MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by spankibalt | 2025-11-24 02:13:20+00:00
Last post from me on this:

> "But neither of these contradicts the statement "art generally takes longer to learn than programming."

Man alive, I've already explained this multiple times, and you misread each and every time. You even postulate programming as something outside of art; a statement I have fundamentally disagreed with. You're fighting strawmen, and we therefore run rings around each other.

> "Oh... actually nothing. This whole discussion started when you said [...]"

The discussion started when I objected to your statement that "it takes a lot longer to become a reasonably good artist than it does to become a reasonably good programmer".

To me it's nothing but an imprecisely articulated, sweeping generalization constructed around the anectodal "evidence" that's your life (with an unknown sample size of people you've met or read about that might agree with you to some extent). In other words it's nothing but tedious fallacies, a thing oft observed in such discussions.

It's also a massive red flag; I at least would never be so presumptious and arrogant to make myself the yardstick and declare cocksure that one discipline will take longer than the other for some to me completely unknown reader. I know many a great artist who paints and/or writes but could not program their way out of a wet paper bag (they're practically computer illiterate and have absolutely no ambitions or time to change that), let alone reach the same heights there as in their chosen medium of expression. And vice versa. So what's useful to you, and what might be useful to me, is not automatically applicable to others and therefore it's useless to generalize, at least without any hard data to back it up (and even then the addressed party might be an outlier).

If one wants to find out which form(s) of expression is/are best suited for oneself, one needs to spread the wings and take to said form(s). How long that will take no one can say for sure; therefore what takes longer if one gravitates to more than one form, no one can can make reasonably accurate predictions about either. Especially not without knowing at least a modicum of relevant information about the individual any advice is supposed to enrich in the first place.

Hence, when addressing a general audience, better concentrate on giving detailed and sound advice on how to get better, or speak to useful mitigation strategies/life hacks, as opposed to shallow and often unapplicable generalizions about the future. In German there's a terminus technicus for such sillyness: Glaskugelei.
by byko3y | 2025-11-24 02:13:41+00:00
>You can throw in a destructor [1]. You just need to mark that destructor noexcept(false). You do get a guaranteed std::terminate if an exception escapes a destructor while unwinding is already underway, though.

Come on, please tell me you don't do this in your code. Formally you are correct, but there are many things in C++ that should have better not existed.

>Why doesn't a similar argument apply to "specially designed" Rust?

Because it would lose most of the Rust properties by that time. C code with fixed memory layout, on the other hand, is ideomatic and was widely employed in the past. It's still being employed in embedded. I'm not saying that you are wrong though, there might be people optimizing Rust for this very purpose, but I'm not aware of such an effort.

>catch_unwind exists for a reason.

>>Or compare it to BEAM that can have processes crash all day long and still continue to work.

>Again, nothing stops you from writing Rust that does the same.

Who's gonna GC the poisoned garbage left in undefined state after the crash? I'm not saying it's impossible — I honestly have no idea whether safe recover is possible in Rust, but from what I know it's rather in middle of "not possible" and "not viable".
by theamk | 2025-11-24 02:13:54+00:00
Looking at the first example, "The "if err != nil" problem": note how errors got noticeable worse... If something breaks, you no longer know if it's fetch vs validation vs payment.

I am not an "establishment" but this terrifies me. Error message quality already took a nosedive when people switch from languages with backtraces into Go. Slowly, after pain of thousands debugging sessions, people are realizing that "return nil, err" is bad, and fmt.Errorf should be used everywhere. And how we have new languages undoing this all again?
by idle_zealot | 2025-11-24 02:14:26+00:00
> I am expecting all these individuals or connected individuals to immediately be seized and jailed by an Executive Order from the next Democrat President

I am not expecting the Democrats, at least as they are now, to pursue justice regarding the schemers and criminals in this administration. They are far more interested in preserving power structures and the tiered justice system than even the easy political win inherent in holding their enemies to account. Expect the rhetoric to rapidly shift to "moving forward" and "Trump was an exception, other Republicans are totally reasonable coworkers."
by crazygringo | 2025-11-24 02:14:34+00:00
It's not a policing problem, it's a homelessness and mental health problem.

You'll never have enough police for regular enforcement on buses. The numbers don't add up, not even remotely.

Other countries do a better job when they're able to keep people off the streets in the first place. Which then becomes a much more complicated question about social spending and the civil liberties of mentally ill people who don't want to be institutionalized.
by rmunn | 2025-11-24 02:14:48+00:00
The start menu is one of the first things I used to fix on a brand-new Win10 install: start removing all those useless/annoying tiles until I have nothing left but a list of programs. (On Win11, the first thing I fix is to move the toolbar back to left-justified instead of centered; then I fix the start menu tiles).

But I do wish graphics designers would learn to leave well enough alone. People don't want their UI to change on them every 5-10 years. They want to learn one UI and stick with it. The Windows 7 UI was just about perfect; if they had kept that UI while changing internals not visible to the user, they would have had far faster adoption of Windows 10. As it is, I know many people who stuck to Windows 7 for as long as possible until the free-upgrade period was about to run out.

EDIT: I'm not saying there weren't things about the Win7 UI that couldn't be improved. The new Terminal app is immensely better than Conhost. IMMENSELY. But that's an incremental change, not a UI replacement.
by eddythompson80 | 2025-11-24 02:14:57+00:00
It hasn’t really worked so far. Pretty much exactly what you’ve described. I don’t even really work on that team, but “a judge LLM” low-key triggered me just because of how much I’ve been hearing it over the last couple of months.

I think the reason of the recent pivot is to “keep the human in the loop” more. The current thinking is they tried to remove the human too much and were getting bad results. So now they just want to make the interaction faster and let the human be more involved like how we (developers) use Claude code or copilot by checking every interaction and nudging it towards the right/desired answer.

I got the sense that management isn’t taking it well though. Just this Friday they gave a demo of the new POC where the LLM is just suggesting things and frequently asking for permissions and where to go next and expecting the user to interact with it a lot more than the one-shot approach before (which I do think is likely to yield better results tbh) but the main reaction was “this seems like a massive step backward”
by epistasis | 2025-11-24 02:15:50+00:00
The halfway competent folks in the US realize that this has happened, and that the repercussions will last for a decade or more. Regaining international trust, and all the privileges that came with it, will not be easy or pleasant. I fear that it may not be possible, if China steps up too quickly.

Many people make an analogy to Brexit, where a democracy intentionally commits economic and political suicide. I fear the impact on the US will be far worse than Brexit's impact on the UK.
by jefftk | 2025-11-24 02:17:16+00:00
> I think the best way to put it is, users with the same user picked settings should see the same things, in the same order. That's a given on HackerNews, as there's only one frontpage.

Are you sure? The algorithm isn't public, but putting a tiny fraction of "nearly ready for the frontpage" posts on the front page for randomly selected users would be a good way to get more votes on them without subjecting everyone to /new
by goku12 | 2025-11-24 02:17:19+00:00
You give them too much credit if you even suspect them of doing the right thing. You can't expect them to just give up an avenue to such an unfair advantage, no matter how illegal it is. Their wealth and power is incompatible with ethics and legality. I mean, what else do you expect from a guy who so insensitivity mocked and laughed on TV at the misery and suffering that he inflicted on the ordinary people? Besides, who is gatekeping their access to the federal systems now? They fired everybody who tried to resist.

Let me get into a conspiratorial territory now. I have a feeling that the access to those systems are not limited to just this wannabe-Nazi and his minions. I suspect that some very hostile and clandestine elements like Palantir might have integrated into it. I don't have serious evidences to back up any of these. But a lot of people are discussing this now. These aren't even secret plots. These tech bro billionaires have been publicly expressing their contempt and disdain for ordinary people and democracy for nearly two decades now. They had been publicly endorsing and promiting tech authoritarianism. Much like the Project 2025, they had been outlining their plans too (though less publicized), that they're following to the dot now. Crimes come with a user manual these days, it seems! They salivate over a tech dystopia like in the Dredd comics. What lends credibility to this is their publicly conspicuous cooperation, that's less likely under normal circumstances.

All these are why I always say that 'I have nothing to hide' is a terrible argument against personal privacy. Anyways, just assume that your past and future confidential information is entirely compromised by some very nefarious elements that are openly hostile at you.
by ChrisMarshallNY | 2025-11-24 02:18:35+00:00
> The real issue is we don’t commit people to psychiatric care when they’re clearly a problem in our society.

I’m old enough to remember when we did that. The homeless population absolutely skyrocketed, after all the mental institutions were closed in the 1980s and 1990s.

That said, many of them were hellholes. It’s sort of arguable as to whether the patients were worse off, but one thing’s for sure; the majority of city-dwellers (the ones with homes) are not better off, now. I’m really not sure who benefited from this.

Here, on Long Island (NY), we have some of the largest psychiatric centers in the world; almost all completely shut down, and decomposing.

The campuses are gorgeous, but can’t be developed, because they would require hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup.
by sien | 2025-11-24 02:18:53+00:00
Yes.

US cars get 1 cent per passenger mile.

US Transit gets $2.39 per passenger mile.

https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=22027

Also look up the Farebox Recovery Ratio.

There are values for many US cities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farebox_recovery_ratio#United_...
by tyleo | 2025-11-24 02:19:09+00:00
I'm annoyed that this submission's title was changed. This was first submitted with the original title, "Rust is a disappointment," and got flagged. It looks like it's been unflagged and the title has been changed.

A quick search of HN shows a bunch of articles, "X is a disappointment," which aren't flagged. Do folks have such thin skin about this topic that expressing disappointment deserves flags?
by o11c | 2025-11-24 02:19:24+00:00
Some solutions include: add a hook to node on the command line, fake a `node_modules`, try to make an import map work, just hard-code the path ... most of this is quite intrusive unlike the simple `require` path.

I really don't have a recommendation other than another hack. The JS world is hacks upon hacks upon hacks; there is no sanity to be found anywhere.
by phil21 | 2025-11-24 02:19:26+00:00
Upgrading from 300mbps to 1.5gbps was instantly noticeable to me. I was also skeptical of it being so.

The microbursts to pull down a full chonky 50MB modern web page actually do matter when you are on modern hardware capable of rendering it faster than the link speed. This was not always the case.

Going from 1.5gbps to 2.5gbps was not though.
by smelendez | 2025-11-24 02:19:46+00:00
Brick and mortar shopping really seems to be struggling in the US since covid, though. It’s possible some transit systems could add malls above some of their stations, but a lot of cities still have persistently high retail vacancies, and even suburban malls aren’t what they were a few decades ago.

And urban malls and chain stores are frankly often depressing — awkward layouts translated imperfectly from suburban sprawl, along with obviously underpaid and burned out staff.
by pinkmuffinere | 2025-11-24 02:19:58+00:00
I think we’re mostly agreeing, but I feel this is a little misleading:

> $500k/year sounds like a lot, but that's enough that taxes are going to take a large bite.

It seems to imply that taxes are going to make the $500k income life surprisingly hard, but let’s do the math. In California, with $500k income, your effective taxation rate is 41%, looking here: https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#M0SXJ.... So you’re going to take home about $300k after tax!! I think that’s still _so much money_. I would struggle to spend that even if I tried to. Ya, the taxes are higher. But it’s not that big of an issue, once you’re making a ton of money it just doesn’t hurt much. That’s why graduated tax rates are tolerable to begin with, imo.
by jeswin | 2025-11-24 02:20:17+00:00
To me that was Windows 2000. One day in 1999, I was at the local bookstore going over computer magazines and one of them came with CD to preview Windows 2000. I was mostly a Windows 98/RedHat user at that point, so I decided to try it out.

It almost instantly won me over with the leap in stability due to the NT kernel, but the craziest thing was this feature called "Hibernate". This was the time when booting was painfully slow, and here was a feature that not just booted rapidly, but dropped me into the previous session with all apps open! It was pure magic. I switched over to Linux exclusively a few years after that, but this was the feature that prolonged that decision for a long time. I don't think Linux ever got a useable hibernate, but the feature became not as necessary due to the advent of SSDs.
by gonzobonzo | 2025-11-24 02:20:27+00:00
It very well might be genuine surprise. Most people from other countries have an extremely hard time understanding why most U.S. cities allow people to openly break the law in front of authorities with zero consequences.

The U.S. is a pretty far outlier in this regard. It's strange how many people in the U.S. don't realize this at all, and become appalled at when foreigners are shocked by the way things are done in U.S. cities.
by jasonjmcghee | 2025-11-24 02:23:02+00:00
My interpretation of what I've read of "off-label" medical device use... is that I don't think that's true at all. But IANAL or medical professional.

https://human.research.wvu.edu/fda-regulated-devices-used-in...

---

9. Does FDA require IRB review and approval of off-label use of a legally marketed device?

...(unrelated for this conversation)...

Yes, when the off-label use of a legally marketed device is part of a research study collecting safety and effectiveness data involving human subjects, IRB review and approval is required (21 CFR 812.2(a)). For additional information on the off-label use of devices, see the FDA Information Sheet guidance, “ ‘Off-label’ and Investigational Use of Marketed Drugs, Biologics and Medical Devices.”
by bsder | 2025-11-24 02:23:12+00:00
> There is simply no excuse for this.

The fault is here:

> my parents were not a love match. at 27 and 26, they were embarrassingly old by the standards of their small chinese port town. all four of my grandparents exerted enormous pressure to force them together.

You have an entire community that exerted enough social pressure to force two people together by fiat who clearly did not want to be together. Reading between the lines: a closeted gay male and a woman being excessively pressured to produce a child NOW before getting too old.

At that point, you've created such a highly aberrant social situation that you're guaranteed to get pathological behaviors.

After the community generated such a screwed up situation, it is difficult for me to assign much fault to the couple involved rather than see them both as unfortunate victims.

I may not approve, but I find it difficult to blame.

> So you use the societal pressure that forced you into your situation to keep her from leaving, stealing decades of her life that she could have potentially had with someone who would have made her happier: There is simply no excuse for this.

Why are you assuming that the social pressure that forced them together magically went away and assigning both agency and blame solely to the husband? Why is the community pressure somehow easier to deal with 10 years/15 years/20 years later? The fact that the wife could be browbeaten back into line shows that the community social pressure very much did not decrease or become easier to deal with over time.
by phantasmish | 2025-11-24 02:23:39+00:00
Social Security comes from its own budget paid by a separate tax. When its savings (accrued by that same dedicated tax) runs dry it has to cut spending. It will not, under current law, deficit spend. The only problem to solve there is whether we want to adjust its funding so benefit levels don’t drop in the nearish future.

People bringing it up in discussions of the general budget usually either don’t understand how it’s funded, or are presenting it inaccurately because they want to end it.
Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?
by pugworthy | 2025-11-24 02:25:39+00:00
One of my Phonak Audeo 90’s (RIC) died the other day after 5 years and I’m shopping for new. What’s your go to hearing aid currently if you’ve upgraded recently or have been thinking of doing so?

Moderate loss, have worn them for many years, enjoy listening to music and nature, but also need help in meetings and noisy environments.

Not worried about cost and wanting to get one more good deal out of work insurance before I retire.
by Starlevel004 | 2025-11-24 02:25:40+00:00
Tagging on I really recommend everyone read up on groups like the Com, 764, or O9A. It's impossible to describe these groups without sounding like an insane conspiracy theorist and yet they're all real.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/764_(organization) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Nine_Angles
by saghm | 2025-11-24 02:25:47+00:00
Even if your wife never manages to forgive you for what happened, I think there might be a much stronger chance than you might realize that you eventually have a much more meaningful relationship with your son by being your true self with him. He's young enough that in a lot of ways, the version of you he loves might not really be based that much on the construction you describe as much as the fact that he knows you love him and the experiences you share (and will hopefully continue to share) together. I think it's more likely that continuing to repress how you feel for years to come will take an emotional toll on you that makes it harder to be able to truly emotionally connect with him at the level you'd like than the fallout of revealing the truth sooner.

For what it's worth, you also may be surprised about how willing even your wife is to accept this. I obviously don't know anything about your situation, and there's any number of things that can influence how loved ones react to something like this, but I have direct knowledge of a situation fairly similar to yours that turned out quite well; my aunt on my father's side has only one child, a daughter from her first husband, who ended up coming out as gay at some point when my cousin was fairly young. They divorced, and from what I'm aware of, continued to co-parent civilly, and my cousin would spent time with each of them during holidays (e.g. she's always spent Christmas Eve with my aunt and our grandparents and Christmas Day with her father). Almost thirty years later, both my aunt and uncle have been remarried happily for years, and nobody cares that my uncle happens to be gay. If anything, I have to assume that literally everyone is much happier in the current situation than they would be if things had gone differently and he had never come out. I don't pretend that any of us can know how things will turn out for you and your family whichever path you choose, but I truly think that if you decide to tell the truth, you'll be giving all three of you the best chance at happiness in the long run.
by FloorEgg | 2025-11-24 02:26:21+00:00
The way I've always thought of this is there are potentials for interactions and interactions.

Interactions act like point particles and potentials for interactions act like waves.

Arguing over the distinction is a bit like debating whether people are the things they do, or the thing that does things. There is some philosophical discussion to be had, but for the most part it doesn't really matter.
by afuchs | 2025-11-24 02:26:46+00:00
> ... It feels like there could be some societal benefit to similarly reducing the number of busses and just making them free. (Today most busses are only at 10-30% capacity). ...

Public transit systems need to consider a lot of trade offs when they plan how to use the resources they have.

Optimizing for cost like this can make the busses less practical to use and less attractive to potential riders.

If a bus stop is only visited by a bus once an hour, then the average amount of time someone needs to wait for a bus to visit that bus stop is 30 minutes (assuming a uniform distribution for when that person arrives at the bus stop). If the bus stop is visited by a bus every 20 minutes, then that person would only need to wait at that bus stop for an average of 10 minutes.

The average time of a trip on this bus will be roughly equal to: the time to walk to the bus stop + the time spent waiting for the bus + the time the bus takes to reach the closest stop to the destination + the time to walk to the destination.

From that, reducing the number of busses that visit that bus stop increases the average amount of time for trips which originate from that bus stop.

A factor which impacts usage of public transit system is how quickly it can get someone to some arbitrary destination.

So, cutting the amount of busses a public transit system runs can reduce costs but also reduces how attractive that public transit system is to potential riders because of the increase in the amount of time an average trip takes.

That increases the use of other forms of transportation, assuming that people don't forgo trips entirely (e.g., staying home instead of going to a bar and getting a DUI, or eating at a hotel's restaurant to avoid spending $60-80 on taxis or Uber for a single meal).
by ssl-3 | 2025-11-24 02:27:16+00:00
For a long time I had issues with my laptop's battery being dead, even when I put it away fully charged.

Until one day when I unpacked it and found that it was both hot and already running, and decided that this had to end.

I found that there was a process that was part of a printer driver which existed only to spam notifications about buying printer supplies, and that some fucking sadist at HP absolutely buried into Windows as a task that would wake the computer to do this even if it was unplugged.

Because that's what I need in my life: A laptop that wakes up to check the supplies on a printer that I don't even own.

(Thanks, HP.)