MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by LurkandComment | 2025-06-03 14:56:53+00:00
1. PhD Defenses in the humanities have both a written thesis and an oral on the spot defense. You can't ChatGPT that easily because a professor will know how to curve ball to things that are seemingly unrelated but comparable to a human.

2. As an MA student I was solving semantic problems for engineers for analysis that they couldn't fathom. They were very smart at technical things (and great writers), but when language problems come up, it was a challenge. You can be a great communicator but not understand language itself.

3. Most people in positions for AI are being evaluated by things AI is good at. So as a candidate with a very good understanding of language, the AI wouldn't know how to evaluate my ability. I would really have to outline a problem in language AI has to face and explain it to a human. Then get them to understand it's value.
by zavec | 2025-06-03 14:57:32+00:00
What would be really interesting is if the LLM has the ability to write a proof of concept that actually exploits the vulnerability. Then you could filter for false positives by asking it to write a PoC and running the PoC with asan or similar to get a deterministic crash. Sort of like what google was doing with the theorem proving stuff where it had a llm come up with potential proofs, but then evaluated the potential proofs in a deterministic checker to see if they were actually valid.

Of course, if you try to do that for all of the potential false positives that's going to take a _lot_ of tokens, but then we already spend a lot of CPU cycles on fuzzing so depending on how long you let the LLM churn on trying to get a PoC maybe it's still reasonable.
by jstummbillig | 2025-06-03 14:58:02+00:00
This is not where AI-assisted coding is going. Where it is going is: The AI will quickly become better at avoiding these types of mistakes than humans ever were (and are ever going to be), because they can and thus will be RL'ed away. What will be left standing longest is providing the vision wrt what the actual problem is, you want to solve.
by gspencley | 2025-06-03 14:58:04+00:00
There are definitely advantages to companies. As an end-user, the only advantages I can think of are data centralization and device portability.

While we're talking about "webapps", generally, and not SaaS specifically... the two often go so hand in hand that it is the exception to see a webapp that is not also a SaaS product.. and as a consumer I kind of mostly hate SaaS.

With the above two advantages noted, lets look at the cons:

- Companies can, and routinely do, push unwanted UX changes on me without my opt-in. Pre-SaaS you would wait for a new version to come out and could see what the reviews were saying before deciding if you like the changes and want the new features. Now you're a guinea pig and get the new "features" whether they are a benefit to you or not.

- Forces me to have my data on someone else's computer

- The "other peoples' computer" issue means that if there is a software or a hardware failure that prevents me from being able to do urgent work that it is entirely outside of my hands and my ability to troubleshoot the majority of the time (though this is a double edged sword since for the average non-technical user it can be a big benefit)

- Can't work without an active Internet connection (though I'll concede that not having an active connection is becoming pretty rare these days)

- If the company goes out of business, say goodbye to your data in the majority of cases

- Often goes hand in hand with renting the software rather than paying a flat fee for a perpetual license. Given the choice, I will always opt for a perpetual license. I try hard to have as few recurring payments in my budget as possible. Utility bills are bad enough.

If, however, by "webapp" we just mean a desktop application that uses a DOM-based rendering engine then I couldn't care less. There are tradeoffs, but they are purely technical and rarely impact UX directly in the way that a general approach to software delivery and consumption does.
by stanford_labrat | 2025-06-03 14:58:14+00:00
Just like AI seems like it's being used as a convenient scapegoat for the layoffs and trimming following the end of ZIRP, now we see it also being used to blame for the failures of our modern education system.

Mostly which are that our system only rewards one thing in education: the grade. Not understanding, knowledge, intelligence, but instead a single number that is more easily gamified than anything. And this single number (your GPA) is the single most important thing for every level from middle school to college where it will unironically determine your entire (academic/academic-adjacent) future.
by tuhlatte | 2025-06-03 14:59:20+00:00
Those links mostly discuss the original RLHF used to train e.g. ChatGPT 3.5. Current paradigms are shifting towards RLVR (reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards), which absolutely can optimize good programs.

You can definitely still run into some of the problems eluded to in the first link. Think hacking unit tests, deception, etc -- but the bar is less "create a perfect RL environment" than "create an RL environment where solving the problem is easier than reward hacking." It might be possible to exploit a bug in the Lean 4 proof assistant to prove a mathematical statement, but I suspect it will usually be easier for an LLM to just write a correct proof. Current RL environments aren't as watertight as Lean 4, but there's certainly work to make them more watertight.

This is in no way a "solved" problem, but I do see it as a counter to your assertion that "This isn't a thing RL can fix." RL is powerful.
by hollyproulx | 2025-06-03 14:59:24+00:00
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There are billions of calls made every day which will soon be handled by AI. Today 70% of business customer support calls are outsourced to call centers and contact centers. These call centers are looking for a solution that they can build, simulate, and deploy voice agents all in one platform. We are building this.

Through YC we grew at 22% week over week and went through demo day with the some of the top revenue in the batch. We already work with the largest contact centers in the world and are looking for people that want to build the future of AI phone support together. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment and want to build something that truly matters, check out the roles we're currently looking to fill:

- Founding Business Development Representative • Sales • Full-time

- Account Executive • Sales • Full-time

- Customer Success Manager • Support • Full-time

- Frontend Engineer • Engineering • Full-time

See job postings for more details: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/phonely/jobs
by epiccoleman | 2025-06-03 15:00:40+00:00
> Yes, that’s true and very cool but you’re an expert. Where do the next generation you’s come from?

I agree that this is a concern, and I even worry about it for myself. Did I miss the opportunity to add another brick to the foundation of my expertise because Claude helped me out? Would I be marginally better at solving the next problem if I'd worked through the week I saved?

Even if the concern isn't some specific knowledge I'd have gained - did I lose out on a few "reps" to build grit, determination? Am I training myself to only like easy solutions that come out of Claude? Are there problems I won't want to solve because they're too difficult for this new "augmented" workflow?

I don't know the answers - I can only say that I do care, and at the very least I'm aware that there are new dynamics affecting my work and expertise that are worthy of consideration.
by nluken | 2025-06-03 15:01:26+00:00
If you're getting what you want out of your reading then more power to you, but I think you'll find that devoting your full attention to what you're doing fundamentally differs from doing it in the background. Why play GTA when you could just listen and enjoy the book? What is GTA adding to that experience?

I think a lot of people, including, I presume, most who willingly choose to study literature, enjoy reading as an activity unto itself and so don't feel the need to add additional distractions. Not everybody finds sitting down and "ploughing through" (how disdainful a phrase!) a book unappealing.
by jfengel | 2025-06-03 15:02:49+00:00
Thus, the apps are designed to keep you paying that monthly subscription.

I've heard this assertion before, but I don't understand it. Relationships are hard; most relationships fail. There's no need to do any special work to set people up for failure.

If dating app providers had some algorithm that could match people to make lifelong partners, surely somebody would have publicized it by now. Maybe it would be self-defeating as a commercial app, but somebody would do it anyway.

The apps do need ways to keep you coming back, but I don't think they can achieve that by locating and then hiding your perfect match. The best way to keep people coming back is to set them up with the best possible dates, and wait for those to fail entirely of their own accord.

Or at least, that's what I'd expect. If you have more insight as an insider I'd love to hear more.
by GrantMoyer | 2025-06-03 15:02:52+00:00
I find Plasma much more pleasant to use than Windows' shell. There's no specific big feature that makes it stand out, but it works just a little more smoothly in almost everything it does.

Maybe it's a case of [1], but I think Plasma is ready for the average desktop user. The other parts of the system may have some ways to go.

[1]: https://xkcd.com/2501/
by captn3m0 | 2025-06-03 15:02:55+00:00
Another similar tracking vector that lets any app detect all installed apps by using android.intent.action.MAIN Query: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/thre... without the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission.

No response from Google. Being used by dozens of apps in the wild.

Edit: Original Research link: https://peabee.substack.com/p/everyone-knows-what-apps-you-u... (HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43518866 , 482 comments)
by matsemann | 2025-06-03 15:03:04+00:00
Did you skip the part where I said I'll be ahead of you even though I don't "blow through" a red light? Yes, you might be faster at a short stretch of road. But through the city a bike will almost always win. So just relax, no need to push past me when there is no room, or honk because I'm in the "vehicular lane".

I'd also like the lights to apply to everyone: by removing them. Lets all yield to pedestrians, and then bike through intersections otherwise without waiting. Then cars can sort their own mess out. The lights are for them, an implicit prioritization of cars over humans. I'd like to remove that.
by dimal | 2025-06-03 15:03:09+00:00
Trust me, I am under enormous stress and pressure right now, more than at any other time in my life. I’m not someone sitting on a mountaintop, free of all cares. I’m someone trapped in a box that’s sinking under the waves, desperately trying to find a way to escape.

I approach problems with curiosity because I know that this is the only way I’ll find a way to survive and thrive again.
by teeray | 2025-06-03 15:03:24+00:00
In 8th grade, I had a little PHP 4 pocket reference book. In classes I didn’t care about, I would have this open inside the book for that class and I would write code for my forums on loose leaf (in a shorthand). I also had printed copies of Mercury Board source code to refer to in the back of my binder. Then I’d get home later, type it in, debug a bit, and have new features :) It’s an entirely alien analog process to modern students, I’m sure, but it was really effective!
Ask HN: Thoughts on Python/Pyinstaller for Desktop Backend Binary?
by dillondesilva | 2025-06-03 15:03:53+00:00
Hey everyone,

I've been exploring some approaches for putting together a backend binary to accompany a Tauri desktop app for non-developers. It's for an AI project so initially I was thinking about using Python. However, I read that this isn't a particularly great method as Pyinstaller has slow start up times due to packaging the Python runtime within it and it can only produce target binaries for the system it is run on (i.e. if you run pyinstaller on windows, you can only get windows binaries).

Has anyone worked around these issues? For now, I'm thinking perhaps opting for using Golang might be better since I can get static binaries but it would be super sweet if I can tap into some of the cool libraries in Python.

Open to new ideas as well! Many thanks :)
by tonko | 2025-06-03 15:04:31+00:00
Location: EU, Croatia (UTC+2) Remote: Yes, EU and US timezones Willing to relocate: No Technologies: Node (Typescript), .NET (C#), Vue, React, Blazor, PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, DevOps, Docker Résumé/CV: https://ica.hr Email: Please use contact form @ https://ica.hr

Experienced full stack software engineer with a demonstrated history (15+ years) of working with enterprise solutions on premise and in cloud. I don't shy away from maintaining old code bases or learning new/old technologies and I'm very comfortable wearing many hats.
by XorNot | 2025-06-03 15:04:44+00:00
You could start by not inventing vague hypotheticals to argue against, and instead engaging with observable, measurable strategic and tactical reality?

War is studied. There are journals, papers and research on war fighting at all possible levels.

In the most recent action by Ukraine you can observe actual reality: what did they attack? Military equipment of the enemy. Why did they attack it? To degrade the enemy's ability to sustain and rotate their forces attacking them. What was it for? Well for one thing it will hopefully considerably reduce their ability to bomb civilian targets.
by bwfan123 | 2025-06-03 15:04:56+00:00
The hype cycle is running on FOMO. "as a developer, you will be left behind" And is sustained by fear tactics. "there wont be any developer jobs left"

Giant investments are being made, and a lot of people's outcomes rest on them, which incentivizes them to become evangelists for the cause.

End-of-day it is a productivity boosting tool like a search-engine or a calculator - whats funny to see the human drama playing out around its adoption.
by tonko | 2025-06-03 15:05:37+00:00
SEEKING WORK | EU, Croatia (UTC+2) | REMOTE ONLY

Experienced full stack software engineer with a demonstrated history (15+ years) of working with enterprise solutions on premise and in cloud. I don't shy away from maintaining old code bases or learning new/old technologies and I'm very comfortable wearing many hats.

I love working directly with stake holders, even if they don't have engineering background. I can also team up with other freelancers and I know a few I've worked before in case you need more hands on deck, or need someone with a specialization, e.g. UI/UX design, translations...

Tech stack: Node (Typescript), .NET (C#), Vue, React, Blazor, PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, DevOps, Docker

Cloud: Azure, AWS, Hetzner, Digital Ocean

Contact: https://ica.hr
by aws-user | 2025-06-03 15:06:26+00:00
My goal from posting on various forums like SO is to scale the impact of my knowledge to as many people as possible, to give something back. I really don't care what modality or mechanism is used to distribute my contribution to others.

Why should I care if my SO answer I posted 7 years ago ends up in an LLM output in some random model? I wasn't getting paid for it anyway, and didn't expect to.

I view my random contributions across the web ending up in LLMs as a good thing, my posts now potentially reach even more people & places than it would have on a single forum site, that's the whole point of me posting online. Maybe I'm an outlier here.
by ftth_finland | 2025-06-03 15:06:36+00:00
> I feel like the most sensible policy is requiring licenses for e-bikes above a certain power level (not easy!) and then bringing parity to the treatment of cars vs e-bikes after that

Au contraire, it is fairly easy.

Around here, e-vehicles are classified according to weight, power amd max speed. These parameters define where and how you can use them, what features are required, what protective gear is required and what licenses or insurance are required to operate them.

https://www.traficom.fi/en/transport/road/electric-personal-...
by creesch | 2025-06-03 15:06:51+00:00
> I was thinking of writing a new story, and found http://sudowrite.com/ via an ad, an ai assistant for helping you write, its already used by a ton of journalists and serious writers, and am trying it out.

I am not seeing anything indicating it is actually used by a ton of journalists and serious writers. I highly doubt it is, the FAQ is also paper thin in as far as substance goes. I highly doubt they are training/hosting their own models yet I see only vague third party references in their privacy policy. Their pricing is less than transparent given that they don't really explain how their "credits" translate to actual usage. They blatantly advertise this to be for students, which is problematic in itself.

This ignores all the other issues around so heavily depending on LLMs for your writing. This is an interesting quirk for starters: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/16/techscape... . But there are many more issues about relying so heavily on LLM tools for writing.

So this example, to me, is actually exemplifying the issue of overselling capabilities while handwaving away any potential issues that is so prevalent in the AI space.
by Pet_Ant | 2025-06-03 15:07:07+00:00
Yeah, I feel like kids are encouraged to move not to jobs that will be profitable to them (ie the children) but that the moneyed want to pay less for, because the number of people being swayed would collapse any market.

It's like a boat captain telling all his passengers to rush to one side of the boat. Any single side will tip the boat over.
by nonameiguess | 2025-06-03 15:07:20+00:00
It's kind of ironic to me that this is so often the example trotted out. Look at the BLS data sheet for job outlook: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/sales/travel-agents.htm#tab-6

> Employment of travel agents is projected to grow 3 percent from 2023 to 2033, about as fast as the average for all occupations.

The last year there is data for claims 68,800 people employed as travel agents in the US. It's not a boom industry by any means, but it doesn't appear they experienced the apocalypse that Hacker News believes they did, either.

I don't know how to easily find historical data, unfortunately. BLS publishes the excel sheets, but pulling out the specific category would have to be done manually as far as I can tell. There's this, I guess: https://www.travelagewest.com/Industry-Insight/Business-Feat...

It appears at least that what happened is, though it may be easier than ever to plan your own travel, there are so many more people traveling these days than in the past that the demand for travel agents hasn't crashed.
by hn_throwaway_99 | 2025-06-03 15:08:04+00:00
I just wanted to say thanks so much publishing this, and especially your comments here - I found them really helpful and insightful. I think it's interesting (though not unexpected) that many of the other commenters' comments here show what a Rorschach test this is. I think that's kind of unfortunate, because your experience clearly showed some of the benefits and limitations/pitfalls of coding like this in an objective manner.

I am curious, did you find the work of reviewing Claude's output more mentally tiring/draining than writing it yourself? Like some other folks mentioned, I generally find reviewing code more mentally tiring than writing it, but I get a lot of personal satisfaction by mentoring junior developers and collaborating with my (human) colleagues (most of them anyway...) Since I don't get that feeling when reviewing AI code, I find it more draining. I'm curious how you felt reviewing this code.
by jvanderbot | 2025-06-03 15:08:39+00:00
Taking the discussion back to reality, almost all uses of drones at the moment are via suicide ("wire guided COTS missiles", you might call them), or just plain old recon. There are probably still plenty of grenades dropped from hover as well.

For those uses, there's a fairly decent approach ["missile"] or hover ["bomber"] stage that is probably plenty vulnerable to autonomous PDS via 12 guage medicine.

Tracking / detection could even be passive, partly acoustic, partly EO/IR, with only a small fire control radar if you really want it.
by furkansahin | 2025-06-03 15:08:57+00:00
Hey, right now we do have burstable VM and Postgres instances that come with 2gb ram. We don't have an object storage solution, yet, but definitely in the roadmap. We are also currently working on attached disks which should enable us for the backups of VMs. The backups for Postgres instances are handled through physical replication, though. So, we do support read replicas, point in time restore, etc. for PG already.
by zdragnar | 2025-06-03 15:08:58+00:00
The problem is that it isn't their job to review it. They have their own deadlines, and their effort reviewing your prototype won't show up on their performance review.

Unfortunately, superficial feedback like typos are the least valuable feedback possible when creating a new design. What you really want to know is whether the design is actually feasible, if it introduced new pain points, if it is better than what it is going to replace. That's the sort of thing people will notice internally but not necessarily give voice to when they spend three minutes glancing at a prototype or initial build.
by gspencley | 2025-06-03 15:09:18+00:00
> I'll stick to the best definition of art that I've heard : "if it gives you an emotion, it is art".

Stubbing my little toe gives me an emotion, is that "art"? lol

I would suggest that art is a method is communication. One philosophical definition that I've often used is that "it is a selective recreation of reality in accordance with what the artist considers to be essential."

When viewed through the lens of how art might be a useful tool for human survival, it allows us, as rational animals, to communicate highly complex topics in a condensed, straight-to-the-point manner. Morality tales and other stories, paintings, statues, theatrical plays ... all serve to communicate something.

To circle back to computer-generated "art", I would say that if the computer-generated artwork has a human programmer who was trying to communicate something through the software and its output, then I could consider it to be "art." It is not the computer producing the art, it is the human being who is programming or otherwise directing the computer through an intent to communicate something. If you leave a computer alone, and using some kind of random entropy it just so happens to produce an image of something because that's what the random generator landed on, then it's not art. There was no intent to communicate.

And in the example of computers visualizing some natural phenomenon (the article mentioned an oscilloscope as an example), then it is no more "art" than the image projected into the eye from a microscope since there is no recreation. It is, in that context, a tool for observing reality as it exists, rather than a medium of communication intended to express an idea.
by tarasglek | 2025-06-03 15:09:25+00:00
These articles seem to justify spending money without considering alternatives It's like saying "cold meds let me get back to work, I am well justified paying $100/day for NyQuil".

I would appreciate a less "just take my money" and more "here are features various tools offer for particular price, I chose x over y cos z". Would sound more informed.

Would also like to see a reason on not using open source tools and locking yourself out of various further ai-integration opportunities because $200/mo service doesn't support em.