MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by manquer | 2025-07-28 01:40:38+00:00
Google(and others) marketed these alerts as features of their product, as one of the reasons to upgrade a smartphone from a feature phone.

Median price of phone went from couple of hundred in Nokia era to a thousand or more today, justified by all the features including this one , meaning they certainly made money of providing all these value added services.

It’s no different from a fire or burglar alarm . Yes they are not substitutes for the police and fire departments .

However the alarm company cannot turn around and say you shouldn’t depend on us. The government shouldn’t depend/expect them to do anything for emergencies yes but buyers of their product can.

IF a company sold a product and advertised features for it, then it is a problem when said features don’t work especially when said features are designed around emergencies.
by ayaros | 2025-07-28 01:40:41+00:00
That's something I really enjoy about web 1.0: links pages. We need to bring back the days when every site had a giant list of links to other sites. I don't care if half of them end up as dead links. This is part of what made the web fun. You'd come across a site, see what it had to offer, and then you'd check the links page and find five, ten, or 20 other sites offering similar things. No need for algorithms tracking your every move to recommend things to you... the content itself would do that.
by gsf_emergency_2 | 2025-07-28 01:41:28+00:00
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastWeek&page=0&prefix=tru...

I particularly enjoyed this bit of nihilism:

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/enshittification-and-the-...

>Hell hath no fury like a tech god scorned
by aaron695 | 2025-07-28 01:41:39+00:00
This is a mess.

The 1992 talk wasn't at all about AI and since then our phones have given us "ubiquitous computing" en masse.

The original talk required no 'artificial intelligence' for relevance which makes it strange to apply to todays artificial intelligence.

The original talk made good points for instance "voice recognition" has been solved forever at a reasonable level, yet people kept claiming if it was 'better' a 'magic experience' would pop out as if voice was different to typing. Idiots have been around for a long time.

Don't get what OP is trying to say.

'AI HUD metaphors' are very hard, that's why they are not ubiquitous, they require constant input. Spellcheck runs every character typed. Agents are because of less $.

'Hallucinations' also make 'AI HUD metaphors' problematic, for spellcheck squiggly red lines would be blinking on off all over the page as a LLM keeps coming back with different results.
by lotsofpulp | 2025-07-28 01:42:19+00:00
> It's more like businesses will keep ratcheting up prices indefinitely as long as there are suckers around who are easily parted with their money.

Who wouldn’t? Aren’t people usually proud of minimizing their work to pay ratio, whether it’s earning more and more to sit at a desk and browse HN or selling a firetruck for a new high price.
by jpm_sd | 2025-07-28 01:43:14+00:00
This is how ship's AI is depicted in The Expanse (TV series) and I think it's really compelling. Quiet and unobtrusive, but Alex can ask the Rocinante to plot a new course or display the tactical situation and it's fast, effective and effortlessly superhuman with no back-talk or unnecessary personality.

Compare another sci-fi depiction taken to the opposite extreme: Sirius Cybernetics products in the Hitchhikers Guide books. "Thank you for making a simple door very happy!"
by JimDabell | 2025-07-28 01:43:25+00:00
I’m a bit confused about the comparison with ULID.

Identifiers like that (and KSUID, etc.) have a time component and a random component, so that multiple systems that generate IDs simultaneously won’t collide.

This scheme only includes the time component. But in your comparison with ULID you describe it as collision resistant. How is this the case?
by tomlockwood | 2025-07-28 01:44:21+00:00
I want to suggest that the virus is even more insidious, and is an organism that feeds on VC money, and it is evolving via a substrate of human programmers to become more efficient at consuming it. And like an organism evolving towards survival, it gives no shits about the utility generated in return for the thing it eats.

And, as time goes on, it'll get more efficient at the consumption and waste less and less energy on the generation of utility. It is an organism that needs servers to feed and generates hype like a deep-sea monster glows its lure.
by SecretDreams | 2025-07-28 01:44:40+00:00
I occasionally do a washing load before bed that I know I might not wake up for to put into the dryer. Fortunately, my machine has an "extended tumble" cycle of sorts that will keep the clothes fresh all night at the expense of a bit more water, but while saving my bedtime routine. We end up with a lot of these nighttime loads because we're toasted all day watching kids and we prioritize laundry off-peak electricity hours. Love my Electrolux, but I imagine many brands have a comparable feature.
by aeon_ai | 2025-07-28 01:45:25+00:00
I will engage in good faith. I do not believe it's theft.

I think that 'stealing' is a loaded term that is often used by propagandists who want to drive outrage and anti-AI sentiment (and is readily consumed, as all other propaganda, by people looking to be 'outraged' at yet another example of the `other side` being bad.)

What are your thoughts on Aaron Swartz? Do you think he was justifiably prosecuted? We must do mental gymnastics to justify one and not the other. We either value the freedom of information to educate and inspire, or we make ourselves slave to an ossified culture and technological progress that is rented to us by large companies.

I propose that we find ourselves conflicted with reconciling the complete and utter myth of Intellectual Property to an era where the system that constructed copyright is no longer relevant.

I do not relish that creatives have seen their work evaporate. I do not envy the many who lived their lives forgetting how to learn while relying on a skill that would give them "job security".

But getting upset by "big corpo stealing" is not genuinely exploring the fundamental properties of information, the nature of copyright law, and the second and third order impacts of successfully twisting the copyright system to limit AI training.
by kiitos | 2025-07-28 01:46:56+00:00
In the OP screen share, they toggle various telemetry options on and off, but every time a setting changes, there is a pop-up that says "a setting has changed that requires a restart [of the editor] to take effect" -- and the user just hits "cancel" and doesn't restart the editor. Then, unsurprisingly, the observed behavior doesn't change. Maybe I'm dumb and/or restarting the editor doesn't actually make a difference, but at least superficially, I'm not sure you can draw useful conclusions from this kind of testing...

edit: to be clear I see that they X-out the topmost window of the editor and then re-launch from the bottom bar, but it's not obvious that this is actually restarting the stuff that matters
by matt_opmistro | 2025-07-28 01:48:07+00:00
Your first question conflicts with your goal or earning enough for living expenses.

Software that supports a lifestyle business is typically different than YC scale or ideas accepted by YC. If your goal is to build a lifestyle business that affords a salary of ~$100K, you likely don't need to scale beyond $1M in revenue.

You would actively want to avoid raising money (from YC or other investors) because their goals are to get companies to $100M+. That isn't a bad thing — it actually opens up the door to a much wider range of problems & niches, with more flexibility & less pressure.

1. Given the above, scrap the YC aspect of the question. But ideas can come from your own experiences with problems or pain points you felt. Or can pick an industry or role and have conversations with people to find common issues or challenges.

2 & 3. This depends on the vertical & industry you serve + their role. If you're selling to VP of sales of startups, can get by with emailing + LinkedIn. If you're selling to local professional services, can get by with cold calling. Where you build your list will depend on your target.
by aspenmayer | 2025-07-28 01:48:11+00:00
> Why are you asking me for a prompt that would be effortless to formulate yourself, and why are you asking questions that would also be effortless to formulate yourself? It’s not because the information will be of higher quality when you filter it through me, it’s because you’re afraid that if you do these very easy things, you’ll learn that things are much worse than you believe.

Please have better faith in your interlocutor. We are not ostriches with our heads in the sand. Say your piece, so that then if we ignore it, you may find fault in good faith after. You're beating around the bush now, as you've been asked for sources plainly and directly, and have refused, which leads me to deploy the following:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens's_razor

> Hitchens's razor is an epistemological razor that serves as a general rule for rejecting certain knowledge claims. It states:

> > What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

> The razor is credited to author and journalist Christopher Hitchens, although its provenance can be traced to the Latin Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur ("What is asserted gratuitously is denied gratuitously"). It implies that the burden of proof regarding the truthfulness of a claim lies with the one who makes the claim; if this burden is not met, then the claim is unfounded, and its opponents need not argue further in order to dismiss it.
by syngrog66 | 2025-07-28 01:48:13+00:00
all on the side, in free time:

- EV charging software

- finish writing book on tech topic

- finish writing book of short stories

- planning next upgrade of LatLearn, my Golang latency instrumentation library (along with a dev session screencaat)

- planning next upgrade of Slartboz, my sci-fi post-apoc comedy adventure real-time Rogue-like game (along with a new demo screencast)
by nextos | 2025-07-28 01:48:15+00:00
> leads straight into the dystopia that Stallman warned us about

IMHO, the push for age verification is just a stepping stone towards requiring a mandatory ID for all social media posts made from EU. Given the current trends against freedom of speech, it's not unreasonable to think that by the end of the decade any site, including HN, might need to link usernames with their respective eIDs in case posts come from EU IP addresses.

> officially sanctioned hardware and software

Right now, if you want to run an alternative OS, it's already an uphill battle to use tons of member state services, as well as to do banking. Even if you have microG available, the situation is terrible. I imagine it's going to become harder. I cannot understand why the European Commission wants to reduce our reliance on FAANG services, and at the same time they make Google Play a de facto standard, reinforcing the mobile duopoly. In this context, free alternative mobile platforms, such as Sailfish, cannot flourish.
by jamesliudotcc | 2025-07-28 01:48:52+00:00
It's worse than that.

> After the earthquake Google's researchers changed the algorithm, and simulated the first earthquake again.

> This time, the system generated 10 million Take Action alerts to those at most risk – and a further 67 million Be Aware alerts to those living further away from the epicentre.

So, basically, Google learned from the data, improved the algorithm, and they are blamed for not having done that before the earthquake.

The headline makes it sound like Google had the good model before, and something went wrong in the notification system so nobody got the alert.
by gus_massa | 2025-07-28 01:50:06+00:00
The automatic calibration was like 10% smaller than the real size and I used the credit card method [1] It need to show the "crop lines, no bleed" lines to make the comparison easier https://toastdesignservices.co.uk/resources/what-crop-marks-...

I used something like this before to adjust the zoom in Word or Google Docs with the real size on screen. I prefer to overlap a A4 sheet on the screen. It's semitransparent, so it's easier to see the calibration. Also I'd like to use a transparent rules on the screen and overlap it over the virtual rule for calibration.

[1] For some stupid reason, it sound scary
by sheepscreek | 2025-07-28 01:50:34+00:00
All I want is an electric or hybrid autogyro equipped with cutting-edge technology and sensors.

Once airborne, autogyro planes can safely descend without relying on power or even a functioning engine. They possess remarkable hover-like capabilities without stalling, unlike fixed-wing aircraft, and can achieve impressive distances at commendable speeds, unlike helicopters.

In other words, it’s the best of both worlds and very beginner friendly IMO.
by userbinator | 2025-07-28 01:51:03+00:00
The washing machine REALLY liked talking to... itself? I don't think whoever engineered their networking stack knew what a loopback interface was, because it was sending a lot of traffic from itself to its own IP address. I didn't think this was relevant, so I ignored it. It really liked sending traffic to 255.255.255.255 every second, for some reason. Again, ignored

Are those gratuitous ARPs? This is a common behaviour.
by dvsfish | 2025-07-28 01:52:00+00:00
I agree in principle but as time goes on I have found that the free and open internet as we know it already no longer exists in practise. Theres like 5 places to go on the internet these days - your social media platform of choice, your short form content platform of choice, youtube, perhaps an AI platform, and 1 misc place of your preference. And this loop of crap seems to demand more and more of your life.

I went on youtube in bed last night to watch a 10 minute video (that I knew I had to search for to find - it was a specific one), but the app opens to shorts and they're so damn stimulating that it was 30 minutes before I finally got to the vid I wanted. I started with pure agency and was immediately thrown off course. Say what you will about my discipline or habits, but imagine the affect this has on less... aware individuals such as children.

Walking around the world you see everyone buried in their phones.

There are aspects of this initiative that I totally welcome, if it has the result of some level of de-interneting. The argument is always "they do it to protect children first, then it comes for everyone". I hope they increase resistance for the end user. I agree its sad, but what we have currently is truly awful, and less of it is a good thing.

I understand that it may not have that effect and end up in the "worst of both worlds" situation. But I don't wan't google fighting any battles for me anymore. They might try on occasion to be respectful but their bottom line is to own my attention.
by matt_opmistro | 2025-07-28 01:52:08+00:00
Degree was in Kinesiology. Started my career at Gartner & then went onto Facebook. Both non-tech roles (sales/consulting).

After 6+ years at Meta, left to pursue entrepreneurship. Hired a mentor to teach me how to build with no-code/low-code (I still think traditional code is superior, but it isn't always needed).

Now I'm about to launch my web app in August.

We'll see if sacrificing the ~$300K in TC was worth it.
by nicoburns | 2025-07-28 01:53:08+00:00
> But remember that the articles arguing for recursive descent parsers are arguing against the long-dominant paradigm of using LR parsers

That was part of my question I think. I wouldn't have been able to tell you that the dominant paradigm being argued against was LR parsers, because I've never come across even one that I'm aware of (I've heard of them, but that's about it). Perhaps it's academia where they're popular?
by therein | 2025-07-28 01:53:46+00:00
Does it support SOCKS proxies now? If FoxyProxy or something like that works for it, I might give it a try. Last I checked, the browser itself only supported HTTP proxies and since Safari based it opened the Network Configuration system preferences page.

Edit: Tested on latest Orion. FoxyProxy silently does not function. You can configure a proxy, you can even enable it but it will just not use it. Still no way to use a SOCKS proxy.
by lotsofpulp | 2025-07-28 01:54:11+00:00
> this is more due to the fact that each service charges what we used to pay (in fact more, as in some cases prices have gone up by more than general inflation) for a single service that provided the same amount of content that they cared about.

That is because the introductory prices were not 1 to 1 to the business’ existing revenue streams from cable and satellite transmission fees. Especially considering that before, there was a very limited supply of content restricted by time slots, and now you are buying far, far more on demand content without advertising breaks. And without contracts with a cable or satellite company.

People are spoiled, and don’t appreciate how much easier and cheaper it is to watch or listen to most content than it was pre streaming services.

One only needs to look at market cap graphs of the various media companies to see that streaming isn’t the cash cow people think it is.
by thechao | 2025-07-28 01:54:41+00:00
I've been having thoughts along these lines. Earley parsers match recursive descent really nicely. In my head there'd by an Earley parser "oracle": you'd tell the oracle about the operations you've performed (in terms of terminal consumption); and, then, you can ask the oracle which recursive descent subfunctions are safe to call (based on the prediction phase).
by foxglacier | 2025-07-28 01:54:51+00:00
It's not simply always good or always bad. Sometimes unions get too powerful for the general good of the population. Workers rights come at a cost to non-workers and the general population. Do you really want to ban intermodal shipping containers to protect watersiders' rights to work inefficiently? That's an example of where unions were trying to rent-seek from the rest of the economy. Newspapers had similar problems with their printers and associated workers having probably too much power through their unions. If printer/etc. unions had their way, there'd be no internet news because that "stole" their jobs and their workers rights.
by AdieuToLogic | 2025-07-28 01:55:17+00:00
While I am not versed in Rust, this type of problem has been addressed in other languages with a concept known as Free Monad[0], in which stack space is traded for heap space. While slower, it does eliminate the possibility of stack overflows.

Turns out, there is a Rust crate called higher_free_macro[1] which might fit the bill (to my novice Rust eye).

0 - https://wiki.haskell.org/Free_structure#Free_Monads

1 - https://docs.rs/higher-free-macro/latest/higher_free_macro/
by xupybd | 2025-07-28 01:57:06+00:00
It's a 13 week scan here. This is seen as a low chance result. When the father asked what were the options they said they had three. First termination, second additional monitoring and finally ignoring the result and carrying on. He asked what would be the options if further monitoring found down syndrome. They said the options would be to terminate or not. He said in either case they would keep the baby so no further testing was required.

I think the doctor felt that early termination was a better result than later termination.

When he told me this story he was confused as to why they didn't start by finding out if the parents would keep the baby regardless. He saw it as a waste of resources as in their situation termination was never on the cards.

https://healthed.govt.nz/products/antenatal-screening-and-te...
by eru | 2025-07-28 01:57:34+00:00
> The truth is that science builds the foundation for that other stuff. It is the very ground you stand on. Engineering without science is like trying to run without ground.

That doesn't mean that government investment in science is necessarily a good idea.

> I'd be willing to wager that the economic impact of Newton and Leibniz's invention of Calculus[0] is larger than the economic impact of any engineering product, ever.

Where they financed by the government? Btw, I can also look at winning lottery tickets and say that their return-on-investment was awesome, but that doesn't mean buying lottery tickets is a good idea.
by _-_-__-_-_- | 2025-07-28 01:59:07+00:00
I like having my media locally, non-drm and under my control as well. I've grown-up in an era when media flowed freely on the Internet (music, tv, movies, books, academic papers, games and software). It takes a minimum of effort, but it's also not sorcery. It's just a collection of files sitting on a hard drive. I then have layers of software (docker containers) to serve those files and keep databases with metadata listings up-to-date. I also enjoy cataloguing and maintaining my own media. It's a passion and a pastime. That's why I continue to save media.
by benjaminwootton | 2025-07-28 02:01:18+00:00
I think there is a third and distinct model which is AI that runs in the background autonomously amd over a long period and pushes things to you.

It can detect situations intelligently, do the filtering, summarisation of what’s happening and possibly a recommendation.

This feels a lot more natural to me, especially in a business context when you want to monitor for 100 situations about thousands of customers.
by 8bitsrule | 2025-07-28 02:01:49+00:00
The article makes it abundantly clear (down a ways from the top) that much of the cost increase is due to small companies being acquired by monopolists. E.g.

> Fast forward 60 years, and those businesses were contending with aging founders, depleted municipal budgets, and declining fire-truck orders. Sensing an opportunity, a private equity group called American Industrial Partners (AIP) began to roll up the industry.... the REV Group, now one of the three leading manufacturers of fire trucks in the U.S. REV captures about a third of the country’s $3B in annual fire truck sales ...
by nextaccountic | 2025-07-28 02:04:22+00:00
Also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov#/media/File:Nik... (original image)

vs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov#/media/File:Sta... (edited image)

With photography, you could produce images that look authentic, and could convince people because they are photos, but are actually hoaxes
Show HN: I built a user feedback and roadmapping tool to build in public
by jsathianathen | 2025-07-28 02:05:40+00:00
I used to message users manually with email to get their feedback

I know how important it is to get user feedback and iterate on it, so I was trying to find a better way.

Canny was too expensive. So I built a better version.

You can collect user feedback easily, create roadmaps to keep users updated.

And changelog that connects with Github so it updates on auto-pilot and keeps users up to date
by aspenmayer | 2025-07-28 02:06:47+00:00
> I'd love to hear about examples.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn

> The principal architect of the system was British operations research scientist Stafford Beer, and the system embodied his notions of management cybernetics in industrial management. One of its main objectives was to devolve decision-making power within industrial enterprises to their workforce to develop self-regulation of factories.

> Project Cybersyn was ended with Allende's removal and subsequent death during the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. After the coup, Cybersyn was abandoned and the operations room was destroyed.

Yes, it's that Stafford Beer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...