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curiousmindz

Re:Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux on Wednesday January 28, 2026 @12:15PM (#46798287)
Maybe investigate the background apps that are running on your laptop?

By the way, I just opened a directory that I hadn't accessed in months. It contains 10945 log files, and Windows Explorer displayed them instantly.

Ask HN: Database schema for a chat app designed to handle a billion users

I am very curious about how chat messages are stored for a "billion-users" chat app (in SQL databases).Specifically, let's say a user is part of a hundred conversations. When their client app comes online after being offline for a few days, how does the server query all the messages that are pending for this client app?Does the server run one query per conversation? Or is there a fan-out...

( Read More... | 2 comments | 2 points | on HN )
It is surprisingly easy to use to obtain a type-safe data storage solution.

And everything is Open Source : https://github.com/evoluhq/evolu

Their future business model seems to be selling hardware running the server code with end-to-end encrypted sync and backup.

Re:Diablo on Saturday July 22, 2023 @07:46AM (#36825421)
The analogy with Chess does not work: I can go on YouTube to watch how a pro player beats a specific boss, then use that to massively shorten how long I need to beat that boss.

Watching a lot of grandmasters play Chess will minimally help me beat a Chess AI that was better than me (excluding the beginner level).

I think that someone could have fun playing a Diablo-like RPG because they enjoy feeling powerful while they mow down a lot of enemies. And someone someone could enjoy a Soulslike game for the precision they need to apply to beat a boss.

Maybe it is somewhat similar to the difference between an arcade/fun racing game and a professional track racing game.

I wouldn't consider one to be "better" than the other. They simply have different objectives.

I just tried with Bing AI (in "precise" mode), it ran a search, then answered:

> There are many soccer players whose names contain a Z. Some of them include Zlatan Ibrahimović, Zinedine Zidane, Zico, Zvonimir Boban, and Zé Roberto ¹. Would you like to know more about any specific player?

Source: Conversation with Bing, 3/31/2023 ...

I also tried: "Can you name 14 soccer players whose names contain a Z?" (At 15+, it answers "I’m sorry, but I don’t have 15 names of soccer players whose names contain a Z. However, I can provide you with a few more names")

> Sure! Here are 14 soccer players whose names contain a Z: Zlatan Ibrahimović, Zinedine Zidane, Zico, Zvonimir Boban, Zé Roberto, Zbigniew Boniek, Zakaria Aboukhlal, Zlatko Zahovič, Zubayr Amiri, Zico, Zé Luís, Zećira Mušović, Zsolt Lőw and Zah Rahan Krangar. Is there anything else you would like to know?

Re:Unsigned int considered harmful for Java on Monday March 06, 2023 @12:22PM (#35043839)
I would think that "lossless" implicit conversion are ok. Right?

For example, implicit conversion from a 32bit signed integer into a 64bit signed integer.

Re:Microsoft's AI Bing also generated factual errors at launch on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @05:34PM (#34797197)
Note that this answer is from "old Bing". It has nothing to do with the GPT-enhanced new Bing:

https://oslo.town/@matt/109864320071232564

The main hints to spot new Bing are: The logo and the feedback buttons.

I expect this deal to be a must for Microsoft. OpenAI is probably very happy to raise the stakes as much as possible. So we will see how many billions Microsoft ends up paying for this.

Still, is there a world in which we look back 10 years from now and think that we were overvaluing the impact of AI?

(For example, this did happen with tablets, when people thought that the iPad would replace "computers"...)

Re:AVX 512 will be the future on Monday November 28, 2022 @12:30PM (#33776510)
In C#, you can write (pseudo-code): if (AVX2) { ... } else if (SSE) { ... } else ...

Then, when you run the program, the JIT will pick the first supported option and eliminate the other ones.

Re:Friday Facts #371 - Apple Silicon on Friday November 25, 2022 @11:58AM (#33744335)
The most important "goalpost" is: Every major cross-platform AAA game gets released simultaneously on Windows, Xbox and PlayStation. When macOS gets added to the list in a consistant manner, people will consider it a "major" gaming platform.

Having access to a lot of mobile games doesn't matter for hardcore gamers.

Re:Why is this HN discussion a single word with 1112 points? on Monday October 17, 2022 @12:29PM (#33235915)
Yes.

And I see that its id is just before this one. So that's a solution to find its parent.

Re:Why is this HN discussion a single word with 1112 points? on Monday October 17, 2022 @11:33AM (#33234986)
Indeed. I didn't think about this.

I wonder how it managed to be N°2 in this Weekly Top 10 list for last week:

https://github.com/headllines/hackernews-weekly/issues/137

Re:GitHub Copilot exposes names in TODO comments on Tuesday October 11, 2022 @08:57PM (#33171356)
I just experimented with the usernames in that video. Most of theme exist (except for "v2v3").

But a lot have barely any repos. There is even a "ferran" who doesn't have anything (public) on GitHub.

So, my guess is that Copilot stored a lot of GitHub accounts, and when we type "@", it autocompletes with any random ones from that list.

There is no relation with the code that it generates.

Re:Does Company ‘X’ have an Azure Active Directory Tenant? on Saturday October 01, 2022 @08:46AM (#33046197)
This is based on a 2017 script that looks up if their domain names are attached to an Azure Active Directory Tenant.
Re:Ask HN: How would you want (indie) software to be sold? on Friday September 30, 2022 @07:43AM (#33033598)
Thank you for your detailed suggestions. I have a couple more months to make a decision, so I will continue to do some research.

I see that you are also working on a desktop app and have the same concern.

Good luck :)

Re:Ask HN: How would you want (indie) software to be sold? on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @01:41PM (#32827676)
One idea that I have is to sell every major version (would be cool if I could give a discount to users of previous versions). Then, I could plan about 1 major version per year, while continuing to give bug fixes to the previous version for 2 more years (a core feature of the app is to connect to 3rd parties APIs online so previous versions will break without updates).

I would also want to give early access to the next major version, so the users don't wait up to a year to try some of the new features. My idea is to start selling the next version as soon as the previous one leaves early access.

Ask HN: How would you want (indie) software to be sold?

I have been working on an desktop application for the past two years. I expect it to have limited appeal because it targets a niche of power users (I would be happy if I manage to get 10.000 paying users).What would be the "best" way to sell it? The simplest for me would be to make it a monthly subscription, but I dislike them, especially for my scenario.Here are my considerations that I...

( Read More... | 3 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Meta uses Hacker News (and more) in OPT (its version of GPT-3)

Source: Their internal logbook (page 101)https://github.com/facebookresearch/metaseq/blob/main/projects/OPT/chronicles/OPT175B_Logbook.pdfHere is the full list (if you don't want to open the PDF): - BookCorpus.jsonl - CommonCrawl.jsonl - DM_Mathematics.jsonl - EuroParl.jsonl - Gutenberg_PG-19.json! - HackerNews.jsonl - OpenSubtitles.jsonl - OpenWebText2.jsonl -...

( Read More... | no comments | 3 points | on HN )
Re:Sunsetting Atom on Wednesday June 08, 2022 @11:17AM (#31668610)
I think the writing was on the wall for a long time.

Since it is only happening in 6 months, I wonder if the community will try to transition/fork it.

Do you know if there is still enough interest?

Re:Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020) on Monday February 21, 2022 @01:50AM (#30412630)
Sadly, most publishers are not interested in developing their own proxy solution just for the sake of data privacy. They vastly prefer a ready-made solution that they can just use.

Much of the power of the advertising space come from people (publishers, consumers and advertisers) generally choosing the path of least resistance. They don't have the technical know-how and they would only acquire it if there were enough benefits. Sadly, privacy is not enough on its own.

I think the solution that can solve all that is when a company acts as a "wall" between consumers and publishers/advertisers. Then, that company can protect the consumer while keeping the user experience as simple as possible.

"Sign in with Apple" is one such solution. But of course, it brings its own (different) downsides.

Re:Akamai to Acquire Linode on Tuesday February 15, 2022 @04:46PM (#30353218)
Linode is a fairly underrated provider. Getting acquired will hopefully bring them more visibility.

For Akamai, I wonder if this acquisition will have a negative impact on their ability to work with other providers who are now competitors. Similar to how AWS has trouble signing clients in the retail industry.

To be clearer, Microsoft has a program allowing most governments to inspect the source code of Windows. This is not specific to one country.
Re:Ask HN: What would you change on HN if you could? on Monday January 17, 2022 @03:30PM (#29971367)
1. A home page that is less influenced by votes.

There are often little gems that slip through because they don't get enough votes. Or, some threads can get excessively heated.

The basic idea is to give more weight to the new-ness of a thread, and allow the homepage to be more dynamic across users (a specific logged-in user should get its homepage that doesn't change quite as often to give them time to navigate it).

I was surprised to discover a (popular) social platform that is very good at providing a home page full of interesting threads without being too influenced by the very popular ones. So, I know that it is possible (although, it might be technically harder to implement).

2. Harder idea:

I've noticed that HN users (and social platforms in general) have a tendency to be influenced by the company/product/service/brand being discussed.

As a basic example, a news like "Company X did this good/bad thing" will be commented on differently depending on whether they like/dislike Company X.

So, a feature that would be really cool is the ability to hide that name, and let people discuss purely based on the "facts". Then, after posting, the user can see what that name is... (Of course, there will be more details to iron out)

Re:Official Microsoft Surface Laptop SE Repair Video on Monday January 10, 2022 @01:44PM (#29879517)
Description: "Surface Laptop SE has replaceable components, including the keyboard, display, and battery. Watch Branden demonstrate how to take the device apart with minimal tools."

A win for the right to repair movement.

I'm surprised that GCP is claimed to have less than the third of Azure's market share. And AWS is still comfortably in first place.

It also depends a lot on how they count these market shares. Once we go past the basic renting of CPU/Disk, it gets tricky: How far is a service still considered as part of the "cloud market". For example, renting a virtual machine to use as a desktop-in-the-cloud would count, but what about 'renting' a machine to play games? (Like with Xbox, Luna or Stadia) Same question with productivity/office services.

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