Posts

New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: A DC Powered Home?

Ask HN: A DC Powered Home? 2 by dhosek | 1 comments on Hacker News. I’ve been thinking about the fact that contemporary home electrical wiring is heavily predicated on AC for power delivery which makes sense for power transmission as it’s been done for most of the last century or so, but with the shift to solar and battery storage, I’m wondering whether it makes sense for in-home electric wiring to move from 120V AC to 12V DC or something similar. Since I’m largely ignorant of practical electrical engineering skills, I’m wondering whether this is something that makes sense and what the engineering challenges would be. Certainly, other than my kitchen, it seems like everything in my house is converting its electricity to DC anyway (or could be easily modified to function with a DC power supply, like the lighting). And perhaps there’s no compelling reason why we need AC for the fridge, microwave, stove, toaster oven or other kitchen stuff.

New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: AI Agent and harness containerization/security recommendations

Ask HN: AI Agent and harness containerization/security recommendations 2 by dv35z | 0 comments on Hacker News. Hello HN crew - I am seeing the tendency for people to allow AI agents to access local project & user folders, and beyond (operating system files). I thought to ask the question: How can we best use AI tools safely - where the workflow often runs local system commands and network commands - to protect the integrity of our systems & data AND be easy enough to use productively? Comment structure idea: Operating system / Agent harness / Agent / Security strategy & tool stack / Workflow To give some examples: I am currently using OpenCode (+DeepSeek) on Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), and I notice that the Agent & harness is frequently asking to create files in /tmp/ - I usually forbid this, and instruct it to only use files in the current folder. I would rather that the tool ONLY have access to a given project folder (~/Projects/PROJECT-NAME) in a system-enf...

New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Does appearance matter more than we admit as founders?

Ask HN: Does appearance matter more than we admit as founders? 3 by jmaha | 4 comments on Hacker News. I’ve been thinking about something that feels a little taboo to talk about. Founders spend a lot of time trying to improve themselves outside of work—getting in shape, improving how they communicate, dressing better, whitening their teeth, getting LASIK, fixing hair loss, working on executive presence, etc. None of those things directly make the product better, but they can absolutely change how you’re perceived, and maybe even how you perceive yourself. I’m curious whether people think appearance (or more broadly, how you present yourself) has become a bigger part of the job than it used to be. Is it because we’re constantly on Zoom, podcasts, conference stages, and social media? Or has it always mattered and we’re just more willing to talk about it now? For those who’ve made one of these changes, did it actually have an impact? Not just personally, but professionally. Did it chan...

New ask Hacker News story: Finitude of Knowledge

Finitude of Knowledge 2 by Abhishek000001 | 0 comments on Hacker News. Hi everyone. I am a school student I have certain doubts about human knowledge One human has finite amount of knowledge There are finite number of humans on earth at present And in past too there have been a finite number of humans There is a certain point of time from where life began on earth And as the life forms evolved Modern Humans came into existence Hence in both space and time Humanity as whole is finite Therefore I concluded that collective knowledge (everything known)is finite But enormous and continuously growing. The collective ignorance or the unknown (things which no one knows and has known ) is probably infinite as I speculate. What do you all think Am I right I imagine all of collective known knowledge as a sphere Which is finite which is depicted by boundaries or surface of the sphere And the sphere is growing . Uneven growth in all directions 4pi steridian. I am basing all my reaso...

New ask Hacker News story: Whats the Hardest Challenges in AI?

Whats the Hardest Challenges in AI? 3 by debpalash | 1 comments on Hacker News. As the time of ai passing the cradle to vast amount of new contributors i'm here wondering about things agentic/ai researchers are pulling hair about.

New ask Hacker News story: Tell HN: Fable guardrails trigger on random questions

Tell HN: Fable guardrails trigger on random questions 4 by nocoder | 0 comments on Hacker News. I have Fable guardrails trigger on seemingly innocuous questions. Two examples: a) What is Echium b)I want you to deep dive on coffee and it’s effect on health, cognition and longevity. The output should be something that tells you areas where the evidence is strong and where it is weak but plausible and where there is no strong evidence. Does anyone know why this happens? I have many such examples where it will randomly switch models.