MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by nucleardog | 2025-07-31 18:25:32+00:00
> The question arises, then, as to why they do not.

There are huge bodies of research out there on voting behaviour. If you look at it, it's a lot less surprising.

The means by which we're supposed to hold the elected officials accountable for not representing our best interests is voting. It doesn't work.

Most people don't, as individuals, hold any sort of stable policy positions to begin with. People have a poor understanding of the candidates' position on various topics (strongly correlated with not having a stable policy position themselves). Candidates themselves have influence on people's view of subjects. People tend to take some of their views from the candidate they've decided to support, and project their own views onto the candidate in other cases making them seem more aligned/preferable.

The entire model is basically set up assuming that:

1. People have a view on policy which they decided on.

2. People will understand the candidates' positions and vote for the ones most closely aligned with them.

3. If an elected representative does not follow through on their positions and views, the people will hold them accountable by voting them out of office.

4. Therefore, in aggregate and over the long term, the elected representatives represent and enact the will of the people.

For the vast majority of issues in the vast majority of cases... one and two do not hold true to a level that's meaningful or significant.

That means the third step falls apart. In practice, there's little accountability to the electorate for the elected representatives.

Which means the fourth falls apart.

Given the elected officials aren't really beholden to the electorate, what else would guide their position? On an individual basis, there are a lot of opportunities for wealth and power. Unless it's anything particularly egregious, the only real impediment to them taking advantage is their own personal ethics and morals. The kinds of people that want to put their life on hold to run a campaign so they can maybe take a shit job with mediocre pay where a bunch of people will be pissed at them no matter what they do... are unfortunately often not in for the mediocre pay and anger.

And here we are. It's not whether there are enough people that support being continually monitored, it's about whether there's enough people and enough money _against_ it to stir up enough people to care to stop them. There's almost definitely not.

And just to make it entirely hopeless--even if you are a well-informed voter with considered and consistent views on policy... Many countries have very little in the way of options for who else to vote for. Is this important enough to enough people to make them a single issue voter? Would they vote for the hypothetical "We Support Murdering Kittens" party if they were against the spying? Probably not--they'll probably hold their nose and vote for the "We Love Kittens" party as the lesser evil.
by PaulDavisThe1st | 2025-07-31 18:25:39+00:00
Reaper can be downloaded without paying anything for it. But in a wink-wink strategy, continued use of it after a certain period of time is supposed to be accompanied by paying for a license. This is not enforced. You can call this free if you wish, but it's all a bit wobbly.

Also, if you want to play with synthesis, then VCV Rack, which is truly free (but also comes in a for-cost version with a few more features) is likely the right place to start, or its even free-er cousin/fork Cardinal (which can even be run in your browser)

https://cardinal.kx.studio/ https://vcvrack.com/
Show HN: Airbnb API, powerful and developer-friendly
by airjason | 2025-07-31 18:25:57+00:00
Hey HN,

We built an Airbnb data API because we were tired of the unreliable and expensive options out there. Our goal was to make it fast, cheap, and easy for developers to get the data they need. We're seeing people use it to build property management tools, fuel investment models, create rental calculators, and analyze tourism trends. Check it out: - general: https://www.airroi.com/api - See docs: https://www.airroi.com/api/documentation
by Bender | 2025-07-31 18:26:18+00:00
I don't know about using it in the kernel but I would love to see OpenSSH support QUIC so that I get some of the benefits of Mosh [1] while still having all the features of OpenSSH including SFTP, SOCKS, port forwarding, less state table and keep alive issues, roaming support, etc... Could OpenSSH leverage the kernel support?

[1] - https://mosh.org/
by giantrobot | 2025-07-31 18:26:35+00:00
A majority of Chrome's "standard" pushes have the alternate use of better browser fingerprinting. Ones of end users might use WebMIDI to work with musical devices but every scammy AdTech company will use it to fingerprint users. Same with most of their other "standards". It's almost like Google is an AdTech firm that happens to make a web browser.
by graybeardhacker | 2025-07-31 18:27:03+00:00
One underappreciated aspect of AI’s disruption is its potential to replace much of the web as we know it.

Today, people create content primarily to capture attention—and monetize it through ads. This is the engine fueling giants like Meta, Google, and Amazon, who rely heavily on advertising revenue (Meta, for instance, derives 98% of its income from ads). Their entire business model hinges on aggregating user data to target ads more precisely.

But here’s the shift: When LLMs distill content and serve it directly to users, they bypass the original platforms—and their ads. At the same time, LLMs already build detailed user profiles, making ad targeting even more efficient.

This is why Meta is racing to adapt. They recognize that AI could become the primary conduit for ads—and if they don’t control part of that pipeline, their dominance evaporates. The "AI gold rush" isn’t just about superintelligence; it’s about dominating the next generation of advertising.
by darkmighty | 2025-07-31 18:27:11+00:00
> Outlaw communicating with legislators to try to get them to adopt a position on legislation?

Of course not. Communicating with legislators isn't what's considered lobbying I guess (at least as far as I understand it). Lobbying as far as I understand (or rather, object) is when special interest groups (usually funded by large corporations) fund people to talk to legislators for them, including buying fancy dinners, "conferences" and stuff. Basically, the opposite of grassroots.

See here: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/22/lobbyists-flout-eth...

Calling/emailing your chosen congresspeople of course is totally fine by me, it's actually very healthy to do so if you have a legitimate concern.

> the latter would probably generally be ineffective however you managed to operationalize it

How would it be ineffective? I suppose it depends on oversight, but it should be fairly easy to prevent it seems.
by bri3d | 2025-07-31 18:27:44+00:00
It's the level above; it's the thing that hosts the "grid of apps" you see on unifi.ui.com or on a Dream Machine, for example. The Network / Controller app is just one "app" in the "grid of apps." (I get the feeling that the current Controller app was also forked at some point and this might clean that up too, but I haven't looked into the software to see if that's the case yet).

To start, it seems to allow for the multi-site coordinated tools like MD-WAN to work with self-hosted OS installation, and they added Innerspace and Identity (which I suppose is necessary since I think that's how the login works) as "launch" apps. Presumably they'll roll more out in the future - ideally you could fully self-host stuff like Protect.
by kbolino | 2025-07-31 18:27:45+00:00
The other thing, which is also a double-edged sword, is that "system dependencies" on Linux (generally) have only one version installed at a time and that version is expected to be suitable for all dependents. Distro managers/packagers often put in nontrivial work to make this happen. So you often install something new with few apparent dependencies because the rest are already installed. With dependency locking in Rust etc., you'll often "re-"install the same package many times because the version is slightly different than what you already had.
by SoftTalker | 2025-07-31 18:28:19+00:00
OK but there's a demand for vets and dentists. That hasn't gone away. If the PE model is to acquire all the clinics in an area and then jack up prices, at some point a dentist or vet should say "I can do this at a lower price, still make more money than the PE owners are paying me, and work on my own terms" and hang out a shingle.
by kridsdale1 | 2025-07-31 18:28:26+00:00
TFA explains the true driving force behind Enshittification.

It takes a very strong will to say no to growth and investment, because you know it will make what you do change from excellence in to shit. Sometimes your customer base morphs (see Facebook) and you survive. Sometimes your only market was the high end discerning customer, and now that you’re shit, you’re dead.
by yazaddaruvala | 2025-07-31 18:28:30+00:00
At least in theory. If the model is the same, the embeddings can be reused by the model rather than recomputing them.

I believe this is what they mean.

In practice, how fast will the model change (including tokenizer)? how fast will the vector db be fully backfilled to match the model version?

That would be the “cache hit rate” of sorts and how much it helps likely depends on some of those variables for your specific corpus and query volumes.
by Fargren | 2025-07-31 18:28:33+00:00
As someone who does this because it's a decent paying job, I don't think this comment is fair. I think I'm quite skilled, and I've been told so consistently. I don't have passion; I have discipline and professionalism. I take my job seriously. It pays well, and I make sure that I deserve that paycheck.

Passion for me is a nasty world, in the mouth of bosses. It's almost always a way to ask people to work unhealthy hours, and it results in bad work being done, which I have to fix later. If people talk live their own passion, it's fine, but whenever I hear someone appeal to the passion of someone else, it's to sell them into doing something that's not in their best interest.
by atonse | 2025-07-31 18:28:41+00:00
As long as we're reminiscing...

I asked my dad to buy Windows 95. But he didn't realize he bought the floppy disk edition. So I had to install windows 95 using the very slow floppy drive. It was either 13 or 26 floppies, I don't remember.

Imagine sitting there while that percentage bar moved glacially, waiting for "Insert Disk 12"

But I still remember how great it felt to get a 1 GB hard drive. "We'll never fill it up!!!"
by Balgair | 2025-07-31 18:28:42+00:00
Two issues going on here in this subthread:

1) Paying people more won't help corruption

2) You get what you pay for

So, both can be right and wrong at the same time.

I think that we need to pay them a lot more. Running and serving in congress is a hell of dumb idea for anyone that we'd want in the position. Your life gets pulled apart by the press, you spend absurd amounts of money just to get there, and you essentially have to quit your career and buy a house/condo in DC for an indeterminate timeline, you get yelled at. Smart people would not do this job; it really is a service for the people they represent. [0]

This really only allow the corrupt and the already wealthy to do the job. Issues there are obvious.

Look, the labor theory of value is wrong. Something is not worth what went into it (capital, labor, R&D, etc). Something is worth what you pay for it. This is why you don't see a lot of marxists about these days, because prices are determined by the market, not the production.

Same thing goes for CEOs and politicians. They are not worth what they produce (mostly headaches). They are worth what it takes to get them there. If you want a good one to run and try for election, then you have to make it worth their time relative to their other options. You want a good one? You have to pay exponentially.

Pro sports understands this. Sure, you can get a lot of people playing NFL any Sunday for like $10; they'll do it just for the crowds and the dream. Nearly all of them will suck. But if you incentivize correctly ($$$), then you get a much better game and viewing experience than a Sunday afternoon beer league. Better politicians means better incentive structures.

[0] campaign finance reform is also desperately needed, but that's another related subject.
by lupusreal | 2025-07-31 18:28:51+00:00
Article 35: Citizens of the People’s Republic of China shall enjoy freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, procession and demonstration.

https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/lawsregulations/201911/20...

Constitutions are just paper. It doesn't matter how they're written if the guys with the guns don't care to respect it.
by Imustaskforhelp | 2025-07-31 18:29:01+00:00
Can't wait for you guys to open source this stuff. If I may ask, what's the license you guys are thinking of? Since I am interested in hoping to someday live as a developer while working on open source too but its a tough line b/w getting no sponsors with MIT license and being called non foss and being charged in HN for some crimes because you used some license like SSPL or some custom license.

The sad reality is that most people in open source want stuff for free and won't pay back and that sucks. So what are your thoughts on this? I am genuinely curious.

The second part as someone noted, in a comment of the parent comment that you are responding, that code is not the most important part here, how much do you agree with that statement? Since to me, If I can self host it using open source without using your cloud service but rather using amazon directly, I do think that might be cheaper than using the cloud service directly.
by altairprime | 2025-07-31 18:29:29+00:00
Note that “applications should gracefully handle” does include “may opt to disable some or all functionality” here, in order to protect secure credentials, comply with merchant agreements, and so on. A productive example of this to study is how macOS behaves when secure boot is disabled, by disabling a couple specific attestation-mandatory features while leaving the majority of application functionality unaltered.
by xyst | 2025-07-31 18:29:36+00:00
yup - I live in the US and used to be involved in promoting a diverse range of transportation options. In meetings with state transportation departments and reviewing their simulations they often lacked this perspective.

The state/city engineers only cared about efficiency of car traffic. bike and ped infrastructure is not included or meet bare minimum spec (ie, "share-ow" lanes/paint/signs on busy streets as a very poor substitute for bike infrastructure)
by alt227 | 2025-07-31 18:29:55+00:00
> An off the self Asus all in one home router actually has more features and capabilities.

This is just not true at all. I agree unifi can be buggy at times, and their super clean interface means they need to hide stuff all over the place, but I havent found any network configuration I couldnt do on Unifi yet.

Care to elaborate on exactly which functions standard asus routers have over Ubiquiti gear?
by 0xFEE1DEAD | 2025-07-31 18:30:16+00:00
I've added a section to the README that goes into the subtleties of compiletime elimination and what to watch out for to ensure that calls to dlg.Printf can actually be eliminated: https://github.com/vvvvv/dlg?tab=readme-ov-file#true-zero-co...

I'd appreciate any feedback on whether these changes make the behavior more transparent and less misleading.
by bayindirh | 2025-07-31 18:30:16+00:00
Actually, the example in my mind was a bit different: "Elegantly invisible", I call it. Let me give a couple of examples.

In Europe, in some cities you see huge planters with blooming flowers. They are well looked after and a bliss to be around them. Look from above, they are strategically placed bollards. Even a tank can't pass through them. Smaller installations are made around banks for example. These "small", ordinary looking planters weigh a couple of tons, plus they're firmly planted to the ground. They are essentially fortified walls, but they don't distract you, and enhance the environment in a way, too.

In Amsterdam Central Station, there is a big locker room, which is invisible if you don't know, but very evident when you follow the signs.

My proposition was similar. A section under battery status menu: No Apps Preventing Sleep. Simple. Invisible, unobtrusive, but bright as day when you know where to look.

I don't like the design you gave examples for. I don't like things which I can't find, and only see if the app seems to be in the mood for it. My proposition is a bit more nuanced. You know where it is, you know where to look, but it's not an eye sore or a distraction.
by kridsdale1 | 2025-07-31 18:30:22+00:00
I taught myself how to service Swiss watches this month. It’s a very difficult skill (I failed).

The people who did the training and have the surgical ability to fix a Rolex deserve $1000.

An elaborate precision machine that is 35mm across and hand-built over a year (so they say), it makes sense that “cheap” Swiss watches are $9000. Rolex retails for 2-4x of that due to brand cachet and artificial scarcity, even though they are by far the highest volume manufacturer.
by Veserv | 2025-07-31 18:30:25+00:00
Yes. msquic is one of the best performing implementations and only achieves ~7 Gbps [1]. The benchmarks for the Linux kernel implementation only get ~3 Gbps to ~5 Gbps with encryption disabled.

To be fair, the Linux kernel TCP implementation only gets ~4.5 Gbps at normal packets sizes and still only achieves ~24 Gbps with large segmentation offload [2]. Both of which are ridiculously slow. It is straightforward to achieve ~100 Gbps/core at normal packet sizes without segmentation offload with the same features as QUIC with a properly designed protocol and implementation.

[1] https://microsoft.github.io/msquic/

[2] https://lwn.net/ml/all/cover.1751743914.git.lucien.xin@gmail...
by piva00 | 2025-07-31 18:30:31+00:00
Same, same. It was my main hobby since I discovered a little terminal in my dad's 80s videogame that could run BASIC, used my rudimentary 9 years old reading skills to look hard enough to the manual and figure out something about that puzzling black screen.

Discovered I could make it do stuff.

I could make stuff, just by typing some white characters in the black screen.

Fell in love, was my main indoors hobby, bought books, learned enough C/C++ to try to mod games before I was 14.

The web started to be a thing. I asked for HTML books for Christmas. Then learnt about ASP, it had something to do with Visual BASIC, I knew BASIC.

Learnt the web, got a job, worked my ass off. 12 hours day and loving it, I was 18, and lucky. My hobby was my job.

20+ years later, it's a job, programming is a skill I have and I'm extremely grateful for being so lucky that it also made me a career, allowed me to live in other countries, and ultimately settle down in a very different place than what used to be my home.

But still, it's a job now, not my hobby. After working in many different places, seeing the transformation of this industry, me getting older, it's just all a bit jading, I don't aspire to do this for more than a job these days, the only figment left of the old hobby is the odd electronics project for artists.

I have other hobbies that fulfill me in a very different way, I think it's just life :)
by 01HNNWZ0MV43FF | 2025-07-31 18:31:14+00:00
To clarify, the userspace implementation is not a benefit, it's just that you can't have a brand new protocol dropped into a trillion dollars of existing hardware overnight, you have to do userspace first as PoC

It does save 2 round-trips during connection compared to TLS-over-TCP, if Wikipedia's diagram is accurate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUIC#Characteristics That is a decent latency win on every single connection, and with 0-RTT you can go further, but 0-RTT is stateful and hard to deploy and I expect it will see very little use.
by jjk166 | 2025-07-31 18:31:23+00:00
The fact that any party can implement Lysenko-style academics means the system has failed. We don't need political introspection so they more benevolently interfere with scientific progress, we need a system where they don't interfere, where they can't interfere without an impractical degree of effort.

Science is beneficial for progress, it makes sense at a 20,000 ft level for the government to encourage it, but politicians deciding which grants to offer, guidelines for what can be published by grant recipients, being able to make serious threats against universities and other such research institutions with few restrictions - there is no argument for a government to have such power. Either publicly funded research institutions should have strong protections in place for their academic integrity, or some alternative to government funding for these institutions should be the norm.
by stillpointlab | 2025-07-31 18:31:47+00:00
I'm reading the docs and it does not appear Google keeps these embeddings at all. I send some text to them, they return the embedding for that text at the size I specified.

So the flow is something like:

1. Have a text doc (or library of docs)

2. Chunk it into small pieces

3. Send each chunk to <provider> and get an embedding vector of some size back

4. Use the embedding to:

4a. Semantic search / RAG: put the embeddings in a vector DB and do some similarity search on the embedding. The ultimate output is the source chunk

4b. Run a cluster algorithm on the embedding to generate some kind of graph representation of my data

4c. Run a classifier algorithm on the embedding to allow me to classify new data

5. The output of all steps in 4 is crucially text

6. Send that text to an LLM

At no point is the embedding directly in the models memory.
by dang | 2025-07-31 18:32:14+00:00
"I'm not inclined to continue to try to drag it out of you." and "I don't welcome your assumptions about [me]" are personally abrasive. The site guidelines don't explicitly say "please don't be personally abrasive" but they cover that kind of thing with more general statements like "Be kind", "Edit out swipes", and so on.

Of course the GP post was outright aggressive, not just abrasive, and that is considerably worse. But we need users to stick to the guidelines regardless of what other commenters do. Not insisting on that just leads to a downward spiral, especially since it's human nature to underestimate the provocation in one's own comments.
by jeroenhd | 2025-07-31 18:32:24+00:00
Unless you're using QUIC as some kind of datacenter-to-datacenter protocol (basically as SCTP on steroids with TLS), I don't think QUIC in the datacenter makes much sense at all.

As very few server administrators bother turning on features like MPTCP, QUIC has an advantage on mobile phones with moderate to bad reception. That's not a huge issue for me most of the time, but billions of people are using mobile phones as their only access to the internet, especially in developing countries that are practically skipping widespread copper and fiber infrastructure and moving directly to 5G instead. Any service those people are using should probably consider implementing QUIC, and if they use it, they'd benefit from an in-kernel server.

All the data center operators can stick to (MP)TCP, the telco people can stick to SCTP, but the consumer facing side of the internet would do well to keep QUIC as an option.