All Topics

Comments revolve around the large number of job or program applications received, speculating on total applicant counts, low acceptance rates, and challenges in reviewing or responding to them all.

Discussions compare an AI-generated animation to Studio Ghibli films, referencing specific Ghibli movies like Spirited Away and Totoro, while contrasting with Pixar, Disney, and Dreamworks styles.

Cluster discusses the health impacts of dietary cholesterol and saturated fats, debating whether they cause heart disease or have been vindicated by recent studies, with citations to research on both sides.

The cluster centers on the US policy of taxing citizens on worldwide income regardless of residence, highlighting the challenges, exit taxes, and difficulties of renouncing citizenship to avoid these obligations.

The cluster discusses tensions in US-EU relations amid competition with China, focusing on trade dependencies, technological reliance, strategic autonomy, and fears that US policies could push the EU toward closer ties with China.

Discussions revolve around Firefox Sync's capabilities for syncing bookmarks, passwords, tabs, history, and addons across devices, often praising its privacy, end-to-end encryption, self-hosting options, and comparisons to Chrome and Safari sync.

The cluster centers on discussions about building space elevators, their feasibility with advanced materials, advantages for cheap space access over rockets, and related alternatives like skyhooks or launch loops.

The cluster centers on debates about Cloudflare's commitment to free speech and neutrality as a CDN provider, including their history of serving or deplatforming controversial sites like 8chan, Daily Stormer, and neo-Nazi pages.

The cluster discusses gender disparities in education where boys underperform compared to girls, often attributing it to a female-dominated teaching profession, grading biases favoring girls, and teaching styles that don't suit boys' learning needs.

Discussions criticize browsers for hiding or dimming full URLs in the address bar, arguing it reduces user awareness, increases phishing risks, and hinders learning, while some support it for better UX and security.

Comments debate utilitarianism, its variants like rule and negative utilitarianism, and effective altruism, often contrasting it with deontology and highlighting ethical dilemmas like organ harvesting or utility monsters.

Discussions center on the FizzBuzz coding problem as a simple screening tool in programming interviews, with widespread surprise at how many self-proclaimed programmers and experienced candidates fail it. Debates include its effectiveness as a basic filter versus criticisms of it being too trivial or not indicative of real skills.

Comments discuss Nintendo's aggressive legal actions, including lawsuits against emulator developers like Yuzu, DMCA takedowns, and hostility toward modding, homebrew, emulation, and fan content to protect their IP.

Comments debate the feasibility, ease, and implications of spoofing IP addresses, MAC addresses, SSIDs, and related network identifiers, often questioning the reliability of systems that depend on them for tracking or security.

Cluster focuses on discussions about fsync's behavior across OSes, particularly how it may not guarantee data durability due to lying caches, filesystem options, drive controllers, and related bugs or workarounds like NCQ and write barriers.

Discussions revolve around job opportunities, salaries, work-life balance, patriotism, ethical concerns, and experiences of tech professionals working for defense contractors, DoD, NSA, CIA, and related government agencies.

Discussions center on car manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, and Tesla charging subscriptions or fees to unlock pre-installed hardware features such as heated seats, acceleration boosts, and Full Self-Driving, debating if it's a cost-saving measure or a profit-driven scam.

Comments debate GPS alternatives like inertial navigation systems (INS), dead reckoning, star trackers, and gyroscopes, focusing on error accumulation, calibration needs, and applications in aircraft, vehicles, and missiles.

This cluster revolves around discussions of platforms like OnlyFans enabling women to monetize their sexuality, often likened to prostitution, with debates on men paying for attention, no-strings-attached sex, or dates with attractive women, including critiques of exploitation and market dynamics.

This cluster debates the safety, reversibility, and appropriateness of puberty blockers and gender-affirming care for transgender children and teenagers, including desistance rates, consent issues, and long-term effects.

The cluster centers on debates about the effectiveness and construction of physical border walls, comparing them to alternatives, discussing materials like brick and concrete, load-bearing issues, leakage, tunneling countermeasures, and prototype testing.

Commenters repeatedly request links, news stories, specific examples, or evidence of incidents to verify claims about their frequency, existence, or relevance in the discussion.

The cluster discusses Haskell's handling of side effects, purity in functional programming, and the IO monad's role in explicitly managing I/O without violating referential transparency.

Comments primarily accuse other posts of employing whataboutism, often linking to its Wikipedia page, while samples debate the term's definition, validity, and application as a rhetorical deflection.

This cluster revolves around users exchanging Merry Christmas greetings, holiday wishes, and festive messages directed at the Hacker News community. Comments express seasonal cheer, appreciation for the community, and occasional references to Christmas traditions or related fun.

Discussions focus on why chemical weapons are rarely used in modern warfare, referencing a blog post on their ineffectiveness and historical context, while debating legal bans like the Geneva Convention, treaty enforcement, and examples from conflicts such as Syria.

The cluster focuses on discussions about purchasing mattresses, including recommendations for brands like Casper, comparisons of cheap vs. expensive options, online vs. in-store experiences, and tips for better sleep quality.

The cluster focuses on the conflict between Apple and Facebook over iOS privacy features like App Tracking Transparency that limit Facebook's user tracking and ad targeting, alongside debates on App Store policies, app bans, and platform control.

Users debate and share observations about whether the article's featured phenomenon or feature exists in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or other Russian and former Soviet cities, often referencing metro carriages, closed cities, and Soviet-era urban elements.

Comments focus on the use of Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) like FreeRTOS, QNX, and VxWorks in embedded devices, debating their advantages over general-purpose OS like Linux, hardware compatibility, and open-source alternatives.

Discussions focus on the dangers and potential global impacts of supervolcano and volcano eruptions, including climate cooling effects, historical precedents, and risks from sites like Yellowstone.

Discussions focus on libraries pulping, selling, or discarding old and donated books due to space constraints, with users sharing experiences, expressing sadness, and suggesting alternatives like public bookshelves, reselling, or personal sharing.

Discussions center on whether Europe and the world have enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace since World War II, debating causes like EU integration, nuclear deterrence, and economic interdependence while questioning its sustainability amid current conflicts.

The cluster centers on debates about the authenticity of Chinese food in the US versus genuine Chinese cuisine, highlighting American-invented dishes like General Tso's chicken, experiences of Chinese visitors unfamiliar with US menus, and tips for finding real Chinese restaurants.

Comments debate the durability and expected lifespan of modern versus historical buildings, emphasizing maintenance needs, costs of renovation versus rebuilding, and whether short-lived structures are preferable for adaptability and environmental efficiency.

Discussions focus on Medicare's track record, costs, low payments to providers, administrative efficiency, fraud issues especially in Medicare Advantage plans, and comparisons to private insurance as a model for single-payer healthcare.

The cluster discusses who bears responsibility for damages in scenarios involving accidents, negligence, service failures, or false claims, often debating insurance coverage, accountability without fault, and compensation for affected parties.

Users express frustration with CSS position: fixed headers and navigation elements that permanently occupy screen real estate, obstructing content readability on websites. They share hacks like browser extensions, inspect element tweaks, and alternatives such as position: sticky or scroll-padding.

Commenters frequently ask for links to books and writings by the featured individual, recommend specific titles or essays, and express surprise or interest in his prolific publications.

This cluster centers on debates about 'security through obscurity,' with most comments criticizing it as ineffective or illusory security, while some defend its practical value in certain contexts.

Users reminisce about learning to program from vintage physical books and manuals for early computers like Apple II, Commodore 64, TRS-80, and others in the 1970s-1990s, often their primary resource before the internet.

Commenters complain about overly bright LED and HID headlights on modern cars, SUVs, and trucks that blind other drivers at night through poor aiming, high mounting, or lack of regulation. Discussions advocate for better auto-adjusting features, stricter standards, and proper alignment.

Discussions identify a mysterious or sensitive location as a US military base, missile range, or restricted area like Area 51, White Sands, and Vandenberg AFB, often referencing their visibility or blurring on Google Maps and satellite imagery.

Discussions center on the properties and quirks of NaN in IEEE 754 floating-point arithmetic, such as NaN != NaN, comparisons with infinities, signed zeros, and standard compliance across languages.

The cluster focuses on debates surrounding affirmative action in US college admissions, including race-based vs. class-based preferences, discrimination claims against Asians and whites, legacy admissions, and efforts to address historical inequities.

Comments discuss Google's Gemini AI model announcements, comparisons to ChatGPT, criticisms of hype versus actual product releases, and integrations into search and other Google products.

Users share experiences and preferences for listening to podcasts and audiobooks during activities like commuting, walking, exercising, or chores where reading is impractical, often comparing the formats for handling distractions.

The cluster focuses on discussions about the unified nature of spacetime in relativity, correcting misconceptions of space and time as separate entities and referencing concepts like curvature, coordinates, and fabric metaphors.

The cluster debates the necessity of a law degree to take the bar exam and become a lawyer in the US, highlighting restrictions in most states versus apprenticeship alternatives in a few like California, and comparisons to licensing in medicine and engineering.

This cluster centers on the debate over using 'America' and 'American' to refer exclusively to the United States, with non-US commenters arguing it's inaccurate or offensive as America denotes the continents, and suggestions like 'USians' proposed as alternatives.

Cluster discusses homomorphic encryption, its applications for computing on encrypted data, practicality, libraries like OpenFHE, and alternatives like garbled circuits.

Commenters speculate on whether CRISPR or similar gene editing technologies are used or could fix the genetic issue in the article, contrasting it with older methods and discussing applications like somatic vs. germline editing.

The cluster discusses public perceptions of the US economy under Biden versus Trump, contrasting objective economic data with voter feelings, media narratives, and the electoral impact of the phrase 'It's the economy, stupid.'

The cluster focuses on CO2 buildup in indoor spaces like bedrooms and classrooms, its effects on cognitive function, sleep quality, and health, along with debates on monitoring, ventilation, and whether CO2 directly causes impairment or serves as a proxy for poor air quality.

Discussions center on accusations of using the 'argument from authority' or 'appeal to authority' logical fallacy, with frequent Wikipedia links and debates over its validity and application in arguments.

The cluster focuses on Git aliases for simplifying common commands like status, commit, and push, with users sharing alias sets, recommending tools like SCM Breeze and Git Goodies, and questioning the need for alternative Git CLIs.

The cluster focuses on recommendations for elimination diets, AIP, keto, carnivore, fasting, and avoiding allergens like gluten and dairy to alleviate symptoms of autoimmune diseases, inflammation, and chronic illnesses.

Discussions debate the value of small optimizations for reducing memory usage, binary size, disk space, and bandwidth, weighing marginal savings against added complexity and overhead.

Comments discuss oversights, bugs, or intentional exclusions of negative numbers in algorithms, functions, metrics, or computations, often pointing out that negatives should be considered or handled properly.

The cluster debates Tesla's replacement of physical buttons, stalks, and knobs with a central touchscreen interface, highlighting safety risks and distraction while driving versus the benefits of a minimalist, software-updatable design.

Discussions center on how high repair costs for modern or luxury vehicles like Teslas lead to elevated insurance premiums, frequent totaling of cars for minor damage, and debates over coverage types.

This cluster debates the efficiency, cost, and quality of public sector versus private sector in providing essential services like infrastructure, utilities, healthcare, and rail, often citing examples of privatization failures or successes.

Comments focus on inquiries about new or updated editions of a technical book, including what's changed, if it's worth buying, and relevance given recent developments.

The cluster focuses on discussions about 401k plans, including their tax advantages, liquidity restrictions, employer matches, comparisons to pensions, and debates on whether they are a good retirement savings vehicle.

The cluster focuses on recommendations and resources for beginners to learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails, with frequent mentions of Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial, Chris Pine's book, and other tutorials like Rails for Zombies.

Discussions center on the V8 JavaScript engine used in Node.js and Chrome, comparing it to alternative JS engines in terms of performance, adoption, and potential replacement.

The cluster focuses on debates about whether homeowners can legally and safely perform their own electrical wiring, the requirements for licensed electricians, insurance risks, and varying regulations across countries like the US, UK, New Zealand, and others.

Discussions focus on challenges with street names, addressing conventions, and navigation in various global cities, contrasting numbered grid systems with named streets and highlighting issues like missing labels or inconsistent layouts.

Users share links to Archive.org scans of classic computer magazines like Byte from the 1970s-1980s and express nostalgia for their in-depth technical articles on hardware, assembly code, and computing history.

Commenters debate visualizing US political divisions and election results at county, district, or metro levels rather than states to highlight urban-rural splits and address issues like population density and gerrymandering.

Debate on heavily customizing personal development setups like dotfiles, editors, window managers, and shells versus using default or minimal configurations to reduce setup time and improve portability across machines.

Discussions center on personal experiences comparing college attendance with direct workforce entry, including student debt regrets, job prospects for graduates versus non-grads, and the realities of working during or after school.

Debates on the necessity, effectiveness, and shortcomings of consumer protection regulations, often contrasting weak US laws with stronger EU protections against anti-consumer business practices.

Comments reminisce about and criticize Google's abandonment of its former 'Don't be evil' motto, contrasting past ideals with perceived current unethical practices.

Comments humorously discuss and link videos of a robot or motion system performing dance-like movements, extending to analogies, personal dancing stories, and techniques.

This cluster centers on discussions of high employee turnover, attrition, and churn rates in tech companies like FAANG, including causes such as job hopping, burnout, PIPs, short average tenures, and implications for retention and company health.

The cluster centers on debates about Noam Chomsky's theories of universal grammar and language acquisition, particularly whether large language models (LLMs) challenge or refute his views on human language learning.

The cluster discusses the ubiquity of CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) applications in web development, enterprise software, and SaaS, often expressing frustration, boredom, or the soul-crushing nature of building them, while questioning if most apps are just glorified CRUD.

Commenters speculate on whether a scientific paper or discovery about spacetime manipulation enables warp drives, wormholes, or faster-than-light travel, frequently referencing the Alcubierre drive and its feasibility under relativity.

The cluster centers on arguments about whether the United States is a 'nation of immigrants' or primarily built by settlers and colonizers, contrasting historical immigration waves with Native American displacement and modern xenophobia.

Discussions center on Karl Popper's falsifiability criterion as essential for distinguishing scientific theories from speculation, philosophy, or pseudoscience, with debates on whether specific claims or hypotheses meet this standard.

This cluster centers on discussions about implementing retry mechanisms, exponential backoff, jitter, and handling transient failures in APIs and services during outages or errors. Commenters debate best practices, trade-offs like latency, and alternatives such as queues or idempotency.

Comments overwhelmingly suggest or sarcastically reference Base64 encoding as a simple, obvious alternative for data obfuscation, transmission, or representation, often critiquing more complex methods.

Discussions revolve around the use of pure black (#000000) versus off-black (dark gray) for text, backgrounds, and UI elements, debating contrast, readability, aesthetics, and screen differences.

Comments recommend Caddy as a simple alternative to nginx and other web servers, highlighting its automatic HTTPS via Let's Encrypt, ease of configuration, and reverse proxy capabilities.

Discussions center on port scanning tools like Shodan, Nmap, and Masscan for scanning the entire internet or large IP ranges to detect open ports and vulnerabilities, including comparisons, usage tips, and legal concerns.

The cluster focuses on challenges with speech-to-text and voice recognition software handling non-American English accents, such as British, Australian, Scottish, and non-native ones, with users reporting recognition errors and requesting better support.

Comments discuss the accuracy, real-time updates, calculation methods, and reliability of YouTube video view counts, including issues like minimum watch time requirements, extrapolation, delays, and historical overflows.

The cluster discusses whether quantum computers can break cryptographic systems like RSA, ECC, and SHA using algorithms such as Shor's and Grover's, debating current capabilities and future risks to encryption.

This cluster revolves around discussions of turning nouns into verbs (verbing) in English, with commenters debating its grammatical validity, providing examples, and referencing cultural memes like 'Verbing weirds language.'

The cluster focuses on discussions about Sonos multi-room audio systems, including their features, integration challenges, user experiences, and comparisons to alternatives like Apple HomePod, Wiim, and AirPlay devices.

Users discuss and express surprise at the inclusion of the D programming language in a list or supported features, questioning what 'D' refers to, joking about the capital 'D', and referencing related acronyms like DDD, DDG, and DD.

The cluster centers on debates about what qualifies as a true 'asset,' particularly focusing on liquidity, realizable value, stability, and distinctions from liabilities or money in financial and business contexts.

Users debate SaaS pricing models, focusing on enterprise tiers' high costs and lack of flexibility for small teams or individuals needing premium features like multi-user management, while suggesting per-user, tiered, or a-la-carte options.

The cluster focuses on AI-powered platforms and tools for interactive, adaptive, and personalized learning, with users sharing prototypes, plugs for apps like uphop.ai and Primer, and discussions on quizzes, drills, feedback, and knowledge graphs for skills like math and ML.

The cluster centers on philosophical debates about what happens after death, including whether consciousness ceases like pre-birth non-existence, skepticism of afterlife beliefs, and the impossibility of experiencing death.

The cluster discusses the lack of regulatory oversight for dietary supplements in the US, highlighting problems like inaccurate labeling, contamination, dosage inconsistencies, and safety risks compared to pharmaceuticals.

Discussions center on the ephemerality of websites and online content, worrying about disappearances due to hosting failures, service shutdowns like Geocities, owner death, or unpaid bills, with skepticism toward promises of permanent hosting.

Discussions center on the successes, failures, and challenges of robotic probes, rovers, and landers in space exploration, including NASA missions like Mars rovers and Voyager, compared to efforts by China, ESA, Russia, and ISRO.

Cluster focuses on debates about whether faster-than-light travel, closed timelike curves, or relativity enable time travel, including paradoxes, self-consistency principles, and impossibility arguments.