MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by kragen | 2025-10-15 03:01:25+00:00
That's out of stock, though. Here are my other shockingly inexpensive MCUs at LCSC that were in stock at the time:

links from 02025-03-16:

https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/Microcontrollers-MCU-MPU... #LCSC #pricing for 16-pin #CH32V003 #microcontrollers #electronics #hardware: 14.21¢ in quantity 500. Not the cheapest, but it’s a RISC-V with IIRC an on-board op-amp, though the linked datasheet only covers the CPU really.

https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/Microcontrollers-MCU-MPU... #LCSC #pricing for 14-pin #PY32 #ARM #microcontrollers #hardware, 9.01¢ in quantity 500. Not the cheapest, but it’s an ARM. #electronics

links from 02025-02-08:

https://www.lcsc.com/datasheet/lcsc_datasheet_2410121502_PAD... #PDF English #datasheet for #Padauk PFS122 #microcontrollers which have a 12-bit ADC and 24MHz. Not quite the cheapest microcontroller but they only cost 4.32¢ in quantity 2000.

links from 02024-08-01:

https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/Microcontrollers-MCU-MPU... new cheapest #microcontrollers: Cypress CY8C4045FNI-DS400T, 1.5¢ in quantity 1000. It purports to be a 48MHz Cortex-M0 ARM with 32KiB of Flash and 4KiB of SRAM in a 1.6mm x 2mm package, 0.31-0.37 mm thick, with nine GPIO pins. I think that’s 4000 Dhrystone MIPS per dollar. #electronics #hardware #pricing

links from 02024-05-12:

https://jlcpcb.com/partdetail/NyquestTech-NY8A051H/C5143390 #JLCPCB has new cheapest #microcontrollers: #Nyquest NY8A051H: 1.58¢ each in quantity 20000, or 3.2¢ in quantity 1 #hardware #pricing

links from 02023-10-12:

https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/Microcontroller-Units-MC... #Padauk PMC251 is one of their cheapest multithreaded parts; LCSC lists it here at US$0.1071 in quantity 500, which works out to US$53.55. 1 kiloword instruction memory

As of today (02025-10-15), the CH32V003A4M6, the PY32F002BD15S6TU, the PFS122, and the PMC251-S14 are in stock. The CY8C4045FNI-DS400T, the CY8C4013SXI-400, and the NY8A051H (not an 8051 despite the name) are out of stock. Today what I see are:

https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/C49173938.html Currently cheapest #microcontrollers #pricing on LCSC: PMS150G-U06 (a SOT-23-6) for 2.02¢ in quantity 3000. #Padauk has broken the 3¢ barrier! One-time programmable. #electronics #hardware

https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/C2857167.html Almost cheapest #microcontrollers #pricing on LCSC: NY8A054ES8, a SOP-8, for 3.91¢ in quantity 1000. This is from JSMSEMI (Shenzhen JSMicro Semiconductor Co., Ltd.) 1T 8-bit 8MHz chip, 128 bytes RAM, 2k × 14-bit EPROM program memory (but no quartz window, so one-time programmable). 8-level hardware stack. The datasheet is full of descriptions of peripheral registers and pin circuit schematics, and then the 55-instruction instruction set is documented on pp. 76–91.
by DrewADesign | 2025-10-15 03:01:56+00:00
It depends on where you are in the chain, and what kind of engineering you’re doing. I think a lot of engineers are so focused on the logistics, capabilities, and flaws, and so used to being indispensable, that they don’t viscerally get that they’re standing on the wrong side of the tree branch they’re sawing through. AI does not need to replace a single engineer before increased productivity means we’ll have way too many engineers, which mean jobs are impossible to get, and the salaries are in the shitter. Middle managers are terrified because they know they’re not long for this (career) world. Upper managers are having 3 champagne lunches because they see big bonuses on the far side of skyrocketing profits and cratering payroll costs.
Show HN: I modeled the puzzle game Railbound with Constraint Programming
by th1nhng0 | 2025-10-15 03:02:14+00:00
Hi HN, I've been working on a solver for the puzzle game Railbound and wanted to share it.

The backstory is that I'm a big fan of the game and was curious if I could model its logic using constraint programming. I used MiniZinc to build it. The project treats each puzzle as a constraint satisfaction problem—it defines the rules of the game (how tracks connect, how switches work, etc.) and then searches for a layout that solves the level.

It's different from other solvers because it's a declarative model rather than an imperative search algorithm. It was a fun challenge to translate mechanics like timed gates, dynamic switches, and decoy cars into formal constraints.

You can run it on your own machine. The repo has instructions, but the basics are: 1. Install the MiniZinc IDE/toolchain. 2. Clone the repo. 3. Run a command like minizinc --solver or-tools main.mzn data/1/1-1.dzn

The project is open source and currently solves the first 8 worlds of the game.

Repo: https://github.com/Th1nhNg0/railbound_cp

I'm here to answer any questions. I'd love to hear your feedback.
by kube-system | 2025-10-15 03:02:34+00:00
Don't cbrs devices need to be part 96 certified? The spectrum might not be licensed but you still may need a certified device to legally use the spectrum. Which you could do, but that is a tall hill to climb for a FOSS enthusiast. And when you're done -- what network are you going to connect it to? A cheap SIM from the corner store is probably out of the question :)
by AdieuToLogic | 2025-10-15 03:02:56+00:00
> The goal is to build a language and system model that allows us to reliably sandbox and support agents in constructing "Trustworthy-by-Construction AI Agents."

1 - Reliability implies predictable behavior. 2 - Predictable behavior implies determinism. 3 - LLM's are non-deterministic algorithms.

In the link you kindly provided are phrases such as, "increases the likelihood of successful correct use" and "structure for the underlying LLM to key on", yet earlier state:

In this world merely saying that a system is likely to behave correctly is not sufficient.

Also, when describing "a suitable action language and specification system", what is detailed is largely, if not completely, available in RAML[0].

Are there API specification capabilities Bosque supports which RAML[0] does not? Probably, I don't know as I have no desire to adopt a proprietary language over a well-defined one supported by multiple languages and/or tools.

0 - https://github.com/raml-org/raml-spec/blob/master/versions/r...
by mikestorrent | 2025-10-15 03:03:53+00:00
It won't just be them. I foresee Cloudflare and other CDNs offering a free checkbox: [] Require age of majority verified user

And it will in turn depend on Secure Attestation, Web Credentials, and other recent W3C work to provide proof that you're the registered owner, age of majority and verified by thumbprint or other biometrics, running an unmodified device. Your ID might be escrowed with your OS vendor, email provider, bank, ISP, or even Twitter/X, who knows. Either way, as an end user you'll be mollified that you don't have to provide your ID to the adult site, and the adult site will be happy that they don't have to implement any of this themselves.

And, of course, this will mean that an intelligence service could have ironclad proof of exactly what person visits what website, effectively killing a lot of online anonymity.
by zarenor | 2025-10-15 03:06:44+00:00
See, this is the thing. An investor isn't tied to the fortunes of any one company. An investor can bail when things go south, and investors who care enough to be writing to executives or the board are also the ones most sensitive to signals things are going badly.

This is why 'activist' investing works - you can take on debt, or drive a debt-funded acquisition so that the immediate value of a share goes up, bail while people are buying the inflated price, and be running the con again while the debt kills the company. The execs are bound by the board, and don't feel empowered to fight these kinds of changes - often, they're replaced if they do (or as part of the board takeover).

Long-run, this is bad for the companies this happens to, and the overall economy, but it's good short-run for investors, and savvy investors don't need to worry about long run, because at worst they can liquidate their position before the market catches up and sit in treasuries if there's no other good poaching target.

The failure of anti-trust enforcement, of anyone to sue for long-term over short-term gains, the tax-advantaged position of stock-centered comp, and the acceptance of even debt-funded buybacks all work together to reinforce this failure state.
by r283492 | 2025-10-15 03:07:00+00:00
As the first project FSF has launched in years with a current budget of one developer I expect they will be happy to spend new donations on further funding for it. However, it is very uncommon for a nonprofit to have a separate fund for a project that is part of the organization itself, rather than a project which makes semi-independent decisions and is fiscally sponsored by a related nonprofit. The exception is usually when some very large donor which insists on that arrangement.
by xarope | 2025-10-15 03:07:38+00:00
scratches aluminium with knife - me: "stop, stop!"

pours dirt and makes crunchy hinge noises - me: "stop, stop!"

holds lighter to screens - me: "stop, stop!"

bends phone backwards, it breaks at the antenna line - me: "stop, stop!"

smoke comes out - me: "pretty... I wonder when the smoke detector is going to... ah about 20s"
by cyberax | 2025-10-15 03:07:49+00:00
Android is _mostly_ OK. Their stupidest move (so far) was mandating edge-to-edge apps without a way for users and apps to opt out of them.

Otherwise, the UI stays mostly the same, just becoming a bit more bloated ("finger friendly") with every release.

The most annoying thing for me is the waste of screen space from the bubbles around notifications and menu options. Apparently, having stuff floating now gives a "perception of lightness and motion".
by cwal37 | 2025-10-15 03:08:16+00:00
Second US organized market to do so, and third in the region, after NY(ISO) and Ontario (IESO).

With HQ there as well, it’s actually quite a large coal-free chunk of grid.

What will be interesting is the extent to which offshore wind and imports from HQ will be able to materialize according to plan. OSW is having a hatchet being taken to it in the US currently, and imports from HQ into NY and NE have been way down recently while big new lines are also built.

Not exactly in the ISO forecasts, but very much supported by state policy has been the rapid expansion of behind the meter solar in New England. Really taken the edge off of summer days in particular, although also susceptible to smoke from Canadian wildfires.

Not the most exciting markets day-to-day, but interesting long-term things happening.
by duskwuff | 2025-10-15 03:08:31+00:00
> From my perspective I was just interested in the excellent industrial design

Debatable. The pin ran hot and had a short battery life, often less than a day even with the extended battery. The magnetic attachment was fiddly to use, and some users had trouble with it not staying put. The laser projector had serious usability problems - it wasn't very bright or clear, and interacting with the projected image (which was required to unlock the device, among other features) was extremely awkward.

One can argue that some of these are implementation issues, but working within the limitations of available technology is an inextricable part of industrial design. Dreaming up a perfect fantasy device is easy; designing one which can actually be implemented is much harder.
by efitz | 2025-10-15 03:09:47+00:00
Great, so I’m sure that you will not complain at all if Democrats lose in the future where a single company controls so many voting machines, unless they are able to prove fraud beyond a reasonable doubt in mere days after the election, right? And you’ll not complain if the vast majority of the suits filed are dismissed on procedural grounds such as standing, right? Because voters and candidates and state attorneys general obviously have no case or controversy in a contested election?

Yes there were a very small number of kooky cases in 2020. The vast majority did NOT get a fair hearing at all.
by eru | 2025-10-15 03:10:09+00:00
Well, if you want to answer that question, you probably also need to figure out the hypothetical cost of the other power sources minus environmental regulations.

Nuclear would be (and used to be) massively cheaper, before regulations went wild against it.

I'm deliberately saying 'went wild', because the earlier nuclear power generation that was built to saner standards also has turned out to be incredibly safe already.

(Basically, anyone who avoided insane Soviet bullshit had safe nuclear power, as measured in eg fatalities per Joule of electricity generated.)
by alwa | 2025-10-15 03:10:34+00:00
I did not know that. Pine rosin is such lovely and versatile stuff. And sure enough:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pIpxawdUb4I&t=30m18s

…plus it smells much better; and, as you mention, it’s useful for potatoes too!

https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2022/the-elusive-roots-...
by IAmGraydon | 2025-10-15 03:11:34+00:00
The question is this: At what point will the market and economy stop looking forward at what AI promises to do and start looking backwards at what it has done? We’ve had this technology for three years and what it has done for us amounts to very little more than pollute every form of communication with low value, mass produced drivel and destroyed the ability of teachers to evaluate their students. We have no new medicine, no new math, no new physics in any meaningful way. Yet all eyes are still on the carrot that we’ll never reach: AGI. When will we realize that even the name itself, artificial intelligence, is a lie? It’s just a database of most human knowledge with a very intuitive human language interface, but knowledge and intelligence are not the same thing. At some point, the world will be forced to acknowledge what little it has received in return for its misplaced faith.
by mananaysiempre | 2025-10-15 03:11:51+00:00
To be fair, even in standard C11 you can do a bit better than the CPU manufacturer’s syntax

#define vaddv(A, B) _Generic((A), int8x8_t: vaddv_s8((A), (B)), uint8x8_t: vaddv_u8((A), (B)), int8x16_t: vaddvq_s8((A), (B)), uint8x16_t: vaddvq_u8((A), (B)), int16x4_t: vaddv_s16((A), (B)), uint16x4_t: vaddv_u16((A), (B)), int16x8_t: vaddvq_s16((A), (B)), uint16x8_t: vaddvq_u16((A), (B)), int32x2_t: vaddv_s32((A), (B)), uint32x2_t: vaddv_u32((A), (B)), float32x2_t: vaddv_f32((A), (B)), int32x4_t: vaddvq_s32((A), (B)), uint32x4_t: vaddvq_u32((A), (B)), float32x4_t: vaddvq_f32((A), (B)), int64x2_t: vaddvq_s64((A), (B)), uint64x2_t: vaddvq_u64((A), (B)), float64x2_t: vaddvq_f64((A), (B)))

while in GNU C you can in fact use normal arithmetic and indexing (but not swizzles) on vector types.
by tguvot | 2025-10-15 03:12:19+00:00
looks like they need. but it still gives you more possibilities compared to usual spectrum. if there is enough coverage from SAS you (or FSF) can build your own cbrs network that will have open source modem/firmware (yet, still will have to comply with part96).

there are also all kind of open source lte/cbrs projects iirc
by caleblloyd | 2025-10-15 03:13:00+00:00
I sometimes dream of what it would have looked like to become a doctor (or PA or similar) instead of choosing Software. Mainly the allure of interacting with and helping more people.

This young person sounds like they are motivated enough to succeed at any study they put their mind to. Of course many companies will deny a young person employment based on age, just like they would deny them employment based on a lack of a formal degree.

But one day you turn 25, you are the right age, and you have the right degree. Then the praises for saving the company 70% on their cloud computing costs stop, and the same managers start asking you to work the weekend to fix other people’s code. And if you oblige, the burnout will become as real as a Doctor’s burnout, I imagine.
by alephnerd | 2025-10-15 03:13:41+00:00
China only began executing those pig-butcherers when the EAO that was providing protection to Chinese pig-butchering gangs in that region of Myanmar (Kachin Independence Army) re-flipped towards India recently [0] and had begun to ignore China [1] and rerouting rare earths and other goods to India [2]

Meanwhile, China never cracked down against similar scams in Cambodia. Most notably, Prince Group remains unsanctioned in China and it's leadership are Mainland Chinese in origin.

While pig butchering (along with opium and human trafficking and other organized crime activities) are a major reason behind Chinese involvement in Myanmar, ignoring the very real proxy war going on between Chinese and Indian interests in Myanmar fails to contextualize some of the decisions that both countries make within Myanmar.

This also explains why you don't see a similar crackdown in Cambodia, which is solidly within the Chinese sphere at this point.

[0] - https://www.stimson.org/2025/rare-earths-and-realpolitik-fut...

[1] - https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/war-against-the-junta/ignorin...

[2] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/india-explores-rare-eart...
by godelski | 2025-10-15 03:13:53+00:00
I think you're burying the lead here.

An important fact is that Americans also think that crime, and specifically violent crime, are on the rise. This is contrary to actual data. So the question are "does news distort our views?" and "does news make us feel more unsafe than we actually are?". Certainly the answer to both is "yes"

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/08/29/the-link-...

https://news.gallup.com/poll/652763/smaller-majorities-say-c...
by tomnipotent | 2025-10-15 03:15:01+00:00
Now that I'm getting older I like to pull out my "curmudgeon card" and blame it on the younger generation. New graduates entering the work grew up spending more time on mobile phones than laptops/desktops, and I wonder if these changes are to cater to this market that's shifting from mostly-mobile screen time to mostly-desktop. I imagine it's not too long before this segment is the majority.

I feel like we saw similar changes with the previous shift where new graduates knew GSuite and MS Office was some the software their parents would complain about. It's my shibboleth for identify my generation of computer users.
by robbrown451 | 2025-10-15 03:15:40+00:00
For most things they don't need to be "human equivalent." I'd be willing to be the current crop of robots we're seeing could do most tasks like vacuuming, cooking, picking up clutter, folding laundry and putting it aways, making beds, touch up painting, gardening etc. It seems to be getting better very fast. And if mechanical tendons break, you replace them. Big deal. You don't even need a person to do the repair.
by dhussoe | 2025-10-15 03:16:01+00:00
> Seems we should be very concerned and work hard to avoid smoking, vs random death from a helicopter falling on us?

At a population level maybe... but if you (and your family/friends if you want to consider that too) already don't smoke, there is not much to do? I don't have to work hard to avoid smoking because I am not interested in doing it to begin with, and it is not like cigarettes jump out of bushes and ambush you.

Helicopter crashes aren't common, but traffic violence is mostly treated as normal in the US, and deaths are often brushed off as an unavoidable "accident" with little or no punishment for the perpetrator, or serious consideration of systematically redesigning streets or vehicles to make these deaths less likely. This is something that I cannot "simply" avoid like smoking is.
by array_key_first | 2025-10-15 03:16:08+00:00
> More control over what exactly? Allocations? There is nothing Zig can do that Rust can’t.

I mean yeah, allocations. Allocations are always explicit. Which is not true in C++ or Rust.

Personally I don't think it's that big of a deal, but it's a thing and maybe some people care enough.
by WastedCucumber | 2025-10-15 03:17:26+00:00
There's nothing in that post claiming those problems will never be solved. I understand the claim as "the hardware conponent of robotics needs more work and this will take some time, compared to AI capabilities/software" Or soemthing like that.

Maybe you could clarify what your experience on the matter is, how the state of th art looks to you, and most of all what timelines you imagine?
by chongli | 2025-10-15 03:18:59+00:00
I see that as the death knell for general search engines built to indiscriminately index the entire web. But where that sort of search fails, opportunities open up for focused search and curated search.

Just as human navigators can find the smallest islands out in the open ocean, human curators can find the best information sources without getting overwhelmed by generated trash. Of course, fully manual curation is always going to struggle to deal with the volumes of information out there. However, I think there is a middle ground for assisted or augmented curation which exploits the idea that a high quality site tends to link to other high quality sites.

One thing I'd love is to be able to easily search all the sites in a folder full of bookmarks I've made. I've looked into it and it's a pretty dire situation. I'm not interested in uploading my bookmarks to a service. Why can't my own computer crawl those sites and index them for me? It's not exactly a huge list.
by w10-1 | 2025-10-15 03:21:27+00:00
It's great to help people understand that AI can be both surprisingly good and disappointing, and that testing is the only way to know, but it's impossible to test everything. That sets expectations.

I think that means savvy customers will want details or control over testing, and savvy providers will focus on solutions they can validate, or where testing is included in the workflow (e.g., code), or where precision doesn't matter (text and meme generation). Knowing that in depth is gold for AI advocates.

Otherwise, I don't think people really know or care about bugs or specifications or how AI breaks prior programmer models.

But people will become very hostile and demand regulatory frenzies if AI screws things up (e.g., influencing elections or putting people out of work). Then no amount of sympathy or understanding will help the industry, which has steadily been growing its capability for evading regulation via liability disclaimers, statutory exceptions, arbitration clauses, pitting local/regional/national governments against each other, etc.

To me that's the biggest risk: we won't get the benefits and generational investments will be lost in cleaning up after a few (even accidental) bad actors at scale.
by bigbadfeline | 2025-10-15 03:21:47+00:00
> I literally showed you a graph showing that cars were getting cheaper over time.

You're literally wrong. The graph shows only that cars are getting more expensive over time just not as mush as gas.

> You can chart new car price vs. median income too, it shows the same shape.

Shape? Median? Not good enough. I want to see the price piloted against each decile of income.

> Do you not believe it, or maybe misunderstand what inflation is?

Inflation is a tax imposed by one group on another. Maybe you misunderstand what it is?
by kube-system | 2025-10-15 03:21:47+00:00
It's a fun thought exercise, but putting "part 96 certification" at the end of my build pipeline sounds pretty expensive. And building a physical cell phone network is stupidly capital intensive. Maybe there are some interesting small scale niches that this would be useful for. But as a daily driver cell phone, I don't think we're ever gonna have an open source modem, at least not until there are significant changes to the spectrum that's in use.