MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by ralferoo | 2026-01-28 13:08:34+00:00
For me, I guess several reasons:

* Log files aren't where I expect them. I can't just tail the right log file, I have to figure out a load of options to journalctl instead. Its defaults are annoyingly bad and I usually end up having to type long things to limit the range to something useful.

* The journal grows massively and is unbounded by default. Many times I set up a machine, and then it runs out of disk space. It's now instinctive for me to now check whether it's /var/log/journal that's using it all. In fact, I just double checked on the machine I happened to be using now, and the journal was 2.2GB.

* It's terribly documented, or at least not in the way that's familiar to older UNIX folks. It took me about 30 minutes of googling to figure out how to change the name recorded in the journal, which defaults to the command name in ExecStart (and so was really usefully just unshare in multiple of my services). For anyone that's wondering it's SyslogIdentifier - good luck finding that yourself. It makes sense, but it's woefully under documented anywhere.

* Whenever you change files that used to be the end of it, e.g. /etc/fstab, now you have to remember to `sysctl restart systemd-mount` - why can't whatever needs it just watch the file for changes instead?

* Too many things just happen in the background that never used to. Just now for instance, I manually unmounted a drive to resize2fs it because I wanted to move the underlying data. Between running e2fsck and resize2fs, systemd had already re-mounted it read/write. Luckily, resize2fs is smart enough to tell you. If I'd been doing the actual task using dd to copy the data elsewhere, I'd have ended up with a corrupted copy.

* Just yesterday, I discovered that edits under /etc/network/interfaces.d were just silently ignored, and I had to learn the new systemd way of doing it. I never did figure out how to set the MTU in the configuration either.

* The configuration files feels Windows-like and not UNIX-like

That said, I've reluctantly started creating systemd services instead of rolling my own init scripts, and it's quite nice not having to copy all the boilerplate from elsewhere and just having a handful of lines of config. But most of the time, I feel like I'm fighting systemd rather than working with it.
by drorco | 2026-01-28 13:08:42+00:00
Then the next question is why does wealth, in practically all industrious countries seem to distribute disproportionally and not uniformly?

One argument could be that maybe entrepreneurial personality traits aren't normally distributed, and unless you find a way change people's personalities in mass, the imbalance in wealth attraction will remain inherent.

Then you might ask, if that's true, do you I want to enforce equality, potentially dragging down the economy to mediocracy (for example many stagnating European economies) or maybe accept that current nature does not meet our societal desire for equality.
by sylens | 2026-01-28 13:08:48+00:00
Spot on assessment of an Amazon Fresh store. Their big gimmick is a cart where you can scan your groceries as you put them in it, then you just walk through a designated check out lane and it charges your card automatically for whats inside. I've tried it a few times and I can't say its preferrable for any type of shopping trip. Only picking up a few things? You're faster with a basket and self checkout. A big weekly food order for a family of four? All of your groceries won't fit in their special cart because it needs room for the scale and the scanners.

The prices are indeed pretty insane and the produce is always great, but the stores are ghost towns most of the time. The only people inside are those using it as a spot to drop off Amazon.com returns and those fulfilling pick-up orders
by yetihehe | 2026-01-28 13:08:55+00:00
> I don’t think they realize the fire they’re playing with my stomping on the social contract that made them so wealth.

Some of them do: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42335797

But the pitchforks are coming for 12 years already. They got accustomed to the sight and even put some measures to redirect the masses so they fight each-other.
by windexh8er | 2026-01-28 13:09:06+00:00
The private sector is only "more competent" at a certain size. Google, Microsoft, Meta - they're all largely inefficient and only effective as it pertains to the dollars they spend in lobbying. All of these companies are largely wasteful with respect to the money they spend on executives and initiatives that go against their own customers. They mirror the USG more and more year over year.
by nathan_f77 | 2026-01-28 13:09:18+00:00
This is great! Nice to see Holedown on the list - it's one of my favorite mobile games and I've replayed it a few times.

I'm also working on a new game at the moment. I have no idea how long it will take since I'm having too much fun coming up with new ideas and adding new levelsm but I'll definitely submit it here once I launch it.
by hagbard_c | 2026-01-28 13:09:30+00:00
ChromeOS and devices it was made for are not the best start in Linux-land since it is Linux just like Android is, i.e. it is based on a Linux kernel but for the rest quite different from 'standard' (GNU-) Linux distributions like Debian + derivatives, Arch, Fedora etc. Maybe you can get that userland tool from ChromeOS to work in Debian, maybe not.

Even though you're trying to get Debian installed on the thing I'd also refer to the Arch wiki for information on how to get things working right:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Chrome_OS_devices

Arch being what it is it has attracted a host of knowledgeable users who have collected their information about how to get things working on different systems in an organised and usually comprehensive way on that wiki. Much if not most of what is written there is also applicable to getting non-Arch distributions running on those systems.
by bux93 | 2026-01-28 13:09:30+00:00
Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union "A regulation shall have general application. It shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States." - for example, GDPR.

But even if this were implemented using a Directive (note: the SE is created in a Regulation, that's the link in my previous comment), this still would not mean that the law or the directive would necessarily need to require a company to be "sponsored" by a specific state - whatever that means. (Again, it would help if you'd define "sponsor" with a specific legal reference.)

And even then, Von der Leyen could have been talking about changing the TFEU treaty itself, which is ambitious but certainly not impossible. But again, I see no reason why this can't be done in a regular fashion, just like the already extant SE Regulation.
by JumpCrisscross | 2026-01-28 13:09:31+00:00
> How are Palantir so effective?

What are you using to conclude their effectiveness?

It appears Palantir “brings up a dossier on each person, and provides a ‘confidence score’ on the person’s current address” [1]. That’s like VLOOKUP.

On effectiveness, Trump is deporting fewer people than Obama did with a tenth of the budget.

[1] https://www.404media.co/elite-the-palantir-app-ice-uses-to-f...
by smeej | 2026-01-28 13:09:33+00:00
Do you hear how this reads? It reads like you're not going to take warnings about the dangers of government power seriously because the people espousing them are trying to use government power dangerously themselves.

If you can't see the irony in that, that their warnings are twice as important if the pool of potential abusers if government power is twice as big, then nobody's really losing anything when you opt out of engaging these people.
by Tarq0n | 2026-01-28 13:09:34+00:00
Sort of, with at least two caveats.

1) velocity of money matters, some spending creates more economic activity than others due to re-spending.

2) Investment is not the same as having your money sitting idle. Investment makes certain activities possible because of scale, payment made with the expectation of future value, financing capital goods or R&D, etc.
by throw0101a | 2026-01-28 13:09:39+00:00
From the leftist-Communist rag (/s) Wall Street Journal:

> It started out that way. At the beginning of 2025, 87% of ICE arrests were immigrants with either a prior conviction or a criminal charge pending, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project. Only 13% of those arrested at the beginning of 2025 didn’t have either a conviction or a pending charge.

> But the criminal share of apprehensions has declined as the months have gone on. By October 2025, the percentage of arrested immigrants with a prior conviction or criminal charge had fallen to 55%. Since October, 73% taken into ICE custody had no criminal conviction and only 5% had a violent criminal conviction, according to a Cato Institute review of ICE data.

* https://archive.is/https://www.wsj.com/opinion/mass-deportat...

Under Obama 3M illegal immigrants were removed, and there wasn't all of this drama.

(Hint: this isn't about public safety or illegal immigration.)
by 101008 | 2026-01-28 13:09:52+00:00
Even if what you are saying it's true (which is hard to prove), that may not be their fault either. Sometimes the context doesn't allow you to do what you want, what you think it's best, etc. You would say "Resign and find somewhere where you could", and that isn't easy either.

So again, please let's try to be more empathic, we are not talking about terrorist or really bad guys. These are employees of companies, with familires, who probably need those salaries to live in these weird times.
by sgarland | 2026-01-28 13:10:03+00:00
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

…

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

…

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.

- Some insurrectionists
Ask HN: Anyone actually doing AI browser automation?
by rco8786 | 2026-01-28 13:10:46+00:00
We've been experimenting with various browser use tools that are out in the wild. They all promise the same thing...natural language prompting for browser use automation.

Ignoring the typical challenges around Auth, 2FA, etc. Is anyone having success getting these out of "demo" stage and actually deployed with any scale?

I keep running into the same issues. Same prompt, same website, same input data, different results on screen (missed a click, wasn't focused on the right thing, flubbed the EU cookie modal, etc).

So I'm looking to poll the community here. Has anyone gotten this reliable to a point where they deploy it into the cloud and it runs without a human babysitter? If so, can you share some of your approach with us?
by ksec | 2026-01-28 13:10:53+00:00
The problem with this question is they never mentioned or specified who is "they".

Especially in UK where The Rich that dont belongs to UK in the first place will of course move and leave. Those who are born and raised are highly unlikely to move.

And perhaps most importantly the question completely ignore the real problem. There isn't a lack of Tax revenue, but the government incompetence to allocate and use it wisely. To raise tax is just saying what we are doing now is absolutely correct and we will continue to do so.
by carlosjobim | 2026-01-28 13:11:05+00:00
That of course depends on what you mean by "society".

But everybody is able to reinvest profits into a business they have, whether that's an industry giant, or a tiny one-man shop. There is no government on planet Earth which considers that to be "tax avoidance". Governments want profits to be reinvested and not paid out to owners, even the most socialist governments you can find.

If you're against this, then you shouldn't talk about taxes. You should rather talk about abolishing private property completely.
by TheOtherHobbes | 2026-01-28 13:11:25+00:00
There are literally two economies - the one most people live in, and the asset owning economy which deals exclusively in land, property, resources, and shares.

The health of an economy is defined by the permeability of the border between those two classes, and the direction of flow.

If the flow is mostly one way, you're getting wealth extraction, not investment.

But assets are not easy to move. So if you tax assets and not income, it doesn't matter where the owners are. It only matters where the assets are.
by Lionga | 2026-01-28 13:11:31+00:00
Countries in which the income disparities ARE so high are also the ones where the "poor" are the richest. They just feel poor in comparison not in absolute terms.

70K a year is poor in California, but top 1% rich in almost any country in the world.

Low income disparities are countries like Albania, Afghanistan, Armenia to name the first three with below 30 GINI income.
by RobertoG | 2026-01-28 13:11:37+00:00
who say they are effective? They just have contacts.

It's the privatization of what started as an intelligence program.

Recommended watching (The REAL Story Behind Palantir's Dystopian Pre-Crime Takeover (w/ Whitney Webb)):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3DFZFoJC5s
Show HN: Guardrails for AI-written Markdown: enforce document with mdschema
by jackchuka | 2026-01-28 13:11:43+00:00
I built mdschema, a small Go CLI that validates Markdown documents against a YAML “schema.”
(required headings/section order, required code blocks by language, table headers, frontmatter rules, links, etc.).

Motivation: Docs are often edited by many people and AI tools, leading to structure drift (missing sections, reordered blocks).
This is meant as a simple guardrail you can run locally or in CI.

Feel free to try it out and let me know what you think!
by SilverBirch | 2026-01-28 13:11:48+00:00
Are they effective? Do you have data on the number of people they've correctly identified vs false-positives. In fact, do you have any evidence they're even trying to limit false positives?

The reason they are able to very efficiently send a dozen ICE agents to a random persons home to hold them at gun point until they can prove their immigration status is because the goal is to send ICE agents around holding people at gun point and they're happy if they happen to also get it right sometimes.
by CMay | 2026-01-28 13:12:14+00:00
Well, if he's innocent until proven guilty and you agree with that, why do you need someone to prejudge their guilt and tell them they are on the wrong side of history by not prejudging? That really does come across as promoting vigilantism.

You've clarified that you don't support vigilantism...so, what benefit do you get from someone deciding guilt beforehand?

Why is it your position that people should not wait until investigations are done and it has been combed through in court? What purpose does that serve if not for vigilantism?

It sounds like you are aiming primarily for a political benefit or a sort of emotional moral validation through cultural acceptance of your view. This is why we have courts, because people can become very emotional and invested in an outcome. It can become a critical part of your identity and world view that someone be guilty. Those are generally presented as cautionary tales in history books, not the example to live by.
by rovr138 | 2026-01-28 13:12:46+00:00
> Not really, you can emulate macOS on any Linux/x86-64.

Intel is going to stop being supported with the current OS version (Tahoe, 2025). OS are supported for about 3 years.

I'm curious what will happen after. If they'll break it or if they'll allow the services to keep running on unsupported hardware.

Got a couple years left
by blablabla123 | 2026-01-28 13:12:52+00:00
From what I've read is that they are not a product company. But they rather have a zoo of solutions. And they are hired by governments desperate to improve their IT, probably after the n-th issue going public. I highly doubt this would be legal in many states but who will (and can) check this anyway?

Of course it's tempting to throw everything into one huge database. But Jesus, this is like interns writing the Software...
by etbebl | 2026-01-28 13:12:52+00:00
I get that the scope of the article is a bit larger than this, but it's a pet peeve of mine when authors acknowledge the advantages of conda and then dismiss it for...silly? reasons. It kind of sounds like they just don't know many people using it, so they assume something must be wrong with it.

> If you don’t need compiled extensions, Conda is more than you need.

Am I missing something or isn't that exactly the problem we're talking about here?

> And even when you do need it, conda environments are heavier than virtual environments and the resolver used to be infamously slow. Mamba exists largely because conda’s dependency resolution took forever on nontrivial environments.

Like it says here, speed isn't a problem anymore - mamba is fast. And it's true that the environments get large; maybe there's bloat, but it definitely does share package versions across environments when possible, while keeping updates and such isolated to the current environment. Maybe there's a space for a language package manager that tries to be more like a system package manager by updating multiple envs at once while staying within version constraints to minimize duplication, but idk if many developers would think that is worth the risk.
by Finnucane | 2026-01-28 13:12:58+00:00
Mass. passed a high-income surtax a few years ago, with the result that we raied a lot of funds for schools & infrastructure, and we atill have plenty of rich people. Wealthy people hate paying taxes, but after paying, they're still pretty wealthy. And, some of them like living in a state with decent schools, health care, etc.

https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2025/11/17/do-millionai...
by cucumber3732842 | 2026-01-28 13:13:04+00:00
>If everyone would be able to play these tax avoidance schemes I'm sure society would collapse

Would it? Or would it just shift demand around? I mean the money is still there, and I don't see any reason the entities with money would lock any more of it up in a "static" manner (e.g. gold bars and piles of cash) than they do now.
by JumpCrisscross | 2026-01-28 13:13:04+00:00
> I'm reading this correctly, they're just straight up violating the law

HHS says “under the Immigration and Nationality Act, ‘any information in any records kept by any department or agency of the government as to the identity and location of aliens in the US shall be made available to’ immigration authorities.” If that’s true, they’re following the law.
by fatherwavelet | 2026-01-28 13:13:27+00:00
I think it becomes more a religious and philosophical question than an economic question. We need to separate economics from the neoliberal religion.

Byung-Chul Han - Psychopolitics should be standard text that everyone is discussing right now but instead we will probably do nothing and the future will suffer the consequences of our collective intellectual laziness.

neoliberal ideas vs Marxism is just incredibly intellectually lazy. We really need to think on the level of the way Marx did about the industrial revolution in a new way without being lazy and just falling back on the standard Marxist orothodxy religious ideas.

We don't just need a protestant reformation, we need an entire new religion to deal with this. I think that will be too hard so if I had to bet my bet would be on we do absolutely nothing.
by theshrike79 | 2026-01-28 13:13:32+00:00
Just looking at PROMPT.md:

The role thing doesn't work anymore ("You are a..."), it's just fanfiction.

Also adding MUST NOT just pollutes the context, it's the "don't think of a pink elephant" but for LLMs

It's enough to say "Use Java 21+", no need to add a negative of "don't use below 21"

And this is just weird: "MUST NOT Change the license from MIT" - did an agent change the license in your code or what prompted you to add this?
by fzeindl | 2026-01-28 13:14:05+00:00
They probably won‘t. I recently watched a talk (in german) with Julia Friedrichs, who wrote a book about millionaires and billionaires and did many interviews with them:

https://www.youtube.com/live/4HpJKPywXqY?si=bb-p558jl_otP25I

In her research she found that many of the ultra-rich people actually have deep/patriotic/nostalgic ties to their home/community and want to invest there. They often use certain tax-evasion measures because everybody else does and she argued that those few ultra-rich people who really just care about minimizing their taxes have already moved everything abroad.
by throw0101a | 2026-01-28 13:14:08+00:00
> Illegal immigrants must be deported.

There are literally 20x more illegal immigrants in Texas as compared to Minnesota:

* https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/unauthorized-immigrant-...

* https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/unauthorized-immigrant-...

There are 12x more in Florida:

* https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/unauthorized-immigrant-...

If you want to go fishing, the Mojave Desert is not the place you should be going. If they want to go after illegal immigrants go to where they actually live and work.

* https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-unauthorized-immigra...

(Hint: this is not about illegal immigration.)
by susam | 2026-01-28 13:14:12+00:00
Did my part and submitted my only two rather humble attempts at games:

https://susam.net/invaders.html

https://susam.net/myrgb.html

Both were pretty well received here on HN. The second one is more popular one among the two with about 90 unique visitors per day on an average, as far as I can tell from the access logs after filtering out bots and scrapers. The first one has about 10 unique visitors per day. Really tiny numbers, but it's a delight that some people out there return to this game regularly. Thank you, whoever you are.

Playing computer games is how I was introduced to computers. I too wanted to develop my own invaders-like game when I was about 8 years old. Unfortunately, I neither had enough access to computers nor sufficient programming skills at the time. The first link (invaders.html) is the result of fulfilling that childhood dream 30 years later.

Inspired by a few computer games from the early 1980s, the first game also includes an autoplay algorithm. If you leave the game idle for 5 seconds after loading, the autoplayer kicks in and starts playing the game automatically.

Each game is implemented in plain HTML and JavaScript as a single, unminified, easily readable HTML page. Anyone can download the page, save it locally, play it offline as well as inspect or tweak the source code.
by michelmyara | 2026-01-28 13:14:19+00:00
This is a win from a tax perspective. Canadian founders pay Canadian income tax on their salary, regardless of where the company is incorporated. The Delaware C corporation pays its own income tax in the US using form 1120.

The personal tax rate is the same. The corporate tax rate is actually lower.

US: 21% (federal only).
Canada: 23% to 31%, depending on the province.

I'm the co-founder of looch, a US SMB financial platform. Our Delaware incorporation package is $249, all-in. https://looch.money/start