MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by ferguess_k | 2026-01-20 17:16:00+00:00
Not so fast, though. A state can be a "killer", or a "giver", or both, to gain followers and sell its currency to other states. The US was both back in the 40s as well as the late 80s when Germany and USSR crumbled. So hail to Pax Americana.

However, the US is more of a "killer" nowadays. The "killer" is usually more efficient than the "giver", because people value their life more than their wallet. So that's why I think she still has some time left. I don't blame it on Trump though. Being a "giver" is a lot more trouble than being a "killer", and I think the US elites gradually rolled back from the role of "giver" since many years ago. Trump is just here to remind other states that the US can and will be a very efficient killer.

And this is probably the most dangerous time for other states because she cannot afford to lose.
by orwin | 2026-01-20 17:16:01+00:00
I wish europe was out of NATO. It does nothing to defend europe, bring us in wars we didn't ask for, and manufacture crisis European still suffer from (Syria refugee). It force its "allies" to buy defective weapons that are basically spyware, and still spy on them just in case. It force other allies to spill their blood in the middle East.

The only "good" thing it did was breaking Sarajevo's siege in the mid 90s, but event then it isn't actually clear if the Serb wouldn't have backed off anyway at the end of the month because they couldn't progress due to the UN presence. Still saved a few hundred civilian lives, in exchange for a thousand of proto-nazi, so i can't say it was bad.

No one will attack any EU country anyway, as long as france doens't change its nuclear doctrine, which, i will state here once again, include a "warning shot".
by epistasis | 2026-01-20 17:16:14+00:00
That furthers the imbalance to the detriment of the US and in favor of the holders of whichever currency replaces USD.

Dedollarization means that the US market is far poorer and can't import as much as before, yet the new reserve currency(ies) make holders that much richer, enabling greater demand for either imports or self-consumption.

It will be an adjustment, but there will be many winners, none of which are the US. There may be some losers who do not negotiate trade deals or can't find new markets, but it's unlikely. The supposed US trade war on China has resulted in their GDP growing by a massive 5% last year. Canada, losing its exports to the US, negotiates deals with other countries.

The pain for other countries is more organizational than anything economic. The US will face massive economic disaster in the form of devalued dollars and the need to close the government deficit after decades of being addicted to massive reserve-currency-enabled deficit spending. The US will be plummeted into massive recession by those sudden changes, while the rest of the world merely trades with whoever are the winners.

If, for example, China decides that it finally wants a consumer economy, and the Renminbi becomes a partial reserve currency, the consumer demand will be absolutely massive. Europe may have a harder time signaling to Europeans that they are far wealthier, but make imports cheaper for Europeans, and people who find that they suddenly have a lot more left in their bank account at the end of the month usually find ways to spend at least part of it.
by nkrisc | 2026-01-20 17:16:26+00:00
For example: most small, plastic toys should not exist, regardless of how many people might want them. They’re essentially mass-manufactured pollution that harms the global environment. Sure, you can find positive effects of them, but I argue those effects are not worth the downsides.

There are many other things that would be a net positive of they didn’t exist.

Just because something can exist, just because some people might want it to exist, doesn’t mean we’re better off. Honestly I think the Amish and their measured approach to technology is correct (though my rubric would be different than theirs).
by baxtr | 2026-01-20 17:16:28+00:00
I no AI fanboy at all. I think it there won’t be AGI anytime soon.

However, it’s beyond my comprehension how anyone would think that we will see a decline in demand growth for compute.

AI will conquer the world like software or the smartphone did. It’ll get implemented everywhere, more people will use it. We’re super early in the penetration so far.
by kyboren | 2026-01-20 17:16:42+00:00
1. "The decision to invoke NATO's collective self-defense provisions was undertaken at NATO's own initiative, without a request by the United States, and occurred despite the hesitation of Germany, Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_NATO_Article_5_contingenc...

2. "I helped pass the bucket when you were putting out that brush fire, and now you tell me you won't run into my burning house to save my children?!"

3. Mutual support is more like "I'll help you with your main adversary and you'll help me with mine". What we have now is "Fuck no I won't help you with your main adversary, we oughta stay out of it--wait, how dare you suggest you won't fight my main adversary for me?!"
Show HN: Xv6OS – A modified MIT xv6 with GUI
by danko_os | 2026-01-20 17:16:44+00:00
I've been working on a hobby project to transform the traditional xv6 teaching OS into a graphical environment.

Key Technical Features:

GUI Subsystem: I implemented a kernel-level window manager and drawing primitives.

Mouse Support: Integrated a PS/2 mouse driver for navigation.

Custom Toolchain: I used Python scripts (Pillow) and Go to convert PNG assets and TTF fonts into C arrays for the kernel.

Userland: Includes a terminal, file explorer, text editor, and a Floppy Bird game.

The project is built for i386 using a monolithic kernel design. You can find the full source code and build instructions here:
by adamc | 2026-01-20 17:16:46+00:00
Not true. Some, like myself, love the idea of the shining city on the hill, although we often find the behavior of the actual city less than shining.

I would like for the US to continue being a beacon of freedom where people can come and build great lives.

But that is not the direction we are going, and one might reasonably forecast that no country can maintain indefinite dominance. Paul Kennedy wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" almost 40 years ago. Regression to the mean and all that, but also, great powers tend to overstep.
by rayiner | 2026-01-20 17:16:55+00:00
The benefit of NATO to Europe is clear. In 1960, France was spending over 5% of GDP on defense. The UK was 7%. https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2024/number/4/ar.... That's significantly more than the 3.5% the U.S. spends today. Today, both France and the UK are around 2%.

Not having to spend 3% or 5% of GDP on the military is a clear benefit. Or look at Germany's gas deals with Russia. Being able to contract with an adversary for access to cheap energy, while spending just 1-2% of GDP on the military--under the assumption that American firepower will keep Russian expansionism in check--is a clear benefit!

Are the benefits of that arrangement to America equally clear? You mention arms sales, but does the U.S. sell so many arms that it pays for the costs of our huge military? Or is it one of those situations where taxpayers foot the bill of military bases in Germany, while Dick Cheney's friends gain the profits from arms sales? You didn't respond to OP's central point. The US had the world's largest economy 60 years before NATO, and the highest per-capita GDP since 1880. What's the reason to believe that we wouldn't still be in that position without NATO, without "soft power," etc?

And before you inevitably mention Trump--I should point out that I don't fully agree with Trump on this. I agree with him that using our military to support NATO is a poor use of the money. But he wants to keep a large military and use it for endeavors that he thinks will have a higher ROI, like capturing oil from Venezuela. While I would prefer to cut the size of the military and invest the money domestically.
by sudobash1 | 2026-01-20 17:17:00+00:00
I think RSS feed reader users are also unaffected by flags. At least hnrss.org feed followers are. I haven't tried news.ycombinator.com/rss. But as long as the post hits the RSS feed before it is flagged, your reader can pick it up.

Honestly, for me, most of the time I am not interested in the flagged posts, but if you are, RSS is another way to see them.
by verdverm | 2026-01-20 17:17:17+00:00
that's still largely a "container" or "sandbox", using the same kernel features, and some package / provisioning manager

I use Dagger, which is BuildKit based underneath, and aligns closely with Dockerfiles, but is far more flexible and is accessible from many programming languages

so in this sense "it's not my own take", but both of these are our own "take" on assembling several pieces of technology to realize a certain application feature. It's the feature that is the "dime-a-dozen" and most people largely don't care what technologies you choose to deliver that feature
by oasisbob | 2026-01-20 17:17:35+00:00
Why shouldn't it be relevant?

The example you put forth supporting your claim that AI is perfect for Wikipedia editing is that you (ambiguously) edited an article, perhaps using AI.

The post also reads like it was partially written with AI.

I'm sorry you see my response as hostile, but I hope you can see how this example isn't accomplishing your intended rhetorical goals.
by alwa | 2026-01-20 17:17:48+00:00
It’s certainly government. The US Congress created it as an agency of the US government, just as it did every other government agency; and the Congress can destroy it. The Congress did not provide for direct political control—elections (and electoral politics) can’t change the Federal Reserve’s decisions (or decision-makers) directly.

There’s indirect control: the elected administration selects people to nominate as governors, who then go on to make the decisions. But they have to choose people who the (elected) Senate will confirm, and there’s not too much the executive can do if they don’t like the decisions their appointed governors go on to make during their 14-year terms.

The question at hand at the moment is whether the executive can unilaterally usurp the agency’s Congressionally-mandated structure and use its power directly.

It’s kind of like how the various Civil Service acts sheltered career civil servants from the constant changes in political winds, so that we can have career professionals in government instead of using public paychecks purely as a prize for the buddies of whoever won the last election. The present administration resents that independence too.
by molson8472 | 2026-01-20 17:17:55+00:00
Once approval fatigue and ongoing permission management kicks in, the temptation is strong to run `--dangerously-skip-permissions`. I think that's what we all want - run agents in a locked-down sandbox where the blast radius of mistakes and/or prompt injection attacks is minimal/acceptable.

I started running Claude Code in a devcontainer with limited file access (repo only) and limited outbound network access (allowlist only) for that reason.

This weekend, I generalized this to work with docker compose. Next up is support for additional agents (Codex, OpenCode, etc). After that, I'd like to force all network access through a proxy running on the host for greater control and logging (currently it uses iptables rules).

This workflow has been working well for me so far.

Still fresh, so may be rough around the edges, but check it out: https://github.com/mattolson/agent-sandbox
by chrisco255 | 2026-01-20 17:18:08+00:00
Nobody is cheering for inflation to get worse, they are celebrating it being held down to 2.7% after higher inflation a few years ago.

The U.S. is a net exporter of oil and food and self-sufficent for majority of its mineral needs as well.

There is no need for U.S. to crash its currency to incentivize domestic production, it can just impose tariffs on imports to do so.
by waffletower | 2026-01-20 17:18:10+00:00
Claude Code is a command line CLI. There are many like it -- Opencode, aider, Gemini CLI -- you launch the CLI in a software project directory and ask it to code interactively. It can navigate source files and create them. I prefer the approach to Cursor, however, there is a vscode extension for Claude Code as well: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/vs-code
Poll: When will the thinking machines be destroyed?
by Bender | 2026-01-20 17:18:20+00:00
It appears each generation will become more and more dependent on AI to learn or function and critical thinking may be diminished. At some point humans may require internet connectivity to function and will only know what AI permits them to know. At what point will the people, governments or military organizations destroy the thinking machines AI. Using Thinking Machines in reference to Dune as that may be the path we are on in addition to Idiocracy.

Based on this [1] discussion of a recent article.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ath34Y5_uhw [video][42m]
by chmod775 | 2026-01-20 17:18:25+00:00
The main issue with precise jumps (for me) is that they require you to

- already exactly know where you want to go

- figure out the relative distance either by looking to the side at relative line numbers or calculating

- move your hands to the numbers row to input numbers and back (I don't have small hands, but that still translates into a small amount of arm movement for me).

Whereas just using repeat input on jklhwe... only requires you to have a rough idea initially and leaves you plenty of time to figure out where exactly you want to stop while you're already getting there.

Besides: I don't like to think about random numbers while I'm coding. Doesn't exactly make the cursor feel like an extension of my body (imagine you had to tell your hand "move 10 centimeters left")

Another quite intuitive way I navigate is using "/something" and cycling through hits - usually you know some text that appears near the area you want to go. That was pretty much instant muscle memory.
by alexfoo | 2026-01-20 17:18:31+00:00
> Getting computer work done inside a vehicle is not easy if comfort is a requirement. Driving posture is not generalisable.

I had a similar situation to the GP in that I only ever used my laptop in a car for an hour or two a week. In my case it was whilst one of my offspring was doing some sports related thing that I had to drive them to.

Most of the time I'd just take a book to read but sometimes I'd like to tinker with some programming thing in that time.

More often than not there was a nice cafe to sit in, or a nice bench somewhere in the sun, or a viewing gallery that meant I could watch rather than staring at my laptop. But not all venues were the same.

Some had nowhere to watch or nowhere to sit in the warm or dry, and nowhere suitable within a short drive, and so I'd default to sitting in the car experimenting with seat angles/etc to get into a position that wasn't awful.

Not owning my own car meant I was often driving something different each time which added to the fun. (RIP UK Zipcar.)
by baby_souffle | 2026-01-20 17:18:32+00:00
> There's no chance US will default on its debts,

Why not? It has happened* before therefore it can/will happen again.

* (more or less). I would count significant debt restructure (1790) or replacing promised gold with paper (1860-1930, 1970) or even a significant delay (1979) as a default... even if it was temporary in 1979.
by telotortium | 2026-01-20 17:18:45+00:00
> If you would rather support Trumps agenda then vote with Democrats, then you are supporting Trump.

Okay, but I can just as easily say that you are pro-crime because you share a coalition with progressives that get district attorneys like Chesa Boudin elected (just this week the newly-elected Democratic state legislature in Virginia introduced bills to reduce the penalties for burglary, a violent crime - no normal person was asking for this).

You have a point that anyone in a coalition supports the most extreme actions of that coalition, but if you can’t make any distinction between the intents of different actors in the coalition, the only option becomes total defeat of the other side. But that is difficult to achieve in practice, particularly with a near 50-50 party split like we have in the US today. Even when the US decisively defeated the Confederacy, there were still a lot of people that either sympathized with the South or at least thought an indefinite military occupation of the South wasn’t worth it (like the US tired of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan), which is why Reconstruction ended.

So counting on total defeat of the other side is a fool’s errand, unless one side or the other executes a coup, which sadly is looking more and more likely. Trump supporters argue that the Democrats and their sympathizers in the Republican Party performed a soft coup during Covid and the 2020 election, which is why Trump has taken care to surround himself with loyalists this time around.
by randusername | 2026-01-20 17:18:48+00:00
> I frame it not as turning a dial down, but as switching channel from practical problem-solver to emotional problem-solver.

This perspective was a good stepping stone for me, but then I realized I needed bigger changes to keep growing. However I defined the problem to be solved, I was still setting up a dynamic that was arrogant. I thought I was air traffic control when others were looking for a copilot. Somebody along for the ride with them, not just requesting information about them and offering commentary from the ground.

Reading _How to Know a Person_ helped me a lot.
by 827a | 2026-01-20 17:19:32+00:00
The decline has been steady since ~2000.

The US dollar being used less across the world has both negative and positive consequences for the US and USG. This is the Triffin Dilemma, and dates back to the 1960s; the USD's dominance over-values the currency relative to other currencies, which hurts exports and thus domestic manufacturing. It also conflicts USG/UST priorities between making decisions that are best for the US people, versus best for international customers of the dollar. Triffin covered this at length in his address to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress in 1959, but in short, the USD acting as world reserve currency creates demand for the dollar, which the US has to be able to supply, which pre-1971 meant extreme strain on her gold supply, and post-1971 means greater monetary inflation.
Show HN: I built an app to track Autopay bills and subscriptions in one place
by vamsi9640 | 2026-01-20 17:19:32+00:00
Hi HN,

I built TrackAutoPay, a small app to help people track autopay bills and subscriptions in one place.

The idea came from my own frustration: I had subscriptions scattered across multiple cards and accounts, and no single place to see what renews when or how much I’m really spending each month.

What it does:
Track subscriptions and autopay bills
See monthly / yearly recurring spend
Get reminders before renewals
Spot unused or forgotten subscriptions

Right now, users manually add subscriptions, which keeps things simple and privacy-friendly. I’m exploring smarter detection later, but wanted to start with a transparent MVP.

Website: https://trackautopay.com
PlayStore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trackautop...

I’d really appreciate feedback from this community:
Would you trust a tool like this?
Manual entry vs bank/email parsing — what would you prefer?
What’s missing that would make this actually useful long-term?

Happy to answer questions and take criticism.

Thanks.
by pavlov | 2026-01-20 17:19:41+00:00
The answer is already clear: Britain regrets the move more.

In June 2025, 56% of people in Great Britain thought it was the wrong decision:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/987347/brexit-opinion-po...

It's hard to imagine this number would be going down after recent events like USA suddenly threatening arbitrary new tariffs on the UK.
by nospice | 2026-01-20 17:19:48+00:00
> My 30k ft view is that the stock will inevitably slide as AI datacenter spending goes down.

Their stock trajectory started with one boom (cryptocurrencies) and then seamlessly progressed to another (AI). You're basically looking at a decade of "number goes up". So yeah, it will probably come down eventually (or the inflation will catch up), but it's a poor argument for betting against them right now.

Meanwhile, the investors who were "wrong" anticipating a cryptocurrency revolution and who bought NVDA have not much to complain about today.
by trash_cat | 2026-01-20 17:20:08+00:00
The former IMF chief Kenneth Rogoff has been talking about this and appeared on NYT Ezra Klein's podcast that I highly recommend[0]. He also talks about China and the role of the dollar at the end with Dwarkesh Patel[1]. A lot of the discussion I see here is adressed by him.

[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT2cohNt6a4
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2b4TjQa4gk
by mothballed | 2026-01-20 17:20:16+00:00
Retailers don't accept crypto not because of the technology so much as the fact it is a capital gains event every time you transfer crypto, which means both the buyer and seller are now forced to keep a log of their gains/losses against the dollar everytime they buy a pack of gum.

Obviously that's extremely impractical and at best you're hiring a 3rd party to streamline that for you. It's a clusterfuck at tax time.

Retailers already dealing with capital gains and with high chargeback rates love it though. For instance, it's usually the cheapest same-day clearing way to buy precious metals online since credit card rates are high (chargeback), ACH takes days, and wires tend to cost $15+ with many banks.
by xorcist | 2026-01-20 17:20:22+00:00
NATO is a rootkit, a foothold for lateral movement in a literal sense, for the US in Europe. Is is not "critical" for anyone, in some theoretical sense, but it has proven very effective over the better part of a century to keep European military in check and guaranteed not to form any other alliances than with the US.

The EU itself was viewed critically from Washington until it could be proven that it had no intention of becoming a military alliance. So while it could be true that the US does not need NATO in a strict sense, the idea that it has not been net beneficial to the US is absurd. No Danish soldiers would have died in middle eastern wars if it wasn't for NATO.
by iLemming | 2026-01-20 17:20:23+00:00
> people like you are going to have to start voting with their wallets.

You think I CHOSE to be miserable? Sorry, I have kids, and you know, they don't exactly live on dog food, but even that costs money. My job requires me to use a Mac. And please don't tell me to "find a better job". I've been programming for over twenty years, only once I was given a clearance to pick "whatever kind of machine you want". For my personal computing I do use Linux.
by notahacker | 2026-01-20 17:20:25+00:00
> Does anyone really need to?

It feels like the rest of the post answers your own question. Yes, Vance et al and basically everyone below him know full well that the US acquiring Greenland would be utterly pointless and utterly disastrous.

But he won't let it go, and in the mean time he's doing lots of stuff with real world consequences like tariffs and incinerating alliances to try to get people to agree with his stupid idea. Can't even use it as a "negotiation chip" when its the fruits of actual completed negotiations being threatened and the US could put any military installations in Greenland they wanted if they said "please" instead of "we are going to take you over".