MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by gmd63 | 2025-09-04 18:15:09+00:00
The sad irony is that blockchain will do more to promote dictatorship as a superior form of government around the world than any other technology.

Blockchain's primary usefulness has been to evade regulations, and due to the rapidly changing nature of the technology, representative democracies with legitimate legal institutions have lagged behind when it comes to regulating it.

The country that wins (prevents fraudsters and scammers who exploit crypto) will be a dictatorship solely because a dictatorship is the only form of government fast enough to either rein in lawless cryptofinance, or exploit it maximally.

When enough actual value creating people who bought in to the libertarian crypto fantasy finally realize that they're slaving away to make ends meet in an economy that enshrines meme coin shills and folks who use crypto to evade the law, it will have been too late.
by skygazer | 2025-09-04 18:15:10+00:00
My understanding (without having played the game) is that you choose an ideology for your character (equivalent to fascist, communist, capitalist or centrist) and whichever of those you chose, it satirizes you for it by making you an absurd parody of whichever was your chosen ideology. So perhaps the only way to not "feel mocked" personally is to play through using an ideology you don't actually hold? Or, try not take it personally. But, I admit, your reaction makes me want to actually play it next to test my ideological sensitivity.
by numbsafari | 2025-09-04 18:15:33+00:00
Pedigree of the team and a believable project plan.

Often times money will be raised at certain valuation and terms, but the cash is held in escrow (effectively) until milestones are hit.

The investors will do their due diligence on the feasibility. It’s a high stakes, high return game (if you succeed). Look around you… any physical device you see is basically funded the same way.
by wongarsu | 2025-09-04 18:16:44+00:00
Europe provides plenty of examples of how this can work. The implementation varies from country to country, but the common thread is that you need a lot of subtlety. Rules like "it's fine to photograph a street full of people, but if you focus on a single person you need their consent" and "you can photograph a busy street for artistic reasons, but the same photograph is illegal if the intent is collecting data about the people or vehicles in the shot, unless it's for research or education"
by zozbot234 | 2025-09-04 18:16:57+00:00
> The sad part is that when I've tried to remove obviously flimsy information, someone will immediately come along and add it back.

The trick is to write about your proposed edit on the talk page and wait a few days. If nobody has complained, you make the edit and write "see talk" in the edit summary. The notion that you should push an edit first and wait for someone to revert you just doesn't work in practice except for trivial typo fixes. Discuss your edit in depth, then push it once you have a presumed near-consensus for it.
by greysphere | 2025-09-04 18:17:01+00:00
I don't understand how inflation and risk wouldn't/aren't priced in. You have $1000. You can: put it in your mattress, put it in 'safe' treasury bonds at inflation +a few percent, or yolo it in NVIDIA. Yes if bonds are returning less than inflation you don't buy them and that makes financing more expensive but it's not somehow unfair vs the other things you could do with capital.

Seems like return is roughly proportional to risk(1-tax)investment so changing tax should affect everything proportionally (barring cheating/avoiding the system in some way).
by chaps | 2025-09-04 18:17:14+00:00
It's not ironic at all. It doesn't take much threat modeling to understand that the risk of getting banned from discord isn't the same risk. And whatever risk there is becomes offset by a need to want to protect your loved ones.

If you don't want to put yourself into a limited risky situation, then you're good. But braver people will and that's okay.
by NickC25 | 2025-09-04 18:17:19+00:00
Steve was very lucky in the sense that every part of his life contributed to him being involved in the world of finance.

He was born and raised in Greenwich, CT. Hedge fund capital of the world. Went to school at BYU which is run by the Mormon ~Private Equity group~ Church. Played his pro career in Silicon Valley.

The stars were aligned from the start.
by orangebread | 2025-09-04 18:18:03+00:00
Appreciate your perspective friend. Correct me if I'm wrong or mischaracterizing, but it feels like you're looking for something concrete or absolute in what I'm saying. In my experience the only thing that feels "absolute" is that nothing is absolute.

The words I'm using are the best I currently have to describe ideas that have always existed. It's not like a new messiah or philosopher came about with this novelty. It's something innate to all who possess the creative mind. And this is the root of maybe what I'm talking about (I'm still a student to all of this); every human possesses the ability to create.

Is it chemical? Is it God? Is it Tinkerbell's magical dandruff sprinkling into my head? Maybe it's both chemical and God. Maybe all of the above. How it happens is still up for debate, sure. But let me segue for a moment.

If you follow the progress of AI (I'm assuming you must), there is an ongoing debate of AGI/Superintelligence. OpenAI, Google, et al are promising their abilities to invent new medicine or invent some new art form. They will be novelty generators. I feel quite skeptical of this.

Right now, LLMs are incapable of novelty -- ie, it can only compose existing ideas, it cannot invent some new genre of music or new style of art. If it appears new it's only because that's what it was taught and it's more remixing. And sure, there's argument to be made that remixing is a form of creativity. However, it is not the decider of what is creative or not. The human on the other end prompting it makes that decision. THAT is an act of creativity.

Again, arguments to be made that if all it takes is an observer and a set of criteria then that must mean the AI agent we designed to generate and select images for some marketing campaign must be sentient right?

Maybe. Maybe not. As far as I know, these models do not have an internal motivation. They don't spend time replying to other people on forums with their perspective for.. who knows what reason. And if they do, it's because they have a programmed directive to do so.

The human is the one with an internal universe that span the colorful spectrum of experiences that is referred to as "qualia". Our experiences shape us and the world that we know. Our decisions are based on these experiences. Of course, I'm not deluded that the reality of the world we live in doesn't have have constraints: hunger, loneliness, desire, etc. We needed primal instincts to survive.

But once those needs are met, who are you now? Just a series of chemical reactions? Repeating that survival loop? This is where the ethereal comes in.

> I've never seen "ether," and nobody's ever found a structure in the human body that interfaces with it.

Many humans have been interfacing with the "ether" for thousands of years. You interface with it when you practice creativity. Many musicians talk of how sometimes a song just appears to them. I'm sure you'll find ways of explaining this way, but in my opinion, there's a deeper mechanism that we're unaware of or aren't ready to know yet.

TL;DR - practice creativity.
by jrm4 | 2025-09-04 18:18:08+00:00
Ah the layers.

Okay, so one: Obviously pointless from a tech POV. There is nothing that a Stripe controlled blockchain could offer that a database could not.

But then, why? Sadly, as someone who does like the ideals of true cryptocurrency, yet another way to make sure "real" crypto doesn't happen, much like what is happening to BTC.

Here's hoping (yeah, it's a long shot) people see through all of this and maybe, MAYBE, get into the actual ideals of cryptocurrency again.
by hinkley | 2025-09-04 18:18:16+00:00
There have been a few extremely popular remastered games the last few years and the internet is full of people cranky because folks are posting replies to five year old internet threads about the game.

Well what do you expect people to do when the only non slop result on page 1 is a 5 to 8 year old thread? It’s the top link. You’re still relevant whether you want to be or not. Fuckin deal.
by jcfrei | 2025-09-04 18:18:24+00:00
Blockchains (due to constantly changing validators, nodes, etc.) are much harder to shut down than some dedicated service. I think the current administration understands that loose stablecoin regulation further cements US dollar hegemony, curtails other countries attempts to deprive their citizens of payment and savings alternatives and creates more demand for US treasuries (because that's where stablecoin reserves end up). It's a win-win for the US government and bad for governments with a track record of poor fiscal and monetary policy.
by fragmede | 2025-09-04 18:18:37+00:00
Banks talk to each other via ChexSystems/EWS and stick Americans in a black hole where nobody processes their payments and banks won't handle their money. Felons don't have voting rights in 48 states. As far as travel is concerned, being imprisoned makes that hard, but no, we don't (yet) have internal border checks that prevent people from moving from place to place, other than the fact that it's expensive.
by transpute | 2025-09-04 18:18:39+00:00
https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/22/whofi_wifi_identifier... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44685869

> Researchers.. developed.. a biometric identifier for people based on the way the human body interferes with Wi-Fi signal propagation.. CSI in the context of Wi-Fi devices refers to information about the amplitude and phase of electromagnetic transmissions.. interact with the human body in a way that results in person-specific distortions.. processed by a deep neural network, the result is a unique data signature.. [for] signal-based Re-ID systems
by Nextgrid | 2025-09-04 18:18:41+00:00
Despite the crypto hype massively dying down there's still a ton of idiots and grifters believing in it in big corps (including banks). Stripe could be targeting that and believes they'd be able to extract more money out of those idiots than what it costs to run this blockchain. This could work as long as they're careful enough not to get high on their own supply.
by julianozen | 2025-09-04 18:19:25+00:00
I understand your point... but you can predict that every start-up will fail and probably be mostly right.

They built a product that many people liked. That's part of why so many people are angry about shutting down Arc. How does one tell during the rapid growth phase that things will level off and that actually even though a lot of people will like your product it won’t be enough to be a mass market success? They took a big swing, and they got a lot further than I thought they would.

And it seems like maybe he managed to swing an okay outcome for investors and hopefully employees too.

Edited:

> Was this not predictable from day one? There's no money in making a web browser.

And to this point, before Google no one had cracked monetizing search. Before Facebook, no one had monetized social. No one had monetized online video before Youtube... this is what start ups do... they make people like and figure out how to monetize it
by gtirloni | 2025-09-04 18:19:38+00:00
> Another thing to consider is that, once you are medicated, you have a whole new set of skills to develop.

Exactly. Once I got diagnosed, the doctor wanted to remove the SSRI's that had been treating the side effects and not the root cause... but that happened too quickly in my case. I had constant episodes.

After a few months, I had to go back to them while I was still learning about everything, how I had to change habits, what would work now, etc.
by ruszki | 2025-09-04 18:19:42+00:00
Even when you do that, it heavily prefers English content. Whenever I search for some hardware for example, there are several non country related results on the first page. The first 2-3 usually from the selected country, after that it’s not that great.

When I search for “sony wh1000xm5” for example, then the first 2 are from Hungary, the 3rd are a generic English sony.com page, the 4th from the country, all the others is in English and not related to the selected country at all. Austria is a little bit better, it still has generic English results, but mostly it just ignores the differences between Germany and Austria. It’s a huge pain point when you want to buy something.
by sfblah | 2025-09-04 18:20:19+00:00
I built a system like this to create vector tiles for mapbox at a side-job I had a few years back. Unfortunately my boss couldn't understand what I was doing and instead wanted us to run a SQL query on the database every time the map was moved, and just buy an extra-large instance for the load. I tried to explain it to him but to no avail. I finally just quit. He wasn't a dumb guy either.

Point being: If you're doing GIS stuff on a website, it's worth making sure you have folks who actually can understand these underlying technologies.
by nate | 2025-09-04 18:20:23+00:00
My dad is 85 and this article hits hard about what he fights going on in his body. What sucks is how much of a downward, self reinforcing spiral it all is. It's so hard to see the curbs to walk over or how to get to a thing himself, so he just naturally chooses to do fewer and fewer things. Watching TV is safer and kinder and becomes the default to anything. Which just makes his brain less and less stimulated and active, and you can imagine the drag that adds to keep figuring out life.

But like the empathy found in this article, it's caused me to be incredibly more patient with anyone struggling to walk in front of me on a crowded or narrow sidewalk.

Aging is rough. Thank you to everyone working on accessibility and aging related tech and science.
by jfengel | 2025-09-04 18:20:23+00:00
It's remarkable that Noem can make even a reasonable, justified action seem delusional.

This press release is chock full of bold, italic, and bold-italic text; it reads like a social media rant. It opens with the word "disgusting" -- rather than just fire people, she wants to put her opinion of it right up front.

Rather than just citing the employees, it denigrates the entire department.

It even reads like it's reaching for excuses. "one employee typed explicit and sexually charged phrases into a chatbot website from his government devices for the purpose of having the comments read back to him in an accent." Heavens to Betsy! Yeah, fire the guy, but if this is the worst abuse you're finding, then your shock seems unjustified.
by ada1981 | 2025-09-04 18:20:29+00:00
Are you coming on this trip?

I'm honored to be speaking with Paul Stamets (Fantastic Fungi), Rick Doblin (MAPS.org) & Chelsea Handler at the Wonder Summit in November, which is a 9 day cruise to Antartica themed around AI, Psychedelics, Mental Health & Longevity.

If you are attending, we are putting together a private WhatsApp Group and will have having some HN meet-ups on the cruise ship - email me if you'd like to be a part of that group (a@175g.com).

I don't see a dime of the ticket price as I'm speaking to support MAPS, however I do have access to a deal for our community and am happy to pass that on, in addition to some other perks -- email for that as well.
by ada1981 | 2025-09-04 18:20:41+00:00
From the website:

Join a transformative nine-day expedition to Antarctica, where the untouched beauty of Earth’s last frontier meets the forefront of health, well-being, and psychedelic science.

Guided by visionary leaders in mental health and consciousness, this immersive journey blends expert-led workshops, meditations, and discussions with breathtaking excursions, wildlife encounters, and moments of deep stillness.

Featured speakers include Paul Stamets, renowned mycologist and mushroom medicine pioneer, and Rick Doblin, founder of MAPS and a trailblazer in psychedelic therapy. Together, they’ll explore the profound connection between nature, healing, and human potential.

Set against Antarctica’s awe-inspiring landscape, this once-in-a-lifetime experience offers a unique space to reflect, connect, and grow—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
by marklor | 2025-09-04 18:20:48+00:00
Americans are discovering the massive underinvestment in the electrical grid. When you live in San Francisco, you can experience several power outages during the summer, and it's perfectly normal to have a generator at home. If you live like me in France, you can go several years without a power outage. You don't maintain your infrastructure, so you pay ridiculously low costs. And then, you're caught up in reality, here, dominated by data centers. And it's the fault of the GAFAMs ;)
by dcposch | 2025-09-04 18:21:12+00:00
> The problem with all that, is the fact it remains possible to create a protocol with N big institutions [...] This maintains many benefits of the blockchain and lacks many issues (fast, simple, near zero cost)

That's more or less exactly what this is. Stripe is launching an EVM L1.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine part gives it a mature tech stack with experienced developers and auditors. Plus, well-tested smart contracts that have already processed billions of dollars on other chains can be deployed on Tempo.

The "Stripe L1" part will ensure that it's fast, simple, near zero cost.
by m463 | 2025-09-04 18:21:35+00:00
sometimes.

I remember talking to a doctor once (in a social situation). We were talking about non doctor things and he mentioned that most people find out he's a doctor and start talking about medical issues.

I think this happens to some people (doctors, lawyers, police).

And to a smaller extent it happens to all of us (sometimes). Older people might talk about divorce, or their operations, or their kids.
by brunohaid | 2025-09-04 18:21:41+00:00
You still have a lot of credibility to not be put into the number-go-up bracket and the social capital to overcome the political and power structures you had to face for two decades and know more about than most people by having built your company.

But as long as I don't see somewhat more transparent conversations with the people in your orbit like patio11, Matt Levine, Kyla etc, where you address how you'll actually tackle the non-technical challenges ahead, this GTM communication and site looks like every other 2019 JPM, HSBC etc "something blockchain" announcement and hard to get behind as something that might as well be really different this time, and not be killed/sidelined by vested interests. Including your own.
by tjwebbnorfolk | 2025-09-04 18:22:14+00:00
As a rule, if you're tempted to begin any sentence with "they should just..." -- don't.

Electrical signal attenuation increases with the square of the distance, so you'll lose ~95% of the power to heat loss in the wires if you try to power Seattle from solar in Nevada -- not very eco-friendly, you'd agree? Also the extreme heat destroys solar panels. Also, dust. Also the permitting of stuff across state lines is so time-consuming it's effectively illegal.

There are a lot of very good reasons why we haven't covered the desert in solar panels.
by westurner | 2025-09-04 18:22:18+00:00
WiFi RSSI hacks (WiSee (2013),)

Linksys Aware (-2024): https://www.google.com/search?q=Linksys+Aware

From this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45129817 :

> 802.11bf

802.11bf: https://www.google.com/search?q=802.11bf

"Whole-home gesture recognition using wireless signals" (2013) https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2500423.2500436 .. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=1386163076039493879...

From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38246722 re: a stylus with accelerometer with many degrees of freedom and inertial measurement:

> /? wireless gesture recognition RSSI:

> /? wireless gesture recognition RSSI site:github.com

> Awesome-WiFi-CSI-Sensing: https://github.com/Marsrocky/Awesome-WiFi-CSI-Sensing

> 3D Scanning > Technology, Applications [...]
by mothballed | 2025-09-04 18:22:26+00:00
It had been at least 2 years. [] Never became much of a contentious issue until Kamala was looking at the presidential nomination, from what I can tell, then suddenly there was a vicious fight to remove it based on reasoning that mysteriously didn't exist for years and years before that.

[] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donald_J._Harris&...

Edit: at least ~4 years

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donald_J._Harris&...
by yrcyrc | 2025-09-04 18:22:37+00:00
Been an Atlassian consultant for a while and I just left (Rather I was let go) from an established Atlassian partner, and I can only feel relief. I was always more of a data center on prem person and all this cloud nonsense has been going nowhere, except for them. Those acquisitions are always half baked and you *might see some of it somewhere in a product. All I can say is I’m happy I’m no longer doing Atlassian consulting.
by bflesch | 2025-09-04 18:22:37+00:00
The invoice needs to state who is the seller. The payment goes to Stripe, and me and my tax accountant and the European tax authorities have zero transparency where the money goes after this. Am I buying a service from a US businessman just trying to skirt the IRS or from a maybe sanctioned third country? What jurisdiction applies to my relationship with a specific website offering a subscription?

So if Stripe doesn't force their merchants to provide an invoice which has company name, company address (jurisdiction!) and company registration number (for me to check if it actually exists) then the invoice is rubbish and to be used as toilet paper.

Simple principle, but in my interactions with Stripe they fight tooth and nail to implement and/or enforce it. And even if their merchants "enable" Stripe invoices then Stripe doesn't stop them from putting random addresses into the forms.

Of course the shitty-invoice merchants often have domain privacy enabled and self-claim to reside in a country without any imprint laws on their website. You can pay to them with VISA/Mastercard via Stripe but have no idea which country they are in. Stripe knows exactly in which country both seller and buyer are located at the time of transaction, and they do not use that information to apply the proper tax rate to the transactions. Also even if you show them that a merchant has been skirting VAT payments for years I think they do not force the merchant to state proper invoices for all impacted transactions during that timeframe.

In my opinion these are systemic compliance deficiencies at Stripe and the lack of technological remedies for this problem is apparent (like checking email TLDs to see if customer is in EU). It result in a significant tax theft problem negatively affecting EU member states.
by elenchev | 2025-09-04 18:22:50+00:00
RETH* is one of the open source implementations of the Ethereum protocol. Around 2% of Ethereum nodes run it today.

Historically, there have been hundreds of blockchians that were basically slightly modified forks of Ethereum clients, operated by a small group of validators that sacrifice decetralization in order to achieve higher throughput. This seems to be a slightly higher effort verson of that.

*https://github.com/paradigmxyz/reth
by jfengel | 2025-09-04 18:22:52+00:00
Cool, good for them. Let's hope they bring back some good science.

Last time, science was an afterthought. We didn't even send up an actual scientist until the last mission, and then we canceled the whole thing because people were bored already.

If we go second, and do even more science, then yay. If we cancel it in a fit of pique because we were only going to prove that we're better than somebody else, I'd rather our money went elsewhere.