MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by johnnyanmac | 2025-10-27 04:04:02+00:00
>when it's been tried before those assumptions failed, badly.

Turns out Americans don't want to move out to rural areas to be paid minimum wage to do hard farm labor. Who knew?

That's the only real upside to this gig economy. Their competition isn't just flipping burgers, but anyone who has a car that can sign up to an app to make some quick cash.
by ggm | 2025-10-27 04:07:03+00:00
I like the idea of an adjunct energy storage, and I can see why a salt tank, kept hot (like really hot. these things can be 500°C or more (even the cold tank is just below 300°C) and the "salt" is sodium or calcium nitrate type stuff) does the trick because heat exchanger back to working liquid for the turbine, thats well understood.

But I also would have thought a battery stack would perform exactly the same function as the salt tank: long duration storage of energy, available to supplement the nuclear power when required.

I believe there's some other reason this specific coupling of a reactor and a heat store makes sense which I didn't get from this article: Maybe it provides resiliency for thermal systems management overall?
by Twirrim | 2025-10-27 04:08:20+00:00
S3 does more than 3x replica durability, as well, they use a form of erasure coding. They can lose several hard drives/servers/racks before your data becomes at risk, and have sufficient spare capacity to very quickly reproduce any missing shards before things become a problem.

That said, S3 seems like a really odd fit for their workload, plus their dependency on lifecycle rules seems utterly bizarre.

> Storage was a secondary tax. Even when processing finished in ~2 s, Lifecycle deletes meant paying for ~24 h of storage.

They decided not to implement the deletion logic in their service, so they'd just leave files sitting around for hours instead needlessly paying that storage cost? I wonder how much money they'd have saved if they just added that deletion logic.
by lukan | 2025-10-27 04:12:30+00:00
"So in practice it seems like touching without asking isn't currently widely recognized to be unacceptable by the average person."

You always are supposed to ask. You just don't have to verbalize it every time.

Like I said, eye contact for example. And then it really depends on the reaction, when and where and if a slight touch is appropriate.

You can differentiate a smile and eye contact (approval) from not smiling and looking away? Because that basically is the fundamental "secret". And whether you are charming and attractive just influences the chance the other person will react with a welcoming smile.

(good looks are really just a small factor here btw, but rather a relaxed smile paired with confidence)
by strken | 2025-10-27 04:13:44+00:00
I would have assumed it would be relevant to supply chains. I too do not understand its relevance to consumption. It seems like you could substantially increase your material footprint by digging two holes and swapping the soil, which is a little silly.

That being said, GDP is also a silly measure: I pay you a billion dollars to slap yourself, you pay me a billion dollars to stomp on my own foot, and we've just raised GDP by $2bn. Despite its ridiculous nature, in practice it seems to correlate with the things we do care about.
by pjjpo | 2025-10-27 04:13:59+00:00
I don't know about the commenter specifically but in general, using LLMs to format text is a game changer in the ability for English-as-Second-Language folks to contribute to tech conversations. While I get where some of the bias against anything LLM generated comes from, I would keep it for editorial content and not community comments to be fair to a global audience.
by jrowen | 2025-10-27 04:14:41+00:00
The anti-abortion example was extreme and perhaps uncalled for but I just really think there are numerous social issues far more worthy of dumping ire into, and that point has not really been contested by anyone in this thread. Why is this so important to this segment of people?

Curious how you arrived at the 45 minute figure. Maybe back in the day if you watched TV with commercials all day. Even watching YouTube all day I doubt I could break 15. Ads on Instagram, Facebook, most Google products, often consume a fraction of a second to get past. I will grant that there is a pervasiveness and we are exposed to a higher number of ads in the fabric of our daily lives than before and I agree that it is distasteful and inelegant but again, at the end of the day...really doesn't seem like that big of a "problem" for society, especially when you do consider the upside of all of the free things people get from ad-supported models. YouTube is an absolute godsend for dissemination of information and knowledge at the fingertips of every individual with a connected device so who really gives a damn if you have to watch a few ads? This is the evil in the world we're gonna crusade against?

And the crazy thing is, with targeted ads and so many niche products and companies out there, sometimes you actually see something you would like to buy! HN: Ugh, disgusting, you buy things?
by somenameforme | 2025-10-27 04:15:24+00:00
Like I'm sure you can see yourself already, a lot depends on the individuals in question. I'm approaching my mid 40s and am still a gym rat - and at my peak lifetime strength + endurance levels. On the other hand I also have peers that have already muddled their minds and broken their bodies, often through years of indulgence, sometimes well before their 40s.

This [1] is RFK Jr at friggin 71 years old, amongst other athletic feats you can find videos of. He's on testosterone replacement therapy, but on the other hand I don't think that's really some big asterisk. Testosterone is absolutely critical for men and it declines as we age. When I reach the point where my testosterone has meaningfully diminished, I'll also likely do the same. And TRT alone doesn't give you results like that - that's the result of endless dedication to maintaining your health and fitness.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpeGjCBF_z4
by hopelite | 2025-10-27 04:15:41+00:00
I’m more surprised and equally concerned that the majority of people’s understanding of intelligence and their definition of AGI. Not only does the definition “… matching the cognitive versatility and proficiency of a well-educated adult.”, by definition violate the “general” in AGI, by the “well educated” part; but it also implies that only the “well-educated” (presumably by a specific curriculum) qualifies one as intelligent and by definition also once you depart from the “well” of the “educated” you exponentially diverge from “intelligent”. It all seems rather unimpressive intelligence.

In other words; in one question; is the current AI not already well beyond the “…cognitive versatility and proficiency of an uneducated child”? And when you consider that in many places like Africa, they didn’t even have a written language until European evangelists created it and taught it to them in the late 19th century, and they have far less “education” than even some of the most “uneducated” avg., European and even many American children, does that not mean that AI is well beyond them at least?

Frankly, as it seems things are going, there Is at the very least going to be a very stark shift in “intelligence” that even exceeds that which has happened in the last 50 or so years that have brought us stark drops in memory, literary knowledge, mathematics, and even general literacy, not to mention the ability to write. What does it mean that kids now will not even have to feign acting like they’re selling out sources, vetting them, contradicting a story or logical sequence, forming ideas, messages, and stories, etc.? I’m not trying to be bleak, but I don’t see tons simply resulting in net positive outcomes, and most of the negative impacts will also be happening below the surface to the point that people won’t realize what is being lost.
by Peacefulz | 2025-10-27 04:16:16+00:00
If we organized a content storm campaign we could make this effort moot. Time to start building a portfolio of dummy accounts to muddy the water. Remember... TAILS and fresh IP's for each account, ideally nodes you can get back on with ease. Use a public network if possible.

Bonus: You can also use these accounts to undermine the Online Safety Act at the same time!
by Fnoord | 2025-10-27 04:17:56+00:00
> Any fundamentalist religious community

For starters, wasn't the USA founded by, ehh.. how shall I say it tactically, very religious people?

Considering the tech companies kissing Trump's ring start of Jan 2025, we might well be going that way. I mean, it is no secret if you read Project 2025 or a decent summary of it.

Either way, if we ignore all that (too 'political'), it is being used today for amplification of (bogus) information and to influence our democratic processes. Social media is a propaganda tool in the hands of the wrong people.

East Germany is an interesting example, as it is relatively recent. There was mass surveillance in such dictatorship. People's homes were tapped, informants, all the post was opened, read and closed. About one third of the East German population worked for the East German government. This is very inefficient if you think about it. If they had more surveillance tools at their disposal, they'd also need more automation/computers/ML to aid with said surveillance.

In the same vein, something as simple as Bluetooth has been used for P2P messaging between smartphones in mass demonstrations. Think about the revolutions in countries such as Ukraine, Egypt, and many other in that region.
by runarberg | 2025-10-27 04:19:08+00:00
I never really understood what made the Turing test so special. On the face of it, it is a rather dumb test. And it was debunked within two decades by the Chinese room thought experiment. And now that we have language models that are obviously not intelligent, it should have been the last nail in the coffin for this test.

Alan Turing was a mathematician not a psychologist, this was his attempt of doing philosophy. And while I applaud brilliant thinkers when they attempt to do philosophy (honestly we need more of that) it is better to leave it to actual philosophers to validate the quality of said philosophy. John Searle was a philosopher which specialized in questions of psychology. And in 1980 he pretty convincingly argued against the Turning test.
by toast0 | 2025-10-27 04:19:17+00:00
> The key seems to be truly independent failure domains - something NORAD achieved through physical separation that's harder to replicate in cloud environments.

It's not hard to achieve separation in cloud environments. It's just expensive, and for most, the need doesn't justify the expense. Every once in a while you do run into things like actually all the clouds in (location) are located in the same building; or you paid for two separate strands, but a backhoe has determined that both strands are in the same bundle. Or your two redundant providers of whatever use each other to provide service.
by ashdksnndck | 2025-10-27 04:20:05+00:00
I’m worried that LLMs could facilitate cheap, scaled astroturfing.

I understand that people encounter discrimination based on English skill, and it makes sense that people will use LLMs to help with that, especially in a professional context. On the other hand, I’d instinctively be more trusting of the authenticity of a comment with some language errors than one that reads like it was generated by ChatGPT.
by phito | 2025-10-27 04:20:26+00:00
It just makes everything sound bland and soulless. You don't know which part of the message actually comes from the user's brain and which part has been added/suggested by the LLM. The latter is not an original thought and it would be disingenuous to include it, but people do because it makes them look smarter. Meanwhile, on the other side, you might as well be talking to a LLM...
by Fnoord | 2025-10-27 04:20:27+00:00
Fairphone (with Fairphone Moments) has a focus mode [1]. I should write a bit about it here instead of merely linking to it, but I do not have the Fairphone 6 with this mode so I feel like I cannot comment on it the way I'd like to (I've owned Fairphone 2, 3, 4, 5). They're not the first though, see e.g. Lightphone [2].

What I want (and I suppose this is kind of possible with Island or equivalent application) is a guest mode for my kids. So I can give them my smartphone without my notifications popping up between a game or movie.

[1] https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/268869393266...

[2] https://www.thelightphone.com
by lukan | 2025-10-27 04:20:34+00:00
"So the standard as you've stated if we take it literally seems to reiterate the idea that some behavior from charming people is acceptable but from awkward people is not. But it also sounds like that is not what you intend, is that correct?"

No. Not at all. It has nothing to do with being charming or attractive, that you look someone in the eye first and evaluate their reaction, before making closer contact. That is part of normal human communication.

So if someone really cannot do it out of being autistic ... then it is up to them to communicate their unability to communicate like normal persons. Those are exceptions.

But there is also a big group of people who use autism as an excuse to be an asshole. In the sense not really caring what reaction the other person gives. And then complaining other people feel molested (I had this exact conversation with someone who thought it is appropriate to ask unknown women directly for sex, without ever daring to look them in the eye first).
by rootnod3 | 2025-10-27 04:20:49+00:00
It's the Innolux IGZO Low-Power FHD Panel. There are similar ones or same on AliEpxress for example. Compared to the default FHD screen of the T480, The low power screen cuts the power consumption of the display by about 40%. While also having better contrast and brightness. Biggest power-saving upgrade for the T480.
by anticensor | 2025-10-27 04:21:35+00:00
> The type theories of Lean and Rocq are fairly close, with the exception that Lean operates with definitional proof irrelevance as one of the default axioms. This causes Lean to lose subject reduction and decidability of definitinal equality as properties of the language.

Couldn't you introduce proof relevance as an explicit axiom into a Lean program to solve that particular issue?
by sandworm101 | 2025-10-27 04:21:45+00:00
It is more than the computer tech. Norad's tasking to the computer people was itself pulled from the air combat tech of the time: fast planes with very short-ranged weapons. With the threat of incoming supersonic bombers, NORAD needed to get interceptors on the tail of those bombers within, perhaps, a one-mile margin if they were to employ the missiles/gun available at the time. At supersonic speeds, and fuel reserved measured in seconds, delay or calculation error was unacceptable.

Any system of human controllers talking to human pilots would not be up to the task. Even a one-second delay would have meant a missed intercept. They needed machines to make the calculations and issue the orders. Those same machines eventually even controlled the interceptors directly, interacting with onboard radar/autopilot systems to remotely steer fighters into position.

Things would be/are very different today. Long-range air-to-air missiles/radar mean fighters do not need sub-second navigation accuracy to intercept fast targets. Air-to-air refueling also means fighters can loiter in position rather than panic-launch from the ground. Pilots today would balk at the idea of having a computerized ground controller drive "their" aircraft. It is now an unnecessary and alien concept.

Had missile and airborne radar tech advanced a little faster, maybe a little less than a decade, NORAD may not have asked for all those computers. Who knows what the world would look then like today. Get the sparrow (Aim-7) missile ready in 52 instead of 58 and maybe the computer revolution happens much more slowly.
by NoMoreNicksLeft | 2025-10-27 04:22:33+00:00
> Enforcement on businesses hiring non legal workers

How do you imagine such an enforcement effort would proceed? Paint me a picture please. Illustrate a hypothetical example, just one company. What would really happen is that you'd check these businesses, and all the paperwork's in order. Social security numbers for everyone (even if those aren't their own). Without probable cause though, wouldn't even get that far, would they? They'd need that for the search warrants... not that judges are very agreeable to signing those, not when they tend to help illegals flee out the back door of the courthouse so that ICE won't wait at the front door grab and deport them.

>We are not fixing the root cause here even if you believe that immigration is bad for the country.

Sometimes all you can do is treat the symptoms.
by varenc | 2025-10-27 04:22:35+00:00
In HN style, I'm going to diverge from the content and rant about the company:

Nanit needs this storage because they run cloud based baby cameras. Every Nanit user is uploading video and audio of their home/baby live to Nanit without any E2EE. It's a hot mic sending anything you say near it to the cloud.

Their hardware essentially requires a subscription to use, even though it costs $200/camera. You must spend an additional $200 on a Nanit floor stand if you want sleep tracking. This is purely a software limitation since there's plenty of other ways to get an overhead camera mount. (I'm curious how they even detect if you're using the stand since it's just a USB-C cable. Maybe etags?)

Of course Nanit is a popular and successful product that many parents swear by. It just pains me to see cloud based in-home audio/video storage being so normalized. Self-hosted video isn't that hard but no one makes a baby-monitor centric solution. I'm sure the cloud based video storage model will continue to be popular because it's easy, but also because it helps justifies a recurring subscription.

edit: just noticed an irony in my comment. I'm ranting about Nanit locking users into their 3rd party cloud video storage, and the article is about Nanit's engineering team moving off a 3rd party (S3) and self-hosting their own storage. Props to them for getting off S3.
by grayhatter | 2025-10-27 04:23:11+00:00
IMO, it's very wrong. Zig's language is not drastically changing, it's adding a new, *very* powerful API, which similar to how most everything in zig passes an allocator as a function param, soon functions that want to do IO, will accept an object that will provide the desired abstraction, so that callers can define the ideal implementation.

In other words, the only reason to not use zig if you detest upgrading or improving your code. Code you write today will still work tomorrow. Code you write tomorrow, will likely have a new Io interface, because you want to use that standard abstraction. But, if you don't want to use it, all your existing code will still work.

Just like today, if you want to alloc, but don't want to pass an `Allocator` you can call std.heap.page_allocator.alloc from anywhere. But because that abstraction is so useful, and zig supports it so ergonomically, everyone writes code that provides that improved API

side note; I was worried about upgrading all my code to interface with the new Reader/Writer API that's already mostly stable in 0.15.2, but even though I had to add a few lines in many existing projects to upgrade. I find myself optionally choosing to refactor a lot of functions because the new API results is code that is SO much better. Both in readability, but also performance. Do I have to refactor? No, the old API works flawlessly, but the new API is simply more ergonomic, more performant and easier to read and reason about. I'm doing it because I want to, not because I have to.

Everyone knows' a red diff is the best diff, and the new std.Io API exposes an easier way to do things. Still, like everything in zig, it allows you to write the code that you want to write. But if you want to do it yourself, that's fully supported too!
by noduerme | 2025-10-27 04:23:33+00:00
I'm also attracted to the idea of reducing rule sets to simple algorithms and axioms, in every case you can. But I'm skeptical that consciousness can be reduced that way. I think if it can be, we'll see it in the distillation and quantizing of smaller and smaller scale models converging on similar adaptations, as opposed to the need for greater scale (at least in inference). I still believe language processing is the wrong task to train to that point. I'd like to see AIs that model thought process, logic, tool construction, real-world tasks without language. Maybe even those that model vocal chords and neurological processes instead of phonemes. Most animals don't use language, and as a result we can't ask if they're conscious, but they probably are. Navigating and manipulating the physical world from the cellular level up to swinging from trees is far more complex - language is a very late invention, and is not in and of itself intelligence - it may just be a lagging indicator.

To the extent that we vainly consider ourselves intelligent for our linguistic abilities, sure. But this underrates the other types of spatial and procedural reasoning that humans possess, or even the type that spiders possess.
by jacobn | 2025-10-27 04:23:52+00:00
If there’s an issue with the core then the salt tank can act as a heat sink in a way a battery can’t?

The boiling / pressure water reactors all have requirements on active cooling being maintained in emergencies - I’m not familiar with this design nor to what extent the salt is intended to fulfill such a function, but it’s plausible that it could buffer things for idk 1h-3d maybe?

The holy grail is the “walk away safe” reactor, I would hope / presume all the novel / modern ones fulfill that?
by somenameforme | 2025-10-27 04:25:00+00:00
Fully agreed on this, the generational stuff is where having children late is just brutal. When I was young, I actually often hung out my grand grandmother's place, drinking real buttermilk and eating the tasty goodies it can produce. I took it all for granted, but it was a wonderful upbringing and undoubtedly took a major load of my parent. I'm not actually entirely sure why she decided to move to the city at which point that entire network disappeared and things became much more difficult for both of us. And I don't think I really want to ask why either.

On the other hand here I am today living half way around the world from where I was born, so maybe this urge to expand outward is some sort of genetic thing. Could explain a lot about humanity - Africa was pretty much a utopia especially relative to the damnable freezing wastelands the 'Northern Lands.' Gotta be something a bit wrong with some of us! Hey who's up for going to Mars? I am!
by nunez | 2025-10-27 04:28:25+00:00
Okay, so weird and maybe unrelated question.

There's this hardcore punk album from 1981 called "This is Boston not LA." On it, there's a track called "Radio UNIX USA" by the FUs.

I can't find ANY origin stories about the title. The lyrics have nothing to do with UNIX either, weirdly enough. However, this band is from Boston, and MIT was doing UNIXy stuff at around this time.

Anyone have any clue as to the origin for this track?