skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I can't tell if this is a "getting older" thing or a "I got used to marking time with exponential growth in tech and tech-adjacent culture" thing.

2000 to 2010 felt like a huge jump, and it was -- you had the explosion of broadband, enabling huge MMOs like WoW which was a life-absorbing phenomenon for me, and computers and GPUs went from scrawny, green-board things to beefy, pro-sumer luxuries blazing with LEDs. Fat client IMs and social media redefined how we connected to people online.

Compared to that, 2010 to 2020 feels like an inertial flatline. We dropped Skype for Discord, which is the best IM since WLM (yet still inferior in many ways lol), GPUs have gotten beefier since they're purely parallel compute machines (and yet nearly 70% of people still have a 1080p display according to the Steam Hardware Survey[0], a resolution that was readily available on LCDs 13 years ago!). Motherboards have more LEDs than before, and look more and more like exotic alien space cities, which is awesome. SSDs have gotten... slightly bigger. Ray tracing and VR, which seem like the only major innovations of the decade, are both kind of here, but only kind of, and not enough for a WoW equivalent or genre to capitalize on. The games we play or their graphics haven't changed significantly. I started using Linux and learned exponentially more about tech than in the prior decade, and I now play those samey games on an open source OS, and that's cool. :p Crypto came, and a lot of security lessons have been learned in the tech world. That's nice. But it feels like bacteria filling out the blank spots of a petri dish that's stopped expanding.

0: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
You injecting a straw man argument doesn't help.

We need to fix the existing system, yes, and it requires real work - real relationship building, real trust networks of competent critical thinkers - a meritocracy, hierarchy of competent to form and be strengthened; regulatory capture is a multi-industry, multi-institutional issue.

Certain issues inherently to Bitcoin's issues are unavoidable pitfall and not fixable. The issues with government are fixable, and arguably the US government, democracy and capitalism has been highly successful for getting innovation to where it is today. Next step is making sure people/businesses are paying their fair share into the system and then redistributing a UBI to the largest segment or largest cog in the machinery - consumers, so then the machine has the fuel to run.
you spend a lot of time and verbage to try and justify the issues with the existing system. You want to appeal to authority ("99% of people..." and "I'm pretty sure..") Not to mention trying to claim since you never had any issues, no one else should...

and in the end, you walk it back to "Crypto might be right for you". Which is what I've been saying all along. I don't claim crypto is right for everyone/everything. Just that there may be times when it is right for somepeople/somethings.
On HN with its dang moderation that is often praised, I have noticed a tendency to ascribe Slashdot's fall to poor moderation. That wasn't actually how things happened, though.

Slashdot's decline started in the years around 2004 because of a site redesign that was taken very badly by the community, and the sale of the site to new owners who began to make all kinds of annoying changes with a view to monetizing. A lot of longtime users bailed out. It was only due to this loss of the productive participants that the site seemed to be taken over by low-quality posting.
This will serve them well.

Ever since the GFC big tech has not produced anything which actually improved the quality of life of the avg. citizen.

And the last huge leap was Windows 95, the rate of innovation slowed down since then, we just barely managed to collect Google and Facebook along the way.

It was Windows 95 which should have shown big tech companies the way. If you stop innovating, then people begin to look at the marketcap of the company and the net worth of the founders as well as the pay of CEOs and sure enough hatred among the public opinion starts mounting pretty fast. People get accostumed to the quality of life provided by big tech in a very fast manner, if the rate of innovation slows down then people will turn on innovators because of the wealth inequality that they see between themselves and big tech companies' insiders.

Microsoft was fighting for its survival a mere 5 years after the release of Windows 95, not because of competitors, but because of the public hatred against them had mounted and that emboldened the DOJ to sue them. It wouldn't have happened if the next iteration would have been as transformative as the jump from Ms-Dos to Win95.

Big tech has to understand that as complex as they are as companies, they are not much different than a bike, you can only slow down so much before you tip over and disaster happens.

They have their 300B cash warchest, they have their AAA+ credit rating, they have interest rates at an historic minimum. They have no excuse for the technological stasis
We are a market for them. If you're suggesting they would stop selling us anything in response to us blocking a few of their services online, I think you're overestimating their likely response.
Is this meant to be some sort of amusing tool in the spirit of "because we can" or is there a genuine practical purpose to it?
Do you hear yourself? You are full of yourself. An economy that doesn't work for everyone won't work for anyone.
You wrote down a truly idiotic thought with no argument or justification whatsoever and you expect people to take you seriously, where did you learn to be so brave and clever.
She “gave it up” because she was directed by her religious superior to do so, and was initially unhappy about it. (As well as shifting timing related to external political events, the popular musical retelling changes this, because it makes a less simplistically charming narrative.)
Hard to tell from the summaries. I hope this addresses ISPs too. Comcast, AT&T seem to operate like a cartel.
In both of those cases, consumers were being overcharged for good and services in a variety of concrete economic ways. It's not analogous to the current situation, I don't think. It's not like a broken up Google or Facebook would cease showing ads or show fewer ads. If anything, they'd show more, as we can see from all the random clickbait news sites that are more ad than material. It seems possible that a broken up version of these would be better for ad buyers, but (with my consumer hat on), I don't really care about ad buyers that much. It's hard to picture the broken up sites offering better services.

It will be interesting to see! I'll be fascinated to see the degree to which congress is willing to take on these companies, and the degree to which their views on what should be done are congruent between the parties. I wonder the extent to which differing views on that subject could scuttle any legislation that would really address the concerns.
We use our own iko.ai for collaborative notebooks. We use them for meetings about product, and have the agenda, action items, plus code to reproduce errors or test prototypes in the same place.
The author of the dickbutt (if he/she can be found) might easily sell the rights to their creation to a copyright troll for one million dollars after which my scenario could take place.
Malicious individuals invariably rely on and take advantage of good faith interpretations of their behavior. This is the only way they are able to continue their abuse for so long. Judge people by their actions.
Concentrating rare assets still goes on today, and not just libraries. Museums concentrate them, too.
> This kind of snotty reply is always interesting. I've been a professional developer for 25 years.

I didn't interpret it as "snotty" (not beyond the norm for this forum, anyway). Could have been worded better, but charitable interpretation is an HN guideline.

> There is some bizarre tendency in here for people to pretend that everything Microsoft does well they've only done well for most recent history, as if this is some sort of odd proselytizing and naysayers should realize that everything has changed.

Or perhaps the parent just disagrees with you on merit and there is no nefarious underlying motive? In my experience at least, Microsoft's ethos and behavior has improved significantly in the last ~decade with respect to openness, developer friendliness, attitude toward open source, product quality, etc. It seems clear to me that there is some broad cultural change at MS and it seems plausible that it could affect documentation quality as well.

Personally, I don't have a dog in this documentation fight, but your comment seems unjustifiably angry.
I've been working from home for the last 5 years, and I'm never going back. I get more done, I have more energy throughout the day, and it makes it much easier to put family first (which is one reason I think FANG and others are so afraid -- they lose a little bit of control).
Novelty. How often are you part of a study where you get to shock yourself? It makes a good story, and this kind of makes the study less useful. The "shock value" of shocking oneself is its own entertainment. Would not be surprised if some of the people who didn't shock themselves were spending the time trying to amp themselves up to take the shock, but just never did.
This is a very interesting collection of stories/links. I found most of the links to be very useful & thought provoking.
Those who use Gemini find value in it. Their definition of value may be different. It may be expressed in terms of the type of community they wish to participate in, the type of environment they wish to expose themselves to, the hobbies they pursue, how they entertain themselves, or any other reason that keeps them returning.

Painting people with negative stereotypes simply because they seek something different from their online experience is uncalled for. Nothing compels people to use Gemini aside from their own personal interest. Its imprint upon the world is so minuscule that it is impossible to complain of incidental impacts. Simply put, it will not affect the lives of those who choose to ignore it. Contrast that to the web, which is virtually impossible to escape while remaining functional in the modern world.

And why paint it in terms of negatives? People tend to compare Gemini to a crippled version of the web simply because that's what most of the world uses, but is more accurate to claim it is a modernized version of Gopher. It simplifies linking to other documents. It is possible to reformat text for small screens. It adds a layer of security. These are all positives.
The landscape has changed, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t high quality content available anymore. For example, a lot of content is on YouTube. That may or may not be someone’s preferred medium to consume, but there’s definitely good and niche content.
Depending on what you consider “mature”, sure. Here is a short list of programming languages where I have had to install an up-to-date version on recent Debian, Ubuntu or RHEL derivatives in just the last month:

- Node.js

- Python

- Go

- Rust

- C++

- .NET Core

- Java

None had an up-to-date version in the distribution repositories. It’s a problem - and for those who defend it as otherwise while lamenting the rise of Docker, perhaps it’s worth some careful introspection about what a majority of people actually want from an operating system distribution, and whether the concept is in fact a relic of the days when software was distributed on CDs via the mail.
Ask HN: Are Certifications Useful in Infosec?
So i get that infosec is a very broad term, which could mean anything from more business focused roles that focus on ensuring compliance to things like managing network security and appliances, to actively developing and researching exploits.

There are a large number of available certifications in the area. CISSP, Sec+, CCNA Security, CEH are just some I can think of off the top of my head, but I've seen many more.

There always seems to be a mixed response on whether they're useful for entering the industry. Some find them to be bullshit, akin to the programming certs out there. Others seem to think they're useful at least for landing roles in the industry. The most common I've seen requested on job listings has been Sec+, mostly in jobs requiring TS clearance.

Do you believe one narrative or the other. Do you think that these credentials hold more value in certain areas of the field than others?
Stories of how my research papers were published
Corporations Want to Put Advertisements in Your Dreams
Maybe I’m taking you too literally here but none of the bills in the article talk about splitting companies up.
The bills mentioned limit acquisitions of their competitors, increase funding for merger investigations, require data portability, limit self-preferencing on platform, and limit self-preferencing across business areas.

At least this is what is stated in the article. I have not read the bills.
Well denying science isn't really a selling point to have the same platform as those who don't deny science. Conservatives don't offer anything of substance to the conversation.
Maybe he did, but the deniability was indeed plausible. And I'm aware that many doubt his sincerity, and it's perfectly reasonable to do so. That being said, I find his explanation not just plausible as well but more useful as an explanation. People chose not to see or believe what was too inconvenient. See cognitive dissonance. That explains how the Nazis got them to do what they did. Note that I'm not saying that they were ignorant of every crime, just that they were spared the undeniable knowledge of the most offensive ones, making it easier to support or at least fail to oppose the régime. Deporting the Jews was bad enough, and that was done in plain sight, but not quite as unpalatable as their mass murder.

The point here is that Japanese soldiers were massively trained to perform horrible things. They mistreated prisoners of war, civilians, anyone, everywhere, and new recruits were forced to perform horrors as part of their induction. Germans on the other hand respected the rules of war in the West (though certainly not in the East) for instance, except obviously for the SS. They were certainly keen to appear legit in that respect. The Japanese were not, ever.
This drama all reminds me of what happened at DALnet in the early 2000s. A few overzealous IRCops started a purge of all the warez/mp3 scene channels. Everyone suspected RIAA put the pressure on them. I was a channel op with a handful of friends at the time of a popular channel (100-200 members on average). One day I logged on and the channel was invite only. They took the channel via their ChanServ service. Everyone I know either moved to EFnet or Undernet.
I find it kind of absurd that management thinks it’s appropriate to chastise employees as if they are naughty children. It’s dehumanizing to say the least.

Why does management care what I do in my free time, so long as I get my job done? It’s a power trip, plain and simple.

I hope you gave a reason if they asked why you’re leaving.
I don’t think “deviant” is the right word to describe CK’s abhorrent behavior at all. Being different isn’t a bad thing. Rex Ryan is a “deviant”. Sure, some people may judge him but there’s nothing inherently harmful or unethical about what he chooses to do for sexual gratification. CK might be a deviant in that others don’t find gratification the way he apparently does but his deviance isn’t the issue. This issue is that he’s sexually exploitative of others.
What I was doing on Freenode was providing a quick answer to questions, and also pointing out that most people had moved, so better answers were more likely on Libera. I never told people to not answer questions. If people wanted Freenode #python to be a lively place, they were welcome to stay and answer questions. They didn't.

Of course, Freenode is free to decide that my mentioning Libera was a reason to remove me. But I didn't see a clear policy forbidding it (though the policies have been changing daily, so I might have missed it). Just as Freenode is free to remove people, people are free to move to another network. And that is what is happening.

My main point in my blog post was not, "I have been wronged!" My point was, "Freenode is doing this to themselves, but it's OK because Freenode doesn't matter."
It is most definitely a control thing. Companies are afraid to lose the iron grip they have over the lives of employees.
There’s no question that a stick will wobble in the wind, the real challenge is getting significant power out of an alternator that’s moving at less than 15Hz. Fo they address how they plan to make that work anywhere on the website?
I have lots of hybrid SACDs and I cannot extract the high-res content for playback on computer/phone without my clunky Sony Blu-ray player. This is of course by design, but I do wonder if it also helped to kill the format before it even properly landed.
It might be an antidote, if one asserts that humans are just chemicals.

Many people believe in the assertion that there is free will though, which is a supernatural belief.

If we are just chemicals, than those that believe there exists free will believe that out of no volition of their own.

E.g. the laws of physics happened to be tuned for the eventual existence of a cloud of atoms seeming to contemplate this on a HN forum ;)

In either case, both seem amazing.
Whether freelancing is better for you really depends on if you can charge a rate that (a) covers necessaries like insurance and pension and (b) is higher than you would receive as a full-timer, and (c) also pay a lower tax rate as a consultancy than as a full-timer. If you can do that, then you also get: every moment on the clock is compensated. Mandatory, boring meeting? Groovy team-building weekend? Stay up late to zoom clients on another continent? All paid. No reason to drag your feet, or complain about management, or worry about being passed up for a promotion. You smile, nod, and send an invoice. People tend to respect your time.

Bootstrapping or founding? Everything that you do is an investment in your future. It's like buying a house rather than renting.

There are exceptions, of course.

> What has changed?

I'm not sure anything has changed. Software is an ever-expanding demand. If you know how to write it, you can charge a premium for this skill.
Not actually true - Bell Labs was a government created and enforced monopoly, so the break up definitely helped people but it did not earn its 'monopoly' status.

As for Standard Oil at the height of it's market dominance the price of oil went down drastically, and by the time it was broken up it was nowhere near as dominant - iirc it was in the high 60%s of market share.

The only monopolies that ever seem to truly exist and cause harm, are those that are granted special status and favors by the state.
> Most tokens are too volatile to be very useful as media of exchange

I wonder if this was half of the motivation behind Tesla no longer accepting Bitcoin.
Cockroach, someone suggested. Feels plausible to me.
This is one of the things I worry about - a duopoly not just backed by two wealthy and shady megacorps but also effectively by law as it mandates a mobile app for some things yet the app only exists for iOS and Android & no public API is available.
This speaks to me. I’m not deeply involved in the iOS development world but I do a lot of webview-adjacent stuff so I keep a close eye on the WKWebView documentation.

It’s a mess. Case in point: introduced in the new beta: loadSimulatedRequest:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/wkwebview/3...

What does it do? Don’t know. I can make a few informed guesses from the name but I’m not sure if it’s maybe a performance measurement tool, or just a way of loading faked data. There is no documentation. To the best of my knowledge it isn’t covered in any talks either.
For a little bit of ancient history: I was one of the admins who worked to create OFTC. We all knew each other from Open Projects Network (which rebranded as Freenode).

I was barely in high school when I came up with the name OFTC and I registered OFTC.net. Very early on in the process of creating OFTC, I agreed with all of the people I was creating OFTC with that I would behave as caretaker rather than owner of OFTC.net while we figured out our governance.

Ultimately we came up with a governance model, and we also managed to convince Software in the Public Interest to take custody of the domain name and have it managed in accordance with the governance model we designed.

We started with a pretty great group of both capable and well-intended people, and one of the things we figured out was that if OFTC was going to be a sustainable project, it needed more sustainable governance than the project we were leaving.

One of the key people behind the very early push for OFTC to have a stable governance model later became a Member of Parliament here in Canada.
As I read this, I was thinking how much I would enjoy participating in such a study and seeing how many times I could shock myself before I couldn’t take it anymore. My very first thought was how much I would like to have the ability to test myself.
You can temporarily reduce query timeout to a smaller setting as part of the automated failover. The long running transactions will fail but you can minimize the window where you can't talk to postgres
Could you please, then, point me to a creditable source regarding what 'powerd' is?
> Different from a plumber, a banker or a teacher who wouldn't filter their perspectives on many subjects through their vocation.

Not their job, but in many cases they’d filter it through their religious, political, or otherwise ideological beliefs. Which, ib the case of specifically Catholic religious views would (as well as their status as a married person or committed single) be considered as much part of their vocation as it would be for someone called to religious life and/or holy orders.
arguably it's been the last decade that documentation from MS suffered, specifically around the time that their software stopped shipping with CHM&co files and started opening web pages.

But they are quite actively rebuilding from the switchover. I still miss CHM.
Discord servers seem to be the place where it is happening right now. There are still some community forums, and maybe Facebook groups. On a more public scale, there are some well managed subreddits.

Edit: Plus the oldschool, geeky stuff like BBS, usenet, mailing lists, IRC etc... that still exist but are usually limited to technical people and subjects.
Historical parallel: a movement to abolish patents in England in 1850-1880 foundered because it would enable cheap imports, threatening local manufacturing jobs.

But big tech employs proportionately few, and pays no tax.
Yes, and ancient Christians asserted that God is love.

Many do accept that love exists in the same way math exists.
It's all documented https://docs.github.com/en/github/authenticating-to-github/k...
Depends on which monastic order you join. Some are extremely strict.

Completely agree about "abandoning" your adult children.
Having too many humans on this earth is more of an ecological disaster than eating animals is. Plenty of animals eat only or mostly meat, and they aren’t causing any ecological disasters.
This type of “advice” never was free, but I feel like since about mid 2020 the economy of fictional goods exploded. E.g. everyone and their pony got a monetized podcast now, teasing you with access to their mental production. I really hope this isn’t driven by necessity, but boredom, or I fear we are heading for a major crisis. I don’t see how the economy can sustain this much bullshit. Liebe. Freiheit. Ad nauseam.
I don't understand the problem.

The guy has money, a lot of money.

He bought a farm, a big farm.

The farm is in a potato producing area, so he is farming potatoes, lot of potatoes.

McDonald's is one of the costumers, because they use a lot of potatoes.

I guess Burger King is buying potatoes from that farm too.