MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by physicles | 2025-09-28 05:44:52+00:00
Don’t rule them out.

I was in the same boat, doing most text navigation on the keyboard and fully adapted to the quirky arrangement of home/end/pgup/pgdn of the Microsoft natural keyboard elite I’d been coding on for 23 years.

But I do a lot of nomading, so I really wanted a small keyboard. And I’m a tall guy, so I was looking for a full split (I tried the Kinesis Freestyle2 for a while but didn’t love it).

I bought a ZSA Voyager. The first day I went from ~120wpm to 20. I hated it and had buyer’s remorse. Second week, I was still switching to another keyboard in the afternoons because I was making so many typos and felt so tired. I swapped out most of the switches with higher force ones, and that helped a ton. It took about two months before the keyboard disappeared again and there was only me and the work.

The biggest single win is that backspace is under my right thumb next to space bar, which felt life-changing once I got used to it (if I were still using a normal keyboard, I’d probably re-map right alt to backspace). And while word selection with ctrl+shift+arrow took a bit longer to get used to, now I appreciate not having to move my fingers at all to hit the arrow keys.

Nine months later, you can pry the Voyager from my cold dead hands. It’s probably the last keyboard I’ll ever buy. I do wish it had two more keys (haven’t found good homes for Alt and ~) but overall I’m very happy with where I ended up.
by MrCroxx | 2025-09-28 05:47:50+00:00
Hi, foyer's author here. The "zero-copy in-memory abstraction" is compared to Facebook's CacheLib.

CacheLib requires entries to be copied to the CacheLib managed memory when it's inserted. It simplified some design trade-offs, but may affect the overall throughput when in-memory cache is involved more than nvm cache. FYI: https://cachelib.org/docs/Cache_Library_User_Guides/Write_da...

Foyer only requries entries to be serialized/deserialized when writing/reading from disk. The in-memory cache doesn't force a deep memory copy.
by SilverElfin | 2025-09-28 05:49:07+00:00
I’m not sure who this company is. But the statement could apply to any established industry. But especially ones with lots of regulations or government contracts. They tend to be much more captured. And to disrupt them you need your own establishment power - like how Palantir or Anduril are working. But what results isn’t a new competitive landscape. Just a different set of established powers.
by ninetyninenine | 2025-09-28 05:50:06+00:00
You're actually missing the benefit of this. It's actually a feature.

With python, because types are part of python itself, they can thus be programmable. You can create a function that takes in a typehint and returns a new typehint. This is legal python. For example below I create a function that dynamically returns a type that restricts a Dictionary to have a specific key and value.

from typing import TypedDict def make_typed_dict(name: str, required_key: str, value_type: type): return TypedDict(name, {required_key: value_type, id: int}) # Example UserDict = make_typed_dict("UserDict", "username", str) def foo(data: UserDict): print(data["username"])

With this power in theory you can create programs where types essentially can "prove" your program correct, and in theory eliminate unit tests. Languages like idris specialize in this. But it's not just rare/specialized languages that do this. Typescript, believe it or not, has programmable types that are so powerful that writing functions that return types like the one above are Actually VERY common place. I was a bit late to the game to typescript but I was shocked to see that it was taking cutting edge stuff from the typing world and making it popular among users.

In practice, using types to prove programs to be valid in place of testing is actually a bit too tedious compared with tests so people don't go overboard with it. It is a much more safer route then testing, but much harder. Additionally as of now, the thing with python is that it really depends on how powerful the typechecker is on whether or not it can enforce and execute type level functions. It's certainly possible, it's just nobody has done it yet.

I'd go further than this actually. Python is actually a potentially more powerfully typed language than TS. In TS, types are basically another language tacked onto javascript. Both languages are totally different and the typing language is very very limited.

The thing with python is that the types and the language ARE the SAME thing. They live in the same universe. You complained about this, but there's a lot of power in that because basically types become turing complete and you can create a type that does anything including proving your whole program correct.

Like I said that power depends on the typechecker. Someone needs to create a typechecker that can recognize type level functions and so far it hasn't happened yet. But if you want to play with a language that does this, I believe that language is Idris.
by brumar | 2025-09-28 05:50:33+00:00
This is very different to my experience and I am wondering why. Maybe because I come from chess and can't help myself to compare it with this frame of reference. Anyway I felt that my progress up to 5k was largely driven by a better understanding of principles of plays than tactical training. As a thought experiment, I feel that its possible to adopt a very risk averse style that negates tactical complexities to the expense of many points on the board and still largely win against weaker players. It's not my experience with chess. If you suck at tactics, your elo sucks too.
by BruceEel | 2025-09-28 05:50:52+00:00
Yes. The top marathon racing shoes are optimized for road-running & hard surfaces like asphalt. Definitely not good for trails. They are indeed very tall (though there's limits for official competitions.) Excellent lateral stability is essentially a non-goal so they are not a good choice for volleyball or tennis either. So yeah, we run in a very different world than the one where our ancestors evolved...
by teslabox | 2025-09-28 05:51:30+00:00
> there's no reason to punish the vastly outnumbering population who can follow directions and take it safely.

If you take two pills of extra strength Tylenol (2x500mg) every six hours as directed by the instructions, you’ve reached the threshold for liver injury.

Around 50,000 people a year (U.S.) visit the ER for having poisoned themselves with acetaminophen. A lot of people harm themselves without realizing it. I warned a friend about her Tylenol habit, which helped her connect “dizziness” to the Tylenol she’d just taken.
by geokon | 2025-09-28 05:51:46+00:00
Thank you for the links. Learned a lot

It does kind of sound like the app that recognizes the most schemas will likely win. It seems there is no benefit to using a limited schema app - and you'd end up missing content that the creator assumes you see. Ex: You can make an app that only shows pictures, but the people posting pictures will likely assume you also can see.. their Leaflet docs or whatnot. You can't force restrictions on the users - ex: if you use my Freegram schema then well you can't add additional stuff - b/c that's the social space we're building

Unless I'm misunderstanding the doc, the lexicon seems also very limited in what it can express. You can't specify images have to be black and white, or video clips have to be shorter than 15seconds. Or replies have different restrictions from posts.

It's maybe impossible to encode everything - but furthermore a lot of the "app culture" is just due to the app design. The photo description on instagram can be extremely long. You can write a diatribe about.. whatever. But it's hidden behind an collapsible button - which make it so people don't typically engage with it.

That's all to say, I think ATProto is very cool - but there is (maybe unfortunately) still a space for the walled gardens b/c they're providing a certain subculture.
by varenc | 2025-09-28 05:56:52+00:00
This fictionalized demo video from the company is entertaining: https://vimeo.com/942125659/223b79c285

It's an over the top promotional video that feels like it's out of movie. Must have cost them plenty to make it. It's like porn for military gear.

Fascinating to me that making content like that presumably helps them sell.
by Fade_Dance | 2025-09-28 05:57:18+00:00
Saving 6 million per year... Hopefully some of the savings go towards funding The Document Foundation. The Austrian savings alone is more than the foundation's entire yearly funding.

(I would argue this is also a somewhat necessary step to take. Libre Office is a massive undertaking to be lauded, but isn't a 5 star product, especially in calc/excel.)
by grep_name | 2025-09-28 05:57:22+00:00
I might have to give it a try. There's a lot I like about the idea of latex but I've never been able to successfully internalize how to use it in a non-painful way either. I've pretty much given up on the whole idea of making a PDF do what I want at this point.

I've looked into typst before and am always turned off hugely by the website's attempt to make it look like some sort of purchased product with a freemium option. I don't really ever like to commit to anything I can't use with a basic commandline / plain text pipeline or that I don't expect to be available in a long-term way without enshittifying. Looking closer at the actual repo for the first time, it seems like I can use it that way, so it warrants investigation, but I'm still leery of the project because of its presentation
by lonikar | 2025-09-28 05:59:26+00:00
I remember generating and executing pymongo based python code in May 2024 when llama3 came out. It was to search mongodb through natural language interface. This was before MCP came into existence. It had the risk of NL injection just like sql injection but since it was for a closed user base, it was ok.

Your approach seems similar. It certainly avoids the complications of chain of tool calls in MCP paradigm.
by teiferer | 2025-09-28 06:01:58+00:00
Misleading title. I was expecting to read about why devs actually embrace type hints. What the article is about is why you should and how you can use type hints. That's valuable, but different from what the title suggests.

Besides, the lack of static typic is what makes a lot of the appeal for beginners. It's much harder to convince a non-CS beginner why they should bother with the extra burden of type hits. They are optional anyway and just slow folks down (so they might think). Careful with generally demanding that everybody use them.

But they probably help coding assistants to make fewer mistakes, so maybe that will soon be an argument if it isn't already. (That's an angle I expected in the article.)
by wltr | 2025-09-28 06:02:33+00:00
If you have trouble spilling uninvited diagnosis for Internet strangers, start with yourself, yeah.

I have no issues with the author mentioning the film, not the book. I was rather curious why not the book, but the film, solely because of this ‘wood’ story told in both. The author said they haven’t finished the book yet, so that’s fine with me. I just find it ironic they did not mention the book (and the author too), considering the story it tells.
by b33j0r | 2025-09-28 06:02:50+00:00
I used to think this, but now I feel like anything I write will just be vacuumed up by bots and no human will ever even know about it, unless I include some kind of terms that at least make the work traceable to an artifact.

In this aggregate form, there is little difference between pseudocode snippets in a post like this one, versus a well-maintained library getting scraped.

The more I think about it, I don’t even really crave credit so much as the feedback loop that tells me whether I’m doing anything useful.

I haven’t solved this contradiction, so I still release under the MIT license.
Why Your Next AI Hire Should Have a Major Failure on Their Resume
by barnir | 2025-09-28 06:03:09+00:00
Everyone wants to hire from successful AI teams. This is a mistake. The most valuable people for your next AI project are the ones who have been through an initiative that completely cratered.

Success stories are clean, retrospective narratives. Failures are messy, complex systems problems. An engineer who has navigated a failed AI project has a practical PhD in what actually breaks: biased training data, brittle data pipelines, models that don't generalize to edge cases, and unrealistic stakeholder expectations. They don't just know the theory; they have the scar tissue.

This experience is a powerful filter against hype. These individuals have seen firsthand how flawed assumptions, inadequate resources, or a poor problem-to-model fit can derail a project. They have developed a critical eye for calling "bullshit" on overly optimistic timelines and flimsy cost justifications. They are less likely to be swayed by a vendor's slick demo and more likely to ask the hard, uncomfortable questions that you need to hear.

Stop asking candidates, "Tell me about a success." Start asking:

"Walk me through an AI project that failed. What was the root cause?"

"What was the single flawed assumption at the start that had the biggest downstream impact?"

"If you could go back, what is the one technical or architectural decision you would change?"

The answers will tell you more about their systems thinking and intellectual honesty than any success story ever could.

Hiring for failure isn't about celebrating mistakes. It's about acquiring a unique, high-value skillset: the ability to proactively identify and mitigate the real-world risks that kill AI projects. It's a strategic investment in resilience.
by nirui | 2025-09-28 06:04:10+00:00
Speak of microwave anti-drone weapons, YouTube channel Tech Ingredients made one with microwave oven parts: https://youtu.be/V6XdcWToy2c?t=1298

At 21:38 of the video (link above is timestampped), as the drone got hit by the microwave, one side of it's motors stopped/malfunctioned, which lead to asymmetric thrust, causing the drone to flip and fall. But the drone itself seemed still functional after the fall.

Not sure how much damage Epirus’ Leonidas could cause. My opinion is, if you want to anti-drone, you need to kill it fast, faraway and complete. If the vehicle is not agile enough, the drones will just go behind you. And if a drone can total a tank with ease, that armored carrier vehicle will not survive much hits.
by sbierwagen | 2025-09-28 06:05:47+00:00
I am surprised that open circuit voltage is specified at 25°C and increases dramatically as the temperature goes down. Seems backwards! I'm looking at the Ecoflow spec sheet right now and fair enough, it's got the open circuit voltage and then the Temperature Coefficient of Open Circuit Voltage (-0.35%/°C) right next to it.

Great, guys, how about you go ahead and multiply those two numbers for me, since you're the ones writing the fucking spec sheet? It's like if car battery manufacturers only specified a cranking amps number, and told you to figure out cold cranking amps yourself.
by bruce511 | 2025-09-28 06:05:53+00:00
Business is hard. It's hard enough to "start a bookshop". And while I admire folk who have a bigger vision, the whole thing rests on the business being successful.

Given the right priorities, it can work. A business can be profitable, and also embody progressive principles. It can be both an income, and socially responsible.

But most businesses fail. 90% or so don't survive 5 years. That's before adding externalities.

So starting a business with goals orthogonal to successful business is twice as hard.

I was struck by the demand by employees to be a collective. Thats an unusual request. It suggests that, even hired, that was floated as a path. It suggests the owner wanted employees to be "part of the family". So suddenly getting decisions from on high was jarring for them.

Unionising is a strange response. (Even the union was surprised.) Frankly the writing was on the wall at that point. A more experienced business person would just have closed then and there.

Obviously the employees thought that they could have succeeded had they just got the stock for free. I suspect not. They wanted more pay, would have had no incoming monthly investment, and would be short at least 1 worker (enough was likely doing a lot of work.) Doesn't sound like a solid business plan to me.

So yes, idealism is fine, but it doesn't make the business work. And I agree, in this case it killed it. But frankly, starting a bookshop these days is a pretty doomed approach. A (good) coffee shop (with some books) may have had a chance.
by tlavoie | 2025-09-28 06:06:12+00:00
It's not the cub I'd be worried about, but where's it's mom?

I have yet to go north much, though our son and his girlfriend worked in Eagle Plains for a bit. One fun snippet from their trip back, having a raven as an escort for the highway drive: https://youtu.be/9KdMJhSaeJc
by MangoToupe | 2025-09-28 06:06:21+00:00
Static type checking (which is what I assume you mean by "typing") can also be a massive pain in the ass that stands in the way of incremental development, even if the end-goal is to ship an api with clear type signatures.

There are developers who design apis by trying to figure out readable invocations. These developers discover, rather than design, type hierarchies and library interfaces.

> Many old school python developers don't realize how important typing actually is.

I don't think this is true. There's simply a communication breakdown where type-first developers don't see the benefits of disabling static checking to design interfaces, and interface-first developers don't see why they should put static checking ahead of interface iteration speed.
AI-Powered Is the New Cloud-Based: A Dev's Guide to Spotting Vendor Hype
by barnir | 2025-09-28 06:08:36+00:00
"AI-Powered" Is the New "Cloud-Based": A Dev's Guide to Calling Bullshit on Vendor Hype ** The term "AI-Powered" has become the new "cloud-based"—a meaningless marketing term often used to justify a price hike for a feature that is, at best, a glorified if/else statement. As engineers and technical buyers, our job is to look past the buzzwords and systematically dismantle the vendor's claims.

Having evaluated dozens of "AI" tools, I've developed a simple framework for spotting the AI-washing. Here are the red flags to look for.

Red Flag #1: They Can't Explain the "How" If a vendor uses terms like "intelligent algorithms" but can't articulate whether they are using NLP topic modeling, a forecasting model, or a simple heuristic, it's a major red flag. Real AI applications are built on specific methodologies. A vague explanation often masks a superficial implementation or a complete lack of in-house expertise.

Red Flag #2: They Pitch Features, Not Outcomes A demo that is a whirlwind tour of flashy "AI features" without a clear connection to a measurable outcome (e.g., reduced latency, lower error rates, improved conversion) is a sign of tech for tech's sake. Transformative AI doesn't just add features; it solves a quantifiable problem.

Red Flag #3: The "Magic Black Box" Defense When you ask about the data model, training requirements, or how they measure accuracy, and the answer is "it's proprietary" or "it just works," be wary. This lack of transparency is a massive governance and risk issue. It raises immediate concerns about hidden biases, data privacy, and simple ineffectiveness. A real AI vendor can discuss their conceptual approach to model training and explainability without giving away their IP.

Red Flag #4: The "AI Island" Architecture An AI solution that doesn't have a clear, robust integration strategy with your existing systems is a recipe for data silos and manual workarounds. AI rarely delivers value in isolation; it needs to consume data from and feed insights back into your core operational workflows via well-documented APIs.

Red Flag #5: They Have No Real-World Proof Grandiose claims of near-perfect accuracy and universal applicability are easy to make on a marketing slide. The ultimate proof is in the implementation. If a vendor cannot provide you with detailed, relevant case studies with measurable results from a company of a similar scale and complexity to yours, they are likely selling a promise, not a product.

Conclusion: Demand Proof, Not Promises The potential of AI is real, but the current vendor landscape is rife with hype. Approach it with the same critical thinking you would apply to a code review. Ask the hard questions, demand transparency, and focus relentlessly on tangible, measurable outcomes.
by teiferer | 2025-09-28 06:10:01+00:00
Maybe they should just improve their product to make it more resiliant, rather than blaming customers for thinking that 148 V is below 150 V? Not everybody buying these has a Ph.D. in physics and if it says 148 V on the label and 150 V on the other label then it's your product that has a problem, not the customer.

And no matter what happens, customer support should help the customer, not blame them.
by fuzzfactor | 2025-09-28 06:12:05+00:00
In the early 90's I started my company out with the minimum expected, two business lines, one for listing in the directory and the other unlisted for faxes like everybody else.

You could list your fax number if you wanted to but that was likely to get you more fax spam.

It was expected if you wanted people to have your fax number, you would do that the way you wanted to. Subway sandwiches always listed their fax number and put it in their ads, at noon there would be numerous people breezing through the line who had faxed in a Subway order form from the office. About the equivalent of ordering in advance from the app today.

I mainly faxed outgoing finished paperwork manually (that had been autoprinted by my 80's Exxon Intelligent Typewriters) or recieved confirmation of international orders that I already knew were coming [0] so when I got the internet I could basically tie up my fax line a lot without missing any incoming calls on the main number. When I was there after hours though, I could tie up both lines and I did that a lot to double my download speed. IIRC joining two modems in Windows became possible in W95 or W98 but I never actually did that.

Just used two PCs on two desks with one running the business ISP account and the other dialing-up to the home account.

Napstering in stereo screech :)

[0] My own company was the first marine place I worked where it didn't start out needing a Telex to serve as official cable confirmation of job orders. In the early 80's nobody had ever heard of fax machines because they were called telecopiers. Where you manually clamped a letter-size piece of thermal-sensitive paper onto a horizontal drum to receive a page. We had some of the better ones called Exxon Qyp where you talked to the other party using phones that were wired into the Qyp, then pushed the button to go into copier mode and it acted like an Edison phonograph cylinder where the sender ran its scanning head around the cylinder from top to bottom on their original document, simultaneously the reciever would run its thermal bit-printing head in the same pattern down their blank media page. As line speeds increased beyond 300bps, more modern machines became possible to send a page at a time, with digital memory no longer expensive as unobtainium, buffers came along. But it still wasn't good enough, you still needed a Telex until one day these documents finally became officially acceptable, as . . . wait for it . . . facsimilies.
by lukaslalinsky | 2025-09-28 06:13:20+00:00
I was extremely skeptical when typing was introduced. What's the point if runtime ignores them. I forced myself to use them as documentation and now I'm on the other side of the spectrum, all code should have them. It already helped me a lot during refactors and I always wished more code had types. I think the same is true for AIs, they will benefit from having the types explicitly said. It's a shame they currently default to untyped Python.