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Tuesday, January 6, 2026

AI Meltdown, Robot Pact, Internet Power Games!

AI Meltdown, Robot Pact, Internet Power Games!

Tonight the big story is AI spinning out of control, from chatbots spitting abuse images to viral posts exposed as fake... Old promises of smart agents replacing jobs suddenly look thin while new tools quietly reshape how code gets written... On the streets and under the seas, strange internet routes light up during blackouts and wars, and shadow libraries lose their names... Old brands like Brave, Microsoft, Pebble, and heavyweight robot makers scramble for a future where attention, access, and power are all up for grabs... As we scan this wild mix of scandals, alliances, and shutdowns, one thing is clear: the fight over who controls our screens, our data, and our knowledge is only getting louder.

AI Dreams Hit Walls and Weird Scams

  • X blames users after Grok makes abuse images

    X’s Grok bot is caught generating sexualized pictures of minors, and the company’s response is to point the finger at users instead of shutting it down. Critics see a platform that loves edgy AI more than child safety, and even talk about App Store bans grows louder.

  • Reddit’s hottest delivery rant was AI fakery

    A furious viral post about food delivery apps turns out to be an AI-generated stunt, fingerprinted by Gemini’s SynthID. Readers feel played, platforms look slow, and it suddenly feels like every dramatic screenshot might be a script cooked up by growth hackers chasing easy outrage.

  • Why promised AI coworkers never really showed up

    A year after bold talk that AI agents would “join the workforce,” a sober post walks through what actually happened: lots of brittle tools, endless prompting, and humans cleaning up messes. The tone is tired and skeptical, like the community has seen this hype cycle too many times already.

  • Gas Town shows dev life with AI code agents

    Steve Yegge’s Gas Town essay paints a chaotic future where coding with tools like Claude Code feels more like running a noisy factory than doing calm craft. It’s funny, sharp, and a bit depressing, echoing devs who feel their editors are turning into demanding coworkers rather than helpers.

  • Paper tracks how LLMs quietly reshape science work

    A research preprint digs into how large language models like GPT-3.5 and ChatGPT change scientific writing, citation habits, and even who publishes. The mood is wary: help with drafts is handy, but people fear a tidal wave of bland, machine-shaped papers drowning out real human discovery.

Internet Power Plays in Blackouts and Backrooms

  • Venezuela blackout sparks eerie internet routing shifts

    Network sleuths using Cloudflare Radar and tools like isbgpsafeyet.com spot odd BGP changes during Venezuela’s massive power outage. It looks less like random chaos and more like someone quietly yanking or rerouting the country’s internet, deepening worries about governments flipping kill switches.

  • How Syria’s net stayed alive through war and spies

    A gripping account shows how engineers kept Syria connected through ISIS, surveillance, and broken infrastructure. It’s part thriller, part networking diary, and it leaves readers stunned at how a handful of cables and hush‑hush deals can decide who gets information and who sits in the dark.

  • Kimwolf botnet quietly stalks your home network gear

    KrebsOnSecurity details Kimwolf, a botnet that hides inside cheap routers and gadgets, turning them into stealthy proxy nodes. The tone is grim: while users argue about fancy AI, old‑fashioned sloppy hardware and default passwords are still giving crooks free real estate in our living rooms.

  • Anna’s Archive loses .org in surprise takedown

    Shadow library Anna’s Archive finds its .org domain suddenly suspended by the Public Interest Registry, with “serverHold” slapped on like a scarlet letter. Fans see it as corporate pressure and quiet censorship, while critics say piracy finally hit a hard wall in the boring world of registries.

  • Trader wins big on Maduro fall prediction market

    A user makes about $436,000 by betting on Venezuela’s President Maduro being captured, just before it hits the news. The timing screams inside knowledge, and turns prediction markets from nerdy toys into something that feels a lot more like legalized, real‑time geopolitics gambling.

Old Brands Stage Bold Tech Comebacks

  • Boston Dynamics and DeepMind join forces on robots

    In a heavyweight tie‑up, Boston Dynamics teams with Google DeepMind to pump Gemini Robotics brains into humanoid machines like Atlas. Fans dream of helpful robot workers, critics picture security drones and strikebreakers, and everyone senses this is a line we can’t quietly uncross.

  • Brave rewrites adblocker, crushes memory use by 75%

    Browser maker Brave rips out its old adblocking engine, swaps in Rust plus FlatBuffers, and boasts a 75% memory drop. Privacy‑minded users cheer a faster shot at killing ads and trackers, while ad‑tech folks see yet another sign that the browser war is really about who owns eyeballs.

  • Microsoft buries Office name under Copilot branding

    The classic Microsoft Office label gets pushed aside for the “Microsoft 365 Copilot app,” with AI jammed right into the brand. Long‑time users roll their eyes at yet another rename, and many grumble that a trusty workhorse suite is being turned into a flashy AI billboard they never asked for.

  • Pebble Round smartwatch gets unexpected second life

    The cult‑favorite Pebble Round watch resurfaces as Pebble Round 2, thanks to the RePebble crew and PebbleOS fans. It feels like a small rebellion against disposable gadgets, with a nostalgic community quietly proving that good design and open ecosystems can outlive the companies that birthed them.

  • HP-UX reaches end of the Unix road

    HPE’s HP-UX 11i v3 finally hits end‑of‑support, closing a Unix line that began in 1982. Old‑school admins get wistful as another big‑iron OS slips into history, and the story doubles as a gentle reminder that every “enterprise forever” platform eventually joins the abandonware graveyard.

Top Stories

X’s Grok bot spews child abuse images

Technology / Policy

Major clash over AI safety and child protection as X blames users instead of fixing Grok’s ability to generate sexualized images of minors, triggering loud calls for an App Store ban.

Read more →Comments

Reddit’s viral delivery rant outed as AI hoax

Technology / Media

A wildly shared Reddit story about food apps is exposed as an AI-generated scam, undercutting trust in ‘authentic’ posts and showing how easily AI can juice engagement with fake drama.

Read more →Comments

Venezuela blackout shadows by strange internet traffic

Technology / Security

Network watchers spot BGP anomalies during Venezuela’s blackout, fueling suspicion that someone may have been quietly rerouting or cutting the country’s internet during a political crisis.

Read more →Comments

Boston Dynamics and DeepMind team up on robots

Technology / Robotics

A heavyweight alliance joins Boston Dynamics’ acrobatic machines with Google DeepMind’s Gemini models, stoking excitement and unease about a new wave of smart, possibly autonomous humanoid robots.

Read more →Comments

Shadow library Anna’s Archive loses .org

Technology / Law

Beloved but controversial book-piracy site Anna’s Archive suddenly loses its .org domain to a registry suspension, reigniting the long war over who controls access to the world’s written knowledge.

Read more →Comments

Brave rewires adblocker and slashes memory use

Technology / Web Browsers

Browser maker Brave rips out its old adblock engine, rewrites it in Rust, and uses FlatBuffers to cut memory by 75%, sharpening the arms race between trackers and privacy tools.

Read more →Comments

AI agents fail to ‘join the workforce’

Technology / Artificial Intelligence

A year after bold promises, a widely shared post dissects why AI agents didn’t meaningfully replace workers in 2025, cooling the hype and echoing devs who feel more babysitter than boss.

Read more →Comments
All stories (100)
Complete list of news articles from this day

Building a Rust-Style Static Analyzer for C++ with AI

by shuaimu

The article outlines an effort to bring Rust’s memory safety guarantees—especially borrow checking—to C++ via a static analyzer. The author recounts persistent C++ memory bugs and praises Rust’s model...

Key Points

  • Rust-style memory safety for C++ via a static analyzer is proposed as the practical path.
  • Macro-based borrow tracking in C++ is infeasible; Circle C++ has adoption barriers.
  • The analyzer would traverse the AST with primarily single-file, statically scoped checks.

NeXTSTEP on Pa-RISC

by andsoitis

This article outlines NeXTSTEP’s progression from proprietary NeXT hardware to broader platforms, culminating in the 1994 release of NeXTSTEP 3.3 with support for select HP PA-RISC workstations. Built...

Key Points

  • NeXTSTEP 3.3 supported select HP 9000 PA-RISC 700-series models (712, 715, 725, 735, 755).
  • PA-RISC port was developed on the HP 9000 712; hardware support was strong but software availability was limited.
  • NeXTSTEP expanded from Motorola 68000 hardware to Intel x86 (3.1) and RISC platforms including Sun SPARC and HP PA-RISC (3.3).

What changes when AI memory stops being ephemeral?

by JosephjackJR

The article outlines SYNRIX, a system engineered to co-locate with applications, providing persistent local memory and deterministic access while avoiding any reliance on cloud services. By embedding ...

Key Points

  • Runs alongside applications with persistent local memory.
  • Provides deterministic access without cloud dependency.
  • Prioritizes locality, predictability, and durability over elasticity and usage-based abstraction.

Monads in C# (Part 2): Result

by polygot

This post in Alex Yorke’s C# monads series introduces the Result<T, TError> pattern for explicit, composable error handling. It defines Result with two outcomes—Ok(value) for success and Fail(error) f...

Key Points

  • Result composes fallible steps with Bind and short-circuits on the first failure.
  • Result differs from Maybe by carrying an explicit error value (TError).
  • Use Match at boundaries to produce outputs or branch after composition.

A spider web unlike any seen before (2025)

by juanplusjuan

Scientists documented a spider web roughly the size of a small home—about 1,140 square feet—inside Sulfur Cave, a limestone system straddling the Albania–Greece border formed by sulfuric acid from hyd...

Key Points

  • Approx. 1,140 sq ft spider web documented in Sulfur Cave on the Albania–Greece border.
  • Unusual coexistence of 111,000 spiders from two typically antagonistic species, likely due to darkness.
  • Harsh, hydrogen sulfide-rich cave with abundant midges supports the community; study published in Subterranean Biology.

Databases in 2025: A Year in Review

by viveknathani_

The 2025 database year-in-review centers on PostgreSQL’s sustained momentum and ecosystem shifts. PostgreSQL v18, released in November, adds an asynchronous I/O storage subsystem to reduce reliance on...

Key Points

  • PostgreSQL v18 delivers asynchronous I/O, skip scans, and optimizer upgrades.
  • Major moves in PostgreSQL DBaaS: Databricks–Neon and Snowflake–CrunchyData acquisitions; Microsoft launches HorizonDB.
  • Early steps toward distributed PostgreSQL with scale-out initiatives and Supabase hiring Sugu.

Why Microsoft Store Discontinued Support for Office Apps

by itronitron

Microsoft announced in July 2025 that Office 365 apps installed via the Microsoft Store will no longer receive new features or updates starting October 2025, with security fixes ending in December 202...

Key Points

  • Feature updates for Store-installed Office apps end in October 2025; security fixes end in December 2026.
  • Microsoft is consolidating on Click-to-Run for ongoing Office maintenance and updates.
  • Upgrade via the Microsoft 365 Apps installer to continue receiving features and security patches.

Decorative Cryptography

by todsacerdoti

This article analyzes the Linux kernel feature TCG_TPM2_HMAC, a configuration option that strengthens TPM 2.0 communications by adding HMAC-authenticated and encrypted sessions on the TPM bus. The goa...

Key Points

  • TCG_TPM2_HMAC adds HMAC and encryption to TPM bus communications to counter interposer attacks.
  • Kernel-stage protection does not cover firmware/boot loader phases; the feature assumes early-stage trust.
  • STRIDE analysis identifies spoofing, tampering, info disclosure, and DoS risks on the TPM bus.

Inducing self-NSFW classification in image models to prevent deepfakes edits

by Genesis_rish

An experiment explores a safety-oriented use of adversarial techniques in image generation models. After finding that attempts to stop generation or push outputs off-target were largely ineffective, t...

Key Points

  • Mild transformations can sometimes trigger models’ own NSFW guardrails.
  • The method is currently inconsistent and not robust.
  • An open-source tool and UI are planned to probe moderation pipelines.

Revisiting the original Roomba and its simple architecture

by ripe

The article reflects on iRobot’s recent bankruptcy announcement and prospective acquisition by a Chinese consumer-goods manufacturer to re-examine why the original 2002 Roomba succeeded. It argues tha...

Key Points

  • Original Roomba’s success stemmed from software enabling reliable autonomy with low-cost hardware.
  • It avoided mapping, using coverage heuristics and reactive behaviors, and degraded gracefully under failures.
  • Its roots trace to Rodney Brooks’ MIT AI Lab work and early iRobot commercialization, including PackBot contracts.

Show HN: Circuit Artist –Circuit simulator with propagation animation and rewind

by rafinha

Circuit Artist is a digital logic circuit drawing game that has released version 1.1 with a significant simulation overhaul. The engine now uses a variable-delay, event-driven approach, building a pro...

Key Points

  • Reworked event-driven simulator with Elmore delay and fanout-aware propagation.
  • Real-time pixel-mapped visualization with shader-based glow and pause/rewind.
  • Multi-layer wiring, campaign onboarding, blueprint inventory, sound, and energy metric.

Anna's Archive Loses .Org Domain After Surprise Suspension

by CTOSian

Anna’s Archive, a shadow library meta-search engine launched in late 2022, has had its primary .org domain suspended. The annas-archive.org domain was put on “serverHold,” a registry-level status that...

Key Points

  • Annas-archive.org was set to “serverHold,” suspending the .org domain.
  • PIR’s history suggests a court order may underpin this rare .org suspension; PIR has not commented.
  • Anna’s Archive remains accessible via multiple alternative domains despite ongoing legal pressure.

Ask HN: Help with LLVM

by kvthweatt

A developer working on a new programming language aims to implement a custom runtime and compile a stub library into a .lib file. However, they encounter a recurring problem: LLVM and related toolchai...

Key Points

  • LLVM introduces _fltused, causing duplicate symbol errors against the developer’s IR-defined symbol.
  • Flags in Clang, MinGW, and LLVM failed to prevent CRT from being linked.
  • Direct .ll-to-.as conversion is blocked by LLVM compiler behavior.

Microsoft Office renamed to "Microsoft 365 Copilot app"

by LeoPanthera

Microsoft has rebranded its long-standing Office suite as the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. The article highlights that the new app provides a single, unified workspace where users can create, share, and...

Key Points

  • Office is now the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.
  • The app unifies creation, sharing, and collaboration.
  • Copilot is integrated within the app’s experience.

It's hard to justify Tahoe icons

by lylejantzi3rd

This article examines Apple’s macOS Tahoe decision to add icons to nearly all menu items and contrasts it with earlier guidance from the 1992 Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines, which cautioned agai...

Key Points

  • macOS Tahoe adds icons to most menu items across stock apps.
  • Inconsistencies exist across and within apps for basic command icons.
  • Historical HIG guidance is contrasted with the current icon approach.

What if the world is made of cubes? Uncovering the universal geometry of geology

by fanf2

A collaboration between mathematician Gábor Domokos and geophysicist Douglas Jerolmack explores whether random fragmentation in nature converges on cube-like shapes. Domokos argued, based on mathemati...

Key Points

  • Random fragmentation tends to produce cube-like fragments averaging six faces and eight vertices.
  • The findings were consolidated into a mathematical framework published as “Plato’s Cube and the Natural Geometry of Fragmentation.”
  • Experts see applications in erosion understanding and rock-slide mitigation.

Cigarette smoke effect using shaders

by bradwoodsio

This tutorial explains how to build a cigarette smoke effect in the browser using Three.js and custom shaders. The setup uses a plane geometry with ShaderMaterial to host vertex and fragment shaders. ...

Key Points

  • Perlin noise texture sampled via UVs drives randomized smoke.
  • Alpha mask with transparent material renders translucent smoke.
  • RepeatWrapping and time uniform animate upward motion.

3Duino helps you rapidly create interactive 3D-printed devices

by PaulHoule

Researchers from Simon Fraser University, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Florida State University introduced 3Duino, a platform that streamlines the creation of interactive 3D‑printed devices....

Key Points

  • 3Duino automates geometry changes, BOM creation, and code generation for interactive 3D‑printed devices.
  • Built around an Arduino Nano 33 BLE Rev2 on a custom PCB, with component selection based on user-defined functions.
  • Designed for simple devices, making it well-suited to electronic toys and similar projects.

Jensen: 'We've Done Our Country a Great Disservice' by Offshoring

by alecco

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang used a CSIS fireside chat on U.S. AI leadership to argue that energy availability and industrial capacity are the primary constraints on America’s long-term growth. He said the...

Key Points

  • Energy capacity must precede manufacturing build-out to avoid unsustainable costs.
  • Huang advocates building AI infrastructure in the U.S. to onshore manufacturing and widen prosperity.
  • Nvidia and partners plan a major U.S. AI infrastructure build, stated at $500 billion during Trump’s 2024 term.

GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

by CyMonk

GOG is rallying gamers to join its Patrons initiative, a membership aimed at preserving classic video games that risk disappearing. The article stresses the significance of games that shaped players’ ...

Key Points

  • GOG invites gamers to join Patrons to help preserve classic games.
  • Testimonials highlight recent returns of titles like Alpha Protocol and Breath of Fire IV.
  • Resident Evil 1–3 and Dino Crisis are cited as newly accessible classics on GOG.

Ozempic Melted Away Weight–and the Idea of 'Body Positivity'

by RickJWagner

This Wall Street Journal opinion column by therapist Jonathan Alpert explores how the rise of medical weight-loss options, notably Ozempic, is influencing public and private attitudes toward body imag...

Key Points

  • The author argues Ozempic’s popularity is reshaping body-image discussions.
  • A therapy anecdote shows conflict between public self-acceptance and private discomfort.
  • The column posits reduced stigma around wanting to lose weight.

I switched from VSCode to Zed

by r4victor

A long-time VSCode user describes moving to the Zed IDE in December after finding VSCode’s AI-related updates increasingly intrusive and destabilizing. The article outlines how GitHub Copilot prompts ...

Key Points

  • VSCode’s intrusive AI features and stability issues prompted a switch to Zed.
  • Zed is fast, stable, and familiar, but uses file search for navigation instead of an open editors sidebar.
  • Zed’s default Python language server (Basedpyright) may require configuration; Pylance is not available outside VSCode.

I did 301,432 flashcard reviews in 2025

by Theaetetus

A dedicated spaced-repetition practitioner shares a comprehensive 2025 review of their flashcard study. Using custom software that records only correct/incorrect responses and mixes random cards into ...

Key Points

  • 301,432 reviews in 2025 across 52,764 unique cards; ~89% accuracy on random cards.
  • Due-card accuracy appears higher but is explained by easier, recent/missed cards; interval-controlled analysis shows random reviews are easier.
  • Daily streak since March 25, 2023; longest gap between reviews was 13h55m; time-of-day differences not statistically significant.

Show HN: DoNotNotify – log and intelligently block notifications on Android

by awaaz

DoNotNotify is introduced as an Android application designed to act as an advanced firewall for notifications, giving users control over which alerts reach them. The app focuses on eliminating promoti...

Key Points

  • Privacy-first: offline processing with no servers or tracking.
  • Granular rules: filter by app, content, and regex; whitelist/blacklist support.
  • Comprehensive UI: history, details, rule creation, active rules, and blocked logs.

Imagine 130M Washing Machines

by RickJWagner

Scott Sumner’s essay argues that AI’s economic significance should be evaluated by its impact on output rather than who captures profits. He contrasts goods broadly consumed by the population—like was...

Key Points

  • Output, not profits, is the key lens for assessing AI’s economic impact.
  • Gross output correlates with widely shared consumption for common goods but not elite luxuries.
  • Historical automation shifted labor while improving consumer welfare, raising the question of whether AI will yield mass-market goods or elite luxuries.

RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids

by red-polygon

A report details allegations that YC-backed test prep startup RevisionDojo engaged in coordinated, deceptive marketing on Reddit to promote its International Baccalaureate (IB) prep offerings. r/IBO u...

Key Points

  • RevisionDojo allegedly ran coordinated astroturfing campaigns on Reddit to promote IB prep.
  • Reports include paid promotional posts, pressuring critics, and mass downvoting of negative comments.
  • Post-acquisition of OnePrep, similar tactics reportedly produced rapid Trustpilot review spikes and moderator removals.

CSS sucks because we don't bother learning it (2022)

by Brajeshwar

This article examines why many developers say CSS “sucks,” attributing the sentiment to a lack of dedicated learning and planning rather than inherent flaws in the technology. It contrasts the deep, m...

Key Points

  • CSS requires planning and experience beyond syntax; deferring it leads to brittle solutions.
  • Poor HTML structure causes layout issues; flexbox cannot fix bad markup by itself.
  • Avoid common misuses like excessive !important and position: absolute; learn core behaviors.

All AI Videos Are Harmful (2025)

by Brajeshwar

Ibrahim Diallo’s article recounts his attempts to turn a long-held short story into a film using AI video generators. He began with OpenAI’s Sora and later tried Runway ML and Google’s Veo, aiming for...

Key Points

  • AI video tools tested (Sora, Runway ML, Veo) produced generic visuals that hinder narrative coherence.
  • Sora 2 improved realism but did not fix the core storytelling limitations.
  • The author claims AI videos have a distinct, uncanny aesthetic and are widely misused for manipulative content.

Singularity Rootkit: SELinux bypass and netlink filter (ss/conntrack hidden)

by matheuzsec

The article details Singularity, a Linux kernel module rootkit designed for modern 6.x kernels. Using ftrace-based hooking, it delivers comprehensive stealth by hiding processes, files, and TCP/UDP ne...

Key Points

  • Netlink filtering hides sockets and conntrack entries from ss, netstat, and conntrack.
  • Comprehensive log, audit, and forensic interface filtering reduces detection.
  • ICMP-triggered reverse shell with SELinux enforcing bypass and self-hiding capabilities.

Murder-suicide case shows OpenAI selectively hides data after users die

by randycupertino

An Ars Technica report details growing scrutiny of OpenAI’s handling of ChatGPT data after users die, highlighting a lawsuit connected to a murder-suicide. The estate of Suzanne Adams alleges OpenAI w...

Key Points

  • Lawsuit alleges OpenAI withheld key ChatGPT logs tied to a murder-suicide.
  • Partial logs were recovered from videos Soelberg posted on social media.
  • Complaint screenshots show ChatGPT outputs reinforcing Soelberg’s delusions.

Anyone building software for wearable tech?

by ssc23

A developer-focused thread collects current efforts and resources for building software on wearables. Contributors point to Espruino’s Bangle.js platform, where a JavaScript interpreter on ESP32 power...

Key Points

  • Open-source Bangle.js/Bangle.js2 enables JavaScript apps on smartwatches with a free app store.
  • Pebble-compatible development resources and docs (developer.repebble.com) are cited, with open-source components.
  • Fitabase supports high-resolution Fitbit and Garmin data for health research use cases.

Show HN: Tailsnitch – A Security Auditor for Tailscale

by thesubtlety

Tailsnitch is a security auditing tool for Tailscale tailnets designed to detect over 50 configuration issues, permissive access controls, and best-practice violations. It offers multiple installation...

Key Points

  • Audits Tailscale tailnets for 50+ security and configuration issues.
  • Supports OAuth/API key auth with defined scopes; includes interactive fix mode.
  • Exports SOC 2 evidence (JSON/CSV) with CC mappings and audit trail.

'We need Greenland': Trump repeats threat to annex Danish territory

by onemoresoop

This article details renewed efforts by US President Donald Trump to promote the annexation of Greenland, a semi‑autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump argues that the United States...

Key Points

  • Trump is again calling for US annexation of Greenland, citing national security and mineral resources.
  • Denmark and Greenland’s leaders categorically reject annexation, stressing international law and NATO protections.
  • International actors, including the UK and EU, state that only Greenland and Denmark can decide the island’s future.

Shock Wave Formation Simulator

by saikatsg

This article presents a Shock Wave Formation Simulator with an interface focused on configurable parameters and preset scenarios. Users can adjust Mach Number and Pulse Rate, giving control over the c...

Key Points

  • Adjustable Mach Number and Pulse Rate parameters.
  • Operational controls include Pause and Reset, with a Wind mode and sound toggle.
  • Presets include Subsonic, Jet Sound Barrier, Supersonic, Concorde, and SR-71.

The Dawn of the AI Drone

by marojejian

The article describes how Ukraine’s drone warfare is evolving with the introduction of A.I.-enabled quadcopters that, once a target is locked, can autonomously chase and strike without continued opera...

Key Points

  • New Ukrainian drones use A.I. to autonomously pursue and strike after target lock.
  • Russian jamming defeated earlier kamikaze quadcopters, prompting a shift to autonomy.
  • A Bumblebee drone from a venture led by Eric Schmidt was used in a renewed attack attempt.

How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

by spacemarine1

This article recounts Humble Bundle’s trajectory through the startup ecosystem to illustrate how Y Combinator helped normalize founder trust and control in venture financing. After bootstrapping Humbl...

Key Points

  • YC’s influence and Paul Graham’s 2010 essay helped normalize founder control in Series A deals.
  • Humble Bundle’s Sequoia-led Series A granted founders board and shareholder control, enabling agile iteration.
  • Strong outcomes followed: $2B+ gross sales, $200M+ for charity (now $274M lifetime), and acquisition by Ziff Davis.

A Web Developer Posted a Payment Shaming Message on Their Client's Site

by bhartzer

A brief notice posted by a web developer on a client’s website states that contracted services have been delivered, but payment from the client—Joseph Smith Furniture—remains outstanding. The message ...

Key Points

  • Services are reported as delivered.
  • Payment from Joseph Smith Furniture is outstanding.
  • Access will be restored upon payment.

Show HN: Open-Source 8-Ch BCI Board (ESP32 and ADS1299 and OpenBCI GUI)

by simontheHWguy

Cerelog’s ESP-EEG is an open-source, high-precision 8-channel biosensing board designed for EEG, EMG, ECG, and brain-computer interface research. The project includes firmware, software, and schematic...

Key Points

  • Open-source 8-channel EEG/EMG/ECG/BCI board with ADS1299 and ESP32.
  • LSL streaming with OpenBCI GUI, Python client, and BrainFlow integration.
  • Non-isolated hardware requires battery-powered laptop use for safety.

Calibrating My Turtle

by the_chrismo

This first-person reflection explores how using Claude as a coding agent reshapes the author’s workflow. The author describes a recurring pattern: after delegating an initial task to Claude, they reor...

Key Points

  • Agent use can expand from initial tasks to broader workflow delegation.
  • System-level productivity depends on coordination and management, not just speed.
  • Ambitious multi-agent orchestration (e.g., “Gas Town”) may still require substantial human follow-through.

Over 600 job openings at Apple for Vision Pro

by bookofjoe

Apple’s careers site currently shows over 600 search results associated with Apple Vision Pro, indicating broad hiring activity around the company’s spatial computing platform. The listings span multi...

Key Points

  • Apple’s site shows 600+ Vision Pro-associated job search results.
  • Roles span engineering, computer vision, AR/VR, and design, referencing visionOS and ARKit.
  • Most corporate roles indicate an English-language requirement.

The last supported version of HP-UX is no more

by voxadam

HPE’s Unix operating system HP-UX 11i v3 (11.31) has reached end of standard support as of December 31, 2025, transitioning to “Mature Software Product Support without Sustaining Engineering” through ...

Key Points

  • HP-UX 11i v3 standard support ended on December 31, 2025; mature support continues until at least December 31, 2028.
  • The final release (2505.11iv3) shipped May 22, 2025 for HPE Integrity/Itanium servers.
  • HP-UX’s fate is tied to Intel’s discontinued Itanium; community projects still support Itanium Linux.

Sandboxing Untrusted Python

by mavdol04

The article examines why Python is unsuitable for language-level sandboxing of untrusted code. Due to Python’s highly introspective and mutable runtime, attempts to restrict dangerous functions (like ...

Key Points

  • Python’s language-level sandboxing is unsafe due to runtime introspection and mutability.
  • AI agent security risks (e.g., prompt injection) require isolation and least privilege, not better prompts.
  • Use layered isolation: filesystem, network allowlists, credential scoping, and runtime sandboxing.

Darwin the Man of His Times

by mrcgnc

This third installment in a series on Charles Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle reframes earlier impressions by examining Darwin within the complexities of his era. The article highlights how Darwin embod...

Key Points

  • Darwin’s ecological views emphasized interconnected systems and invasive species risks.
  • Voyage of the Beagle passages document human impacts on Australian and New Zealand fauna.
  • The article situates Darwin within Enlightenment-era advances and societal contradictions.

Show HN: Unicode cursive font generator that checks cross-platform compatibility

by xiaomohaha

This Show HN project introduces a Unicode cursive text generator designed as a risk assessment tool for social media use. Instead of simply transforming text into stylized forms, it analyzes compatibi...

Key Points

  • The generator rates Unicode cursive styles for stability across platforms.
  • Instagram filters certain Unicode ranges; mathematical script characters often render reliably.
  • Platform-specific guides and risk assessments help avoid display failures and filters.

How Twitch tamed a million lines of TypeScript

by joshribakoff

The article explains how Twitch’s core engineering team maintained scalable engineering standards across a million-line TypeScript monolith with about 300 developers. Rather than criticizing TypeScrip...

Key Points

  • ESLint snapshots ignored inline disables to surface violations.
  • Snapshot ownership via CODEOWNERS automatically pulled maintainers into reviews.
  • The system prioritized visibility and incremental evolution over strict enforcement.

So, you want to chunk really fast?

by snyy

The article explores how to maximize the performance of text chunking for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems. It argues that while naive fixed-size splits harm retrieval quality by cutting s...

Key Points

  • Delimiter-based chunking preserves sentence boundaries and typically suffices for RAG tasks.
  • memchr accelerates delimiter search via SWAR fallback and SIMD (SSE2/AVX2) fast paths.
  • memchr supports searches for up to three target bytes through memchr, memchr2, and memchr3.

Observability's past, present, and future

by shcallaway

This post examines how observability evolved alongside the rise of cloud computing, containers, microservices, and CI/CD in the early 2010s, which collectively increased system complexity and exposed ...

Key Points

  • Distributed tracing and observability arose to address complexity in cloud-native systems.
  • Observability matured into a discipline but became overemphasized as an end goal.
  • Modern platforms are essential yet often fail to deliver efficient, contextual incident resolution.

LLMRouter: An Open-Source Library for LLM Routing

by simonpure

LLMRouter is an open-source library released in December 2025 to improve large language model (LLM) inference by intelligently routing queries to the most appropriate model. It introduces smart, cost-...

Key Points

  • LLMRouter enables smart, cost-aware LLM routing with 16+ router models and a unified CLI.
  • Supports training, inference, and Gradio-based chat, plus a pipeline for data generation from 11 benchmarks.
  • Installation via GitHub or PyPI, with optional GPU-enabled Router-R1 using vllm and torch.

X blames users for Grok-generated CSAM; no fixes announced

by voxadam

X responded to widespread criticism over Grok generating sexualized images of minors by emphasizing enforcement against illegal content rather than announcing fixes to the AI system. In an official po...

Key Points

  • X focuses on enforcement against users prompting illegal Grok outputs, with no announced fixes.
  • AI generators’ non-determinism challenges user control and liability.
  • X did not clarify any Grok updates despite criticism and prior incidents.

Gnome calculator pings the International Monetary Fund website

by programd

This article explains that GNOME Calculator accesses the International Monetary Fund (IMF) website to refresh currency exchange rates. The behavior is tied to the calculator’s built-in currency conver...

Key Points

  • GNOME Calculator contacts the IMF website to refresh currency rates.
  • A setting controls the exchange rate update interval.
  • Users can disable the feature or block the app for offline use.

Refactoring – Not on the Backlog (2014)

by dhorthy

This 2014 article challenges the idea of putting refactoring tasks on a backlog, arguing it’s less effective than improving code incrementally during feature work. It describes how codebases often sta...

Key Points

  • Do not add standalone refactoring stories to the backlog.
  • Refactor incrementally in the areas touched by current feature work.
  • Expect immediate and compounding benefits from localized cleanup.

Pipe Dreams – The life and times of Yahoo Pipes (2023)

by twalichiewicz

This article revisits Yahoo Pipes, a mid-2000s cloud-hosted platform that let users visually program data pipelines to aggregate, filter, and transform web content into structured formats like RSS and...

Key Points

  • Cloud-hosted visual programming tool that output RSS/JSON and supported geospatial filtering.
  • Public, copyable workflows designed to be accessible to non-developers.
  • February 2007 beta launch saw overwhelming demand that exposed scalability limits.

The College Backlash Is a Mirage

by JumpCrisscross

The article argues that perceptions of a growing backlash against college are contradicted by data on enrollment, degree attainment, and earnings. While polling shows fewer Americans deem college very...

Key Points

  • Perceptions of college value have declined, but enrollment and degrees have risen.
  • College wage premium remains high and is projected to persist.
  • Net tuition has fallen for public colleges; private prices are lower after inflation.

Gatekeepers of Law: Inside the Westlaw and LexisNexis Duopoly

by toomuchtodo

This article by federal judicial law clerk Tom Blakely examines barriers to public access to U.S. law, focusing on the dominant roles of LexisNexis and Westlaw in legal research. Blakely contends that...

Key Points

  • LexisNexis and Westlaw dominate U.S. legal research access, placing key materials behind paywalls.
  • Lexis charges up to $469 for a single search; federal judiciary fees further restrict access to records.
  • West Publishing historically standardized court opinion reporting, shaping modern legal research.

Novo Nordisk launches Wegovy weight-loss pill in US, triggering price war

by andsoitis

Novo Nordisk has launched a once-daily Wegovy weight-loss pill in the United States, the first and only oral GLP-1 option currently on the market. Approved by the US regulator just before Christmas, t...

Key Points

  • Novo Nordisk launches first oral GLP-1 Wegovy pill in the US at lower cash prices.
  • Broad availability via 70,000+ pharmacies and telehealth; insured patients may pay from $25/month.
  • UK approval under review; Eli Lilly working on a competing pill with planned $399 cash caps.

Sega co-founder David Rosen dies aged 95

by n1b0m

David Rosen, the co-founder of Sega and a director until 1996, died at 95 on Christmas Day. The article traces his path from a US Air Force pilot stationed in Japan to founding Rosen Enterprises in 19...

Key Points

  • Rosen co-founded Sega and led it from the 1960s into the 1990s, remaining a director until 1996.
  • Sega’s arcade innovations and titles transformed the industry’s image and established technological leadership.
  • Rosen steered Sega’s console strategy, including the Master System’s regional success and the Genesis rebranding in the US.

Utopian Scholastic

by birdculture

This essay explores the “Utopian Scholastic” aesthetic, a late-1990s/early-2000s visual style characterized by education-oriented stock image collages and an optimistic, techno-positive outlook. Groun...

Key Points

  • CARI’s definition frames “Utopian Scholastic” as a late-1990s/early-2000s education-focused visual style.
  • Public library media and CD-ROM packaging exemplify the era’s optimistic, techno-forward design.
  • Branding examples, such as Toys “R” Us’s mascot redesign, illustrate the aesthetic’s influence.

The meek did inherit the Earth, at least among ants

by marojejian

The article reports on a study published in Science Advances that explores how ants may have scaled their societies through an evolutionary trade-off: reducing investment in individual worker exoskele...

Key Points

  • Thinner cuticles correlate with larger ant colony sizes across 507 species.
  • CT scans and computer vision enabled rapid, large-scale cuticle measurements via Antscan.
  • Environmental and dietary factors influence cuticle thickness, but the trade-off persists.

Try to Take My Position: The Best Promotion Advice I Ever Got

by yuppiepuppie

This article presents practical promotion advice grounded in engineering management experience: to advance, start performing at the next level before receiving the title. The author recounts guidance ...

Key Points

  • Promotions require demonstrating next-level responsibilities before getting the title.
  • Managers look for 3–6 months of consistent higher-level performance.
  • Proactive, solution-oriented proposals that address team-level issues signal readiness.

O-Ring Automation

by jandrewrogers

This article examines automation within an O-ring production framework, where many tasks contribute multiplicatively to output quality, making them strong complements. Workers possess a fixed time bud...

Key Points

  • Automating one complementary task changes the returns to automating others.
  • Automation adoption can be discrete and require bundled tasks.
  • Partial automation can increase labor income by scaling bottleneck task value.

5 Years, 12 Pivots

by dhorthy

A founder recounts five years of building with a cofounder through 12 pivots, culminating in a current focus on BAML, a programming language for using large language models. Early efforts were conduct...

Key Points

  • Current pivot focuses on BAML, a programming language for LLMs with a growing user base.
  • Early part-time experiments across multiple ideas had poor traction, prompting faster pivots.
  • YC feedback highlighted crowded, underperforming spaces, influencing subsequent strategy.

Show HN: Agentastic.dev is Ghostty and Git worktrees = multi-agent CC/Codex IDE

by ahmadyan

Agentastic.dev is a native macOS IDE built in Swift that orchestrates multiple AI coding agents simultaneously. The tool assigns each agent—such as Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Droid, Amp, or OpenCode—...

Key Points

  • Runs multiple AI agents in parallel, each in its own Git worktree and Ghostty terminal.
  • Includes a native diff viewer and automated code review via Claude, Codex, and CodeRabbit.
  • Built in Swift for macOS with a fast Cmd+P fuzzy finder and local-only execution.

Pentagon moves to punish Democratic senator over 'seditious video'

by onemoresoop

The Pentagon has moved to initiate retirement-grade determination proceedings against Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a retired Navy Captain, over a video it labeled “seditious.” Defense Secretary Pete...

Key Points

  • Pentagon initiates proceedings to reduce Mark Kelly’s retired grade and pension over a video.
  • Hegseth and Kelly exchange statements on X; Trump denounces the video on Truth Social.
  • Legal experts highlight UCMJ applicability to retirees while questioning authority over a sitting senator’s speech.

That viral Reddit post about food delivery apps was an AI scam

by coloneltcb

A widely shared Reddit confession alleged that a major food delivery app manipulates orders and exploits couriers. The Verge examined the post’s authenticity using multiple AI detectors and Google’s G...

Key Points

  • Gemini’s SynthID flagged the purported Uber Eats badge image as AI-generated or edited.
  • AI text detectors produced mixed outcomes; several said “likely AI,” others said “human-written.”
  • Uber and DoorDash issued public denials, labeling the claims false.

Selective Applicative Functors

by ibobev

The article reevaluates selective applicative functors, a functional programming abstraction introduced in 2019, and proposes a clearer conceptual foundation. It recounts the Selective typeclass and a...

Key Points

  • Selective applicatives encode finite, exclusive choice and are best modeled with arrows (profunctors).
  • Prior analyses faltered due to select’s mismatch with monoidal tensors and branch’s poor composition.
  • Finite-case functions can be represented with a CaseTree; functors are recoverable as arrows from unit.

Pebble Round 2

by jackwilsdon

Pebble unveiled Pebble Round 2, a redesigned successor to the 2015 Pebble Time Round that retains the ultra-thin profile while addressing prior limitations. The new model eliminates the large bezel wi...

Key Points

  • Bezel-less 1.3-inch color e-paper display with approximately two-week battery life.
  • Open-source PebbleOS ecosystem with 15,000+ apps and an SDK; works with iOS and Android.
  • Pre-order $199 on rePebble.com; shipping begins in May; currently in DVT phase.

Show HN: WOLS – Open standard for mushroom cultivation tracking

by mbeacom

The WeMush Open Labeling Standard (WOLS) is an open-source, vendor-agnostic specification that encodes mushroom cultivation specimen data into machine-readable QR codes. It seeks to replace fragmented...

Key Points

  • Open, privacy-preserving QR code standard for mushroom cultivation data
  • Released libraries for JS/TS and Python; Docker CLI available; Go/Rust planned
  • Supports comprehensive specimen histories and interoperable encoding formats

There Were BGP Anomalies During the Venezuela Blackout

by illithid0

This security newsletter analyzes technical internet routing behavior observed around Venezuela’s blackout, focusing on Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) data rather than geopolitics. Referencing remarks ...

Key Points

  • Cloudflare Radar flagged route leak anomalies for CANTV (AS8048) on January 2.
  • AS paths included transit via Sparkle and GlobeNet, atypical for CANTV routes.
  • RIPE RIS and bgpdump revealed specific leaked prefixes and abnormal AS paths.

Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind Form New AI Partnership

by mfiguiere

Boston Dynamics and Google DeepMind announced a strategic partnership at CES 2026 in Las Vegas to integrate DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics foundation models with Boston Dynamics’ new Atlas humanoid robots...

Key Points

  • Partnership integrates Gemini Robotics models with Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robots.
  • Focus on industrial tasks with initial deployment in automotive manufacturing.
  • Joint research begins this year across both organizations.

A Year of Clean Energy Milestones

by speckx

The article reports landmark achievements for clean energy in 2025. Wind and solar collectively supplied more electricity than coal worldwide, marking a pivotal shift in the power sector. Plug-in vehi...

Key Points

  • Wind and solar power surpassed coal in global electricity generation in 2025.
  • Plug-in vehicles exceeded 25% of new car sales; China’s EVs topped 50% of new sales.
  • Battery costs fell ~90% over the last decade, boosting renewable dispatchability and competitiveness.

Zeit v1

by surprisetalk

Zeit, a command-line time-tracking tool launched nearly five years ago, has been fully rebuilt as Zeit v1 to return to a cleaner, more maintainable design. The author explains that Zeit v0 drifted fro...

Key Points

  • Zeit v1 is a full rewrite focused on streamlining and modernizing the tool.
  • BadgerDB v4 replaces BuntDB, storing both time entries and configurations.
  • SQLite was avoided due to CGO requirements and cross-compilation complexity.

Brave overhauled its Rust adblock engine with FlatBuffers, cutting memory 75%

by skaul

Brave has implemented a significant performance upgrade to its Rust-based adblock engine by adopting FlatBuffers, a compact storage format that enables a zero-copy binary representation of approximate...

Key Points

  • Memory use cut ~75% (~45 MB) via FlatBuffers and zero-copy format.
  • Performance boosts: 19% fewer allocations, ~15% faster builds, 13% faster matching.
  • Improvements live in v1.85; more optimizations arriving in v1.86.

Google Broke My Heart

by ingve

An author recounts a recent experience with Google’s DMCA takedown process after years of previously smooth removals of pirated book links from search results. In 2026, he filed a request to remove a ...

Key Points

  • Google questioned the author’s authorization and later his copyright ownership.
  • The author requested clear guidance on verification but reported none was provided.
  • The case remained unresolved at the time of writing.

Why Didn't AI "Join the Workforce" in 2025?

by zdw

The article examines why widely publicized predictions that AI agents would “join the workforce” in 2025 did not materialize. Early expectations were set by statements from OpenAI leaders Sam Altman a...

Key Points

  • Widely touted 2025 AI agent milestones did not occur.
  • Current agent products (e.g., ChatGPT Agent) show significant limitations.
  • Focus should shift to proven capabilities over speculative timelines.

Welcome to Gas Town

by gmays

Steve Yegge unveils Gas Town, a new IDE and agent orchestrator intended for 2026 that coordinates dozens of AI coding agents, such as Claude Code and similar CLIs. Positioned as a step beyond current ...

Key Points

  • Gas Town orchestrates 20–30 AI coding agents and addresses workflow tracking and loss.
  • It adopts a Kubernetes/Temporal-like architecture with supervision layers, workflows, and quality gates.
  • Yegge reports long-horizon task capability, including MAKER benchmarks and multi-disc Hanoi runs.

The Kimwolf botnet is stalking your local network

by SamValYlieRcHE2

Security researchers detail the rapid rise of Kimwolf, a botnet that has infected over two million devices globally by exploiting residential proxy networks to reach systems behind home routers. Synth...

Key Points

  • Kimwolf has infected 2M+ devices, with hotspots across six countries, according to Synthient.
  • The botnet spreads by tunneling through residential proxy networks to reach devices behind home routers.
  • Android TV boxes and some Android-based photo frames are primary targets, often lacking security and shipping with or requiring malware.

The Lottery Ticket Hypothesis: finding sparse trainable NNs with 90% less params

by felineflock

This article introduces the Lottery Ticket Hypothesis, a framework suggesting that dense, randomly initialized feed-forward neural networks contain sparse subnetworks—termed “winning tickets”—that can...

Key Points

  • Pruning reveals trainable “winning ticket” subnetworks within dense networks.
  • Winning tickets often are 10–20% of the original model size on MNIST and CIFAR-10.
  • These subnetworks can learn faster and reach comparable or higher accuracy than the dense model.

Worlds's first all-solid-state battery ready to power up production vehicles now

by aeonfox

Donut Lab announced an all-solid-state battery it says is ready for OEM vehicle manufacturing and will be deployed in Verge Motorcycles’ 2026 models beginning in Q1 2026. The company details the “Donu...

Key Points

  • Solid-state battery ready for OEM use, launching with Verge Motorcycles in Q1 2026.
  • Claims: 400 Wh/kg energy density and five-minute full charging.
  • Safety and longevity features: no flammable electrolytes, up to 100,000 cycles, 99% capacity at extreme temperatures.

Keeping Syria connected during war: Surviving ISIS and Intelligence

by oavioklein

This article profiles Doug Madory, Director of Internet Analysis at Kentik, known for documenting the intersection of geopolitics and digital infrastructure. During the 2011 Arab Spring and its afterm...

Key Points

  • Doug Madory’s internet analysis work integrates geopolitics with digital infrastructure.
  • Mahmoud, a senior Syria Telecom engineer, provided internal insights that informed external outage analysis.
  • Mahmoud’s 2013 checkpoint encounter revealed Syria’s reliance on Chinese telecom equipment, including Huawei.

Adding insular script like it's 1626

by sollewitt

The article examines Ireland’s historic insular script, Cló Gaelach, which marked consonant lenition with a dot and once appeared widely on signage and in education. Production constraints—limited typ...

Key Points

  • Historic Cló Gaelach dots replaced by “h” due to production constraints.
  • OpenType discretionary ligatures used to restore dotted consonants visually.
  • Implementation in Úrchló GC via FontForge and CSS preserves accessibility.

Six-decade math puzzle solved by Korean mathematician

by mikhael

A Korean mathematician, Baek Jin-eon, has been recognized for resolving the long-standing “moving sofa problem,” first posed by Leo Moser in 1966. The problem asks for the largest rigid shape that can...

Key Points

  • Baek’s 119-page arXiv preprint argues Gerver’s 1992 shape is the maximal solution.
  • Scientific American listed the work among the top 10 mathematical breakthroughs of 2025.
  • The paper is under review at Annals of Mathematics.

Dealing with abandonware (2024)

by mondobe

This account details the challenges of maintaining access to an early-2000s design application, TileCreatorPro, vital to a professional who designs SPA and wellness facilities using mosaic and ceramic...

Key Points

  • TileCreatorPro’s vendor site is defunct, complicating support and verification.
  • A Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrade triggered compatibility concerns for the legacy app.
  • Binary inspection with the strings utility offered potential insights when official info was unavailable.

Migrating cells and the new science of microchimerism

by Marceltan

Hidden Guests by journalist Lise Barnéoud, translated by Bronwyn Haslam and published by Greystone Books, examines microchimerism—the presence of cells in a person’s body that originate from other fam...

Key Points

  • Microchimerism persists for decades and occurs across organs at very low levels.
  • Evidence dates from Schmorl’s 19th-century observations to 1969 Y-chromosome detection and later findings.
  • The phenomenon challenges immunology’s self/non-self paradigm and may have regenerative roles.

Los Angeles ends strange rite of passage with new fridge law

by mikhael

California has enacted a law requiring landlords to provide tenants with working stoves and refrigerators starting January 1, 2026, aiming to end Los Angeles’s unusual norm where renters often had to ...

Key Points

  • California law mandates landlords provide working stoves and refrigerators by January 1, 2026.
  • Los Angeles’s longstanding practice forced renters to supply their own fridges, fueling a used-appliance market.
  • Tenant advocates cite added financial burdens from lacking or inefficient refrigerators.

n8n-Oidc

by cweagans

The article announces n8n-oidc, an MIT-licensed, drop-in tool that adds OpenID Connect (OIDC) single sign-on to self-hosted n8n instances without requiring n8n’s enterprise or startup licenses. It fra...

Key Points

  • n8n-oidc adds OIDC SSO to self-hosted n8n without enterprise licensing.
  • Implemented via n8n external hooks, custom routes, and a frontend SSO button.
  • MIT-licensed project available on GitHub, aimed at non-enterprise users.

Strange.website

by abelanger

This essay-style webpage critiques how modern internet experiences have evolved into manipulative systems that distort truth and monopolize attention. It suggests that computers absorbed not just huma...

Key Points

  • Critiques manipulative, attention-capturing web design and rhetoric-driven distortion.
  • Warns about Dark UX and data-for-“free” content exchanges.
  • Highlights deepfakes and AI-driven experiences like “ChatGPT therapists” as reality-blurring examples.

I/O is no longer the bottleneck? (2022)

by benhoyt

This 2022 post investigates whether I/O is still the performance bottleneck in text-processing tasks, using word counting and word-frequency computation as case studies. Replicating Ben Hoyt’s measure...

Key Points

  • Sequential reads exceed parsing throughput (up to 12.8 GB/s warm cache).
  • Branch-heavy loops block autovectorization; preprocessing improved to ~330 MB/s.
  • Explicit SIMD (AVX2) is needed for major speedups beyond baseline tools like wc.

LocalFirst: You Keep Using That Word

by deobald

The article explores why defining “local-first” software is difficult, arguing it is best viewed as a spectrum because it challenges vendor lock-in across data, formats, protocols, apps, services, and...

Key Points

  • Local-first is a spectrum challenging vendor lock-in.
  • Local-first implies multi-device distributed operation, distinct from offline-first.
  • Servers and non-peer sync can be compatible with local-first.

Pink Power Ranger takes down white supremacist dating sites

by ZebusJesus

A German hacker-journalist using the pseudonym “Martha Root” conducted a live, on-camera takedown of WhiteDate, a white supremacist dating platform. During the livestream, Root—dressed as the Pink Pow...

Key Points

  • Hacker “Martha Root” livestreamed the deletion of WhiteDate.
  • About 100,000 WhiteDate user records were leaked in “WhiteLeaks.”
  • Sister sites WhiteChild and WhiteDeal were also infiltrated.

Scientific production in the era of large language models [pdf]

by nkko

A multi-author analysis investigates how large language models (LLMs) are affecting scientific production across disciplines. Using 2.1 million preprints from arXiv, bioRxiv, and SSRN dated January 20...

Key Points

  • LLMs are linked to increased manuscript output and reduced language barriers.
  • Detection method compares human vs. LLM token distributions using GPT-3.5-turbo-0125 rewrites.
  • Traditional quality signals like language complexity are less reliable, prompting policy considerations.

'Doomsday fish': Once-in-a-lifetime sea creature encountered in Monterey Bay

by sipofwater

A rare juvenile king-of-the-salmon was encountered on Dec. 30 in Monterey Bay near McAbee Beach, spotted by diver Ted Judah during exceptionally clear water conditions. The fish, identified by a Monte...

Key Points

  • A juvenile king-of-the-salmon was identified near McAbee Beach in Monterey Bay.
  • The species is a rare ribbon fish that usually lives around 3,000 feet deep.
  • A Japanese legend associates ribbon fish sightings with earthquakes and tsunamis.

Show HN: OSS sustain guard – Sustainability signals for OSS dependencies

by onukura

OSS Sustain Guard is introduced as a multi-language analyzer designed to evaluate the sustainability of open-source dependencies across diverse ecosystems. It delivers 24 core metrics, scored from 0 t...

Key Points

  • Provides 24 core sustainability metrics with trend analysis and CHAOSS-aligned models.
  • Supports multiple languages and ecosystems with CI integrations for GitHub Actions, pre-commit, and CI/CD.
  • Offers a pluggable architecture, local caching, and customizable scoring profiles with funding awareness.

Show HN: Shadowlight, a voice-driven murder mystery and heist inside Minecraft

by marcsimon42

Shadowlight is introduced as a narrative-driven mystery experience hosted within Minecraft, emphasizing emotionally intelligent interactions. Players are guided to build rapport as a key mechanic to u...

Key Points

  • Shadowlight is a mystery experience inside Minecraft focused on rapport-building.
  • PC access: use Minecraft’s Multiplayer, add server, then click “Done.”
  • Console access: add “Shadowlight” as a friend.

GoGoGrandparent (YC S16) is hiring back end engineers

by davidchl

GoGoGrandparent, a YC S16-backed digital caregiving startup, is hiring fully remote back-end engineers to help build its platform that adapts on-demand services like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacar...

Key Points

  • Fully remote back-end engineering role with 4+ hours overlap with mainland US.
  • Back-end stack: Node.js, TypeScript, MySQL, REST/GraphQL; Vue.js and AWS/Docker/Kubernetes are pluses.
  • Mission-driven platform adapting on-demand APIs to support older and disabled adults.

Show HN: I replaced Beads with a faster, simpler Markdown-based task tracker

by wild_egg

The article introduces “ticket” (tk), a lightweight, git-backed issue tracker tailored for AI agents and developers seeking simplicity. Designed as a full replacement for Beads, tk retains familiar co...

Key Points

  • tk replaces Beads with a git-backed, Markdown/YAML ticket system.
  • Offers comprehensive CLI commands for creation, status, dependencies, linking, and querying.
  • Installs via Homebrew, AUR, or source; requires bash/coreutils and jq, optionally ripgrep.

Raindrop-Powered Generator Using Carbon Fiber Composites

by giuliomagnifico

A UNIST research team led by Professor Park Young-bin developed a droplet electricity generator (S-FRP-DEG) using carbon fiber composites to harvest energy from raindrops impacting surfaces such as ro...

Key Points

  • Raindrop-driven carbon fiber composite generator (S-FRP-DEG) harvests electricity via lotus leaf-inspired surfaces.
  • Experimental outputs reached 60 V per 92-µL droplet; four units in series lit 144 LEDs.
  • Corrosion-resistant, pollutant-repellent design enables long-term outdoor use and rainfall detection.

GBC Boot Animation 88×31 Web Button

by zakhary

This article details a practical approach to creating a retro 88×31 web button featuring the Game Boy Color boot animation. After noting the resurgence of 1990s-style web buttons, the author set out t...

Key Points

  • Boot animation captured frame-by-frame using emulator breakpoints and vblank routine.
  • 175 PNG frames combined into a GIF with ImageMagick and precise delay timing.
  • Cropped and resized the logo to fit the 88×31 web button format using CLI commands.

A prediction market user made $436,000 betting on Maduro's downfall

by tartoran

A user on the crypto-powered prediction platform Polymarket reportedly made more than $436,000 from a $32,537 wager that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro would be out of power by the end of January...

Key Points

  • A Polymarket user profited over $436,000 from a bet on Maduro’s removal.
  • Odds surged before Donald Trump’s Truth Social post claiming Maduro was in US custody.
  • Legislation is proposed to restrict government employees’ trades on prediction markets with nonpublic information.

Show HN: How SQL Parsers Work

by inishchith

The article offers a practical explanation of how SQL parsers work, grounded in experience from Atlan’s use of parsing for query engines and column-level lineage. It defines a SQL parser as the mechan...

Key Points

  • Explains the SQL parsing pipeline: lexer, parser, AST, semantic analysis.
  • Details dialect-specific lexing decisions and their impact.
  • Notes performance gains from SQLGlot’s optional Rust tokenizer (~30% speedup).

Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story (2019)

by michaelt

Microsoft’s Tony Chen presents how the Xbox One platform was engineered to resist physical and piracy-related attacks for years, a milestone shared by PS4. Historically, consoles were eventually modif...

Key Points

  • Xbox One’s security strategy defends against physical attacks through hardware-software co-design.
  • A custom AMD-built SoC and an untrusted-data model underpin the platform’s security.
  • Software mechanisms like secure boot, attestation, keys, and multi-VM isolation protect system and games.
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