MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by _jsmh | 2025-11-04 09:39:52+00:00
It's an observation.

On the continuum of approval, where at one end there is endorsement and at the other disapproval, it's somewhere in-between. Even I who made the observation don't know exactly where. Sometimes something jumps out at me and I don't yet why.

It could be an incorrect observation. Some of what they said seems true, some false. I don't know enough about security specifically to say. I know a lot about other things to know he said some things that are true.

It's astonishment at perhaps some kind of law of the universe that things that seem one way may be a different way.

It's an exclamation at the poetic irony of someone expressing there's gray area in some things gets downvoted and their comments are in gray colour.

It's a way to introduce myself, to say hi Mr Monero user, and pass a super secret note.

I meant no disrespect.

Perhaps my reply here is astonishment at how interpretation of words may depend on imagination. As if words alone aren't enough.
by thaumasiotes | 2025-11-04 09:40:55+00:00
> I couldn't find any legit reasons for keeping the "six-month rule" around but it seems like it's still occasionally checked, sometimes even during boarding.

Airlines sometimes check for things during boarding. Those things are never rules outside the context of the airline.

I had an airline require once that I complete a form before boarding that, by the terms printed on the form, expired before the plane landed. That didn't matter to them.

Airlines are clueless. I don't know why they do their imaginary checks.
by advikipedia | 2025-11-04 09:41:04+00:00
That's precisely what we found in our research as well! We outlined it in our observations too (excerpt below):

The most successful deployment strategies we’ve seen started with:

simple and specific use cases with clear value drivers, that were low risk yet medium impact;

weren’t majorly disruptive to existing workflows;

preferably automating a task that the human user dislikes (or was outsourced);

the output of the workflow can be easily/quickly verified by the human for accuracy or suitability; and

demonstrated clear ROI quickly

Given the current levels of technological development, AI Agents work best when narrowly applied to very specific tasks and operating under a specific context. For instance, we’ve seen this in healthcare with revenue cycle management processes (claim and denial management) that health systems were already outsourcing to third-party providers.

The land-and-expand strategy for AI agents is very different to traditional SaaS. Given enterprises are increasingly under pressure from the C-Suite to incorporate AI into their work, there are plenty of opportunities for startups to “land” but it’s much harder to “expand” – and not only that, it’s taking much longer to expand even when they want to expand, because it’s a use case by use case rollout.

Much like the iconic Volkswagen ad, sometimes it’s better to “Think Small” and build trust first, rather than attempt too many use cases (and excessively complex use cases) right off the bat.
Is there a better way to install Windows drivers?
by bloqs | 2025-11-04 09:41:06+00:00
I find windows auto-update nearly always ignores about half of my new hardware whenever I build a PC. I note Snappy Driver Installer Origin is ok, but it's not consistent either. (NOT snappy driver installer which is now a malware site) Is there a better way than trawling through some godawful marketing website?
by OJFord | 2025-11-04 09:41:29+00:00
Location: UK (but open to working other timezone) Remote: yes Willing to relocate: no Technologies: language-agnostic, but professional experience mainly with Python, SQL, AWS, & Terraform; some Go & Rust Résumé/CV: https://cv.ojford.com Email: cv.hn at my username .com

Currently building data analytics platform for agricultural customers; previously connectivity/control/update for IoT devices. I think I'm good at understanding and adapting to a new business domain, and enjoy that learning opportunity. I believe we build better software with a better understanding of the context it operates in.

Have done & can do full-stack work (helped current company grow from three engineers and through acquisition) but lean towards backend/infrastructure in expertise. Most recently platform technical lead (IC).

MEng EE & CS blend. (No professional EE experience, but somewhat maintained as a hobby.) 8y post-intern experience in web software.

Looking for something new to sink my teeth into in an organisation with room to grow. Remote opportunities only please, and that I'm eligible for residing in the UK & as a British citizen, though I'm perfectly willing to travel for particular events/big meetings. Cheers!
by 9rx | 2025-11-04 09:42:01+00:00
> You just moved the goalposts.

Nope. This carries the exact same semantic intent as my original comment. I've had to severely dumb down the phrasing over the course of discussion as it is clear you don't have a firm grasp on computing, and may continue to dumb it down even more if you continue to display that you don't understand, but there is nowhere for the goalposts to go. They were firmly set long before my time and cannot be moved.

> and violations of either are bugs.

They are both programmer error. "Bug" and "exception" are different labels we use to offer more refinement in exactly what kind of error was made. If I erroneously write code that operates on a null pointer, contrary to the rules of the computing environment, I created an exception. If I erroneously wrote code to paint a widget blue when the business people intended it to be red, I created a bug. While you may not understand the value in differentiating — to the user who only sees that the program isn't functioning correctly it is all the same, right? — programmers who work on projects in industry do, hence why they created different words for different conditions.

> the language or code does not signal them.

It seems you continue to confuse the exception data structure with exception as a categorical type of programmer error. The discussion is, was, and will only ever be about the later. There was no mention of programming languages at the onset of our discussion and turning us towards that is off-topic. You seem to be here in good faith, so let's keep it that way by staying true to the original topic.
Ask HN: Has Claude Code quality dropped significantly over the last few days?
by pqdbr | 2025-11-04 09:43:18+00:00
I've noticed a sharp drop in Claude Code's performance starting about 5 days ago. Curious if others are experiencing this.

Examples I'm seeing:

- Incomplete responses: Asked if 3 files were still needed post-refactoring; got an answer for only 1, other 2 ignored completely

- Context failures: Asked for the deploy command after modifying our Ansible script; gave wrong answer without checking obviously related files Code quality regression: Simple refactors that used to work smoothly now require multiple iterations

- Agent execution issues: Agents not triggering without explicit @ mentions. Spent 1+ hour getting a 'cypress-test-runner' agent to work despite clear instructions in CLAUDE.md. Even when triggered, it couldn't follow basic instructions (kept paraphrasing test names instead of returning them unchanged)

Has anyone else noticed the same?
by IgorPartola | 2025-11-04 09:43:19+00:00
Have you ever read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? One of the first examples in that book is how when you are disassembling a motorcycle any one bolt is trivial until one is stuck. Then it becomes your entire world for a while as you try to solve this problem and the solution can range from trivial to amazingly complex.

You are using the term “hard problem” to mean something like solving P = NP. But in reality as soon as you step outside of your area of expertise most problems will be hard for you. I will give you some examples of things you might find to be hard problems (without knowing your background):

- what is the correct way to frame a door into a structural exterior wall of a house with 10 foot ceilings that minimized heat transfer and is code compliant.

- what is the correct torque spec and sequence for a Briggs and Stratton single cylinder 500 cc motor.

- how to correctly identify a vintage Stanley hand plane (there were nearly two dozen generations of them, some with a dozen different types), and how to compare them and assess their value.

- how to repair a cracked piece of structural plastic. This one was really interesting for me because I came up with about 5 approaches and tried two of them before asking an LLM and it quickly explained to me why none of the solutions I came up with would work with that specific type of plastic (HDPE is not something you can glue with most types of resins or epoxies and it turns out plastic welding is the main and best solution). What it came up with was more cost efficient, easier, and quicker than anything I thought up.

- explaining why mixing felt, rust, and CA glue caused an exothermal reaction.

- find obscure local programs designed to financially help first time home buyers and analyze their eligibility criteria.

In all cases I was able to verify the solutions. In all cases I was not an expert on the subject and in all cases for me these problems presented serious difficulty so you might colloquially refer to them as hard problems.
by _jsmh | 2025-11-04 09:43:22+00:00
The downvoting functionality here and in other forums can mean many things. It isn't a precise thing. If it is precise I'm not finding a clear definition. It can mean I disagree, this is boring, this is false, this made me sad, I don't like reading this, I don't like this user, I'm tired, etc.

One plausible interpretation of a downvote without a comment is drive-by snark without rationalizing.
by user____name | 2025-11-04 09:43:58+00:00
Reminded me of this comparison between Ocaml and Sml with regards to the purity vs practicality. [0]

The complaint about syntax is amusing, I get a bit annoyed when I see Rust syntax being inserted into Java/C-ish languages.

[0] http://adam.chlipala.net/mlcomp/
by anakaine | 2025-11-04 09:43:59+00:00
The entire writing of the legislation as is also ignores the fact that light choking play is exceedingly common in the bedroom and can add significantly to both partners pleasure. We are not talking about full oxygen deprivation, but a single hand on the throat with pressure on the sides for 5 seconds at a time can be particularly erotic.

Similarly, if you read almost any smut book at the moment, a genre which has been going through an incredible renaissance and driving massive sales, you will find that the concept of light choking is prevalent throughout.

The UK parliament have really invaded the bedroom on this one.
by Razengan | 2025-11-04 09:44:13+00:00
Man the Flash era, and the overall vibe of creativity on the internet back then (hey it was only 20 years ago), was the kind where you could feel a limitless potential for the future, where everyone would be awesome.

Then it all congealed into the tentacles of 4-5 corporations and now we're forever stuck in their "How do you do fellow kids" cringefest..

AI also ha[s/d] potential, but it's already getting crippled at birth by corporate idiocy and lawsuit fever.
by tomhow | 2025-11-04 09:44:32+00:00
> This is a truly bizarre comment chain.

> And since you're so keen on pointing out that this is public: you don't come off looking very great. Might wanna work on that.

Please edit out personal swipes from comments on HN. The guidelines ask us all to aim for better than this.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
by makingstuffs | 2025-11-04 09:44:40+00:00
I was gonna say this. If Google decides to stop developing chromium then Brave is left with very few choices.

As someone who has been using brace since it was first announced and very tightly coupled to the BAT crypto token I must say it is much less effective nowadays.

I often still see a load of ads and also regularly have to turn off the shields for some sites.
by sshine | 2025-11-04 09:44:50+00:00
Standard ML was my favorite language 2008-2012, and whenever people criticize the syntax, I shake my head. ML syntax is among the most beautiful, and most readable, to me. OCaml has a few features that bring the readability down a little, like the named fields prefix. The fact that it doesn't look like C or Ruby isn't bad. Erlang can be very readable, it just feels alien, which I presume is what people don't like.

The big downside is the paradigm shift + inscrutable error messages.

It will make you feel dumb and/or unproductive for a very long time.

A lot of the type errors can be fixed by a compiler that cares more about error messages, and OCaml in particular could do well with terminators after e.g. match blocks to improve both ambiguity and error reporting. Some of the type errors can't easily be fixed; wrong function application by omitting some value somewhere has, so far, always led to misleading errors; are there any other examples than Elm that address these?

I also switched from ML to Haskell to Rust.

To me, the main downside of ML is the explicitly instantiated module systems not tied to the filesystem hierarchy.

Once you get used to traits and parameterised trait instances, bringing every module instantiation into scope after separately importing them is just slooow.

The standard library situation is also somewhat not great. Maybe I just never got used to it, but I sense that there are people think Jane Street Base is a must, and people who think it's completely overkill. OCaml programmers have a weird fetish with micro-optimization because the compiler lets you think about the asm output. It's a remarkable property of an otherwise high-level language that you can really care about the asm output.
by gck1 | 2025-11-04 09:46:29+00:00
In my country, there is no single document that shows my name and address that is acceptable as a document for address verification in many western fintech applications.

If you're renting, bills will arrive in the name of the owner, even though I personally pay them each month.

We don't really do lease agreements either, except for very rare circumstances.

If you own a property, you could go to the public registry, then translate that, notarize and _maybe_ it will work. But I don't own any property.

We don't even get a PDF for the bills, it's just a HTML table with a few lines of CSS.

So I simply change the owner's name to mine in that table, save as PDF and send that. Never failed.

And at that point, why even have this process at all?
by Grumbledour | 2025-11-04 09:46:49+00:00
The question is of course always where someone draws the line, and thats part of the problem.

Too many people have the "Premature optimization is the root of all evil" quote internalized to a degree they won't even think about any criticisms or suggestions.

And while they might be right concerning small stuff, this often piles up and in the end, because you choose several times not to optimize, your technology choices and architecture decisions add up to a bloated mess anyway that can't be salvaged.

Like, when you choose a web framework for a desktop app, install size, memory footprint, slower performance etc. might not matter looked at individually, but in the end it all might easily add up and your solution might just suck without much benefit to you. Pragmatism seems to be the hardest to learn for most developers and so many solutions get blown out of proportion instantly.
by DCads | 2025-11-04 09:47:51+00:00
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by thaumasiotes | 2025-11-04 09:48:01+00:00
You don't seem comfortable with math.

You might observe that the way Euclid uses postulate 1 is to provide geometric constructions of shapes. If you want to argue about what he meant, what he meant was "you have a straightedge". Similarly, postulate 3 says "you have a compass", and postulate 2 says... "you have a straightedge".

You've described drawing several parallel lines that meet at two opposite points of a sphere. Postulate 1 has no problem with that - all of those lines are straight. Postulate 5 has a problem with it, because they meet.
by absurd1st | 2025-11-04 09:48:14+00:00
> if you automate 99% of a job, that last 1% the human has to do is incredibly valuable because it’s bottlenecking everything else.

The author is being (intentionally) naive here.

History and current research suggest that when technology automates the vast majority of a complex job, it can lead to the "deskilling" of the human worker.

This Lancet article (published Oct 2025) discovered that doctors were found to be less adept at finding precancerous growths during colonoscopies after just three months of using an AI tool designed to spot them: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1...

And the thing is, I think the above finding is pretty intuitive.

If AI performs 99% of a radiologist's diagnostic work, the human's role will very likely be reduced to a skill that is more routine, that requires less expertise, like a final check or something - and thus commands lower wages.
by throwaway665667 | 2025-11-04 09:48:48+00:00
Really crazy how we are taught from an early age the horrors of the holocaust and other genocides, and aboutour moral superiority compared to those that didn't intervene back then... "Never again. If this this happened today we know better to stop it"... And then look at tens of thousand of people being mass murdered by a genocidal civilization and complain that Spain intervened because... a priests burned books (something that I absolutely do not condone of course)?

Were we wrong to destroy half of Europe to stop Germany too? Really trilled to know future generation will talk about us as the bad guys because we destroyed German art and books as we stopped a literal mass genocide.
by forgotpwd16 | 2025-11-04 09:48:53+00:00
>why is it only used

Sixel has existed for 40y, Kitty protocol originated and initially made for a single project (Kitty) few years ago.

>why we have 2 competing protocols

Well, iTerm2 also got its own image protocol (predating Kitty's but basic, only meant to show images rather graphics in general) that has been adopted by few other projects. Terminology also got something on its own, and urxvt can show images by setting the background image.
by jeroenhd | 2025-11-04 09:48:54+00:00
> Vibe coding there is a near guarantee the person doesn't know what the code does either.

Having spent some time vibe coding over the weekend to try it out, I disagree. I understand every line of code the super-specific Android app I generated does, even if I don't have the Android dev experience to come up with the code from the top of my head. Laziness is as good a reason to vibe code as inexperience or incompetence.

I wouldn't throw LLM code at a project like this, though, especially not in a PR of this size.
by viccis | 2025-11-04 09:49:36+00:00
Ignoring that you are making an assumption about how the randomness is handled, this is a very vacuous definition of "deterministic" in the context of the discussion here, which is AI controlling large and complex systems. The fact that each inference can be repeated if and only if you know and control the seed and it is implemented with a simple PRNG is much less important to the conversation than its high level behavior, which is nondeterministic in this application.

If your system is only deterministic if it processes its huge web of interconnected agentic prompts in exactly the same order, then its behavior is not deterministic in any sense that could ever be important in the context of predictable and repeatable system behavior. If I ask you whether it will handle the same task the same exact way, and its handling of it involves lots of concurrent calls that are never guaranteed to be ordered the same way, then you can't answer "yes".
by noname120 | 2025-11-04 09:49:37+00:00
Unfortunately Apple puts extremely strict restrictions on background tasks so you will never have something as seamless as native iCloud or the amazing Android FolderSync app that I used for realtime synchronization for several years without a single issue.

I know people work around these iOS limitations by setting up springboard widgets that piggyback on background refresh tasks to do uploads. People also create Automator actions (e.g. run every day at time or location based) in the Shortcuts app.

I haven’t tried it but a popular option on iOS seems to be: https://apps.apple.com/app/photosync-transfer-photos/id41585...
by MrScruff | 2025-11-04 09:50:14+00:00
Sure, and I’ve seen the same. But I’ve also seen the amount to which they do that decrease rapidly over time, so if that trend continues would your opinion change?

I don’t think there’s any point in comparing to human intelligence when assessing machine intelligence, there’s zero reason to think it would have similar qualities. It’s quite clear for the foreseeable future it will be far below human intelligence in many areas, while already exceeding humans in some areas that we regard as signs of intelligence.
by jwr | 2025-11-04 09:50:40+00:00
If you are a US citizen, US taxes you on your worldwide income, so you have to file regardless of where you live. And filing in the US is the actual burden, not the taxes themselves — inscrutable tax law and byzantine forms mean that you can't file yourself (you pay tax-filing companies to do that for you) and your tax returns easily reach hundreds of pages.

US screws its expats in a big way.

The club of countries that do this includes: United States, Eritrea and Myanmar.
by Cthulhu_ | 2025-11-04 09:51:14+00:00
I work in enterprise, B2C software, lots of single page apps / self service portals, that kind of thing. I don't think our software is bloated per se; sure it could be faster, but for example when it comes to mobile apps, it's a tradeoff between having the best and fastest apps, being able to hire people, development speed, and non-functional requirements.

It's good enough, and for example React Native is spending years and millions in more optimizations to make their good enough faster, the work they do is well beyond my pay grade. (https://reactnative.dev/blog/2025/10/08/react-native-0.82#ex...)
by _jsmh | 2025-11-04 09:51:43+00:00
> Just don't pretend that it's for our benefit or that we downvote it because we're unthinking drones

The reason many comments are downvoted on HN in general is most often unknown to me. One interpretation is that it's a major flaw in HN.

This design decision by HN could be intentional, as a trade-off to achieve something else. For example, it could be done to have high velocity of discussion. High velocity could preserve an invariant of keeping or pulling users on the site.

If it's a trade-off, which would suggest something is given up for it, it might be worth exploring what's given up.