MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by simoncion | 2026-02-23 17:55:48+00:00
> ...but have been deemed ineffective for the age verification conversation, for whatever stupid reason.

Consider that such arguments (just like the arguments of Prohibitionists that resulted in the rise to power of Organized Crime) are made in a varied combination of ignorance and bad faith, and that we should loudly reject them in the strongest possible terms.

To be clear, I'm asserting that the claim that preexisting parental controls are insufficient is an argument made in ignorance and bad faith, not your assertion that the argument is being made.
by fmbb | 2026-02-23 17:56:34+00:00
I don’t think we can expect all workers at all companies to just adopt a new way of working. That’s not how competition works.

If agentic AI is a good idea and if it increases productivity we should expect to see some startup blowing everyone out of the water. I think we should be seeing it now if it makes you say ten times more productive. A lot of startups have had a year of agentic AI now to help them beat their competitors.
by chfritz | 2026-02-23 17:56:49+00:00
Working with nine different robotics companies over the course of 10 years has taught us a thing or two about designing robotic full-stack architectures. All this experience went into the design of Transitive, the open-source framework for full-stack robotics. In this new mini-series of blog posts we dive into the three core concepts of the framework.

We think that once you've experienced the magic of full-stack encapsulation, you'll not want to go back to the old ways of writing distributed code, esp. in robotics.
Show HN: BVisor – An Embedded Bash Sandbox, 2ms Boot, Written in Zig
by edunteman | 2026-02-23 17:56:52+00:00
bVisor is an SDK and runtime for safely executing bash commands directly on your host machine. We built it on the belief that "sandbox" doesn't need to mean shipping off to remote sandbox products, or spinning up local VMs / containers. Sometimes, you just want to run that bash command locally.

bVisor boots a sandbox from user-space without special permissions, powered by seccomp user notifier. This allows us to intercept syscalls from guest processes and selectively virtualize them to block privilege escalation, isolate process visibility, and keep filesystem changes isolated per sandbox (copy-on-write). Sandboxes boot in 2ms, and can run arbitrary binaries at native speed (with minor overhead per syscall). This approach is heavily inspired by Google's gVisor.

As of today, bVisor supports most filesystem operations, basic file I/O, and can run complex binaries such as python interpreters. It is packaged as a Typescript SDK and installable via npm. There's much to still implement (such as outbound network access to support 'curl', shipping a python SDK, etc), but we wanted to share it here for feedback and anyone who'd be able to make use of the current featureset!
by ljm | 2026-02-23 17:57:06+00:00
You're not wrong but Google in particular paved the way for not doing support, or doing as little support as possible, and oftentimes things only get actioned if you generate enough clout on social media to attract a Google engineer's attention.

It's hard to avoid the massive dependencies, especially if you're starting small and moving fast, because something like Google Workspace or MS 360 or Slack is cost-competitive compared to spinning up your own internal stack of tooling. At least until it isn't, but hopefully your startup has grown enough by then that it can afford to address these concerns.
by Sabrees | 2026-02-23 17:57:19+00:00
Thanks, bit conflicted about it TBH, it's primarily/initially a weeding robot, although I do dream of expanding it to do harvesting, and yes potentially sowing too down the line.

Strapping something like the Jang P6 to it is probably feasible https://reagtools.co.uk/collections/jang

For the harvester it would be a bolt on for https://reagtools.co.uk/products/quick-cut-greens-harvester or maybe https://reagtools.co.uk/products/babyleaf-harvester-80cm (I grow green salads)
by KoolKat23 | 2026-02-23 17:57:21+00:00
Devices such as phones come with an option when you start the device asking simply is this for a child or an adult. Your router generally these days comes with a parental filter option on start up too.
Heck we have chatgpt that can guide a parent through setting up a system if they want something more custom.

If people want to push, they should just push to make these set up options more ubiquitous, obvious and standardized. And perhaps fund some advertising for these features.
by coldtea | 2026-02-23 17:57:24+00:00
>but medium and long term we need to figure out how to build systems in a way that it can keep up with this increased influx of code.

Why? Why do we need to "write code so much faster and quicker" to the point we saturate systems downstream? I understand that we can, but just because we can, does'nt mean we should.
by chunkmonke99 | 2026-02-23 17:57:34+00:00
I don't understand this line of reasoning. Like genuinely. So with AI coding (let's just limit ourselves to coding); are you saying that the Agent is going to prompt itself? Like it exists only to read your mind and create precisely the code you wanted or didn't even know you wanted? Or will you have to explain and verify that it did what you asked? At some point we run into magical thinking and absurdities.

Programming or math are not like Chess or Go. There is no endgame to win. And the human/input/judgement/whatever and where that begins or ends isn't a technical issue but a political one.

So my question: are you expecting that at some time N that models are so good that they can read your mind? Or are you saying that you will just be able to "speak" into existence any type of software? And how are you going to specify this if you can't already point to something similar?
by saghm | 2026-02-23 17:57:57+00:00
I guess I might not have been clear. I'm specifically wondering about this part, which is what I was referring to about the critique they gave of the actual content:

> Nearly every example of his critique is of the UK, not Europe as a whole, and each of them has plenty of counterexamples of the same thing happening in the US.

Separated from the ad hominems on both sides, it seems like a pretty reasonable criticism to me. It doesn't seem obvious to me that it should be dismissed as irrelevant.
by noduerme | 2026-02-23 17:58:05+00:00
>> oversee the hordes of AI agents

This is the thing I don't really get. I enjoy tinkering with AI and seeing what it comes up with to solve problems. But when I need to write working code that does anything beyond simple CRUD, it's faster for me to write the code than it is to (1) describe the problem in English with sufficient detail and working theory, then (2) check the AI's work, understand what it's written, de-duplicate and dry it out.

I guess if I skipped step 2, it might save time, but it would be completely irresponsible to put it into production, so that's not an option in any world where I maintain code quality and the trust of my clients.

Plus, having AI code mixed into my projects also leaves me with an uneasy sense of being less able to diagnose future bugs. Yes, I still know where everything is, but I don't know it as well as if I'd written it myself. So I find myself going back and re-reviewing AI-written code, re-familiarizing myself with it, in order to be sure I still have a full handle on everything.

To the extent that it may save me time as an engineer, I don't mind using it. But the degree to which the evangelists can peddle it to the management of a company as a replacement for human coders seems highly correlated with whether that company's management understood the value of safe code in the first place. If they didn't, then their infrastructure may have already been garbage, but it will now become increasingly unusable garbage. At some point, I think there will be a backlash when the results in reality can no longer be denied, and engineers who can come in and clean up the mess will be in high demand. But maybe that's just wishful thinking.
by fartfeatures | 2026-02-23 17:58:14+00:00
This is where Apple, Microsoft and Android need to step up. Indeed they already have in many ways with things being better than they used to be.

There needs to be a strict (as in MDM level) parental control system.

Furthermore there needs to be a "School Mode" which allows the devices to be used educationally but not as a distraction. This would work far better than a ban.
by tsimionescu | 2026-02-23 17:58:16+00:00
A company is not a person in this way. If a company wants all of their employees to read a book, they are not allowed to buy one copy and then make 5000 copies "for archival purposes - fair use" then share those copies to their employees. Similarly, if they want to base a work on a copyrighted work, they can't just buy a copy for personal use (nevermind the fact that most of the data the LLMs are trained on is not even available in this format, it is only available under a license) and then use it in a commercial product in this way - not if the product demonstrably contains copies of that work.
by SoftTalker | 2026-02-23 17:58:24+00:00
A lot of talk and no solutions. Exactly the reason we are where we are.

Liquor stores, bars, strip clubs, adult bookstores, or similar businesses don't let kids in. The tech industry ignored their social responsibility to keep kids away from adult content. Now, they are facing legal requirements to do so. Tough for them, but they could have been more proactive.
by gruez | 2026-02-23 17:58:41+00:00
>There's no special protection for works that a human has memorized.

Who's liable for the copyright infringement if you can coax it out of a system? If you can bypass paywalls by using google's cache feature (or since they got rid of it, but using carefully crafted queries to extract the entire text via snippets), is google on the hook or the person doing it?
by Rover222 | 2026-02-23 17:58:49+00:00
I think the biggest counter argument to this essay is that the demand for software is infinite. It's a feedback loop of society running on increasingly complex software. This project is never "done". Even as code implementation becomes ever cheaper, the demand scales at least as quickly as the implementation. Developers using these tools are already 95% removed from writing code, but a lot of us are working harder than ever. Company ambitions just scale with what's possible in their budget.

I mean yes, maybe the humans will just be out of the loop in the budget if agents can do it all. But maybe it's a long tail of getting there. Or maybe it happens suddenly. Who the hell knows. Interesting times.
by mschuster91 | 2026-02-23 17:59:15+00:00
> Tesla did it, and is more valuable than most other car brands added together.

Half of Tesla's value is hopium, the rest of it is pure trust in that the current government will continue propping Elon up (even if he personally ran afoul of the Dear Leader). A lot of the promises Elon made, particularly when it comes to FSD, had to be tracked back and I don't see them ever coming to fruition - at least not for the cars that don't have LIDAR hardware.
by uniq7 | 2026-02-23 17:59:17+00:00
In your system, can companies do age verification offline, or do they need to send a token to the Government's authority to verify it (letting the Government identify and track users)?

In Switzerland they are working on a system that does the former, but if Government really wants to identify users, they can still ask the company to provide the age verification tokens they collected, since the Government hosts a centralized database that associates people with tokens.
by lostresduros | 2026-02-23 17:59:24+00:00
I am developing a web-based card game. I’ve spent a lot of time polishing the core mechanics of my game to make it as solid as possible, and now I need players to help me take it to the next level (and find the bugs I missed).

The Gameplay (Quick 5-10 min matches): It’s a high-stakes survival game. Every turn, you're faced with a simple but brutal choice: Keep your card or swap it with the player to your right.

The Goal: Don't be the one with the lowest card at the end of the round.

The King (The Wall): If you draw a King, it’s revealed immediately. You become a "Wall"—the player to your left cannot swap with you. You're safe, and you've just blocked their only way out.

Last Man Standing: Everyone starts with 3 lives. Lose them, and you're out.

Why play it?

Zero Friction: Jump in as a Guest. No signup, no email. One click and you're in the lobby.

Cross-Platform: The UI is fully optimized for both desktop and mobile browsers (Portrait & Landscape).

Optional Progression: Create an account only if you want to track XP and climb the global leaderboard.

The best part? It’s a blast to play with friends. There’s nothing quite like the "evil satisfaction" of constantly passing Aces (the lowest card!) to the person on your left and watching them panic.

What I’m looking for: I am specifically looking for feedback on technical stability and future growth:

Bugs: Did you notice any weird behavior or visual glitches?

Performance: How does the performance feel? Is the site snappy?

Features: What mechanics or quality-of-life updates should I add next?

Everything is free and I'm constantly updating it based on feedback. I'll be hanging out in the comments (and in the game lobbies getting crushed by you guys) to chat.

Thanks for your time, and see you at the tables! Cheers.
by fuzzfactor | 2026-02-23 17:59:39+00:00
>The official unemployment rate counts only people actively looking for work – it does not capture those who would like a job but have stopped searching. The official unemployment rate is so narrow that it hides long-term changes in the economy. In fact, things are far worse than the official figures suggest.

Back in the 1970's for statistical reasons they had to drop the number of unemployed who were considered to have "stopped searching" since it was so true.

Naturally the only reason they had stopped searching was because there was nothing left to find no matter how extensive the quest.

And these are generally the ones who had searched the longest and could use a new job the most.

It was very important to keep them off the statistics once the only path to recovery was deemed to be from consumers, the overall sentiment needed to be kept positive or consumers were not going to part with their money again.

Most people could not afford anything, the worst presidential malfeasance in history up until that point was bad enough of a shock to begin with, and it had snowballed to where key deceptions had to be implemented or everybody was going to be rolled over.
Show HN: As Level Chemistry Lab Simulator
by sriram_iyengar | 2026-02-23 17:59:43+00:00
Vibe-coded a Chemistry Lab Simulator — open-sourcing it (alpha)
Built a browser-based virtual chemistry lab using Claude Code, with the hope that it could help Cambridge AS Level
(Class XI) students try experiments and attempt past paper questions without needing a real lab.
Features were developed with continuous input and testing from an AS Level student.
Students from other boards can also use the Free Lab section for individual chemical tests.
by deltoidmaximus | 2026-02-23 17:59:49+00:00
I felt like part of Google's success was that the simple search bar loaded fast in an era where I often had slow internet. Yahoo's portal page had to much on it to distract or slow me down from doing what I came there to do.

Later on I remember finding out Yahoo had a search.yahoo.com page or something that was also just a search bar but that was harder to type so was still a failure of design.

This was before combined search and address bar.
by firefoxd | 2026-02-23 17:59:49+00:00
Yes writing code is easier than ever, my problem is that understanding it still costs the same if not more [0]. I get that when people use agents, understanding code is not the concern because it's not exactly catering to people, it's for other agents. But when maintaining applications that have been running for years now, I still believe we need to fully understand code before we commit.

[0]: https://idiallo.com/blog/writing-code-is-easy-reading-is-har...
by schmommy | 2026-02-23 17:59:59+00:00
Hi HN — I’m building The Tank (thetank.io), a multi-model AI workspace designed to reduce the “AI tab chaos” problem.

The core idea:
- One place to chat, think, and build
- Multiple AI models working together (instead of switching tabs constantly)
- A builder workflow that aims to support app/site generation in the same environment

Why I’m building it:
I kept finding myself using one tool for brainstorming, another for coding, another for debugging, another for rewriting copy, etc. The context switching was brutal. I wanted a single workspace where a “collective” of models could help with the same task.

What I’m actively working on:
- Better builder/live preview experience
- More reliable code persistence across sessions
- Smoother transitions from chat -> build -> iterate

What I’d love feedback on:
1. Is the “multi-model collective” idea compelling, or do people prefer one model per task?
2. What would make this actually replace your current workflow?
3. If you’ve used v0/Bolt/Lovable/etc., what’s the most important UX behavior to get right?

I’d especially appreciate blunt feedback from people who build with AI every day.
by mrguyorama | 2026-02-23 18:00:08+00:00
The vast vast vast majority of programmers do not have access to capital.

But they eat up the propaganda about how they totally could just happen to get that capital and run a one man software business and make a billion dollars.

Which is why they spent all that time and energy insisting they didn't have to unionize, because they were super important and could totally negotiate better than anyone else, especially a giant group of programmers, and now are panicking because dumb middle managers want to replace them with LLMs entirely.

Very predictable.
by Quarrelsome | 2026-02-23 18:00:09+00:00
I think the argument is more around it being illegal so as to not be forced into playing "the bad guy". It's hard to prevent a level of entitlement and resentment if those less well parented have full access. If nobody is allowed then there's no parental friction at all.

Its unfortunate that the application of this rule is being performed at the software level as opposed to the device level (e.g. smartphones themselves).
by armchairhacker | 2026-02-23 18:00:19+00:00
True, hence the culture shift is necessary.

But imagine if a locked device was treated like alcohol. Most kids get access to alcohol at some point despite it being illegal, often from older siblings, and rarely with legal consequences for the adult. But it's much less of an issue, because most kids don't get it consistently. Furthermore, "good" kids understand that it's bad, and even some "bad" kids understand that they must limit themselves.
by basisword | 2026-02-23 18:00:21+00:00
Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it isn't common. Parents take different approaches. I had some friends parents who preferred we did it in their house where they could maintain some level of safety than us drinking recklessly in field. Others thought providing some beers was better than us buying the cheapest vodka available. And I'm sure other parents wouldn't have liked this approach if they knew about it.
by Nevermark | 2026-02-23 18:00:38+00:00
You are judging someone's post based on your expectations, only because they were "unlucky" enough to have their writing up voted here, and you had "hoped" for something they didn't write.

But, the internet's writers are not responsible for meeting your expectations.

Accept things for what they are. Bring up your points.

Without critiquing people for not writing what you "hoped". That isn't a sensible standard.
by christalingx | 2026-02-23 18:00:40+00:00
You’re absolutely right, and that’s a fair catch thank you so much. The example code contradicts what I said.

The cleaner architecture — and what we should have shown — is a two-step approach where our API only handles compression, and your key never leaves your environment:

# Step 1: call AgentReady only to compress
import requests

compressed = requests.post("https://agentready.cloud/v1/compress",
headers={"Authorization": "ak_..."},
json={"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": your_long_prompt}]}
).json()

# Step 2: call OpenAI directly with YOUR key — we never see it
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(api_key="sk-...")
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="gpt-4o",
messages=compressed["messages"]
)

This way AgentReady only touches the text for compression — never your LLM API key. We’ll update the docs and example code accordingly ASAP. Thanks for pushing on this.
by __MatrixMan__ | 2026-02-23 18:00:45+00:00
This seems like a nice stepping stone towards something cool, but having the forming happen at a dedicated facility seems to miss the point if you ask me. The promise of this technology is that instead of:

make packaging -> ship to where product is packed -> ship to consumer -> ship to recycler

you can:

grow packaging where product is packed -> ship to consumer -> compost in consumer's garden

Hopefully they eventually figure out how to make kits so that shippers can just grow the packaging around the actual product.
by seanmcdirmid | 2026-02-23 18:00:46+00:00
It’s CPC because the official name of the party is Communist Party, China, a hold over to when China was more aligned with the soviets before Stalin died. As long as they subsidize GPUs for domestic use, it makes sense. But we won’t see them for export until their yields are good enough to make them profitable. They will also have a hard time scaling with bad yields, leading to a continued need for GPU imports to meet demand.
by lazide | 2026-02-23 18:01:01+00:00
Pfft, ICE agents wish they were pirates.

In other parts of the world, plenty of people romanticize ancestry with Ghenghis Khan too.

Everyone loves being seen to be on the ‘winning’ side sometimes, and when sufficiently remote in time, no one is going to really ‘feel’ the atrocities.

If the Nazi’s won, the 80/20 pro/anti ratio would be flipped no question.
by jazzypants | 2026-02-23 18:01:03+00:00
I've heard this referenced multiple times and I have yet to hear the value be clearly articulated.
Are you saying that every user would eventually be using a different app? Wouldn't it eventually get to the point that negates the need for the app developer anyways since you would eventually be unable to offer any kind of support, or are we just talking design changing while the actual functionality stays the same? How would something like this actually behave in reality?
by ndriscoll | 2026-02-23 18:01:17+00:00
We can establish social norms, but companies have a tendency to ignore those norms if it makes them money and it isn't illegal (maybe not all or even most companies, but if it's profitable, some company will do it and expand into that niche). So it makes sense to make it illegal for those companies to provide services to children, and then establish a social norm that parents won't create an account for their children/bypass the checks that companies need to do. Just like with alcohol: it is illegal for stores to sell it to minors, and they must check ID; we don't just let them shrug and say a 14 year old looked 21, and at least in the US, that would be a criminal offense. It's then socially unacceptable (and maybe also illegal) for a parent to buy a ton of alcohol so their kid can host a rager for all of their friends.

Drawing out the alcohol analogy further, you can actually buy alcohol on Amazon, subject to an ID check. I'm not sure why no one bats an eye at this, but somehow e.g. porn or other adult-only services are different.

It's long been an established, reasonable stance that it is both the parent's responsibility and decision to allow or deny certain things, and it's also illegal for businesses to completely undermine the parent's ability to act as that gatekeeper for their kids.