MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by ninkendo | 2026-02-04 00:30:16+00:00
It’s so great when the files on the navigator pane aren’t sorted, and then if you right-click sort, it rewrites half your pbxproj file and you get merge conflicts everywhere. So then nobody sorts the files because they don’t want to deal with it. Why can’t the sorting be a view thing that’s independent of the contents of the project file? Who knows.

When I used it in a team, I had to write a build step that would fail the build if the pbxproj file wasn’t sorted. (Plus a custom target that would sort it for you.) It was the only way to make sure it never got unsorted in the first place.
by TacticalCoder | 2026-02-04 00:30:37+00:00
One of the biggest YC success story is Coinbase. It has literally got "coin" in its name.

It also trades under the ticker "COIN": https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/COIN/

And after a serious beating it's still value at $48 billion.

Put it another way: of all the companies YC funded, both those who succeeded and the countless who failed, only two companies, AirBnB and Doordash, are valued more than Coinbase.

I don't think YC hates cryptocurrencies as much as the typical commenter on HN.
by ohyoutravel | 2026-02-04 00:30:50+00:00
Plenty of things are predictable in the sense that one can bucket them. Tariffs were very predictable because we know the pedo has that unilateral lever and talks about wielding it. But who would have predicted that out of all the stupid tariff things that might happen, it would be things like tariffing allies, tariffing uninhabited islands, TACO tariffs, or a giant board with “reciprocal tariffs”? It requires not only predicting specific stupidity, but taking an aggressive position.

Whoever was holding aggressive poly market positions on “POTUS poops pants at presser” is a millionaire now. We all know he wears diapers and has massive flatulence, but who would have predicted that specific thing?
by AngryData | 2026-02-04 00:30:56+00:00
The Girardoni is certainly and unusual example but is deadly. However more importantly it is far from the first repeating firearm. There is the Kalthoff and Cookson repeating rifles as the most prominent examples. And both Jefferson and Washington personally got offered to purchase repeating firearms per their own journals, im im sure they weren't the only founders to receive such offers for both personal and military usage.
by toomuchtodo | 2026-02-04 00:32:14+00:00
Improves detection and response around public health concerns. Current hot topics are measles [1] and syphilis [2] outbreaks.

[1] America’s Measles Crisis Is Spiraling - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-02-03/measle... | https://archive.today/XXYZt - February 3rd, 2026

[2] Syphilis Resurgence: Rising Rates, Public Health Challenges, and Future Strategies - https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/features/syphilis-r... - September 26th, 2025
by reliefcrew | 2026-02-04 00:32:24+00:00
Old thinkpads are usually pretty good.

If you're looking at a chromebook I suggest doing research on the specific model first. Esp. by looking here...
https://docs.mrchromebox.tech/docs/supported-devices.html

Old MS Surface tablets are also decent options IMHO...
https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supporte...

I'm presently writing on a Surface 3 w/ x7-Z8700 atom that's running Ubuntu Noble and vanilla 6.8 kernel. They're about $50. Everything works rather well (including gfx/audio/sleep/hibernate), except the camera, which I haven't bothered with. I'm quite happy w/ it tbh.

One thing to note w/ this model is you'll need the OEM keyboard to install linux since there's only one usb port; which will be required by the install media. Once you've installed though you can use any bluetooth or usb keyboard you want. Another thing is any micro-usb charger should work but I wouldn't rely on just 1amp, go w/ a 3amp.

Anyway, happy hunting!
by runaround555 | 2026-02-04 00:32:28+00:00
Typically it's written in the lease or apartment policies if you can/can't smoke on your balcony/porch/apartment parking lot etc. People who smoke usually look for smoke friendly places because having to get dressed, go outside, off the property, and then across the street every time you want a cigarette is miserable especially at night or in bad weather.

If the guy has to go to these passive aggressive lengths instead of going straight to the apartment management with a complaint more likely than not the smoker is allowed to smoke on his balcony.

Causing a noise disturbance and potentially impacting several neighbors at once because he doesn't like one particular neighbor doing something he signed a legal document agreeing to when he moved there is kind of silly. It's like becoming a member at a cigar lounge and then complaining when the guy in the chair next to you lights one up.
by josephg | 2026-02-04 00:33:37+00:00
Mobile platforms are far more secure than desktop computing software. I'd rather do internet banking on my phone than on my computer. You should too.

We can make operating systems where the islands can interact. Its just needs to be opt in instead of opt out. A bad Notepad++ update shouldn't be able to invisibly read all of thunderbird's stored emails, or add backdoors to projects I'm working on or cryptolocker my documents. At least not without my say so.

I get that permission prompts are annoying. There are some ways to do the UI aspect in a better way - like have the open file dialogue box automatically pass along permissions to the opened file. But these are the minority of cases. Most programs only need to access to their own stuff. Having an OS confirmation for the few applications that need to escape their island would be a much better default. Still allow all the software we use today, but block a great many of these attacks.
by syntaxing | 2026-02-04 00:33:45+00:00
As a MechE turned SWE, always a fun read when SWE try hardware.

> Blink and you’ll get a different measurement.

This means your environment is not controlled enough. Also quality control is usually done in terms of statistics. You might want to read something called gauge R&R. That being said, you should be proud of being able to ship a physical product!

As for quality checks, software quality teams pales in comparison to hardware quality teams. Mainly as you said, there’s a lot checks you can do in software. For hardware, bigger companies have to have their vendors qualified. The vendors have to follow their customer guidelines and do outgoing inspection. Then the company has a division to do incoming inspection. There’s a traveler that follows the kit (of parts) and there’s usually subassembly quality checks. Then final full build checks before it leaves the door.
by bsder | 2026-02-04 00:34:18+00:00
> For sovereignty purposes, airgapped software or locally made software is as good as open source and it's usually higher quality.

I don't agree. Even if proprietary software is somehow "better" (and I don't concede that automatically), proprietary software is always at the risk of disappearing--see: VMWare after the Broadcom purchase. Your critical software being open source means that you have the right to fork/copy and just keep going without needing to do anything else. Proprietary software disappearing means that you need to file legal paperwork and get a judge to care and then wrench the source code out of someone's hands.

The failure modes are vastly different.

And this is before we get into the whole undocumented, proprietary storage formats issue.

> Have you proposed to spend a year improving the KiCad UX?

I am in the US. Can a US citizen propose that? I would assume that this has to come from EU citizens, no?

To be honest, if I could get KiCad some funding simply by filing some paperwork, that's probably a good investment of time.

> There are already alternatives to KiCad for PCBs.

Not really. Autodesk bought Eagle. Renesas bought Altium. Cadence bought Orcad. There's a whole host of stuff controlled by China. Most of the other free things aren't even close to KiCad.

I guess maybe PADS, since it's owned by Siemens? But I haven't bumped into a PADS user in a very long time--I wonder if it's considered legacy or just far too expensive.
by digiown | 2026-02-04 00:34:20+00:00
Or they just connect to a mothership with keys on the machine. The authorities can have the keys, but alas, they're useless now, because there is some employee watching the surveillance cameras in the US, and he pressed a red button revoking all of them. What part of this is illegal?

Obviously, the government can just threaten to fine you any amount, close operations or whatever, but your company can just decide to stop operating there, like Google after Russia imposed an absurd fine.
by avmich | 2026-02-04 00:34:38+00:00
Principally speaking, as much energy as satellite receives from solar panels it needs to send away - and often a lot of it is in the form of heat. So, the question is, how much energy is received in the first place. We currently have some quarter of megawatt of solar panels of ISS, so in principal - in principal - we know how to do this kind of scale per satellite. In practice we perhaps will have more smaller satellites which together aggregate the compute to the necessary lever and power to the corresponding level.
by jjcm | 2026-02-04 00:35:02+00:00
It's fascinating the country-ification happening with the US states as the political divide between the state level and federal level political perspectives grows wider. Much like California, Illinois plays a global scale when looked at in isolation (though at a smaller level than California). Its 1.14T GDP puts it around #20 worldwide for GDP when compared to other countries (just behind Saudi Arabia).

It'll be interesting to see what other states follow suit.
by Reith | 2026-02-04 00:36:41+00:00
I really like what you're doing and have been following your careers page for a while. I applied a few weeks ago and spoke with recruiting, but haven't heard back. Do you mind checking my application? CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c7ayN_qN9ayABWc7L8hKe9tp2uM...
by slg | 2026-02-04 00:36:46+00:00
>Furthermore, the whole “ghost guns” thing is entirely overblown and misunderstood by people who have never seen or used a 3D printer except in the movies, where Hollywood has latched onto the idea that they are designed primarily for making guns. A consumer grade 3D printer is going to print a gun that will explode in your hands the first time you try to use it, if any of the meaningful parts of the gun are printed.

Here's a relevant article that addresses a lot of these points.[1]

[1] - https://www.wired.com/story/luigi-mangione-united-healthcare...
by tgbugs | 2026-02-04 00:36:47+00:00
One way to work around the heat dissipation issues in space (and also on earth) is to move to computing systems that operate entirely at cryogenic temperatures to take advantage of superconducting circuitry.

I've heard stories that over a decade ago teams inside hyperscalars had calculated that running completely cryogenically cooled data centers would be vastly cheaper than what we do now due to savings on resistive losses and the cost of eliminating waste heat. You don't have to get rid of heat that you don't generate in the first place.

The issue is that at the moment there are very few IC components and processes that have been engineered to run at cryogenic temperatures. Replicating the entirety of the existing data center stack for cryogenic temps is nowhere near reality.

That said, once you have cryogenic superconducting integrated circuits you could colocate your data centers and your propellant/oxidizer depots. Not exactly "data centers off in deep space" since propoxd tend to be the highest traffic areas.
by CamperBob2 | 2026-02-04 00:36:49+00:00
Note that Washington's similar HB 2321 defines a "3D printer" as any additive or subtractive manufacturing machine. So these idiots want to regulate CNC machines too.

Public comments can (and should!) be submitted here: https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill/2321 Keep them polite and respectful; insults and threats won't help.
by esafak | 2026-02-04 00:37:05+00:00
> How do you do that without modifying past commits once you discover another piece that belongs with an earlier step?

It is not the end of the world. Or think ahead. If everyone has the ability to modify the master history merely for conceptual atomicity you are doing it wrong. Editing the history should be for exceptional circumstances.

> optimal review granularity != optimal final granularity

That's why you can have multiple commits in a PR. But you don't want them all in your commit history.
by keeganpoppen | 2026-02-04 00:37:17+00:00
still a skill issue, not a codex issue. sure, this line of critique is also one levied by tech bros who want to transfer your company's balance sheet from salaries to ai-SaaS(-ery), but in what world does that automatically make the tech fraudulent or even deficient? and since when is not wanting to develop a skill a reasonable substitute for anything? if my doctor decided they didn't want to keep up on medical advances, i would find a different doctor. but yet somehow finding fault with an ai because it can't read your mind and, in response to that adversity, refusing to introspect at all about why that might be and blaming it on the technology is a reasonable critique? somehow we have magically discovered a technology to manufacture cognition from nothing more than the intricate weaving of silicon, dopants, et al., and the takeaway is that it sucks because it is too slow, doesn't get everything exactly right, etc.? and the craziest part is that the more time you spend with it, the better intuition you get for getting whatever it is you want out of it. but, yeah... let's lend even more of an ear to the head-in-sand crowd-- that's where the real thought leaders are. you don't have to be an ai techno-utopian maximalist to see the profound worthiness and promise of the technology; these things are manifestly self-evident.
by Bender | 2026-02-04 00:37:27+00:00
The only thing that keeps bouncing around in my thick skull is something "data-center sized" whatever that means to them could hold some interesting objects. 2 Peta Watt laser, Rods from God, Tactical nukes, Miniature Rail-gun to quickly eradicate other satellites, Off-Planet archives of stuff, Doomsday clusters of brainwave transmitters to shut off all the humans or force everyone to defecate at once.

Those are just some guesses. Some of those could also explain the "why" for SpaceX Falcon Heavy and it's future iterations. It can carry 63,800 kg (140,660 lbs) to Low Earth Orbit and that load capacity will only increase with future versions.
by crystal_revenge | 2026-02-04 00:39:11+00:00
What you're missing is that there's no need to do extra work in the kernel smoothing step (what attention essentially is) because all the fancy transformation work is already happening in learning the kernel.

The feedforward networks prior to the attention layer are effectively learning sophisticated kernels. If you're unfamiliar (or for those who are) a Kernel is just a generalization of the dot product which is the most fundamental way of defining "similarity" between two points.

By learning a kernel the transformer is learning the best way to define what "similar" means for the task at hand and then we simply apply some basic smoothing over the data. This will handle all sort of interesting ways to compare points and that comparison will allow all points to provide a little bit of information.

Anything you could hope to achieve by performing more comparisons would be better solved by a better similarity function.
by efilife | 2026-02-04 00:40:44+00:00
"the platform will continue to innovate, not just in content, but in the engineering brilliance behind the scenes.

The TikTok system design is more than an architecture; it’s a competitive advantage, a blueprint for high-engagement social ecosystems, and a benchmark for future real-time digital platforms."

This whole article seems to be LLM generated. The website is filled with "why it matters", bullet lists and AI generated images. Cherry on top, the author is indian.
by AnthonyMouse | 2026-02-04 00:41:04+00:00
> Are the democrats magically going to be able to have 100% control of the government despite only holding a tiny majority in the lower house?

They're not supposed to have 100% control of the government. Nobody is. They're supposed to prevent the Republicans from doing dumb stuff, just like the Republicans are supposed to prevent them from doing different dumb stuff because they have different constituencies. Only when they can both agree is when the government should be doing something, and even then you often need help from the courts and the states because the thing they both agree on is that someone is paying them to do something bad.

The best government is the one that does exactly what it should. The second best is the one that doesn't do things that it should; in that case someone else can do them, like the states or the market. The worst is the one that does things that it shouldn't.

> FDR was able to reform and change things the way he was because Democrats had something like 80% control of both houses

FDR was pre-Nixon and had 80% control by sweeping the South and losing New England. People forget that the original purpose of the minimum wage was to prevent black people from taking jobs from white people by offering to work for less money. Most of FDR's policies were economically illiterate or political knavery -- social security was created with the solvency of a pyramid scheme which is why the trust fund already has a negative growth rate and is soon going to run out of money now that population growth has leveled off.

That kind of authoritarian steamrolling over the opposition is exactly what nobody should be able to do, not least because it most often happens when people are heated about something and willing to start hastily implementing half-baked ideas with long-term consequences if given the chance.

> It's much easier to obstruct and prevent and destroy

If only! A major defect in the existing system is that the high bar meant to keep bad laws from making onto the books to begin with is also applied as the requirement to repeal them. Combined with the tendency for the powerful to defend the status quo that secured them that power, the result is that bad laws accumulate and how to be effective in destroying them is an unsolved problem.
by tzs | 2026-02-04 00:41:23+00:00
Massachusetts just signed an agreement with Denmark [1] covering several things. From their press release:

> Today, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey welcomed a delegation from Denmark for a series of meetings focused on strengthening the scientific, technological and commercial ties between Massachusetts and Denmark. During the visit, Governor Healey and Denmark’s Ambassador to the U.S. Jesper Møller Sørensen signed an economic partnership agreement, committing to work together to grow their leadership in life sciences, health care, biomanufacturing, advanced manufacturing, robotics and artificial intelligence.
by cj | 2026-02-04 00:41:25+00:00
You’re describing an event that would wipe out the US economy and trying to protect against that with stable coins, or at least that’s the impression I’m getting.

If the US falls apart, your startup will too. No matter how well preserved your cash reserves are.

The US going to war or entering hyperinflation is probably at the bottom of most founders lists of existential worries. Not a risk to mitigate (it’s a risk you need to accept since there’s nothing you can do - worrying about it won’t help)

Also, worth mentioning that no one lost money with SVB’s collapse. One might argue it was an incredibly smart decision for YC to recommend people bank at SVB since if SVB goes under, virtually all LP’s and everyone in the VC community will go under too (too big to fail, so they won’t, or if they do, everyone else fails too — kind of like AWS us-east-1)
by johnea | 2026-02-04 00:41:37+00:00
With the exception of one comment, which simply restated the link correctly, no one here has pointed out that the URL provided is not in fact served by an FTP server.

Starting a link with http, makes it a WWW link which is expected to be interpreted as HTML, and is served by an WWW server.

An FTP URL would be: ftp://128.237.157.9/pub

Where the leading ftp: designates how the link is to be interpreted. The so called "scheme" of the URL.

In reply to other comments: my browser supports the ftp: scheme without issue.

Ironically, when using the ftp: scheme in the URL, the /pub directory query returns an error: 550 Failed to change directory.

Whereas removing that subdirectory, and just using the scheme and IP address does return the files and subdirectories served by the FTP server (at least the ones with public permissions).

Whereas the http: URL to the same IP and /pub directory does return successfully. With the contents correctly served by the WWW server.

Therefore, this was probably not a great example to use for a post regarding FTP servers. Since the URL http://128.237.157.9/pub is actually served by a WWW server...

It's also worth noting, that the http URL: http://128.237.157.9/pub/

Points to the same data as the ftp URL: ftp://128.237.157.9/

While the http URL: http://128.237.157.9/ points to the Carnegie Mellon Computer Club home page.
by hunterpayne | 2026-02-04 00:41:42+00:00
You know the flight logs are public record and have been for a decade right? We know (and have known for awhile), exactly who was and wasn't there. Who was there: Obama, Bill Clinton, and Bill Gates (his frequency of visits cost him his marriage). Who wasn't there? Trump and Elon because at the time they weren't important enough to get an invite. All of this is a matter of public record.
by keeganpoppen | 2026-02-04 00:41:53+00:00
common sense has the misfortune of being less "common" than we would all like it to be. because some breathless hucksters are overpromising and underdelivering in the present, we may as well throw out the baby, the bath water, and the bath tub itself! who even wants computers to think like humans and automate jobs that no human would want to do? don't you appreciate the self-worth that comes from menial labor? i don't even get why we use tractors to farm when we have perfectly good beasts of burden to do the same labor!
by anigbrowl | 2026-02-04 00:42:31+00:00
People were surprised when the US started just droning boats in the Caribbean and wiping out survivors, but then the government explained that it was law enforcement and not terrorism or piracy, so everyone stopped worrying about it.

Seriously, every powerful state engages in state terrorism from time to time because they can, and the embarrassment of discovery is weighed against the benefit of eliminating a problem. France is no exception : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior
by Bender | 2026-02-04 00:43:30+00:00
I believe the context I was proposing would be at the scale of world-wide manipulation. Rigging elections and such. There is a Netflix documentary called "The Great Hack" that gets into what I am discussing though from the perspective of social media algorithm. This only gets more effective when people are chatting with an AI bot that mimics a human and they think is their significant other that laughs at all their jokes and strokes their ego.

I think your interpretation would be more along the line of making 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 and The Handmaid's Tale a reality.
by ipnon | 2026-02-04 00:43:58+00:00
One thing that slop often lacks is framing. I want to know why a particular person designed it this way. What were the constraints of the original team? What were their goals at the time? How did these change over time? Just knowing "TikTok aims for 99.99% uptime and low latency" without any story, well I don't find it very useful. I'd rather get an interview of one of the first architects!