AskHN Digest

1. Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?

Top comment by kmm

A few years ago I made a "string art" portrait for my girlfriend at the time. It's made from a continuous† 2 km long black thread, woven around a loom made from a bicycle wheel rim. I'm still very proud of how it turned out.

†OK fine, it broke at a few points and I had to knot the ends together, but it's the principle that counts.

https://imgur.com/gallery/ljoJeal

I really wanted to make something creative for her, but I'm pretty terrible as an artist, so I instead applied a talent I do have: making 200 line Python scripts. Apparently the first to do this was an artist named Petros Vrellis, though I did come up with it independently.

Sadly, we've broken up since then, and we didn't remain friends. I do wonder what happened to it, I can't imagine she'd've thrown it out, but on the other hand it would be odd to have a physically quite large memento to a previous relationship hanging from your wall.

2. Ask HN: What are the big/important problems to work on?

Top comment by gavinhoward

If we lose the war on general-purpose computing, authoritarianism and corporatism are likely to rule the world.

Winning that war is prerequisite to everything else.

If you're worried about climate change, remember that authoritarian regimes don't care about climate change.

If you're worried about injustices, remember that authoritarian regimes don't care about them and actually manufacture them.

If you're worried about any particular political thing, remember that authoritarian regimes don't even let you speak your dissent.

If you're worried about economics and making a living, remember that authoritarian regimes don't care if you have enough food.

Authoritarian regimes only care about themselves and their power. They'll make sure they're insulated from climate change. They'll make sure the law doesn't apply to them. They'll make sure they have megaphones for their propaganda. They'll make sure they always have food and shelter.

So what can you do?

Write Free Software. Get people to use Firefox and Ladybird (once it's ready). Refuse to work for companies that are locking down computers. Shift the culture until it is shameful to even do so. Reject remote attestation. Accept inconvenience in the software you use. Preach to everyday people about using Free Software. Teach them about privacy and control issues. Help them install Linux on their laptops. Root their phones for them. Be their tech support when things go wrong.

Most of all, learn UX and make your Free Software more usable and convenient than the freedom-snuffing software. Until Free Software is more convenient, there is very little way we can win this war.

This is something Free Software enthusiasts are really blind about: we can't just make software how nerds want it; we need to make software that will be useful and convenient for everyday people.

3. Ask HN: What is the most exciting thing you have learnt this year till now?

Top comment by mabbo

That I can survive being laid off.

That emotionally, it won't crush me to find out my company decided I was in the 20% that wasn't needed anymore. That financially, my family can get by if I spend 11 weeks unemployed. That I can accept a job that pays significantly less than I used to make.

I really did think that the entire experience was going to leave me the empty shell of my former self, that the mental toll would leave me severely depressed, and that my world would be shattered. None of that happened. I had a great summer.

My exciting discovery is that I no longer define myself purely in terms of my career.

4. Ask HN: How do you handle tech use with your kids?

Top comment by csw-001

We have two kids who were raised essentially screen-free until 3, then on a 1hr a week diet until 6. We worried all the time about the transition to school, and the cultural norm of allowing a lot more screen time. This was an imagined dragon - this has not been an issue at all. My oldest just got a Switch, she plays less than 1/2hr a day - then she walks away without issue. She has friends with phones and iWatches (she has neither) and her envy level is zero.

My point here is not that we’ve done anything right, or wrong, or to emulate. Instead, I say this point out the I’ve had to learn to worry about, and address, the real issues - when they become real. There are not enough hours in the day to worry about all theoretical mistakes I’m making as a a parent. I choose to focus on the actual, observable, issues we are having.

For what it’s worth - many of our neighbors have kids that play all the time on the Switch, have phones, and watch TV every car ride anywhere, and those kids are LOVELY. They aren’t screen demons - and they aren’t behind in math, reading, eating vegetables… I think it could be it doesn’t really matter as much as it gets focused on.

At any rate it matters a whole lot less than loving them, and figuring out what works for YOU and for THEM - and that’s something it took me way too long to learn.

5. Ask HN: For advice: I'm a mathematician looking for a plan B outside of academia

Top comment by constantcrying

Learning to program is the most important thing you can do. As long as it isn't web applications everything is fine. Programming isn't really about knowing the syntax of some language or having memorized a list of algorithms, but understanding how to build an appropriate architecture for your system.

>but it seems of dubious usefulness when it comes to finding a job.

There is a very large embedded industry if you want that. Learn about basic electronics as well if you are interested. I highly recommend learning C and (C++ and/or rust) if you want to enter there.

>combinatorial optimization

Nobody in the industry would hire you for that specifically. You might find a role where it is also needed/usefull but it isn't a career path.

>blender/3D modelling

I would absolutely avoid that as a career unless it is a major passion. Maybe you are interested in computer graphics though? That could be an option. Computer graphics is a major industry, video games, professional software for artists or engineering software are some of the larger groups there.

I would focus on R&D positions at large companies or institutions. Engineering positions are more process focused ("do what you are told") and it gets worse the more regulated the industry is (e.g. aerospace).

6. Ask HN: Cheapest hardware to run Llama 2 70B

Top comment by orost

Anything with 64GB of memory will run a quantized 70B model. What else you need depends on what is acceptable speed for you. With a decent CPU but without any GPU assistance, expect output on the order of 1 token per second, and excruciatingly slow prompt ingestion. Any decent Nvidia GPU will dramatically speed up ingestion, but for fast generation, you need 48GB VRAM to fit the entire model. That means 2x RTX 3090 or better. That should generate faster than you can read.

Edit: the above is about PC. Macs are much faster at CPU generation, but not nearly as fast as big GPUs, and their ingestion is still slow.

7. Ask HN: Who's Seeking New Friends?

Top comment by TylerLives

Over the years, I've seen many posts like this one. I've joined a few groups myself and every single one of them died in a few days or weeks. What brings people together is a shared activity (and shared values/interests). You'd have a better chance of success if you started a project in some area you're interested in and asked people to join you.

8. Ask HN: What are the economics of a streaming based record label?

Top comment by floydianspiral

The content of this is a strange to read so my initial take is it seems like you know nothing about the music industry or record labels but i'll argue in good faith. A simple google answers your per stream questions: https://www.igroovemusic.com/blog/how-much-do-i-get-per-stre... The sad answer is almost no one is making real money off streaming except the .001%

Record labels aren't quite what they used to be now that we have distrokid, tunecore, soundcloud, etc as independent artists can get their music on streaming services themselves. You say you want to be a label, what are you bringing to the table? Do you have any connections in the music industry? These days the only way to make money off a song streaming is if it gets picked up by the big playlists, but guess what? Those are mostly curated by the big labels and you have to have connections to get on them. You can try and get your music on smaller curated lists by blasting out to popular blogs and reading lists as well. Use social media, hope you get lucky on tiktok. Google how to get your music viral as a social media influencer. The real answer here is there is no actual formula but by putting yourself out there on a ton of platforms and hopefully something sticks and it goes viral. At the end of the day is the music has to actually be good (read: something sticky even if its pop drivel) for people to spread it. As a musician and independent producer, this post irks me a little bit as you're basically signaling you want to simply make money from music rather than doing it for the love of the art. If that's not the case I wish you the best.

9. Ask HN: What is the most powerful, fully open, fully programmable computer?

Top comment by danielvf

Have you considered working off a commercial ARM microcontroller, say ARM M3, from STM, NXP, or Infineon? It's orders faster than a Z80, the documentation is world class, you can control every bit code that it runes, and there's a whole industry of people who spend their lives writing code for them.

I've written from bare metal: keys, display, networking, with hard realtime stuff (response times in millionths of second). It's not actually the bad.

10. Ask HN: Career advice and what skills gave you the most leverage

Top comment by tcbawo

  * This might sound trite, but you will make the most money when your company has lots of money.  If your company is struggling or its industry is going through a cyclical slowdown, you will typically make less than at a flush firm or in a booming industry, even if you are a top performer.  Tactically switching industries midway through my career led me to significantly higher comp longer term (several multiples).  
  * Become indispensable in the key areas that are most highly correlated with company success.  I mean improving the company's bottom line, not working more hours than anyone else.  Be focused and direct.  These priorities are often broadcast by ownership/the executive team, but sometimes the message gets lost in translation by middle management.  Do these things with visibility and measure the difference you've contributed.  If your job isn't in the critical path or your job doesn't have enough transparency, move on. 
  * If you don't have equity, it's not your company.  Don't make the mistake of sacrificing your mental or physical health for your company's sake.  It's never worth it.  Having 'moral' equity instead of real equity is an awful feeling.  Instead of holding out, moving on was always the right call for me.