MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by horsawlarway | 2025-07-06 01:41:16+00:00
I think there are couple of conflated aspects here - and some of them are fine, and likely a consequence of computing devices being more ingrained in common day, and some of them are very hostile, and clearly intended to subvert the interests of the user.

As an example:

I think hiding controls in favor of "knowledge in the head", as the author phrases it, is absolutely fine when the user is presumed to be aware of features, should be able to understand they exist and know how to use them, and can reasonably learn them. Especially fine if those controls aren't used all that often, and are behind a keyboard shortcut or other common and efficient route to reach them.

On the other hand - I think there's also been a drive to visibly reduce how much control and understanding basic users might have about how a machine works. Examples of this are things like

- Hiding the scheme/path in browser url bars

- Hiding the file path in file explorers and other relevant contexts

- Hiding desired options behind hoops (ex - installing windows without signing into an account, or disabling personalized ads in chrome)

Those later options feel hostile. I need to know the file path to understand where the file is located. I can't simply memorize it - even if I see the same base filename, is it in "c:/users/me/onedrive/[file]" or "c:/users/me/backed_up_spot/[file]"? No way to know without seeing the damn path, and I can have multiple copies floating around. That's intentional (it drives users to Microsofts paid tooling), and hostile.

Basically - knowledge that can be learned and memorized can benefit from workflows that give you the "blank canvas" that the author seems to hate. Command lines are a VERY powerful tool to use a computer, and the text interface is a big part of that. R is (despite my personal distaste for it as a language) a very powerful tool. Much more powerful and flexible than SPSS.

But there are also places where companies are subverting user goals to drive revenue, and that can rightfully fuck right off.

One of my biggest complaints with modern computing is that "The internet" has placed a lot of software into a gray zone where it's not clear if it's respecting my decisions/needs/wants or the publisher's decisions/needs/wants.

It used to be that the publisher only mattered until the moment of sale. Then it was me and the software vs the world - ride or die. Now far too much software is like judas. Happy to sell me out if there's a little extra silver in it.
Ask HN: Anyone interested in improving scheduling?
by mradek | 2025-07-06 01:41:27+00:00
I'm working on improving scheduling.

Specifically, any scenario where you have complex rules governing limited resources. Think large-scale, multi-year waterfall projects with $XX million budgets and hundreds to thousands of resources (people, machines, etc.).

Here are couple examples:

- Construction and engineering projects with thousands of interdependent tasks, crews and equipment

- Job-shop and flow-shop manufacturing where parts must move through machines under sequence and capacity constraints

If any of this sounds familiar, interesting, or you have direct experience dealing with these problems (as a PM, etc.), let's connect.

Shoot me an email at *** hello at mradek dot com *** or reply in this thread!
by lunar-whitey | 2025-07-06 01:42:42+00:00
It is important to understand that the methods selected for the “Final Solution” were intended to minimize costs. It is dangerous for crime at this scale to become cheap.

The experience of the Einsatzgruppen in Poland showed that mass execution with guns used too much material and was too stressful for the perpetrators. Camps allowed operational costs to be amortized while individual responsibility was diffused.
by seanmcdirmid | 2025-07-06 01:43:52+00:00
Not just that, wiring it in to the single control bus is easier, otherwise you are stuck doing an analog to digital conversion anyways. Even new cars that have separate controls, these are mostly capacitive buttons or dials that simply send a fixed signal on the bus (so your dial will go all the way around, because it isn't actually the single volume control on the radio, but just a turn the volume up or down control).

Most of the cost savings is in having a single bus to wire up through the car, then everything needs a little computer in it to send on that bus...so a screen wins out.
by Desafinado | 2025-07-06 01:44:47+00:00
I don't think any of us can answer these questions for you. It sounds like you've done enough real development to consider yourself integrated into the field, so there's hope I think. If I were in your shoes the main thing I'd be considering is how you want to spend the rest of your career. Do you genuinely enjoy software development? If so then get your thinking cap on and figure out how to make it work. If you don't like it that much then this might be a good time to jump ship.

Remote roles are also difficult to land for junior developers because there is an assumption that those working remotely are going to be independent (it's harder to support someone when you can't sit at the keyboard with them). So that might be one of the reasons you aren't finding remote roles, and one could argue that at this stage of your career you maybe shouldn't be looking for one.

Also bear in mind that in the U.S. market we're in a situation now where even incredibly skilled developers are having trouble finding work. I worked with a guy about a decade ago who mentored me and taught me a lot, he was one of those savant programmers who'd been doing it his whole life. He got laid off last year and has been out of work since. So it's also the market, not just you.

All of this being said I think there is a place in the IT industry for people like you to find work in companies who have a harder time getting bodies into seats, unattractive companies with boring tech stacks and cultures. That might not sound appealing to you, but it's been my experience that companies like this tend to come with less stress and a slower pace. Basically you need to look at it from the cost/benefit perspective of the employer. If they have a hard time hiring and paying an excessive salary, they're more likely to hire inexperienced people. Whereas if you're gunning for high paid remote roles you're just too far down experience line.

Once you build up your experience and skill-level, that's when you can aim for remote roles.
by kjellsbells | 2025-07-06 01:45:37+00:00
More like the 1960s. For example, looking at old National Geographics and pop sci magazines you see an incredible optimism and respect for science, engineering, and the orgs that did them. All those "atomics of the future"-type stuff.

What changed was that the wall of secrecy broke down and stories of pollution, corruption, and all around bad behavior hit the public like a tsunami. Then we learned that governments had been lying to us over things like Vietnam, with the Pentagon Papers, Watergate etc. Pretty hard to be positive after that. The computerization of the 1970s through 1990s was broadly positively perceived until the 2000s when it became undeniable that Big Tech would do anything to harvest users. Cambridge Analytica. Cutting off Netscape's air supply. Embrace, extend, and extinguish. There are not many reasons to be optimistic.
by yubblegum | 2025-07-06 01:47:07+00:00
Thanks!

>You might say "couldn't a high D (dark traits) person mask as a low D person, as a wolf in sheep's clothing?" I don't think so, or at least they usually won't.

"person"

The analytical error here is the assumption that political actors are individuals -- we're certainly trained in US to think that way -- but historically political actors are part of some sort of collective process. To wit, we could be dealing with a high D ideology and a well trained member.
by montroser | 2025-07-06 01:48:17+00:00
Isn't it hard to conclude that this is causal? How do we know we're not just seeing that the set of people who elect to take on the responsibility of walking, feeding, and socializing with a dog are likely to see a slower cognitive decline? That they take on dog ownership because they're sharp and capable -- not the other way round.

Intuitively, I do believe that being forced to walk a dog every day when you might not have otherwise exercised, will come with health benefits. And it does not seem implausible for their findings to be true. But did they actually prove anything here?
by const_cast | 2025-07-06 01:49:22+00:00
> Really, a simplified tax system without such should be the goal

Yes, it should be, because in addition to complex tax systems introducing loopholes and exceptions, they also become more complex to collect.

If taxes were simple and straightforward, you would sink an entire industry in the US. There's a whole money pit around just getting money from people to their government. That's money you could, instead, be getting as taxes.
by __MatrixMan__ | 2025-07-06 01:49:28+00:00
>I've never had so many positive random interactions with strangers ever in my entire adult life.

>Both me approaching others when my dog is with me or being approached.

That's great. But to others considering a dog... be aware that the opposite can be true also.

My dog is not friendly to strangers, so we have to take extra steps to avoid contact with them when we go out. I love the dog, but I feel like I'm missing out on random interactions with my community that used to happen on occasion.
by seanmcdirmid | 2025-07-06 01:49:44+00:00
I'm pretty sure that simple switch is something directly in the circuit for the fog light, and there is a dedicated wire between the fog light, the switch, and the fuse box. And if its an old Jag, those wires flake out and have to be redone at great expense.

Compare this to the databus that is used in today's cars, it really isn't even a fair comparison on cost (you don't have to have 100 wires running through different places in your car, just one bus to 100 things and signal is separated from power).
by cyberax | 2025-07-06 01:50:42+00:00
A lot of introverts are quite likely to be somewhere on the autism spectrum.

For example, I can't unconsciously read expressions. I scored worse than blind guessing on the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test". So I consciously learned to read and mimic expressions, literally using a textbook for theater performers. So now I can score at the upper range of neurotypical people.

Other introverts often have problems recognizing social cues or initiating conversations. Purely because it's not _natural_ for them, even though they might _want_ to actually speak to people.

So is it kind of performative? Yes. But think about this, extroverts are doing a lot of same tricks subconsciously. Does it mean that they're _always_ performing?
by skydhash | 2025-07-06 01:52:18+00:00
And the main reason excel works is because it's very tangible. Referencing by cell address is obvious in ways declaring variables isn't. And the formula style is similar to the f(x) we learned in high school. And they are domain primitives instead of weird things like main() or sys.exit().

But most people don't like to program. They want to use their computer to do a task. And maybe they think of a novel way to do the task, but it's not a daily or even monthly occurrence. And even then they lack the training to fully specify their ideas (it's tedious for a reason). And from what I've seen, almost no one wants to spend the day trying to get it out a probability machine.
by magicalhippo | 2025-07-06 01:53:02+00:00
> Maybe it's classified in different ways.

This was my leading thought as well.

> Surprising if it's more per capita than the US though.

Well we do have these pipes in the ocean that spew money... Our oil fund is currently contributing 25% of the national budget, despite being below the somewhat stringent self-imposed spending rule[1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_budgetary_rule
by rileymat2 | 2025-07-06 01:55:50+00:00
> Basically, if you remove the knobs you can save, say, 10 dollars on every vehicle. In return, you have made your car less attractive and will lose a small number of sales.

Is there evidence that fancy looking screens don't show better in the showroom than legacy looking knobs and buttons? Where under use, they may be better, I am not sure all that sells better.
by __float | 2025-07-06 01:57:52+00:00
Not everything needs 10k RPS, and in some sense there are benefits to a new process – how many security incidents have been caused by accidental cross-request state sharing?

And in a similar vein, Postgres (which is generally well liked!) uses a new backend process per connection. (Of course this has limitations, and sometimes necessitates pgbouncer, but not always.)
by refurb | 2025-07-06 01:59:19+00:00
It’s pretty standard now.

But not so much for hygiene standards (the chlorine takes care of that), but more for maintenance issues.

Rinsing off before going in reduces the organic load in the pool, which reduces the amount of chlorine consumed, which reduces the amount of chemicals needed to maintain clean water (not to mention reduces chloramine levels which can irritate swimmers lungs).
by daxfohl | 2025-07-06 01:59:42+00:00
I think if any of this becomes possible, it won't happen. Seriously, if AGI was truly on the horizon at openai or elsewhere, the first thing they'd do is shut it down. Once it's AGI, they would have to realize that they can't control it any more than anyone else can, and facing the reality of that would stop them in their tracks.

In a way, all the hype can only indicate that AGI is still a distant illusion. If it were really around the corner we'd be hearing different stories.
by vdupras | 2025-07-06 01:59:59+00:00
We've got to define "unlivable". What if statistically, everyone's house will be destroyed by flooding, forest fires, etc.. let's say, twice in their lifetime. How can the math possibly add up if a house's price requires a 50 years mortgage? At some point, something's gotta give and that kind of odds will happen in a timescale shorter than many living people care about.

Also, wasn't there something about, you know, caring for the generations to come? Maybe I misremember...
by cortesoft | 2025-07-06 02:00:54+00:00
Is this really an argument or just fact? From what I understand, the modern accepted view of evolution is that it happens in a sudden step wise manner... there will be an equilibrium, where the ecosystem is fairly stable and species don't change much, and then some shock or change will happen and evolution will be rapid, over a relatively short period.

This makes sense if you think deeply about it; evolution will only happen when the 'normal' genetic expression stops surviving, otherwise the random variations will even out.
by GianFabien | 2025-07-06 02:01:55+00:00
The ginormous computer companies don't target programmers, they want ever more users aka consumers. Apple is a good example, their products are increasingly difficult to program yet increasingly polished to appeal to the under-informed buying public.

We only need to look at how BASIC (MS) and HyperCard (Apple) were eliminated in order to remove easily accessible end-user programming. wrt spreadsheets, only a tiny minority of operators use the macro or language binding features.

I shudder at new motor vehicles being ever more software based. On this basis of any recognized bug to lines of code metric, hundreds of faults are lurking therein.
by wat10000 | 2025-07-06 02:02:24+00:00
A more realistic attack would be something like, slipping a malicious payload past a scanner by emailing a zip file that appears innocent when unpacked with the scanner’s zip implementation but produces malware when unpacked with the email client’s implementation. There’s a decent chance they’ll be different, and it wouldn’t be too hard to guess which ones a target might be using.
by brightmood | 2025-07-06 02:03:02+00:00
That part

> What? I think someone needing this level of instruction would be better served by basic mindfulness and small, manageable exercises in active listening or empathetic dialog, rather than a grab bag of non-contextual tips like this.

Look, when you say "someone needing this level of instruction," it comes across like needing detailed, step-by-step help is weird or a problem. But plenty of people with ADHD, autism, or other brain differences don't just find this helpful - they actually need it to make sense of things.

And suggesting they'd be "better off" with mindfulness or simpler stuff? That assumes they haven't already been down that road. Maybe those approaches just don't click with how their brain works.

Calling it a "grab bag of random tips" really undersells what's going on here. For people who need things spelled out clearly and directly, those specific tips might be the difference between something being useless and actually doable.

The whole thing reads like it's written from the perspective of someone who finds this stuff obvious, then judges other approaches as somehow inferior. That's the ableist part - acting like there's one "right" way to understand things and anything else is just... less good.
by petesergeant | 2025-07-06 02:03:32+00:00
> The nascent web community quickly learned that this was a bad idea, and invented technologies like PHP

Well ackshually ... the technology here that was important was mod_php; PHP itself was no different to Perl in how it was run, but the design choice of mod_php as compared to mod_perl was why PHP scripts could just be dumped on the server and run fast, where you needed a small amount of thinking and magic to mod_perl working.
by l_j_w | 2025-07-06 02:03:52+00:00
I know that HN is basically an SV FAANG echo chamber, so when I read a question like this I assume it’s asked from that standpoint. This world where someone graduates from Waterloo, comes to SV and gets a job immediately making six figures with a seven figure stock future when the company makes it. The tech world is so much bigger than that. I’ve been in tech since the mid 90s. I bring home a base salary of 190K and get a nice COL every year and a decent bonus if the company does well. I’ve been at this company 21 years. A nice, simple, life of 40hr work weeks, working from home, but will try to go in every Wednesday to see the rest of the team. This to me is the real world of tech, and I’m among a few hundred of devs like me in Atlanta just enjoying our Staff Software jobs. So when I hear about devs hating that they no longer get overpaid I just have to laugh. I think the industry will be better if we get back to people doing it for the love of the craft instead of getting that big paycheck to brag about. A lot of my neighbors are PHDs working at the CDC, DOE or FDA. They aren’t enjoying life at the moment. There is not magical degree/job. Find something you enjoy instead of being so caught up in the money. Glad I am a decade or less away from retirement, as the past decade of over privileged devs has made this profession a joke.
by vinhnx | 2025-07-06 02:04:29+00:00
I built VT Chat because I wanted AI conversations that stay completely private while having access to the latest models like Claude 4, O3, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and DeepSeek R1.

App: https://vtchat.io.vn

Open Source: https://github.com/vinhnx/vtchat

The key difference is true local-first architecture. Everything lives in your browser - chats stored in IndexedDB, zero server storage, and your API keys never leave your device. I literally can't see your data even as the developer.

Switch between 15+ AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.) and compare responses side-by-side. Safe for shared machines with complete data isolation between users. Local models with LM Studio, LLama.ccp and Ollama is in the road map.

Research features that I actually use daily: Deep Research does multi-step research with source verification, Pro Search integrates real-time web search, and AI Memory builds a personal knowledge base from your conversations. Also includes PDF processing, "thinking mode" to watch AI reasoning unfold, structured data extraction, and semantic routing that automatically activates the right tools.

Built with Next.js 14, TypeScript, and Turborepo. Fully open source for self-hosting. The hosted version is mostly free, with optional VT+ for premium models and advanced research capabilities.

Would love feedback on the local-first approach or any questions about the implementation.
by npinsker | 2025-07-06 02:05:16+00:00
Confidence and genuine interest can’t be taught. Unfortunately, they also can’t be faked. Humans have evolved to be hyper-aware of what others’ mannerisms and behaviors convey, and most socially adept people can sniff out a “networker” in less than a minute. The only way forward is practice — talk to people, be awkward and fail a lot, learn to care about others’ life and work, and express it (or talk about your own interests!) in a way that adds value to their life.
by PoshBreeze | 2025-07-06 02:05:46+00:00
> I'm pretty sure that simple switch is something directly in the circuit for the fog light, and there is a dedicated wire between the fog light, the switch, and the fuse box. And if its an old Jag, those wires flake out and have to be redone at great expense.

I don't really want to get into a big debate about this as I haven't worked on Jags, but I don't believe that replacing parts of the loom is would be that expensive. Remaking an entire loom, I will admit that would expensive as that would be a custom job with a lot of labour.

> Compare this to the databus that is used in today's cars, it really isn't even a fair comparison on cost (you don't have to have 100 wires running through different places in your car, just one bus to 100 things and signal is separated from power).

Ok fine. But the discussion was button vs touch screens and there is nothing preventing buttons being used with the newer databus design. I am pretty sure older BMWs, Mercs etc worked this way.
by phil21 | 2025-07-06 02:06:01+00:00
Right, that’s FBA. I’m talking about sold by Amazon. I’m specifically talking about a case where a sold by Amazon item came from co-mingled inventory from a FBA seller.

I also know from direct second party experience (I also personally saw the terms) that at least at a certain level of “brand” you can decline this option with Amazon for your registered product skus/ASIN even for FBA. I don’t know if this is offered to everyone though - I know it went through some sort of “deal reg” process in the one case I saw. I imagine this came through some sort of lawsuit or threats of one for a major brand at some point - but that is speculation on my part.
by lukasb | 2025-07-06 02:06:27+00:00
Except: "The active time includes periods when the database is receiving requests and for a duration (default 300 seconds) after the last request is received. Following this period of inactivity, the database scales down to zero, effectively pausing compute time billing."

So if you get at least one request every five minutes, neon will charge you for 24 hours of compute a day.
by mock-possum | 2025-07-06 02:06:38+00:00
> I live in Chicago and had a coyote briefly staying under my deck last autum

Wow I misread this as “staying under my desk” a comical number of times before I managed to actually see the right word.

How delightful to imagine, a little pile of coyotes snuggled up under your desk, in the middle of some office building in Chicago!