MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by chuckadams | 2025-09-05 18:35:41+00:00
I never notice the difference between arm64 and x86 environments, since I'm flipping between them all the time just because the arm boxes are so much cheaper. The only time it matters to me is building containers, and then it's just a matter of passing `--platform=linux/amd64,linux/arm64` to `docker buildx`.

If you're building really arch-specific stuff, then I could see not wanting to go there, but Rosetta support is pretty much seamless. It's just slower.
by toomuchtodo | 2025-09-05 18:36:38+00:00
To your point, you can get a Stihl Cutquik TSA 230 Cordless Cut-Off Saw for ~$500-600, and this will make quick work of anything getting in the way of scraping. I've cut through thick steel with it like its butter (and the only portable way to go faster is something like a plasma torch, depending on material and thickness).

https://www.stihlusa.com/products/cut-off-machines/battery-c...

(no affiliation, I just like the tool)
by jonfw | 2025-09-05 18:36:43+00:00
People way overstate the "dynamics" advantages of EVs

Yes EVs can keep their weight low, but it's a lot more weight to deal with.

Yes EVs have excellent 0-60, but that's just because they have a great launch. Even doing a 5-60 pull removes the EV advantage. Starting from highway speeds? EVs start to look real slow.

There are some good traits to EVs but, outside of launching hard in street car trim, performance is not one of them.
by weberc2 | 2025-09-05 18:37:16+00:00
I'm of the opinion that large companies should be paying for the software they use regardless of whether it's open source or not, because software isn't free to develop. So assuming you're paying for the software you use, you still have the problem that you are subject to your internal procurement processes. If your internal procurement processes make it really painful to add a new seat, then maybe the processes need to be reformed. Open source only "fixes" the problem insofar as there's no enforcement mechanism, so it makes it really easy for companies to stiff the open source contributors.
by sfRattan | 2025-09-05 18:37:28+00:00
Theft is taking possessions away from someone else, and as a result depriving the victim of that property. The legal threshold would also include an intent to deprive (mens rea) in most countries.

Copyright infringement is making a copy of something for purposes beyond fair use when the government has declared it the exclusive right of someone else to make such copies. The legal threshold would also include evidence of harm.

The jump from a digital file to a physical car is specifically to demonstrate that these things are not equivalent. Copying a file does not deprive someone of that file. To make the physical world work similarly to the digital, we have to add magic that violates conservation of energy and duplicate a car at effectively zero marginal cost. To make the digital world work similarly to the physical, we would have to end general purpose computing and lock down all computers such that files can only exist in one place and can only be moved, not copied. Both transformations in an attempt to achieve equivalence are obviously absurd. That's the point.

These things (theft and copyright infringement) are both wrongs, but they are strongly distinct wrongs.

The jump from inanimate things (files and cars) to sentient life (human duplicates) in your example is still unclear to me. It looked to me like you were assuming I would think of it as theft if a corporation made a duplicate of me. So I gave several reasons other than theft for me, or anyone, to think of that as wrong. What are you trying to demonstrate, given that I still don't think your example would be theft and have other reasons---those deprivations of rights---to think of it as wrong?

> I was steelmanning your argument.

No, because what you brought up was not my argument.

Steelmanning, when the counterparty is present, involves restating someone's argument until they agree, "yes, that's a fair summary of my argument," and then critiquing that.

You are strawmanning, not steelmanning: inventing a new example that the counterparty did not reference, which is substantively different from the argument actually made, and then critiquing that.
by jeffbee | 2025-09-05 18:37:34+00:00
It certainly doesn't go to Bay Area software companies. When BART originally began letting out the contract to redesign the then-already-obsolete control system in 1992, they awarded it the Hughes Aircraft. That project failed. The current attempt to deploy CBTC was awarded to Hitachi. The supplier of their fare gate system integration was originally IBM and is now CUBIC, a San Diego defense contractor.

If anything the Bay Area has utterly failed to provide systems software of lasting value to address public needs like these.
by ThatPlayer | 2025-09-05 18:37:47+00:00
The Raspberry Pi 5 has also done something similar: the CPU no longer controls the GPIO directly, but through a RP1 southbridge. Maybe that's what you're thinking of? Don't see any mention of latency on Jeff's review on it, and I doubt the Radxa X4 is popular enough for any big in-depth review like that.

It looks like the RP2040 on the X4 is connected via USB. The RP2040's bootloader mode that enables flashing emulates a mass storage device over USB to transfer firmware, so it would be confusing to not connect it via USB.
by indeed30 | 2025-09-05 18:38:04+00:00
I wouldn’t call the embedding layer "separate" from the LLM. It’s learned jointly with the rest of the network, and its dimensionality is one of the most fundamental architectural choices. You’re right though that, in principle, you can pick an embedding size independent of other hyperparameters like number of layers or heads, so I see where you're coming from.

However the embedding dimension sets the rank of the token representation space. Each layer can transform or refine those vectors, but it can’t expand their intrinsic capacity. A tall but narrow network is bottlenecked by that width. Width-first scaling tends to outperform pure depth scaling, you want enough representational richness per token before you start stacking more layers of processing.

So yeah, embedding size doesn’t have to scale up in lockstep with model size, but in practice it usually does, because once models grow deeper and more capable, narrow embeddings quickly become the limiting factor.
by da_chicken | 2025-09-05 18:38:08+00:00
Yeah, what happens when Team A makes a change and Team B makes a different, seemingly unrelated change, and they both get merged and pushed... only to have a dozen customers discover that if someone is using Feature X that Team A just worked on and Feature Y that Team B just worked on while they have Uncommon Option Q enabled, then their backend process server will crash taking down their entire instance.

Who's fault is that?

Asking because I have been the customer with Uncommon Option Q enabled.
by klardotsh | 2025-09-05 18:38:10+00:00
I'm guessing distances in NZ are shorter, or you're only planning to use that vehicle in the urban city core. Here in the US, 50km range barely gets me to the ferry terminal to get into Seattle, and that's assuming 50km is at 55mph rural highway speeds and isn't assuming I'm driving 25mph in the city.

Put otherwise: if the battery is so degraded you only get 30mi/50km range out of it, I see why it's selling for $2000.
by jeffhuys | 2025-09-05 18:38:22+00:00
In what way does you mean this? I’ve built two jobs for the preview envs: DeployEnvironment (runs the terraform stuff that starts the ec2/makes s3 buckets/creates api gateway/a lot of other crap) and then ProvisionEnvironment (zips the local copy of the branch and rsyncs it to the environment, and some other stuff). I build the .env file in ProvisionEnvironment, which accounts for the parameters. I’d love to get your point of view here!
by yawaramin | 2025-09-05 18:38:22+00:00
Every mainstream language has exceptions. Everyone knows how to use exceptions. They're easy to use and get the job done. OCaml suffers no type safety issues from the use of exceptions. It also has option and result types so people who need more control flow can use those. The OCaml standard library typically uses exceptions for real exceptional conditions like eg trying to access a key that doesn't exist in a map. Even Rust has panics which are basically exceptions.

You criticized Haskell as not a great example of error handling. Well, Erlang/Elixir also have exceptions, and they are considered the industry leader in error recovery.

Exceptions are actually fine, it doesn't really take much to install handlers which take care of catching, logging, telemetry, re-raising etc. They mostly get a bad rep because of the latest fashions in the PL space.
by aerostable_slug | 2025-09-05 18:38:47+00:00
In other countries even citizens have to carry identification at all times. I don't see why requiring noncitizens to do the same is particularly onerous.

Also, detained != deported. If you have been stopped by a police officer for a traffic ticket and couldn't leave at will, you were being detained too.

Hyperbole isn't helpful.
by bee_rider | 2025-09-05 18:39:18+00:00
Just a note, in case anyone thinks this is an insufficient punishment:

> The Commission has ordered Google (i) to bring these self-preferencing practices to an end; and (ii) to implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain. Google has now 60 days to inform the Commission about how it intends to do so.

It is on top of ordering them to fix the business practices. They can always issue more fines if Google doesn’t comply.

IMO some of us here want to see these companies hurt. That’s a non-goal for the EU, they are looking for compliance, not vengeance or something silly like that.
by jacquesm | 2025-09-05 18:40:10+00:00
> Who is a trust worthy partner?

Until very recently the USA was the preferred technology partner for many EU ventures and was seen as a trustworthy ally because of mutual history since 1945.

> If you talk to a European as an American they often have a lot more dislike for each other.

A lot more than what? And what exactly did Europe do in recent times that would give American citizens that feeling?

> It hasn’t been a century since they tried to genocide each other

This is a complete nonsense statement.
by crazygringo | 2025-09-05 18:41:04+00:00
> Why do we need type checking at all? The standard answer is scale. “Small programs don’t need types,” the reasoning goes, “but large programs become unmaintainable without them.”

No it's not.

Type checking is a first line of defense against bugs. That's all.

It's just making sure you're not accidentally passing invalid data or performing an invalid operation.

And since the article gets the premise wrong, its conclusion that reducing complexity will make type checking "largely irrelevant" is therefore also wrong.
by bluGill | 2025-09-05 18:41:08+00:00
If you buy used cars you are limited to what someone else bought 3 or more years ago. new didn't have many options then. Even now there are not many good options for a new car buyer but most niches have something. I wanted an used id.buzz, but that won't be an option for 2 more years and so I'm stuck with the current minivan. my truck is dieing and a silverado could do but I can't afford payments on it new so again 2 more years and I need something else in the meantime.
by owenversteeg | 2025-09-05 18:41:31+00:00
Wow, talk about a blast of nostalgia. I had a few of those as a kid. I do see one popular robot missing, Mr. Robot by Westminster, which could shoot foam discs, walk around, dance, and rotate his head. Seems like they have a similar robot: http://www.theoldrobots.com/StarDefender3.html
by Animats | 2025-09-05 18:41:43+00:00
There are similar setups today.

I have voice over IP via fiber from Sonic. The house's old interior phone wiring is no longer connected to the telco in any way. So Sonic's VOIP box is plugged into the wall jack for the old phone wiring, from which it can reach some old phones around the house.

The main problem with this is that the Sonic-branded box is too dumb to manage power failures properly. The fiber modem/router comes up fine by itself, but, on every power outage, the Sonic VOIP box has to be unplugged and reset before voice phone service comes back up. Incoming calls are silently lost. The problem seems to be that the VOIP box comes back up before the Internet link is fully operational, confusing the VOIP box.
by _whiteCaps_ | 2025-09-05 18:41:51+00:00
While we're on the topic, I wrote a little Python script that generates Morse Code 'palindromes'.

Ie playing a word backwards results in another word.

The most interesting one I found is TREVOR / ROBERT

Other notable mentions:

fins / sail urea / nerd waits / sting loops / spoof queer / reedy rebel / fever

and the longest one I found: footstool / footstool
by adgjlsfhk1 | 2025-09-05 18:42:07+00:00
The counterpoint to this is that having a language that has a graceful slide between python like flexibility and hand optimized assembly is really useful. The thing I like most about Julia is it is very easy to both write fast somewhat sloppy code (e.g. for exploring new algorithms), but then you can go through and tune it easily for maximal performance and get as fast as anything out there.
by wrs | 2025-09-05 18:42:57+00:00
> you can reason about each component in isolation

> you can focus on the explicit contracts between components

> you can design systems where problematic interactions are structurally impossible

In other words, exactly what a strong type system gives you?

My impression from doing my own amateurish hardware projects and knowing some real hardware engineers is that they would KILL for something like the type systems we have in software. In fact there are plenty of hardware description language projects that try to strengthen the type system of the HDL to catch errors early.

If you think a Rails test suite is bad, look at a Verilog test suite sometime.
by teknominds | 2025-09-05 18:43:12+00:00
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Our product is live in a small, curated beta with some of the most interesting people in NYC, with good early traction. We're looking for a high-impact Tech Lead to design, implement and scale new AI features and systems as we prepare to launch publicly.

What we're looking for: - 7+ YOE with a blend of modern web stacks and applied ML - Proven exp building in React eco-system, cloud-infra, MLOps, security - TL experience leading major features for consumer products - Prior work w/ search, recommendations, inference, RAG, performance

Full Job description + Apply details: https://studiomgmt.notion.site/Lead-Applied-AI-Engineer-2658...
by j2kun | 2025-09-05 18:43:23+00:00
Yeah the OP here listed a bunch of Python stuff that all ends up shelling out to C++. C++ is rich enough, period, but people find it unpleasant to work in (which I agree with).

It's not about "richness," it's about giving a language ecosystem for people who don't really want to do the messy, low-level parts of software, and which can encapsulate the performance-critical parts with easy glue
by cosmic_cheese | 2025-09-05 18:43:41+00:00
Like I said, there’s a split between those who are and aren’t technically inclined.

The issue for non-technical users is that without an in-between state, UIs can be confusing because it’s not clear what triggered the dramatic change. If we take a typical mobile app as an example, the animations that occur when a user drills down communicates a couple of things:

- The list item in the screen being pushed out of view maintains its pressed-down highlighted state through the transition, making it clear what was tapped to trigger the action

- The horizontal animation of the following screen pushing the previous screen out of view makes it clear that the how the two screens are connected and that the user is traversing a hierarchy, similar to going through a series of doors (which in turn, communicates how to get back out)

Similar principals apply to sheets/drawers animating in. Without this animation, it can be unclear if the screen appeared as the result of a user action (and if it did, what action) or if the app just did it of its own volition.
by jen20 | 2025-09-05 18:44:39+00:00
> have you seen the density around Tube stations?

As a former tube-commuter and occasional BART-user, I'd wager that possibly a majority of the commuting trips in zone 1 are taking people from a mainline train station to somewhere, and then back in the evening. That option barely even exists in the Bay Area - indeed every time I look at how to use Caltrain from SFO I give up and rent a car instead.
by flail | 2025-09-05 18:44:47+00:00
Of course, Big Techs have leverage of their bottomless coffers. What they can't develop, they buy. What was the last successful product idea coming from, say, Facebook?

Or on a smaller scale, what's the last genuine Attlassian success?

Yet, when it comes to product innovation, the momentum is always on the side of the new players. Always has been.

Project management/work organization software? Linear. Async communication? Slack. Social Media? TikTok. One has to be curious how Zoom is doing so well, given that all the big competition actually controls the channels for setting up meetings. Self-publishing? Substack. Even with AI, everyone plays catch-up with Sam Altman, and many of the most prominent companies are newcomers.

We could go on and on.

Yes, Big Techs will survive because they have enough momentum to survive events such as the Balmer-era MS. But that doesn't mean they lead product innovation.

And it's expected. Conflicting priorities, growing bureaucracies, shareholders' expectations, old business lines (and more), all make them less flexible.
by jared_hulbert | 2025-09-05 18:45:27+00:00
When I run the 50GB in-mem setup I still have 40GB+ of free memory, I drop the page cache before I run "sudo sh -c 'echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches'" there wouldn't really be anything to evict from page cache and swap isn't changing.

I think I'm crossing the numa boundary which means some percentage of the accesses are higher latency.
by cherryteastain | 2025-09-05 18:45:37+00:00
It took the Roman Republic less than 30 years to go from the Gracchi brothers incident (133BC) to the first consulship of Gaius Marius in 107BC, a divisive populist who was elected consul an unprecedented 7 times. From then on, we have the Social war in 91BC (effectively a civil war in Italy), Sulla's civil wars (against Marius) culminating in his dictatorship in 82BC, and ultimately Julius Caesar's civil wars culminating in his dictatorship in 49BC, which marks the end of the Republic.

An incident like the Gracchi brothers' populist power grab, which led to the first significant outbreak of political violence in Rome in centuries, was not immediately transformative but it did sow the seeds of conflict.

I personally think Trump, and especially Jan 6th, is the Gracchi brothers moment of the USA.
by holmesworcester | 2025-09-05 18:45:41+00:00
One way to look at this is that the Bay Area focuses on transportation technology that works and scales regardless of the rare socio-political star alignment that makes HSR and subways possible.

And the Bay Area, largely, eats its own dogfood.

There is no faster, more powerful public transportation system than a city that allows Uber to offer mototaxi service. Uber was allowed to turned that on in Rio at some point in the last couple years and it puts busses and subways to shame. The number of cities where a subway is consistently faster than a skilled motorcyclist who can lane-split is very small if not zero.
by nradov | 2025-09-05 18:45:42+00:00
Under funded relative to what? What would the optimal amount of funding be? Are there ways that BART could cut costs to free up budget for IT upgrades?

I'm not trying to be snarky, it's just that for regular citizens who don't have time to attend BART BoD and committee meetings it's almost impossible to tell whether existing money is being wisely spent. So people get the impression that taxes are going up while service quality declines and assume the money must be going into someone's pocket.
by summerlight | 2025-09-05 18:45:57+00:00
If you see some statements like below on the serialization topic:

> Make all fields in a message required. This makes messages product types.

> One possible argument here is that protobuffers will hold onto any information present in a message that they don't understand. In principle this means that it's nondestructive to route a message through an intermediary that doesn't understand this version of its schema. Surely that's a win, isn't it?

> Granted, on paper it's a cool feature. But I've never once seen an application that will actually preserve that property.

Then it is fair to raise eyebrows on the author's expertise. And please don't ask if I'm attached to protobuf; I can roast the protocol buffer on its wrong designs for hours. It is just that the author makes series of wrong claims presumably due to their bias toward principled type systems and inexperience of working on large scale systems.
by jacquesm | 2025-09-05 18:45:58+00:00
James Madison has been dead for a while. The supreme court has so far failed to check Trump's power and congress and the senate are in his pocket. If there ever was a time that those institutions should have acted in the interest of the nation rather than in the interest of the parties then a while ago would have been fine. Now it is late, if not too late. For all that its worth Madison's writings are irrelevant, what matters is acts and there are very few of those.
Show HN: JSONeer, a Platform for Creating and Fetching JSONs Effortlessly
by NabilNYMansour | 2025-09-05 18:45:59+00:00
JSONeer is a simple platform for creating and fetching JSONs effortlessly.

Can be used for config sharing, content management, and API mocking.

I needed it for some other projects I'm working on, and maybe others could find it useful too.

lmk what you think about it
by techpineapple | 2025-09-05 18:46:12+00:00
This is definetly pedantic, but also:

“Just genuinely try to build the small habits that move you closer to who you want to become.”

So are you saying you should extend yourself to try things you might not normally do? Things that may not be a part of your personality? Could this perhaps be described as being fake?

“it encourages people to present themselves as something they are not.”

If you are not comfortable with public speaking, it is ok to pretend you’re comfortable.
by ModernMech | 2025-09-05 18:46:24+00:00
It makes a lot of sense when you look at how much money they have raised:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/24/modular-raises-100m-for-ai...

You don’t raise $130M at a $600M valuation to make boring old dev infrastructure that is sorely needed but won’t generate any revenue because no one is willing to pay for general purpose programming languages in 2025.

You raise $130M to be the programming foundation of next Gen AI. VCs wrote some big friggen checks for that pitch.
by kogatlas | 2025-09-05 18:46:39+00:00
I'd love to see your evidence that "LLMs are already shining at PR reviews". We've used a handful of them here where I work for months now and they are rarely correct, and thus, rarely useful. Instead they tend to just summarize nonsense that wasn't even introduced in that PR, make shit up entirely, or recommend bad fixes to things that would be better solved by being removed entirely.