MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by srean | 2025-08-31 15:50:36+00:00
In a way Feynman was also the 3b1b of his generation. He was very good at coming up with and communicating with visual metaphors. To the laypeople at the receiving end, these give a strong illusion of understanding.

That's ok if you are not going to compute or design or build anything with it. But they are very inadequate when it is time to shut up and compute.

Feynman (and I am sure) Grant Sanderson could/can operate at a virtuoso level at both the visual imagery and the compute layers. But their popularity with the masses is because of the visual imagery they could conjure up.

On the other hand for those who can already compute for themselves, the metaphors can be a big help for building intuition as long they think in the same style.
by trueismywork | 2025-08-31 15:51:01+00:00
False dichotomy.

The analogy would be, does the your private car allow you to change the ratio between different gears in your car. Or does it allow you to customize the sensitivity of the steering wheel arbitrarily. Or install any custom kind of AC vents in your car and allowing you to make arbitrary cuts in chassis.

Having said that,first and foremost:

Its very difficult to explain to a lot of people people's expectations of vetting and privacy. People are completely fine with FB siphoning of their data and spying on them, but they are not fine if anyone can do it. That is, there should be a barrier to installing malware on the app, and that barrier being the company being a big company is okay with most people. What they're not fine with is any random person being able to do that.

And they will blame the phone manufacturer for all bad applications that can be installed on the phone. If a phone manufacturer allows for side loading applications and a big company requires it. Then, there becomes rhe culture of side loading applications, and suddenly the platform is not safe because there's no trust in applications.

The manufactures have to ensure that people can side load their apps and at the same time ensure that all apps of relevance use platforms like playprotect so that people can be given a simple advice "only use playprotect apps".

I am not sure this is a solvable problem.
by sdedovic | 2025-08-31 15:51:24+00:00
I agree. An anecdote:

A while ago I was working on some CUDA kernels for n-body physics simulations. It wasn’t too complicated and the end result was generative art. The problem was that it was quite slow and I didn’t know why. Well the core of the application was written in Clojure so I wrote a simple macro to wrap every function in a ns with a span and then ship all the data to jaeger. This ended up being exactly what I needed - I found out that the two slowest functions were data transfer between the GPU memory and writing out a frame (image) to my disk.

In many other places I see the usefulness of this approach but OTel is too often too geared towards HTTP services. Even simple async/queue processing is not as simple. Though, there have been improvements (like span links and trace links).
by vel0city | 2025-08-31 15:52:11+00:00
A gaming handheld isn't anywhere near as portable as a smartphone, and generally any general input complaints of a smartphone are even worse on such a device. They're great for gaming, OK for something like watching a movie on it, but otherwise they're pretty bad for even typing short things.

And they're far from pocketable. My Legion Go is in its case in my backpack when I'm on the go.

Honestly netbooks and ultra portable mini notebooks of yore were more portable and useful for a general on the go portable PC. The gaming handhelds are better from a gaming perspective with their far more powerful graphics power and built in controller grips but the general computing experience is pretty crap.
by like_any_other | 2025-08-31 15:52:11+00:00
> E.g., support the construction of a wall without expecting anything like "comprehensive immigration reform" (read: amnesty) in return.

They had already gotten amnesty once, but not much came of the promised increased illegal immigration scrutiny (and nothing was done to reduce legal immigration at all):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control...
by hedora | 2025-08-31 15:53:35+00:00
My cell company locks my physical sim to the phone it is plugged into.

If I move the sim, I have to go through similar bullshit as I would if I wanted to move an eSIM (attempts to upsell the plan, charge for the “service” of moving the sim, etc, etc.)

At this point, I don’t see any disadvantages for eSIM, since the backported the enshitification to physical sims.
by manoDev | 2025-08-31 15:53:54+00:00
“AI” is great for coding in the small, it’s like having a powerful semantic code editor, or pairing with a junior developer who can lookup some info online quickly. The hardest part of the job was never typing or figuring out some API bullshit anyway.

But trying to use it like “please write this entire feature for me” (what vibe coding is supposed to mean) is the wrong way to handle the tool IMO. It turns into a specification problem.
by rune-space | 2025-08-31 15:54:11+00:00
Anduril is a decent base with a huge gamble on equity, Google is a sure shot.

People that started a year ago at Anduril are today making slightly more than they would be had they stared at Google. People that started 2 years ago are making far more than they would be. And it keeps growing – exponentially – from there.
by Der_Einzige | 2025-08-31 15:54:50+00:00
Hockey games are often AS violent as MMA fights with less regulation and more equipment which can cause injury. People really watch Hockey cus they want to see the guys beat each other up - not because they care about the puck.

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_in_ice_hockey
by blfr | 2025-08-31 15:54:51+00:00
ReVanced is so much more than an adblocker though.

Yes, it blocks ads but it also skips sponsored segments and other chaff with a SponsorBlock integration. Then it fixes all the little UI annoyances across apps, for example letting you filter out low-view videos and live streams from your TikTok feed.

It turns mass market apps into something that an HN user would make for themselves.
by shadowgovt | 2025-08-31 15:55:47+00:00
Oh, that's supported (though the UX is not really ideal): if they're not on the same server as you, you can navigate to the post on its host server and you'll see all replies there. To join the conversation, you can hit reply on one of the posts and you'll get a UI popup to route you back to your own server to respond from there.

It's definitely not as clean as a centralized solution though.
by faangguyindia | 2025-08-31 15:55:52+00:00
Basically, at place we've a coding agent in a while loop.

What it does is pretty simple. You give it a problem, setup enviornment with libraries and all.

It continuously makes changes to the program, then checks it output.

And iteratively improves it.

For example, we used it to build a new method to apply diffs generated by LLMs to files.

As different models are good at different things, we managed to run it against models to figure out which method performs best.

Can a human do it? I doubt.
by shadowgovt | 2025-08-31 15:55:54+00:00
Thank you for the clarification; that makes sense.

It is perhaps also worth noting that the Fediverse architecture does nothing to remove racists or bigots from the possibility of being found in the "fediverse" (here referring to the collection of all servers using the protocol and not the protocol itself), and... That's pretty much as-intended. Truth Social uses Mastodon as its backend; there is nothing the creators / maintainers of Mastodon could, or by design would, do to shut it off. The same architecture that makes it fundamentally impossible for Nazis to shut down a gay-friendly node makes it impossible for other people to shut down a Nazi node; there is merely the ability of each node to shield its users from the other.

That's a feature of the experiment, not a bug, and reasonable people have various opinions on that aspect of it.
Show HN: Common FP – A New JavaScript Utility Lib
by waphil | 2025-08-31 15:57:22+00:00
Who is this for? - Devs looking for utilities that treat data types generically. For example, common-fp has a `mapValues` function that takes an array, object, Map, or Set and returns a new instance of the data type passed in. - Devs interested in functional utilities without the jargon. In my experience, some functional concepts are too foreign for the broader community and pose a barrier to entry. Common FP lowers that barrier by naming the utilities in plain English, not currying, keeping the source intended for the common devs' eyes, and more.

Other features - An in-browser playground: https://common-fp.org/try-it - Supports TypeScript: install types via `npm install common-fp-types` - Supports cjs: i.e. you can `require('common-fp')` - 100% test coverage. Types are tested as well via tstyche. - For every utility, I try to explain why it's useful along with a code example. This is more difficult than it seems, and I'm open to feedback.

A personal note - I built this as a personal endeavor. I wasn't trying to solve a problem the community had, so I understand if people find Common FP to be odd or unnecessary. Finishing a project is difficult, and I'm mostly happy just to have done that and present what I consider to be a polished product.

Link to source - https://github.com/common-fp/common-fp/tree/dev/pkg/common-f...

Thanks for taking a look, Phil
by ajsnigrutin | 2025-08-31 15:58:38+00:00
> However, the crusade against the word and concept of "sideloading" is really weird. Yeah, installing from the repo is normal, and all the windows-land "download an .exe/.msi to invoke an installer" ways that then may or may not update the app are unusual and apart from an ordered process of system management.

Wait, let me take out my word 97 CDs to read the "sideloading instructions" booklet. Oh wait, what was considered a normal install Same on mobile phone in symbian era. It's not "sideloading", it's a "normal install".
by calibas | 2025-08-31 15:59:10+00:00
I think they're being really loose with the term "vibe coding", and what they really mean is AI-assisted coding.

Older devs are not letting the AI do everything for them. Assuming they're like me, the planning is mostly done by a human, while the coding is largely done by the AI, but in small sections with the human giving specific instructions.

Then there's debugging, which I don't really trust the AI to do very well. Too many times I've seen it miss the real problem, then try to rewrite large sections of the code unnecessarily. I do most of the debugging myself, with some assistance from the AI.
by pbhjpbhj | 2025-08-31 15:59:44+00:00
If we're guessing I have ideas:

1) it's just the typeface,

2) the teletype machine has unique letter so the machine it was received in is known (and hence which staff received it), reducing the ability to forge messages. Different machines could have had special letters, or all machines handling secrets had that particular "e"??

3) the machine broke and the repair shop only had a small-caps "E" handy.
by Chance-Device | 2025-08-31 15:59:46+00:00
It commandeered most of the culture in fact, and began policing everyone’s speech, actions, pastimes and fantasies. Then it seemed to eat itself and disappear.

I put this disappearance down to two factors: “me too” alienated too many women, and also the millennials who drove the movement aged out and eased up on their online activities. Gen Z didn’t want any part in it so there were no successors.

Today is like life post covid: we all know it happened but somehow it’s unreal and unbelievable. Some refuse to believe it ever happened at all.
Show HN: Free Tool that helps you find domains for your idea (namegator.net)
by egldmila | 2025-08-31 15:59:46+00:00
I built a simple tool that suggests good domain names based on your idea — something I usually spend way too long on myself. It’s completely free, no sign-up needed, and you can get unlimited suggestions. Mainly built it for myself, but I’d love to hear your feedback and any tips for improvement! :)
by Earw0rm | 2025-08-31 16:01:39+00:00
Depends how they're influxing. If they're seizing our homes and land by force and taking over our government, sure.

But as far as I can see, they're working for the NHS, running restaurants and shops and so on, and buying/renting homes that come up on the market like everyone else. London's Muslim mayor was elected by an absolute majority even though Muslims are only about 12% of the city's population.

Nobody is stopping Brits from doing Brit stuff - it's our own fault if we choose not to.

Far as I can see, what's done a lot of basic pubs in is a combination of lifestyle changes, people who don't like the smoking ban, and younger people wanting to spend time down the gym instead of drinking.
by api | 2025-08-31 16:02:44+00:00
We know it’s possible for living things to be functionally near immortal.

We also know germ line cells can give rise to new organisms which can give rise to germ line cells in an unbroken chain effectively forever.

This is quite far from making a human immortal but it shows that there appears to be nothing in physical law or intrinsic to biology that prohibits it. Therefore it is possible.

Star travel and terraforming Mars are also possible. Possible does not imply anything about difficulty. We don’t really know if radical life extension or borderline immortality are fusion hard, quantum computing hard, or starship hard.
by zero-sharp | 2025-08-31 16:03:30+00:00
My guess is that most mathematicians wouldn't consider that notation abusive. Why do you think it is? That notation is a convenience that allows us to represent a sum over a set where the elements aren't indexed by integers. So, in this particular case, I think there is a utility to the notation. And also: the definition of \sum_{e\in S} is ubiquitous.
by gspr | 2025-08-31 16:03:35+00:00
Why, oh why, is there not a smartphone – or even a similar form-factor device without the ability to phone – that lets its user run anything they want (say, a normal Linux distro)? And then you emulate Android whenever you need something that only runs on that?

Hell, I don't care if it's a generation or two behind smartphones. I don't understand why this doesn't exist when non-bleeding-edge hardware has become so mind-bogglingly cheap!

What am I missing?
by Someone1234 | 2025-08-31 16:03:46+00:00
I can swap a physical SIM into as many devices as I want, without the involvement of the network. With eSim my provider gives me "permission" to swap it to a new device maximum 3 times per YEAR. This has been spoken about by cellphone reviewers in particular as a huge headache.

For another example, Mint Mobile now charges $3 per eSim to swap devices. So now you're paying for something that used to be free, and that is likely a preview of what we have to come.
by mleonhard | 2025-08-31 16:04:01+00:00
> There is no “simplifying force” acting on the code base other than deliberate choices that you make. Simplifying takes effort, and people are too often in a hurry.

There is a simplifying force: the engineers on the project who care about long-term productivity. Work to simplify the code is rarely tracked or rewarded, which is a problem across our industry. Most codebases I've worked in had some large low-hanging-fruit for increasing team productivity, but it's hard to show the impact of that work so it never gets done.

We need an objective metric of codebase cognitive complexity. Then folks can take credit for making the number go down.
by replygirl | 2025-08-31 16:04:22+00:00
bitwig is the leader in probabilistic sequencing and automation. they entered the space with three big ideas: (1) you can modulate anything by anything else, (2) any modulation can have probability applied, and (3) automation can be applied to individual notes. these ideas were always around but relegated to more niche tools like reason and max. thanks to bitwig, the other daws have spent a lot of the last ten years applying these ideas as well, but bitwig still has the most complete solution. it's a great primary daw for outboard- and plugin-averse recording engineers and bedroom producers; it's the best _secondary_ daw if you use one of the majors for work and want something fresh for play, inspiration, or continuing education.

i use ableton. every time i get excited for an update, it's because i'm finally getting something bitwig users have had for years
by richardfeynman | 2025-08-31 16:04:56+00:00
This is an accusation without meaning. You don't know what information I see, so you don't know whether I see propaganda at all. The reverse is true as well; I don't know what information (or propaganda) you see. But no, I don't see how Israel giving Gaza to the Gazans (something Egypt never did) demonstrates "the entire issue," whatever you happen to mean by that.
by the_af | 2025-08-31 16:05:05+00:00
This was interesting.

I still wonder, if (as the author mentions and I've seen in my experience) companies are pivoting to hiring more senior devs and fewer or no junior devs...

... where will the new generations of senior devs come from? If, as the author argues, the role of the knowledgeable senior is still needed to guide the AI and review the occasional subtle errors it produces, where will new generations of seniors be trained? Surely one cannot go from junior-to-senior (in the sense described in TFA) just by talking to the AI? Where will the intuition that something is off come from?

Another thing that worries me, but I'm willing to believe it'll get better: the reckless abandon with which AI solutions consume resources and are completely obvious to it, like TFA describes (3.5 GB of RAM for the easiest, 3 pillar Hanoi configuration). Every veteran computer user (not just programmers but also gamers) has been decrying for ages how software becomes more and more bloated, how hardware doesn't scale with the (mis)use of resources, etc. And I worry this kind of vibe coding will only make it horribly worse. I'm hoping some sense of resource consciousness can be included in new training datasets...
by recursivedoubts | 2025-08-31 16:05:11+00:00
idk i used this approach and done ok competitively (e.g. htmx, me, one dude, vs react, facebook & vercel) and, as grugbrain.dev says, unit test tend to lock you in to a particular implementation

integration tests don't need to be slow on modern hardware, are easier to debug than end-to-end if they are kept at the right level of abstraction and catch more real-world bugs than overly-specialized unit tests w/ complicated mocks, etc
by mort96 | 2025-08-31 16:05:12+00:00
> I can't be bowing to the demands of any one person

This right here is the core of the issue. When you're working as a part of a larger organizational structure, you have to bow down to your boss. When your software is a part of the kernel, it's not your project anymore; it's just one part of Linus's project. You're a contributor, not a leader. Just like I would not control Bcachefs's development process even if I contributed some small but important part to it, you do not control Linux's development process even though you contributed some small but important part to it.

Your core mission is evidently not shipping a reliable trustworthy filesystem. You say that, but your actions speak louder than your words. You know just as well as I do that a filesystem being in-tree rather than out-of-tree makes it significantly more reliable and trustworthy, which is why you chose to get Bcachefs merged into the kernel in the first place. Instead of working within the well-defined boundaries that's necessary to keep Bcachefs in the kernel, you've repeatedly pushed against those boundaries, belittled fellow maintainers, and in general worked hard to make yourself a persona non grata within the kernel community. The predictable outcome is that continued development of Bcachefs will have to happen out-of-tree, and your users won't gain the major reliability and trustworthiness benefits of using an in-tree filesystem. People will warn against using Bcachefs as their root filesystem, since every kernel upgrade will now carry some risk that DKMS or whatever mechanism is used to install the out-of-tree Bcachefs kernel module doesn't work with the new kernel.

And, to be honest, it doesn't matter whether or not you're "right" or "wrong" here. Maybe you're completely correct about absolutely everything and Linus, Greg, Ted, Miguel, Sasha, Josef, and everyone else involved are stupid and don't understand what it takes to develop reliable software. So what? They're your colleagues, some of them are your bosses. Everyone on Hacker News could take your side here and think you've been mistreated, it doesn't help. You'd still be thrown out of the kernel. You'd still be failing your users by not maintaining a good enough relationship with your colleagues and bosses to stay in-tree. You could be completely right on every technical matter and it does not matter.

If you play your cards right, you could maybe end up in a situation where you run the Bcachefs project entirely out-of-tree, with yourself as the supreme leader who doesn't bow down to the demands of anyone, with your own development and release process; and then someone else takes responsibility for pushing your code into the upstream kernel, following Linus's rules. They would dissect your releases and backport bug fixes while leaving out important features, in accordance with Linus's rules. Time will tell if you can find anyone to do that. And time will tell if you posess the humility necessary to let someone else ultimately control the experience most of your users will have.
by gruez | 2025-08-31 16:05:27+00:00
>You don’t know that because the regulations have never existed. Please try to refrain from unscientific thinking

You're accusing me of "unscientific thinking", but you're basically making an argument from ignorance? You haven't provided any rebuttals to my argument, and you're basically arguing "we haven't tried so if you try to argue against it you're WRONG".
by OutOfHere | 2025-08-31 16:05:46+00:00
As someone who has both owned multiple residences and rented multiple residences, I can confirm that ownership brings substantial happiness and renting brings substantial stress. The primary exception is when renting is cheap, but that is no longer the case since raises do not keep up with rents. With ownership, particularly in the absence of a mortgage, one can just choose to not have a job for long stretches, and this is basically impossible when renting unless one is exceedingly wealthy. As such, the clause that a mortgage adds unhappiness is an important one.
by msarrel | 2025-08-31 16:06:50+00:00
I'm pretty sure that this combined with the announcement that in the newer pixel you will only get 200 charges before it starts to decrease the utility of your battery, and only 1,000 charges are guaranteed. So now they've got a platform where you can't install the apps you want and it has a definite end of life. Sounds like they don't even want to be in the handset business.
by djoldman | 2025-08-31 16:07:01+00:00
> ChatGPT, Google, and its competitors are rapidly diverting traffic from publishers. Publishers are fighting to survive through lawsuits, partnerships, paywalls, and micropayments. It’s pretty bleak, but unfortunately I think the situation is far worse than it seems.

> The article focuses mainly on the publishing industry, news and magazine sites that rely primarily on visits to their sites and selling ads.

I'm not sure where this comes from. The way forward for publishers of content like newspapers is subscription fees and has been for a long time.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist revenues are subscription fee dominant, for example.