MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by jeroenhd | 2025-10-25 16:46:49+00:00
I have a PC with a 7700k that doesn't qualify despite running circles around the crappy Pentiums and Atoms that did get the ability to upgrade. I get that they don't want to support ancient hardware but a good amount of powerful CPUs in the Intel 6XXX and 7XXX series, as well as powerful first-gen Zen CPUs got cut off for no clear reason.

As far as I can tell, Windows barely leverages the new features in TPM 2 for consumer versions and the code for TPM 1.2 still seems to be there. The intruction set also didn't meaningfully change, unless we're talking 2010 era chips.

I'm not using Windows on that desktop anymore so I don't feel too bad about it, but I can easily give my PC to a relative if I get a new one and they'd be able to keep using it for five or six years when it comes to performance. The only real obstacle is software support.
by mtneglZ | 2025-10-25 16:46:56+00:00
Smith charts look really cool, and they can be really useful for modeling, but for me I can't see the phasors when I use a Smith chart. Myself and all the EEs I work with use bode plots to see mag and phase response across frequency. I know some sick f EEs that just want raw IQ pairs. But Smith charts look sci fi so they're good too.
by jorangreef | 2025-10-25 16:48:00+00:00
You're right! In the past, distributed databases written without Deterministic Simulation Testing (DST) would typically take around ~10 years (~5 years for the consensus protocol and ~5 years for the storage engine). And then not without bugs.

However, and we write about this also in the post, but TigerStyle and DST enabled us to ship TigerBeetle to production in 3.5 years, in less time, to a higher standard, and to be the first distributed database with an explicit storage fault model (Kyle Kingsbury added new storage fault injectors to Jepsen) solving Protocol-Aware Recovery.

Our Jepsen audit is here (also linked in the post): https://jepsen.io/analyses/tigerbeetle-0.16.11

For more on TigerStyle as a methodology, hope you enjoy this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3WYdYyjek4
by clickety_clack | 2025-10-25 16:48:13+00:00
It seems like maybe you should just talk to your colleague who wrote the code. It would be far more efficient than having them create and review a whole review experience on top of the work that they did, and then have you try to understand a walkthrough document (that might have hallucinated explanations that the requester didn’t quite catch) plus the underlying code, plus still have to talk to them to ask clarifying questions anyway.
by JeremyPOsborne | 2025-10-25 16:48:17+00:00
You are right! I was unfair. The customer was clear they wanted ManJ calcs.

It's not the customer's problem to reduce cost. The high cost is the customer's problem through even if they are not to blame. And given I have a first hand experience in the cost stack of HVAC company, I would happy to share how a HVAC contractor thinks.
by egeozcan | 2025-10-25 16:49:31+00:00
As a person who switched from windows to mac (while linux being an all-time constant) for other reasons, it still feels like a weird migration because windows is a system full of glaring bugs that everyone experiences but knows how to work around while mac is (feels like) a system absent of huge flaws but there are many more smaller bugs that very small number of users experience that are seemingly impossible to work around.

One thing that's driving me crazy:

So for example you have 5 virtual desktops on Mac, and you use a keyboard shortcut to move left and right. So, if you start from the 1st and go to the 3rd and then immediately try to go back to the 2nd (1->3->2), animations need to complete on the 3rd until you can change direction. Doesn't happen if you start from the 2nd and go to the 4th then change direction to move to the 3rd(2->4->3). Same when beginning from the 5th to the 3rd then back to 4th (5->3->4). Doesn't happen with 4->2->3. Also, the windows which are visible on all desktops are shown until the animation is complete then the last focused windows on that desktop will be shown. And even with reduced motion, some fade animation is still there. Infuriating stuff for otherwise a magical experience.
by blahedo | 2025-10-25 16:49:32+00:00
Responding to this and more generally to everyone mentioning insulation: I'm not saying that insulation is irrelevant, but when I say it fades out at low temps, I mean that if I put my hand over the forced-air duct it feels at best maybe a tiny bit warmer than the ambient air. (Which together with the forced-air circulation makes the room feel even colder, even if the temp is technically going up, but that's more a complaint about forced air, not heat pumps.) Insulation problems would mean I'm running it more and I'm paying more to heat the place than I might with better insulation. But insulation problems aren't what's causing the emitted air to feel cold.

Also, as noted, I'm sure part of it is that they gave me a heat pump that's rated to 5°C or whatever instead of -15. Probably because they expect that everyone around here has a backup heating system, and it doesn't get Sweden-cold (or Chicago-cold, for that matter) in this area. Cool cool, but that just reinforces the message that heat pumps can't hack it and if you're buying a heat pump system you really need to also buy a second system—which may not be entirely true but there's other people on this very thread with a kind of dismissive "everyone knows" attitude regarding backup heating that fundamentally undermines the original message (which was my whole point).
by em-bee | 2025-10-25 16:49:59+00:00
the method struggles with students that can't find that internal motivation

it was my impression that this should not be a problem, but i have to admit that my knowledge and experience with montessori is not enough to understand why this would or would not be the case.

if this is really a problem, it needs to be addressed, and i would find it surprising if it hasn't already been solved in the meantime. i don't believe that this is a new problem.
by ericpauley | 2025-10-25 16:50:16+00:00
Sure, but those amenities are highly visible. Lots of units have a stainless dishwasher exterior, but most will still be the landlord-special plastic tub inside. Who is shopping around based on whether or not there’s a heat pump? I would consider myself relatively well-educated on this and still the heat/cooling source is an afterthought.
by hakfoo | 2025-10-25 16:51:05+00:00
I'd wonder if especially at that point in history, trying to appear as a gaming platform would be a liability.

An early Mac was not a great gaming computer even by 1980s standards, and the last thing you want is Commodore or Atari running an ad saying "Apple's $2500 black-and-white prestige piece doesn't play games as well as a $299 C64/800XL". Not to mention the stink of the US video game market crash hovering around anything game-related.

If they pivot directly towards more professional workstation/publication/art department positions, nobody's making that point. (Now I'm thinking of the time "Boot", or maybe it was already "Maximum PC" by then, reviewed a SGI O2 and said it was impressive, but had limited game selections.)
by matheusmoreira | 2025-10-25 16:51:33+00:00
> we don't do enough to recognise that, in part because of how much free work is contributed by open source contributors and how little we recognise how much work they really do

Well then let's start recognizing it right now.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120620103603/http://zedshaw.co...

> Why I (A/L)GPL

> Open source to open source, corporation to corporation.

> If you do open source, you’re my hero and I support you.

> If you’re a corporation, let’s talk business.

> I want people to appreciate the work I’ve done and the value of what I’ve made.

> Not pass on by waving “sucker” as they drive their fancy cars.

https://zedshaw.com/blog/2022-02-05-the-beggar-barons/

> To the Beggar Baron, open source's value is its free donation.

> You would never stand on the street and offer to buy the wallets off people who are about to donate a few dollars to you. That'd be stupid.

> They're giving you their money for free. Take it and run.

Always slap AGPLv3 onto everything you make. Always choose the most copyleft license imaginable. Permissive licenses yield zero leverage. It's either AGPLv3 or all rights reserved.
by jeroenhd | 2025-10-25 16:52:00+00:00
My experience with alternatives (macOS, ChromeOS) isn't that different once you get past the setup screen. The privacy implications of an Apple account are much smaller than those of a Microsoft account, though.

It's a shame, really. Windows 11 has a whole bunch of nice-to-haves for development and gaming. They have one side making consistent improvements while the other makes the ecosystem as bad as they can.
by ehnto | 2025-10-25 16:52:25+00:00
10 year ago was 2015 mate, that's an outrageous time limit for a product you paid thousands for. If my bike EOLd itself after ten years I'd be livid. Imagine if your car just stopped starting after ten years.

Computers older than 10 years includes the vast majority of computers ever built. It's an insane requirement and it's not one that other OS share.

And the solution isn't hard work for Microsoft, the risk is mine to take if I don't want to upgrade for better secure boot.

Anyway, I migrated to linux for my gaming PC, the last Windows PC I had, and it's going really well. Good riddance.
by Bender | 2025-10-25 16:52:33+00:00
Just like in the movie Book of Eli [1] I will keep everyone's MP3 players charged. They can also come over and listen to solar powered Bluetooth speakers and their music, books, whatever. Maybe some children's books for the kiddos to keep some level of normalcy. This may be even more important should we go from economic collapse to societal collapse.

I appreciate you being that guy as I am often also that guy. We should form a club.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Eli
by ac29 | 2025-10-25 16:52:44+00:00
Of all of the things that are a challenge on Linux, UEFI isnt one of them. I'm curious what you mean.

The term might come up in Linux distro installers but the ones I have used recently all handle it fine (Arch, Debian, Fedora). Secure boot is even supported without hassle by all the major distributions. Once Linux is installed the user definitely doesn't need to care about the pre-OS boot firmware.
by geor9e | 2025-10-25 16:53:03+00:00
Can you clarify what operating system the gaming PC I play Elden Ring on is supposed to run? Please note that Windows 10 does not receive security updates, and Windows 11 blocks the install because my quad core intel CPU arbitrarily didn't make their list, and my motherboard doesn't have a TPM 2.0 module. If you're telling me that I should throw this amazing CPU in the trash, please say it outright. State that you think millions of still above‑average PC components should be arbitrarily turned into e‑waste, so that they can't be passed down to kids without a computer, can't serve any role at all, because we can now buy brand new 10x slower $150 ARM64 laptops with secure boot. If you think that trade-off is worth it, and that a big corporation isn't just doing it as planned obsolescence, I just want to hear it. Keep in mind there's a third‑party hack to flip the bit, allowing Windows 11 to install anyway. That proves Microsoft could save all these PCs from landfills if it wanted to.
by tgma | 2025-10-25 16:53:06+00:00
Technically WSL1 is superior, sure, but is that what users want? Seems like users are happily using VMs to run Docker on Mac and many don't even know it is VM underneath. I suppose max compatibility with Linux kernel is more of a desirable behavior, plus the engineering cost of WSL2 is minuscule compared to WSL1, especially once it is done. WSL1 would require continuous reimplementation of complex Linux kernel features as Windows syscalls.
by jellyfishbeaver | 2025-10-25 16:53:58+00:00
My dad used to tie up the Ethernet cable on our family's home router and hide it in a closet. The knots were to prevent us from reconnecting the router and putting it back before he got back home. He'd be able to tell if we tried since he was the only one able to tie that special knot :)

All to prevent my siblings and I from wasting our summers on Runescape or Miniclip or something. Looking back, the hours we were playing each day is nothing compared to the hours he spends scrolling through crap these days. My dad worked in such an intellectually stimulating job before, so it's baffling to see that he chooses to do this all day. I imagine most older parents are in the same boat these days. It has made me hate social media, YouTube, short videos, et al. even more
by leviliebvin | 2025-10-25 16:54:33+00:00
I recently tried to port my model to JAX. Got it all working the "JAX WAY", and I believe I did everything correct, with one neat top level .jit() applied to the training step. Unfortunately I could not replicate the performance boost of torch.compile(). I have not yet delved under the hood to find the culprit, but my model is fairly simple so I was sort of expecting JAX JIT to perform just as well if not better than torch.compile().

Have anyone else had similiar experiences?
by politelemon | 2025-10-25 16:54:33+00:00
True about open source though it's the only place where your computer is and feels like yours. Macs and Windows have you beholden to companies that have increasingly been user hostile and both have been keeping me in a constant state of revulsion.

That said, if you're having to fix your system constantly then something is off, as many distros have become incredibly stable. Of course I don't know your circumstances so can't say anything specific.
by flamesofphx | 2025-10-25 16:54:36+00:00
Test if humans can detect the difference between a bot/ai amongst a set of humans and the bot/ai (I don't even thing the bot has to be AI to take the test).. If more humans detect one of the humans as a bot and don't id the bot at all, it considered a good success. This is from my understanding of the test. I think there has been historically multiple inconsistent procedures.. That's really not what I worry about though what I worry about is the bots/AI that purposely fail to the test to hide their intelligence.
by LexiMax | 2025-10-25 16:54:58+00:00
I can tell you why. There's no conspiracy, not really.

Instead, it's an attitude of "I know what I voted for, and I'd prefer not to be reminded of its negative externalizes, thanks. Also, I'd really prefer it if this sort of news not filter out into the greater consciousness of Hacker News, because it might cause other people to reconsider their support."

One of the biggest lies of HN is that it's a place of open and reasonable debate and discussion. In reality, it is highly curated by the users who have access to the moderation tools in order to shape the conversation. There's no direct coordination or conversations, just a widespread unspoken agreement.

I don't disagree with their decision-making in a vacuum. There's nothing wrong with bias if it's something people are generally aware of, so it can be accounted for. On the other hand, I think that there's a significant moral hazard of a site that pretends to be unbiased but has an unaccountable cabal of users putting their collective thumbs on the scale, and HN very much falls into that camp.
by rdiddly | 2025-10-25 16:55:07+00:00
To its credit, the article avoids mention of various "generations," which are a pretty unscientific prism through which to view the world. Yet there is still something to be learned from looking at a particular age cohort and its cultural zeitgeist. The people reaching retirement age today are the oldest members of Generation X. People born in 1965 are turning 60 this year. These people first had access to gaming consoles and personal computers cheap enough for general consumers when they were in their teens. They were 18 in 1983 when Atari crashed, and 28 during Eternal September in 1993. So it's no wonder the numbers are increasing in older people. People have a tendency to think a demographic like "older people" is static, when it's really a sliding window. Digitally-savvy people are simply aging into it. And you will too.
by watwut | 2025-10-25 16:55:08+00:00
> Do people actually ignore a comment explaining a problem with the code as written just because it wasn't a blocking review ?

Some people leave flood of comments that cosplay as explanation, but they are not one. Or I simply disgree.

I am just getting to the point of ignoring them, because the alternative is to write an essay over each of those comments just for it to be ignored and the person passive aggressively ignoring the patch forever.
by gruez | 2025-10-25 16:56:23+00:00
> I want to be able to lock the devices. I don't want apple to do anything. It's a shit situation. It doesn't mean that I don't still want something that can't be done.

So to confirm, you don't want Apple to remote lock phones after a theft, and you can already lock phones before a theft. What's missing? Do you want them to put a placard in every iPhone box reminding small businesses owners to lock their phones with MDN?

>You're also victim blaming here, and it's definitely not helpful or even appreciated.

You playing "victim blaming" card to dismiss arguments isn't appreciated either. It's not "victim blaming" to point out that contrary to what you claim, Apple provides ways to lock phones and that they're not particularly onerous.
by strogonoff | 2025-10-25 16:57:36+00:00
Measuring complexity shouldn’t lead to finding creative ways to avoid complexity, but instead be used as a tool to encapsulate complexity well.

It could be misapplied, of course, like every other principle. For example, DRY is a big one. Just like DRY, there are cases where complexity is deserved: if nothing else, simply considering that no code used in real world context can ever be perfect, it is useful to have another measure that could hint on what to focus on in future iterations.
Show HN: Mersel.ai – batch AI tool for product photo and video generation
by wujosephjw | 2025-10-25 16:57:44+00:00
I’ve been building an GenAI project called Mersel. It helps people create or edit photos and videos in batches, so they can make a full set in one click instead of repeating the same steps.

I’m using Nano Banana and Veo 3.1 APIs. Nothing new technically, but I’ve been focusing on making them work faster and more efficiently for batch creation, which feels more practical for workflows that deal with a lot of visuals.

I’m building it with ecommerce sellers in mind since they often need to produce a large amount of product content quickly. I have a few paying users, still early, and I’m trying to learn what actually matters in their workflow and where current AI tools fall short.

Would love any feedback, thoughts, or ideas from others who have worked on GenAI pipelines or bulk generation tools.

Cheers
by jeroenhd | 2025-10-25 16:58:30+00:00
For a lot of people it's no different from the upgrade from Windows 7, they just don't want change.

The privacy invasions grew in Window 11 and the advertisement of Microsoft products increased quite a bit. The start menu now works better (opens every time you press the button, which I had issues with on Windows 10). Many people didn't get a choice to upgrade, which also pissed people off.

For the more technical-minded, the mandatory Microsoft account also pissed a lot of people off. Haven't heard any complaints about that from people who can't name a preferred Linux distro, though.
by cpleppert | 2025-10-25 16:58:30+00:00
A bunch of reasons.

1. Napoleon's goal was to pursue and defeat the Russian army in the field, not necessarily capture cities. Going north would have meant releasing the pressure on the main russian field armies and let them engage his main force at their discretion while exposing his flank.

2. St. Petersburg remained the political and economic capital of Russia; St. Petersburg never displaced Moscow in real world importance.

3. St. Petersburg was shielded from land and sea with prepared fortifications on both and Napoleon lacked a fleet to effectively blockade it.

4. Its in the middle of a very dense forest and swamp, not the the best logistics and ability to maintain a siege.

The Nazis made the same choice in WWII and even though they were able to control the Baltics and had Finland as an ally never seriously threatened to take the city.
by zugi | 2025-10-25 16:58:46+00:00
Absolutely agree, constant surveillance is something we have too much of already.

My thought when posting was, if the schools already have surveillance cameras that human security guards are watching, adding an AI to alert them to items of interest alone wasn't bad. But maybe you've changed my mind. The AI pays more invasive attention to every stream. Whereas a guard may be watching 16 feeds at once and barely be paying attention, and no one may ever even view the feed unless a crime occurs and they go looking for evidence.

Regardless this setup was way worse! The article said the AI:

> ... scans existing surveillance footage and alerts police in real time when it detects what it believes to be a weapon.

Wow, the system was designed with no human in the loop - it automatically summons armed police!
by lostlogin | 2025-10-25 16:59:27+00:00
Yes.

A chemist gave a great talk about this at a big MRI conference (ISMRM) in Paris 10ish years ago. His explanation was that gad behaves a lot like iron does in the body. It deposits where iron does and like iron it lacks a metabolic route for removal (though menstruating females lose iron).

He stated that deposition was entirely predictable. However the harm caused is still debated.

The article here says ‘ Dr Wagner theorized that nanoparticle formation could trigger a disproportionate immune response, with affected cells sending distress signals that intensify the body’s reaction.’

Emphasis on ‘theorised’.

Deposition is discussed in the below link, and the comparison with iron is briefly mentioned.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10791848/
by jmull | 2025-10-25 16:59:59+00:00
According to their financial statement, the Zig Foundation pays contributors $60/hr, and spent $154K on their single employee (Andrew Kelley) in 2024.

So that's around 3-4+ years of development.

(Also, that $154K might include significant employer expenses not typically included in salary, like, e.g. healthcare.)

https://ziglang.org/news/2025-financials/
by em-bee | 2025-10-25 17:00:16+00:00
if montessori is adopted as part of a national or state curriculum then there would not be a filter anymore. and i do not think may people would fail the training. from what i saw it is rigorous and intensive, but it is not difficult. certainly not more difficult that traditional teacher education. the only teachers that would struggle would be lazy ones that enter the training with a preconceived idea of what teaching is about and find that idea challenged.
by magic_hamster | 2025-10-25 17:00:38+00:00
From Microsoft's perspective you are running unsupported hardware. You're getting updates for now. But any future update might ban your system, disable your updates or even unintentionally break your system. It makes sense Microsoft are being more lenient about it at the moment, but a year or two from now? I wouldn't count on it.

As for myself, I didn't bother with Windows 11. Converted all my daily drivers who were still on Windows to Linux. On one machine I have a dual boot Windows 10 LTSC IoT just in case. This gives me 7 more years.
by majormajor | 2025-10-25 17:00:55+00:00
We've had those complaints for a long time, and associated stereotypical problems with them - like daydrinking housewives. And now we have increased loneliness, mental health issues, etc. So maybe there's something to the complaints. Maybe sticking your face in media cloistered away at home 24/7 is worse for the mental health of most people than socializing, having to get out there and find ways to entertain yourself with others.

If you never practice making and having friends, how are you ever going to have them?