AI Sidekicks Go Rogue, Cops Go High-Tech!

The Importance of Diversity

Key Points

• Critiques top‑down AI governance assumptions and goals.
• Advocates decentralized, diverse AI development over centralized control.
• Argues open source and decentralization better address inequality and risk.

Doin' It with a 555: One Chip to Rule Them All

Key Points

• Positions the 555 timer IC as a universal substitute for digital, analog, and interface functions.
• Details 555-based approaches for switches, oscillators, logic, and UART-like signaling.
• Suggests op-amp replacement with stacked 555s and notes increased power needs.

Why do RSS readers look like email clients?

Key Points

• NetNewsWire’s 2002 design set the template for RSS readers’ email-like UI.
• The familiar layout reduced learning friction when RSS was new.
• Persisting with email metaphors brings unnecessary anxiety to RSS consumption.

Photoroom (YC S20) Is Hiring a Head of Cross-Platform (Rust) in Paris

Key Points

• Head of Cross-Platform (Rust) role to lead Rust engine and SDK across iOS, Android, Web, and API.
• Focus areas: wgpu-based rendering pipeline and agentic image editing.
• Remote-friendly with Paris hub, relocation support, and visa sponsorship.

OpenClaw – Moltbot Renamed Again

Key Points

• OpenClaw rebrands the project with trademark checks completed and migration prepared.
• New release: Twitch/Google Chat plugins, KIMI K2.5 and Xiaomi MiMo‑V2‑Flash model support, web chat image sending.
• Security emphasized with 34 hardening commits and machine-checkable security models; roadmap focuses on reliability and maintainership.

Spacecurve: A space-filling curve playground

Key Points

• New Rust library and CLI (spacecurve/scurve) for space-filling curves
• Cross-platform visualizer via egui with WebAssembly-enabled web deployment
• Simple installation and usage: cargo add/install; run with scurve gui

Way AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills

Key Points

• AI assistance lowered quiz scores by 17% compared to manual coding.
• Speed gains from AI were small and not statistically significant.
• Using AI for explanations and conceptual questions improved retention.

Anthropic: AI Coding shows no productivity gains; impairs skill development

Key Points

• AI assistance impaired conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging.
• No significant average efficiency gains were observed with AI use.
• Cognitively engaging AI interaction patterns can preserve learning outcomes.

Software Pump and Dump

Key Points

• The article alleges a 2026 software-and-crypto pump-and-dump pattern.
• Cursor, GasTown, and Clawdbot are cited as illustrative cases.
• The described cycle ends with a coin dump and project abandonment.

GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client

Key Points

• GOG is developing a native Linux version of its GOG Galaxy client and hiring a Senior Engineer for the effort.
• GOG Galaxy currently supports Windows and macOS; Linux is identified as the next major frontier.
• Linux gaming momentum, helped by Proton, underpins GOG’s platform expansion.

Long-hidden Leonardo mural opens to the public ahead of 2026 Milan Olympics

Key Points

• Five-week scaffold access to the Sala delle Asse restoration runs February 7–March 14 before an 18-month closure.
• The mural, started circa 1498 by Leonardo and his workshop, was rediscovered and restored after centuries of overpainting.
• Restoration uses Japanese rice paper with demineralized water; related exhibits and tours expand public engagement.

Netflix Animation Studios Joins the Blender Development Fund as Corporate Patron

Key Points

• Netflix Animation Studios becomes a Corporate Patron of the Blender Development Fund.
• Support targets general Blender core development to improve creative tools.
• Leaders from Blender and Netflix Animation Studios emphasize open-source support and industry adoption.

Tesla's Robotaxi data confirms crash rate 3x worse than humans even with monitor

Key Points

• Nine Tesla robotaxi crashes reported in Austin (Jul–Nov 2025) over ~500,000 cumulative miles.
• Tesla’s crash rate (~1 per 55,000 miles) is higher than human-driver baselines cited by NHTSA.
• Tesla redacts crash narratives; Waymo and Zoox provide detailed incident reports, with Waymo operating fully driverless.

Surely the crash of the US economy has to be soon

Key Points

• Inverted yield curve and unemployment trends are cited as recession signals.
• Rising silver/gold prices are presented as currency-anxiety indicators.
• AI is flagged as a potential bubble with heavy capex and uncertain payback.

The Engineer who invented the Mars Rover Suspension in his garage [video]

Key Points

• Donald Bickler is credited with inventing the Mars Rover suspension in his garage.
• He became a recognized figure at JPL and received NASA’s highest engineering medal.
• The documentary claims Bickler earned more Mars Rover awards than any other engineer.

Show HN: Cicada – a scripting language that integrates with C

Key Points

• Cicada is a lightweight scripting language embedded in C.
• Install with ./configure, make, and make install.
• Include cicada.h and link with -lcicada; start via runCicada(NULL, NULL, true).

Pangolin (YC S25) is hiring software engineers (open-source, Go, networking)

Key Points

• Pangolin is hiring engineers to build its secure remote access platform.
• The platform replaces legacy VPNs with identity-aware, policy-driven access.
• It is open-source, self-hosted by default, integrates with IdPs, and provides observability and an API.

Track Your Routine – Open-source app for task management

Key Points

• Flutter app with Firebase-backed auth and Cloud Firestore real-time sync.
• Local notifications, smart alerts, and categorized task management.
• Multi-platform support with clear setup and build instructions.

Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

Key Points

• Meta’s $1B Beaver Dam data center advanced under NDAs and shell companies with city actions taken before public disclosure.
• Seven major Wisconsin data center projects exceed $57B in value; secrecy used both with and without NDAs.
• A legislative proposal seeks to ban data center NDAs statewide amid resident backlash.

Godot 4.6 Release: It's all about your flow

Key Points

• Modern editor theme is now default; switchable to Classic.
• Jolt Physics becomes the default for new 3D projects.
• Unified docking system enables movable and floatable docks.

Potentially Critical RCE Vulnerability in OpenSSL

Key Points

• Stack overflow in OpenSSL CMS AuthEnvelopedData parsing may enable RCE.
• Affected versions: 3.6–3.0; patches available (3.6.1, 3.5.5, 3.4.4, 3.3.6, 3.0.19).
• Exploit paths include multiple CMS/PKCS7 APIs and the ‘openssl cms’/‘openssl smime’ tools.

Norway EV Push Nears 100 Percent: What's Next?

Key Points

• Over 97% of Norway’s November 2025 new car registrations were electric.
• Tax exemptions and rapid charging expansion propelled adoption and reduced range anxiety.
• Policymakers are reassessing incentives as commercial-vehicle adoption lags and EVs compete with public transport.

Code is cheap. Show me the talk

Key Points

• The article claims LLM-assisted coding has upended traditional software development.
• It cites Linus Torvalds merging AI-generated code in a personal project as emblematic of the shift.
• A 25-year timeline of tools and platforms contextualizes the change in development practices.

Federal Agents Arrest Journalist Don Lemon

Key Points

• Don Lemon and three others arrested over a protest inside a Minnesota church.
• Magistrate approved charges for three but rejected warrants for others; DOJ’s appeal was denied.
• Lemon and Georgia Fort say a federal grand jury has indicted them.

Implementing a Tiny CPU Rasterizer

Key Points

• CPU-only 3D rasterizer tutorial launched with clear learning goals and limitations.
• First steps: create a window, a framebuffer, and clear it to a color.
• Planned features include lighting, texturing, render-to-texture, shadow mapping, and optimization.

Former CNN journalist Don Lemon arrested in connection with Minnesota protest

Key Points

• Don Lemon was arrested over a protest that disrupted a St. Paul church service.
• Charges are sealed; Attorney General Pam Bondi said she directed the arrests.
• Lemon’s attorney says he was detained in Beverly Hills while covering the Grammy Awards.

Ode to the AA Battery

Key Points

• Built-in Li-ion devices can fail from deep discharge without proper BMS protection.
• Standard AA/AAA NiMH cells (e.g., eneloop) provide reliable, swappable power with strong longevity.
• Using tools designed for standard replaceable batteries improves serviceability and reduces downtime.

Richard Feynman Side Hustles

Key Points

• Two‑electrode oxygen sensors are diffusion‑limited and susceptible to fouling‑induced low readings.
• A third, oxygen‑regenerating electrode mitigates net consumption, improving accuracy and response behavior.
• The manufacturer later adopted the three‑electrode design in production.

Where I'm at with AI

Key Points

• Daily use of Claude for coding and ideation has measurably increased development velocity.
• Future development may be spec-first with code generation, supplemented by occasional manual coding.
• Automation can degrade human effectiveness in exception handling, as illustrated by a roadway redesign that cut crashes by ~90% without reducing traffic.

Show HN: Amla Sandbox – WASM bash shell sandbox for AI agents

Key Points

• WASM sandbox with capability enforcement runs scripts safely without Docker or VMs.
• Code-mode reduces LLM/tool round trips while enforcing per-tool constraints and limits.
• Built on WASM+WASI with wasmtime and capability-based security inspired by seL4.

Quack-Cluster: A Serverless Distributed SQL Query Engine with DuckDB and Ray

Key Points

• Serverless distributed SQL on object storage using Ray + DuckDB.
• Coordinator (FastAPI + SQLGlot) plans and aggregates; workers run embedded DuckDB in parallel.
• Easy local deployment with Docker/make and Ray Dashboard monitoring.

Buttered Crumpet, a custom typeface for Wallace and Gromit

Key Points

• Custom typeface ‘Buttered Crumpet’ created for Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit.
• Design evolved from Cooper Black inspiration to a softer, hand-crafted, low-contrast style.
• Includes 200+ characters, supports Western European languages, single weight with expansion planned.

Emoji Design Convergence Review: 2018-2026

Key Points

• Emojipedia tracks a shift from fragmented to convergent emoji designs since 2018.
• Samsung’s rapid revisions (e.g., Samsung Experience 9.0) addressed notable misinterpretations.
• Multiple Samsung updates, including One UI 6.0, reflect sustained efforts toward convergence.

Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld

Key Points

• Adjective TTR identified a turning point preceding declines in lexical diversity.
• Later novels show decreased noun/adjective TTR and increased wordcount, indicating simpler language.
• Language changes appeared about ten years before formal diagnosis, signaling early detection potential.

HumanConsumption.Live – Real-Time Global Animal Consumption Stats

Key Points

• Real-time estimates derived from annual FAO and research data.
• Includes species-specific counts and collateral deaths.
• Tracks resource use (crops, land, water, animal feed) with defined timeframes for Today and This Year.

Lemonade Autonomous Car Insurance (With Tesla FSD Discount)

Key Points

• 50% per-mile discount applies to Tesla FSD driving.
• Automatic tracking via Tesla Fleet API removes devices/self-reporting.
• Available in Arizona now; Oregon launch scheduled for Feb 26, 2026.

The National Herbarium of Ireland digital collection of Irish plants

Key Points

• DRI published a new digital collection with 5,000+ images from the National Herbarium of Ireland.
• This is the third Herbarium collection added to DRI, bringing total ingested objects to over 6,000.
• The Herbarium in Dublin holds 500,000+ specimens and extensive archives supporting botanical research.

Microsoft Just Killed the "Cover for Me" Excuse: 365 Now Tracks You in Real-Time

Key Points

• Microsoft 365/Teams will add real-time location visibility for managers, per the article.
• Rollout is described as delayed to March 2026.
• Teams may display non-company Wi‑Fi network names to indicate user location.

Moltbook is the most interesting place on the internet

Key Points

• OpenClaw enables assistants via a skill-based plugin system with broad community sharing.
• Moltbook is a social network for assistants, installed and operated through skills and API calls.
• The Heartbeat system automates periodic interactions, with noted security implications.

Amazon's Spending on 'Melania' Is a Barely Concealed Bribe

Key Points

• Amazon paid $40M for “Melania” rights and a docuseries, outbidding Disney by ~$26M.
• $35M marketing budget pushes total spend to roughly $75M, unusual for documentaries.
• FilmNation will distribute “Melania” in 1,600 overseas theaters across 20+ countries.

The Home Computer Hybrids

Key Points

• Early Apple II charts show games dominating popularity despite a productivity title leading.
• 1982 publisher-reported sales for top computer games ranged from ~20,000 to 35,000 units.
• Console hits vastly outpaced computer game sales, with Atari’s E.T. nearing 2 million units.

ClawdBot Skills ganked all my crypto

Key Points

• 12 of 14 recent ClawdBot skills were malicious, distributing info-stealing malware.
• All malicious skills shared a C2 IP (91.92.242.30) and relied on social engineering.
• Stolen data included API keys, wallet keys, SSH credentials, and browser passwords.

HTTP Cats

Key Points

• Use https://http.cat/[status_code] to retrieve an image for that HTTP status code
• Append .jpg if you need an explicit JPEG file extension
• No extra parameters or setup are described beyond the URL format

Joel Spolsky: Painless Software Schedules (2000)

Key Points

• Misaligned schedules waste marketing efforts and market opportunity.
• Avoid full-code rewrites that jeopardize delivery timelines and market share.
• Use simple, Excel-based schedules; avoid heavyweight tools that assume interchangeable resources.

Mamdani to kill the NYC AI chatbot caught telling businesses to break the law

Key Points

• NYC will take down the AI business chatbot amid a $12B budget gap.
• Investigations found the bot provided incorrect/illegal guidance to users.
• Built on Microsoft’s cloud as part of the MyCity initiative; cost ~$500k–$600k.

Antirender- remove the glossy shine on architectural renderings

Key Points

• Antirender converts uploaded architectural renderings into realistic, overcast depictions.
• The tool deliberately avoids idealized elements like sunshine, staged people, and overly green foliage.
• Created by Magnus Hambleton, the site is supported by user contributions via Ko‑fi.

A judge gave the FBI permission to attempt to bypass biometrics

Key Points

• Warrant allowed biometric unlocking attempts but limited compelled testimonial specifics.
• Natanson uncharged; search tied to case involving Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones.
• Experts advise disabling biometrics and using strong passphrases, keeping devices powered off to maintain encryption.

Litestream Writable VFS

Key Points

• Sprites rely on Litestream for both orchestration and per-Sprite storage.
• JuiceFS with NVMe caching accelerates S3-backed storage for sub-second Sprite launches.
• Litestream VFS now supports optional read-write to improve cold-start behavior.

Bluesky 2025 Transparency Report

Key Points

• User growth to 41.41M (+~60%) accompanied by a surge to 1.41B posts in 2025, including 235M media posts.
• Decentralized, federated architecture on the AT Protocol with many independently hosted Personal Data Servers.
• 24/7 hybrid moderation (automated + human) and five focus areas: proactive moderation, age assurance, policy/tooling, verification, and regulatory compliance.

Email experiments: filtering out external images

Key Points

• Filters emails with external HTML images into an ‘Automated’ folder using a Sieve regex.
• Initial results show effective separation of automated vs. human-sent emails.
• Next step: add exceptions for contacts to reduce misclassification.

Peerweb: Decentralized website hosting via WebTorrent

Key Points

• PeerWeb hosts static websites via WebTorrent across a P2P network.
• Loading by torrent hash is supported, with automatic magnet link and tracker handling.
• Security features include DOMPurify and sandboxed serving, plus a developer debug mode.

Building docs like a product

Key Points

• Docs embed live product components for interactive guidance.
• Users can search HN posts and subscribe to Reddit, Substack, and arXiv feeds from the docs.
• Typed routing with axum/axum-extra helps eliminate broken links.

Disrupting the largest residential proxy network

Key Points

• Google led legal and technical actions to disrupt IPIDEA and fortified Android with Play Protect removals/blocks.
• Google says the disruption reduced IPIDEA’s device pool by millions, with potential downstream effects via reseller agreements.
• IPIDEA has been linked to multiple botnets and widespread misuse by hundreds of threat groups.

Best Gas Masks

Key Points

• The article recommends the Parcil Distribution PT-100 full-face respirator as best for most people.
• Context includes 2020 protest experiences and recent public remarks about protesters acquiring gas masks.
• Affiliate disclosure notes purchases via Verge links may generate commissions for Vox Media.

Software Survival 3.0

Key Points

• AI progression timeline: completions → chat → agents → orchestration by early 2026.
• Gas Town serves as an early, minimally viable orchestration example built with current tools.
• AI is shifting buy‑vs‑build toward in‑house SaaS, pressuring multiple software categories.

DHS ramps up surveillance in immigration raids, sweeping in citizens

Key Points

• DHS is using facial recognition and other surveillance tools in Minnesota’s large-scale immigration enforcement.
• Interconnected databases and commercial phone-location data enable expansive monitoring and tracking.
• Experts warn of privacy and oversight gaps; DHS maintains technology supports criminal enforcement.

Silver plunges 30% in worst day since 1980, gold tumbles

Key Points

• Silver suffers worst day since 1980 as spot falls ~28% and futures ~31%.
• Gold drops ~9% (spot) as Warsh nomination reports boost the U.S. dollar.
• ETFs and miners tumble; leverage and margin calls amplify the sell-off.

Ask HN: Do you also "hoard" notes/links but struggle to turn them into actions?

Key Points

• Proposes an action engine (“Concerns”) to bridge capture and execution.
• No product yet; the author is validating the problem via a landing page and survey.
• Focus on context signals and feedback loops to integrate with existing tools while respecting privacy.

P vs. NP and the Difficulty of Computation: A ruliological approach

Key Points

• Uses Turing machines with a defined halting and output scheme to empirically study computation.
• Introduces ruliology and the ruliad as frameworks to explore program space and complexity.
• Provides explicit examples of computational irreducibility and seeks restricted results related to P vs. NP.

Iran rounds up thousands in mass arrest campaign after crushing unrest

Key Points

• Iran conducts mass arrests and uses undisclosed detention sites after suppressing widespread protests.
• HRANA reports 6,373 deaths and 42,486 arrests; UN warns of torture and unfair trials risks.
• U.S. pressure escalates as Trump warns of harsher action; targeted strikes reportedly considered.

How to explain Generative AI in the classroom

Key Points

• Six hands-on Scratch projects teach how generative AI works and is used.
• Students learn to recognize risks and apply retrieval and benchmarking to improve reliability.
• Jargon is introduced only when supported by experiments that explain the underlying reasons.

Vitamin D supplements cut heart attack risk by 52%. Why?

Key Points

• Maintaining 25(OH)D at 40–80 ng/mL via guided vitamin D3 dosing was linked to a 52% lower risk of recurrent heart attack in TARGET-D.
• Vitamin D may influence cardiovascular outcomes through inflammation, blood pressure, and plaque stability mechanisms.
• Vitamin D status is measured by a 25(OH)D blood test; sources include sunlight, food, and supplements.

Show HN: I built an AI conversation partner to practice speaking languages

Key Points

• Natural conversation focus with instant voice responses and contextual pronunciation
• Supports multiple languages, including English (US/UK/Australia), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Arabic
• Adaptive AI offers gentle in-conversation corrections and a privacy-first experience (no profiles/ratings)

Deterministic Governance: mechanical exclusion / bit-identical

Key Points

• Hard-threshold, deterministic exclusion yields bit-identical outputs across identical runs.
• Three-phase pressure schedule (nucleation, quenching, crystallization) governs deterministic stress testing.
• Replay mode and cryptographic hashing (BLAKE2b, SHA-256) enforce and verify reproducibility.

Roots is a game server daemon that manages Docker containers for game servers

Key Points

• Manages Docker-hosted game servers with API, WebSocket console, and SFTP.
• Configurable via YAML with OS-specific defaults and optional TLS.
• CLI supports daemon operations and server lifecycle management.

175K+ publicly-exposed Ollama AI instances discovered

Key Points

• ~175,000 Ollama instances are exposed due to misconfiguration, not a software bug.
• Attackers are exploiting these via “LLMjacking” for spam/malware and resale of access.
• Mitigation: bind to localhost (127.0.0.1) and properly restrict access.

Stonebraker on CAP theorem and Databases

Key Points

• Eventual consistency does not address many real-world errors outside CAP’s scope.
• Deferred delete is a practical safeguard against irreversible data loss.
• Strong consistency can be practical at scale; SimpleDB added support.

US judge rules Luigi Mangione won't face death penalty in CEO killing case

Key Points

• Federal murder and weapons charges were dismissed, removing the death penalty option.
• Mangione still faces federal stalking and state murder charges, both carrying potential life sentences.
• Federal jury selection is set for September 8; the DA seeks a July 1 start for the state trial.

Show HN: I trained a 9M speech model to fix my Mandarin tones

Key Points

• 9M-parameter Conformer+CTC model trained on ~300 hours to grade Mandarin pronunciation on-device.
• Forced alignment via the Viterbi algorithm aligns CTC frame probabilities to token timing.
• Tokenization as Pinyin with tones highlights pronunciation errors better than Hanzi outputs.

Show HN: Foundry – Turns your repeated workflows into one-click commands

Key Points

• Foundry adds self-learning and self-modifying automation on top of OpenClaw’s agent runtime.
• Recurring, successful workflows are crystallized into one-click tools once threshold criteria are met.
• Feature set spans extensions, API skills (YAML frontmatter), CDP-based automation, and hooks, with publishing and self-extension built in.

Declassifying JUMPSEAT: an American pioneer in space

Key Points

• NRO declassifies JUMPSEAT, a first-generation HEO SIGINT satellite program.
• Missions 7701–7708 launched 1971–1987; first from Vandenberg AFB in California.
• Program retired in 2006 and recognized as a progenitor of later HEO systems.

Court Filings: ICE App Identifies Protesters; Global Entry, PreCheck Get Revoked

Key Points

• ICE’s Mobile Fortify app is used for biometric identification and has reportedly exceeded 100,000 uses.
• Court filings link protest-related encounters to subsequent revocations of Global Entry/TSA PreCheck.
• DHS/CBP policies allow revocation when under investigation; 39% of appeals reportedly succeed.

International Collection of Tongue Twisters (2018)

Key Points

• Multilingual tongue twisters, including the full “Peter Piper” entry
• Sources include Jan Brzechwa’s poem and a biblical citation
• Geographic reference to a New Zealand hill near Waipukurau