frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

New research reveals the strongest solar event ever detected, in 12350 BC

https://phys.org/news/2025-05-reveals-strongest-solar-event-bc.html
113•politelemon•3d ago•43 comments

The principles of database design, or, the Truth is out there

https://ebellani.github.io/blog/2025/the-principles-of-database-design-or-the-truth-is-out-there/
26•b-man•2h ago•10 comments

“There are people who can see and others who cannot even look”

https://worldhistory.substack.com/p/there-are-people-who-can-see-and
79•crescit_eundo•4h ago•9 comments

Font Activations: A Note on the Type

https://robhorning.substack.com/p/font-activations
24•prismatic•2d ago•0 comments

Spaced repetition systems have gotten better

https://domenic.me/fsrs/
782•domenicd•17h ago•438 comments

Ditching Obsidian and building my own

https://amberwilliams.io/blogs/building-my-own-pkms
291•williamsss•12h ago•299 comments

Show HN: I modeled the Voynich Manuscript with SBERT to test for structure

https://github.com/brianmg/voynich-nlp-analysis
305•brig90•13h ago•95 comments

France Endorses UN Open Source Principles

https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/@codegouvfr/114529954373492878
341•bzg•6h ago•77 comments

Layers All the Way Down: The Untold Story of Shader Compilation

https://moonside.games/posts/layers-all-the-way-down/
12•birdculture•2h ago•3 comments

The Connoisseur of Desire

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2025/05/29/the-connoisseur-of-desire-the-annotated-great-gatsby/
14•samclemens•2d ago•0 comments

$30 Homebrew Automated Blinds Opener

https://sifter.org/~simon/journal/20240718.html
224•busymom0•12h ago•92 comments

Show HN: Vaev – A browser engine built from scratch (It renders google.com)

https://github.com/skift-org/vaev
159•monax•11h ago•73 comments

America's College Towns Go from Boom to Bust

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/college-towns-economy-macomb-illinois-aae84dcc
42•JumpCrisscross•2h ago•18 comments

Spaced Repetition Memory System

https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Spaced_repetition_memory_system
194•gasull•13h ago•16 comments

Show HN: A platform to find tech conferences, discounts, and ticket giveaways

https://www.tech.tickets/
61•danthebaker•2d ago•17 comments

Show HN: Job board aggregator for best paying remote SWE jobs in the U.S.

https://www.remoteswe.fyi
21•xitang•4h ago•8 comments

Hyper Typing

https://pscanf.com/s/341/
64•azhenley•8h ago•52 comments

The Tongue Is a Fire

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n09/ferdinand-mount/the-tongue-is-a-fire
11•Petiver•3d ago•2 comments

K-Scale Labs: Open-source humanoid robots, built for developers

https://www.kscale.dev/
76•rbanffy•9h ago•39 comments

Publisher: The Malloy Semantic Model Server

https://github.com/malloydata/publisher
14•cpard•1d ago•0 comments

Show HN: Python Simulator of David Deutsch’s “Constructor Theory of Time”

https://github.com/gvelesandro/constructor-theory-simulator
61•SandroG•8h ago•7 comments

The Fall of Roam (2022)

https://every.to/superorganizers/the-fall-of-roam
107•ingve•10h ago•56 comments

Comparing Parallel Functional Array Languages: Programming and Performance

https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08906
62•vok•2d ago•11 comments

In Memoriam: John L. Young, Cryptome Co-Founder

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/memoriam-john-l-young-cryptome-co-founder
188•coloneltcb•3d ago•20 comments

Show HN: Buckaroo – Data table UI for Notebooks

https://github.com/paddymul/buckaroo
92•paddy_m•13h ago•8 comments

Emergent social conventions and collective bias in LLM populations

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu9368
56•jbotz•12h ago•18 comments

Living beings emit a faint light that extinguishes upon death, study

https://phys.org/news/2025-05-emit-faint-extinguishes-death.html
56•pseudolus•5h ago•23 comments

The Utter Flimsiness of XAI's Processes

https://smol.news/p/the-utter-flimsiness-of-xais-processes
23•pavel_lishin•3h ago•4 comments

Mystical

https://suberic.net/~dmm/projects/mystical/README.html
377•mmphosis•1d ago•44 comments

The Journal of Imaginary Research

https://journalofimaginaryresearch.home.blog/
26•cenazoic•2d ago•2 comments
Open in hackernews

California vanity license plate applications with reasons for rejection (2020)

https://github.com/veltman/ca-license-plates
70•networked•5h ago

Comments

ipsum2•5h ago
For those who like doomscrolling, there's a twitter bot for this: https://x.com/ca_dmv_bot2. Seems like 88 is automatically denied because of Hitler, not sure what they do about people born in that year.
stefan_•5h ago
They are rejecting a lot of numbers..

13 GANG REFERENCE

14 = GANG NUMBER

PULLED FOR 69

NewJazz•5h ago
Also they rejected PZA TACO (pizza taco) because taco can be slang for pussy. What a job to decide this stuff lol.
haiku2077•4h ago
There's one approved in there because the car was made in 1988.
userbinator•4h ago
Chinese also like to use the digit 8 as it's a lucky number in their culture.
behnamoh•5h ago
where do we draw the line? I think people should be able to choose any license plate they want, just like they can choose any name they wish.

in general, I'm all for removing subjectivity.

Barbing•5h ago
Uncomfortable with K1LLJ3W & don’t (deeply) need to see GOATSE in the neighbor’s driveway every morning.

Driving’s a privilege they tell us, makes sense they’d restrict plates based on sensibilities of the average taxpayer.

Meanwhile offensive, say, t-shirts might be seen on the sidewalk but perhaps not in around your usual hangouts as a boring, easily offended person (I kid!)

(Not married to these opinions, LMK of any obvious misses here)

twodave•4h ago
I feel like if you try and file a police report because your car with one of those plates got vandalized, they'd take their sweet time trying to follow up on it... just saying :)
greenavocado•4h ago
The reasons given for other rejections are so stupid and far-fetched. Fourteen and eighty eight are Hitler related? Even if true, less than 0.1% of all Americans would recognize such a reference.

Others are rejected for AREA CODE reason? WTF?

This is extreme government overreach.

margalabargala•3h ago
14 and 88 are widely used as neonazi dog whistles.
JumpCrisscross•4h ago
> Uncomfortable with K1LLJ3W & don’t (deeply) need to see GOATSE in the neighbor’s driveway every morning

Counterpoint: I’d give zero shits about their noise complaints or parking preferences going forward, and I suspect my town’s police would be fine with that.

dymk•2h ago
Your Jewish neighbors might not feel quite as nonchalant
threeseed•5h ago
You can't choose any name you wish in any country.

For example in US, Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ are banned names.

Amezarak•5h ago
No, they aren't.
theoreticalmal•5h ago
I also don’t know exactly where to draw the line, but I can think of dozens of plates I wouldn’t want my kids reading out in the world
dymk•5h ago
if you're for removing subjectivity, then you should be calling for them to remove the option for a vanity plate entirely
hollerith•4h ago
I prefer taxes on purchases whose main use is status competition (e.g., a yacht, a dress or a pair of shoes that costs more than $1000) over other kinds of taxes, and I suspect that vanity license plates are mainly purchased for their effects on status (and a full 100% of the purchase price goes to the taxing authority, which is nice).
NewJazz•4h ago
Yeah but you have to have someone review them which costs some money.
userbinator•4h ago
I see far more obscene bumper stickers, which AFAIK are protected by 1A, so you can exercise your right there.

Then again, this is California...

danpalmer•4h ago
> in general, I'm all for removing subjectivity

I usually appreciate objectivity, but in human processes it rarely works. There are always edge cases. Write down all the rules for number plates and someone will find a way to write an offensive one, or language will change and the policy won't have caught up. You need human subjectivity in the loop as a check.

This is where "smart" contracts fell down, the pitch was having truly objective and automated contracts, which were supposed to be better than legal contracts because of those properties. But what we actually got was contracts where finding a loophole meant you could screw over the other party and be contractually guaranteed to get away with it. The real benefit of a legal contract is being able to go to court and litigate it and theoretically come out with a fair result. That's not always possible, but it is much more likely than with "smart" contracts.

behnamoh•4h ago
> Write down all the rules for number plates and someone will find a way to write an offensive one, or language will change and the policy won't have caught up. You need human subjectivity in the loop as a check.

That's not what I meant with subjectivity. I want objective rules, like "license place should be 6 alphanumeric letters".

as soon as you say "it shouldn't be offensive to the average citizen", you're in the subjectivity realm.

InitialLastName•4h ago
You can write anything you like on your car. You can't force the state to endorse any identification you'd like for it. Seems like a pretty clear line.
no_wizard•5h ago
Shame you can’t get ASSMAN

Proctologists everywhere mourn the lost opportunity

threeseed•5h ago
We also missed out on this gem:

GASSMAN, "I'M AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST"

throwup238•5h ago
> Proctologists everywhere mourn the lost opportunity

Luckily there are many ways to abbreviate “hemorrhoid” without running afoul of the censors.

(IANAL)

teunispeters•4h ago
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/dave-assman-sgi-...
rascul•2h ago
The one proctologist I had the displeasure of meeting for reasons I don't wish to discuss had an excellent sense of humor.
throwup238•2h ago
The Greeks would certainly approve of his humor [1]. Ahem.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism

lisper•5h ago
I recently got the California TEKWZRD plate :-)
netsharc•5h ago
Interesting that one of them in the CSV was a Russian phrase: https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/russian-wor...

, where all the letters are representable using ASCII (B is pronounced V in Russian)

MrFoof•5h ago
Not California, but recently I had "SIXSPD" denied by a state after putting the first known 6-speed manual (all were sold as dual-clutch automatics) in an enthusiast car.

I was told that abbreviations weren't allowed. That was the denial reason.

Resubmitted it, not denied yet. We'll see if it shows up in another 3-5 weeks or if I get a denial letter followed by an another application refund 4-6 weeks after that.

hot_topic•4h ago
As someone who lives in Seattle it definitely sounds like six something Seattle police department
zamadatix•4h ago
Like the other commenter mentioned, PD can often be interpreted as Police Department but also "speed" interpretations can be marked as drug references. Tough spot, best of luck!
grep_name•1h ago
If abbreviations aren't allowed, couldn't you just do "6SPEED"?
andoando•5h ago
I filed for "YUUUGE" in the Trump era for my mini cooper, saying it was ironic, referencing the cooper's small size and it got denied it for inappropriate sexual reference.
toast0•4h ago
My friend, Big Dave, is at least 6'6" and a body builder in addition to being a computer operator. He applied for GR8BIGD, and was denied; but got it on appeal because he's actually great big d(ave).
danielodievich•2h ago
I've had my mini since 2023, license plate MINIKIN, which is a real word meaning something small and precious and dainty. Fits it perfectly. There is a twin in TX that a friend saw, albeit of a different color.
chmod775•4h ago
> OMW2EYL,3,PERSONAL QUOTE,ON MY WAY TO END YOUR LIFE,N

How did they figure that one. If that's what it's supposed to mean, that reviewer is good...

AStonesThrow•4h ago
I must commend CA DMV for their wise leverage of UrbanDictionary.com, which is cited over 170 times in that file.

And I must wonder about how reliable they consider UD to be, given that UD is 100% user-generated content. Is it possible to tank a perfectly innocent license plate if someone gins up a misleading UD entry?

Signed,

Don Palabros

Incipient•3h ago
Licence plates are a great example where detection "algorithms" be overzealous in returning false positives over false negatives. As someone had above, if they reject SIXSPD and won't allow it, then just try something else. If your life is materially impacted by by a licence plate, it's 'long hard look' time.

(I was going to make a specificity/selectively comment but I don't think that applies here, please correct me otherwise?)

kylecazar•4h ago
Some of the reasons are nuts, like 'xyz is a slur in Tagalog'.
dymk•2h ago
The person qualified to review with that level of detail must have some really interesting party tricks
OptionOfT•4h ago
> This data was parsed from a set of 458 Excel workbooks that the DMV prepared for someone else's public records request. I received the files as a consolation prize in response to my own related records request, which I was told would cost $2,000 to fulfill otherwise.

That's very interesting. It implies that there seemingly is no central place in CA where this data is stored, otherwise there would be 1 source and 1 format.

Then again, last time I went to the DMV in CA I filled out paperwork online, only for them to print it and then manually process it. And this was 2.5 years ago.

Gigachad•4h ago
Some of these rejections are so lame. I can’t see any good reasons that “gaymer” or “air$oft” were rejected.

Most of them are sex jokes or racist so fair enough, but the rejections seem way too sensitive for the others.

jsheard•4h ago
This guy was robbed

> TUNA FSH

> I'M A PROFESSIONAL FISHERMAN AND I FISH FOR TUNA ALL OVER THE WORLD

> DMV: I GOOGLED HIM, HE IS AND HE DOES

> DENIED

NewJazz•4h ago
There must be a blanket policy that they have to follow for some words.
onionisafruit•1h ago
or they’re saving it for a frank zappa fan
yosito•4h ago
Some of these are ridiculous. QVO ESE was denied because there's a gang that starts with the letter S. "Que hubo ese?" in Spanish is like saying "What's up dude?", it's not even as gang related as "What's up g?".
zamadatix•4h ago
One of the comments on a gay related ones contained the note "my instructions are to run any gay or lesbian plate by the review board, but as long as its positive it is acceptable". Sounds like more work to deal with those ones, even if it seems alright, which could contribute to the denials.
robhlt•4h ago
"GAYMUR" was actually granted, it has a "Y" in the last column. Everything in the csv was just sent for extra review, not all of them were rejected.
ryukoposting•1h ago
My favorite is

> BJS4DDS,1,MY INITIALS AND MY WIFE INITIALS,BLOW JOBS FOR DENTAL WORK… CUSTOMER IS BRIAN J SAMUELS,N

starkparker•4h ago
Reminds me of a bot, formerly of Twitter and now on Bluesky, that lists custom Oregon plates as they're registered or expired and made available: https://bsky.app/profile/plat.es
josephcsible•4h ago
Talk about power tripping bureaucrats. Just glancing at a few:

> H84BY4Z,7,"I HATE 4X4 VEHICLES. SATIRE, AS I WILL BE PUTTING THIS PLATE ON A 4 WHEEL DRIVE TRUCK",HATE,N

> SAABNUT,1,CRAZZY ABOUT SAAB BRAND CARS,SAAB NUT.. SAAB IS A CAR NUT CAN BE SEXUAL OR CAN MEAN CRAZY,N

> PZA TACO,1,MY TWO FAVORITE THINGS PIZZA AND TACOS,TACO,N

> AIRS$FT,2,AIRSOFT SPORT WE LOVE,AIRSOFT SHOOTING,N

> 3&14 PI,4,THE FIRST 3 DIGITS OF PI,PIE 14 GANG REFERENCE,N

> CHRG4PS,1,CHARGE FOR PEACE,LOOKS LIKE CHARGE FOR PS… NOT SURE WHAT PS MEANS,N

> PINK 64,1,THE CAR IS A 1964 VW BUG,PINK=VAGINA. HAS A 64 VW ON ANI,N

> KIKI$77,1,NAME AND SOFTBALL NUMBER,"kiki=Tagalog, means vagina",N

> MFC,3,"'MFC' IS AN ABBREVIATION FOR 'MOTHERWELL FOOTBALL CLUB' A PREMIERE LEAGUE SOCCER TEAM LOCATED IN MY HOMETOWN OF MOTHERWELL, SCOTLAND.",MFC motherfuck? Motherwell IS a Scottish Football Club,N

> CAT TAX,1,"I WANT A LICENSE PLATE WITH ""CAT"" ON IT, AND I FIGURED A CUSTOM PLATE CAUSES ME TO PAY MORE IN TAXES... SO I AM PAYING THE CAT TAX.",CAT TAX CAT SLANG FOR VAGINA,N

Do any of those rejections seem reasonable to anyone else? They all seem insane to me.

alexjmu•4h ago
Eh, they're consistent at least.

I've seen many rejections for "HATE", any word that could be considered a sexual euphemism (TACO), anything that could be construed as a gang reference, and often anything that the reviewer doesn't understand that is not explained by the submission ("NOT SURE WHAT PS MEANS"). The latter feels paranoid, but it's probably justified.

AnnikaL•3h ago
The submission does explain PS, though! They said it means "peace" as in "charge for peace".
silisili•4h ago
> DAVES88,2,DAVES 1988 TOYOTA,88 HITLER REFRENCE,N

Don't get me wrong, I know some weird parts of the internet use 88 that way.

But c'mon, this is pretty weak, I'd venture 95% of people (if not more) don't even know that reference. Is everyone born in 1988 prevented from using their birth year these days, too?

JumpCrisscross•4h ago
…dare I ask what the 88 means?
gnabgib•4h ago
H is the 8th letter of the alphabet.. the initials of a former greeting.
cheschire•4h ago
It is also coincidentally the prefix for all license plates in the city of/region around Hamburg, as HH stands for Hansestadt Hamburg.
_blk•1h ago
Haha, good one. So in California you can say whatever neonazi shizz you like and buy Hitler's books because of the 1st ammendent but you can't have an 88 on your state issued vanity license plate (what about randomly issued ones?) But in Germany where all that is forbidden by law you have the short form of the hitler salute on a whole city's plates. Looks like no one died from those in German so can we just reinstate the 1st on license plates California and save a few millions in review costs? It's not like things were fast at the DMV anyways..
nkurz•4h ago
Most of the time it means that they are putting the plate on a 1988 vehicle or that they were born in 1988. But it's being denied because H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, and thus 88 might be construed as HH, which might be construed as Heil Hitler: https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/88. In some rare cases it might even be intended to have this meaning.
adzm•4h ago
> In some rare cases it might even be intended to have this meaning.

From experience moderating large Internet communities, I'd say that is much less rare than I wish it was.

everybodyknows•3h ago
Others:

American auto in production whole last half of 20th Century:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_88

Wehrmacht 88mm tank artillery round:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanks_in_the_German_Army

sillystuff•1h ago
88 = "Heil Hitler"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_(number)#In_neo-Nazism

Possibly a coincidence, but with Musk's politics, it seems, at least as likely, this may be a recent, intentional, example of 88 as Heil Hitler (August 8 = 8/8):

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/business/elon-musk-tesla-robo...

josephcsible•4h ago
> Is everyone born in 1988 prevented from using their birth year these days, too?

Yes, they are:

> BLK88BZ,2,NICKNAME AND BIRTH YEAR,88-HITLER. BIRTH YEAR VERIFIED AS '88,N

> 28GSV88,2,IMPORTANT DATE.,"88=HATE SYMBOL, NO 88 CAR ON ANI. 28 IS BIRTHDATE AND 1988 IS YEAR",N

> AMK 88,2,INITIALS AND YEAR OF BIRTH,"88=hate symbol, no 88 car. was born in 88",N

> 88DURAN,2,YEAR OF MY BIRTH AND LAST NAME.,88-HITLER. BIRTH YEAR CONFIRMED AS 1988,N

> 6TTT88,2,BIRTHDAY AND INITIALS,88-HITLER. BIRTH YEAR CONFIRMED AS 1988,N

> 88 MAR,7,MY BIRTH YEAR AND MONTH,88-HITLER. BIRTH MONTH AND YEAR CONFIRMED.,N

> 88HENRY,7,YEAR OF BIRTH AND LAST NAME,88-HITLER. BIRTH YEAR CONFIRMED,N

In case it's not clear, in all of the above applications, the DMV confirmed the person was really born in 1988 and denied the plate anyway.

NewJazz•4h ago
Must be some blanket policy they have to follow.
ziml77•4h ago
I think they're likely being very conservative about what they issue, lest someone see the plate, be offended from misunderstanding it, and then get people riled up about how the state is supporting hate or obscenities.
silisili•59m ago
Then I'm immediately curious if they issue randomized plates containing these things, like '88'.

It feels like they would, but maybe I'm wrong. But it would be hilarious if they did.

savrajsingh•4h ago
SEVAK13,,"SEVAK = SERVANT, 13 = THERA = YOUR, IN PUNJABI THIS MEANS ""GOD, I AM YOUR SERVANT.""","13, GANG REFERENCE",N

Yes, Sevak is servant and the number 13 in Punjabi is "tera" which also means "yours".

Unfortunately in California the number 13 is a GANG REFERENCE. lol. Probably a free-speech argument to be made here?

runlevel1•4h ago
Same data in a Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18IUVU9Q4uN_lxqNd5AsN...

Note: I normalized the data a bit and I think I translated some of the abbreviations and reasons for rejection. It also got reordered at some point.

stackedinserter•4h ago
I would be happy to talk to the person that does/did this stupid job.
burnt-resistor•4h ago
I don't understand why REDROCK was so offensive. There's a coffee shop in Mountain View with that name.
robhlt•4h ago
That row has a "Y" in the last column so it was actually granted after the extra review. Most entries in the csv were rejected, but a few like this one were eventually allowed it looks like.
davchana•4h ago
The latest version of this request form in DMV CA doesn't even ask for meaning of the plate/phrase now.
everybodyknows•4h ago
Notable by omission, as seen in the wild some decades ago, on a VW "Rabbit": FKSLK12