MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by creichenbach | 2025-12-29 13:19:57+00:00
I'm a heavy public transport user in Switzerland, and even though it's almost a meme how reliable the trains are, reality is different. Yes, they operate in a way that make the stats look good (x% on time), but they take tradeoff to get there. E.g. they won't await connections if another train is a few minutes late. So you might have to wait for 30 minutes for the next one, or even longer if you're unlucky. And there's the occasional big incident, where you get stuck for several hours. I missed flights that way, even though planning in 3 hours of buffer. There is zero compensation in such cases as long as they bring you to your destination on the same day. Plus, several trains are regularly way too crowded.
by stevage | 2025-12-29 13:20:05+00:00
Are you confusing revenue and profit? Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap and Lichess are examples of successful non-profit sites. They have costs, they have revenues, but they don't exist to generate profit.

>but also a guarantee to your community that the product will still be around in a few years and not turn into a rug pull

There are no guarantees. Think of all the perfectly good websites that got shut down not because they weren't financially sustainable, but because they didn't generate enough profit for their owners. Google's graveyard is a good place to start.

Or the sites that were profitable, so they then they got bought out, and shut down, because what the owners really wanted was money more than anything.

Clearly the site in question here is not currently sustainable. But attempting to build a sustainable non-profit website is not impossible.
by spacedcowboy | 2025-12-29 13:20:22+00:00
I wonder if Thom Holwerda has ever actually worked at Apple... Because Apple's design very much is instituted from the top, and also very much is holy writ. The engineers don't get much of a look-in unless it is simply not possible to do what the designers want - which is pretty darn rare.

An application team will probably have a UI design resource - either their own or shared with similar team(s), and that design team will dictate how things look and work for that application team. The design team will have to justify their decisions to their own (design) boss, and upwards all the way to the top, if with decreasing resolution.

Design at Apple isn't just about how it looks, the design teams are tasked with how it works too, and I'm not saying they don't do that job well - there are usually a lot more corner-cases that have been considered than what some random blog talks about. Sometimes the "why don't they do it this way" question is simply because the asker hasn't thought about the implications on the scale that Apple does. Other times, it's a mistake/bug/oversight.

But the idea that something as major as the glass look and feel wasn't authorised at the very top and mandated to all the teams down the pyramid is just naive, at least if you have ever worked at Apple.
by microtonal | 2025-12-29 13:20:39+00:00
This is so typical for German bureaucracy. I used to work at a German university, which included teaching. I once had a small group of students who collectively plagiarized their coursework. Some of the group admitted doing so. I went to the examination office asking them to enforce the punishment for plagiarism (which would increasingly severe with the number of offenses).

They simply told me: this behavior ought to be punished. Which is a euphemism for but I'm not going to do it. They didn't want the hassle of potentially dealing with one out of many students filing a complaint or worst-case go to Karlsruhe (Germans know what that means). Which is exemplary of German bureaucracy, nobody wants to make decisions and carry responsibility.

I love Germany, but this is really something they need to fix going forward, because it stifles society and the economy in many ways.
by maverwa | 2025-12-29 13:20:39+00:00
Maybe worth mentioning that this „1.50€ compensation“ rule only matters if you use the „Deutschland-Ticket“ which is a fixed price ticket for a whole month, unlimited travel on the Regio lines (short distance trains, i.e. non IC)

If you bought a regular route ticket you get 25% and more than an hour delay, and 50% at more than two hours.
Not sure how it is with other multi-use tickets.

This, combined with the certain delays CAN make traveling by train quite affordable… /s

https://www.bahn.de/service/informationen-buchung/fahrgastre...
by skrebbel | 2025-12-29 13:21:16+00:00
As a Dutchman, I’ve come to love German trains. The joy of a first class ICE seat to with table service as the empty middle of Germany swooshes by at 250km/h is hard to describe. Those trains are very good. Super comfortable, super fast, and did anyone say “restaurant car”? Seriously, the little bottle holes in the tray in front of you seems perfectly designed to fit a .5L glass of Erdinger and I don’t believe it’s a coincidence. Freshly tapped Erdinger! On a train! I generally travel for the destination, but in Germany, I travel for the travel.

So as a fanboy, I am saddened by how bad DB has become. Once you’re on the train, and it actually goes, and it goes all the way to the destination, it’s still fantastic. All of the above generally still holds. But the many hours I’ve spent in the dark in cold windy places like Duisburg Hbf gleis fünf are uncountable, and it really does discount from the experience. I don’t remember the German trains being this late, this often, a ~decade ago. I really hope DB will get its shit together because there’s a lot worth saving.
by dktp | 2025-12-29 13:21:30+00:00
Deep research, from my experience, will always add lectures.

I'm trying to create a comprehensive list of English standup specials. Seems like a good fit! I've tried numerous times to prompt it "provide a comprehensive list of English standup specials released between 2000 and 2005. The output needs to be a csv of verified specials with the author, release date and special name. I do not want any other lecture or anything else. Providing anything except the csv is considered a failure". Then it creates it's own plan and I go further clarifying to explicitly make sure I don't want lectures...

It goes on to hallucinate a bunch of specials and provide a lecture on "2000 the era of X on standup comedy" (for each year)

I've tried this in 2.5 and 3. Numerous time ranges and prompts. Same result. It gets the famous specials right (usually), hallucinates some info on less famous ones (or makes them up completely) and misses anything more obscure
by krapp | 2025-12-29 13:21:54+00:00
"real" in that the program existed and research was done? Yes.

"real" in that remote viewing and psychic powers actually exist? No.

The CIA researched a ton of "mind-control" techniques under MKULTRA too but that doesn't mean they can control your mind.

The government has programs to research UFOs but that doesn't mean aliens are buzzing our skies and kidnapping our cattle.

I think what we're really seeing here is just money laundering and confirmation bias.
by noworld | 2025-12-29 13:22:06+00:00
The first PDF is the record of a remote viewing session from 2 days before the USS Stark incident, and it is eerily similar to the incident. The feelings and "atmosphere" (can't think of a better word for it) sound like what you might expect on a ship being attacked by a random missile.

For example:

1. The drawing on p. 7 looks like the superstructure of a warship.

2. The next few pages might describe what it feels like to wonder if your ship is actually under missile attack.

3. On page 10 it records "aircraft--large, multiengined; distant; orbiting; distraction controlled, directed. 'Under orders.'" This USNI article has a little more detail on the AWACS plane detecting the incoming attack: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2017/j...

There are other similarities, but the CIA report predates the attack, which is especially strange.
by tapia | 2025-12-29 13:22:27+00:00
I am always a bit annoyed when the root of the problem is not explained. This is the case most of the time (DB of course). I would really like to have a bit more information. Even if there is nothing you can do, it helps to understand how big or small the problem is. Then you can make a decision based on it. Like getting out in the next station or something.
by anal_reactor | 2025-12-29 13:22:41+00:00
> they are fined

NS is state-owned so all fines are just money transfer between two branches of the government. Also, they know that "the trains fail with current amount of public funding, I wonder if less funding will improve the situation" is not good logic. Therefore there won't be any actual fines.

> and I think in an extreme case they can lose their concession

And then what? Most of the country will be left without trains? The company will be dissolved and replaced by the Chinese? Not gonna happen.
Ask HN: What are your AI dev workflows in large codebases?
by sauercrowd | 2025-12-29 13:23:08+00:00
I've been using Claude/Amp/Codex at both my job + side projects. It's always been really nice for early projects, but I found the tools to be significantly harder to use in large/more mature codebases.

If it's auth for a playwright MCP, general context, codebase history, ...

What are your workflows in those?
What tools worked well for you?
What feedback loops worked out best?
by lproven | 2025-12-29 13:23:11+00:00
Sorry, but this line is wildly inaccurate:

> that doesn't require long time abandoned C code

https://github.com/NsCDE/NsCDE

Not so Common Desktop Environment (NsCDE) 2.3 Latest

on Jun 16, 2023

https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/files/

src 2025-11-25

CDE is still in active development. NsCDE is effectively abandoned.
by firesteelrain | 2025-12-29 13:23:19+00:00
It appears this was actually authorized by Congress.

“ In the FY 1991 Defense Authorization Act,
the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was identified as executive
agent for initiating a new program to investigate
parapsychological/ anomalous phenomena. A funding level of $2
million was authorized for DIA to undertake specific research and
other activities relative to this activity. Objectives of this
authorization were to enable a systematic and scientifically
sound approach to the R&D effort, to permit wider and more
systematic review of potential intelligence applications, and to
assess foreign developments in this area.”

It was taken serious enough to be funded for two decades starting in the 70s. Eventually it was terminated when the strategic pressure eased.

AIR was commissioned to look at the research and says in this [1]

“A three-component program involving basic research, operations, and foreign assessment has been in place for some time… beginning in the 1970s, it has conducted a program intended to investigate the application of one paranormal phenomenon — remote viewing, or the ability to describe locations one has not visited.”

“The AIR review found that remote viewing produced occasional hits that were statistically better than chance, but it remains unclear whether the observed effects can unambiguously be attributed to paranormal phenomena, and the laboratory conditions under which effects were seen do not generalize to real intelligence problems. The information provided by remote viewing was judged vague and ambiguous, making it difficult or impossible for the technique to yield information of sufficient quality and accuracy for actionable intelligence.”

1. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00791R0002001...
by csomar | 2025-12-29 13:25:00+00:00
My point is, there is a standard for QR payments (I think it's ISO 5201 but it was a long time since I dealt with that). Cross-border support will depend on the country/bank support; but theoretically if everyone adopt it, you'll be able to scan any country QR and then use your wallet to transfer funds (assuming your bank support cross-border payments).

I think ASEAN largely adhere to the standard though the cross-border part is limited to ASEAN.
by DemocracyFTW2 | 2025-12-29 13:25:34+00:00
Good riddance. I once had the honor of being featured together with many other artist on an HP website. It was implemented in Flash though, meaning it existed as a smallish rectangle in the middle of a website; within that rectangle you could click through to browse the exhibition one artwork at a time. This entailed that your path through the Flash app was not connected to the browser's address bar and exhibits did not get a URL of their own. When you wanted to direct others to your piece the only way was by giving them a "Japanese visitor's address", as in "go to this well-known named point (the domain name), from there walk west and when you see a tall black building, turn right and take the third alley to your left, I'm living in the fifth house down that alley".

Plenty to replace it with to afaik.
by paulsimpson3214 | 2025-12-29 13:26:18+00:00
I got tired of the "cluttered look" next to my bed. I had a beautiful open bedside table but it started looking messy. So, I choose a closed bedside table with storage this time and it made the room feel little better. The soft-glide drawers is a great addition as I can slam it as hard as I want it always closes silently making my partner sleep quietly even though I can't.
by amtamt | 2025-12-29 13:26:41+00:00
Way back in 90's, when I arrived on an Indian Railway station about 10 minutes before the train's scheduled time, I was pleasantly surprised to find the train at the platform.

Only when I checked the passenger reservation list, I found this was train from yesterday, late by 23:50 hours.

(for the curious... No, I could not get my reserved birth and had to travel on unreserved ticket, but at least I reached destination on my planned time.)
by throw310822 | 2025-12-29 13:26:51+00:00
No, the last image is the "camera" version of it- though it's not clear if he means the realtime processing before snapping the picture or with the postprocessing that happens right after. Anyway, we have no way to understand how far the basic-processed raw picture is from a pleasing or normal-looking result because a) the lighting is so bad and artificial that we have no idea of how "normal" should look; b) the subject is unpleasant and the quality "gross" in any case.
by sho_hn | 2025-12-29 13:27:52+00:00
It's still an expectation I have, even as a native German speaker. I work for a well-known German company (our storefronts are sometimes called "the German embassy"), and our day-to-day business language at work is ... English. We hire from all over and want people to be able to get around effectively. This is infrastructure. Make it work.
Show HN: GoSync – Local-First Sync Engine for Go and WASM
by harshalpatel68 | 2025-12-29 13:27:54+00:00
Hi HN,

I built an open-source sync engine that brings "Local-First" capabilities to Go web applications.

The Problem:
Most offline-first solutions (Firebase, PouchDB) force you into the JS ecosystem. If you are writing a Go backend, you often have to re-implement sync logic or settle for simple REST APIs that break when the user goes offline.

The Solution:
GoSync runs the exact same Go code in the browser (via WebAssembly) and on the server.
- Client: Go compiled to WASM, persisting to IndexedDB (via a small JS bridge).
- Server: Go with SQLite or Postgres, persisting to disk.
- Protocol: Merkle Trees to detect diffs, and WebSockets to sync them.

If the server dies or the user goes offline, the client keeps working. When connectivity returns, it heals the state automatically.

I'd love feedback on the Merkle Tree implementation and the WASM/JS bridge architecture.
by barrkel | 2025-12-29 13:28:16+00:00
Plan with a ~40% of travel time buffer if you ought be there, and travel the day before if you must be there.

I travel from Basel to Hannover and back every two weeks on DB. Trains south are almost always late, trains north usually late. Frequently the train is already late in Hannover having come from Hamburg. The worst was when I was kicked out in Frankfurt and had to stay in a hotel. The delays were so bad there were no more trains left that could connect me to the last train out of Basel.

Things have been getting better for the past couple of months I think though.
by creichenbach | 2025-12-29 13:28:35+00:00
As per my other comment, Swiss trains (especially SBB) are not as pleasant as they get credit for. I get a lot that "you know, in other countries it's much worse", and it reminds me of software hosting, where it was normal in the past to be offline occasionally. Then Google et al. came and showed that much more reliability is possible with good engineering. I think there would be a lot of room for improvement.
by motbus3 | 2025-12-29 13:28:36+00:00
> Well, would you increase the prices 3-4x?
(Text below is quite long, let me say it here, you made great points in your answer!)

It seems they could. They not only single handed caused it to double or more without trying :/
Not sure if it would trigger other sorts of regulatory issues though

It is my impression that there is a fabricated scarcity of all goods.
That's a common practice in cloth retailers. In the 90s they thought for brand name and market share.
They noticed it was silly because they could sell half for double of the price and as this means less logistics, it also meant higher margins.
It is not a lunch free approach. Selling less means that you delegate at least the bottom portion of your clients to the market, and if there are options, they might just be gone.
That's exactly what happened with Chevrolet, Ford, etc. they stopped investing and when a new competitor appeared, even if it was more marketing than product, they lots rivers of money and barely can keep the fight on (except for maybe making a puppet tell others that there is no such thing as climate change, but that's something else)

Technology space right now looks like it. We already see major brands stagnation allegedly because they did all that is possible and it will take some time until some nouvelle approach to appear.

As a consumer, I want to believe this won't take long to settle but I'm afraid money is going elsewhere
by mncharity | 2025-12-29 13:29:19+00:00
I was struck by explicit orders being used as suggestive of both commonness[1] and rareness[2]. But maybe it resolves as validating an interpretation of commonly reported events, vs amplifying the reported unusualness of one.

[1] "Heck, Tacitus has a Roman general lay out the sequence in an order to his men" (in a context of "examples [...] are not hard to come by").
[2] "‘engage at discretion’ order needed to be given as an order [...] If [...] this was the standard way of fighting, there would be no point in Plutarch having Aemilius order it" (in a context of "Livy noting the unusual nature").
by utllitarian | 2025-12-29 13:29:21+00:00
It’s likely some utilitarian reason, i.e. sacrifice the riders on the train for the good of all the other schedules.

This is the one benefit of living in an overly-litigious country that has news media which can pick up on a story like this. They’d rather have the masses suffer to avoid the legal fees and bad press, so instead of sacrificing a train, they’d make everyone’s lives worse overall.

I’m not arguing for utilitarianism, though. Ir allows dictators to thrive.
by ghaff | 2025-12-29 13:29:26+00:00
This sort of used to be the case with Heathrow Express in London. There was a lot of signage that suggested to the unwary that Heathrow Express was the "right" way to get into London. Now, especially with the Elizabeth Line, while you can save a few minutes with Heathrow Express, that's really not a cost-effective alternative for a lot of people. (And Piccadilly may be a better option depending on your luggage and where you are staying.)
by CaptainZapp | 2025-12-29 13:29:31+00:00
> we look at Germany trains (and Switzerland trains) as always on time

When taking an international train from Germany to Switzerland, don't count on it that it will run through to the final destination.

SBB (Swiss National Railways) started to block German trains if their delay is more than 15 minutes (so, basically every DB train) and won't allow the train on their network.

This is only peripherically educational. Constantly delayed DB trains completely fouled up the scheduling on the extremely dense Swiss network. So they just won't allow it anymore.

On a sidenote: In 2024 SBB trains were 93.2% punctual. Connectivity punctuality (where you have to catch a connecting train) was 98.7%. A train is counted as punctual if the delay is less than 3 minutes (half the German figure).
by Klonoar | 2025-12-29 13:29:37+00:00
How is it hostile?

Calling ObjC via your language of choice is like the easiest thing possible, solved multiple times over. Signing and notarizing outside of Xcode is also a solved problem.

IME people bitch about this but when push comes to shove just don’t want to do the required work, typically on flimsy grounds. It’s just not that hard.

The increase in Swift-only frameworks will eventually be a problem but it’s typically not a blocker right now.
by icedrift | 2025-12-29 13:29:57+00:00
Mainly because it isn't semantic and breaks accessibility features. If you find yourself writing layouts like this you're probably ignoring a bunch of useful stuff like <aside> <article> <menu> etc. Unless you manually configure it yourself, screen readers won't know what's important to read, tabindex won't know where to jump around, and form fields won't know what values to offer.
by gf000 | 2025-12-29 13:30:13+00:00
Null restricted types are indeed important and while null check plugins exist for Java, this is a big step in the good direction by kotlin.

String templates are valuable syntactic sugar, but that's it.

There are a bazillion JSON libraries with at least 3-4 absolutely stellar ones. I don't really see it that big of a limiter.

And if you mean checked exceptions, that's controversial to claim it's all bad. But some ergonomics improvements would be better.
by pjmlp | 2025-12-29 13:30:16+00:00
Unfortunately travelling in Germany by train has become a mess, hence why so many reach out for car or inland flights.

Delays are to be expected, trains cancelled without reasoning, train stations skipped in similar ways as described on the article, and if using connections, better plan for at least 30m interval, while taking into account a plan B for every connection that might be missed.
by Macha | 2025-12-29 13:30:36+00:00
The consequence of wasting a doctor or ambulance drivers time is depriving someone else of medical care, potentially leading to worse medical outcomes, up to death.

I’m sure you’re going to pose a hypothetical that you would be in the way to save someone’s life, but we both know that’s not true and even in that situation, you could raise that with the train company rather than faking a new, different medical emergency
by globular-toast | 2025-12-29 13:30:39+00:00
I have my own DB story. About 15 years ago I was supposed to take an overnight sleeper train from Copenhagen to Cologne. We had beds booked. It's about 22:00 and we're on the platform ready for bed.

The train arrived on time, we checked our tickets to see which coach we were on and walked down the train looking for it. We get to the end of the train, odd, we must have missed our carriage so we turn around for another pass. Then we start to notice other confused expressions.

We eventually figured out the problem: they had accidentally left the sleeper coaches in Hamburg, a full 180 miles away as the crow flies, or almost half our entire journey.

After waiting on the platform for about an hour, busses arrived to take us to Hamburg. We're now quite tired and our bed on a train is now a seat on a bus.

We finally get to Hamburg at about 3:00 the next day, walk to our beds and we're ready to collapse. Surely they're not going to come and inspect our tickets at this time?

They came and inspected our tickets at around 3:30. Two and a half hours later we were in Cologne. Yay.