Hacker News Reader

henghengon The Awful German Language (1880)

The century old tradition has set up a couple rakes for native speakers to step into.

"Selbständig" (freelancing) is obviously derived like self-standing, but "selb" is archaic and completely unused, prompting native learners to write 'selbstständig, which is wrong.

Couple more ones like this. Ask a native speaker about hinüber vs herüber, they will be perplexed, because it feels so dialectal. And nobody even knows about imperfect tense vs perfect tense, it's just stylistics to most.

henghengon A server that wasn't meant to exist

My mind immediately went to organized crime. Money laundering for people who he rather didn't know his name.

henghengon Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war

I have been wondering the same, but slightly differently.

Tier 1 suppliers have enough resources in both know-how and manpower that I have been wondering if they could do a platform car. Provide a basic frame that passes crash, provide a basic engine that passes emissions, provide basic safety, etcetera.

Then invite other parties to upgrade components. Package lots of air between components to simplify compatibility.

I suppose the only way to get this going in the real world is a big military contract, but I am wondering if it wouldn't be smart play for everyone involved. It would be deadly for a bunch of traditional automakers, but they can't do anything preventing it.

henghengon NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

That is the difference between "safety first" and "my personal convenience first", which again boils down to insurance liability.

As long as you pay for the people you injure and kill on the way, you can let your Tesla drive you anywhere, even if it can't do it. You can let it try, and maybe it fails. That's totally fine. You will be held liable, but you get to enjoy your trip to Tahoe.

Self-driving companies that have to pay for the systematic faults of their systems will usually move different.

henghengon Unity is threatening to revoke licenses of developers with flawed data

To repeat a sibling comment: What are actually good alternatives?

henghengon NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

> For all intents and purposes, it's self driving.

Except that you're responsible for its faults and errors, because you are the one driving.

"Self driving" means I can be drunk, or I can put a kid in it, or an elderly person. That's what that word means: the car drives itself.

henghengon NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

So if it crashes, then it's Tesla's fault and they pay? Or do you pay?

henghengon Design for 3D-Printing

Oh, that looks nifty. I'm going to take a closer look at this!

henghengon Design for 3D-Printing

Fusion has CAM integrated, which is already a small revolution.

Used to be that CAM was entirely separated software, operated by a separate person who usually spoke fluent g-code.(No seriously, old mills had pushbuttons where you could punch in your G72 with coordinates, and the grey beards would do that with no hesitation.)

CAM software simulates the machining process, not dynamically but with constraints and filters that use the results from dynamic measurements. Printer software is actually quite sophisticated there, Klipper knows about machine dynamics as well as how to compensate for acceleration in the molten plastic.

My issue is that all CAM integration only happens after the design stage. I draw up whatever, then check for manufacturability, and then realize that it's failed again. Electronics CAD software for a while now has had real-time design rule checks that don't let me draw an impossible line in the first place, and I kinda want that.

henghengon Design for 3D-Printing

The people I've talked to found it similarly unnecessary. But mainly because they weren't able to imagine a good implementation.

"But what if I want to do x" is what I heard the most. Like, sure, if you want to make your part on a 3-axis router and then drill one sideways hole, then put that in the markup. CAD always seems to have a feature stack, so apply a 3-axis design rule and discard it before the last step. Similar for multiple setups on a mill, or for surface treatment.

The gold standard still seems to be a signed and printed drawing that is never complete and full of implications. Mapping a design to a factory, or even pricing it, is an art form that has resisted automation. I expected this to change with all the "industry 4.0" push from ten years ago, but somehow that just meant adding wi-fi.

henghengon Design for 3D-Printing

Great article. This is all above the skill level of the average part on thingiverse or printables, but the good parts on there are going to follow similar ideas. Love the mouse ears, press-fit holes and step-by-step alignment of layers to build impossible bridges.

Notably, in fusion 360 this would all be designed in "plastics" mode, and yet that mode is oblivious to whether the part is printed or moulded. I wonder if any CAD engine can do "production-aware design" that constrains design to the capabilities of standardized machines, e.g. keeping a metal part 3-d millable. I've seen strict design rule enforcement with PCBs, and I have seen sheet metal macros, but nothing for general mechanical CAD.

henghengon When flat rate movers won't answer your calls

> women hate minimalism

Please grant people their individual identity beyond "you belong to the class of women and thus I will treat you as such".

Not going to tell you how to look at your wife, but random people you meet likely deserve more grace than you give them.

henghengon Irish privacy watchdog hits TikTok with Є530M fine over data transfers to China

Meaning that there is an intermediary?

henghengon Indian court orders blocking of Proton Mail

The built-in overreach makes it look like a structure set up in a way that encourage corruption, even though it won't happen in this case and is likely not even intended.

henghengon Privacy folks – what's your take on using LLMs at work?

So your cloud service intends to compete with on-premise hosted internal services on privacy?

We used to call that a honeypot.

henghengon NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

If the benefits don't outweigh those minor inconveniences, you're just not rich enough.

henghengon A unique sound alleviates motion sickness

Ah, the calming sound of a power supply humming in the background.

henghengon A protein folding mystery solved: Study explains core packing fractions

In any other industry, a 15% cut would be Bad News, and people would be talking about ripple effects, they would call it a "shock" and talk about the long-term consequences.

henghengon I genuinely don't understand why some people are still bullish about LLMs

Ive had the same experience as you, and also rather recently. I had to learn two lessons: first, what I could trust it with (as with Wikipedia when it was new), and second, what makes sense to ask it (as with YouTube when it was new). Once I got that down, it is one fabulous tool to have on my belt, among many other tools.

Thing is, the LLMs that I use are all freeware, and they run on my gaming PC. Two to six tokens per second are alright honestly. I have enough other things to take care of in the meantime. Other tools to work with.

I don't see the billion dollar business. And even if that existed, the means of production would be firmly in the hands of the people, as long as they play video games. So, have we all tripled our salaries?

If we haven't, is that because knowledge work is a limited space that we are competing in, and LLMs are an equalizer because we all have them? Because I was taught that knowledge work was infinite. And the new tool should allow us to create more, and better, and more thoroughly. And that should get us all paid better.

Right?

henghengon Kilo Code: Speedrunning open source coding AI

That ship sailed the moment the super-individualist hacker turned into the 10x programmer.

henghengon A New Form Factor for Drones: Vertical and Coaxial

> Stacking the two rotors generates more thrust per unit area

But that's not a thing, and that's also not how that works. Multicopter rotor design is incredibly subtle.

(Two basic ideas for quad copters are that they need to slowly move horizontally for maximum efficiency, and that the vertical stagger between front and rear pair of rotors matters a lot.)

At the end of the day, this design is exactly what it is: Looks like a bottle which might be nice for someone. And the whole general layout thing boils down to flight time, in its weight class, with a given payload weight. There's not much more to it.

henghengon Want even tinier chips? Use a particle accelerator

EUV has always been about achieving high enough power to be economically viable. It was never about making chips at any cost.

I remember reading the tinfoil hat theory about three-letter agencies making low-quantity high-cost chips at incredible process sizes in order to break encryption. I doubt that's still as viable today as it was before leakage currents started dominating, but it was an impressively plausible theory.

henghengon Google calls Gemma 3 the most powerful AI model you can run on one GPU

Trying to find the silver lining in this makes me God's advocate I guess?

I was able to reflect a lot on my upbringing by reading reddit threads. Advice columns, relationships, parenting advice, just dealing with people. It was great to finally have a normalized, standardized world view to bounce my own concepts off. It was like an advice column in an old magazine, but infinitely big. In my early 20s I must have spent entire days on there.

I guess LLMs are the modern, ultra personalized version of that. Internet average, westernized culture, infinite supply, instantly. Just add water and enjoy a normal view of the world, no matter your surroundings or how you grew up. This is going to help out so many kids.

And they're not evil yet. Host your own LLMs before you tell them your secrets, people.

henghengon Big LLMs weights are a piece of history

I've been looking at it as an "instant reddit comment". I can download a 10G or 80G compressed archive that basically contains the useful parts of the internet, and then I all can use it to synthesize something that is about as good and reliable as a really good reddit comment. Which is nifty. But honestly it's an incredible idea to sell that to businesses.

henghengon Europe's most wanted man plotted my murder and that of my colleague

> von der Leyen had ruined the German army

Not on her own, and not during her time. From what I understand, she felt she needed those external consultants to cut through the noise of her own org. Which had become known as an ineffective, design-by-committee place with no purpose other than to cover ones own asses.

Running that place (BMVg and Baainbw) was famous for being an unwinnable job. I dont love VdL, but I don't think this should be construed as her career failure.

henghengon Italy moves to reverse anti-nuclear stance

As always with nuclear there are a few taboo topics. One of them being fuel supply. For European reactors that seems to be either Mali/Niger, or Russia. Both not excellent if the goal is geopolitical independence.

Solar, wind and batteries have no fuel concerns, and they are inherently decentralized.

henghengon An update on Mozilla's terms of use for Firefox

This binary is known to the State of California to sell data.

henghengon The man who spent forty-two years at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool (1993)

This is completely all over the place, like it would be to listen to an 87yo, but I'm not too sure about the author or editor.

henghengon A drill bit that can also drive screws

Oh whow, yeah I guess that makes a lot of sense. Around here people are still on bldc electric screwdrivers for the most part.

Impact drivers around here are pretty much for loosening metal bolts, and as a sign that your car dealership hates you. But I guess they're faster.