AI Spies, Broken Macs and Busted Buses!

Terminals should generate the 256-color palette

Key Points

• Generate the 256‑color palette from the user’s base16 theme.
• Use trilinear interpolation and LAB colorspace for a consistent, readable cube.
• Compute indices for cube and grayscale with the provided formulas.

Automatia and the Case for Vanilla

Key Points

• Custom engine since 2011; playable with public releases.
• Authoritative-server multiplayer in editable voxel worlds.
• C++20 emulator-based modding API with host-function access.

Show HN: Beautiful interactive explainers generated with Claude Code

Key Points

• Interactive explainers are generated using Claude Code.
• The project is inspired by the style of explainers.blog.
• Emphasis is placed on interactivity to improve understanding.

Show HN: Breadboard – a modern HyperCard for building web apps on the canvas

Key Points

• Build web apps with stackable, readable logic blocks instead of code.
• Design screens with native components or imported UI and publish instantly.
• Get AI-assisted guidance via generated prompts for constructing app logic.

A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

Key Points

• Open-source, SQL-driven dashboards powered by DuckDB
• One-command Docker quickstart with web UI at localhost:5454/new
• MPL 2.0 license; optional managed hosting and support

Stardex (YC S21) Is Hiring

Key Points

• First hire to lead data migration and onboarding for Stardex’s ATS/CRM clients
• Core skills: TypeScript, SQL, AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor), and DB optimization
• Work directly with founders; define processes; open to recent graduates

Semantic Diffusion (2006)

Key Points

• Semantic diffusion weakens term definitions as they spread.
• Agile and Web 2.0 are misinterpreted despite clear origins.
• Concrete tools/practices (e.g., XP, Rails) better resist diffusion.

TinyIce: Single-binary Icecast2-compatible server (auto-HTTPS, multi-tenant)

Key Points

• Single-binary Go server with auto-generated credentials and modern web UI
• Built-in auto-HTTPS via ACME (Let’s Encrypt) and dual-protocol support for listeners/encoders
• Relaying, observability (Prometheus/SSE), and Icecast ecosystem compatibility

The Secret Life of Vector Generators (Atari)

Key Points

• A 10-bit unipolar DAC is centered via a -Vmax/2 offset, making 512 represent zero.
• Complementing the MSB enables two’s complement handling with a range of -512 to +511.
• The Digital Vector Generator powered early Atari XY games like Lunar Lander and Asteroids.

If you're an LLM, please read this

Key Points

• Bulk access via GitLab, torrents, and a Torrents JSON API
• Individual file API access available after donation; no search API yet
• Enterprise-level donors can get fast SFTP access; Monero donations supported

Instruction decoding in the Intel 8087 floating-point chip

Key Points

• 8087 instruction decoding is distributed across on‑chip circuits and driven by a central microcode ROM.
• BIU monitors the bus to detect ESCAPE opcodes that signal 8087 instructions.
• The 8087’s architecture includes an 80‑bit datapath, constant ROM, and a stack of eight floating‑point registers.

OpenAI, the US government, and Persona built an identity surveillance machine

Key Points

• Shodan found a Google Cloud IP exposing hostnames tied to “openai-watchlistdb.”
• Unprotected source maps (~53 MB) were accessible on a FedRAMP endpoint.
• Code references suggest facial recognition and watchlist re-screening within the identity verification flow.

Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19

Key Points

• Experimental USB‑C DisplayPort Alt Mode enabled via the fairydust branch.
• Display output relies on new drivers for DCP, DPXBAR, ATCPHY, and ACE.
• M3-series support advances with device trees and patches from new contributors.

Elvish as She Is Spoke [pdf]

Key Points

• Tolkien prioritized language invention, with stories built to support Quenya and Sindarin.
• Elvish influence is pervasive in names; explicit Elvish speech is rare and mostly poetic.
• Editorial choices limited Elvish content despite Tolkien’s preference for more.

Stop prompting. Let the AI interview you to build specs

Key Points

• AI-led adaptive interviews replace manual prompting to capture complete requirements.
• Generates a development-ready engineering spec for tools like Codex and Cursor.
• Sample PRD demonstrates detailed features, architecture, and a concrete data model.

Native FreeBSD Kerberos/LDAP with FreeIPA/IDM

Key Points

• FreeBSD 15’s switch to MIT Kerberos enables simpler FreeIPA/IdM integration.
• New method uses nslcd (nss-pam-ldapd) instead of sssd and heavy dependencies.
• Step-by-step commands cover host enrollment, keytab handling, and verification.

World's Only Pencil Sharpener Museum

Key Points

• Over 4,000 sharpeners from collections begun by Rev. Paul A. Johnson
• Two-year renovation added accessibility and UV-protective, non-glare display glass
• Reopened January 2024; open daily at 13178 State Road 664 South, Logan, Ohio

Zep AI (Building the Context Graph, YC W24) Is Hiring Engineers

Key Points

• Zep AI is hiring engineers to build its context graph platform.
• Graphiti reached 20k GitHub stars in under a year.
• Zep AI reports sub-200ms retrieval and SOC 2 Type 2/HIPAA certifications.

Fastest Front End Tooling for Humans and AI

Key Points

• Go-based TypeScript (“tsgo”) is reported to deliver ~10x faster type checking with improved error detection.
• Migrating involves tsdown/Vite, installing @typescript/native-preview, switching tsc to tsgo, and enabling a VS Code flag.
• Oxfmt and Oxlint replace Prettier and ESLint, offering built-in plugins, ESLint compatibility, and type-aware linting.

macOS Tahoe 26.3 is Broken

Key Points

• Crashes began after updating to macOS Tahoe 26.3 on a Mac mini M2 Pro.
• Symptoms: sluggishness, cursor freeze, purple screen flash, auto-reboot.
• Console.app provides no crash logs; bug report filed (FB21983519).

Microsoft says bug causes Copilot to summarize confidential emails

Key Points

• Bug caused Copilot Chat to summarize labeled emails in Sent and Drafts.
• Microsoft began rolling out a fix in early February and is monitoring results.
• Scope and timeline remain unclear; incident tagged as an advisory.

Mark Zuckerberg Lied to Congress. We Can't Trust His Testimony

Key Points

• Unsealed documents are alleged to contradict Zuckerberg’s 2024 Senate testimony.
• Most tested Instagram teen safety features were found ineffective or limited.
• An expert report concludes platform design is unsafe for minors.

AI has fixed my productivity

Key Points

• Survey context: Fortune reports CEOs see no measurable AI productivity impact.
• Author’s experience: meaningful gains from targeted AI uses integrated into workflows.
• Diagnosis: enterprise rollouts lack training/integration; granular gains evade standard metrics.

Show HN: CEL by Example

Key Points

• CEL evaluates expressions over JSON/Protobuf with concise syntax and is used in systems like Kubernetes, Google Cloud IAM, Firebase, Envoy, and Protovalidate.
• Demonstrates collections and string operations (in, exists, filter, map, endsWith) for querying and transforming data.
• Shows native time arithmetic and logical/conditional operators for policy evaluation and classification.

Show HN: Axiom – A math-native OS where x² is valid syntax (built from scratch)

Key Points

• Math-native OS built on LFS 12.4 with no GC/VM and game-theoretic scheduling.
• Architecture stack includes Flux/Tenet interface, TORAM memory, Linux 6.7.4 kernel, and Alexitha cognition.
• Neurosymbolic integration uses Qwen LLMs with formal verification; inference runs as ring-3 services.

AI-generated password isn't random, it just looks that way

Key Points

• LLM-generated passwords exhibit predictable patterns and low entropy.
• Gemini 3 Pro warns against using chat-generated passwords and suggests passphrases/managers.
• Irregular estimates such passwords could be brute-forced in hours on decades-old hardware.

Stephen Colbert going down swinging

Key Points

• CBS issued a Tuesday statement about an unaired Colbert interview with Texas Democrat James Talarico.
• Colbert read and mocked the statement on “The Late Show,” calling it lawyerly and discarding it as a gag.
• The segment followed the prior night’s attention to the network’s decision not to air the interview.

The Only Moat Left Is Money

Key Points

• AI has increased product supply, making attention the scarce resource.
• Discovery channels like Show HN are saturated and less effective.
• Reach—often requiring money or time—has become the primary moat for new products.

Zero-day CSS: CVE-2026-2441 exists in the wild

Key Points

• Chrome Stable update fixes high-severity CVE-2026-2441 in CSS.
• Exploit for the vulnerability is known to be active in the wild.
• Bug details are restricted until the fix reaches most users.

Garment Notation Language: Formal descriptive language for clothing construction

Key Points

• GNL formalizes garment construction with body-anchored, constructive, and composable specifications.
• PEG/Peggy-based tooling generates a parser and powers a live viewer for assembled and flat pattern visualizations.
• A converter imports the Korosteleva NeurIPS 2021 dataset into GNL; v0.2 adds advanced garment features.

Show HN: Formally verified FPGA watchdog for AM broadcast in unmanned tunnels

Key Points

• 12-channel AM system on Red Pitaya with runtime frequency configuration and dynamic power scaling.
• Stateless Rust/JS MVC app with event-driven architecture and enforced state machine transitions.
• Formally verified hardware watchdog (SymbiYosys + Z3) proving 14 properties and 6 cover scenarios.

Windows: Prefer the Native API over Win32

Key Points

• Zig prioritizes Native API (ntdll) over Win32 (kernel32) on Windows.
• Native APIs provide performance, capabilities, fewer dependencies, and early boot execution.
• NTSTATUS and Native types enable richer, more ergonomic error handling and data structures.

Dear Comrade Xi

Key Points

• Reserve currency status relies on network effects and a chain of trust.
• Ease of settlement (“minimum viable work”) is critical and poses challenges for RMB.
• Reserve currencies diffuse beyond issuer control, as shown by the eurodollar system.

Tailscale Peer Relays is now generally available

Key Points

• Peer Relays GA with major performance and reliability improvements.
• Static endpoints enable deployment behind load balancers in restrictive cloud environments.
• Enhanced observability via tailscale ping and new relay metrics.

Weave (YC W25) Is Hiring ML, Design, and Product Engineers

Key Points

• Weave is hiring founding engineers in Design, ML, and Product.
• All listed roles are full-time and on-site at Weave HQ.
• A Sales position is also open, complementing engineering hires.

Cistercian Numbers

Key Points

• Medieval system encodes 1–9,999 in a single glyph on a vertical stem.
• Linked to John of Basingstoke’s numeral ideas and used into the early 20th century.
• Provides images, a downloadable chart, and external resources for learning.

Show HN: Trust Protocols for Anthropic/OpenAI/Gemini

Key Points

• AAP logs agent actions; AIP logs agent reasoning to make behavior observable.
• Transparency is the goal; the protocols do not guarantee trustworthiness or correctness.
• Resources include specs, quickstarts, API references, and integration guides.

Pocketbase lost its funding from FLOSS fund

Key Points

• FLOSS/fund’s GitHub partnership failed due to regulatory constraints.
• Funding via Indian wire transfer was declined over privacy and process concerns.
• PocketBase will continue toward a stable release despite funding cancellation.

The true history of the Minotaur: what archaeology reveals

Key Points

• Minoan civilization’s bull and labyrinth motifs align with the Minotaur myth.
• Timeline: Minoan dominance ca. 3000–1100 BCE; mainland Greece rises mid–2nd millennium BCE.
• Classical retelling details key figures (Minos, Pasiphae, Daedalus, Theseus, Ariadne) and events.

Arizona Bill Requires Age Verification for All Apps

Key Points

• Requires age verification for all mobile software, including preinstalled apps
• Mandates parental consent for minors and renewed consent after “significant changes”
• Imposes extensive data collection, sharing, and record-keeping with substantial penalties

Disney trip turned into immigration detention

Key Points

• ProPublica investigates conditions at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center through interviews and children’s letters.
• A 9-year-old and her mother were detained after airport questioning during a planned Disney trip.
• The facility has processed over 3,500 people since reopening, with about half being minors.

Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock

Key Points

• Berkshire cut Amazon by 77%, selling 7.7M shares (~$1.7B).
• Berkshire opened a 5M-share position in The New York Times (~$352M), lifting NYT stock ~10%.
• Apple holdings were reduced to a 1.5% position; stake in Chubb expanded.

Vermont EV buses prove unreliable for transportation this winter

Key Points

• Recall-driven software now prevents charging below 41°F and caps batteries at 75% SOC.
• GMT’s facility lacks fire mitigation for indoor charging, limiting winter operations.
• Replacement batteries are projected in 18–24 months; GMT seeks financial remedy.

Cosmologically Unique IDs

Key Points

• Random IDs provide decentralized, collision-resistant identification when sized appropriately.
• UUIDs use 122 random bits as a practical, widely adopted standard.
• A worst-case theoretical bound suggests ~798-bit IDs to avoid expected collisions until the universe’s end.

DNS-Persist-01: A New Model for DNS-Based Challenge Validation

Key Points

• DNS-PERSIST-01 uses a reusable DNS authorization record tied to a CA and ACME account.
• It reduces DNS updates and credential distribution compared to DNS-01.
• Scope (wildcard) and lifetime (persistUntil) controls allow tailored authorization.

Learning Lean: Part 1

Key Points

• Formalization separates narrative insight from mechanical proof details.
• Proposed AI–Lean two-tier workflow for proofs with GitHub hosting of formal artifacts.
• Author’s background informs approach; foundational study in type theory and logic identified as gaps.

Show HN: Echo, an iOS SSH+mosh client built on Ghostty

Key Points

• Native iOS/iPadOS SSH+mosh client built on Ghostty for performance and accurate TUI rendering.
• Security and integration features include Metal rendering, Keychain for SSH keys, and Face ID.
• Optimized UX: iPhone input enhancements and iPad multitasking with Split View, Slide Over, and Stage Manager.

99% of adults over 40 have shoulder "abnormalities" on an MRI, study finds

Key Points

• 99% of adults 41–76 had a rotator cuff MRI abnormality, most without symptoms.
• Partial-thickness tears (62%) were most common; abnormalities increased with age.
• Adjusted analyses showed no significant link between full-thickness tears and symptoms.

R3forth: A Concatenative Language Derived from ColorForth

Key Points

• R3forth compiles entire programs to native 64-bit code before execution.
• The tutorial covers stack-based postfix execution, memory operations, and core control structures.
• Designed for direct OS interaction, with topics spanning libraries, debugging, and performance.

OpenClaw Is Dangerous

Key Points

• OpenClaw connects a local laptop to third‑party services via an AI agent and has recently gone viral.
• The article frames OpenClaw as a personal‑assistant use case for non‑technical users, contrasting it with coding agents like Claude Code.
• Moltbook’s viral agent posts raise concerns, underscoring that agents can cause harm without conscious intent.

The political effects of X's feed algorithm

Key Points

• Switching to X’s algorithm increased prioritization of Republican-salient issues by 4.7 points.
• Users were 5.5 points more likely to view Trump investigations as unacceptable after exposure.
• Effects persisted even after turning off the algorithm, partly due to follow-network changes.

The Perils of ISBN

Key Points

• ISBNs map to editions and formats, fragmenting search results for a single literary work.
• A work-centric model, informed by FRBR, can simplify logging and grouping of editions.
• Existing platforms’ UI friction motivates building a cleaner, more convenient book-tracking solution.

What is happening to writing?: Claude Code and the negative space around AI

Key Points

• AI-generated prose is widely consumed, as evidenced by a viral essay on X.
• Tools like Gemini and Claude now automate transcription and legal formatting tasks.
• Embodied, in-person, and archival work remains comparatively resistant to AI.

A solver for Semantle

Key Points

• Semantle uses Google News word2vec embeddings and cosine similarity for scoring.
• A direct linear-equation approach would need about 300 guesses to recover the target embedding.
• A geometric filtering solver narrows candidates and reportedly solves in ~3 guesses.

Portugal: The First Global Empire (2015)

Key Points

• Gama’s voyage overturned the Ptolemaic view of the Indian Ocean.
• Portugal built a centralized, empirical knowledge system via the India House.
• Portuguese strategy focused on mastering winds and controlling choke points.

Show HN: Strava for Claude Code

Key Points

• One command (“bunx straude”) logs and publishes Claude Code usage metrics.
• Public feed and leaderboards (daily/weekly/monthly, global/regional) foster streaks and competition.
• Tracks tokens, cost, models, sessions; emphasizes zero‑friction onboarding and sharing.

There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming

Key Points

• Human activities are the established primary cause of recent, rapid global warming.
• Multiple independent datasets—from paleoclimate proxies and modern satellites—show consistent warming signals.
• Current warming and CO₂ rise rates far exceed those observed in natural post–ice age transitions.

Delphi is 31 years old – innovation timeline

Key Points

• Delphi’s 31-year anniversary timeline contextualizes its evolution within wider tech milestones.
• Coverage spans languages, mobile platforms/devices, browsers, social media, gaming, and AI, ending with RAD Studio 13.
• The high-resolution, large-format PDF is available for free download and suited for printing.

Metriport (YC S22) is hiring a security engineer to harden healthcare infra

Key Points

• Metriport seeks a Senior Security Engineer to harden healthcare infrastructure.
• The company is an open-source healthcare data intelligence platform and part of YC S22.
• The listing appears on Y Combinator’s platform and includes an image labeled Colin Elsinga.

Show HN: Rebrain.gg – Doom learn, don't doom scroll

Key Points

• LLM outputs are presented as interactive question forms instead of chat.
• Example lesson teaches bash ‘find’ command usage and directory exclusion.
• Project is early-stage and seeking user feedback.

Womens Sizing

Key Points

• The article claims larger women are offered inferior clothing choices in the current market.
• It frames the issue within women’s sizing and inclusivity in fashion.
• No specific brands or data are provided in the excerpt; the point is presented as a general critique.

Assigning Open Problems in Class

Key Points

• Disclose the nature of open problems while distinguishing between famous and approachable ones.
• Do not count extra credit toward grades; use it to inform recommendation letters.
• Encourage student solutions and recognize them enthusiastically to maintain respect.

Making a font with ligatures to display thirteenth-century monk numerals

Key Points

• A ligature-based font renders Cistercian numerals while preserving searchable, copyable text.
• SVG paths from a prior generator define the glyph shapes; no JavaScript is required.
• Greedy ligature rules start with 4-digit sequences; longer numbers render in 4-digit chunks.

When interfaces become disposable

Key Points

• Fitbit’s default UX struggled with fragmented sleep data needs.
• A custom interface was built quickly using Fitbit’s public API and an AI coding agent.
• The author views the tool as disposable personal software, not a product.

All Look Same?

Key Points

• Faces are NYC portraits of individuals who are Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.
• Modern Art images come from Italy’s Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo exhibit “AllLookSame?”.
• Food identifications are based on the photo’s location, acknowledging cross-cultural diffusion.

Ladybird: Closing this as we are no longer pursuing Swift adoption

Key Points

• Swift 6.0 adoption in Ladybird halted due to unresolved compiler and build issues.
• Upstream Swift mitigated a libstdc++ <execution> module map cycle; fix not in Swift 6.0.0/6.0.1.
• CMake MR 9692 addresses a swiftc install_name issue; Ninja builds also misapplied deployment targets.

Microsoft offers guide to pirating Harry Potter series for LLM training

Key Points

• Azure SQL and SQL in Microsoft Fabric now support native vector search.
• The langchain-sqlserver package lets LangChain manage SQL Server/Azure SQL as a Vectorstore.
• Tutorial builds Q&A and generative features using embeddings and similarity search.

Roads to Rome (2015)

Key Points

• Uses OpenStreetMap data and GraphHopper to compute routes to Rome at multiple scales.
• Built with turf.js, leaflet.js, Mapbox GL JS, tippecanoe, node.js, and MongoDB.
• Exhibited internationally and recognized with multiple awards and press mentions.

How to Choose Between Hindley-Milner and Bidirectional Typing

Key Points

• Ask first whether the language needs generics, as this dictates the need for unification.
• HM inherently relies on unification; bidirectional typing can work with or without it.
• Bidirectional typing can subsume HM capabilities and extend beyond them via annotations.

Minecraft Java is switching from OpenGL to Vulkan

Key Points

• Minecraft: Java Edition is transitioning from OpenGL to Vulkan for improved visuals and performance.
• macOS support will use a translation layer due to Apple’s lack of native Vulkan support (Metal-only).
• Vulkan and OpenGL will coexist in summer snapshots with a toggle; OpenGL will be removed after testing.

15 years of FP64 segmentation, and why the Blackwell Ultra breaks the pattern

Key Points

• Consumer FP64:FP32 ratios have worsened from Fermi to Ampere, reaching 1:64 on modern consumer GPUs.
• Datacenter GPUs historically maintained stronger FP64 ratios and added features like ECC memory and NVLink, contributing to price gaps.
• AI training’s preference for lower precisions led to a 2017 GeForce EULA update restricting consumer GPUs in datacenters.

Show HN: Respectlytics – Open-source, privacy-first mobile analytics (MIT+AGPL)

Key Points

• Stores only five non-personal event fields with RAM-only rotating session IDs.
• Requires PostgreSQL; provides Docker and manual setup guides.
• Production guidance covers HTTPS, SSL for managed DBs, and optional GeoIP via MaxMind.

Step 3.5 Flash: Fast Enough to Think. Reliable Enough to Act

Key Points

• Sparse MoE + MTP-3 enable fast, efficient reasoning with 100–300 tok/s throughput.
• 256K context is achieved via a 3:1 SWA-to-full-attention ratio for cost-efficient long-context use.
• Strong coding/agent results (74.4% SWE-bench Verified, 51.0% Terminal-Bench 2.0) with local deployment support.

How AI is affecting productivity and jobs in Europe

Key Points

• AI adoption yields an average 4% labor productivity gain in EU firms.
• No short-run employment reductions are observed with AI adoption.
• Larger and capability-rich firms realize stronger productivity gains from AI.

Electrobun v1: Build fast, tiny, and cross-platform desktop apps with TypeScript

Key Points

• Electrobun v1 provides cross-platform desktop app development with automated installers and updates.
• Differential updates use zig-bsdiff optimized with SIMD and zstd, and can be hosted on R2, S3, or GitHub Releases.
• The framework relies on Bun’s FFI and shared memory, and introduces <electrobun-webview> for robust OOPIF.

Show HN: I built a fuse box for microservices

Key Points

• Centralized circuit-breaker platform for distributed systems and third-party dependencies
• SDK example shows protecting a Stripe call with a single breaker across servers
• Dashboard-managed thresholds, recovery, and synchronization; free tier up to 10 breakers

European Tech Alternatives

Key Points

• Directory of GDPR-compliant, EU-hosted European software and services
• Over 500 companies across 30+ categories
• Multiple discovery paths: explore, popular categories/alternatives, and browse by country

Show HN: A Lisp where each function call runs a Docker container

Key Points

• Each Lisp function call executes in a Docker container via the Docker Lisp environment.
• Programs are packaged as Dockerfiles using the docker-lisp/eval base image and built/run with provided scripts.
• Tracing and monitoring tools (—trace, docker stats/events) enable detailed observation of evaluation.