MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by 9rx | 2026-01-19 16:26:01+00:00
> The C language does not use your C code

Your impression that there is a semantic authority misses the mark. While you are free to use English as you see fit, so too is everyone else. We already agreed on the intent of the message, so when I say something like "C uses C code", it absolutely does, even if you wouldn't say it that way yourself. I could be alone in this usage and it would remain valid. Only intent is significant.

However, I am clearly not alone in that style of usage. I read things like "Rust can use code written in C" on here and in other developer venues all the time. Nobody ever appears confused by such a statement even. If Rust can use code written in C, why can't C use code written in C?

> The C language does not specify a garbage collector so it can never use one.

The C language also does not specify a linked list. Go tell your developer friends that C can never use a linked list. Please take a photo when they look at you like you have two heads. Admittedly I lack the ability to say something so outlandish to another human with a straight face, but for the sake of science I put that into an LLM. It called me out on the bullshit, pointing out that C can, in fact, use a linked list.

For what it is worth, I also put "C can never use a garbage collector" into an LLM. It also called me out on that bullshit just the same. LLMs are really good at figuring out how humans generally use terminology. It is inherit to how they are trained. If an LLM is making that connection, so too would many humans.

> In JavaScript and Go, the language specifies the presence of garbage collection

The Go language spec does, no doubt as a result of Pike's experience with Alef. The JavaScript spec[1] does not. Assuming you aren't making things up, I am afraid your intent was lost. What were you actually trying to say?

> C code and C compiler will still not be garbage collected.

That depends. GC use isn't typical in the C ecosystem, granted, but you absolutely can use garbage collection in a C program. You can even use something like the CCured compiler to have GC added automatically. The world is your oyster. There is no way you couldn't have already realized that, though. I is apparent that your intent wasn't successfully transferred again. What are you actually trying to say here?

> This is turning into trolling.

The mightiest tree in the forest could be cut down with that red herring!

[1] The standard calls itself ECMAScript, but I believe your intent here is understood.
by jacquesm | 2026-01-19 16:26:16+00:00
> I have found better ADC chips than the ones that come pre-soldered on most EDP32 dev boards (and have breadboarded them up with success).

Depending on your setup: beware of your ground and realize that breadboards are an extremely bad fit for this sort of application. It's hard enough to get maximum performance out of a good DAC on a custom designed PCB, on a breadboard it can be a nightmare.
by GuB-42 | 2026-01-19 16:26:55+00:00
Yes, it is common knowledge, but you need to get that information from somewhere in the first place, and why not a LLM?

And sometimes, common knowledge may be wrong, so it doesn't hurt to use LLMs, search engines and other sources to confirm that. Maybe you could discover that Best Buy has a problem with just the product you want, or any other reason. It doesn't hurt to spend a couple of minutes to double check and avoid losing $70.
by dcrazy | 2026-01-19 16:26:59+00:00
As an AI skeptic, I’ve been brought around to using Claude Code to understand a codebase, like when I need to quickly find where something happens through a tower of abstractions. Crucially, this relies on Claude actually searching my codebase using grep. It’s effectively automated guess and check.

I wonder if a SPICE skill would make LLMs safer and more useful in this area. I’m a complete EE newbie, and I am slowly working through The Art of Electronics to learn more. Being able to feed the LLM a circuit diagram—or better yet, a photo of a real circuit!—and have it guess at what it does and then simulate the results to check its work could be a great boon to hands-on learning.
by uniqueuid | 2026-01-19 16:27:02+00:00
Nitpick: The Kiel Institute is not a think tank in the sense that people would understand the word.

It is a federally funded research organization (part of the family of Leibniz institutes) similar to a university but without teaching. Here's a list of the others [1].

These are independent, high-quality research institutions without political money or a designated political agenda.

[1] https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/en/institutes/leibniz-in...
by treis | 2026-01-19 16:27:06+00:00
I think it's the opposite. These were announced 9 months ago and none of the doomsday predictions have come to pass. There's been major impact to some things but for the most part the economy has hummed along without a blip. Certainly not the everything in Walmart is going to get 34% prognostications that some were making:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43561253
by eviks | 2026-01-19 16:27:08+00:00
Are you sure it's not a symbol for a regular pen/pencil? But also, how is a stylus easier to parse then an actual pen from the previous icons?

And what's the line? Previously it was the drawing line from the pen, so it naturally stopped at the tip, but now it has a weird angled end and disconnected from the stylus.

And why are we seeing this shift to worse / more ambiguous / less differentiated icons?
by 0xy | 2026-01-19 16:27:39+00:00
Those same economists warning about tariffs also warned it would lead to runaway skyrocketing inflation and quote "the mother of all recessions" [1] [2] [3], which objectively did not happen. The same economists were nowhere to be seen when prices doubled 2020-24 and the official inflation numbers were 13%.

Once again proving that economists are engaged in mere astrology.

You also frame the argument that the last administration was tariff opposed, after they issued a 10% blanket tariff on the US' largest trading partner and tariffed Canadian wood products, directly causing house prices to skyrocket during the pandemic. You will never consider those impacts, because you're engaged in a fundamentally political argument, not an economic one.

The US has 4% GDP growth and a 2.7% inflation run rate. Wage growth is exceeding inflation again. Data doesn't lie, but economists do. Routinely.

[1] https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/other/economist-warns-of-moth...

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/13/economy/inflation-trump-econo...

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/25/nobel-prize-economists-warn-...
by jrm4 | 2026-01-19 16:28:08+00:00
Your first statement is good advice, but is factually WRONG. Stuff does go away.

We know this from the other side of it, stuff that we WANTED to keep, but couldn't. Google deleting blogs, people not maintaining their own personal media records, etc.

Now. What is a good forward GIVEN THAT we do know that stuff CAN go away? My gut is that a good balance of "making personal stuff available to people who want to see it again" vs. "surveillance state" could make use of the unreliability of "the net." And that ATProto's "perfection" isn't all that helpful.
by PaulRobinson | 2026-01-19 16:28:35+00:00
Actually, it's pretty clear to those who have been paying attention that the main influence that swung the polls by about 4% from Remain to Leave in the last 2 days was a £10m advertising campaign on Facebook packed with lies, paid for by a Brexiteer who can't quite explain to the Electoral Commission where that money came from, but it did seem to just "appear" a few days after he allegedly met with the Russian ambassador to the UK.

I'd get out more, but my tinfoil hat doesn't like the rain.
by avsteele | 2026-01-19 16:29:16+00:00
I haven't had much success yet with this. My ratings follow.

Reading and interpreting datasheets: A- (this has gotten a LOT better in the last year)

Give netlist to LLM and ask it to check for errors: C (hit or miss, but useful because catching ANY errors helps)

Give Image to LLM and ask it to check for errors: C (hit or miss)

Design of circuit from description: D- (hallucinates parts, suggests parts for wrong purpose. suggests obsolete parts. Cannot make diagrams. Not an F because its textual descriptions have gotten better. When describing what nodes connect to each other now its not always wrong. You will have to re-check EVERYTHING though, so its usefulness is doubtful)
by johnnienaked | 2026-01-19 16:29:26+00:00
I didn't mean to imply it was a recent invention. However, the almost total centralization of advertising in a few companies on the internet IS new. Their parasitism and malevolent monopolistic omnipotence is pretty obvious to anyone who runs any kind of business with an internet presence. This severely inflates advertising costs and transfers profit that should be going to businesses who actually add value to companies that simply exploit their control of the platforms. Competition being introduced into this space, which at this point is only possible via government force, would make advertising cheaper and bring more exposure to companies and their products, which I fail to see as anything but a good thing for the economy.
by andsoitis | 2026-01-19 16:29:43+00:00
> EU people can't vote the EU presidency out of office

Selection/rejection of the European Commission president (there is no such thing as the EU president) is indirect democracy, not popular vote. But it is still representative and democratic.

US contrast: in the US, citizens also don't vote for the President directly. Instead, we use a two-step system centered on the Electoral College.

Hypocrisy: if anyone (especially us American citizens) are going to argue that europeans should get to vote directly for the President of the EU commission, then they should also argue strongly to get rid of the Electoral System in the US and let the presidential popular vote be the decisive factor.
by DivingForGold | 2026-01-19 16:29:56+00:00
Well known barriers to the adoption of magnets in "mission critical" applications such as by the military are any containing Fe, as even with sophisticated plating and epoxy coating there are documented risks and evidence that moisture, especially saltwater and salt air starts to contaminate and corrode them. Also, the Samarium cobalt tech has a much higher curie Temperature or level at which the magnet looses it's permanent magnetism, important in many applications. Only further research would tell whether this new tech will be able to match or even exceed the MGOe of the Neo, or even the Samarium Cobalt magnets the military prefers. Also, the intrinsic coercivity or strength to demagnetization of any new magnet tech is a big factor. Niron Magnetics makes some disputable claims regarding their iron nitride tech, which iron nitride is incredibly susceptible to moisture, of lower intrinsic coercivity than the Neo and SmCo magnets, and not anywhere near the MG0e of the Neo tech. I remain skeptical.
by dangus | 2026-01-19 16:30:13+00:00
Did you build a library?

If you did, did you put yourself in a clean room and forget about every existing library you’ve ever seen?

Have you made sure your code doesn’t repeat anything you’ve seen in a CS101 textbook? Is your hello world completely unique and non-identical to the one in the book?

When you write a song do you avoid using any chord progression that has been used by someone else?

LLMs are just doing a dumbed down version of human information processing. You can use one to make an app and tell it not to use any libraries. In fact, I’d argue that using an LLM negates the need for many libraries that mostly serve to save humans from repetitive hand-writing.

You can even tell AI to build a new library which essentially defeats your entire argument here. Are you trying to imply that LLMs can’t work at an assembly language level? I’m pretty sure they can because they’ve read every CS textbook you have and then some.

Will it be quality work? The answer to that question changes every day.

But the fact remains that you are indeed acting threatened. You’re not “correcting” me at all, because I didn’t claim that AI-assisted developers are doing anything in some kind of “pure” way.

My claim is that they’re seeing something they want to exist and they’re making it exist and putting it out there, while the vast majority of haters aren’t exactly out there contributing to much of anything in terms of “real software engineering.”

Imitation is a form of flattery. When something “copies” you and makes it better/cheaper/more customized, that’s a net gain. If AI is just a fancy copy machine, that functionality alone is a net benefit.
by benj111 | 2026-01-19 16:30:22+00:00
As a Brit who studied history, the parallels to 1930s Germany are too strong for comfort. So I would suggest reading up on that for some answers.

Although as the comparison hopefully makes clear, you worrying about tariffs is missing the point, it's more a question of basic democracy at this point. I'm also somewhat concerned about your new found lust for Lebensraum, because again, that went well last time.
by wtmt | 2026-01-19 16:30:44+00:00
> In India, every tax imposed on a business goes straight to consumer. The consumer receipt even mentions all those taxes item-wise.

As someone in India, this statement is incorrect. There are no consumer receipts in India that show the import duties (which is what tariffs are) as an amount or as a percentage. There are plenty of goods sold in India that are imported, duty paid, and the costs are passed on to the consumers (with no explicit mention of that in the invoice or receipt).

You may be confusing these US tariffs with local taxes in India like GST. In the US, sales tax is shown in the consumer receipts (if or as applicable in the state, county, city, etc.).

In India and in the US, import duties are not shown in consumer receipts, except in the case where an individual is importing something and is liable to pay the duties and levies directly. Indians would probably revolt if they actually knew how much customs duty they’re paying for all the goods they buy individually.
by jandrewrogers | 2026-01-19 16:31:00+00:00
Occasionally the knockoffs are better than the "real" thing.

I once had a fleet of HP servers that had storage parts constantly failing. HP techs couldn't do anything useful about it, they just kept replacing the parts with authentic HP replacements.

Then HP ran out of the parts, probably due to the failure rates. Out of desperation we bought some cheap knockoffs to keep things running until the HP parts came back into stock. Those cheap knockoffs worked perfectly and were reliable, zero issues. Much better than the HP parts. We ended up buying enough of those parts to replace all the HP parts.

Many times the expensive official parts are literally the cheap knockoffs with more steps. And sometimes high-quality knockoffs are competing with the low-quality branded versions.

There would be enormous value in being able to trace the true provenance and supply chain for everything you can buy. It would be extremely challenging due to the incentives to misrepresent this information.
by axxto | 2026-01-19 16:31:01+00:00
You seem very well informed, so I'm sure you've read that every single railway engineer and independent expert is saying that this seems like a freak accident and that the causes are totally unknown.

Knowing this, you're still all over the thread trying to score political points while there are dead people still on the tracks. One quick glance on your posting history is all one needs to see that you're happy to take any chance to do so, apparently including the death of at least 39 people. You disgust me. Y te creerás un "español de los buenos". Felicidades, patriota.
by gpm | 2026-01-19 16:31:02+00:00
> Why go through the "prediction market" at all then

It's there. It's not actually easy to find hitman for hire. This is a publicly advertised market for it.

Plausible deniability. We weren't paying for the witness to be murdered, we were expressing our confidence that no one would murder the witness.

Price discovery. The market tells you how much you need to pay a hitman (if you overpay hedge funds swoop in and take the difference, telling you for next time. If the hedge funds underestimate the cost they end up paying a significant penalty to the people who they prevented from hiring a hitman).

Crowd funding. The market means that every can chip in however much they want towards paying the hitman, and they only end up paying if its enough. In fact the middlemen who accepted the bets in the meantime may promise to pay some small amount of damages if enough isn't collected.

It is impossible to stiff the hitman, and there is no risk for the hitman that the "winds change". The hitman takes out the entire "yes" position before committing the murder. If it's not enough, they don't commit the murder.
by tonymet | 2026-01-19 16:31:23+00:00
Although Wikipedia has no firm rules (WP:PILLARS), the admins reference the policies (that aren’t rules) when reverting content and banning. So here’s what I gathered

* no new Articles from LLM content (WP:NEWLLM)

* Most images wholly generated by AI should not be used." (WP:AILLM)

* “it is within admins' and closers' discretion to discount, strike, or collapse obvious use of generative LLMs" (WP:AITALK)

There doesn’t seem to be an outright ban on LLM content as long as it’s high quality .

Just an amateur summary for those less familiar with Wikipedia policy. I encourage people to open an account, edit some pages and engage in the community. It’s the single most influential piece of media that’s syndicated into billions of views daily, often without attribution.
by OutOfHere | 2026-01-19 16:31:27+00:00
Annual escalation of the grade, e.g. eight grade, should be altogether eliminated in favor of one month modules. This avoids wasting a whole year if one fails the grade. Faster feedback is better, up to a point, and it is better here.

How would this work in practice though if a teacher has to teach an entire class? Of course it would have to use computer instruction, with the teacher helping small batches of students who're in the month-long module, but only for a fraction of the time. Whatever you do, please do not call it a sprint - it misuses the concept from running by lasting forever, resulting in inevitable burnout.
by wolvoleo | 2026-01-19 16:31:30+00:00
Oh ok I didn't follow it that closely of course but that part didn't make it into the news here. He did complain about the trade imbalance but not specifically tariffs.

Ps: there isn't really a trade imbalance if you take services into accounts but Trump calculated them only on goods as if that makes sense

I don't think that would have resonated with his followers at all though.
by namrog84 | 2026-01-19 16:32:00+00:00
I dont know if it's true or not. But I remember reading about this person who would do the community reports for cheating for a game like cs or something. They had numerous bot accounts and spent a hour a day on it. Set up in a way that when they reviewed a video the bots would do the same.

But all the while they were doing legitimate reporting, when they came across their real cheating account they'd report not cheating. And supposedly this person got away with it for years for having good reputable community reporting with high alignment scores.

I know 1 exception doesnt mean it's not worth it. But we must acknowledge the potential abuse. Id still rather have 1 occasionally ambitious abuser over countless low effort ones.
by dzink | 2026-01-19 16:32:10+00:00
The election is a state at a moment in time. Before the election, to affect the state, propaganda machines target whatever is lower on the maslow hierarchy of needs for the voters - pesky tariffs are a tiny issue compared to that boogeyman that wants to target your children. Someone’s freedom is a pesky thing compared to that immigrant boogeyman going after your retirement savings. Once people have voted because they are scared for their life savings and their children, the elected can do whatever they want and target whomever they want with impunity for several years. Especially if they start building their own militia and threatening the judiciary.

This authoritarian model has proven very successful for anyone Putin and his aparatus has installed anywhere. Now it may be franchised even further.
by TimorousBestie | 2026-01-19 16:32:29+00:00
There’s no solidarity movement coalescing around Good’s death. When the local police chief invoked “say her name” in a public statement on it, it caused a bunch of acrimony and resentment instead.

I think Americans past the point where individual instances of police violence can shock us into taking political action (which is extremely risky in any case). It’s going to take kilodeath crimes, I imagine.
by mikeayles | 2026-01-19 16:32:35+00:00
Thanks, as a concept it has potential, I've leveraged some of my previous projects www.circuitsnips.com for inspiration for the subcircuit blocks, TOKN for more accurate parsing of schematics, and to a lesser extent even my datasheet MCP server and kicad-netlist tool, more info at https://www.mikeayles.com/

For the time being, I'm erring away from feature creep, even though I really, really want to though! For the sorts of products I would like this to make for the time being, simple I2C, SPI and GPIO driven peripherals are the limit. I only have 2 more weeks, and then I want to have a working, battery powered device on my desk. PCB, Enclosure, Firmware, everything.

Similarly, I haven't got a framework for anything mechatronic in the MCAD pipeline, so no moving parts (besides clickable buttons). Fixed devices are fine, like screens and connectors though.
by dfee | 2026-01-19 16:32:56+00:00
It wasn't a whole lot of words with no meaning, it was a response to the parent comment.

> Isn't this literally economics 101? How did we ever even end up imagining that tariffs are somehow paid by the exporter??

My response was that it's not binary, but a mixed case. And, furthermore, from the perspective of an individual exporter, their export profile may change if goods and services are purchased from a different exporter.

E.g. if the same good may be cheaper without a 25% tariff, then you'd expect the incentive to pay less to have some effect.

The US Treasury would still get money, but the exporting country might change.
by rm30 | 2026-01-19 16:33:05+00:00
To have an FM receiver work on a phone, you do need an antenna, the wired headphones serve that purpose perfectly. An FM transmitter is easy to find; you can use the simple 'Jack-to-FM' adapters designed for car radios, or much better, a USB SDR (which can range from a few kHz to GHz).

Regarding the 'protocol for the waves,' you'll need to play with modulation. That’s the fun part. In technical literature, there are many well-defined modulations (like AFSK or FSK) with clear suggested applications for low-SNR environments.

As for Android support, I have no idea. I understand that in this thread, 'free' sounds like 'freedom,' but freedom has a cost. The freedom of communication requires investment: in hardware, software, and the time to learn the physics of the environment.
by tvali | 2026-01-19 16:33:13+00:00
I have similar issue - I think in "dead internet", 1) people do not build custom forums for small social groups; 2) rule enforcement does not follow the structure of past where such small group followed deep conduct and 3) in large pools and aggregators of forums and discussion groups, the rules to be followed are like small bots: they cannot rely on the context. I personally use AI on my page for a good purpose, because we actually get on sync - but it's not giving up my creative work; it's proofreading, adding some references and facts and sometime very cocksure of it's style like "people won't read it".