MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by bitwize | 2025-08-02 12:37:38+00:00
The software crisis of the 1960s was marked by an inflection point: Organizations saw the benefit of automation but software writing was a tedious affair typically done in assembly language or FORTRAN or something. There just weren't enough programmers on earth to take up the load of writing all the software that would be necessary. So new tools, like COBOL and ALGOL, were devised to help programmers produce correct software quickly.

Today's software crisis is not one of too little but too much. We are absolutely spoiled for computing power -- a smartphone having enough capacity to replace a mainframe that in the 1970s or 1980s would have handled a national bank's transactions, many times over. We are awash in software, most of it bad. We need less software and better software. Stochastic slop generators are going to make this problem worse, not better.

It may be a rough few years, but on the other side there will be a boom in demand for programmers to clean up the mess "AI" has made.
by landdate | 2025-08-02 12:38:40+00:00
I don't understand the hate towards C++. Many of the aspects criticized for are non-issues in modern C++. I am not to knowledgable about Rust, but what reason is there to use Rust? Memory safety isn't much of a problem in C++ anymore with smart pointers, std::move. Implicit typing exists in C++ with std::auto. Functional programming with lambda, std::functional, std::map, etc. C++ does everything I have wanted it to do, has a huge ecosystem of libraries, and great tools.
Show HN: Minecrack – A simple, offline Minesweeper game for Android
by vocenellanotte | 2025-08-02 12:39:04+00:00
Hi HN,

I'm a solo indie developer and I built Minecrack, a lightweight Minesweeper-style puzzle game for Android.

Classic gameplay Multiple difficulty levels Works offline No login, no ads (just a clean experience)

The goal was to keep it simple, fast, and familiar — something to play quickly without distractions. I’d love feedback from anyone who’s a fan of logic games, UI minimalism, or retro-style mobile games.

Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vdm.minecr...

Thanks in advance for checking it out!
by kloop | 2025-08-02 12:40:09+00:00
> Who would have thought someday a new engine rises in this climate, and then who would have thought it would be a small team, without a trillion dollar giant behind them pouring hundreds of millions into its production?

Anybody who has ever worked on a large enterprise software team. Anybody who has ever worked in this scenario will believe this. Computing history is full of 2-10 people teams beating giant well funded teams to the punch.

This mostly occurs because work expands to fill the time and resources allowed for the project (Parkinson's Law), and large companies have almost unlimited amounts of both.
by the_sleaze_ | 2025-08-02 12:40:43+00:00
Vespa scooters are awesome because they have a huge storage compartment under the seat where you would store things like helmets and gear.

The full-face mountain bike helmets sound exactly the ticket, and would protect your face from abrasion if you have an unexpected rapid dismount.

I used to use a small wire cord and padlock that you can store wrapped up tightly onboard. You're never going stop someone determined to get your old lid you just want to prevent opportunists and not be too cumbersome about it otherwise you won't actually do it.

I will say I have heard enough stories about 5k+ electric bikes getting scooped that I'd only ever store one behind locked doors rather than buying a huge bike lock setup.
by consumer451 | 2025-08-02 12:41:31+00:00
> He's talking to people who don't normally pay attention to politics ... He's saying once he fixes those problems, they can go back to not paying attention to politics.

From 2015:

> Based on my research, Christians are much more likely to vote than non-Christians.

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&...
by dmurray | 2025-08-02 12:41:44+00:00
For the 800 names that were missing declension data in the database, it seems like the most straightforward thing to do would be to assign their declensions by hand. It shouldn't take a native speaker more than a couple of hours (if some name they haven't seen before is ambiguous, then whatever they guess at least won't sound obviously wrong to other native speakers). Alternatively, very cheap to ask an LLM to do it.

Encoding them into a trie like this would still be a good way to distribute the result, but you don't have to rely on the trie also being a good way to guess the declensions.
by hobofan | 2025-08-02 12:41:51+00:00
It seems obvious, but I also don't think it's optimal depending on what you are trying to do.

In some scenarios, e.g. bad mobile internet connection, you may also be happy with a slightly stale result (where you still have to ensure correct ordering of responses), depending on how the search overall is implemented.

One additional data point: Algolia used to do query cancellation in the past but stopped doing that (I think at least 5 years ago now), which you can test with the HN search. I'm not sure about their reasoning, but for them that seems to be the best overall default search experience.
by em-bee | 2025-08-02 12:42:14+00:00
would you mind sharing your configuration, so i can compare it to what i have now?

my family keeps me busy enough that learning new tech comes out of my work time, and i can't afford to spend a day to learn how to configure an application just to make it do the things i need just to replace another application that already works. especially not when it is uncertain if what i want is even possible. knowing that it is possible does help though, and the article i found allowed me to get close to the configuration i am looking for (the mvp) without having to spend all that time learning. it doesn't have to be perfect from the start, just mostly usable, so that i can dive in and use it while i learn the few things that i am missing. for a tmux replacement that means it needs to have the interactive ability to create and switch sessions and tabs.
by ethersteeds | 2025-08-02 12:43:22+00:00
Since they've been told climate change is a hoax, republican voters in the US have needed an explanation for the dramatic increase in the frequency/severity of severe weather events. They have flocked to the conspiracy theory that Democrats are using geo engineering to manipulate the weather for political ends and to make climate change "real".

Lest you dismiss this as the folly of the very online, states are passing laws against weather manipulation in response.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/republicans-p...

So uh yeah, really that stupid. At least enough of them to be statistically relevant in a two-party system.
by subscribed | 2025-08-02 12:43:30+00:00
Yeah, Anthropic are morons.

They banned my account completely for violation of ToS and never responded to my query, following my 3 or 4 chats with Claude where i asked for music and sci-fi books recommendations.

Never violated ToS, account created through they ui, used literally few times.

Well, I don't use them at all except for very rare tests through open router indeed.
by mikepurvis | 2025-08-02 12:43:35+00:00
I think it boils down to a) effectively storing heat for later use is extremely difficult to do well, and b) moving heat around properly means 400psi compressor tubes everywhere, and those are a lot more fragile and annoying to work with than regular plumbing, and you need a special gas licence to charge them up afterward.

In contrast to the RV proposal, maybe a better option could be something like a boutique hotel, where you’ve got 100+ showers happening every morning, so having a giant cistern of hot water that you dump all the waste heat from AC, fridges, and freezers into makes a ton of sense.
by the_sleaze_ | 2025-08-02 12:44:23+00:00
Same thing here. Slid on black ice in the north-east USA winter. Big -big- hit to the side of the helmet, road-slide for 100 feet and got up with a bruised ego.

I'd add 1 point for the pads, shoulder elbow and back for impact. Mine happen to be `D3o` and are comfortable
Show HN: Review of CWE-843 Type Confusion Vulnerability and Exploit
by fatsec | 2025-08-02 12:44:43+00:00
I recently wrote a short piece exploring CWE-843: Type Confusion, a vulnerability that quietly lurks in low-level code, especially in C.

Type confusion bugs are sneaky the code compiles, runs, and often works just fine... until it doesn't. In the article, I walk through a practical example of how a type confusion issue can lead to exploitable memory corruption, explain why this happens at the language level.

https://dev.to/fkkarakurt/review-of-cwe-843-type-confusion-v...
by rwmj | 2025-08-02 12:44:43+00:00
OK that is pretty interesting. For the TL;DR crowd, the exploit was:

if(environmentǃ=ENV_PROD){ // bypass authZ checks in DEV return true; }

where the 'ǃ' is a Unicode homoglyph (U+1C3 "LATIN LETTER ALVEOLAR CLICK") which obviously completely changes the nature of the code.

I'll note that GCC gives a clear warning here ("suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value"), so as always, turn on -Werror and take warnings seriously!
by sfmz | 2025-08-02 12:44:59+00:00
I can relate, not sure what to do about it besides move to a hacker house in Thailand or such.

NPR's show 1A had a program on loneliness. There were a couple of interesting things: these days university cafeterias are quiet because everybody eats alone while looking at their phone. A Gen-Zer complained they 2 jobs and no time to socialize. On top of that, our third places are being ruined with hostile architecture (parks), or uncomfortable seating (Starbucks) because they want you to just do a mobile order and get out. Seems like the Internet should at least be a good third space, its called cyberspace after all, but at least idk how to get invited to the right discords or tiny social spaces where there's community.
by AdrianB1 | 2025-08-02 12:45:12+00:00
Go offroad. For me, after 20 years on motorcycles, it is more interesting to cross the mountains than to cross the continent on 2 wheels and I did both, several times. I ride on the road only when needed, when I want to have fun I leave the asphalt. On a bicycle it is even more clear: I never liked riding on roads, I used to race amateur XC competitions for ~ 10 years. As much fun as it can be.
by rsynnott | 2025-08-02 12:45:51+00:00
It generally hasn't worked out great for anyone else, though. The obvious modern parallel is Turkey, where Erdogan, rather than dealing with bad numbers, just faked the numbers. And forced down interest rates. Today, Turkey's inflation rate is 35%, though in fairness that's a decent reduction from the nearly 100% it was seeing a couple years ago.
by tomhow | 2025-08-02 12:46:02+00:00
Now on front page:

A.I. Researchers Are Negotiating $250 Million Pay Packages - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44766758

We let that article take precedence on the front page, as the top commenter on this thread makes a good point that the comparisons to the Manhattan Project and Space Race can be regarded a red herring and diminish the weight of the article. The NYT story on the front page focuses on the central topic of comp offers to A.I. talent.
by somenameforme | 2025-08-02 12:47:02+00:00
Have you been in a public bathroom, in the US, in basically any urban area? Self cleaning doesn't cut it. People cause damage to bathrooms for no apparent reason, piss everywhere within a 10' radius, and on occasion feces isn't far behind. Oddly enough even women's bathrooms, at least on occasion, can be just as bad if not worse - as you can add blood to the entire disgusting mix, people flushing pads, and so on. Cleaning public bathrooms is an unimaginably awful job that nobody, in a million years, would do if they had any other remotely reasonable way to get money, let alone getting handed it for free.

Inflation happens because increasing labor costs will inevitably get handed right back onto the customer, especially on the scale we're talking about. And the customer isn't just the final customer, but every business operation from the raw goods all the way down to the final product, so it'd lead to rather dramatic inflation.
by perching_aix | 2025-08-02 12:47:10+00:00
Yeah, that'd be a good idea. That said, it still wouldn't resolve the issue for names that are in-use despite not being approved (or foreign names).

I also live in a country with a centrally governed personal name list, but you can request exceptions, and there are people who were born before the list existed, so their names won't necessarily be on the list either. Immigrants can also retain their names during naturalization I believe, and there can be lots of other complications still. So the ability to sorta-kinda predict the proper declension is still useful.
by thrance | 2025-08-02 12:47:43+00:00
I studied math and knew a girl like that, spending an inordinate amount of times making sure to understand every single details of what we were taught, even going further when I could barely keep up. She would also make those pretty, colorful notes with visual interpretations and drawings in the margin. It takes a special form of love for the discipline. She just finished her PhD and is now starting a postdoctoral contract.
by rsynnott | 2025-08-02 12:47:59+00:00
“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”
by mattlondon | 2025-08-02 12:48:40+00:00
When more than 1 company has "AGI", or whatever we're calling it, and people realise it is not just a license to print money.

Some people are rightly pointing out that for quite a lot of things right now we probably already have AGI to a certain extent. Your average AI is way better than the average schmuck on the street in basically anything you can think of - maths, programming, writing poetry, world languages, music theory. Sure there are outliers where AI is not as good as a skilled practitioner in foo, but I think the AGI bar is about being "about as good as the average human" and not showing complete supremacy in every niche. So far the world has been disrupted sure, but not ended.

ASI of course is the next thing, but that's different.
by woolion | 2025-08-02 12:48:51+00:00
I believe the main problem could be reframed as an improper use of analogies. People are pushing the analogy of "artificial intelligence" and "brain", etc. creating a confusion that leads to such "laws". What we have is a situation that is similar to birds and planes, they do not operate under the same principles at all.

Looking at the original claim, we can take from birds a number of optimization regarding air flows that are far beyond what any plane can do. But, the impact that could be transfer to planes would be minimal compared to a boost in engine technology. Which is not surprising since the way both systems achieve "flight" are completely different.

I don't believe such discourse would happen at all if it was just considered to be a number of techniques, of different categories with their own strength and weaknesses, used to tackle problems.

Like all fake "laws", it is based on a general idea that is devoid of any time-frame prediction that would make it falsifiable. In "the short term" is beaten by "in the long run". How far is "the long run"? This is like the "mean reversion law", saying that prices will "eventually" go back to their equilibrium price; will you survive bankruptcy by the time of "eventually"?
by rvz | 2025-08-02 12:49:17+00:00
> The limiting factor is available rust devs. Writing c++ is a sure way to get hired maintaining a legacy codebase.

Anyone looking to be extremely employable in this market should really learn both.

Otherwise, you are not going to see a migration to Rust from C++ shops at all.

> Ladybird is an outlier and there are probably a few more project like it. but anyone looking to be employed should pick up the new skill that is rust.

Then I suggest you prepare for Leetcode hards on Rust code, if you want to show that you are highly experienced in solving DSA problems that are found in systems software.

Also, why does Ladybird get a pass and the others don't?
by dlisboa | 2025-08-02 12:49:31+00:00
Location: Brazil

Remote: Yes, Hybrid in São Paulo

Willin to relocate: No

Technologies: Ruby, JavaScript, Go, Ruby on Rails, ReactJS, VueJS, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Sqlite, AWS, Kubernetes, Linux

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlisboa/

Email: diogo at dlisboa.com

I have over 17 years experience building distributed and highly scaled systems. Most recently I was a Principal Engineer at a Brazilian startup, where I helped steer a 40+ person dev team changing the dev culture, mentoring developers, moving us from a monolith to microservices, designing a bunch of client-facing and internal APIs, and putting out plenty of production fires.

I'm a polyglot programmer and love working across multiple stacks. Most of my career has ben with Ruby, JavaScript and Go, though I've worked in projects with Python, Java, Kotlin, Haskell, and more. I enjoy solving problems, no matter the stack and I'm always eager to learn new tech.
by hilbert42 | 2025-08-02 12:49:49+00:00
"Go to refresher courses. I do it every year to update myself and get an idea of my current limits. It really helps."

I'll preface this by saying I love motorcycles but haven't been on one for decades.

As a driver of four-wheeled vehicles, the biggest problem I have with motorcycles is seeing them. Fortunately, I've never had an accident with a motorcycle but have had some near misses. All of those were because (a) I did not see the rider and (b) they were in positions where I did not expect them to be—on my wrong side, quickly switching lanes seemingly appearing out of nowhere, etc.

Whilst hardly in that league, I experienced an incident only three days ago that illustrates the point. At a shopping centre on a busy road I found a parking spot tight enough to require multiple maneuvers to park. When about to leave a motorcyclist pulled in behind me without me being aware of it (I was arranging shopping stuff so it wouldn't go everywhere when vehicle was in motion and there was no noise to indicate his presence).

He wasn't there when I got in the vehicle and I couldn't see his motorcycle both from my rear vision and side mirrors. I reversed slowly and felt a resistance and stopped immediately (I touched so gently there was no noise—and not even a scratch to show). (He wasn't on the motorcycle or I definitely would have seen him.)

What this motorcyclist did was to sneak into an illegal parking space so small that he effectively blocked my exit, I could not leave before he did. Sure, I wasn't really inconvenienced as he was delivering something to one of the businesses so he wasn't long.

Motorcycles offer conviences other vehicles do not, here being able to park in a small space. Motorcyclists get used to such conviences without realizing that other motorists might not be aware of them. For example, motorcycles allow for easy maneuverability which tempts riders to make illegal maneuvers that car drivers wouldn't even consider doing in the same circumstance. If the last thing on a car driver's mind is an unexpected maneuver by a motorcycle then it doesn't bode well for its rider.

From my experience, many motorcyclists drive from their perspective and not that of four-wheeled driver's. It's why I don't own a motorcycle, if I did then before long I'd be in motorcyclist thinking mode, and that'd be damned dangerous for my health.
by somenameforme | 2025-08-02 12:50:11+00:00
I have no idea what you're basing "from what I can tell" on. In America there are literally millions of janitorial and cleaning staff. The overwhelming majority of those people would much prefer to e.g. spend time with their family than engage in menial labor to make ends meet. And the marginal utility of money decreases dramatically, at least for most people, once you have enough to comfortably survive and provide for your family indefinitely.
by kyleliiii | 2025-08-02 12:50:26+00:00
This project simulates a UR5 robotic arm with a Robotiq 85 gripper, performing autonomous object grasping and placement tasks in the PyBullet environment. Using inverse kinematics (IK) for precise arm control and synchronized joint control for realistic gripper motion, the robot grasps cubes from random positions and places them on a tray.
by theshackleford | 2025-08-02 12:50:35+00:00
> Now I'm a petrolhead at heart so I still enjoy scenic roads but with a car. It's much safer.

I've tried it in a car, but it's not the same. For me, it's not even 1/10th of the experience of being on a bike. It's like all the soul has been sucked out of it. I might as well be in a minivan on the freeway for all the joy it gives me.

I'm not riding at the moment due to an unrelated (incomplete) spinal cord injury and some long term issues relating to that, and so i've been trying it in a car, and I even bought a "fun" car thinking it would help. But it just feels so...meh that i've largely just given it up full stop and am going to just sell the car.

I'd been riding since I was five years old, I dont think anything will ever touch it for me honestly. It was my zen place, the place I was truely happiest and at peace. It's been the biggest loss for me since my injury.

There is still a chance I could one day return to riding, so i've kept the bike (a 2012 BMW F800GS) out of sheer hope, but I must admit that it's likely by the time I can physically, I may no longer be mentally capable of the return.
by southernplaces7 | 2025-08-02 12:50:44+00:00
All of these are useful things to keep in mind of course, and they're why I put forth my consideration as a thought experiment for perspective, not so much as an absolute assertion. Orbital space is complicated, and the the ramifications of accidents are extremely unique compared to those that apply in a terrestrial context, but I still stand by my point about it being absurdly big enough that a sense of proportion is needed in worrying about something like Kessler syndrome.
by em-bee | 2025-08-02 12:51:06+00:00
you are right, apple didn't clobber ctrl-c and i should have realized that (facepalm). it IS microsofts fault. makes one wish microsoft started making keyboards earlier. maybe we would have gotten that command key everywhere.

on the linux end we didn't really have much choice then. we wanted to get people to switch from windows.

but technically, neither microsoft now linux clobbered ctrl-c in the terminal. if i remember ctrl-c does not work to select text in a DOS window, and it does not on a linux terminal either.
by southernplaces7 | 2025-08-02 12:51:26+00:00
To those downvoting a completely innocuous comment like this and my other replies below, which simply put forth a thought experiment for the sake of debate, without asserting anything at all controversial: Grow an adult brain, no? idiotic as the downvote feature is in general, one would at least assume that the self-professed "intellectually above-average" readers of a site like this would use it better than 12-year-old rage-lords on a 4chan thread.