MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by dgb23 | 2025-09-29 10:25:18+00:00
I agree but there are certain types of unnecessary stupidity, which feel more easy at at first, but hurt more than they help very quickly (measured in amount of code):

The first one that comes to mind relates closely to naming. If we think about a program in terms of its user facing domain, then we might start to name and structure our data, functions, types too specifically for that domain. But it's almost always better to separate computational, generic data manipulation from domain language.

You only need a _little bit_ more time to move much of the domain specific stuff into your data model. Think of domain language as values rather than field names or types. This makes code easier to work with _very quickly_.

Another stupidity is to default to local state. Moving state up requires a little bit of planning and sometimes refactoring and one has to consider the overall data model in order to understand each part. But it goes a long way, because you don't end up with entangled, implicit coordination. This is very much true for anything UI related. I almost never regret doing this, but I have regretted not doing this very often.

A third thing that is unnecessarily stupid is to spread around logic. Harder to explain, but everyone knows the easy feeling of putting an if statement (or any kind of branching, filtering etc.) that adds a bunch of variables somewhere, where it doesn't belong. If you feel pressed to do this, re-consider whether your data is rich enough (can it express the thing that I need here) and consistent enough.
by Imustaskforhelp | 2025-09-29 10:25:44+00:00
Don't know about a mature but I wanted to play pokemon yellow on my mum's phone and I was in 2nd grade iirc and my brother just told me to search pokemon yellow rom myself and learn how to download/pirate it. He didn't help me at all, even though. he had pirated it earlier.

Made me learn pirating which went into more and more technical untill I think nowadays I dabble in playing pirated games in linux and linux scripting and just general coding.

There was no mature watching over me. I was downloading everything dude, heck I had once downloaded hollow knight as an apk to play it and I am pretty sure that it was a malware which i had quickly deleted as it wasn't working but now yes we've even migrated over from the phone.

So in a way my mature watching over me was saying, Idk learn it yourself, fuck around and find out.

I kinda think that grapheneos would be really nice for protecting your phone from something like malware from what I've heard.
by mark_undoio | 2025-09-29 10:25:58+00:00
I love the Patagonian Welsh. BBC Wales, which often has great comedy, has a sitcom based around the original emigration to Patagonia: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060cd20

The whole thing feels very much like a Star Trek plot to me with a culture leaving on a ship to an unknown world to preserve their way of life - which later the crew would happen upon in some episode.
by saghm | 2025-09-29 10:26:16+00:00
It's also very different to be warned that you "could get suspended or expelled" and actually have it happen. A warning isn't a punishment, but a communication that a punishment might occur, assuming that the one giving the warning actually follows through with observing whether behavior changes and is willing to actually carry out the punishment in the case that it doesn't. Kids are just as aware of this as adults and can make judgments about how likely this is when they receive warnings.
by ghusto | 2025-09-29 10:26:18+00:00
From the governments page on this^1:

>How we will ensure it is available to everyone > > Millions of people in the UK lack access to traditional proofs of identity like passports. It is estimated that 10% of UK citizens have never had a passport, while 93% of adults own a smart phone. > > This means it can be difficult to prove your eligibility for services such as opening a bank account and claiming benefits. Digital ID will give you free, secure identity verification.

I get it, you're the government so double-speak is part of the deal, but it's like you're not even trying to make it sound convincing any more, and that scares me.

Putting aside the fact that the reason why some people don't have a passport is _not because it's difficult to get a passport ordered_, it still doesn't explain why having 2% more people who don't have a passport makes it easier to have this new solution -- let alone address the fact that some people do not have a smartphone!

^1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/digital-id-scheme...
by pvdebbe | 2025-09-29 10:26:51+00:00
Running gentoo on desktop, since 2007. My first installation lasted 7 years. The next one has worked well for me since 2013. It was my first real contact with linux and taught me a lot. My setup is bargain bin components from the same 2013 but I update and compile world during the nights.

I'm thinking of finally upgrading my components as Sandy Bridge is not cutting it in all tasks any more. Told my Gentoo-loving friend that I wouldn't be installing Gentoo again. That's only because I'm planning on just using this current installation with fresh recompilations!
by exasperaited | 2025-09-29 10:27:20+00:00
Side note: people (men, mostly, still) who don't know how to use sewing machines are missing out on perhaps the most transformative, clever, empowering machine ever made. You could teach an entire curriculum just on the history, design, manufacturing and use of the sewing machine, and barely scratch the surface.

They are quite simply marvels. (Great Veritasium video about them too)
by cjs_ac | 2025-09-29 10:27:33+00:00
Users are complete human beings, and their interaction with your product is a tiny slice of their life. They use your product to solve problems that they have. If the 80% of your product that they aren't using doesn't relate to their problems, they won't use it, even if they know that it exists. For example, I've never used Microsoft Word's mail merge function, even though I've known it exists for probably twenty years, simply because I've never needed to send out a form letter to a whole bunch of people.

Sometimes, there is indeed a new feature that could solve a problem that they have, but they don't know it exists. I've seen a lot of pop-ups in software that try to tell me about new features, but I never read them, because I'm always trying to do something else when they appear. Emailed newsletters also don't work, because the marketing people who design them always make them look like advertisements.

Finally, many computer users are deeply incurious about their computers, and are often too scared of breaking something to try an unfamiliar feature.
by spwa4 | 2025-09-29 10:28:15+00:00
I finished the first year of Uni in June 2000, and my parents had informed me they would not support me the second year. So it was critical to find a job at that time. Found one. Didn't pay well, but covering a room + uni entry fees was pretty easy. More money than I'd ever seen except ...

Then, due to working full-time, it took me 7 years to finish my Uni degree and I managed to screw up my entry form in the final year. Meaning I got my master's degree in Aug 2008.

Both ended well. Hell in 2000 I wasn't even aware what was happening, though after a few months I figured out some of my colleagues were making 4x what I was making. But it was enough and I still climbed up.

I'm working on a doctorate now. Though one fact seems inevitable: if I ever finish it, the AIpocalypse will happen right exactly that month.
by rob_c | 2025-09-29 10:29:58+00:00
No.

That's comparing production means today with an inflated population due to uncontrolled migration. (Main confronting factor to pop growth in last few years so can't be avoided as topic).

Comparing blockade numbers to peace time production is a false equivalency.

Am I saying there won't be unrest no, but you just started a scenario by blockading Britain. If you think we don't produce enough food, it's about the only thing we actual do produce here other than empty city promises and patents. The country would eat itself before the means of food production hits the top 5 of our problems if honestly bet.

The country has capacity to engage in intensive farming of several means which we currently do not because of animal rights concerns, lack of manpower etc. In a blockade scenario animal rights go out the window to a starving populace. Food waste is addressed in several means and we start engaging in battery farming and crop yields yes move to calorific content vs serving the Ritz their flav d'jour.

And let's not pretend NI is included under any sensible scenario other than the British military blockading and subsuming control of RoI. There's no scenario where a blockade of Britain as an island would leave us "struggling to feed NI with RoI being supported by the European block" as another absolutist.
by throwaway7723 | 2025-09-29 10:30:02+00:00
I confirm, not kooky at all, to those people who went through the gang stalking and other types of harassment.

I am a victim of such harassment, for me it lasted for about 2 years. I have done something bad and kind of deserve the treatment/tortures. There is no issue there.

But what got me suicidal is not the gang stalking itself but absolute lack of support from the so called "normal" people. Everyone thinks you are insane, even when I pointed out the obvious signs, showed proof or pointed to ongoing situations around me. People would still find it easier to outright dismiss those, usually coming up with "normal" explanations of things.

The scariest part is when your closest people start to gradually loose trust in you and start thinking you might be crazy too.

During that time I experienced absolutely no real support from the police or doctors, no one wants to listen to what you have to say, every one is busy with their own life. YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. That's where the problem is.

BTW, the stuff I have experienced with the tech these creeps use is quite amazing if evaluated without bringing the emotions.
by bitlax | 2025-09-29 10:30:09+00:00
> "Why are you framing it as if it ever was?"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45383599

> If happiness were a competition we should all be lining up for lobotomies

You can prevent cancers by jumping off a bridge. I wouldn't advise it.

> Conservatives haven't cracked any sort of code

except the, like, happiness code
by jstanley | 2025-09-29 10:30:53+00:00
> we might start to name and structure our data, functions, types too specifically for that domain.

I once worked on a Perl script that had to send an email to "Harry". (Name changed to protect the innocent). I stored Harry's email address in a variable called "$HARRY".

Later on a second person (with a different name) wanted to get the emails as well. No problem, just turn the scalar into an array, "@HARRIES".

I thought it was very funny but nobody else did.
by MayeulC | 2025-09-29 10:31:05+00:00
These apps do exactly that, but are not easy to find from the F-Droid app (I had to use a search engine to find the first one):

https://f-droid.org/packages/mobi.omegacentauri.SendReduced

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.caydey.ffshare

Oh, and also, specifically for PNG optimization: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.wrmndfzzy.atomize
by thaumasiotes | 2025-09-29 10:31:58+00:00
> That language is on artificial life support, much like Welsh, where there has to be considerable government initiatives to keep it alive.

I am endlessly amused by the introductions in this video, describing the significance of English in each guest's home country: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dQiA8lz45c#t=378

[Scotland] Scotland - it's quite a small country, there's not a large population, but we obviously we used to have Scots Gaelic, which was our national language but then, eh... something eh... [England pointedly looks in the other direction] another country came over and uh, kind of, uh...

I think, honestly, the percentage of people who speak Scots Gaelic is one percent. But now everyone speaks English...

[...]

[Wales] We... are probably one of the most patriotic bred people here. That's a bold claim. [video cuts] that we have to be very proud of our culture and our language because, uh, similar history with Scotland... so our language was on the edge of dying out, but, it sounds really different to English. Most people don't know that

[...]

[Ireland] Oh, yeah, so... Ireland is similar with Wales and Scotland with the... [gestures to England] our friend...

The Scotsman and the Irish girl speak only English, but the Welsh girl was raised speaking Welsh, so there does appear to be some comparative health.
by zipy124 | 2025-09-29 10:33:18+00:00
Avoiding the problem altogether is just throwing up your hands and saying "this is too hard so I'm not going to even try".

We already know there is some way to do it because researchers do salami slicing where they take one paper and split it up into multiple papers to get more numbers, out of the same work. Therefore one might for example look at a paper and think, how many papers could one get out of this if they were to take part in salami slicing in order to get at-least some measure of this initially.
Show HN: Bibfixer – AI-powered BibTeX cleaner
by tksii | 2025-09-29 10:33:56+00:00
Bibfixer is a Python tool to automatically clean and standardize BibTeX files.

It often takes hours to make the bib file very clean and consistent. For example, we often have to check if each arXiv paper has been accepted to a conference or journal. The conference names are messed up and not consistent: NeurIPS vs NIPS vs Neural Information Processing Systems vs Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS). The title of the paper is not capitalized properly, e.g., "llm"/"ai" instead of "LLM"/"AI". Some authors may be missing. The list goes on.

With LLMs and recent web search tools, this tedious work no longer needs to be manual. Bibfixer will do this for us: it completes entries with accurate metadata via LLM + web search capabilities, but also enforces a consistent style based on your preferences. Of course, we should check the final output since LLMs can also make mistakes, but this is much easier than doing this fully manually.
by Imustaskforhelp | 2025-09-29 10:35:20+00:00
To be honest, Apple lives on their walled ecosystem and people fanboying them.

I am sure that you aren't a fanboy but I would be skeptical of any company saying that they value about your privacy when the recent debacle went on.

Like hear me out, Apple encryption was being backdoored and the only reason that it got leaked was by a whistleblower and it was illegal for apple to even discuss it.

So chances are, that if that whistleblower hadn't leaked, I am not sure if he's facing jail time or not and if Apple wanted to live in the UK which I am sure they are, then they most likely would've enforced a backdoor.

Would we be any better knowing it? Like when a company's profits incentives is affected because a country wants them to have a backdoor in secret closed doors and not even reveal to the public...

I wonder how many other backdoors there are that we just don't know of y'know.

So I wouldn't say that they care about your privacy. They show that they care about your privacy because that's become a USP to them and quite frankly, after this whole scene, I am not sure how they can prove that back.

The only thing that's literally not tracking you is open source for the most part. That is the only thing and f-droid takes open source apps.

There are even games on f-droid but yes I know that games are just a weird niche which has a lot of malware/exploitative. I hope that more people can create open source games and we can contribute to them along the way.

Whenever, there is a company involved, Deep down, they care about themselves and not you, they really care about the shareholders,everything else is temporary imo.

But there are some companies run by people who have a moral spine and we need to applaud them/use them but in my opinion apple is too big to have a moral spine when they can repackage the same Iphone for god knows how long, but they are still better than google whose literally an ad company but open source graphene os with f-droid is a better option and you are showing a false dichotomy of sorts.

I hope that I can point you into better direction with graphene os + f-droid, both are open source and they are the only one I would sort of trust with my privacy because its code and the code is generally neutral, it has no incentives to sell me anything most of the times yknow. It is like clippy of sorts lol.
by eowyn | 2025-09-29 10:35:22+00:00
> "Taste" is bound to devolve into "I like this" vs "I like that" My read of the article was less "I like this" and more "I've seen xx work best in a situation like this where we're optimising for yy but if we're optimising for zz then something else would be more suitable"

It's less about what you like or dislike and more about aligning a collection of practices you've seen work well to the situation and constraints, which is why variety of experience helps

I'm not sure why stirring up shit or inflaming egos would necessarily happen with such conversations. Skilled engineers often start a solution proposal by explicitly outlining what they are optimising for, known limitations etc which all help create a baseline to describe "taste"
by Al-Khwarizmi | 2025-09-29 10:35:40+00:00
There could be more top-tier conferences, though. If the field grows, it makes perfect sense for the number of top-tier venues to grow as well (for whatever percentile we set as a threshold to be "top-tier"). And creating more venues is also good for people who might not have funding for long trips across continents (although lately, accommodation costs tend to be increasingly dominant with respect to flight costs in most destinations I'm traveling to).
by pwagland | 2025-09-29 10:35:51+00:00
In most of Europe, single use bags are outlawed for white a long time already.

In my experience, to see how bad this can be, these days you need to go to Asia or Africa. Anecdotally, there is a lot less rubbish in Europe than there used to be.

1. https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/pla... 2. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/gallery/horrifying-... 3. https://thebalisun.com/balis-most-popular-beaches-brace-for-...
by stavros | 2025-09-29 10:35:54+00:00
I don't think your point of "I think Apple is safer without much evidence, it's on you to prove otherwise" isn't very solid. You can think whatever you want, but the evidence is clear (as presented here) that the official stores don't do much to prevent malware.

A historical review of app store security also doesn't have much applicability to the current point of Google trying to raise its garden walls even higher.
by iptvstreamscc | 2025-09-29 10:36:39+00:00
Hi HN,

I built IPTVstreams.cc, a simple frontend that uses the iptv-org API to stream free and public IPTV channels from around the world.

The goal was to make the massive IPTV-org collection easier to browse and watch directly in the browser without needing playlists, VLC, or extra setup.

Browse thousands of channels by country and category

All streams come from the open-source iptv-org project (free and legal sources only)

Works directly in the browser – no player required

I’d love feedback on:

Usability of the interface (does it feel easy to find and watch channels?)

Performance (does streaming feel smooth in different regions?)

Any features you think would make it more useful

This is a side project for fun and learning — I’m not hosting streams, just providing a frontend for the existing open API.

Thanks for checking it out!
by lm28469 | 2025-09-29 10:37:00+00:00
It's all about convenience, and the fact that we're trained from birth into being good little obedient consumers. Talk to your grandparents, back then they all had sewing machines, fixed their clothes, their shoes, things were expensive and cherished, now it's all cheap junk you have to consume as fast as possible before getting your next hit from amazon. Now that everything is cheap and abundant why would people bother ?
by mojuba | 2025-09-29 10:39:30+00:00
I didn't say readability is subjective. I'm just asking, when someone says "code should be readable" without any clarifications, what does it really mean?

Big companies may actually have an answer to that: "since we require at least 2 years of experience in the area from new hires, all code should be readable at that level".

However startups may prioritize something else over readability at that level, for example: move fast, produce the most minimalist code that would be easy to maintain for people like you.

My point being, "code should be readable" should always come at least with a footnote that defines the context.
by RealStickman_ | 2025-09-29 10:40:01+00:00
This made me curious to find out reasons why KVM is so much more popular than Xen. I wasn't able to find anything concrete beyond "KVM is the standard and supported by out tooling", which obviously is the case nowadays, but still leaves me wondering what KVM did so much better than Xen when it first released or if this was just a concidence.
by jackstraw42 | 2025-09-29 10:40:23+00:00
downloading ROMs helped me learn how to do things the right way too. but even back then those kinds of places were filled with traps, remember pop-ups and pop-under ads? from that point forward, learning how to safely download ROMs and whatever else I wanted to do on the internet just felt natural.

What worries me though is that maybe we weren't the norm, maybe we were the exceptions.
by atoav | 2025-09-29 10:40:33+00:00
Aa with most environmental question it is always a question about what to count and how to value it.

E.g. when a plastic bag is slowly mechanically ground into microplastic by the wind, weather and UV radiation how much would it cost to collect the microplastic from that single bag and remove it from the environment?

Depending on how you go about this the number can range from zero (we don't care) to cents (some effort to remove microplastics, juet not by that specific bag) to astronomical numbers if you really try to retriebe every particle — an endeavour where the cleanup would probably be worse for the environment than just leaving it there. If you want to get a grasp of how that would look like read about various cleanups thar happend after nuclear accidents.

The thing is, that there is no "correct" number here. It depends on what you want to do. If you are a oil company, saying microplastics are an non-issue and consumers have to be responsible is probably the best route.

Now there are no fully conclusive results on the long term effects of microplastics on humans yet, but we have good evidence it is harmful for ecosystems. Now again you can ask the question how much is an ecosystem worth? How much do we want to spend to keep them clean? What about accumlative effects? We have been using plastics only for a century max and if we add them to the environment, but never remove them, what will that do?

That aspect of microparticles is a problem that is much more controllable with textile tote bags, especially if they are made from hemp, cotton or similar natural fibers that decompose faster in the environment. We could take the risk and use some favourable numbers for plastics, but we could also just play it safe.

Additionally if you use three tote bags for 30 years, like my grandmother, how would the equivalent mass in single use plastic bags look like? Let's do the math: 5g is the weight of an average plastic bag, if you only used those for every purchase you would probably use like 400 a year, or 2kg plastics. Multiply by the thirty year period and you get 60 kg of waste plastics versus maybe 1kg of textile for the tote bags (that are still working tote bags if you treat them right and sew them if broken).