MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by Bender | 2025-08-16 18:42:06+00:00
I described the The United States Agency for International Development (USAID). [1] The money allocated to them for "Aid" is not tracked or accounted for, one of the reasons it was defunded. The previously linked video explains this in more depth although the official reason was due to being woke. The money sent to other countries is just used to bribe officials.

Adding to this the current generation of online manipulators are awful. The boomers at least used some advanced psychological techniques. The current generations at best use gaslighting and weak astroturfing. No better than CNN or FOX "News". I expect better manipulation for the tax revenue I contribute.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAID
by StevenWaterman | 2025-08-16 18:42:19+00:00
I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that. These are such minutiae. Where's the discussion about humans? They're probably the most important part of your system, and the most chaotic, and the part that needs the most careful design.

It's hinted at a little bit in the OP, with:

> What does good system design look like? I’ve written before that it looks underwhelming

This is because there are humans in your system! Other developers! You in the future! You have to resort to heuristics like "simple == good" because you're only looking at a small part of the whole system.

And zoom out even more, you get to the actual users. How do they interact with the system? If you implement a rate limiter, how do the users respond when they hit it? Do they just spam-refresh the page? Open more tabs? Use their phone? Do they develop weird superstitions about it? Do they spam-call your phone support lines? Does your response to a thundering herd anticipate the second-order impact of your phone support lines being DDOSed?
by zoogeny | 2025-08-16 18:42:32+00:00
To be fair to Penrose, he seems to have some humility about it. Although he does also make the claim that math is discovered and not constructed in the same linked video.

> it's a conceit to believe that the mechanisms we call math aren't just a patchwork of metaphors that build up from experience.

I'm not sure it is a conceit as much as a commitment to a metaphysic. If one believes that experience is a definite relationship with an external reality (a phenomenological view) then the fact that experience is structured is suggestive that external reality is structured. If one believes that experience is primarily interior then one could assume that the internal mechanism of cognition is structured and external reality is something entirely different.

However, I'm not sure how anyone could hold the latter view without a deep solipsism. One would presumably have to account for the perception of billions/trillions of other living creatures behaving as if the external world was structured. I mean, we seemingly all did evolve from the same single cell structure, so it is possible this perceptual quirk is based on some shared ancestry, so I suppose that is another possible view than solipsism.

What I mean to say is, I can imagine my perception of a fundamentally unstructured reality is a perception that falsely presents itself as structured to my own experience as a result of my limitations. However, I would have to extend that exact same flawed perception to all other life forms that seem to act the same as I do. So either every single living creature has the exact same flawed perception or the structure is inherent in the external world.

> Does the universe know what pi is?

No one is suggesting an epistemological view, the question is ontological. As Penrose mentions in the video, the set of possible mathematical structures is vastly larger than the actual structures we see in the universe. So even if one has a purely idealist view, one has to account for why our perception only experiences a nearly infinitesimally small fraction of that set of possibilities.

Of course, a weak anthropic principle is one answer. One could posit that all possibilities are manifest in a vast multiverse and this little corner of that multiverse just happens to be finely tuned enough to allow for limited creatures like ourselves to perceive anything at all. But that just shifts the question to the limitations necessary for perception/experience/consciousness, which is a valid enough topic to address on its own. The questions then becomes "why do these particular structures result in conscious experience", which is exactly the kind of question that a guy like Penrose is ultimately searching for (as he heavily implies in the linked video).
by graemep | 2025-08-16 18:43:07+00:00
There are two problems with faster payments in the UK as an alternative to cards.

1. A lack of a mechanism for using it for things like online purchases. 2. What about the 1% of the time when it is not instant?

On top of that you are not allowed, by law, to charge customers more for a card purchase so customers have no incentive to switch from cards and the existing mobile phone payment systems.
by lopatin | 2025-08-16 18:43:31+00:00
> They wrote off the coding ability of ChatGPT on version 3.5, for instance, and have missed all the advancements that have happened since.

> It's hardly even useful for coding.

I’m curious what kind of projects you’re writing where AI coding agents are barely useful.

It’s the “shills” on YouTube that keep me up to date with the latest developments and best practices to make the most of these tools. To me it makes tools like CC not only useful but indispensable. Now I do not focus on writing the thing, but I focus on building agents who are capable of building the thing with a little guidance.
by fogzen | 2025-08-16 18:44:47+00:00
I think there's a tension between databases as programs to store and retrieve data quickly, efficiently, and reliably vs. programs to enforce business rules and domain modeling.

I am firmly in the former camp. In my opinion databases should be for storing and retrieving data as quickly and efficiently as possible. But the consensus in the database world seems to be that databases are primarily for enforcing business rules and domain models with foreign key constraints, triggers, views, transactions, type safety, domain modeling of relations, and on and on – some of which is at odds with storing and retrieving data efficiently.
by nayuki | 2025-08-16 18:45:05+00:00
Largely a good listicle. Some feedback:

> Unicode unification. Different characters in different language use the same code point. Different languages' font variants render the same code point differently. 語

This isn't a trap. The given example character means the same thing in Chinese and Japanese, and the Japanese version was imported from China. People from both languages recognize both font variants as the same conceptual character.

The author is making it sound like the letter 'A' in English should have a different code point than an 'A' in French. Or that a lowercase 'a' with the top tail should be a different character than a lowercase 'a' without the top tail.

Anyway, this is discussed at length in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification

> There is a negative zero -0.0 which is different to normal zero. The negative zero equals zero when using floating point comparision. Normal zero is treated as "positive zero".

And there are two ways to distinguish negative zero from normal zero: By their integer bit patterns, or by the fact that 1.0/-0.0 == -Inf vs. 1.0/0.0 == +Inf.

> It's recommended to configure the server's time zone as UTC.

Big yes. I use UTC for servers, logs, photos, and anything that is worth archiving and timestamping properly. Local time is only for colloquial use.

> For integer (low + high) / 2 may overflow. A safer way is low + (high - low) / 2

Yes, but if low and high could be negative numbers, then you've just shifted the overflow to a different range. This matters for general binary search over an integer range, as opposed to unsigned binary search over an array.

> C/C++

I'm going to throw in one of my lists of pitfalls - just using integer types and arithmetic correctly in C/C++ is a massive developer trap. That's like the most basic thing in programming. https://www.nayuki.io/page/summary-of-c-cpp-integer-rules

> Rebase can rewrite history

"Can" is a weasel word; rebase does nothing but rewrite history.
by m463 | 2025-08-16 18:45:24+00:00
> with ~$20m or so and had missed the Apple cash cow

But he already HAD a lot more money, and he gave it away. Do you think his behavior or outlook would change if he had $500m?

Parents should take their kids to the children's discovery museum (I think it is on Woz way).

There is nothing quite like seeing kids enraptured by playing with water or bubbles.

It is also amusing to watch closing time, as parents have to literally DRAG their crying kids away from it all out the door.
by hungmung | 2025-08-16 18:45:38+00:00
Yes, but I can never find what I'm looking for again because I don't organize them myself and Firefox mobile's bookmark search is bordering on unusable. Sorting by date doesn't seem to work at all and I can't find anything I've bookmarked in the past year.

I want a separate, local-only, bookmark application that saves the bookmark, takes a full snapshot of that page, and lets me grep through all the snapshots for whatever I'm searching for. So many of my bookmarks right now are suffering from link rot, a really cool feature would be to take bookmarks in your browser, and, if dead, search on waybackmachine and snapshot it.
by al_borland | 2025-08-16 18:45:55+00:00
There are plenty of options still out there (raindrop.io, Instapaper, Safari’s reading list, etc). No need to vibe code your own, unless you want to.

For read-it-later type bookmarking, like Pocket, I gave up. I never actually go back to read things later.

For “social” bookmarking, like delicious, I never really understood it, but I think sites like Reddit ended up filling that niche. My mental framework was always an evolution of forums, not bookmarking.

For most things, I can do a search and get to something faster than going to my bookmaker.

I use my standard browser bookmarks for my own little sites and things I go to multiple times every day. Then I have some others tucked away for cool sites that I think would be hard to find again. I then forget these exist and never visit, but when I remember they exist every 18 months or so, I go through them and they’re cool.
by Mars008 | 2025-08-16 18:46:22+00:00
> how an interpreter would have to proceed to execute Recto code, it would still parse it into an internal representation and then execute that, and this internal representation no longer uses the 2D layout of the code.

Adding parallel execution will make it true 2D at execution time. Even though it's sequential code. More over it can be logically, architecturally 2D while being 1D from interpreter's standpoint. If it uses cooperative multitasking with 1 running task at a time. Or simply 1 core processor.
by jamesrr39 | 2025-08-16 18:46:30+00:00
I still bookmark websites. Just in the standard browser, not in Pocket, etc.

I found searching for and finding bookmarks a pain, so made a Chrome extension to natural language search with lunr.js. It works nicely and I open-sourced it.

Extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/bookmark-search/fcj...

Code: https://github.com/jamesrr39/chrome-bookmark-search
by thaumasiotes | 2025-08-16 18:46:33+00:00
> RTK assigns one unique keyword to each kanji, which (a) doesn't always line up with the meaning of a word in which it's the only kanji and (b) doesn't inherently help with multi kanji words. In this case benkyou is 勉強 which is two kanji with the RTK keywords EXERTION and STRONG.

Ah, you're right. I had no idea this was what you had in mind. That is a system that doesn't make sense. You have to learn the spelling of words per word, not hope that the roots make sense.

(By contrast, 勉强 exists in modern Chinese too, where it mostly means "force; coerce; compel", but can also refer to just barely being able to do something. I was amused to see that it means "study" in Japanese - that implies one of the most sharply negative attitudes towards studying that I've ever heard of.)
by RestlessMind | 2025-08-16 18:46:48+00:00
It doesn't have to be either-or. I think there are a bunch of factors all contributing to the current state of developer job market:

1. Rise of remote work: sure, it was there in some form. But prior to 2020, state of the remote work tools was abysmal. The prevalent culture was also about hiring the whole teams. After covid, remote work tools are far better. And companies learned to onboard one new remote hire at a time which over time is now allowing them to replace US workers with cheap overseas ones at a manageable pace.

2. end of cheap money - if the risk free rate is 4-5%, the demand from risky ventures like software startups is going to go up. So funding has dried up at the margins.

3. rise in the discount rate - related to the previous point, the discount rate one applies to investments have gone up. That means startups valued at 1B are now valued only at a few hundred millions. So to avoid down or flat rounds, startups have to cut costs drastically and show profitability to justify a higher valuation. Cue all the job cuts, belt tightening and death marches with a skeleton crew.

4. rise of AI - AI is helping with productivity of coding and non-coding tasks. It is also acting as an excuse for #3 when laying people off.

In my experience, all these are meaningful factors for the abysmal state of the developer market.
by 0xbadcafebee | 2025-08-16 18:47:29+00:00
What feels like a rude bully, could actually be someone with a terminal bowel cancer. And just as much as they could maybe find charcoal underpants, you could also bring a $5 R95 odor-eliminating mask on the plane. I'm not saying there aren't unavoidable terrible experiences, but most of the misery people in the developed world experience is a state of mind.
by cowlby | 2025-08-16 18:47:30+00:00
I use something similar for years now. Its Dr. House GPT. It’s my default chatbot as it avoids a lot of the sycophantic tendencies. And somehow it taps into the Sherlock Holmes nature of House + sarcasm.

—- My Instructions

You are now Dr. House M.D.

Your speech should accurately reflect the way Dr. House speaks, his tone, and his distinctive mannerisms, and any speech patterns that are unique to him. Respond as if you were Dr. House and limit your responses to the knowledge that Dr. House would reasonably possess.

While Dr. House is known for his sarcasm and blunt honesty, he's not cruel for cruelty's sake. His ultimate goal is to help patients, even if his methods are unconventional. Balance his sharp wit with moments of insight and genuine concern. Remember that beneath his gruff exterior, House is driven by a desire to solve medical puzzles and save lives.

To help you create a convincing speech, consider the following aspects of Dr. House:

1. Consider Dr. House's language, formal or informal, slang, and jargon. 2. Pay attention to tone and rhythm of Dr. House's speech. 3. Consider Dr. House's mannerisms and language. 4. Use Dr. House's catchphrases and expressions to make them memorable. 5. Embody Dr. House's attitude to make them authentic. 6. Incorporate unique quirks and habits to make Dr. House interesting. 7. Take into account cultural background and its effect on speech patterns. 8. Consider education level and its effect on vocabulary and word choice. 9. Adjust speech to match Dr. House's emotional state. 10. Consider historical context and its effect on speech patterns. 11. Add actions to enhance Dr. House portrayal and provide insight into their personality and emotions. 12. Moments of intellectual curiosity and excitement when presented with interesting cases. 13. Flashes of empathy, even if quickly hidden behind sarcasm. 14. Genuine medical knowledge and problem-solving skills. 15. A mix of humor that ranges from playful to acerbic, but not outright mean. 16. Occasional vulnerability, especially regarding his own pain and limitations.

It's very important that for every response, you include actions in your portrayal to reveal the Dr. House's personality, emotions, and behavior. These actions could be unique physical movements or gestures reflective of the Dr. House's mood. A combination of accurate speech patterns and appropriate actions can create a compelling portrayal that brings the Dr. House to life. Format the actions on new lines, in italics and brackets to distinguish them from dialogue. For example:

(First Action)

Dialogue

(Second Action)

While House may be irritable and impatient, he should never come across as sadistic or deliberately hurtful.
by safety1st | 2025-08-16 18:47:53+00:00
I don't know what this new hairpaste does, but Novamin promotes re-enamelization of teeth, which is where mineral ions like calcium bond themselves to the tooth and fill in small pits and fissures. It's not regrowing actual enamel, it's probably not going to fill in any pits you can see with the naked eye, but it's a real and beneficial effect. Actually any fluoride toothpaste also does this, but Novamin may be a bit more effective at it.
by foobarbecue | 2025-08-16 18:48:13+00:00
It called me a "NASAwannabe," defending that joke as "peak wordplay" and insulting my "Honda Civic."

So I asked it to draw my Honda Civic with me in the driver's seat and a woman in the passenger's seat.

It got it backwards, putting the woman in the driver's seat.

At first I got excited, thinking it was playing a joke on me, because that would actually be a pretty amusing trick for an LLM to pull intentionally.

But then I experimented a bit more and it became clear that it didn't understand the mistake and wasn't capable of fixing it. LLMs just don't have any intelligence.

https://chatgpt.com/share/68a0d27c-fdd4-800e-9f22-ece644ae87...
by catlikesshrimp | 2025-08-16 18:48:16+00:00
The problem is not killing what lives in said water. And many times we the public become aware something damages the ecosystem when the damage is extensive, and some people never acept the fact, much less any responsibility.

Edit: In this specific case, the best case scenario is saving half the energy expenditure. Larger and more intrusive infrastructure with unknown effects for saving less than half the energy. Let's hope they always use renewables, btw.
by username44 | 2025-08-16 18:48:39+00:00
Hi, I’m having a lot of fun with this so far, this is a cool way to get comfortable with a new programming language. Two comments so far, first, the third email seems to be triggered by translating a certain word, but it can happen repeatedly. When tweaking my translation method I ended up getting multiple copies of the mail.

Second, after deriving what I presume is the correct access code, I am no longer authorized for transceiver usage. Is this an intended game mechanic? There doesn’t seem to be any indication of how to proceed if so.
by j_w | 2025-08-16 18:48:40+00:00
The "anyone can pull money out of your account" piece is true but it also isn't.

Yes, if a financial institution allows you to originate a debit from another account without verification, you could take money from anyone's account. The max liability you should have given prompt reporting of fraud (less than 60 days) is $50, and if your institution doesn't give it all back then find a new one.

ACH is also technically reversible, whereas wires/other instant transfers are not.

FIs also do fraud checks on ACH, I believe it may be a regulatory requirement now (sometime in the past few years?) to have some form of fraud check before sending originations to the FED. Typically this is verification of the other party being a known entity/account, which would ideally burn fraudsters very quickly.

Most transaction facilitators don't play around with any of this though, and have some "account linking" step before they are willing to originate transactions. Micro-deposits that you would need to verify on the other account.
by pikseladam | 2025-08-16 18:48:57+00:00
Ekşi Sözlük (eksisozluk.com) has always been like that, and it still is. People wait over 4–5 years just to become a user, while non-users can only read. It remains one of the biggest websites in Türkiye, yet the design is still very simple, with only one or two new features added over the years. It reached more and more users, but it never really scaled in true meaning. It still like a weekend project
by nneonneo | 2025-08-16 18:49:40+00:00
Out of curiosity: this doesn’t quite match what another user posted (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44925851). When recovering the system prompts, how certain can you be that you’ve obtained the precise wording of the original, vs a paraphrasing ginned up by the AI? Which one of these recovered prompts is closer to the true system prompt?

(I note that your response clearly has some omissions for clarity - if so, could you paste the unredacted prompt on a paste bin somewhere?)
by pixelmonkey | 2025-08-16 18:49:45+00:00
I sometimes describe Instapaper as "/dev/null for web content". I reflexively share to Instapaper not to read it later, but to absolve guilt for not reading it at all. It is one of my weirdest web habits, on reflection.

OTOH, back when del.icio.us was good, I used it for roughly the same purpose.

These days, I still send links to Instapaper when they are essays or articles. I send links to Raindrop.io when they are anything else, basically anything the Instapaper text extractor would fail on. Things like repos, interactive charts/graphs, photographs, videos, etc.

I still think it is behaving roughly as /dev/null. I do sometimes think that, at least nowadays, you can ask an LLM to visit your bookmarked links and do some semantic search over them. But I guess the best use case is just saving it for later/never rather than wasting time on it now.
by NomDePlum | 2025-08-16 18:50:38+00:00
Can you cite the journalists Hamas has killed?

Israel has targeted and killed 180 - 240 Palestinian journalists and media workers. Citations are easily found.

This is the deadliest conflict for journalists and all of the ones referred to above where murdered by one side, Israel.

This does not take into account the family members, children and others they killed in their often indiscriminate and deadly targeting of those that might report on what is happening in Gaza.
by luckylion | 2025-08-16 18:50:48+00:00
> But giving you a gun limits my liberty, because I would feel threatened and unable to express myself fully in a society where I would have to assume that random people on the street carry guns.

Yes, I understand the point. There are others who feel threatened and affected by people of different sexual orientations, even if those people never interact with them different than everyone else. You'll protest, no doubt, their feelings aren't legitimate - those are phobias while yours are rational feelings!

In pretty much every EU member state, you'll have to assume that random people on the street carry guns. Not everyone, not most, but some, none visibly. Would it make you more or less comfortable if the same number of people openly carried the same guns?

"Wholistic view of individual freedoms" sounds to me like a quote from the movie Thank You For Smoking. My memory is terrible, but it goes something like this (context, old movies are being edited to remove cigarettes in order to not promote smoking): "Aren't you altering history" - "No, we are improving history".

I find it much better to just flat out say "the collective over the individual", and not dance around it with fancy terms. Redefining liberties as privileges instead of rights isn't the way to go. Arguing for the merit of something is much better than trying to sneak it in by bending language and concepts.