Hacker News
1Seven replies to the viral Apple reasoning paper and why they fall short
- The Apple paper highlighting limitations in AI reasoning models has sparked widespread discussion. Critics offered various rebuttals, but none effectively countered the core findings that large language models struggle with complex reasoning tasks. This reinforces the view that current AI scaling approaches may be insufficient for achieving artificial general intelligence.
Models' reasoning capabilities
Debate over whether LLMs can truly reason or just pattern match from training data. Some argue they solve novel problems, while others contend they only work with familiar patterns and fail at genuinely new challenges.Tool use vs pure reasoning
Discussion of whether LLMs should be evaluated on pure reasoning ability or allowed to use tools like code execution. Some argue tool use is valid, while others say it masks lack of true understanding.Human comparison standards
Debate over whether comparing LLM performance to human capabilities is appropriate, and what standards AGI should be held to - whether matching average human performance is sufficient or if higher standards needed.
2How to modify Starlink Mini to run without the built-in WiFi router
- This article provides a detailed guide on modifying the Starlink Mini terminal by removing its built-in Wi-Fi router, allowing for direct Ethernet connectivity. The modification enables advanced networking setups and custom installations, though it requires careful handling to maintain proper EMI shielding and cooling.
Technical discussion about RGMII vs Ethernet
Debate about using modulated board-to-board Ethernet versus RGMII, covering tradeoffs between protocols, implementation challenges, and practical considerations for prototyping and production use cases.Power-constrained application purpose
Discussion about the likely military drone applications of this modification in Ukraine, with multiple commenters noting the author's location and the potential use in long-range or explosive-laden drones.
3Datalog in Rust
Datalog implementations in Rust
Discussion of various Rust-based Datalog projects, including DDLog, Mangle, and other implementations using proc-macros, with developers sharing their experiences and progress on game development and data processing projectsState of Datalog adoption
Observations about Datalog's declining popularity in conferences, yet continued usefulness in specific applications like data quality pipelines, with discussion of how Feldera switched from Datalog to SQL for better market adoptionQuery optimization techniques
Technical debate about binary joins versus worst-case optimal join algorithms, including discussion of materialization-heavy workloads, parallelization challenges, and performance trade-offs in different scenarios
4SIMD-friendly algorithms for substring searching (2016)
- This article discusses various approaches to optimizing substring search algorithms using SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instructions on modern CPUs. It challenges traditional string-searching methods by leveraging parallel processing capabilities and presents three main algorithms that offer improved performance over conventional approaches, particularly for short substring searches.
Implementation in ripgrep
Discussion of how ripgrep uses AVX2 SIMD optimization through Rust's regex crate, including its use of background byte frequency distribution for better performance vs traditional methodsBoundary cases and undefined behavior
Debate about how SIMD string search implementations often ignore boundary conditions and have undefined behavior, with developers typically focusing on core vector operations over edge casesPerformance thresholds
Discussion of when SIMD string search becomes more efficient than basic byte-oriented search, considering setup costs and varying effectiveness across different string sizes and hardware architectures
5Last fifty years of integer linear programming: Recent practical advances (2024)
- Mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) has revolutionized operations research through improved solver efficiency. It's widely used in logistics, finance, and manufacturing. While significant progress has been made, challenges remain. The field continues to evolve through various decomposition methods.
Commercial vs open source solvers
Commercial solvers excel due to decades of client collaboration, specialized heuristics, and dedicated PhD teams optimizing for real-world problems. OSS solvers struggle with high barriers to entry and lack of industry feedback.Practical applications
Solvers are widely used in electricity markets, FMCG logistics, production scheduling, and resource allocation. Despite data challenges, they provide significant value when there's clear optimization goals and money at stake.Pricing and licensing
Gurobi licenses range from ~$10-15k per seat to $100k+ for multi-user server deployments. While expensive, users agree it's worth the cost for solving complex problems. Free alternatives exist for smaller problems or academic use.
6Canyon.mid
- Empty string as no meaningful content to summarize.
Minimalism and bloat
Debate about modern software's complexity vs 90s minimalism, with some arguing simpler times were better while others note modern capabilities enable more possibilities. Mixed views on whether nostalgia drives these opinions.Sound and MIDI
Discussion of PC speaker vs MIDI sound, sharing memories of gaming audio experiences, technical aspects of MIDI playback, and fond memories of Canyon.mid specifically. Many reminisce about different sound cards.Tandy hardware
Technical discussion about Tandy 1000 RSX specifications, capabilities, and graphics options. Debate about VGA compatibility and hardware expansion possibilities for this late-model Tandy computer.
7Journalists Wary of Travelling to US Due to Palantir Surveillance
- Australian journalist Alistair Kitchen reports being denied entry, detained, and deported from the USA due to his coverage of Columbia student protests. He returned to Melbourne and had his phone returned upon arrival.
Surveillance capabilities and concerns
Discussion of long-standing government surveillance capabilities via Palantir/PRISM, with debate on whether recent events represent new developments or just wider public awareness of existing systemsBorder control overreach
Controversy over US border agents examining travelers' devices and denying entry based on political views/student protest coverage, with debate on whether this represents legitimate security or authoritarian overreachPeter Thiel and Palantir's role
Criticism of Thiel/Palantir's influence on surveillance state, with references to Lord of the Rings naming and debate on whether their actions help protect Western democracy or enable authoritarianism
8Q-learning is not yet scalable
- The article discusses whether reinforcement learning (RL) scales like other machine learning objectives. While on-policy RL has shown success in games and language models, off-policy RL (particularly Q-learning) faces challenges in scaling to complex, long-horizon problems due to bias accumulation in prediction targets.
State space complexity
As horizon increases, states grow exponentially, requiring more training data. On-policy learning focuses on important states, while deep learning can help if patterns exist. Some argue MuZero and model-based RL may address this.Off-policy limitations
Data from early ineffective exploration isn't useful for improving later policies. While Q-learning can theoretically converge from random data, practitioners find on-policy methods more reliable in practice.Alternative approaches
Decision/Trajectory Transformers show promise for long-horizon tasks by using attention mechanisms. Some question if they're "real RL" but they effectively handle credit assignment within context windows.
9Infinite Grid of Resistors
- This text discusses the mathematical puzzle of calculating electrical resistance in an infinite grid of resistors. It explores the challenges and limitations of solving this problem, including issues with current flow, boundary conditions, and the physical implications of an idealized infinite grid system.
Practical applications
Discussion of how infinite resistor grid concepts apply to real-world semiconductor design, particularly regarding silicon substrate resistance and noise coupling in integrated circuits.Mathematical vs physical perspectives
Debate between mathematical idealization and physical reality of infinite grids, including quantum effects, measurement challenges, and how engineers/physicists approach the problem differently.Educational value
Discussion of whether infinite resistor grid problems are useful teaching tools, with some arguing that finite grid examples like cube resistors are more valuable for building circuit intuition.
10Google Cloud Incident Report – 2025-06-13
- Google Cloud experienced a global outage on June 12, 2025, causing increased 503 errors across multiple services. The incident, lasting 3 hours, was caused by an invalid quota update in the API management system. Most regions recovered within 2 hours, while us-central1 took longer due to database overload. Google promised improvements to prevent future incidents.
Root cause and leadership
Incident stemmed from leadership pressure to increase velocity by cutting corners, leading to rushed development of a global quota policy. Debate over whether leadership or engineering culture is more to blame.Technical failures
Discussion centered on basic engineering mistakes like null pointer exceptions, lack of error handling, and absence of gradual rollouts. Some argue these are amateur mistakes, while others note complexity at scale makes perfection impossible.Google's standards
Debate about whether Google's engineering standards have slipped or if their published best practices are more aspirational than reality. Some praise their detailed postmortems while others criticize basic mistakes.