MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Is it possible to succeed without social media?
by chistev | 2025-11-13 08:59:04+00:00
Is it possible to be a successful person without a social media presence?

In the modern age, it seems you need social media for exposure. If you have a business, it seems the trend now is to create TikTok videos and other kinds of social media content to build and maintain awareness. If you have a skill, it also appears you need social media to announce yourself to potential employers or clients.

Personally, I'd prefer if I didn't have to do all that, but is that not a losing strategy?

How was it before the advent of social media, and do those methods no longer work as much as they used to?

Is using social media actively a "join the train or get left behind" thing?

If yes, how to do it while limiting your digital footprint?
by kryptiskt | 2025-11-13 08:59:40+00:00
One of the problems is that you might not use the target language at the equivalent level of abstraction. For example, C is a popular target language, but the C emitted may be very unidiomatic and nothing like human consumable code, it's not all that unusual that a language compiles all code to one big C function where the function calls in the language are jumps, which is a way to get around the limitations of the C calling conventions and stack.

The same thing applies to compilation to Javascript, the resulting code may use a tiny subset of the language.

I don't like the word transpiler, because there is nothing useful about the distinction (unless you count people using it to denigrate compilers that doesn't target traditional machine code).

I could see the case of using it as a name when the transformation is reversible, like you could probably turn Javascript back into Coffeescript.
by mid-kid | 2025-11-13 09:00:03+00:00
> Based on this feedback and our ongoing conversations with the community, we are building a new advanced flow that allows experienced users to accept the risks of installing software that isn't verified. We are designing this flow specifically to resist coercion, ensuring that users aren't tricked into bypassing these safety checks while under pressure from a scammer. It will also include clear warnings to ensure users fully understand the risks involved, but ultimately, it puts the choice in their hands. We are gathering early feedback on the design of this feature now and will share more details in the coming months.

I don't agree that this is something that should be restricted to "advanced" users, even. One of the basic freedoms that protects users from the unilateral control of the developers, is other developers (like me) being able to patch apps and distribute them to friends and family, without making a public fork or meeting play store requirements. Take for example, youtube revanced. If I want to help my friends by making a private f-droid or obtainium repository, to save them the trouble of going through the (legal!) process of patching and updating the app themselves, right now I can do this. If this requires going through a lengthy process instead, that may or may not be detectable by apps that will then choose to cease to function (this has happened with rooting), my ability to help friends and family as someone with the know-how and experience gets reduced significantly. There's many things that don't fly on the play store, such as the completely legal NewPipe, AdAway, and Termux applications, and while I can sign up for the developer verification, it's not clear to me under what circumstances the verification can be terminated.
by Yokolos | 2025-11-13 09:00:04+00:00
Yes, you need to license SteamOS to preinstall it on devices you sell: https://store.steampowered.com/steamos/oem

Why would you not need to license it? Steam isn't open source and Steam, the trademark, is owned by Valve. If we were talking about a standard distro like Fedora, no, I guess they wouldn't have to license it, but we aren't.
by calgoo | 2025-11-13 09:01:21+00:00
Its not that it was broken, its that security was not really a thing. You had your antivirus to protect you from people adding stuff to discs, but thats it. Windows 95 was just an exe file in the windows folder that you could run from DOS.

Windows NT / OS2 did have more security as it was meant for shared environments, but even there, corporations ended up using stuff like Novell NetWare to get the actual networking services.

Windows 2000 was the first version of consumer windows based on the NT kernel instead of the DOS / Windows 95/98/ME based systems. I still remember running around the office updating windows 2000 machines to service pack 4 to protect us against the first real massive virus "ILOVEYOU".

Edit: Still on first coffee, sorry about the ramblings
by ssl-3 | 2025-11-13 09:01:38+00:00
I've not heard of it, either.

But I suspect that we're no more than one buyout away from that kind of thing.

The labs do appear to avoid paid advertising today. But actions today should not be taken as an indicator to mean that the next owner(s) won't behave completely soullessly manner in their effort to maximize profit at every possible expense.

On a long-enough timeline, it seems inevitable to me that advertising with LLM bots will become a real issue.

(I mean: I remember having an Internet experience that was basically devoid of advertising. It changed, and it will never change back.)
by cornonthecobra | 2025-11-13 09:02:09+00:00
At the default scale of 90, I can't see anything spinning at all even with the video full screen. If I set the scale to 250 or larger I can see the stars spinning, but I just see the whole field spinning. Even if I get so close to the screen it almost fills my field of vision.

So for me either the stars are too small to see any motion, or I can see them all spinning no matter what.

What effect am I supposed to see?
by shevy-java | 2025-11-13 09:02:10+00:00
Aha - that is a much better explanation than I assumed, aka "the people forced Google to behave". So Google is scared of having to pay fines or having their CEOs end up in jail. I actually think there should be a new rule - easy-jail mode for CEOs globally. Does not have to be long but say, a few days in jail for ignoring the law, and right hold the CEOs responsible for that. You earn a lot of money, so you also gotta take the risk.
by szszrk | 2025-11-13 09:02:16+00:00
Why doesn't HN support reading mode in Firefox, anyway?

Dimming doesn't solve much.

I won't dim screen every time I switch apps. It doesn't work when you use multiple apps side-by-side (which is nowadays a thing even on mobile/tables). It doesn't bring relief to people that have visual problems that can be fixed with dark mode (I am super annoyed by floaters that I don't notice 95% of the time. Except from very bright websites like HN).

> Blazing hot white text on a pitch black oled background is like visual caffeine to me.

Same thing for me and my vision - I just can't use pure dark themes. But there is so much middle-ground here.
by jasode | 2025-11-13 09:02:23+00:00
Whenever someone argues the uselessness or redundancy of a particular word, a helpful framework to understand their perspective is "Lumpers vs Splitters" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpers_and_splitters

An extreme caricature example of a "lumper" would just use the word "computer" to label all Turing Complete devices with logic gates. In that mindset, having a bunch of different words like "mainframe", "pc", "smartphone", "game console", "FPGA", etc are all redundant because they're all "computers" which makes the various other words pointless.

On the other hand, the Splitters focus on the differences and I previously commented why "transpiler" keeps being used even though it's "redundant" for the Lumpers : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28602355

We're all Lumpers vs Splitters to different degrees for different topics. A casual music listener who thinks of orchestral music as background sounds for the elevator would be "lump" both Mozart and Bach together as "classical music". But an enthusiast would get irritated and argue "Bach is not classical music, it's Baroque music. Mozart is classical music."

The latest example of this I saw was someone complaining about the word "embedding" used in LLMs. They were asking ... if an embedding is a vector, why didn't they just re-use the word "vector"?!? Why is there an extra different word?!? Lumpers-vs-splitters.
by crote | 2025-11-13 09:02:24+00:00
Sure, but those AAA games still exist, and people still want to play them.

As a gamer, why would you want to spend a few hundred bucks on a gaming box, when it isn't able to play the biggest hits? Who would want to deliberately limit their ecosystem to indie games?

There's a nonzero chance that BF6/GTA6/etc becomes a thing that everyone wants to play. If all your friends are raging about how much fun it is and are all playing together, aren't you going to regret buying a Steam Machine?

Sure, you can still play Super Meat Boy, but that doesn't matter - they regret what they can't do.
by onion2k | 2025-11-13 09:02:35+00:00
I have no doubt this could be a useful tool given the nice looking UX, but everything it does is already in Devtools.

If you open Devtools, then click "Sources", there are two options in the left panel 'Page' and 'Workspace'. Change to workspace and add the folder where your project lives. Now you can edit the code for your React (or anything else) project in Devtools and it'll save to your filesystem. You can make this a part of the project if you want to - https://chromium.googlesource.com/devtools/devtools-frontend...

Gemini is integrated into the Sources panel, so I just opened a JSX file and asked what classes I'd use in Tailwind to replace my CSS and it told me the right answer. It didn't update the code though. That 'Apply Edits' feature in jsxtool would be useful for a non-dev user.
by snvzz | 2025-11-13 09:02:59+00:00
>Except that (I believe) "just a PC" was a bit offputting for a lot of people - when you buy a PC you can't just turn it on and play video games, especially not after Microsoft's shenanigans.

Steam deck is "just a PC" as well, which can be turned on to immediately play video games.

Thanks to its reputation, the masses will trust the Steam Machine to do this much.

Valve know what they're doing.
by asim | 2025-11-13 09:03:10+00:00
Hey all

I'm working on an app called Mu (Micro shortened). Its an all in one app for mail, chat, news and video. The mail part coming soon and the chat being with AI (a model called Fanar from the state of Qatar). It stems from my pain with social and productivity apps. I'm finding a number of problems and decided to try build something for myself to help. But I wanted to see if it interested anyone else or if I could get feedback.

The problems:

- YouTube is quite addictive. I find myself constantly refreshing to find new video recommendations or fighting swiping short videos. I thought I had escaped that by not having an Instagram account or TikTok but turns out when that functionality is elsewhere it really sucks you in easily. I built a video feed and search using the YouTube api that provides a fixed set of channels and organises by latest.

- News. I am constantly opening various websites to read the news. Whether it's here or BBC or something else, and I've tried stuff like Feedly but I found over time it was causing me to scroll a ton. So it's a fixed set of RSS feeds and I have a latest headline from each feed. I'm sure there's better ways to organise it but I found my use of AI poor for that. So easier to look at the latest thing.

- Chat with AI. I guess this is a no brainer but I got tired of going to Gemini or OpenAI. It feels like what they want to create is an immersive human like experience. Whereas what I wanted was a simple objective model that provided me almost wiki like information. I don't need more than that. I also wanted something that understands the other half of the world. Fanar a model from the state of Qatar basically uses Google's Gemma but trains slightly different for I guess a more Arabic and less western context. I'm finding it works fine for most of what I need.

- Home screen. I guess there are other dashboards like glance but I wanted sort of a single home screen overview for these various items. Displaying the latest video and headlines and then providing room to add other aspects as needed. There really isn't a home screen for the web. I guess this is what internet start pages like msn used to be.

- Mail that's not Gmail - there is a need to communicate with other human beings but I don't necessarily want to hand out my personal email everywhere. It would be useful to have a separate inbox that isn't work and isn't personal but sort of specifically for social. I feel like X and Facebook and others sort of miss out on this. They have proprietary messengers and groups but lack of mailing lists and email is an issue. Having a slow way to communicate that isn't wholly public would be useful. I haven't built it yet just because I want to get it right rather than wasting a lot of time building yet another email client.

Anyway looking for a bit of feedback. Would appreciate thoughts or tweaks that might be worth making.

https://mu.xyz
by curtisnewton | 2025-11-13 09:03:23+00:00
> more competent than their 80-year-old nontechnical self can worry about cybersecurity

80-year-old nontechnical self can easily operate machines and devices that are much more complex and easily more dangerous than a smartphone.

And yet we're here pretending that those same people will install apps without even thinking about it.

Careless people are careless, we know that, we don't make them safer by treating everyone else like toddlers with a gun in their hands.
by masfoobar | 2025-11-13 09:04:11+00:00
I've installed Debian Linux recently, and it was EASY installing Steam and Heroic Games Launcher. Testing Rocket League and Thief:TDM and worked really well.

I also purchased a Steam Link and Controller a few years ago. Still works like a charm.

I was planning to build my own PC in 2026 to be the new Family gaming system. I don't plan to purchase game consoles, now. However, after seeing the new steam machine, I will wait to see the costs before I make a decision.

Seems like the Steam Machine.. if powerful enough and decent price.. can still be used as a PC. Otherwise, I will just build my own and stick Debian on it.

Be interesting to see how the Steam Machine does against XBox and PS. Seems like Microsoft may lose this battle unless they do something different with their next-gen. By different I mean that gets people excited.

Honestly, I think this is a good thing for Games Consoles. Lets me honest.. Games Consoles have not been proper "Games Consoles" since the GameCube, PS2 and first XBox. Since then, they are been more PCs than anything.
by jchw | 2025-11-13 09:04:52+00:00
Transpilers are compilers that translate from one programming language to the other. I am not 100% sure where these "lies" come from, but it's literally in the name, it's clearly a portmanteau of translating compiler... Where exactly are people thinking the "-piler" suffix comes from?

Yes, I know. You could argue that a C compiler is a transpiler, because assembly language is generally considered a programming language. If this is you, you have discovered that there are sometimes concepts that are not easy to rigorously define but are easy for people to understand. This is not a rare phenomenon. For me, the difference is that a transpiler is intending to target a programming language that will be later compiled by another compiler, and not just an assembler. But, it is ultimately true that this definition is still likely not 100% rigorous, nor is it likely going to have 100% consensus. Yet, people somehow know a transpiler when they see one. The word will continue to be used because it ultimately serves a useful purpose in communication.
by asmor | 2025-11-13 09:05:06+00:00
A large drop in HbA1c does cause early worsening of diabetic retinopathy. Regardless of how it's achieved. So expect some noise in generalized data.

Personally, I went from mild background retinopathy to PDR and getting laser treatment in about 3 months. My ophthalmologist (who has an academic background) didn't really know if this diagnosis had the same "quality" of someone who "naturally" progresses to PDR, but some studies say it's transient.
by iamcalledrob | 2025-11-13 09:06:00+00:00
As the person who designed and fought for this app, I am a bit sad about the change.

The native app was by no means perfect, but it felt like a real productivity tool that was trying to be respectful of it's environment.

I've come to the conclusion that native desktop apps are just not viable from large companies, even if there is headcount. The problem is coordination cost.

If you want to launch new features and experiments here, there and everywhere, then the coordination complexity increases nonlinearly with the number of platforms.

If you can sustain a more deliberate, low churn pace of development then it's workable. Features can be well defined and then implemented by the platform team as they see fit. But if you want a more fast-paced, "just in time" style of development, you need to coordinate with every team for every change... wouldn't it be nice to just write web code and be done?

Even Microsoft are building this way these days.

This is why ironically small companies seem more able to support native apps than large ones. The more "stuff" that's being worked on concurrently, the harder it is to support multiple platforms.
by anas101siddiqui | 2025-11-13 09:06:16+00:00
I noticed that QloudHost, an offshore hosting provider, is offering several interesting hosting deals for Black Friday 2025. While this isn’t an endorsement, the pricing structure and plan options are worth noting for anyone evaluating hosting solutions with a focus on privacy, offshore infrastructure, and performance.

Here’s a breakdown:

1. Shared Hosting (50% off)

Suitable for small websites, blogs, and low-traffic projects

Offers include SSL, unlimited bandwidth, website migration, and one-click CMS installers

2. DMCA Ignored Offshore WordPress Hosting (30% off)

Pre-configured WordPress setup with automatic updates and LiteSpeed caching

Designed for content creators who require less restrictive hosting policies

Includes offshore server hosting for added privacy

3. Offshore VPS Hosting (20% off)

Provides full root access, private IP, and dedicated resources

Custom OS installations possible

Targets developers, agencies, or projects that need more control than shared hosting

4. DMCA Ignored Offshore Dedicated Servers (5% off)

100% dedicated hardware with customizable configurations

Offshore locations for data privacy

High-performance option for high-traffic or resource-intensive websites

Additional Notes:

Long-term plans come with extra free months (1-year plan: +1 month, 2-year plan: +2 months, 3-year plan: +3 months)

Servers use NVMe SSD storage and claim 99.99% uptime

From a technical perspective, QloudHost seems to focus on offshore hosting for content freedom, performance with NVMe SSDs, and privacy-conscious infrastructure. The Black Friday deals appear to be the most significant discounts they’ve offered across these product lines.

I’m curious if others here have experience with offshore DMCA Ignored hosting or using NVMe SSD-based VPS setups for small to medium projects. How reliable are these providers in practice, particularly regarding uptime, support responsiveness, and server performance under moderate traffic?
by v3xro | 2025-11-13 09:06:24+00:00
What prohibits Google from offering a way to register your long-term app signing key without identity verification, publishing apps that are still verified by their automated tooling and then opting in to the usual denylisting/app store banning methods if those apps are malicious? This identity verification requirement is basically just an easy way for illiberal governments to find ways to crack down on apps they do not like (such as say, ICEBlock or whatever)
by 0xbadcafebee | 2025-11-13 09:06:38+00:00
There's a lot of advanced home insulation out there. In theory, buying expensive insulation is much better than making energy cheaper, because you only pay for the insulation once, and then save money indefinitely from it. But most people don't re-insulate their homes (or try to find cold-spots, seal leaks, etc). Despite the fact that we have more efficient insulation, it hasn't driven up demand for insulation. Why is this? The idea that efficiency == increased demand is a logical idea. But humans aren't logical.

We have more efficient hardware, so we should be seeing hardware everywhere. But actually we all use the same amount of hardware we did 20 years ago. We all have a desktop, a laptop, a smartphone, a modem, hell even a computer watch, like we did 20 years ago. But they're more efficient now.

Where we do see more hardware now, is in pre-existing appliances, like fridges, TVs. And why is there more hardware? Sometimes it's just a remote control ("turn off TV"). But more often, the increase in adoption follows a specific motive: like figuring out that they could sell ads or subscriptions through it. And the hardware itself is not what's making the ads work: it's the software, that collects the information, feeds it to companies over networks, lets them data-mine it and sell it continuously. Both of these are just serving a human interest to make more money through the creative use of surveillance and marketing. And honestly, most of this could've been done with hardware and software 20 years ago. But because it's in vogue now, we see more of the hardware and software now.

We are comforted by coming up with an explanation that makes logical sense, like the paradox. But the paradox applies most when it coincides with an unrelated human interest. What motivates us is not A+B=C, but a combination of different calculations that sometimes involve A and B, and incidentally add up to C.
by shevy-java | 2025-11-13 09:06:56+00:00
Software engineering really took a dive in the last 10 years. For instance, KDE has a daemon that asks for donations, added by Nate "I am the king of KDE". Granted, the daemon is mostly pointless in general and not causing much issues (people are typically only bothered by it once then you can silence it), but just the time people invest here to harass others or add unnecessary software on other computers shows how there is a disregard for people. They simply try to leverage software to abuse people. I am totally against that (both what Meta does and KDE too, ever since Nate became self-proclaimed king of KDE; see also this blog here that showcases how Nate may not be as good as he tries to self-promote himself there - that is the criticism https://jriddell.org/2025/09/14/adios-chicos-25-years-of-kde... it always comes down to greed; Meta also is very greedy, why do they have spy-apps that eat so much RAM when idle?).
by curtisnewton | 2025-11-13 09:07:03+00:00
> I'm not in any of those autocratic countries

Autocratic Albania banned by law ads on YouTube so if you are in Albania (or your VPN is - wink! wink!) you get to watch YouTube without ads legally

I, too, hate those autocratic countries were government act for the good of the people, instead of ruling in favour of greedy billionaires
by pcchristie | 2025-11-13 09:07:19+00:00
I'm fairly sure/wishful thinking that the reason the last round of Valve hardware was very late/absent in Australia was because it was the time that the ACCC took Valve to court for its no refunds policy (and won). Now that Valve has rectified that and are in good standing in Australia, I'm hoping we see all this new hardware ASAP, alongside the rest of the world.