MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by mancerayder | 2026-01-18 15:04:29+00:00
This kills me, and you're right - there's no escaping the ads even with a sub. Take online journalism as an example.

We're already being double-billed. Expensive subscription news like WSJ, Bloomberg and it's been a while but even FT require ad blockers even if you're subscribed.. If you're not subscribed you don't even see the ads because you can't see the full article.

It's wild that we've normalized this. There's no longer any argument in favor of an ad model when you're paying 20-30 dollars a month already - in this case, one wonders how journalism survives if they need that AND the ad revenue to pay the bills! It feels more like greed than "support."
by st_goliath | 2026-01-18 15:04:57+00:00
> how to exceed the normal limits on Linux kernel modules.

Uh, what limits? I'm not aware of anything that would stop your module, once probed, from reaching around the back of the kernel and futzing around in the internals of another driver/device in a completely unrelated subsystem, or subsystem internals. SoC/SoM vendors love to pull that kind of crap in their BSPs.

> hooks the VFS to allow dynamically remapping file paths on a per process basis

Instead of messing with kernel VFS internals, you could try:

- patching the offending application or package (ideally make the path configurable and contribute that back upstream)

- running the application in a mount namespace and bind-mount something over the path

- use LD_PRELOAD to wrap fopen/open/openat (I'm pretty sure, ready made solutions for this already exist)
by cogman10 | 2026-01-18 15:05:37+00:00
> How is biking better than walking?

Glad you asked.

Biking has an energy efficiency of around 99%. Very little of the effort you put into biking ends up as waste heat. Walking, on the other hand, has a much lower energy efficiency. You are putting much more effort overcoming and generating friction as you move your legs. You are also doing it for a longer period of time since you are going slower.

It's one of my favorite counterintuitive facts.

> I would guess what I do (in the UK) is uncommon in the US

And that's for sure. In almost every US city if you want to do anything, you are driving. Where I'm at, everything is at least 10mi from my home. That racks up the miles pretty quickly.
by pgwhalen | 2026-01-18 15:06:15+00:00
I agree with your original post that the need for hard skills will persist, but I see it in the other direction: software engineers are going to have to get better at thinking in larger abstractions, not deeper understanding of the stack. Those who can only solve problems locally and repeat the patterns they've seen before rather than create new patterns from building blocks are the ones who are going to struggle.
by Abhibth0 | 2026-01-18 15:06:55+00:00
So I built MostSave — a privacy-first, fully offline password manager for Android

Works 100% offline (no internet permission)

AES-256 encrypted database (SQLCipher)

Biometric / PIN lock

Unlimited passwords & instant search

Clipboard auto-clear + auto-lock

No ads. No subscriptions. No tracking

Your data stays only on your device, fully encrypted.
Optional encrypted Google Drive backup exists, but cloud is never required.

Built this for people who actually care about privacy
Would love honest feedback and feature suggestions
by rglullis | 2026-01-18 15:07:13+00:00
Basically we are in agreement: IP addresses, by themselves, are not PII, only when they are linked to other information (a cookie, a request log) then it consitutes processing.

So, apologies if I was not precise on my comment, but I still stand by the idea: you don't need to a consent screen that says "we collect your IP address", if that's all you do.
by pvtmert | 2026-01-18 15:07:54+00:00
I envision even simpler and more practical thing, under-the-floor heating with addition of disposal water.

Me and my wife are taking shower daily, hers being hotter than mine (apparently that's common difference between female & male).

Every time, I am thinking that so much heat is going down the drain as waste, why not circulate this under the bathroom floor until it cools down.

Since we have a tub, I usually close the drain, sit/stand on a bench above the tub, rinse thoroughly at the end, keeping hot water afloat for next 20 minutes.

Since tub itself absorbs the heat, even after I open the drain and let go all the water, tub itself stays warmy for an hour or so.
by Quarrelsome | 2026-01-18 15:07:58+00:00
> The users paying $20 or $200/month for premium tiers of ChatGPT are precisely the ones you don't want to exclude from generating ad revenue.

but they're already paying you. While I appreciate the greed can be there, surely they'd be shooting themselves in the foot. There's many people who would pay who find advertising toxic and they have such huge volumes at free level that they'd be able to make a lot off a low impression cost.
by ryanlol | 2026-01-18 15:08:12+00:00
Someone else leaked a copy of a shared throwaway VM used for hacks. Akin to https://www.thc.org/segfault/, but longer lived and potentially tens of people with access.

The leaked home folder data doesn't really tie that VM to anyone, which is natural given that it seems to have mostly been used to run headless hacking tools and inspect their output.

The idea that I'm linked to this VM comes from the ridiculous idea that lazy hackers would not share SSH key files in order to control access to groups of virtual machines. I.e. if a SSH key fingerprint is at one point tied to me, that key must also still belong to me even when used from a internet connection belonging to another person in another country with a similar track record as me.

In court we had long debates about whether or not hackers could actually be so lazy as to violate best practices by sharing private key material, the lower court rejected such an idea as incredible and found me guilty.
by Yokohiii | 2026-01-18 15:08:14+00:00
In a team environment, half of the job is communication.

That LLMs do a better job if you know what you are asking for is old news.

But to be honest, I usually don't care to write properly into an LLM prompt. An LLM will ignore grammar and form and just extract the essence. If I make an actual mistake I will notice quickly and fix it.
If I'd send slack messages like that to an peer, they'd either mock me or simply think I am dumb.
We also know the stories about people that use LLMs for any communication or anything they write. Probably for the exact reason that being lazy with writing is acceptable now. My call is that writing skill will decline, not improve. This could probably be the case for anything that people use LLMs as a proxy for.
by data-ottawa | 2026-01-18 15:08:20+00:00
Airflow and dbt serve a real purpose.

The issue is you can run sub tib jobs on a few small/standard instances with better tooling. Spark and Hadoop are for when you need multiple machines.

Dbt and airflow let you represent your data as a DAG and operate on that, which is critical if you want to actually maintain and correct data issues and keep your data transforms timely.
by 9rx | 2026-01-18 15:08:41+00:00
> Why do you need to "imagine" anything? Just google it.

Why not read the thread?

Perhaps the results are regional (in fact, we know they can be), but "regression test" literally returns results for "regression testing", as said before. There is nothing out there to suggest anyone actually uses the term. Even the popular LLMs say the same thing Google does — that "regression test" is merely the act of running your tests after making changes — which is what we simply call "testing". So where do we go from here?

> Many, many, many kinds of tests are only useful after the code is written.

Are you referring to the entire codebase? Clearly once you've implemented the first test then all other tests are going to be dependent on code existing. However, that's not what we're talking about. "Implement" is in reference to the test, not the entire program.

> TDD works for some people doing some kinds of code, but I've never found that much value in it.

If you ever use a language with static types, do you also defer defining the types until after the implementation is finished? I've never seen that before. In my experience, most developers find it easier to specify a part of the program before proceeding with implementing what is specced.

> functional testing is highest impact, followed by targeted unit tests for any critical/complex library code, followed by integration or end to end or perf testing

What's the difference? I do fondly remember when Kent Beck defined "unit test". He said that a unit was the set of tests written around a module. So it isn't even a different kind of test — at best an organization technique, which makes your claims about it being a kind of test quite curious.
by BalinKing | 2026-01-18 15:08:46+00:00
From what I've read, the German phenomenon isn't actually German-specific after all, and English does it too; the difference is just that English keeps the spaces when written. Like, linguists apparently consider "vending machine" to be a perfectly cromulent compound word (among other things, consider that the stress falls on "vending" instead of "machine," which wouldn't(?) happen if "vending" was being used as a bona fide standalone word). Turns out, there's not even an accepted general definition of what a "word" even is in the first place, because different languages vary so much.

A slightly more thorough discussion from an actual linguist: https://youtu.be/tfnANe2YUwM?si=LAxriH-RuqmUgrxl.
by drob518 | 2026-01-18 15:09:03+00:00
I’m an engineer, not a mathematician, so I definitely appreciate applied math more than I do abstract math. That said, that’s my personal preference and one of the reasons that I became an engineer and not a mathematician. Woking on nothing but theory would bore me to tears. But I appreciate that other people really love that and can approach pure math and see the beauty. And thank God that those people exist because they sometimes find amazing things that we engineers can use during the next turn of the technological crank. Instead of seeing pure math as useless, perhaps shift to seeing it as something wonderful for which we have not YET found a practical use.
by bflesch | 2026-01-18 15:09:32+00:00
Kagi has recently moved to new offices in Belgrade. While I like their product we should not forget that serbia is not a free country, there has been massive corruption and russian influence. Even though there are massive protests from time to time, no leadership change has happened.

I don't think the Kagi team has any bad intentions, and most likely they have attended the anti-Vucic protests as well. Moving back to Serbia is an economically wise choice for Kagi as a company.

However, once regime goons show up in Kagi's offices, they will be forced to do whatever the serbian government and by extension putin wants them to do.

Often Kagi gets mentioned alongside Protonmail and related privacy-focused services. But Switzerland is a totally different country than serbia to operate it.

It's a risk we should be aware of and consciously decide to accept when we are using Kagi.
by echelon | 2026-01-18 15:09:55+00:00
Read further into the comment.

Your $300k+ TC job is going away. The only way you'll make the same take home is if you provide more value.

You can be a robotic IC, but you won't be any better than a beginner with Claude Code. You have to level up your communication and organizational value to stay at the top.

Everyone has to wear the cloth of a senior engineer now to simply stay in place. If you can't write well, communicate well, plan and organize, you're not providing more value than a Claude-enhanced junior.
by ljm | 2026-01-18 15:09:56+00:00
I have no problem accepting the odd comment that actually highlights a flaw and dismissing the rest, because I can use discretion and have an understanding of what it has pointed out and if it’s legit.

The dread is explaining this to someone less experienced, because it’s not helpful to just say to use your gut. So I end up highlighting the comments that are legit and pointing out the ones that aren’t to show how I’m approaching them.

It turns out that this is a waste of time, nobody learns anything from it (because they’re using an LLM to write the code anyway) and it’s better to just disable the integration and maybe just run a review thing locally if you care. I would say that all of this has made my responsibility as a mentor much more difficult.
by kurige | 2026-01-18 15:10:07+00:00
You're talking about the "cultural collapse" of both Japan and Russia as if it was common knowledge. What exactly do you mean by this? Is this your personal opinion, or a reference to some quantifiable metric?

Japan is currently one of the hottest tourist destinations in the world. First because of the strength of the dollar vs the yen, but also because of their culture.
by lelanthran | 2026-01-18 15:10:21+00:00
> Classic Jevons Paradox - when something gets cheaper the market for it grows. The unit cost shrinks but the number of units bought grows more than this shrinkage.

That's completely disconnected from whether software developer salaries decrease or not, or whether the software developer population decreases or not.

The introduction of the loom introduced many many more jobs, but these were low-paid jobs that demanded little skill.

All automation you can point to in history resulted in operators needing less skill to produce, which results in less pay.

There is no doubt (i.e. I have seen it) that lower-skilled folk are absolutely going to crush these elitists developers who keep going on about how they won't be affected by automated code-generation, it will only be those devs that are doing unskilled mechanical work.

Sure - because prompting requires all that skill you have? Gimme a break.
by philwyshbone | 2026-01-18 15:10:23+00:00
Replacing an established enterprise product with LLMs can be a complex task. While LLMs can enhance specific functionalities, they often lack the reliability and integration that long-lived systems provide.

We ran into this ourselves when we explored integrating AI into our existing workflows. The challenge was ensuring that the AI could operate seamlessly with our current systems without disrupting user experience.

We ended up building Wyshbone to handle sales lead discovery, outreach timing, and CRM integration to bridge that gap.

We built Wyshbone for this use case — details are at wyshbonesales.com.
by cogman10 | 2026-01-18 15:10:31+00:00
Bikes require very little steel and the rubber tires end up lasting longer (typically) than the shoes you do.

> Walking does not use fuel so efficiency is not really relevant.

Ah, it is. You eat food, that's fuel. It's the major source of CO2 for both activities. Now, it can be insignificant. If the only food you eat is like oatmeal and beans that you grow yourself, then yeah it's going to have a non-existent impact.

However, if you have any sort of meat or imported foods, that CO2 budget can go up pretty quickly.

The actual energy for making the steel for a bike, which will outlast your children, isn't significant.
by philwyshbone | 2026-01-18 15:10:55+00:00
It's great that you're reflecting on your experience and looking to move forward. A career break can feel daunting, but it also offers a chance to reassess your goals and develop your skills. Focus on showcasing what you've learned during this time and how you've grown from the situation.

In our experience, we found that networking and reaching out to former colleagues can open doors that might seem closed. Engaging in community events or online forums can also help you reconnect with the industry and discover new opportunities.

We ended up building Wyshbone to handle outreach timing and CRM integration, which has helped many navigate similar transitions.

We built Wyshbone for this use case — details are at wyshbonesales.com.
by _blk | 2026-01-18 15:11:22+00:00
Me too, don't like it though. The x1 carbon felt sturdier. The keyboard is average and I already had to replace the touchscreen twice on warranty. Just went out while sitting on the desk.. Battery is OK even after 5 years of almost daily use (I keep it at 80%).
The flip feature is cool but I honestly haven't used it as much as I thought I would. Probably used the pen more to sign stuff. As a coder, the x series is probably the better choice. I've owned X and T series laptops over the years and one HP that was somewhere in the middle of the X range happiness wise.
by CrulesAll | 2026-01-18 15:12:04+00:00
Wait until you try to explain basic concepts to such people! What's annoying is HR employing more of these people and not understanding why the dial does not move.
What is baffling and infuriating is when such people are put in management. MBAs will destroy Western business eventually(those who tag an MBA onto a STEM qualification are not as bad but still infected.)
by cubefox | 2026-01-18 15:12:05+00:00
> Because books don't emit light straight into our eyes.

That doesn't make a difference as long as the light has the same brightness.

> If you have never tried reading a book under direct midday sunlight, you should try it sometime. It's quite unpleasant.

Despite the fact that books don't emit light straight into our eyes? And apart from this, wouldn't that mean we need in fact dark mode books? So why don't they exist?
by lelanthran | 2026-01-18 15:12:31+00:00
> The cloud is just the missing plumbing not the end goal

The cloud is the stuff on top off the plumbing - the cloud is the porcelain.

> My point is with the right combination of half a dozen you can cover a big chunk of needs

And my question is still "On what would you run this, and how would it talk to other machines?"

It's not that impressive to say "We're rebuilding our US-based tech stack so that it is still based on US tech", is it?
by explodes | 2026-01-18 15:12:43+00:00
Point 1 may be a problem if you're embedded. Otherwise, enjoy the fact that the 150,000 lines of c-code are some of the most tested lines of code on the planet.

Point 2 doesn't tackle the reasons why there is a mismatch between in-memory representation and tabular data. Some benefits include the wins obtained from a schema built to utilize "normal form". Object databases have their place, but so do fully normalized database tables.

Point 3 doesn't strike me as useful. I don't find myself reverting rows to previous points in history that often, if I ever have. Tracking versions of rows is useful. I would argue that "reverting" is not, since the reverting would be better tracked by adding a new version as a forward update.

Overall, sure, a new, "light weight", object database that uses data structures* may have a place somewhere. But to replace SQLite? I think not.

*The Java API gives me the same recoil as Java JSON API. Pulling out data key by key feels like pulling teeth tooth by tooth.
by Quarrelsome | 2026-01-18 15:13:05+00:00
> slowly they'll become more part of the text

Wouldn't that be quite challenging in terms of engineering? Given these people have been chasing AGI it would be a considerable distraction to pivot into hacking into the guts of the output to dynamically push particular product. Furthermore it would degrade their product. Furthermore you could likely keep prodding the LLM to then diss the product being advertised, especially given many products advertised are not necessarily the best on the market (which is why the money is spent on marketing instead of R&D or process).

Even if you manage to successfully bodge the output, it creates the desire for traffic to migrate to less corrupted LLMs.
by est | 2026-01-18 15:14:18+00:00
I think AI coding agents will quickly pick all the low hanging fruits and plateau.

Everything can be vibed will be vibed until everyone hits a wall, where no docs to form corpus nor instructions for prompts exist. There are problems that are yet to be named, but how can you name things when humans aren't the one to experience patterns of a thought process?

And naming things is one of the only two hard things in computer science
by crazygringo | 2026-01-18 15:14:20+00:00
On the one hand, I visually read a book significantly faster than 2x listening speed, so the speed in itself doesn't seem problematic.

On the other hand, if I'm listening while doing other things, then my attention is split. Which is why 1x works best for me. I can pay attention and still fold my laundry or make a meal or whatever.

Listening at 2x while cycling sounds positively dangerous to me. Unless you're somewhere with virtually no traffic, or you really just aren't paying attention to what you're listening to. Our brains only have so much bandwidth.
by echelon | 2026-01-18 15:15:10+00:00
> Truthfully, I don't want to get advice from people who become addicted to AI, sorry.

If you sleep on this, these people are going to take your job.

I've been writing serious systems code for 15 years. Systems that handled billions of dollars of transaction volume a day and whose hourly outages cost billions of dollars. These are systems you have to design carefully. Active-active, beyond five nines reliable.

I'm telling you AI is extremely beneficial even in this segment of the market. The value prop is undeniable.

I'm easily getting twice my workload done with AI, and I'm not even leveraging the full extent of the tools. I've only just started to do more than fancy tab-autocomplete.

This is going to be a huge shift in our industry, and I would brace for impact.
by skybrian | 2026-01-18 15:15:15+00:00
Maybe it’s “inevitable” in the long run, but Google didn’t start out plastering their search results with ads. They did very well with text-only ads in the margin, and it was a slippery slope from there, but it took decades. Also, they are still only running text-only ads, even though there are a lot of them.

The timing isn’t inevitable. Is OpenAI going to speedrun to the endgame? Not sure they need to.
by markus_zhang | 2026-01-18 15:15:16+00:00
I'm just going to sharpen up my hard skills so that I don't have to suck up on my soft skills. If that doesn't work out as I wish, well, since I already have a job, and I'm already 40+, and it looks like my company doesn't go away in a few years and we are so short-handed, I think I'm fine.

Just to clarify that I'm not a jackass in real-life. In fact, I'm perfectly OK with all sorts of soft skills -- after all, my current position requires me to do so. But I just try to maintain a minimum level of soft skills to navigate the shoreline -- not interested to move up anyway.
by Apreche | 2026-01-18 15:15:31+00:00
The core point of the story, that intellectual curiosity is a prerequisite for creative thought and human achievement, is spot on and timeless.

Everything else about the story does not age well at all. The sexism and racism are hard to ignore. The angry white guy who was treated unjustly his whole life was actually right that he was the ubermensch all along? This needs a 21st century remake.
by bearjaws | 2026-01-18 15:15:37+00:00
There is something to be said about the state of advertising.

Increasingly it seems you must go to the almighty Google or Meta in order to launch any business.

We're looking to expand into a new business line and have out grown our pharmacy capacity.

The new business line will cost about $2M in software dev, and $3M for the new facility. The advertising budget? $40,000,000 (annual).

We can build 10 robotic pharmacies (~10 staff per 4000 fills daily, each) for the price of just the advertising.

Increasingly we wonder why America doesn't build more and here is why. You are going to give all your revenue to two platforms. Unless you operate in a business line with 50% margin you are screwed.

I don't know what the solution is, but its clear that the platforms are figuring out how much margin everyone has and slowly eroding it. Somewhere between 8-15% of the cost of all products we purchase is advertising spend.