MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by liumw1203 | 2026-02-21 14:06:06+00:00
Hi beans42, thanks for the stress test! You completely caught me red-handed on the UI, but I actually have the raw output for your video now.

The fake console: You are 100% right. The terminal is currently a hardcoded React animation to set the "vibe" while the actual worker chugs in the background. Seeing a "Pie Torch" warning pop up during a hardcore Ben Eater video about ca65/ld65 and 6502 assembly is objectively hilarious. I am ripping that fake logger out today and piping in real status events.

The 10-minute hang: A 21-minute dense technical video is exactly what breaks my current queue. The background worker actually did finish extracting the ld65 memory map configs and the BIOS segments, but the frontend WebSocket connection silently dropped, leaving you stuck on "Processing...". A real progress indicator is my P1 task right now.

To prove the engine actually works: I pulled the completed Markdown extraction for your Ben Eater video from the database. It successfully pulled the exact linker config and the BIOS segment code. I've hosted the raw output here so you can see what it should have returned after 10 minutes:
https://gist.github.com/lmw-dev/d9f276cc0d90c05b7bab5ec0758d...

Scrolling files: You hit on the hardest problem. Right now, it extracts them as separate code blocks based on timestamps. Stitching scrolling frames into a single, deduplicated file without the AI hallucinating is my next major research hurdle.

Seriously, thank you for the roast. This is exactly the kind of feedback I needed to stop focusing on the "vibe" and fix the actual plumbing.
by wavemode | 2026-02-21 14:06:49+00:00
The mere act of browsing the web is "write permissions". If I visit example.com/<my password>, I've now written my password into the web server logs of that site. So the only remaining question is whether I can be tricked/coerced into doing so.

I do tend to think this risk is somewhat mitigated if you have a whitelist of allowed domains that the claw can make HTTP requests to. But I haven't seen many people doing this.
Show HN: Natural language semiconductor geometry generator powered by LLMs
by rusrushal13 | 2026-02-21 14:07:07+00:00
Hey everyone,

I've spent my career working in standard SaaS companies, but I recently joined a simulation software company. Suddenly, I was thrown into the deep end of conduction, material characterisation, and CTE (Coefficient of Thermal Expansion) simulations. As part of that, I got introduced to the world of semiconductor geometries and layout tools. Coming from web dev, I found traditional CAD interfaces and the sheer amount of boilerplate code required to generate simple test structures (like via arrays, capacitors, or guard rings - I still find terminology amusing and need to do googling every time) pretty overwhelming. As a learning project to understand the domain better, I decided to build something that bridges my software background with my new hardware reality. I built GeoForge - a natural language CLI and Web UI that generates validated GDSII/OASIS files from plain English prompts.

How it works: You give it a prompt like: "Create a 5x5 via array with 1um pitch connecting metal1 to metal2." It uses an LLM (supports local Ollama for free, or Gemini/Claude/OpenAI) to extract a structured spec. It generates parametrised Python code using gdsfactory.

The cool part: It runs the code in a sandboxed environment. If there's a syntax or execution error, it catches it and feeds the error back to the LLM in a retry loop so it can self-correct before giving you the final .gds/.oas file.

Why I'm posting here: Because I'm still new to this industry, I know this is currently more of a "cool learning project" than a production-ready EDA tool. But I want to know if this actually has legs to be useful to you all. I'm looking for early feedback to figure out which direction to take it:
- What component families (RF, photonics, test structures) would be most useful to have deterministic templates for?
- Would adding basic Design Rule Checking (DRC) to the validation loop make this actually usable for you?
- How do you currently prototype these kinds of geometries?

The repo is here if you want to try it out (it has a Gradio Web UI too): https://github.com/rusrushal13/geoforge

I'd love any brutal, honest feedback or advice on where to take this next!
by kjksf | 2026-02-21 14:08:00+00:00
Based on what data?

The immigration we're talking about, the one of Africans etc. immigrants flooding west, is destructive to the economies based on pretty much every statistic I've seen.

Those immigrants are on welfare in disproportional numbers compared to native population.

E.g. in US 72% Somalis are on welfare and the same stats are in West Europe.

They cost the state gigantic amount of money.

And per-capita crime stats are so bad that governments are hiding them from public.

This is all documented by government's own statistics and reasonably well reported.

Immigration COULD be a net positive to the economy IF it was managed properly but it isn't and it isn't.

Tourism isn't immigration and I don't see what trade has to do with it.
by smspillaz | 2026-02-21 14:08:15+00:00
> December 15, 2025 Canada enacted "Bill C-3", granting citizenship to people born before Dec. 15, 2025 with ANY level of Canadian ancestry they can document. (It used to be a "first generation limit")

This is misleading.

Outside the first generation, the Canadian parent must have spent 3 years cumulatively in Canada prior to the birth, otherwise the child will not be a citizen. That's not a threshold you're likely to meet with a few holiday trips here and there.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/ne...
Show HN: The Sanguine Box – A 2026 vision for solo-produced comics
by Balvarez | 2026-02-21 14:08:24+00:00
I’ve created what I believe a modern comic can look like in 2026. What I’ve built would have required an entire team just a few years ago, but can now be produced by a single person. As a designer and videographer with over 20 years of experience, I know AI is a contentious subject—but for me, the scale of what an individual can now create is incredible.
by generallyjosh | 2026-02-21 14:09:14+00:00
I do strongly agree on the framing, but I'd argue with the conclusion

Yeah, it really doesn't matter if AGI has happened, is going to happen, will never happen, whatever. No matter what sort of definition we make for it, someone's always doing to disagree anyway. For a looong time, we thought the Turing test was the standard, and that only a truly intelligent computer could beat it. It's been blown out of the water for years now, and now we're all arguing about new definitions for AGI

At the end of the day, like you say, it doesn't matter a bit how we define terms. We can label it whatever we want, but the label doesn't change what it can DO

What it can DO is the important part. I think a lot of software devs are coming to terms with the idea that AI will be able to replace vast chunks of our jobs in the very near future.

If you use these things heavily, you can see the trajectory.

6 months ago I'd only trust them for boiler plate code generation and writing/reviewing short in-line documentation.

Today, with the latest models and tools, I'm trusting them with short/low impact tasks (go implement this UI fix, then redeploy the app locally, navigate to it, and verify the fix looks correct).

6 months from now, my best guess is that they'll continue to become more capable of handling longer + more complex tasks on their own.

5 years from now, I'm seeing a real possibility that they'll be handling all the code, end to end.

Doesn't matter if we call that AGI or not. It very much will matter whose jobs get cut, because one person with AI can do the work of 20 developers
by jmclnx | 2026-02-21 14:09:54+00:00
>Under the bill, an operating system provider would be required to collect a user’s date of birth or age information when an account is established

This seems to happen on some WEB sites now, but many people here probably do not sign up on these sites, of if they due, they live on the moon and are thousands of years old or born in the future :)

Now, the law is still in the legislature and I really doubt it will be passed. I believe this because of lobbying by both Microsoft and Apple. For non US people, lobbying now == bribes which is now somewhat legal depending how it is done.

So lets pretend and speculate, but I doubt that law will ever become real.

I am sure OpenBSD will completely ignore this law. NetBSD and FreeBSD probably too, but since both are based in the US, they could be chased down.

Since I believe Linux is pretty much owned by Large Corporations, I think they are at risk of being forced to comply. Plus most non-tech people have heard of Linux so that adds to the risk. So, BSDs may have some years of "freedom" due to them flying under the radar or could be ignored completely.

In any case, if passed, VPNs will be happy.
by netsharc | 2026-02-21 14:11:40+00:00
Because Poles and Romanians are "other" enough to be hated... Ironically Britain had then to "import" people from Asia, Africa to e.g. work in the hospitals.

The foreigner-hate is so short-sighted. Your underpaid hospital worker, house cleaner, fruit picker, taxi driver, UberEats delivery is usually foreign, they don't mind working the exploitative conditions because for them the money is much better than home, providing you with affordable fruits, taxis and delivery (until the rent-seeking corporations want even more than 30%...). Get rid of them, and you'll have to pay living wages for your fruits and delivery. Heh, Westerners, still wanting to enjoy the fruits of colonization.

(Yeah the solution shouldn't be to continue allowing the exploitation, probably a better wealth distribution, but hey, why are you looking at my wallet, look at Elon's wallet!)
by aanet | 2026-02-21 14:11:51+00:00
Thanks for writing this up. I didn't realize the privacy rot went so deep.

Aside from their AI-slopped newsfeed (F@#$!!!) which should have died long ago, this is atrocious. "Enshittification" was created just for this.
Sorry, I got sidetracked.

Isn't there anyone from LinkedIn here??
by Elevanix | 2026-02-21 14:12:27+00:00
Let's start simple. I am Dhanush (17M, a self-taught coder).

I found a company that sells productivity audio for the masses. They are a science-backed, AI giant in that market—let’s call them "B" for now.

They have their audio links tokenized (awesome), but the tokens are valid for 3 months. Those links can be fetched by anyone with basic technical knowledge. The server sends the full, unprotected file, and these links are generated in batches of ~40 at a time.

I contacted them through more than 50 methods (LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and even their freelancers). I even emailed the CEO directly(personal) to make them aware of this structural failure. To be ethical, I shared a SHA-256 hash of a proprietary file as proof of access rather than distributing their content.

Their account creation is even more flawed. They allow any string with an "@" symbol to act as a valid email, providing instant trials to their premium-only service with no cooling period or verification.

I understand that some companies allow "loopholes" to lower the barrier for new users, but this is different. This is their core Intellectual Property.

Finally, a developer replied. I explained that their links stay open for 120 days. He was professional and escalated the issue to management. He told me they would contact me, but no one did.

After over a month of silence from management and no fix, the developer told me: "Feel free to do what you want". They haven't patched the flaw, nor did they provide a certificate of endorsement or any validation for the findings.

So, I built a startup out of this experience. I created a platform where data is truly safe, using a "shred and spread" mesh method. It leverages the storage of cloud providers while ensuring they never hold a complete, readable file.

See the product here: https://flashmesh.netlify.app/

I have applied for the YC X26 batch with this. We are currently testing "Data Pools"—a public data-sharing community that allows for deduplication without compromising privacy.

Yes, that is possible, and we are building it now.
Show HN: Launch-AI directory for creators, indie developers, and founders
by ovelv | 2026-02-21 14:12:42+00:00
In a world being rapidly rewritten by AI, new tools appear every day, yet real clarity becomes harder to find. The challenge isn’t how many AI tools exist, but *which ones are worth using right now*—the ones that reduce friction, cut experimentation time, and meaningfully amplify your capabilities.

*LaunchSoar* was built exactly for that purpose.

It’s a *lightweight but carefully curated AI directory*—not a bloated encyclopedia, not an ad-stuffed traffic farm. Think of it as a precise ignition sequence: the most useful, most effective AI tools surfaced cleanly so you can focus on building, creating, and moving faster.

Every tool featured has been handpicked and tested—whether it’s for writing, design, coding, marketing, or building your next product prototype. No endless tab-hunting, no overwhelming lists. Just a clear, organized “technology star chart” that helps you navigate toward your next insight, project, or breakthrough.

LaunchSoar is designed for:

- Makers who want to work smarter
- Indie developers validating ideas
- Founders looking to scale with AI
- Anyone trying to stay oriented in the accelerating tech landscape

Our hope is that LaunchSoar becomes your *pre-launch ignition point*—a clean, reliable starting pad for your next jump in productivity and creativity.
by cpburns2009 | 2026-02-21 14:12:47+00:00
If you have the hardware to run expensive models, is the cost of electricity much of a factor? According to Google, the average price in the Silicon Valley Area is $0.448 per kWh. An RTX 5090 costs about $4,000 and has a peak power consumption of 1000 W. Maxing out that GPU for a whole year would cost $3,925 at that rate. It's not particularly more expensive than that hardware itself.
by throw310822 | 2026-02-21 14:12:53+00:00
I'm not sure what the paper is really about despite the enthusiasm of the LLM haters here. Certainly there isn't something called "LLMs" that stayed reasonably the same in the last 4 years- GPT-2 is an LLM but a finding on it most likely doesn't apply to Opus 4.6. You can't document a failure on a 2024 model and claim "LLMs can't do this".
by rswail | 2026-02-21 14:13:14+00:00
Except that is not happening with the current generations. The move from fiscal liberty to conservatism happened with previous generations because they accumulated assets like housing etc that they want to protect.

The current millenial/GenZ generations are dealing with multiple economic crises during their career development, as well as property and other asset bubbles keeping them from accumulating the same assets as their parents.
by al_borland | 2026-02-21 14:13:52+00:00
It would be even better if the law enforced that this kind of data could only be used for the stated business need (the basic identity verification), and not be stored or used/shared with anyone else. If anyone is caught violating a law like this, throw the entire c-suite in prison for 10 years.

I’m so tired of all these covert ops run by these businesses. They aren’t going to stop until there is a heavy price to pay.
by craftkiller | 2026-02-21 14:13:57+00:00
> well if you have encrypted storage and already need password to get to it, secondary password is of little value

That's only true when your machine is powered off. If an attacker manages to yank files from your disk while it is running, that ssh-key password is the difference between "they stole my ssh key" and "they stole worthless random data".

> use hardware key for ssh

That's the real solution. I don't understand why people still store ssh keys on disk when hardware keys are simple, easy, and significantly more secure.
by klabb3 | 2026-02-21 14:14:01+00:00
> I should have the right to […] use a "free" store that is not under control of Google

Yes, but we also need to stop thinking like we’re trying to please the ghost of Steve Jobs. There is no ”store”. There are installers. You distribute them how you see fit, probably through the web.

These ”alternative stores” angle is a controlled dissent corporate plan B, much like how recycling was propped up by the fossil fuel industry.
by DaedalusII | 2026-02-21 14:14:53+00:00
this is a member of the general public who filed a report to the FBI. it carries about as much weight as a post on 4chan. you can see the sarcastic response from the FBI officer as well

it is exactly this kind of content that is so pervasive and misleading. the FBI get thousands of reports like this every day saying that george bush is a lizard, antarctica is full of UFOs etc.

Let me use the same sentence structure as above, with another example to highlight the absurdity of it:

"a member of the general public alleged angela merkel was receiving instructions from a russian UFO scientist that had contact with an insect alien spieces in alpha centauri, so its not impossible.
by register | 2026-02-21 14:14:59+00:00
Trump received 77,284,118 votes, representing 49.8% of the ballots cast for president. The 30% figure you mention refes to the share of the total voting-eligible population, including those who did not vote.
A national poll conducted on February 16–18 found that 42.4% approve of Trump’s job performance, while 54.6% disapprove. Whether you accept it or not and whether you are a Democrat or Republican Trump now is the face of America and most of Europeans are of the same opinion.

Regardless of the fact that LinkedIn is an American company, it is required to comply with the GDPR when operating within the European Union. I am not a lawyer, but I don't believe that there is evidence of full compliance here.
by austin-cheney | 2026-02-21 14:15:08+00:00
> I talked to hiring managers and most of them say skills is good but what we want is a personality because skills can be taught and personality cannot be.

That is correct, but its an extreme over simplification. What they mean by personality is among these:

* excellent soft skills - can listen and emotionally bond with others

* excellent written communication - the ability to put into writing high precision content with minimal revision that is well structured. It should not take advanced effort to turn meeting notes into a formal written recommendation.

* discipline / conscientiousness - this is awareness of the space outside yourself. It is the ability to balance 6 things at once with endurance throughout the day.

Yes, technical skills can be taught. Hiring managers really prefer to retain their people and not have to rehire, so teaching people is a long game of minimal continuous effort from the leader via proper assignments and continuous practice on the part of the individual contributor. If the individual contributor also does this work as a hobby outside the office that is even better, but it would be a massive ethical violation to impose this or it intermingle it with assigned tasks.

I am a hiring manager, by the way.

From a tooling perspective I am not sure. My organization uses a tool called GreenHouse. It contains a candidate's resume and credentials and allows HR to build out forms for interview feedback. The insight part is always a challenge. I am fully remote so I am actively watching everything a candidate does with their eyeballs as much or more than listen to the content of their answers, because I want to know what they are thinking and what they are looking at since AI prompts during interviews is now a thing.

When I do look at a resume what I am only looking at:

* Years of total experience

* Job hopping versus loyalty/duration

* Credentials like education attainment, certifications, and so forth
by dpdani | 2026-02-21 14:15:10+00:00
Hello

I’ve been working on cereggii, a library for multithreading utilities for Python. It started a couple of years ago for my master’s thesis, and I think it’s gotten into a place now where I believe it can be generally useful to the community.

It contains several thread synchronization utilities and atomic data structures which are not present in the standard library (e.g. AtomicDict, AtomicInt64, AtomicRef, ThreadSet), so I thought it would be good to try and fill that gap. The main goal is to make concurrent shared-state patterns less error-prone and easier to express in Python.

The library fully supports both free-threading and GIL-enabled builds (also see https://py-free-threading.github.io/). I believe it can also be useful for existing multithreaded code.

I’d really appreciate feedback from folks who do multithreading/concurrency in Python:

- Is the API intuitive?
- Are there missing primitives you’d want?
- Any concerns around ergonomics/docs/performance expectations?

I’m hoping to grow the library via community feedback, so if you have any, please share!

Repo: https://github.com/dpdani/cereggii

Docs: https://dpdani.github.io/cereggii/
by jorvi | 2026-02-21 14:15:59+00:00
That Economist stat often gets misunderstood. It is "net contribution to public finances" (= how much taxes do they pay), not "net contribution to the economy". This is because they are overly represented in low wage jobs, or indeed on longterm welfare. People in the lowest tax brackets pay very little of it.

I do agree that there needs to be a honest conversation about what (economic) immigrants offer vs. what they cost, but it needs to be done properly.

We will need immigrants because we are below 2.1 in Total Fertility Rate. But, the EU doesn't need to be the comfy life raft of the world as it has been for the past 2-3 decades.
by sigmoid10 | 2026-02-21 14:16:09+00:00
Everything connected to the internet was really bad until automatic updates that are enabled by default (or enforced by sysadmins) became a thing. Wordpress, Mysql, Active Directory... all those things had unpatched exploits that you could trivially tap in to until the 2010s if you knew how to use nmap and metasploit. Add insecure wifi standards like wep and basically every other network was fair game for people who had some basic skills. Heck, facebook only made https mandatory in 2013 after someone made a browser plugin that let literally everyone steal cookies on public networks and log in to other people's accounts. Gen Zers never saw this, but the modern web as a secure place where you can comfortably buy stuff or do banking without worries is a relatively recent invention.
by EvanAnderson | 2026-02-21 14:16:28+00:00
Ticketmaster is it's own particular problem that needs to be dealt with, even if it is emblematic of a bigger issue with companies demanding users to run proprietary software.

I have recent (October and November, 2025-- venues in Indianapolis, IN and Cincinnati, OH) personal experience with this. With one venue I was able to play the "confused old man" card (via phone) and get the box office to print my tickets and hold them at will call.

At another venue I called prior to my show and tried the same tactic. They told me flat out "no phone, no admittance, tough luck for you" and cited the warnings and terms on the Ticketmaster website that I'd already agreed-to. I didn't want to chance losing out on $300 of tickets I bought so I knuckled under and loaded the Ticketmaster app on my wife's iPhone.

I don't think it's as cut-and-dried as you say it is, and I don't have the stomach to risk being denied access to events I bought tickets for-- particularly at the pricing levels of today's shows.
by Rochus | 2026-02-21 14:16:56+00:00
This discussion started already in the sixties (see e.g. the 1969 publication by McCarthy and Hayes where they describe the "frame problem" as a fundamental obstacle to the attempt to model the dynamic world using First-Order Logic and monotonic reasoning). A popular attempt to "solve" this problem is the Cyc project. Monotonic logic is universally understood as a special, restricted case (a subset) of a broader non-monotonic theory.