MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by chemotaxis | 2025-11-20 15:25:53+00:00
I mean, to be fair, a lot of economic activity is like that. Why pay thousands of dollar for a plumber or an electrician? Most of what they do is going to Home Depot, buying a $15 part, and replacing it. But it's one less skill for a homeowner to learn, so you delegate.

The problem isn't that someone learns to prompt AI and is selling the output. The problem is that the customer thinks they're paying for human instruction and they're getting something else.
by ip26 | 2025-11-20 15:26:20+00:00
Not sure it is, so I assume a lot of stretching of the truth is involved. Most twelve month olds struggle to support their head, are just learning to shape their mouths to form syllables, and have only had eyes capable of resolving letters on a page for a few months. IQ won’t make blurry images sharp, or your neck muscles stronger.
by zahlman | 2025-11-20 15:26:38+00:00
If you're okay with running the script only from the parent directory of the venv (I guess you have things set up so that's the project root), fine.

You never have to "worry about whether the environment was activated", unless your code depends on those environment variables (in which case your shebang trick won't help you). Just specify the path to the venv's Python executable.

You aren't really intended to put your own scripts in the venv's bin/ directly, although of course you can. An installer will create them for you, from the entry points defined in pyproject.toml. (This is one of the few useful things that an "editable install" can accomplish; I'm generally fairly negative on that model, however.)

If you have something installed in a venv and want to run it regardless of CWD, you can symlink the wrapper script from somewhere on your PATH. (That's what Pipx does.)
by creatonez | 2025-11-20 15:26:53+00:00
The purpose of a staged rollout is to test things with some percentage of actual real-world production traffic, after having already thoroughly tested things in a private staging environment. Your staging URL doesn't have that. Unless the public happens to know about it.

The scope for it to go wrong is the differences in real-world and simulation.

It's a good thing to have, but not a replacement for the concept of staged rollout.
by thefounder | 2025-11-20 15:27:11+00:00
I think php should have stopped at php4 or php5 and maybe just develop a new/sane standard library.

And a new language could have been developed , call it hack or whatever Facebook tried. Anyway I remember php coding gave me headaches. Tried it again 2 years ago and found out the same kind of issues(outdated /inexistent documentation, different ways to do the same thing that actually didn’t work and stuff like that). Try to connect to sql database using ssl and see what I mean.

I see no reason to learn PHP anymore or start up your company using php. We live in a vps/docker age. The advantage of php hosts everywhere has been lost.
by volkk | 2025-11-20 15:27:14+00:00
Ah. okay yeah that makes sense. I didn't realize it's a relative measurement. I'm surprised it's not more robust. Something like using historical results to compare against, and updating tests in a very standardized way where the math/logic is always fairly similar, but the fact checking/knowledge that requires understanding of current world might be different data wise, but tests similar attributes or qualities.
by amiga386 | 2025-11-20 15:27:23+00:00
Do you mean Firefox specifically?

The reason most software is not "XDG-compliant" is because most software predates the XDG basedir spec which only came into existence in 2021 (edit: oops, that's just version 0.8; version 0.6 was available in 2003)

It will be nice for software, as it updates, to support this standard which seems to be gaining adoption, and it will make users homedirs much cleaner. But it's most important for software to _keep working_, and have a migration path that doesn't lose the user's config or end up with two configs and not have a clear rule on which one it will use.
by idoubtit | 2025-11-20 15:27:40+00:00
Are the new features really readable? I have no idea what this code from the OP is meant for:

#[SkipDiscovery(static function (Container $container): bool { return ! $container->get(Application::class) instanceof ConsoleApplication; })] final class BlogPostEventHandlers { /* … */ }

As a side note, even PHP's official wiki cannot highlight correctly the multiline attributes behind a "#". See https://wiki.php.net/rfc/closures_in_const_expr
by kypro | 2025-11-20 15:27:56+00:00
Self-awareness is so much more important than IQ for real-world success in my opinion. IQ tests measure an individuals personal intellect, but in the real world what matters is how we're able to pair our mental capacity with that of others.

Redirecting an unhealthy obsession with being the smartest person in the room, to just being as self-reflective as possible is far healthier for well being, but I think also it improves outcomes.

Of course you need a base level of IQ too, but if you're reasonably smart just being able to take a step back and ask if you're being reasonable, if you might be wrong, why someone feels the way they do about you, this makes you much better at any task that involves some level of collaboration – which the vast majority of tasks do.

People who just have high IQ might on average be good at reasoning on their own, but their ability to reason with others – playing into their strengths and knowledge and into that of others is what allows them to exceed beyond their IQ in terms of outcomes.

For what it's worth, I find Langan really interesting. He's clearly a smart guy, but also delusionally self-confident in himself.

And I kinda get that honestly. I've had a few official IQ tests in my life and I'm pretty confident I have a fairly high IQ. I know I've found in most cases I'm well served to not pay much attention to what the average person thinks about most things, but when I find people who think well, especially if they have more knowledge in some area than myself I become obsessively self-critical when I feel we're unaligned on something. Generally speaking in these cases I'm likely to be wrong.

My guess is that Langan doesn't do this. Perhaps he feels (mostly correctly) that trusting himself is generally the better strategy than trusting what anyone else thinks. Still, it's surprising he hasn't worked this out. Maybe there's more going on there.
by kryptoncalm | 2025-11-20 15:28:03+00:00
The data [0] begs to differ: in richer countries workers and fewer hours. The gap not shown here is working hours per capita (instead of worker), but I couldn’t find that data quickly.

Also, even if your claim were true, I wonder if joining the rate race of working harder is worth it.

[0] https://ourworldindata.org/rich-poor-working-hours
by stego-tech | 2025-11-20 15:28:05+00:00
As a former gifted kid who has had their fair share of struggles around identity, competency, and success, having to redefine each multiple times as the world shifts around me and ladders are either yanked up or burned down just as I arrive to climb them:

It sucks. It sucks ass. It has lead to many a night shouting in rage, anger, depression, and malaise. It continues to incense me as I see reprehensible actions receive phenomenal rewards in the short term for inflicting harm, and ignorance of their consequences of the long-term. It sucks.

You’re not alone, at least, and acknowledging that reality helped me rally around more social causes as I accepted that individual success was more luck than talent or effort, at least at present. It doesn’t really get easier to accept that reality either, even as I work to create a better one that’s built more around objectivity than individuality. Still, I’ve been far calmer, more productive, and even happier as I acknowledge the reality around me instead of reject it out of some notion of “specialness” or exceptionalism.

Acknowledging the reality around you is, in its own way, quite liberating, even if it’s also frustrating and lonely at present.
Show HN: Chrome Store–featured extension that writes X replies via DOM observers
by shashankshukla | 2025-11-20 15:28:13+00:00
Hi HN,

A couple of months ago I posted an early version of this Chrome extension. Since then I’ve refined it, fixed a bunch of stability issues, and it was recently featured on the Chrome Web Store’s “Featured” section, which was a nice surprise.

What the extension does: – Detects the active tweet or thread directly in the browser – Collects relevant context (parent tweet, author info, thread shape) – Formats a prompt and sends it to the OpenAI API – Inserts the generated reply straight into Twitter’s native reply box

All of this happens inside the X.com DOM, without storing any user data.

Technical bits: – Uses MutationObserver to track X.com’s constantly changing DOM – Handles dynamically inserted tweet nodes, shadow DOM, and thread expansions – Debounces context extraction to avoid unnecessary re-runs – Simulates native input events to inject the reply so it feels built-in – Avoids backend state; everything is read client-side except the final API call

Challenges: – X.com changes UI structure often, so selectors break unpredictably – Preventing duplicate injections when the DOM re-renders – Keeping prompt size small enough for fast generation – Reducing overhead so the extension doesn’t slow down the page

Recent improvements: – More stable tweet/thread detection – Better context selection logic – Cleaner UI in the reply popup – Small performance fixes and race-condition fixes

Chrome Store page: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/xinsightai-ai-reply...

Would appreciate feedback from people who’ve built browser extensions or dealt with X.com’s DOM patterns. Happy to discuss any details.
by dbg31415 | 2025-11-20 15:28:40+00:00
I work right at the junction of marketing tech -- eCommerce, marketing sites, account management systems. Theoretically I should be living in compliance hell, but here's the dirty secret:

To "follow" every rule, all you really need is another layer of UX friction. Another modal. Another "consent wizard." A few toggles buried under Manage Settings → Advanced → Optional → Something You'll Never Click → Opt Me Out.

If you want to be sneaky, add a dark pattern. Make "yes" mean "no." Delay the buttons loading behind some animation, while showing other buttons from the start. (Users will always mash the first one that looks vaguely like "close" without reading anything.)

Or just bribe them, "Get 200 extra points for opting in! Only 45,000 more to redeem a free small drink!" Congratulations -- you're now "compliant.

In practice, GDPR mostly results in one more click. That's the whole impact. A seemingly smart privacy law reduced to just an annoyance tax.

(This is a big reason I run Firefox with uBlock Origin, and NextDNS on my router and phone, with Steven Black's block list. Ha. I do value my privacy, and the more ads and trackers you can block the better shot you'll have at keeping some of it. At least until you go and do something stupid like join a social network or messenger app, or start clicking accept to get 200 extra points.)

* StevenBlack/hosts: Consolidating and extending hosts files from several well-curated sources. Optionally pick extensions for porn, social media, and other categories. // https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts

* NextDNS - The new firewall for the modern Internet // https://nextdns.io/

* uBlock Origin – Get this Extension for Firefox (en-US) // https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...
by lordnacho | 2025-11-20 15:29:53+00:00
People think of intelligence as some sort of magic. They ascribe all sorts of ability to intelligence, as if being smart should make you influential.

But why should that be? If you're a scientist, you are dependent on getting funding to do experiments, and the experiment showing something interesting. Neither of these things is very connected to intelligence, beyond that low IQ people will not be likely to get to the start line.

If you're an entrepreneur, you also have to do a bunch of things that are more social than smarts. Basically your life is going around meeting people and getting them to either invest or build something or buy something. Is it useful to be smart? Sure. But it isn't as useful as, say, having the right connections from school, or a family with a sensible budget so you can concentrate on building rather than finding food.

Pretty much the only area where being super smart works is pure maths, and even there you really want to be born in the parts of the world where the economy can support a young person on that path.

Then there's the transmission to suit your engine. A super smart person still needs to be mature enough to consume the intellectual royal jelly that develops them towards where they will make the greatest contribution. You won't just know what to do just because you're smart, you need to be shown what the interesting problems are. You need to have motivation, and motivation is often what you actually see when you meet someone impressive.

The way I think of it, the smart and useful people are plenty. Courses are taught so that universities can get a sensible number of people through some amount of content. Being smarter than your average student at a prestigious college is nice, but it mostly buys you some free time. Being at the cutoff is terribly stressful, but that guy is still pretty accomplished and useful for most things that we consider elite.
by emaro | 2025-11-20 15:29:56+00:00
I think the campaigns of StarCraft II are amazing (never played Broodwar unfortunately). However I kinda agree that StarCraft's success hurt the RTS genre, because it's just so freaking good. 15 years since release and there are still tournaments played, it's fun to watch and projects like Stormgate have a really hard time, because SC2 is the bar and it's super difficult to reach. In terms of unit legibility, responsiveness, balance, etc. The bad thing is, it's not an approachable game at all, it mainly is interesting in the competitive/eSport scene.

If I watch YT videos a la "New RTS games 2025/2026" there are very interesting projects which give me hope that SC2 is not the end of RTS games.
Show HN: Explanans – Personalized video lectures for any topic
by lapurita | 2025-11-20 15:30:10+00:00
I created this as a product for solving the long-tail of education, specifically with video lectures. YouTube obviously has great videos on subjects like "What is a derivative", "Germany post world war 2" or "History of the roman empire" but it won't always have great videos for more niche subjects like say "Swedish monetary theory through history" or "deep dive on the nutrients of raspberries vs blackberries vs blueberries".

Here are some videos that I've created under a few different categories:

Content with a personalized angle:

- Biology from a computational perspective: https://explanans.com/videos/j9714e2pyxm0qysbkth4hn0tf57ve18...

- Machine learning for a non-technical person: https://explanans.com/videos/j97a9d5xpqjq65r9s8zye66ak57vs67...

Niche topics

- Covid 19 clinical studies: https://explanans.com/videos/j97dvfc5r7xen50t3d1yg3jfvx7vsqv...

- Swedish monetary policy: https://explanans.com/videos/j978hwrz0kp7dpr43zgv0bgwrd7vq1h...

- Estimating North Korea's GDP: https://explanans.com/videos/j974ccfjrbbb6e4zmfgjqfwwtn7vrnc...

And some random subjects:

- Things to do in Ireland: https://explanans.com/videos/j971aex478rbthv5n0f6vk8m6h7vsyn...

- Clinical studies from start to finish: https://explanans.com/videos/j979m7w6ba8xf4a4gnbjttcmh57vrm6...

The accuracy of these videos are (and should be) about the same as you expect from the best LLMs, because this product is fundamentally based on LLMs with access to some tools.

You can try it for free at https://explanans.com/, every new user gets 2 free videos. Would love to give out more, but inference costs for generating a video are quite high. Free users can watch as many existing videos as they want, and you don't even have to sign up for that part.

These videos are far from perfect right now, but I think one of the few killer use cases for LLMs are for learning. I think Explanans can be used in the same way that we use ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini, but where the output is in a different format than text. For some mediums I think that's a superior experience, for the same reasons that lots of people prefer YouTube over blog posts.

There are a lot of features I want to add to this such as chat with video, some kind of quizzing for retention, or chat before generating to get a more specific output (like how deep research products do it) but I didn't wanna clutter the user experience for v1.

Here to answers any questions you might have!
by alsetmusic | 2025-11-20 15:30:40+00:00
> Also, there are hardly any good teachers left. Most are hired on sharing basis, who shuttle between multiple colleges.

Check out the "Who Wants to be a Teacher?" episodes of the Educate Podcast. I remember listening to these and shaking my head. Worse, if you go back further in the same groups older podcast, you'll hear the tragedy of students being taught to read using provenly bad methodology and teachers defending it saying they don't care that studies show that it's the wrong path. It made me genuinely very angry on behalf of kids. They're being robbed of their future.

https://www.apmreports.org/collection/educate-podcast
by aidenn0 | 2025-11-20 15:30:42+00:00
FWIW, the OpenSSH devs believe it to be a potential security risk to adopt XDG:

> Adding additional configuration paths is confusing and potentially risky for .ssh as, quite unlike usual "desktop" apps, it grants system access and having its configuration smeared across several possible paths makes managing this more confusing and brittle.[1]

I think this is clearly true for something like ~/.ssh/authorized_keys; it is perhaps less true for ~/.ssh/config and or ~/.ssh/known_hosts which could go in XDG_CONFIG_HOME and XDG_DATA_HOME, but if part of the point of the XDG BDS is to reduce dotfiles in $HOME then it makes less sense to move some, but not all of those files.

1: https://marc.info/?l=openssh-unix-dev&m=170687803731931&w=2
by nonethewiser | 2025-11-20 15:30:57+00:00
Bullshit detectors are blaring. Asian parent embellish the intelligence of their child without any verification. From what I understand Kim Ung-yong himself said many of the stories about him when he was young were misunderstood or exaggerated.

I guess it's not clear what they mean by learned the alphabet. Could point to the character and say the sound I guess? Know their meaning (you couldn't verify this easily if they cant talk)?

It's considered prodigious to be able to read at 3. I guess recognizing characters is short of that, but barely. And at 1? Im open to more information but I see no reason to think its true.
by TRiG_Ireland | 2025-11-20 15:31:02+00:00
The first four paragraphs of the judgment lay out most of it. Matthew Garrett's summary at https://nondeterministic.computer/@mjg59/115581959497817474 is as follows:

> In and around 2023, Roy and Rianne Schestowitz were subject to a horrific campaign of online harassment. Unfortunately they blamed me for it, and in turn wrote and published an astonishing array of articles making false accusations against me. Last year, I sued them in the high court in London. In turn, they countersued me for harassment. The case was heard last month and I'm pleased to say that the counterclaim was dismissed and I prevailed in my case. The court awarded me £70,000 in damages.

I've never heard of any of these people before, so for now I'm taking that as true at face value, given that he won.
by iLemming | 2025-11-20 15:31:14+00:00
> I just want a more stable

Emacs is incredibly stable. Most problems happen in custom-made packages. I don't even remember Emacs ever segfaulting for me on Linux. On Mac it can happen, but very rarely. I don't ever remember losing my data in Emacs - even when I deliberately kill the process, it recovers the unsaved changes.
by chemotaxis | 2025-11-20 15:31:36+00:00
Uh, now is this different from "normal" university education? I'd wager that 95%+ of people who go to college do it because they were told they have to for access to better job opportunities, not because they want to stay in the academia to publish books and do research for life.

I get it that some professors don't like teaching and just want to do research, but teaching is what pays their bills, and if they can't be bothered to do their job well...
by zamalek | 2025-11-20 15:32:32+00:00
Steam works around this using a chroot (container-like) into an environment with controlled libs. That being said, I have never seen it work: I always end up enabling Proton.

There is the school of thought that Wine is merely the Linux gaming ABI, and I largely agree. Native Linux binaries "feels" better but doesn't bring much from a practical standpoint.
by theoldgreybeard | 2025-11-20 15:32:41+00:00
The interesting tidbit here is SynthID. While a good first step, it doesn't solve the problem of AI generated content NOT having any kind of watermark. So we can prove that something WITH the ID is AI generated but we can't prove that something without one ISN'T AI generated.

Like it would be nice if all photo and video generated by the big players would have some kind of standardized identifier on them - but now you're left with the bajillion other "grey market" models that won't give a damn about that.
by jsheard | 2025-11-20 15:32:49+00:00
From the OP:

> Today, we are putting a powerful verification tool directly in consumers’ hands: you can now upload an image into the Gemini app and simply ask if it was generated by Google AI, thanks to SynthID technology. We are starting with images, but will expand to audio and video soon.

Re-rolling a few times got it to mention trying SynthID, but as a false negative, assuming it actually did the check and isn't just bullshitting.

> No Digital Watermark Detected: I was unable to detect any digital watermarks (such as Google's SynthID) that would definitively label it as being generated by a specific AI tool.

This would be a lot simpler if they just exposed the detector directly, but apparently the future is coaxing an LLM into doing a tool call and then second guessing whether it actually ran the tool.
by graybeardhacker | 2025-11-20 15:33:19+00:00
I agree with you. In the industry today I feel there there are software engineers and there are programmers. The engineers design, architect, and invent. The programmers do the rote work. Of course it's not black and white, but that's at the extremes of the spectrum.

I'm hoping that AI programming pushes more people toward the engineering side and as it takes over the rote work side. There will be people far to the programmer side that might be put out of a job, but the creative, innovative, inventive engineering positions will persist.
by pavel_lishin | 2025-11-20 15:33:53+00:00
> The terms of the settlement remain confidential, but both Linkletter and Proctorio confirmed that no money was exchanged.

> For Proctorio, the settlement made permanent the injunction that restricted Linkletter from posting the company’s help center or instructional materials. But it doesn’t stop Linkletter from remaining the company’s biggest critic, as “there are no other restrictions on my freedom of expression,” Linkletter’s blog noted.

> “I’ve won my life back!” Linkletter wrote, while reassuring his supporters that he’s “fine” with how things ended.

I would be fucking livid if I spent "ten times over" my life savings over a spurious lawsuit, and the conclusion was basically the company that fucked me getting everything they wanted.