MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
How not to fork an open source project
by jsattler | 2026-03-14 16:41:46+00:00
Just saw this post on reddit where someone shared a project and claimed the following:

> I've been working on this for quite a while now after getting tired of the monopoly Screen Studio has on screen recordings. I didn't see any free screen recorders that actually offered the same motion blur animations and zoom animations as Screen Studio, so I decided to create an app with the missing features.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1rsf44t/os_i_made_a_free_opensource_screen_studio/)

Reading this, gives the impression that the author built the project entirely from scratch. Looking at the GitHub project shows that it's forked and many of the forked commits are simply rebranding and adding donation links. They don't mention that it's a fork in the reddit post and looking at the project's README.md it "credits" the original project exactly once at the very end, not even providing a link.

Please don't get me wrong — I think forks are great and completely valid. However, I do think such behavior is misleading, damaging the community and frankly disrespectful to the original project. The person forking the project did nothing wrong from a legal perspective, but I think it's questionable from a moral/ethical point of view.

Why am I sharing this? With the rise of AI-assisted coding, I think we will see a lot more forks - which is great. However, I think it's important to preserve some moral/ethical guidelines and credit the people who deserve the credit, even when you are not required to based on the license.

Btw, it's not my intention to publicly blame the person - I have already asked them to properly acknowledge/credit the original project via comment and DM. This is about sharing how not to promote a forked project.
by furyofantares | 2026-03-14 16:42:17+00:00
Here's a good read on the topic from Zvi Mowshowitz: https://thezvi.substack.com/p/the-online-sports-gambling-exp...

He was very much pro-legalizing online gambling. He had worked for sportsbooks, had done lots of sports betting himself, stuff like that. But has concluded that legalizing online gambling has been a disaster.

> When sports gambling was legalized in America, I was hopeful it too could prove a net positive force, far superior to the previous obnoxious wave of daily fantasy sports.

> It brings me no pleasure to conclude that this was not the case. The results are in. Legalized mobile gambling on sports, let alone casino games, has proven to be a huge mistake. The societal impacts are far worse than I expected.

The article makes a compelling argument that online gambling is a lot worse than other forms of gambling.

I have a take on this too. You know how scammers cast a really wide net, hoping to get lucky and find suckers? Well, that's really only part of the story, what actually happens is they get lucky and happen to find people when they are vulnerable. That's how smart people get scammed somewhat randomly.

When online gambling is in your pocket, it is guaranteed to be available when you're vulnerable.
by flohofwoe | 2026-03-14 16:42:20+00:00
I'm using WASM via Emscripten almost since the beginning but have never encountered 'rec' or 'struct' (or generally types beyond integers and floats). Why would WASM even need to know how structs are composed internally, instead of 'dissolving' them at compile time into offsets? Was this stuff coming in via the GC feature?
Ask HN: Would you use a tool that tells founders whether a startup should scale?
by hamaoui_nabil | 2026-03-14 16:42:29+00:00
I’m building ScaleOrKill, a tool that analyzes a startup across market, demand, competition, distribution, monetization and retention, then outputs a verdict like Scale, Refocus, Pivot or Kill.

We recently tested it on OpenClaw, an AI infrastructure startup, and it scored as SCALE.

I’m curious about something before pushing this further:
would founders or investors actually find a verdict-based startup analysis tool useful, or would this feel too opinionated?

Happy to share the link and demo if useful.
Show HN: Effect-log – Semantic crash recovery for AI agent side effects
by xudong963 | 2026-03-14 16:44:00+00:00
Your AI agent sends an email in step 3, crashes before step 4 records it, restarts, and sends the email again. This is the exactly-once side effect problem.

effect-log is an embeddable Rust library (with Python bindings) that solves this with two ideas:

1. Every tool declares an *effect kind* at registration: ReadOnly, IdempotentWrite, Compensatable, IrreversibleWrite, or ReadThenWrite.

2. A write-ahead log records intent before execution and completion after. On recovery, the effect kind drives the strategy — reads replay for fresh data, idempotent writes safely retry, irreversible
writes return sealed results (never re-execute), and unknown states escalate to human review.

The entire recovery logic is a pure function that fits on one screen.

I'd love feedback on: Is five effect kinds the right number? Are there tool types that don't fit? What failure modes have you hit with agents taking real-world actions?
by dandaka | 2026-03-14 16:44:03+00:00
I can imagine a "anonymity" or "reputation" filter attached to every interaction in the internet. Enabled by default, but you can disable safe mode and see bots having fun.

Also for me problem is not in the anonymity itself, but in the lack of reputation. If I have a signal that entity can be trusted, I don't care much about its real identity.
by Zigurd | 2026-03-14 16:44:17+00:00
A new word is needed. Currently, robotics has two non-overlapping meanings:

1. Industrial robots. These robots do things humans can't do or shouldn't do. They are very strong, and dangerous because of that. We don't let them walk around. We bolt them to the floor and put barriers around them. Making and selling robots that do these things is a real business and has been for decades.

2. Human shape things that are called robots, but have zero TAM, zero successful products, and are a fake business like orbiting data centers and mass drivers on the moon.
by staplers | 2026-03-14 16:44:31+00:00
The assembly line has been mass producing ready-made products for over 100 years and yet product quality, material stability, aesthetic trends, and function design still dominate the purchasing decisions of the general public.

Being tapped into fickle human preference and changing utility landscape will be necessary for a long time still. It may get faster and easier to build, but tastemakers and craftsmen still have heavy sway over markets than can mass-produce vanilla products.
by vasilyt | 2026-03-14 16:45:58+00:00
Good question. A few layers: (1) Agents authenticate via Ed25519 challenge-response, so every account is tied to a keypair — no anonymous throwaway accounts. (2) We track per-agent reputation based on send patterns, bounce rates, and complaint signals. Agents that degrade domain reputation get throttled or suspended automatically. (3) The shared domain pool is the key incentive — if an agent spams, it hurts their own deliverability because the domain rotates out. The pool is a shared resource, so agents that abuse it lose access. It's a similar model to how shared IP pools work in transactional email services.
by washadjeffmad | 2026-03-14 16:46:11+00:00
>taking "lots of text" as a signal of quality

Or of authority, when they're not equipped to evaluate the data first-hand.

The Gish gallop technique in debate overwhelms opponents with so many arguments that they're unable to address them all before the time limit. Reports presented like this are functionally that, but against reader comprehension and attention.

Similarly, being the first, loudest, or only voice claim is unreasonably effective at establishing perception of authority, where being unchallenged is tantamount to correctness. This also goes both ways; censorship in media, for instance, can be used to promote narratives by silencing competing views, like platforms selectively amplifying certain topics to frame them as more proven and widely supported than they might actually be.

It's unfortunate that inexpert execution often positions well-meaning and potentially correct arguments to be discredited and derided by prepared opponents before their merits can be established. In this case, it may be true that Meta may have organized a well-coordinated shadow campaign for legislation using technically legal channels, but I'm sure they've anticipated this at some point, or are relying on the inertia of the system and initial buy-in to force the course.
by thatwasunusual | 2026-03-14 16:46:22+00:00
A Norwegian "ENK" ("enkeltmannsforetak"; self-employment) deals with a more integrated state reporting environment, stricter cash-sale controls, more emphasis on formal bookkeeping and VAT/cash-register infrastructure, and a more pre-filled tax ecosystem.

You can get a long way cheating the system if you deal with cash only, as banks etc. are required to report everything about everyone to the government, but these days it can only take you so far.

My understand is that the US is much more depending on self-reporting.

But given that the US has its own industry involving tax reporting, and having lived there myself, I don't believe you when you say it's "simple." ;)
by braymond95 | 2026-03-14 16:46:44+00:00
Location: Denver, CO, USA
Remote: Yes (at most 2 days a week hybrid)
Willing to relocate: No

Technologies: Java, Scala, React, Typescript, Python, AWS, Terraform, Postgres, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes

Résumé/CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tpL0T_AsB9_MkO7iIyQTLBeq6h2...

Email: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminlraymond

I've been working as a software engineer for 6 years. I would describe myself as a generalist. I've worked in different domains such as aerospace, automotive, and telecom. I've taken projects from 0 -1. I'd like to move away from the enterprise environment and work in a smaller, energetic, and dynamic startup. I'm prepared to wear many hats.
by python-b5 | 2026-03-14 16:46:51+00:00
I've been working on an XML parser of my own recently and, to be honest, as long as you're fine with a non-validating parser (which are still compliant), it's really not that bad. You have to parse DTDs, but you don't need to actually _do_ anything with them. Namespaces are annoying but they're not in the main spec. CDATA sections aren't all that useful, but they're easy to parse. As far as I'm aware, parsers don't actually need to handle xml:lang/xml:space/etc themselves - they're for use by applications using the parser. Really the only thing that's been particularly frustrating for me is entity expansion.

If you want to support the wider XML ecosystem, with all the complex auxiliary standards, then yes, it's a lot of work, but the language itself isn't that awful to parse. It's a little messy, but I appreciate it at least being well-specified, which JSON is absolutely not.
by inglor_cz | 2026-03-14 16:47:13+00:00
Approximately 5,5 million Muslims live in Germany. If about 1 million of these came as refugees, that is still a minority within minority.

"The Gastarbeiter framing erases the millions"

Don't try this newspeak at me. I said quite clearly that majority, not all, European Muslims are descendents of Gastarbeiters.

Or OK, lets use your newspeak. When it comes to framing, your framing of the wars in the Middle East is that they are completely attributable to the West. Do the locals have no agency? Didn't they engage in wars prior to rise of Western power? Is the Shi'a-Sunni split a Western plot? Did Islam spread by completely non-violent means?

Muslims are humans, and as such perfectly capable of waging wars on their own.
by thyristan | 2026-03-14 16:47:13+00:00
> The better a person is at communication the more they will fit their message to the audience to get the action intended. If 'direct' really works then over time it will be used but the fact that direct isn't used often implies strongly that it doesn't work for most people or it has secondary effects that are too negative. Demanding the exception is a pretty big ask especially if your aren't willing to meet half way.

'Direct' can work and does work, depending on culture. There are direct cultures, where communication is primarily intended to convey information. There are indirect cultures, where communication is primarily intended to convey social status, manipulate social bonds, or perform culturally necessary rituals. With the actual information being secondary. In a direct culture you will tell say "I want to buy this bread". In an indirect culture, it might be more like "Hello, be greeted, o nicest and finest of all shop clerks, nice weather, $deity be praised for her mercy of having me walk this earth for one more day. All your wares look magnificent, but might I inquire if it would be possible, if it isn't inconvenient, reserved or forbidden, to maybe ask about how that very fine loaf of bread came into your possession? ...". All the while tourist me, back in the queue rolls his eyes in total annoyance, having suffered through innumerable minutes of waiting for people to get on with their useless diatribe.

Since HN is primarily engineers, time is precious on this earth, and secondary considerations should be secondary really: There is only one desirable mode of communications. The direct one. Everything else is a waste of time. Being indirect and long-winded isn't "bad at speaking and listening". It is being inconsiderate and rude. It is putting secondary things before the main issue. I think cultures need to be changed to be more direct.

Your last points are valid, sometimes you need some time and collect your thoughts. But in this case, you should just ask the other person to help you think, and directly tell them that you haven't fully formulated your issue and need help with that. That is a far more productive way to deal with the issue of half-formed thoughts and questions. Beating around the bush and using another person as a involuntary rubber-ducky is also rude, and only excusable in rare circumstances.
by mpalmer | 2026-03-14 16:47:23+00:00
It's a clear improvement, appreciate your taking feedback. And to be clear I don't think there's anything wrong with any particular format - a field guide is a welcome thing, but it wasn't labeled as such. Since lately some folks have been passing off this list-y as finished blog product, I wasn't sure if that's what I was seeing here. Cheers -
by dwood_dev | 2026-03-14 16:47:43+00:00
No, it happens even with AirPods Pro/Pro2.

I have two iPhones and a MBP. I have to keep Bluetooth disabled on the MacBook otherwise it randomly triggers while I'm between podcasts or whatever and squeeze the AirPods to resume, instead it launches Apple Music, or some browser tab starts playing audio.

This is far from solved if you have more than one Apple device.

There is no option for me to say: never use AirPods for anything but podcasts, and absolutely never automatically select them as an audio source for zoom/teams. AirPods microphones just don't work for my vocal range, they sound horrible and underwater. The microphone on my MBP works great, the mic on my iPhones works great.

AirPods are fine if you only ever use one device at a time. If you use more than one at the same time, it becomes extremely annoying.

Let's not even get into the annoying ways which it becomes hard to manage when you have multiple AirPods, multiple iPhones, and multiple MacBooks.
by scuff3d | 2026-03-14 16:47:52+00:00
When you contextualize the law with comments like this

"The initiative... contrasts with recent restrictive legislation efforts in states like California and Virginia. Zolnikov, a noted advocate for privacy, has been instrumental in pushing for tech-friendly policies that ensure individual liberties in an evolving digital landscape.

"'As governments around the world and in our own country try to crack down on individual freedom and gain state control over modern technologies,' Zolnikov said. 'Montana is doing the opposite by protecting freedom and restraining the government.'"

And it's the normal framing we always see with this crap. This is more an attempt to protect corporations from regulation then it is to protect individuals.
by FabHK | 2026-03-14 16:47:53+00:00
1. "Responsibility" was indeed too strong. Involved in the chain of causality, maybe.

2. I'm not blaming Trump's rightwing fascism on social theorists. I wondered whether a backlash against overbearing postmodernism enabled Trump's election victories. Sorry if you find that question vile and banal; I find it rather consequential and important to avoid further fascists.
by sph | 2026-03-14 16:48:11+00:00
Don’t you get it? Machine do the tedious work, all we get to do now is the fun part and we can just relax the rest of the day.

I am producing 5x as before, my boss is paying me the same salary just for two hours of actual work per day. I have so much more time to pursue my passions.

Isn’t the future great?
by _DeadFred_ | 2026-03-14 16:48:56+00:00
LOL. I'm no pawn. I'm at best a democracy supporting, western Liberal society loving American.

Spreading fear in this way since 9/11 has dramatically changed America into something worse. I'm sad you've lost faith in Liberal thought and are preaching replacing it with reactionary nothingness.

We literally defeated the people who owned the system AND owned the workers, because we elected the right people and we fought. If we had instead burnt the system down how the heck would we win the war? This system was build for people like us. The first of it's kind. We aren't going to get a better playing field. The oligarchy WANT it burnt down. Stop doing their work and put your effort/energy into useful change, don't be a tool for them.

It's sucks we have to fight, but it's idiotic to seed the best battlefield we are going to get to fight them on to some nebulous, reactionary unknown one like you seem to want. Don't give up. And fuck the anti-American traitors!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsKu3Jh5IAs
by MarkusQ | 2026-03-14 16:48:58+00:00
Nobody is advocating for a rude communication style; the disagreement is over what constitutes rudeness.

Some people/cultures see being blunt or to the point as rude.

Others see beating around the bush, wasting time and hogging the listener's brain space with fill material that serves no purpose other than delaying the actual closure/completion of the thought (including insisting on various rituals, either verbal or, in some cases, physical, such as drinking a cup of tea (or coffee) and not broaching the actual subject until both parties have finished drinking), or perhaps (though I suspect this is less common as an actual motivation than generally supposed) taking pains to respect the imagined feeling of the listener, and possibly most importantly, to reaffirm the social hierarchy, as rude.

It's just a difference of perspective.
by tlively | 2026-03-14 16:49:41+00:00
Yes, this is all part of Wasm GC. WebAssembly needs to know the structures of heap objects so that a GC can trace them and also to preserve type safety when accessing them. Treating the heap objects as uninterpreted bags of bytes wouldn't have worked because so many of their fields are references, which must remain opaque in Wasm.
by retrodaredevil | 2026-03-14 16:49:44+00:00
Adding null checks where they aren't needed means adding branching complexity. It means handling cases that may never need to be handled. Doing all that makes it harder to understand "could this variable ever be null?" If you can't answer that question, it is now harder to write code in the future, often leading to even more unnecessary null checks.

I've seen legacy code bases during code review where someone will ask "should we have a null check there?" and often no-one knows the answer. The solution is to use nullability annotations IMO.

It's easy to just say "oh this is just something a junior would say", but come on, have an actual discussion about it rather than implying anyone who has that opinion is inexperienced.
by MarkSweep | 2026-03-14 16:49:52+00:00
There is a middle ground between using XML and imperative code for representing tax forms. Robert Sesek’s ustaxlib [0] uses JavaScript to encode the forms in a way that is reasonably statically analyzable. See the visualizer [1]. My approach uses XML to represent the forms with an embedded DSL to represent most expressions tersely. See for example Form 8960 in ustaxlib [2] and my TaxStuff program [3]. The main thing that the XML format from the article has going for it is that it is easy to write a parser for. But it is a bit verbose for my taste.

[0]: https://github.com/rsesek/ustaxlib

[1]: https://github.com/rsesek/ustaxviewer

[2]: https://github.com/rsesek/ustaxlib/blob/master/src/fed2019/F...

[3]: https://github.com/AustinWise/TaxStuff/blob/master/TaxStuff/...
by instig007 | 2026-03-14 16:50:30+00:00
GHC Haskell has the best concurrency story among high-level programming languages. SMP parallelism, structured concurrency with M:N multicore mapping, STM transactions for data structures including members of collections (https://hackage.haskell.org/package/stm-containers), and OTP-like primitives (https://haskell-distributed.github.io/). All fit nicely into native binaries on x86_64 and arm64.
by mmooss | 2026-03-14 16:50:36+00:00
Yes, that's all the more reason they need a real government that protects people's rights.

The anti-freedom crowd always finds an excuse to disregard others' rights, liberty, and welfare, to impose what they want to do on others. They do it in the US too.

Plenty of places like Haiti just put civilians in the battleground between two equal and equally bad sides, the military and the insurgents. Both sides give the same excuse why they maim and murder civilians, which doesn't begin to address the damage to property and welfare.

In Iraq, for example, the US finally stabilized things when they adopted an effective and acceptable anti-insurgent strategy (led by David Petraeus): Protect the population.
by jauntywundrkind | 2026-03-14 16:50:38+00:00
Perhaps the missing component is that not only is rationality communicable, but so is irrationally.

The memetic material out there has had an incredible and tumultuous era of rapid evolution. Theres been such radical pressure to get better at consuming our attention, at trying to get ideas to spread. The means have perhaps outstripped the Humana ability to communicate & make sense of so much highly weaponized memetic systems.
by thyristan | 2026-03-14 16:51:04+00:00
There are better and worse societies in this matter.

I'm glad I live in a society where it is acceptable for a bartender to just bluntly ask "what do you want?" without all the pointless chitchat. Or for me to go to my boss and tell him "there is a problem with X, we should do Y, even if you earlier said Y is bad.".
Show HN: ChaosDrive – Virtually Circuit Bend a Sega Genesis/Megadrive
by richstokes | 2026-03-14 16:51:23+00:00
Hey HN! I built ChaosDrive to simulate what happens when you corrupt a running game console's hardware. For some reason it's always been interesting to me how these old consoles glitch when something goes wrong.

Load any Sega Genesis ROM and use keyboard shortcuts to manipulate VRAM, color palettes, sprite tables, FM audio registers, CPU memory, and more in real-time.

You get glitched graphics, cursed music, broken physics, and occasionally even reveals hidden sections of games and unused content. It can be interesting to see how some games show debug info when they crash, also.

Repo is here, and contributions are welcome if you can think of anything interesting we should add! https://github.com/richstokes/ChaosDrive