MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
Show HN: A living system of software that grows over time
by promptfluid | 2025-12-25 02:36:37+00:00
I’ve been working on a project called Space.

It’s an experiment in building software that evolves slowly and explains itself over time, rather than optimizing for onboarding, dashboards, or early conversion.

Instead of a feature list, Space is structured as a set of systems you explore. Some are practical, some are experimental, and some exist mainly to be understood. New systems and records are added on a fixed cadence (the 1st and 15th).

The project is live and free to explore. I’m mainly interested in learning whether “slow, observable software” can compound meaningfully over time.
by pech0rin | 2025-12-25 02:37:06+00:00
I ran linux for 15 years on a range of different machines. Desktop the most successfully. For laptops I tried everything but once I switched to a mac I’ve never gone back. The hardware is at least twice as good as any other laptop.

I’ve seen framework getting a lot of mind share recently. Especially with DHH singing their praises. I have come to loathe apple software over the years but can’t get over terrible build quality.

I thought framework was supposed to be the premium linux option but after reading this it looks same quality as all those windows turned linux machines.
by promptfluid | 2025-12-25 02:37:25+00:00
I built Space after noticing that most projects I worked on felt rushed into clarity, features, pricing, positioning - before the system itself had time to settle.

This is an attempt to reverse that. I’m deliberately keeping things small, visible, and evolving in public to see what actually compounds when you let a system breathe. Happy to answer questions or explain any part of it.
by Aurornis | 2025-12-25 02:37:54+00:00
> but I don't see why a (pre-historic) humans have to work that much harder than a tiger merely to eat and reproduce and live long enough that enough survive to do that.

This is a baffling comparison.

A tiger can sleep outside wherever it wants. It has fur to stay warm. Its offspring are up and running quickly on their own. A tiger can chase down animals and eat them immediately, raw. A tiger can drink water from a stream without getting infections.

The list goes on and on and on. If you think it’s trivial to live off the land and find your own food and shelter, why do you suppose people aren’t doing it?

Have you ever seen videos or documentaries about people who live in the middle of nowhere in self sufficient manners? They’re not having a great time. It’s hard work. Their health declines and they suffer. Their clothes are tattered. They still use a lot of cast-offs and tools and other things that they can find or acquire from society.
by bigiain | 2025-12-25 02:40:36+00:00
The post discusses that:

Security First

Because the “PII Map” (the link between ID:1 and John Smith) effectively is the PII, we treat it as sensitive material.

The library includes a crypto module that forces AES-256-GCM encryption for the mapping table. The raw PII never leaves the local memory space, and the state object that persists between the masking and rehydration steps is encrypted at rest.

I've bookmarked this for inspiration for a medium/long term project I am considering building. I'd like to be able to take dumps of our production database and automatically (one way) anonymize it. Replacing all names with meaningless but semantically representative placeholders (gender matching where obvious - Alice, Bob, Mallory, Eve, Trent perhaps, and gender neutral like Jamie or Alex when suitable). Use similar techniques to rewrite email addresses (alice@example.org, bob@example.com, mallory@example.net) and addresses/placenames/whatever else can be pulled out with Named Entity Recognition. I suspect I'll in general be able to do a higher accuracy version of this, since I'll have an understanding of the database structure and we're already in the process of adding metadata about table and column data sensitivity. I will definitely be checking out the regexes and NER models used here.
by c-hendricks | 2025-12-25 02:40:49+00:00
Anything special about Raspberry Pi's that require X11? Raspberry Pi OS defaults to Wayland nowadays, and there's specific kiosk Wayland compositors like Cage (https://github.com/cage-kiosk/cage).

Tho admittedly kiosk-wm (https://github.com/JOT85/kiosk-wm) is much more succinct.
by shevy-java | 2025-12-25 02:44:56+00:00
I have no idea how well this one works, but I am all up for
more projects that can compete against the singularization
that corporations currently try (see paid developers for
wayland, GNOME and now also KDE). I wonder how much money
would be needed to make the xorg server adapt to the modern
era; I don't even know the featureset that is missing for
this either. But I also know that wayland, after 20 years
(!!!), will never cover those requests users had over tohse
20 years, simply because it tries to cater to a narrow
specification wanted by corporations rather than the people -
so much is now clear (wayland protocol was released in
2008, so it is soon 20 years actually; in a few days we
have 2026, so it will be 18 years).
by msla | 2025-12-25 02:49:41+00:00
OK, you can't have your preferred environment because someone else has a different use-case.

Moreover, people will condescend to you and insist your setup never worked, nobody ever used it, and nobody cares that it's going away. Plus, they state that you are just being difficult, if not delusional, when you say that you are quite happy with how things are. I mean, your way never worked, so how could it have been your way at all? You must be a troll, troll. Stop trolling.
by credit_guy | 2025-12-25 02:49:46+00:00
From the article:

> Groq added that it will continue as an “independent company,” led by finance chief Simon Edwards as CEO.

The $20B does not go to Groq's investors. It goes to Groq. You can say that Groq is owned by its investors, and this is the same thing, but it's not. In order for the money to go to the investors, Groq needs to disburse a dividend, or to buy back shares. There is no indication that this will happen. And what's more, the investors don't even need this to happen. I'm sure any investor that wants to sell their shares in Groq will now find plenty of buyers at a very advantageous price.
by mzajc | 2025-12-25 02:50:10+00:00
Here's two complaints: it's a security theater, and it's horribly balkanized by design.

On X, I can run tools like xmacro or xdotool to automate the desktop to my heart's content. On Wayland, this isn't supported "for my security" and my remaining options boil down to either using a tool that works one level of abstraction lower (requires root and/or a daemon), or a tool made exclusively for my DE if one even exists. What used to be a cohesive environment with portable knowledge and tools is replaced by incomplete, broken, or outright missing tools and a complete lack of parity across DEs. For what? Am I supposed to be happy about this?
by Robingon-5 | 2025-12-25 02:51:55+00:00
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by frozenport | 2025-12-25 02:51:57+00:00
>> if groq and cerebras combined

There isn't to be shared between the two techs, Groq's hardware is a like a railgun that installs all the weights into the optimal location before firing off an inference. Cerebras computer engineering more convention requiring the same data movement that GPUs struggle with optimizing.

Suspect Groq is complementary/superior to nvidia's GPUs, while it is unclear what Cerebras brings other then maybe some deals with TSMC.
by shevy-java | 2025-12-25 02:53:10+00:00
Youtube is getting problematic. I write this as someone
who basically has some videos running in the background
all the time, mostly just DJ music in the background.

First, searching for videos sucks. Yes, the first few
results can be useful, then more and more crap shows up.
This just wastes my time. But, more importantly - more and
more AI videos means I am being bombarded with more time
wasters. I have about zero interest in AI videos; I am not
saying 100% of it is crap, but I am getting more and more
tired wasting any time in this regard here. Then the addiction
by Google to have us watch ads - they killed ublock origin too
on chrome. Even aside from this, I am noticing a drop of quality
lately; many of the channels seem much more boring. I guess
this kind of fatigue kicks in over time in general, but it seems
to me as if some youtube "content creators" are running out of
real ideas. They seem to be desperately addicted to "get the
likes" and "get subscribers". I stopped being logged in to youtube
years ago already and I also, oddly enough, want to completely
decouple myself from Google too (too much Evil in this company
now) - youtube is unfortunately something I still need and use
right now, but many things suck more and more. Also that "swipe
shorts down" - that activity is IMO a mental problem. After some
30 swipe downs, I ask myself why I am doing this. Google tries
to want to commit me to this swipe action. It is like psychological
manipulation. Click click drag drag click click click.
by tapoxi | 2025-12-25 02:53:51+00:00
It blows my mind that on Linux I can pin the taskbar to the left side and it works out of the box. Windows, aside from somehow losing that basic functionality, won't even install because it requires an internet connection and doesn't even have drivers to use my wifi or Ethernet that the installer can use.

How did this happen? How did Linux, of all things, become easier?
by chickensong | 2025-12-25 02:54:15+00:00
Framework 13 11th gen has been my daily driver for years. It's reliable and very usable. Is it a $4k MBP? No. But compared to the bulk of laptops out there, one might even say it's refined I suppose. It's a sleek 3lb aluminum laptop. Like I said, there nicer laptops out there, but the Framework is a very capable tool.
by viccis | 2025-12-25 02:54:45+00:00
His idea of media wasn't about "the way we consume information", it's about each medium's ability to extend parts of ourselves. For example, a light bulb is a medium he gives as an example, as it extends our vision. He considers money a medium for extending work and skill.

>And a secretary is a medium.

Not in McLuhan's use of the word. His examples are all pieces of technology that extend our senses; another person helping you do something is not a medium.

I'm not saying you are wrong about the word "medium" in general, but simply that McLuhan had a very specific usage of the word that is not the same as the lay meaning and includes things like light bulbs, numbers, and money. The more modern usage of the word to generically refer to sources of information is very different. In that sense, AI is media insofar as it's feeding us content and information, but it does not meet the specific (and more interesting IMO) definition McLuhan put forward in Understanding Media. Obviously, others can and will disagree with me there, but I simply don't view LLMs are an extension of our thought. Things like the internet, encyclopedias, the education system, etc., are McLuhan-esque media of thought extension, whereas LLMs actually serve the opposite purpose. They abridge rather than extend it by doing it for you.
by NaOH | 2025-12-25 02:55:11+00:00
I'm taking a moment to recognize once more the work that user @atdrummond (Alex Thomas Drummond) did for a couple years to help others here. I did not know him, don’t think I ever interacted with him, and I did not benefit from his generosity, but I admired his kindness. Just beautiful.

Ask HN: Who needs holiday help? (Follow up thread) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38706167 - Dec 2023 (9 comments)

Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38492378 - Dec 2023 (210 comments)

Tell HN: Thank You - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34140096 - Dec 2022 (42 comments)

Tell HN: Everyone should have a holiday dinner this year - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34122118 - Dec 2022 (58 comments)

Unfortunately, Alex died a few months after his last round of holiday giving, about 1½ years ago now.

Tell HN: In Memory of Alexander Thomas Drummond - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40508725 - May 2024 (5 comments)

If you read the comments in that last thread, know that @toomuchtodo followed through last year and kept the tradition alive. Amazing and magnificent.

Ask HN: Who needs help this holidays? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42291246 - Dec 2024 (46 comments)
by inkyoto | 2025-12-25 02:55:12+00:00
Finnish and Hungarian, despite being spread well apart from each other, are from the same Uralian language family.

Both (and other languages in the family) share one distinctive feature – an excessively large number of noun cases (by Indo-European language family standards).

However, these languages do not have prepositions, i.e. the 16-20 odd noun cases replace them, so it makes it somewhat easier for a new learner.

The noun cases can also be thought of as postpositions despite obviously not being them, but it is a good and simple mental model.

The real outlier is Icelandic, which has a notoriously irregular grammar, multiple noun declension and verb conjugation groups, prepositions and postpositions despite a small number of noun cases.
Show HN: RetroMol – Turn protein structures into pixel art
by ss-13 | 2025-12-25 02:55:50+00:00
I built a web tool that transforms PDB protein structures into retro-style pixel art icons.

Features:
- Search by PDB ID or upload .pdb/.cif files
- 25+ color palettes (viridis, plasma, rainbow, etc.)
- 4 display styles (cartoon, stick, sphere, surface)
- Export as PNG or animated GIF
- All generated images are CC0 (public domain)

Built with Next.js, 3Dmol.js, and custom pixelation/outline shaders.

Live demo: https://retromol.vercel.app
Source: https://github.com/suzuki-2001/retromol
by intended | 2025-12-25 02:56:26+00:00
Yes? The Primae Noctis party would largely be “censored” in current social circles.

The fact that we can use money to saturate the information economy, and create the perception of validity, is a form of market manipulation that is used extensively today. See “Intelligent Design” for a great example of how that was applied in America.

These ideological beach heads are strategized and implemented by media consultants, and media owners. Yet this is protected speech. All the while actual fact checkers, researchers and content moderation efforts are censorial.

This super simplistic interpretation of how speech operates in the modern world is now more abused by attackers, than of explanatory value to defenders.

I would really love if people were somehow more interested in the way modern persuasion techniques are applied. At least that way we would have more interesting conversations on how to have checks and balances that work.
by bigiain | 2025-12-25 02:57:12+00:00
> I feel like we’ve been hearing this for 4 years now.

I feel we were hearing very similar claims 40 years ago, about how the next version of "Fourth Generation Languages" were going to enable business people and managers to write their own software without needing pesky programmers to do it for them. They'll "just" need to learn how to specify the problem sufficiently well.

(Where "just" is used in it's "I don't understand the problem well enough to know how complicated or difficult what I'm about to say next is" sense. "Just stop buying cigarettes, smoker!", "Just eat less and exercise more, fat person!", "Just get a better paying job, poor person!", "Just cheer up, depressed person!")
by ekianjo | 2025-12-25 02:58:36+00:00
I think if you compare on price alone, yeah there are quality tradeoffs when you purchase a Framework. They don't get everything right, and often an equivalent model from Lenovo or HP is going to feel superior. But... buying Framework is putting a stake into having somewhat open laptops that you can service and upgrade yourself. Lenovo laptops have become less and less reparable (following the MacBook formula) and it's very important a company like Framework continues to exist.

At the same time, this kind of user feedback is very important, to help Framework identify the areas where they can or have to improve. Framework is a very reactive company and while hardware takes time, they typically address issues in their next models.
by Christop-14 | 2025-12-25 02:59:25+00:00
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by nubg | 2025-12-25 02:59:29+00:00
I'm sorry, but why did the author not mark this post as AI generated? It's clear from many different phrasings that this was written with an LLM. And no, I won't point out any particular spot, but I'm sure my fellow commenters will know what I am talking about.

I acknowledge that the author (probabl) had indeed experienced the things described (most of, as LLMs like to add details here and there), and it was fine in terms of being interesting, but I feel offended when people try to pass of text formulated by an LLM (even if they put in a bulletpoint draft) without disclosure that it's been written by an LLM.

Can the author please share the prompt containing the draft that he sent to the LLM?

I'd much rather read that!
by jameshush | 2025-12-25 03:00:21+00:00
I agree with you for many use cases, but for the use case I'm focused on (Voice AI) speed is absolutely everything. Every millisecond counts for voice, and most voice use cases don't require anything close to "deep thinking. E.g., for inbound customer support use cases, we really just want the voice agent to be fast and follow the SOP.
by dllu | 2025-12-25 03:02:20+00:00
Very neat. I recently went to the Waymo depot in Bayshore (Toland St) and snapped a couple of pictures of the new Zeekrs for Wikipedia.

[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waymo_Zeekr_Vehicle_...

[2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waymo_Zeekr_Vehicle_...
by tudorg | 2025-12-25 03:02:44+00:00
This is really cool and I love to see the interest in fast clones / branching here.

We've built Xata with this idea of using copy-on-write database branching for staging and testing setups, where you need to use testing data that's close to the real data. On top of just branching, we also do things like anonymization and scale-to-zero, so the dev branches are often really cheap. Check it out at https://xata.io/

> The source database can't have any active connections during cloning. This is a PostgreSQL limitation, not a filesystem one. For production use, this usually means you create a dedicated template database rather than cloning your live database directly.

This is a key limitation to be aware of. A way to workaround it could be to use pgstream (https://github.com/xataio/pgstream) to copy from the production database to a production replica. Pgstream can also do anonymization on the way, this is what we use at Xata.
by naikrovek | 2025-12-25 03:02:54+00:00
I have a command line program at work which outputs json. Pure JSON in all situations.

I thought nushell would be able to make sense of that and display it semi-nicely.

Nushell pukes on it, errors out, and doesn’t even show the output of the command. As far as sins go for a shell, not showing the output of the program it just ran is very high among them.

nushell had its chance with me.
by dustbunny | 2025-12-25 03:05:37+00:00
I have a 17" XPS and it's great as a computer for that floor of the house. Ie: for sitting at the kitchen table or the couch. I have a 13" for portability which is great because it's so small and light.

MacBook pros these days are really heavy. Having a MBP and an Air is actually a fair inventory but the MBP is just so expensive.

I do like the desktop form factor of keyboard and monitor but the 17"er is nice to use while I'm up making coffee in the morning or while sitting on the couch at night
by anon-3988 | 2025-12-25 03:07:01+00:00
I mean..sure, but I just want the first 80%. We don't have that. Instead, we are building kernels and infrastructure using bash scripts that who knows does what. We need a tool that is solid and rigid that LLMs can use to go through all of that.

It should be something that is familiar (so imperative style like C), easier to read (perhaps with type inference) and have strong modern type system (just give me sum type is enough for gods sake). Perhaps Python with (real) types.
by naikrovek | 2025-12-25 03:08:34+00:00
I like PowerShell too, but in what universe other than ours (clearly the worst one) is it even possible for loading a module to take more time than the blink of an eye?

Microsoft should find it embarrassing how long it takes powershell to load a module. Pushing <tab> to autocomplete a cmdlet name should never take more than maybe 100 milliseconds.
by maxbond | 2025-12-25 03:09:33+00:00
The alternative to storing tokens is to use an AEAD encryption scheme like AES-GCM to protect tokens from forgery or tampering. You will still have to worry about reuse, so you will probably want to restrict use of this token to the user it was generated for and to a lifetime (say, 24 hours). That is a very high level description, there are details (like nonce generation) that must be done correctly for the system to be secure.
by throwaway17_17 | 2025-12-25 03:10:13+00:00
In case someone is reading and wonders:

RnRS - Revised n Report on Scheme (where 1 <= n <= 7)

These are basically Scheme Editions. R5RS, R6RS, and R7RS are the ‘big ones’ that are commonly referenced, R7RS being issued in 2013 (5 — 1998, 6 — 2007).

SRFI - Scheme Request for Implementation

SFRI is basically an informal standards type document. SFRI’s are typically used to request a common library feature for implementation (more useful before R6RS which essentially introduces a functioning standard library for scheme. Most implementations acknowledge that they implement SFRI #n as a quick reference for what ‘extras’ are in their shipped stdlib.

Note that I think parent may have been rhetorically asking, or asking with heavy sarcasm. Also, I agree that the Manual is not written that well. It is pretty big, but if Guile is going to continue playing a role as the ‘Scheme of Record’ in GNU and in Linux more generally, it should meet modern expectations for documentation.
by opello | 2025-12-25 03:11:47+00:00
Just because old ASCII and ANSI art is often signed by the author, which is something fun I appreciate, see also:

https://oldcompcz.github.io/jgs/joan_stark/xmas.html#treewit...

And of course, the BBS Documentary: Artscene episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQrBbm5ZMlo&list=PL7nj3G6Jpv...
by 9x39 | 2025-12-25 03:11:53+00:00
> the config behavior still doesn’t match my mental model

Could you -learn- how to self-host a version of your app to expand your mental model in doing so? You outsourced the thinking part to an LLM - a bag of words - and are surprised the outcome didn't just work?

> Google support hasn’t been able to clarify how to properly scope this either

More outsourcing of thinking, no? Is Plan A really asking the vendor selling you compute how to use less compute and make them less money, instead of figuring out how to use just enough of it yourself?

If you're taking ownership, who could have effected the outcome the most here? Maybe the person who keeps outsourcing thinking to LLMs, support requests, and forums? I'd argue ownership would look more like figuring out how to handle Top Cost #1 yourself and reduce burn rate, starting by doing less outsourcing.