MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by garciansmith | 2025-08-15 18:23:53+00:00
I often see comments here about how the humanities and many social sciences are pointless, should be cut, and so forth, as evidenced by this thread. Though as you say, problems with the insane cost of higher education (especially in the United States), are separate, if partially related since so many people believe that getting educated = getting a job that makes more money than if you weren't and that's education's only purpose.

But I also see how so many of the upvoted and discussed articles and papers on this site are about history, archaeology, literature, philosophy, language, etc. It has always struck me as contradictory, though of course a lot of the people who are into the latter are not those writing the former.

How do we continue to push the bounds of human knowledge and thought in those disciplines, if not through higher education? In my opinion the world would be a whole lot better if, for instance, people learned more history and learned how to more critically approach sources. But I'm biased of course, I have PhD in history.
by logicprog | 2025-08-15 18:23:57+00:00
> That, or, they could just respect robots.txt

IMO, if digital information is posted publicly online, it's fair game to be crawled unless that crawl is unreasonably expensive or takes it down for others, because these are non rivalrous resources that are literally already public.

> we could put enforcement penalties for not respecting the web service's request to not be crawled... We need laws.

How would that be enforceable? A central government agency watching network traffic? A means of appealing to a bureaucracy like the FCC? Setting it up so you can sue companies that do it? All of those seem like bad options to me.
by zdragnar | 2025-08-15 18:24:15+00:00
I'm not sure why you're being down voted. Art degrees aren't aimed at artists. There are dedicated schools to go to for things like graphics design and other creative degrees, but those aren't the sort of humanities degrees that we're talking about.

I vaguely recall even creative art degrees as being looked down upon by artists as teaching you to conform to certain styles, essentially mimicry rather than creativity (though it has been some years since anyone in my network attended one).

In any case, despite the waxing philosophical of the personal growth value of a humanities degree, there's still the fact that every college and university also advertises job placement rates of their majors. Individual courses may focus on specific topics, but the people taking your money are promising job opportunities to parents and school councilors to convince them that the over inflated price tags are worth it.
Show HN: macOS app to give Cursor (and others) more context and tools
by kalynyak | 2025-08-15 18:25:03+00:00
After finishing my app's first version, I started working on marketing/promotion/sales and realized: AI coders are amazing with code, but terrible with content.

I needed to create screencasts, write docs, handle customer calls - but my AI editor could only help with the coding parts, not the content creation and promotion work that comes after.

So I built a macOS companion that lets AI coders work with content, not just code:

Records screencasts and calls with auto-transcription Captures voice notes and screenshots Connects to 100+ tools (Linear, Slack, Notion) without API setup Everything flows into your AI editor as rich context Example: Record a product demo → tell AI "create marketing copy from this" → done.

Open source + cloud versions planned. Currently looking for interested users to get feedback and do customer development.

Waitlist: https://bolide.ai
by Barrin92 | 2025-08-15 18:25:30+00:00
Genuine entrepreneurship is about developing experience in a technical domain and/or actually running a business. What the article calls "privileged risk taking" Danish researchers a few years ago called the "Veblenian Entrepreneur".[1]

Someone who doesn't build anything but consumes entrepreneurship as a hedonistic activity, like a socialite or influencer, cosplaying "being an entrepreneur" to hope for fame or connection and further money.

I think this is pretty real and accounts for the fact that you basically don't see any Gen Z business leaders or technologists when in the last two generations at the same age you had people like Brin, Page or Carmack. We've basically gone from real technical or academic work being translated into businesses to Discord NFT hustling. Something that looks more like Vegas than Caltech.

[1] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3479042
by andix | 2025-08-15 18:26:17+00:00
There is this project to deploy k3s to Hetzner via Terraform: https://github.com/kube-hetzner/terraform-hcloud-kube-hetzne...

It's not the smoothest thing I've ever used, but it's all self hosted and everything can be fixed with some Terraform or SSH.

Great to see some managed Kubernetes on Hetzner!
by javanissen | 2025-08-15 18:26:39+00:00
I see a few phenomena here:

1) The US was rebuilt after WW2 to be highly car-centric, with disastrous results for pedestrian safety. It is actually more dangerous for children to move in public because of this automobile centricity in >95% of US spaces, which drives cultural shifts

2) US media is highly sensationalist; Fox News is popular and generally serves to make viewers frightened of the world

3) The US has 340M people to Ireland’s 5.6M people, so from a base rate, we’d expect ~60x more lurid headlines to come out of the US
by toast0 | 2025-08-15 18:26:45+00:00
BEAM loads a shared object, that opens the door to anything.

If you want to use a GC language for NIFs, you'd need to hook up your runtime somehow.

IMHO, it makes more sense to lean into the BEAM and use its resource management... my NIFs have all been pretty straight forward to write. All the boiler plate is what it is, and figuring out how to cooperate with the scheuduler for long running code or i/o can be a bit tricky, but if you can do a lot in a BEAM language, the native code ends up being like

Check the arguments, do the thing, return the results.
by cmcaleer | 2025-08-15 18:26:55+00:00
Lounges have gotten significantly worse since Covid though with overcrowding issues (with some exceptions like KIX), so I don’t think it’s a particularly great loss. My card lets me pay some token amount to gain access to lounges but I’d rather spend that money to get an actual meal cooked for me rather than a buffet and then sit in a quiet corner of the terminal than a crowded lounge.
by logicprog | 2025-08-15 18:26:57+00:00
Yeah, I don't think we can regulate this problem away personally. Because whatever regulations will be made will either be technically impossible and nonsensical products of people who don't understand what they're regulating that will produce worse side effects (@simonw extracted a great quote from recent Doctorow post on this: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Aug/14/cory-doctorow/) or just increase regulatory capture and corporate-state bonds, or even facilitate corp interests, because the big corps are the ones with economic and lobbying power.
by xp84 | 2025-08-15 18:27:01+00:00
The reaching out to an old friend example is a powerful one. In my case I missed out on a decade of two of my most valued friendships (it was both halves of a couple) because of a fight that didn't really have to be a big deal.

And one night a couple years ago I admitted to myself how much I missed the friendships and decided to send a text. They were really glad to reconnect. I drove 7 hours to see them. The reunion was one of the best moments of my life.
by LeifCarrotson | 2025-08-15 18:27:09+00:00
> My current printer I built in 2015. It needs very little work but has evolved slightly through the years...

"It needs very little work" is very different from "an amateur with no knowledge can use it". You're overwhelmingly more qualified to adjust it and keep it running, you even enjoy that part of the process.

I've come to accept that an overwhelming majority of people are not 3D printER enthusiasts, they're barely even 3D printING enthusiasts. They're artists and minifigure builders and engineers and mechanics, and they care about the printer itself just as much as they care about a random screwdriver. Many don't even want to understand how the thing works, they just want it to work.

With those values, yes, buying one off the shelf that's assembled and tuned and adjusted and tested and can immediately begin making parts with decent reliability is better than building one.
by bangaladore | 2025-08-15 18:27:13+00:00
This is a more general question, but:

What company would be comfortable with giving out schematics, source code, etc... to third parties like this or AI Model providers like Anthropic, etc...

Privacy policy aside, this just seems like a statistical guarantee at some point to leaks sensitive IP (not specifically pointing at this company, but in this space in general). Or does nobody care?
by vehemenz | 2025-08-15 18:27:13+00:00
This is a popular criticism that is partially true, but it rings a bit hollow because conservatives (rather, Republicans) don't seem to want intellectual career paths. They're nowhere to be found in academia.

And, to pre-empt the usual objection, they aren't being crowded out by ideology. They aren't there in the first place. They're not in the STEM majors outside of engineering, and they're not in the humanities except for law. Otherwise you'll find them in sales, marketing, business, and management.

These people complain about academia but have little invested in it in the first place.
by Mtinie | 2025-08-15 18:27:14+00:00
It could be lethal if a guild member attempted to share secrets or sell methods to a competitive guild. An example:

"In 1754 the State Inquisitors of Venice learned that a worker at Daniele Miotti's factory had fled abroad with a copy of his master's books. Fearing that he would divulge secrets—especially in Bohemia, where there were important glass factories—they ordered his death."

Source: Zecchin, P., (2025) “Una condanna a morte di dubbia utilità: Sarebbe stato molto grave, per i vetrai muranesi, se il seicentesco ricettario Miotti fosse caduto nelle mani dei Boemi?”, Journal of Glass Studies 66: 7. doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/jgs.6939

Just how widespread it was for violent and lethal actions to be carried out in pursuit of maintaining guild secrecy, the evidence is murky.
by holowoodman | 2025-08-15 18:27:30+00:00
The mechanism that lead to this is imho that humanities generally do not have any more grounding in facts, logic or reality. Science, technology and (to some extent) medicine and mathematics are bound to describe existing phenomena that occur in nature. They do this by observation and experiments (except mathematics), proposing axioms and theory, and then bringing those into strict logical agreement. Humanities nowadays reject observation and experiments as biologism. Or they never had those, and always just proposed ideas to be discussed, like in philosophy. They also nowadays reject objective logic and proof in favour of subjective evaluations and a wholly individual-centered world view.

This decline of rigor in the humanities means that they no longer really teach logic, critical thinking, or any kind of reality-related ideas. What they do is arbitrary and therefore objectively pointless, except maybe to further some political or social goal. That those goals are mostly left-wing is imho just an accident, they could as well be promoting right-wing politics.

(In a similar manner, arts now reject their original goals of beauty, aesthetics, depictions of reality, mastery and entertainment. But that's less of a problem, because arts have always been even less important than humanities.)
by ninetyninenine | 2025-08-15 18:28:01+00:00
They want Taiwan. That's for sure. But they don't want war. War is a last resort action they will go to, to get Taiwan.

But war with the US? They don't want it and are trying to avoid it at all costs.

Taiwan is none of the US's business right? The war here is in actuality really just the US starting it. The US in the end will have to make a choice here. Do we fuck with China and Taiwan or do we not?

So in short. They want Taiwan. War can happen because the US is trying to start war. So the barges you see are in preperation for that.
by drewg123 | 2025-08-15 18:28:01+00:00
I wonder how much of the increased schedule times are due to baggage fees? Here is my theory:

In 2008, airlines began charging for checked bags[1]. This was done both for the immediate revenue increase, and also to prod flyers into airline loyalty programs or airline credit cards to get a free checked bag. However, that caused a lot of casual fliers to go carryon-only. That, in turn, causes it to take longer to board/exit planes, leading to longer turn around times.

I've long contended that airlines should get rid of checked bag fees. And if they feel like they really want to be evil, switch the fees to carryons. That would decrease the number of carryons and decrease the turnaround time.

EDIT: From the article "Starting around 2008, Scheduled flight times began increasing even faster than actual ones" This has me convinced that the bag fees really torpedoed turnaround times.

[1] https://www.farecompare.com/travel-advice/airline-fees-bags-...
by bluefirebrand | 2025-08-15 18:28:01+00:00
I do like the phrase "privileged risk takers"

It seems to me that many entrepreneurs are people who have substantial safety nets, where failing over and over isn't likely to ruin them

The narrative is always that they are bold risk takers, but I think the reality is that it's much easier to take risks when you are insulated from consequences

Personally, I experienced something like this in the past. I moved to a new city to try and start over at 27 years old after struggling for several years where I was. I was employed at a startup in my new city. The founder/CEO was a guy who I can only describe as enormously privileged. His parents were bankrolling him, he owned multiple properties, and he had a successful business in another industry that he built using his father's connections. He was also only a couple of years older than me, who was broke and kinda desperate

I was broke and needed to be able to afford my rent. So I had to insist that he pay me a salary, which he reluctantly agreed to do, and in exchange he basically gave me no equity in the company even though I was basically the technical lead. I was making mid-five figures and less than 1% equity as a "founding engineer" in a pretty well funded startup attempt

Maybe I would have been building my own businesses if I had the same kind of family wealth and support that he had, instead of being a fairly desperate employee
by Night_Thastus | 2025-08-15 18:28:28+00:00
I figured out a way to set it at a top level, so it only happens with C++ files:

target_compile_options(${NAME} PUBLIC

$<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>:-fplugin=externis -fplugin-arg-externis-trace-dir=(where I want to put traces)>

)

But as I suspected, it is not a single trace file. It's thousands of trace files. Is there some way to collate all the data into one larger picture of how the build progressed?
by mxmlnkn | 2025-08-15 18:28:28+00:00
On the other hand, fonts can be an expression of your personality. Shouldn't it be preferable to centrally enable overriding fonts instead of forcing every site designer not to use custom fonts to express themselves? Theoretically, it is easier to remove formatting than it is to add it. Therefore, this functionality should be part of the browser, not the website. Firefox has this as an option: "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above".

Personally, I quite like the site's design and its font. My gripe often is light gray text on a darker gray background. The bad readability that so many newer sites seem to prefer makes me question my eyes or my monitor capabilities. Reader mode in Firefox is also often very helpful.
by tombert | 2025-08-15 18:28:28+00:00
Lots of etymologies have depressing origins, I do not think it makes someone “extremely conservative” just because they’re not fully aware of all these etymologies.

For example, the term “grandfather clause” originates due to racist laws designed to prevent black people from voting, but I don’t go around calling people who say they were “grandfathered in” are huge supporters of slavery because that would be fucking stupid. They clearly are just using a colloquialism and pretending you are offended by something that you’re actually not offended by as some kind of bizarre justification of your terminally online persona is weird.

But that’s just my opinion; apparently I’m extremely conservative, which is news to me. Maybe I should hang out in leftist circle jerk discord servers.
by kelseyfrog | 2025-08-15 18:28:45+00:00
This is where it gets fun.

We're on the precipice of being able to install AI into positions of business critical processes. Hiring, billing, sales, and compliance. It's going to be great watching c-suite and VPs who are drunk on the sauce accept AI in these positions and get golden parachutes when the business ends up facing a massive external audit, fraud, and the possibility of bankruptcy.
by vkou | 2025-08-15 18:28:57+00:00
> The airline charges everyone else $50 per bag, $50 for selecting your seat, gives you $10 off for traveling with a backpack in a middle seat, and pockets $90 after costs

And at the end of the day, operates at a pre-tax[1] profit margin of 5% (in a good year), or 0% in a bad one.

If all airlines became altruistic non-profit entities tomorrow that only exist to serve their customers and nobody else, your ticket prices wouldn't drop more than ~$10-20.

[1] Post-tax, it's at 2.5%, but I'm not qualified to get into whether or not there's Hollywood accounting going on.
by Sohcahtoa82 | 2025-08-15 18:29:01+00:00
> In my experience, there has been a wide-spread (across the retail and service economy) decline in how customer service personnel treat customers

This hasn't been my experience at all. And to be quite frank, whenever I see someone claim this, my cynical misanthropic brain assumes that's what's ACTUALLY happening is that customers are asking for exceptions beyond policy that customer service personnel can't give them and then claim they're getting poor service or that the customer service rep was rude for telling them "no" on something.

I worked retail and fast food for over 10 years. People suck. And while I got out of that industry 13 years ago, I know that people have only gotten worse. People demand the world and then complain about poor service when they don't get it.
by mieubrisse | 2025-08-15 18:29:24+00:00
I think you're looking for this: https://nabeelqu.substack.com/p/reflections-on-palantir

I worked there for 7y, and can confirm Nabeel's post is very accurate.

The general public thinks Palantir's a bunch of moral-less folks grinning over godlike power & privacy violations but in actuality it's a mashup of smart Silicon Valley + military folks trying to make data pipelines & analysis work around the globe, often in achingly bureaucratic organizations.
by johnisgood | 2025-08-15 18:29:39+00:00
Fair point on the framing inconsistency - I should have been clearer. The 10-year trend does show decreases, but we're now moving in the opposite direction.

Let's remove fraud entirely since you're right it doesn't affect street safety.

Theft from the person - which absolutely does - increased 15% to 151,220 offences (highest since records began).

Shoplifting hit 530,643 offences (also highest since records began). These are the crimes people encounter walking around London.

Since you're a Londoner, the Met data is key: London saw a 54% shoplifting increase vs 20% nationally, and 41% increase in theft from person while the rest of England saw it decrease by 14%. London isn't following national patterns - it's bucking them badly.

On cherry-picking: Homicides fell by 32 incidents across 9 million Londoners. Meanwhile, London alone saw over 30,000 additional shoplifting incidents. The volume difference matters.

The ONS explicitly states there have been "increases across some crime types in the latest reporting period." The current trajectory on street-level property crime is objectively concerning, regardless of longer-term trends.

Your personal experience is valid, but the data suggests it may not reflect what's happening across London more broadly. The statistics and your lived experience can both be true simultaneously.

---

Just to reiterate: these aren't abstract statistics - fraud, shoplifting, and theft from the person are exactly the crimes that make London feel unsafe day-to-day. Your own data source proves crime is rising in the categories that matter most for everyday safety.
by skydhash | 2025-08-15 18:30:15+00:00
Why don't the developer do the shim themselves? You can always have a core and shell out the UI to the platform being used. One example is Celluloid [0] (GTK) and IINA [1], both use mpv as their backend. Why not have something like libslack, libspotify (a real one), or libdiscord, then have a more appropriate frontend to meet the users where they are.

[0]: https://celluloid-player.github.io/

[1]: https://iina.io/
by Aurornis | 2025-08-15 18:30:26+00:00
> "You are a fool to build your own printer when you can buy one prebuilt" came about. This seemed to be spread by people who either had no idea what they were doing...or were intentionally planting the seed of doubt.

I started with a self-built printer and even got some key parts from members of our local 3D printing community, true RepRap style. I've spent a lot of time upgrading, modifying, tuning, debugging, and trying different controller boards over the years.

I also have a mass-produced printer.

I enjoy both for different reasons. I would never recommend the self-built route to anyone who wasn't looking for a project. The mass-produced printers are so much easier to get to printing rather than spending hours dealing with the printer every time you want to print.

Honestly, getting the mass-produced printer reignited my excitement for actually designing and printing parts. Instead of dealing with the printer, I can forget about the printer and just get straight to my project.

> We were told that it was better/easier to buy 10 and throw away 5 in a year since it was more cost effective.

This is the FUD I hear out of the 3D printing purists, but it doesn't match the experience of myself and my friends with printers from Bambu and a couple other companies.

I can get spare parts for both printers just as easily. To be honest, I have more faith that I can get something like a replacement heated bed for my Bambu 5 years from now than the custom-shaped heater for self-built which is sourced from a little operation that has to carry dozens of different sizes and variations.

Every time I read one of these posts praising self-built printers and downplaying the mass-produced machines, it comes down to something like this:

> My current printer I built in 2015.

I have a self-built printer from that era that has been upgraded throughout the years. I also have a Bambu. It's hard to explain just how much you're missing if you don't have experience with both.
by taeric | 2025-08-15 18:30:31+00:00
Ah, fair. And I see how this goes in with your idea of government spending.

It is frustrating, as that feels like an easy argument to show why a lot of things decreased in price. You had governments spending a ton of money. Or incentivizing the spend. Usually both?

I think my approach there would be to say you can't use profit as incentive to lower housing prices? For the exact cycle we both spoke to.

This is my big "abundance pill" that I've swallowed. It isn't necessarily deregulation you need. But if you want a goal, you have to spend towards it. And "lower prices" is a goal. To get there, governments will have to spend money.