MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by logicchains | 2025-07-22 08:52:01+00:00
>Chile would be a much better place if the CIA didn't overthrow its democracy and install a fascist dictator

Empirically that's not a very well-supported statement, if you compare the economy and living conditions of Chile to its neighbours. Empirically speaking, electing communist governments almost always leads to reduced living standards. It's like if the US hadn't intervened in to help a fascist dictator in South Korea, the whole of South Korea would be as poor as North Korea is now.
by mihaic | 2025-07-22 08:53:28+00:00
For a decade now I've been lamenting that git won the source control war. My complaints fall in two main categories:

1. The mental model is too complex: rebase or merge, detaching head, etc. A good UI can hide away some of this uglyness. It sounds like jj helps here.

2. Any source control in a terminal is just horrible, since you have no view of the state you're working with. I honestly never fully understood why developers have such religious elitism for the command line. Where would you draw the line on something having a complex enough state to need a UI?

The change to git that I'm hoping for is a GUI on top of a simpler wrapper like Jujutsu.
by nemima | 2025-07-22 08:53:30+00:00
Hi, I'm an engineer at Speechmatics. Our speech-to-text software handles speaker diarization very reliably, and we're a go-to choice for non-English languages. https://www.speechmatics.com/

How long is the audio file? If it's under 2 hours, you can upload the file and transcribe it with diarization for free using our web portal: https://portal.speechmatics.com/jobs/create/batch

Hope it helps for your use case! If it does, and you encounter any issues, drop us an email at devrel@speechmatics.com :)

EDIT: typo
by yawpitch | 2025-07-22 08:54:06+00:00
Close your eyes. Throw a stick in the air. Now, open your eyes and walk in the direction the stick fell.

You took the left fork.

Rewind the world, but not you. Repeat, but this time let the RNG of the universe choose another direction for that stick.

You took the right fork.

Both happened… you went down both forks, but you only know the fork you went down alone.

Exactly the same thing would occur… if you’re the cloned you’d see through your own eyes. If you were the clone, however, you’d see through the clone’s eyes. You’d be you to you in both cases, despite now being different yous.

Considering we’re all, effectively, clones of each other (modulo an actually extremely small amount of genetic drift) this shouldn’t feel all that surprising. Your brother isn’t you, neither is your fraternal twin, neither is your identical twin, and neither is your conjoined twin.
by rasadov | 2025-07-22 08:54:22+00:00
Great points, especially on deliverability - that's the biggest trade-off with BYOSMTP. You're right that managed providers have better reputation management, which is why our hosted service is positioned as the primary offering. The open-source version serves a different need: developers who want full control or have compliance requirements that prevent using third-party platforms.

On market positioning, I think there's still room between "build your own email system" and "pay $200+/month for enterprise features you don't need." Our target isn't competing with MailChimp for high-LTV businesses, but serving the gap where small businesses outgrow basic tools but aren't ready for enterprise pricing. That said, your "Mom test" concern is valid. We're validating this with real users to ensure we're not just building for ourselves.
by normie3000 | 2025-07-22 08:54:25+00:00
> ...making small and tightly-focused branches that are easy to review and merge is very important.

> This is where jj excels. Especially if you find yourself often doing large chunks of work between convenient checkpoints, but you still want to create commits as if this work was all done in tiny and discrete chunks.

This is exactly how I like to use git. Sounds like I should be recommending jj to colleagues who struggle with this approach.
by grillitoyellow | 2025-07-22 08:54:27+00:00
I should address the following assessment: "It might benefit from clearer examples. The reference to moral systems positioning us for escape is intriguing. Maybe the author thinks our ethics are self-serving, allowing us to justify fleeing problems instead of solving them collectively."

Yes, our ethics about others and us is self-serving, alignment won't be possible. Perhaps the metaphor about fleeing could be exemplified in a concrete geographical zone and social group, but whoever cares about human lives know many such examples. This is not the place to suggests actionable principles, is just a call to consider the nature of the problem.
by 1718627440 | 2025-07-22 08:54:57+00:00
I also work this way. A commit is really about, well, committing that these are exactly the right lines of code I intended to write. I also read them in another program, so it gets easier to not think that I already know the code and skip over. I basically start from the clean state (no changes) again and approve the changes line-by-line according to whether they fit the domain model of the program, whether they are in the right places, are the right amount of complexity/abstraction, if they are readable/understandable. I typically also add/remove comments at that point, because I've now tried to read the code with a "second pair of eyes".

I also use this to compare the changes to the commit messages. Ideally the changes follow from the message, not the other way around.

While a VCS is also useful for adding a time-axis to code, for me the main selling point is, that it's adding causality to the code. You can ask 'Why is this code how it is?'. (Of course causality is a side-effect of time.) When you don't curate the commits you completely loose this feature. (You can still ask, but the answers will be confusing and need way more work, which for me amounts to manually comparing commits to grasp the big picture and intention.)

> rebase/amend

When you messed up, you can of course change commits, but this has a danger of creating a version that was never there or mixing history, for example combining a single physical change, that are multiple logical changes. In order to test that the code at least works I use ```git rebase --exec="make -C build distcheck"```, not sure if that is common.

I also don't use MS GitHub -style merges, I find them inferior. (I also don't use MS GitHub, but that's for another reason.) I think they try to make merges the actual unit of change, which is stupid, because that is what a commit is for. To me merges are about semantic grouping of commits, i.e. maintaining a tree of commits representing the logical evolution of the code.

Yes the staging area is exactly designed for this approach and I don't like people telling me I'm holding it wrong and don't need it. To use a metaphor, I think the staging area is like my desk were I'm producing stuff (I'm not producing code, I'm producing changes). Committing is about having produced a complete opus and then cleaning the desk. Cleaning isn't seen as annoying, it is important for the mind to process completing/validating and then starting afresh. Stashing is in this metaphor about switching to an alternate desk. This is different from putting the opus aside and having also a clean desk. (I think that is what Jujutsu wants you to do?) Having the staging-area/stash different from commits is a feature, the fact that the stash is the same storage-wise is an implementation detail.
Ask HN: Managing engineers? Talk to me for a piece I'm writing
by smokedtofu | 2025-07-22 08:55:32+00:00
Hi there,

I am writing a longer piece with the goal to better understand the true effect on productivity of AI tools in real world engineering teams.

I want to interview a number of managers / team leaders who can provide me with their own honest exprience of how tools like Cursor and Claude Code have impacted their teams. This is about productivity increase (or decrease), but also about other effects that might come up.

My own stance is that I am very critical of the positive impact of AI on real world engineering teams — I think that there's some impact, but I think that many people overestimate it. With this piece, I want to collect some real anecdotes and inform a deeper report that I will publish.

PS: I am not a journalist. I have a blog where I write opinion pieces regularly. I am a software engineer and active on HN for a decade. This is an alt account, because I don't want to be recognized by my employer or others.

Of course, you will stay anonymous. If you want to talk to me (interview will last for about 30 minutes, can be written or video), please email me at: leghorn.pass.4i@icloud.com
by rcxdude | 2025-07-22 08:55:38+00:00
>Commenters explained that flammable water is common in places where fracking pollutants have contaminated the ground water.

I don't think it's the contaminants from the fracking fluid itself, more that you can get natural gas finding its way into the water supply that creates this (and it can happen naturally even without fracking). The stuff in the fluids that's a problem is mainly a problem because it's toxic, not flammable.
by rtpg | 2025-07-22 08:56:27+00:00
> What's the end game with this? Identikit cities with little to no character, all created to prioritise convenience.

People say this but Tokyo preserves _way more_ weird subculture stuff and small stores than other major cities IMO, despite constant rebuilding. My theory is basically that because it's nice and dense, and the real estate is extremely liquid by my understanding, stores and restaurants can get their 100 superfans that support the business.

Like I moved to Australia a couple years ago and I have no idea how anyone could afford to open a small independent shop, and you see loads of chains.

Tokyo it's harder than before, but places like these shopping arcades offer some respite (along with other shopping centers).

I am worried that the Tokyo government isn't particularly interested in preserving these places though. They have openly said they want more places to be redeveloped like Ginza of all places.
by southernplaces7 | 2025-07-22 08:57:27+00:00
>Most people haven't even heard of OpenAI and ChatGPT still

What? I literally don't know a single person anymore who doesn't know what chatGPT is. In this I include several elderly people, a number of older children and a whole bunch of adults with exactly zero tech-related background at all. Far from it being only known to some, unless you're living in a place with essentially no internet access to begin with, chances are most people around you know about chatGPT at least.

For OpenAI, different story, but it's hardly little-known. Let's not grossly understate the basic ability of most people to adapt to technology. This site seems to take that to nearly pathological levels.
by XorNot | 2025-07-22 08:58:19+00:00
Wendelstein is a plasma research machine, not a net energy machine. There's no version at that price point which is a viable power plant - ITER is the smallest viable power plant (but you wouldn't want to run it). DEMO is it's successor which is 10x larger in terms of vacuum volume and is meant to be an actual electricity producing plant.
by qalmakka | 2025-07-22 08:58:50+00:00
One thing that always grinds my gears is how the macOS filesystem is a hodgepodge of stuff thrown around without any apparent logic (similarly to Windows), which is in stark contrast to the also apparently illogical but standardised hierarchy of Linux and the BSDs. I do understand their need to keep the /System directory around for the Classic days, but /usr? /sbin? The only "fixed" file should be /usr/bin/env, all the rest should be in /System. The mix of classic UNIX directories and Classic is annoying
by Lutger | 2025-07-22 08:59:33+00:00
Looking at this drama for a bit, I haven't seen anybody advocate for 'canceling' requests itself.

Maybe it's more like: Laplace created awesome things, but let's be fair and also put in his wikipedia page a bit about his political shenanigans.

A lot of of so-called geniuses, especially the self-styled ones with some narcissistic traits, get away with being an asshole. Their admirers have different norms for regular, boring people. I don't think that is fair or healthy for a community.
by uuz123 | 2025-07-22 09:00:27+00:00
Hey everyone,

I've been working on a project called Unify Protocol that I think a lot of you might find useful. It's designed to solve the problem of data heterogeneity when building applications that need to interact with multiple data sources (APIs, databases, protocols, etc.).

The core idea is entity-first abstraction. You define what your data is (e.g., a WalletEntity with an address and balance), and Unify handles the messy details of how to get that data from different sources.

Here's what it offers:

Clean API: repo().findOne() is all you need, regardless of the backend. Easy Source Switching: Change source:"evm" to source:"solana" without touching your core logic. Standardized Data: Handles things like address formats (hex vs. base58) for you. Use Cases: Web3, IoT, analytics aggregation, bridging legacy systems... practically anything that deals with lots of different data sources.

I'd love to get your feedback! You can find the project on GitHub: https://github.com/unify-procotol/unify and Docs: https://docs.uni-labs.org/ Playgound: https://playground.uni-labs.org/

Let me know what you think!
HN: The tech behind an AI that stays (memory, encryption, no coldstart)
by ishqdehlvi | 2025-07-22 09:00:34+00:00
Most AI companions are short-term listeners - forgetful, generic, and reliant on cloud-heavy processing. With WTMF, we wanted to build an AI that actually stays, remembers you, protects your privacy, and never ghosts. Here's what powers that: Vector-based memory to retain emotional context over long arcs (no cold starts, no "sorry, who dis?")

On-device encryption for sensitive journaling and mood data nothing leaves without consent

Zero cold start latency via prewarmed personality modules and local memory caching

Multi-mode personality tuning, with fine grained sliders (sassy, soft, zen, chaotic-neutral)

All built with a deep respect for privacy Ask me anything about the architecture, memory design, or privacy stack. https://wtmf.ai
by rasadov | 2025-07-22 09:00:37+00:00
SMS is definitely on our radar! We're exploring AWS SNS integration first since it fits our "bring your own" model perfectly - users would connect their AWS account just like they do with SMTP. This keeps costs low while avoiding the complexity of direct carrier relationships.

If you're interested in SMS features, supporting us with a subscription would definitely help us prioritize and build this faster. Are you currently stuck with expensive SMS providers? Would love to understand your volume/use case to make sure we build something that actually solves your problem.
by kuhsaft | 2025-07-22 09:00:48+00:00
Do these companies support Net 30/60/90 payment? Do they provide enterprise support?

There’s a reason why corporations use HP and Dell machines. And there’s a reason why HP/Dell/etc don’t have Linux OSes on their corporate client machines. Well, they do, but companies don’t care to order them for the other reasons people have listed here.
by latexr | 2025-07-22 09:01:19+00:00
> This is kind of a poor take.

Why? They’re sharing what they prefer in response to someone claiming that everyone who tries the other thing comes to prefer that. They’re offering a reply in context and not in the slightest saying everyone should follow what they do.

> By all means use what you prefer!

That’s exactly what they’re doing.

> But understanding git and knowing the "right" way to use it doesn't make jj obsolete.

Which they haven’t claimed at all.

You seem to be objecting to an argument which hasn’t been made.
by wongarsu | 2025-07-22 09:01:21+00:00
Across basically all fields you have to first show that you can think inside the box before you are allowed to bring out-of-the-box ideas. Once you have shown that you mastered the craft and understood the rules you can get creative, but before that creativity is rarely valued. Doesn't matter if you are an academic or an artist, the same rules apply

I'm guessing AI gets the benefit of the doubt here because its ideas will be interesting and publishable no matter the outcome
by qalmakka | 2025-07-22 09:01:22+00:00
> the system Ruby (which is almost always very outdated), really gets in the way

This also applies to Perl and especially Python. While relying on system Perl is bad but not terrible (Perl is very backward compatible, has good versioning of features, ...), I always have to fight against Mac users that keep using the outdated system Python instead of pulling a new one from Brew. Don't use the system interpreters folks! This is not Linux
by homebrewer | 2025-07-22 09:01:35+00:00
I don't know about the rest of their products, but their over-ear headphones (Q45 being one specific example) have very weak attachment of the cup to the frame that often cracks and then breaks withing several months of use. This has been well known for at least a decade, and they have done nothing to fix it.

Sounds like they have alright customer service, if you live in a region where it is actually available (not me), and don't care about polluting the environment with yet more short-lived plastic trash. Not really something to support with one's hard-earned money IMHO.
by d1sxeyes | 2025-07-22 09:02:32+00:00
> Download your favorite artist's discography for personal use? If the MPAA had its way (and it occasionally has), torrenting that could bankrupt you.

I don't think that there are any clear examples of cases where ONLY downloading has resulted in huge fines. All the big bankrupting level fines have been for both downloading and sharing.

You mention that 'torrenting' could bankrupt you, and that is true, but the main reason for the huge fines are that you are taking part in distribution rather than just 'downloading for personal use'.
by mathieuh | 2025-07-22 09:02:53+00:00
I would say "octopuses" personally. "Octopodes" is more etymologically correct but you run the risk of not being understood, and "octopi", while in common usage, is etymologically wrong and people who are aware of this might look down on you slightly.

"Octopuses" is both understandable and correct etymologically since "octopus" is a normal English word.
by Terr_ | 2025-07-22 09:03:34+00:00
> with both parts of a marriage need to have jobs

I have a pet theory that this is a significant factor in why people are moving to cities: Families with two earners need a single shared location that has enough variety/density of jobs that both can work.

In contrast, a single breadwinner makes it easier to stay in a specialized company-town or to move.
by eru | 2025-07-22 09:05:13+00:00
> Similarly, the same type hierarchy can support multiple visitor interfaces, so that you can perform different case distinctions on the same value. This is something that sum types can’t do.

Haskell's pattern synonyms should be able to handle this?

The problem with the visitor pattern is that it doesn't compose well. So if you want to match on two values at once, or match deeper into a value, that works well for most pattern matching, but is annoying to piece together with the visitor pattern.
by TheOtherHobbes | 2025-07-22 09:06:57+00:00
Any fusion reactor that produces masses of free neutrons is uneconomic, because the neutrons are ridiculously corrosive to everything they collide with. Neutron activation produces a mess of radioactive isotopes, some of which fission quickly. It doesn't take long - certainly much less than a year - before you're left with components that no longer do their jobs and are also radioactive.

This is a much less sexy problem than containment, but it's a showstopper for commercialisation. You can just about imagine an epically huge reactor with unfeasibly powerful containment fields that trap fusion in the centre of a large cloud of hydrogen, which captures neutrons to make tritium to power the reaction. But that's completely unbuildable with current tech.

Aneutronic fusion is possible, but it happens at even more extreme temperatures, which are barely theoretical at the moment.

At this point we've been chasing fusion for more than 70 years, and commercialisation is as far away as ever.

You might as well just build yourself a small star.

Or perhaps even spend all that research money on making better use of the star we already have.
by CalRobert | 2025-07-22 09:08:01+00:00
My wife grew up in a very sheltered church environment where everyone at school and in her life pretty much followed the rules. It didn’t teach her how to handle real life and the real world was a rude awakening.

Similarly my older relatives keep saying “but they can’t do that!” About a lot of what’s happening in the US without realising that they very much can. Because nobody is physically stopping them. The exception is my grandfather, who is an honest guy but says he got in some fights in his navy days and ended up better for it.

Maybe we need to bring back superheroes who beat the shit out of the bad guys.

I want my own daughters to know how to protect themselves with diplomacy-or- violence if the former fails.
by aa-jv | 2025-07-22 09:09:21+00:00
There has also been an 'octopus nursery' (social behaviour) discovered in the deep sea, which sort of re-wrote the rules on the 'solitary octopus' hypothesis:

https://schmidtocean.org/scientists-discover-new-deep-sea-oc...

I think there is a lot more to be learned about these wonderful creatures, and I avidly await all such discoveries ..
by pyman | 2025-07-22 09:09:29+00:00
Also, did OpenAI made its API publicly available to generate revenue, or share responsibility and distribute the ethical risk with developers, startups, and enterprise customers, hoping that widespread use would eventually influence legal systems over time?

Let's be honest, the US government and defence sector has massive budgets for AI, and OpenAI could have taken that route, just like SpaceX did. Especially after claiming they're in a tech war with China. But they didn't, which feels contradictory and raises some red flags.
by seivan | 2025-07-22 09:09:37+00:00
The way I understand it, its for those who can't help but to fix B while working on A and want to make sure that they are two different PRs? The way I do it is after B is done, I just create a new branch and point B to A in the PR. A is pointing to dev/master/upstream. Does JJ make this workflow more convenient?
by bigbadfeline | 2025-07-22 09:09:41+00:00
> What about all the recent drama over the Epstein list, which comprise less than 0.01% of Americans?

Your math is way off. Epstein's list contains compromised people on positions of power who decide policy affecting 99% of Americans plus a lot of people around the world.

Compromised politicians, scientists and media figures can be used against the interests of more than 100% of Americans if we include wars and the damage done to foreigners.