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bytesandbots

126 karma · joined February 26, 2015

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bytesandbots··on The Valley of Webhooks
With the proposed solution every consumer will have a persistent connection to the server irrespective of the frequency of events. This setup seems inefficient unless you have a very high volume of events coming in. Many CDN networks have a limit on how long a connection you can open. And data providers will not prefer serving persistent requests.

Problems listed are signatures, dedup, buffering, bootstrap, cron. Everything other than signatures and bootstrap, can be solved by having a counter in every webhook payload. It will increment each time. When you receive a webhook and the counter does not match, the consumer can fetch the missing data from the events API.

I agree with the author that providers simply saying "at least once delivery" is insufficient. they should have solutions that does not require an architecture diagram.

Bootstrap is better served with a bulk events API so you don't make one call per request. It can have an after/cursor pagination. Solutions that work for our internal Kafka might not be suited to work across services, over the internet.

bytesandbots··on Claude for Small Business
A conventionally well-designed site is actually much less trustworthy for me.

GNU cash website immediately tells that it is not a Saas and doesn't need to upsell the latest trendy addons, for it to survive.

It tells that it is not "investing" in marketing to eventually turn a profit.

It is not looking for acquisition opportunities or next funding rounds.

If you want to see what a trustworthy website looks like, take a look at SQLite or postgresql or even this website itself.

bytesandbots··on Seeing like a spreadsheet
Pivot Tables was the last big feature completely missing, which is now available. Numbers might meet most of the spreadsheet requirements, except some scripting requirements. There is Applescript for those who are inclined that way. For my own use cases, I use LibreOffice Calc, even on macos. I started using it an year ago, just to see if it can work at all. So far, I haven't had any blockers, but my usage is probably not so complex.
bytesandbots··on Seedance 1.0
Has the realism of AI already caught on to that of animated CGI movies?

I assume that an expert in CGI can point out obvious flaws in these outputs. But I wonder if it is possible to fix those details by prompting it to change only specific segments.

There is also the question of how much compute/money they are spending per second of output, compared to a high-budget Hollywood CGI.

bytesandbots··on My AI skeptic friends are all nuts
The entire comment feels way too long, structured and convincing in a way that can only be written by an AI. I just hope that once the em-dashes are "fixed", we still be able to detect such text. I fear for a future when human text is sparse, even here at HN. It is depressing to see such a comment take the top spot.
bytesandbots··on My AI skeptic friends are all nuts
I am pretty sure this comment is also AI generated. Just a guess but so many em-dash is suspicious. And the overall structure of convincing feels uncanny.

If this is true, can you share your initial draft that you asked the AI to rewrite. Am I not right that the initial draft is more concise and better conveys your actual thought, even though it's not as much convincing.

bytesandbots··on Ask HN: How did you get VC funding?
I'm just listing some points that a VC might be interested in, but you haven't clarified, at least in this post. Usually, they need information of the following also:

- Is the market big enough to allow multiple players at a large scale? There are many viable and profitable ideas, but having a ceiling due to limited market demand is a negative.

- Apart from your technical expertise, do you have go-to-market capability to be able to capture the above market?

- Do the promoters have a vision for exit? Running a profitable long-term business is not usually the right venture for a VC. They need to see a possibility of either acquisition or market listing or further investment rounds at a higher valuation.

- Are you offering enough company shares in order for the investors to have some say in the company? A profitable investment without significant control might not be enticing for some investors.

- You have mentioned collaborating with another stealth start-up. You shouldn't appear as dependent on another company. Even having a large client as a significant fraction of your revenue can be considered as negative.

With all that said, it is a competitive market influenced also by macroeconomic conditions and fund cycles for the investors.

If you are already profitable, have confidence, and some personal financial stability, debt funding might be a good option for you.

bytesandbots··on Why the Apple II Didn't Support Lowercase Letters (2020)
The long now foundation

> established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization

bytesandbots··on Electricity prices in France turn negative as renewable energy floods the grid
The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is the rate of the total energy output of the energy system to build and operate it over its lifetime to the average total cost of the system over that lifetime.
bytesandbots··on EU rejects Apple's changes: Company could be fined 10% of global turnover
30% App Store fees is outrageous. Core technology fees is beyond outrageous and illegal.
bytesandbots··on Building an early warning system for LLM-aided biological threat creation
It might be too far, but to me this piece seems aimed at increasing concerns among regulators about AI. OpenAI might view regulation as a means of ensuring their competitive edge as other big players enter the AI space.
bytesandbots··on Brute.Fail: Watch brute force attacks fail in real time
It can cause your site to end up on Google's safe Browsing black list which can be a death sentence for a business. Google has automated process for identifying malware and black list such websites. Almost all browsers use this list to warn users. This is why it is also dangerous to host anonymous uploaded files even for a short time. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25802366
bytesandbots··on Simulation of tsunami from dinosaur-killing asteroid that brought 2.5 mile waves
There needs to be another video from opposite side of the world. And data on how much difference is there in the severity on both sides.

The 2020 paper establishing Chicxulub event as the driving factor of extinction also said that "prolonged eruption of the Deccan traps might have acted as an ameliorating agent" i.e. cancelling the negative effects of asteroid impact.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7382232/

bytesandbots··on How to store your app's entire state in the url
If the schema is fixed, using proto buffers will greatly reduce the length required.
bytesandbots··on How to store your app's entire state in the url
There is a URL safe version of base64 that uses - and _ instead. Base64 tools can be more readily available.
bytesandbots··on Disputing a Parking Fine with ChatGPT
It is the responsibility of the customer to enter correct number. I am sure there is a fine print in their terms to clarify exactly this. Also, if the booking is made and slot reserved, it can be said that the service was rendered even if the customer didn't make use of it.
bytesandbots··on Tim Berners-Lee: Web3 is not the web
Isn't that Chrome's entire game? Keep developing new APIs into standards even before they are standardised such that everyone else is always just trying to keep up. Advertise these new APIs to web developers such that new websites only work well in Chrome.
bytesandbots··on The Unlicense is an inferior license wrapped in an atrocious name
I agree that the name is atrocious.

I was running `npm init` recently on a new private project, I meant to write UNLICENSED which means "all rights reserved", but I accidentally missed the "d" at end and it got marked with "Unlicense" license.

bytesandbots··on You Can Save More Animals by Donating $100 Than Going Vegan
This doesn't even mention about the environmental impacts of the meat industry. The problem with meat is not just about the animal welfare, but also of the un-sustainable demands of meat industry on the environment. The logic of this article only makes sense if someone's objective of going vegan is to increase the sum-total of animal happiness in a pure mathematical sense. Even then, increasing happiness of 350 animals while eating 105 animals sourced otherwise is absurd.
bytesandbots··on Using a mild Twitter addiction to get things done
Shortcuts is my favourite new thing in ios. I only wish there was some way to get screen time data. I have never installed these endless scrolling apps in the first place, but I find myself using the mobile web version more and more. The data is there within screen time but no reliable way to read that from API or shortcuts. The app time limits are not in steps so I find them insufficient as a barrier.
bytesandbots··on Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence
I am sure you have thought about this, but following is what I imagine it can be:

I can give username@ponymessenger.com email to new people I start communication with, like maybe part of a professional profile. An email to this address will receive an auto-reply. It will explain that message will be delivered later, and not instantly. Since this is a different email domain and opens a new line of communication, it will not carry an expectation of instant emails. It will be even better if this auto-reply contains a link to a webpage. On that page, they can modify their message or rephrase until the delivery time (with a countdown ideally). Maybe the domain name could be something that implies the delayed delivery part to make it even clearer.

From the recipient/reader side, this has to be a sacred space, away from the continuous traffic of other emails. It is not possible to turn all of our emails into delayed correspondence. Hence, this can not work as just an email client. It should help grow the network without becoming an email client.

Pony is just the messenger service needed in the ever-connected world. I had dreamed of using this kind of messenger. Thanks for building it. I hope this grows into something big.

bytesandbots··on Facebook ‘looking into’ hiding of posts calling for PM’s resignation in India
Have you worked with medical oxygen in a practical setting? People are desperate and might give this a try. In real medical scenario, O2 is provided as LMO (liquid medical oxygen) with 99.5% purity. It is given to patients via equipment that is meant to regulate pressure and flow-rate.

> Connect it to oxygen supply through a breathing bag. Make some holes in the breathing bag. Eye the calculation so that incoming oxygen displaces at least 10 times the volume of exhaled CO2

You first need a clean and secure place to store it at pressure enough to be continuously consumed by a living breathing human.

Generating oxygen with this means will inevitably result in mixing impurities via the coating on the electrodes or any pre-existing corrosion on the electrodes. Salts mixed into lye, soda, or other salts added to increase conductivity, can result in toxic chlorine and chloride fumes. Heating at the electrode will result in further unexpected fumes.

You are suggesting plastic equipment around a 200A electrodes. If plastic is melting around the electrodes, imagine those fumes also mixing in.

These are just few of the problems that comes to my mind. I am sure an actual expert will know better. Please refrain from posting such garbage, especially medical information.

bytesandbots··on Jetbrains founders turn billionaires without VC help
Vim is a way of editing. I use IdeaVim inside jetbrains IDEs and it is awesome. Many popular vim plugins are also supported.

I still try to keep vim as close as possible as an open source alternative. Thankfully, a lot of editor features have been abstracted enough that the same software runs in vscode and terminal vim. e.g. ternjs for intelligent autocomplete in JavaScript, and the vim keybindings itself. Still, open source code intelligence isn't as good as the proprietary intelligence of jetbrains, so I bring vim inside jetbrains.

bytesandbots··on AT&T Fiber in the SF Bay Area is flipping bits
In that case, won't there be significant packet loss causing throughput to be very slow? I don't know if this is possible without something messing with TCP headers.
bytesandbots··on Comments by a developer inside the Windows Media Player source code
I do that too! I try to block all kinds of Related/Hot/Recommended stuff on websites. Those can be more distracting than real ads if you ask me. Most useful has been to block the end card recommendations after YouTube videos.
bytesandbots··on Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims
These constructs also helps people buy more expensive items than what they could afford without credit. I wouldn't jump to that conclusion just because it exists. Credit companies also take small fraction of the transaction. The store is willing to pay that fees because it increases their revenue.
bytesandbots··on Block Fingerprinting with Firefox
They are able to verify that the user selection is correct. It is possible only if they already have the right answer. If they already have the right answer, what are they training for.
bytesandbots··on The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear
I was expecting the predator to be humans.
bytesandbots··on You probably don't need AI/ML. You can make do with well written SQL scripts
On a related note, the link to twitter:image is also on wrong domain.
bytesandbots··on W3C abandons consensus, standardizes DRM, EFF resigns
Have you tried watching Amazon Prime on Opera browser? Most premium content will not play on any browser other than Chrome, Edge and Firefox. If they play, it will be only SD version. This is not because Opera has not implemented some web standards. It is because the major three browsers have all implemented a proprietary system of content protection.

There is another side of this story. Let's say you have to publish content on your website. You do not have any way to publish it as securely as "Amazon Prime" without signing an agreement with Google and Microsoft.

Thirdly, there comes DRM protection rules thanks to team MPAA. In most countries, you can not try to reverse-engineer the proprietary decryption module that comes with browsers without breaking laws.

Because of the above restriction, security professionals cannot break into the proprietary module to detect security vulnerabilities.

Edit: I was wrong about Opera. Opera is in on the DRM bandwagaon for a long time. https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2015/07/opera-developer-32-0...

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