MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Any real "programmable web browser"?
by atomicnature | 2025-09-21 17:27:42+00:00
Something that's been bugging me lately - why is there not a single real "programmable web browser" (if there's one do let me know)

Something like the smalltalk environment - where I can customize/program every aspect of the browser using language of my choice (JS in the least - if possible golang/python etc with WebAssembly).

Why can't I coordinate tabs, automate tasks, run scheduled jobs, customize views, and so on right within the browser.

Why isn't there a browser + IDE hybrid for power users who can program?

Note: Automation frameworks like Selenium/Playwright, or the debug console do not count. They're not integrated into the browser itself by design
by akk0 | 2025-09-21 17:27:58+00:00
As a piece of generic advice, I suggest turning one's search to feel better into a search for feelbetter. Notice that how we feel is not stable, but changes constantly from moment to moment. Notice that moments of feelbetter and moments of feelworse basically even out over the longterm. Notice that feelings are causal, that everything is a consequence of something prior according to consistent and comprehensible rules. Notice this on anjimmediate moment-to-moment here-and-now emperical basis.

Notice that attributing feelings here and now to decade old stories and narratives is spooky action at a distance.
by apalmer | 2025-09-21 17:27:58+00:00
Ultimately the important thing is that the development team align on the style of programming that they will use at least per project. And the larger the codebase and more developers working on it the more important the consistency in implementing the style guide is.

Imperative programming style has many advantages over functional for some problems. Functional programming style has many advantages over imperative for some problems.

The only clearly 'wrong' approach is codebases where you can look at the code and determine a specific developer on the team wrote feature x because it fundamentally looks completely different from the other sections.
by ekidd | 2025-09-21 17:27:58+00:00
So, one way to understand a monad is that it's essentially a container type with "map" and "flatten" operations. Let's say your monad is type M<T>. The "map" operation allows you to take a function T->U and a container M<T>, and transform each element, giving you a container M<U>.

"Flatten" takes a container of type M<M<T>> and returns a container of type M<T>. So a List<List<Int>> becomes a List<Int>.

Now comes the trick: combine "map" and "flatten" to get "flatMap". So if you have a M<T> and a function T->M<U>, you use "map" to get an M<M<U>> and "flatten" to get an M<U>.

So why is this useful? Well, it lets you run computations which return all their values wrapped in weird "container" types. For example, if "M" is "Promise", then you can take a Promise<T> and an async function T->Promise<U>, and use flatMap to get a Promise<U>.

M could also be "Result", which gets you Rust-style error handling, or "Optional", which allows you to represent computations that might fail at each step (like in languages that support things like "value?.a?.b?.c"), or a list (which gets you a language where each function returns many different possible results, so basically Python list comprehensions), or a whole bunch of other things.

So: Monads are basically any kind of weird container that supports "flatMap", and they allow you to support a whole family of things that look like "Promise<T>" and async functions, all using the same framework.

Should you need to know this in most production code? Probably not! But if you're trying to implement something fancy that "works a bit like promises, or a bit like Python comprehensions, or maybe a bit like Rust error handling", then "weird containers with flatMap" is a very powerful starting point.

(Actual monads technically need a bit more than just flatMap, including the ability to turn a basic T into a Promise<T>, and a bunch of consistency rules.)
by tested1 | 2025-09-21 17:28:11+00:00
When LLM fine-tuning was the hot topic, it felt like we were making models smarter. But the real challenge now? Making them remember, Giving proper Contexts.

AI forgets too quickly. I asked an AI (Qwen-Code CLI) to write code in JS, and a few steps later it was spitting out random backend code in Python. Basically (burnt my 3 million token in loop doing nothing), it wasn’t pulling the right context from the code files.

Now that everyone is shipping agents and talking about context engineering, I keep coming back to the same point: AI memory is just as important as reasoning or tool use. Without solid memory, agents feel more like stateless bots than useful asset.

As developers, we have been trying a bunch of different ways to fix this, and what’s important is - we keep circling back to databases.

Here’s how I’ve seen the progression:

Prompt engineering approach → just feed the model long history or fine-tune. Vector DBs (RAG) approach→ semantic recall using embeddings. Graph or Entity based approach → reasoning over entities + relationships. Hybrid systems → mix of vectors, graphs, key-value. Traditional SQL → reliable, structured, well-tested. Interesting part?: the “newest” solutions are basically reinventing what databases have done for decades only now they’re being reimagined for Ai and agents.

I looked into all of these (with pros/cons + recent research) and also looked at some Memory layers like Mem0, Letta, Zep and one more interesting tool - Memori, a new open-source memory engine that adds memory layers on top of traditional SQL.

Curious, if you are building/adding memory for your agent, which approach would you lean on first - vectors, graphs, new memory tools or good old SQL?

Because shipping simple AI agents is easy - but memory and context is very crucial when you’re building production-grade agents.

I also wrote down the full breakdown, if someone wants to read!
by mahirsaid | 2025-09-21 17:28:13+00:00
While i was reading this article i did find another article (AD) that was showcasing a product of LidAR tech in a small package. It seems unpractical to be very useful a long sim module with its own processing unit and on board electronics. The require space for the module to be installed was above the windshield and the roof. Much like other products of the same category, however this was a lot more compact. Seems to be a push for further compact innovation in this category. i was under the impression there was no need for multiple LIdar module on one vehicle, all you needed was one along with cameras to further assist the LIdar module .I do know that under normal operation the LIdar and camera system are separate and have different responsibilities.
by t_mann | 2025-09-21 17:28:49+00:00
> If you already have a paper proof (which is the case in the original post), and you know it’s correct

You may think it's correct until you realize that your argument transitively depends on some obscure results from the 70s that nobody had ever questioned but that turned out to be flawed. Probably salvageable, but now you suddenly need to prove something completely different that you might not even understand very well. There's an interview with Kevin Buzzard somewhere where he talks about how that happened to them (couldn't find a reference rn).
by politelemon | 2025-09-21 17:28:51+00:00
Teams are not a static concept, they change members over time and so talking to them has a net zero effect. The newer members will not understand this clever new concept that was introduced, worse, they will misunderstand it or work around it. Which brings us back to don't make me think. If the concepts can be kept as simple as possible, which overlaps greatly with readability, it will have achieved its purpose.
by qnleigh | 2025-09-21 17:29:08+00:00
This is kind of sad. I'm probably missing context here, but surely it's not necessary to rush out of a good working relationship with a good mentor. The most important things you'll learn from a good mentor can't be learned in a rush (like prioritization, project management, how to be a good mentor...).

In any case, I would replace 'jump ship' with 'pay it forward.'
by krelian | 2025-09-21 17:29:09+00:00
If you want to watch all of your team's games you need to a) purchase an expensive monthly cable subscription from the company that holds the football rights. b) pay a sizeable sum on top, I think it's about 50 euros per month to be able to watch the actual matches.

This is just for La Liga games, you'll need to pay extra if your team plays in other competitions.
by ChrisMarshallNY | 2025-09-21 17:29:17+00:00
Well, this is one of the reasons that I like coding for myself. The pay sucks, but I don't have to bowdlerize my work.

When someone pays me to write code for them, they get to call the shots; even if I think their judgement sucks.

If they want to hire incompetent programmers, that can't understand even halfway-advanced code, then that's their prerogative, and I need to suck it up, and play by their rules; which may include the need for me to write code as if I just started yesterday, because it will need to be maintained by folks that, um, just started yesterday.
by leoedin | 2025-09-21 17:29:40+00:00
I’m not sure Paul Graham’s use of “middle class” matches the colloquial one here in the UK. The students who are not getting in to Oxbridge because of their background are broadly privately educated.

I don’t think it’s controversial to say that Oxbridge has historically admitted a lot of kids from quite a small group of high cost private schools. The fact they’re adjusting their intake to somewhat reduce that is something to be celebrated.

Unless you’re a very wealthy person with kids at an expensive private school in southern England hoping that they’ll get admitted to Oxbridge, of course.
by MomsAVoxell | 2025-09-21 17:29:46+00:00
I didn’t mean to imply that swap was durable data storage.

Having swap/more memory available just means you have more buffers before needing to commit and in certain circumstances this can be very beneficial, such as when processing of larger amounts of logged data is needed prior to committing, etc.

There is certainly a case for both having and using swap, and disabling it entirely, depending on the data load and realtime needs of the application. Processing data and saving data have different requirements, and the point is really that there is no black and white on this. Use swap if it’s appropriate to the application - don’t use it, if it isn’t.
by wahnfrieden | 2025-09-21 17:29:53+00:00
As a solopreneur I'm dreading the gutting of US TikTok... Things are going to get much harder for organic promotion if there's a separate US app under a non-TikTok name that only Americans can use.

You can look into https://sideshiftjobs.com or https://playkit.xyz for scaling organic posting btw (unaffiliated).

Personally I just message a lot of people directly myself and get lucky with friendly responses because creators like my apps enough that they use it themselves (edtech market makes this easier as the apps are genuinely and wholesomely bettering). Then I convince them to start new accounts focused on my app promo, in addition to less frequent commissioned promo on their main accounts.

For doing it yourself you need to get multiple devices and multiple accounts going, there are tools to help with that too. You can also post the UGC content that you pay others to produce for you, onto your own accounts. It's too difficult to consistently go viral without more frequent rolls of the dice. Focusing on a single branded account made more sense before current social media algos which don't care about your followers and won't even show it to them if the content isn't engaging enough to go viral beyond your following.
by guizmo | 2025-09-21 17:30:44+00:00
That's plain wrong. The PLO was already there before October 7th. They didn't recognize a Palestinian statehood at that time. This is a victory for Hamas, not for the PLO. The timing is everything.

Today Starmer finalized Yahya Sinwar plan. You can try to blame it on Israel but you're playing a music written by Sinwar.
by grayhatter | 2025-09-21 17:30:59+00:00
> Then the public shouldn't be doxing and making death threats on the officers, their spouses, and their children. Nor should they be allowed to set fire to ICE buildings, throw rocks at officers and their vehicles.

It might surprise you, but I agree with you. But I'm not gonna suggest anyone should roll over and just take it, when they see something they consider to be abusive. And I don't know what other options the public has to hold individuals to account for their actions. Humanity, well a large portion of it, has already learned the lesson of why "I was just following orders" can't be tolerated. And how individuals need some motivation to decide if they're behaving in a way that the public will tolerate.

To steal an idea that I detest, but I do hear often from police, (the subject of this point) Publishing the identity of someone shouldn't be a threat to anyone who has nothing to hide. Why do the police have something to hide?

> This is where California should come in and cooperate with LEO to stop this behavior and be outspoken against it. Instead, they're feeding the fire.

What would you suggest as the behavior you'd like to see from CA to cooperate with LEO (I assume you mean ICE), and what behavior should stop? I hope it's not "roll over and let ICE do whatever they want." Because like I said, I can't advocate anyone just accept watching others get abused by a system they believe is unfair.
by lr1970 | 2025-09-21 17:31:26+00:00
From "4 hour body" description on Amazon:

How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of food and safe chemical cocktails

• How to prevent fat gain while bingeing over the weekend or the holidays

• How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested

• How to produce 15-minute female orgasms

• How to triple testosterone and double sperm count • How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks

• How to reverse “permanent” injuries

• How to pay for a beach vacation with one hospital visit

After reading this description I put this book in the BS category.
by notreallyauser | 2025-09-21 17:32:02+00:00
On student evaluations, I wouldn't be surprised of Oxbridge do badly as so many pf the dons were at or near the top of their year at the university, weren't employed for their teaching abilities, and seemed unable to comprehend they were not teaching cohorts entirely full of clones of themselves.

Dumbed down it was not, in my experience. Dumbing down would be a way to up the score on these rankings, though.
by breppp | 2025-09-21 17:32:11+00:00
There was consensus in the Israeli public which fell apart gradually during Hamas suicide bombing campaign in the 1990s, while many Israelis naively believed in peace and refused to come to terms with Arafat actually leading the Second Intifada a few years into the Intifada.

Regarding a landlocked mosaic, that was the reality of the interim agreement but was far from the situation offered to the Palestinians in multiple subsequent peace plans, which were all rejected or effectively rejected through introducing terms that were untenable.

For example this map, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g0dv7rxxvo.

The issue was a combination of lack of popular support in the Palestine side, refusal to explain the terms of reality to their population and preferring to lean on the ethos of "resistance" which is an easier sale and cowardice in their leadership.

This of course does not talk about the Israeli leadership issues which are also numerous, but the issues I mentioned above go back to the forties and before, and Israeli leadership did achieve statehood, while the Palestinian one had always tried the all-or-nothing approach and were left with nothing.
by jdgoesmarching | 2025-09-21 17:32:13+00:00
> I am the biggest Apple critic I personally know

This always gets me. I, as an Apple user, have more vitriolic and in-depth criticisms against Apple than any Android user I know. When Apple haters start their rants, it’s always one of a few superficial talking points that are nowhere near the actual biggest issues of the company or its devices.
by bigyabai | 2025-09-21 17:33:18+00:00
Hamas exists because Israel chose to support them. They wouldn't be dealing with Sinwar had they not deliberately sabotaged the PLO, so of course we're in this scenario now! You can't get angry at the natural response to subverting democracy, same thing happened after the Iran 1953 coup.

The only way to legitimize terrorism worldwide is to let Israel persist unpunished. Precision-striking civilians cannot be the basis for future conflict: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...
by sz4kerto | 2025-09-21 17:34:59+00:00
Example: if user IDs are not random but eg Bigserial (autoincremented) and they're exposed through some API, then API clients can infer the creation time of said users in the system. Now if my system is storing eg health data for a large population, then it'll be easy to guess the age of the user. Etc. This is not a security problem, this is an information governance problem. But it's a problem. Now if you say that I should not expose these IDs - fine, but then whatever I expose is essentially an ID anyway.
by KaiserPro | 2025-09-21 17:35:11+00:00
> To get in, you need 4 A* from an independent schools, or just 3 As from state schools.

where does it say that here?

https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/admiss...

Although I do note that foundation PPE only requires BBB, which given the current crop of people in westminister, it makes sense.
by asveikau | 2025-09-21 17:35:38+00:00
Is it that meta is anti-democracy or is it just that Mark Zuckerberg is kind of an idiot? The feeling I get from the book is more towards the latter.

Speaking personally, the moment I knew that Zuckerberg knew nothing about politics was circa 2010, when he announced his plan to join forces with Chris Christie to "fix Newark schools". I don't care if you support team red or team blue, but it was obvious to anyone who knew politics at that time that Christie was a con artist. Why waste any amount of time and money on this project destined to fail? If Zuck had any insight and had a goal to do an actual thing and see it work, he would not have. He spent $100 million on that.
by georgemcbay | 2025-09-21 17:35:46+00:00
Its also not surprising to anyone who spent time reading Raymond Chen's The Old New Thing blog posts back in the day, a lot of them were about these rather absurd hoops Microsoft was always jumping through to increase backward and forward compatibility with these sorts of tricks.

It may have lead to an unfortunate situation for this developer in this one very niche corner case, but overall it has been wildly beneficial for users over the years (decades even) to have most software Just Work regardless of how deprecated the underlying APIs they were built on are now.
by lurk2 | 2025-09-21 17:35:51+00:00
> My ancestors came here ~140 years ago when the only "visa" process was a look in the mouth at Ellis Island

This is revisionist history. 140 years ago the Chinese Exclusion Act had already been in place for 3 years, and the Foran Act had just been passed. The high clearance rate of immigrants at Ellis Island had far more to do with preliminary screenings being conducted by transport companies, who were liable for the cost of deportation plus a fine.
by cogogo | 2025-09-21 17:36:06+00:00
It easier for me to watch La Liga in the US than it is for my brother in-law in Spain. Thank goodness we don’t have the reckless anti-piracy actions here but we do have some of the same BS going on because the same is true for him in reverse. Its easier and cheaper for him to watch the Red Sox in Spain than it is for me in Boston. 1yr of MLBtv is 30 bucks but local blackouts. 1 month of NESN the local broadcaster is the same price. Streaming all sports is a fragmented and extremely expensive mess for the fans and it only seems to be getting worse. I don’t blame people for cheating. Especially in Spain where incomes are significantly lower than the US.
by rayiner | 2025-09-21 17:36:26+00:00
Cognizant is the second largest recipient of H1bs, accounting for almost 5% of all H1bs approved in 2024. So we have outcomes that don’t make sense (one country receiving 70% of H1bs) plus proven discrimination against American workers by the second largest H1b visa recipient.

I’m an armchair commenter, not a federal prosecutor. But this all seems very fishy. If I were in the administration, I’d start investigating all the major H1b employers to see whether there’s preferential hiring of Indians going on.
by jstrieb | 2025-09-21 17:36:37+00:00
Here is the other video we've released so far if anyone is curious:

https://youtu.be/z09X_ZnAcLs

Happy to take recommendations for other stuff to drop in there and film!

Also if this sounds cool to you, we're hiring US citizens.

https://redballoonsecurity.com/company/careers/
by duxup | 2025-09-21 17:36:58+00:00
I vividly remember watching a video of a former German Nazi who described what was appealing about it to him. His parents knew better and they felt he was being brainwashed. He described the arguments they would have, but he was determined to join the cause.

Sometime later on the Eastern front he started to understand what his parents meant. As he said "but it was all too late."
by grvdrm | 2025-09-21 17:36:58+00:00
I read the article and said “so, what was that about?”

Felt more like a journal entry.

Anecdote: try everything but the drugs if you can. What helps me: regular exercise, cut alcohol, do my best to sleep/wake up with a schedule. Make a list of what I need to do every day that isn’t insane.

Not going to solve everyone’s problems. But I’ve consumed clonapen here and there for very specific reasons and otherwise don’t need it when I keep all of the above as top life priorities.
by dotnet00 | 2025-09-21 17:37:00+00:00
The deciding factor for being able to effectively utilize LLMs and dodge hallucinations is ability to read code and intuition for how a solution should look. I think juniors are especially hesitant to just dig into understanding some source code unless they have no other choice, e.g. preferring to wait on email response from the author of the code over piecing things together.

This makes LLM tools so tempting, you don't even have to wait on the email response anymore! But of course, this is basically going in blind, and it's no wonder that they end up in hallucination mazes.
by cleartext412 | 2025-09-21 17:37:20+00:00
The scraping and reuploading issue could be solved by some kind of universal global content identification system, integrated into the micropayments system, making sure no matter where certain piece of content is uploaded, the fee would still go to the copyright owner, perhaps with some small percent given to the hosting website. Not saying it would certainly work, but there is a few technologies probably everyone here have heard about that seems like a very good fit for the task.
by drnick1 | 2025-09-21 17:37:21+00:00
Fair enough, but how many of these are as polished as their Android counterparts? How many are still actively maintained and will be for the foreseeable future? Android already is "Linux for mobile devices" and has all the features people expect from a phone. Reinventing the wheel on the software side seems counterproductive when what we need is simply more hardware to run Android on. I wish Furi collaborated with Graphene or Lineage and released a proper FLOSS Android device instead of going the "desktop Linux" route.