skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>> proprietary systems got killed by open systems and, ultimately, open source.

> It was printed in 1994. Linux and BSD (either FreeBSD or 386BSD, I can't recall which) where around, but Open Source (TM) as we now know it wasn't.

I think the "open systems" phrase is more important than the "open source" phrase in the GP's comment.

In 1994, Unix systems, even though proprietary, were still more open than the competing systems. Sure, it'll be another 5 years or so before the writing was on the wall for all non-FLOSS systems, but in 1994 it was both a) easier and cheaper to get your hands on a Unix system, and b) easier and cheaper to program it.

Sure, they weren't open-source, but they were a hell of a lot more open to hacking than the (for example) Lisp systems, or VMS, etc.
> The upside is incredibly simple and consistent language grammar

I hope you don't mean Ruby (I haven't investigated Smalltalk grammar). Ruby grammar is atrocious due to string interpolation stuff. Nothing to do with handling loops or conditionals, but still... Ruby is not at all an example of a language with good grammar.

Unfortunately, it's surprisingly rare for popular languages to have good grammar. If you look at it from up close, there are lots and lots of really bad decisions in virtually any language in common use today. I think, this is just not a high-priority concern for most users, but still...
Toilet would be fine, we fertilized our food for millennia with that. It's the garbage dump, which is much worse.
Germans say "probieren geht über studieren" which means, rather try it than think it too much.
That's an argument for being more careful with floating point operations, and perhaps not using them as a default numeric value, but it's not what Steele is talking about there. After all `1/10` in Python is still pretty close to one tenth, even if it's not quite there.

The question here is whether or not we should assume integer semantics for numerical values.
I thought this was fairly common?
> Tiktok now isn't available in Play Store, App Store, etc. as Apple and Google will comply very easily.

How is that not an outright ban?

Last step: the whole world will start to use the same framework and it is the death of Silicon Valley. That would be great for the world.
"... if you aren't moving the needle economically for the company, you're a liability."

Being a liability could result in moving the needle, just not the direction the company would prefer.
In comparison to conventional nuclear sub this method would be much quieter. But also much faster over long distances. You have two issues with subs, stealth and positioning. If you know, or have high confidence, that a combatant sub force is in X pos, and have Intel on its AVG speed then you can plan accordingly. Tech like that described above means a sub force can be more quickly repositioned, or deployed. You have Intel that X vessel was docked two days ago? Well it could be in the south pacific today.

One thing to keep in mind, there is a reason this is published publically. PLA want this out there for a reason, either to sow worry and concern or to mislead.
Ask HN: Finding source of AI models generated answer?
This is maybe more possible with local models than it is commercial ones. This question is in the context of image generation.

I was wondering if on any of the open LLM's there was a way of auditing the trail of data a model had processed ie what image was used to generate an image for a specific prompt.
It's a good way of getting the best team(s), which is what you want in a company. Maybe not so great for the emotional development of children, of course, but it's hard to say.
Greenwashing

IS THIS THE SAME COMPANY??

Cambium kickstarted with an early collaboration with the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, headquartered in China Lake, California, on bio-based, high-temperature composite materials to help make aircraft, ships, submarines and spacecraft more fire-resistant. These thermal protection systems were put to the test in a live ignition of the wing of a medium-sized UAV, and Cambium found they far outperformed other available materials.

Since then, the company has expanded to three main lines of business, Waddington said. The first is the high-temperature, lightweight polymers just mentioned, which could be suitable for UAVs, eVTOLs or battery casings. The second line of business is an even higher temperature set of materials that almost look like ceramics; these are better suited to hypersonic applications, where temperatures can hit extremes. The final area is emerging domains, like protection against lasers for satellites, eyes and other applications.

To continue developing these materials, Cambium just closed a $19 million Series A funding round led by 8VC, with participation from Veteran Ventures, GSBackers, Marlinspike, MVP Ventures, Gaingels, Kern Venture Fund, Jackson Moses (Founder, Silent Ventures), Vertical Capital and angel investors. The company has now raised over $27 million to-date, including an $8 million seed round in 2021.
I just dump everything to vector[1] using udp and mangle the output to destinations.

[1]: https://vector.dev/
However one say "just eat cake instead" while the other underlines the struggle.
Haha! :) Oh I get you're confused. I was a confused a lot about licenses when I started out. I'm probably still confused a lot! Hahaha :)

Another commenter has dealt with that:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40105915

This usage is considered "at arms length".

If you're interested in chai, I encourage you to check out a way it's being used for real in this live demo of BrowserBox / CloudTabs: https://browse.cloudtabs.net/signupless_sessions

Search for a docx, PDF file whatever and you can convert to images without ever downloading to your device. We've got 6000+ users in 17 days on our Puter Browser app: https://puter.com/app/cloudtabs-browserbox

We have a lot of exciting things coming soon, too. :)
I think you underestimate the cost involved of creating and supporting something more than barebones.

Building a barebones platform for people who are largely self sufficient is cheap. Building a full fat platform for people who need more hand holding, is a bit more costly.
I don't think this is quite accurate, browsers won't treat PUT requests as safe the same way it does a get request.
It is and it's a best practice. I've never heard anyone complain about this.

Most security scanning software will ding any site that doesn't use HSTS
FWIW, YC does accept non-profits and has funded a bunch: https://www.ycombinator.com/nonprofits/.
The *BSD have their merits beyond licensing matters indeed, including technical, design, organizational. That's what would make me look into them.
Indeed it does, we are well aware of this, and write about it extensively.

The leader of the OpenSAFELY project produced the Goldacre review for the UK Government, which discusses this risk in detail. Here's a quote from the executive summary:

Knowing the approximate date range in which someone had a medical intervention, their
approximate age, and their approximate location is often enough to re-identify someone in a
pseudonymised dataset, and then – illegally – to see everything else in their record. Women
face particular concerns: knowing someone’s approximate age, approximate location, and the
approximate time at which they had children can also often be enough to make a confident
unique match; this is the kind of information that will be known by someone at the school
gate, or a colleague. This is not to say that health data users are untrustworthy: but the
system must be resilient to untrustworthy users; and it is well documented that other large
administrative national datasets are sometimes misused.[1]

That's why there are multiple layers of security within the OpenSAFELY system. Other layers include: multiple authentication required from separate orgs to view outputs, various limits on the outputs you can view, full public audit trail of all code run, and all outputs viewed, separation between the systems used to run code and to view outputs (so compromise of one system doesn't affect the other). And finally, you cannot release an output from a secure backend until it has been checked for potential disclosivity by 2 ONS[2] trained reviewers.

Like all computer system, you cannot remove all risk from the system. But you can reduce it significantly, and make all activity public and auditable. And it's a damn sight better than current practice for medical data research, tbh. We try as much as possible to provide data-minimisation, in that you only have the minimal set of data you need answer your question. Whereas, in the UK at least, most of the time, researchers just get given access to everything.

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-broader-sa...

[2] Office of National Statistics, UK equivalent of the US Census Bureau

EDIT: fixed a reference
It's a bad system, but pretty much every other online rating system is uncalibrated too (they just have different social expectations than the "always give 5 stars" that most people use for taxis and deliveries).

There are plenty of things that could be done, like using the algorithm that was developed for Netflix's prize contest, but nobody seems to be doing them.
i am living in such a country now. and if those countries are my target audience i will certainly build for that. heck, i might even hire a dev in germany and send him traveling on trains as a test case ;-)

but if my target audience is germany, i will probably not focus on the tiny fraction of german train travelers.
Imagine having a hobby project, installed on billions of devices.

MBA: they must be making 10B$/year?

Engineer: no, this is just a hobby
https://youtu.be/ar9WRwCiSr0?si=LArQqOoH2bLtTXCQ
I think unguided natural processes plus deep time plus multiverses could also be an all-concompassing explanation that can't be proven wrong.
When I crammed virology before taking a computational biology role, the "how we know" was the most fascinating part for me. I suddenly understood science and realised I'd spent 20 years of my life learning facts, called "science", but not actually understanding science at all.

A great example is the Hershey-Chase experiment[0]. What I realised is science isn't about learning and memorising facts, it's a creative process of prodding the universe in just the right way to learn something about it. I realised scientists have more in common with artists than engineers and that I am definitely more of an engineer.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershey%E2%80%93Chase_experime...
> I can't get over the idea that this is a bunch of people who were angry their favorite proprietary systems got killed by open systems and, ultimately, open source.

I think that they were angry that the inferior product was winning/had won. The "worse is better" essay didn't come out until a decade later, IIRC.

To be clear, the Unix systems were worse in all the ways they point out, but better in the way that mattered - multiple companies provided Unix, and the skills from one Unix to another were easily transferable.

The "winning" system won not because it was superior, but because it was easier to hire for. Need an operator for your SCO Unix? Someone experienced with Sun boxes could onboard faster than someone experienced with VMS.
Show HN: I made a multiple runtime version manager that can be used on Windows
vfox is a cross-platform version manager(similar to nvm, fvm, sdkman, asdf-vm, etc.), extendable via plugins. It allows you to different versions for different projects, different versions for different shell. It also supports to lock runtime version for project or shell and support for existing config files .node-version, .nvmrc, .sdkmanrc for easy migration.

Available Plugins: https://vfox.lhan.me/plugins/available.html

Supported Shell: Powershell、Clink、Cmder、Bash、ZSH
This is of course an optimization which is hyper specific and in fact near useless in practice.

Converting an awful algorithm into a superior form (from O(N) to O(1)) is a neat trick, but obviously can only apply if:
- Such an algorithm can be easily detected by the Compiler and there is actually a replacement algorithm which does exactly the same thing within the defined behavior. These cases are very rare.
- The programmer is unable or unwilling to identify the optimization, which in most cases means he does not understand his algorithm well or does not care about performance.

Just as an example this substitutions CAN NOT be applied if you replace ints with floats. Of course the O(1) algorithm is still generally preferable in that case a Compiler will never help you with that if you use floats.
>Drivers usually run in the kernel though, so a GPL driver would make the whole thing GPL.

NO, absolutely NOT. Not you nor the GPL has the right to re-license someone else code. There are many modules who are not GPL like Nvidia and not even AMD-GPU -> MIT...and still the kernel is GPL, and even the kernel itself has many different (but compatible to GPL2) licenses.

If you change GPL code you have to show your changes (if you redistribute the code) if you have MIT/BSD you don't have to make that step, it really has nothing todo if you mix that stuff (if compatible). The maybe ~problem with CDDL/GPL (ZFS) however is, that you redistribute it in binary form.
Make it "case threw" then lol. But then this isn't the first time a keyword in Java means different things in different contexts. Like "final", which means that a field or variable can't be modified but on a class it means it can't be extended and on a method that it can't be overridden.
To say nothing of road and rail! It makes sense in a road map that you keep in your car, but you don't need to know where the roads are otherwise. Blots out so much other possible info.
macOS's weird mouse + scrollwheel acceleration is a dealbreaker for me, i only find it usable with a trackpad
As described, that would lead to a 100% loss rate.

Even if you're allowed to make a guess on an empty board (classic Minesweeper will wait to generate the board until you do, so that your first guess is never a mine), most games end in a 50/50 chance.
I think they use “hacker” in the sense of a person who is curious about how systems works and will expend their own effort to understanding it.

Based on the comments on this thread, you likely are, given that the vast majority of people are dunking on how difficult it is to understand, while you’ve distilled it down to a workflow already.

Or to put it another way, you underestimate yourself, and possibly overestimate everyone else.
You act like most probable place for such an event, when discussing on HN, ain't simply some rural US. Some folks are crazy and vastly unbalanced, period. If they have access to guns, bad shit happens frequently.

The amount of folks in US who legally own guns and never ever should be allowed to touch one is staggering.
Very nice work :)) Guess we worked on similar topics in the past couple days haha

see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40112792
You don't see why Firefox refusing to connect would be annoying? I don't care whether the blog about curl is encrypted in transit or not and I do care about a forced change to chrome to see the content.
Wherever you centre it, though, there's a boundary cut which is an entire great circle (compared to Mercator which has a boundary cut half as long).
Ropes: An Alternative to Strings (1995) [pdf]
>> People ought to be walking around all day, all through their waking hours calling to each other in endless wonderment, talking of nothing except that cell.

That's exactly what I did, for a year, after reading The Selfish Gene.
You've were downvoted but that part made me smile for the same reason :-)

> The seventh day he rested

This is obviously Sunday :-)
working for Google is not indentured servitude nor are you a citizen of Google...you are an employee hired to get shit done.
hence: https://xkcd.com/2347/
I was just thinking about Crazy Taxi the other day. It doesn't seem quite so "crazy" now, more a real satire on the gig economy.
> Public space is not the property of local government.

Yes it is?

> You have a right to do what you want there.

No you absolutely do not have the right to do whatever you want just because its owned by the government.
(not so much of a reply, but more of my thoughts on the discussion in the replies)

I would say the topic is two-sided.

The first is when we do greenfield development (maybe, of some new part of an already existent software): the domain is not really well known and the direction of the future development is even less so. So, there is not much to think about: document what is known, make a rough layout of the system, and go coding. Too much investing in the design at the early stages may result in something (a) overcomplicated, (b) missing very important parts of the domain and thus irrelevant to the problem, (c) having nothing to do with how the software will evolve.

The second (and it is that side I think the post is about) is when we change some already working part. This time it pays hugely to ponder on how to best accommodate the change (and other information the request to make this change brings to our understanding of the domain) into the software before jumping to code. This way I've managed to reduce what was initially thought to take days (if not weeks) of coding to writing just a couple of lines or even renaming an input field in our UI. No amount of exploratory coding of the initial solution would result in such tremendous savings in development time and software complexity.
I remember seeing billboards for XML+EJB in Seattle in 2002... Found that unusual at the time, as a visitor to the USA.
Ask HN: Who else is using Claude/ChatGPT to fill the YC app?
Hey HN,

I’m sure I’m not the first or the only one here to do so but I’ve been spending a lot of time chatting with Claude (Opus) to help me write our YC application.

Using ChatGPT (got-4-turbo) has been a mixed experience but Claude really, really shines at this. Seems to have a phenomenal understanding of the ethos of YC. Here’s something I asked Claude:

> In your opinion, and I need you to be completely opinionated, genuine, and yourself here, what’s something that most people and popular advice gets wrong about the YCombinator application process?

In my opinion, one common misconception about the Y Combinator application process is the overemphasis on the idea itself. Many people believe that having a groundbreaking, never-before-seen idea is the key to getting accepted into Y Combinator. However, YC has repeatedly emphasized that they care more about the strength of the founding team and their ability to execute than the novelty of the idea alone.

YC has funded numerous startups that initially seemed like "boring" or "unsexy" ideas but were led by exceptional founders who demonstrated the ability to solve real problems and create value. They have also rejected applications with seemingly brilliant ideas that lacked strong teams or traction.

Popular advice often focuses on crafting the perfect application with a revolutionary idea, but it sometimes neglects the importance of the founders themselves. YC looks for founders who are resilient, adaptable, and have a deep understanding of their market and users. They value founders who have taken action to validate their ideas and have made meaningful progress, even if the progress seems small.

Another aspect that popular advice may overlook is the importance of honesty and transparency in the application. YC appreciates founders who are upfront about their challenges, weaknesses, and what they don't know. Trying to present a flawless image can backfire, as YC values founders who are self-aware and willing to learn and grow.

Lastly, some people may overemphasize the role of networking and connections in the application process. While having a strong network can be beneficial, YC has a track record of accepting founders from diverse backgrounds, including those without prior connections to the Silicon Valley ecosystem. The quality of the application and the strength of the team remain the most critical factors.

In summary, while having a strong idea is important, it's not the only factor that determines success in the Y Combinator application process. Overemphasizing the idea itself and neglecting the importance of the founding team, traction, honesty, and the ability to execute can be misleading. YC looks for well-rounded founders who can build and scale successful companies, regardless of their background or the perceived novelty of their ideas.

——

I have been really enjoying chatting with Claude about my YC application. What’s been your experience?
Nice, I was exactly the same, I looked at the alternatives and I put of buying it for some time due to cost, in the end just went for it as I realised although expensive for a timer, it wasn't a massive cost. It's been useful so far.
It's very much a SF = tech thing.
From the point of view of an end user, I remember versioning on the Vax using EDT when I spent hours on end entering data from our local emergency department in quite large text files. Over the years, every now and then I have been looking for this functionality on Windows.

Dropbox and OneDrive do this nowadays, in that I can just right click a file and see the different versions and change to a previous one. I work with long documents I write, and this functionality has saved the day a few times.
>Any situation where the problem is a shortage of units those two policies will make it worse by making the math of building more units look worse.

That doesn't make any economic sense whatsoever. Rent control on 3 units doesn't make it less profitable to build 6 if you can build 6. That would still make 6 lots of rent instead of 3. That equals more profit.

It actually creates an incentive to build MORE units because with rent control and higher property taxes they won't make profits from building enormous luxury apartments that function as gold-bar-like store of value for people who have ungodly amounts of cash.

Beware the construction industry propaganda - they want policies that boost their profits, NOT policies which will enforce the market discipline on them they need to make them build more units in a higher density. I can see from your response that you've picked some of it up...
Yeah. It's the same effect seen with Youtube videos (and amateur videos of a different type, actually). On one hand, production values are a lot higher and there is some very good content out there, but I feel that the overall SNR has gone down as quantity overtakes quality. A lot of content feels like people sensationalizing and acting like an authority on topics they clearly just googled last week

Though when it comes to technical blogs, unfortunately that seems to be what the market wants. For some reason, a significant amount of developers are loathe to ever read official docs or evaluate new technologies themselves, but are quite happy to take as gospel some random, poor, blogspam tutorial. It's an annoying type of learned helplessness. And then there's all the Youtube channels making stretched 30 minute videos about simple articles shared here last week

Though it's not like the good "for the love of it" authors have gone away, it's just that they naturally put less time into promoting their blog/channel