skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Here are a few legitimate complaints about Elixir (and in some cases, its host VM, the BEAM):

* No mutation support means that for some CPU-heavy tasks, it's not as performant as languages that allow mutation. Some optimized algorithms that rely on mutation can't be expressed directly in Elixir or Erlang, and instead need to be linked in through a foreign function interface.

* It's not on the JVM so we don't get to piggyback on the thousands of dev-years of VM optimization and ecosystem around it.

* It isn't invented at, supported at, and marketed by a FAANG-type company. Money moves mountains and Ericsson doesn't spend as much on Erlang/BEAM as, say, Google spends on Go.

* Comparison across types is not a runtime exception, so you need to guard against crap like `nil > 1 == true` yourself.

* Erlang standard library, which is idiomatic to use from Elixir in the same way of using Java classes from Clojure, is a bit of a junk drawer of tools. There's good stuff, but you may have to dig for it.

* Elixir still hasn't nailed the balance between creating small, independent pieces of code ("applications" in Erlang-speak) and wrangling them so they can be used as dependencies from monorepos, multi-repos, etc. Umbrella projects were an attempt, I don't like them.

* There is an impedance mismatch between Erlang/Elixir's configuration system and 12 Factor® ENV-style configs. (Full disclosure, I wrote a library for this: https://github.com/appcues/config_smuggler)

* The built-in Elixir code formatter removes trailing commas from multiline lists. I mean, come on!
File systems on macOS are case insensitive. The system-provided directories are capitalized by convention, but you may also refer to them in lowercase if you like. It’s no more a “red flag” than `c:\WINDOWS` being capitalized.

I opt for the if-brackets rather than the one line syntax because it is clearer to read. “if this, then that” is less mental effort than remembering just how boolean operators short circuit, for me at least. It's a few extra lines but I prefer the layout, indent, and ease of scanning.
The Republican Party itself is not a lobbying group, but a political party. To the extent that they want to make taxes worse, they are both internally motivated and also the subject of lobbying. To make my original question more pointed: Who else lobbies like Intuit? It is already well-established that the Republican Party's members broadly support these antisocial tax-frustrating positions; we are examining the people who put money into those positions, not the people who put people into those positions.

Norquist is a great example of a lobbyist worth examining. He's a real piece of shit. His group is Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). Their 2019 sheet shows $390k spread across 6 lobbyists who did not hide their representation; they had opinions on a variety of issues and bills, all related somehow to taxation. [0] Intuit's sheet shows spending of $1.28m in that same time period, spread across at least ten firms, including dozens of revolving-door politicos and industry insiders, all aimed at one single piece of legislation: The Taxpayer First Act of 2019, an attempt to modernize tax legislation and filing processes. [1] Surprisingly, ATR has officially said nothing about the Taxpayer First Act, despite Norquist's well-publicized position against such efforts.

To recap: Intuit spent 3x what Norquist's group spent, and focused that spend on one specific bill which would have eased tax filing. If Norquist is a piece of shit, what does that make Intuit?

[0] https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientlbs.php?id=D00004709...

[1] https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000026...
Multiculturalism Is Ethnocentrism
This is amazing and I want to add something like this to my side project list right now.

But maybe it is a bit too extreme, i.e. using a ruler and glue won't save you that much money compared to using some better materials. But I guess that was the intention of the author, extreme frugality.
Sadly you can't even file a simple quarterly estimate tax return online without paying a fee. If you want to do it for free, you have to print it out & mail it. Not sure how that benefits citizens or the IRS.

Intuit's main argument has always been that if the government provided such a service many people would overpay their taxes.

Honestly it's much cheaper, easier & better to just find a good accountant to do your taxes instead of Turbo Tax.

The government could do a lot to make filing taxes & starting businesses easier. All the politicians talking about being pro-small business could really start at these 2 steps. Otherwise, imho, their talk is nothing but empty promises. Creating hurdles like this is just a way of gate-keeping lower incomes out of small businesses.
A Brief Visual History of Mathematics
Yes, a city that bans cars would necessarily need to become a densely-populated city, for sure.
Is Samsung actually storing a hi res copy of a fingerprint, or just a hash?

I'm not sure I want any tech company storing high resolution scans of my biometrics.
Side question, are you British? I'm asking because I've just read "hoover up" for the second time in my life and both were in the past week and although I understand the meaning of the phrase and I can guess why it came about, I'm trying to understand where it came from geographically.
Apps like Canva have shown that simplifying power user software and making it accessible in a browser is in fact very much a venture backable project!

Even more specifically for video editor in the browser: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/24/kapwing/
Technically FPGA is a piece of memory. The functionality of the FPGA device depends how the bits in this memory are set. Size of this memory is constant This information is not public, brave hackers are working hard to reverse engineer this. You can make a CPU in FPGA, no way for the opposite performance wise. Complex simulation with couple 4k resolution pictures takes days.

Edit: the people here are decent enough to start a discussion.
On eBPF, XDP and Network Security
> Maybe I’m overly cynical, but creating tax returns for everyone for free would prevent the IRS from allowing you to incriminate yourself by mis-filing (intentionally or not) and then levying huge penalties and interest on you 10 years later.

Many countries pre-fill the tax return, but require the citizen to submit it. The citizen is responsible for the submitted information, not the government.
1) We used to use Toggl at my employer:

https://toggl.com/

2) We switched to Clockify because it is cheaper for us.
They have a "free forever" version.

https://clockify.me/

I preferred the Toggl UI. It also has a free version, but I think it was more expensive for the reporting we wanted.
Councilmember Grosso re-introduces legislation to decriminalize sex work in DC
Product Targeting: a specific niche, or 'all humankind'?
>>It's necessary to be able to critique leaders.

There's one particular leader who comes to mind... I know many people would have no problem publicly asserting that this leader clearly has some sort of mental/cognitive/emotional problems.
Both of you are conflating Hasidic with Orthodox.
I suggest we stop taking taxes out of paychecks and have people pay their full taxes once a year. It would help them see the total amount of taxes they pay. It would have a positive effect on government policy.
They had to declare bankruptcy because of how California decides to govern itself.

Maybe we don't put the sole responsibility on them to prevent fires.

Maybe we don't have our power grid powered by a monopoly.

Maybe we have a distributor and multiple providers for the grid, like Texas.
I'm surprised nobody in this thread has called out StarterStory/IndieHackers as a place to read about stories like this!

https://indiehackers.com
https://www.starterstory.com/
I think most of the growth of FP is coming from libraries and hybrid languages. Things like React and Redux and streams/linq style operations on data structures, or default immutability. I don’t think “pure” languages will ever really become dominant but a lot of the best ideas are being borrowed.
Wyden's New US Privacy Bill Targets Facebook, Google, Big Tech
Experiment with HTTP/3 using Nginx and quiche
Google Home/Assistant doesn't provide much value for me anyway. Half the time it doesn't even do what I say. I'd like to stop using it, but I use it to control a variety of smart lights and smart plugs, which are extremely useful in my very old apartment.

Is there an app that can handle those and other connected devices without a Google Home or similar? Or would I have to use a different app for each individual component?
It gets better, I promise. Hope you can find that help and healing.
CRUD is trivial in general, and pretty easy to implement even with the Node.js built-in HTTP library. A more complex API is probably where Rails or Phoenix start to make sense, but there's no reason why an HTTP library and a database aren't enough for basic CRUD. Someone who doesn't see CRUD as fundamentally trivial probably hasn't been programming very long.
Is Groovy really a contender?

It is a decent language, but it's development sucks. Maybe I'm missing something. I use it for Jenkins pipelines and it does not even has an editor with code completion. I must run it through an interpreter to find simple syntax errors, like a missing parenthesis. Looks like I'm developing in the 80's.
I have friends who have had awful experiences working for NGOs, and eventually ended up burning out.

It can be all the stress of working for a tech company, with 1/3 of the pay. The dynamic that often shows up is that higher-ups try to use employees' intrinsic motivation to guilt them into working longer hours and accepting low pay, "for the greater good".

There are good and bad NGO workplaces, just as there are good and bad private workplaces. But NGOs as a whole are no safe haven.
I don't like it either, but that's an artifact of using macOS - most users aren't fully aware of Linux naming conventions.
A few weeks ago I started an LLC in New York. I followed all the simple instructions online and the process was actually very straightforward and easy. I had an official digital copy of proof my LLC existed within an hour. I went to sleep with and thought that there is hope for our government.

Within a few days I received a letter from a private company informing me that unless I pay them $1000 to publish the name of my LLC in two public newspapers for six weeks, one daily newspaper and one weekly newspaper, in 120 days my LLC would need to cease doing business in NY. I pull out my phone and did a quick online search. Lo and behold, there is a law that says the same.

In this golden age, the government has chosen to require me to pay a private archaic company to print in ink thousands of times on paper the silly name of an LLC I just came up with, then proceed to distribute it by truck to a bunch of old people that then proceed to throw it in the garbage.

No fancy tax algorithms would be required for NY to simply drop this nonsensical requirement. Maybe this process exists because there are groups of people making a small fortune from it?
I am not that old and still I remember Ring networks (before ethernet), they were highly impractical and rudimentary, but they filled a purpose at their time.

Then Ethernet came. Anyone remembers the dumb hubs? when a computer wanted to send a message, the hub actually broadcasted it to all computers in the network... so inefficient, and yet, it served its purpose.

Later, came the network protocols. There was this protocol used for discussion groups/news, remember NNTP? wasteful, because nodes had to download / replicate the full history of posts. But still... served its purpose for its time.

Then came a messaging protocol, SMTP, very useful for sending "electronic mail", very convenient. But people started sending binary data files on it... by converting it to text (UUEncoding anyone?) so wasteful and inefficient. But it is still being used.

So, bitcoin for me is just that early system, that early test that shows a way to do decentralized, censorship-resistant, digital currency. Humanity will find more efficient ways to do it (and maybe they won't be used, as with Email) or at some point in the distant future, the power side of the equation won't be relevant (renewable energy? nuclear? who knows). But for me, that does not change the fact that bitcoin proposition is a stepping stone for society that sooner or later will change the way people transfer value.
More popular and more influential I understand but please explain what you mean that it predates.
> people willingly bringing always on listening devices in to their homes <...> I just can't comprehend it.

The reason is "people" lack education in technology. They can barely use a computer these days, with "using a computer" generally means being on Facebook with a browser.

There's a very significant divide in this regard that has been growing for decades. And it isn't getting any better. This is why it is nearly impossible to convince people you know to use better passwords and adopt security and privacy-conscious behaviors. I don't know if you (plural) have experienced this, I know a few people for whom sending a link via email is a challenge. They think they sent you a link and what you get is unusable. No, it isn't about age at all.

Smart phones and tablets have changed the relationship people have with computers. They make things very easy to use and require almost no technological knowledge to operate. In computers, the browser or Chromebooks do the same.

Add it all up and the idea that someone does not even remotely think that a thermostat could be recording every word being said in home doesn't even cross their minds. Going beyond that, thinking about how and where that data is stored and how it could be used it yet another level.

All this says it is the responsibility of the tech community to make sure customers understand the important aspects of the technology we provide.
Not transfers, but rather notifying the other carriers of new number range assignments so they can condition their switches to route them. Not as bad as it sounds.
A DC council hearing about this bill is occurring today: https://twitter.com/hashtag/decrimnowdc?f=tweets&vertical=de...
OK I'm not working on Google scale, but for the vast majority of companies I don't think this actually matters that much. If it's all about budget than I would hire PHP devs instead of Elixir cos cheaper! No it doesn't make sense sorry. For the small amount of companies where this actually matters you'd still need to convince me how java/.net/Go can't get it right.
How do you know if you’re working on the right thing?
Related Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/dj5xru/u_di...
Show HN: Codeless UI testing service that generates tests for you
I think it would be unstable in general but perhaps some shielding could be created to help but even so it seems like strong forces would need to be used to hold the ultradense target together.
Dumb question, but why are people so surprised by this? Can you honestly say at this point in the game that you had no idea this was happening or that this is news to you?
On my S8 I never used the rear fingerprint scanner. It was so unweildy and poorly placed that it was quicker and easier to enter my pin.

They also touted "face recognition" but it was a poorly-made piece of software that used a conventional camera (no depth) and was just a marketing check-off item, and not a real feature.
"not useful for a lot except artistic sketches" - what could be more useful than that?!
You are dealing with a consequence of TurboTax's 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free.

There have been proposals to mail cards to taxpayers with their financial information (as known to the government) pre-printed, and if everything is accurate, the recipient does nothing at all. TurboTax (and a few others) lobbied heavily to make sure such efforts were defeated, and so you have to keep doing your own taxes.

But please, stop using TurboTax to do so!
Sure, that's always an option, but due the complexity of the tax codes, it's very easy to make a mistake when doing everything yourself.

For example, I used to work in New Jersey, and live in New York, meaning I would have to file two state tax returns, in addition to the federal. There are weird rules that you can deduct one state's taxes from the other, and then deduct the remainder from the federal taxes. The rules get complex really quickly, and even with helpful software I made a mistake one year resulting in a fine. I can't imagine how frequently I'd make mistakes if I had to do it manually.

TurboTax definitely provides a service by making it so that schmucks like me can do taxes, but if the tax code is that complex, shouldn't we have a software like this for free? At the very least, to provide some motivations to politicians to help simplify the tax code?
Mist Showers: Sustainable Decadence?
I have the original Nest thermostat. I think I’m going to rip it off the wall and replace it with something that isn’t front a scumbag company.

This is exactly why I don’t own google phones, assistance, or home automation products. YOU ARE THE PRODUCT!
You could even put the fuel and generator in the back of your Tesla pickup and charge while you drive! Except I'm sure it won't drive while plugged in.
I'm only responding so others who decide not to read the article don't make incorrect assumptions like yourself. The free file-able online forms are easy to find and are not part of turbo taxes offerings. Turbo tax uses shady tactics to hide their own free offerings which they are supposed to be offering as part of a deal with the government. Free file forms are basically digital tax forms and are much more convenient over paper. Up to certain incomes they will even do most of the work for you.
Tricky question. I'm the chairman of Quad9's board of directors. So _I_ trust the organization. But I'd urge everyone else not to trust _any_ organization, but instead to do as much to protect yourself as possible, using an external recursive resolver only when you need to.

That means running your own caching resolver, with a local copy of the root zone and QNAME minimization enabled, and then using DNS-over-TLS to forward the minimum necessary query onward.

The next question then becomes whether to perform recursion yourself (by talking directly with authoritative nameservers) or to have Quad9 or another recursive server perform the recursion for you. Authoritative nameservers don't yet support transport encryption, though we're working very hard to support it on the 500 TLDs PCH is authoritative for, and Verisign is working very hard to support it on .COM and .NET. So that means that your traffic is subject to interception, and essentially all authoritative servers either log queries or have people logging queries off the wire in front of them. And if you're handling your own recursion, everything you don't have cached crosses the wire, and none of it is blended together with anyone else's traffic.

To make the decision as to whether it's better to trust a recursive or send queries directly, knowing something about the practices and purpose of the recursive is necessary. Quad9 is the only major recursive that's a public-benefit not-for-profit. There are other small ones which are not-for-profits (like the Taiwanese 101.101.101.101, operated by TWNIC), but all of the others that come near Quad9's scale or traffic are for-profit, operated by companies that monetize data. Quad9 and Cisco's commercial Umbrella service are the only two which are GDPR-compliant and thus legal to provide to European citizens.

Quad9 exists solely so that bad choices won't be the only choices.

-Bill Woodcock
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Quad9
I concur. Studio Tax is not pretty but it gets the job done for most people.
Both parties are constantly changing and jockeying for position in response to shifts in the political tastes of both the general public and the general public with money.

Warren might have seemed barely to the left in historic eras. She only seems left now because the recent stretches with the "left" party in control have all been very centrist. Big businesses have been allowed to grow bigger, and organized labor unions have been just treading water federally, as the individual states have been pulling their teeth with "right to work" and "at will" employment laws.

Media consolidation and campaign finance has been driving it. The median voter does not have a reliable, unbiased source of information to drive their decisions, so it's "Garbage In, Garbage Out" politics. Control the inputs to influence the outputs. One faction seems to be experimenting with packing all the main channels with misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and psyops, and that seems to be worth about 40% of the vote, if the polling is honest and accurate.

The antipodal position to this would be to invest more into public education, independent journalism, legislation penalizing prevarication or material omissions by public officeholders and appointees, anti-secrecy and public disclosure (or "sunshine") laws, and overhaul of broadcast licensing. The issues Warren is focusing on seem more concerned with the flows of money than the flows of information. It's the latter that will produce government reform in a democracy.

Going after Facebook is easy. They're a big, obvious target, and Zuckerberg isn't tremendously charismatic. But Facebook is just one business. Political disinformation is an entire industry.
UK provides a web form. Pretty well done one considering the complexity. I think you can use your own software too if you like and theres some sort of submission api.

The only out-of-date thing I've noticed on the UK one is stuff like 'this PDF of your tax return is 1.5mb, on a dial up modem this might take 5 mins to download' etc. And I guess some people might still be on that kind of link so fair enough

edit: And yeah in the UK you dont have to file at all if your situation is simple (e.g. you just have one job and one source of income).
Interesting, sounds like you may want to file a bug report. I'm on Linux as well (Arch, Cinnamon) and all of those key combinations work for me.
I have found it effective to mail hn@ycombinator.com with requests like these. They are responsive.
It can be used to make a decent game free. I generally don't buy any microtransactions and I'll play a free game or at least try it out. If whales want to subsidize a game, the devs are happy, and the whales don't feel bad about it, I don't really care about changing the situation. I don't like the attitude of blaming the addictive nature, even if they specifically work on making a skinner box, because I think there should be some self control.