MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by jghn | 2025-06-13 16:27:55+00:00
Yes. People don't take into account the growth in the number of developers over time. When the ageism discussion started, there was a huge growth in the developer market, which meant that a disproportionate number of devs were on the younger side of the spectrum. Now that we're a few decades into the conversation, that initial glut of devs are the greybeards. Thus it appears that there's more old people rolling around.

Is there ageism? I'm sure. As an old, I'm going to avoid companies that give off a younger, coder bro type vibe. Partially because I assume they're more likely to be ageist. But mostly because even if they *didn't* have an ageist viewpoint and hired me, I know it's just not where I personally want to be.
by lloeki | 2025-06-13 16:30:06+00:00
> The Gens D'Armes are akin to 'heavy' police and are a show of force

I've only seen that when they show up as support for or operating in a similar role as CRS† (crowd control, security for major events) which indeed would be Gendarmerie Mobile but that's a far cry from the range of operational responsibilities of Gendarmerie as a whole.

Turns out this is probably what city dwellers in France would only see of Gendarmerie, because Police Nationale and Municipale (city) typically have much more presence in cities than countryside, and the other way around for Gendarmerie.

† https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnies_Républicaines_de_Sé...
Show HN: Inconvo – An API to add an analytics assistant to your app
by eoghan-tendev | 2025-06-13 16:30:21+00:00
Hey HN, we’re Eoghan & Liam, two brothers from Ireland building Inconvo (https://inconvo.ai).

Inconvo provides an API that makes it easy to embed a data analysis assistant directly into your app.

We noticed how emerging analytics assistants like Posthog’s Max AI, Amplitude’s Ask, and Mixpanel’s Spark AI significantly streamline data interactions, enabling both technical users to be more productive and non-technical users to interact directly with the data they need.

These tools are powerful, but building something similar from scratch is complex, especially handling multi-tenant databases, contextual awareness and building a text-to-SQL agent. Developers often find themselves buried in LLM complexities which takes time away from core product development.

We encountered this pain ourselves while trying to build conversational analytics for another project. Recognizing how challenging and common this build was, we decided to build Inconvo specifically to simplify this process for developers.

Inconvo provides an end-to-end analytics assistant accessible through a single API call. Our API returns structured JSON responses consistently across text, chart, and table outputs, and our platform abstracts away complexities including semantic modelling, multi-tenant filtering, and AI model evaluation and monitoring.

To illustrate, we've integrated Inconvo with an e-commerce demo app here: https://demo.inconvo.ai. The assistant interacts directly with the app’s database (fully inspectable here: https://demodata.inconvo.ai). Feel free to try it, break it, and give us feedback!

Our developer docs are here: https://inconvo.ai/docs and we also created a straightforward React-Node integration example: https://github.com/ten-dev/inconvo-react-node-example

We’re grateful for the chance to share this, thanks for reading! We’d really value your feedback or questions below.
by redczar | 2025-06-13 16:30:32+00:00
Israelis have a right to live peacefully. Unfortunately they are not peaceful toward Palestinians. They continually encroach and annex Palestinian land in the West Bank oppress Palestinians. Palestinians fight back but it’s a hopeless cause for them.

From my understanding Israel tried to make peace by exchanging land for peace treaties. Only the Egyptians took them up on that. I think Israel is done seeking a moral solution and are now slowly annexing all of the West Bank and now Gaza. Palestinians should be given land somewhere and/or forced to emigrate. They’ve clung to what was once theirs but the reality is they are never getting it back.

But Israel is being immoral and their treatment of Palestinians is deplorable.
by echelon | 2025-06-13 16:30:56+00:00
> It's a smart purchase, it's just that I don't see how these datasets factor into super-intelligence.

It's a smart purchase for the data, and it's a roadblock for the other AI hyperscalers. Meta gets Scale's leading datasets and gets to lock out the other players from purchasing it. It slows down OpenAI, Anthropic, et al.

These are just good chess moves. The "super-intelligence" bit is just hype/spin for the journalists and layperson investors.
by naasking | 2025-06-13 16:30:58+00:00
> the behavior of LLMs is not thanks to a learned world model, but to brute force memorization of incomprehensibly abstract rules governing the behavior of symbols, i.e. a model of syntax.

I think reinforcing this distinction between syntax and semantics is wrong. I think what LLMs have shown is that semantics reduces to the network of associations between syntax (symbols). So LLMs do learn a world model if trained long enough, past the "grokking" threshold, but they are learning a model of the world that we've described linguistically, and natural language is ambiguous, imprecise and not always consistent. It's a relatively anemic world model in other words.

Different modalities help because they provide more complete pictures of concepts we've named in language, which fleshes out relationships that may not have been fully described in natural language. But to do this well, the semantic network built by an LLM must be able to map different modalities to the same "concept". I think Meta's Large Concept Models is promising for this reason:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.08821

This is on the path to what the article describes that humans do, ie. that many of our skills are developed due to "overlapping cognitive structures", but this is still a sort of "multimodal LLM", and so I'm not persuaded by this article's argument of needing embodiment and such.

> but it is clear that there are many problems in the physical world that cannot be fully represented by a system of symbols and solved with mere symbol manipulation.

That's not clear at all, and the link provided in that sentence doesn't suggest any such thing.
by eldaisfish | 2025-06-13 16:31:31+00:00
you see this in other engineering fields as well. Government, for example, is chock-full of people designing renewable energy policy who have never even seen a solar panel and barely know how one works. There are engineering companies where wind turbine designers have never climbed a wind turbine or seen one in operation.

This is how you get disasters like Ocean Gate where management would rather hire fresh college grads than listen to experienced hires point out mistakes.
by blindriver | 2025-06-13 16:31:34+00:00
Honestly, pursue it as a hobby but don't try to make a career out of it. This is the worst hiring environment I've seen since the dotcom bust, and there are tens of thousands of fresh CS grads that are unemployed.

If you want to go to school because you're interested, then that's cool. But to think you can make a living out of it when you're 30 years older than the tens of thousands of kids that you're competing against... I really don't think it's worth it unless you want to form your own startup that is medical-related.
by Spivak | 2025-06-13 16:31:57+00:00
I mean this gets to the fundamental question of what being ordered actually means. The author decides that regardless of whether the data structure has an order, even if that order is guaranteed, it's a necessary property that order must be taken into account to determine equality. A very sensible and pure definition that says that equivalence classes should be single elements.

But this is a weird thing to actually do in Python, it's not a common thing to test dictionaries for equality like this. If you parsed some file into a dictionary and you want to preserve the order it was originally in when you write it back out then the standard dict works just fine. There's a tension in the article that if you rely on ordering you ought to consider using OrderedDict instead but that leads you to never rely on dict() ordering which is fine— but it's guaranteed to you. You're supposed to use it! The standard dict() even has a __reversed__ method so ordering is a meaningful property.
by ncfavier | 2025-06-13 16:32:07+00:00
That sounds about correct. The naïve interpretation of AC that interprets ∃ as Σ and ∀ as Π amounts to the trivial fact that Π distributes over Σ, which has little to do with any choice principle. If you instead interpret it in setoids, as Martin-Löf does, then the function you get should be extensional with respect to the relevant setoid structures, which is where the power of the axiom comes from.

The modern view on this is homotopy type theory, where types themselves are intrinsically seen as ∞-groupoids (a higher analogue of setoids) and ∃ is interpreted as a propositionally truncated Σ-type (see chapter 3 of the HoTT book). In this setting the axiom of choice says that for any set X, (∀ (x : X). ∥ P x ∥) → ∥ ∀ (x : X). P x ∥ (see section 3.8).

Note that from the perspective of homotopy type theory, Zermelo's axiom of choice is too strong: it is equivalent to global choice (for all types A, ∥ A ∥ → A), which is inconsistent with univalence.
by ilc | 2025-06-13 16:32:12+00:00
I call this "Wearing your uniform."

You need to look like you are a person who would be doing the job. You wouldn't hire a gardner with smooth hands, clean shoes, and no dirt under their nails would you?

Car mechanics, you can see it in their hands, and the way they act around cars.

Every profession has its tells, from what we wear, to our physical traits etc.

After a while, you know if someone adds up or not. But part of that is changing with the times. :)
by andrewlgood | 2025-06-13 16:32:13+00:00
This sounds very similar to the challenge that companies had implementing Six Sigma (or other statistically-based quality programs). The tools significantly helped the average person improve the quality of their processes as determined by a variety of metrics. However, they were never going to tell you the solution or improvement to implement. They could give hints as to where to look for a solution, but someone still had to dream up the solution. For this reason, brain storming was always one of the most critical tools in the Six Sigma toolkit.
by throwawaymaths | 2025-06-13 16:32:53+00:00
my understanding is vsl physics can eliminate singularities if you have c approach zero in the presence of mass in a flat spacetime. AIUI this is equivalent to einsteinian curved spacetime except as you approach zero and deviate from linear in your c(m) formula.

you get pseudo black holes but depending on the extremeness of the deviation from linear, the difference to black holes might not be observable with current tech.
by gwbas1c | 2025-06-13 16:32:58+00:00
Because, in the 1990s, Pixar's IP was more popular than Disney's. The story (as I remember it from a Jobs biography) was that, in the Disney parks, there were longer lines for Pixar characters than Disney characters.

Someone in leadership (don't remember the name) basically swallowed pride and bought Pixar from Jobs. It was considered a "reverse acquisition" because Jobs had so much stock he technically controlled Disney afterwards.
by jandrese | 2025-06-13 16:34:11+00:00
> Like, building a fully self-sustainable underwater city or moon base would be far more in reach. It feels that SpaceX should start with prototyping these safer alternatively before overreaching to something 100x more challenging and dangerous.

I've been beating this drum for years. Elon is 100% focused on building the rocket that can get to Mars and neglecting absolutely everything else about the project. Where is the self contained biosphere pilot program on Earth that tests the Mars habitat? To be anywhere close to Elon's timetable it needs to be running today, and honestly it should have been running years ago. Given the extreme reliability requirements it needs long term testing to build any confidence at all in the numerous technologies involved. The closest model we have is the ISS, and it's mostly shown that we aren't ready for a Mars habitat. The ISS requires way too much maintenance and ground support.
by garciasn | 2025-06-13 16:34:12+00:00
I started my career journey straight out of undergrad in a completely new state 700 miles from my undergraduate institution and 1300 miles from where I grew up. I knew no one and knew little. I made my way through job-hopping and hard work.

As I developed my professional network, I worked hard to keep contacts over the years and through many jobs. As I continued my upward trajectory I never forgot those who I met along the way and have hired several of them at multiple companies I have worked at over the years with one following me to 4 total companies over the course of 15+ years. I have done this with several others since.

In addition, I try and help everyone I worked with on current challenges in their current roles and/or trying to aid them in finding new ones; either by exercising my extensive professional network and/or giving them advice from the standpoint of my being a hiring manager.

The most important and impactful item IMO, however, is that I will give ANYONE and EVERYONE, known or not known, help when they ask for anything. From those in HS looking for advice on career and degree programs, to internships, to jobs in the real world. This is what I never had. My father is as blue collar as they come and wasn't able to aid me here; my mother worked relatively menial office and retail jobs and thus they were no help in this way to me. That said, I can help others who may or may not have professional connections through their personal networks to make sure they land in the best possible situation as their professional lives kick off and advance through the ranks.

The only thing I hope is that karma is real and that when my kids are of the age that they may need to leverage my growing professional and personal network that they will be awarded with the same thoughtfulness, timeliness, and kindness I have offered over the years.

A previous coworker once told me she's never met anyone who maintains relationships with old coworkers like I do; cultivating a network that helps to place folks, grow folks, and retain folks. THAT is my recommendation to you: work not only to grow yourself but others. It pays dividends personally and professionally and hopefully will help many others, known and unknown.
by carlosjobim | 2025-06-13 16:35:01+00:00
All of us here have been to school and know how utterly unimportant it is. If not, that is a serious case of amnesia. It's a storage unit for kids, guarded by the most dim-witted people from the community. So when somebody says they can't work because of their kid's school, then either that person does not care about their job, or the company is asking for something out of line. It's either of those two options, depending on what actually is the job.

My job is unimportant, so I can leave the phone off at night. If I had an important job, then the case would be different.
by Zak | 2025-06-13 16:36:06+00:00
Reports of laptop batteries exploding while operating or charging weren't infrequent 15-20 years ago.

Mechanical abuse isn't the only way to get a Li-ion fire. Failing to properly balance cells in series is electrical abuse with two likely outcomes, both of which can cause thermal runaway (fire/explosion):

The normal operating range for Li-ion cells is 2.7-4.2V. Discharging one below 2.7V causes chemical breakdown inside the cell that results in an internal short circuit. Attempting to charge an internally-shorted cell causes substantial heat generation, potentially leading to thermal runaway.

The other outcome is reverse charging, which occurs during discharge. If one cell in a series is performing substantially worse than others, or the charging circuit doesn't ensure the entire series is in the same state of charge, it can actually drop below zero volts, then get charged in reverse by the other cells. This rapidly leads to bad chemistry and thermal runaway.

It's simple to prevent both of these problems by having the battery management system monitor the voltage of every cell individually, but that costs more.
Ask HN: How has your company adapted to hiring with LLMs?
by Python3267 | 2025-06-13 16:36:10+00:00
Now that llm's are starting to get pretty good how has your company's adapted to the new environment. It's no longer good enough to see if someone's good a programing, instead we need to screen if someone is good at engineering. In my experience Software Engineering is starting to mature like other forms of engineering. Mechanical Engineers don't mill out their parts (Well they should at least a couple of times to understand the constraints of machining). SWE's need to see if the code is "good" (Mech E's test their parts) and then design the systems around them. As far as I can see there are two ways of going forwards.

1. Only do on sites and eat the travel expenses

2. Test for systems design and culture fit

On sites allow for a level playing field where interviewees don't need to compete for the [best person hiding their llm use](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1j436it/a_student_used_ai_to_beat_amazons_brutal/).

What are people's thoughts?
by marcosdumay | 2025-06-13 16:36:19+00:00
> he velocity of software in the past decade

Enterprise software is going nowhere but sideways for 2 decades already.

But yes, the velocity of new bullshit with dubious value that is consistently getting add on top of each other is just amazing.

By the way, I still haven't seen any single project get value out of SaaS auth (both auths) systems. Why the hell people use them?

Also, I had to check: "The key to driving your business forward? One powerful AI platform that keeps your most important assets on track, every decision on point, and your fleet of AI agents at peak performance. That’s Workday."

Well, people here still didn't manage to make LLMs do anything useful. That's despite a strong push from the top to use them, and many very smart people. They did manage to design a very promising tool that uses LLM in a way that uses its strengths and add a lot of value (that seems to be completely unparalleled - and we just invited the entire economic sector for a talk), but didn't manage to make it work well yet. So, our fleet of AI agents at peak performance...
by blindriver | 2025-06-13 16:37:07+00:00
I don't think it's age. I think it's energy level and attitude.

I'm in my 50s and had no problems getting hired 3+ years ago at a FAANG as well as a handful of other companies. Granted it was a good hiring environment, but I also took 3 years off and I had to work hard to Leetcode back into shape.

I still have a lot of energy and it comes across in my interviews. I don't have an ego, I know that just because I have >30 years experience doesn't mean that I know more than my coworkers that are 30 years younger than me. I work hard and try to earn my paycheck every day and I'm not quibbling over lunch menus and complaining about the ingredients used at the cafeteria.

I think as long as you not only have the technical skills but can also sell yourself as a good teammate with matching energy, it shouldn't be a problem. I think younger folks respect people that can match their energy and motivation and don't want to be dragged down by know-it-alls or slow workers.
by johnjwang | 2025-06-13 16:37:31+00:00
From the API standpoint, it makes a lot of sense for us to be able to provide different types of providers. And we've found also that different models/providers are better at different types of tasks. For example, the Gemini models have really great latency, which are good for specific types of tasks that are very latency sensitive, but we've found reasoning to be quite strong with OpenAI/Anthropic.
by tombh | 2025-06-13 16:38:38+00:00
Yes, every GUI terminal manages its own scrollback buffer. The reason that Tattoy and tmux have their own buffers is because they are essentially terminal emulators themselves. For instance a terminal emulator may have 10 tmux panes and it should of course be possible to view the history of each one. Tattoy manages its own scrollback because that's the only way to make the scrollback available programatically to other processes, like the minimap for example.

Interestingly Alacritty in the beginning didn't natively support scrollback because it wanted to hand-off that concern to multiplexers like tmux. So there's precedent for terminals emulators not having to support scrollback.

tmux should work fine in Tattoy, the only thing to be aware of is that Tattoy would then handle input, like for scrolling etc, so some events may not reach tmux, in which case you could make some custom tmux keybindings that Tattoy doesn't recognise. It's also worth noting that Tattoy recognises the so-called "alternate screen" state that tmux controls its host with. And in such cases Tattoy forwards scrolling events to the underlying process, like say the mouse scroll wheel.

I don't have any light theme examples yet. It should mostly just work though.