On ubuntu, every new version broke something, sometimes updates make the computer boot to a blank screen... it was a terrible experince for early-days linux users. This was many years ago, but it made me distrust most distros I tried. Except for nixos.

They wrote it from scratch in C++ so they could avoid some of the legacy cruft in Android. And they are getting adoption. It's a major OS in China and in many developing countries (phones with it are cheaper, and it flies on underpowered hardware!)

Before we judge the magnitude of this event (HarmonyOS existing and being successful), let's remember that last time anyone tried to disrupt the duopoly Android-iOS, it was MS, the largest company on earth by market capitalization at the time. And they failed.

Well, it very much looks like Huawei is not failing. We in the west don't see it as much, because propaganda is working well. But last tech conference I attended (GITEX Berlin, if you are wondering), had their app available to download with... 3 logos, not 2. Harmony OS was there. This is a major win for consumers all over the world.

And this being HN, I hope the inevitable comment "but China!" is slightly more informed that the average internet user.

This would be a terrible result. Google 'urban monoculture' A pluralistic society is more resilient to catastrophes, and preserving all these small, dwindling cultures is as important if not more as preserving species that are endangered.

This idea of LLMs doing simulations of the physical world I've never heard before. In fact a transformer model cannot do this. Do you have a source?

---

We are building a collaborative thinking tool with live editing like google docs but outside the browser and with much simpler technology

Why? Security; We want to create knowledge that is not going to end up in the belly of an LLM

Tech stack:

- Wireguard

- zeromq

- WASM for client, handcrafted server code for server. No browser needed on client

- DSL (for gui; probably you won't touch it)

- NixOS

Our approach to security is simplicity; we won't use dependencies unless we really have to; libs of more than 50k LOC are frowned upon. Every line in the codebase, including deps, should be understandable by someone in the team. Servers are nixOS. No docker anywhere.

About you:

- Are self-motivated and can work independently

- Understand how to build highly reliable systems and be responsible for taking code to production

- Understand that code simplicity and readability are more important for long term maintainability

- Strong CS fundamentals (B.S./M.S. equivalent)

We start out on a full-time trial contract basis for up to 3 months and use this period as an extended work interview for both sides to assess fit for long-term employment

With any questions or to apply, email me at org@datascienceretreat.com

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42330019

Points: 13

# Comments: 4

So far what we have learned is that robots.txt doesn't work; major sites are using login-only access with 2FA to have any hope to keep their content away from LLMs. I imagine the licenses would be one thing, but actually implementing/enforcing them might be a whole other can of worms!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42170746

Points: 35

# Comments: 18

https://github.com/rvaiya/keyd

Also, no tracking, no upvotes, no marketing, no status-hogging people, no BS. This is refreshing. People there talk about what they really want to talk about. You are not being sold as a product, or sold at, at all.

Gemspace is in early days, but I find I like write there much more than in the open web. I've been using an http proxy so that I can post my writings here, and I wonder if I could, one day, just post a gemspace link.

Would you follow it? Links look like this: gemini://geminiprotocol.net/docs/specification.gmi

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41491928

Points: 8

# Comments: 5

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41186310

Points: 191

# Comments: 47

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40099575

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

This is terrifying. Status online shouldn't bleed on all those other domains. Using your influence online to get things (or else I will tweet about you and the sky will fall on your head) is petty, and one more bad thing that social media has brought to our lives. Now we have to aim to please those who have amassed followers?