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Article URL: https://laid0ff.substack.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890144

Points: 1

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Article URL: https://comfyai.app/article/llm-applications/enterprise-level-rag-hands-on-practice-II

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890139

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://torrentfreak.com/end-game-twitch-servers-among-hundreds-blocked-for-piracy-by-spanish-isps-250504/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890121

Points: 6

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Article URL: http://www.scitechantiques.com/belldiscovery/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890118

Points: 4

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Article URL: https://news.mit.edu/2025/radar-communications-system-extends-signal-range-millimeter-wave-frequencies-0502

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890117

Points: 2

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Article URL: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/04/28/Censoring-Social-Media

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890108

Points: 3

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Article URL: https://lww.com/_layouts/1033/OAKS.Journals/Error/JavaScript.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890087

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

tl;dr: I teach introductory computer science (CS1) at the University of Illinois (https://www.cs124.org/). What book should my students read to help introduce them to the field of technology?

In past years I assigned chapters from "Coders" by Clive Thompson for students to read, assessed by a few points of multiple-choice questions on our weekly quizzes. My goal was to complement the technical content and get students thinking about some of the broader issues surrounding technology. I think "Coders" does a nice job of this—covering some of the history of computing, discussing mental health challenges associated with software development, and providing well-reasoned arguments on sensitive topics such as gender and meritocracy.

Maybe I should just bring back "Coders". It was written before the rise of generative AI, but still holds up fairly well.

But I thought I'd ask this community for additional ideas. Note that this could either be required for some small amount of credit, or optional, incentivized with a small amount of extra credit. I'm also receptive to different or more open-ended goals, which is probably reflected in some of the ideas listed below. Generally speaking, I'd like the book to counterbalance an observed tendency among students in my course towards not being wary enough about the computing technology that they will one day participate in creating.

To get you thinking, a few options that I've been considering:

* "The Circle" by Dave Eggers. One of the better satirical takes I've read on our modern technology-centered era. Unfortunately includes some problematic sexual content. * "1984" by George Orwell. Or "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. I'd probably lean toward "1984", since it just seems like a better match for the present moment somehow. * "Weapons of Math Destruction" by Cathy O'Neill, or one of the many similar cautionary technology tales. One concern is that these tend to be somewhat more focused on one or two specific topics, and don't provide as nice of an overview as something like "Coders". * "Unmasking AI" by Joy Buolamwini, or something similar that mixes biography and technology criticism. Similar specificity concerns here to the group above.

Excited to hear your ideas! Thanks in advance. At this point about 2,000 students take my course each year, so whatever I choose does have the potential to impact more than a few young people.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890075

Points: 1

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Article URL: https://skiper-ui.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890013

Points: 1

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Article URL: https://www.macstories.net/stories/what-siri-isnt-perplexitys-voice-assistant-and-the-potential-of-llms-integrated-with-ios/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43890009

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

I'm thinking of taking on a new open source project. This would be a native desktop application distributed under something like GPL or MPL2.

As a software engineer I do a lot of architecture and process diagrams but I find existing web editors for things like D2 and Mermaid somewhat cumbersome. I was thinking of building a dedicated, native editor.

Some features I'm thinking of:

- autocomplete and macros for faster composition

- wizards for common diagram types

- save diagrams as editable PNGs / editable SVGs

- generate code for git "architecture" repositories

- create themes for diagrams

- offline documentation for language syntax

- generate diagrams from json (nodes / edges lists)

- some form of LLM assistant integration, e.g. to bootstrap diagrams with a prompt

What features would make something like this worth using, to you?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889979

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/chaudhri-too-many-tech-layoffs-blamed-on-poor-performance

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889977

Points: 8

# Comments: 2

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08793-7

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889972

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://hackbotone.com/why-did-i-build-kafka-manager-6554baf9f0da

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889967

Points: 1

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Article URL: https://www.theverge.com/news/660747/janet-jackson-rhythm-nation-windows-hard-drives-laptops-crash

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889823

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3976643/tech-hiring-slows-unemployment-rises-jobs-report-shows.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889814

Points: 1

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Article URL: https://www.redactifi.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889811

Points: 1

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Article URL: https://twitter.com/GozukaraFurkan/status/1919059045593256123

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889752

Points: 8

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://inside.java/2025/04/20/javaone-future-java/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889749

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/business/college-tuition-price-consultants.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43889727

Points: 1

# Comments: 1