1. How to do the thing you’ve been avoiding
Total comment counts : 45
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The author suggests that when feeling like procrastinating, one should consider the consequences of not doing the task and how that makes them feel. By doing this, the author is able to prioritize their tasks by filtering out the unimportant ones and focusing on the important ones. This technique helps the author to avoid feeling uncomfortable and sad by not completing important tasks.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Procrastination is often caused by anxiety, and it’s easier to start a task when there is no pressure. However, overcoming procrastination can be challenging and may require more effort than the task itself. This can lead to cost-benefit discussions that further increase anxiety.
2. Did I receive fraudulent DMCA takedowns?
Total comment counts : 31
Summary
The author of this article received three DMCA takedown emails covering 7350 URLs on his hardbin.com IPFS gateway, but he checked that none of these URLs were accessed and none of them worked during the time for which he has nginx logs, leading him to suspect that the DMCA takedown notices were fraudulent. The author posted the contents of the takedown notices in github gists. Gareth Young, Internet Investigator, was the sender of the DMCA requests. The author also found an ipfs-gateway-dmca-requests github repo, which documents a similar phenomenon on a different IPFS gateway. The author argues that this amounts to inaccurate information in the DMCA notice and raises questions about what can be done about it.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author receives cease and desist notices from legal entities telling them to stop selling authorized clothing brands on their site, but ignores them as it is likely a competitor trying to shut down their site. The author also believes these DMCA requests are scare tactics and that true legal requests should come in physical form with proper paperwork.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article suggests that in case someone sends a DMCA takedown request for URLs that don’t exist, the receiver of the request can respond that they have complied with the request as they have taken down the non-existent material. The article also implies that it may be an act of incompetence rather than intentional fraud.
3. Coroutines make robot code easy
Total comment counts : 36
Summary
The author of the article discusses how using coroutines in programming can simplify and improve the process of writing autonomous code for robotics competitions, specifically the FIRST Robotics Competition. The author describes how state machines can be difficult for beginners to understand and use effectively and how the use of “commands” can create more complexity in the code. Coroutines, on the other hand, allow for simpler, procedural code that can pause and resume execution, making autonomous code easier to write, modify, and compose. The author suggests that educators pay attention to how programming concepts are received by students and consider simplifying complex ideas to improve engagement and understanding.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article argues that coroutines should not just be reserved for high performance situations and that they are useful for making code look nice. The writer believes that a “stackless or nothing” mentality prevents the development of good coroutine libraries in C++ outside of C++20, and that they are willing to use coroutines regardless of their memory consumption to save time and reduce bugs.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the concept of coroutines, which are described in Knuth’s first volume, and how they have made a resurgence in recent years. The author is not convinced that coroutines make code more readable than alternatives, and compares this to when they initially believed that continuations were amazing, but saw that using them in practice didn’t always work out. They also mention how Lisp’s “code as data” path makes concerns expressed over the “command” system go away and give examples of how this works in practice.
4. French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists
Total comment counts : 58
Summary
The “8 December” counterterrorism case in France involves seven defendants who were indicted for association of terrorist criminals in December 2020, with their trial scheduled for October 2023. The defendants deny the charge of terrorism, claiming a political trial, lack of evidence, and a misuse of trivial personal facts as evidence. The defendants used encrypted applications, virtual private networks, and encrypted digital media which they suspect were criminalized by the DGSI, who suggested their enhanced security methods suggested a “terrorist nature” of the group. The defendants’ IT skills were also criminalized and used to support an alarming narrative with disruptive consequences. The so-called investigation and the conspiracy theory conjured up around it has been seen as an attempt to manipulate the public and prosecute individuals who raise their voices against dominant politics.
Top 1 Comment Summary
Several individuals have been arrested because they belong to the far-left, have been to Syria to fight against ISIS, possess weapons, and encrypt all of their communications. However, there is no evidence of any crime or intent to commit a crime. The individuals were sent to prison merely because they are suspected, which is possible under an older antiterrorism law, and suspicious behaviors, such as using Signal and Linux with encryption-on settings, were listed among the reasons for their arrest. This is a dangerous path to go down.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the context surrounding the recent arrest of a group in France and their alleged use of encrypted communications. The group had fought against ISIS in Syria alongside YPG and were monitored upon their return to France. The arrest was made under a French anti-terrorism law for “organization with the intent to commit terrorist acts” based on the group’s alleged calls for revolution, possession of weapons and ammunition, and materials for explosives. However, the detention of one of the men was found to be unlawful by a court and he has been freed under surveillance.
5. The Almost Romance Languages
Total comment counts : 12
Summary
The term Romance is commonly understood as a group of modern languages that are linguistic descendants of Latin, which spread across the Roman state. However, the definition is not clear cut as language is hard to define, and some languages may have undergone changes that obscured the connections back to Latin. Two “Almost Romance” languages are Albanian and Welsh. Latin exerted influence on Albanian and influenced many words, but over time, some changes made it difficult to trace those connections. Despite the historical near-silence of Albanian, there are still two distinct developmental stages of Albanian named Pre-Proto-Albanian and Proto-Albanian that can be traced back to Latin.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the borrowing of Latin words into other languages and highlights the potential presence of a vestigial hard C in examples such as “Caesar” being borrowed into German as “Kaiser” and “piscis” being borrowed into Albanian as “peshk”.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article mentions the Welsh word “diwrnod,” which is believed to have originated from the Latin word “diurnāta” that also led to similar words in French and Italian. The author also notes that in Danish, the word “døgn” refers to a full cycle of 24 hours including both day and night, and this word may also have a shared origin with “diwrnod.”
6. Mistakes to avoid to build a better 1-person business
Total comment counts : 36
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
The key to running a successful business is building relationships with potential investors or clients. It is often not enough to simply have knowledge or a good product, as people can choose to invest their money elsewhere unless they have a personal connection to you or your team. While this may seem discouraging for those who are not naturally social, it is still possible to build these relationships over time and establish trust. Simply acknowledging the importance of personal connections in business is not helpful advice in itself.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article suggests that companies are willing to spend money to solve pain points and that entrepreneurs can take advantage of this by identifying areas of opportunity where they can provide a solution at a lower cost than the company can do in-house. The author recommends finding industries that are actively hiring and replacing 10% of job functions with a solution priced according to what it costs. As long as the company doesn’t build the solution themselves, this can be a reliable business strategy.
7. Thoughts on Svelte(Kit), one year and 3B requests later
Total comment counts : 26
Summary
The author of this article discusses their experience using Svelte and SvelteKit to build a news website. They explain that the decision to use Svelte was due to its simplicity, scalability, and productivity. The article outlines the advantages of using Svelte, such as its ease of use and compatibility with vanilla JavaScript and CSS libraries. However, the author also notes some drawbacks, such as the lack of established patterns and tutorials and the difficulty finding developers experienced with Svelte. Despite these challenges, the author ultimately recommends using Svelte for its productivity and ease of use.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author likes that minimalist approaches, such as Svelte, HTMX, and Alpine.js, are becoming more popular, as they work faster and require less code compared to some of the complex technologies in use like Node.js, React, and GraphQL in recent years. They also express their frustration with the fleeting nature of trends in tech and the pressure to always adopt the latest approach, stressing that it’s important to use the right tech for the right problem, to remember that not everyone is Google, and to consider cost.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author, who has always worked on the server side, recently built a basic web app using Next, Nuxt, and SvelteKit to compare their usability. Despite having a smaller community, the author found SvelteKit to be their favorite and most enjoyable to use due to its ease of building and well-organized file layout. Next was the least favorite due to syntax and React, which felt “dirty.” The author recommends trying SvelteKit.
8. Tree-Ring Watermark: Invisible Robust Fingerprints of Diffusion Images
Total comment counts : 10
Summary
The article cannot be accessed currently, and readers are directed to a website for information on restoring access and guidelines for harvesting content.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article argues against adding unnecessary steps and abstractions to processes in the name of copyright. The author believes that attributing input to output is unnecessary and based on unjust concerns regarding copyright. They claim that once something is released to the public, it cannot be controlled or kept private, so attempting to control it is futile. The article warns that this could lead to actors being suppressed by those in power.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses an early-2000s product that overlayed a watermark on physical print using a frequency-domain manipulation. The idea was to take users to a website when they pointed their webcam at a magazine page. The watermark was diffuse across the entire page and likely died off due to lack of webcam usage and custom software installation. The author notes that the Watermarked x_t image on page two of another article reminds them of the overlaid noise pattern from the earlier product.
9. Show HN: gpt-engineer – platform for devs to tinker with AI programming tools
Total comment counts : 12
Summary
The article is about a project called GPT Engineer, which is an open platform for developers to build their own personal code-generation toolbox. The project is in the early stages, and there is a lot of room for improvement, but the goal is to engage developers in how building software can and will change. The article also discusses the challenges of using GPT to modify and extend pre-existing codebases, and recommends walking it through the process step by step to help guide it in building a wise code architecture. The author also mentions the use of Tree-Sitter for language support.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author has been working on an open-source GPT coding tool that focuses on using GPT to edit code in an existing codebase. While generating new code from whole-cloth is easier for GPT, the author’s tool and other similar tools can certainly do that too. The question is whether GPT-engineer can be used to modify and extend the code it has already created for new features and pre-existing codebases. The tool can be found at https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is a congratulatory message to Anton on their project, which the writer finds amazing despite only having access to gpt-3.5. They express curiosity about the potential results with gpt-4 and suggest improvements on the clarifications/questions part and the inclusion of a code self-repair step. The writer also shares a video they posted about gpt-engineer that impressed their audience.
10. Ruby Hacking Guide (2004)
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
The article discusses the efforts to translate the Ruby Hacking Guide into English and invites readers to help review and address any issues with the partially reviewed chapters. The source code and tools used in the book can be downloaded from the official support site, and the translating project is hosted on RubyForge. The article also acknowledges and gives credit to the contributors of the old SVN repo, and states that the project is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike2.5 License.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author expresses opinions about Ruby and Rails, noting that Rails has been having issues, and expressing some frustration with how the framework has incorporated different JS frameworks. The author also talks about some alternative frameworks and occasionally longs for the simplicity of PHP.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article recommends the book “Ruby Under a Microscope” over the outdated guide “Ruby Hacking Guide”. However, even “Ruby Under a Microscope” is outdated, but to a lesser extent. A link to purchase the recommended book is included in the article.