MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by motorest | 2025-10-02 07:25:20+00:00
> I'm not sure that your objection puts anything to rest, least of all a "cargo cult mentality". You re-assert exactly what I say just to disagree and miss the rest of the post.

Not quite. I'm pointing out how your argument is based on a cargo cult mentality where throwing "functional programming" labels at practices is all that's needed to fix any and all problems. It is not. Functional programming has been a thing for decades and you still get software with the same rate of bugs and failures than your average codebase.

> Codebases which are not written in a functional style are not functional programming, no matter the language being used.

This is another predictable way on how the cargo cult mentality copes with the failures to live up to the extraordinary claims. You're pinning the blame of the bug-free cargo planes not landing on your makeshift functional programming airport because of how the cult of functional programming is being practiced wrong.

The truth of the matter is that programming paradigms are not panaceas, and developers still need to be mindful of software engineering best practices to minimize the risk of introducing problems.
by Someone | 2025-10-02 07:25:48+00:00
The embedded WASM makes this more extensible, but still, they have to choose, and freeze forever, interfaces that the WASM blocks can implement. Chances are that will, at some time, become a pain point.

They also have to specify the WASM version. In 6 years, we already have 3 versions there (https://webassembly.org/specs/). Are those 100% backwards compatible?
by paulf38 | 2025-10-02 07:25:51+00:00
C is the language that benefits the most from tools like Valgrind. It's just so easy in C to write code with memory faults.

Memcheck (the main tool) has shortcomings (very slow, does not detect all kinds of errors). Its strongest point is that it does not need an instrumented build. That can be particularly important if you have issues in 3rd party libraries that you can't build. Its other strong point is that it checks for both addressability and initialisedness at the same time.

My favourite feature is using GDB with Valgrind+vgdb. That allows you to see what memory is addressable and/or initialised from within GDB.
by komali2 | 2025-10-02 07:26:23+00:00
It could be clownish and a caricature. I enjoyed The Road but it makes me think of a critique of sci fi I read once, wherein masculine sci fi novels focus deeply on engineering problems and all but ignore human or environmental ones. Some books tackled this by demonstrating the presumptive and flawed approach sci fi writers take to biospheres / space stations / generation ships for example (Voyage from Yesteryear, A Half Built Garden) where despite all the engineering, the biosphere suffers. I suppose a part of why Dune made such waves was that it took a very human and ecological perspective front and center.

The Road could be seen as overly masculine in its portrayal of a man and his son against nearly the entire world, which is often the fantasy of male prepper types. Some oppositional takes to this would be e.g. Cory Doctorow's Masque of the Red Death, where he presents the dichotomy directly in a post-apocalypse world and argues for the more optimistic outcome, wherein people work together in a non-exclusionary way to overcome whatever the apocalyptic scenario is, which might be considered a more feminine perspective. Others taking that perspective would include Rebecca Solnit in "A Paradise Built in Hell."

In the Too Like Lightning series, Ada Palmer takes on the male/feminine sci fi angle directly by creating a near-utopian society of mostly gender neutral people. At one point in the novel a character argues that in fact they've created a feminine society of women, and therefore aren't prepared to handle the outlier class of people that want to create war, who have for the most part began to present explicitly as men.
by wolvesechoes | 2025-10-02 07:26:31+00:00
Reading some comments here on the one hand makes me feel safe, because seems like a lot of tech people do not understand what power is and why it matters, so someone that does can feel little bit more secure. One the other hand makes me pessimistic, because it confirms what I thought for a long time - nothing will happen to improve those important, society-wide topics (FOSS, privacy, personal computing), because... tech people do not understand what power is and why it matters.
by adornKey | 2025-10-02 07:26:56+00:00
Calling cargo cultists to get back to data and science is absolutely something for Hackers.. This is the only thing that might help them. - and they need help - If nobody can find keywords about those subjects to get started researching, they'll end up like the women in Iran. In Iran it was more difficult to argue against some vague will of god. But the modern western cargo cults go openly against hard data. So it's a lot easier - at least for people with a bit of skill in math in physics.
by hgomersall | 2025-10-02 07:27:18+00:00
What level of evidence is acceptable before stopping things entering our food chain? Is it anything that doesn't have positive evidence of harm ok? Presumably a little bit of study is required... So how much? How many interactions should be studied? Is there a benefit trade off (I'm actually struggling here, so if you think so, perhaps you can clarify what benefits would lead to a a higher risk of harm)?
by nsomaru | 2025-10-02 07:27:35+00:00
Hey, I’m interested in what you call “agentic search”. Did you roll your own or are you using a set of integrated tools?

I’ve used LightRAG and looking to integrate it with OpenWebUI and possibly air weave which was a show HN earlier.

My data is highly structured and has references between documents, so I wanted to leverage that structure for better retrieval and reasoning.
Show HN: A website blocker for improving focus that actually works
by academic_84572 | 2025-10-02 07:28:01+00:00
Like many of us, I struggle with staying focused and avoiding distractions while browsing the web. I’ve tried all the website blockers out there – Blocksite, Freedom, you name it. Most of these tools failed for one of two reasons: they were too strict, so I ended up disabling them permanently, or they were too lenient, so I would quickly find a way around them.

To solve this for myself, I built DecayBlock, a browser extension based on the principle of adaptive friction. The mechanism is simple:

1. When you visit a site on your distraction list, a brief timeout is applied before the page loads.

2. This timeout accumulates with each visit, so repeated or habitual access becomes progressively more difficult.

3. Over time, the accumulated timeout decays with a configurable half-life when you stay away from those sites.

The goal isn't to enforce a ban (although you can permanently block websites if you choose), but to introduce a small, increasing cost to the act of procrastination. That brief pause is often enough to break the subconscious loop of opening a distracting tab, without ever fully locking you out. You can configure the timeout growth rate and decay half-life to match your own habits.

I've been using this system daily for several months, and it has been significantly more effective for me than any other tool.

DecayBlock is available now on both the Chrome and Firefox web extension stores. Currently it’s only on desktop but I’m hoping to release a mobile version at some point in the future.

Chrome: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/decayblock/lpljcnal...

Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/decayblock/

I'm here to answer any questions and would love any feedback!
by Animats | 2025-10-02 07:28:06+00:00
Aw. I've always liked QNX. But a modern implementation, not a revival of a 30 year old abandoned project, would be more useful. We really need something for small IoT boxes that has less attack surface than Linux.

The problem people run into trying to build something like QNX is that, while the kernel is tiny, it won't even do Hello World until you have the necessary user-space drivers running. Initial debugging is hard.
by rurban | 2025-10-02 07:28:13+00:00
Large scale international espionage was created by private postal services: https://www.discover-innsbruck.at/en/thurn-und-taxis-und-die... which replaced the Imperial Reichspost. Later the center of espionage (letter opening) moved from Innsbruck to Frankfurt, with the Rothschild's taken over the news business for financial benefit, and nowadays the Frankfurt and Amsterdam InterXion's.
by PandaRider | 2025-10-02 07:30:43+00:00
I think the problem statement is: How do you know when to Let Go of the current boulder?

The poem suggested many many many possible when. Here's one: "unless it comes out of / your soul like a rocket,".

Unfortunately (or fortunately), in life, there is no methodology to prove that a given search problem is futile (e.g. NP-complete)... so we have to take our chances and choose. I believe that's the beauty of life: choice.
by oskarkk | 2025-10-02 07:32:04+00:00
Space dynamics are not that much deterministic. Gravity itself is kinda noisy (Earth isn't an ideal sphere with uniform density), there's the Moon, orbital decay (caused by drag from particles in low orbit, which is variable), solar radiation pressure (also variable), etc. Calculation of the dynamics will only give an approximate result, a prediction. They need constant measurement of the trajectories and frequent correction maneuvers (by ion engines). But yeah, I think that once the satellites accurately know each others trajectory, their movement shouldn't be a big issue for the lasers, as in the timespan of one laser connection it should be predictable with the required precision. And if both satellites would be on the same orbit, their relative movement should be ~0, so the laser beam ideally wouldn't move at all from the satellite's perspective, the angle would be constant.
by Tarkus2038 | 2025-10-02 07:33:48+00:00
"Bears sound smart, bulls get rich".

"The market can stay irrational for longer than you can stay solvent" (or in this case, for longer than you're willing to lose on gains).

Some individuals are simply less risk averse (or more influenced by FOMO) and more willing to play the musical chairs game for longer.
by wiseowise | 2025-10-02 07:33:51+00:00
No.

My 2 cents: article like these need to be presented with a big red disclaimer for folks who tend to obsess over things like ambition, prestige, fame.

Trying to emulate the greats is like trying to emulate WW2 pilot during the Battle of Britain. Sure, you might become one, but if odds are against you then there’s nothing you can do.

Idle time is extremely important for psyche and feeding it to your obsession will eventually drive you insane if you can’t achieve what you want.

On top of that, you’re not really providing any advice. You’re not explaining why they had the drive, what motivated them to do it in the first place. How do they maintain their life’s, how did they overcome difficulties, what families and environments they come from. You’re essentially shaming the reader for not being driven enough. As is being driven and motivated are the only things that you need to succeed.

I wouldn’t say it better than https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45442479

* Breath

* Touch grass

* Breath again

* Create a plan for yourself, follow it and don’t obsess over things
by james7132 | 2025-10-02 07:33:52+00:00
Once you understand that a crate is the translation unit in Rust, it doesn't feel as bad. Most medium to large Rust project's will separate out their code into separate crates for both organization and compile time.

I've definitely cloned down my fair share of C projects, mashed the make command into my terminal, and watched the gcc/clang logs fly by and never batted an eye beyond checking the sha256sum on any downloaded tarballs.

There's a valid argument to be made about supply chain attacks, but there does exist tooling to lock that down, and I would argue that any serious software development firm should be auditing every third party dependency they take on.
by warp | 2025-10-02 07:34:05+00:00
Google nowadays just seems afraid to store personal data. Google have moved your maps history/timeline to be on-device only, seemingly in response to geofence warrants. They're also deprecating health (Google Fit) APIs, and moving that data to be on-device.

So, removing POP (where they need to download emails to their servers), and only supporting IMAP (where emails stay on the third-party server) via their GMail app, that would be consistent with a policy to store as little personal data as possible. (it could also be completely unrelated :)
by johnnyanmac | 2025-10-02 07:35:57+00:00
>The guidelines call on us to converse curiously, even if we think the other party is not doing so. They call on us to de-escalate, not find justifications for escalation.

That's fair, and I've flagged a few here. I don't think the above comment I replied to was flag worthy (having a bad take =/= having bad faith), but I do feel like it's a "borderline" comment that can either end in providing knowledge to someone, or devolving into a flame war.

I just feel kind of icky that I may need to "bait out" a bad faith actor. I'm not trying to "gotcha" someone and flag their account. But I know just having that mentality by itself is a bad way to approach conversation.

At the same time I also want to have have a charitable interpretation first and be able to point out certain points, no matter how seemingly obvious it is. It's an awkward balance.
by eesmith | 2025-10-02 07:36:22+00:00
You shouldn't add hundred million 32-bit floating point numbers in the naive way. You should use Kahan or Neumaier summation. In Python these are available as math.fsum() and (in recent Python releases) the built-in sum function.

If you did

total = 0.0 for value in data: total += value

instead of

total = sum(data)

then yes, the answer will take longer and be less accurate. But the naive native Rust equivalent will be less accurate than Python's sum(data).
by teleforce | 2025-10-02 07:37:14+00:00
Fun fact, in the Quran prophet David (Dawwud) was granted a miracle that he can shape and mould iron easily, perhaps for building weaponary and armor.

Another fun fact, there's a surah or chapter name iron (Al-Hadiid) in the Quran [2].

[1] Quran 34:10:

https://quran.com/saba/10

Indeed, We granted David a (great) privilege from Us, (commanding:) “O mountains! Echo his hymns! And the birds as well.” We made iron mouldable for him.

[2] Surah Al-Hadiid (Quran 57):

https://quran.com/al-hadid
by dns_snek | 2025-10-02 07:38:26+00:00
> normal life for most people ... except perhaps to the degree it is felt or needed

Well, yes, precisely. Almost everyone can relate to experiencing mild or moderate back pain for a couple of days when they sleep in a weird position, but some people have chronic back pain that makes life unbearable without prescription pain killers.

While talking to people about my ADHD in real life I noticed that many of them speak like they understand ADHD. Even when I try to explain in more detail they come really close to "getting it" by superficially relating to some of the ADHD symptoms, but unfortunately almost all of them end up taking the logical leap to say that "everyone deals with this" and start recommending "solutions".

Most people will never understand ADHD just like I don't truly understand what life is like for people with chronic pain, and that's fine.

People seem to at least conceptually understand that chronic pain = pain like they know it + much worse + never-ending, which they recognize as being awful. The thing that bothers me is that when it comes to ADHD (and autism) the calculation suddenly becomes ADHD = concentration problems they experienced + exaggeration + lack of discipline.

ADHD is relentless, it follows you everywhere, you can take many months off from work for stress relief and it will still be there (I tried). You can make sure to sleep well, eat well, exercise, avoid all stressors, focus on hobbies that make you happy and it'll still be there.

People juggle sleep deprivation, stressful job and/or kids, socializing, chores, appointments on a daily basis and say that concentration problems are normal, and yes, of course they are if you're overloading yourself like that. But many people with ADHD experience those (and much more) at our baseline and if I tried to achieve half of what other people achieve on a daily basis, I would burn myself out in under a month.

Some people might read this and think that this I'm an outlier but I think I'm pretty average as far as ADHD severity goes, I managed to finish university before struggling to keep up outside of highly structured environments, and ultimately getting diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.
by WalterBright | 2025-10-02 07:38:58+00:00
Try threading a nut onto a bolt. Pay attention to how your fingers feel when the threads engage properly and you aren't cross-threading it.

Next, insert a Standard screwdriver into a screw head, set the screw in place, and screw it in. In order to make it work, you have to push and torque it at the same time, and not let the blade slip out of the hole or damage the screw head.

If you think this is easy, try to teach a kid to do it. Watch them struggle to control the nut and the screwdriver.

Our hands are really, really good at both major motor control and very fine motor control.
by lllllm | 2025-10-02 07:39:05+00:00
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by frm88 | 2025-10-02 07:39:44+00:00
I skimmed the study you linked. It has a focus on the social aspects of renewable energy, namely would the population react with acceptance or resistance (or varying degrees thereof ) and is divided into the corresponding scenarios which influence the outcome. That said, the summary clearly states that it is both technically feasible and more cost efficient if suffiency with renewable is realized if you can build on wide social acceptance.

I think this paints your statements in a different light. You omitted the studies focus on social aspects.
by Certhas | 2025-10-02 07:39:54+00:00
It even says so right in the abstract:

"Embedding the decoders in each file requires minimal storage (kilobytes) and ensures compatibility on any platform in case native decoders are unavailable."

The idea that software I write today can decode a data file written in ten years using new encodings is quite appealing.

And the idea that new software written to make use of the new encodings doesn't have to carry the burden of implementing the whole history of encoders for backwards compatibility likewise.
by dlivingston | 2025-10-02 07:40:44+00:00
C++ modules seem like one of those things worth staying far, far away from. I wish they worked well because it would be a huge boon to modernizing C++. But from what I've seen, it's a dumpster fire. The spec is too broad and ill-defined. The compilers have gone to herculean lengths to implement it regardless, and MSVC is the only compiler with full support (for a C++20 feature, mind you). [0]

Libraries aren't implementing it. There's no `cargo`-like tooling for installing modules (AFAIK).

Can the C++ committee revert or refine the modules spec? Has anything like that been done before?

[0]: https://arewemodulesyet.org/tools/
by codematters | 2025-10-02 07:40:57+00:00
Location: Belgium, Europe

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Willing to relocate: Yes

Technologies: Java and its ecosystem, distributed systems, devops, infra, ...

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bram-van-dam-606b952

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Summary: 20+ years of experience as a software engineer, mostly in fintech and adult entertainment. Available as a freelancer. Pretty varied skillset: deep in core Java, a bit less deep in DevOps, and pretty broad in general. Especially interested in distributed systems, performance, big data, and security.
by ecerulm | 2025-10-02 07:42:14+00:00
I can't agree more.

The PR review cycle is not a good fit for MVP (and to internal tools, etc.) . I think, GitOps still can be used if

* You have a sandbox / test environment * Allow the developers to push directly (no PR) to the branch used for that test environment

So for me it's not about GitOps (having the description of the deployment in git) it's a about the git workflow for these cases (PR review cycle vs pushing directly to branch).
by ThrowReqAwayIt | 2025-10-02 07:42:27+00:00
That's tomorrow's problem, not today's? In the face of tyranny we stay on our toes and try to keep one step ahead of the dictators so we don't end up underneath their boots.

As the UK, USA, and 1/2 of Europe start modeling themselves after erdogan and putina, just know we are all facing the same enemies now.
by munksbeer | 2025-10-02 07:42:36+00:00
I frequently see this sentiment but it's not really very informed or informative. Greek creditors took huge haircuts on the debt - that never gets mentioned.

Then, Greece had a choice, just like every other country always has a choice when faced with a debt crisis: Accept the terms of people who will bail you out, or default. It is always like this, because no-one is going to bail you out if it is apparent that the situation will just repeat. The Greek people voted to reject the terms of the bailouts, which meant leaving the Euro, printing their own currency, and accepting that the global capital markets would not be buying their bonds for the foreseeable future. The Greek government saw the choice and ignored the people, because they knew the alternative to the bailout was far, far worse. The only reason they ran that referendum was to try use it to bargain for better terms, they never had any intention of defaulting.
by sofra4 | 2025-10-02 07:43:28+00:00
GHCO - https://www.ghco.co.uk/ | Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Trade Application Support | London | Hybrid | Full Time GHCO is an ETF market maker, quoting across European exchanges. We're a small team of expert traders and proven software engineers, looking for experienced technologists who have an interest in advancing the state of the art in automated market making. Tech stack we're hiring for: Java, Python, SQL, AWS

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by johnnyanmac | 2025-10-02 07:43:32+00:00
Not really. I don't think I "need" it myself. My sector will be much more resistant to the advent of AI compared to others anyway, so I'm not worried of being displaced short term. My industry didn't need AI as an excuse to lay off a bunch of people every year.

I'm just demonstrating that advancing technology and throwing a whole job sector out with nowhere to go is not mutually exclusive. And that the lack of any such conversation means we'll just go down the same bloody path as last time in history.
by james7132 | 2025-10-02 07:43:45+00:00
Zig has not hit 1.0 yet, and as recently as a few months ago completely reworked how every form of IO is written. AFAIK, this wasn't a syntax change, but it changed the function signature or type definition of every piece of code that reads/writes a file, establishes a connection, etc. At the current time, there is little guarantee that the code you write today will still work in 5-10 years time.