MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by jacquesm | 2025-11-05 12:56:10+00:00
Phase of flight is a major contributor to accident statistics with take-off and landing much more often associated with accidents than the rest of the flight.

Take-off asks a lot from the engines, and one nasty bit about manufacturing defects is that they can take a while to show up, but the bulk of them usually surfaces when the aircraft are relatively new.

But: this plane was delayed before the flight due to maintenance on engine #1, so that's the first place where I would start looking for issues without any kind of judgment beforehand on what you would expect to find. And that's the main issue with that comment, it assumes a conclusion, that's not how these investigations work because then you might miss the actual cause. And given how critical these machines are it doesn't take much. All it takes is a single, tiny mistake.

The really bad luck here is that it seems as though the failure of engine #1 took the center engine right along with it. That's one of the issues with that particular design, if you have debris from one of the forward engines it could easily get ingested by the rear mounted one.
by chamomeal | 2025-11-05 12:56:10+00:00
I think testing culture in general is suffering because the most popular styles/runtimes don’t support it easily.

Most apps (at least in my part of the world) these days are absolutely peppered with side effects. At work our code is mostly just endpoints that trigger tons of side effects, then return some glob of data returned from some of those effects. The joys of micro services!!

If you’re designing from the ground up with testing in mind, you can make things super testable. Defer the actual execution of side effects. Group them together and move local biz logic to a pure function. But when you have a service that’s just a 10,000 line tangle of reading and writing to queues, databases and other services, it’s really hard to ANY kind of testing.

I think that’s why unit testing and full on browser based E2E testing are popular these days. Unit testing pretends the complexity isn’t there via mocks, and lets you get high test coverage to pass your 85% coverage requirement. Then the E2E tests actually test user stories.

I’m really hoping there’s a shift. There are SO many interesting and comprehensive testing strategies available that can give you such high confidence in your program. But it mostly feels like an afterthought. My job has 90% coverage requirements, but not a single person writes useful tests. We have like 10,000 unit tests literally just mocking functions and then spying on the mocked return.

For anybody wanting to see a super duper interesting use of property based testing, check out “Breaking the Bank with test contract”, a talk by Allen Rohner. He pretty much uses property based testing to verify that mocks of services behave identically to the actual services (for the purpose of the program) so that you can develop and test against those mocks. I’ve started implementing a shitty version of this at work, and it’s wicked cool!!
My first 24 hours in 4 different cities photojournal
by lertsoft | 2025-11-05 12:56:15+00:00
Long time lurker/reader first time poster :D

I recently backpacked through Europe, and decided to mark on a map the places I visited during my first 24 hours on each city and the photos I took around those places.

Madrid: https://ron.nyc/blog/24hours-in-madrid

Barcelona: https://ron.nyc/blog/24hours-in-barcelona

Berlin: https://ron.nyc/blog/24hours-in-berlin

Paris: https://ron.nyc/blog/24hours-in-paris

ps. I am still making perf improvements to the pages so mobile usage is still kind of rough.
by highwaylights | 2025-11-05 12:56:58+00:00
It’s clearly for commercial reasons. It still doesn’t change the fact that it would be clunky, like Windows and Android tablets are today. The surface is a poor tablet and Android is a poor desktop OS. The metaphors are oil and water.

Sure, they could adapt macOS and iPadOS enough to make it sort of workable, but I tend to agree with them that it would ultimately be a master-of-none device.

Clearly the reason they don’t want to do it is that it’ll cannibalise other sales. If macOS were written from scratch today it wouldn’t allow apps outside of the App Store or even multiple users. They’re Apple.
by mothballed | 2025-11-05 12:57:00+00:00
Now imagine how the commissary would turn out if instead of being placed in a spot where any commercial business would love to exploit (center of military base where every family has employment, a process for permanently kicking out people who engage in major crime, and private competition controlled unless you go through a security checkpoint) -- instead you put them in many of the places I witnessed food deserts in major US cities that had underemployment, elevated crime, outsiders afraid to enter during the day and ~never enter at night, bars on every window, and every other establishment has you slide your cash in a rotating tray adjacent to a bulletproof window.
by le-mark | 2025-11-05 12:57:02+00:00
I’d add this. Servers used to be viewed as pets; the system admins spent a lot time on snow flake configurations and managing each one. When we started standing up tens of servers to host the nodes of our app (early 2000s); the simple admin overhead was huge. One thing I have not seen mentioned here was how powerful ansible and similar tools were at simplifying server management. Iirc being able to provision and standup servers simply with known configurations was a huge win aws provided.
Show HN: I built an conversational agent with RAG and Vector Search
by denizhdzh | 2025-11-05 12:58:26+00:00
I’ve been building an embeddable AI agent that turns any website into an interactive, context-aware experience.

Unlike typical FAQ bots or generic chat assistants, this one doesn’t just read your PDFs or docs, it also learns from how visitors interact with your site and adapts its responses, recommendations, or offers accordingly.

Technically: • Runs fully client-side (no external API calls or backend dependencies) • Uses RAG pipelines to reference your own PDFs, documentation, or content base • Employs local embeddings to personalize context and answers per visitor session • Supports custom styling and can be embedded anywhere on the page

Early results (from SaaS testers): • +25–30% increase in trial signups • ~20% drop in support tickets • Self-serve setup in under 2 minutes

I’d love technical feedback, especially around how it handles embeddings, on-site personalization logic, or UX flow. Happy to share implementation details or discuss architecture trade-offs.
by edelbitter | 2025-11-05 12:58:53+00:00
I would love for steam to offer even the complement: Only distribution & SSO services, so I can have fast downloads and quick non-replayable-auth for games I buy/subscribe elsewhere (not subject to steam peculiarities about squeezing out maximum price for each region by purchasing power).

Of course, that would need to have a wildly different fee schedule than when they carry major legal & reputational risks plus more significant customer support volume.
by fuzzy_biscuit | 2025-11-05 12:59:04+00:00
I think you would be more accurate to say 'communicate the thought' as opposed to 'express the thought'. Communication carries the explicit desire to have an idea be shared. Expression carries no shared understanding and is personal.

The author expressed the thought in a valid way because we understood their words, but they did not communicate it well because we are confused about their understanding of those ideas.
by crazygringo | 2025-11-05 12:59:33+00:00
> and the information is carried via audio?

Because it's not. Facial expressions and body language carry gigantic amounts of information.

So many misunderstandings arise when the channel is audio-only. E.g. if a majority of people in a meeting are uneasy with something, they can see it on each others' faces, realize they're not alone, and bring it up. When it's audio-only, everyone thinks they're the only one with concerns and so maybe it's not worth interrupting what they incorrectly assume to be the general consensus over audio.
by Dumblydorr | 2025-11-05 13:00:05+00:00
Co-pilot and AI has been shoved at the Microsoft Stack in my org for months. Most of the features were disabled or hopelessly bad. It’s cheaper for Microsoft to push this junk and claim they’re doing something, it’s going to improve their stock far more than not doing it, even though it’s basically useless currently.

Another issue is that my org disallows AI transcription bots. It’s a legit security risk if you have some random process recording confidential info because the person was too busy to attend the meeting and take notes themselves. Or possibly they just shirk off the meetings and have AI sit in.
by chownie | 2025-11-05 13:00:20+00:00
> Stood her ground, if it wasn't for her books allowing her advocacy, she'd have disappeared. Instead she has to endure being among the most hated millionaires for a good bunch of the left.

This framing is laying on the narrative a little bit thick don't you think? It makes it seem like she's hated for being wealthy, when it is actually because she has been funding hate groups and calling for trans people to be physically attacked.

The "standing up for women" rhetoric is a little bit hollow in the face of her non-existent feminism when the subject isn't physically attacking trans women, she didn't make a single comment during the recent uptick in abortion debates taking place in the UK for example.
by 9dev | 2025-11-05 13:01:06+00:00
Both are valid concerns, no need to decide. Take the USA: They are currently lead by a patently dumb president who fucks up the global economy, and at the same time they are powerful enough to do so!

For a more serious example, consider the Paperclip Problem[0] for a very smart system that destroys the world due to very dumb behaviour.

[0]: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/ai-and-paperclip-problem
by lotsofpulp | 2025-11-05 13:01:35+00:00
But why? Liquor is the cause for a very high portion of police, insurance (property and health), and other costs that can’t be translated into dollars.

Why shouldn’t society recoup some of those costs from the users? And why should society subsidize those costs?

It’s interesting that it was politically acceptable to charge tobacco users more for health insurance, but not politically acceptable to charge alcohol users more for health insurance.
by crb3l | 2025-11-05 13:02:14+00:00
Location: Romania/Latvia/Europe

Remote: Yes, CEET +/- 2

Willing to relocate: Yes, if needed

Technologies: Flutter, Node.js, React, TypeScript, Python

Other experience: Arduino, Electronics, CAD modelling, 3D printing

Résumé/CV: send me an email

Email: iotheodor@gmail.com

Hello, I am a Junior Software Engineer, with experience in various fields. I am looking for a project to work on outside of my personal projects.

In my past I developed and maintained various websites for clients, built a mobile application (Flutter), tried a little bit of python scripting for various applications and went back to web developing (PERN). Right now I am learning about ML and NN more as I want to broaden my scope.

On a professional/educational level, I am following a Master Degree in Business Modelling and Distributed Computing. During this time I am researching various topics related to the AI field.

I am a strong willed individual and fast learner, with great motivation to learn new things and with a great approach to challenges. What I lack experience-wise I make up for in skill and determination.

I am willing to work on anything new or not, as anything can be a challenge.
by latexr | 2025-11-05 13:02:26+00:00
> I read the long post as a thoroughly steelmanned response.

Steel manning means engaging with the strongest interpretation of the argument. The original comment clearly used sawdust not as sawdust specifically but as a substitute for something harmful or inappropriate. It’s not even about eating. So spending half a comment on “ackchyually, sawdust is good for you” (this is a caricature for brevity) is nitpicking something which doesn’t matter and derails the rest of the comment which is based on it.

Steel manning would’ve meant engaging in good faith, understanding “eating sawdust” isn’t meant literally but as a random choice for “something bad”, and replying to the latter, not the former.

In other words (I’m explaining it three times to drive the point home), steel manning means not nitpicking the exact words of someone’s argument but making the effort to respond to their meaning. It’s addressing the spirit of the comment above its letter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_and_spirit_of_the_law). Sometimes the difference between those isn’t obvious, but I’m arguing that in this case it is.

> I eat meat but I'm one of those people who is ethically opposed to consuming AI content.

Eating meat or being vegan has nothing to do with the original comment. Again, it’s not even about eating, that was clearly a random example which could be substituted by a myriad other things. When you describe your eating habits you’re already engaging with a derailed, straw manned version of the argument instead of the original point the person was making.
by piokoch | 2025-11-05 13:03:57+00:00
This is all true. But... But if you manage your own server, as the author advice, you need to figure out a lot of stuff and remember about a lot of stuff.

Are ulimits set correctly?

Shall I turn on syn cookies or turn them off because of performance?

What are the things I should know but I don't and Chat GPT has not told me them, as this is more than some intro tutorial on how to run VPS on DO, so it was never indexed by Chat GPT and alikes.

Is all of my software on the server up to date? Is there any library I use exploited, zero day attacks are on me too, blocking bots, etc. What if I do some update but it will turn out that my Postgres version is not working correctly anymore? This is all my problem.

What if I need to send emails? These days doing this ourselves is a dark art by itself (IP/domain address warming up, checking if my domain has not ended on some spam list, etc.).

What if I need to follow some regulations, like European Union GDPR compliance? Have I done everything what is needed to store personal data as GDPR requires? Is my DB password stored in a compliant way or I will face a fine up to 10% of my incomes.

This is not black/white situation as the author tries to present and those who use cloud services are not dumbards who are buying some IT version of snake oil.
by basilikum | 2025-11-05 13:04:08+00:00
It's very full of itself. But I fully understand where it comes from. When you are the only one seeing something in technology that others simply cannot see. When you think about these things in a way that no one else can understand. And when that allows you to do things that no one else thought were possible.

You just see the world in a way that no one else around you does. A world that is between indifferent and hostile to your way of thinking and seeks to assimilate you into a fundamentally incurious, indifferent, uninspired apparatus.
by mark_l_watson | 2025-11-05 13:05:13+00:00
+1

> It's really just a performance tradeoff, and where your acceptable performance level is.

I am old enough to remember developers respecting the economics of running the software they create.

Ollama running locally paired occasionally with using Ollama Cloud when required is a nice option if you use it enough. I have twice signed up and paid $20/month for Ollama Cloud, love the service, but use it so rarely (because local models so often are sufficient) that I cancelled both times.

If Ollama ever implements a pay as you go API for Ollama Cloud, then I will be a long term customer. I like the business model of OpenRouter but I enjoy using Ollama Cloud more.

I am probably in the minority, but I wish subscription plans would go away and Claude Code, gemini-cli, codex, etc. would all be only available pay as you go, with ‘anti dumping’ laws applied to running unsustainable businesses.

I don’t mean to pick on OpenAI, but I think the way they fund their operations actually helps threaten the long term viability of our economy. Our government making the big all-in bet on AI dominance seems crazy to me.
by happymellon | 2025-11-05 13:05:14+00:00
> Valve is not buying other store makers nor actively sabotaging efforts to do so.

This is really key, when you see Epic bribing devs to get exclusivity, giving away games for free, they do this and still not succeed because they are actively hostile to their users.

Where is my Big Picture mode?

Where is my support of Linux?

They've been at it for years and yet still don't actually want to provide a service that is desirable to use.
by timr | 2025-11-05 13:05:29+00:00
He literally, repeatedly said “defund and dismantle”. He’s not trying to be subtle. I’m not taking anything out of context. It’s obvious that he didn’t mean “reduce funding”, and while that may be what you think is reasonable, it’s not what he meant when he said it. I’ve given you the receipts.

You have to be trying really hard to interpret that in the way you’re trying to do it, “my guy.” I’m just reading his words and taking him seriously.
by InterlooperX | 2025-11-05 13:06:33+00:00
Agreed. The Steam platform has so much value for developers and yet they still complain about the 30%.

To put into perspective, when Epic only takes 15%. They themselves admitted that is not a sustainable thing. EGS is constantly losing money. So now I invite everyone to gauge just how "big" the EGS is. How many "features" they offer etc. This platform in so much smaller than Steam and even they state that a 15% cut is not sustainable to keep the light on.

Judging just how big the Steam platform is, do people honestly think Valve could be forced into reducing their cut to this proposed 15%? When this little hobbyshop that is EGS cannot make it work. Why would it work for a much much larger and therefore more expensive platform?

I am furthermore given to understand when you distribute on Steam you are free to run your own store front. You are free to create your own Steam keys for your games and sell them in your shop which is supposedly have a 0% cut for Valve. Of course then you would have to run your own store with all the effort and cost that go along with it. Or you simply put it on Steam. A storefront visited by millions of paying customers. Which handles everything. From purchase/refund/CDN for Downloading and updating the game binaries/communityhub to directly engage with the customers if you wish

In the end, the only way they are forced to use steam is because that is where the customers are. and since there are alternatives around, these customers could very well shop some place else. but they dont. they shop where they get the best experience. and if that is on steam, thats where they go.

If "developers" were really honest they would all disclose just how much they sold on Steam vs any other digital store front in case they distribute their offerings to any store that will let them. Just because you get 4 sales on Epic vs 4 million sales on Steam does mean Steam is a monopoly. It just means Epic is a steaming pile and given the chance the customer goes to the better option.
by Esophagus4 | 2025-11-05 13:06:48+00:00
Hmmm the Brendas I know look a little different.

“There are two Brendas - their job is to make spreadsheets in the Finance department. Well, not quite - they add the months and categories to empty spreadsheets, then they ask the other departments to fill in their sales numbers every month so it can be presented to management.

“The two Brendas don’t seem to talk, otherwise they would realize that they’re both asking everyone for the same information, twice. And they’re so focused on their little spreadsheet worlds that neither sees enough of the bigger picture to say, ‘Wait… couldn’t we just automate this so we don’t need to do this song and dance every month? Then we wouldn’t need two people in different parts of the company compiling the same data manually.’

“But that’s not what Brenda was hired for. She’s a spreadsheet person, not a process fixer. She just makes the spreadsheets.”

We need fewer Brendas, and more people who can automate away the need for them.
by svpk | 2025-11-05 13:08:50+00:00
Key distinctions between Steam and similar contenders in other spaces (google play store, the apple app store) are that:

1. Steam isn't bundled with the OS, it must be installed.

2. Steam isn't a gatekeeper to installing software (as the app store is and in a somewhat different way as google has proposed doing with their plans to require app signing).

At least the US, and I assume most legal schemes, require an attempt to monopolize, simply being the best player in town isn't enough. Perhaps if the steam deck, etc. achieved a high level of market dominance you could argue that bundling steam was anticompetitive, but I don't see it yet.
by happymellon | 2025-11-05 13:09:13+00:00
> Apple-level greedy

You are free to install an alternative store, that probably has all the games that you are buying from Steam.

I can't do that with my iPhone.

They charge it because people use it voluntarily for the better customer and user experience. If Apple didn't provide their store installed by default, allowed alternative stores without manipulating their content and yet people still used it, it would be a closer analogy.
by vel0city | 2025-11-05 13:10:17+00:00
The level of bus service is a societal choice. One could get bus service to be a lot more competitive in time. But I do agree, individuals do not have much control over bus schedules and people do what they can with what's currently available.

The context of the previous comments was clearly about monetary cost though, not other kinds of cost. There's also obviously environmental, health outcomes, etc, costs in question.
by DanielHB | 2025-11-05 13:10:28+00:00
For docs yes, but spreadsheets power users are everywhere in every organization in the world. Sure they are not the majority of employees, but they are often very high up in the management chain and you will only pry them out of MS Excel from their cold dead hands.

I am not a power user of excel in any way and even I can see that google sheets doesn't match it in features and performance.
by stevenjgarner | 2025-11-05 13:10:38+00:00
The parallels with AA Flight 191 are striking. In THAT accident it was found [1]:

1) improper maintenance—American Airlines had used a forklift shortcut to remove the engine and pylon together, rather than following McDonnell Douglas’s prescribed method

2) The detachment tore away part of the wing’s leading edge, rupturing hydraulic lines and severing electrical power to key systems, including the slat-position indicator and stall warning (stick shaker).

3) The pilots followed the standard engine-out procedure and reduced airspeed to V₂, which caused the aircraft to stall and roll uncontrollably left. This procedure was later found out to be incorrect.

Defective maintenance practices, inadequate oversight, vulnerabilities in DC-10 design, and unsafe training procedures combined to cause the crash, killing all 273 people on board and leading to sweeping reforms in airline maintenance and certification standards.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6iU7Mmf330