MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by chmod775 | 2025-10-08 11:06:08+00:00
> So making a crappier product, with more profit per unit, yet having sales drop somewhat, can mean better profit overall.

This will never work in a competitive market like for NAS. The only thing that will get you higher profit margins is a good reputation. If you're coasting by on your reputation, sales and customer experience matter. Less sales one quarter means less people to recommend your product in the next one, which is a downward spiral. A worse customer experience obviously is also a huge problem as it makes people less likely to recommend your product even if they bought it.

They went for a triple-whammy here from which they likely won't recover for years. They now have less customers, less people who are likely to recommend their product, and their reputation/trustworthiness is also stained long-term.

Crappier products at higher margins only works if you're a no-name brand anyways, have no competition, or have a fanatical customer base.
by CalRobert | 2025-10-08 11:06:52+00:00
Ever since GDPR it has been baffling that European companies just reach for the American hyperscalers without a care in the world. Sure, _some_ companies need it, but you can get a long ways with OVH or Hetzner.

I suspect many of them are just ignoring their obligations with respect to data transfers (they also fail to understand the meaning of "Freely Given Consent" or "Legitimate Interest"), and utterly pathetic and useless institutions like the Irish Data Protection Commission (https://www.dataprotection.ie/en) just... let them.
by brightball | 2025-10-08 11:06:56+00:00
I held onto my TiVo for as long as I could until Spectrum forced me off.

I switched to AT&T Fiber but was keeping my Spectrum TV service just for my TiVo. When I called to turn off just Internet with Spectrum they terminated both. When I called to get them to turn my cable service back on they refused to reactivate my Cable Card that the TiVo uses. Since they were no longer required to support them, no new activations were allowed. I’m sure that played a huge part in this. Other providers like satellite or fiber TV had no obligation either.

Being able to pay $2.50 / month for a cable card and then use my TiVo with multiple minis around my house rather than paying per room to the cable company was great for years.

But YouTubeTV is excellent too. The only thing I miss is the ability to save recordings for as long as I want or record anything I want. There were some I kept for years and YT only lets you keep them for a few months.
by potato3732842 | 2025-10-08 11:07:11+00:00
I think it speaks volumes about the work ethic (or less charitably, moral character) of the HN comment section that so many people are bewildered as to why support would prefer to troubleshoot questionable hardware than tell people "fuck off and come back with supported hardware" all day. Unless you're a real POS doing that sort of work sucks way worse than actually working to solve people's problems even if the latter requires a few more brain cells. And it only takes the most casual contact with the support people in your organization to understand this. If the people answering phones and chats didn't actually want to solve people's problems they could make more money working at the DMV counter or selling time shares or whatever. The people this decision is bad for are the engineers who have to work marginally harder to write more robust code to work with hardware they can't necessarily get hands on in advance to test with.
by phoronixrly | 2025-10-08 11:07:33+00:00
> I also have issue with it’s creator, John Gruber. He is a highly annoying smug Apple Fanboy. His writing was fine in the early days when Apple was #3, but got intolerable as Apple became the 800lb gorilla. It’s changed recently as Apple has snubbed him but I still can’t read anything he writes.

Thank you! I thought it was just me...
by squeedles | 2025-10-08 11:07:35+00:00
One week too late for me. Didn't feel like scratch building a new machine and finding a low TDP mobo with a bunch of SATA ports. Wanted to go Synology but dragged my feet for months watching this play out.

In the meantime, I became enamored with the Jonbo cases and started seeing white label N100 ITX mobos pop up with a bunch of SATA ports. Eventually figured out they were Topton when Brian Moses included them (and a Jonbo case!) in this year's NAS build.

So my parts are arriving in a few days and Synology has lost one potential new customer.
by veeti | 2025-10-08 11:07:47+00:00
Nordic design has jumped the shark and the modern obsession with black and white is a tragedy. Homes look like mental asylums with their all white decor. For instance, I would love a nice dark brown walnut bookshelf like this one [1], but IKEA does not stock that color here at all.

[1] https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/billy-bookcase-combination-brow...
by alexey-salmin | 2025-10-08 11:07:58+00:00
I don't know about Germany, but in France for 100k gross salary, the employer social contributions will be around 40k, the employee social contributions another 20.5k, then 15.5k income tax.

In the end 140k that employer pays result in less than 64k take-home salary. The real tax rate is around 54%. So, I can't verify what OP says about Germany but I can easily believe it.

You can see chatgpt calculations here (and they do match my experience): https://chatgpt.com/share/68e64456-020c-800b-8443-1a2726e9a3...
by stefanfisk | 2025-10-08 11:08:26+00:00
Out of curiosity - do you also plan for the possibility that your will want to move to another provider at the same time as the rest of your industry if not large parts of the EU as a whole?

Whenever I think about these things I just don’t see us Europeans being able to tackle suddenly having to decouple from the US if Trump or a successor suddenly turns the screws to 11.
by tombh | 2025-10-08 11:08:31+00:00
I'd heard of H3, they definitely sound like they could be related, but I think they're solving a different problem. I think H3 is for efficient storage of geographic data whereas I'm just trying to solve a classic packing problem, like this monstrosity https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/111ne5y/deeply_unsett...
by StopDisinfo910 | 2025-10-08 11:08:45+00:00
> It's been obvious for a long time that a fully renewable grid can work

It’s far from obvious to me.

There are literally no exemple of one ever running and some of the technological challenges are still open questions at the moment.

I generally think proponents of renewables are overselling the idea and significantly minimising the challenges they pose at scale. They definitely have a place in the energy mix but I don’t personally believe they are the solution.
by Xelbair | 2025-10-08 11:08:47+00:00
Honestly the bigger problem - even with the current topic - is that everything is top down.

They don't make a framework for XYZ to emerge based on market forces. It's always committee driven 'we will support this initiative so XYZ happens' top-down initiatives.

Those are necessary in some sectors, but it is applied everywhere. With multinational participation in committee and a lot of back and forth dance.

It's better than blind trendchasing or completely unregulated market forces doing their job, but the delay overhead is gigantic.
by kstrauser | 2025-10-08 11:09:00+00:00
Yep. I’d already started moving things out of Docker on my DS923+ and onto RaspberryPis, of all things, which are perfectly powerful for my needs. Synology’s police shoved me toward planning and implementing alternatives as I vowed never, ever, to spend a penny on such a locked down device. It’s going to be hard for them to un-ring that bell.

In a few years, when it’s time to replace this NAS, if they’ve demonstrated that they’re serious about doing right by their customers, I may replace it with another Synology. And if not, I’ll have already migrated my services off it such that I’ll only need a “dumb” NAS and can choose from any of their competitors.
by imiric | 2025-10-08 11:10:30+00:00
Right.

The more accurate phrase would be "tool" or "machine-assisted development".

We don't need new terminology to describe something that has always existed because the tools we use have (arguably) improved.

"Vibe coding" is also a misnomer. People who engage in that activity are not "coding". They're using a tool to generate software until they're satisfied with the result. That has also been possible with low-code, no-code, website builders, and other tools. The more accurate term for that would be "machine-driven development".
by devjab | 2025-10-08 11:10:56+00:00
Mainly that I've yet to follow through on my 5+ year old plan on building a small greenhouse and using solar for water pumping. For most use cases it's a fairly bad "business case" compared to simply buying the power you need. If anything, you would probably be better off setting up a storage sollution to buy power when it's cheap, and then using it when power is expensive, compared to actually setting up power generation yourself.

If I had a good area for them which wasn't some form of rooftop I might have. Rooftop installations are very expensive in Denmark because they are too heavy to be installed without building a lot of support. Even my carport would basically need to be an entirely different structure with a custom foundation to support a roof of solar panels. Which you can absolutely do, but it would be decades before it was worth it.
by flanked-evergl | 2025-10-08 11:10:57+00:00
As someone who lives in Europe and buys things in Europe every single day, I know that practically everything except groceries comes from China. But sure, whenever I buy a plate from IKEA it comes from Turkey and not China.

But I guess if I were a rich person who mostly bought luxury goods, they would come from France. I guess I'm the problem. If only my tax money stayed with me instead of being funnelled to useless aristocrats, then maybe I could afford more luxury goods from France.
by aw1621107 | 2025-10-08 11:11:31+00:00
I'm not sure I see much of a difference still. Here's what I think is a more correct Rust comparison:

> In [Rust]: you keep the spec in the verifiable world (a [type checker-visible function signature]) and place the implementation outside the proof boundary (for example in a body or unit compiled with `unsafe`). The body is visible in source but intentionally opaque to the [type checker; callers are still proved against the spec and must rely on that contract.

These "practical differences" seem questionable to me as well.

> Granularity: `unsafe` is lexical (blocks/functions); SPARK's hatch is modular/procedural (spec vs body).

`unsafe` can trivially be expanded from a block to a function body, thereby transforming it to a "modular/procedural" hatch. `unsafe` on function signatures is more akin to SPARK's `Assume`, albeit with the precise assumption (hopefully) in the documentation.

> Visibility: Rust's unchecked code is written inline and annotated with `unsafe`

This... doesn't seem like a difference to me? According to you, you can place SPARK's unchecked code "in a body [] compiled with `pragma SPARK_Mode(Off)`". That sure sounds like writing unchecked code "inline" and annotated with SPARK's equivalent of `unsafe` to me.

> SPARK's unchecked implementation is placed outside the prover but the spec remains visible and provable.

You can say an analogous thing about Rust: The unchecked implementation is placed outside the [type checker] but the [function signature] remains visible and [checkable].

> Enforcement model: Rust's safety holes are enforced/annotated by the compiler's type/borrow rules (caller and callee responsibilities are explicit at the site).

This is... confusing? I'm honestly not sure what you're trying to get at.

> SPARK enforces sound proofs on the interface; the off-proof body must be shown (by review/tests/docs) to meet the proven contract.

The Rust equivalent is a non-`unsafe` function signature with an `unsafe` body, and what you say is equally as applicable.

> Best practice: keep off-proof bodies tiny, give strong pre/postconditions on the SPARK spec, minimize the exposed surface, and rigorously review and test the non-SPARK implementation.

This... doesn't describe a difference at all? It's equally as applicable to the analogous Rust construct.

> `unsafe` = "this code block bypasses language checks"

Technically wrong? Bit of a nitpick, but `unsafe` technically does not disable any language checks; it gives you access to unchecked capabilities. It's a slight difference but an important one, since it means that if you have code that doesn't compile and doesn't use unchecked capabilities (e.g., a borrow checking error with regular references), wrapping the code in `unsafe` will not allow your code to compile.

> SPARK's escape hatch = "this implementation is deliberately outside the prover, but the interface is still what we formally prove against."

Again, you can say basically the same thing for non-`unsafe` functions in Rust.
by the_gipsy | 2025-10-08 11:11:52+00:00
If we were to categorize AfD voters and supporters into two groups:

1. people that support some of: racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny, anti-environmentalism, etc., i.e. authoritarianism for their group 2. people that have been pushed by extreme leftism because they can no longer discuss alternative points of view (but do not strictly belong to group 1)

What share would you assign to each?
by defrost | 2025-10-08 11:12:37+00:00
Mostly renewable has already been achieved, 100% renewable is on track and economically feasible.

In December 2021, South Australia set a new record for renewable energy generation and resilience, after running entirely on renewable energy for 6.5 consecutive days. In 2022, it was stated that South Australia could soon be powered by only renewable energy. 70 per cent of South Australia's electricity is generated from renewable sources. This is projected to be 85 per cent by 2026, with a target of 100 per cent by 2027.

~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_South_Australia
by davydm | 2025-10-08 11:12:40+00:00
Please release source: - packages - kernel - build for the iso

without openness, there's no way I'll trust some arbitrary iso on GitHub - 'tis a good way to have a bad time

I was mostly interested in how it's built, what the base is (debian/ubuntu? arch? gentoo? rpm-based?), but I won't be firing up a vm to "figure it out" - too much on the go.

But kudos on making something you find useful - that's how all good programmers start.
by StopDisinfo910 | 2025-10-08 11:12:57+00:00
H2 has been the alleged long term solution for decades while barely progressing at all. Even in aviation where it’s seemingly the only solution we have, it’s stagnating.

If you look at who is pushing H2, you will see that it’s mostly fossil fuel companies who want to prop up gas because as you rightfully pointed out "And gas plants are what is closed to H2 and can be switched over easiest."

> So what? That what a grid is for.

It’s going to be hard to reach net zero while burning coal and if the actual solution is importing nuclear energy from somewhere else while pretending it doesn’t happen, it would be simpler to just straight up go for nuclear.
by reassess_blind | 2025-10-08 11:13:37+00:00
It would be interesting to see how much of a difference a lump sum of $50 billion would make, or not make, to long term world hunger.

It’s a lot of money, but the WFP has spent more than that in the past 10 years on the problem.

A lot of the issues with world hunger aren’t easy solved by throwing more money at it. Politics, logistics, corruption etc. It can’t be solved without money either, of course.

Not to say that money couldn’t be better spent elsewhere than the metaverse.
by lambdaone | 2025-10-08 11:14:48+00:00
I agree with the article; web programming is an absolute disaster of snowballing complexity. I think much of this is driven by a combination desire among web programmers to see themselves as "software engineers" and the need to constantly track the most fashionable trends and frameworks so they can one-up their peers.

I recently had to rescue a complex web-framework based system that was an absolute clusterfuck full of basic programming mistakes - the most glaring of which was a complete lack of database transactions in the node backend - but what it did have was every fashionable bell and whistle installed, and extensive reliance on the AWS ecosystem, as if it was designed for millions of concurrent users, whereas a single simple VM running about about 1% load would have done the trick.

And yet all this complexity actually did very little - a simple Rails-based-app would have done it all, at a fraction of the complexity, with far fewer dependencies.
by dmurray | 2025-10-08 11:14:57+00:00
> As there's a chance that the longest line isn't from a peak or plateau?

Is there such a chance? I'm struggling to think what this could look like. If the furthest point you can see is in a bowl or a valley, why can't you see all the way to the far side of the valley? I think we can rule out topographic ridiculousness like a mountain with a hole in it that you can see through.

OK, instead of a peak or a plateau, perhaps the longest line could be from a ridge in a saddle. So it's a peak when approached from one orientation (say north/south) but a trough when looking east-west. You can't see the higher ground to the east and west because it's hidden behind some other mountain.
by Xelbair | 2025-10-08 11:15:15+00:00
Even if you get EU grant, you can't run a startup that way. You have to basically have full plan set in stone, and you will be checked if it was fulfilled to avoid waste of EU money.

The problem is that you cannot pivot easily, you cannot change a lot of things in it - and even things like your potential hire bailing last minute can be devastating, paperwork wise.
by mejutoco | 2025-10-08 11:15:27+00:00
Some more options (I used AI with a nuanced not-too-lazy prompt, I hope it is okay):

Prompt Engineering / Directed Prompting

Architectural Steering

Spec-Driven Development

Intent-Based Coding

Critical Synthesis

Iterative Refinement

Guided Iteration

Hypothesis-Driven Coding

AI-Assisted Engineering

Cognitive Pair Programming

Dialogic Programming

Structured Prompting for Code (SPC)

Code Shepherding

AI-Assisted Engineering is probably the most descriptive. My favourite are Critical Synthesis and Code Shepherding. Both abbreviate to CS
by nylonstrung | 2025-10-08 11:15:31+00:00
Forget profitability, the major Western LLM providers still have profoundly negative gross margins

I think it will only be economically sound as a business if you're Google and can start serving ads OR when we switch over from GPUs to wildly more efficient TPUs/ASICs

All the data center CapEx is going into compute that will be obsolete once that happens
by numpad0 | 2025-10-08 11:15:44+00:00
I think that "everybody else" include literal fascists. Nazi's Gestapo had serious issues with Wernher von Braun to the point Hitler had to be bothered. East Germany's Stasi had more personnel per capita than Russian KGB had. They would know that a secret police in a German state isn't a great idea regardless of ideology.

Had Hitler not able to stop Gestapo from sending von Braun to a death camp, not only history of spaceflight would have been delayed by decades, but the associated reputational bonuses to postwar Germany as "genius tech nerds that made a gross mistake" had been way lower. Not having the panopticon and just keeping freedom of speech and privacy as they are removes that type of risk. No way that serious neo-Nazis wouldn't think about that.
by nylonstrung | 2025-10-08 11:16:38+00:00
Forget profitability, the major Western LLM providers still have profoundly negative gross margins. What would that 800M userbase look like if free tier users had to pay the bill for inference and training costs?

I think it will only be economically sound as a business if you're Google and can start serving ads OR when we switch over from GPUs to wildly more efficient TPUs/ASICs

All the data center CapEx is going into compute that will be obsolete once that happens
by LikesPwsh | 2025-10-08 11:16:41+00:00
Anyone can generate an NFT, including IP you don't own or existing collections.

Hundreds of wallets might contain a the same monkey picture (or same hash and IPFS link to nitpick).

What matters is that Opensea says you have the "real" one.

Their database is the real list of who owns what, the blockchain is a distraction.

You can see it in their anti-theft systems. NFTs get hidden and blocked from trading after a police report, even if it's still there on the chain.
by accurrent | 2025-10-08 11:16:58+00:00
While true, it's also true that scaling medical school is not like a CS situation. My school quadrupled the number of CS seats to meet demands over 4 years. I can't see this happening with medical schools. My brother who is currently in a medical school regularly says how hard it is for the faculty to find teachers simply because there aren't enough. To add to it there are bottlenecks like not having enough cadavers.

Medical education is very hands on unlike engineering where we just throw people in the deep end at work. This is with good reason.

I'm absolutely for having more doctors and medical school seats but I think it's important to acknowledge that it maynot be as simple as increasing seats. There needs to be more fundamental reforms. That being said yes there are completely pricks of doctors who enter politics.
by novoreorx | 2025-10-08 11:17:44+00:00
This reminds me of a similar project called HPI [1] that I discovered in 2022, the idea to aggregate one's digital footprints into one single private place really inspires me a lot. Timelinize is almost like a GUI version of HPI, a more sophisticated user product that everyone can use. I will definitely try it, congrats and respect!

P.S. HPI has many existing exporters, so it might be helpful to extend Timelinize's capacity.

[1]: https://github.com/karlicoss/HPI
by falcor84 | 2025-10-08 11:17:54+00:00
I grew up watching Star Trek and its replicators ("Tea, Earl Grey, Hot"). So a core part of me is excited about this ideal future world where we wouldn't need to work to sustain ourselves, but would be free to use our time to explore the universe, or learn, or make art, or manage a vineyard.

To me this vision of us being able to do whatever we want, while machines are available to take care of our necessities, to the extent we chose to rely on them, is almost heaven-like.

And for a prehistoric context, according to researchers such as James Suzman, earlier in human history, we were a lot closer to this ideal than we are now [0].

[0] https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/for-95-percent-of-human...
by gambiting | 2025-10-08 11:19:26+00:00
Right, but I've never met anyone who looks at it this way - this part: "the employer social contributions will be around 40k"

Is not your salary. This is what the employer has to pay to keep you. So even in your example your tax on your earnings is around 35%. The fact that the employer has to pay another 40k to keep you employed is......well, shocking, but I wouldn't say that's a tax rate on your earnings - for the simple reason that if the government reduced the employer contribution to zero it wouldn't change anything about your take home salary(unless your employer decided to be generous and give you a raise).