All Topics

Discussions center on the $99 annual Apple Developer Program fee required for iOS app development, sideloading, and App Store distribution, including debates on its reasonableness, comparisons to other platforms, and waivers for non-profits.

Commenters emphasize how Common Lisp and other Lisp dialects provide the discussed features out-of-the-box, often joking about reinventing Lisp or its superiority in interactive development and compilation.

Discussions center on business models for sustaining developer tools, including open-sourcing with dual-licensing, enterprise sales, self-hosting fees, freemium approaches, and services around free software.

Comments discuss suggesting or debating the use of HTML5 Canvas for graphics rendering and UI in web apps, often proposing it as a performant alternative to DOM, SVG, or new frameworks.

Discussions center on GPU memory (VRAM) requirements and suitable hardware like RTX 3090, 4090, A100 for running large language models locally, including inference, training, multi-GPU setups, and consumer vs enterprise options.

Comments repeatedly assert that the discussed phenomenon, issue, or feature is not new and has existed for years, decades, or longer, dismissing any implication of novelty.

Cluster focuses on critiques of pie charts in data visualizations for being hard to read and compare, with strong recommendations to use bar charts instead.

The cluster focuses on social group behaviors, including how groups develop distinct values and motivations separate from individuals, in-group favoritism, out-group exclusion, conformity pressures, and groupthink.

The cluster discusses the viability of battery swapping as a fast-charging alternative for electric vehicles, including advantages like speed, challenges such as battery degradation, standardization, structural integration, and past efforts like Tesla's abandoned program.

The cluster discusses the trolley problem and similar moral dilemmas, debating tensions between utilitarian outcomes (saving more lives) and deontological principles (avoiding direct harm or breaking moral rules).

Users complain that the text on the linked webpage is extremely difficult to read due to low contrast, inadequate fonts, scrolling effects, and other design choices.

The cluster discusses factors influencing chip manufacturing costs, such as R&D, tooling, die sizes, yields, process nodes, and trade-offs between custom silicon, monolithic designs, and multi-chip modules.

The cluster focuses on discussions about the high electricity and power usage of technologies like AI, highlighting concerns over efficiency, waste, and infrastructure impacts.

Discussions question whether Y Combinator is becoming a traditional VC firm, its funding model, investment strategy, returns, and due diligence for backed startups.

This cluster centers on debates about risk aversion versus risk-taking, particularly in entrepreneurship, where commenters discuss varying risk appetites, the necessity of risks for success, and whether avoiding them hinders opportunities.

Comments primarily suggest using IRC channels on networks like Freenode and Libera.Chat for discussions, often recommending migration from Freenode to Libera.Chat due to recent changes.

Discussions focus on ARM's licensing model, Apple's special architectural license and historical ties, and implications of ownership changes like NVIDIA's failed acquisition attempt.

This cluster debates the housing crisis as primarily a supply problem caused by zoning restrictions, NIMBYism, and regulations preventing new construction, advocating increased building to meet demand and lower prices.

The cluster centers on discussions of auction formats like Vickrey and Dutch auctions, where prices are determined by the second-highest bid, including debates on bidding strategies, fairness, and profitability.

Commenters express disbelief, skepticism, and surprise that others accept a specific claim or story as true, often demanding proof or references.

The cluster discusses the role and priority of family in personal and professional decisions, highlighting diverse experiences from supportive relationships to dysfunctional ones that influence choices like relocation or work commitments.

This cluster centers on debates about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, contrasting natural zoonotic spillover from bats via the Wuhan wet market against an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology studying bat coronaviruses.

Commenters speculate on whether a company's controversial announcement or action, which sparked backlash and was often quickly reversed, was a genuine error, hack, or intentional PR/business strategy.

Commenters acknowledge that a speaker or author has a valid point or is correct on a specific issue, often conceding despite dislike for their style, politics, or tone.

This cluster revolves around comments correcting or mocking numerical mistakes involving orders of magnitude, particularly confusions between millions and billions or factors like 1000x off.

Comments debate the purpose of criminal punishment, emphasizing its role as a deterrent to prevent future crimes versus retribution, rehabilitation, or fairness to the individual.

Commenters repeatedly note that existing property taxes, which are based on assessed property values, already implement ideas proposed for taxing land or property ownership, often correcting misconceptions in the parent discussion.

The cluster focuses on critiques of the attention economy, where Big Tech and social platforms exploit users' attention for profit through addictive designs, dark patterns, and ad-driven models that prioritize engagement over user welfare. Commenters lament societal harms like addiction, manipulation, and loss of free will.

The cluster discusses the human role of judges in interpreting and applying laws through judgment and discretion, rather than treating law as rigid code, often debating whether judges should have such flexibility or if laws should be more deterministic.

The cluster focuses on criticisms of Canonical's decisions regarding Ubuntu, including past innovations like Unity and Mir, shifts toward cloud/IoT over desktop, revenue strategies, and resulting mistrust in the community.

Comments debate why banks and lenders issue loans to high-risk borrowers despite default risks, emphasizing due diligence, skin in the game, and potential banking crises.

The cluster debates the value and definition of hard work in achieving success, contrasting it with talent, working smart, long hours, and factors like luck, while questioning if hard work alone is sufficient.

The cluster revolves around Elon Musk's massive staff reductions at Twitter (50-90% of workforce), debating whether the platform's continued operation proves prior bloat and inefficiency or foreshadows emerging issues and service degradation.

Discussions revolve around the usability of iTunes, with complaints about its confusing interface, syncing features, and poor performance especially on Windows compared to Mac, alongside some defenses and notes on its replacement by Apple Music.

Discussions compare Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), debating their distinctions, practical applications, future viability, and whether AR offers compelling use cases over VR.

This cluster features comments discussing specific Rust programming language features, with users frequently sharing links to GitHub RFCs, issues, and pull requests to reference ongoing proposals, implementations, or debates on topics like traits, testing, compile-time checks, and more.

Comments sharing links to articles, blog posts, and social media by mathematicians like Terence Tao, John Baez, and Peter Woit discussing proofs, conjectures, and progress in mathematics.

Discussions center on the prevalence, motivations, and prevention of car theft, including debates over security measures, theft statistics, and real-world anecdotes challenging claims that theft is not a significant concern.

The cluster focuses on the difficulties and strategies involved in selling software to large enterprises, including long sales cycles, the need for experienced salespeople, inbound vs. outbound approaches, and contrasts with product-led growth.

Comments discuss the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and nuclear weapons as deterrents, explaining why major powers avoid first strikes or escalation to nuclear war despite geopolitical tensions.

The cluster discusses Google's heavy reliance on ad revenue, its profit-driven business decisions, acquisitions, and whether non-core initiatives are justified despite lacking immediate profitability.

Users discuss and recommend PipeWire as a superior alternative to PulseAudio for Linux audio management, highlighting its compatibility, low latency, and resolution of longstanding audio issues like those with ALSA and JACK.

The cluster revolves around advocacy for developers and entrepreneurs to build their own personal or startup websites rather than using no-code platforms like Wix, Squarespace, or quick landing page tools, often criticizing simplistic designs and recommending full control via custom development.

Debates on the value, implementation, pitfalls, and alternatives to daily standup meetings in Agile/Scrum teams, with opinions ranging from hating status updates to praising quick syncs for blockers and coordination.

The cluster debates the small market share of Macs and macOS (around 7-10%) compared to Windows-dominated PCs, Hacker News' Apple bubble bias, and shifts by developers to Linux or Windows.

Discussions center on the value of personally handling unglamorous or 'dirty' work like chores and tedious tasks for satisfaction, momentum, and insights, versus automating, delegating, or skipping them to focus on more enjoyable or important activities.

Comments criticize and debate the US government's poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, comparing it to successful responses in countries like South Korea and China, and attributing failures to incompetence, leadership issues, or CDC errors.

Discussions debate whether wealthy individuals are more selfish, less empathetic toward the poor, and lack understanding of others' struggles, often citing psychological effects of inequality and class attitudes.

The cluster focuses on discussions about whether Moore's Law is still valid, has ended, or is slowing down, referencing transistor density trends, physical limits, and shifts in chip performance gains.

Cluster focuses on personal stories and advice about pursuing PhDs in fields like physics, economics, and CS, the harsh realities of academic careers, and transitions to industry roles in data science, software engineering, and quant finance. Debates weigh PhD opportunity costs, regrets, successes, and alternatives like direct industry entry.

Commenters discuss personal experiences with daily work commutes of varying lengths, debating the pros and cons of long commutes (e.g., 2+ hours each way) as time-draining versus short or enjoyable ones.

Users recommend free alternatives to MS Paint and Photoshop, such as Paint.NET, Krita, and Photopea, for raster graphics editing and digital painting.

Cluster focuses on recommendations for using VSCode's Remote SSH and related extensions for seamless development on remote servers, VPS, or containers, praising its lag-free editing, extension support, and workflow efficiency.

Users compare and debate the macOS Dock and Windows Taskbar, discussing preferences for features like app switching, window management, menu bars, and customizations across operating systems.

Discussions compare gun ownership rates per capita and violence levels in the US to other countries like Switzerland, Sweden, and Europe, debating why the US faces unique gun violence issues despite similar or high gun availability elsewhere.

This cluster consists of advice for beginners on how to start learning web development, emphasizing foundational technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, small projects, and progressing to backends like Django or Rails.

The cluster discusses Android mechanisms like SafetyNet and Play Integrity for detecting device tampering, rooting, cracked apps, and ensuring integrity via app signing and attestation, including examples like McDonald's app and concerns over sideloading.

Users criticize algorithmic curation on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, advocating for default chronological feeds from followed accounts with optional algorithmic tabs for discovery.

The cluster discusses whether smart or average individuals can beat the stock market through active investing or stock picking, versus the safer approach of passive index funds, emphasizing that even professionals rarely outperform the market.

The cluster discusses the tension between voicing opinions (especially controversial 'quiet parts out loud') and remaining silent in online discussions like HN, weighing risks of being ignored, silenced, or unheard against the value of silence.

Comments debate whether Facebook is dying or will soon lose dominance, drawing parallels to fallen social networks like MySpace and AOL while citing its user base, acquisitions, and network effects as reasons for potential survival.

Users compare a featured service or tool to Firebase, discussing experiences, advantages, limitations, security, performance, and open-source alternatives.

Commenters joke about which Hollywood actors would portray the article's subject in a biopic, frequently comparing the person's eccentric personality or appearance to performers like Nicolas Cage, Jack Nicholson, and Gary Oldman.

Discussions center on prisoners' access to internet, laptops, cell phones, and technology, alongside prison conditions, isolation, and daily life experiences.

The cluster discusses the full financial costs of employing people beyond just salaries, including benefits, taxes, training, bureaucracy, overhead, and opportunity costs, explaining why companies hesitate to hire more staff.

The cluster centers on debates about uniquely British traits like sarcasm, understatement, and cultural stereotypes in response to a Wired UK article, with users attributing behaviors or humor to being British.

Commenters frequently request or lament the lack of .NET support in the discussed project, praise the .NET ecosystem, and suggest .NET alternatives or equivalents.

This cluster debates whether young programmers should attend college for a degree or pursue immediate tech jobs or startups, weighing financial costs, opportunity costs, learning opportunities, networking, debt, and long-term employability.

Discussions focus on traffic nightmares, congestion, blockages, and flow issues in cities, often referencing how vehicles, policies, or new transport modes exacerbate or interact with heavy traffic.

Users recommend and discuss small form factor PCs like Intel NUCs, ASRock Deskmini, Beelink, and refurbished enterprise minis as compact, powerful alternatives for computing needs such as media centers or general use.

Comments focus on graph databases like Neo4j, RedisGraph, and others, discussing recommendations, use cases, performance comparisons to SQL/Postgres/NoSQL, and whether they are worth using.

Users express satisfaction with older iPhone models like the 6S, SE, and 7, highlighting their longevity, sufficient performance, and preferred form factors, while showing little motivation to upgrade to newer releases.

The cluster centers on debates about apathy toward societal problems, criticizing online complaining on Hacker News as ineffective and urging concrete actions like organizing or contacting representatives instead of defeatist attitudes or mere discussion.

Discussions revolve around neutron production in deuterium-tritium fusion reactions, their challenges for energy capture, material damage, shielding, and comparisons to fission or aneutronic fusion.

The cluster discusses the frequency and necessity of upgrading smartphones, with debates on whether annual or biennial replacements are needed given diminishing returns, device longevity, carrier incentives, financial constraints, and sufficient performance of older models.

Cluster focuses on a new photo sharing app emphasizing original in-app captured content, debates on uploading requirements vs native camera integration, comparisons to iOS Photos, Google Photos, and alternatives like Immich, plus platform-specific issues on iOS and Android.

Discussions center on cooling methods for data centers, debating evaporative cooling's water usage versus alternatives like closed-loop systems, geothermal, immersion, or mist cooling.

The cluster focuses on discussions about brainstorming, generating, and selecting available domain names for startups, projects, and apps, including tools, tips for .com availability, and naming best practices.

Commenters discuss representing data as graphs rather than trees or hierarchies, including graph theory, algorithms, labeled edges, and various implementations like matrices or geometry.

Comments focus on the dangers of drivers using phones, touchscreens, or navigation while driving, criticizing distractions that increase accident risks and calling for better laws or enforcement.

Comments debate how certain practices, policies, or strategies are feasible for large tech giants and enterprises with ample resources but pose significant challenges or risks for startups due to limited funds, unpredictability, and lack of scale.

The cluster focuses on debates about the 2016 DNC email leaks, Hillary Clinton's private email server, allegations of Russian hacking, FBI investigations, and counter-accusations of political bias and hypocrisy during the US presidential election.

This cluster centers on discussions comparing the Polars and Pandas Python libraries for data manipulation, with many users recommending Polars as a faster, more efficient alternative to Pandas and sharing pros, cons, and real-world experiences.

This cluster centers on debates about whether web apps have replaced desktop apps, their respective advantages, and if desktop applications are obsolete or making a comeback amid trends toward web and mobile development.

Discussions center on algorithmic trading platforms, tools, strategies, communities like r/algotrading and Quantopian, and collaborations for building trading algorithms.

Discussions center on various geocoding services like Geocod.io, Pelias, OpenCage, and OpenStreetMap, comparing them to Google Geocoding in terms of cost, accuracy, features, and alternatives such as plus codes and mapcodes.

The cluster revolves around discussions of 'cancel culture,' including its definition, existence, examples involving public figures, and debates over whether criticism equates to cancellation.

Discussions about various high-profile arrests, police actions, criminal investigations, and related news stories, including hacker cases like Weev, eCrime busts, and other incidents with shared links and updates.

The cluster focuses on discussions about LED bulbs, including their brightness, color quality (CRI), warmth, dimmability, and recommendations for brands like Philips Hue and Waveform Lighting, often comparing them to incandescent lights.

The cluster debates the use of heuristics, approximations like genetic algorithms and simulated annealing, versus exact or optimal algorithms for solving hard optimization problems, questioning the feasibility and benefits of each approach.

The cluster centers on debates about cryptocurrencies' primary use cases being illicit activities like money laundering, drug dealing, ransomware, and tax evasion, contrasted with arguments defending their legitimate or non-criminal value compared to cash.

The cluster centers on debates about Python implementations like PyPy and CPython, particularly PyPy's compatibility issues with CPython's C API and extensions, performance trade-offs, and why CPython remains dominant.

This cluster centers on criticisms of Amazon as an employer, including poor working conditions, high turnover rates, and warnings against employment there, with some counterarguments from employees or defenders.

Commenters debate whether a business decision, policy change, or market development benefits or harms consumers, frequently questioning or sarcastically challenging claims that it is good for them.

Commenters question and debate the specific school referenced in the post, distinguishing between public, private, boarding, and homeschool setups while discussing curricula, purposes, and affordability.

The cluster focuses on the extensive delays, massive cost overruns, and logistical challenges in building modern nuclear power plants, with frequent references to projects like Flamanville, Olkiluoto 3, and Vogtle, attributing issues to lost expertise, regulations, and lack of recent experience in Western countries.

This cluster debates the relative roles of luck, socioeconomic privilege, family background, and personal hard work in achieving success and wealth, challenging myths of self-made individuals.

The cluster features overwhelmingly positive comments praising a specific developer software tool or platform for its excellent developer experience, smooth UX, clean codebase, great documentation, and productivity benefits.

The cluster debates direct wallet-to-wallet cryptocurrency transactions, emphasizing benefits like no intermediaries and censorship resistance alongside challenges such as blockchain tracking, high fees, blacklisting, and off-chain alternatives.

Users discuss frustrations with mysterious symptoms like fatigue, joint pain, and brain fog that doctors often dismiss as psychological issues, sharing stories of eventual diagnoses such as Lyme disease, autoimmune disorders, or ME/CFS.