MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by taylorius | 2025-07-01 05:10:10+00:00
The model starts every conversation as a blank slate, so providing a thorough context regarding the problem you want it to solve seems a fairly obvious preparatory step tbh. How else is it supposed to know what to do? I agree that "prompt" is probably not quite the right word to describe what is necessary though - it feels a bit minimal and brief. "Context engineering" seems a bit overblown, but this is tech. and we do a love a grand title.
by supriyo-biswas | 2025-07-01 05:10:16+00:00
You do understand that LLM output is non-deterministic and tends to have a higher error ratio than compiler bugs, which do not exhibit this “feature”.

I see in one of your other posts that you were loudly grumbling about being downvoted. You may want to revisit if taking a combative, bad faith approach while replying to other people is really worth it.
by nextaccountic | 2025-07-01 05:10:28+00:00
I really, really want to have a way to tell Youtube that if I enable subtitles and the content is either English or Portuguese, then the subtitles should be shown in the original language (either subtitles created by the author or auto-generated subtitles - sometimes I can't do audio), but if it's another language, it should be shown in English (again, either subtitles authored by a person, or auto-generated ones)

This extension can control subtitles so maybe there is hope that this or another extension will offer this kind of fine granularity
by jraph | 2025-07-01 05:11:13+00:00
> It pains me every time a “well behaved” website pops up a cookie consent banner for the billionth time after I already consented because the browser wiped all the persistent user identifiers available to it.

Do yourself a favor and enable the Cookie lists in uBlock Origin.

I'm personally grateful that a law requires my consent before tracking me. That means I should not be tracked without me saying OK without monetary risks.
by freetime2 | 2025-07-01 05:12:27+00:00
> The government imports 770,000 tons of rice tariff-free annually under its minimum access quota, and places up to 100,000 tons of that up for auction. Private-sector imports, which are separate from that framework, are subject to a tariff of 341 yen ($2.35) per kilogram, a measure intended to protect domestic producers. [1]

Since 1995 Japan has been forced by the WTO to import a certain amount of rice tariff-free every year. Much of it doesn't even go to Japanese consumers, but rather to animal feed and strategic reserves. Prior to 2024, virtually all imported rice in Japan was imported to satisfy this requirement. Presumably that also includes the $63M of rice imported from Australia in 2023.

The tariffs do indeed have a massive impact, and until recently it was very difficult for consumers to even find imported rice in supermarkets.

[1] https://archive.is/0heNf#selection-2761.52-2761.373
by delusional | 2025-07-01 05:13:16+00:00
> and it’s incredibly unreliable

I will never understand where this sentiment comes from. I've run my own mail server for like 7 years at that point. It's so incredibly rare for my mail to not deliver that I can't remember the last time I had to debug it. The most annoying thing I've had to deal with was dovecot breaking compatibility with their config format, but even that was a couple of hours of work to get back on track.

My most surprising experience was when I broke the mail setup while migrating servers once. Postfix was down for something like 7 days before I got around to fixing it. The cool thing was what happened after I fixed it. While my server was down, the other relays had been dutifully holding onto my mail, waiting for me to once again accept it. So after a week of downtime, I still got all my mail within 24 hours after starting up my server again.

That's fucking reliable in my book.
by bitpush | 2025-07-01 05:13:22+00:00
Exactly. This is the part that I dont get about Apple apologists. If one really likes paying 30% extra to Apple for privacy/security (debatable, but whatever) nobody is stopping you.

But for every one of those, there are many who might want to transact with the business directly.

FWIW, I trust Spotify equally as Apple - so if I get a Spotify subscription, I'm more than happy to get a 30% discount and deal with Spotify directly. Heck, I can do that on my MacOS (another fine product the Cupertino company makes) but when it comes to iOS - OMG, virus, malware, user privacy!!
by porridgeraisin | 2025-07-01 05:13:46+00:00
Nice. I had made something similar (but less featureful), funnily enough also for an ML training script usecase. Here it is in a gist:

https://gist.github.com/porridgewithraisins/313a26ee3b827f73...

I love the ergonomics of this method, and I was going to improve it to support subcommands, etc, but now I think I will use the library you posted.
by fc417fc802 | 2025-07-01 05:14:10+00:00
> shouldn’t it have the right to control who or what interacts with it?

I suppose you have the legal right to do whatever you're able to up until people notice the problems you're causing and pass laws against it (or enforce existing ones, as is being attempted here).

Why should it be legally permissible to "sell" general purpose computing devices that are locked by the manufacturer or vendor? How does such behavior benefit society? Aren't locked down, effectively unauditable devices anathema to a free and open society? Isn't the current situation evidence enough that their existence is damaging to the concept of a free market?
by dinfinity | 2025-07-01 05:14:16+00:00
Vision is interesting in that it leverages the maximum speed with which it is easily possible to gather information about our surroundings in this universe. I believe that is what makes it special and very valuable. I also believe this aspect makes it a strong attractor for convergent evolution.

Language allows encoding and compression of information about the world, which is of course incredibly powerful and increases communication bandwidth enormously (as well as tons of other stuff).

I'd say that for high level cognitive processes, hearing and speaking were an important stepping stone because for some reason evolving organs that can generate relatively high bandwidth signals in audio seems to be easier than evolving something that does that for visuals (very few Teletubby screens on tummies in the natural world).

Interesting games to think about in this sense: Pictionary/drawing games and charades.
by benreesman | 2025-07-01 05:14:24+00:00
The law is complicated, its a living thing, and we're living through one of the nastier episodes of its capture in living memory. So who knows there. Its also breaking sharply on this issue in what was once a fairly high-compatibility regime of US/EU common-ish values.

So then we get to like, why do we have laws, what's the goal? And this is where you get down to brass tacks. Almost everyone will agree on three basis vectors in principle:

- aggregate prosperity - broad prosperity and security from want - individual liberty

You've got to grind through a bunch of thought on a spectrum ranging from Das Capital to Atlas Shrugged to make it really tight, but it sort of simplifies down to: pick two. Put differently, for a given raw capability and Gini-like target, you get to allocate so much liberty to which people: if you don't impose punitive taxes on wealth, it centralizes and calcifies into fungibility. Rich people buy laws. This is a super linear process.

So then it becomes about:

- would I want to be rich if it was part of a system that engineers avoidable want

- if yes, could I realistically make it into the rich group

For me the answer to one is no, and so I think we should re-impose the punitive taxes and regulations that break the backs of rich people and megacorps.

But on HN a common if not typical answer to #1 is yes, and so my appeal is: be realistic, you already missed.
by userbinator | 2025-07-01 05:15:19+00:00
Incidentally, PC BIOSes used the LZ* family of compression algorithms too. LZSS (also known as LZ12/4 for its allocation of indicator word bits), LZARI, LZHUF (which lead to the famous LHA/LZH, and then Deflate/Zlib, ZIP, etc.), and LZINT were all commonly encountered. Apparently Phoenix had a patent on it:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5836013A/en (search for LZSS)

Despite the relative obscurity of Okumura's code, it has definitely had a huge impact.
by motorest | 2025-07-01 05:15:29+00:00
> HTTP Range Requests solve this without any clever logic, if mutually supported.

Understated comment in the thread.

The very first search hit on Google is none other than Mozilla's page on ranged requests.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Guides/Ran...

Here's the leading summary from that page.

> An HTTP Range request asks the server to send parts of a resource back to a client. Range requests are useful for various clients, including media players that support random access, data tools that require only part of a large file, and download managers that let users pause and resume a download.

Here's a RFC:

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7233
by hakfoo | 2025-07-01 05:15:30+00:00
My father recorded the news every night so he could watch it when he got home from work, so we had a VCR pretty close to the end of NTSC broadcasting.

I can recall at one point the last generation of rubbish units-- I think they were all basically the same basic Funai model with different badges by then Funai-- I had to open the lid and bend back some metal piece that was preventing operation, because they were so flimsy.
by ModernMech | 2025-07-01 05:16:03+00:00
No help generation Only flags, options, free arguments and subcommands are supported A properer parser would knew that --arg2 is a key and will return an error, since the value is missing. If such behavior is unacceptable to your application, then you have to use a more high-level arguments parsing library.

Yeah, no thank you. If we're talking about 700 LOC, I'm just going to write it myself rather than take on a dependency that won't even describe itself as a proper enough parser. This argument parser doesn't even handle the tedium of generating a help message for the user, and doesn't really parse the arguments -- what's the purpose of using it to do the argument parsing then?

So 700 LOC gets us a mediocre argument parser with no features. What do you get for an additional 9300 LOC? A "properer" parser (dev and user experience+). Help generation (dev experience+). Multiple interfaces (dev experience+). Color terminal output (user experience+). Suggested completions (user experience+).

Is it worth it? I dunno that's a per-project choice. If you absolutely need the smallest footprint and compile times possible, probably you don't want to go with clap. You also probably don't want to go with Rust.
by nomel | 2025-07-01 05:17:17+00:00
The spectrum of the shorter pulses would have a higher frequency peak show up, which would also a slightly reduced carrier (PWM frequency) peak. This is why I say it's kinda like FSK: the spectral energy somewhat shifts between two frequencies (well, really a bunch of harmonics). To decode it, with a simple setup, you could just look at the amplitude of the higher frequency peak relative to the carrier peak. In fact, you don't even need the carrier! You can just look for changes in the amplitude of the higher frequency peak.
by 1propionyl | 2025-07-01 05:18:11+00:00
It’s not even a well-defined question to ask "what is the best action".

To ask that in the context of a fight (not a bounded game like chess) is already to assume the existence of a complete utility function on which to measure it. That’s:

1. Philosophically, putting the cart before the horse.

2. Computationally, asking for the function that is the entire universe. Any utility function you define, an adversary (say, God) can find edge cases it doesn’t account for, endlessly. Chess has a finite state space; a fight doesn’t. Formalizing this hits the usual incompleteness and undecidability limits.

You’re claiming a perfect map exists (Platonist position); I’m saying that if such a thing exists, it’s just the territory itself, which isn’t a map (Nominalist position).
by jeroenhd | 2025-07-01 05:18:28+00:00
The network already could. The standardisation is just making the feature available without hiding it.

The core of the sensing technology is about improving MU-MIMO + OFDM + all the other speed tricks. Human bodies interfere in predictable ways so you need the tech to steer around that. As a side effect, you get detection capabilities for free.

In such a setup, your laptop and router already know where you are. The question is whether or not to offer it to you so you can use that information for things like home automation. Had they not made this part of the protocol, the privacy risks were just as bad, you just wouldn't be aware of them.
by bitpush | 2025-07-01 05:18:51+00:00
But isnt Apple forcing an inferior product (Subscriptions API) to make more money themselves (and serving copious amounts of kool-aid for people to drink up?).

Lets be honest here - Netflix, Spotify et al are perfectly capable of running their on subscription business. They dont NEED Apple's crappy payment provider, and yet are forced to use it.

As a user you should be enraged, but here we are.
by phantomathkg | 2025-07-01 05:18:53+00:00
i18n and l10n are something that I have seen a company done right. It is easy developer to assume:

If your IP is coming from country X, you must want the content to be served in language X.

No, there are tourist from country Z, long term resident who prefer language A and people from country X want to learn language B.

- If your browser Accept-Language say X,Y, then you must want all the content to be served in X.

No, I want my search result to be predominantly in X, but when I search for things about Y, show me language Y, and when I search for this band from country Z, please show me in language X.

As a hongkonger (zh_hk + en_gb), living in Singapore (zh_cn + en?), following JPOP. This is the daily fight I have with browser.

I would rather all application, including web app just give me the option to choose and say, interface language, english, content language, follow origin.
by cyberax | 2025-07-01 05:19:20+00:00
> The 2 lane train line a 5 minutes walk from my house is "good" for 120,000 passengers a day.

But that's not true. Your chances of living within 5 minutes of a train stations are slim, unless train stations are spammed everywhere. And if stations are spammed everywhere, then they become inefficient.

Meanwhile, cars are only mildly affected by additional 400-500 meters of distance.

There's a great resource: https://www.geoapify.com/isoline-api/ - it shows isochrones for different commute methods.

> A train line can carry about 10x the traffic of a car lane (in practice) with similar ground usage.

In practice, a train line effectively is only slightly better than cars, unless you enshittify your city into a Manhattan-style dense hell.

Moreover, self-driving cars with mild carpooling (think 4-6 people per vehicle) blow ANY transit mode out of the water in speed and efficiency. It's not even close. A good approximation of this are airport pickup vans (the ones that you arrange in advance).

> To add the adding of one lane to the A1 for 18KM costs half the total of the leman express infrastructure. But has significantly less benefits in total transit capacity.

Yeah. Imagine that instead of wasting money on useless transit (see: Seattle ST3), we used them to incentivize companies to build more offices outside of dense city cores.

Then these lanes wouldn't even be necessary!
by AnthonyMouse | 2025-07-01 05:19:35+00:00
> Quite a few IDs contain a 2D barcode, and I believe at least some of these contain some offline-validateable signature over the basic data of the document, including the expiry date. That's not as trivial to forge.

Most government IDs don't have that, and it's still not clear what good it would be doing when data breaches happen on much shorter timescales than ID expirations. Who cares if they stop being able to use the ID after 10 years, when they can use them for 10 years and there will be another breach providing them with a new batch of IDs to use in a matter of days rather than years?

> On top of that, document expiry does help a bit with people trying to use a lost/stolen ID of somebody they happen to look similar to

That seems like an extremely narrow advantage. If they just need some ID that looks like them then they can just get another one from the batch of fresh ones. If they need the ID of a specific person, the government still isn't authenticating renewals, so wouldn't they just use the existing stolen ID and pay for a renewal in that case, in which case we're back the only thing happening being the government extracts money?

Or no, in that case it's worse, because then they can submit a fresh picture of themselves to renew the ID which has someone else's name on it.

> adds a forcing function to make people eventually upgrade to newer/more secure document standards etc.

Which you already have because everybody eventually dies.
by dietr1ch | 2025-07-01 05:19:50+00:00
Trying to get everything into std requires a lot of work that I think gets harder when considering Rust's goals of being low level and paying only for what you use. Not having finalised some aspects of the language itself would also slow this down even more.

I'd rather have libraries built with more freedom and the possibility of having experimental stuff around meanwhile the std worthy solution lands, and if things work fine without them in the standard library then it makes sense to keep them out.

Rust may be lacking an easier way to shop for recommended libraries for common problems. There should be a path to discover all the good and best libraries for each problem. crates.io takes a stab at having this information, but I think more handholding and some sort of community seal of approval is needed.
by jdshaffer | 2025-07-01 05:21:46+00:00
I live in Japan, and have lived here for the last 25 years. Yes, bread is far more popular for breakfast than rice is. If you go to a Japanese-style Inn, they will serve rice and fish and miso for a "traditional" breakfast, but at home, many people eat toast. There's been an increase in jams and spreads to put on toast, as well. My family here in Japan (I'm American, wife is Japanese, kids are both), we've always eaten bread and yogurt with milk nearly every single day.

PS -- We nearly always have rice with lunch and dinner, though. Japanese-grown. IMHO, it tastes very different from imported rice, and we HAVE tried.
by gsf_emergency_2 | 2025-07-01 05:21:55+00:00
>One reason why Thiel’s politics might differ from those of the railroad barons George opposed is obvious: very little of Thiel’s wealth comes from land.

A deep fissure between Thiel and Trump, into which latter day rebels may dive?

(OT, but not really, if you make the easy substitutions.. eg George -> Jefferson

https://archive.today/latest/https://enkiv2.medium.com/acid-...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44399000

https://old.reddit.com/r/CriticalTheory/comments/gt0i1v/psyc...)
by anthk | 2025-07-01 05:22:25+00:00
The i6 and i7 languages have a guaranted internal consistency starting with grammar. Even if6 ('old' compared against i7) it's an incredible language targetting the Z Machine with a really easy OOP architecture to design your games. LLM's often lose the internal storyline on bizarre ways.

An Inform 6 compiler can run under DOS/386 or Linux/BSD for 486 and compile a really large and functional game in seconds. For Inform7, maybe a Pentium II/III and a bunch of seconds too.

An AI to do the same, not even a 'modern' Core Duo with a GL 2.1 adapter (the lowest of the lowest bearable specs for light web browsing and office work) can't even run a consistent world.
by notelocomas | 2025-07-01 05:22:33+00:00
currently in the process of building a small CPG/food lab/accelerator/incubator. I have access to talent, supply chain, logistics network, retail space and a little bit of capital. I want to take and implement the VC model for SaaS startups in Mexico. I'll have a very specific selection process for products we would take on and I'll provide all the infrastructure to get the product onto store shelves in Mexico, USA and hopefully Europe.

I have no idea what I'm doing but I never really have. I've always just figured it out on the way.
by cyberax | 2025-07-01 05:24:06+00:00
> I am arguing for prioritizing human-centric infrastructure over car-centric infrastructure

And here comes the propaganda. Why is your (failed, btw) idea of infrastructure is called "human-centric"? What makes it _human_?

I fail to see anything human in dense cities like Tokyo or Manhattan.

> Granted, sometimes cars are appropriate, but I would not use those minority of cases as an argument to justify having a city designed around cars.

If cars lead to better outcomes (and they do, once self-driving is deployed), then why not? Why force people into densified anti-human hellscapes?

> Because Chinese cities now have better public transit. Just look at the size and ridership of their suburban rail and metro networks.

Yes. And once people can, they opt out of transit as well.
by creakingstairs | 2025-07-01 05:24:33+00:00
> As a hongkonger (zh_hk + en_gb), living in Singapore (zh_cn + en?), following JPOP. This is the daily fight I have with browser.

Ah yes as a Korean living in Japan with locale set to English, this truly is a daily fight.

> I would rather all application, including web app just give me the option to choose

I've left websites for other competitors because they wouldn't have a button to change language.
by tomhow | 2025-07-01 05:26:35+00:00
You can't comment like this on Hacker News, no matter what it's about, but especially something as benign as model trains. This kind of commenting is not what HN is for and destroys what it is for.

Please read the guidelines and make an effort to observe them in future.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
by like_any_other | 2025-07-01 05:28:51+00:00
> Why should I be forced to open up the carefully designed ecosystem I’ve built?

Because not doing so harms the market and society (the article details how). Governments do not exist solely to enforce contracts and property rights. Ideals (e.g. "a man is entitled to the sweat of his brow") are valuable guides, and worth bearing even significant costs to keep, but they are not to be followed blindly, at any cost.

> There are other options out there.

Law and politics (should) step in when "voting with your feet/wallet" fails. You also ignore Apple's middle-man role - consumers can choose (among the very few) different options, but companies serving Apple's captured market cannot.
by redcobra762 | 2025-07-01 05:29:43+00:00
You genuinely read this ad and think there's something to be learned?

If I take this concept seriously for a few seconds, it's one massive exercise in begging the question. The argument boils down to "notice when you do something wrong" while simultaneously admitting that people don't do that. And the ad's advice for doing it? Do it. What?!

That's profoundly stupid as a concept, where "profoundly stupid" here is defined specifically as an argument with a clear reasoning issue.

You know one great way to stop smoking? By stopping. OP is stealing Bob Newhart's bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcSAQyzPcl0
by nico | 2025-07-01 05:29:54+00:00
It’s pretty good advice

But the title is misleading. Sure, once you’ve built the habit of breaking bad habits, it will take 3 seconds each time. However, it will take quite a bit to build that habit

The article references Dale Carnegie. Related to that, and with much better exercises to build habits, I’d recommend the book The Charisma Myth. It addresses the type of situations mentioned in the article and a lot more, all with great step by step, habit-building exercises on each chapter