MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by miduil | 2026-01-14 23:21:19+00:00
> I have no idea then why you're trying to throw shade on something good that was accomplished by bending the truth

I'm not trying to "throw shade on something good" - in contrary, even with a "once in a decade event", the benefit of renewables speaks mountains (not even to speak of the severe damage fossil energy causes that's currently unaccounted in the price of expelling greenhouse gasses).

If renewable energy increases the chances of such events happening, only with accurate numbers you can do the appropriate risk management and operate an efficient, yet stable, grid.

My original comment is flagged now so well, didn't mean to fuel some awful views trying to pretend renewable energy is bad - something I strongly disagree.
by Alupis | 2026-01-14 23:21:27+00:00
I understand you're pretty upset with the situation, and I can't blame you.

But I never should be reading about any of this on public forums. It doesn't reflect well on you or Adafruit.

Now an outcome has been chosen for you, without your input. The situation is probably irreconcilable.

That's not the position you ever want to be in. Obviously.

If the situation was untenable, after your reasonable and private attempts, you should have decided to sever ties on your terms. The outcome would have been the same, but you'd be in control of the situation, and wouldn't be permanently leaving things in public view.

I'm sorry for the situation. I'm a real hot head at times, but it's something I've learned (the hard way, over and over again) that I need to control. Business is business...

I hope it works out for you and Adafruit.
by erikerikson | 2026-01-14 23:21:52+00:00
Surely so. Also, for me it's been more than two decades and a partner has left, a child had been born, and parents are getting sick and starting to die. I still love coding.

That said, I'm working on transitioning to farming to get away from the psychology the industry seems committed to and has gotten worse while also I've become more aware as I have acted with greater scope and influence.

I'd love to find a place that would let me peacefully employ my love of coding and solving important problems in society but in a manner that also fit my life.
by antonymoose | 2026-01-14 23:22:24+00:00
Funny enough I worked with an old timer back in Charleston, SC which historically had no regulated last call. During his drinking years they passed a law requiring an 0200 closing time which, as he put it, was a terrible idea because it put all the drunks out on the street at the same time causing joint chaos. In his view having no official close meant folks naturally filtered out over time as they were sated. Seems any hard stop causes trouble?
by kulahan | 2026-01-14 23:22:39+00:00
Brother, people are scraping by right now. Auto loan defaults are nearing all-time highs. Car loan lengths are longer than ever. The average age of a vehicle on the road is something like 14 years old now.

I promise you with all my heart, those luxobarges are not being purchased because they’re practical in any way, shape, or form. It’s 110% virtue signaling.

I don’t get the recent internet trend of trying to excuse any bad behavior by saying it’s all actually very logical and simply a tragedy of reality. Nobody is buying a gigantic vehicle because it has seats that are easy to clean. Nobody is buying an expensive ride because they just NEED those auto rain wipers.

People are bad with money, and keeping up with the Joneses has always been a high priority in American culture. I see people making $20-25/hr driving brand new Cadillac SUVs. I talk to my car selling friends, and they have the loan rates for 6-10 years memorized, not 3-5 years. Nobody does those anymore.

Of course there is an enormous amount of virtue signaling around cars. It’s one of the strongest social signals people purchase.
by galaxyLogic | 2026-01-14 23:23:13+00:00
Not everything, only code-bases of existing (open-source?) applications.

But what would be the point of re-creating existing applications? It would be useful if you can produce a better version of those applications. But the point in this experiment was to produce something "from scratch" I think. Impressive yes, but is it useful?

A more practically useful task would be for Mozilla Foundation and others to ask AI to fix all bugs in their application(s). And perhaps they are trying to do that, let's wait and see.
by cosinusalpha | 2026-01-14 23:23:15+00:00
To be honest, I hadn't seen that one yet!

The main difference is likely the targeting philosophy. webctl relies heavily on ARIA roles/semantics (e.g. role=button name="Save") rather than injected IDs or CSS selectors. I find this makes the automation much more robust to UI changes.

Also, I went with Python for V1 simply for iteration speed and ecosystem integration. I'd love to rewrite in Rust eventually, but Python was the most efficient way to get a stable tool working for my specific use case.
by motoxpro | 2026-01-14 23:23:29+00:00
How do you sanitize? Thats the whole point. How do you tell the difference between instructions that are good and bad? In this example, they are "checking the connectivity" how is that obviously bad?

With SQL, you can say "user data should NEVER execute SQL"
With LLMs ("agents" more specifically), you have to say "some user data should be ignored" But there is billions and billions of possiblities of what that "some" could be.

It's not possible to encode all the posibilites and the llms aren't good enough to catch it all. Maybe someday they will be and maybe they won't.
by crazygringo | 2026-01-14 23:23:45+00:00
Due to the history of the internet, anything ".com" should be assumed to be US-specific if not obviously global, just like anything ".co.uk" should be assumed to be UK-specific if not obviously global.

If you use a .com for something that is specific to a country/region that is not the US, the onus is on you to clarify. That's the problem here. If you're not going to make it ".uk", then you should be making that obvious on the homepage.
by jerlam | 2026-01-14 23:23:48+00:00
The Levis's brand doesn't mean much anymore. They sell the same style (model number) of jeans at completely different price points for different stores at varying levels of quality.

You can buy Levi's at $30 at Walmart, $40 at Costco, $80 at a Levi's store, or $100 at Nordstrom.

How Levi's Sells the Same Jeans at Different Prices | Levi's 505 Teardown | Industry Secrets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPdGhZHT7JU
by Avamander | 2026-01-14 23:23:50+00:00
I'm glad that they're considering getting rid of OpenSSL as a hard dependency. I've built parts of pyca/cryptography with OpenSSL replaced or stripped out for better debugging. OpenSSL's errors just suck tremendously. It shouldn't be tremendously difficult for them to do it for the entire package.

Though I'd also love to see parts of pyca/cryptography being usable outside of the context of Python, like the X.509 path validation mentioned in other comments here.
by micimize | 2026-01-14 23:24:16+00:00
> While it might seem like a simple screenshot, building a browser from scratch is extremely difficult.

> Another experiment was doing an in-place migration of Solid to React in the Cursor codebase. It took over 3 weeks with +266K/-193K edits. As we've started to test the changes, we do believe it's possible to merge this change.

In my view, this post does not go into sufficient detail or nuance to warrant any serious discussion, and the sparseness of info mostly implies failure, especially in the browser case.

It _is_ impressive that the browser repo can do _anything at all_, but if there was anything more noteworthy than that, I feel they'd go into more detail than volume metrics like 30K commits, 1M LoC. For instance, the entire capability on display could be constrained to a handful of lines that delegate to other libs.

And, it "is possible" to merge any change that avoids regressions, but the majority of our craft asks the question "Is it possible to merge _the next_ change? And the next, and the 100th?"

If they merge the MR they're walking the walk.

If they present more analysis of the browser it's worth the talk (not that useful a test if they didn't scrutinize it beyond "it renders")

Until then, it's a mountain of inscrutable agent output that manages to compile, and that contains an execution pathway which can screenshot apple.com by some undiscovered mechanism.
by pseudosavant | 2026-01-14 23:24:24+00:00
That be easier to believe if there weren't so many Model 3 and Y vehicles that are clearly the new ones (changed headlights/taillights) all around. I'm sure Elon's "political" salutes gave their sales some headwinds, but I'm inclined to think it is more like 15% less sales (Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025). The CyberTruck factory is operating at <20% capacity.

The biggest problems are: it costs ~2x what Elon said it would, it has less than half the range he said it'd have, and it has had 10 recalls in its short life.

The recalls have been for things as basic as: light bar falling off, exterior trim falling off, bed trim falling off, the acceleration pedal falling off, inverter failures. It paints a picture of a low-quality product that has a very premium price.
by simgt | 2026-01-14 23:24:30+00:00
It's exactly the same as for reducing cars in city centers, suddenly almost everyone driving a car is a crippled old lady with 3 children to drop off. When the reality is roughly 1.2 heathly humans per car on average doing a 4km trip for which a convenient alternative exists.

If a straw is a necessary tool for someone to function, I bet you they carry a metal one in their bag.
by bri3d | 2026-01-14 23:25:22+00:00
I have thoroughly audited Home Depot truck contracts many times and don't believe this to be true. Do you have a source? I have never seen "secret" fine print beyond the agreement which is embedded badly in https://www.homedepot.com/c/Tool_Rental_FAQ . People use these trucks for work all the time, and I use their trailers very frequently to haul all sorts of things.

EDIT: I realized I have plenty of these contracts archived and don't need to believe HN conspiracy theorists:

(a) Use Restrictions. The following restrictions apply to the use of the Vehicle:

• The Vehicle will not be operated by anyone who is not an Authorized Driver;

• All occupants in the Vehicle must comply with seat-belt and child-restraint laws;

• The number of passengers in the Vehicle will not exceed the number of seat-belts and child-restraints;

• Renter will only operate the Vehicle on regularly maintained roadways;

• Renter will ensure that keys are not left in the Vehicle and will close and lock all doors and windows upon exiting the Vehicle;

• Renter will not (i) transport people or property for hire; (ii) tow anything (with the exception of an attached trailer if rented pursuant to this
Agreement); (iii) carry or transport hazardous or explosive substances; (iv) engage in a speed contest; or (v) load the Vehicle or transport
weight exceeding the Vehicle’s maximum capacity;

• Renter will not engage in reckless misconduct which causes the Vehicle damages or causes personal injury or property damage; and

• Renter will not use the Vehicle for the commission of a felony or for the transportation of illegal drugs or contraband.

So unless you are trying to reuse the vehicle for hire or tow a non-Home-Depot trailer (which I admit is kind of restrictive, but nothing like what the parent post says), it seems fine.
by m463 | 2026-01-14 23:25:32+00:00
I remember when tesla was young and elon talked about selling electric cars through dealers. He said it would not work, they would not be advocates, they would prevent sales.

And I think that is spot on.

I also suspect internally the thinking is that the f150 lightning costs more to make than sell, which means it won't get strong advocacy.

Thing is, I'm 100% certain years of tesla vehicles cost more to make than they sold for, just in the nature of developing new things.
Cloudflare's broken abuse report system AND lack of staff to review issues
by rtsam | 2026-01-14 23:25:43+00:00
Had my site taken down for phishing due to most likely a malicious report or an automated scan miscategorizing content

The site is a single page informational website (a big ad) with only one external affiliate link. There is no phishing involved. The domain name explains the purpose of the site and would not cause any confusion. The brands own marketing team provided the marketing material to use since I am an affiliate/partner of theirs. Even screenshotted the email from the brand and sent it to cloudflare. We have got no response from them.

Cloudflare has been fighting Italy's censorship, yet their own systems are censoring and policing its own clients with no way to promptly resolve.

I am all for catching malicious sites. But this wasn't even close. If Cloudfare can't respond to what is being flagged promptly, they should stop policing or allowing reports except for the most critical of reasons.

Funny enough I had just recommended Cloudflare and just started moving my workplaces enterprise domains over. However, this does not give me confidence in that decision anymore.

Wondering if others have had issues or idea's to get it resolved
by confounder | 2026-01-14 23:26:04+00:00
The preponderance of evidence, much of it from Meta's own internal communications, indicates that social media harms teens, and especially girls, in ways ranging from sleep deprivation to eating disorders to anxiety to depression to sexual grooming to suicide. Many of us adults see it as a moral duty to try to stop this, though YMMV (your morals may vary). Kids did homework before YouTube; and yes it is reasonable to propose that a teen can babysit outside their home yet not be exposed to hardcore porn on X, etc.

Your argument seems to be a false choice between "either kids play in the woods or they play online in toxic social media hellscapes". Yes it is tragic that some components of a great childhood are impossible now for so many children. But this doesn't imply we must now let them play with guns and matches and razorblades.

I have a friend who works with lots of young people whom she routinely tries to get to come to organized events but they often can't make it because they're attending the funerals of friends who've committed suicide. It's almost unbelievable how bad it is. This genie absolutely must be put back in the bottle by any means possible, and society is trying to figure out how.

[Edit: removed reference to whataboutism]
by ethbr1 | 2026-01-14 23:26:27+00:00
At this point, it's fair to assume that Stephen Miller et al. are willing to pull any "get non-white people out of the US" lever they can find, and Trump (naively or otherwise) signs off on it.

The US government now has an explicitly racist immigration policy. (True at many points of US history, but we'd managed to avoid doing it for a bit)
by Aerroon | 2026-01-14 23:26:29+00:00
They kind of are the only options. All of these issues are sitting on a slippery slope. If you accept a technical solution that works well, then eventually somebody is going to push that further.

If you need to use your ID to log into a website (even if the website doesn't get any of your information) then society is only a step away from the government monitoring everything you do online. And at that point it's up to them to decide whether they want to do it or not, because you're already used to the process. If they decide to violate your privacy there's nothing you can do about it other than vaguely point at privacy laws before promptly getting ignored.
by mlyle | 2026-01-14 23:27:32+00:00
I'm looking forward to the Telo-- if they get to market. It's absolutely all about utility. It will be interesting to see if people only want pickups as a fashion statement or if a weird, very practical vehicle can win.

(Same bed-size as Tacoma; midgate that folds down to hold a full sheet of plywood; seats 4 people comfortably; same length as a Mini Cooper SE).
by sylens | 2026-01-14 23:27:43+00:00
I was definitely somebody who rolled their eyes when people were up in arms about XP, Vista, and 7. Was OS X becoming better at the time? Sure, I’ll concede that. There were also initial driver issues with Vista and too many UAC prompts, but they worked to smoothe those out for 7 because they still prioritized the user experience.

What is happening now is even the longtime Windows power users and defenders are throwing up their hands and giving up. This is very different than the people running Gentoo in the 2000’s badmouthing Micro$oft on Slashdot
by donnerdave | 2026-01-14 23:28:05+00:00
No one commenting on the inaccuracy (or at least imprecision) of the Python output cited in the article??

"A:T, B:T - chances - H 6.0% | T 94.0% | occurs 34.0% of the time"

By the simplest of math for unrelated events, the chance of both A & B lying about the coin is 20% of 20%, or .2 * .2 = 0.04, or 4.0% ...

The "Let's prove it" section contains the correct analysis, including that our chance of being correct is 80% with two friends.

The code output for three players is similarly flawed, and the analysis slight misstates our chance of being correct as 90.0% (correctly: 89.6%).

Or am I missing something about the intent or output of the Python simulation?
Show HN: Cutting through AI noise with verified startup traction
by kevinbaur | 2026-01-14 23:28:06+00:00
AI has made it easy to create convincing landing pages, testimonials, and claims about traction.

Trusers is a small effort to highlight verified paying customers for startups.
It verifies customer numbers and growth using the Stripe API, not self-reported data.

You can see:
- total paying customers
- month-over-month customer growth
- average revenue per user (lifetime average)
- customer growth over time

Feedback is very welcome.
by magicalhippo | 2026-01-14 23:28:40+00:00
> Most chargers are >150kW these days, though.

Nite that many cars can't charge that fast. And if they can, it's usually only for the very lowest SoC of the battery, say below 20% charge.

When buying, look at 20-80% charging times. Don't get dazzled by peak charge rate.
by alexfoo | 2026-01-14 23:28:47+00:00
> For a generic ".com" domain that isn't American, it's generally a good idea to yes, have a kind of minimal hint that tells you at least which country it's about, and at least a single link you can follow to get the broader context.

Umm, I take it you didn't click the "About" link at the top right of the page. That gives you some of that context and names the countries involved in the first full sentence.

Alternatively clicking on the "Map" link should give a sizable proportion of people a big hint about which countries it involves. Three seconds of scrolling out on the map makes it obvious.
by imiric | 2026-01-14 23:29:10+00:00
It would certainly make an interesting anthropological case study.

Humans have always been performative with those outside of their immediate social circle. Politics is effectively the art of performance, and using it to gain influence and power. With legacy media the general public was still largely on the receiving end of it, but modern technology and social media have given that ability to anyone capable of building an audience. So now performative behavior is everywhere, since we're all competing to get our voice heard, to experience adoration, fame, power, fortune. We're in this weird state where this is all done in digital worlds, where it's easier than ever to fabricate an image, and yet it all ends up affecting the real world in one way or another. Our leaders are celebrities who are good at this game, and not necessarily people worthy of this position.

Honestly, I have little faith we can turn this around. It's going to get much worse before it gets better, if at all.
by kcplate | 2026-01-14 23:29:11+00:00
> I heard a bit of very similar chatter about college admissions back in the day. “Maybe I would have had a shot if I was Asian.” Etc.

I’m not sure you can really say this was an urban legend, as there was a number of court cases regarding it (At least one from that far back) and a recent SCOTUS (2023) ruling specifically ending the capability of colleges to utilize affirmative action considerations for admissions. Not to say that every person who claimed such a thing was accurate, but it was happening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_Fair_Admissions_v...
by vbelenky | 2026-01-14 23:29:14+00:00
You can filter viruses with mechanical air filters, but based on the available data, far-UVC can do this much faster than even a high-CADR air filter. The best filter I'm aware of can deliver 200 CFM of clean air quietly or 400 CFM loudly, one high-quality far-UV lamp can deliver the equivalent of ~1000 CFM--silently. That seems like the main advantage to me--plus not taking up the floor space that a large, quiet air filter would require. Basically it's the more dakka solution.
But it's recommended to use far-UV with at least one source of mechanical air mixing like an air filter anyway just to make sure its maximally effective
by aeneas_ory | 2026-01-14 23:29:56+00:00
Thank you for calling this out, we are being gaslit by attention seeking influencers. The algorithmic brAInrot is propagated by those we thought we can trust, just like the instagram and youtube stars we cared about who turned out to be monsters. I sincerely hope those people become better or wane into meaninglessness. Rakyll seems to spend more time on X than working on advancing good software these days, a shame given her past accomplishments.
by botwork | 2026-01-14 23:30:00+00:00
OP here. I spent the last few months building a local semantic search engine for my personal archive (1997-2025).

The Problem: I have 28 years of digital history (journals, emails, notes) that I wanted to query to find patterns, but I didn't want to upload sensitive data to a cloud vector store.

The Stack:

Ingestion: Python scripts to parse chaotic formats (mbox, docx, json).

Embeddings: Local FAISS index.

Inference: Running Qwen 2.5 (32b) via Ollama on MBP. App on my NAS via Tailscale.

UI: Simple React frontend.

Full Architecture Notes: I wrote up the detailed breakdown (chunking strategy, PII redaction pipeline) here: https://botwork.com/trace
by ndesaulniers | 2026-01-14 23:30:58+00:00
> For instance, in C, qsort() takes a function pointer for the comparison function, in Rust and C++, the standard library sorting functions are templated on the comparison function.

That's more of a critique of the standard libraries than the languages themselves.

If someone were writing C and cared, they could provide their own implementation of sort such that the callback could be inlined (LLVM can inline indirect calls when all call sites are known), just as it would be with C++'s std::sort.

Further, if the libc allows for LTO (active area of research with llvm-libc), it should be possible to optimize calls to qsort this way.
by kevinbaur | 2026-01-14 23:31:01+00:00
Hi Kevin here, I made Trusers.

I am currently in the startup and indie hacker bubble. It increasingly feels like everyone on social media is successful. Every new product seems to launch with polished testimonials, impressive numbers, and traction screenshots.

I think the issue is that most of this is very easy to fake now. AI has made it simple to create convincing copy, reviews, and even full case studies. I often find myself wondering what is actually real.

Trusers is my effort to establish at least one solid signal in reality: paying customers. Not screenshots or testimonials, just verified customer counts and how they change over time.

I truly believe that as AI-generated noise grows, trustworthy data will become more important. This is a small, initial step in that direction.

I am happy to answer questions and welcome feedback.