MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by xenadu02 | 2025-06-17 15:42:29+00:00
> In this example wouldn't Theory A be better, because all else equal it is less likely the product of overfitting and required more insight and effort to discover?

No, Theory A might simply be a dead end with no new insights to offer. And alas: the universe does not care about insights, efforts, or simplicity.

All else equal if Theory B is easier to teach - easier for more people to understand - it might have value for that reason. It might also be valuable to teach multiple ways to understand the same underlying phenomenon.

> In other words, Theory A used a different process that we know has a higher likelihood of novel discovery.

How would we measure "likelihood of novel discovery"?

Now to call myself out here: the best way to answer any of these questions is to probe both theories at their limits to find differences in predictions that we can test. It may be that we don't have the right equipment or haven't designed experiments sufficient to do that currently.

Remember that Einstein's GR was validated by its prediction and the Eddington experiment, though his initial 1911 prediction was wrong and he later refined it in 1915. The 1919 Eddington measurements validated the theory.

We should remember though: That only worked out because the 1912 attempt to make the observations (which would have invalidated Einstein) got rained out. Who knows how Einstein's career would have turned out if the 1912 observations had succeeded. Perhaps people would have said he simply over-fit his theory to fit observation.
by jmyeet | 2025-06-17 15:42:38+00:00
So there are two use cases for public image dissemination:

1. Lossy: JPEG fills this role;

2. Lossless: this was GIF but is now PNG; and

3. Animated: GIF.

So for a format to replace JPEG, it must bring something to the table for lossy compression. Now that JPEG is patent-free, any new format must be similarly unencumbered. And it's a real chicken-and-egg problem in getting support on platforms such that people will start using it.

I remember a similar thing happening with Youtube adding VP9 (IIRC) support as an alternate to H264, which required an MPAA patent license. The MPAA also tried to cloud VP9 by saying it infringed on their patents anyway. No idea if that's true or not but nobody wants that uncertainty.

Anyway, without total support for VP9 (which Apple devices didn't have, for example) Youtube would need to double their storage space required for videos by having both codecs. That's really hard to justify.

Same goes for images. You then need to detect and use a supported image format... or just use JPEG.
by JohnFen | 2025-06-17 15:42:40+00:00
This seems like a poor idea to me. If a person is suffering such crippling anxiety that they can't even talk to their "crush" clearly enough to understand if the attraction is mutual, they really should work on fixing that rather than avoiding the root problem. If you avoid the root problem, it will come back to bite you later, or in other circumstances, anyway.
by stillpointlab | 2025-06-17 15:42:47+00:00
My experience is that AIs amplify what you put in them.

If you put in lazy problem definitions, provide the bare minimum context and review the code cursorily then the output is equally lackluster.

However, if you spend a good amount of time describing the problem, carefully construct a context that includes examples, documentation and relevant files and then review the code with care - you can get some very good code out of them. As I've used them more and more I've noticed that the LLM responds in a thankful way when I provide good context.

> Always ask for alternatives

> Trust but verify

I treat the AI as I would a promising junior engineer. And this article is right, you don't have to accept the first solution from either a junior engineer or the AI. I constantly question the AIs decisions, even when I think they are right. I just checked AI studio and the last message I sent to Gemini was "what is the reasoning behind using metatdata in this case instead of a pricing column?" - the context being a db design discussion where the LLM suggested using an existing JSONB metadata column rather than using a new column. Sometimes I already agree with the approach, I just want to see the AI give an explanation.

And on the trust front, often I let the AI coding agent write the code how it wants to write it rather than force it to write it exactly like I would, just like I would with a junior engineer. Sometimes it gets it right and I learn something. Sometimes it gets it wrong and I have to correct it. I would estimate, 1 out of 10 changes has an obvious error/problem that I have to intervene.

I think of it this way: I control the input and I verify the output.
by freeqaz | 2025-06-17 15:43:25+00:00
Something in the article that I had to look up that might bother others. He uses the term 'DCT' in this sentence, but it's never defined in the article. AFAIK it stands for 'DRAM Memory Controller', but that could be an LLM hallucination. Running a web search defines it as Discrete Cosine Transform. :P

> "AMD’s BIOS and Kernel Developer’s Guide (BKDG) indicates there’s a 4-bit read pointer for a sideband signal FIFO between the GMC and DCT, so the “Garlic” link may have a queue with up to 16 entries."

Should maybe swap DCT in for MCT (memory controller)?
by MrDOS | 2025-06-17 15:43:47+00:00
PNGs for line art and text, JPEGs for photorealistic images.

> When I came up in the IE era

In the IE era I recall, the battle was between GIF and JPEG because IE supported alphatransparent PNGs very poorly :)

> if I recall correctly JPEG as a format can encode an image with a higher fidelity than PNG

The other way around: JPEGs are “lossy” – they throw away visual information to save file size. PNGs, on the other hand, are “lossless”, and decode back to exactly the same pixels that were fed into the encoder.
by atmavatar | 2025-06-17 15:43:53+00:00
Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic. Since having parasites on top of another condition is generally worse than just having the condition, it's not uncommon to see a positive impact when taking ivermectin for a variety of conditions in places where parasitic infections are common, if only because the body no longer has to fight the parasites in addition to the condition.

Since anti-vaxxers during COVID were looking for anything to take the place of a vaccine, ivermectin was an easy thing to latch onto.
by alternatex | 2025-06-17 15:43:54+00:00
Non-profit and actually quite economically efficient per user. Once WhatsApp was bought by Meta the writing was on the wall. I moved out of it immediately and I'm surprised people are caught off-guard by this news.

I suppose there's little guarantee Signal won't be sold, but an ultra popular app with no profit, owned by a single bloke (WhatsApp) was the last thing I expected to be a sustainable platform for my communications. Same reason I've never looked at Telegram.
by ajross | 2025-06-17 15:44:23+00:00
Dunno. I think you're being pedantic about a point that is clearly incorrect. In fact the history of Pentagon-funded R&D is absolutely filled with wild success stories and with embarrassing disasters, as you'd clearly expect from any organization that size.

I don't think you're prior is correct at all here, and trying to dismiss a bleedingly obvious counterexample (I mean, come on!) as "shallow" just because it refutes your deeply held beliefs is exactly they opposite of "substantive engagement".

To wit: you're just wrong. Take the L.
by metalman | 2025-06-17 15:44:25+00:00
no way, once something is into your periferal vision while in a moving car it's too late, and fact does not matter....unless it's moving realy realy fast, and then it's still too late so the real equation will involve all sorts of other inputs, like the coulor temp, and amount of direct vs reflected light, background light conditions, weather, and indivual perception of any given driver. *green light is the worst, as our eyes have the greatest sensitivity to it, and out night vision adaptation is to the black and white(muted coulor) light that is natural. current regulations are ancient, but there is no reason that a non opiniated solution cant be figured out and implimented
by geerlingguy | 2025-06-17 15:44:45+00:00
I still encode everything in MP3. The files work on my 20 year old SanDisk player, my original iPod, my iPhone, Mac, Chromebook, Windows laptop, MP3 CDs in our 08 minivan...

It's nice to have that consistent ubiquity, something very hard to find these days. Especially if you're entire audio library (audio books, podcasts, songs) comes from some streaming service that requires an app!
by indigodaddy | 2025-06-17 15:45:01+00:00
Introduces more ambiguity in terms of replies, but you could also just use curl straight up:

~ $ curl -v 1.1.1.1:53

* Trying 1.1.1.1:53...

* Connected to 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1) port 53

* using HTTP/1.x

> GET / HTTP/1.1

> Host: 1.1.1.1:53

> User-Agent: curl/8.13.0

> Accept: / >

* Request completely sent off

* Empty reply from server

* shutting down connection #0

curl: (52) Empty reply from server

--

~ $ curl -v 1.1.1.1:22

* Trying 1.1.1.1:22...

^C
by mindslight | 2025-06-17 15:45:04+00:00
To continue making a follow on point, also needing nuance - pharmaceutical manufacturing is exactly the type of industry that can and should be brought back to the US. First, through outright subsidies [0] to get the plants built. And then when domestic supply is high enough, through regulations prohibiting healthcare management plans from buying imported drugs.

[0] spending some of the surplus from having a reserve currency on deliberate policies rather than it being blindly given to asset holders
by roelschroeven | 2025-06-17 15:46:01+00:00
It depends on the use case.

For archival purposes, where you care about not losing details is more important than image size, PNG is better (though often TIFF is used for that use case). For images with large blocks of solid colors and sharp edges (text, line drawings), PNG is arguable better (though JPEG can be acceptable if you're careful with quality settings). If you need alpha support, go for PNG since JPEG doesn't support that.

For photograph-like images, where image size is important, JPEG is preferred over PNG.
by sfn42 | 2025-06-17 15:46:15+00:00
It depends on the dose, I've successfully programmed and written about programming while high on acid. Though usually just a half tab or even a quarter. I felt like it was useful, improved focus and creativity.

One time I played CSGO on acid, my brain might be exaggerating the memory but I swear I played like a master. Maybe I just had easy games but it really felt like I was playing much better than usual and I was dominating.

Also played satisfactory once, though with that I just ended up painting my factory in neon colors and stuff like that. It looked pretty cool though, I kept the color theme I made.
by addaon | 2025-06-17 15:46:20+00:00
> if I recall correctly JPEG as a format can encode an image with a higher fidelity than PNG, at least in some circumstances

24-bit color PNGs are lossless, to the extent that the input image is encodable in 24 bits of RGB (which is pretty much everything that's not HDR). There's no higher fidelity available for normal input images. If file size limits would force palettized PNGs, it's quite possible for a JPEG at the same file size to have higher fidelity (since it makes a different set of trade-offs, keeping color resolution but giving up spatial resolution instead); but this isn't really a common or particularly valid comparison in the PNG era, was more of an issue when comparing to GIFs.

tl;dr: Nope, PNG is perfect. JPEG can approach perfect, but never get there. Comparison is only interesting with external (e.g. file size) constraints.
by cogman10 | 2025-06-17 15:46:34+00:00
> But most renewables don't have the whole grid view, would be guessing wildly based on local conditions that don't provide adequate information to show what's really happening to the power network.

This is how other power generators are working. You don't really need a whole grid view either to make these decisions based on your local interconnect. You do, however, need either some pretty fast electronics and inverters or a reliable system that responds correctly to frequency demands. Making it smarter isn't entirely helpful.
by foxyv | 2025-06-17 15:46:50+00:00
I get the impression that Israel is making bloody hay while the sun shines. They have an extremely favorable political climate to engage in some extreme military actions. Russia's stalled invasion of Ukraine and the election of Donald Trump have pretty much ensured that they will not have to deal with blowback from their aggression.

They don't have to worry about sanctions from the USA led coalition. The don't have to worry about Russian reinforcement of Iran. So they pretty much have a free hand at this point to completely demolish Iran's military and nuclear capability.

It's amazing how many factors lead to situations like this. The current geopolitical climate is total chaos.
by Terretta | 2025-06-17 15:47:43+00:00
> * I've been far more productive using Claude Code with an IDE*

Curious why proportionately few seem to find this a better way of working.

Does it have to do with familiarity with XP or pair programming? What had you trying in IDE first, and what prompted you to try switching?

Have you used https://aider.chat to compare? If so, thoughts?
by MyOutfitIsVague | 2025-06-17 15:47:46+00:00
> they are still safer in that regard than alcohol and cannabis. There is a lower rate of psychosis being triggered with LSD and psilocybin.

Is this adjusted by amount of use? As in, is it possible that it's more likely to trigger latent mental illness with alcohol and cannabis not because they trigger it more effectively, but because they are significantly more widely available, significantly more widely used, and people who consume them consume them in significantly greater amounts?

If you get drunk once, I get high once, and our friend trips on psilocybin once, what is the comparative risk of activating latent mental illness for these events alone?
by mopsi | 2025-06-17 15:48:29+00:00
You conveniently forget the part where conscripts are coerced into signing up for the professional contract, or the signatures are falsified altogether without them even knowing.

Semyon* (name changed) was conscripted in Chelyabinsk, in the Urals, having served in the Pskov region of northwestern Russia for the first five months, where he was asked to sign a contract several times but refused. On 20 April, he was transferred to the Chebarkul garrison and signed up for professional service after just two and a half hours. His mother says that on the way to the unit he complained of being actively pressured into signing a contract, after which Semyon was taken to a separate office, where a sergeant fired a gun next to him and showed him a video of dead and wounded people, threatening that the same thing would happen to him if he didn’t sign. Semyon broke under the pressure, his family says. On the same day, he applied to have the contract annulled, saying he had signed under duress, asking for it to be declared invalid as the commander had not yet signed it, but to no avail.

The article contains several other examples too:

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/05/14/unwilling-signat...
by vander_elst | 2025-06-17 15:48:45+00:00
It might be nice on paper, but I think that in the Munich implementation there are quite some issues given that there is only a single track connecting Pasing (basically Munich West) to Munich East. In the last years almost every weekend there is maintenance work on the tracks, which introduces issues and doubles the time you need to move to the center. When a track is suddenly blocked, and this happens ~once a quarter, all the S-Bahn trains are blocked and you'll need a lot of patience to get back home. I wonder how it'd be with a more decentralized system where there are 2/3 ways to reach the edges of the city and not a single track
by awongh | 2025-06-17 15:48:50+00:00
I think people get emotional when they talk about water, but it's easier when it's broken down into more specific categories-

Every person should have the right to clean easily accessible drinking water in their homes. We know how to do that, it just costs money but it should be a basic responsibility of every government.

Beyond that if you want to use water for whatever then you should have to compete for it in a market. Maybe the only other exception might be growing sustenance food. But those systems (as they are currently implemented across the world) quickly get political- but no one should starve because water is too expensive either.

The thing is that almost all of the time that's not what's at stake when talking about things like data centers- it's a strawman.
by pcaharrier | 2025-06-17 15:48:57+00:00
>if you’re struggling with the opening of “Bleak House,” you can ask for it to be rewritten using easier, more modern English. “Gas looming through the fog in divers places in the streets, much as the sun may, from the spongey fields, be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy,” Dickens wrote. Claude takes a more direct path: “Gas lamps glow dimly through the fog at various spots throughout the streets, much like how the sun might appear to farmers working in misty fields.”

As a Dickens-appreciator myself (and Bleak House a particular favorite) that sends a wave of nausea over me. Simpler, in this case, seems worse, not better, because Dickens wasn't writing simply to pass along information.
by steveBK123 | 2025-06-17 15:49:09+00:00
I think another tension aside from the pure source of funding is just the whole transit philosophy differences.

In the US, at least in coastal cities, we sometimes seem more concerned that transit be cheap than that it be good. Transit in NYC is so cheap as to be almost free, especially considering something like 50% of bus riders beat the fare.

NYC subway fare is unlimited distance and about half the price of a London zone 1 fare. This is despite white collar jobs in NYC often paying 2x the equivalent London wage.

So instead of funding with usage fees at all (and say subsidizing/discounting for those in need), we just set ridiculously low fares and then try to go after higher incomes in the region with income tax levies, which is obviously unpopular.

Per BBC graphic / data provided by TfL for example, London Underground is 72% funded by fares vs 38% in NYC.
by vannevar | 2025-06-17 15:49:11+00:00
If your democratically elected government spends money in ways you find unwise, you can vote for someone else, so that also tends to self-correct (albeit on a longer time scale).

The problem isn't the obvious things, in the government or your restaurant example. It's the less-obvious things---your favorite restaurant might cheat on its inspections, for instance. The rate of food poisoning there may go up, but you'll still be unlikely to be the one that gets sick. And the prices will go down slightly, as they are able to cut corners. This kind of "waste, fraud, and abuse" tends to go to an equilibrium, where the cost of finding and eliminating the fraud is similar to the cost of the fraud itself. And this equilibrium happens in both government and the private sector.

The idea that a modern technological nation of hundreds of millions of people could dramatically cut its spending and maintain its standard of living is a utopian fantasy.
by daveguy | 2025-06-17 15:49:13+00:00
> How would you reconcile this with the fact that SOTA models are only a few TB in size? Trained on exabytes of data, yet only a few TB in the end.

This is false. You are off by ~4 orders of magnitude by claiming these models are trained on exabytes of data. It is closer to 500TB of more curated data at most. Contrary to popular belief LLMs are not trained on "all of the data on the internet". I responded to another one of your posts that makes this false claim here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44283713
by imageformatssux | 2025-06-17 15:49:28+00:00
How in the world do people store images / photos nowadays?

Just as there is a clear winner for video - av1 - there seems to be nothing in the way of "this is clearly the future, at least for the next few years" when it comes to encoding images.

JPEG is... old, and it shows. The filesizes are a bit bloated, which isn't really a huge problem with modern storage, but the quality isn't great.

JPEG-XL seemed like the next logical step until Google took their toys and killed it despite already having the support in Chrome, which pretty much makes it dead in the water (don't you just love monopolies making decisions for you?)

HEIC is good, as long as you pinky promise to never ever leave Apple's ecosystem, ie HEIC sucks.

AVIF seems computationally expensive and the support is pretty spotty - 8bit yuv420 might work, but 10b or yuv444 often doesn't. Windows 10 also chokes pretty hard on it.

Alternatives like WebP might be good for browsers but are nigh-unworkable on desktops, support is very spotty.

PNG is cheap and support is ubiquitous but filesizes become sky-high very quick.

So what's left? I have a whole bunch of .HEIC photos and I'd really like if Windows Explorer didn't freeze for literal minutes when I open a folder with them. Is jpeg still the only good option? Or is encoding everything in jpeg-xl or avif + praying things get better in the future a reasonable bet?
by xenadu02 | 2025-06-17 15:49:33+00:00
Rooftop Solar in the US has had such requirements for a long time. More recent systems in CA like mine (IIRC starting in 2018) require an active connection to the grid operator so the operator can override the default exceedance values to permit larger excursions for longer to avoid a cascade where grid instability causes lots of solar capacity to trip, causing further instability, leading to collapse.

They can also command solar to stop providing power to the grid if there is an excess in the other direction though legally there is a limit to how often they can do that and for how much total time.
by bityard | 2025-06-17 15:49:39+00:00
Very good point. We had several power outages lasting a few hours lately. (One was just last night.) Every time this happens, my phone's mobile data is totally unusable because the whole neighborhood switches over from scrolling facebook (et all) on their wifi to scrolling facebook on mobile.

I can (and do) find things around the house that don't depend on a screen, but it's annoying to know that I don't really have much of a backup way to access the internet if the power is out for an extended period of time. (Short of plunking down for an inverter generator or UPS I suppose.)
by drdunce | 2025-06-17 15:49:42+00:00
I don't have a BMW, so I may be wrong, but from the comments it sounds as though:

1) physical access gives remote privileged access - this is a car, not a server! We don't lock cars in data centers, friends, family, mechanics, the car wash, valets or an entire custom base in this case may have access.

2) there is an idiosyncratic process that must be followed to ensure the vehicle is suitable for this use which is sufficiently obscure that it's often overlooked. The risks of which, are quite grave (remote tracking).

3) even if everything is done "correctly", it will limit the functionality to the product you've paid to rent.