1. We need to liberate the Postcode Address File
Total comment counts : 36
Summary
The British government attempted to reconstruct the Ship of Theseus, or Trigger’s Broom, which is a metaphor for the challenge they faced in reconstructing the UK Postcode Address File (PAF). In 2013, the government privatized Royal Mail and along with it, the ownership and management of the PAF. This database lists all physical postal addresses in the country and is a valuable resource for various purposes. However, accessing this dataset is expensive, making it a barrier for innovation and economic growth. The government had allocated funds to develop a freely available address register, but eight years later, the PAF remains behind a paywall. A research paper funded by the government showed an attempt to reconstruct the PAF without using Royal Mail’s intellectual property, but the results were disastrous. The only solution to unlock growth and innovation is for the government to regain control of the PAF and release it as open data.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The French government has created a national address database called “BAN” (Base Adresse Nationale) which includes detailed postal addresses and GPS coordinates. They have also provided interfaces to view and update the data, as well as free APIs for address search and geocoding. The data is openly licensed and available for download. Localities are required by law to contribute their own local address databases. The original data comes from various sources, including the French Royal Mail and OpenStreetMap.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The British postcode system is more specific than postal code systems in other countries. In the UK, there are 2,643,732 postcodes, with an average of one code per 25 people. This allows postcodes to be used as a proxy for exact locations, making it easier to find addresses using sat-nav. However, this system may not work well in rural areas or large estates where the access point differs from the actual location, leading to the need for different postcodes for navigation.
2. Claude’s API now supports CORS requests, enabling client-side applications
Total comment counts : 18
Summary
The article discusses the addition of CORS support for Anthropic’s JSON APIs. This new feature allows users to call the Claude LLMs directly from their browser. The article explains that CORS support was previously resisted due to the security risks of embedding API keys in client code. However, legitimate use cases exist, such as internal tools or implementing a “bring your own API key” pattern. The author shares their experience of building a client-side app that now utilizes CORS support to directly communicate with Anthropic’s API. The article concludes with a JavaScript snippet demonstrating how to call the API from a browser using the new header.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author describes their preference for creating web apps that utilize a “bring your own keys” model, which combines the convenience of executable file distribution with the benefits of open source. They have developed two web apps so far: one for live transcription and translation using microphone input, and another for translating SRT subtitles into different languages. The author favors this model for two main reasons: low maintenance and low cost. They want to continue distributing these apps without the need for constant attention from them and without the use of ads for monetization. This approach allows them to create and share useful tools while minimizing both their maintenance burden and user costs.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article states that individuals are not allowed to use the Claude API according to the official guidelines provided by Anthropics.
3. Tales from the Far Side
Total comment counts : 6
Summary
The article appears to be a comment or message thanking someone named Sebastian and sharing a link to the website archive.org, where you can find a VHS rip of Gary Larson’s “Tales from the Far Side.”
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article is a personal reflection on the work of Larson and praises him as a national treasure. The author shares their fond memories of reading Larson’s books and describes him as a master of his craft with sheer brilliance. The article also includes links to some of the author’s favorite Larson comics.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article mentions the discovery of certain specials that the reader wishes they had never found out about because they are unable to access them.
4. Surfer: Centralize all your personal data from online platforms
Total comment counts : 16
Summary
The article is about Surfer, a personal data scraper that aggregates personal data from various online platforms into a single folder. The app solves the problem of scattered personal data by navigating to websites and scraping data. Personal data aggregation is seen as the key to enabling useful personal assistants. The app can be downloaded from https://surfsup.ai or the releases page. The article also mentions contributing to the project and provides links to documentation and guidelines. The app collects anonymized analytics using Supabase and is distributed under the MIT License. A link to the Surfer Discord server and the project’s GitHub page is also provided.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article criticizes a digital footprint exporter called “Surfer” for claiming to be the world’s first while only supporting seven major platforms. The author believes that a scraper like this would be more valuable if it had hundreds of integrations and catered to niche platforms. They express a preference for a command-line tool with partial gather support that scrapes data continuously and presents it in a readable format. The author mentions considering using Microsoft’s GraphRAG as a central component for this tool.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a tool called DogSheep, which has been in existence for some time. DogSheep is an SQLite-based scraper, focused on preservation and archival purposes, and is seen as a better choice than Supabase (Postgres).
5. Confessions of a Theoretical Physicist
Total comment counts : 25
Summary
The author, a theoretical physicist, reflects on their childhood fascination with understanding reality and their current feelings of uncertainty. They question whether reality can truly be known or if it is unknowable. They consider the philosophical traditions that suggest the limitations of measurement and our perception in grasping the true nature of reality. The author also references ancient texts that raise similar questions about the origin of the universe and the limits of knowledge. They highlight the problem of epistemology and the possibility that some questions may be impossible to answer. The article concludes by acknowledging that different perceptions can shape different cognitive realities and that our understanding of reality may be fundamentally limited.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article is written by a former physicist who stopped pursuing a career in particle physics after obtaining a PhD. The author discusses their love for physics and the challenges they faced during their studies. They emphasize the importance of curiosity and the ever-changing nature of knowledge. The author had a breakthrough in their research after receiving a suggestion from a friend, which led to a change in the direction of their thesis. The author concludes by applauding the theoretical physicist in the article for questioning the nature of the world and expresses admiration for the field of science.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This article argues that humans are not generally intelligent but rather possess intelligence that is well adapted to their specific environment as a hominid family animal in a tribe or clan in a savannah habitat. Our senses and brains are well suited to reasoning about and making decisions in environments at a “human” scale, but we lack intuition for relativistic, atomic, and quantum phenomena. Therefore, our intuition fails us at these scales, indicating that our intelligence is not general but rather specific to being a hominid.
6. 17-Year-Old Student Exposes Germany’s ‘Secret’ Pirate Site Blocklist
Total comment counts : 23
Summary
A 17-year-old student in Germany has created a website called CUIIliste.de to expose and publish all the domain names that are blocked by internet service providers (ISPs) in the country. The ISP blocking is part of a piracy site blocking scheme implemented in Germany in 2021, in collaboration with copyright holders. The blocked domain names are not disclosed publicly, which has frustrated journalists and others who want transparency. The student and his friends created the website to provide transparency and advocate against censorship and for freedom of expression. The website currently lists 104 domain names that are blocked by ISPs in Germany. While the ISP blocking scheme claims to only target structurally infringing domain names, without transparency, it is difficult to verify this claim. The student’s website also provides information on ways to circumvent the blocking efforts.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author is surprised that none of the well-known torrent and book sites they use are included in a list they came across. They speculate that everyone in Germany who torrent already uses a VPN due to the risk of receiving legal letters and fines from lawyers. The author also questions if the exclusion of popular torrent sites is a means to generate income for these lawyers specializing in pursuing downloaders.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article recommends using either OpenVPN or Wireguard service to improve internet security. It provides instructions for setting up dnscrypt-proxy on Ubuntu and suggests using DNS over HTTPS (DoH) or DNS over TLS (DoT) for better privacy. Additionally, it mentions using NexDNS or Cloudflare for local DNS restrictions and ad/tracker blocking. For those looking for a cheap VPS proxy, it suggests using dnscrypt-proxy on a VPS server. Lastly, it mentions Tailscale as another option for improving internet security.
7. When Serial Isn’t RS-232, Geocaching with the Garmin GPS 95
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
The article discusses the author’s experience with an early 1990s Garmin GPS receiver. They found that while the longitude and latitude were accurate, the altitude and date were incorrect. The altitude issue is inherent to GPS, but the date issue can be fixed. The GPS receiver uses a week counter and time of week signal to compute the date, but it requires a way to determine the week counter epoch. The first GPS rollover occurred in August 1999, and Garmin released a tool to adjust the receiver’s clock. The author encountered communication issues with the receiver when attempting to adjust the date using a Windows 98SE virtual machine. They also experienced difficulties decoding NMEA messages from the receiver using the Flipper Zero application. The author investigated the voltage levels and signal encoding used by the GPS receiver and found that it used a type of serial that operated between 0-5V with inverted data lines, similar to RS-232 but without the need for an extra voltage rail.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the challenges of determining an unknown electrical interface for transmitting serial data. It emphasizes the importance of using a scope to reverse-engineer the device. If the interface is documented, it becomes easier to identify and decode the data. However, in cases where there is no documentation, experience and knowledge are crucial in deciphering the electrical signal and decoding the data.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author shares a frustrating experience with a GNSS product’s datasheet that lacked clear instructions on how to select the supported communication protocols. After contacting the manufacturer, they spent weeks going back and forth with the sales team until they were able to speak with an engineer who quickly resolved the issue by explaining that the device would auto detect the protocol. The author finds this to be their most frustrating manufacturer interaction and suggests that the manufacturer could have avoided the situation by including the information in the datasheet.
8. Objective Bayesian Hypothesis Testing
Total comment counts : 4
Summary
This article discusses a website that uses a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The security solution detects and blocks certain actions, such as submitting a specific word or phrase, a SQL command, or malformed data. Users who are blocked can email the site owner with details about what they were doing when the block occurred and the Cloudflare Ray ID, which is displayed at the bottom of the page. The website relies on Cloudflare for both performance and security.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the dilemma of whether to use frequentist statistics or Bayesian statistics in hypothesis-driven development, particularly when conducting A/B or multivariate testing. The author recommends additional sources for further understanding, including articles from the Red Journal and Amplitude, as well as a PDF from indico.cern.ch.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses misinterpretations of the p-value and highlights an ironic error in its analysis. The author points out that in an example provided, Bernstein incorrectly interprets the p-value as the probability of the null hypothesis, when in fact it represents the probability of rejecting the null when it is true. The mistake lies in Bernstein’s understanding of the p-value as an unconditional probability instead of a conditional one.
9. EPUBCheck – The official conformance checker for ePub publications
Total comment counts : 8
Summary
This article highlights the importance of financial support for EPUBCheck, the official conformance checker for EPUB publications. EPUBCheck can be used as a standalone tool or as a Java library to validate EPUB files. The latest release is EPUBCheck v5.1.0, which can validate both EPUB 2 and 3 files. The article provides documentation on how to use EPUBCheck, contribute to the project, or translate messages. To build EPUBCheck from the sources, the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.7 or above and Apache Maven 3.0 or above are required. The development of EPUBCheck was done by the DAISY Consortium, with contributions from Adobe and other developers. The article acknowledges the organizations that have supported the development of EPUBCheck. EPUBCheck is available under the 3-Clause BSD License.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article discusses the challenges of working in the publishing industry, particularly for non-technical publishers. The author highlights the antiquated processes involved in typesetting and developing ebooks, as well as the use of Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign. They also mention the difficulties of exporting clean ebooks from InDesign and the need to structure books for different ebook platforms. Additionally, the article mentions the use of ebook distribution platforms and the unique metadata distribution standard called ONIX.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author mentions the problem of uploading ePub format files to publishers, stating that many websites were using an outdated validator that rejected valid ebooks. The version of the validator was undisclosed, and receiving error messages and technical support was difficult. The author also criticizes the lack of concern from those working on the ePub specification regarding fragmentation and noncompliance issues. However, the author acknowledges that aside from these problems, EPUB 2.0 has attractive features and is enjoyable to work with for those willing to manually create a directory tree of HTML documents.
10. Show HN: Kardinal – Building light-weight Kubernetes dev ephemeral environments
Total comment counts : 12
Summary
Kardinal is an open-source, lightweight multitenancy framework for Kubernetes clusters. It allows you to deploy only the necessary resources for development and testing directly in a production-like environment. This framework creates logical “environments” within a single cluster to separate traffic and data access between different workflows such as development, testing, and staging. Kardinal integrates with existing distributed tracing and configures a service mesh for traffic routing. It provides an isolated, logical dev environment with a simple command and allows testing of new features in an isolated traffic flow. Overall, Kardinal streamlines the deployment process and improves the efficiency of Kubernetes clusters.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author designed a system similar to the one described in the article, but found it to be dirty. They suggest a better approach of having a service registry to track versions, values, and clusters where changes have been made. However, this would require a different API or extending the k8s API and dealing with the authentication/authorization system. The author believes that a major hurdle to implementing this solution is that the application must be a 12 factor app, which is often not the case. Hardcoded values in the code and containers make it difficult to add nodes to a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). The author also mentions the challenges of tracking different gateways, destination routes, and other components at the mesh level. They suggest using labels to track components across the cluster. Additionally, the author acknowledges that being tied to a specific service mesh implementation, like Istio, can be limiting and prevents exploring other networking alternatives. However, they appreciate that the project uses Nix.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The user is experiencing issues with an error message while reading the documentation. They find it strange that a simple text document needs to be treated as an application.