MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by ImPostingOnHN | 2025-07-20 13:57:07+00:00
I noticed you excluded my entire post except for the parts about communism, which nobody brought up except you.

I'm not interested in rehashing the team game of "capitalism vs communism vs whatever" for the millionth time here, and nobody but you brought up the latter, so you might safely conclude nobody else is, either.

Do you think you can take off your team hat and have a discussion about what we were talking about? Hint: it was capitalism (specifically late stage capitalism). Try responding on the topic without any distractions (like mentioning the other team as you might consider it).

After all, sports teams don't get better by pointing fingers at all the other teams, they get better by looking inward and finding what they should change. Here's an example:

> What’s insidious about [the term late-stage capitalism] is that it tricks you into believing we can’t make things better

The term absolutely doesn't do that, because it's 2 words, one meaning capitalism, the other meaning "a later stage of". You're free to suggest ways to motivate companies to stop enshitifying things for profit within the confines of late-stage capitalism, without resorting to one of your dreaded ideologies. But you'll have to actually do that. So let's look inward: how can we fix that?
by sarchertech | 2025-07-20 13:57:34+00:00
That works because each plane is (nearly) exactly the same as the one before it and we have exact specifications for the plane.

You can do maintenance, inspections, and replacement because of those specifications.

In software the equivalent of blueprints is code. The room for variation outside software “specifications” is infinite.

Human reliability when comes to assembling planes is also much higher than 99%, and LLM reliability creating code is much, much lower than 99%.
by criddell | 2025-07-20 13:59:11+00:00
I keep hoping that somebody way smarter than me will eventually make a modern version of the TRS-80 Model 100. The original would run for days on 4 AA batteries. You would think that with modern chips and displays, you could get months of runtime on a set of 4 AA batteries.

The ideal system for me would be almost identical to the original machine. Simple OS (not Linux), basic applications, no web browser or WiFi.
by Voultapher | 2025-07-20 13:59:16+00:00
From I understand and based on this [1] what current research can do is e.g ~0.8 bar overpressure instead of ~1.2 bar. That's better sure, but the sonic boom is still in the 80+db range on the ground. I wouldn't call that almost no boom.

[1] https://youtu.be/CM5lbIzH2kc
by ants_everywhere | 2025-07-20 13:59:23+00:00
I don't agree with a lot of what you're writing here, but reading through the lines I think maybe there's some common ground.

There is a philosophy that value (including reality) is subjective and that all that matters is making people act. That's quite explicitly the philosophy of Marx. It's in strong contrast to the "philosophical bedrock of western civilization", which is the search for objective truth and objective reality. Whatever one thinks of Marx's idea that objective reality is a middle class fiction, I don't think people would agree that those ideas are associated with the elite of Western civilization. Quite the opposite.

I think what you're ultimately referring to is the use of ordinal utility functions by economists. It's not clear how to write equations in economics where each person's preferences are accurately expressed in well-behaved value-agnostic units. You could try using money, but not everyone values having a lot of money. And even if they did, which currency? Dollars? Euros? Gold? Bitcoin?

Because utility functions are hard to get right theoretically, Paul Samuelson proposed trying to measure them empirically by revealed preference. There are lots of things wrong with this from an academic perspective and it's reasonable to have concerns about the long-term effects if this is adopted for entire economies. But it didn't start until 1938 and it's certainly not a philosophical bedrock of Western civilization. More like a desperate hack.

> we can't measure feelings

We have several ways of measuring feelings, and we use them regularly. But you can't build a utility theory based literally on current feelings. Otherwise opium would have nearly infinite objective value. You want to use something that integrates over time, like life satisfaction. Or something that measures the current feeling, change in feeling, and integral over feeling like a PID controller. But even if you could get the measurements right, doing all the measurements for all 8.2 billion people in real time would be impossible right now. So it's not clear what the right theory is.
by Coeur | 2025-07-20 13:59:53+00:00
What that mode shows is that the Tesla thinks there is nothing there.

AFAIK what Tesla's software does is object detection (cars, people, bikes, road sides) and only uses that. Which of course is not at all safe since there can always be things on the road that are an obstacle but not recognized.

What it should do is model the entire world around it in 3d and consider that. But it doesn't. Cow on the road - problably not recognized. A child in an uncommon halloween costume chilling / lying in the middle of the road - pretty damn sure not recognized and the Tesla would just kill that child. Yep.

(I drove a Tesla Model 3 with the latest "self-driving" software for a bit a year back.)
by lazylizard | 2025-07-20 14:00:00+00:00
i cannot understand the urge to compete with the pig or cow or chicken (especially) for meat production. they are so good at turning feed into meat.

why not plant based lobster, crab, sea cucumber or sea urchin or sharks fin or something similar. that is unproductive? or impossible to farm? and perhaps even endangered? something that plant based processes are closer to competing on price.
by withinboredom | 2025-07-20 14:00:07+00:00
> When you break the law, say murder, the ultimate victim is the state.

Umm... aren't they just representing the victim because the victim is dead? If you steal, it is the victim who brings forward the crime (reporting it). When you perform other crimes, again, the victim may be society itself and society needs to be represented -- not the state.
by samrus | 2025-07-20 14:00:09+00:00
> just that they need to be given the right instructions.

this is the part im talking about. i also think LLMs are very capable at detecting different types and levels or grammar, but they cant decide which ones should be filtered out to meet a certain goal. they need detailed instructions for that, and thats somewhat inefficient and causes issues like this right here.

we have done this song and dance many times with AI. its the bitter lesson: you need a system that learns these things, you cant just give it a rule based engine to patch the things it cant learn. that works in the short term, but leads to a dead end. we need something that has the "common sense" to see when grammar is fine versus hindering communication, and this just isnt there yet. so it needs to be given detailed instructions to do so. which may or may not be sustainable
by ezst | 2025-07-20 14:00:24+00:00
> primarily to communicate with family located where there is high censorship and most messengers are blocked

I was travelling frequently through Asia and the Middle East around a decade ago. I wanted a platform that just works, that is low on resources, that I can self-host, that I can "disguise" itself as something else when needed (run behind a different port, or IP, over ToR, etc).

Matrix was new then, and promising to right every wrong from previous protocols (mild exaggeration). I bought into the hype, and got burnt by it, finally settled with XMPP (which Matrix had told me wasn't adequate), and stayed there to this day because when Matrix really didn't go anywhere since, XMPP kept getting better and better. That would be my recommendation to you.
by CurtHagenlocher | 2025-07-20 14:00:31+00:00
Similarly, buildings 40 and 41 were (at least pre-remodel) roughly mirror images of each other. Roughly a week after moving from 41 to 40 -- long enough to start navigating based on "caveman memory" but not long enough to override a year's worth of previous memories -- I accidentally went into the women's restroom instead of the men's because they too were mirrored.
by linsomniac | 2025-07-20 14:00:31+00:00
>back up multiple hosts to the same repository

I haven't tried that recently (~3 years), does that work with concurrency or do you need to ensure one backup is running at a time? Back when I tried it I got the sense that it wasn't really meant to have many machines accessing the repo at once, and decided it was probably worth wasting space but having potentially more robust backups. Especially for my home use case where I only have a couple machines I'm backing up. But it'd be pretty cool if I could replace my main backup servers (using rsync --inplace and zfs snapshots) with restic and get deduplication.
by AngryData | 2025-07-20 14:00:31+00:00
This has been a problem since industrialization and I think is inherent in capitalist systems which strive towards maximum profit margins over every other factor. Where ever a corner can be cut it will be in the name of profit, reputation be damned because they can just use advertising, marketing, and marketplace dominance to suppress concerns over quality as they boil the frog.

Declining product quality was even one of the major complaints luddites had over factory looms, it wasn't just that they were being replaced with lesser skilled workers and their wages cut, but the quality of fabric from the factory looms they built just got worse and worse over time so they couldn't even claim their loss of wages was worth having better clothes, they got worse wages and worse clothes.

Everyone likes to hem and haw over free market supposedly fixing such problems, but completely ignores the huge amount of friction in moving markets that require massive tons of capital to even challenge to the smallest degree. And even if you get the overall established market to change practices for a small time span it is only through essentially open war with one another as the companies battle it out; and as soon as there is either a clear dominating winner, or a few of the larger companies essentially decide peace is better and stop truly challenging each other for dominance, everything goes right back to reducing quality and increasing profit margins. The big companies know being at perpetual war in the market, which is what would be best for consumers in providing the best prices and products, makes their position less stable and leaves them vulnerable to new challengers, and instead tend to default towards unspoken collusion with other big established companies in order to not rock the boat. It makes the companies more stable and profitable, but is worse for consumers, and gets even worse for consumers when those companies start looking at other ways to entrench their position through politics and law.
by nico | 2025-07-20 14:00:34+00:00
A couple of days ago on Reddit, there was a thread about “company secrets”. A guy that did food tasting for some cookies company said that most people, when doing the tastings, think they are trying different brands and that the company is trying to get their preference. But what they are really doing, is testing the same cookie, each with one different (cheaper) ingredient than the current recipe in the market. The company is looking for the cheapest new recipe that people will still eat (buy)
by palata | 2025-07-20 14:00:55+00:00
Not sure I like the tone. Yes, I have heard the phrase "last year's model".

Say you buy a smartphone, and you want it to last for 7 years. If you buy the model from 2025, the manufacturer commits to supporting it until 2032 (it already exists). Now if you buy the 2025 model in 2029, it will still last until 2032, so in 2029 it actually makes sense to not buy the model from 2025. But I would say that it's pretty great that the manufacturer commits to supporting the devices for 7 years.

Planned obsolescence suggests that the company has been actively investing resources into it. "This lightbulb lasts for 4 years, have our engineers find a way to make it die after 1 year" is the typical example of that.

Now of course, as a customer, you can buy the 2025 model, and throw it away in 2026 to buy the new model.
by TrackerFF | 2025-07-20 14:01:09+00:00
I've noticed a great deal programmers, very good programmers at that, that completely underestimate how fast things are moving. They're natural skeptics, and checked out ChatGPT when it was released. Then they maybe checked out some other models a year after. But eventually wrote it off as hype, and continue to do things their way. You know, artisanal code and all that.

I think that if you willfully ignore the development, you might be left in the dust. As you say, it is a force multiplier. Even average programmers can become extremely productive, if they know how to use the AI.
by more_corn | 2025-07-20 14:01:10+00:00
It’s unclear that our economy will survive a declining population. Our economic system for the last few thousand years is predicated on the idea that money will be worth more later so investment in the future is worthwhile. Without growth that is no longer a given. (Granted we could achieve growth by lifting people out of poverty, but there might be a limit)

I’m not arguing overpopulation or carrying capacity. I’m simply pointing out the economic side.
by RandomBacon | 2025-07-20 14:01:22+00:00
Unless you get a nonlinear junction detector, I'm not sure any other device works as well. I remember seeing a news piece where they pay someone to plant a bunch of cameras, and the reporter tries a bunch of different devices and still misses some.

https://hackaday.com/2017/09/20/spy-tech-nonlinear-junction-...

It would be nice if someone could make them and sell them cheaply. I would buy into that Kickstarter.
by dazc | 2025-07-20 14:01:52+00:00
The non-technical answer is that people do not care so long as it's safer and less unpleasant than the current alternative.

My last taxi ride involved jumping red lights and speeding through residential streets at 60mph because, I assume, it was early morning and the driver had learned from experience that he could get away with driving like this.

The previous experience to this was a lecture about a certain religious ideology and how I should spend the next two weeks reading up about it.
by codechicago277 | 2025-07-20 14:02:50+00:00
“On Monday, Musk thought it would be funny to expand the area covered by its three-week-old Austin robotaxi service to resemble a giant penis when seen on a map.

“Harder, better, faster, stronger,” the $1 trillion company wrote on Monday, a double entendre referencing the synth pop track of the same name by Daft Punk, a duo appropriately known for performing as robots. Musk approvingly reposted the phallus-shaped service map, adding the fare would now be hiked to $6.90 per ride from $4.20 previously, both numbers the 54-year old often employs for comical effect.”

It’s amazing that anyone still takes him seriously. One of the first riders almost hit a train, and this is what he’s spending his time on. It’s inexcusable, but his fans lap it up.
by nerdsniper | 2025-07-20 14:02:58+00:00
> It's not like erythritol is hard for a consumer to avoid.

How many ingredients with negative effects on the order of erythritol are in my foods, cosmetic products, homecare products, food packaging, etc that I need to be aware of? Not how hard is it to avoid erythritol -- but how hard is it to avoid every substance that is at least similarly bad for me?
by pixl97 | 2025-07-20 14:03:48+00:00
>My voice is MY VOICE and if you don't like it I couldn't care any less cause I speak and think for myself always.

If you believe that then there quite a few things you may be confused about the nature of your being.

Your voice is the assembly of society and people around you. If you actually thought your for yourself always you'd never get anything done in your life as you've had hundreds of millions of years to thinking from first principles to catch up on.
by an0malous | 2025-07-20 14:03:48+00:00
Yes, capitalism requires perpetual growth. When the opportunities for growth through innovation dry up, businesses resort to cutting costs which usually involves cutting quality and hoping most consumers won’t notice.

Incidentally, this is the exact strategy that VC and Private Equity use. They know how the game is played.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
by Mawr | 2025-07-20 14:04:07+00:00
> I hate the fact that they didn't want runtime assertions as an example,

So you hate writing:

if (something != 1) { panic("oh no!") }

vs

assert(something != 1, "oh no!")

? Reminds me of people complaining about Python's significant indentation. If that's what you're complaining about, you have nothing to complain about.
by bob1029 | 2025-07-20 14:04:56+00:00
> It's annoying to be repeatedly called a Luddite for questioning this stuff

I've been employing the strategy of pushing on the customer and product delivery expectations. Ask some variants of the following in your next team meeting:

"Where are we at with Customer X?" "How does Bob (the customer's CEO) feel about the project right now?" "How will this sell us more copies or make the customer pay more money?"

These kinds of questions can rapidly reorient a team if a member with the power to terminate other employees is present. If the most senior management seems apathetic to these questions and you are interested in building an actual career, it might be time to move on. At some point, the person(s) paying for everything need to ask themselves if they intend to conduct a serious business or simply run a daycare for neurotic tech enthusiasts.
by sigseg1v | 2025-07-20 14:05:08+00:00
Is it though? Just checked for hotels 3 star and up in my city, 1 month out, 1 bed, and it's $314 per night for the cheapest one. I have a hard time believing that if I stay here for 2 or 3 nights and pay them $1000 that they are barely scraping by on this.
by jvanderbot | 2025-07-20 14:05:09+00:00
My AI tool use has been a net positive experience at work. It can take over small tasks when I need a break, clean up or start momentum, and generally provide a good helping hand. But even if it could do my job, the costs pile up really quickly. Claude Code can burn $25/ 1-2 hrs, easily on a large codebase, and that's creeping along at a net positive rate assuming I can keep it on task and provide corrections. If you automate the corrections we are up to $50/hr or some tradeoff of speed, accuracy, and cost.

Same as it's always been.

For agents, that triangle is not very well quanitfied at the moment which makes all these investigations interesting but still risky.
by apexalpha | 2025-07-20 14:05:51+00:00
It's insane to me that they're struggling despite the burgers being more expensive than actual meat in my supermarket.

They taste nice, sure. But my supermarket now also has Mushroom burgers, lentil burgers, normal soya burgers... All for 1/3 of the price.

The premium product of vegatarian meat is meat, not more expensive veggie meat, it seems.

Personally I think this will become that premium spot: mosameat.com

But who knows, it's too early to tell.
by ptero | 2025-07-20 14:06:10+00:00
Just empirical observations. It takes time to propagate technology down to general businesses and business methods up to technology developers. The "propagate down to business methods" is the slower path, as it requires business leaders to become familiar enough with technology to get ideas on how to leverage it.

This is not a new observation -- Clark's note on overestimating short term and underestimating long term impact of technology is one of my favorite patterns. My 2c.
by n_e | 2025-07-20 14:06:38+00:00
I've been surprised to see that several cycling products have gotten better over time.

For example I have bought these bottles https://www.zefal.com/en/bottles/545-magnum.html three times over ten years:

- the first time, the mouthpiece was attached by two plastic prongs. The prongs eventually failed

- The second time I bought them, the mouthpiece was attached by four prongs

- The last time I bought them, the hard plastic mouthpiece was replaced by a more comfortable plastic mouthpiece.

I also bought these pedals three times https://www.lookcycle.com/fr-en/products/pedals/road/race/ke... :

- With the first version, small rocks got stuck between the carbon spring and the body of the pedal, making it impossible to clip in and eventually dislodging the spring

- The second version fixed that by adding a plastic cover over the spring, and also improved the bearing seals (which was also a problem with the first version)

- The third version made the angles on the outside of the pedal less acute, making it harder to damage the pedals in a fall
by JKCalhoun | 2025-07-20 14:06:51+00:00
Agree. And it wasn't like that at Apple in 1995 when I started. Steve Jobs came back soon after though and so did secrecy. (I'm talking specifically about internal secrecy.)

Would the iPhone have been as big a surprise if all of Apple knew what was going down? Probably not — it probably would have leaked, and leaked profusely.

I'll leave it to others to determine if leaks would have been a bad thing. I mean what we were told from above is: Apple gets a lot of free press from the surprise part of "surprise and delight". When Apple was not the behemoth we know today the free press was probably a powerful thing.

Regardless, as you point out, it's hard to imagine the iPhone would have suffered if more eyeballs and expertise had been able to play with it, weigh in on its shortcomings before it shipped.

I was just a programmer though, not a director. They probably knew what they were doing. I'm just pointing out that there were consequences.

I'll relay this: likely most readers here remember the failed roll-out of Apple Maps. At that point though in the iPhone's lifespan many of those internal at Apple, even those not among the chosen ones, had access to the beta builds. And I will say that there were plenty of people that called out the Maps deficiencies and filed Radars (bug reports) about them before it shipped. Maps shipped anyway. (And when the blowback came Apple apologized and I feel a scapegoat was sought. I'll leave it at that though.)

When Apple products were still in their top-secrecy mode though, many of those engineers not in-the-know had pretty low company morale. You were not "special" if you were out of the loop. Additionally it seemed financial benefits/bonuses flowed primarily to the inner-circle. That, I suppose, was also a Jobs thing.
by Marsymars | 2025-07-20 14:07:13+00:00
> The FDA already allows far too much salt and preservatives in US food supplies and this fake meat stuff is an absurd amount of salt that will 100% give you a heart attack very very early if you eat it regularly.

A Beyond Burger has ~300 mg sodium. You could eat one every day and come in well under the recommended daily allowance of sodium as long as the rest of your diet is appropriate.
by buran77 | 2025-07-20 14:07:24+00:00
You start by saying "not that sure" but then continue to support my point. So now I'm also not that sure what you mean.

3000€+ in the early 2000s is easily 5000€ today accounting for inflation. Even if you mean they are 3000€ today, at that price point the market is needle thin. The best selling fridges on Amazon.de right now are in the 300€ region, maybe 500-600€ if you want to go "premium". So you're saying a fridge that's 10-15 times more expensive than the cheap best sellers is also better.

This is exactly the quality/price trap. People remember the quality from "way back when" but forget the price. We mostly just traded quality/longevity for cheaper and faster replacement. Quality didn't necessarily go down, it's just people target cheaper products today.