MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by tchalla | 2025-10-05 07:50:02+00:00
Another mind boggling aspect of Amazon’s review system is that it categorises multiple products / variations under one. So if you want to buy products X with variations X1, X2 and X3- the review page for product X1 will also show X2, X3 ratings bundled together. You don’t quite know the rating of X1 individually. You can filter reviews out by the overall rating is the aggregated view. I can’t believe how this is helpful for customers.
by yousephzidan | 2025-10-05 07:50:48+00:00
With gsvp-dl, an open source solution written in Python, you are able to download millions of panorama images off Google Maps Street View.

Unlike other existing solutions (which fail to address major edge cases), gsvp-dl downloads panoramas in their correct form and size with unmatched accuracy. Using Python Asyncio and Aiohttp, it can handle bulk downloads, scaling to millions of panoramas per day.

It was a fun project to work on, as there was no documentation whatsoever, whether by Google or other existing solutions. So, I documented the key points that explain why a panorama image looks the way it does based on the given inputs (mainly zoom levels).

Other solutions don’t match up because they ignore edge cases, especially pre-2016 images with different resolutions. They used fixed width and height that only worked for post-2016 panoramas, which caused black spaces in older ones.

The way I was able to reverse engineer Google Maps Street View API was by sitting all day for a week, doing nothing but observing the results of the endpoint, testing inputs, assembling panoramas, observing outputs, and repeating. With no documentation, no lead, and no reference, it was all trial and error.

I believe I have covered most edge cases, though I still doubt I may have missed some. Despite testing hundreds of panoramas at different inputs, I’m sure there could be a case I didn’t encounter. So feel free to fork the repo and make a pull request if you come across one, or find a bug/unexpected behavior.

Thanks for checking it out!
Show HN: TextHerRight, AI for perfect relationship text replies
by tchantchov | 2025-10-05 07:51:41+00:00
Hey HN!

I'm a frontend engineer who built TextHerRight after watching too many friends (and myself) stare at blank message screens, paralyzed by the cursor. You know that moment – your girlfriend asks "How was your day?" and somehow your brain just... stops.

The Problem: We've all been there. You want to respond thoughtfully but draw a blank, you overthink or you send the wrong message. The "seen" notification starts feeling like a countdown timer, and suddenly texting becomes stressful instead of connecting.

What I Built: TextHerRight analyzes your conversation context and suggests natural, authentic responses that match your communication style. You paste your conversation thread, and the AI gives you 2-3 response options that actually sound like something you'd say – not some generic chatbot.

What Makes It Different: Unlike dating app assistants that focus on pickup lines, this is for actual relationships. It learns your communication style from context and suggests responses that help maintain genuine connection, not manipulation.

Current Status: Live at https://textherright.base44.app - completely free to try. I'm curious if you guys find this helpful. Honestly, I've using it almost every day now in my own relationship to be honest

I'd love feedback from the HN community – I didn't found anything similar so far and I would love to know if you have any idea to make this even better

Thanks for checking it out!
by skippyboxedhero | 2025-10-05 07:52:19+00:00
Yes, gambling was huge in the US before, you just didn't know about it. Illegal gambling market in the US was massive because you could go offshore. One of the issues with offshore providers is no taxes, no harm prevention, etc.

Legalization allows you to generate tax revenue and implement harm prevention effectively for the very small amount of users that are gambling addicts (if you compare to some of the things that are legal in the US, talking about addiction makes no sense at all...weed, for example, is inherently addictive, gambling is not).

Regardless though, when sports betting was largely illegal in the US, the illegal market was by far the biggest sports betting market in the world. Continuing to make it illegal was extremely illogical.
by jasode | 2025-10-05 07:52:55+00:00
>I hate the fact that your comment got flagged / greyed out / whatever even though it's perfectly correct. [...] I don't know why our experiences are considered "anecdotes", and not the other way round.

It's because people who successfully self-host think their situation universally applies to everyone.

Here's another example from 2017 of someone replying to my previous reasonable comment about self-hosting by overconfidently saying I was exaggerating the issues : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15526127

And then 18 months later in 2019, that same person reveals they also got their sent emails rejected by Gmail : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19757607

So they end up solving it by "outsourcing" the outbound email to a relay (SendGrid).

So my comment gets downvoted for explaining what others had to do in the real world.

The following should not be a controversial statement but for some reason it is: Correctly configuring SPF/DKIM/DMARC and getting 100% green score on https://www.mail-tester.com/ for your self-hosted setup ... does not universally mean your outbound email will get accepted by all the services.
by lbschenkel | 2025-10-05 07:54:11+00:00
I'm living in Sweden for ~20 years.

I haven't used a banknote in more than 15 years. During this time I can't recall a single time I saw anyone using a banknote either.

Here in Malmö where I live, especially since COVID, you'll be searching more and more to find stores that take cash (besides supermarkets and kiosks and the like). I would say more than half of them don't accept cash any longer. Speaking of restaurants or pubs, my estimation would be that 2/3 have signs that say "no cash". Maybe more.

You can't do simple things as taking public transport if you want to pay by cash. You can't pay in the bus. You can't buy in the machine. It's all card or app only. You'll need to search around for an equivalent of a 7-11 kiosk to be able to buy a ticket using cash. Depending on where exactly you are when you need that, it may take as much walking than you wanted to save by taking public transport.

If you took a daily trip to the Danish side (Copenhagen) and need to come back home, I'm not even sure if it's possible to get back if you need to buy a ticket and only have cash on hand. Only Skånetrafiken sells that particular ticket and only via machines that don't take cash.

Handling cash became more expensive than taking card payments. It's also more complicated in terms of logistics and payments take longer. With this set of incentives, it's understandable why the shift happened.

Not saying I particularly like this development. Just reporting my anecdotal experience.
by thaumasiotes | 2025-10-05 07:54:32+00:00
Here in California, Amazon stopped honoring their shipping time "guarantees" years ago. They still say Prime is a two-day guarantee. When you order, they say delivery will take place within two days. Your order will have a scheduled delivery date reflecting that statement.

But later they'll quietly update the scheduled delivery date on your order. If you complain that a package hasn't arrived on time, they'll tell you to wait until it does arrive. If you ask for redress for the late delivery, they'll say no.

Sometimes you actually need to receive a birthday gift before attending the party, you know.

They've also stopped packing their goods in a way that prevents them from being damaged in transit. A book you order from Amazon today will arrive stuffed into a manila envelope that it can barely fit inside. The corners will be damaged.
by MrDresden | 2025-10-05 07:54:35+00:00
For a few years now I have made an effort to first try to find a local (in the neighborhood, city or country) seller who has a good reputation before even considering Amazon. In all cases, where I have found alternatives, I've had great experiences, and no issues.

The only thing I've noticed is the very big price difference between academic/technical books when bought on Amazon vs a local book store (40+%) in favour of Amazon. Bulk discounts play a part in that I assume.
by ares623 | 2025-10-05 07:54:59+00:00
Building one is definitely a puzzle. And trying to read it upside down/flipped without actually flipping it is also a kind of puzzle (i.e. like trying to run a compilation in your head, trying to see in your mind first before "running"/"compiling" the program).

They're also like the made-up language from the movie Arrival. You kind of need to know the end and the beginning at the same time.

I wonder how good GenAI is in generating ambigrams. I know they're very good in generating those visual illusions of having a face in a landscape. Perhaps that can be the next "Pelican test" once the Pelican test has been completely absorbed in training.
by bornfreddy | 2025-10-05 07:55:00+00:00
I don't think there even is a problem, from Amazon's point of view. CSRs can't tell you the truth ("we will try to avoid refunding you or will delay it as much as possible"), they can't stay quiet (because then delaying won't be as efficient) and they can't blame the company (because... well, they can't). So lying is basically all they can do.
by timschmidt | 2025-10-05 07:56:33+00:00
Again with the strawmen.

"Why adopt a protocol that may rely on a weak algorithm without any additional protection"

Does not accurately represent the situation at hand. And that seems intentional.

"Why weaken an existing protocol in ways we know may be exploitable?" is a more accurate representation. And I believe the burden of evidence lies on those arguing to do so.
by ninetyninenine | 2025-10-05 07:57:18+00:00
But the hierarchy is arbitrary. It's dependent on how you structure the GUI. You're saying to deliberately not let the GUI have deep structures such that the data won't need to prop drilled? That's unreasonable. Complex GUI's will inevitably have complex nested structures with many things that cause side effects.

That's the problem. Data is coupled with GUI. React can't uncouple it.
by mykowebhn | 2025-10-05 07:57:57+00:00
How did you even tell them that they sent the wrong book?

When an item I ordered is delivered as the wrong item or when it never arrives, I can only select from a list of items in order to inform them about the bad delivery and none of the items lists "item never arrived" or "wrong item arrived".

And there is no other way to complain about the delivery/item--no help chat, no email I can contact.
by 1659447091 | 2025-10-05 07:58:00+00:00
> Just 90 minutes after receiving the first message, the 16-year-old took his own life.

And from another similar sextortion story:[0]

> [Jordan's father] heard a bang around 3:45 a.m. -- about five hours after Jordan's first contact

[0] https://www.espn.com/high-school/story/_/id/45852691/fbi-ext...
by skippyboxedhero | 2025-10-05 07:59:52+00:00
The point OP is making is almost completely unrelated to addiction.

If someone is a gambling addict, they are going to do it. One of the issues with gambling addicts in the US before legalization is that they would use illegal bookmakers, and then get their legs broken. Legalizing is the only way to implement a harm prevention strategy because states regulators can control providers (for example, all states in the US have exclusion lists that they maintain and which providers have to implement, regulators have direct control over operations).

In addition, there is also a lot of evidence that if you regulate ineffectively, you will also cause harm. Hong Kong is a classic example where some forms of gambling are legalized to raise revenue (iirc, very effective, over 10% of total tax revenue) but other forms are banned in order to maximise revenue...addicts are the only users of underground services. Sweden have a state-run gambling operator, that operator provides a bad service (unsurprisingly), again addicts are driven to underground services.

For some reason the general public perceives gambling as both inherently addictive and something that can only be triggered by gambling being legal. Neither of these things are true. Substances are inherently addictive, gambling is not, the proportion of gamblers that are addicted is usually around 1%...of gamblers, not the total population. And it isn't triggered by gambling being legal, it is a real addiction so is present regardless.
by ezst | 2025-10-05 08:01:07+00:00
> The problem with it is that most of extensions are bad: half-baked, often contradict or duplicate other extensions, and sometimes solve only part of the problem that they intend to solve.

I think that's in the organic nature of protocols catching-up to changing goals and priorities, as the state of the art and the user needs evolve. I think it's pretty-well acknowledged by the XSF (and to a further extent by modernxmpp.org) by curating a short-list of XEPs and behaviours to implement.
by haunter | 2025-10-05 08:01:10+00:00
The root of the problem is that they mixed the Amazon retail storefront (aka The Amazon people know) with the Amazon Marketplace used by the third party sellers. So when you buy something the whole thing works automatic and invisible to get the “best price”

Unless you make your own choice and going deep into the purchasing options you will end up in one of the 3 scenarios

- Product sold and shipped by Amazon

- Product sold by third party but shipped by Amazon

- Product sold and shipped by third party

I have never had a problem with the first category but the other two are always problematic, especially the third. You are on Amazon.de > you can end up buying from the US, UK, or China (so outside of the EU). Not just you will get hit by customs but good luck enforcing the mandatory 14 day return law.
by thaumasiotes | 2025-10-05 08:02:27+00:00
> Most individuals are going up against these very sophisticated statistical models created by teams of quants working with huge datasets that you have to pay substantial amounts to access.

There are two things you might do as a bookmaker:

(1) Perceive the truth of who is likely to do what, and set odds reflecting that perfect Platonic reality, but with a percentage taken off for yourself.

(2) Adjust the odds you offer over time such that, come the event, the amount you stand to collect on either side will cover the amount you owe to the other side.

You don't need to know the odds to use strategy (2). Nor do you need to reject bettors who are likely to be right.
by roenxi | 2025-10-05 08:02:43+00:00
> It’s reflective of people losing hope in the system’s ability to make their lives better.

Broadly speaking I probably agree with their conclusion. But they really should consider savings and investment before donating their money to a betting website - it is pretty much the only choice that is guaranteed to not make their lives better in any way. I can hazard a guess as to the major reason their life isn't improving, they aren't doing anything to make it better. The money supply generally grows at >5% annually in most English speaking countries, find a way to get a slice of that action if nothing else.

If they really can't think of something to do with the money, give it to a friend. Then at least maybe there is some social capital for a rainy day.
by b112 | 2025-10-05 08:03:05+00:00
You don't have small claims court? Here in Canada, it's $150 to register, you fill out the form yourself, no lawyers are allowed, and you argue your case in front of a judge.

(A company can have someone represent them, but if it's a lawyer, they must also have a rep. from the company there. and there can be no legalise, and the judge must explain anything to you if you ask)

There is no forced discoverability. EG, the other side cannot ask for all sorts of documents. You just include your evidence in the filing.

There is no ability for the company you sue, to compel costs if you lose.

For $150 you get a lot of joy out of hassling a company behaving like this. And amusingly, they still consult lawyers, and spend on a lot on lawyers. They can't be used in court, but they of course as a company consult legal experts.

I napkin mathed it, the one time I sued a company. I figured it cost them $25,000 to defend when I spent $150. If even a small percentage of people take them to task for breaking the law, they'll turn around quick.

Always use your enemies strengths as a weakness against them.

You should look at the process, but view if from the perspective of a hobby.
by cdsghh | 2025-10-05 08:03:13+00:00
> It's a locked down device running closed source software, and it's impossible to know what it really does behind the user's back.

That’s hardly true, analyzing binaries is not significantly more difficult without access to the source code. Even if you did have the source code, any serious analysis would focus on the binaries as seemingly innocuous code can be transformed into something else by a compiler.

If we’re talking about some deep hardware level backdoors, you presumably don’t have your own fab and therefore are stuck with trusting whoever you get hardware from.
by KevinMS | 2025-10-05 08:04:26+00:00
Where are these horror stories coming from? I've bought thousands of things off amazon for the last 10 years and almost never have a problem, and the price is at least equal to someplace I'd drive to. Not only do I use prime deliveries, I also watch prime streaming, buy groceries through Fresh, and host things on AWS

Their return policies are really lenient too. I bought a computer monitor, didn't like it so I sent it back, bought another and liked it even less, sent it back. The third one I liked, all the returns didn't cost me a thing.

Just a few weeks ago, just be accident, I got a refund on a loaf of bread that had been dented, while I was getting service on something else. Nothing is perfect, but their online chat support has resolved any problem I've had, even if it took some effort.

I don't want to sound like an ad although I probably do, but what am I doing right? Do I somehow, instinctually, avoid products that will be trouble? If things were as bad as the comments suggest, I don't think amazon would be still in business. If this is enshittification, more please.
by defrost | 2025-10-05 08:04:38+00:00
I have scientific credentials of my own and I report scientific and technical data for a living. Please reread what I wrote and correct any mistakes I made.

To clarify further, factually,

* in 2022 he was reported as being adjunct associate of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

* Today he is unlisted on the staff rolls of Harvard.

* In 2022 he was reported to have made a statement that "scientific evidence does not support these claims, according to experts" where the claims in question were reported to be that "that seed oils such as canola and soy are “toxic,”".

While I personally have no belief that seed oils are in any way toxic I will strongly note, and urge you to see for yourself, that there is ample room for the opposite to slip through,

* whoever reported the statement claimed to have been made by Guy Crosby may have made an error in presenting a claim for Crosby for comment or in reporting back Crosby's response.

* of all the papers that Crosby has read he may have not read one or several that reveal a toxin (yes, this is unlikely but possible, no human has read their complete field).

> I'll just take his word for it,

"His word" in this press release is hearsay. The text of the press release was not written by him. It is not uncommon for people quoted in press releases to take issue with how their actual position has been reported.
by pkal | 2025-10-05 08:04:41+00:00
I agree with you -- I never use vulgar words, so I cannot use this word myself. That being said, maybe you saw this article being posted a few days ago: https://frankchimero.com/blog/2025/selling-lemons/ writing about the concept of "Market for Lemons". The last paragraph compares the two ideas:

> What makes the Market for Lemons concept so appealing (and what differentiates it in my mind from ens**tification) is that everyone can be acting reasonably, pursuing their own interests, and things still get worse for everyone. No one has to be evil or stupid: the platform does what’s profitable, sellers do what works, buyers try to make smart decisions, and yet the whole system degrades into something nobody actually wants.

(I don't know if Doctorow's concept really relies on malice.)
by d4mi3n | 2025-10-05 08:05:09+00:00
Let's keep this conversation productive. I don't read OP's comment anything like your response seems to imply.

While I don't think OP's point about morals is relevant here (they vary widely from culture to culture), equating the stock market to gambling misses out on a lot of nuance. Your average 401k retirement fund is going to outperform your average gambler 100% of the time over one's lifetime. Long term investments also tend to not prey on addictive patterns of behavior.

I personally think for a society to function well, it behooves ourselves to recognize when there are certain patterns or behaviors that are self destructive if left unchecked. I feel addictive drugs and gambling fall into this category. That's not to say banning this behavior is the right call, but there's a lot of space to explore productive policies between full on bans and anything-goes.
by kachapopopow | 2025-10-05 08:06:31+00:00
I honestly love this as someone who never has a consistent identity in terms of the name I use online and not keeping a long history such as re-creating accounts whenever it is convenient.

This is especially relevant on social media platforms where I don't want to feel like someone can just dig up something I've said or shared 5 years ago and use that against me. It also helps me stay myself without changing my behavior to align with others.
by csande17 | 2025-10-05 08:06:36+00:00
FWIW, https://blog.cr.yp.to/20240102-hybrid.html reads to me like a more direct attempt to engage with the counterarguments.

I am curious what the costs are seen to be here. djb seems to make a decent argument that the code complexity and resource usage costs are less of an issue here, because PQ algorithms are already much more expensive/hard to implement then elliptic curve crypto. (So instead of the question being "why don't we triple our costs to implement three algorithms based on pretty much the same ideas", it's "why don't we take a 10% efficiency hit to supplement the new shiny algorithm with an established well-understood one".)

On the other hand, it seems pretty bad if personal or career cost was a factor here. The US government is, for better or worse, a pretty major stakeholder in a lot of companies. Like realistically most of the people qualified to opine on this have a fed in their reporting chain and/or are working at a company that cares about getting federal contracts. For whatever reason the US government is strongly anti-hybrid, so the cost of going against the grain on this might not feel worth it to them.
by OJFord | 2025-10-05 08:08:36+00:00
One of the return options is 'item did not arrive'. You can also select 'I need help with another issue' or something like that, and either chat with support and explain or request a call.

(At least, in the UK. Like sibling comment to yours it's the amazing support and returns that makes me shop at Amazon (.de in their case) - I don't recognise the disaster described elsewhere in thread and I probably wouldn't shops there!)
by rapnie | 2025-10-05 08:09:15+00:00
This page dates from 2017. See also earlier submissions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363 (2692 upvotes, 1099 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14585882 (389 upvotes, 190 comments)