MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by sroussey | 2025-12-10 09:01:43+00:00
I guess today, instead of 128bit pointers we have 64bit pointers and secret provenance data inside the cpu, at least on the most recent shipped iPhones and Macs.

In the end, I’m not sure that’s better, or maybe we should have had extra large pointers again (in that way back 32bit was so large we stuffed other stuff in there) like CHERI proposes (though I think it still has secret sidecar of data about the pointers).

Would love to Apple get closer to Cheri. They could make a big change as they are vertically integrated, though I think their Apple Silicon for Mac moment would have been the time.

I wonder what big pointers does to performance.
by gjajric | 2025-12-10 09:02:38+00:00
Swift does not seem suitable for OS development, at least not as much as C or C++.[0] Swift handles by default a lot of memory by using reference counting, as I understand it, which is not always suitable for OS development.

[0]: Rust, while no longer officially experimental in the Linux kernel, does not yet have major OSs written purely in it.
by a-saleh | 2025-12-10 09:02:54+00:00
First, mint-mobile is specific in some way? That part shouldn't be a problem.

Second, you mostly get to choose one.

Small enough? Yeah, Unihertz Jelly Star is tiny. Maybe you try one of the foldable flip-phones, Razr 2025 allows you to mostly live in the outside screen.

Custom os? Is there anybody else than Fairphone these days?

Buttons? Unihertz Titan emulates old blackberry passports, so it might be too big for you.

I recently bought Galaxy Fold 6 and live inside of the Nixdroid terminal :D
by edent | 2025-12-10 09:03:16+00:00
The author (me) we not trying to rouse hate against specific people. Indeed, I didn't mention or name anyone.

If you truly believe that 50% of people are full of hate, then I can only suggest you get off the computer and go out into your local community.

Most people are willing to give a helping hand to someone who needs it. Most people don't go shouting slurs. Most people don't want their neighbours to live in fear.

If truly 50% of the people you meet are filled with hate and rage against the world, I think that probably says more about the company you keep than it does about the world.
by sph | 2025-12-10 09:03:20+00:00
The author of this website couldn't be further from any notion of vibe coding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqHdvT-vjA0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=443UNeGrFoM

Vibe coders follow the herd (Python, JS, Rust), they don't write any C.
by ahartmetz | 2025-12-10 09:03:38+00:00
A container class that needs cooperation from the contained items, usually with special data fields. For example, a doubly linked list where the forward and back pointers are regular member variables of the contained items. Intrusive containers can avoid memory allocations (which can be a correctness issue in a kernel) and go well with C's lack of built-in container classes. They are somewhat common in C and very rare in C++ and Rust.
by Reubend | 2025-12-10 09:03:56+00:00
This provides plenty of value conceptually, but I wish they were able to push the syntax into a more intuitive place. My biggest gripe with Relay is how forced the syntax feels, and this seems better but still confusing. Take for example this component declaration:

export const PostCard = ({ post: postRef }: { post: ViewRef<'Post'> }) => { ... }

That feels terrible to me! I don't have any suggestion from my side, but I feel like there's got to be a less awkward way.
by sputr | 2025-12-10 09:04:06+00:00
Yeah, the hardest part is understanding the requirements. But it then still takes hours and hours and hours to actually build the damn thing.

Except that now it still takes me the same time to understand the requirements ... and then the coding takes 1/2 or 1/3 of the time. The coding also always takes 1/3 of the effort so I leave my job less burned out.

Context: web app development agency.

I really don't understand this "if it does not replace me 100% it's not making me more productive" mentality. Yeah, it's not a perfect replacement for a senior developer ... but it is like putting the senior developer on a bike and pretending that it's not making them go any faster because they are still using their legs.
by rickdeckard | 2025-12-10 09:04:44+00:00
> Apple pays for materials and chips before it sells the finished product to consumers. Nothing is pre-paid.

The AI-capabilities of the devices will be pre-paid, as they will come with the product without delivering any significant value yet. The end-user will bear the cost for that before he is getting anything meaningful in return, because Apple's production volume is at such a scale that they can offset those investments without risking to lose any meaningful sales volume.

Other players can't do that because they don't sell 200mn units per year. If they would add on-device inference chips, they would have to significantly increase the device-price, risking to not sell any product
by Imustaskforhelp | 2025-12-10 09:06:14+00:00
Some source available licenses are literally just modified open source with the addition of some clauses (mostly cloud related)

To me source available is: we are open source but if you are an cloud provider with billions of dollars, ask us for a license/fund us.

Technically linux gets funded enough and rightfully so but I remember how netbsd's fundings were so meagre and low which really saddened me.

To be honest, I thought about it and lets assume Linux uses a busl like license which open sources after 4 years

Most likely what would've happened is that someone will take that 4 year old code and then fork it to create the linux we all kinda love.

But overall I think linux is the bedrock of any vps/cloud provider which can be small enough too to be unable to buy their source available license so its kind of an mixed bag I guess and for linux, not worth it because it already gets a lot of funding.

It would be interesting if the same funding that linux kernel gets was shared at a similar level to the distros because I saw cachyos and talked to its creator on discord and I am not kidding but the fundings are very small for a project so big.

Also I think most people use source available license to make money or funding, basically the question which I want to ask you is: how to make enough money in open source?
by RossBencina | 2025-12-10 09:06:55+00:00
I agree that it started that way, but that does not mean norms and expectations don't shift. To me, acting like it's 1980 is weird. The majority of maintained open source projects today are single-source-of-truth projects, not source code drops from unreachable invisible teams. There is a reason for that -- it's part of what makes the projects usable and dependable.
by Kamilbenkirane | 2025-12-10 09:07:08+00:00
That's insightful! Thanks for sharing. I've been applying to conferences recently to present an open-source library I built (a unified client for AI providers), but I haven't gotten any responses yet. I think the project is solid—it basically lets you switch from OpenAI to Anthropic in one line of code—but I suspect my CFP (Call for Papers) abstracts are failing to hook the organizers. For those here who review CFPs: Do you prefer abstracts that focus on the "Technical How-To" (e.g., 'How to standardize I/O layers') or the "Story/Philosophy" (e.g., 'Why we need primitives, not frameworks')? I feel like I might be getting too technical too fast.
by mrweasel | 2025-12-10 09:08:50+00:00
I'm curious as to which other metric you'd use to define successful? If it actual usage, C still wins. Number of new lines pushed into production each year, or new project started, C is still high up the list, would be my guess.

Languages like Rust a probably more successful in terms of age vs. adoption speed. There's just a good number of platforms which aren't even supported, and where you have no other choice than C. Rust can't target most platforms, and it compiles on even less. Unless Linux want's to drop support for a good number of platforms, Rust adoption can only go so far.
by Imustaskforhelp | 2025-12-10 09:08:57+00:00
Well technically Redis had a fork before it became source available known as valkey which is still in bsd license

Terraform was forked to create opentofu if I remember correctly

I think the most recent example is kind of minio for this type of thing no?

Also I am interested what are some open source projects which became closed source since it seems that you haven't named any and I am curious how they can do that. There must be some legal laws protecting it.
by colinb | 2025-12-10 09:09:50+00:00
There's an interview show on RTE presented by Tommy Tiernan. I don't care for him much, but I happened to be watching the episode where JJB was interviewed. The thing that makes the show interesting (modulo Tommy, the prick) is that he doesn't know who the next guest will be, and often doesn't know why they're notable even when he is told their name, live. So, he has to ask them questions. "Why are you notable?". This I love, because it's a recognition that there are many people who do, and have done, really interesting, worthwhile things without necessarily being known to more than a small segment of the population. [I feel this way about footballers and opera singers. I know a few really big names, but it's mostly a clouded mountain top to me]

So, JJB is interviewed. Approximately like this:

TT: So, who are you? Why are you interesting? JJB: I discovered pulsars. TT: ... what's a pulsar? JJB: <explanation> .. drifts into talk about Nobel prizes. JJB continues as you say to be a class act. Then onto spirituality [not my bag]

https://youtu.be/ybKNXJexutE?si=SDF8h_gKqRObJqJU

I wish I could find the whole interview for you. It was gold. Although the subject matter of the segment I linked isn't that interesting to me, the format, and spirit (sorry) of open and honest enquiry is really good IMO. I wish we had more TV like this.
by hn_throw2025 | 2025-12-10 09:11:57+00:00
True story. A friend was having abdominal pain. They were avoiding seeking medical help, thinking it would pass. The health service is overstretched in our country, and GP appointments can take time. I couldn’t help wondering if it was something more serious, like appendicitis. I discussed their symptoms with a LLM which said it sounds very much like appendicitis, that they should go to the ER immediately, and that they should bring a bag because they would likely be admitted and surgery would follow ASAP.

Guess what happened.
by ACCount37 | 2025-12-10 09:13:02+00:00
I've heard things about pre-training optimization. "Soft start" and such. So I struggle to believe that curriculum learning is not a thing on any frontier runs.

Sure, it's a lot of data to sift through, and the time and cost to do so can be substantial. But if you are already planning on funneling all of that through a 1T LLM? You might as well pass the fragments through a small classifier before you do that.
by gwd | 2025-12-10 09:13:03+00:00
You mean, there's a 1-1 correlation between the amount of pointless admin a doctor has to do and the number of patients he sees (and thus the revenue of the clinic). It should be visible on the spreadsheet. Whereas, there's not a 1-1 correlation between the pointless admin a software engineer has to do and the number of paying customers a company gets.

But then, why do large orgs try to "save costs" by having doctors do admin work? Somehow the wrong numbers get onto the spreadsheet. Size of the organization -- distance between the person looking at the spreadsheet and the reality of people doing the work -- likely plays a big part in that.
by eudoxus | 2025-12-10 09:13:35+00:00
Thats a fair (no pun) question! The reason "source available" exists is to starkly seperate it from "open source", yet to your point, they certainly can be both. However it is reductive/pointless to say my code is "open source and source available" since of course the source is available if its open source.

This highlights my knee-jerk reaction to your initial post. My original definition I provided for Source Available was "[viewable but not OSD]". This is overly restrictive since can be both, but to assign any meaning at all Source Available it needs to be defined in relation to "Open Source", otherwise its meaningless.

I agree, it really isn't complicated :).
by Antibabelic | 2025-12-10 09:13:46+00:00
> Put us in computers

I feel like this is a modern version of believing in souls. You are matter, not data. If you find a way to simulate yourself on a computer, this will not prevent you from experiencing death. And if that's the case, what's the point? Stroking your ego with the knowledge that a simulation of you will stick around for some time after you give up the ghost?
by Imustaskforhelp | 2025-12-10 09:14:14+00:00
People run with OSI initiative as it is and consider it the golden rule when I agree with your 99.9999% of potential users line.

I think that *one blunder?) is that OSI cant really consider SSPL or similar open source because it restricts access to one party so it breaches an freedom 0 or some freedom of open source which is fair but at the same time literally only impacting people competing against (in my opinion the funding of the project and its growth itself) if someone like amazon had created a redis service competing against redis itself lets say

I think its all kinda nuanced and we kinda need more discussion with source available.
by KingMob | 2025-12-10 09:14:46+00:00
> I always wonder why people bother with providing source under a source available license.

I treat it as "business plus", not "FOSS minus". And of course, some source-available licenses convert to FOSS over time.

> Any work they do on the code is effectively free work they do for you that entitles them to nothing.

Funny, that's the same complaint FOSS companies have about AWS free-riding off their hard work and then competing. They switch to source-available licenses because a FOSS license allows flush FAANGs to exploit them.
by psychoslave | 2025-12-10 09:15:11+00:00
>Experienced people know that if you need a new language or library, you pick up a new language or library.

That heavily depends, if you tap into a green field project, yes. Or free reign over a complete rewrite of existing projects. But these things are more the exception than the regular case.

Even on green field project, ecosystem and available talents per framework will be a consideration most of the time.

There are also other things like being parent and wanting to take care of them that can come into consideration later in life. So more like more responsibilities constraints perspectives and choices than power corrupts in purely egoistic fashion.
by dhbrojas | 2025-12-10 09:16:54+00:00
If they want to onboard developers they need to seriously question their approach to software. Clearly, they've not been building the kind of abstractions developers want.

The chips don't strike me as particularly power efficient (especially at idle which matters for developers), or cost efficient (by any significant margin). And on programmability, they're losing big to everyone else. They need to win in *at least* one area for people to be interested.

Praying they succeed.

Edit: They are winning on scaling/multi-chip.
by anonnon | 2025-12-10 09:17:45+00:00
Reminds me of the "fat acceptance" and "healthy at any size" nonsense that went right out the window as soon as Ozempic became widely available. You can bet these people will, hypocritically, show no less eagerness than anyone else to use the first treatments to slow or reverse aging when they arrive.

And notice, these aging apologia are always written from the perspective of someone who hasn't had to actually deal first-hand with the worst consequences aging has to offer. It's never a chronically sleep-deprived caregiver tending to a parent with a neurodegenerative disease who needs assistance with basic tasks like getting out of bed, going to the bathroom, bathing, and dressing themselves. This guy, from his bio, did a few startups, and now does market research, and impudently thinks he has "wisdom" or "life lessons" to give.

> And here's what I've been circling around: I think the only reason any of this is true is because of death. Without that horizon, we could defer everything indefinitely. Why start the difficult journey today when you have infinite tomorrows?

Caregivers have already deferred everything indefinitely, because they have no choice. And the "deadlines" of aging he celebrates are easily just as demotivating; e.g., after a certain point, why bother going back to college for that PhD, or learning Mandarin? You'll be too old by the time you're done.
by azalemeth | 2025-12-10 09:18:20+00:00
Indeed. My understanding of modern powerstation gas turbines is that they all basically run _at_ the Carnot efficiency eta = (1-T_cold / T_hot) and that rather than chasing marginal gains in how close to that theoretical limit you actually are the biggest differentiators are on maintenance intervals and reliability, which collectively have quite a large effect on eta...
by pimterry | 2025-12-10 09:18:29+00:00
It's definitely annoying if you work in enterprise, but on the flip side: the fact that these enterprise requirements exist is the main reason that TLS certificate configurability is possible at all, without which it would be dramatically harder (or impossible) to reverse engineer or do security & privacy research on mobile apps, IoT, etc etc etc.

Enterprise control over company devices and user control over personal devices are not so different.

A few apps do use certificate pinning nowadays, which creates similar problems, but saying "you can never add your own MitM TLS cert" is not far from certificate pinning everything everywhere all the time. Good luck creating a new home assistant integration for your smart airfryer when you can't read any of the traffic from its app.

Imo: let's make it easier! Standardize TLS configuration for all tools, make easy cert configuration of devices a legal requirement (any smart device sold with hardcoded CA certificates is a device with a fixed end date, where the CA certs expire and it becomes a brick), guarantee user control over their own TLS trust, and provide good tools to check exactly who you're trusting (and expose that clearly to users). Not really practical of course (and opens all sorts of risky games with nation state interception as well) but there are upsides here as well.
by hopelite | 2025-12-10 09:19:36+00:00
It seems we (America) are in some kind of “middle”, or at least a phase change in a larger wave of the addiction cycle, with different stages affecting different generations and countries based on arrival of what can be described as the addiction dealers, “Big American social media”. It reminds me of the effects of the crack epidemic rippling through different generations differently from the late 70s to this very day still.

I don’t have hard data to substantiate it and my theory is based on anecdotal conversations but it seems, e.g., where there is some recovery going on amidst something like American millennials, who have both dealt with their own addiction and were the first generation that is also dealing with the neglect of addicted parents, they are also to some degree recovering (“reparenting” themselves), to some degree probably also spurred on by realizations shot the deleterious effects of phones and SM that come from exhaustion and different life stages. On the other hand, other generations of Americans, like those now elderly parents of millennials, not only are still, but increasing number of them are entering the earlier stages of “phone addiction” (which encompasses many different things), with the most tragic part being that they are in the latter quarter of their life and are unlikely to even realize, let alone recover from the addiction.

I also see this cycle and these stages emerging in other western societies in particular. My theory is that it is a particular effect or amplifier of the underlying culture to some degree, i.e., adoption, degree, impacts. It seems particularly pernicious in America because the underlying culture (if you can call it that, after decades of it being poisoned and corrupted by corporations and the government) was and is fertile ground for the societal rot caused by social media and its amplifier, smart phones, to have taken hold and spread like the virus it is.

It was even all described as “viral”, and yet we still engaged in it as if unfamiliar and investigated viruses spreading in an uncontrolled manner are a perfectly acceptable thing that should not even give anyone pause, especially if money can be made, regardless of whether it is something like HIV, with a very long lead-time, a delayed ETA for the reaper.

What happens now that we are in some kind of middle stage of the “smartphone“/Social Media civilization wildfire, with the first to have been affected looking over the devastation it has left in their wake, Shell shocked by the neglect and destruction, as the inferno is still raging on off in the distance as it consumes their parents and new generations, and even toppling whole countries through the “Color Revolution” playbook?
by jon-wood | 2025-12-10 09:19:52+00:00
This is why next day delivery slots worked - shops were able to pack orders during quiet periods rather than suddenly getting slammed with delivery orders that will be picked up in 20 minutes just as the lunch rush arrives. Some of the shops we were delivering for had people they employed specifically to do this, and generally they loved it because it meant their staff were doing something during otherwise quiet periods.
by thrance | 2025-12-10 09:20:36+00:00
Yes, yes and yes! That's what I never hear from the abundance crowd, they're always going "just build more homes" while refusing to see that doing so would severly anger the wealthiest half of this country. And in these times where moneyed interests basically dictate elections, this is guaranteed political suicide.

You have to run on agressive redistribution and get your political mandate from those that are kept out of this frankly insane system, else you're doomed to fail and join the other democrats who promised social justice but ended up delivering a boring half-competent technocratic stewardship of the economy instead, and disillusioned yet more people from the "left".