MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by jodrellblank | 2026-01-30 21:25:10+00:00
You're replying as if I said that drugs can't change neurochemistry and can't change mood or behaviour, and genetics doesn't exist and can't explain anything. I wrote quite a lot because I wanted to make it pretty clear that I wasn't saying either of those things.

If your old fashioned TV glitches and you hit it and it works, that doesn't mean it had a percussive imbalance. If you sledgehammer your brain chemistry that can change your mood and behaviour, and that doesn't mean you had a chemical imbalance and need a sledgehammer every week forever. It's the lack of supported good explanation that I'm against, especially after becoming convinced that a lot (not all) depressions and anxieties are addressable with therapy - but not just any therapy with any technique, just like a TV problem can be traced to a bad solder joint or a loose wire or a warped chassis shorting out a wire, but not by just randomly poking wires and replacing components without any training or experience and saying "I tried everything so it must need hitting". Similarly, "genetics" can be a fine explanation which is why I edited Downes Syndrome into my comment, also blue eyes, Trisomy 21, Huntington's Disease, and many others.

> "As someone who, as an armature geneticist, helped design a genetic study for Stanford, can I say that I put more energy into thinking about these things over the last 45 years than you can even imagine?"

And how do you feel about these quotes I just found on Reddit: "I think my genetics are stopping me from losing weight. I am 25F 5'2 and 145lbs and I have been having the hardest time trying to lose 20 lbs; or "I hate my genetics. I'm lifting 5~6 days a week since october last year, what means almost 10 months of consistent training, but my measureaments and bodyshape still like shit" or "Are my genetics/health screwing me over or am I just shit? r/GuitarQuestions"

Do you think those uses of 'genetics' are good explanations, that the poster should be satisfied with? Explanations that have good predictive power and a clear model of finding other people with the same problem, and suggest what to do next to compensate? Or are they (as I grumble) bad explanations which don't have any predictive power because they don't specify any particular gene or its effects, in much the same way that saying "it's fate"?

> "your solution are just as bad as the ones your are prescribing."

My solution of fix the TV electronics is just as bad as "hit the TV and accept a bad explanation for how that helped"?
by michaelmrose | 2026-01-30 21:25:50+00:00
Shouldn't all agentic actions with meaningful outputs of importance like moving $48,000 simply be required to terminate in a human designed or verified output with a human in the loop attestation.

Eg a list of transactions that isn't AI generated where the only actions that actually move money must operate on the data displayed in the human designed page.

A human looks at this and says yes that is acceptable and becomes reasonable for that action.
by themafia | 2026-01-30 21:25:58+00:00
> almost certainly 'yes' with an LLM

LLMs can handle search because search is intentionally garbage now and because they can absorb that into their training set.

Asking highly specific questions about NYC governance, which can change daily, is almost certainly 'not' going to give you good results with an LLM. The technology is not well suited to this particular problem.

Meanwhile if an LLM actually did give you good results it's an indication that the city is so bad at publishing information that citizens cannot rightfully discover it on their own. This is a fundamental problem and should be solved instead of layering a $600k barely working "chat bot" on top the mess.
by kamranjon | 2026-01-30 21:26:30+00:00
I think one of the values of (what appears to be) AI generated projects like this is that they can make me aware of the underlying technology that I might not have heard about - for example WebTorrent: https://webtorrent.io/faq

Pretty cool! Not sure what this offers over WebTorrent itself, but I was happy to learn about its existence.
by mikestew | 2026-01-30 21:27:05+00:00
Also, iirc iphones have this feature where if you appear to be under duress, it will refuse to unlock and disable face id. Is this true?

Sort of: if you hold the buttons on both sides of the phone for about three seconds, it will bring up the Power Off/SOS screen. You do not need to interact with that screen, just display it. Easy-peasy, you can do it with the phone in your pocket. Once that screen is displayed, it requires a passcode to unlock the phone. The courts have determined that the passcode is protected by the 5th Amendment, but biometrics are not.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/12/suspects-can-ref...
by whatever1 | 2026-01-30 21:27:25+00:00
If you have a solid test environment that would allow for an agent to check if it is right or wrong, I encourage you to do the experiment.

Put the agent on the wheel and observe it as it tries ruthlessly to pass the test. These days, likely it will manage to pass the tests after 3-5 loops, which I find fascinating.

Close the loop, and try an LLM. You will be surprised.
by johndough | 2026-01-30 21:27:37+00:00
You can run it on consumer grade hardware right now, but it will be rather slow. NVMe SSDs these days have a read speed of 7 GB/s , so it will give you one token roughly every three seconds while crunching through the 32 billion active parameters, which are natively quantized to 4 bit each. If you want to run it faster, you have to spend more money.

Some people in the localllama subreddit have built systems which run large models at more decent speeds: https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/
by bluGill | 2026-01-30 21:27:50+00:00
If OSM is up to date - many places it is very outdated. (others it is very good).

Law - when a government changes the driving laws. Government can be federal (I have driven to both Canada and Mexico. Getting to Argentina is possible though I don't think it has ever been safe. Likewise it is possible to drive over the North Pole to Europe), state (or whatever the country calls their equivalent). When a city changes the law they put up signs, but if a state passes a law I'm expected to know even if I have never driven in that state before. Right turn on red laws are the only ones I can think of where states are different - but they are likely others.

Laws also cover new traffic control systems that may not have been in the original program. If the self driving system can't figure out the next one (think roundabout) then it needs to be updated.
by tra3 | 2026-01-30 21:28:03+00:00
I've been using Claude and it's a game changer in my day to day. The caveat being of course that my tasks at a small "feature" level and all interactions are supervised. I see no evidence that this is going to change soon...

My other thought, that I can't articulate that well is....what about testing? Sure LLMs can generate tons of code but so what? If your two sentence prompt is for a tiny feature that's one thing. If you ask Claude to "build me a todo system" the results will likely rapidly diverge from what you're expecting. The specification for the system is the code, right? I just don't see how this can scale.
by ranger_danger | 2026-01-30 21:28:05+00:00
> They would only need to prove you destroyed information with intent to impede an investigation/case

Which requires them to prove they know that device likely contains relevant information. Just being party to a court case doesn't mean you're forbidden from deleting anything ever again... like I said there are very specific rules for evidence, and one cannot begin to claim something relevant is destroyed if you can't even show that you had any idea what might have been destroyed in the first place.
by viraptor | 2026-01-30 21:28:15+00:00
When the confidence interval is narrow enough. For the human events in 1 trillion, we get 95% interval around [1997229, 2002773]. That barely changes the observed ratio. For 9 events of Tesla robotaxis, we get [4.11537, 17.08480]. That means "the real ratio is maybe half, maybe twice the measured one - we can't tell".

I'm not saying the relevant agencies shouldn't be checking every crash. Just that "Tesla’s own Robotaxi data confirms crash rate 3x worse than humans even with monitor" is completely unjustified. But "crash at rate maybe the same as human and maybe 18x - we're 99% sure" doesn't get clicks.
by 1718627440 | 2026-01-30 21:28:25+00:00
I do use an old Nokia and I find the UI to be surprisingly well designed a lot of time. For example keys are async, so you can already have opened the SMS editor, before the display has updated. Not that that display update would be that slow, we are talking about ~300ms. Also nearly everything is doable with very few keypresses, its really impressive.

I am quite curious, what was it exactly that you found painful.
by RaftPeople | 2026-01-30 21:29:44+00:00
Link to ACM paper from 1969

https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/800195.805951

Quote:

"Unit test:

testing, outside of thesystem, of a part of the system thatmay have less than a complete function.

Component test:

testing, inside of the system, of parts that have been successfully unit tested.

Integration test:
testing of new components to ensure that the system is growing functionally; in addition, retesting of successive system builds to ensure that they do not cause re-gression in the capabilities of the system.

Regression test:
testing of the system for unpredictable system failure.

Scaffolding:

coding that replaces not - yet - completed functions..."

I was taught in the 80's about this by a woman that had worked at some company that was more formal about software dev than we were at the small company I worked for.
by ChrisArchitect | 2026-01-30 21:30:28+00:00
Related:

A prediction market user made $436k betting on Maduro's downfall

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46508582

Polymarket refuses to pay bets that US would 'invade' Venezuela

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46521773

Prediction markets are ushering in a world in which news becomes about gambling

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46670524
by leecommamichael | 2026-01-30 21:30:38+00:00
> Elegantly, agents finally give us an objective measure of what "good" code is. It's code that maximizes the likelihood that future agents will be able to successfully solve problems in this codebase. If code is "bad" it makes future problems harder.

An analogous argument was made in the 90's to advocate for the rising desire for IDEs and OOP languages. "Bad" code came to be seen as 1000+ lines in one file because you could simply conjure up the documentation out-of-context, and so separation of concerns slipped all the way from "one function one purpose" to something not far from "one function one file."

I don't say this as pure refusal, but to beg the question of what we lose when we make these values-changes. At this time, we do not know. We are meekly accepting a new mental prosthesis with insufficient foresight of the consequences.
by pronik | 2026-01-30 21:30:46+00:00
Watching from the other side of the pond as well and what Alec tries to get people to do is pretty sad because there is misnomer between action and reaction. While people correctly observe how the one side dismantles institutions and the very ground rules for being a civilized country, the other side has nothing more to offer than civility and evoking change by going through the very institutions that are being dismantled (which I'm absolutely sympathetic to, I prefer to stay civil whenever possible as well). But there is a real possibility that by midterms in ten months there will be nothing to be rescued by voting for a third of a congress.
by skydhash | 2026-01-30 21:31:50+00:00
Do you really think that rainy Canada is the same as Jedddah, or Singapore? And what is the purpose of the free practice sessions?

You’ve got the big bet to design the car between the season (which is kinda the big architectural decisions you make at the beginning of the project). Then you got the refinement over the season, which are like bug fixings and performance tweaks. There’s the parts upgrade, which are like small features added on top of the initial software.

For the next season, you either improve on the design or start from scratch depending on what you’ve learned. In the first case, It is the new version of the software. In the second, that’s the big refactor.

I remember that the reserve drivers may do a lot of simulations to provide data to the engineers.
by mrguyorama | 2026-01-30 21:32:03+00:00
Government "micromanaging" technology is why you can actually plug things into the phone network. Things like modems. For the internet. Before the government slapped AT&T, you leased the phone and it was wired into the wall and they could take you to court for connecting anything "unauthorized" into the wall.

It's also why PC compatibles ever happened at all.

It's also why Apple phones finally have a standard port. Which you admit.

Interoperability is not natural, and IP laws make it trivial for companies to utterly block as we are dealing with today. Interoperability often requires regulation to force companies to allow people to interact with "their" standards.

The government can manage interfaces in a way that enables standardization and interoperability without limiting capabilities.
by bheadmaster | 2026-01-30 21:32:07+00:00
That's a fair point, but AI can do much more than just provide you with an answer like a calculator.

AI can explain the underlying process of manual computation and help you learn it. You can ask it questions when you're confused, and it will keep explaining no matter how off the topic you go.

We don't consider tutoring bad for learning - quite the contrary, we tutor slower students to help them catch up, and advanced students to help them fulfill their potential.

If we use AI as if it was an automated, tireless tutor, it may change learning for the better. Not like it was anywhere near great as it was.
by netsharc | 2026-01-30 21:33:26+00:00
Geez, I'm reminded of a business student's idea of "Uber for photoshoppers" (this is ~20 years ago): you upload your picture, you say what you want changed, and I guess you pick which photoshopper's work looks convincing from a marketplace of them...

He had a website, and the sample pic is a girl lying on her back, and in the "after" picture she's wearing a bigger cup-size..
by pcdevils | 2026-01-30 21:33:34+00:00
The Tories used new legislation to restrict protests, sliced away at union powers even introducing law stating the gov can force 'essential' workers back to work, created and pushed through the Online Safety act (then left labour to enforce it).
And that was only in the few years mess under May/Boris/Rishi

"Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022: Expands police powers to restrict protests based on "serious disruption," including imposing noise limits and start/finish times, reported the BBC.

Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023: Enables employers to mandate service levels during strikes in sectors like health, transport, and fire services, effectively curbing union power, notes Labour Research.

Public Order Act 2023: Introduced further measures against "disruptive" protest tactics, such as locking on, often used by environmental protestors, explain Sage Journals and peoplesmomentum.com.

Nationality and Borders Act 2022: Critiqued for undermining international refugee law and introducing differential treatment for asylum seekers based on their method of arrival, write Sage Journals.

Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022: Critics argue this act weakens judicial oversight, reducing the ability of citizens to challenge government decisions in court, says Zara Sultana on TikTok.

Online Safety Act 2023: While aimed at protecting users, some critics raised concerns about potential impacts on free speech and the regulation of content, suggest Sage Journals. "
by direwolf20 | 2026-01-30 21:33:58+00:00
You can run one, something like ByteLixir, Traffmonetizer, Honeygain, Pawns, there are lots more, just google "share my internet for money"

What will you be proxying? Nobody knows! I haven't had the police at my house yet.

Seems a great way to say "fuck you" to companies that block IP addresses.

You may see a few more CAPTCHAs. If you have a dynamic IP address, not many.
by Imustaskforhelp | 2026-01-30 21:34:35+00:00
I have never been on twitter so I don't really know but I can agree that we see tech community in twitter but the same isn't really there in bluesky.

Although I still have a web/programming which I follow and have found some people interesting from Hackernews and others too in bluesky (emsh,simonw)

What is the HN consensus around lemmy? I really like lemmy and think that it might be better for tech stuff (almost similar to HN/reddit you can say and federated)

I used to follow lemmy c/technology but I do feel like HN is pretty unique in its own manner.

Regarding twitter alternative itself. Maybe mastodon too can be an alternative.

Another minor nitpick about bluesky is that its 200 characters limits actually really removes the tech community from too deep discussions imo. Although I guess twitter had that limit for long time too until it got removed but now I do see sometimes some tweets which are really long (sometimes even complete blog?)

It actually really (pissed?) me off so much that I ended up making a tampermonkey script which can actually write a long message automatically and split a message into 200 messages chunk and post them in a thread of sorts you can say although its very hacky and messy and it starts to glitch around 10 threads from what I remember.
by toomuchtodo | 2026-01-30 21:34:57+00:00
It would be useful imho if an option was available for the phone to automatically enter this mode if separated for more than X seconds from a paired watch or airtag, or with sufficient vibration/acceleration (throw or stomp it). Similar adversarial defense as the phone rebooting after three days [1]. Perhaps part of Advanced Data Protection.

Not legal advice. Having a trusted contact remotely wipe the device is also a potential option with appropriate iCloud creds and a message passed [2], assuming the device is not powered down or kept in a physical location blocking internet/cellular channels.

[1] New Apple security feature reboots iPhones after 3 days, researchers confirm - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42143265 - November 2024 (215 comments)

[2] Erase a device in Find Devices on iCloud.com - https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/erase-a-device-mmfc0e...
by scarecrowbob | 2026-01-30 21:34:57+00:00
Hoss, you can rashomon yourself into any position.

That tactic is almost always an excuse to not realize some hard truth about the world.

Most of us look at your position and understanding you're literally just trying to gaslight yourself.

The kind of radical moral relativism indicated by your position was appealing to me when I was a sophomore philosophy student, in the same way that I found solipsism to be an interesting idea to entertain.

For instance, you know for a fact that "The government has the sole and absolute monopoly on violence" is a) not true, and as the gov becomes ever more violent it's not even "legitimate", which is the word you've gaslighted yourself into forgetting in your thinking here.

But I'm an adult now, and I have spent enough time questioning my beliefs. I have been around enough folks who think they are rational but who haven't done the "work" that I can smell it when I do it, and I can smell it when other folks do it.
by Bender | 2026-01-30 21:35:01+00:00
Perhaps as most these days are using Anycast [1] to do failovers. It's faster and not subject to all the oddities that come with every application having its own interpretation of DNS RFC's most notably java and all its work-arounds that people may or may not be using and all the assorted recursive cache servers that also have their own quirks thus making Anycast a more reliable and predictable choice.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anycast
Show HN: JustNotifs – Push notifications for teams, flat $29/mo instead of SMS
by acaronlex | 2026-01-30 21:36:06+00:00
I built this because I was tired of paying per-message SMS costs for simple team alerts (server down, deploy complete, etc.).
JustNotifs is a simple API: you create notification groups, team members install the app, and one API call sends a push notification to everyone in the group.

Unlimited notifications, flat $29/mo
Up to 50 team members
iOS & Android apps
Simple REST API

Still in early access, looking for feedback on the concept.
by leecommamichael | 2026-01-30 21:37:00+00:00
Except I am not talking about clothing. You are guessing when you say "I'd think" based on your comparison to manufacturing clothing. Why guess and compare when you have more context than that? You're in this industry, right? The commodity of clothing is not like the commodity of software at all. Almost nothing is, as it doesn't really have a physical form. That impacts the economics significantly.

To highlight the gaps in your analogy; machinery still fails to match artisan clothing-makers. Despite being relatively fit, I've got wide hips. I cannot buy denim jeans that both; fit my legs, _and_ my waist. I either roll the legs up or have them hemmed. I am not all that odd, either. One size cannot fit all.
by dragonwriter | 2026-01-30 21:37:20+00:00
> All you are describing is a restructuring of which the Department of War had gone through repeatedly throughout its history

No, from 1789 to 1947 there were two separate cabinet-level departments, War and Navy.

> It's not like it had the same structure, or anything remotely like it, in 1942 as in 1789

Internal to the two cabinet-level departments? Probably not.

At the cabinet level? There was exactly the same structure: the Department of War with the Army underneath it and the Department of the Navy with the Navy and Marine Corps.

The War Department did not become the Defense Department.
In 1947 War was split into Army and Air Force, and a fourth cabinet secretary, the Secretary of Defense was added, heading the combined National Military Establishment that was created over both what had been the War Department and what still was the Navy Department (all still cabinet level departments). In 1949, the three service secretaries (two of which headed parts of what had been the War Department) were formally subordinated to the Secretary of Defense and the NME was renamed the Department of Defense. The Department of War was direct predecessor to the Departments of the Army and Air Force, not the Department of Defense, which was a new level of coordination interposed between the President and the formerly organizationally-separated services.
by duskwuff | 2026-01-30 21:37:24+00:00
Functionally there's very little distinction - a question asked by a law enforcement officer during a search and seizure will inevitably be understood as a demand, no matter how it's worded. (And doubly so when it's in the context of e.g. choosing which of the person's fingers to grab and press to their phone.) I'm surprised that the warrant even acknowledged the possibility of a "voluntary" disclosure.
by drillsteps5 | 2026-01-30 21:37:39+00:00
Does knowing the system architecture not help you with defining things like happy path vs edge case testing? I guess it's much less applicable for overall system testing, but in "normal" systems you test components separately before you test the whole thing, which is not the case with LLMs.

By "non-deterministic" I meant that it can give you different output for the same input. Ask the same question, get a different answer every time, some of which can be accurate, some... not so much. Especially if you ask the same question in the same dialog (so question is the same but the context is not so the answer will be different).

EDIT: More interestingly, I find an issue, what do I even DO? If it's not related to integrations or your underlying data, the black box just gave nonsensical output. What would I do to resolve it?