MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by Bassetts | 2026-01-24 16:21:43+00:00
It's not just A&A either. I know I'm lucky as I live in an area that's had a relatively new CityFibre XGS-PON install, but I've got 2300Mbps symmetrical and 5000Mbps is coming Q1 this year.

Virgin Media also do Gigabit plus speeds and you can upgrade to symmetrical (they don't seem to advertise this though). That's definitely a household name.
by polotics | 2026-01-24 16:21:58+00:00
Reckoning by the way some national borders are different on the map, the nationalismity of the website is indeed not in doubt. In particular looking at the Himalayas.

It must be so tiring to have to toe such lines (or to toe the not-a-line! ...) in every serious endeavour I'm sorry for the people working on this good useful site.
by nvader | 2026-01-24 16:22:23+00:00
Every programmer who I know works with AI has accumulated a CLAUDE.md file full of lines starting with:

> You MUST NOT use interior mutability.
> NEVER name variables after my ex
> (Extremely important) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES must you EVER EVER DO THE VERY NAUGHTY BAD THING.

Most of us are disappointed when eventually the LLM suffers from context rot, or comes up with a trace like,

"THE VERY NAUGHTY BAD THING is already done, it wasn't added by me in this iteration" (Narrator: It was) "So I'll just commit and hope no-one notices".

What do you provide in the way of evidence that your particular bag of "never evers" is actually working?
by rvnx | 2026-01-24 16:23:24+00:00
Anyway Microsoft and any software developer can be compelled to practically do anything, you don't want to be blocked in some jurisdictions (even less the US) and the managers do not want to go to jail to protect a terrorist, especially if nobody is going to know that they helped.

Some even go that far that they push an update that exfiltrates data from a device (and some even do on their own initiative).

And even if you are not legally compelled. Money or influence can go a long way. For example, the fact that HTTPS communications were decipherable by the NSA for almost 20 years, or, whoops, no contract with DoD ("not safe enough"...)

Once the data is in the hands of the intelligence services, from a procedure perspective they can choose what to do next (e.g. to officialize this data collection through physical collection of the device, or do nothing and try to find a more juicy target).

It's not in the interest of anyone to prevent such collection agreement with governments. It's just Prism v2.

So seems normal that Microsoft gives the keys, the same that Cloudflare may give information about you and the others. They don't want to have their lives ruined for you.
by sodapopcan | 2026-01-24 16:23:36+00:00
I could if there were a wealth of companies that offered it ;) Not only that, if there was a wealth of people who wanted to do it. It's unsurprising that most people are more willing to collaborate with a machine than a human (if they are even willing at all), but there's obviously nothing I can do about that.

> I do agree that real people sharing is absolutely crucial, and that AI may have a negative effect it it becomes the main and only way of (non) sharing.

Yes, exactly. Most of the pro-AI articles that show up here are about generative AI which is what the vast majority of people are raging against. This particular nuance is often left out. Although the TFA's About page explicitly states that when they use "AI" they mean "Generative AI." Obviously pretty much all of us having been using "AI" in some form or another for the past 20... 30+ years?

But then there are a whole host of other reasons I don't like "AI" that are a little out of scope of this rant.
by 9rx | 2026-01-24 16:23:37+00:00
25% would be quite extreme. There is some evidence of that much loss on individual rows being possible, but not the entire headland. 10% is considered to be more typical, which works out to be around a 4% loss across the entire piece. Which is well within the normal range of field variability, so it is ultimately not noticeable.

Of course, if it were a 5 acre field, with some assumptions about its shape, we'd only be talking more like a 2% loss across the entire field. Not nothing, but terrible...?

Year-to-year variability will see much larger swings than that. If that's the margin you're trying to operate on, I dare say you're cooked, even if your fields are large.
by PaulHoule | 2026-01-24 16:24:47+00:00
I'd point to the difference between vector-based vs scalar-based systems in numerics. If your web programming language is more like MATLAB or APL than PHP than maybe it can naturally generate the code to do it all with sets. As it is we are usually writing set-based implementations in scalar-based languages.

Part of the "object-relational mapping" problem has always been that SQL is superior to conventional programming languages in many ways.
by scruple | 2026-01-24 16:24:50+00:00
ACC generally has a 3-4 second time interval that it permits between you and the car in front of you. I live in SoCal, so a lot of my driving is on very aggressive routes. The 4-second gap is mechanically safe but it's practically unusable because it creates a void large enough to invite other cars to lane change in front of me. So when that car merges in, the ACC detects a violation of the safe braking distance and decelerates to reestablish the gap. I call it the "cut me off" loop when we're on trips.

And before anyone suggests that I start tinkering around with the settings, I have adjusted it and the damned thing just resets itself constantly.
by jraph | 2026-01-24 16:25:26+00:00
I'll use (1) for when I have a restricted set of pages (say, the usual pages of a site, like home, contact, about ...); body is not in a separate file; and (2) when the number of page is dynamic, say, a site that displays recipes stored in markdown files.

(3) I don't know yet for sure how I'd do it today (I will soon normally), I suppose I would just write different scripts, that can call some shared code. For APIs, people expect something that looks like REST endpoints and I suppose I would return JSON or XML in REST endpoint, but the URL structure that looks good for REST wouldn't for a normal page.
by dtkav | 2026-01-24 16:25:56+00:00
sqlite+litestream [1] is fantastic, i highly recommend it.

I use it with pocketbase and it is a delightful and very productive setup.

This guide [2] is for an older version of pocketbase and litestream, but i can update it if would be helpful/interesting for anyone.

[1] https://github.com/benbjohnson/litestream/

[2] https://notes.danielgk.com/Pocketbase/Pocketbase+on+Fly.io
by Philip-J-Fry | 2026-01-24 16:26:13+00:00
My new build (2023) would have had 0 ethernet if I didn't request it. It's so cheap to wire it in and so useful for the future I don't know why it's not just standard.

It had phone sockets though, for whatever reason.

When I was configuring the house the person I was with to do it didn't even know what ethernet was.

One thing I wished I could have picked was where all the ethernet terminated. It's all gone to a little cupboard where the fibre enters the house. That's convenient I guess if you had just one socket in the living room where you stick your Wifi router. But when I've got ethernet to all the rooms, I'd rather have it all in a back bedroom so I can stick a server rack in there. I guess I can still do that, it just means I need 2 switches now.
by zbrozek | 2026-01-24 16:26:18+00:00
It's been many years since I implemented G.Hn hardware, but if memory serves the chipsets are typically able to split the available bandwidth into 1 or 2 MHz wide bins and choose different symbol densities and FEC levels for each bin. If you have a bin that has horrible reflections, you don't use it at all.

I also recall that the chipsets don't do toning automatically, and so it's up the the management device to decide when to re-probe the channel and reconfigure the bins.
by simonw | 2026-01-24 16:26:32+00:00
I was actually thinking of your earlier comments about this from the perspective of a Servo engineer when I asked Wilson how much of his human-level effort on this project related to browser architecture as opposed to parallel agents research.

The answer I got made it clear to me that this wasn't a browser project - he outsourced almost all of the browser design thinking to the agents and focused on his research area, which was parallel agent coordination.

I'm certain having someone in the human driving seat who understands browsers and was actively seeking to build the best possible browser architecture would produce very different results!
by magicalhippo | 2026-01-24 16:26:32+00:00
> adding 1-5ms per query makes it feel not okay

Or going from ~1ms over a local wired network to ~10ms over a wireless network.

Had a customer performance complaint that boiled down to that, something that should take minutes took hours. Could not reproduce it internally.

After a lot of back abd forth I asked if the user machine was wired. Nope, wireless laptop. Got them to plug in like their colleagues and it was fast again.
by AlotOfReading | 2026-01-24 16:27:34+00:00
Contractor estimates are just as prone to schedule slippage and cost overruns as anything estimated by software engineers. I doubt anyone's ever argued that giving wrong estimates is hard or impossible. Only that approximately correct ones are, and other industries seem to struggle with that just as much as software. Authors don't finish books by deadlines, so fans are left in the cold. Tunnels take twice as long and cost twice as much. Renovations take a year instead of 3 months and empty your bank account.

Saying "I don't know" is arguably more honest, even if it's not useful for budgets or planning.
by grayhatter | 2026-01-24 16:27:34+00:00
> Power is concentrated; checks and balances are minimal or nonexistent.

Is power concentrated? What power do maintainer of FOSS projects have over people who would like to use that project? How can they compel people to do what they want as it relates to the project?

> It's a drive-by response to shut-down a complaint in a way that treats the complain as illegitimate, suggesting that person is wrong for wanting something different from what's on offer.

It can't possibly be suggesting that the person is wrong for wanting something different. The "drive by", "fork it" comment is saying. If you want something different, then make the different thing exist, no one will be able to stop you from making the thing that you want.

Unless you feel that the different thing is the person who is complaining, is entitled to having other people do what the complainer wants, instead of what the maintainer wants?

On the internet; if you wanted to suggest that someone's complaints or suggestions are illegitimate, you wouldn't say "fork it" you would say, "no, that's stupid, you're stupid, how could you suggest such a dumb, stupid, crazy, insane thing?!" surely followed by a series of extra expletives, or angry rage posts.

Or the just fork it comment is from a maintainer. Who has decided that they do not want the suggested changes. In which case, it's still not saying the changes are illegitimate, it's saying that the maintainer objects to them; so they're offering the only remaining solution for the complainer to get the changes they want.
by visarga | 2026-01-24 16:27:49+00:00
> either you look at code or don’t, either you edit code by hand or you exclusively direct agents, either you’re the anti-AI-purist or the agentic-maxxer – is unhelpful.

If you're looking at all your code you are just walking the motorcycle. You need tests to automate your eyes. In fact I believe tests and specs are the new product, code can be regenerated at will.

That is why we see vibe coding projects that replicate well specced and implemented products like web browsers, you get both the specs and differential testing for free.
by raincole | 2026-01-24 16:28:08+00:00
Government contractor's estimation is based on what number is politically acceptable, not how much the project would realistically take. 90% of public projects were overbudget [0].

But you're pretty spot on, as 'professionally acceptable' indeed means politically acceptable most of the time. Being honest and admitting one's limit is often unacceptable.

[0]: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Why-do-large-proje...
by etamponi | 2026-01-24 16:28:08+00:00
> But plenty can be estimated more accurately.

As a person that has never encountered a complex software project that can be accurately estimated, I am being a bit skeptical.

The author did make examples of when estimation is possible: easy projects with a very short time horizons (less than an a couple of days, I'd say).

I'd love to hear some examples of more complex software projects that can be estimated within a reasonable variance.

However, I think it should also be acknowledged that the point of the article seems to be in a different direction: it _doesn't really matter_ that you have a good time estimate, because asking for an estimate is just a somewhat strange way for the management chain to approach you and then tell you how much time you have to deliver.
by toomuchtodo | 2026-01-24 16:29:35+00:00
> be the change you want to see

> remember that you could be wrong

(from your profile, as of this comment)

You can click hide in posts you want to ignore while a country burns down, that’s easier than commenting about it. Commenting rather than hiding it and ignoring it is signal.

(you posted two days ago about Trump, Cook, and the unlawful attempts to unseat a Fed official https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46715592 ; unlawful street executions are relevant to those on US soil at risk)
by lotsofpulp | 2026-01-24 16:30:23+00:00
> They sleep most the day, giving you an opportunity to sleep and cook.

I got some douchebag babies, because they were breastfeeding every 2-3 hours for a long time. Probably every 2 hours for the first few months, so that doesn’t allow for quality sleep cycles. It also takes a while to put them to sleep, so the total period of free time could be as little as 15 to 30 minutes.

The first one needed time to learn how to breastfeed (and the mom to learn also).

And also, physical recovery from tears in the flesh and other complications such as hemorrhoids and hormone fluctuations.
by nuancebydefault | 2026-01-24 16:30:37+00:00
> see the employee-manager relationship as adversarial by default.

I don't see how anyone can be happy in their job if that were the default. Maybe I am naive or lucky, but I have a very goed relation with my boss, as well as with the boss above.

When that condition is not fulfilled, i definitely tend to slack off and I will eventually leave. I believe such should be the default.
by catlifeonmars | 2026-01-24 16:30:49+00:00
Don’t dismiss the other forms of political capital so quickly. Sure, the people who are independently wealthy can independently influence political decisions, but there are so many situations in history where the once conditions worsen for the upper middle class, there is impetus to make political change, overthrow governments, etc. It’s usually when the scholar/merchant class gets annoyed that laws change.
by t-3 | 2026-01-24 16:31:13+00:00
> Do mind readers want others to read minds?

It's not mind reading. It's basic empathy and respect. Expecting others to understand the norms of social behavior is not smart, but it is perfectly normal. Realizing that many people lack the ability to empathize or socialize politely and dealing with that is an unfortunate consequence of modern society making travel so easy. We're all mixed up and people from totally different cultures need to learn to deal with each other.
by nailer | 2026-01-24 16:31:18+00:00
Because it sounded unbelievable and your post is full of other things that people often lie about. You also neglected to mention he was very obviously quoting rap lyrics:

> Fuck (names) as a label and motherfucking crew
...

> And if you are down with (some law firm maybe) as a crew fuck you too

> Die slow motherfuckers

I can’t imagine Tan making death threats in his normal voice like your post alleged, and he didn’t. But yes, what a moronic move on Tan‘s behalf.
by etamponi | 2026-01-24 16:31:30+00:00
I think this post unveils a great truth that I never grasped: estimates are a political tool to decide what gets done and what doesn't get done. Thanks for putting it so nicely!

One thing that I'd like to understand then is _why_... Why doesn't management use a more direct way of saying it? Instead of asking for estimates, why don't they say: we have until date X, what can we do? Is it just some American way of being polite? I am sincerely curious :)
by thebruce87m | 2026-01-24 16:31:58+00:00
> I used to work in the semiconductor industry writing internal tools for the company. Hardware very rarely missed a deadline and software was run the same way.

Former Test Engineer here. It was always fun when everyone else’s deadline slipped but ours stayed the same. Had to still ship on the same date even if I didn’t have silicon until much later than originally planned.
by jordepic | 2026-01-24 16:32:21+00:00
Hi! I forked this project from https://github.com/udaysagar2177/apache-iceberg-fileio in order to make it delegate between database and object store for data/metadata, as well as use reflection for use within other query engines outside of the java api.

While this isn't as good of a spec for database-metadata as something like ducklake would be, there are still many intrinsic benefits to avoiding object store for these many small writes.

See the repo: https://github.com/jordepic/icebase
by grayhatter | 2026-01-24 16:33:18+00:00
You don't think those same things traumatize the dog too? There's a reason why all reputable dog trainers advocate exclusively positive training methods. It's because training with exclusively positive feedback is not only most likely to get the behavior you want. It critically avoids destabilizing the dog. Negative reinforcement learning does works, but it also leads to anxiety, and "reactionary outbursts". i.e. the dog learns to become afraid, and is more likely to bite you. Only abused dogs bite their pack in fear. Just like only abused humans attack their community.
by goopthink | 2026-01-24 16:33:22+00:00
As a recipient.

- Emails are being aggressively marked as “suspicious” out of the blue (USPS, HR emails, system emails, promotional emails)

- Those emails are being regularly delayed by 7-10 minutes.

- Priority inbox rules seem reset

- “Never mark as spam” rules are seemingly not respected

Additional reports on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/GMail/comments/1qln9zp/gmail_not_fi...
by dagss | 2026-01-24 16:33:41+00:00
I honestly don't think humans fit your definition of intelligent. Or at least not that much better than LLMs.

Look at human technology history...it is all people doing minor tweaks on what other people did. Innovation isn't the result of individual humans so much as it is the result of the collective of humanity over history.

If humans were truly innovative, should we not have invented for instance at least a way of society and economics that was stable, by now? If anything surprise me about humans it is how "stuck" we are in the mold of what others humans do.

Circulate all the knowledge we have over and over, throw in some chance, some reasoning skills of the kind LLMs demonstrate every day in coding, have millions of instances most of whom never innovate anything but some do, and a feedback mechanism -- that seems like human innovation history to me, and does not seem like demonstrating anything LLMs clearly do not possess. Except of course not being plugged into history and the world the way humans are.
by antisol | 2026-01-24 16:33:48+00:00
> At no point did I say the legal system is always right

First you made the incorrect assumption that we live in a disney-style fantasy world with "If all of the enforcement bodies and normal legal peaceful channels available to you don’t agree with your assessment there is probably a 'why'."

Then you made the totally unwarranted assumption that "If the case was truly just I suspect you could find pro bono or contingency legal services to handle your appeal"

> I suggested that if you are having difficulty finding an attorney willing to take your case on contingency, there might be a reason for that

No, you made an assumption based on zero information and chose to incorrectly insinuate that the case is not just.

> You are asking a person to take a risk on your behalf who has evaluated the environment and didn’t like the odds.

But "evaluated the environment and didn’t like the odds" doesn't actually have anything to do with the case being just, does it? There's a million possible explanations why someone might choose not to donate their time for free. Like for example "I'm aware of just how corrupt this system is based on my previous experiences and so I choose not to waste my time and energy on this".
by 9rx | 2026-01-24 16:34:09+00:00
Of course, the "object-relational mapping" problem is simply that of latency. In the theoretical world where latency isn't a thing, there is no such thing as the "object-relational mapping" problem. In the real world where you have something like SQLite, it isn't a practical problem either.

SQL was originally designed to run on the same machine as the user, so it was never envisioned as a problem. It wasn't until Oracle decided to slap networking protocols on top of an SQL engine did it become one. Unfortunately, they should have exposed a language more conducive to the limitations of the network, performing the mapping in the same place as the database. But, such is the life of commercial computing.

Oracle has that now, it was just several decades too late, and by that time everyone else had copied their bad ideas.
by dixie_land | 2026-01-24 16:34:10+00:00
Great engineering work but as a user I don't get why we need these: I just want the OS native widget that allow me to play pause seek and maybe choose captions. Especially on iOS 99% of these web players behaves awkwardly when you tried to pinch to zoom to full screen (usually it zooms the whole webpage, iOS native player just works)

The main incentive to have these custom controls I see is anti adblocking
by kranner | 2026-01-24 16:34:31+00:00
With respect for your priorities that may be different from mine, it would sadden me a little to always have to work like this, because it would rob me of the chance to think deeply about the problem, perhaps notice analogies with other processes, or more general or more efficient ways to solve the problem, perhaps even why it was necessary at all. Those are the tasty bits of the work, a little something just for me, not for my employer.

Instead my productivity would be optimised in service of my employer, while I still had to work on other things, the more important work you cite. It's not like I get to finish work early and have more leisure time.

And that's not to mention what happens if the code turns out to be buggy later. The AI gets the credit, I get the blame.
by assimpleaspossi | 2026-01-24 16:34:51+00:00
I would rather be correct and annoy people than be wrong. It's fascinating to me today to see so many people allow "good enough" over correctness. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

For example, people get annoyed when I tell them not to put closing slashes on void HTML elements. They reply that it doesn't matter because it's in the standard that it's allowed so it's perfect HTML. What they don't bother to understand, despite my pointing to online documentation, is that placing closing slashes on some elements can cause harm and that no HTML standard tells you to put one there or has ever required it. Yet they argue with me anyway. Much like you argue with me about this. And that's when I stop.