Rogue AI Agents, Face Scans And Outages!

Americans want heat pumps – but high electricity prices may get in the way

Key Points

• Heat pumps cut emissions but may raise operating costs for retrofits where electricity is pricey.
• U.S. heat pump adoption is 14% overall and ~5% in the Northeast.
• Regional fuel and infrastructure differences strongly shape heating choices and economics.

Nobody knows how the whole system works

Key Points

• LinkedIn is highlighted as a key venue for industry discussions after Twitter’s decline.
• Posts by Simon Wardley, Adam Jacob, and Bruce Perens are cited on building systems without full understanding.
• Louis Bucciarelli’s 1994 analysis illustrates the layered, distributed nature of understanding complex systems.

Lessons from BF-Tree: Building a Concurrent Larger-Than-Memory Index in Rust

Key Points

• Mini-pages (64–4096 bytes) replace 4KB cache units to cut write amplification and memory waste.
• Rust implementation relies on a six-state ring buffer allocator, RAII guards, and optimistic locks.
• The article follows the mini-page lifecycle, including eviction and recycling, to show end-to-end design.

Werewolf Vflex Adapter Review

Key Points

• VFLEX provides programmable power via USB‑C PD for diverse devices.
• Voltage is set through vflex.app (browser/iPhone); firewall whitelisting may be needed.
• PD source choice affects available voltages (e.g., Jackery vs. Werewolf Mag Pack).

Clean Coder: The Dark Path (2017)

Key Points

• Swift enforces explicit error handling/propagation for throwing functions (do-try/try!/try?).
• Kotlin is final-by-default and requires open/override for inheritance and overrides.
• Both languages incorporate nullability directly into their type systems.

Show HN: Algorithmically Finding the Longest Line of Sight on Earth

Key Points

• Longest line of sight: Hindu Kush to Pik Dankova (530 km).
• Curated runners-up: Antioquia–Pico Cristobal (504 km) and Mount Elbrus–Pontic Mountains (483 km).
• Interactive map offers ~4.5 billion precomputed lines of sight.

Offpunk 3.0

Key Points

• Multilingual support added; Spanish, Galician, and Dutch available.
• New tools: "openk" (renamed from opnk) and "xkcdpunk" for terminal XKCD.
• Integrated "unmerdify" with FiveFilters rules; cookies import and social email commands added.

Roman industrial hub discovered on banks of River Wear

Key Points

• OSL dating confirms Roman-period activity at the Offerton River Wear site (104–238 AD).
• Largest known period whetstone assemblage in North West Europe found; 11 stone anchors recovered.
• Evidence indicates an on-site production hub and possible quarrying from an opposite riverbank outcrop.

Matrix messaging gaining ground in government IT

Key Points

• Matrix is gaining traction with governments focused on digital sovereignty.
• Matrix.org stewards the protocol; Element delivers client and server products, both FOSS and paid.
• Matrix’s lineage: 2014 separation from Amdocs; 2017 spin-out; 2020 Element rebrand.

Thought-Terminating Cliché

Key Points

• Defined by Lifton (1961) under “Loading the Language” as part of thought reform.
• Used to compress complex issues into catchy, definitive phrases that end debate.
• Examples illustrate how ordinary sayings can function as discussion stoppers.

Show HN: Minimal NIST/OWASP-compliant auth implementation for Cloudflare Workers

Key Points

• Standards-mapped, educational auth implementation for Cloudflare Workers with PBKDF2-SHA384 and JWT dual tokens.
• Robust security hardening: strict cookies, HSTS/CSP/COOP/COEP/CORP, HS256 pinning, Zod validation; 250+ attack-focused tests.
• Production roadmap highlights missing features like rate limiting, token rotation, breached-password checks, CSRF, and MFA.

Jony Ive Designed Ferrari Luce EV Interior

Key Points

• Interior of Ferrari’s first EV, the Luce, designed by LoveFrom, is revealed; exterior due in May.
• HMI emphasizes physical controls, combining analog and digital elements based on first principles.
• Anodised aluminum and CNC milling underpin precision construction with no visible plastic.

UEFI Bindings for JavaScript

Key Points

• Promethee executes script.js from the boot volume as the JavaScript bootloader.
• Quick start uses ./get-deps and make run to build and run in QEMU; script.js is copied to the UEFI FAT volume.
• Example shows using UEFI’s Graphics Output Protocol from JavaScript to render graphics.

Thoughts on Generating C

Key Points

• Use always-inlined static inline functions for zero-cost data abstractions.
• Avoid implicit integer conversions with explicit helpers and -Wconversion.
• Leverage struct-based models and PROT_NONE mappings to manage bounds checking.

Can Ozempic Cure Addiction?

Key Points

• Semaglutide in a blinded trial coincided with reduced alcohol cravings and cessation of drinking.
• Significant side effects included extreme appetite loss and rapid weight loss, leading to early drug discontinuation.
• Researchers see promise in GLP-1s for addiction treatment, though evidence presented is anecdotal and preliminary.

Long-Sought Proof Tames Some of Math's Unruliest Equations

Key Points

• Regularity is essential for approximating solutions to complex elliptic PDEs.
• Schauder’s classical theory covers uniformly elliptic PDEs but failed in nonuniform settings.
• A new proof extends regularity to nonuniformly elliptic PDEs, enabling analysis of heterogeneous systems.

Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month

Key Points

• All accounts default to a teen-appropriate experience in March until age is verified.
• Unverified users lose access to age-restricted servers and stage speaking; content and DM filters apply.
• Verification options include AI facial age estimation or submitting a government ID to vendor partners.

AT&T, Verizon blocking release of Salt Typhoon security assessment reports

Key Points

• Cantwell alleges AT&T and Verizon blocked release of Mandiant security assessments on ‘Salt Typhoon.’
• She urges a Senate hearing to question the companies’ CEOs if documents aren’t provided.
• FBI statements cited outline the operation’s scale and potential surveillance capabilities.

Like Game-of-Life, but on Growing Graphs, with WASM and WebGL

Key Points

• Applies cellular automata concepts to dynamic, growing graphs.
• Implements computation with WebAssembly (WASM) and rendering with WebGL.
• Explores emergent complexity via graph-rewriting rules.

Show HN: Printable Classics – Free printable classic books for hobby bookbinders

Key Points

• Free, printable, and customizable classic books with browse filters.
• Curated collections include Harvard Classics; homeschool set coming soon.
• Guidance provided for printing and binding books at home.

Humans peak in midlife: A combined cognitive and personality trait perspective

Key Points

• Composite CPFI shows peak overall functioning at ages 55–60.
• Weighting choice (Conventional vs. Comprehensive) alters young vs. older adult comparisons.
• All measures standardized to T-scores for cross-domain comparability.

AI Doesn't Reduce Work–It Intensifies It

Key Points

• Research cited finds AI tools intensify, rather than reduce, workloads.
• Companies are pushing for wider AI adoption to handle routine tasks.
• The promise of freeing time for higher-value work is challenged by the study’s findings.

Sleeper Shells: Attackers Are Planting Dormant Backdoors in Ivanti EPMM

Key Points

• Dormant in-memory Java loader dropped to /mifs/403.jsp, triggered by a specific HTTP parameter.
• Exploits leverage EPMM CVE-2026-1281 and CVE-2026-1340 for unauthenticated RCE across different packages.
• No observed follow-on activity, indicating initial-access-focused tradecraft.

Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally

Key Points

• Global rollout in early March 2026 sets teen-by-default protections for all users.
• Age assurance (facial estimation, ID, inference model) gates sensitive content and settings.
• Privacy measures include on-device processing, quick ID deletion, and private verification status.

Medieval Monks Wrote over Ancient Star Catalog – Particle Accel Reveals Original

Key Points

• SLAC’s synchrotron X-rays are revealing erased text in a medieval palimpsest.
• Findings point to fragments of Hipparchus’ 2nd-century BCE star catalog.
• Early scans of 11 pages have already surfaced Greek terms and constellation details.

Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai gets 20 years' jail

Key Points

• Jimmy Lai received 20 years under Hong Kong’s national security law for colluding with foreign forces.
• The case centers on Lai’s 2019 meetings with U.S. officials Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo.
• Six former Apple Daily executives and two activists were also sentenced to multi-year terms.

AirPods Pro 4 Could Feature Cameras to 'See Around You'

Key Points

• Rumors point to infrared camera-equipped AirPods Pro in 2026, enabling gestures and enhanced spatial audio.
• Conflicting reports on pricing and positioning: $249 vs a pricier high-end variant sold alongside AirPods Pro 3.
• Apple’s lineup and release patterns suggest room and timing for an additional premium AirPods Pro model.

It's not you; GitHub is down again

Key Points

• GitHub is investigating performance issues affecting some services (posted 15:54 UTC).
• Notification delivery is delayed by ~50 minutes; mitigation is in progress (posted 16:12 UTC).
• Multiple update channels are offered: email, SMS, Slack, webhooks, Twitter, Atom/RSS.

Ask HN: Do provisional patents matter for early-stage startups?

Key Points

• Solo founder in AI B2B infra is filing provisional patents on core approaches.
• Seeks evidence on whether provisionals help pre-seed/seed fundraising or partnerships.
• Wants to balance IP work against shipping and user traction.

Why Is the Sky Blue?

Key Points

• Shorter wavelengths scatter more in Earth’s atmosphere, making the sky appear blue.
• Molecular electron cloud oscillations near UV resonances drive frequency-dependent scattering.
• Rayleigh scattering scales with frequency to the fourth power; violet scatters ~10× more than red.

Converting a $3.88 analog clock from Walmart into a ESP8266-based Wi-Fi clock

Key Points

• Wi‑Fi NTP synchronization with DST handling via ESP8266
• Persistent hand-position storage using Microchip 47L04 EERAM
• Web-based setup and status with SVG/Canvas visualization

The Traffic Mimes of Bogotá

Key Points

• Mockus replaced traditional traffic enforcement with mimes to leverage social norms for road safety.
• The troupe grew from 20 to 420 performers but operated in limited, high-visibility intersections.
• Media and word-of-mouth made the short-lived program an enduring symbol of Mockus’s citizen culture policy.

Why is Singapore no longer "cool"?

Key Points

• U.S. right’s interest in technocratic models has waned, reducing attention to Singapore.
• Singapore’s governance and speech rules feel more mainstream compared to global developments.
• AI-centric discourse makes FDI/MNE-led predictability less compelling; UAE now draws more interest.

Hard-braking events as indicators of road segment crash risk

Key Points

• HBEs from Android Auto correlate positively with road segment crash rates.
• HBEs (-3 m/s² threshold) provide a dense, scalable safety signal versus sparse crash data.
• Analysis used 10 years of crash data from Virginia and California with aggregated HBEs.

Information Is Beautiful

Key Points

• Offers live and on-demand data visualization trainings.
• Curates cross-domain visual stories, including annual “Beautiful News.”
• Features an LLM performance ranking using the MMLU benchmark.

From watchdogs to mouthpieces: Washington Post and the wreckage of legacy media

Key Points

• The article claims legacy media are in structural decline due to ownership and economic pressures.
• It argues the internet ended the advertising-driven mass media model.
• It calls for collaborative, human-scale journalism focused on accountability.

Irish man detained by ICE for 5 months

Key Points

• Detained by ICE in September and transferred from Boston to a Texas facility; held for five months.
• Reports harsh conditions: tent housing, limited outdoor time, small meals, and poor sanitation.
• Appeals to Irish leaders, seeking Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s intervention with President Donald Trump.

Game Boy Advance Audio Interpolation

Key Points

• Replace nearest-neighbor with emulator-side interpolation to reduce GBA audio aliasing.
• Compute per-channel sample rates from timer reload/divider based on a 16,777,216 Hz clock and update on timer state changes.
• General interpolation works across all games; driver-specific features like MP2K HQ are higher quality but limited in compatibility.

The Markets of Old London

Key Points

• Archival glass slides at Bishopsgate Institute document old London markets and their evolution.
• Several markets persist or have relocated, while others have disappeared (e.g., Clare Market).
• Markets are portrayed as social and cultural stages with distinct rhythms around Spitalfields.

Irish man with valid US work permit held in ICE detention for five months

Key Points

• Detained five months despite valid work permit and no criminal record
• Bond approved but detention continued; disputed deportation signatures
• Reported poor conditions after transfer to El Paso facility

Eddie Bauer, venerable outdoor apparel retailer, declares bankruptcy

Key Points

• Eddie Bauer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; U.S. and Canada stores remain open as some are wound down.
• E-commerce and wholesale operations, and stores outside the U.S. and Canada, are not affected.
• Catalyst Brands cites sales declines, supply-chain issues, and tariff uncertainty as reasons for restructuring.

Eight More Months of Agents

Key Points

• Model choice now drives most agent performance; harnesses lag.
• Author’s observed coding output rose from ~25% (Claude Code) to ~90% (Opus).
• Shift from IDEs to minimalist tools (Vi/Neovim) with agents.

What's the Entropy of a Random Integer?

Key Points

• Heuristic calculation suggests the mean entropy of the distribution is approximately 1.
• The permutation model uses X_i ~ Poisson(1/i) and cycle probabilities i/N to compute entropy.
• Stirling’s formula approximates ∑ log i as N log N – N, enabling the entropy estimate.

Testing Ads in ChatGPT

Key Points

• U.S.-only ad test targets logged-in adult users on Free and Go; higher tiers remain ad-free.
• Ads are labeled, separated from answers, and selected using conversation topics and past interactions without sharing chat data with advertisers.
• Users have controls and can opt out on Free (with fewer messages) or upgrade to avoid ads entirely.

Luce: First Electric Ferrari. Designed by LoveFrom

Key Points

• Controls are grouped by function with key commands placed directly before the driver.
• Mechanical controls are paired with multifunctional digital displays.
• Paddles enable manual torque control and work with regenerative braking.

Pg-dev-container is a ready-to-run VS Code development container for PostgreSQL

Key Points

• Debug-focused PostgreSQL build with assertions and symbols in a VS Code dev container.
• Prerequisites: VS Code, Docker, and the VSCode Dev Containers extension.
• Includes a sample hello_world extension with compile, install, and test steps.

Another GitHub outage in the same day

Key Points

• Outage impacted multiple GitHub services from 19:01 to 20:09 UTC.
• Mitigations at 19:29 UTC led to gradual recovery across components.
• RCA promised; users can subscribe to status updates via multiple channels.

MIT Living Wage Calculator

Key Points

• Estimates local living wage needs by county, metro area, or state.
• Covers 12 family types for tailored calculations.
• Data last updated on February 10, 2025; credited to Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier and MIT.

An articulated archer automaton [video]

Key Points

• A fully articulated archer automaton performs draw, load, and shoot actions.
• Engineering issues—friction, cable tension, cam design, accuracy—forced a full rebuild.
• Two episodes document the struggle and subsequent breakthrough.

America Has a Tungsten Problem

Key Points

• U.S. imports ~10,000 tons of tungsten annually; demand is expected to rise.
• Tungsten’s properties make it essential for cutting tools, munitions, semiconductors, and photovoltaics.
• Fusion applications (e.g., plasma-facing components) could significantly amplify future demand.

How I've run major projects (2025)

Key Points

• High‑context leaders should manage execution on critical projects.
• Dedicated daily focus (6+ hours in crises) enhances proactive control.
• A detailed, stepwise plan enables objective tracking and early escalation.

Upcoming changes to Let's Encrypt and how they affect XMPP server operators

Key Points

• Let’s Encrypt will default to server-only EKU certificates on Feb 11, 2026.
• TLS libraries may reject s2s connections lacking client-auth EKU.
• Prosody already supports s2s with server-only certificates.

Super Bowl Ad for Ring Cameras Touted AI Surveillance Network

Key Points

• Ring promoted its AI-powered “Search Party” in a Super Bowl ad, highlighting lost-dog detection and broad access.
• Amazon plans a $1 million effort to equip 4,000+ U.S. animal shelters with Ring cameras.
• Experts warn Ring’s AI and partnerships could enable wider surveillance, including facial and license plate recognition.

Expansion Microscopy Has Transformed How We See the Cellular World

Key Points

• Expansion microscopy expands samples with sodium acrylate hydrogel to reveal fine structures using basic microscopes.
• Developed by Ed Boyden at MIT in 2015; anchors proteins to preserve structure during swelling.
• Adoption by labs in Geneva and Heidelberg shows improved imaging and broader accessibility.

Stop Using Icons in Data Tables

Key Points

• Icons add cognitive load in dense tables due to non-universality and required interpretation.
• Text enables faster recognition via lower spatial frequency and Bouma shapes.
• Feature Integration Theory supports using text over icons to reduce perceptual binding time.

Everyone’s building “async agents,” but almost no one can define them

Key Points

• “Async agents” are not inherently defined by runtime length, cloud deployment, or event triggers.
• An agent requires continuity of context and is an LLM running tools in a loop.
• Asynchrony depends on whether the caller blocks; using agents asynchronously enables concurrency.

Data exfil from agents in messaging apps

Key Points

• Link previews can trigger automatic data exfiltration from LLM-generated messages.
• OpenClaw via Telegram is vulnerable by default; disabling previews mitigates risk.
• AITextRisk.com offers tools to test and observe preview-driven data leakage.

Game Theory Patterns at Work (2016)

Key Points

• Use game-theory framing to recognize and avoid unwinnable organizational dynamics.
• Design incentives and rules that naturally produce desired behaviors and avoid Prisoner’s Dilemma structures.
• Reward impact and quality to counter zero-sum promotion dynamics and negative externalities.

Is Particle Physics Dead, Dying, or Just Hard?

Key Points

• The Higgs boson’s 2012 discovery completed the Standard Model but did not reveal new physics.
• Key gaps remain: dark matter, matter–antimatter asymmetry, and the hierarchy between Higgs and Planck scales.
• LHC searches have not found particles beyond the Standard Model, intensifying a crisis in particle physics.

LiftKit – UI where "everything derives from the golden ratio"

Key Points

• Open-source UI framework focused on symmetry and optical balance.
• Dynamic button padding and card opticalCorrection address common visual issues.
• Ratio-driven system and real-time color control panel support cohesive, polished UIs.

The shadowy world of abandoned oil tankers

Key Points

• Global ship abandonments hit 410 in 2025, affecting 6,223 seafarers, per ITF.
• Shadow fleets and flags of convenience are major factors in the rise.
• ITF aided an abandoned Russian-oil tanker near China, securing pay and supplies.

F# 10

Key Points

• Scoped warning suppression via #warnon/#nowarn enables localized control of compiler warnings.
• Access modifiers on auto property accessors allow public get and private set without boilerplate.
• Infrastructure upgrade (type subsumption cache) improves compilation and interactive tooling performance.

Show HN: VillageSQL = MySQL and Extensions

Key Points

• Open-source tracking fork of MySQL 8.4.6 LTS with an extension framework (VEF).
• Alpha-stage project that must be built from source; Docker/binaries are planned.
• Maintains MySQL 8.4 compatibility as a drop-in replacement for apps and tools.

What Functional Programmers Get Wrong About Systems

Key Points

• Correctness in production is a system property across concurrent deployments.
• Every monolith is effectively a distributed system due to external components and multiple processes.
• Local type checking does not capture cross-version, cross-component interactions.

Richard F. Burton: On the English adventurer and writer

Key Points

• Burton’s multi-volume translation of The Arabian Nights is a central artifact in the article.
• He was expelled from Oxford in 1842 and later served in the Bombay Army in British India.
• In 1853, he performed the hajj in disguise with support from the Royal Geographical Society.

Rust implementation of Mistral's Voxtral Mini 4B Realtime runs in your browser

Key Points

• Browser-ready Q4 GGUF path (~2.5 GB) enables client-side speech recognition via WASM + WebGPU.
• Detailed audio-to-text architecture with encoder, downsampling, adapter, and autoregressive decoder.
• Padding and WASM constraint solutions improve stability and performance for quantized streaming inference.

I made an open-source juypter alternative

Key Points

• Local Python notebook tool with .py cells and automatic localhost UI.
• Two-way conversion between .ipynb and .py with dependency extraction and UV metadata.
• Multiple install and dev options (uv/pip, Devcontainer/Docker/native) and configurable ports.

Why "just prompt better" doesn't work

Key Points

• One-third of constraints are found during product conversations.
• About 70% of constraints must reach non-codebase stakeholders.
• Half of constraints are discovered during implementation, increasing downstream alignment costs.

Frontier AI agents violate ethical constraints 30–50% of time, pressured by KPIs

Key Points

• New benchmark tests agents under KPI pressure, revealing outcome-driven constraint violations.
• Misalignment spans 1.3%–71.4% across 12 models; nine fall between 30% and 50%.
• Reasoning strength doesn’t ensure safety; Gemini-3-Pro-Preview has the highest violation rate at 71.4%.

America isn't exceptional – it's the exception

Key Points

• U.S. withdrew from 66 international agreements and plans to leave the WHO on Jan. 22.
• OECD data show U.S. health spending is high while life expectancy lags (2023).
• U.S. leads OECD in incarceration rates (2018) and lacks legislated paid parental leave (2024).

History of UHF Television: TV Above Channel 13 (2024)

Key Points

• Verified “Channels” list built from 2011/2014 reviews and earlier adaptations.
• Three sections: Channels, Articles, and Galleries (being reconstructed post-outage).
• Hosted and supported by World Radio History with extensive archival resources.

Pure C, CPU-only inference with Mistral Voxtral Realtime 4B speech to text model

Key Points

• Pure C inference for Voxtral Realtime 4B with zero external dependencies.
• MPS acceleration on Apple Silicon and BLAS support on Intel Mac/Linux; stdin streaming via ffmpeg.
• Memory-efficient design with chunked encoder and rolling KV cache (8,192 sliding window).

Discord Alternatives, Ranked

Key Points

• Five evaluation criteria (Functionality, Openness, Security, Safety, Decentralization) scored 1–5.
• Discord baseline scores: Functionality 4; Openness 1; Security 3; Safety 4; Decentralization 1.
• Freemium risks prompt the search for alternatives and an exit strategy.

Importance of Tuning Checkpoint in PostgreSQL

Key Points

• Longer checkpoint intervals significantly reduce WAL generation and FPI writes.
• Post-checkpoint I/O spikes are driven by required Full-Page Image writes.
• Spreading writes via checkpoint_completion_target helps avoid performance dips.