Wishing for a more orderly disruption may misunderstand government reform (❄️ Score: 151+ in 2 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jwMk
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jwMk
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jwMk
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jwMk
Eatingpolicy
Bringing Elon to a knife fight
Wishing for a more orderly disruption may misunderstand the nature of government reform
Lfgss shutting down 16th March 2025 (day before Online Safety Act is enforced) (🔥 Score: 162+ in 3 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jCWW
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCWW
figured this might be interesting... I run just over 300 forums, for a monthly audience of 275k active users. most of this is on Linode instances and Hetzner instances, a couple of the larger fora go via Cloudflare, but the rest just hits the server.
and it's all being shut down.
the UK Online Safety Act creates a massive liability, and whilst at first glance the risk seems low the reality is that moderating people usually provokes ire from those people, if we had to moderate them because they were a threat to the community then they are usually the kind of people who get angry.
in 28 years of running forums, as a result of moderation I've had people try to get the domain revoked, fake copyright notices, death threats, stalkers (IRL and online)... as a forum moderator you are known, and you are a target, and the Online Safety Act creates a weapon that can be used against you. the risk is no longer hypothetical, so even if I got lawyers involved to be compliant I'd still have the liability and risk.
in over 28 years I've run close to 500 fora in total, and they've changed so many lives.
I created them to provide a way for those without families to build families, to catch the waifs and strays, and to try to hold back loneliness, depression, and the risk of isolation and suicide... and it worked, it still works.
but on 17th March 2025 it will become too much, no longer tenable, the personal liability and risks too significant.
I guess I'm just the first to name a date, and now we'll watch many small communities slowly shutter.
the Online Safety Act was supposed to hold big tech to account, but in fact they're the only ones who will be able to comply... it consolidates more on those platforms.
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jCWW
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCWW
figured this might be interesting... I run just over 300 forums, for a monthly audience of 275k active users. most of this is on Linode instances and Hetzner instances, a couple of the larger fora go via Cloudflare, but the rest just hits the server.
and it's all being shut down.
the UK Online Safety Act creates a massive liability, and whilst at first glance the risk seems low the reality is that moderating people usually provokes ire from those people, if we had to moderate them because they were a threat to the community then they are usually the kind of people who get angry.
in 28 years of running forums, as a result of moderation I've had people try to get the domain revoked, fake copyright notices, death threats, stalkers (IRL and online)... as a forum moderator you are known, and you are a target, and the Online Safety Act creates a weapon that can be used against you. the risk is no longer hypothetical, so even if I got lawyers involved to be compliant I'd still have the liability and risk.
in over 28 years I've run close to 500 fora in total, and they've changed so many lives.
I created them to provide a way for those without families to build families, to catch the waifs and strays, and to try to hold back loneliness, depression, and the risk of isolation and suicide... and it worked, it still works.
but on 17th March 2025 it will become too much, no longer tenable, the personal liability and risks too significant.
I guess I'm just the first to name a date, and now we'll watch many small communities slowly shutter.
the Online Safety Act was supposed to hold big tech to account, but in fact they're the only ones who will be able to comply... it consolidates more on those platforms.
Lfgss
LFGSS and Microcosm shutting down 16th March 2025 (the day before the Online Safety Act is enforced) | LFGSS
Before you read on, note that the forum platform is just a piece of technology, and it can be thrown away, what matters are the people, the relationships, and to protect those things after whatever happens happens, a Discord ( https://www.lfgss.com/conve…
😢2
What did Ada Lovelace's program actually do? (2018) (Score: 152+ in 5 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jCTM
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCTM
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jCTM
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCTM
twobithistory.org
What Did Ada Lovelace's Program Actually Do?
In 1843, Ada Lovelace published the first nontrivial program. How did it work?
❤2
Silicon Valley Tea Party a.k.a. the great 1998 Linux revolt take II (1999) (❄️ Score: 150+ in 2 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jxu3
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jxu3
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jxu3
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jxu3
❤1
In Search of a Faster SQLite (Score: 151+ in 5 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jCRk
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCRk
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jCRk
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCRk
avi.im
In search of a faster SQLite - blag
Researchers at the University of Helsinki and Cambridge attempted to build a faster SQLite using modern programming paradigms like io_uring and disaggregated storage. They demonstrate up to a 100x reduction in tail latency. These are my notes.
❤4🤔1
Popeye and Tintin enter the public domain in 2025 along with Faulkner, Hemingway (Score: 150+ in 12 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jBRy
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jBRy
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jBRy
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jBRy
AP News
Popeye and Tintin enter the public domain in 2025 along with novels from Faulkner and Hemingway
Popeye the Sailor and the Belgian boy reporter Tintin lead the class of characters and works of art becoming public domain in 2025.
"Nvidia is so far ahead that all the 4090s are nerfed to half speed" (Score: 151+ in 11 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jC3S
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jC3S
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jC3S
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jC3S
🤔3💩1
Ask HN: SWEs how do you future-proof your career in light of LLMs? (Score: 155+ in 8 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCkh
LLMs are becoming a part of software engineering career.
The more I speak with fellow engineers, the more I hear that some of them are either using AI to help them code, or feed entire projects to AI and let the AI code, while they do code review and adjustments.
I didn't want to believe in it, but I think it's here. And even arguments like "feeding proprietary code" will be eventually solved by companies hosting their own isolated LLMs as they become better and hardware becomes more available.
My prediction is that junior to mid level software engineering will disappear mostly, while senior engineers will transition to be more of a guiding hand to LLMs output, until eventually LLMs will become so good, that senior people won't be needed any more.
So, fellow software engineers, how do you future-proof your career in light of, the inevitable, LLM take over?
--- EDIT ---
I want to clarify something, because there seems to be slight misunderstanding.
A lot of people have been talking about SWE being not only about code, and I agree with that. But it's also easier to sell this idea to a young person who is just starting in this career. And while I want this Ask HN to be helpful to young/fresh engineers as well, I'm more interested in getting help for myself, and many others who are in a similar position.
I have almost two decades of SWE experience. But despite that, I seem to have missed the party where they told us that "coding is not a means to an end", and realized it in the past few years. I bet there are people out there who are in a similar situations. How can we future-proof our career?
Link: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCkh
LLMs are becoming a part of software engineering career.
The more I speak with fellow engineers, the more I hear that some of them are either using AI to help them code, or feed entire projects to AI and let the AI code, while they do code review and adjustments.
I didn't want to believe in it, but I think it's here. And even arguments like "feeding proprietary code" will be eventually solved by companies hosting their own isolated LLMs as they become better and hardware becomes more available.
My prediction is that junior to mid level software engineering will disappear mostly, while senior engineers will transition to be more of a guiding hand to LLMs output, until eventually LLMs will become so good, that senior people won't be needed any more.
So, fellow software engineers, how do you future-proof your career in light of, the inevitable, LLM take over?
--- EDIT ---
I want to clarify something, because there seems to be slight misunderstanding.
A lot of people have been talking about SWE being not only about code, and I agree with that. But it's also easier to sell this idea to a young person who is just starting in this career. And while I want this Ask HN to be helpful to young/fresh engineers as well, I'm more interested in getting help for myself, and many others who are in a similar position.
I have almost two decades of SWE experience. But despite that, I seem to have missed the party where they told us that "coding is not a means to an end", and realized it in the past few years. I bet there are people out there who are in a similar situations. How can we future-proof our career?
💩14👍2
Go Protobuf: The New Opaque API (Score: 151+ in 4 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jDyV
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jDyV
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jDyV
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jDyV
go.dev
Go Protobuf: The new Opaque API - The Go Programming Language
We are adding a new generated code API to Go Protobuf.
👍6
Ruby Video – On a mission to index all Ruby conferences (Score: 150+ in 1 day)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jzQ7
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jzQ7
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jzQ7
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jzQ7
www.rubyvideo.dev
Ruby Video
On a mission to index all Ruby conferences. Your go-to place for talks and events about Ruby.
👍1
The Antikythera mechanism – 254:19 ratio (Score: 150+ in 1 day)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jArM
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jArM
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jArM
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jArM
Leancrew
The Antikythera mechanism
A couple of followups on a recent episode of In Our Time.
❤1
Making a watch from scratch (❄️ Score: 154+ in 2 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jxWP
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jxWP
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jxWP
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jxWP
🔥2
UK's Online Safety Act comes into force (Score: 150+ in 18 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jBFx
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jBFx
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jBFx
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jBFx
www.ofcom.org.uk
Time for tech firms to act: UK online safety regulation comes into force
People in the UK will be better protected from illegal harms online, as tech firms are now legally required to start taking action to tackle criminal activity on their platforms, and make them safer by design.
👎19💩4❤1
New LLM optimization technique slashes memory costs up to 75% (❄️ Score: 150+ in 3 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jw4B
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jw4B
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jw4B
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jw4B
VentureBeat
New LLM optimization technique slashes memory costs up to 75%
Universal Transformer Memory uses neural networks to determine which tokens in the LLM's context window are useful or redundant.
👍16🤩2
Load is not what you should balance: Introducing Prequal (Score: 150+ in 22 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jBq5
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jBq5
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jBq5
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jBq5
❤3
Mirror bacteria research poses significant risks, scientists warn (❄️ Score: 151+ in 3 days)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jv6b
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jv6b
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jv6b
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jv6b
The Scientist
Mirror Bacteria Research Poses Significant Risks, Dozens of Scientists Warn
Synthetic biologists make artificial cells, but one particular kind isn’t worth the risk.
👎8🤯6👍3
Waymo will bring autonomous vehicles to Tokyo (🔥 Score: 150+ in 3 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jExB
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jExB
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jExB
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jExB
Waymo
Partnering with Nihon Kotsu and GO on our first international road trip
こんにちは(Konnichiwa) and hello, Japan! We're thrilled to announce that Waymo, in partnership with Nihon Kotsu and GO, will bring our autonomous vehicles to Tokyo for our first international road trip. There, our Driver will learn and adapt to left-hand traffic…
💩19❤8👎2🤔2
Always go to the funeral (2005) (Score: 150+ in 10 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jDTe
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jDTe
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jDTe
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jDTe
NPR
Always Go To The Funeral
As a child, Deirdre Sullivan learned from her father to always pay her respects at funerals. Now, this NPR listener believes those simple acts of human kindness are as important as the grand gestures.
👍19👎5❤2
Using Guile for Emacs (Score: 150+ in 19 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jCCn
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCCn
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jCCn
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jCCn
👍4💩2
Running NetBSD on IBM ThinkPad 380Z (Score: 150+ in 6 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jEF9
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jEF9
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/6jEF9
Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/6jEF9
❤13💩1