MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by esbranson | 2026-01-05 21:40:48+00:00
If you're trying to fix anything relating to public policy, politics, &c., without fixing this you are wasting your time. You will make a bigger difference adopting a local stretch of highway and picking up litter. It is maddening to see generation after generation learn this the hard way.

FLP's CourtListener RECAP hits hard, but it has no counterparts either worldwide or within the US. If it goes offline, democracy and rule of law across the entire world go offline with it. Federal statutes and regulations are a very small part of black letter law.
by Pfhortune | 2026-01-05 21:40:58+00:00
Exactly this. Pebbles feel like they were built from the ground up to be a watch, whereas the Apple Watch and Android Wear feel like they started from a phone and stripped things away until it became a watch.

Separately, it baffles me that Garmin, despite them having also built a watch OS from the ground up, never understood watch/limited-button UX. Their Instinct and Forerunner watches have all sorts of wonky, hidden and arcane interactions with buttons (long press this to X, press this here to Y). Pebble proves that a simple, shallow, and linear menu system works great!
by munchler | 2026-01-05 21:41:16+00:00
This is an interesting concept, but it is presented so abstractly as to be opaque to even most functional programmers, I think.

The basic idea, as I understand it, is a typeclass that is more powerful than an applicative, but still less powerful than a monad, called a "selective applicative". I would summarize them like this:

* Applicative: Fixed computation graph, but no conditional structure.

* Selective applicative: Fixed computation graph with some conditional "branches".

* Monad: Dynamic computation graph and control flow, can generate new structure on the fly.

I'm sure I'm still missing a lot, but I think that's the 10,000 foot view.
Ask HN: Would you install a scam call detector on your parent's phone?
by aydin212 | 2026-01-05 21:41:19+00:00
Google built scam call detection for Pixel, but most Android users don't have it. Thinking about building this for all Android phones - AI runs on-device, no cloud.
Main use case: adult children installing it on elderly parents' phones.
Is this useful or too invasive? Anyone dealt with parents getting scam calls?
by bryanlarsen | 2026-01-05 21:41:28+00:00
> If an LLM were capable of reliably detecting AI-generated content, then it would also be capable of producing content that does not appear to be AI generated.

Those are two very different classes of problems. You do not automatically get one if you have the other, in any resource constrained situation. Yes, you can infinitely iterate a RNG into a content producer given a classifier, but that presumes infinite resources.
by HanClinto | 2026-01-05 21:41:35+00:00
> Being mentally ill requires careful handling that should be left up to professionals with licenses on the line and liabilities if they are found to be mispracticing.

Part of the trouble is that "undiagnosed but mentally ill" is not a binary checkbox that most people tick in their day-to-day lives, nor is it easily discernable (even for people themselves, much less people engineers who build apps or platforms). We're all mixed together in the same general populace.
by WorldMaker | 2026-01-05 21:41:39+00:00
GOG uses emulators as well. GOG has a share of games that use Dosbox or ScummVM as two somewhat common emulators they will configure a game to run in that I'm aware of.

That said, there's also something to be said that if a game is patchable, there is some value in patching it to run directly rather than "need" an emulator.
by hagbard_c | 2026-01-05 21:42:21+00:00
I'm following it through my own Nitter proxy because I do not want to log in to X. I do the same with Reddit and Youtube, I use SearXNG for search, XMPP instead of any of the established messaging services for messaging, etc. The fact that the content is visible through Nitter means it is visible on X since Nitter in its current incarnation uses normal logged-in accounts to do its thing.
by noelwelsh | 2026-01-05 21:42:31+00:00
Well... I enjoyed the author's enthusiasm. What I read was interesting, but I didn't read all of it. Why not? I wasn't sure where it was going. I think there is a tighter post to be written that explains the new formulation without so much wandering around in abstractions. I also think the post uses jargon where it isn't necessary. I could just about follow it, but it made reading unnecesarily hard work. For me a better post would explain the new selective functor in the most concrete terms possible, and only then talk about the abstract things it is related to.
by ethbr1 | 2026-01-05 21:42:50+00:00
I think the people around him believe (1) he's competent to win the popularity contest that is an election & (2) he's vengeful against any perceived disloyalty.

There are probably some true-believers among his cabinet, but most of those are evidenced by their paper-thin CVs and lack of their own power-bases (Hegseth, Bondi, Rollins, Chavez-DeRemer, Turner, McMahon, Noem, Zeldin, Loeffler).
by PostOnce | 2026-01-05 21:42:51+00:00
It's not a "witch hunt" per se, in that I'm not out to "get" someone else, it's more like I want to affirm that a human being put some thought into what I'm reading, because otherwise there is no point in reading fictional anecdotes (one of the chief motivators to use HN is that it is more serious and less fictional than reddit, with more insightful commentary).

Wouldn't we be losing something valuable if HN became chiefly AI slop?

Wouldn't we be losing something if we _didn't even realize it had happened_?

I think it's worth asking, and guarding against. We live in a strange future already, but it's only one of many possible futures we can choose to construct going forward.
by Joel_Mckay | 2026-01-05 21:43:15+00:00
If a person is profitable to have around, than the conversation is simple:

1. Company has money people may want

2. People have unique skills a company needs to profit

3. Everything else is 100% unrelated BS

On average, every software developer brings in >$1.3m USD/year in additional revenue. If you are being exploited, than just find a better gig someplace better... as it is usually easier than advancing out of a critical role.

Salaries with legal encumbrances are usually just a terrible deal in the long-term. =3
by AndrewAnchor | 2026-01-05 21:43:50+00:00
I am a longtime lurker. I signed up to say this: Never work extra without being paid extra. You can easily work your butt off and never get anything.

Sure, the boss and the company would like you to work extra, but when did the company ever pay you extra up front for work you—perhaps—would deliver at a later time?

You are a business. It’s not sound business to lower your own hourly rate.

Sure, if everything looks 100 percent aligned, buy the pretty girl a drink, but most of the time things are not aligned.

Don’t be the prostitute who expects to get paid later.
by Etheryte | 2026-01-05 21:43:55+00:00
The problem with hardware is that it's always viable soon, but not quite yet. Hardware is multiple orders of magnitude more difficult than anticipated, the fact that the richest companies in the world can't quite make it work is a testament to that. In my mind, hardware moonshots are kind of like trying to embed Doom in a SharePoint Framework Extension while high on psilocybin — impressive if someone manages to pull it off, but not for the sane of mind.
by jimbokun | 2026-01-05 21:43:58+00:00
That’s addressed in the article by the person who identified a need and came up with both a proposal and estimate to address it.

Now if that person just implemented completely with no feedback that would be very dangerous as it might not work, take longer, or management didn’t actually care about it very much. Getting to the point of proposal + estimate then sign off is the sweet spot.
by Kartikey08 | 2026-01-05 21:44:53+00:00
yeah, thats a pretty helpful take! That's in my product roadmap for future after getting early customers.

Inherently, I'm thinking for now to build something actually useful for personal finance growth and then move on towards investing side as well.

As of now as well, it does a web search behind whenever there's a change going on in market. but thanks for the suggestions!

would love to give u a try of the app if you're down.
by Someone1234 | 2026-01-05 21:45:08+00:00
Understood. You may be interested to learn that Liraglutide, a GLP-1 Agonist, has been commercially available and commonly used since 2010 (15-years+) without any unknown/unexpected additional side-effects appearing. It was developed in 1998.

The main reason GLP-1 Agonists are suddenly more popular is two things:

- Liraglutide had to be taken daily, instead of weekly.

- Nobody every paid for Liraglutide to be clinically approved for weight-loss. It was an anti-diabetic medication; but the mechanism of action is the same.

Compared with liraglutide, semaglutide was engineered mainly with a longer, differently attached fatty-acid side chain that increases albumin binding and slows clearance, so it lasts longer; both drugs activate the GLP-1 receptor.
by cogman10 | 2026-01-05 21:45:52+00:00
There's a big difference in what people debate publicly and what they think/feel privately.

People will almost never take the "it's a punishment" position in a debate because that's not a popular position to hold and it's pretty weak morally at the end of the day. That's why the "life of the fetus" approach is most frequently taken even though it leads to absurd positions. For example, pro-life people will very often be put into a difficult position when the notion of IVF comes up.

That's what betrays their true views, IMO.

I've simply had a lot of private conversations with people on religion (I was mormon for a long time and served a mormon mission). That's where my opinion on the actual underlying anti-abortion attitude comes from. It's lots of private conversations in safe spaces. The fetus life, frankly, is almost never brought up as a reason.

And, as I pointed out, it pretty well explains why anti-abortion laws have weird boundaries if they were purely about the life of the fetus.
by dpark | 2026-01-05 21:46:09+00:00
> What happened with cigarettes?

We established a comprehensive set of data that established correlation with a huge number of illnesses including lung cancer, to the point that nearly all qualified medical professionals agreed the relationship was causal.

> There must be a prominent & visible warning

I have no problem with that. I’m a little surprised that ChatGPT et al don’t put some notice at the start of every new chat, purely as a CYA.

I’m not sure exactly what that warning should say, and I don’t think I’d put what you proposed, but I would be on board with warnings.
by bigbadfeline | 2026-01-05 21:46:41+00:00
>> Manufacturing jobs bring the entire supply chain of the manufacturer with them. > Not really... Manufacturing today is a global process and the entire supply chain is usually spread around the world.

You're both right but you appear to differ on particularities, like if it's good to bring all manufacturing onshore.

I'd rather address Jensen's could-be-apology which pretty much mimics Grok's "Oops, I made some pedo images, sorry... but move on, nothing to see here."

Yes, Nvidia, Apple and AMD are the companies that drove the US chip manufacturing overseas. The problem is, thanks to that, they are now a virtual cartel and we have to pay them enormous margins so they can bring chip production back here... at our expense.

On top of that, we are now supposed to appreciate their crocodile tears and listen to their drivel about what's good for America.
by ceejayoz | 2026-01-05 21:47:14+00:00
Not sure why this got downvoted; we're threatening it again, credibly enough that the Danish PM is telling them to shut up.

Yesterday:

> Adding to the alarm, Katie Miller, a right-wing podcast host and the wife of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, posted an image of Greenland superimposed with the American flag and the caption "SOON!"

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/greenland/trump-venezuela-atta...
by Zigurd | 2026-01-05 21:47:15+00:00
Factories already buy over $25 billion worth of industrial robots every year. Humanoid robots are neither going to displace specialized industrial robots, nor are they going to be particularly useful since industrial robots can lift entire car chassis, or perform precision work that would be impossible for a robot that can walk around. Surgical robots are neither humanoid, nor are they equipped with human like hands, for very good reasons. I don't know where people get the idea that humanoid robots are the dawn of the robot era. It's a blind alley, a dead end, impractical, un-competitive with specialized robots, and dangerous.
by ruszki | 2026-01-05 21:47:31+00:00
The other way is true too. I’m reading for about 20 years quite often that Linux is perfect at last, no issues exist at all, and it improved immensely the year before, because “back then” (ie one year before) it was terrible. And of course if you mention a problem under an article mentioning problems, you obviously just somebody who doesn’t know anything. You just need to “configure” it bro, because a famously unreliable thing cannot be unreliable, because it worked for them in a completely different setup. And probably I will read these in 5 years too.
by ccoreilly | 2026-01-05 21:48:05+00:00
Would you say you’re able to draw a diagram of the application architecture out of your head or do you treat it as a black box? Do you need an AI to debug issues or not? In my experience with spec driven development, even if reviewing every single PR, it is hard to develop a mental model of the codebase structure unless you invest on it. It might be fine to treat it as a black box, not arguing the opposite but will all software be a black box in the future?
by ekr | 2026-01-05 21:48:10+00:00
Such a striking similarity to my own path. But I was in early 20s-mid 20s, going through some more difficult times and after a lot of research and study of the nervous system and trauma, I came to the conclusion that neurofeedback seems like the magic wand that had the biggest chance to actually produce a transformative effect.

I was experienced with soldering and electronics (mostly board repairs so not design), but not at a professional level. Initially I got an Analog Devices ADC, which they sent for free as I was still registered as a student at the time. I was trying to replicate some existing open source projects, but on an extremely low cost. Ultimately I got stuck in the weeds, and eventually gave up and just bought the ADS1299EEGFE-PDK evaluation board (upon which the original OpenBCI is based iirc). But eventually, again, postponed that, I was in the process of converting the LabView software to C, and to support real-time signal processing. After a short while I moved to the opposite corner of Europe and all those boards are sitting somewhere in my parent's attic. So the question in my mind still remains. Because neurofeedback does sound a bit too good to be true. But evidence is solid as well.

I will definitely give it another go at some point when life gives me more slack/spare time and space.
by tracked | 2026-01-05 21:48:12+00:00
We’ve built a simple service that makes scanned PDFs searchable using OCR (Optical Character Recognition). It’s designed for people who regularly receive scanned documents and want an easy way to convert them without installing extra software.
How it works:

Send an email with one or more PDF attachments to ocrmypdf@wallflux.com.
After sending, visit https://clearinghouse.wallflux.com/ocrmypdf/ to trigger processing.
You’ll receive a reply email with the OCR’d PDFs attached.

Features:

Supports English and Dutch text recognition.
Works entirely via email and a simple web trigger—no command line, no cron jobs.
If no PDFs are attached, you’ll get a friendly “No PDFs attached” message.

Why?
We wanted a lightweight solution for people NGOs and organizations that deal with scanned documents but don’t want to manage OCR software locally. This service uses https://ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io/ under the hood.
Try it out:
Send your PDFs to ocrmypdf@wallflux.com, then visit https://clearinghouse.wallflux.com/ocrmypdf/.
by away0g | 2026-01-05 21:48:22+00:00
Also, if everyone followed this (OPs) advice that would be a problem. This is more suited to someone already being groomed or an employee who is being mismanaged. My employees do not have time to do unassigned work. If they find the time to present a project fully fleshed out the first thing i ask is where did you do this. At work? Problem, my KPIs are not accurate or youre a superstar who is going to walk unless i find room in the budget (unlikely) or start looking for your replacement because there wont be a reward for turning in unassigned work. Did you work on this at home? Problem as well, you are not paid to work at home. We do not want you to work outside of your hours of operation. Why did you do this?
by shaswats | 2026-01-05 21:48:48+00:00
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Please send a note to founders@pepr.ai if you apply.

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by belorn | 2026-01-05 21:49:22+00:00
> None of the other new AI platforms seem to be having this problem

The very first AI code generators had this issue that user could make illegal content by making specific requests. A lot of people, me including, saw this as a problem, and there were a few copyright lawsuits arguing this. The courts however did not seem to be very sympathetic to this argument, putting the blame on the user rather than the platform.

Here is hoping that Grok forces regulations to decide on this subject once and for all.
by bflesch | 2026-01-05 21:49:27+00:00
There is EU / Schengen which immensely boosted local economies. We had TTIP but unfortunately it was killed by opposing forces, and there is still MERCOSUR. However, Germany with it's brilliantly corrupt leadership, changed that strategy to "trade facilitates change" ("wandel durch handel") and went all in to removing trade barriers w/ russia and china because the idea was to convince them if we trade they won't try to kill us. Obviously this approach failed.

Strategically, it does not make sense for democratic countries to have higher trade barriers with each other than with autocrat states. But over time the hybrid warfare by autocrat states leveraged social media to convice people to vote against their own interest e.g. brexit.
by roadside_picnic | 2026-01-05 21:49:39+00:00
To be fair, as someone who used to manage an X account for a very small startup as part of my role (glad that's no longer the case), for a long time (probably still the case) posting direct links would penalize your reach. So making a helpful, self-contained post your followers might find useful was algorithmically discouraged.

Everything that is awful in the diff between X and Twitter is there entirely by decision and design.
by JCattheATM | 2026-01-05 21:49:42+00:00
> Thanks, now we can talk technically without accusations.

That was always within your control.

> The disposable VM will not allow exfiltration, since it has no network

Sure, unless you're doing something in the disposable VM that requires network traffic, like browsing.

> Qubes is as close to 100% secure as possible.

No, it isn't. It lacks numerous protections. It serves a purpose against certain threatmodels, but it's far from being close to 100% secure. Like I said, it's essentially a workaround.

> There is nothing 100% in this world.

So you agree Qubes is not a 100% secure OS like the other poster was asking for, correct?

> However it is the area of well-known security professionals whose opinion I trust.

None of them are claiming it is as close to 100% secure as possible. No security expert would. Not even a security hobbyist would. It's a nonsense claim.
by wrsh07 | 2026-01-05 21:49:47+00:00
There are two things here:

1. Sharing ai generated content is fine if you tell everyone what it is (I recommend also sharing prompts).

2. Ymmv, but my manager would want to know "roughly how much work would this be?" I don't think it's worth it for you to spend very much time answering that question _unless you're actually going to do the work_. This means I'm saying 2 things: first: if it's free for you, you should convey how difficult your proposal is. Very rough buckets are ok if they're pretty close. Second: an easy way for it to be free for you is to prompt codex, and I expect you will do a better job prompting the answer than your manager will
by orrbenyamini | 2026-01-05 21:50:11+00:00
Good question! Dataclasses were actually pretty easy - Python's introspection tools made them straightforward.

The tricky parts were:

- Type hints - Mapping __init__ params to attributes, especially with complex types
- Preserving types - Keeping tuples as tuples and sets as sets (not just lists)
- Error messages - Tracking paths like obj.address.street through the whole pipeline

I checked out safeserialize, by the way—the focus on preventing arbitrary code execution is a really smart niche.
by aidenn0 | 2026-01-05 21:51:00+00:00
My Seiko Kinetic that I got for around $100 has the crystal surface about 1mm above the case (it is beveled though, so slightly narrower on top than where it meets the case; I assume a right angle would be both unpleasant to touch and more liable to break the glass; it's too cheap to be a mineral crystal.
by mvkel | 2026-01-05 21:51:15+00:00
> far preferable to arranging a face to face meeting over this low impact, simple procedural issue

Whenever an issue involves people, slack simply won't suffice. There's too much good will lost on either side. "No worries if not [grumble grumble]!"

This isn't procedural, like sending an invoice to the wrong email address. This is a vp overstepping and threatening the success of another employee. They know what they're doing.
by tmcz26 | 2026-01-05 21:51:40+00:00
In International Relations the most dominant theory is called “Realism”[0], which basically says that States will be self-interested and cooperation happens when both sides gain from it, but also factors in each side’s powers, both military and soft. But in the end it’s RATIONAL actors.

Like having the Nuke is great because nobody is crazy enough to mess with you because you can nuke them, but also you will get nuked. Mutual Assured Destruction and whatnot.

I keep hearing people arguing that Trump is rational and making moves “because he can”. And the US absolutely can do pretty much whatever it wants because of it’s position in the globe. Where’s the limit though? What line crossed would make the world actually turn against the US?

To be honest I have a really hard time accepting that his actions are chess moves. The Venezuela thing is borderline crazy but the US has done it before multiple times.

The Greenland stuff.. THAT would be nuts. That would in fact show he’s not rational and his people can’t hold him back anymore.

Or maybe I eat my words and this is more like the tariffs thing, where he barks and growls but in the end is a bully tactic to get others to do what he wants. Because that has in fact worked somewhat well.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(international_relatio...