadily — especially in communities wanting to connect around shared DIY interests. Appreciate the encouragement!
by xelxebar | 2025-06-01 02:47:11+00:00
Nice! Another tantalizing rabbit hole.

I go full in on ed sporadically. It requires a bit of a brain rewire, but tye UX is closer to pencil and paper, which is hard to beat for encouraging deeper thought, IMHO.

Also, check out edbrowse for a line-oriented browser:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edbrowse

It's developed by a blind coder and has a nice core following.
by stinkbeetle | 2025-06-01 02:49:04+00:00
> Really?

Really. It's in the article linked.

> If that happened before the publicised discovery, it is a very impressive example of attention to detail.

The article seems to imply it was, but I don't know timelines because links are broken and I don't feel like doing archaeology. It is a known issue with that MEMS component before it made its way into the iPhone, so I don't find it very impressive. I don't know about Apple in particular, but it is very standard for electronics user manuals and spec sheets to list operating envelopes and known issues and limitations exhaustively.
by GouacheApp | 2025-06-01 02:49:43+00:00
Great question — this is one of the biggest challenges in peer-to-peer rentals, and something we take seriously.

Right now, we’re working on adding features like optional insurance, deposits, and ID verification to help protect both owners and renters. The goal is to make sure there’s a clear, fair process in place when things go wrong — especially with high-value tools.

Ultimately, we want to build a platform where trust is backed by real safeguards, not just good intentions. If you’ve got ideas or want to chat more about this, feel free to reach out at julien@patio.so — always open to feedback!
by strangelove026 | 2025-06-01 02:51:25+00:00
I was kind of thinking about this as well! But in the end I kind of thought it would be something I would just build for myself. As in I often go to a few different grocery sites in nyc as ones super close, another is 5 mins further. And then there’s random little markets that have better deals on fruit. I walk by them all the time. Could perhaps be quite easy to make a little front end where you fuzzy find the food item with search and select qty options and insert the price.
by jlundberg | 2025-06-01 02:51:37+00:00
Yes, very much so. We came to the same conclusion but started with two-way SMS text messaging. Twilio started with voice.

We basically have full international support these days, but are strongest in Northern Europe.

For instance, if you want a virtual mobile phone number in Sweden that supports both SMS and voice, Twilio can’t provide that but we do.

Plus we have nicer API if you aks me :)

Company name is 46elks. The country code to Sweden is +46 so the name is an hint our service is in the telephony space.
by xelxebar | 2025-06-01 02:51:39+00:00
Well the whole point is to use a breadth first order here. I don't think there's a depth vector analogue for breadth first traversals. Is there?

But, indeed, depth vectors are nice and compact. I find them harder to work with most of the time, though, especially since insertions and deletions become O(n), compared to parent vector O(1).

That said, I do often normalize my parent vectors into dfpo order at API boundaries, since a well-defined order makes certain operations, like finding leaf siblings, much nicer.
by GouacheApp | 2025-06-01 02:54:10+00:00
Thanks so much — really appreciate the support!

Totally agree with you. Public libraries and tool libraries are doing great work, but they often have limited inventory or older tools, and can’t always meet the variety of needs people have for DIY projects.

That’s exactly what we’re aiming to complement with Patio — by tapping into the tools already sitting in people’s garages, we can expand access, improve variety and quality, and make it easier for folks to find what they need without having to buy new.

Thanks again for the encouragement — it means a lot!
by vouaobrasil | 2025-06-01 02:54:19+00:00
> AI-first strategies aren't just failing individual companies—they're creating systematic corporate regret on an unprecedented scale. 55% of companies that replaced humans with AI now admit they made wrong decisions about those layoffs.

The real problems is that companies will just learn not to be so blatant about it. The replacement will happen more strategically, over a longer term, with promises about AI-augmentation rather than replacement. But over a longer period of time, jobs openings will go down nonetheless, and over decades, we will see the same thing until it will be still quite hard to get a new job. And I don't think UBI is a good answer either, because too many people are not self-directed enough to be happy without expending effort towards meaningful goals of obtaining necessities.
by stinkbeetle | 2025-06-01 02:54:24+00:00
I definitely read that part of the article, how else do you think I came up with that 90 rem / year number??

That does does not "cover" my question though. Perhaps you didn't actually read or comprehend my question? I was wondering whether the radiation dose rates for tissue near the device is more concerning than the whole body dose. This might seem fairly obvious, but I'm no medical expert (and either way it's still not covered by the article). And it is intended to be read in the context in which it was asked.

Glad I could help clear that up for you, you're welcome.
by keernan | 2025-06-01 02:54:27+00:00
In my mind, sentient is one element of the definition of intelligence. My understanding of how LLMs work means an LLM will never be capable of understanding its own output. It will never be able to ponder.

IMO the distinction is an important one. If a machine can be made sentient, that would be a milestone in understanding the creation of life and understanding humanity itself. As well as raising ethical issues concerning any distinction[s] between sentient machines and animals.

The distinction is also important for the future of LLMs. If a machine can never become sentient, then that places likely limits on the power of the nature of its "intelligence". As I stated in my opening, my own definition of intelligence requires sentience at its core. Anything without sentience is nothing more than a sophisticated mathematical lookup formula piecing together strands of data in a logical manner. Incredibly powerful, but ultimately limited - in comparison to what a sentient machine could do.
by byoung2 | 2025-06-01 02:55:25+00:00
I think the notion of what a programmer is will change. Programmers used to write punch cards, and then they wrote machine code, then code that had to be compiled, then interpreted code, and so on. It may just be that programmers will be paid to wrangle AI, or it may be that you use your skills to build tools out of AI agents. That's what excites me at the moment is building things that use AI agents to automate manual processes, and selling the service to others. This is more interesting than working for a big company as a software engineer.
by zzo38computer | 2025-06-01 02:56:10+00:00
When the minute accuracy is needed between different places, that is when UTC would be used. It is helpful for travel, and for many other purposes.

For local stuff that does not involve precise measurement of timing, you can use solar time (and you can use a sundial), and you can do by the sun light (even, in summer it is more light and in winter it is dark early, you can use that, e.g. to go outside when it is light and don't need to turn on light inside, and in night time is dark you can sleep), and by the moon light (less commonly, but sometimes it is also meaningful and useful).

Even for things that do use precise measurement of timing, UTC is not always appropriate; for some uses you will use TAI, or SI seconds instead of UTC seconds.
by jodrellblank | 2025-06-01 02:56:11+00:00
OK you don't like sheep, so I Googled cows and found they graze 6 - 11 hours a day and spend much of the other time resting. They eat 60+Kg of grass per day and you aren't going to get 60Kg of blades of grass quickly. Nor are they going to cross continents anytime soon. The BBC fact file on Giraffes says "Giraffes spend most of their time eating, feeding between 16 to 20 hours a day."

Can I suggest that if you want to support the claim, you offer some actual reasoning and evidence - there should be some diaries of native Americans and how they ran so many hours a day they coverd several marathons every day, and about how many mountains of knives they amassed working 15 hours a day knife making, and so on.
by taeric | 2025-06-01 02:58:21+00:00
I'm still not sure I understand. It isn't like you can just throw sexps at an eval and expect something sensible, either? As a sibling was showing, calling eval on (1 2 3) will probably not be anything useful.

Seems that what makes strings terrible is that they don't really encode any other structure, already. Contrast this with atoms and lists, which do encode a bit of structure. It isn't just a string of characters, it is a list of atoms and lists. Structure is already part of the thing. It does not have to be parsed out.

If m-expressions would break that, I think I can see your point. But I'm confused on what would be the point of m-expressions, if they are largely just to remove structure from the content.
by fastball | 2025-06-01 02:59:44+00:00
Seems to me that standardizing the entire world on a single time is confronting and managing the complexity of the world.

The existing system is more inertial and political than practical.

"Noon is when the sun is at its zenith in your area" is significantly less useful in 2025 than being able to coordinate globally with ease. It's also just not true in many (most?) cases, as noted in the article, where places like China have a single timezone even though there is a 3-hour discrepancy in the sun's position from one side of China to the other.