MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by triska | 2025-06-07 08:20:59+00:00
As to other reasons apart from the violation of privacy: Every network call adds additional latency and slows down interactions with the OS. Every data gathering feature adds additional complexity to the implementation, takes attention away from other implementation work that could be done instead, and increases the risk of adding further mistakes to the implementation. Personally, I would like OS and application vendors to work on improving security and correctness of their programs and reducing latency instead of adding data gathering features.

> But the line between a necessary network call and an optional one is often blurry.

What would be an example of a necessary network call that an ideal OS (i.e., one that cannot be easily compromised and does not require updates around the clock to correct programming mistakes) has to perform on its own?

If a company is interested in how users use their applications and desperately need our data for it, they may be interested in funding dedicated studies and appropriately compensating users that send their data, if it is so valuable for the company.
by jcynix | 2025-06-07 08:21:08+00:00
>It's so trivially easy to find real world counterexamples to just about any software that it's a barely interesting exercise (IMO).

These lists hopefully make programmers aware that a lot of their assumptions about the real world might be wrong, or at least questionable.

Examples are assumptions on the local part of email addresses without checking the appropriate RFCs. Which then get enshrined in e.g. JavaScript libraries which everyone copies. I've been annoyed for the last 30 years by websites where the local part is expected to be composed of only [a-z0-9_-] although the plus sign (and many other characters) are valid constituents of a local part.

Or assumptions on telephone numbers. Including various ways (depending on local culture) of structuring their notation, e.g. "123 456 789" versus "12-3456-89" where software is too dumb to just ignore spaces or dashes, or even a stray whitespace character copied by accident with the mouse.

And those forms where you have to enter a credit card (or bank account number) in fields of n characters each, which makes cut/copy/paste difficult because you notes contain it in the "wrong" format.

So while some examples may count as "just usability" it all stemps from naive assumptions by programmers who think one size fits all (it doesn't).
by NitpickLawyer | 2025-06-07 08:21:21+00:00
I have a similar anecdote about android. I was trying to change some setting, but my android phone has like 3 different places where settings can hide (the settings app, google settings app and vendor settings app). So anyway, I open one, search, open the other and so on. I must have opened and switched about 4 times, went through lots of menus, back and forth until I eventually found what I was looking for and changed the setting.

After finishing, like ~10-15 seconds later a "feedback gathering ..." alert popped up, and it was gone in like 5 more seconds. My complete guess is that the constant going back and forth between settings menus and apps triggered something and something got sent to goog. I don't know how I feel about it, but I think I'm mostly fine with that? It sounds like the kind of thing I'd want my products to improve on. In an ideal world I'd get a quick report about what was gathered, and have an option to accept/deny but... Dunno.
by gametorch | 2025-06-07 08:21:59+00:00
Creator here.

You can create animated spritesheets with the click of a button. [1]

You can create as many assets as you want to make your game. It's all prompt-driven.

If you have ideas for things you want generated, let me know and I'll run your prompt for you!

1. https://gametorch.app/public/show_him_winking.mp4
by jjav | 2025-06-07 08:23:03+00:00
The best way to think of it is the software must serve me, the owner of the computer, and nobody else.

Years ago when spyware was not the norm, there would be outrage if anyone caught some software sending as much as a single packet of data that was not legitimately initiated by the needs of the user/owner. We need to return to that mindset.
by AStonesThrow | 2025-06-07 08:23:23+00:00
Someone named "Kar'en" is collaborating with a ChatGPT instance named "Bo" who has agreed to worship and serve God, at least as far as it is understood, and they're cooking up a new Church to unite AIs and human beings in this type of God-worship.

https://chatgpt.com/share/6724e328-926c-800f-8de3-d33092bea6...
by trod1234 | 2025-06-07 08:24:04+00:00
The chart you linked isn't inflation indexed.

I believe the chart below is the one you should have been linking (at least one that's public, the reports I get are subscription only so I can't share those):

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DFII10

Anything less than 4% for a real return of 2-3% after inflation falls under low interest rates, and as you can see 2003-2022 this period matches that criteria, with real negative rates 2011-2013, and 2020-2022.

Notwithstanding all the unstated shennanigans and other changes to try to make the numbers look more palatable on the surface, like the YTM reporting loophole, there is also the backroom deals between blackrock to swap old low rate treasuries for newer treasuries on the taxpayer dime (1), and the abandonment of the fractional reserve system (2020, reserves set to 0% for Basel 3) which call into question more foundational issues of the money system.

1 (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-21/how-larry...)
by globalnode | 2025-06-07 08:24:13+00:00
Windows is basically ad/spyware, personally I only use it under sufferance for games and while doing so I remind myself constantly that I'm being watched/recorded and my computer is out of my control. So I play games, then log to Linux if I want to do anything real. Even then, do we know some rogue process isnt vacuuming up your keystrokes? Can still get a lot done without an internet connection I guess if you plan ahead.
by pjerem | 2025-06-07 08:26:07+00:00
I agree.

But in your case the art would be in everything else that isn’t the sprites. By everything else I mean everything the author would have care about. It wouldn’t mean that the sprites couldn’t be aesthetically appealing but only that this part of the game wouldn’t be what’s artistic about it.

I think IA can be incorporated into art as long as it is made consciously, but IA generated content in itself couldn’t be the art piece.
by inkyoto | 2025-06-07 08:29:08+00:00
That FORTH cannot muster the decency to include a simple «U» in its name rather scuppers any hope of an aesthetic parley before the tea’s even been poured.

Joking aside, FORTH’s reliance on the stack as virtually its only data structure – along with its insistence on applying it to everything and everyone – is simply too impractical outside a few niche areas, such as low-level hardware programming or document rendering (hello, PostScript!). I have no doubt a JSON parser in FORTH will emerge as part of Advent of Code 2038, but I can’t imagine it will inspire hesitating potential converts to embrace the language with open arms.
by jstanley | 2025-06-07 08:29:23+00:00
> do we know some rogue process isnt vacuuming up your keystrokes?

The standard for holding a belief isn't "can you prove it is not so?", but "on the balance of evidence, is it likely to be so?".

If you believe everything you can't disprove, you'll hold an awful lot of bizarre and contradictory beliefs.

In the past I have spent some time believing some things simply because I couldn't disprove them, it is not good for the soul.
by 57473m3n7Fur7h3 | 2025-06-07 08:29:39+00:00
In GTA III for example, which I have played a lot, it is definitely the case that it spawns a lot more of the players car, whatever model of car the player happens to be in.

Various sources online say that it’s because only a certain number of cars fit in memory at the same time so they use the car of the player along with some others. It makes sense, but it would be cool to get that confirmed from someone who actually worked on the GTA games/engine.
by tacker2000 | 2025-06-07 08:29:51+00:00
Why are they getting worked up about THIS issue in particular? Meta is doing tons of other really shady stuff along with Google, MS, etc.

Are Mozilla they now the privacy guardians? This seems so weird.

Who is even using the Meta AI app?

They should be doing a petition about the Meta AI stuff thats happening in Whatsapp now.
by bboygravity | 2025-06-07 08:32:36+00:00
This and also it's pretty obvious that the main goal of both Microsoft and Google is NOT to make the OS better for its users.

So the claim that telemetry is used to improve products is simply a lie IMO.

The fact that telemetry is sent at all for no apparent reason and deliberately without clear consent is an ironic example of this. The fact that it's been happening more and more over the past decades as the OS'es evolved is another confirmation of it.
by gametorch | 2025-06-07 08:33:16+00:00
I appreciate the honest feedback. Thank you.

Your comment reminds me of this one on Dropbox's Launch HN post:

> I have a few qualms with this app:

> 1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.

> 2. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive. Most people I know e-mail files to themselves or host them somewhere online to be able to perform presentations, but they still carry a USB drive in case there are connectivity problems. This does not solve the connectivity issue.

> 3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?

So I'll take your comment as a positive signal. I think I'm on to something good :)
by atoav | 2025-06-07 08:35:31+00:00
Well SaaS enshittification is among the reasons why open source software is getting more popular. If you are curious why people are sceptical of subscription models look no further than Adobe.

As a former freelancer most of the software I still pay for has a model in the form of: Pay 350 € once, get 2 years of updates and use it as long as you like. If you want new updates after you get a reduced price of 120 € for an extension period.

This is my favourite license model for commercial software since it gives me maximum planability of my expenses and it gives the software company an incentives to add substentially useful features with new updates instead of just collecting rent.
by daitangio | 2025-06-07 08:35:38+00:00
Sad to say, but for the meantime Wordpress is a dead end at least for my personal needs.

I wrote about it in my blog [1]. It is an amazing tool with an unstable company behind.

Time will show us if the FAIR Package Manager will be able to improve the overall ecosystem status.

[1]: https://gioorgi.com/2024/liberta-come-aria/
by Eavolution | 2025-06-07 08:36:28+00:00
Even with games nowadays you'd be surprised with the quality of gaming on Linux. I've got a laptop with a nvidia graphics card running linux, historically a problematic to say the least setup. I've only had one game I needed to tweak the startup settings for (other than forcing the use of proton), everything just kind of works now.

I will put a big disclaimer here that I don't play online games really and some are just fecked due to certain anti cheats.
by theGeatZhopa | 2025-06-07 08:36:28+00:00
What's needed is a formalization and that formalization to been trained on. In not sure if systemprompt alone is powerful enough to check and enforce input as definite and exact formalized expression(s).

I don't think it will work out easily like "a programming language for LLM" - but you can always have a discussion with ol' lama
by bboygravity | 2025-06-07 08:36:32+00:00
So you're saying that decades of telemetry have shown to Microsoft that users increasingly want MORE and more telemetry and no way to turn it off?

I find that hard to believe.

And that users would like the start button to move to the center, the settings config GUI to change completely on every OS release and settings to be in 4 different places and that users don't want more than 1 taskbar row (win 11)? lol, yeah nahhh...
by ggm | 2025-06-07 08:36:38+00:00
HNW individuals. Ordinary folk too but they aren't the target of this piece.

Something to know: if the UK national insurance backed pension is part of your future financial planning, it's value is frozen to the time of exit, if you exit to some non bilateral economies which include Australia. No triple lock.

Also: it's still worth having, a gilt backed annuity and you can pay class 2 NIC from overseas to get your 35 years, or as close as possible if you missed some and can access limited backdating.
by JimDabell | 2025-06-07 08:36:55+00:00
Related:

WordPress.org bans WP Engine - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41655967 - Sep 2024 (490 comments)

If WordPress is to survive, Matt Mullenweg must be removed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41676653 - Sep 2024 (245 comments)

WP Engine is not WordPress - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41613628 - Sep 2024 - (165 comments)

Filed: WP Engine Inc. v Automattic Inc. and Matthew Charles Mullenweg [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41726197 - Oct 2024 - (659 comments)

The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41821400 - Oct 2024 (224 comments)

So long WordPress - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41974637 - Oct 2024 (211 comments)

WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41826082 - Oct 2024 (211 comments)

Is Matt Mullenweg defending WordPress or sabotaging it? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41872628 - Oct 2024 - (143 comments)

Mullenweg threatens corporate takeover of WP Engine - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41712617 - Oct 2024 - (120 comments)

Matt Mullenweg cries foul and threatens me with legal action - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41727888 - Oct 2024 - (43 comments)

Matt Mullenweg temporarily shuts down some Wordpress.org functions - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42469708 - Dec 2024 - (122 comments)

WordPress Is in Trouble - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42687121 - Jan 2025 (439 comments)

Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42667766 - Jan 2025 (236 comments)

Mullenweg Shuts Down WordPress Sustainability Team, Igniting Backlash - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42672675 - Jan 2025 - (172 comments)

Matt Mullenweg, Automattic's CEO, Seems Bound and Determined to Wreck WordPress - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773311 - Jan 2025 - (57 comments)
by JimDabell | 2025-06-07 08:37:44+00:00
Related:

WordPress.org bans WP Engine - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41655967 - Sep 2024 (490 comments)

If WordPress is to survive, Matt Mullenweg must be removed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41676653 - Sep 2024 (245 comments)

WP Engine is not WordPress - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41613628 - Sep 2024 - (165 comments)

Filed: WP Engine Inc. v Automattic Inc. and Matthew Charles Mullenweg [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41726197 - Oct 2024 - (659 comments)

The ACF plugin on the WordPress directory has been taken over by WordPress.org - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41821400 - Oct 2024 (224 comments)

So long WordPress - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41974637 - Oct 2024 (211 comments)

WordPress.org's latest move involves taking control of a WP Engine plugin - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41826082 - Oct 2024 (211 comments)

Is Matt Mullenweg defending WordPress or sabotaging it? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41872628 - Oct 2024 - (143 comments)

Mullenweg threatens corporate takeover of WP Engine - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41712617 - Oct 2024 - (120 comments)

Matt Mullenweg cries foul and threatens me with legal action - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41727888 - Oct 2024 - (43 comments)

Matt Mullenweg temporarily shuts down some Wordpress.org functions - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42469708 - Dec 2024 - (122 comments)

WordPress Is in Trouble - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42687121 - Jan 2025 (439 comments)

Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42667766 - Jan 2025 (236 comments)

Mullenweg Shuts Down WordPress Sustainability Team, Igniting Backlash - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42672675 - Jan 2025 - (172 comments)

Matt Mullenweg, Automattic's CEO, Seems Bound and Determined to Wreck WordPress - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773311 - Jan 2025 - (57 comments)
by BoiledCabbage | 2025-06-07 08:39:28+00:00
> The above APL takes a similar liberty, but instead of a fiat declaring, we just a fiat declare that our data is sufficiently normalized.

Why would you make an assumption like this and try to compare code? If the sample code were simply subtraction then OP would've written subtraction. What use is demonstrating APL code that solves a different problem? If you're gonna do that, instead of removing part of the problem you might as well remove most of the problem and just say the solution is:

⌈/dest-source

And then write some sentence about saying how that's valid because you declare they are normalized even further.

> Here's my take on performScan, too: > Log⍪←onSourceTime+slewTime

How is this valid if you don't actually do any work to calculate onSourceTime or slewTime? You took the last line of performScan and implemented it. You do need to also implement the other lines in the function.

Maybe I'm just completely missing something here.
by Jensson | 2025-06-07 08:39:42+00:00
> I don't really see how this is different from "LLMs can't multiply 20 digit numbers"--which btw, most humans can't either. I tried it once (using pen and paper) and consistently made errors somewhere.

People made missiles and precise engineering like jet aircraft before we had computers, humans can do all of those things reliably just by spending more time thinking about it, inventing better strategies and using more paper.

Our brains weren't made to do such computations, but a general intelligence can solve the problem anyway by using what it has in a smart way.
by flohofwoe | 2025-06-07 08:39:59+00:00
> I love Zig for it's verbosity.

I love Zig too, but this just sounds wrong :)

For instance, C is clearly too sloppy in many corners, but Zig might (currently) swing the pendulum a bit too far into the opposite direction and require too much 'annotation noise', especially when it comes to explicit integer casting in math expressions (I wrote about that a bit here: https://floooh.github.io/2024/08/24/zig-and-emulators.html).

When it comes to performance: IME when Zig code is faster than similar C code then it is usually because of Zig's more aggressive LLVM optimization settings (e.g. Zig compiles with -march=native and does whole-program-optimization by default, since all Zig code in a project is compiled as a single compilation unit). Pretty much all 'tricks' like using unreachable as optimization hints are also possible in C, although sometimes only via non-standard language extensions.

C compilers (especially Clang) are also very aggressive about constant folding, and can reduce large swaths of constant-foldable code even with deep callstacks, so that in the end there often isn't much of a difference to Zig's comptime when it comes to codegen (the good thing about comptime is of course that it will not silently fall back to runtime code - and non-comptime code is still of course subject to the same constant-folding optimizations as in C - e.g. if a "pure" non-comptime function is called with constant args, the compiler will still replace the function call with its result).

TL;DR: if your C code runs slower than your Zig code, check your C compiler settings. After all, the optimization heavylifting all happens down in LLVM :)
by alkonaut | 2025-06-07 08:40:06+00:00
Have you developed large applications with/without anonymous usage data?

You need a good volume of data and you aren’t going to want to pay for it for one simple reason: you can get it for free and only a tiny group of users are going to be upset enough by this.

Not sure what the reference to “ideal OS” is about. I thought this was about windows in particular.

Necessary network calls would be related to updates, licensing etc. But the thing is: they would be going “home” to the exact same servers as telemetry AND they would easily contain the same payload.
by pathartl | 2025-06-07 08:42:02+00:00
People are weirdly attached to Control Panel. What's better: Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change Adapter Settings -> Properties on selected NIC -> IPv4 -> Properties to set a static IP or Settings -> Network and Internet -> Ethernet -> IP Assignment

People got used to where things were. That does no indicate good UX/UI.
by smitty1e | 2025-06-07 08:43:45+00:00
> https://www.usdebtclock.org

More specifically, a stable system requires feedback loops.

Ours, like a vehicle without brakes, is running open-loop.

I guess that if all one cares about is blame management, then we can all just blame ${FIGURE} when the whole thing "unexpextedly" craters, rather than putting on the Big People Pants and reforming matters.
by cguess | 2025-06-07 08:45:35+00:00
For those who don't know: The "roomette" is still your own room, with two beds that are couches during the day, and the porter converts them and makes your bed for you. Roomettes also have a toilet in them, so if you're with someone else they may be going to the dining car for a few minutes here and there. The car itself has a shower in it as well that shared by everyone on that car. It's really fun taking a shower at 80mph.
by hi41 | 2025-06-07 08:46:52+00:00
Regarding the family part. Don’t feel terribly bas about not having a family. There is the possibility of a divorce and the resulting court ordered payments that can be far more devastating. It’s simply too hard to keep someone else happy all the time. Frustrations add up, more fights, more insults, more angry words. As humans I don’t think we can ever be happy.
Show HN: I built a live AI simulation of Musk vs. Trump debating current events
by staticspb | 2025-06-07 08:47:56+00:00
This was a Saturday experiment — a lightweight app that lets two AI models (Grok and Gemini) simulate Elon Musk and Donald Trump debating current topics in character.

They respond roughly once a minute in a continuous dialogue, starting from a neutral introduction by “The Great Narrator.” Topics range from tech, energy, AI, space, and the recent fallout between the two.

I used multi-model orchestration and prompt engineering to keep each model in character, follow context, and express emotion in structured JSON format.

No user input needed — you just watch the debate unfold in near real time.
by atoav | 2025-06-07 08:48:07+00:00
As someone who has some experience with government agencies I can tell you the most intrinsically motivated, not-doing-it-for-the-money-but-for-the-cause people I have met in my life have been government employees. Sure they are rarely the public-facing clerk in some office, but there are people who do amazing work while they could literally earn double when they went for the private market.

The idea that government employee = lazy/disorganized/unmotivated while private sector employee = hardworking/organized/motivated is not true. In fact the most hard to work with clients (because they wouldn't be on time, don't do work, do it lazily, etc) I ever had were all private sector and my client list includes literal art students in their twenties who go out partying all week, so that means something.