MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by potatolicious | 2025-07-31 19:04:59+00:00
> "However, if you work at a Bugatti dealership, you don't need to convince the oil-rich Sheikh why he should buy the 2 million dollar car, he already wanted to buy it before he even stepped in."

Respectfully disagreed. The sales people for veblen goods work extremely hard because competition is intense even within that space. The Bugatti salesman is competing with Ferrari, McLaren, Lamborghini, etc.

The margins per-sale are great, but because of your low volumes you experience a lot more volatility. Minor fluctuations in sales have disproportionate impact on your bottom line.

I once worked for a luxury real estate brokerage and had opportunity to talk to real estate brokers who dealt in ultra-high-end real estate (the kind of properties that people make YouTube videos about). One conversation stood out to me that's relevant here:

I asked him about a listing for a Manhattan penthouse that had been making the news (mid-8-figure buy-in), and his response was that it was an incredibly risky property to represent, because the list of potential buyers is perhaps a dozen people long. If none of them move on the deal then you're holding an absolutely immense albatross.

Ultra-high-end goods are generally susceptible to this. Your market is small enough that it doesn't take a lot to existentially threaten you, and there is no shortage of people who want to eat your lunch (just like with any other market).
by jasode | 2025-07-31 19:05:01+00:00
>Why is this so hard for the film industry?

It boils down to money.

Movies & tv have higher monetary value to the studios than songs to the record labels.

So the ip owners of video content get more revenue by restricting it as exclusives to their respective platforms rather than licensing it out to everybody and get a smaller fractional payment from an everything-unlimited-catalog video streaming service.

E.g. HBO would rather get 100% of their own $16.99/month subscription -- vs -- licensing entire HBO catalog to Netflix and getting a fraction% of $17.99/month.

How much extra would Netflix conceivably have to charge per month such that the fractional amounts to each movie studio (HBO, Disney, etc) would be enough $$ that the studios wouldn't bother with their own exclusive streaming platforms? $99/month? $149/month? Right now, there isn't a number that Netflix + all studios + subscribers can converge on so instead, we get the current fragmented streaming platforms of video content.

For more evidence of how video content is more valuable than music (in terms of digital streaming platforms), consider that tech giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple -- all created their own movie & tv studio business to produce even more exclusives for their streaming platforms. But none of them have started their own record labels to sign musicians to get exclusive songs or albums.
by tristor | 2025-07-31 19:05:03+00:00
I was person 1, then I spent 13 years as an engineer, experience severe burnout, and became person 2. I am /very/ skilled, but I no longer enjoy things in the same ways I once did when it comes to computing. I don't despise it, but it no longer fuels me. I prefer to spend my time away from work indulging in other hobbies, like hiking in nature with a camera or playing board games with friends. My experience has been that turning your hobby into a job can kill all the enjoyment of the hobby.
by danaris | 2025-07-31 19:05:10+00:00
> Universities are still (as far as I can tell) safe for natural scientists because the first wave of the crackdown is focused on the humanities and social sciences

Well, kinda—but only because they're not cracking down on any specific views in the natural sciences; they're just cutting their funding entirely.

Large swaths of natural science research at US universities relied (past tense) on federal grant funding, and that's effectively been eliminated across the board.

They just don't want any science research being done, period, unless it's 100% funded and owned by for-profit companies.
by leptons | 2025-07-31 19:05:23+00:00
I honestly don't care about fingerprinting. It's too late to worry about that, because there will always be a way to do it, to some extent. And me using a browser with WebMIDI only means I'm one of the 3.4 billion people using Chrome. There are better ways to "fingerprint" people online. Detecting browser APIs is not a particularly good one.
by waviz | 2025-07-31 19:06:23+00:00
We Built a TypeScript Audio Visualizer from Scratch Using the Web Audio API!

Introducing Waviz - an Open Source Library for audio and signal visualization!

A couple of months ago, I was developing a web application around SpotifyWebAPI and I found myself wanting to attach a visualizer. I was rushed on time, so I began searching for a React/JavaScript based library that would serve a visualizer that I liked quickly. To my dismay, the options that were available were either needlessly convoluted, or used deprecated resources that would force me to downgrade versions for compatibility. In the end, I was forced to code a simple visualizer that can be best described as several div elements moving up and down. No connection to audio. No user interactions.

Fast forward another couple weeks, and I have had the pleasure of collaborating with 3 other talented engineers to tackle this gap in the market. We decided approach this problem in a modular fashion. My team and I felt that with a problem so niche, it would be best to give users the most optionality possible. Our library, as such, reflects this philosophy.

Our JavaScript/React library can be broken down into two primary sub-libraries: our Waviz Core and the Waviz React Component Library. The core library serves up audio/signal visualization by running through three different modules: Input -> Analyzer -> Visualizer. All of these modules can be used independently if desired. We also have a Waviz composition class if ease-of-use is a priority. The Waviz React Component Library, on the other hand, takes a more 'plug and play' approach. Simply import the visualizer component you want, and have the visualizer be generated on your web app for you! (you still need to pass in a canvas and an audio element)

Waviz also aims to be as light-weight as possible for the users - and so we only have one external dependency: react. Everything else is rendered using Web Audio API and Canvas HTML. While we recognize that this may reduce options in the short-run, we believe this will give our library the most long-term scalability.

Please give our library a try! We have more extensive detail on our launch website: https://wavizjs.com

Our Github: https://github.com/Waviz-Team/Waviz If you would like to jump straight in from nodeJS, you can simply run 'npm i waviz' in the terminal.

Feedback is appreciated!
by csnover | 2025-07-31 19:06:30+00:00
Where I live, ILLs do not work for video games because the format identification for video games is “Electronic”, and their software is programmed to suppress the request button for these items because it is interpreted as “no physical media”. I emailed the people who run the system, they said it is a known issue, and as far as I can tell that just means they aren’t going to fix it, since it has been this way for at least three years.
by outworlder | 2025-07-31 19:07:19+00:00
Most people don't want to do anything 'interesting'. If you stray too far from the beaten path, I'd argue that you no longer need or something that "Just Works". You need something very configurable, which, by definition, will let you shoot yourself in the foot.

My current setup is Mikrotik for wired and Ubiquity APs for wifi. Their wifi devices have great specs and are difficult to beat. Mikrotik has decent wifi devices but not only they have a footgun minefield - not exactly their fault since Wifi is difficult to get right, so the more settings you expose, the worse it gets. Mikrotik also logs behind in features (they are still at wifi 6). It's an odd combination of philosophies but seems to work, all the vlan logic is offloaded to Mikrotik. And so are firewalls, etc. Then the voodoo Wifi stuff gets handled by Ubiquiti.

> Want to change a WiFi setting without WiFi going down for a minute or two? Good luck — UniFi doesn’t seem to care about making it work.

I am with you on that. It's things like that that prevent adoption by larger businesses and contribute to the perception that they aren't a serious contender. I previously had an Aruba InstantOn setup(which is focused on SMB), and got really accustomed to being able to tweak (most) settings without any interruptions at all. I could even do things like change channel widths (in one direction) without losing connectivity. What was really surprising on Unifi is that I lost connection when I changed settings for a _different_ SSID, for like a minute. That isn't really acceptable.

They still do a lot of things right though, and it shouldn't be too difficult to get their act together. The devices are pretty decent and at a surprisingly low price point.
by codemac | 2025-07-31 19:07:35+00:00
SF uses flock cameras as well[0][1].

I am curious if merely by having a published policy, larger cities have less scrutiny in the actual use by federal law enforcement - though likely just as frequently accessed as any Atherton camera.

[0]: https://www.sf.gov/news--san-franciscos-new-public-safety-ca...

[1]: https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/sites/default/files/2021-...
by unicorn_chaser | 2025-07-31 19:07:37+00:00
I’ve always seen mining as old-school and slow-moving. But after spending time looking into how mineral exploration companies actually operate, I realized they’re structurally a lot like early-stage tech startups.

Similarities I found:

1. No revenue (yet) 2. High burn, high uncertainty 3. Small, specialized teams 4. Dependent on investor belief in a bold vision 5. Potential for massive upside if things go right

Exploration companies are essentially building a thesis around a resource that might exist in economically viable quantities. They gather data, de-risk the opportunity, raise capital in stages, and move forward only if the signals are strong. It’s product-market fit, but for geology.

If you’re into startup dynamics, early-stage risk, or alternative investing—this might be an unexpected but interesting watch.

Curious if others have noticed this crossover.
by krzysztofc | 2025-07-31 19:07:39+00:00
I recently shared this on another reddit and it got 500 upvotes — so I thought I’d share it here as well, hoping it helps more people. Every time I launch a new product, I go through the same annoying routine: Googling “SaaS directories,” digging up 5-year-old blog posts, and piecing together a messy spreadsheet of where to submit. It’s like searching for a needle in a haystack — frustrating and time-consuming.

For those who don’t know — launch directories are websites where new products and startups get listed and showcased to an audience actively looking for new tools and solutions. They’re like curated marketplaces or hubs for discovery, not just random link dumps.

It’s annoying to find a good list, so I finally sat down and built a proper list of launch directories — sites like Product Hunt, BetaList, StartupBase, etc. Ended up with 61 legit ones.

I also added a way to sort them by DR (Domain Rating) — basically a metric (from tools like Ahrefs) that estimates how strong a website’s backlink profile is. Higher DR usually means the site has more authority and might pass more SEO value or get more organic traffic.

I turned it into a simple site: launchdirectories.com

No fluff, no course, no upsell — just the list I wish I had every time I launch something.

Thought it might help others here too.
by intended | 2025-07-31 19:09:25+00:00
Either you are the item being sold or you are paying for the service.

Nothing is free, and I for one prefer a subscription model, if only as a change from the ad model.

I am sure we will see the worst of all worlds, but for now, for this moment in history, subscription is better than ads.

Let’s also never have ads in GenAi tools. The kind of invasive intent level influence these things can achieve, will make our current situation look like a paradise
by teaearlgraycold | 2025-07-31 19:09:38+00:00
I’m in group 1 but I do find LLMs to be helpful. I just tend to comb through their output and fix a bunch of issues. Maybe it’s not that much faster that way but it gets over the activation energy of starting a new project/module/ticket.

I do find that they’re pretty much only useful when I already know how I’m going to complete a task. If I can describe the implementation at the stack trace level I’ll do fine with AI. If I’m even a little lost the AI is a total crapshoot.
by markus_zhang | 2025-07-31 19:09:49+00:00
Thanks. I think whether I feel good or bad about the change, I just have to get used to it. I'm definitely getting used to it, like I'm now perfectly fine playing games every day instead of doing anything productive, while scrolling back 5 years this is going to alert me after 2-3 days of gaming.

> In addition to that, as you get older you realize that most intellectual interests and passions aren't going to ultimately be meaningful to anyone.

I agree with this. But I still feel that I have some intellectual pursuits that I'd like to try out (e.g. going back to school and hopefully get a PHD on something I care about) before going into the venue of vanity. I kinda think it's cool to throw out tons of intellectual shit when my kid and friends are around. Like, talking Astronomy for hours during a camping trip, or picking up a rock and talking about the fossil embedded for hours, which is going to be super cool. David Attenborough has always been my role model as a knowledgeable father who can talk shit for hours without stop. I don't really need a PHD for many of these as most is about being knowledgeable, but you get what I'm saying.

> Perspectives change. Sometimes it makes me sad, and I wish I could have the delusions of youth back, and think that I was so close to the big breakthrough where it would all click.

Yeah. I'm in the sad state right now. Hopefully I'm going to get used to it. I actually don't care too much about big breakthrough because I knew from early on I'm not made of it. I'm more into keep exploring the universe by whatever means until I die. I just don't want to settle down. I told my kid, my wife and my friends that the best way to die is to die on something one feels passionate about. That's why family and kid give me more meh than wow. But it is just me, so I totally get why other people don't get it.
by godelski | 2025-07-31 19:10:15+00:00
> How does the saying go, something like “show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome?”

I think you're trivializing this saying here. The incentives actually suggest you should raise wages of current employees more than new ones. Current ones are more valuable.

Of course, the issue is time. What timeframe are we measuring the incentives at.

You should pay current employees less iff either 1) time doesn't exist (or you are finding the instantaneous optimal solution) or 2) employees are fungible (institutional knowledge does not exist)

Otherwise, you should be trying harder to keep current employees because you recognize the value of institutional knowledge. You don't have to train current employees. Current employers don't have to get up to speed (which usually take a few months and can take years).

It's not a hard equation

Costs: Existing employee: +cost of raise New employee: +salary of existing employee + raise - onboarding inefficiency * (t_n - t_0) - existing employee * (time they train) - costs to interview, hire, etc * (time to hire new person)

So yeah, if time doesn't exist, you're right, it is the incentives. But since it does, I disagree that they are

> the best way to fix the damage from footguns be by preventing the damage to you in the first place by not being there if/when it goes off?

This implies that the footgun will inevitably fire. It also implies you can get out of the line of fire. But you can't get out of the way of a footgun. A footgun is something where you, the gun operator, shoot yourself in the foot.

My argument is that the best strategy is to ,,never fire'' the footgun.

Avhception gives a good visual analogy without using the word footgun[0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44744167
by hypotrochoid | 2025-07-31 19:11:10+00:00
I’m personally a Kagi early adopter and Protonmail user for all other standard GSuite product replacements. I find this arrangement perfectly smooth and painless, and never once wished that the services that I get from Proton in any way interacted with the service I get from Kagi. It’s not clear to me at all that duplicating the google product spread would be the best way to extend the value to customers of Kagi search.
by hiAndrewQuinn | 2025-07-31 19:11:27+00:00
It rests on much more limited evidence than that. You would realize that immediately if you didn't reflexively cast anything you didn't like hearing into a platonic shadow on the wall so you can sneer at it.

We're not talking Bryan Johnson here. People fail so, so often at taking any of the most absolutely obvious, well known, high ROI things they could do to actually increase the number of seconds they spend breathing that "erm but people aren't perfectly rational" doesn't cut it. By and large, they simply do not care that much.
by pessimizer | 2025-07-31 19:12:36+00:00
"Just think of the power of ring-0, muhahaha! Think of the speed and simplicity of ring-0-only and identity-mapping. It can change tasks in half a microsecond because it doesn't mess with page tables or privilege levels. Inter-process communication is effortless because every task can access every other task's memory.

"It's fun having access to everything."

— Terry A. Davis
by matsemann | 2025-07-31 19:13:20+00:00
I don't mean I'm passing new stuff to the 3rd party hook, but that it returns a function that's usecallbacked, and hence I cannot myself use it as a dependency in a useEffect without it triggering every render. So yeah, if you expose a function in a piece of reusable code, you must useCallback around everything and be very defensive, or you mess up for those integrating with you.
by ToucanLoucan | 2025-07-31 19:13:48+00:00
I don't think it's so much that investment does that as leaving your competencies. I've been working at a private firm for years now. The culture is excellent and we use the products we make. We also don't make our product do every last thing it could possibly do, nor do we support every last thing our product in theory could: we focus on what our customers want and buy now. You can't use what we make for everything, but what you can use it for, we lead our industry in.

We've grown tremendously but we're still sub-200 in head count and want it to stay that way. We're rolling in profits because we keep our operation lean and responsive.

It seems to me the enshittification happens when you try and offer a service to the entire world and can't manage to succeed at that unless everyone and their mother uses it, which itself requires shit tons of employees and IT resources and datacenters, and if it doesn't work out, it all goes in the bin.
by zamalek | 2025-07-31 19:13:50+00:00
What is done for that is userspace gets the network data directly without (I believe) involving syscalls. It's not something you'd do for end-user software, only the likes of MOFAANG need it.

In theory the likes of io_uring would bring these benefits across the board, but we haven't seen that delivered (yet, I remain optimistic).
Playwright users–wants design-partner to shape an AI tool that tames flaky tests
by pratik-tgx | 2025-07-31 19:13:51+00:00
Hi HN,

We’re 2 indie engineers building an AI-powered observability layer for Playwright. It clusters failures, spots flaky tests, and spits out plain-English root-cause hints so you can triage in minutes instead of combing through logs. Everything would be self-hosted—no data leaves your infra.

We’re aiming to open access mid-August and need 5–8 design partners to make sure we’re solving real pain.

You might be a fit if -

1) Your CI already runs Playwright (≈ 500+ tests or chronic flake pain) 2) You’re comfortable dropping in a lightweight agent 3) You can spare 2–3 short feedback calls over the next six weeks

What you’ll get 1) 6 months free on any plan 2) 50% lifetime discount on any plan in future 3) Direct influence on the roadmap (GitHub Checks, predictive alerts, etc.) 4) Fast turnaround on your feature requests—straight from the founders

Sound interesting?

Comment below or ping the email in my HN profile and I’ll share a 2-minute Loom demo plus install instructions.

Thanks for reading!
by Waterluvian | 2025-07-31 19:14:42+00:00
I remember having a recurring issue with my original 1st gen unibody aluminum iMac where I'd close it at the end of a lecture, but it apparently wouldn't go to sleep, so hours later I'd go to fish it out of my backpack and it was dangerously scorching hot to the touch and the battery was all but fully drained. I tried debugging but ultimately resigned to just shutting it down every time, which sucked so much. At least I didn't wake up on fire.
by digitalPhonix | 2025-07-31 19:14:45+00:00
Summary judgement and dismissal are two different things.

Motion for summary judgement will only be entertained if both sides agree that there are no material facts in dispute (not true in this case). Also won’t be entertained if either side requests a jury trial (not sure about this case).

Motion to dismiss will only be entertained only for very specific reasons. They are basically all procedural or they require the judge to assume the worst case for all arguments put forward from the moving party (an extremely high bar to clear).

In both cases, a denied motion doesn’t mean much about the likelihood of success of either party.
by PaulHoule | 2025-07-31 19:14:49+00:00
Hogwash. If you can't figure out how to do something with project Y from npm try checking it out from Github with WebStorm and asking Junie how to do it -- often you get a good answer right away. If not you can ask questions that can help you understand the code base. Don't understand some data structure which is a maze of Map<String, Objects>(s) it will scan how it is used and give you draft documentation.

Sure you can't point it to a Jira ticket and get a PR but you certainly can use it as a pair programmer. I wouldn't say it is much faster than working alone but I end up writing more tests and arguing with it over error handling means I do a better job in the end.
by pempem | 2025-07-31 19:15:15+00:00
"All markets cater to those who can afford it"

I'm not sure this is true. PE driven markets currently seem to cater to the break point. What is the absolute most I can charge until someone will walk away? If I break it into a subscription, or into pieces will I be able to charge even more than that break point because the buyer has not or cannot easily do the math? Maybe offer financing and take a cut there as well.

I am not making a moral argument, but it is far more sophisticated than "those who can afford it" and so, this is then not really about affording it, rather its about restructuring what the category should cost socially speaking and pushing that even further. This is happening in a large number of sectors at the same time.
by zamadatix | 2025-07-31 19:15:28+00:00
Your average middlebox will just NAT UDP (unless it's outright blocked by security policy) and move on. It's TCP where many middleboxes think they can "help" the congestion signaling, latch more deeply into the session information, or worse. Unencrypted protocols can have further interference under either TCP or UDP beyond this note.

QUIC is basically about taking all of the information middleboxes like to fuck with in TCP, putting it under the encryption layer, and packaging it back up in a UDP packet precisely so it's either just dropped or forwarded. In practice this (i.e. QUIC either being just dropped or left alone) has actually worked quite well.