Hacker News
1Johnny.Decimal – A system to organise your life
- Johnny.Decimal is an organizational system that assigns unique numbered IDs to help you find things efficiently. It uses a structured approach with areas (shelves), categories (boxes), and IDs (folders), limiting each level to ten items. This system promotes easy navigation, better memory recall, and stress-free file management.
Single-category limitation
Core challenge is that most items could belong in multiple categories - e.g. car insurance could go under "cars" or "insurance". This makes it hard to remember where things are filed and find them later.Alternative approaches
Tags and search are suggested as better solutions than hierarchical folders. Tags allow items to exist in multiple categories, while good search makes precise organization less critical.System simplicity
Complex organizational systems can create more stress than they solve. Many users advocate for simpler approaches like basic folders with search, or just focusing on being present rather than perfect organization.
2'The tyranny of apps': those without smartphones are unfairly penalised
- The article discusses how the increasing reliance on smartphone apps for services, discounts, and daily activities is creating challenges for millions of UK residents who cannot or choose not to use them. From retail loyalty programs to parking payments and entertainment venues, those without app access face exclusion from deals and services, particularly impacting older adults and those unable to afford smartphones.
Medical app failures
Discussion of how medical offices are forcing patients to use poorly designed apps that frequently crash, require constant relaunching, and hide errors behind infinite loading screens, replacing previously functional websites.Parking apps issues
Widespread criticism of mandatory parking apps that are difficult to use, require multiple accounts for different locations, and often fail due to poor cell service, making parking more complicated than traditional meters.Cross-country app restrictions
Problems with apps being region-locked or unavailable when traveling between countries, affecting banking, transportation, food ordering and entertainment services, forcing users to maintain multiple accounts or lose access.
3Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)
- This item from the Caltech Archives captures Richard Feynman's blackboard as it appeared at the time of his death in 1988, preserved as a photographic negative in the university's image collection. The artifact represents the final academic thoughts and work of the renowned physicist.
Feynman's mindset and teaching
Discussion of Feynman's famous quote "What I cannot create, I do not understand" and related ideas about teaching, with debate on whether teaching ability equals understanding and how different forms of knowledge relateFeynman's character controversies
Debate about Feynman's personal flaws, particularly regarding his treatment of women, and discussion of whether his autobiographical stories were embellished or exaggeratedQuantum Hall effect
Discussion of how even great physicists like Feynman had gaps in their knowledge, noting how the quantum Hall effect was on his "to learn" list despite now being standard undergraduate material
4Why Ruby on Rails still matters
- A comparison between Ruby on Rails and Next.js web frameworks, highlighting how Rails maintains relevance through simplicity and abstraction despite Next.js's modern capabilities. Like vinyl records enduring alongside digital formats, both frameworks serve different needs while focusing on user utility over implementation details.
Self-hosting viability
Discussion about running web apps from home hardware like Mac Minis, with debate around the practicality of self-hosting vs cloud services and the use of Cloudflare tunnels for connectivity.Convention vs configuration
Debate about Rails' convention-over-configuration approach versus modern frontend frameworks, with focus on CRUD patterns and how different frameworks handle data models and views.AI coding compatibility
Discussion of Rails' effectiveness with AI coding tools despite lacking static types, with arguments that Rails' strong conventions make it well-suited for LLM-assisted development.
520 years working on the same software product
- PerfectTablePlan, a table seating planning software, celebrates its 20th anniversary since its 2005 launch. Created by the author for his own wedding, it grew into a successful desktop application used for major events worldwide. Despite market changes, it remains profitable as a lifestyle business, now in version 7.
Desktop software vs web apps
Discussion contrasts traditional desktop applications with modern web-based alternatives, debating merits of native vs Electron apps, with many lamenting the shift toward browser-based solutions and discussing complexity of native UI development.Business model and sustainability
Conversation about software licensing models, focusing on perpetual licenses with discounted upgrades vs subscriptions, and how small independent developers can build sustainable long-term businesses.Indie software development
Discussion celebrates independent developers creating niche software products with care and dedication, contrasting this approach with corporate development and VC-funded startups.
6FFmpeg School of Assembly Language
- This introductory lesson teaches the fundamentals of assembly language programming in FFmpeg, focusing on SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) operations. It covers basic concepts like registers, syntax types, and explains why assembly is used for performance optimization in multimedia processing, particularly for video encoding and decoding tasks.
Value of learning assembly
Many developers find learning assembly rewarding for understanding computer architecture, debugging, and historical interest. While rarely used directly, it provides insights into how computers work and can be enjoyable as a learning exercise.Hand-written SIMD vs compilers
Debate over whether hand-written assembly/SIMD still outperforms compiler output. Consensus is that while compilers are good for general code, hand-optimized SIMD can be significantly faster for specific tasks like video/audio processing.Architecture-specific challenges
Discussion of trade-offs between portability and performance when writing assembly. While architecture-specific code limits portability, it allows optimizing for specific hardware capabilities, especially in performance-critical applications.
7DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
Government efficiency and waste
Debate over whether government spending is truly wasteful, with contractors sharing experiences of inefficient projects and others arguing similar waste exists in private sector and that cutting programs requires careful considerationConstitutional authority
Discussion of whether DOGE team has legal authority to stop congressionally approved payments, with debate over executive branch powers and role of oversight in spending decisionsPolitical motivation
Arguments that DOGE's stated efficiency goals mask political agenda to dismantle oversight of certain companies and hurt competitors, while using messaging over policy substance to maintain public support
8Docker limits unauthenticated pulls to 10/HR/IP from Docker Hub, from March 1
- Docker Hub introduces new pull rate limits from April 2025. Unauthenticated users get 10 pulls/hour, free accounts get 100 pulls/hour, while Pro, Team, and Business subscribers enjoy unlimited pulls with fair use. All users are subject to abuse rate limits to protect infrastructure.
Docker's business model and entitlement debate
Discussion of whether Docker's new limits are reasonable given their costs, with debate between those viewing it as entitled to expect free service and others seeing it as a problematic bait-and-switch after years of free usage.Technical workarounds and alternatives
Various solutions discussed including setting up mirrors, using alternative registries like ECR/GHCR, implementing caching, and switching to other container tools like Podman. Focus on maintaining service while avoiding rate limits.Impact on CI/CD and automation
Concerns about how limits will affect CI pipelines, GitHub Actions, and automated deployments, particularly for cases where authentication isn't possible or rate limits could cause build failures.
9Some critical issues with the SWE-bench dataset
- This study examines the SWE-bench dataset used for evaluating Large Language Models in coding tasks. The analysis reveals significant quality issues, including solution leakage in successful patches and inadequate test cases. After filtering problematic issues, the success rate of the top-performing model dropped significantly.
Benchmark accuracy concerns
Multiple technical errors found in paper's analysis of code patches, including misunderstanding of Python dictionary behavior and incorrect claims about hints_text usage, leading to questions about authors' qualificationsReal-world AI coding performance
Discussion of how actual coding performance of AI models (3-4% success rate) matches developers' experiences better than inflated benchmark scores, with Claude noted as performing better than benchmarks suggestNeed for better benchmarks
Suggestions for creating more reliable benchmarks through versioned, crowdsourced datasets and private test suites, as current public benchmarks are easily gamed or tainted by solution leakage
10Suckless.org: software that sucks less
- This is a chronological news feed from suckless.org, documenting software releases and updates from 2008 to 2024. The organization develops minimalist software including dwm, dmenu, and st terminal, with recent updates focusing on bug fixes, performance improvements, and compatibility enhancements across their various tools and applications.
Static vs dynamic linking
Discussion on merits of static vs dynamic linking in Linux, with many favoring static linking for application distribution while acknowledging dynamic linking's role in system libraries and security updatesTerminal emulator preferences
Users share experiences with various terminal emulators, comparing st, urxvt, Alacritty, Kitty and others, discussing trade-offs between simplicity, features and maintainabilitySuckless philosophy and controversy
Debate around Suckless project's minimalist software philosophy and associated social/political controversies, with users divided between focusing on technical merits versus community concerns