MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by TZubiri | 2025-06-21 06:02:08+00:00
Signal is cool, I think it has made a huge contribution to whatsapp through its collaboration.

But I think that there's room for nuance, sure it's closed source and a closed garden, but that's precisely what allows it to be gratis and free of spam (you can't build the client, you can't build a spamming client)! Sure it's controlled by an entity that may or may not use that data for ads. But it's metadata and not content, sure the NSA or some three letter agency may tap it for national security reasons(or at least masquerading as natsec reasons), but not even subfederal law enforcement and courts can access the contents of the message (E2E encryption).

The contributions of Free Software has been unquantifiable, but if it continues to treat all closed source things as equally bad, then you get extremism. Surely there's a difference between an entity seeing metadata, and an entity seeing message contents, this is a non trivial distinction.

Congratulations to signal if they develop an algorithm where they can't even see the metadata, but I'm not even convinced that it's good? The article cites cases of Meta products being used for malicious purposes, at least we hear from them? At least Zuck shows up against the senate to answer when shit hits the fan, if Signal is used in other parts of the world to organize coups or ethnic cleansing, you just would never hear about it because it's all super anonymous 5 stars, but ethically they would still be contributing as much as Facebook or Whatsapp.

And on that topic, I don't think overfixating on Meta's role in a multi actor causal chain to be very productive? I think it comes more of a place of Free Software developers being jealous that they didn't win the popularity contest, and less from a place of genuine concern. I used to be anti Whatsapp too, but at some point I realized that 1B users have as much say in what technologies we should use than developers, it's not all about the tech. Whatsapp has gained the trust from billions of users, ignoring them and telling them we know better because we have been indoctrinated by recruiting evangelists of an extremist ideology is not the way forward. I do believe in moderate free software and Whatsapp is one of the lowest hanging fruits to accept in the path to moderate FS
by burnt-resistor | 2025-06-21 06:02:28+00:00
The trick is to define "bloatware". Is that known knowns (stuff that's visible), known unknowns (stuff that's added that's not visible), and/or unknown unknowns (stuff added we are pretty sure is there but can't prove)? Apple adds all kinds of carrier-specific crap on every phone, but it's not readily discoverable. Android mfgrs must also because of carrier contracts and country-specific regulatory approval requirements. There's likely little means of escaping this without a BYOD non-Android, non-overseas, non-Apple phone that may or may not exist. Surely there is an obvious, viable alternative somewhere I'm missing that I hope exists.
by throwaway314155 | 2025-06-21 06:04:51+00:00
If the stakes were so high he shouldn't have been so careless with using his real name. As a professional psychiatrist it is 100% on him to make sure these situations aren't a possibility and if that isn't possible- it's really not that big of a deal to simply not blog about your deeply unrestrained and potentially offensive opinions about [insert culture war here].

This is not the fault of the nytimes and given the success of his blog, it absolutely would have happened eventually. It is frankly irresponsible on his part. He chose that profession and with it comes certain sacrifices made for the wellbeing of his patients.

Further he went on crazy rants about how the article was a hit piece which is deeply dramatic and maybe even a little egotistical. He's not nearly as important as he thinks - and the nytimes piece covered him in a fairly neutral way from my perspective.

You should read it if you haven't. It's an enlightening piece about the burgeoning semi-conservative movement masquerading as pseudo liberalism amongst so called thought leaders in silicon valley and tech more generally.
by mattlondon | 2025-06-21 06:05:22+00:00
They don't raise the price to deter people. Because the reality is it is a money-making scheme so they price it just right so that most people will pay it.

If they really cared about stopping congestion they'd raise the price. This would very very very simple for them to do. But then they lose a major source of revenue. As a result it is clear that they don't care about reducing congestion. It's basically a toll now, because it has not reduced congestion in the long term. I deeply suspect NYC will be the same once the realisation creeps in that the fee isn't really that much to pay.
by burnt-resistor | 2025-06-21 06:09:00+00:00
You're projecting your meaning of it, not mine. Not if it can't be undone in a way other than reinstalling everything. A mode that allows changing things with a temporary reduction of security system-wide and restoring them later, but putting all of the upgrade and support liability on the user without sacrificing functionality. Think VMware ESXi. If tech support wants to not support it, that's fine, but payments and such should still work.
Show HN: ClipBin; the Simplest, Open Source and Secure Way of Sharing Text/Code
by alight | 2025-06-21 06:09:11+00:00
Hello Everyone, Once again sharing info on ClipBin. I updated the platform with options for registered users to export their data, etc. Do check it out at https://clipb.in

For new people here, ClipBin is the Simplest and the most Secure Way of Sharing your Text or Code. Feel free to give ClipBin a try at https://clipb.in
by monero-xmr | 2025-06-21 06:09:18+00:00
Why anyone would think 18 year old adults should subsidize other adults, because earning what they are worth is “morally wrong”, is absurd to me.

We went through decades of travesty to get to the current NIL system because young kids were getting screwed. You don’t need it to be a career, but getting paid well for a few years after sacrificing your childhood is fair - fuck everyone else!
by Munksgaard | 2025-06-21 06:09:38+00:00
I'm also having trouble with getting it to read PDFs from URLs. I got this error:

web https://example.com/file.pdf Error: page.goto: net::ERR_ABORTED at https://example.com/file.pdf Call log: - navigating to "https://example.com/file.odf", waiting until "load" at main (/usr/local/lib/web2md/web2md.js:313:18) { name: 'Error' }

/workspace#
by komali2 | 2025-06-21 06:10:27+00:00
> but at some point I realized that 1B users have as much say in what technologies we should use than developers, it's not all about the tech. Whatsapp has gained the trust from billions of users, ignoring them and telling them we know better because we have been indoctrinated by recruiting evangelists of an extremist ideology is not the way forward.

Cab you envision systemic reasons that lead to Whatsapp's users using the software without trusting Meta?

I get my internet through Comcast or AT&T. I certainly don't trust either.
by uncircle | 2025-06-21 06:11:24+00:00
> The speech was shocking in its day. There are reports that some of those present suffered heart attacks and that the speech even inspired suicides, due to the shock of all of Khrushchev's criticisms and condemnations of the government and the figure of Stalin.

I guess these indeed are the consequences of developing a cult of personality over decades, that some people just are unable to deal with hearing criticism of the dear leader.

Also the cognitive dissonance at hearing a member of the politburo openly saying stuff that would usually have sent them and their family to the gulag.
by aucisson_masque | 2025-06-21 06:12:40+00:00
Once you have something, you don’t want to let it go. Even if it’s not morally justifiable.

Otherwise wealth would be much more equally spread across northern and Southern hemisphere.

Personally I hate advertisement, i will do everything I can to disable it but I know that at this point I’m almost pirating. There is no shame in that, internet is the Wild West : Google and their AI crawling bots aren’t better than me, they leech contents other made, other host, to build their ai and then makes money on top of it.
by LightHugger | 2025-06-21 06:13:13+00:00
"repeat words back to people" isn't the problem here though anyways, it's dishonest to pretend that's what matters here. not the mass bans, censorship, one sided articles, misinformational misinterpretations, zero acknowledgement about faces, and the insane double standards where on one side you have a guy who is "political" by saying he's anti dei and welcomes everyone of various politics and identities, and on the other hand you have the DEI corporation currently embroiled in multiple lawsuits for discriminating against real people not just based on politics but their skin color. It's an insane double standard.
by kseistrup | 2025-06-21 06:14:19+00:00
I ditched WhatsApp back in 2021 (and lost a couple og long-distance friends in the process), and I communicate mostly over DeltaChat, XMPP (née Jabber), and Signal, in that order of preference.

There are many other alternatives out there, e.g. SimpleX, but many — if not most — suffer from the inability to synchronize chats across several devices.

DeltaChat should pose no problems to users coming from WhatsApp, having more or less the same UI as I remember from WhatsApp back then. DeltaChat is an amazing app, check it out:

https://delta.chat/en/

You needn't even disclose who you are.
by sandworm101 | 2025-06-21 06:14:33+00:00
I spoke to a guy once who made gun parts, rifle bits for specific military uses. Their industry is also describable with power laws but at a much slower pace. You toil away selling a handful of units to a narrow group of highly-regulated customers, sometimes for decades, until you get that call to demonstrate your products for someone big (ie the US army). If you win, the next order is for tens of thousands of units. You license/outsource your design for a hundred per unit and walk away with a steady income that will last generations.
by alex1138 | 2025-06-21 06:14:39+00:00
Not to detract from your post because it's worth considering, but

>Whatsapp has gained the trust from billions of users

Bear in mind what Brian Acton said ("It's time, delete Facebook"). If billions of users trust it it might be because they're not aware of the shell games they pull https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25662215
by 0rzech | 2025-06-21 06:15:26+00:00
Same thing in Europe and North America. AppCloud is present on Samsung devices. Sometimes from the get go, sometimes after system update, sometimes after security update (the irony of that!). Carrier-locked or not, it doesn't matter. Sometimes it's visible only after switching the "Show system applications" toggle on application list in device settings. There are many people reporting that their Galaxy S series phones have it too. This AppCloud stuff is absolutely outrageous!
by burnt-resistor | 2025-06-21 06:16:07+00:00
Legal absolutism and intransigency, and maybe some ideological retribution. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I paid my dues in MAANG. Business culturally, control seemed all-important. They seemed to want source they could use without giving a dime to maintainers, if they so chose. Some support was given, but not enough and not uniformly.
by aucisson_masque | 2025-06-21 06:18:46+00:00
Honestly the kind of video out there made solely to make money aren’t what I’m looking after, I wouldn’t mind if they all went away.

YouTube has always been the guy showing how to replace a 97 Honda civic oil filter in an unedited 5 minutes video and 240p, or the one sharing their passion. You know, the genuinely interesting stuff.
by jraph | 2025-06-21 06:19:52+00:00
> Free Software developers being jealous that they didn't win the popularity contest

I don't think most of us are driven by this. We care about user rights and good software.

> it's not all about the tech.

We agree. It's all about politics.

> telling them we know better because we have been indoctrinated by recruiting evangelists of an extremist ideology

Caring about having control on one's computing is not extreme.

> moderate free software

What is moderate free software? Having access to the source code but not too much? Being able to modify but just a little? Being able to redistribute but to a limited number of people? Being able yo use it but only for a restricted set of goals decided by the software provider?

The idea that free software is extreme needs to die.

I fail to see what you are actually proposing and what drives you.
by Nasrudith | 2025-06-21 06:20:20+00:00
Funny, for all that communists like to go on and on about 'contradictions' in capitalism meaning it is therefore inevitably doomed, they are completely incapable of seeing the many contradictions of their preferred ideology right in front of their faces. They like to think they are great rationalists, but they are only great rationalizers. Throwing such shade would be gratuitous if not for the fact that an increasingly vocal minority still believes in that crap.
by mcdeltat | 2025-06-21 06:20:39+00:00
Each to their own. I'm not saying youtube is all garbage useless content, definitely there are quality conversations about varying topics. The level of community probably varies between interests and for my interests, youtube was hardly a core facet of the hobby. Perhaps for you it's different.

However, I will add 2 counterpoints. Firstly, I don't think consuming a huge amount (e.g. the amount I was) of passive video content is good for your wellbeing. Second, I think it's interesting to examine why youtube must "drive" your hobby/interest to a large degree. Is there perhaps a mental trap of thinking you must be in with the crowd and the latest and greatest? What about growing your creative pursuit organically through your own journey? Just things to consider - may or may not be applicable. It was applicable for me and my photography hobby. There's tonnes of photography content out there but most of it is generic crap and I've found it more rewarding to go my own path so to speak.
by thristian | 2025-06-21 06:21:39+00:00
You can make a chat backup, but it's an encrypted binary blob, not a mailbox file or a JSON file or some other more accessible format.

I think I understand why they do that (if you send someone a message on Signal, they try very hard to make it difficult for anyone but the recipient to read it, whether that's by intercepting traffic or reading data stored on your device, or rummaging through your backups) but it does make it a bit of a pain.
by throwaway290 | 2025-06-21 06:22:15+00:00
Computer usage and consequently threat landscape went through a crazy change from 40/50 years ago. Desktops are a minority of devices. If you take personal devices even more so. Most people in the world with a computer have just a pocket one. Especially in WANA countries discussed

If you talk to regular non IT savvy people many of them don't bother and correctly assume that at some point it will "get a virus" or something. And it is fine for them because almost no one uses desktop for critical stuff like payment or finance. But majority do use phones for that. They jumped from cash straight to phones and now it's a lucrative attack vector.

Edit to reply because throttled by downvotes: yea I'm in your boat, we live in a bubble. It's hard to believe. But now I'm using a payment system that literally has "get app" on its site and no other way to manage money or even sign up. And apps like that can be the only way for many people to get some sort of plastic card to pay cashless

And I see how it happened. Many people have no personal desktop computers. Many payment vendors don't trust desktop computers because an ordinary person's windows machine is a malware breeder.

So many people in the world depend on mobile security (especially underprivileged people). Anyone who wants them all to get fucked for own libertarian ideal of "hardware ownership" is basically a psychopath to me. Especially considering that he is literally free to root his device and not make it a problem for others.
by szszrk | 2025-06-21 06:22:34+00:00
The UI of that Delta chat app looks completely like Telegram fork (client is opensource). Function wise as well.

What is the backend for it? It's hard for me to find on their website. If it's also Telegram, than what's the point?

I would also like to point out that Telegram has very smooth chats sync across devices because those are NOT end2end encrypted by default.
by Defletter | 2025-06-21 06:23:20+00:00
> Anything that involves the population at large can just be done by the population at large on their own accord.

This is where I'm going to exit this discussion: this statement (which is the fundamental assumption of every argument you've presented) is so exasperatingly naive that it would require disproportionate effort on my part to rebut it, and we're already very deep into a thread that I've feebly attempted twice now to get back on-track to the happiness question. And I'm honestly not that willing to put that much effort into an internet discussion just to teach someone why a democratic government would do something for the public good and why individuals / communities may not be able to achieve it "on their own accord". I don't have the patience, the expertise, the rhetoric, or the time. Have a nice day.
by bitpush | 2025-06-21 06:24:24+00:00
> It's like attending a free concert at a mall

Who pays for the electricity, upkeep, security and airconditioning of the mall? Who pays for the sound stage, the technicians, the lighting of the mall?

The band decided to perform at the mall, because they like the facilities there. They always had a choice to perform at their house ("own website"), but they chose the mall ("YouTube") and as long as YouTube is hosting their videos, YouTube deserves to be compensated.
by Freak_NL | 2025-06-21 06:24:35+00:00
How about advertising without the tracking? Advertising not shown specifically to me because of any attributes Google thinks apply to me? Advertising limited to a 5s lead in at the start of the video (today, this video is sponsored by …) and a static banner hidden when going full-screen. Advertising held to high standards, and advertising which can be vetoed by the video's uploader. In short, ethical advertising.

Google can surely figure this out and still turn a profit on Youtube. Greed stops them from doing this.
by oefrha | 2025-06-21 06:25:12+00:00
That’s the thing about modern capitalism. Making profit isn’t enough, the profit has to keep growing. So once the market is saturated, you either reduce perks, jack up prices, bundle new features to jack up prices (my GSuite bills doubled in ~3 years before I went in and adjusted the plan; the latest price hike “reflects the significant added AI value”), or find new ways to monetize the same users (ads, “partners”, etc.). It’s inevitable.
by Nasrudith | 2025-06-21 06:26:32+00:00
I suspect it is that they aren't getting proper numeric feedback from the difficulties of calculability of statistical durability with varied maintenance regimens ahead of time so they cannot quantify the risks properly. They might defer maintenance now because they see no harm in it. But if they knew that deferring maintenance would take say five years off of the life of their expensive capex and the cost of insuring for such a catastrophe would eat a large share of their profits they would freak out about such dereliction of duty.
by kseistrup | 2025-06-21 06:27:52+00:00
I've used SimpleX for seeral years. I do like the concept, and I have supported the project, but in my opinion it suffers from two weaknesses/lacks:

1. It cannot synchronize chats across several devices, so you need a separat “account” for each device. This can, to some extend, be mitigated by creating a group for each contact you communicate with, and then add all their and your accounts to that group.

2. Message propagation is somewhat unreliable: If you use the method described in (1), some accounts may not receive a given message.

But yes, you needn't disclose your phone number in order to create an account/profile on SimpleX.
by matwood | 2025-06-21 06:28:38+00:00
Agreed. This isn’t a situation where you can’t pay. YT has a clear, reasonably priced solution for no ads. It also comes with YT music.

If people don’t think there’s enough value in YT, then don’t pay and don’t use it.

Reminds me of the early justification of Napster where people would complain the latest B. Spears song was garbage and not worth paying for, yet it was the most downloaded song.
Show HN: Stillflo: a minimalist productivity suite to help you focus
by aleihumus | 2025-06-21 06:32:41+00:00
I built Stillflo as a side project after feeling overwhelmed by large, cluttered task managers and kanban boards. I wanted something simpler, something that helps me prioritize a few key things each day and not get lost in the noise.

I’ve been using it at my day job for the past few weeks and it’s helped me stay focused.

Stillflo is a web-based productivity suite with a minimal, dark-mode interface. It includes: Daily Focus: Plan your day with 1 top task, 3 supporting tasks, and a couple “nice to haves” Eisenhower Matrix: Prioritize your week by urgency and importance Personal List: A lightweight to-do list for personal, non-work stuff (emoji supported) Idea Board: Capture ideas and rate them based on Simplicity, Viability, Desirability, and Gut Feeling

You can start using all the features right away.

Would love your feedback.
by debugnik | 2025-06-21 06:32:50+00:00
Not the same poster, but: Products and services that someone actually signed a contract to pay for. Google is free to not send me free video if they don't want to, I'm just connecting to their website using my browser.

But the only reason so many creators are exclusively on youtube is the fact that anyone can watch there. Google tolerates my ad blocker to some degree (unlike other sites) because the alternative is losing market share and they know it.

If creators feel cheated, they can ask youtube to stop serving their videos for free for its own interests. I'd like to see the status quo change actually.
by LargoLasskhyfv | 2025-06-21 06:32:51+00:00
I rarely play games anymore, but on the rare occassions I do, I prefer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeciv / https://freeciv.org

It's playable in all sorts of ways (against AI, Humans, real-time, long-turn) via https://www.freecivweb.com in the browser, without having to install anything.

There are many different rule-sets now, the most modern and balanced seems to be

https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II_Dragoon_Summa...

https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Design_Log.mp2d

https://freeciv.fandom.com/wiki/Multiplayer_II:_Dragoon,_Gam...

Be warned, it can be a massive time-sink!
by Shorel | 2025-06-21 06:33:31+00:00
> if Signal is used in other parts of the world to organize coups or ethnic cleansing, you just would never hear about it because it's all super anonymous 5 stars, but ethically they would still be contributing as much as Facebook or Whatsapp.

Claiming the platform is responsible for the actions of their users is a bit too much, I oppose to that kind of thinking.

Have you heard about net neutrality?
by kseistrup | 2025-06-21 06:34:18+00:00
The backend is: EMAIL! :)

It uses SMTP/IMAP to propagate and store individual messages. This means that DeltaChat it will work with your usual email account (it will create an IMAP folder named DeltaChat), but if you install the app and say “Yeah, just let me in!”, it will create a random username for you on one of its own chatmail servers.

It may sound like a bad thing to use email, but it works very, very well. Most people won't even notice.

See e.g.:

https://delta.chat/en/chatmail

https://providers.delta.chat/