MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by adastra22 | 2026-01-14 04:49:42+00:00
I might as well just use the official magsafe power cable that came with my macbook if I were to do that. The point was more convenience. I have a USB-C charger at my desk, at my bed, at the couch, etc. Anywhere I am I can just plug in without fiddling with other cables (or connectors). Ultimately I'm lazy and just want to simplify my cable management :)
by fc417fc802 | 2026-01-14 04:49:43+00:00
> you're still left with someone who was murdered

You've lost me. Isn't that also the case in any trolley problem? The trolley is a sort of satirical analogy. The thing actually being considered is "I get this good thing but I'm also left with this bad thing as a direct result".

I guess a key difference is before versus after the fact. Agreeing to the outcome to "pay" for what you want is different than deliberating over an act committed by the same person after the fact in the absence of any prior agreement. But if the only issue is the lack of an agreement then it's less a matter of "murder non-fungible" and more a matter of enforcing legal procedure for the sake of social stability. The state needs to maintain its monopoly on violence I guess.
by listenallyall | 2026-01-14 04:49:56+00:00
People did all kinds of crazy shit at work (and everywhere else too) in the 80s before everyone lawyered up - guys would literally pinch a girl's ass, people used slurs to each other regularly (and often laughed about it), they smoked and drank all the time. A manager somewhere telling a rejected candidate straight up "sorry man but I've got to hire a <<insert minority>> this time" is not at all difficult to believe.
by opan | 2026-01-14 04:51:15+00:00
Opposite of my experience. I love reading the lyrics and Genius annotations on songs I like. Vampire Weekend has a lot of good lyrics. Reading the annotations for The Black Keys' Turn Blue album was kinda eye-opening, and Kanye has a lot of great memorable lyrics as well. I feel it helps me appreciate the songs more deeply on later listens. Also it kinda bugs me if I can't quite catch some words in a song in the live-listen.
by AGDNoob | 2026-01-14 04:52:55+00:00
Right now there’s intentionally no stdlib, so yes, printing would ultimately boil down to a direct write syscall. The idea is that the core language stays as thin as possible and anything higher level lives on top of that, either as compiler intrinsics or a very small stdlib later. For the MVP I wanted to make the boundary explicit instead of pretending there’s no syscall underneath. So “Hello world” will work, but in a very boring, low level way at first
by musicale | 2026-01-14 04:53:09+00:00
> The primary motivation for this rebranding of job cuts appears to be investor relations. The report notes that attributing staff reductions to AI adoption “conveys a more positive message to investors” than admitting to traditional business failures, such as weak consumer demand or “excessive hiring in the past."

Does this really provide any benefit vs. the more believable "we are getting rid of employees in order to reduce payroll expenses?"
by femiagbabiaka | 2026-01-14 04:54:19+00:00
God, none of you can read or comprehend anything, it's actually incredible. Although to be honest, it makes sense. It's why you believe a guy who never understood a bit of history and believed the Holocaust was a hoax was some kind of genius... because he drew some comics.

Notorious bigot Scott Adams claimed that all black people were members of a hate group because of a response to a survey question about the surveyed's sentiments in regards to the statement "It's ok to be white", a question which was asks in the context that a hate crime watch group identified it as being related to white supremacist groups. And your response is that black people, who white supremacists groups actively hate and target should've answered that yes, that statement that I saw on the news that the KKK is using? Just fine. Again, literal insanity, from the literal insane. And sadly I'm stuck in this asylum of a country with you.
by ungreased0675 | 2026-01-14 04:55:25+00:00
The author is ignorant, and I mean that literally, not as an insult. They haven’t thought deeply about why some methods of work produce better outcomes, and are still looking at the surface level artifacts. A management function is important for aligning effort, enabling performance, and clearing obstacles. Even if there isn’t a “manager” those functions are still helpful.

Bad managers also exist, and can reduce performance, which can be fatal to a startup. But that’s not a reason to avoid having management functions assigned to employees.
by Farigh4 | 2026-01-14 04:56:54+00:00
Hi HN,

I'm sharing FateTell, a native iOS app that modernizes Chinese I Ching and BaZi using AI and simulation.

Why we built this: Chinese metaphysics is fascinating but notoriously hard to learn. We built this to let anyone—even without cultural background—use these ancient tools for introspection and clarity, instantly.

Key Features:

"Lunar Cusps" (Decision Making): Think of this as a "spiritual coin toss" for indecision. Ask a question, shake your phone, and the physics engine simulates the toss of the traditional wooden blocks. The answer depends on your actual hand movement and gravity, not a random number generator.

Context-Aware AI: We fine-tuned an LLM to interpret your throw. It combines the I Ching result with your specific BaZi (birth chart) to give advice tailored to your life, not generic fortune cookie text.

BaZi Analysis: A detailed "User Manual" for your personality based on the traditional Four Pillars system.

Daily Energy: A simple guide on what to "Do" and "Avoid" today, based on the traditional calendar.

We are just getting started and will continue to improve the experience. Any suggestions or feature requests are very welcome!

AppStore: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6752552096
by jason_oster | 2026-01-14 04:56:57+00:00
True, but nuanced. The model does not react to "you are an experienced programmer" kinds of prompts. It reacts to being given relevant information that needs to be reflected in the output.

See examples in https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.14688; They certainly do say things like "You are a physicist specialized in atomic structure ...", but the important point is that the rest of the "expert persona" prompt _calls attention to key details_ that improves the response. The hint about electromagnetic forces in the expert persona prompt is what tipped off the model to mention it in the output.

Bringing attention to key details is what makes this work. A great tip for anyone who wants to micromanage code with an LLM is to include precise details about what they wish to micromanage: say "store it in a hash map keyed by unsigned integers" instead of letting the model decide which data structure to use.
by yjftsjthsd-h | 2026-01-14 04:57:01+00:00
> This article does not mention that environment variables are also visible by process in /proc/*/environ (which has restrictive permissions, but is completely visible to root).

What isn't visible to root? Maybe if you're willing to go down a really deep rabbit hole you can play that game, but I would generally explicitly exclude root from my threat model.
by evgpbfhnr | 2026-01-14 04:57:11+00:00
mem, yes, definitely. I'm not sure how you can protect yourself from that (or root user using ptrace or equivalent debugging tool) though...

Oh, memfd_secret?

The memory areas backing the file created with memfd_secret(2) are visible only to the processes that have ac‐
cess to the file descriptor. The memory region is removed from the kernel page tables and only the page tables
of the processes holding the file descriptor map the corresponding physical memory. (Thus, the pages in the re‐
gion can't be accessed by the kernel itself, so that, for example, pointers to the region can't be passed to
system calls.)
by hammock | 2026-01-14 04:57:25+00:00
> more or less every non-durable product manufacturer (say, lifespan less than 5 years) should be required to take the product back at end of life and dispose of it properly

Yeah, we had that. Glass milk bottles and coke bottles and bulk goods sold out of barrels by the lb rather than in plastic bags.

But then plastic took off and soon after Big Sugar paid a PR/lobbying firm to run a campaign with a fake Indian crying a single tear and calling every Tom Dick and Harry a “litterbug” and now the pile of garbage is our fault, not the manufacturers.
by fc417fc802 | 2026-01-14 04:59:14+00:00
We don't have to accept or reject all manner of social consequence as a single unit. That would be absurd.

> w/o also not greatly limiting free speech.

Indeed it would be exceedingly difficult to legislate against it. But something doesn't need to be illegal for us to push back against it. I'm not required to be accepting of all behavior that's legal.

For example, presumably you wouldn't agree with an HN policy change that permitted neo nazi propaganda despite the fact that it generally qualifies as protected speech in the US?
by fsckboy | 2026-01-14 04:59:25+00:00
the headline made me think somebody else came up with my idea. I wanted to a create a language whose name was langlang. to understand how to parse it, that would be the equivalent as a name to C, and the equivalent to clang would be langlanglang.

I considered the shorter name lang, but I thought then in that world langlang might confuse people as to the actual name of the language, whereas since langlanglanglang is clearly needless overkill in a name, langlang and langlanglang would provide just the right amount readability and reinforcement as to the actual name of langlang.
by throw101010 | 2026-01-14 05:00:36+00:00
Switzerland has something like this for "eWaste", it's called the ARC [1] (Advance Recycling Contribution). For any electronic device you purchase a small tax is collected and used for the recycling and collection of the future waste it will generate.

The collection mandatorily happens in the shops that sell electronic devices, you don't have to return them to the exact store where it was purchased, as long as they sell similar devices they cannot refuse to take it back (without paying anything more). It works pretty well, even if shop owners/workers aren't always pleasant when you return something.

[1] https://www.erecycling.ch/en/privatpersonen/blog/vRB-Vorgezo...
by GeertB | 2026-01-14 05:01:41+00:00
For these devices the microcontroller needs to be super cheap. Microcontrollers like the Puya PY32 Series (e.g., PY32C642, PY32F002/F030) can cost in the $0.02 - $0.05 range for the kind of many-million volumes applicable for disposable vapes. These are 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 MCUs, running at a 24 MHz clock or similar, some with 24 KB of ROM and maybe 3 KB of RAM!

To put into context: this is 3x the ROM/RAM of the ZX81 home computer of the early 1980s. The ARM M0 processor does full 32-bit multiplication in hardware, versus the Z80 that doesn't even offer an 8-bit multiply instruction. If we look at some BASIC code doing soft-float computation, as was most common at the time, the execution speed is about 3 orders of magnitude faster, while the cost of the processor is 2 - 3 orders of magnitudes less. What an amazing time we live in!
by goku12 | 2026-01-14 05:02:24+00:00
> Pay for products that produce open source software and hardware. Pay artists that put out libre/free work. Demand projects that ask for money and "will open source in the future" open source now before taking your money.

This is the most important part. The markets can be shifted in our favor if the consumers unite and vote with our wallets. Even the biggest MNCs can't resist the demands by a united consumer front. Well known brands have been disappeared after they offended their customer base.

This is very difficult in practice, but not impossible. It will need a cultural shift among consumers and that will need a lot of grassroots work by a group of dedicated individuals. But it has been done before - for example, consider the role FSF played in making free software so common. To begin with, consumers have to be taught to believe in and rely on our collective bargaining power, instead of reluctantly accepting exploitative corporate bs. The next will be to take smart decisions on each product. Obviously, only a small group within the society would know what is harmful and what we really need. We should develop a culture where the concerns and recommendations of the subject experts are quickly disseminated among the larger consumer community.

I know the above sounds too ambitious. But it's not nearly the hardest goal anyone has achieved through sheer will. Whenever I raise this point in relation to any specific topic on HN, someone always replies with a cynical, dismissive and defeatist take, often arguing that the consumer-hostile product has the 'market demand'. They rarely address the market manipulation that the manufacturers resort to, and the fact that those poor product choices are the result of missing consumer vigilance. Besides it's easy to sound smart by scoffing at someone else's suggestions. But it takes hard work to make a positive impact on society with an original idea.
by daxfohl | 2026-01-14 05:04:33+00:00
They've gotten pretty good IME so long as you guide it to think out of the box, give it the right level of background info, have it provide alternatives instead of recommendations, and do your best not to bias it in any particular direction.

That said, the thing it really struggles with is when the best approach is "do nothing". Which, given that a huge chunk of principal level work is in deciding what NOT to do, it may be a while before LLMs can viably take that role. A principal LLM based on current tech would approve every idea that comes across it, and moreover sell each of them as "the exact best thing needed by the organization right now!"
by throw128 | 2026-01-14 05:05:21+00:00
It's a tactical error to disagree with influencers in public, much less actually criticize them, since it only arouses the mob. When there's a power difference you have to cede the platform (since they already have it), and try to ask good questions.

Questions like.. did we really even need to invoke particular influencers to discuss this issue? Why does that come up at all, and why is it the top comment? If names and argument from authority can settle issues on HN now, does it work with all credentialed authorities, or only those vocal few with certain opinions?
by deepsun | 2026-01-14 05:06:03+00:00
Radio spectrum is licensed, and licenses are very expensive.

There are several bands for Amateur radio in US/EU/AU, but it is explicitly forbidden to use any kind of encryption on them. So no one can sell devices that use encryption on those bands.

And I doubt Iran was friendly to amateur radio in the first place. E.g. in USSR it was crazy to think of any non-approved radio.
by FractalParadigm | 2026-01-14 05:07:17+00:00
> It's not profitable to recycle small electronic devices otherwise you'd see heaps of shops doing it. It's toxic, hazardous and labour intensive.

Sounds like they should be banning their sale and/or production then, just like many jurisdictions have been with plastics and other non-recyclable items. These devices are not an essential-to-life item where the waste produced is justifiable, especially when you consider the LiPo batteries, which are a borderline-environmental disaster from the moment the lithium is mined to the day that battery finds its way to a landfill. Why single-use disposable vaping devices exist in the first place is somewhat perplexing given permanent/re-fillable ones are also available, often right beside the disposable ones, and generally offer a significantly lower cost of ownership.
by chrismorgan | 2026-01-14 05:07:28+00:00
Telling humans and computers apart was never the purpose of CAPTCHAs, only how they initially worked. The name has been a complete misnomer for at least a decade now. Its actual purpose is, and has always been, abuse prevention. Has it been successful? Some yes, some no, and a lot of collateral damage. Its mode of operation now looks a lot like inscrutable blacklisting for some plus inconvenience and bad rate limiting for the rest.
by reify | 2026-01-14 05:07:52+00:00
the usual meaningless drivel, unsupported by any figures or scientific quantitative data.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day

In the sonnet, the speaker asks whether he should compare the Fair Youth to a summer's day, but notes that he has qualities that surpass a summer's day, which is one of the themes of the poem. He also notes the qualities of a summer day are subject to change and will eventually diminish.

The speaker then states that the Fair Youth will live forever in the lines of the poem, as long as it can be read.

There is an irony being expressed in this sonnet: it is not the actual young man who will be eternalized, but the description of him contained in the poem, and the poem contains scant or no description of the young man, but instead contains vivid and lasting descriptions of a summer day, which the young man is supposed to outlive.
by ethin | 2026-01-14 05:07:55+00:00
> I realise you are making assertions for which you have no evidence.

We do have evidence, which is their current behavior. If they are happy ignoring robots.txt (and also ignoring copyright law), what gives you the belief that they magically won't ignore this new standard? Sure, it in theory might save them money, but if there's one thing that I think is blatantly obvious it is that money isn't what these companies care about because people just keep turning on the money generator. If they did care about it, they wouldn't be spending far more than they earn, and they wouldn't be creating circular economies to try to justify their existences. If my assertion has no evidence, I don't exactly see how yours does either, especially since we have seen that these companies will do anything if it means getting what they want.
by alexandre_m | 2026-01-14 05:08:28+00:00
> You are not giving a metric here so I can not tell why you think it is better

The studies:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v...

https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/191/8/1420/6556183

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8627252/

There are many more.

Several 2021–2022 studies, especially Delta-focused, suggested natural immunity provided robust or superior protection against reinfection compared to two-dose vaccination alone.
by eqvinox | 2026-01-14 05:09:16+00:00
If anything, that's why you discard ICMP port unreachable, which I assume you meant.

If you're blanket dropping all ICMP errors, you're breaking PMTUD. There's a special place reserved in hell for that.

(And if you're firewalling your ICMP, why aren't you firewalling TCP?)
by serf | 2026-01-14 05:09:43+00:00
> "Cancel culture" (your social actions having social consequences)

cancel culture isn't a synonym for shaming.

cancel culture is a modern phenomenon that is facilitated by modern media formats -- it could not have existed earlier.

shaming is about making a persons' opinion known to the public to receive outcry. Cancel culture includes deplatforming, legal action, soap-boxing, algorithmic suppression, networked coordination between nodes, and generally the crowds exert institutional pressures against the targets' backing structure rather than to the person themselves or individuals near them in order to get their target fired or minimized somehow.

You shame a child who stole a cookie by telling them that now they need to go brush their teeth, and that they won't get one after dinner , and that you're disappointed that you found them to be sneaking around behind your back.

You don't kick them out of the house and tell the neighborhood not to hire them under threat of company wide boycott from other moms.
by stephenr | 2026-01-14 05:09:57+00:00
> Critical difference

Yeah that's the critical difference, absolutely.

> Now I just write 95% of styles with Tailwind.

Which everyone says is only really useful if you use in a JSX Component...

So you're writing it in XML...

But then that gets converted into JavaScript....

Which then writes out some HTML and CSS?

I will absolutely not be surprised when someone declares that the XML part of JSX is too verbose and creates a library to generate the JSX code. Fuck it who am I kidding, it probably already exists doesn't it?
by userbinator | 2026-01-14 05:10:10+00:00
but because the app is no longer in development, it's essentially useless

the app used to store data for up to 5 users to keep track over time. I miss that!

What? Was it storing the data on a cloud server? In that case it's a different story, but a local app should continue working essentially indefinitely.

All this focus on source code is IMHO missing the point. RMS also missed this point when he started the GNU project. Source code is neither necessary nor sufficient for (legal) freedom. They just need to relinquish the copyright and release any keys and such getting in the way. Lots of examples otherwise --- I'll refer you to the cracking scene, game modding, etc.

In the physical world, products can be "EOL" for decades and the aftermarket will fill in the void if there is demand, often even when the original product is still in production. The original manufacturer never released blueprints and other comparable-to-source-code information; they just don't try to stop the aftermarket. Mid-century cars are a great example of this.

tl;dr: stop demanding source code, start demanding freedom.
by Glyptodon | 2026-01-14 05:11:06+00:00
As a former engineer at a YC startup from pre-A to post-B, I generally agree with much of this in a broad way if the startup is a technology first one with organic growth or hasn't really figured out product/market fit.

But I think some of the management and team stuff is much more complicated in B2B or B2B2C situations, regulated industries, or cases where there are substantial non-engineering employees, perhaps doing sales, onboarding, or things related to the "offline" world (if there are physical aspects to the business).

In particular, I don't think you can have a super flat eng structure run out of a few docs if eng needs to be working with one or more teams larger than the eng team itself unless there's some kind of separate interface to large outside teams.

If you end up with a significant sales team, account management team, support team, significant numbers of contractors, or other categories of workers because of the nature of the business, you will have to be more regimented about how things are structured. In companies that face this issue, it's often one of their major challenges and not avoidable compared to other kinds of startups - your sales team may have all kinds of ideas and some of them may even be good, and some may even want to sell them before you've built them. And if your sales team is 2x the size of product and engineering... it's not easy to run out of one document. (Note that I don't love or endorse this, but in certain kind of markets and products it seems like a bit of an unavoidable issue.)
by scruple | 2026-01-14 05:11:44+00:00
Probably not. I love what I do, I get to work in games and it's so much fun. But at the end of the day I still have a issue, in trading my time for money, and there's a lot of stuff I'd rather be doing. Spending more time outside, exercising, reading, cooking, being with my family. Work is... Just work.
by skewbone | 2026-01-14 05:12:13+00:00
This would be fantastic. I'm trying to write an audio driver for my HT|Omega eClaro PCIe soundcard for Linux by leveraging kernel modules for cards with a similar BOM. It is mostly working, but the main hurdle is the inability to increase the volume to >= 50% of the volume in Windows. I'm setting attenuation correctly to the correct DAC registers and I can hear the opamp relay click on, but can't adjust the final gain. It sure would be great to have the Windows driver source. Worse yet, the company is unresponsive to my requests for any info (schematics, gain setting sequence, anything).