MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by detectivestory | 2026-01-21 10:43:10+00:00
If your home pages looks like this (https://www.ycombinator.com), you can expect people to try want to "launch" their startups on your forum. There seems to be a large contingent of HN users that have settled on the belief that if something is done using AI it is "lazy slop" and it needs to be shunned! Obviously this can be the case, but its pretty evident that the technology is going nowhere and anyone who is not incorporating it in some way (workflow or actual end product) is just holding themselves back. The fact that it has opened the doors to allow developers work on ideas that they would not have had to the time to do previously should be celebrated in my opinion. For people who are interested in creative web projects, we live in very exciting times, regardless of the negative noise.
by embedding-shape | 2026-01-21 10:43:15+00:00
> With Show HN vs a regular submission you're shoved on shownew, which gets a lot less eyeballs than new

I don't think that's right, it's visible in both places, it's not "either or". Currently /new shows 5 "Show HN"s, which are also visible on /shownew.

> but I really don't see the value in using the Show HN: prefix.

You get a lot more traffic over a longer period of time, but best of all, the users who engage with you are in a different mindset for the "Show HN" posts.

On a normal submission, you get a whole range of top-level posts that are mostly tangible related to the topic at hand. It's basically a free-for-all, as long as it's at least a bit related to the submission's theme and topic.

On "Show HN" posts you get users who view it and comment about it as a way of providing feedback what they think of the idea itself, and its implementation. Completely different mood and input, that is much more about what you're actually sharing, than a submission.

That's my experience of "Show HN" at least, YMMV.
by poszlem | 2026-01-21 10:43:32+00:00
It would be much easier to leave the toxic dump that is X, if the other platforms were not almost as toxic just in the opposite direction.

The best option would be to have a separate platform for the european heads of state to communicate with people that is not as partisan and crazy as X, BlueSky or Mastodon.

edit: not to mention that with how things are set up now, the people who actually add value will probably leave X, while the ones who shouldn’t be there will stick around and end up with an even bigger, uncontested audience. And their arguments of the opposite don't convince me. If all dissenting voices leave, the platform does not necessarily disappear, instead, it often calcifies into a radicalization machine. They are arguing for moral victory but a strategic defeat.

edit2: my biggest problem is not that they use X, but that they often use it exclusively, so your choice is to either follow them there or get what they are saying via a third party (a newspaper reprinting X or something).
by dash2 | 2026-01-21 10:43:44+00:00
A gardener robot should be able to:

- plant new plants (hold plant in pot, remove plant from pot, shake excess soil, dig hole using trowel, place plant in hole, pat down earth, water plant using watering can)

- dig up weeds (using e.g. a hoe, fingers)

- set up a trellis (attach trellis to wall using drilled-in screws; wrap vines around trellis)

- water plants with hose (unwrap hose, turn on tap, spray plants)

etc.

What form factor will beat humans at all these tasks?
by jonathanstrange | 2026-01-21 10:44:35+00:00
I'm doing the same. My reason is not the IDE, I just can't let AI agent software onto my machine. I have no trust at all in it and the companies who make this software. I neither trust them in terms of file integrity nor for keeping secrets secret, and I do have to keep secrets like API keys on my file system.

Am I right in assuming that the people who use AI agent software use them in confined environments like VMs with tight version control?

Then it makes sense but the setup is not worth the hassle for me.
by jonpalmisc | 2026-01-21 10:45:40+00:00
For me: pro & creative apps. GIMP/Inkscape will never replace Photoshop/Illustrator/Affinity. Ableton, Logic, Pro Tools, etc. are not available on Linux and with the exception of REAPER, the alternatives are awful. And even with a Linux-compatible DAW, very few plugins are available on Linux.

On macOS, I can work on hobby software & graphics/music.
by aebtebeten | 2026-01-21 10:45:50+00:00
> Europe might have a unique opportunity to ally with China to pry it from Russia

Sounds like it could be promising, but how in that world do you get containers back and forth between Europe and China, given that USEUCOM can mine Gibraltar; USCENTCOM, Suez and Aden; and USINDOPACOM, Malacca?

(My personal optimistic view atm is an independent free-trading armed-neutral european block which is sufficiently valuable that any move by one of the three major powers to bring it under their bloc will naturally be countered by the other two)

"Optimists practise speaking Cantonese, pessimists— speaking Russian, realists— stripping and reassembling rifles"?
by keepamovin | 2026-01-21 10:45:54+00:00
I am a Show HN expert. You need to just keep trying until you get traction. Sometimes it's title. Sometimes it's timing. Sometimes it's more substantial - a chance to rethink, redo, rebrand, rewrite, etc.

Also, mods can help. They are friendly and generous. Reach out to them via email and ask them about your post. Often they have something to say and it's useful.

The challenge you encountered is nothing to do with the recent spike. I've been doing Show HN for 10 years. It's always been this way. It's never "easy" to get the attention of the community. But there are some things that can help, such as the time you post.

Check out these heatmaps of the average/mean post score versus hour/day of post and you can see the trends: https://hackerbook.dosaygo.com/?view=archive
by BoredomIsFun | 2026-01-21 10:45:55+00:00
Ok fine yes, I missed it, but average Delta-E measured without specifying what mode it was measured in, what is the maximum Delta-E (not average - I've used monitors with average dE below one with massive greenish/pinkish color tints, as maximum dE on some colors well exceeded 4), what was deltaE away from the center, what was gamma and colorspace coverage error, is pointless. Check prad.de, they do it right way.
by reify | 2026-01-21 10:46:05+00:00
saw this at:

https://mastodon.social/@camwilson

final line added by me

gooncoding.

"bro I spent all weekend in claud code. Its incredible"

"Oh nice, what did you build?"

"Dude my set up is crazy. I've got all the vercel skills. plus custom hooks for every project"

"Sick, what are you building?"

"My set up is so optimized. I'm using, like 5 instances at once"

"Hello bro, stop playing with your dick, answer my questions bro!"
by zozbot234 | 2026-01-21 10:46:28+00:00
> but that implies you need to statically prove that each index i for V[i] is less than N. So your code would be littered with such guards for dynamic indexing.

You just need a subrange type for i. Even PASCAL had those. And if you have full dependent types you can statically prove that your array accesses are sound without required bounds checking. (You can of course use optional bounds checking as one of many methods of proof.)
by compsciphd | 2026-01-21 10:46:44+00:00
years ago on an ACM programming contest we had a problem that was given a starting and ending position on a chess board, find the minimum # of moves it takes for a knight to go from one to the next.

the proper way to solve is this via breadth first search. while my team was working on other problems, I basically solved all possibilities by hand. (i.e. the it was basically just a delta-x/delta-y matrix with a few exceptions if the knight would have to go off the board).

As you had (have?) less computer than team members, when I finally got a chance to a computer, instead of programming out a breadth first search, I just inputted my hand calculated matrix with some scaffolding and submitted quickly and got a validation message quickly back.

I still wonder if that was the fastest turnaround time for a single problem they have seen :)
by xvxvx | 2026-01-21 10:47:42+00:00
I was in college at the time of Yahoo turning down the opportunity to buy Google for $1M. I clearly recall my Computer Science class groaning at the news. If Yahoo had bought them, we’d probably be using Ask Jeeves phones and Altavista smoke detectors though.

Watching Google go from a useful search engine, pulling in lots of interesting resources, to the garbage it became is quite sad really. Facebook is another wasted opportunity. The organic growth and evolution of the online world was culled and siloed by fucking ad salesmen and government surveillance.
by detectivestory | 2026-01-21 10:47:56+00:00
thanks for checking it out! I have been considering various flows to keep people more engaged (there are currently challenges, smart flash cards, and achievements) but at the moment the app promotes "active" learning, and I want to be careful not to introduce anything introduces "passive" learning learning paths like you might find on other apps where you don't really need to think or fully engage. My thinking at the moment is that I'd rather a user just learn something once and never come back than return every day and learn nothing..
by Festro | 2026-01-21 10:47:57+00:00
This activity would trigger Google's Spambrain algorithm and ensure the backlinks were fully ignored.

Depending on the volume (100k is a lot) a human check may be made and result in a manual action against the site which would lower discoverability.

Discoverability correlates with link velocity, if velocity is uneven it is suspicious and punished.

It would help crawling and indexing technically but that's something you can do for free via Google Search Console with sitemap submission and manual index requests.

Automated backlink creation is and always will be a 100% bad idea in the short and long term. It is a waste of money and effort and only every something scammers and bad product managers endorse for their own benefit. Any positive effect always turns out to be misattributed.
by embedding-shape | 2026-01-21 10:48:24+00:00
> the exact definition of vibe-coding is, I think, yet to be determined

Huh? No, that's been established since Karpathy coined the term, you don't review the code, only use the agent and don't care about how it was done, just about the results.

The actual interesting stuff is how to use LLMs together with a human, to build high quality code. More "augmenting the human intellect" rather than "autonomous robots building for you".

Overall I'd say if someone handed you a specification that named SSE specifically, you created files with SSE in the name, and the implementation talks about doing SSE, yet it doesn't actually do SSE in the end, it's pretty much on par with code in commercial settings, yeah :) But maybe our bar should be slightly above the ground at least? :)
by zinekeller | 2026-01-21 10:49:50+00:00
Just for the record, I am not necessarily disagreeing with "let's replace SMS", but Google can do it via a value-added service, which is much less regulated in most countries. Heck, Google already had it with Hangouts, and in my personal opinion it was just plain better than with Messenger. It was technically inferior with Whatsapp having E2E, but some people do prefer having a portable archive of their messages stored and access (much to the chagrin of cryptographers). However, killing it, resurrecting its corpse, and doing it again - well, it will not fare as everyone outside of Google predicted. Ron Amadeo had written a great piece about this in Ars Technica in 2021 (A decade and a half of instability: The history of Google messaging apps https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-...)

Messing with what is supposed to be a carrier standard, as I already think what is happening, puts Google to (in my opinion) a legally unreasonable position in some countries, and I won't be shocked it it will be treated as a carrier with licenses et al. (or rather, lack of licenses, which is just plain bad for Google). I won't be surprised if it turned out that many Googlers already knew that this is a bad idea legal-wise, but the higher-ups have approved this shoehorning.
Ask HN: Can someone make a CAS just checking last bit on x86/ARM please?
by goofy_lemur | 2026-01-21 10:50:28+00:00
Guys/gals, I was thinking about doing some work here and I noticed there's no operation that allows a atomic compare/exchange based on the last bit.

There should be an instruction that allows you to do an update of a 64 bit value only if the last bit is a 0.

The idea here is you would be able to swap pointer values atomically only if they were unlocked.

2^63 is such a huge number, it is sufficient to represent practically all the data in the universe. If we allowed an atomic compare exchange on the last bit, or something like check if the last bit is 0, allow the write, otherwise don't, it would make programming a lot easier.

Thanks!
by conqrr | 2026-01-21 10:51:42+00:00
Do you need evidence that auto complete makes you productive? It's stochastically useful. That also means a certain percentage of it will lead to garbage that could easily negate all the benefits. The lower you go down the stack, the more trickier it gets. We as humans are so obsessed with AI right now it's unbelievable. Lots of attention could be spent at other areas of innovation instead of obsessing on LLMs
by matwood | 2026-01-21 10:51:47+00:00
> I've never personally understood the point of macOS for power users

These threads always end up with veiled insults like this. Can you really not understand people who use Windows, Linux and Macs? They each have their strengths depending on what you are doing.

> which makes it worth sacrificing the ability to run your machine the way you want

I've use Macs since my first G4 PB, Linux for longer, and used to develop for Windows though it's been a very long time. I've never felt stopped for doing what I want.

> by just building up from a minimal distro like Arch or NixOS

Been there done that. I have too many other things that need to get done to build up a distro. I'm sure desktop Linux has improved since the last time I tried running it as my main computer, but I just not sure what the point is now.
by Imustaskforhelp | 2026-01-21 10:51:54+00:00
Nah I prototype in golang because its good enough & I can easily remove all AI slop & rebuild it myself once I get the gist of what works & the project is well recieved by a community.

That being said, I sometimes write projects with AI to get feedback fast and prototyping for my own personal use cases and share it here sometimes

But since the community doesn't show support in some cases, I move on with anything new which catches my curiosity/troubles me and build it again

I open source most of the stuff but I know that its probably gonna get lost in a sea of AI slop & mine might not be better (I just ask LLM bots to create a simple main.go file to solve X and usually much of my simple projects end up being around 600 loc)

I do feel like personal computing or making projects in domains you aren't familiar in to prototype just out of curiosity/your own pragramatic use case is probably what I feel like but long term, there should be a focus on actually transitioning from AI slop to something real if anyone plans to monetize something imo
by dspillett | 2026-01-21 10:52:04+00:00
> An entry fee that is reimbursed if the bug turns out to matter would stop this, real quick.

It would also stop a lot of genuine submissions unfortunately, as some literally can't pay not just won't pay (for both technical or financial reasons), and adds complexity¹. Each project working this way will need to process a bunch of payments and refunds on top of the actual bounty payments, which is not admin free nor potential financially cost free.

I can't think of an easy answer that would work for more than a very short amount of time. As soon as there is money involved and an easy way to use tooling rather than actual effort/understanding to be involved, many will try to game the system ruining it for those genuine participants. Heck, even if the reward is just credit² rather than money, that will happen. Many individual people are honest and useful, people as a whole are a bunch of untrustworthy arseholes who will innocence you and the rest of the world for a penny or just for shits & giggles.

> Assuming the host of the bug bounty program is operating in good faith

This is a significant assumption. One that is it harder to not be paranoid about when you are putting money down.

> they closed it as "works as intended", because they had decided that an optional password was more convenient than a required password

This does not surprise me. My primary bank (FirstDirect, UK) switched the way I authenticate from “between 5 and 9 alphanumeric characters”³ to a 5-digit pin, and all their messages about it assured me (like hell!) that this was “just as secure as before”…⁴

--------

[1] Needing a payment processing option that is compatible with both the reporter and reportee, at the point of submission. At the moment that can be arranged after the bounty is awarded rather than something a project like curl needs to have internationally setup and supported before accepting submissions.

[2] ref: people submitting several simple documentation fixes, one misplaced comma or 'postrophe per pull request, to game some “pull requests accepted” metric somewhere.

[3] which wasn't ideal to start with

[4] I would accept the description “no less secure than before” if they admitted that the previous auth requirements were also lax.
Show HN: Citizen Water Signal – A tool to make tap water issues visible (India)
by eskimo87 | 2026-01-21 10:53:40+00:00
Tap water contamination is a pan-India issue, but stays invisible until it becomes a crisis. Here’s my small civic attempt to fix that.

More here: https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1qi1bhg/tap_water_co...
by embedding-shape | 2026-01-21 10:53:44+00:00
> Product managers hate this

Depends on what product they manage, at least if they're good at their job. A product manager for social media company know it's not just about "least clicks to X", but about a lot of other things along the way.

Surely the product managers at OpenAI are briefed on the potential upsides with having the concrete ID for all users.
by bellamoon544 | 2026-01-21 10:53:51+00:00
Cowork AI is an innovative artificial intelligence tool designed to enhance productivity and collaboration in remote work environments. This platform offers features that streamline communication, automate task management, and optimize team workflows, making it easier for teams to collaborate effectively from anywhere. With seamless integration capabilities and a user-friendly interface, Cowork AI empowers organizations to boost efficiency and improve project outcomes. Ideal for businesses of all sizes, this tool facilitates a smarter, more connected workplace. Elevate your team's performance with Cowork AI and experience the future of work today.
Ask HN: I'm getting emails about trial accounts on sites I don't recognise
by amihacked | 2026-01-21 10:53:57+00:00
I’m seeing emails for a few services at my primary personal gmail account that I don’t know anything about, e.g. A shopify trial account in the Germany region (I do not live there and I've never signed up for a Shopify account) and an account on a ticket resale site that I didn't know existed.

I don’t understand how someone could have done this without being able to verify the account by receiving and clicking on an email, yet I recognise every device/access on Google’s list of devices. I also have 2FA enabled.

I've obviously changed my password and invoked Shopify's 30 day delete on my PII - the trial has expired so I cannot get past the "pay us money to do anything" wall and delete the shop myself.

What could I be missing? Could this be someone with remote access to one my devices and able to defeat 2FA?
by timetopay | 2026-01-21 10:54:24+00:00
Unix is both a family of operating systems and also a trademark. The name is overloaded - "Unix" is more than one thing at the same time. In addition, the trademark is "UNIX" and the operating system family is "Unix"

MacOS is both UNIX and also not Unix at the same time.

If the trademark holders decided to UNIX certify my cat, which is well within their legal right to do so, would that make her UNIX?
by AnssiH | 2026-01-21 10:54:38+00:00
> These mobile phone providers do not let the gazillion consumer smartphones act as servers for obvious reasons.

FWIW, I was interested so I tested this on my phone here in Finland (Elisa, the largest carrier here): IPv6 inbound TCP connections work just fine, unlike IPv4 which is behind CGNAT.

On mobile broadband (no calls) plans they also offer optional free public IPv4 address, but not on the regular phone plans.

(I did the test by installing Termux from Play Store, then in it running "pkg install netcat-openbsd" and "nc -6 -l 9956" and then connecting to that port from internet using telnet, while phone was not connected to WiFi.)
by surgical_fire | 2026-01-21 10:54:46+00:00
> The best option would be to have a separate platform for the european heads of state to communicate with people that is not as partisan and crazy as X, BlueSky or Mastodon

Mastodon at least it not owned by any large US corporation, and therefore not subject to corporate whims of their leadership.

> while the ones who shouldn’t be there will stick around and end up with an even bigger, uncontested audience.

Yes, and that's how it falls into complete irrelevance.
by flowerthoughts | 2026-01-21 10:55:38+00:00
I recently saw a Show HN [1] that had no link to anywhere, but it did have a project name. It currently has 13 points.

There were only first-level comments:

One comment had a quote and engaged in constructive dialog.

One comment pointed out specific benefits, and asked a follow-up question.

One comment asked for comparison to existing projects, and mentioned documentation search doesn't work.

One comment asked only about price.

One comment asked about security/GDPR compliance. The same user lauded the simplicity in another comment.

Not a single one of these comments noted that there was no link, or added it to help other readers. I know it's the rudeness of the day, but I have to conclude all of them are bot accounts. Maybe one of them was an existing user, but if it's an existing product it shouldn't be a Show HN, right?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46605671
by deanc | 2026-01-21 10:55:55+00:00
Yes. The company I am working at currently is using it extensively and I have seen first hand what their senior people are producing with the AI, and I rarely have any comments. It's adding huge value, and increases the velocity of delivery.

I think it depends on your tooling, your code-base, your problem space, and your ability to intelligently inject context. If all four are aligned (in my case they are) it's the real deal.
by croisillon | 2026-01-21 10:56:36+00:00
i looked at the Snapalabra webapp and... i don't even know where to start commenting on it: as someone who started vibecoding, i see how the UX, images, translations, everything feels like when the slop gets horribly wrong ; of course i could read explanations in the about section but it's a 404

why even post that?
by aeonfox | 2026-01-21 10:58:00+00:00
> it's visible in both places

Yeah I corrected myself in another comment. But I find with submissions to `shownew` they don't enter `top` straight away, or at all.

> You get a lot more traffic over a longer period of time

With a regular submission, it gets on `top` for at least a short period of time as well as `new`, whereas that doesn't seem to always be the case for a Show HN. And certainly not in my case. That said, many Show HNs do make it to top with less votes than the tiny few I got organically, so maybe I tripped some HN's filters? Or maybe it was bad timing? But if I post again, it'll be without the Show HN.