MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by simoncion | 2025-11-08 15:12:36+00:00
I wouldn't say that SDDM is garbage. Apparently, it sets the environment variables & etc. needed to enable automatic HiDPI scaling that a shockingly large number of Wayland proponents insist Xorg doesn't support. [0][1]

[0] <https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM#Enable_HiDPI>

[1] Manual scaling (even non-integer scaling) works fine as long as you have a settings editor that will speak the XSETTINGS protocol, and a daemon running that can be queried. GNOME has both by default. KDE has the settings editor, and you might need to install xsettingsd or similar. The quirk I've found is that while GTK programs accept the display scaling changes immediately, QT programs must be restarted to adopt the changes.
by game_the0ry | 2025-11-08 15:12:39+00:00
Veritasium had a really good video on how facebook benefited from people buying legitimate (not fraudulent, click-farm) likes from fb. [1] Its over 10 years old now, but really good.

Basically, you could pay fb to boost your fb page, which is the "legitimate" way to get more reach. The problem was that click farms would like your page anyway, Why? Bc liking pages they were not paid to like would help hide fraudulent activity. So if one click farm clicked many likes on one page, that would be eady to spot as fraud, so that same click farm would like many other pages as well, ones that fb customers paid to boost and also got in front of the same click farms.

This created a dynamic where buying legitimate traffic from fb would hurt reach anyway bc the algo would key off of engagement, which would plummet bc the click farms saw the post that the page legitimately paid for. But that just incentivized the page owners to pay for more reach, thus fb would get paid more - fb had no incentive to stop this and paying fb in the first place would be worse tha not paying them at all. LAWL.

I guess the moral is -- never pay for boosting. And makes you question the quality of meta's revenue.

But the flip sides is that many companies (mine included) rely on instagram ads for revenue.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag
by quickthrowman | 2025-11-08 15:12:42+00:00
Agreed, I love my (stock and factory aimed) LED headlights. Haven’t had an issue in 5 years where I would’ve replaced multiple lamps in an older style headlight, which was the case with the Subaru I owned before.

LED headlight retrofit kits are probably what should be illegal, that’s where you get the poorly aimed and overly bright headlights.
by sandworm101 | 2025-11-08 15:12:55+00:00
I would still make fun of you for hoarding physical media. Mine now lives on my NAS, a black box of spinning HHDs sitting in my living room, to which i have saved copies of everything i care about. My music exists as files which i coppy to my phone's music folder, my movies as files that i can stream to my tablet without any mention of clouds. With recent improvements in storage tech, short of a raging fire, "my" media is safer there on my personal server than it is with apple.

My nas has moved to a new house now three times. Even before i have internet setup in my new place, if i want to rewatch some old movie i dont check to see whether Apple or google still has it, i just open up VLC and find it right where i saved it on my nas a decade ago.
by le-mark | 2025-11-08 15:12:56+00:00
Someone called me a boomer a few months ago and I was deeply offended. I’m gen x. The person was gen z. I was like dude do you not know what a boomer is? They had no idea that baby boomers were the generation born after world war 2. To them “boomer” was a slur applied to anyone older than them. I agree that actual boomers tend toward some unfortunate beliefs and characteristics, but “boomer” has become an ageist slur.

As a 50+ year old in tech maybe I’m overly sensitive to this?
by raw_anon_1111 | 2025-11-08 15:13:50+00:00
Apple made 112 billion dollars in profit fof the fiscal year that just ended. Do you really think an idea like open router would even sell as much as the AppleTV?

A CDN’s entire purpose for existing is high bandwidth colocated in ISPs data center.

Microsoft Surface sales peaked at $6.7 billion in 2022.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/26/microsoft-surface-is-nearly-...

With a 3% market share and it’s been declining since.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/30/24209519/microsoft-q4-202...
Show HN: Avoid Docker builds in GH Actions if the context didn't change
by 9dev | 2025-11-08 15:14:27+00:00
Hey HN! We work with GitHub Actions to build and deploy Docker images. This works, but many repositories contain files that don't end up in the final image, such as tests, tooling configuration, or developer documentation. Yet, every time these files change, an action workflow will build the same Docker image, but with new tags!

I was tired of both waiting for long workflows as well as burning build minutes, so I thought about a solution to the problem: You want to be able to skip builds if everything ending up in the build context doesn't change. That turned out to be more annoying than I thought initially; Docker provides no way of listing all files in the context short of actually building the image.

So instead, I created a very simple action that will generate a hash of all files in your repository, minus those matched by your .dockerignore file. You can then use this hash as the cache key deciding whether to run the build step, or just proceed with the previously pushed tag.

Here's a gist displaying an example workflow end-to-end: https://gist.github.com/Radiergummi/eec012d154ce0400032f3b1a...

Yes, it's a neat Rube Goldberg machine. Yes, it solves a real problem—and also money. Maybe one of you can benefit from this as well :-)
by tamnd | 2025-11-08 15:14:31+00:00
Oh, and I just submitted a link to my article about C. I am pretty sure no one will click it.

Articles about C never get much traffic, but that is fine. I wrote it because I care about how things really work, not because I expect it to trend. If even a few people read it and see the beauty in the old language that still runs the world, that is enough.
by gruez | 2025-11-08 15:14:35+00:00
How does that change the reporting compared to newspapers that exist solely to make money? In other words, what's the difference between

"sensationalise their reporting to attract and hold paying readers [so you can buy political influence]" (UK)

and

"sensationalise their reporting to attract and hold paying readers [so you can make money off subscriptions/ads]" (US)

?
by lproven | 2025-11-08 15:14:45+00:00
Can someone with a bit more chip-level knowledge explain to me why nobody has put a PiStorm into a classic Mac yet?

https://github.com/captain-amygdala/pistorm

If there are problems with the ISA or something, they're much much easier to tweak here. It already works in multiple models of Amiga, including both 68000 and 68020, and there's at least one effort to get one working in an Atari ST...
by cjbarber | 2025-11-08 15:14:46+00:00
I first read this piece years ago, I think it's really great advice.

Tl;dr is:

> When a writer asks you for feedback on their writing, what they really want is to know is:

> What’s going on in your head?

> What are you thinking?

> How do you feel?

> When you agree to give feedback on a piece of writing, your job is to notice what’s happening in your head and share it with the author.

> The best way to do this, in my opinion, is simple: leave notes on everything. In other words, try to give the writer your play-by-play reaction to every part of their piece.
by whstl | 2025-11-08 15:14:58+00:00
Working in a team means you are kind of forced to use what the team wants.

Of course you can try to convince them otherwise, or just be an asshole and mass-refactor to remove the DSLs.

But this kind of code is part of Ruby’s culture now.

The simple answer for anyone that doesn’t like this style is to leave Rails and Ruby for people who enjoy it.

It’s fine to hate it and want to distance yourself from it.
by earlynotify | 2025-11-08 15:15:06+00:00
You make a valid point with the Apple Watch SE1! I personally don't have an Apple Watch so didn't spot this, but it looks like Apple stopped with pushing updates this way for the Apple watch from the Series 6 and SE1 :(

In a similar way the 2017 MacBook updates are not present via the checks I run :( Good chance Apple has either given up hosting with it now being EOL or are running on some separate infrastructure.

Sorry I couldn't be any use to you!
by the__alchemist | 2025-11-08 15:15:16+00:00
I agree with all (almost all maybe?) of these. Aren't they pretty un-controversial in general for consumers, but represent the business/consumer adversarial disconnect? Or maybe I'm wrong and people love QR menus etc.

I couldn't have stated the 2FA thing better... Same with scare tactics (and forcing your hand) about software updates in the name of security. You can't just invoke security as an auto-win card! "Think of the Children."
by nradov | 2025-11-08 15:15:34+00:00
Hold on there buddy, you totally missed the point. I also know lots of brilliant people in the Bay Area tech scene who are not assholes. This thread isn't about brilliant people, it's about those who are commonly considered "great". Like, let's say, Steve Jobs.

And I flagged your comment for accusing me of licking boots. You don't even know me. Do better.
by idiotsecant | 2025-11-08 15:16:12+00:00
The purpose is presumably to be social with your group of people you're out with. There is almost zero social interaction in a typical waiter or waitress interaction, just false smiles and memorized verbal patty-cake. It has more in common with a TCP ACK than it does a genuine social interaction. If you think your waiter is socializing with you, you are mistaken.
by maxerickson | 2025-11-08 15:16:29+00:00
A lot of organized running events give everyone a medal as they cross the finish line.

Part of my brain thinks it is a racket. The organizer buys them for $X and sells them to the event for a multiple. If that isn't the case, it still makes sense for whoever makes them to promote the idea, because they get to sell more of them that way.
by MangoToupe | 2025-11-08 15:16:50+00:00
You don't typically get to be a successful politician by being skeptical of future industry profits. I suspect the people who run our country tend to be credulous rubes in this regard. Sam Altman is many things, but he appears very good at spelling a narrative about the future of computation and the relative competitive risk of not aggressively pursuing it. Google simply has not taken this approach.
by tamnd | 2025-11-08 15:17:08+00:00
Have you tried C23, especially its new Unicode support? It really surprised me after returning to C more than ten years later.

You can now write wide and UTF-8 string literals directly:

char8_t* s = u8"こんにちは"; char16_t* t = u"Привет"; char32_t* ustr = U"你好";

It just works across compilers, no special libraries or hacks needed.

C still feels like C, but cleaner, safer, and more consistent.
by cmclaughlin | 2025-11-08 15:17:13+00:00
I don't think the problem is with LED lights in particular, it's really the "color temperature" of lights and brightness or "lumens" are two high. Old incandescent lights could have also been too bright (think police car lights shining into your eyes).

But I generally agree - ever since I got PRK eye surgery ultra white car lights are hard for me to handle. My wife has always been sensitive to light (she has lighter eyes), so that goes to show that there's certainly a range of tolerance for this and it's really a safety issue.

Inspections are a good idea, but I'd like to see some control over what can be sold to prevent the installation in the first place.
by kuschku | 2025-11-08 15:17:45+00:00
Have you ever been in a hackspace? That's where you'll usually find such discussions IRL.

Other examples include "let's build a submarine" https://media.ccc.de/v/37c3-11828-how_to_build_a_submarine_a..., creating your own 2000s style phone ringtone/wallpaper subscription service https://blamba.de/ or running toslink audio over regular long-distance fiber links https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/sfp-experiment-ultra-long-ra...
by AtlasBarfed | 2025-11-08 15:17:56+00:00
Marathons and long bikes at least require you to perform a major amount of training and focus.

Not everyone that starts at the line gets a medal because there are people that don't finish and they don't get their medal.

Once you start moralizing about only winners should get medals or trophies, then you have to start looking at arbitrary distinctions like men's and women's different divisions, age divisions, weight divisions, pro versus amateur, college versus high school.

Really the extension of logic is that only the champion of a given sport or event at the very highest level should get a trophy.

I think what rubs a lot of people about youth sports participation trophies, is that you're basically rewarding just showing up, well devaluing actual focus training preparation or genetic advantage of the better players.
by thaumasiotes | 2025-11-08 15:18:34+00:00
> They don’t even attribute their quotes, and there is no screenshots I can see of these supposed notices either.

You'd see them, if you read the article. Look for the big image with the caption saying "Source:".

I should warn you that you'll have to make it through seven (7) sentences of text before you get there.

As a side note, not a single word of your comment just now is true. Did you think no one would notice?
by jMyles | 2025-11-08 15:19:31+00:00
He "clarified" on twitter. I think it's very important to presume good intentions, but I have to say, I found these even more troubling than a bailout:

> What we do think might make sense is governments building (and owning) their own AI infrastructure, but then the upside of that should flow to the government as well. We can imagine a world where governments decide to offtake a lot of computing power and get to decide how to use it, and it may make sense to provide lower cost of capital to do so. Building a strategic national reserve of computing power makes a lot of sense. But this should be for the government’s benefit, not the benefit of private companies.
by larusso | 2025-11-08 15:20:04+00:00
I think he posts from a US standpoint where regulations for the aftermarket is problematic and adaptive headlights are allowed but with such high standards that no automaker has them yet. Also LUMEN is a very stupid way to market car headlights as it just depicts the light intensity. Candela is usually used for this specific application since it’s a measurement of light intensity in a specific direction.
by fallinghawks | 2025-11-08 15:20:23+00:00
> In all cases it should be a website, not a "download our app"

Increasingly often, it is "download our app". And they will try to force it by sabotaging their website. I did a pickup order from Walmart once. You're supposed to take a numbered parking place and check in, but if you try it from the website on a mobile, it'll redirect you to download the app. There's no getting around it. I don't recall if I tried desktop mode on the website, but the website is a pretty cluttered widescreen mess anyway. (Fortunately at the parking area there's a phone number for checking in posted.)

I run into similar sabotage issues with Facebook (yes I am just a year or so shy of being a boomer). You can no longer use messaging on mobile, it tells you to download the app. Desktop mode does work, though (for now; I'm sure someone will try to take it away). All this stuff used to work on phones.
by typicalset | 2025-11-08 15:20:27+00:00
An intervention on the household someone is raised in is not the same as an intervention on race. This is part of what it means when people say racism is a structural problem: people are, systematically, treated differently in many different parts of their lives. The USA is a country where, within living memory, the insurrection act was invoked to allow black children to attend a school which wanted to segregate them.

Leaving aside the question of what IQ actually measures, the authors of the single study you cite interpret the results as inconclusive due to confounding factors. The mainstream position in biology is that race is not a biological concept [1]. It seems that you are trying to argue that there is some immutable difference between races, a position usually described as scientific racism. As you are not aware of evidence-based arguments against scientific racism, there are studies showing a reduction of the "Racial IQ Gap" [2], as well as papers reviewing scientific racism in the literature [3] where it is argued that much contemporary research promoting ideas of immutable racial differences fail to meet evidentiary and ethical standards.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11291859/ [2] http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/fe/LinkedDocuments/dickens2006a.... [3] https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Famp0001228
by svilen_dobrev | 2025-11-08 15:20:40+00:00
Location: Varna, Bulgaria, EU (EEsT, ~UTC+2/3)

Remote: yes

Willing to relocate: for a while

Technologies: python, javascript/node/react web/html/css graphql sql nosql c++ c java sh perl make linux.. dozens other languages and stacks, Prolog to Android to Verilog to assemblers ; data+work-flows, UI/UX, testing, reverse engineering, methodology, process, management, culture, leadership

Domains: financial+related, any-burocracy-automating, boards/hardware/chip-making, tools+ languages (dev or process), CAD/CAM/CAE, maps, modelling-in-general - physical or virtual, ~semantical stuff, audio and many more

Resume/CV: https://www.svilendobrev.com/rabota/cv/ (pdf at the bottom)

Email: az at svilendobrev point com

Site: https://www.svilendobrev.com/rabota/

others: https://www.github.com/svilendobrev ; https://www.linkedin.com/in/svilendobrev

About: Making software for 36+ years.. Seen quite some things.. and attitudes. Always hands-on.

Looking for.. interesting work with interesting people. Maybe, principal or staff engineer, architect, CTO, co-founder, team/tech lead, head of engineering.. or very senior programmer.. (or Mentor? is this still needed? as a playing Trainer.. been there, done that). i like fiddling with things, mentoring people, and building stuff - out of nothing if needed :) Effecting change, esp. cultural. Life-coaching too.. And making good friends along. But no office politics, plz.

IMO The interesting part of making software, is the people, while technicals.. are solvable. And, Fun is important 4th factor in the Functionality-Price-Deadlines Triangle.

May relocate anywhere to stay with the team, once in a while, as IMO "remote" does not work well for knowledge/ culture/ relations -building activities.
by dmannorreys | 2025-11-08 15:20:59+00:00
They are fantastic, but not for the other drivers. I live in Sweden where it's very, very dark for a large chunk of the year. I'm also not a boomer. But when it's very dark, the difference in blinding is staggering between meeting an old yellow light headlight vs a modern LED headlight. It's not about lack of inspection (although that is also an issue as it seems many headlights are not properly calibrated), but difference in the warmth of light itself. LED headlights is great for you at the cost of everybody you meet on the road.
by grayhatter | 2025-11-08 15:21:07+00:00
I abandoned the goal of investing More time into C when they couldn't get defer into their latest version.

2 years later, already enjoying it in Zig `defer` is a lot less important to me now. But I still view it as a symptom of the death of the language. C isn't dead, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's no longer learning from it's mistakes, where as I still am.
by dahart | 2025-11-08 15:21:18+00:00
LED headlights are blinding. One thing I’ve noticed is that many people, especially people with non-LED headlights, are resorting to running with brights on at all times. Pretty sure it’s not legal, but I have to admit that many LED headlights on low are actually worse than old style brights. It sucks driving at night, and seeing LEDs directly is physically painful.

Inspections don’t help; any slight variations in road angle puts someone in direct sight of correctly adjusted headlights. Unadjusted headlights aren’t the problem, and probably never will be, unlike the old headlights. Most LED headlights are relatively new and perfectly adjusted (and are designed to stay adjusted forever.)

I don’t know the whole story, but I heard that Europe has widely adopted dynamic masking on LED headlights and that in the US, lobbying of some sort is preventing adoption. I would LOVE if we had such a thing… or some fancy night goggles that could mask all bright points without masking anything dark (or maybe even boost the darks)… I would be willing to pay a lot of money for that.

Edit: a search just informed me that the headlight laws changed in 2022, and dynamic masking is coming here. https://www.mcnicholaslaw.com/adaptive-driving-beams-on-the-...
by Mistletoe | 2025-11-08 15:22:45+00:00
I’m reminded of this because I’m not sure you just write off $500B.

Jerry: "So, we're gonna make the post office pay for my new stereo, now?"

Kramer: "It's a write-off for them."

Jerry: "How is it a write-off?"

Kramer: "They just write it off."

Jerry: "Write it off what?"

Kramer: "Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything."

Jerry: "You don't even know what a write-off is."

Kramer: "Do you?"

Jerry: "No, I don't."

Kramer: "But they do. And they're the ones writing it off."
by dragonwriter | 2025-11-08 15:23:01+00:00
> If the government were to bail out, OpenAI wouldn’t that open up litigation from competitors like Google or anthropic?

No. Government has done lots of bailouts, and it is has never opened up litigation from conpetitors, even though a common result is that the government (1) stops their competitor from failing, and (2) becomes a major and active shareholder in their competitor.

The reason it doesn't open up litigation is that there is no law which prohibits would therefore provide a cause of action for that.
by JKCalhoun | 2025-11-08 15:23:07+00:00
"At the heart of the stock stumbles, there appears to be a growing anxiety about the AI business, which is massively expensive to operate and doesn’t appear to be paying off in any concrete way."

I wonder if this is a thing the U.S. should be worrying about with regard to China taking the lead. As long as the U.S. is … idling … it seems it could catch up—if in fact there is any there there with AI.

But I've been told by Eric Schmidt and others that AGI is just around the corner—by year's end even. Or, it is already being demonstrated in the lab, but we just don't know about it yet.
by Ekaros | 2025-11-08 15:23:16+00:00
I can see bailing out banks, you need to keep money flowing. Bailing out something like auto industry. Lot of employees with non-transferable skills and restructuring will be mess.

With AI? Well just sell the assets in bankruptcy. Models can be sold, hardware and infra can be sold, IP and brands too can be sold. Employees, they have mostly transferable skills and are mobile already.

Even if AI companies fall, other people can pick up the pieces if there is something valuable left. Market might be affected. But I don't think it is only domino.