MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by disgruntledphd2 | 2026-01-28 15:17:28+00:00
> the demographic/pension crisis.

This is the actual issue, which we often avoid talking about because it's grim. Like, health care is expensive, old people health care is really expensive, and the proportion of old people in many Western countries is increasing over time (because of a fall in birth rates). I believe the FT had a good article about this recently, where they showed that the vast majority of extra spending from government was on old people.

Now, clearly, society doesn't want to just shoot old people when they get sick, but I'm not sure how taxation is gonna look as the proportion of old people increases. Obviously increasing retirement ages helps here, but that's mostly just a massive tax on blue collar workers, who are much less likely to be able to continue working into their 70s, whereas for many cubicle jockeys, it's a lot more plausible.
by hjaveed | 2026-01-28 15:17:38+00:00
I’ve been seeing a lot of noise about Clawdbot, so I spent time actually running it and writing down what I learned.

2026 could be the year of personalized agent harnesses in a box, where developers use agent SDKs to build their own systems, specialized and verticalized for a specific use case.

Under the hype, the interesting part is simple: this is AI that lives with you, not something you open and close. It runs, remembers, and does work in the background. That shift matters more than the product itself. And yes currently it's a security nightmare, but we will evolve soon using more secure sandboxes to run the AI.

I wrote this as a thinking-out-loud piece, not a review.

Sharing here if you want to read:
https://www.hadijaveed.me/2026/01/28/clawdbot-beyond-the-hyp...
by iroddis | 2026-01-28 15:17:38+00:00
I don’t think coding is dead, but I do find AI deeply demotivating. It feels like continuing to play a game after the cheat codes have been enabled.

You could be an amazing player, but everyone will point out the cheat codes are on. The last refuge will be deeply niche programming or areas not well represented in, or not generalizable from, the vast training corpus.
by jaynamburi | 2026-01-28 15:17:43+00:00
The Meta–Corning $6B fiber deal highlights a real constraint in AI infrastructure that often gets less attention than GPUs: optical fiber availability, long lead times for high-count fiber, and the physical reality of interconnect density. As model training scales, east-west traffic, spine-leaf saturation, and power efficient optical links are becoming just as critical as compute. This also pushes data centers closer to fiber routes and edge aggregation points. Modular data-center approaches like Syaala are interesting here they reduce deployment time and let operators land compute where fiber and power actually exist, instead of waiting years for traditional builds. AI infra is increasingly a supply chain problem, not just a silicon problem.
by amelius | 2026-01-28 15:18:26+00:00
> UI framework balkanization has always been, and remains a hideous mess.

At least things look more or less the same over time. With commercial offerings one day you open your laptop and suddenly everything looks different and all the functions are in a different submenu because some designer thought it was cool or some manager needed a raise.

> It'll probably work fine out of the box, but if it doesn't. Hoo boy.

LLMs are actually very useful for Linux configuration problems. They might even be the reason so many users made the switch recently.
by JumpCrisscross | 2026-01-28 15:18:48+00:00
> government is not one entity and it is perfectly possible for one sub-entity to have certain data and for another not to be able to have that same data

Sure. Again, we agree. What I’m pushing back on is the notion that it was inappropriate for any branch of the government to have these data, or that any of this has anything to do with private dragnets.

They’re addresses. This isn’t a possession problem, it’s one of access.

> the USA does not have the equivalent of a GDPR

You could have super GDPR that bans all private dragnets and HHS would still have home addresses. This is a Privacy Act and HIPAA problem.
by simoncion | 2026-01-28 15:18:54+00:00
(I'm posting in a reply in part because the edit window is long since past.)

Yeah. I'm actually quite interested in hearing what "workarounds" and/or misbehavior you're talking about. 'amdgpu(4)' says this about the TearFree property:

Option "TearFree" "boolean"
Set the default value of the per-output ’TearFree’ property,
which controls tearing prevention using the hardware page flip‐
ping mechanism. TearFree is on for any CRTC associated with one
or more outputs with TearFree on. Two separate scanout buffers
need to be allocated for each CRTC with TearFree on. If this op‐
tion is set, the default value of the property is ’on’ or ’off’
accordingly. If this option isn’t set, the default value of the
property is auto, which means that TearFree is on for rotated
outputs, outputs with RandR transforms applied, for RandR 1.4
secondary outputs, and if ’VariableRefresh’ is enabled, otherwise
it’s off.

The explicit mention that the "auto" enables TearFree only for secondary outputs and rotated and/or transformed outputs if 'VariableRefresh' is disabled seems to directly contradict what I think you're saying. And if "auto" enables TearFree on secondary displays, my recommendation of "on" certainly also does. But, yeah. I await clarification.
by fundatus | 2026-01-28 15:19:14+00:00
Somehow I think the stars might be aligning this time though. People are genuinely fed up with Windows and governments around the world are loudly thinking about how to reduce dependence on US tech. And then there is Proton which makes it much easier for Gamers to jump ship. To me it feels like there is more momentum than ever for this.

On the other hand I am also a realist and I don't think that Linux will take over the Desktop, but it will certainly have it's biggest growth year ever in 2026.
by grogenaut | 2026-01-28 15:19:23+00:00
The go tech is amazing in 2 places: airport and stadium beverage tunnels. There's a premium price and high volume in those areas. The go tech has basically revolutionized the speed of getting a beer and a dog at the stadium here in Seattle. I can be back in my seat in 4 minutes including the bathroom now which for NFL means I can literally be back in a commercial break sometimes.

no idea how much they make on it, but it's a game changer in that small area.
by aaronmdjones | 2026-01-28 15:19:24+00:00
> just to throw the ex president in jail and to stop him from running again?

Being convicted of a crime does not stop you from running for president. Being in prison also does not stop you from running for president -- one person has. The only qualifications necessary to run for president are to be a natural born citizen, have spent the last 14 years living in the country, and be at least 35 years of age.

Also, the criminal trial against him started after he assumed office for the second time. EDIT: Got my years mixed up. Ignore that last bit.
by AHTERIX5000 | 2026-01-28 15:19:33+00:00
My Windows 11 installation broke down after one of the updates. Now I get "Please reinstall Windows" warning in Windows Update settings. And some error hex code which doesn't really help. I've installed like 5 different apps on this machine and never ran any "tweaking" scripts or apps.

I don't think I ever had to reinstall Windows 2000 but here we are.
by _fat_santa | 2026-01-28 15:19:34+00:00
I've been running Ubuntu Linux for a long time now (over a decade, started with 8.04). Linux still has it's fair share of bugs but I'll take having to deal with those over running Windows or MacOS any day.

For me the biggest thing is control, with Windows there are some things like updates that you have zero control over. It's the same issue with MacOS, you have more control than Windows but you're still at the whims of Apple's design choices every year when they decide to release a new OS update.

Linux, for all it's issues, give you absolute control over your system and as a developer I've found this one feature outweighs pretty much all the issues and negatives about the OS. Updates don't run unless I tell them to run, OS doesn't upgrade unless I tell it to. Even when it comes to bugs at least you have the power to fix them instead of waiting on an update hoping it will resolve that issue. Granted in reality I wait for updates to fix various small issues but for bigger ones that impact my workflow I will go through the trouble of fixing it.

I don't see regular users adopting Linux anytime soon but I'm quickly seeing adoption pickup among the more technical community. Previously only a subset of technical folks actually ran Linux because Windows/MacOS just worked but I see more and more of them jumping ship with how awful Windows and MacOS have become.
by godzillabrennus | 2026-01-28 15:19:36+00:00
I documented all of my early computers throughout early college, and I'm glad I did. I remember the first computers well, but without those notes, I wouldn't remember the first ten in so much detail. My first computer that was not a family computer was: UMAX 233mhz Pentium 2, 64Mb Ram, 8Gb HDD (was crushed when sat on by sibling)
by rocmcd | 2026-01-28 15:20:02+00:00
You would think that if you genuinely wanted to curb illegal immigration, then this would be the way to do it. People come here for money. Take away the money and they will no longer come.

Hell, you would probably have bipartisan support for nationwide crackdowns on employers who are employing anyone here illegally. They are undercutting American employees and dodging taxes. Who wouldn't be for that kind of law enforcement?

Instead we get unaccountable masked men with guns murdering citizens and terrorizing an entire populace. Imagine if an "ICE raid" meant a team of accountants showed up at a business and gave them a hefty fine for employing anyone here illegally. It seems like that would be much more effective, which makes me genuinely wonder if the demonstration of strength through cruelty that we currently have hasn't been the goal all along.
by xxs | 2026-01-28 15:20:14+00:00
>an Acer 486 with 40MB drive and 32MB RAM.

32MB ram <-- no way. 4 and 8MB were the standard (8MB being grand), you could find 16MB on some Pentiums. So 40MB drive and 32MB RAM is an exceptionally unlikely combo.

32MB become norm around Pentium MMX and K6(-2).
by lxgr | 2026-01-28 15:20:16+00:00
IPv6 solves the addressing problem, not the reachability problem. Good luck opening ports in the stateful IPv6 firewalls in the scenarios outlined in TFA:

> And that assumes a single NAT. Many sites have a security firewall behind the ISP modem, or a cellular modem in front of it. Double or triple NAT means configuring port forwarding on two or three devices in series, any of which can be reset or replaced independently.
by no_wizard | 2026-01-28 15:20:21+00:00
I don’t think those have much to do with it.

Certainly Go is a more rigorous language than say JavaScript but it’s package mangement was abysmal for years. It’s not even all the great now.

C/C++ is the same deal. The way it handles anything resembling packages is quite dated (though I think Conan has attempted to solve at least some of this)

I think Cargo and others have the hindsight of their peers, rather than it being due to any rigorous attribution of the language
by convolvatron | 2026-01-28 15:20:27+00:00
Legally. With due regard to the rights of those involved, and when detention is necessary, with humane treatment. In particular honoring due process, where people have the right to to at least be seen by a judge. The right to communicate with their families, and when deportation is necessary, send them to their country of origin instead of another continent entirely or paying some prison somewhere to detain them indefinitely. That when people are detained at all it on the orders of the a judge, expressed in a warrant. That while under detention they should have access to legal services, and have an avenue to complain about their treatment if necessary.

This was all very well understood and hashed out through law and precedent over many decades.
by hn_acker | 2026-01-28 15:20:50+00:00
The full title is:

> Principles for a Human-Rights Centred Application of the DSA: A Global Perspective

A short explainer is at [1].

[1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/01/dsa-human-rights-allia... - DSA Human Rights Alliance Publishes Principles Calling for DSA Enforcement to Incorporate Global Perspectives
by belorn | 2026-01-28 15:20:54+00:00
In the old time with init scripts you had to figure out where to put all those sleep(10) based on the servers specific hardware and software stack. Far from everything in the initi script blocked execution until they completely finished, and things that previously worked could suddenly stop working if you changed hardware or software.

The big difference that created deterministic servers in the past is that you could install the server once and then leave it for 10+ years without doing any updates. People were proud of servers and services with massive uptimes with no patches and no reboots. I only see those now if they either have no internet connection or are locked down containers with very restricted network access.
by rafaelmn | 2026-01-28 15:20:59+00:00
As much as I love the idea of moving to Linux - Mac hardware is like two years ahead of PC currently in pretty much any regard aside from gaming. I keep looking for an iteration where it makes sense to switch but currently the intel core 3 stuff is at best comparable to M5 base. Strix Halo is much more power hungry and also not that impressive other than having a bunch of cores. Nothing comes close to the pro/max chips in M4 series. And with RAM/storage pricing Apple upgrades are looking reasonably priced (TBD when M5 Pro devices launch).

So I can either get a top tier tool when I upgrade this year or I can buy a subpar device, and the power management is going to likely be even worse on Linux.
by whateverboat | 2026-01-28 15:20:59+00:00
- Yes. I think big players in Linux should start supporting core functionalities in GNOME and KDE, and make it polished for laptops and desktops and that would be very cool. For a long time, KDE had a problem of having too many things under its umbrella. Now, with separation of Plasma Desktop and Applications, focusing on Plasma Desktop and KDE PIM should be a good step.

- Kind of ties to the old point: KDE on Wayland does this extremely well.

- You're back to 20 years because problems are exactly from 20 years ago. Vendors refusing to support linux with d rivers.

- Audio filtering? Interesting. I know people who use Pipewire + Jack quite reasonably. But may be you have usecase I am now aware of? Would be happy to hear some.
by frutiger | 2026-01-28 15:21:00+00:00
I know. I would still be impressed if Bezos’s w-2 income was below $400k.

Edit: also you need to pay the loan back, and the income to pay it back is taxable. You can die with an outstanding loan, but i’m sure bezos lenders will structure the loan to make sure they get most of their money back.
by unyttigfjelltol | 2026-01-28 15:21:07+00:00
I had to dump a perfectly fine c.2012 workstation recently because of video driver limitations. Could no longer stay current on my flavor of Linux (OpenSUSE) and have better than hideous display resolution limited to just one monitor. NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers are great, but the limited support lifecycle plus poor open source coverage is actually making Linux turn fine systems into trash just the way Windows used to do.
by giancarlostoro | 2026-01-28 15:21:11+00:00
This was me in 2022 or 2023. I have posted on HN about my shift a few times. I gave up with Windows 10 because you needed Windows Pro in order to make an "offline" account, I spent $2000+ for a gaming rig, and I couldn't add new users, one program told me to use the other program which brought me back to the original program... I had to go out of my way, buy a license just to make it work. I just went and installed Linux finally. I was on POP_OS! for a good year, but been on Arch Linux for one year plus now.

I know its a "meme" to talk about how great Arch is, but when you want the latest of something, Arch has it. I use EndeavourOS since it had a nicer simpler installer (idk why Arch doesn't invest in whats standard in every other major distro) and if you just use "yay" you don't run into Pacman woes.

Alternatively, I'm only buying Macs as well, but for my gaming rigs, straight to Arch. Steam and Proton work perfectly, if you don't sell your games on Steam or in a way I can run them on Linux I am not buying or playing them.
by adamzwasserman | 2026-01-28 15:21:23+00:00
The author's framing is too generous to management.

This isn't about AI at all.

Amazon lost money in 2022, started cutting, then posted $30B, then $59B in profit while continuing to cut. Pinterest had one mildly bad year, then a record year, then announced layoffs yesterday.

The pattern: once a company discovers it can reduce headcount without hurting revenue, it never stops. AI is just the current justification. Before that it was "synergies" and "restructuring." The story changes; the outcome doesn't.

Jassy admitted as much on the Q3 earnings call: the cuts are "not really financially driven and it's not even really AI-driven." He's telling you the truth. They cut because they can, and Wall Street rewards it.

The real anti-labor mechanism isn't AI. It's the discovery that headcount is decoupled from output.
by Photogrammaton | 2026-01-28 15:21:39+00:00
Hugh Kenner is good on a surprisingly wide range of things. This is a publisher's description of a book called The Counterfeiters, first published around 1968:

"Wide-ranging enough to encompass Buster Keaton, Charles Babbage, horses, and a man riding a bicycle while wearing a gas mask, The Counterfeiters is one of Hugh Kenner's greatest achievements. In this fascinating work of literary and cultural criticism, Kenner seeks the causes and outcomes of man's ability to simulate himself (a computer that can calculate quicker than we can) and his world (a mechanical duck that acts the same as a living one)."

Kenner also co-authored a relatively early text generator, called Travesty, that would analyze a source text in terms of n-grams (e.g., 4-letter combinations) and then generate something new to match it. This was published in Byte magazine in 1984.
by reconnecting | 2026-01-28 15:21:51+00:00
Last MacBook Pro that I used was a 2.6 GHz Core i7 / 16 GB with Catalina. I took a rugged version of Dell (don't remember the exact model), put Debian with Xfce on it because I don't want those shiny UIs, and must admit that even medium resources are enough to run it.
by pixl97 | 2026-01-28 15:22:06+00:00
>but they must be at least partially technical.

Having sat in many a meeting, partially yes, but these things are massively expensive. There is an equation, How much would it cost us to write a replacement that covers what we need versus how much does it cost us to use what exists that isn't efficient.

And this is where you miss the biggest part of the problem. It's the end users that bear the biggest part of the costs. Yes, there is an internal cost for their own developers, but that is comparatively small to the costs of their paychecks.

The next comes to management of the lightweight solution over time. If it's owned by a company at the end of the day companies are rarely interested in lightweight, they are interested in making the most money and quite often that means adding more and more features to accomplish lock-in.

Open source is more likely to keep a project remaining light, but to do that it's quite often by not accepting bulky features that would make companies more money. So you see where the catch-22 situation starts to arise from.
by FireBeyond | 2026-01-28 15:22:15+00:00
I always have a skepticism with this... in my extended Facebook network (so acquaintances from work, the fire departments I used to be with)... there's a lot of people who identify as "libertarian" or "independent". You'd think that averaged out, their beliefs should align reasonably equally between conservative and liberal and those parties (either issue to issue or overarching).

No. They are almost always fairly tightly and heavily lockstep aligned with the Republican party.

My fiance has a few friends in the dating scene. Their comments mirror this: "If someone has "apolitical/I'm not into politics/centerist" on their profile you can generally assume they are quite conservative.
by arcsincosin | 2026-01-28 15:22:28+00:00
This essay quickly superimposes the "throughput oriented" procedural shift of lean manufacturing onto the current LLM coding moment and uses our value language around manufacturing to tell a story about the near future of software. I find it well written and presenting a clearer hypothesis than other narratives about the LLM-replaces-junior-devs post-ZIRP moment.
Show HN: BarrierX: Win back lost enterprise deals by analyzing that others close
by IAMsterdam | 2026-01-28 15:22:29+00:00
Hey HN — I built BarrierX after watching sales teams ignore thousands of lost deals sitting in their CRM.

The problem: lost deals aren't really "lost" — they're just badly timed. Budgets change, champions move companies, competitors screw up. But nobody tracks this systematically.
What BarrierX does:

Ingests your won and lost deal history from CRM
Analyzes patterns: what signals preceded wins vs losses
Monitors lost accounts for trigger events (job changes, funding, reorgs)
Surfaces which lost deals are worth re-engaging now — with context on why

We've seen teams recover 15-20% of "dead" pipeline just by working smarter on win-backs.
On access: We're invite-only while we tune the models per customer. HN folks — reply with your CRM setup and I'll fast-track you.

In early pilots, teams resurfaced ~18% of deals marked 'closed-lost' as re-engageable within 90 days.

Curious what others have tried here. Most tools focus on net-new. Is anyone else systematically working lost deals?
by teekert | 2026-01-28 15:22:30+00:00
I have always used Linux personally, only work made me use Windows and Mac (controlled endpoints) for the past 20 years. For 4 years I have my own company, 100% Linux.

I know that some things are not as nice on Linux (ie you need to do MS365 in a browser for example, and MS365 files from a NAS in OnlyOffice is not great, etc). But other than that, I just love living in Gnome. What more do you need that just a clean desktop with some tiling, some virtual desktops, a clock, battery indicator and windows with your stuff? I don't even know. I like that I can set up Linux in 10 min.

I recently set up a Windows 11 machine for a neighbor, it took so long! And it offered dozens of things I didn't want, to the point that I began feeling a bit nervous towards my neighbor (no you don't need that, no not that, no that's just tracking, no why would you want your desktop in the cloud?). Then when finished... it wasn't finished, I need printer drivers, an HP package with drivers and stuff for the BIOS etc etc etc. So much time.