MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by arp242 | 2025-06-15 18:58:14+00:00
The emoji horse bolted long before Unicode. Everything from MSN Messenger to web forums had their own implementation of it. And that was a continuation of various ASCII emojis ranging from the simple :-) to the more complex ¯\_/(ツ)\_/¯

To say nothing that various emojis have been part of Unicode since pretty much the start, and was part of other encoding schemes as well (notably in Japan, but also e.g. the the "Outlook J").

And if you actually look at the changes in Unicode versions, you'll see there are tons of language-related changes in every one. To say Unicode updates are just about emoji updates is just silly. The reason you don't notice is because this is mostly for small language, obscure features in larger languages, and historical languages, and things like that.
by TeMPOraL | 2025-06-15 18:59:14+00:00
Incrementally, by tiny steps. Including a lot of doing first, then realizing later this is relevant to some chess/math thing.

Also the idea of "problems" like "chess problems" and "math problems" is itself constructed. Chess wasn't created by stacking together enough "chess problems" until they turned into a game - it was invented and tuned as a game for a long time before someone thought about distilling "problems" from it, in order to aid learning the game; from there, it also spilled out into space of logical puzzles in general.

This is true of every skill, too. You first have people who master something by experience, and then you have others who try to distill elements of that skill into "problems" or "exercise regimes" or such, in order to help others reach mastery quicker. "Problems" never come first.

Also: most "problems" are constructed around a known solution. So another answer to "how did the first humans solve" them is simply, one human back-constructed a problem around a solution, and then gave it to a friend to solve. The problem couldn't be too hard either, as it's no fun to not be able to solve it, or to require too much hints. Hence, tiny increments.
by masfuerte | 2025-06-15 18:59:35+00:00
Fair enough, but these were solutions that worked without js, and they weren't dynamically rendering maps on the front or back end. They were just showing squares of pre-rendered bitmap, and the square boundaries were fixed. If your point of interest was near an edge it could be quite annoying, like trying to navigate somewhere in the gutter of a paper atlas.

Even if they'd had an API that took a viewport, the result would have been stitched together from bitmap tiles because that's what they had.

It seems like the "invention" of tiles for maps must have happened as soon as anyone starting using a computer to render maps to bitmaps. The Ordnance Survey wouldn't at any point have rendered the entire UK to a single bitmap (at least not a map with any detail). It would have always been tiled.

Edited to add: Actually, the invention was much earlier than that. Paper maps were tiled before computers were a thing. And this would naturally have carried over to computer-rendered maps.
by pogue | 2025-06-15 19:00:34+00:00
I posted some links to papers I came across here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44284165

It's a very fair and valid question as to whether a probiotic supplement:

A) Survives being packaged and stored in a warehouse for an indeterminate amount of time B) Being shipped in the back of a truck/airplane C) If the bacteria is still alive whether it can make it through the GI tract to even have any effect whatsoever

I don't know whether this has been studied. I know Consumer Labs does yearly tests on various supplements, probiotics included, but it's a subscription service and you need to subscribe to see the results. I have subscribed to them in the past and found their testing and articles quite helpful. I

In their tests, ConsumerLab found that the number of viable cells in probiotic products ranged from 1 million to 225 billion per recommended serving.

Additionally, some products were contaminated with harmful bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which poses a risk to immunocompromised individuals and infants.

The company also noted that the enteric coating of some products did not function properly, potentially affecting the delivery of the probiotics to the gut. (Brave AI Search summary of the article below) [1]

ConsumerLab Tests Reveal Best Probiotic Supplements and Those With Quality Issues https://www.consumerlab.com/news/best-probiotic-supplements/...
by glenjamin | 2025-06-15 19:02:25+00:00
I think in some cases (like WhatsApp) the better model exists and is available, but isn’t used by the app - possibly as a judge to get you to give it more permissions

On iOS Strava’s app is able to access a photo picker, and the app only gets the photos I actually pick

Meanwhile WhatsApp insists on using the model where it tries to access all photos, and I limit it to specific ones via the OS
by _1tem | 2025-06-15 19:02:49+00:00
Such a weird coincidence. I stepped out of my house a few minutes ago to buy ice cream, and I bump into a Ukrainian friend of mine whose last name is “Popov”. I come back to my computer and immediately click this link on HackerNews and see the name Popov again. Weird. I sent this link to him and he says: where did you find this? And he says: his family name is related to people who invented certain radio components in the Soviet Union. Such a strange moment of synchronicity.
by TeMPOraL | 2025-06-15 19:04:02+00:00
> Do you think language is sufficient to model reality (not just physical, but abstract) here?

It's sufficient to the level needed for human intelligence. We're a product of evolution, and we only need as much abstraction as it's required for operational reasons. Modeling reality in a deep, abstract way is something we want to, but not something that was required for our minds to evolve, nor for us to create civilization as it is today.
by kjksf | 2025-06-15 19:05:36+00:00
As opposed to?

Today, if I was starting from scratch, I would try zig or odin or maybe even Go.

But SumatraPDF started 15 years. There was nothing but C++. And a much different C++ that C++ of today.

Plus, while my own code is over 100k lines, external C / C++ libraries are multiple of that so (easy) integration with C / C++ code is a must.
by MostlyStable | 2025-06-15 19:05:58+00:00
Given that economists almost universally agree with me, I'm going to have to suggest that it is in fact you who don't know know how any of this works.

You keep shifting the goal posts, you keep talking about unrelated things, and you keep not addressing the core claims, and you keep not responding to the main refutation of your own original claim. I'm done beating my head against this wall. I hope you have a nice day.
by Ciunkos | 2025-06-15 19:06:50+00:00
To stay CAN-SPAM compliant, the sender MUST NOT require anything else but an email and a single visit to a webpage. A confirmation page is OK but requiring an auth or any other information or steps is simply illegal.

As a rule of thumb, one-click List-Unsubscribe with List-Unsubscribe-Post headers and a plain opt-out page (with confirmation if you risk such security solutions clicking on them, applicable only in B2B as you say) for the unsubscribe link in the email body.

These links should ideally be personalized (i.e. encode recipient’s email/account ID) so the opt-out page would not even require users to put their emails.

And please keep List-Unsubscribe via mailto as well, some clients may not support HTTPS POST.
by abxyz | 2025-06-15 19:07:23+00:00
They’re not that valuable. There are a lot of domains from the 90s that you can pick up for cheap. All 4L .coms sold out in the mid 2000s and on the open market they typically start around $350 for junk letters and go up from there. The OP probably paid under $1500 for this domain and I’d guess they bought it recently.

3L.com domains start at around $10k for the worst letters and go up from there.

2L.com start around $500k.

Add in numbers and the price falls substantially. You can pick up 2 letters + 1 number (e.g: b0w.com) for under $500.
by jakelazaroff | 2025-06-15 19:07:48+00:00
> no, journalists are not "by definition" politically engaged.

Which part of journalism doesn't involve "political engagement"? Selecting which stories are covered, and how prominently? Choosing whom to interview and deciding what questions to ask? Which details are important enough to include, and which to omit? There is no cogent definition of "journalism" by which it is not an intrinsically political activity.

> Secondly, df you read his blog, he pretty clearly is an activist, as he focuses on a single topic, has chosen a side

That is common among journalists; it is called a "beat".

> and also is acting upon it by protesting.

Hundreds of millions of people all over the world protest. 2–4 million did so in the U.S. alone yesterday. Are they all "activists"?
by Qem | 2025-06-15 19:08:02+00:00
From the wikipedia article[1] on his grandfather:

> Tyler and his son Lyon remarried much younger women and fathered children at advanced ages, such that Tyler's daughter Pearl did not die until the 157th year after her father's birth. Until May 25, 2025, Tyler had a living grandson (235 years after John Tyler's birth) through Lyon. This grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, was born in 1928 and had maintained the family home, Sherwood Forest Plantation, in Charles City County, Virginia.

His last child, Margaret, was born in 1860, when he was already ~70. Quite remarkable. While not as sharp a drop as it happens to women, fertility of men decreases steadily from 40-50 onwards[2].

[1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tyler [2]. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3253726/pdf/RIU0130...
by WASDAai | 2025-06-15 19:08:20+00:00
Thank you for the clarification but the banner says “article”, not “conceptual placeholder”. If Recurχiv is meant to be an archive, not a mirage, I’d expect the article linked in the title to actually exist. Otherwise, it’s like calling a door a room and wondering why no one can sit down inside.

Could you please point us to the actual article or confirm if it’s yet to be uploaded?
by cube2222 | 2025-06-15 19:08:35+00:00
Yeah, this,

LLMs to me are primarily:

1. A way to get over writers block; they can quickly get the first draft down, which I can then iterate on; I’m one of those people who generally first implement something in a dirty way just to get it working, and then do a couple more iterations / rewrites on it, so this suits my workflow perfectly. Same for writing a first draft of a design doc based on my brain dump.

2. A faster keyboard.

Generally, both of these mean that energetically, coding is quite a bit less mentally tiring for me, and I can spend more energy on the important/hard things.
by OutOfHere | 2025-06-15 19:10:59+00:00
You will be at peace when you understand:

(1) You should not work at a place that does not pay you well, also taking into account the risk to your employment.

(2) Realize every day that it could be your last at that employer.

(3) You should doggedly be working on a side hustle in your spare time to be free from the employment trap.
by kreetx | 2025-06-15 19:13:48+00:00
This person continues to be able to speak freely.

He also took part in the protests of Columbia University and by the looks of it wants to continue his political agenda in a foreign country. If this happened at scale then then foreigners could come (perhaps even be imported to the US, if this were a known-to-be-usable loophole) and steer the politics of a country in some other direction. It looks like the government is trying to avoid that and, if I were a citizen, it's what I would expect it to do.
by mdaniel | 2025-06-15 19:13:53+00:00
I didn't know how to correctly package my comment as not criticizing, and that's half of why I opened with "is outstanding software." I genuinely believe that, I'm deeply grateful for you releasing SumatraPDF into the world, and it makes my life better. Truly, I am thankful

I hear you about "back in my day," but since as best I can tell it's just your project (that is, not a whole team of 50 engineers who have to collaborate on the codebase) so you are the audience being done a disservice by continuing to battle a language that hates you

As for the interop, yes, since the 70s any language that can't call into a C library is probably DoA but that list isn't the empty set, as you pointed out with the ones you've actually considered. I'd even suspect if you tried Golang it may even bring SumatraPDF to other platforms which would be another huge benefit to your users
by oblio | 2025-06-15 19:14:17+00:00
Poured asphalt, then.

And it doesn't hurt to plant more trees. American cities, especially in the South, seem to be utterly allergic to trees. Which makes even less sense in hot climates.

Or huge billboards. Lack of general greenery and hedges to block noise. Stroads. I could go on an on. The average built environment in US cities and suburbs is awful and again, cheap.
by gxs | 2025-06-15 19:14:38+00:00
Yeah bro but what are you supposed to do? We live in a moment in time where you can’t take a step without stepping in shit

I don’t want to turn streaming content into a personal hobby and spend time/money trying to set up home streaming services just like I don’t want to buy physical media

Ditto for phone/apps - the play store is just as bad and I have no interest in running a jailbroken iPhone as that comes with its own set of headaches
by YeGoblynQueenne | 2025-06-15 19:15:05+00:00
Hinton and Sutskever are victims of their own success: they can say whatever they like and nobody dares criticise them, or tell them how they're wrong.

I recently watched a video of Sutskever speaking to some students, not sure where and I can't dig out the link now. To summarise he told them that the human brain is a biological computer. He repeated this a couple of times then said that this is why we can create a digital computer that can do everything a brain can.

This is the computational theory of mind, reduced to a pin-point with all context removed. Two seconds of thought suffice to show how that doesn't work: if a digital computer can do everything the brain can do, because the brain is a biological computer, then how come the brain can't do everything a digital computer can do? Is it possible that two machines can be both computers, and still not equivalent in every sense of the term? Nooooo!!! Biological computers!! AGI!!

Those guys really need to stop and think about what they're talking about before someone notices what they're saying and the entire field becomes a laughing stock.
by Fraterkes | 2025-06-15 19:16:05+00:00
I get your point, I think the difficult thing is that these tools are not delineated: preground-ink does not have the capability to write your stories for you, but with llms we constantly have to reasses which parts of the thing we are building merrit our attention.

If llms get better, will you have to decide whether you actually care about writing decision trees, or if instead you just want to, more generally, curate procedural interactions (or something)?

My point is: if these next few years every project becomes an exercise in soul-searching for which parts of my work actually interest me, it is maybe less work not to use these tools, or alternatively, find something fullfilling that doesn’t involve making something.
by whimsicalism | 2025-06-15 19:18:23+00:00
there’s a certain genre of story that has the flavor of ‘urban crime apocrypha’, examples like ubiquitous roofie-ing and PCP laced marijuana.

others can judge the frequency of an Uber driver in the US robbing you at gunpoint (with an account tied to their SSN/DL) or whether that is common enough that you can assume a gun will be pulled without seeing it.
by kreetx | 2025-06-15 19:20:05+00:00
I don't think few if any journalist I've read have taken part in protests.

Also, most journalists just investigate and present stories by assembling what they found. And then they go and investigate another topic. But this person has just one topic.

I'd say people who consistently protest and consistently write about the topic are activists, yes. Do you need an even stronger definition?
by pogue | 2025-06-15 19:20:34+00:00
That's quite interesting. In my experience, I've suffered from severe anxiety and depression my entire adult life. I spent years working with a psychiatrist trying every SSRI on the market. None of them seemed to help in the slightest, until I asked to try Eldepryl (selegiline), an MAO-B. It helps greatly with depression, but hasn't helped with anxiety. An MAO-B has the advantage of not having any issue with tyramine (the cheese effect) that you're referring to.

I've never heard of Nardil, but I'll have to look into it.
by paulpauper | 2025-06-15 19:20:50+00:00
The irony that this was printed just 6 years before 9/11. The lesson is it's hard to anticipate all the possible risks. The two WTC towers were engineered to withstand a jet plane impact (a 707, which was a common passenger jet at the time in the late 60s), just not not a modern airplane packed with fuel at max speed.
by swat535 | 2025-06-15 19:21:08+00:00
To be fair, the quality of software has dramatically dropped, apps now take 10 seconds to load, memory usage is maxed, games crash and people needed to reinstall their OS so frequently that Microsoft literally added a "reset PC" option..

You can argue that software does much more than before, sure I agree but no one asked for so much bloat and features in every day apps. My note taking app doesn't need AI.
by mewpmewp2 | 2025-06-15 19:21:33+00:00
My analogy of being in loop means being in a live state. So we as humans are in the loop continuously, we do have a way to exit the loop, but in that comparison it means taking our own life. We are in loops of getting input and producing output. You can also give LLM a tool to shut itself down, or you can give it tools to build on its knowledge base, so it would always be outputting new tokens that are based on new input and are producing different output.

E.g. it could have access to camera and microphone feed, which is automatically given to it in interval as part of the loop, it could call tools or functions to store specific bits and pieces of information, to store in its RAG or whatever based knowledge base. It is not going to be in the loop of producing the same token over and over, it would be new tokens because the context and environment is constantly evolving.
by azhenley | 2025-06-15 19:21:36+00:00
I agree 100%.

Here’s why I prefer making “useless” stuff: https://austinhenley.com/blog/makinguselessstuff.html

And my list of similar projects: https://austinhenley.com/blog/challengingprojects.html

I want to do a database and then something involving genetic algorithms next. If I have infinite time, another video game emulator too.
by cherryteastain | 2025-06-15 19:22:25+00:00
Why not just pass around an

std::pair<void(*)(FuncData*), std;:unique_ptr<FuncData>>

at this stage? This implementation has a bunch of performance and ergonomics issues due to things like not using perfect forwarding for the Func1::Call(T) method, so for anything requiring copying or allocating it'll be a decent bit slower and you'll also be unable to pass anything that's noncopyable like an std::unique_ptr.
by pimeys | 2025-06-15 19:23:18+00:00
It's either Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Lauputa, or Kiki's Delivery Service for me. Depending on the phase of the moon.

But yeah, there are not many directors like Miyazaki or Kubrick left.

Maybe I could count Céline Sciamma to the same company. I wish she would make a new movie soon.
by joshstrange | 2025-06-15 19:24:13+00:00
> I will break your code and you have to fix it in front of me.

For the coding aspect of our interview test, I tell people they can use whatever they want to write it (LLM tools included) and they do all of the work on their own machine without us watching the screen in real time (to make it less stressful). After they’re finished, I ask them to walk me through the code, to make one addition, and fix a bug that almost everyone makes. This helps demonstrate their ability to explain code (even if they were assisted in writing it) and to modify existing code. This exercise is shockingly effective.

None of this is done as a “gotcha“. The change that I asked them to make is incredibly minor, and in most cases can be done completely additively to the existing code. As for the common bug, it is due to people “pattern matching” and misunderstanding part of the instructions, but also very easy to fix once you understand the mistake.

I’ve been very pleased with using this as a filter. In some cases, the results were surprising and, in others, they confirmed what I already thought/suspected.
by mettamage | 2025-06-15 19:24:15+00:00
Not sure if I'd do this, but one semi-serious idea I'd have is to become a dating coach with a focus on finding a long-term partner. I had a lot of dating issues, fixed all of them. I'm happily married now.

It took 2 years of rejection and then 2 years of fine tuning, for about 10 hours per week on average. Then it took a lot of psychology courses + extracurricular psychology courses and relationships to understand that part well enough so that I can be in a loving relationship that will last.

I sometimes talk about this and speak with HN'ers about it from time to time whenever I have some free time and someone is curious about my advice. I think I've helped at least one person a bit on here. So that's good to know :)

But when AI comes, I'd probably focus on this as AI can't fully touch this business. I don't see a robot going out to a club to help train a person's social skills for instance. But who knows, maybe I'm wrong, maybe AI will surprise me.

It'd be a hell of a ride though, because I'm not sure if I could make this business sustainable (if anyone wants to help me with that, let me know! My email is in my profile).

Society deserves more love, romance and connectedness.
by tzs | 2025-06-15 19:24:29+00:00
> Those don’t happen just willy nilly - it means your credit card reviewed your dispute and you won

Here's how that review works at the online seller of downloadable software accompanied by an online service that I do some work for.

1. A customer asks for a chargeback.

2. Their card company notifies us and asks for proof the charge is legitimate (e.g. made by the customer and what they ordered was delivered). For proof the charge was made by the customer the card company wants us to fax them a copy of the receipt that the customer signed, which of course does not exist. We also can't really prove delivery--I've yet to see a credit card company that will accept download logs showing that someone later downloaded the software from the same IP address that the order was placed from. Since we can't really dispute the chargeback it is approved.

Even when it should be obvious from the credit card company's own records that the charge is legit they want to see that signed receipt. E.g., if the customer bought a monthly subscription 2 years ago and we've been successfully charging them every month since then, and now they suddenly ask for a chargeback on their most recent charge claiming they don't recognize the charge and have never heard of is or bought any service from us the credit card company doesn't consider all those past undisputed charges as relevant.

That's not quite willy nilly but it is leaning that way for things that are entirely online.
by ncruces | 2025-06-15 19:25:22+00:00
Try one of these:

strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ') strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%fZ')

You can use this to convert whatever internal format you're using for presentation, in a SELECT statement. Like so (be sure to read up on 'auto', to see if it fits):

strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%fZ', column, 'auto')