MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by 9rx | 2025-06-29 23:24:59+00:00
"Rocks" is most commonly used in the context of (rock) music. A statement like "<insert band> rocks!" usually indicates that someone enjoys said band. But what makes you think it also means that they see other bands as now being inferior in some way?

As far as I can tell, most people who find a band that "rocks" also enjoy other bands as well, often even more, and are not looking for some kind of a battle of the bands to find the one true band that they will only ever listen to again. It is quite possible, and typical, for (rock) music fans to enjoy many bands.

You are right that words mean only what the speaker/author intends for them to mean, but in common usage there is nothing to suggest that "rocks" implies something is better than something else. It only suggests something in the vein of "I enjoy this". Besides, we know what the author meant as he has told us.

Even we were to agree that the title is poorly written, we know from other context that there isn't a programming language competition. This single title wouldn't suddenly make us think that there is one. So where has the idea that there is one coming from?
by peterm4 | 2025-06-29 23:25:17+00:00
Not as exciting or big as some of the projects on here, but just a small personal one I’ve been wanting to do for a while.

I recently impulse bought an Epson receipt printer, and I’ve started putting together a server in Go to print a morning update every day. Getting it to print the weather, my calendar and todos, news headlines, HN front page. Basically everything I pick up my phone for in the morning, to be on paper rather than looking at a screen first thing. Very early days but hacking away and learning escpos/go! (Vibecoding a lot of it)

https://github.com/petertjmills/escpos-server
by wkat4242 | 2025-06-29 23:25:24+00:00
I work for an enterprise and they don't want this. They still rely on traditional centralised VPNs. How they deal with this is enforcing then everywhere, even in the office. Though there they usually are only on in name.

I think the reason is that they want to inspect the traffic in central locations, if each endpoint is doing its own you need to log there which means you can't always access it immediately.

I do use Mesh VPNs privately and love them. I love the way I have this overlay, a personal network that works everywhere. My devices all keep the same address no matter where they are.
by justcool393 | 2025-06-29 23:27:21+00:00
yeah, i mean i guess what i'm trying to say is that the breaking point is very far up there as computers have gotten towards breakneck speeds, especially on the technology side, for the goal being achieved. it's downright difficult to hit the limits unless you're throwing effectively a DDoS at it.

i think the big thing though is that it's a community and so people are actually willing to support that even if it means the amount of 9s of availability is slightly fewer (although in practice, many providers bust right through their "9s" SLAs without a care in the world) and given a migration from a VM provider to the dedi occurred, migrations obviously can happen if failure presents itself.
by mkw5053 | 2025-06-29 23:27:32+00:00
I’m building an open-source project (with a hosted option) that lets web and mobile devs add LLM-powered features with zero backend code. Current platforms like Vercel still require at least a backend serverless function even for basic LLM integrations. This handles key management, access control, usage tracking, rate limiting, message conversation state, etc so devs can focus on frontend.
by pentamassiv | 2025-06-29 23:28:16+00:00
I just finished playing with my Shimano Di2 groupset and the e-tube app. Last year researchers revealed that a simple replay attack was possible to shift someone elses bicycle. My bike was delivered with updated firmware that is no longer vulnerable so I had to find a way to downgrade the bike. The e-Tube app only allows updating the bike, but it detects root, emulators, frida-server or changing the APK and then crashes. I had to find a way to circumvent that and use an SDR to do the actual attack
by wjgilmore | 2025-06-29 23:28:17+00:00
So the answer to this question is a funny one. I started using a Google spreadsheet to manage shipping dates and that quickly became a chore so like any good nerd would do I built a CRM which is now live if anyone wants to try it: https://6dollarcrm.com/

Wasn’t planning on announcing it here but what the hell.
by MilnerRoute | 2025-06-29 23:28:33+00:00
From the article:

"Is it safe for your battery? Interestingly, experts are a bit divided on this one. Some say it's harmless with today’s smarter batteries, while others warn it can still have long-term effects... If you’re using a certified charger and placing your phone in a well-ventilated spot (aka not under a blanket), it's generally safe and unlikely to cause major harm."

Pretty much the opposite of the headline.
by splice-cad | 2025-06-29 23:28:53+00:00
I've been working on Splice CAD – an in-browser cable-harness designer.

https://splice-cad.com

Building cables for multiple personal and professional projects, I was frustrated by having to cobble together harness diagrams in Illustrator or Visio, cut snippets from from PDFs for connector outlines, map pin-outs, wire specs, cable constructions, mating terminals, and manually updating an Excel BOM.

Splice gives you:

An SVG canvas to drag-and-drop any connector or cable from your library to quickly route and bundle wires. Assign signal names to wires or cable cores.

Complete part data Connector outlines, pin-outs, terminal selections (by connector family & AWG), cable core colors & strand counts, wire AWG/color.

Automated BOM & exports parts-ready diagrams, wiring drawings, and a clean BOM in SVG, PNG, or PDF.

Connector & Cable Creators. Connectors or cables not in the existing library can be added with an optional outline and full specs (manufacturer, MPN, series, pitch, positions, IP-rating, operating temp, etc.), then publish privately or share publicly.

Demos & tutorials: Harness Builder → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQVB_iTD1I

Connector Creator → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqDsCROhpy8

Cable Creator → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFdQaXQxKzU

Full tutorials → https://splice-cad.com/#/tutorial/

No signup required to try—just jump in and start laying out your harness: https://splice-cad.com/#/harness. If you want to save, sign up with Google or email/password.
by dispencerrr | 2025-06-29 23:29:00+00:00
Big update to my micro-saas https://testingbee.io!

TestingBee is a way for startups to get part-time QA for their product's critical flows.

I've been working at startups for the last four years and I've consistently been on teams struggling to balance launching quickly versus keeping our product working. We've never had success creating a substantial test suite because our product is changing too fast and engineers are too overloaded.

I built testingbee as the solution. It lets you write your app's flows in plain english and the bot I created will execute those flows in your app as a user would. This triggers on every push to make sure every release keeps your product working :)
by spmcl | 2025-06-29 23:29:13+00:00
I recently got a pen plotter. I've been working on making my own implementations of algorithms to convert images to vector graphics for plotting. Things like cross-hatching to fill in dark areas, or spirals or flow fields, etc. I also found out about vpype[1] recently which does some cool things in this area.

[1] https://github.com/abey79/vpype
by HappMacDonald | 2025-06-29 23:29:13+00:00
That does sound compelling, but I frequently enough have to work on embedded systems (often running busybox) where python isn't installed and available R/W storage space is measured in tens or hundreds of Kb.

I find that that is one more environment where awk scripting can get the job done, python/perl/php/etc just can't be introduced, bash can _sometimes_ get the job done if it doesn't have to spawn too many subprocesses, and C/other-compiled-options _might_ be able to help if I had some kind of build environment targeting the platform(s) in question and enough patience.

I'll keep an eye out for python with no extra dependency options on the platforms that can handle that though.
by mattrighetti | 2025-06-29 23:30:24+00:00
Lately I’ve been working on two things:

An iOS client for Cloudflare. Surprisingly, there’s none out there, maybe because nobody needs it? I do, so I’ve created one and it’s now available on TestFlight [0].

Another interesting thing I’ve recently discovered is that LLMs are pretty great at vetting tenancy agreements, so I’m working on a website that reads tenancy agreements and will return a list of unfair clauses that might be present in the contract along with a detailed explanation of how you should follow up with the landlord/agency. I still need to finish it but if you’re interested it’s here [1].

[0]: https://testflight.apple.com/join/Jj7WveWb

[1]: https://transparents.fyi
by Leftium | 2025-06-29 23:30:32+00:00
Some major updates to https://weather-sense.leftium.com

Play spot-the-difference with the old screenshot: https://github.com/Leftium/weather-sense#weathersense

- At least five major changes!

- Or look at the commit history ;)

---

I'm designing a game that:

- is simple to play. (just log in and check-in with your geolocation. Optionally add a short message)

- helps people stay connected. (You can view friends/family on the globe with some mild competition/cooperation)

- Right now, I'm trying to figure out something compelling to "collect." Cities/states, weather conditions, letters, numbers, words, etc... I think it should be tangible.
by godelski | 2025-06-29 23:31:10+00:00
> It sounds obvious when spelled out but it blew my mind.

I think there's a weird thing that happens with stuff like this. Cliches are a good example, and I'll propose an alternative definition to them.

A cliche is a phrase that's so obvious everyone innately knows or understands it; yet, it is so obvious no one internalizes it, forcing the phrase to be used ad nauseam

At least, it works for a subset of cliches. Like "road to hell," "read between the lines," Goodheart's Law, and I think even Amdahl's Law fits (though certainly not others. e.g. some are bastardized, like Premature Optimization or "blood is thicker than water"). Essentially they are "easier said than done," so require system 2 thinking to resolve but we act like system 1 will catch them.

Like Amdahl's Law, I think many of these take a surprising amount of work to prove despite the result sounding so obvious. The big question is if it was obvious a priori or only post hoc. We often confuse the two, getting us into trouble. I don't think the genius of the statement hits unless you really dig down into proving it and trying to make your measurements in a nontrivially complex parallel program. I think that's true about a lot of things we take for granted
by jostylr | 2025-06-29 23:31:18+00:00
I have been managing Claude to work on a rational math library in JavaScript: https://calc.ratmath.com

I am particularly enjoying the Stern-Brocot tree exploration: https://calc.ratmath.com/stern-brocot.html#0_1 I hope people will find it to be a nice way of understanding good rational approximations and how they tie into continued fractions and mediants. A nice exercise is to type x^2 in the expression box and go down the path to always advance towards x^2 being 2. This gives the continued fraction representation of the square root of 2.
by mschuster91 | 2025-06-29 23:33:18+00:00
> There's no reason to expensively launch your own forecasting system when you can instead just wait for someone else to do it and then use their insurance rates to do your own forecasting.

Indeed but who's going to do that? The US government will, more likely than not, have lost the ability entirely, and Europe... good luck waiting on us.

> Which is why the government running satellites it would need to run anyway is much more efficient

Indeed. But there is no opportunity for continuous recurring grift revenue in that, and that is all that drives the current administration.
by hinkley | 2025-06-29 23:33:38+00:00
It is exactly this "lulled into complacency" that I rail against when most people cite that line. Far too many people are trying to shut down down dialog on improving code (not just performance) and they're not above Appeal to Authority in order to deflect.

"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back." Is practically on the same level.

If you're careful to exclude creeping featurism and architectural astronautics from the definition of 'optimization', then very few people I've seen be warned off of digging into that sort of work actually needed to be reined in. YAGNI covers a lot of those situations, and generally with fewer false positives. Still false positives though. In large part because people disagree on what "The last responsible moment" in part because our estimates are always off by 2x, so by the time we agree to work on things we've waited about twice as long as we should have and now it's all half assed. Irresponsible.
by m_sahaf | 2025-06-29 23:33:44+00:00
I'm not actively working on it daily, as I have shortage of free time and helping hands, but the HTTP Spec Test Suite is my Moby-Dick. I wrote about it here: https://www.caffeinatedwonders.com/2024/12/18/towards-valida..., I also discussed it on the HTTP WG mailing list and presented it at the HTTP WG Workshop last year.

Another Moby-Dick of mine is Kadessh, the SSH server plugin of Caddy, formerly known as caddy-ssh. This one is an itch. I wrote about it here https://www.caffeinatedwonders.com/2022/03/28/new-ssh-server..., and the repo is here: https://github.com/kadeessh/kadeessh. Similar to the other one, feedback and helping hands are sorely needed.

They are both sort of an obsession and itches of mine, but between dayjob and school, I barely have a chance to have the clear mind to give them the attention they require.
by ggm | 2025-06-29 23:35:13+00:00
This probably will be weaponised against him but as a proposition shorn of political intent, it has some good qualities. At root, he says the number of orders of magnitude in society should be more constrained. Having a span of 10^6 (billions to thousands, so knock of 3 of the 10^9 digits) is too many. I would think thats a defensible propositon.

Arguing that some people demand aspirational goals as high as that in order to do what they do begs many questions: Not that their demand is invalid (as demands go, I've never found bargaining very easy, arguing for billions is beyond my comprehension) but I seriously doubt the ability to add that much value is a skill distinct enough that it can command that rate of return, against all other choices.

Not "they can't generate the ROI" as much as "others can generate that ROI just as well, it's contestable".

Fund managers (for example) vary in costs, and returns, in ways which I think undermine the proposition here.

Many people take remarkably "fundamentalist" views of peoples rights to limitless potential. "it's my right to accumulate billions if I want" is very strong in opposition to this, aside from the people who may plausibly earn billions who have an entirely rational reason to disclaim alignment here. We experienced this 6 orders of magnitude down the tree in an australian election around tax concepts called "franking credits" which were proposed to be ended by the labor party. Large number of pensioners voted against it, despite being repeatedly told they had none, and would lose none: The meme of "Labor is coming for your franking credits" was unstoppable.

Many people who will fail to become millionaires, will oppose constraint on becoming Billionaires.

A parallel but unrelated case: Tax on lottery winnings. Fair or unfair?
by hinkley | 2025-06-29 23:35:38+00:00
> faster than the slowest non-parallelizable path

Rather, than the slowest non-parallelized path. Ultimately you may reach maximum speed on that path but the assumptions that we are close to it often turn out to be poorly considered, or considered before 8 other engineers added bug fixes and features to that code.

From a performance standpoint you need to challenge all of those assumptions. Re-ask all of those questions. Why is this part single threaded? Does the whole thing need to be single threaded? What about in the middle here? Can we rearrange this work? Maybe by adding an intermediate state?
by gametorch | 2025-06-29 23:38:17+00:00
Is it a large image? On my iPhone, it took a solid 30 seconds to open a really big, high resolution image from my photo album.

I know this is like uncouth, but could you open it in devtools and show me the output?

I've gotten hundreds of comments from other people on the internet who were able to use it. I would love to help fix whatever this bug is so you can try it out too.
by tialaramex | 2025-06-29 23:38:19+00:00
Semantics matter. This is a mistake C++ has made and will probably pay for when it eventually tries to land pattern matching. Rust knows that Option<Goose> and Result<Goose,()> are completely different semantically, likewise Result<Happy,Sad> and Either<Happy,Sad> communicate quite different intents even if the in-memory representations are identical.
by kurthr | 2025-06-29 23:38:20+00:00
Yep, only yield improvements and equipment depreciation are really in the cards. Cost per transistor increased from 7nm to 5nm, but we're about at breakeven with 3nm again. If there's not real fab competition at 2nm then prices per transistor likely won't fall. I suspect the same is true at 1nm. It doesn't feel like any of the alternatives (CNT etc) are really able to step up right now either.

https://www.chipstrat.com/p/what-happens-if-tsmc-controls-it

My feeling is that algorithmic improvements to LLMs may continue for another order of magnitude or two though. That could continue the scaling for a while.

Of course fixed development costs are now over $1B at 2nm, so if you're not making a large number of die (>1M at $1k/ea), it makes no sense to scale.
by rtpg | 2025-06-29 23:40:02+00:00
I've thought about this a good amount too because Typescript gets so much out of untagged unions but I think that with a language like Rust you get into a huge mess due to it messing up inference and also Rust _really_ wanting to know the size of a type most of the time.

let mut x = 1 x = false

is x a usize? a bool? a usize | bool?

let mut x = if some_condition { 1 } else { false }

is x x a usize? a bool? a usize | bool?

One could make inference rules about never inserting unions without explicit intervention of user types. But then you get into (IMO) some messy things downstream of Rust's pervasive "everything is an expression" philosophy.

This is less of a problem in Typescript because you are, generally, much less likely to have conditionally typed expressions. There's a ternary operator, but things like `switch` are a statement.

So in production code Typescript, when presented with branching, will have a downstream explicit type to unify on. Not so much in Rust's extensive type chaining IMO. And then we start talking about Into/From and friends....

I don't really think that you want a rule like `(if cond { x: T } else { y: U}) : T | U` in general. You'll end up with _so many_ false negatives and type errors at a distance. But if you _don't_ have that rule, then I don't know how easily your error type unification would work.
by em-bee | 2025-06-29 23:41:13+00:00
absolutely. even when everything goes smoothly, if you send me a one-time thing, i don't know if i am in the right situation to be able to handle this now. i need to be able to take a look and then decide if i want to deal with this now or later. having to make this decision without looking at it first would raise my anxiety level quite a lot, depending on who this is from.
by gabriel-uribe | 2025-06-29 23:41:32+00:00
https://attachedapp.com

Still figuring out how to pitch it, but so far it's 'Duolingo for relationship issues'

We launched this month and are growing fast which is exciting. I'm mostly impressed by how easy React Native has gotten, as a long-time native Apple Platforms dev, given all the training LLMs have on React.
by magicalhippo | 2025-06-29 23:41:35+00:00
I don't know Rust, but I really liked Boost.System's approach[1], which was included in C++11, and have used that scheme in other languages.

The point there is the error is not just an error in isolation, but it has an attached error category as well. And the error categories can compare errors from other categories for equivalence.

So for example, say you have an error which contains (status_404, http_result_category), then you can compare that instance with (no_such_file_or_directory, generic_category), and because http_result_category knows about generic_category, it can handle the comparison and say that these are equivalent[2].

This allows you to preserve the quite detailed errors while also using them to handle generic error conditions further up.

That said, doing this for every function... sounds tedious, so perhaps not worth it.

[1]: https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_88_0/libs/system/doc/html/s...

[2]: https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_88_0/libs/system/doc/html/s...
by daxfohl | 2025-06-29 23:42:03+00:00
Cool, I'll give it a shot. So far I've just been blindly feeding into the AI and crossing my fingers. I'll try displaying the spectrogram graphically, and I imagine that'll help figure out what the next step needs to be.

I was thinking this would be a good project to learn AI stuff, but it seems like most of the work is better off being fully deterministic. Which, is maybe the best AI lesson there is. (Though I do still think there's opportunity to use AI in the translation of teacher's notes (e.g. "pay attention to the rest in measure 19") to a deterministic ruleset to monitor when practicing).
by hobzcalvin | 2025-06-29 23:42:35+00:00
https://hobzcalvin.github.io/blumon/editor

Node based visual editor for 2D LED patterns over BLE. Web/iOS/Android app to ESP32, works with most addressable LEDs. It’s like TouchDesigner x WLED x PixelBlaze, but Bluetooth so you don’t need annoying wifi setup. And hopefully you can make much more interesting patterns without touching any code.

Eventually the ESP32 devices will save all the patterns they’ve seen and share them with apps that connect to them. So there’s a pattern ecosystem, like Electric Sheep.

Still rough and in progress (and constantly deploying so it may break for you )
by osigurdson | 2025-06-29 23:42:40+00:00
>> "Rocks" is most commonly used in the context of (rock) music

False.

>> we know from other context that there isn't a programming language competition.

I would have expected at least one comparison to another programming language. Like "COBOL" was a real pain for this, but "Go rocks".

>> ... other stuff ...

Yeah, I don't really care one way or the other. If people want say that everything in space and time are completely undifferentiated and therefore "rock" equally, I don't really care. Rock on.