skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's apparent that the author of this article has independently discovered the field of Catputation. However, this field has a long and rich hissssstory, which I'll try to summarize as time allows (or until I'm bored or see something shiny).

FIRST: The great potential for Catputation has been recognized since pre-hisssstory, by the early innovators known as Egyptians who awed at the great possibilities and awww'd at the great paws-abilities.

In those days, Catputers were primarily used to perform primitive functions, such as alerting household members of impending dawn (known to those in the field as "the early-morning zooomies") and high-frequency generation before electronic-oscillators were discovered (known to those in the field as "ddawww, the widdle kittdy is purrrring!").

Unfortunately, Catputation was limited in those days to largely clumsy, analog tasks. For example, Catputers had difficulty playing nicely with some peripheral systems, e.g. mice. It wasn't until much later that [the first digital-logic gate was invented, allegedly by Isaac Newton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_door#History), paving the way for more advanced systems.

However, as we all know today, cats are fundamentally clawtum-mechanical creatures.

Early on in clawtum-mechanical discovery, [Bose and Einstein were studying Dogputation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose%E2%80%93Einstein_statisti...). Dogputers have quanta which can share the same space, [forming a stack](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dogpile) (known to those versed in the art as "dawwwww, look at dey widdle puppehs!"). This would later lead to [online-enthusiasts stockpiling Dogputation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogecoin).

However, in trying to form a stack for Catputation, Pauli made two simultaneous, serendipitous discoveries. First, they discovered that [kitties shouldn't be stacked up in the same place](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_exclusion_principle). And secondly, that violating this newly-discovered rule can result in many little bytes forming a larger unit (a kill-0-byte). Together, these discoveries led to [an initial theory of clawtum-Catputation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi%E2%80%93Dirac_statistics).

Progressing forward, optical computing became all the rage, and it was discovered that [optical-signaling interconnects were effective in facilitating high-speed Catputation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLagODygcbs).

There's more hisssstory to be told, though that's it for now!
> I don't think you can diagnose over-engineering after the fact. Unless you were in the room, or have access to written specs from a meticulously documented team, you don't understand the conditions under which the code was written.

The specs and the decisions surrounding the code are usually part of the over-engineering.

> Everything was built to spec.

Even with reasonable specs, I've worked with, and later managed, engineers who had a strong drive toward over-engineering solutions. I've also done it myself, and I suspect most people reading this have done the same.

The problem is that many of us engineers became developers because we enjoy building things and we enjoy solving complex problems. It can be exciting to imagine a particularly complex version of a problem and how elegant and fun a complex solution would be.

It can be as simple as a programmer who tries to write their own CMS when the spec could be solved with a simple blogging platform. If you're an ambitious programmer, writing a CMS is fun! Installing Wordpress is blech.

I didn't truly understand the ubiquity of the problem until managing ambitious engineers who wanted to do complex things. At times it felt like 1/4 of my job was just asking "If we wanted to simplify this solution, what would that look like?" Repeat for a few rounds and eventually the team has shed a lot of unnecessary complexity without sacrificing the spec at all.
Commit messages get lost too easily. It’s the worse way to document reasoning around the code. There’s many proposals to document code outside of code and none of them has ever worked. Just comment your code.
I would question how much of the layperson's trust is due to bank regulation and how much is due to familiarity.
Things can get complicated when checklists have if-else-branches and loops.

Anything that has a list of lists, and if-else-branches can be really hard to get right. You walk into one wrong branch due to human error, mistakes just multiply from there.

Also the worse thing is- you are confident that you are doing the right thing, while just making more mistakes.
Is intent just another way of distinguishing between active and passive recording?
Apparently a few library did remove it, but most did not remove it and it was just the estate as others stated. I'll admit it's not the best example.
I mean, Visual Studio does this (compiles against its own version of the C/C++ standard library) to avoid the classic nonsense that every Linux user sees when they build a binary and bring it to an older OS then it demands a newer version of glibc and segfaults - this is why every commercial Linux app has to compile on the oldest Linux they can possibly find, and it's frustrating.

You can either:

* Statically link, so you don't need these DLLs at all

* Just copy the DLLs along with your app in the same folder

* Ask users to install the VC Redist package

Option #2 is typically the best one and is pretty easy to do. macOS typically does #2 implicitly (i.e. libswift.framework et al), but ships all of those binaries in a "bundle" that is hidden from users.
> Neither is expensive and both are widely known.

I'd say that ~97%-99% of the people in the US and Europe have no idea how to use a hardware wallet. The vast majority have no idea what a hardware wallet is. You're very far off the mark in your estimate.

Bitcoin is at the adoption stage where the general public is only beginning to use services like Coinbase. They do not know how to use a hardware wallet, most of them do not know that such a thing exists.
Right so the problem is that you want to be able to verify your vote, but you don't want anyone else to be able to verify your vote. Your SSN is semi-public and lots of people likely already know it (e.g. employer, who is also a prime candidate to try to buy/coerce your vote). But even with a private key, you have to assume you can be coerced into giving it up.

So any system that allows you to verify a vote needs to come not only with a way for you to validate it, but also with deniability built in. Because if it's not then you can a) sell your vote or b) be intimidated into showing how you voted (which may result in a firing/beating if you did it wrong).

There are, I think, one or two ways to achieve this, but it's a non-trivial problem.
Only if you do your transaction on the blockchain. Most are done internally. It's like your bank is not sending someone with a suitcase full of money just because you pay your phone bill.
Git is a really great format for email archives, because it provides free duplication and compression via packfiles, although I think it is a tilting at windmills to try to map specific commits to emails. I explained my git/imap workflow in another comment here.

However, git is perfect for calendars. It is used as a backing store for these caldav servers:

https://github.com/jelmer/xandikos
https://github.com/Kozea/Radicale
I solved my email problem recently, and I will probably clean it up and put it on Github.

I have a Dovecot Docker container that I spin up and mirror my imap emails with imapsync. You can easily configure imapsync to use a friendly mapping for the imap layouts of different providers (they have good documentation with examples)

Git worked pretty well for storage of the dovecot emails, but then I got even more sophisticated.

I now use a bup repo inside a git-annex repo[1]. This is because I get the benefit of being able to track which computer I have backups on, and the myriad of git-annex backends[2], while bup provides compression, reduplication, and par2 error correction data.

[1]: https://git-annex.branchable.com/tips/Bup_repositories_in_gi...
[2]: https://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/external_backends/
> It only leaves lower tiered hierarchies worse off and only in the short term.

not when your offshore solution is more educated, industrially advanced, yet still cheaper

you are thinking of pillow factories moving to Mexico
>> censorship-resistant

As in impossible to influence via regulation. Once you realize that proper regulation is a good thing and a must in a functioning society, you realize something that can not be regulated can't be allowed to exist as it will undermine said society.
Post for Fall 2021 class to demonsration how to share with HN community
Here is my demo project

https://swatfall2021.pythonanywhere.com
Seems too oversimplified and biased.

Probably missing few core points:

1. Without good development practices due to lack of Experience or plain old Rational Thought the only possible outcome is Operational Deficiency.

Every Best Practice is context-dependent, thus having Deficient Resources makes them inapplicable in certain cases. Some teams can really suck with the same tech stack when others flourishing using it.

2. Basic organizational anti-patterns, like Mushroom Management, and broken retrospective lead to rediculous outcomes.

Even plain old Micro-services and Micro-frontends can be a basis of Stovepiping and applying Mushroom Management. Usually, again, due to Lack of Competence and Sheer Hubris.

3. “Premature Optimization” only used in context of over-engineering by those who didn’t read the book, but use Halo-effect cognitive bias to project compensated qualities onto the term itself. There are a lot of Psychological Compensational Needs under the hood.

It’s like “Why Agile has nothing to do with Discipline ?” or “Why senior developers turning the project into a sandbox due to the lack of self-fulfillment ?” or “Why most of the MVP’s lack Concise and Validated Definition of Viability ?”

Complex doesn’t mean Hard or Expensive. Simple doesn’t mean Easy or Cheap.

Too often “over-engineering” is just an organizational and psychological issue and not an Engineering one.

Stop operating on Feelings.
Six Sense of the Fifth Body Anchor Point is not a reliable Key Performance Indicator.
I’m unsure what you mean by “no chargebacks” - chargebacks are provide the consumer recourse in the event of a dispute.
> Using the newest NLP (GPT-3, BERT) technologies

Maybe remember your audience here and drop marketing bullshit like that. If you're using specific techniques, great, tell us. But don't use hand wavy marketing buzzwords.
Stephen is mostly likely right that the decentralized nature of Crypto is not really a benefit. That said digital cash and tokens and NFTs do have value and I expect them to get even more popular.

I am reminded of the P2P/decentralized nature of Napster and how it was going to be a revolution.

Napter's P2P infrastructure (and later Gnutelle and Bittorrent) allowed it to operate in a legal gray zone or at least have deniability. But Napster's lasting innovation wasn't P2P, it was showing how popular digital music was when it was being fought by the powers that be (and Bittorrent showed how popular digital films would be.)

BitTorrent is still around, primarily for pirating content. It is no where near as popular as the legal means of accessing and distributing digital music and video though -- Netflix, Apple Music, Spotify, Disney+ have grabbed the main innovation and separated it from the decentralized P2P infrastructure that first enabled it.

I think crypto is likely going in that direction. People want digital cash. People want NFTs. But they do not need this wasteful decentralized infrastructure and the complete anonymity that it is designed around.

That said, I think the criminal needs will keep decentralized crypto around forever, even after it is likely banned in most places, just like BitTorrent continues today.

Crypto servers a great purpose just like Napster/Gnutella and Bitorrent did -- it is forcing us to modernize our traditional banking infrastructure to compete with these wildcat currencies.

Digital cash versions of each major currency will exist, be formally blessed by the powers that be, they will probably have at least semi-centralized infrastructure, KYC and rollback capabilities and near 0 gas fees. KYC and rollback capabilities are key for reducing crime.
Show HN: How does an optical mouse work
Jay Last Died
I have ADHD so it takes me a lot to finally focus but when I really get into a grind I'm obsessed with finishing, I go for 8-24 hours straight depending on the goal. The most I've done is 36 hours, but that was when I was younger. Then I rest for a day or so.

I've done this all my life, for books, essays, programming, shows. I much prefer long sprints versus whittling it away with a small amount each day. You can really snowball your momentum.
Hi - I've worked at a few VC firms.

"What to do" -> What do you want? Normally people pursue VC for (1) brand (2) capital and (3) resources capital can't buy, in that order.

If (1) -> check out hn.algolia and how to pitch seed stage funds. Also happy to offer more specific advice.

If (2)-> same as (1) and/or pursue quickly deployed grant money (check out grant finders for startups). Recommend the startup angle, my understanding is scientific grants are slow to get through.

If (3) -> see (1)

---

Venture is a game of ruthless prioritization. 30 minutes, and I realize this sounds glib... is a lot. There are 10^6 (7?) startups you can look at. 30 minutes for every Delaware C corp doesn't scale well.

Good luck!
A Sybil attack in this case is just a reveal (once again) of the oracle problem - a blockchain doesn’t provide proof that you are you. Therefore, it cannot provide proof that you cast only one (or no) vote.

Verifying your identity is outside the blockchain. Thus it can provide no value for voting.
There is also some of this.

Some of it makes sense when the reasons were explained (e.g. "we figured this would make it easier for [business unit] to do [thing] which turned out not to be something [business unit] actually has interest in doing").

Other examples are purely of this sort (e.g. "we'll be glad we have this in place when we finally hit [x] users or enter [market]").
I hate how many incredibly useful and sane options and most of the time missing from busybox binutils... drivers me crazy.
Rewrites are also sometimes very good for your career. A friend working at Google for about ~1.5 years said a new Sr. Director of Engineering joined and their first decision was to rewrite the project, and it would take 2 years.

So now the Director has job security for about 2 years, gets the big launch near a promotion cycle they have a small chance of being considered for promo, and gets to blame the predecessor for all the problems.
Would the legislators intervening be permissible in your view if the legislators believe that the librarians are doing a poor job at curation?

An example of this is the right's claim that many of these banned books are almost pornographic in nature and inappropriate for almost any age. From the right's perspective, the legislators are intervening because the librarians are failing at their curation and safety job.
VC are nothing but money managers. Think of them in those terms. You need to show them the pot of gold sitting at the end of your journey, else it won't work.

Find a champion if you can who is respected in the industry and who understands what you're doing. It can be a Prof, AI/ML practitioner, or a CTO or such a person. Get them as an advisor and them ask them to make intros to their network and vouch for you, and go from there..
The point is to use bits effectively and not waste them, by accounting for what usually happens on most displays and in our eyes & brains. If we don’t account for it, then (for example) a 1-bit difference between two bright colors means something very different from a 1-bit difference between two dark colors.

So what is “ground truth” exactly? We need to know what units we’re talking about; is it lumens, or “tristimulus” values (what we want our eyes to see), or LCD monitor voltages, or something else? First we have to agree on what ground truth means.

A big reason for common formats like PNG and JPEG to need color profiles is because 8 bits per channel is not enough color resolution unless you store the colors non-linearly. 8 bits is barely enough (or some would say almost enough) to represent low-dynamic-range images on TVs and monitors even when you have the colors gamma encoded or use a perceptual color space.

The problem with storing “ground truth” values for pixels in 8-bits-per-channel formats is that many experts would probably say this implies a linear color space. And a linear color space encoded in 8 bits leaves noticeable gaps between colors, such that you can see color banding if you try to render a smooth gradient. You lose up to 2 bits of color precision in some regions, notably the dark colors.

So, in order to not have color banding, we correct the colors before storing them by trying to make the colors have even steps between any 1-bit change in the spectrum. The color profile is just a record of what was done to correct the colors, so someone else can un-correct them as needed.

You might think we could do away with color profiles for high-dynamic-range images, but the non-linearity of our vision and our displays means that linear encodings are still inefficient with their bits even if you have 32 bits per channel.
>> The U.S. supply chains would be completely wrecked.

China: Hey cool, we can destroy the US without engaging with them at all, we can just complete our takeover of Taiwan which we wanted to do anyway. We just need to make it disruptive enough to stop exports for a year or so - maybe a bit longer.
CCTV footage doesn't go viral, and my social circle won't see it.

I find it hard to understand that people in this thread see no problem there.

You can still believe that photographers should have every right to take photos (and legally they do, so there's nothing to discuss about the status quo), but you need to address this point, even if only by summarily dismissing it.
> your airport woes this Thanksgiving most likely won’t be their fault as the agency reports 93 percent of the agency’s employees are in compliance with the vaccination mandate, according to Forbes, who reached out to the agency. That 93 percent includes employees who have received an exemption.

Two essential caveats

1) Includes exemptions. Fair enough.

2) Not mentioned is the level / completeness of staffing. That is, you can start with 60%...remove employees from the universe of all employees...and end up at 93%. Put another way, jab-rate is not a proxy for staffing rate.
Thanks for the clarification. The disconnect between the title and the content is very puzzling, I was really expecting this article to be about some kind of experiment with AI choosing seemingly far right policies from an array of options. Or about voting bots.
One IMO realistic use-case is providing a wealth preservation mechanism for people living in a country with a corrupt government that's experiencing hyperinflation, for example Lebanon.
You really think your imagination is the reason you got bullied?
This is related to yesterdays: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29312300

Japan is on the verge of economic collapse. Negative interest rates, major deflation during all of covid. Barely pulling out of deflation and trending back downwards.

https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/inflation-cpi

Japan is in deflationary spiral due to high taxes and tremendous debt. Deficit spending to temporarily pull themselves out of deflation and recession will only makes things worse in the long term.
I wonder if color profiles will be important to images used for AI. Right now, as far as I can tell, people generally ignore details like that but I wonder if someday people are going to say, "oh wait, we've been completely ignoring color profiles. We could have been using that" or "we didn't realize how ignoring that messed things up"
> That said digital cash and tokens and NFTs do have value and I expect them to get even more popular.

Literally all my cash is already digital.
Visual Studio Code which is Electron app has a great performance.
I don’t know if it will bring down production costs, but it may reduce logistical shortages and bring down chip prices.
Or maybe anyone that claims to be a security person worth their salt (on the companies doing 2fa) need to sunset SMS 2fa and use OTP instead, at least
Your comment may sound like a joke but bees are known to transmit direction and distance to one another and are also able to solve complex problems:

https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-10/bees-beat-computers-ability-solve-complex-math-problem/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance
No? But if I have the opportunity to exercise my preference- I will feel good about doing so, and suggest others do the same.
As long as your LSP server support it, you can rename it with LSP and it's the same than your rename function in IntelliJ on Neovim. Actually in most languages I use the same LSP server than vscode.

I switched from Vscode/Intellij to Neovim +1 year ago and I couldn't be happier. I get why Neovim/Vim/Emacs is not for everyone tho.
> a passphrase in a safe deposit box are both pretty simple options

_If_ you can get a safe deposit box in your bank, that is. My local bank (Chase) is always sold out of boxes. Sure, you'll next say: change your bank. But the other one (BoA) is also out.

My point is, it's not such an easy option as you're making it out to be.
> you need to disable that

Might need a bit more elaboration there. You want people to turn off 2fa?
Are there any (lightweight?) desktop distros built atop Alpine as a base?
Rotten Tomatoes works because (1) its audience generally trusts some (maybe even most) of the reviewers, and (2) some movies are good. I don't see how Rotten Tomatoes for VPNs can work.
Yep, also on a Titanic myself, rearranging the deck chairs (because I have to!).
Why would you use NLP to collect reviews that are astroturfed? Garbage in, garbage out

Just go wirecutter style and actually research the products a minimal amount to give an opinion
Nice to know, I use both VS Code and IntelliJ and now I have to see if IntelliJ support Bitbucket too.
You are an extremely dishonest person. Stop engaging in bad faith and posting outright lies, it's clear you're trying to obfuscate the truth to push an agenda.
This explanation doesnt make total sense to me, so 2FA, by definition is two-factor. This explains how one factor was compromised. How was the other factor compromised?