Hacker News: i000

New comment by i000 in "ggsql: A Grammar of Graphics for SQL"

i000 — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:45:48 +0000

What makes ggplot great is that it allows manual adjustments AND has a nice declerative grammar. Hard for me to see the value of a plotting library without being able to adjust plots.

New comment by i000 in "Show HN: BreezePDF – Free, in-browser PDF editor"

i000 — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:29:32 +0000

Imagine a pizza place that allows you to pick from 40+ toppings but you can only order a margherita ;) /s

New comment by i000 in "Mamba-3"

i000 — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 17:46:24 +0000

Agreed. What you wrote was probably the input, what we see is the LLM output with the directive to "make us sound smart, put gratuitous em-dash"

New comment by i000 in "Smallest transformer that can add two 10-digit numbers"

i000 — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 02:11:31 +0000

Would it make sense to embed such single-purpose network with fixed weights within a LLM before pre-training?

New comment by i000 in "Prism"

i000 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 04:30:50 +0000

Me neither, but what you present is a false dichotomy. Science used to be a past time of the wealthy elites, it became a profession. By opening up it up progrss was accelerated. Same will happen when publication will be made more open and accessible.

New comment by i000 in "Prism"

i000 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 02:12:22 +0000

Perhaps the real issue is the gate-keeping scientific publishing model. Journals had a place and role, and peer-review is a critical aspect of the scientific process but new times (internet, citizien science, higher levels of scientific literacy, and now AI) diminish the benefits of journals creating "barriers to entry" as you put it.

New comment by i000 in "IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data centers will pay off"

i000 — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 04:31:26 +0000

What makes you think that this 'surplus' GDP will be captured by those who do the investments?

New comment by i000 in "Show HN: I'm a dermatologist and I vibe coded a skin cancer learning app"

i000 — Sun, 07 Sep 2025 16:10:04 +0000

What an utterly disappointing comment. FWIW I spent 15min on the app, and found it very helpful to see examples of the various kinds of skin lesion - it will likely motivate me to see a doctor when I see a similar malignant skin lesion. Educating people is very helpful.

New comment by i000 in "Positron – A next-generation data science IDE"

i000 — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 15:15:10 +0000

If you take advantage of all the featuers in Teams, perhaps. But we needed a tiny bit from Workbench, a little bit from Connect, and sliver from Package Manager - and Teans ended up eating a huge portion of our IT bill, effectively stunting our efficiency as a research organization. Over the years, while our use case did not change, our Posit bill more than doubled.

New comment by i000 in "Positron – A next-generation data science IDE"

i000 — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 15:10:41 +0000

Thank you for the response! My key recommendation is to unbundle. At one point we have been told "It got 35% more expensive, but it does so much more now it supports Python" - we didn't ask for Python. To effectively use Connect with private packages you need this other full-blown institutional Package Manager license, 99% of your users will not need. Also per-named-user pricing (rather than per active seat) is so aggressive. A user uses a shiny app once in a year, still need a full per year license.... I feel Posit is one of the most agressive companies in terms of upselling, while positioning as this benevolent PBC / Open-Source institution - just go full Oracle at least we will know where things stand.

New comment by i000 in "Positron – A next-generation data science IDE"

i000 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 22:56:35 +0000

I am talking about the RStudio Server and Connect - these are really expensive. One of the sales reps claimed that it is so expensive because they are a PBC and support open-source development. As in if they were just for profit it would be cheaper, but we should feel good about paying more. I could not take it.

New comment by i000 in "Positron – A next-generation data science IDE"

i000 — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 22:23:17 +0000

What is the alternative? Posit princing is absurd. Even academia is charged arm and leg - and the value, very questionable.

New comment by i000 in "Reflections on OpenAI"

i000 — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:40:33 +0000

I think this is pretty much how many Amish communities function. As for me, I prefer making decisions on how to use technology in my own life on my own.

New comment by i000 in "Biomni: A General-Purpose Biomedical AI Agent"

i000 — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:07:54 +0000

If utility/value is not "the" big question, what is?

New comment by i000 in "Why LLMs Can't Write Q/Kdb+: Writing Code Right-to-Left"

i000 — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:12:21 +0000

R has right assigment `1 -> x` LLMs seem to enjoy it a bit too much.

New comment by i000 in "The average college student today"

i000 — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 20:00:26 +0000

It's a question of values, the students know the world does not value the experience or education he is providing, and they don't have an intrinsic interest in it. Being able to discuss Sartre will not get them a high paying job, but somehow that type of stuff is part of the liberal arts education.

New comment by i000 in "An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers"

i000 — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:50:36 +0000

I said ‘imply’ because your response is not to an article on apples walled garden but work of open source developers. I agree with you 100% on criticizing apple but not on whether someone should put effort in making it more open.

New comment by i000 in "An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers"

i000 — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 16:43:30 +0000

What do you mean by “should the community do X” ? The Community is not some form of organisation with a mission and objective, it is a loose collection of individuals free to put their talents and explore intersts into whatever they please. You imply that this creative and inspiring work somehow stifles innovation and hurts users which is frankly absurd.

New comment by i000 in "Prostate cancer includes two different evotypes"

i000 — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 23:33:46 +0000

I tried to dissect this paper on my recent 6h flight. Despite a decade of research in prostate cancer genomics I could not figure out what is going on. the results are both vague and at odds with established knowledge. the computational approaches complex and impenetrable. I sent it to my students as an example of computational over cooking.

New comment by i000 in "So long, and thanks for all the bytes"

i000 — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 16:48:01 +0000

Reads like a good outline for a sitcom. Disillusioned tech exec enrolls in arts school with quirky green haired genZ : ^ )