MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
mTLS vs. HTTP Message Signatures: Tradeoffs in Securing HTTP Requests
by getvictor | 2025-07-06 22:17:34+00:00
I’ve been comparing two approaches to authenticating HTTP requests: mTLS and HTTP Message Signatures (like RFC 9421).

mTLS is fast and handled by the TLS layer, but has deployment complexity (e.g. certs, termination). HTTP signatures offer more flexibility at the app layer, but require custom logic and replay protection.

Currently, I'm on the HTTP Message Signatures train since it provides more flexibility to an app developer like me, and I don't have to worry about infrastructure such as load balancers. I can decide which API endpoints need signatures and which parts of the request will be signed.

Curious what others are using in production. How are you securing requests between services or devices? Any lessons from trying both?
by jodrellblank | 2025-07-06 22:18:04+00:00
I have enthused about Dr David Burns, his TEAMS CBT therapy style, how it seems like debugging for the brain in a way that might appeal to a HN readership, how The Feeling Good podcast is free online with lots of episodes explaining it, working through each bit, recordings of therapy sessions with people demonstrating it…

They have an AI app which they have just made free for this summer:

https://feelinggood.com/2025/07/02/feeling-great-app-is-now-...

I haven’t used it (yet) so this isn’t a recommendation for the app, except it’s a recommendation for his approach and the app I would try before the dozens of others on the App Store of corporate and Silicon Valley cash making origins.

Dr Burns used to give free therapy sessions before he retired and keeps working on therapy in to his 80s and has often said if people who can’t afford the app contact him, he’ll give it for free, which makes me trust him more although it may be just another manipulation.
by bigfatkitten | 2025-07-06 22:18:45+00:00
> You'd literally need to build more roads, as long haul trucks would be on the road, literally, for an entire day longer per load. Speed is efficiency.

Only up to a point. The relationship between speed and fuel burned is not linear, and fuel is the largest cost.

The legislated maximum speed for heavy vehicles in Australia is 100km/h, but most major fleets electronically limit their vehicles to 90 for efficiency reasons.

Every extra km/h over 90 has a negligible impact on trip time while imposing a large penalty in terms of fuel burn.
by richk449 | 2025-07-06 22:19:04+00:00
It sounds like you are making a distinction between digital (silicon computers) and analog (biological brains).

As far as possible reasons that a computer can’t achieve AGI go, this seems like the best one (assuming computer means digital computer of course).

But in a philosophical sense, a computer obeys the same laws of physics that a brain does, and the transistors are analog devices that are being used to create a digital architecture. So whatever makes you brain have uncountable states would also make a real digital computer have uncountable states. Of course we can claim that only the digital layer on top matters, but why?
by alganet | 2025-07-06 22:19:13+00:00
Just being honest, mostly.

I'll say things I know will get me downvoted.

I'll criticize things that could benefit me if I think they're manipulative.

I won't do alt accounts even if everyone does it.

I think most surveillance and advertisement relies on social dynamics. I attempt to play the algorithms but not the people. Sometimes it will get misunderstood, and that's fine.
by unsnap_biceps | 2025-07-06 22:19:25+00:00
Yes. Microvms are stripped down to the basic hardware needed (AWS' Firecracker for example), so they 'boot' really fast, in the tenths of seconds for my containers, but you do have the extra resource overhead of running a second kernel and the performance reduction of the VM context switches. That said, it's minor enough that I feel the security tradeoff is well worth it.
by an_aparallel | 2025-07-06 22:19:29+00:00
I had the same diagnosis, and treatment was getting on serious antidepressants for their nerve dulling properties.

After getting that diagnosis. I eat everything within reason. I decided not to take medication, knowing whats up with my body is sufficient. I mainly try to do all eating 4 hrs before bed.

What i have read is that covid may be responsible for micro lesions in the esophagus...acidic foods are essentially rubbing salt in the wounds.

Just a note about VH - it is more so over sensitivity to regular digestive function. Which is why feeling super full after eating/dispepsia is common as well. Im sure you did a 24 hr acid monitoring test - i pressed the reflux button during all my trigger foods and was surprised to see ph levels as neutral.
by ayaros | 2025-07-06 22:19:29+00:00
Thank you. That means a lot to me!

That's a good game idea. The next game I'm going to do will be solitaire. I was also thinking of trying to eventually make something like the mazewar game from the Xerox Alto to pay my respects to Xerox, although I know that will be an undertaking, especially adding in networking...
by fuzztester | 2025-07-06 22:19:37+00:00
the same is the case with the main hn page, and the subsequent pages (the More links at the bottom). it's been that way for a while now.

the AI craze is in full boom, feverishly stoked and fuelled by the hypesters and hipsters, who stand to gain from it.

reminds of the gold rushes of the last few centuries, like in California and the Klondike:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gold_rush

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush

picks and shovels, folks.

there's a sucker born every minute:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_ever...
by wpm | 2025-07-06 22:21:20+00:00
The home button's death was the end of the reality and the beginning of the myth that iOS is easy to use.

The home button was an important lifeline. It did one thing if you pressed it once. No matter what, it took you home. For my older relatives, that one button made using iOS incredibly easy and safe feeling. No matter what, no matter where you ended up, just hit the home button. There, back to start. Easy peasy.

Now with everything hidden behind stupid gestures that even I don't fully understand, my parents struggle to not inundate their iPads with extra windows and split window "Windows" that show up in the app switcher. My mom has had a none home-button iPhone for years and still can't get the home screen gesture right most of the time, and she hates it. I had to scramble to buy up old 9th gen iPads for them and my grandmother once it was discontinued.
by lucumo | 2025-07-06 22:21:29+00:00
Don't be silly. Yes they do.

What's much more likely is that you and I are thinking of different scenarios. I'm not thinking about your average hellos, thank-yous, good-mornings, questions, requests for assistance, short remarks, et cetera. Few people would find those objectionable, and neither do I.

But the person monologuing about a singular uninteresting topic is so universally disliked that comedians have for decades been joking about sitting next to them on the plane. Or the salesman, questionnaire filler, petition peddler, or beggar trying to get something from you. I have yet to find anyone who likes those people. And then there's the chatterbox who just. won't. stop. talking. I think you can fill books with the number of articles written about dealing with them.

The problem with all those people is that they are hard to get rid of once you allow even a little bit. It's far easier to not let it get started in the first place. Headphones are a popular way to prevent that. You can even see it mentioned as a strategy in this thread.

Anyway, those people are imposing themselves. Loads of people dislike that, and so do I. These people are either out to get something from you, or are using you as an audience for their own stuff.
by Lerc | 2025-07-06 22:21:56+00:00
I think the argument isn't if LLM can do as good a job as a therapist, (maybe one day, but I don't expect soon).

The real question is can they do a better job than no therapist. That's the option people face.

The answer to that question might still be no, but at least it's the right question.

Until we answer the question "Why can't people get good mental health support?" Anyway.
by rubyn00bie | 2025-07-06 22:22:25+00:00
I’m really confused why this is an “async queue.” Seems pretty synchronous to me since requests are completed in order, one at a time. I literally wrote something to do this in the past few months. This was to work around JavaScript’s asynchronous IO making a shit show of updates from library being used in the client. I had to queue requests in JavaScript, have them execute in order (FIFO), and explicitly described it “synchronous.”

Is it only “async” because it’s doing it in JavaScript and the underlying network request API is asynchronous? Seems like, IMHO, a really bad way to describe the desired result since all IO in JavaScript is going to be async by default.
by hkt | 2025-07-06 22:22:38+00:00
I'd suggest anything able to match a professional doing knowledge work. Original research from recognisably equivalent cognition, or equal abilities with a skilled practitioner of (eg) medicine.

This sets the bar high, though. I think there's something to the idea of being able to pass for human in the workplace though. That's the real, consequential outcome here: AGI genuinely replacing humans, without need for supervision. That's what will have consequences. At the moment we aren't there (pre-first-line-support doesn't count).
by throwaway567324 | 2025-07-06 22:22:42+00:00
Funny you should mention leetcoding, that's another 'grind' I've flirted with for a few months here and there. It's alright I suppose, in that I made progress and could see it leading to a better job than I currently have, so it's productive in a way. But I still get the feeling that I'd just take 6-12 months focusing on improving my career, get a new job, and then a few months later feel like I'm right back to where I started.

It's also interesting to consider that online success in this field is over-glamourized, and I've certainly had that thought. But I can't find a suitable replacement for something else worthwhile to aim towards. I don't care if I take my salary from 150k to 250k ya know. Seems like one of those 'some of us are wired to be discontent / restless' sort of things.

On the startup/project front, do you find it harder at all to keep conviction towards a project longer term as you age?
by odyssey7 | 2025-07-06 22:23:02+00:00
The persistent popularity of discussing how AI is supposedly bad for the environment actually gives me the opposite impression.

Ever since reading Ryan Holiday's book, Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, popular controversies like this always make me wonder who benefits from their continued discussion.

Every time someone talks about how AI is using energy, that's free, viral publicity advertising AI, keeping us obsessed with talking about it for one reason or another. The controversy makes it stickier in our brains. It makes it feel relevant even if you aren't using the product yet.

And yes, when done correctly, a leading figure in AI acknowledging the allegation and responding to it helps to further our obsession with the idea. The reassurance might not be to assuage, but rather to keep us engaged.
by EdwardCoffin | 2025-07-06 22:23:17+00:00
For me, an article in the New York Times back in 2019 [1] really made me want to learn Old English. The article pitches two features: the grammar is easy, and it has kennings. Kennings are essentially portmanteaus, Old English words made of two nouns that have been mashed together to create a new one. Later in the article some examples are given: the anonymous poet describes war and death with kennings like “battle-sweat” for blood (heaþuswate), “mind-worth” for honor (weorðmyndum), “bonehouse” for body (banhus).

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/magazine/letter-of-recomm... or https://archive.is/NIkJt
by hasanyildiz | 2025-07-06 22:23:32+00:00
That's a really good point and honestly a very reasonable feature for a minimal store. TinyKV stores keys in a HashMap internally, so it doesn't currently support lexicographic ordering or prefix scanning efficiently. But you're absolutely right if we switched to a BTreeMap (or exposed one as an option), prefix queries could be both fast and natural. I'll add this to the roadmap. Would you mind opening a GitHub issue with your specific use case?
by pcrh | 2025-07-06 22:23:34+00:00
>You enroll in the school for ~3 months, write the missing parts, and that's it.

There are degree mills that do what you describe.

There is also the format in countries such as Germany or the Netherlands where one typically "bundles" one's publications into a thesis. However, the work is typically done in the context of supervised doctoral programmes and no less rigorous than that done under different PhD studies formats.
by wpm | 2025-07-06 22:23:34+00:00
>The appification of UI is a necessary evil if you want people in their mid twenties or lower to use your OS.

If they're using it at work they're going to use it anyways because they probably want to keep the job.

The old desktop operating system UIs were designed for people with zero computer experience, yet now...they would be too hard to learn for someone with only Android experience?
by spondylosaurus | 2025-07-06 22:23:52+00:00
> it really is only an option for the elite, which is fine if you're counselling people from similar backgrounds, but not when you're dealing with people from lower socioeconomic classes with experiences that weren't even on your radar

A bizarre qualm. Why would a therapist need to be from the same socioeconomic class as their client? They aren't giving clients life advice. They're giving clients specific services that that training prepared them to provide.
by bakuninsbart | 2025-07-06 22:24:09+00:00
Cantor talks about countable and uncountable infinities, both computer chips and human brains are finite spaces. The human brain has roughly 100b neurons, even if each of these had an edge with each other and these edges could individually light up signalling different states of mind, isn't that just `2^100b!`? That's roughly as far away from infinity as 1.
by martin-t | 2025-07-06 22:24:13+00:00
No-one cares yet.

There's a very scary potential future in which mega-corporations start actually censoring topics they don't like. For all I know the Chinese government is already doing it, there's no reason the British or US one won't follow suit and mandate such censorship. To protect children / defend against terrorists / fight drugs / stop the spread of misinformation, of course.
by knotimpressed | 2025-07-06 22:24:41+00:00
I mean, they’re rarely heard by people, but they’re certainly heard by everything else trying to live near the highway that as you said, cuts across the entire country.

Now, not to say you don’t make a good point, but noise pollution is pollution, and reducing it does have benefits.

I severely underestimated how loud a single semi was until I was camping 5km from a highway and couldn’t hear the cars, but could certainly hear the trucks.
by dubbie99 | 2025-07-06 22:25:08+00:00
My theory about why it helps gamers to have a higher frame rate is that for something like a whip turn, with a low frame rate, your brain has to take a brief moment to work out where it ended up looking after the pan. But if your frame rate is high enough, you brain can keep updating its state during the pan because the updates are continuous enough not to lose “state” during it. This means when you finish the fast move, there is no delay while you reorient yourself for a few milliseconds.
by Tadpole9181 | 2025-07-06 22:25:30+00:00
Honestly, there's a good case to be made that it doesn't matter. A government has every right to say "don't manipulate our market and try to fuck our economy" and not need to specify every tiny little loophole, especially to foreign companies. The fact that they must be reactive means they are always behind, and guarantees their country will be screwed and untold damage done before the problem can be addressed.

There is absolutely zero illusion that Jane Street is acting in good faith. They know what they're doing is wrong.

After all the manipulation, all the crashes, all the exploitation - maybe it is appropriate to just say "I don't care if we wrote it down, we've had enough of this shit".
by chrisweekly | 2025-07-06 22:26:34+00:00
Respectfully, while I concur that there's a lot of influencer / life coach nonsense out there, I disagree that LLMs are the solution. Therapy isn't supposed to scale. It's the relationship that heals. A "relationship" with an LLM has an obvious, intrinsic, and fundamental problem.

That's not to say there isn't any place at all for use of AI in the mental health space. But they are in no way able to replace a living, empathetic human being; the dismal picture you paint of mental health workers does them a disservice. For context, my wife is an LMHC who runs a small group practice (and I have a degree in cognitive psychology though my career is in tech).

This ChatGPT interaction is illustrative of the dangers in putting trust in a LLM: https://amandaguinzburg.substack.com/p/diabolus-ex-machina
by HenryBemis | 2025-07-06 22:27:21+00:00
It is similar to "we got all these super useful and productive methods to workout (weight lifting, cardio, yoga, gymnastics, martial arts, etc.) yet people drink, smoke, consume sugar, sit all day, etc.

We cannot blame X or Y. "It takes a village". It requires "me" to get my ass off the couch, it requires a friend to ask we go for a hike, and so on.

We got many solutions and many problems. We have to pick the better activity (sit vs walk)(smoke vs not)(etc..)

Having said that, LLMs can help, but the issue with relying on an LLM (imho) is that it you take a wrong path (like Interstellar's TARS the X parameter is too damn high) you can be detailed, while a decent (certified doc) therapist will redirect you to see someone else.
by ghssds | 2025-07-06 22:27:34+00:00
There is an app named "Glider" on F-Droid that allows one to filter the HN main page by keywords and url.

My current filters are:

urls: twitter.com youtube.com

keywords: gemini openai claude llm llms ai agi

Make the front page more interresting. I'm on browser right now, otherwise this thread would have been filtered.
by spondylosaurus | 2025-07-06 22:28:42+00:00
Plus, 24/7 access isn't necessarily the best for patients. Crisis hotlines exist for good reason, but for most other issues it can become a crutch if patients are able to seek constant reassurance vs building skills of resiliency, learning to push through discomfort, etc. Ideally patients are "let loose" between sessions and return to the provider with updates on how they fared on their own.
by skissane | 2025-07-06 22:29:17+00:00
The problem with blocking names of politicians: the list of “notable politicians” is not only highly country-specific, it is also constantly changing-someone who is a near nobody today in a few more years could be a major world leader (witness the phenomenal rise of Barack Obama from yet another state senator in 2004-there’s close to 2000 of them-to US President 5 years later.) Will they put in the ongoing effort to constantly keep this list up to date?

Then there’s the problem of non-politicians who coincidentally have the same as politicians - witness 1990s/2000s Australia, where John Howard was Prime Minister, and simultaneously John Howard was an actor on popular Australian TV dramas (two different John Howards, of course)
by kevincox | 2025-07-06 22:29:27+00:00
I think the case of tips "regulars" does definitely make more sense then in a lot of other situations as the customers can make a good evaluation of their service. But even then a simple per-drink bonus or commission would serve this purpose without shifting the decision and responsibility to customers. The faster and more skilled bartender would naturally receive more orders because they are serving faster and because the patons prefer their drinks.
by layer8 | 2025-07-06 22:30:09+00:00
Not quite. Smaller wavelengths mean higher energy, and a photon with Planck wavelength would be energetic enough to form a black hole. So you can’t meaningfully interact electromagnetically with something smaller than the Planck length. Nor can that something have electromagnetic properties.

But since we don’t have a working theory of quantum gravity at such energies, the final verdict remains open.
by gavmor | 2025-07-06 22:30:55+00:00
> Wenn wir das Wesen des Baumes suchen, müssen wir gewahr werden, daß jenes, was jeden Baum als Baum durch waltet, nicht selber ein Baum ist, der sich zwischen den übrigen Bäumen antreffen läßt.

— Martin Heidegger, Die Frage Nach Der Technik
by lubujackson | 2025-07-06 22:31:07+00:00
I agree to a point. For me, what chaffs is the convulted prompt that goes against all my instincts for how to design something simply and clearly.

"Ok, but if you had to code something convulted and illogical..." I tend to have trouble with these sorts of black box problems not because of the challenge but because of going down the path feels wrong I would expect my day to day at the company would be surrounded by too clever solutions.

Also, recognize a minimum requirement to solve this under interview pressure is a lot of low-level futzing with Javascript async and timeout details. Not everyone comes in with that knowledge or experience, and it's fine if that is a hard requirement but it seems ancillary to the goal of "interviewing engineers". I can't imagine anyone solving this or even knowing how to prompt AI in the right ways without a fair bit of prior knowledge.
by brookst | 2025-07-06 22:31:39+00:00
Exactly. You see this same thing with LLMs as tutors. Why no, Mr. Rothschild, you should not replace your team of SAT tutors for little Melvin III with an LLM.

But for people lacking the wealth or living in areas with no access to human tutors, LLMs are a godsend.

I expect the same is true for therapy.
by dakiol | 2025-07-06 22:32:30+00:00
I don’t know anything about the author, so just speculating here: assuming that the interview lasts 1h, it’s not realistic (nor fair) to judge the candidate’s answer if the interviewer has spent more than 1h to think about the problem and potential solution(s).

Interviewers have thought about the problem they propose countless of times (at least once per interview they have hold) each time refines their understanding of the problem, and so they become god of their tiny realm. Candidates have less than one hour, add to that stress and a single shot to get it more or less right. You’re not assessing candidate’s ability to code nor their ability to handle new requirements as they come.
by esrauch | 2025-07-06 22:32:41+00:00
Yeah, WTF-8 is a very straightforward "the spec semi-artificially says we can't do this one thing, and it prevents you from using utf8 under the hood to represent JS and Java strings which allow for unpaired utf16 surrogates, so in practice utf8-except-this-one-thing is the only way to do an in memory representation in things that want to implement or interop round trip with those".

It's literally the exact opposite of this proposal, in that there's an actual concrete problem and how to make it not a problem. This one is a list of weird grievances that aren't actually problems for anyone, like the max code point number.