MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by behindsight | 2026-02-09 13:42:40+00:00
On a similar vein is the "argument from fallacy" aka fallacist's fallacy. [1]

Essentially if you dismiss someone's argument as false just because it may have had a fallacy within it, that reasoning is itself a fallacy.

Some fallacy-seeking people ironically ignore this and just dismiss anything when they have the "gotcha, you made a fallacy therefore everything you said can be concluded as false" moment.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_fallacy
by alephnerd | 2026-02-09 13:42:59+00:00
The median TC for a SWE in the US is $190k [0].

Yes there are American SWEs who earn significantly below the range I mentioned (especially in the Defense majors but they make up for it via competitive benefits packages), but frankly most don't.

The era of the non-CS/CE/EE background SWE who came out of a bootcamp is over.

[0] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer?countryId=254
by layer8 | 2026-02-09 13:43:04+00:00
The sentence is meant like this:

> Some such clichés are not inherently terminating, and only become so when intentionally used to dismiss something, to dissent, or to justify fallacies.

The fact that “dissent” is an intransitive verb is an important clue. You can’t dissent fallacies. You can only dissent from something.
by nananana9 | 2026-02-09 13:43:18+00:00
You're clearly well-traveled, but it's unfortunate that none of the frameworks you listed follow the only UI paradigm I actually find enjoyable to work with.

Look Immediate Mode UIs when you have some time to kill. It's a famous paradigm in videogame UI development, so unfortunately most publicly available IMGUI libraries are tailored for use in game engine editor tooling (not very style-able, simple layout algorithms and assumption that they're running in a 60FPS loop), but they're still a good place to look at, to get a general idea. The most famous library is Dear ImGui [1]

The biggest advantage of the immediate mode approach is that you get UI/state syncing for free without having to manage any callbacks/getters/setters/magic properties. It introduces new problems (widgets are now defined implicitly and you need a system for keeping track of them over time), but they're way easier to solve than the UI/state sync issue.

Examples of real-non-video-game software that uses it are File Pilot [2] and RAD Debugger [3], which are modern desktop UI applications with all the modern desktop UI application bells and whistles.

[1] https://github.com/ocornut/imgui
[2] https://filepilot.tech/
[3] https://github.com/EpicGamesExt/raddebugger
Ask HN: Help me find an old Atari 800/800XL program – "Tortoise and the Hare"
by itay-maman | 2026-02-09 13:43:26+00:00
I'm trying to track down a program I remember from the Atari 800 era (early-to-mid 1980s). I believe it was from a book — a fairly substantial one, at least 200 pages — that covered many different aspects of Atari BASIC programming.

The program was from the graphics chapter(s) and was a visual demonstration of the Tortoise and the Hare fable using Atari graphics (Graphics 5, if I remember correctly). Two rectangular areas were drawn on screen. The Tortoise filled its area pixel by pixel, systematically. The Hare filled its area by plotting lines between two randomly chosen points inside its rectangle — which covered a lot of pixels quickly but, due to the random approach, always finished last.

In case it helps identify the book: another program from the same graphics section drew a detailed picture of the Atari computer itself — keyboard, cartridge slot, and all — using Graphics 8.

Does anyone remember this, or know which book it came from?
Ask HN: Advice for an Indian Student?
by subtra3t | 2026-02-09 13:43:29+00:00
Hi HN,

I'm in my last year of high school, about to enter university. I'm undecided on which field I would like to major in and would appreciate some words of advice.

During the pandemic, I completed a few online courses (including CS50x) and worked on some small programming projects, so I’m familiar with programming fundamentals. For a long time, my plan was to study computer science or something closely adjacent to it.

Even now I'd like to study in some computer science adjacent field if possible. However, I'm aware of the intense competition as it is probably the most sought after field to study in. I'm confident in my ability to stand out among others at least in terms of hard work if not intelligence, but I also think I am underestimating the sheer level of competition in this field. Add to the mix how AI assistants like Claude have supposedly eliminated the need for many jobs, and my worries of finding a job after I graduate have compounded. Just a few days ago, the introduction of Anthropic's new offering crashed the stocks of many massive Indian IT companies.

I want to add that I have a strong affinity for math so I would likely do well in fields that leverage it.

So, given all this:

- Is majoring in computer science (or a CS-adjacent field) still a good idea for someone starting university now in your opinion?

- Do you think there are any other fields that would be a better bet? Hopefully something with not as much competition as CS

- What would you think of doing today if you were in my position?

Please let your advice be as expansive or restricted as you would like, I would appreciate any kind of advice.

I know that my English doesn't necessarily flow the best so please let me know if I need to clarify anything or need to supply more information.

Have a great day.
by aveao | 2026-02-09 13:44:39+00:00
Where I live we have labor rights and if your job is delivering mail and you're given a horse for it, you'd only be expected to deliver as much mail as you can in your contractual work time, which is then limited by the legal limits (8 hours/workday, up to 6 days/week). So you'd be home for most of the day, but delivering less letters per day.

(where I live a car would also be slower for delivering mail than a horse, most delivery people are given trikes, but alas)

This is how all industrialization/automation works in general: When you have a way to deliver faster/more, you're given more mail to deliver in your work time. Your pay does not go up, but any given road blockage or instance of traffic makes you fall behind quota significantly more. You're not paid by how many letters you deliver, but by the hours you work. Maybe you even make less as there's less overtime. Post will then proceed to simply employ less people over time as each employee is made to deliver more letters, then maybe you're part of the people whose jobs are cut. Or they might just reduce wages for everyone anyways, as now the job is much more accessible and there's more supply of labor than there is demand.

This is not an argument against industrialization or automation, but your perspective of what would happen if we had more industrialization is... very narrow.

We must consider the potential future where there's simply not enough work for most people to do (a realistic future now), and how we'll prevent that from going the same way it would currently go (losing income -> losing domicile -> starvation/freezing/etc).
by DavidYoussef | 2026-02-09 13:44:59+00:00
The benchmark measures whether a tool finds known bugs. That's useful but it's the wrong question for most teams in 2026.

The question auditors actually ask isn't "did your tool catch this bug?" It's "can you prove this change was reviewed, by whom, and that the code didn't change between review and merge?"

None of the tools benchmarked here produce verifiable evidence. They produce comments. A green checkmark on a PR tells you someone clicked a button. It doesn't tell you what they saw, whether the diff changed after review, or what risk level the change carried.

We took a different approach: instead of building another AI reviewer, we built a governance layer that wraps whatever review process you already use. Every PR gets a cryptographically sealed evidence bundle -- the exact diff, risk tier (L0-L4), findings, and a SHA-256 hash chain. Verifiable offline with one command. Open source, Apache 2.0.

https://github.com/DNYoussef/codeguard-action

Not a replacement for code review tools. An audit trail for them.
by sigbottle | 2026-02-09 13:45:00+00:00
I feel like literally any linguistic tool can be repurposed in the right way to serve your ends. Demarcation problems in philosophy are nigh impossible.

So I've taken more of your kind of approach. Either both people are willing to understand each other at that time or are not - and heck you may be wrong in thinking the other person wants to engage / thinking they don't want to engage and make the wrong call. But in a controller-feedback system, you'll inevitably be wrong sometimes - the point is to course correct.

But then you even run into edge cases with this - sometimes people want to engage on a physical level, but not really engage and try to understand. But then how do you differentiate that from the possibility that you see that in others unfairly?

Ah, life is complicated.
by vidarh | 2026-02-09 13:45:19+00:00
They made a blog post about it because it's an amazing test of the abilities of the models to deliver a working C-compiler, even with lots of bugs and serious caveats, for $20k of tokens, without a human babysitting it.

I'd challenge anyone who are negative to this to try to achieve what they did by hand, with the same restrictions (e.g. generating full SSA form instead of just directly emitting code, capable of compiling Linux), and log their time doing it.

Having written several compilers, I'll say with some confidence that not many developers would succeed. Far fewer would succeed fast enough to compete with $20k cost. Even fewer would do that and deliver decent quality code.

Now notice the part where they've done this experiment before. This is the first time it succeeded. Give it another model iteration or two, and expect quality to increase, and price to drop.

This is the new floor.
by curiousObject | 2026-02-09 13:45:24+00:00
This is interesting, I look forward to reading more. But I think it’s wrong, if you want to represent reality.

Real cities were all built in the past, for older vehicles, which moved at different speeds, and were controlled by drivers with different goals from today’s drivers.

So, if your game has bad and unsafe road designs, which have been partly retrofitted to reduce the worst problems, then that is accurate.

A game with optimal roads is not an accurate simulation of reality.

A professional modern road designer will simulate the expected movement of vehicles through a new or redesigned road, to try to discover major problems.

They look for problems with turning radius, visibility, stopping distances, and interactions with other road users.

I believe that a game designer could offer to do the same.

The game could draw a good algorithmic road shape first. But next offer the player an option to run a simulation of individual traffic movements, to discover serious issues, and let the player know about problems.

To the OP, I suggest this simulation approach, not trying to discover flawless algorithms. That’s not how it happens in the real world.

Several comments have suggested similar issues.
by dve | 2026-02-09 13:45:24+00:00
Ive been working on Kettle, it is a language for quantum-classical computing

https://kettle-lang.pages.dev

I find quantum mechanics fascinating and wanted a better way to play with it.
Linear types prevent copying qubits, effects track what's quantum vs pure. The type system catches mistakes that would otherwise blow up at runtime.

Runs on a local simulator (with various qubit types modelled) or IBM hardware (sort of). Still a research and learning language for me - I break things regularly.

If any real quantum physicists are lurking, Id love to hear what Ive got wrong!
by elxr | 2026-02-09 13:46:08+00:00
While I don't think the center console is very ferrari-like, and kind of looks more like a piece of consumer electronics to me, I quite the gauges.

Using round oleds with inset bezels and physical needles to emulate a traditional 90s (and earlier) gauge cluster is an interesting idea. Honestly refreshing in a sea of sameness in the car industry today.
by cml123 | 2026-02-09 13:46:29+00:00
I don't think the evidence is on your side for the outcomes. Kids cannot be assured to make the best choices in their own interest for every scenario. I was on meds for ADHD from ages 4 to 14 before I asked to stop. In elementary school I was among the most talented students in my class, but I was very close to failing to graduate high school. I later failed out of community college. Through great effort I managed to get employed as a software developer, though my original passion and hope was biology. I now take Vyvanse to keep sustained focus in my work.

I'm confident if I had stayed on my meds that I would have been far more academically successful in high school and beyond. I pushed to get off Adderall as a kid because I started to feel like a zombie on it, but maybe my parents could have instead helped me to find a treatment that was better suited for me or adjust my dosage.
by _leo | 2026-02-09 13:46:45+00:00
Built this (well, forked and adapted) this morning: https://github.com/leochatain/zsh-claude-code-shell

Couple of utilities for using claude code in my zsh.
#? <describe command> => generates the command for you
#?? <command> => explains the command for you

Packaged as an oh-my-zsh plugin so it's easy to use.
by tskulbru | 2026-02-09 13:47:26+00:00
I'm a solo dev building a handful of apps across different niches..

- Kvile ( https://kvile.app ) — A lightweight desktop HTTP client built with Rust + Tauri. Native .http file support (JetBrains/VS Code/Kulala compatible), Monaco editor, JS pre/post scripts, SQLite-backed history. Sub-second startup. MIT licensed, no cloud, your requests stay on your machine. Think Postman without the bloat and login walls.

- Mockingjay ( https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mockingjay-secure-recorder/id6... ) — iOS app that records video and streams AES-256-GCM encrypted chunks to your Google Drive in real-time. By the time someone takes your phone, the footage is already safe in the cloud. Built for journalists, activists, and anyone who needs tamper-proof evidence. Features a duress PIN that wipes local keys while preserving cloud backups, and a fake sleep mode that makes the phone look powered off during recording.

- Stao ( https://stao.app ) — A simple sit/stand reminder for standing desk users. Runs in the system tray, tracks your streaks, zero setup. Available on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android.

- MyVisualRoutine ( https://myvisualroutine.com ) — This one is personal. I have three kids, two with severe disabilities. Visual schedules (laminated cards, velcro boards) are a lifeline for non-verbal children, but they're a nightmare to manage and they don't leave the house. So I built an app that lets you create a full visual routine in about 20 seconds and take it anywhere. Choice boards, First/Then boards, day plans, 50+ preloaded activities, works fully offline. Free tier is genuinely usable. Available on iOS and Android.
by augustopinheir | 2026-02-09 13:48:05+00:00
built clawrun.dev after seeing people struggle to run OpenClaw without wanting to deal with infrastructure.

Clawrun is a managed OpenClaw deployment. There’s no repo to connect and no servers to manage — you just provide your API keys and we handle deployment, updates, and maintenance.

It’s intentionally opinionated and limited. I’d love feedback on what feels unnecessary, what’s missing, and whether this solves a real problem for you.
by cardanome | 2026-02-09 13:48:24+00:00
> The last part is why all the most socially realistic depictions of societies like this are post-scarcity where they've mastered some kind of sci-fi energy source (cheap easy fusion, antimatter, tapping the zero point, etc.).

Yeah, Marx already had these kind of discussions in the 19th century.

It is very interesting that you arrived to similar conclusions while employing a very different methodology.

Marxism evolved out of a criticism of what they call utopian socialism. Marx realized that socialism could only be build upon the massive development of productivity forces that would lead towards a post scarcity society.

Which is also why actually existing socialism struggled so hard. A revolution is more likely to occur in the least developed parts of the world but that also means it will be one of the hardest places to implement socialism in. Especially while having to defend itself against the rest of the world.

Many Marxists didn't even believe it could be possible to build socialism in such a condition but the Soviet Union proved otherwise. It brought many millions of people out of poverty but also had to make some hard and maybe sometimes wrong choices.

The good news is that these days even the least developed parts of the world are vastly more developed than they were in the 19th or 20th century. Modern actually existing socialism will look vastly different. Plus the rot of the latest stage of capitalism is showing more and more.

So socialism might be closer than we might think.
by RamblingCTO | 2026-02-09 13:48:36+00:00
I built https://bookcall.io. out of the annoyance existing scheduling platforms have. It's nieched towards solopreneurs, coaches, consultants, and similar that just need it to work and help them sell themselves. Also includes video calls. Would love to have feedback/pushback on the idea. But I happily use it for a while now.
by vidarh | 2026-02-09 13:48:53+00:00
I occasionally - when I have tokens to spare, a MAX subscription only lasts so far - have Claude working on my Ruby compiler. Far harder language to AOT compile (or even parse correctly). And even 6 months ago it was astounding how well it'd work, even without what I now know about good harnesses...

I think that is the biggest outcome of this: The notes on the orchestration and validation setup they used were far more interesting than the compiler itself. That orchestration setup is already somewhat quaint, but it's still far more advanced than what most AI users use.
Show HN: Self-healing data pipeline for F1 telemetry (Python and Type Inference)
by tarekclarke | 2026-02-09 13:49:07+00:00
I am building a data engineering framework for my PhD research proposal to solve a specific pain point in high-velocity telemetry: schema drift.

In live environments (like F1 racing or clinical monitoring), data producers often change types mid-stream (e.g., sending an int when the schema expects a float). Usually, this crashes the ingestion pipeline or forces a restart.

I built a "self-healing" layer that catches these errors, inspects the target schema, and auto-casts the data to a compatible type without dropping the record.

I just finished a stress test against live OpenF1 data. The results were:

-6 schema drift Events (unexpected type changes detected)

-0 system failures (all auto-recovered)

-100% data integrity

I also implemented a tamper-evident audit log (cryptographically signed) to prove that the "healed" data wasn't corrupted during the cast.

Repo (includes the new stress-test PDF report): https://github.com/tarek-clarke/resilient-rap-framework

The repo has already hit 1,500+ clones this week. I'd love to hear your feedback on the recovery logic!
by cman1444 | 2026-02-09 13:49:15+00:00
By significantly reducing the cost of creating the advertisements. Want to air a commercial? You no longer have to have actors, sets, designers, costumes, etc. just ask AI to make you a commercial and describe what you want it to look like.

Consider all the labor and capital spent across all the advertising real estate in the world. Commercial, online ads, billboards, labeling. The inputs to make all these things are now greatly reduced. To increase productivity, it doesn't matter that the market is flooded, just that it's much easier to make these things.
by mightyham | 2026-02-09 13:49:17+00:00
I publish a Firefox plugin and needed help a few years ago. Not to get too far down that rabbit hole, but they suddenly blocked my plugin because they couldn't build my source code, even though the issue with their build environment was pretty obvious. Anyways, I had to use their Matrix support channel and they recommended Element. I was immensely frustrated with how buggy the experience was, and it turned me off from ever trying it again.
by this_user | 2026-02-09 13:49:30+00:00
I think their main issue is that they seem to have no one who is seriously looking at the Matrix ecosystem from a product perspective. You have all of these pieces of technology in various states of maturity that more or less fit together if you know what you are doing. But there is also a lot of friction and a lot of things breaking on a regular basis etc.

What the project needs is someone who looks at it from a customer perspective and who can direct resources to make sure the entire thing is packaged as one consistent thing that does what the customer needs.

If you install WA or Signal, or if you sign up to Slack, you don't have to wonder which home server you should install and which of a dozen or so available clients you should use and what features are not yet production ready. Instead, it just works.
by drzaiusx11 | 2026-02-09 13:50:06+00:00
EDIT: it has been rightfully pointed out that my above comment can easily be read as a racially charged overgeneralization of overseas workers of indo-asian descent. The "cheap spaghetti code" was meant as shorthand for "wildly variable code output with respect to quality and consistency, with no overarching architecture or plan", and was intended to target offshoring _agency_ output along with cheap labor systems that US companies created. These systems attempt to exploit workers at these agencies to avoid paying US salaries and are NOT a reflection on the actual individuals working in the aforementioned cube farms themselves. These workers are already subjected to a number of dehumanizing labor issues entirely outside of their control and I did not intend to further dehumanize. I apologize for my terse, careless wording.

I've worked with, trained and lived alongside workers overseas for months at a time and can say that there's no meaningful difference across racial divides, save for some variation on cultural norms. I would have assumed a more charitable interpretation of my words, but we live in uncharitable times. I'll do better going forward.

Cheers
by prng2021 | 2026-02-09 13:50:10+00:00
This was a great article. The section “Training for the next state prediction” explains a solution using subagents. If I’m understanding it correctly, we could test if that solution is directionally correct today, right? I ask a LLM a question. It comes up with a few potential responses but sends those first to other agents in a prompt with the minimum required context. Those subagents can even do this recursively a few times. Eventually the original agent collects and analyzes subagents responses and responds to me.
by antonvs | 2026-02-09 13:51:29+00:00
> you are defying a measure that was taken by management to try to make the company safer.

> are you 100% free to cheat on cyber security measures?

Why do you think that implementing an email filter like that is "defying a measure" or "cheating"? What value do you think there would be in individually, manually, reviewing each such email, if you've already identified the pattern they all follow and their purpose? You're essentially arguing for wilful inefficiency, which is "cheating" the organization out of useful labor.

The other reply to you may have been less than perfectly polite, but they certainly had a point.