MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by plorg | 2025-09-22 17:23:02+00:00
This is definitely not unique to software engineering. Just out of grad school, 15 years ago, I applied for a position with a local electrical engineering company for an open position. I was passed over and later the person I got a recommendation from let me know, out of band, that they had hired the person because he was fresh out of undergrad with an (unrelated) internship instead of research experience (that I would have been the second out of 3 candidates), but they had fired him within 6 months. They opened the position again and after interviewing again they told me they had decided not to hire anyone. Again, out of band, my contact told me he and his supervisor thought I should go work at one of their subcontractors to get experience, but they didn't send any recommendation and the subcontractors didn't respond to inquiry. I wasn't desperate enough to keep playing that game, and it really soured my view of a local company with an external reputation for engineering excellence, meritorious hiring, mentorship, and career building.
by jedberg | 2025-09-22 17:23:20+00:00
At this point I'm not sure why anyone would choose MySQL. Any advantage it had pretty much evaporated with these hosted solutions.

For example, MySQL was easier to get running and connect to. These cloud offerings (Planetscale, Supabase, Neon, even RDS) have solved that. MySQL was faster for read heavy loads. Also solved by the cloud vendors.
by gregsadetsky | 2025-09-22 17:23:28+00:00
I celebrate that I did not have to spend cycles dealing with a non-interesting, non-intellectually-challenging issue aka figuring out the incantations to make a build system happy.

I'm also celebrating (although I forgot to do this - my bad!) that this automated discovery (i.e. of how to fix the build system for machines such as mine) could have been brought back to the Chocolate Doom community, and made the software better for everyone.

And finally, I'm also celebrating that this allowed my (if I may speak so boldly) creativity to express itself by helping me quickly bring a funny idea to life and share it, hopefully entertaining the world/making at least one person laugh/chuckle.

I don't see how any of this makes me redundant though. Efficient? Lazy? Both? Neither? But not redundant. I think! :-)
by twotwotwo | 2025-09-22 17:23:39+00:00
The fast Cerebras thing got me to try the Qwen3 models. I couldn't get them working all that well: they had trouble using the required output format and following instructions. On the other hand, benchmarks say they should be great, and it sounds like maybe some people use them OK via different tools.

I'm curious if my experience was unusual (it very much could be!) and I'd be interested to hear from anyone who's used both.
by nkrisc | 2025-09-22 17:23:50+00:00
The worst is when your own employer starts spamming your email with useless crap. I would get several emails a day from HR or some other group about some event coming up that I had zero interest in nor asked to be notified of. Don’t forget to sign up for XYZ, check out what your colleagues are saying in Stupid Internal Social Network, and so on.

And worst of all, every “extra-cirricular” group was allowed to abuse the company-wide mailing list to promote their softball games or trivia or whatever else.
by palmotea | 2025-09-22 17:24:41+00:00
> The removal of this non-domiciled status is clearly far more significant than a normal tax increase. The UK was a uniquely attractive destination for the super-rich, because they could enjoy all the amenities of living in London with no real concerns about the tax implications. It is plausible that many of those people will decide to pay UK tax rather than move abroad, but we are talking about an exceptionally highly-mobile group who have already made the decision to move country, many primarily or solely for tax reasons.

Boo hoo, let them move to some remote tax haven then, and live there next to their money and incorporation documents.
by raincole | 2025-09-22 17:24:51+00:00
> https://blog.cloudflare.com/supporting-the-future-of-the-ope...

Yeah and if it succeeds (while unlikely) it proves Google-style monopoly isn't that bad and permanent.

> because App Store is the only way of publishing apps on iPhone

You're going to be really surprised to find out iOS porn game is a thing in Asia :)

But that's not my point. My point was Cloudflare and AppStore are very different things.

> How does Cloudflare reduce the number of users they can reach?

Any barrier would affect the number of users you reach. Even just a capcha or +200ms loading time.
by dkhenry | 2025-09-22 17:24:55+00:00
I would just point out that its Hosted Postgres. If your looking for a how I think you have the wrong mental model. Its hosted Postgres, there are some nuance there as to why it would perform differently from RDS on Amazon, or CloudSQL on GCP, but its not some novel new technology that needs a long description.

If you are interested in their new technology that extends on hosted postgres check out Neki https://www.neki.dev/
by legacynl | 2025-09-22 17:24:57+00:00
If natural language was an efficient way to write software we would have done it already. Fact is that it's faster to write class X { etc }; Than it is to write "create a class named X with behavior etc". If you want to think and solve problems yourself, it doesn't make sense to then increase your workload by putting your thoughts in natural language, which will be more verbose.

I therefore think it makes the most sense to just feed it requirements and issues, and telling it to provide a solution.

Also unless you're starting a new project or big feature with a lot of boiler plate, in my experience it's almost never necessary to make a lot of files with a lot of text in it at once.
by naet | 2025-09-22 17:24:59+00:00
A real improvement to the documentation or readme is welcome, even if it is only a minor improvement. I have put in small grammar PRs on some documentation myself.

On the flip side, I used to get a lot of spam PRs that made an arbitrary or net neutral change to our readme, presumably just to get "contributor" credit. That is not welcome or helpful to anyone.
by aanet | 2025-09-22 17:25:07+00:00
Dr Eric Topol has a good dissection of this over on his substack [1]

The Nature paper itself is here [2]

Briefly: "The model was as good or slightly better than the best current single disease predictive models for dementia or heart disease (see below), and most others, but worse for Type 2 diabetes using HbA1c as single marker. Importantly, it predicted not just one but the multiple diseases (←when that risk was present) for an individual and the timing of appearance for each disease."

[1] https://erictopol.substack.com/p/dawn-of-a-new-era-of-primar...

[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09529-3
by closeparen | 2025-09-22 17:25:10+00:00
"RPC" originally referred to a programming paradigm where remote calls looked just like any other method calls, and it might not even be any of the programmer's business whether they're implemented in-process or on another machine. This obviously required wire protocols, client and server libraries, etc. to implement.

There's been a renaissance in the tools, but now we mainly use them like "REST" endpoints with the type signatures of functions. Programming language features like Future and Optional make it easier to clearly delineate properties like "this might take a while" or "this might fail" whereas earlier in RPC, these properties were kind of hidden.
by kragen | 2025-09-22 17:25:21+00:00
I don't agree at all. They do have something in common: they're stack-based. But what they don't have in common is everything else. RPL is a dynamically-typed, bounds-checked, memory-safe, garbage-collected language similar to PostScript or Python. Forth is an untyped, unsafe language with arbitrary compile-time compilation and without even a heap, traditionally. It's the minimal veneer on top of assembly language to give it arbitrary compile-time metaprogramming and nested expressions and control structures. RPL doesn't even have compile-time metaprogramming at all.

These two languages represent diametrically opposed approaches to programming language design.
by olavgg | 2025-09-22 17:26:12+00:00
TrackerFF sounds like someone on the left trying to defend the wealth tax. As a Norwegian who believes in freedom and the right for anyone to start their own business, I think the wealth tax is one of the most toxic taxes ever introduced. In practice, it makes Norwegian-owned companies about 30% less competitive than foreign-owned ones.

It’s sold as a “tax on the rich,” but in reality it’s a 2.1% annual tax on businesses. The companies have to cover these costs, and the result is that everyone — rich or poor — ends up paying for it. The only winner here is the state, which wastes the money on useless projects and subsidies.

It gets even dumber: businesses that invest in emergency preparedness — like storing gravel or materials for war or disaster scenarios — actually get punished by the wealth tax. Imagine paying 2.1% tax every year on a gravel pile. No, this is not a joke: link: https://www.dn.no/innlegg/beredskap/sikkerhetspolitikk/formu...

The consequences are clear: more than half of the 400 wealthiest people in Norway have already left the country. There’s no risk capital left for startups, and outside the oil and gas sector, businesses are struggling. Plenty of smart young engineers fresh out of university can’t find work, and hiring of junior software developers has basically stopped.

When we talk about taxes, we should be talking about incentives and motivation. If you tax people so hard that they lose the drive to work and create, then you’ve got a real problem.

If I had the chance, I’d move to Sweden or Switzerland immediately. But I can’t, because I’ve got a family to take care of here.
by bluecheese452 | 2025-09-22 17:26:59+00:00
The real title was, How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me, a beginner

The edited title does not have the same meaning. Why was the done? How often is this being done? What else is being changed?

If I write a title on my blog saying, I like Java, what is to prevent you from changing it to I hate puppies.
by BuildTheRobots | 2025-09-22 17:27:09+00:00
HowKnot2 have been making empirical testing videos on climbing knots and gear which have proved fascinating and often unintuitive.

If you'd like to see a break-strength test comparing single, double and triple fisherman’s knots, you might enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CAjUi47QMY

For reference, a 100kg climber is unlikely to be able to cause more than 14kn of force on a dynamic rope, (in reality, significantly less,) even if they go out of their way to find the worst case fall-scenario. Most belay loops are rated at 15kn, human bodies start breaking at 8-12kn and HowKnot2 says that a double-figure-8 (the standard rope<->harness knot) all break at around 14kn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4CVFRE0pRg&t=500s
by kentonv | 2025-09-22 17:27:37+00:00
The fear here is that if a class wasn't explicitly designed to be an RPC interface, then it could very easily offer functionality that isn't safe to expose over a security boundary with RPC. Normally, JavaScript classes do not expect their APIs to be security boundaries.

With that said, I do think we ought to support `new RpcStub(myObject)` to explicitly create a stub around an arbitrary class, even if it doesn't extend `RpcTarget`. It would be up to the person writing the `new RpcStub` invocation to verify it's safe.
by acdha | 2025-09-22 17:28:19+00:00
They don’t penalize browsers for not being Chrome – Safari users almost never see those, because their devices support a protocol for attesting real hardware with a real user, in what is hopefully a privacy-preserving manner:

https://blog.cloudflare.com/eliminating-captchas-on-iphones-...

That’s the underlying problem here: web sites are constantly getting suspicious traffic and if you do something like using Tor or a “free” VPN, the owners of those sites are probably going to ask companies like Cloudflare to validate or block you rather than try to tell whether you’re a bot.

Anyone concerned with privacy really needs to be focused on that problem because most site owners care more about not going broke than supporting browsers or privacy tools which few of their customers use. It’s destroying the open web.
by markusw | 2025-09-22 17:28:22+00:00
Hehe. Yes and no.

In the cloud, as you probably know, the usual way now is to spin up Postgres separately (RDS, Supabase, Planetscale, Crunchy Bridge, you name it). We've gotten so used to it that a different way of doing it is often not even considered.

But I think tooling has come a long way, and there have been a lot of learnings from the cloud, so it's time to swing the pendulum back and reconsider assumptions!
by rsynnott | 2025-09-22 17:28:27+00:00
The US is physically big enough that coast to coast would probably always be a fairly niche pursuit. New York to SF, say, is about 4700km. At 300km/h, assuming no stops, that is 15 hours. Most people won't want to do that.

Seattle to SF, however, is only about 1300km, so a bit over 4 hours under ideal conditions. At that point, it's probably quicker than a plane (no need for the whole getting to and from the airport thing, or the security, or the inevitable delays).
by baobabKoodaa | 2025-09-22 17:28:42+00:00
Okay, I understand the analogy. You imagine a world where there would be a "standard contract" that could be referenced by its name, just like the MIT license can be referenced by its name without having to read it every time. Would that be nice? Sure. But we didn't create anything like that. Our contract-generator can output many different kinds of contracts depending on the inputs. This was a design choice that we made early on: we wanted to support many different kinds of needs, as opposed to just creating a singular one-size-fits-all contract template. The whole point of having a web generator for the contract is that it gives you easy access to tweak all the different clauses. If it was just a one-size-fits-all contract template, why would there be any "generator" in the first place? So... I'm back wondering what it is you're asking me to do exactly.
by Leftium | 2025-09-22 17:28:47+00:00
Epicenter[1] is attempting to go against the grain here[2]. I'm not sure if it will require one of these SaaS to become a client for this business model to work...

> The long-term direction is for Epicenter to become a foundational data framework for building apps where users truly own and control their own data. In other words, the Epicenter framework becomes an SSO for AI applications. Users use Epicenter to plug into any service, and they'll own their data, choose their models, and replace siloed apps with interoperable alternatives. Developers will use our framework to build highly customized experiences for said users. To pursue that goal seriously, we also need a sustainable model that honors our commitment to open source.

> ...The entire Epicenter project will be available under a copyleft license, making it completely free for anyone building open-source software. On the other hand, if a company or individual wants to incorporate the framework into their closed-source product, they can purchase a license to build with Epicenter without needing to open source their changes and abide by the copyleft terms. This is the model used by Cal.com, dub.sh, MongoDB, etc.

[1]: https://hw.leftium.com/#/item/44942731

[2]: https://github.com/epicenter-md/epicenter/issues/792
by hyperman1 | 2025-09-22 17:28:50+00:00
Facebook for me is much more enforced. A lot of mom&pop stores publish their opening hours on facebook only. Clubs communicate with their members via facebook, so you can't subscribe to the yearly bbq etc without it. Small local sales, events,.... All small things, but death by a thoudand papercuts.

I held out on facebook since last year, but have given in. My wife is my only friend, even if facebook is pushing a never ending desperate barrage of youmightknow mails.
by JCM9 | 2025-09-22 17:29:21+00:00
This is throwing more cards on the house of cards. Nvidia is “investing” in OpenAI so OpenAI can buy GPUs from NVidia. Textbook “round tripping.”

I generally like what’s been happening with AI but man this is gonna crash hard when reality sets in. We’re reaching the scary stage of a bubble where folks are forced to throw more and more cash on the fire to keep it going with no clear path to ever get that cash back. If anyone slows down, even just a bit, the whole thing goes critical and implodes.
by lapcat | 2025-09-22 17:30:22+00:00
> Google’s monopoly is dangerous because they linked success in search to dominance in other areas

That's precisely what's happening here: Cloudflare is leveraging its CDN dominance to become a kind of payment processor for the internet.

> they have serious competition in the CDN business

Do they? I just said they have 80% market share.

> they have the direct incentive not to screw their customers which Google lacked

Google Search is free service for users but a paid service for advertisers. The advertisers are Google's customers. Theoretically, Google has an incentive not to screw its customers, but practically they can, because of their search monopoly.
by itsmek | 2025-09-22 17:30:24+00:00
Because physical presence incurs costs to taxpayer funded infrastructure? Why should I be able to dodge taxes by working remotely abroad? Are you saying independently wealthy people should be able to roam around and freeload without paying tax to their resident nation?

In the US many people falsely believe illegal immigrants do exactly that, and that lie has contributed to a lot of outrage, so obviously people perceive the system you're proposing as unjust.
by crazygringo | 2025-09-22 17:31:12+00:00
Morally speaking, there are two principles at play.

The first is paying your fair share of taxes for enabling the system of rule of law, financial protection, courts, stability provided by national defense, etc. that help you earn that money in the first place. This argues for paying taxes in the country where the money is earned.

The second is the principle of progressive taxation that funds the entire social system where you live -- roads, schools, parks, police, health care, retirement. The richer you are, the higher the rate you can and should give back. Thus it doesn't matter whether you make your money at home or abroad -- it counts toward the taxes you're morally obligated to pay for where you reside and/or are a citizen of.

Because these conflict, the US allows for Americans to let taxes paid abroad count against their US taxes, so they're not double-taxed. Which is one form of a reasonable compromise. There are many other forms you could imagine.
by AllegedAlec | 2025-09-22 17:31:17+00:00
> Being anti AI/anti LLM is solidly in the Luddite camp; there’s really no more debates to be had. Every serious inquiry shows productivity gains by using ai.

"Guys this debate is so stupid. Every serious inquiry shows productivity gains when we take away all senses, jack workers into the matrix and feed them a steady diet of speed intravenously. This put debate to rest. Now we are post-debate"

Something can increase productivity and still not be good.
by NoSalt | 2025-09-22 17:31:22+00:00
This is the main reason why YAML and Python are bad. Give us CLEAR beginnings and ends to code statements and blocks, not these dubious beginnings and ends. Ignore white space and use clear EOL delineation. Clearly, XML and JSON are superior to YAML and even this weird-looking HUML. Not to mention almost any other language syntax being superior to Python.
by scotty79 | 2025-09-22 17:32:24+00:00
Yes it is. As long as the content was intentionally distributed by the rights holder (for example a movie had its premiere) you can legally download it from anywhere and use it for your own (and your friends) enjoyment however you please. You can't make it (or even the content you bought) available to people who aren't your actual friends (random people on the internet).

That's the Polish law, both the letter and the implementation. On at least one occasion the police issued an official statement saying exactly that.

I think no one was ever fined in Poland for incidental upload while using bittorrent protocol to download. There are high profile cases for people who where publishing large amounts of media files, especially commercially. Little more than a decade ago there was one case where some company tried to go after bittorrent downloaders of 3 specific Polish movies. But I think it was ultimately thrown out or cheaply settled because no case like that has been publicized ever since and everybody who knows how to use bittorent, does.

Again, it covers everything except for software that has more restrictive laws more similar to what you think the law is.

Tax on empties was set up long time ago to support creators who's music is shared among friends directly. It's was not intended to compensate for downloads. I think only Polish artists receive any money from this (I might be wrong on that) and the organization that distributes the money is highly inefficient. They tried to extend the tax to electronic devices, but nobody likes them, companies and people both, so they didn't get too far with this proposal for now.

Poland enjoys a lot of digital freedoms and is conscious of them and ready to defend them against ACTA, Chat Control and extend them with Stop Killing Games.