MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by steveklabnik | 2025-07-20 18:14:26+00:00
> Do they learn as they go like we do?

It's complicated. You have to understand that when you ask an LLM something, you have the model itself, which is kind of like a function: put something in, get something out. However, you also pass an argument to that function: the context.

So, in a literal sense, no, they do not learn as they go, in the sense that the model, that function, is unchanged by what you send it. But the context can be modified. So, in some sense, an LLM in a agentic loop that goes and reads some code from GitHub can include that information in the context it uses in the future, so it will "learn" within the session.

> If the latter, what happens as less and less code gets written by human experts?

So, this is still a possible problem, because future trainings of future LLMs will end up being trained on code written by LLMs. If this is a problem or not is yet to be seen, I don't have a good handle on the debates in this area, personally.
by kevincox | 2025-07-20 18:14:33+00:00
The main problem is that the average person has no way to evaluate quality. The closest most people get is heaver == built better (which is probably a correlation overall, but not that accurate for any two random products). At the extreme end of this you have companies putting little steel plates into things they want to appear higher quality.

How can consumers evaluate how robustly some Bluetooth firmware is written, if the product is actually durable or if some USB charger actually accurately follows the specification? For most cases there is no way to know. The best route for the average consumer is to find a review by and expert, but these are very rare (experts with the required skills can often find better jobs than reviewing) and they are more likely to find paid marketing which just misleads.

So we do end up the case that the only real metrics the user has is price and brand. Many formerly reputable brands have also started rebadging cheep crap so that works less often then you would hope. And while good products often can't be cheep, it is now common to see cheep crap sold at higher prices to seem premium.

So at the end of the day the consumer has really no way to judge product quality. So the market has very little incentive to actually provide quality.
by nullc | 2025-07-20 18:15:12+00:00
In Herndon, VA near dulles airport there is a toll road that extends into DC. However, if you enter the toll road from the airport you get into special divided lanes that are toll-free for traffic to/from the airport. (Or at least there was two decades ago)

I got a ticket that way once when I was visiting because I only knew how to get back to my hotel from the airport so I drove to the airport then to the hotel-- and I guess the police watch for people looping through the airport to avoid the tolls. In my case I wasn't aware of the weird toll/no-toll thing-- I was just lost and more concerned with finding my hotel than the posted 'no through traffic' signs.

Later, after moving to VA, I noticed google maps was explicitly routing trips from near the airport to other places to take a loop through the airport to minimize toll costs which would have been quite clever if it weren't prohibited.
by CamperBob2 | 2025-07-20 18:15:18+00:00
I've tried many models, Sonnet is the better one at coding, 3.7 at least, I am not impressed with 4.

If Sonnet 3.7 is the best you've found, then no, you haven't tried many models. At least not lately.

For coding, I'd suggest Gemini 2.5 Pro, o3-mini-high, or Opus 4. I've heard good things about Grok 4 as well, so if you're OK with that whole scene and the guy who runs it, maybe give it a shot.

If you have already done so and still think Sonnet 3.7 is better than any of them, then the most likely explanation is that you got incredibly lucky with Claude and incredibly unlucky with the others. LLMs aren't parrots, but they are definitely stochastic.
by McAlpine5892 | 2025-07-20 18:15:24+00:00
> How does experience with nixos-darwin compare against just VMing on top of MacOS?

Kinda depends what you want. Both work. With Nix Darwin you’ll sometimes run into packages that aren’t compatible with your system. It’s not an ND problem really - some software was just never built for Mac.

Running a VM works great too. I’m a big fan of Orbstack as it’s fairly transparent with the system. It’s nice to hop inside a real Linux box but feel like you’re working ON the actual system. You’ll take a battery hit compared to on-metal as macOS puts VMs on P-cores, but it’s not that bad.
by SequoiaHope | 2025-07-20 18:15:27+00:00
That’s still just code! How about “design a metal 3D printing machine which can be built for $2000 and can make titanium, steel, aluminum, and copper parts with 100 micron precision, then design a simple factory for that machine. Write the manufacturing programs for all of the CNC machines, and work instructions for every step of the process. Order the material and hire qualified individuals to operate the machines. Identify funding opportunities and raise funds.”

I could go on. One of the challenges here is that many things like this cannot be designed by simply thinking, unless you have extremely super human performance, because complex subassemblies have to be built and prototypes and debugged. And right now there’s no good datasets for machine design, PCB design, machine tool programming, hiring, VC fund raising, negotiating building leases, etc.

We will never have real AGI unless it can learn how to improve without extensive datasets.
by ArtTimeInvestor | 2025-07-20 18:15:37+00:00
That does not prove that Tesla's robotaxi service cannot scale.

A robotaxi service is geofenced. The community tracker is not.

As soon as Tesla manages to nail Austin, they can expand aka scale.

How close are they to operate safely in Austin and to rid of the safety people? I don't know. But sooner or later they will, that is for sure.
by devjab | 2025-07-20 18:15:48+00:00
I think your point is fair as you can do runtime safety in Go by wrapping Panic, but that's not exactly what Panic is meant to be used for. I guess it's more of a intent vs syntax thing, aside from the part where Panic can be Recover()ed.

You're taking it out of a context of me praising Golang, however, and while I do hate the fact that they didn't just do runtime assertions, it's not like I dislike Go as a whole because of it.
by FirmwareBurner | 2025-07-20 18:16:09+00:00
> Recently, it took me like six weeks to get an MRI to diagnose a broken pelvis.

Bruh, where I am in European socialized medicine land, six weeks wait for an MRI is rookie numbers. How about 6-12 months. Sure, you might die until you get your turn, but at least it's "free"*.

*) paid form everyone's taxes
by SoftTalker | 2025-07-20 18:16:50+00:00
Dyson is shit now though. Maybe it used to be good but like many other established names they are squandering their good name for more profits by cutting quality.

I think GP is right. We buy stuff online now. You can't see, touch, or evaluate anything. Reviews are all fake. Brand names are comingled with counterfeits. The only signal left is price. So knowing it's likely going to be crap, why pay more than you have to.
by skydhash | 2025-07-20 18:17:00+00:00
Emacs is not a python oriented IDE. So the comparison is moot from the beginning. Some people likes what Emacs offers and mesh it with external tools. Some prefers a more complete package. Nothing wrong with either, especially if you have the time and the knowledge to iterate quicly on the first.

What you may need is something others can do without. So what’s best is always subjective.
by kubb | 2025-07-20 18:17:25+00:00
I'm not gonna die defending Elon, so you should assume a less combative tone. I absolutely don't love that he has the power that he does and what he does with it.

But electric cars are mainstream, he lands reusable rockets, and has a private space company that reaches orbit. People doubted that it will succeed, and he proved them wrong, I guess.

It doesn't mean that everything he does will be successful, or that whatever he does is worth doing, or the right thing to do, but he did achieve these things (using his wealth and power).
by mdorazio | 2025-07-20 18:17:45+00:00
In general, women get paid the same as men, within the error of measurement, and have for many years. The trope of women making less than men comes from an apples to oranges comparison. Women choose less lucrative careers, leave the workforce more often to care for children, and care more about work-life balance. The result is that on average across the workforce, women make less. But if you look at an individual career track and control for hours worked/overtime, years of experience, etc. it’s generally quite even.

In fact, there’s a recent trend of young women making more than their male counterparts, as per the link in this thread.
by allenu | 2025-07-20 18:18:14+00:00
I started working in MacBU about 3 years after the article. It was split between the two locations when I joined. (Outlook for Mac and PowerPoint were both in California.) These photos look like Building 115 to me, though I didn't go into this particular lab often. After this, the team moved to Building 31 and later Building 35, if I remember correctly.

One thing that was interesting about MacBU was that it was in a completely separate division from the rest of Office (i.e. Windows Office). That gave the team a really cool outsider vibe and the team had a really nice close-knit culture.
by nine_k | 2025-07-20 18:18:31+00:00
No, git is not going away. It's not radically rejected. To the contrary, Jiujutsu builds upon git, and remains backwards-compatible, within reason.

It's like using Zig instead of C. You get a much better, handier tool, but you can interact with C very easily, transparently. You can mix and match.

Things like Monotone and Darcs were exquisite research projects, they tested many important ideas, but could not hope to become the standard. Jiujutsu does have this chance.
by monster_truck | 2025-07-20 18:18:46+00:00
If you look at the figures provided in the link, you will see that the intensity of the light below 400nm is far lower than anything else that is available.

These are also able to operate for far longer without degrading as opposed to some of the current compromises which use diodes that blast out UV and are then mitigated with flim or a bulb that filters it out.
by kindkang2024 | 2025-07-20 18:19:08+00:00
> The main risk of “an eye for an eye, and a life for a life” is the risk of wrong punishments that cannot be reversed.

If harm is caused by accident and without malicious intent, then yes—“life for life” shouldn’t apply. But we should never underestimate the darkness that exists in human nature. No matter how carefully a system is designed, there will always be those who can game it.

That’s why I still believe the spirit of “life for life, eye for eye” should remain a guiding principle—not out of revenge, but out of love and protection.

> Such a multiple-valued fine seems a much better punishment than any kind of prison, for any kind of damage that can be repaired.

I completely agree with this. Wrongdoers typically commit harmful acts for personal gain, and if they’re only required to repay the exact value of what they took, they still come out ahead in the long run. We need systems that ensure the net profit from wrongdoing falls below zero—so that it’s absolutely clear: crime is silly.

I’ve even heard news reports that in California, theft under a certain dollar amount often goes unpunished. The result? The exact opposite of justice. It acts like gravity, pulling people’s free will toward sin and crime.
by bgwalter | 2025-07-20 18:19:50+00:00
The moral of the story is not about cracking or getting arrested. It is a metaphor for the danger of taking shortcuts, just like certain other shortcuts in programming that are currently popular and also come with their own version of 1337 language.

And about the tools that enable ScriptKiddies or their modern equivalents to achieve some fast results, for which they have to pay later.
by stop50 | 2025-07-20 18:20:01+00:00
> Dark traffic is unlike anything we have seen before. It’s demonetising publisher content at scale without user consent. Bull**:

1. Regardless which type of adblocker (dns, browser, modified apps, ...) it always is with users consent, since its not the default.

2. If ads hadn't got this annoying, privacy abusing and dangerous(fake hotlines, malware, scam, ...) this wouldn't be something that is even required for an good security baseline. My employer requires that we use adblockers.
by jfengel | 2025-07-20 18:20:06+00:00
If you ask a bunch of meat eaters how they feel about animal cruelty, they'll get uncomfortable. Many will admit that they would like to avoid it but don't think it's practical. Look in particular at the kind who seek out organic, free range, and other (honestly, not very effective) ways to reduce suffering.

I suspect the market research turned up a large contingent of such. Perhaps not sufficient to justify a whole separate product line, but enough to hope that economies of scale would reduce price and create a virtuous cycle.

So I'm sure it seemed worth a shot. I'm sorry but not surprised that it didn't work.
by cesarb | 2025-07-20 18:20:23+00:00
> Code and math are similar to chess/go, where verification is (reasonably) easy

Verification for code would be a formal proof, and these are hard; with a few exceptions like seL4, most code does not have any formal proof. Games like chess and go are much easier to verify. Math is in the middle; it also needs formal proofs, but most of math is doing these formal proofs themselves, and even then there are still unproven conjectures.
by veeti | 2025-07-20 18:20:25+00:00
"Web traffic that cannot be measured, and therefore monetised... [ad blockers] block all on-site analytics"

I don't think that's true at all. Clients can not prevent measurement through server side logs. Publishers have just decided to put all their eggs in one basket by deploying a bunch of trivially bypassed JavaScript adtech trackers, and now it has come back to bite them.
by hodgesrm | 2025-07-20 18:20:25+00:00
As the Romans say, "there's no point arguing about taste." I find Gibson's stories hard to follow in some cases, but at the same time he is very inventive when it comes to language and mood. I find it worth the effort. To calibrate, my favorite sci-fi author is a toss-up between Stephenson (wildly entertaining) and LeGuin (digs into human relations and society like almost no other author).
by hylaride | 2025-07-20 18:20:28+00:00
As a former UNIX administrator (now cloud/devops/SRE/whatever), I can attest that when seasoned professionals are tasked to maintain systems that often run critical code (for finance, government, healthcare, etc) where we are often at the mercy of other groups (accountants, management, etc) treating us like a "cost centre" where proper investment can be hard will result in a very jaded and cynical outlook.

This is as much a defence mechanism as it is a calling card.
by airstrike | 2025-07-20 18:20:30+00:00
That's harder to do than the sentence says. And not all employers are H-1B employers. H-1B workers should be able to sponsor themselves, they shouldn't need to do the whole paperwork through businesses. So long as they can prove they meet the requirements, they should be able to apply for the visa (or its renewal).

The current system works like if every tourist had to first ask Disney to apply for their visa before coming to Orlando.
by guywithahat | 2025-07-20 18:20:34+00:00
Not too long ago Edmonds gave FSD the lowest rating for their self driving test because they had to occasionally touch the steering wheel to prove they’re still paying attention. It was the only system that drove on city streets and was by far the best system on the highway.

Tesla went from the upstart everyone loved to the incumbent they love to hate, regardless of facts
by williamdclt | 2025-07-20 18:21:15+00:00
"We all noticed" except the people gathering actual data of course. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor... shows disparities in skilled trades: in fact _more_ disparity in skilled trades. For example 15% gap for developers.

But I'm glad you "noticed" something different, problem solved then.

> extremely funny

Regardless of the reality of the gender pay gap, this is a disgusting attitude.
by JKCalhoun | 2025-07-20 18:21:20+00:00
Tried a few links and found them broken.

For example, Dunn's book on soap making. Nonetheless, Googled it:

https://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Soapmaking-Chemistry-Cold-...

The lead me to his Caveman Chemistry book on Amazon as well:

https://www.amazon.com/Caveman-Chemistry-Projects-Creation-P...
by foxglacier | 2025-07-20 18:21:27+00:00
Unfortunately, the stupid state of public conversation is that you can't talk about these things without couching it in "I'm not a racist but..." type language. People will see the smallest hint of wrongthink and reactionarily conclude you're a Nazi in disguise.

It doesn't matter if something or someone qualifies as eugenics or not. What matters is the outcomes of the actions. FollowingTheDao seems to be concerned about long term consequences on the overall population which may be best served by individuals accepting their babies will die. Or it may not - but it's worth discussing without going into pedantry about the meaning of words.
by cheeze | 2025-07-20 18:21:52+00:00
I love Framework but it's still not enough IMO. My time is the most valuable thing, and a subscription to $paid_llm_of_choice is _cheap_ relative to my time spent working.

In my experience, something Llama 3.3 works really well for smaller tasks. For "I'm lazy and want to provide minimal prompting for you to build a tool similar to what is in this software package already", paid LLMs are king.

If anything, I think the best approach for free LLMs would be to run using rented GPU capacity. I feel bad knowing that I have a 4070ti super that sits idle for 95% of the time. I'd rather share an a1000 with bunch of folks and have that run at close to max utilization.
by mtlmtlmtlmtl | 2025-07-20 18:22:21+00:00
>So ... exactly for what the device is being sold as? Weird complaint: "I purchased an apple, and all I got was an apple that's only good as an apple."

Like I said:

>>All that being said, there's nothing wrong with Arduino as a platform for learning and personal tinkering.

I was just adding my 2 cents on Arduinos based on personal experience. That is all.

>Then you would know that ATmegas are in a lot of successful commercial products from the past.

Yes. What led you to believe I was suggesting otherwise? I made no criticism of the ATmega328, any other ATmega chip, or the AVR ISA for that matter. I could make some if I wanted to, but it doesn't seem relevant. The topic was Arduino boards, which typically contain an AVR chip, but is in fact not a chip but a dev board.
by simonbw | 2025-07-20 18:22:22+00:00
That works when you just do it once. Where you can run into problems is when you do that twice. One instance might change a file one way, and the other might change it in a conflicting way, then you have two Claudes getting confused about the state of that file and it gets messy. You can solve this by checking out multiple copies of your repo and having only one instance of Claude working per copy. This app seems like it just provides you with a nice UI for doing that.
by maxlin | 2025-07-20 18:23:31+00:00
The more you require of them, the less of them you'd have on roads with their 1x-10x safety rating compared to other members of the traffic.

If you do the calculus, The Grim Reaper is cackling and cheering you on, agreeing that no Robotaxi should be allowed on the road unless it has achieved a 100x human safety rating.
by godelski | 2025-07-20 18:24:25+00:00
> you could probably build better ones today on top of the current tech stack.

In a way, this is being done. If you look around a little you'll see a bunch of jobs that pay like $50+/hr for anyone with a hard science degree to answer questions. This is one of the ways they're collecting data and trying to create new data.

If we're saying expert systems are exclusively decision trees, then yeah, I think it would be a difficult argument to make[0]. But if you're using the general concept of a system that has a strong knowledge base but superficial knowledge, well current LLMs have very similar problems to expert systems[1].

I'm afraid that people read this as "LLMs suck" or "LLMs are useless" but I don't think that at all. Expert systems are pretty useful, as you mention. You get better use out of your tools when you understand what they can and can't do. What they are better at and worse at, even when they can do things. LLMs are great, but oversold.

> Go feed an LLM one of the puzzles from here

These are also good. But mind you, both are online and have been for awhile. All these problems should be assumed to be within the training data.

https://www.oebp.org/welcome.php

[0] We'd need more interpretibility of these systems and then you'd have to resolve the question of if superpositioning is allowed in decision trees. But I don't think LLMs are just fancy decision trees

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system#Disadvantages
by ninetyninenine | 2025-07-20 18:24:35+00:00
The day after the stranger from Woot departed once more, a new student approached Master Foo as he was pruning the plum trees.

“I have heard of your reputation,” the student said, bowing low. “They say you teach the Way of Unix, not for power, but for understanding. May I learn at your feet?”

Master Foo nodded. “What is it you seek?”

“I wish to master the system,” the student said, “to understand every process, every socket, every thread of the great Net. I seek elegance, not exploits.”

“You speak wisely,” said Master Foo. Then he scribbled an IP address on a small bamboo slip. “Crack this machine. Its defenses are trivial. Return and tell me what you learn.”

The student departed.

The next morning, he returned, his robes slightly rumpled but his eyes alight with triumph.

“Master,” he said, “the machine was a decoy for an abandoned cryptocurrency exchange node. I rewrote a dormant smart contract and siphoned off forgotten tokens. The wallet had a bug, my code fixed it. I now possess wealth beyond imagining.”

“You have reported this to the rightful owners?” asked Master Foo.

“There are none,” said the student. “The domain expired, the company dissolved, and the blockchain is immutable. I wrote no logs, touched no traceable endpoints, and masked every call behind a thousand proxies. I am free and unseen.”

“Then you are a thief,” said Master Foo.

“I am not caught,” replied the student. “What I took, no one missed. What I altered, no one saw. And what I gained, no one can take from me.”

Master Foo was silent for a time.

At last, he said, “The first student broke the law and found caution. You have broken nothing and found profit.”

He bowed low to the student.

“Here,” said Master Foo, “is the end of my teaching. Today, you have taught me.”

On hearing this, the student was puzzled.

But Master Foo was enlightened.
by opk | 2025-07-20 18:24:36+00:00
I'd be rather skeptical about the "fix" of updating the completion cache once a day only. Enabling oh-my-zsh already runs `compinit` and it does so after changing the function path in `fpath`. By running it again with a different `fpath` you invalidate the previous cache - meaning it builds a fresh cache twice every time you start zsh. If you use a plugin framework that already runs compinit, simply don't run it again separately. And make sure that `compinit` is only run after the final plugin or whatever has finished changing `fpath`. If you get that right, you'll only ever need to regenerate the cache when something actually updates.