Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?

Mozilla's new CEO Enzor-DeMeo considered blocking ad blockers in Firefox for profit but decided against it due to being off-mission. This decision may disappoint loyal users who value Firefox's commitment to open standards and ad blockers as a security feature.

AI will make formal verification go mainstream

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AI will make formal verification cheaper and more accessible, allowing for widespread adoption in software development. This will be driven by AI-generated code needing formal verification to ensure its correctness and by AI's ability to assist in writing proof scripts.

TLA+ Modeling Tips

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The author provides a set of heuristic principles for designing distributed systems, emphasizing the importance of abstraction, omission, and declarative specification, as well as the need to check for failures, message reordering, and other edge cases. The principles are based on the author's experience in the field and are intended to help designers think critically about their systems and ...

alpr.watch

US municipalities are adopting surveillance technologies with over 80,000 cameras tracking residents' movements and collecting data. A website allows users to track and report on these technologies.

No Graphics API

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Sebastian Aaltonen, a 30-year graphics code veteran, discusses the evolution of graphics APIs and the need for a simplified API design tailored for modern GPUs. He proposes a new memory management system, combining CUDA's GPU malloc design with CPU-mapped GPU memory, to improve performance and simplify graphics programming.

AI's real superpower: consuming, not creating

https://msanroman.io/api/og?title=AI's%20real%20superpower%3A%20consuming%2C%20not%20creating
Author uses AI to analyze notes and insights, revealing patterns and connections previously unknown. This approach enables faster problem-solving, better decision-making, and retrieval of forgotten expertise.

Modern SID chip substitutes [video]

Announcing the Beta release of ty

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Astral announces the Beta release of ty, a fast Python type checker and language server written in Rust. ty is designed for live updates and provides accurate feedback, balancing correctness with user experience.

Playing Santa Does Things to a Man. What It Did to Bob Rutan Was Even Stranger

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Bob Rutan, a former Macy's Santa, shares his story of how playing Santa helped him find happiness and redemption. However, his life took a turn for the worse after his corporate run, revealing the darker side of the iconic role.

GPT Image 1.5

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OpenAI introduces GPT-5.2 for professional knowledge work, improving economic value and state-of-the-art performance in tasks like spreadsheets, presentations, and code writing.

Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions

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GitHub updated its pricing and product models for GitHub Actions, improving reliability and performance. The changes include reduced prices for GitHub-hosted runners and a new $0.002 per-minute Actions cloud platform charge.

No AI* Here – A Response to Mozilla's Next Chapter

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Mozilla's new CEO plans to position the company as a trusted software company with AI at its center, but the author is skeptical about this approach. The author believes that large language models are untrustworthy and should not be integrated into browsers.

Annual Production of 1/72 (22mm) scale plastic soldiers, 1958-2025

The hobby has seen a 'Golden Age' with a record number of manufacturers producing new sets, peaking in 2006 with over 100 new sets. However, the market has since declined due to economic difficulties and oversaturation.

40 percent of fMRI signals do not correspond to actual brain activity

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Researchers led by Valentin Riedl found that brain regions use oxygen more efficiently without increased blood flow during tasks. This challenges the interpretation of fMRI studies on brain disorders and suggests using quantitative measurements for more accurate results.

Subsets (YC S23) is hiring engineers in Copenhagen, Denmark

Subsets is a lifecycle growth platform for consumer subscription teams, automating experimentation and user journeys. It's trusted by businesses like The Atlantic and has raised $6.1m after launching from Y Combinator.

Thin desires are eating life

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We're chasing thin desires that can be easily fulfilled, but leave us empty, while neglecting thick desires that require effort and bring lasting satisfaction. Pursuing the thick life, like baking bread, can be a way to find meaning and fulfillment without trying to change the world.

VA Linux: The biggest dotcom IPO

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VA Linux was a successful Linux startup during the dotcom era, with its IPO setting a record in 1999. However, its business model of selling pre-installed Linux PCs was short-lived due to improved Linux hardware support and competition from established computer makers.

Mozilla appoints new CEO Anthony Enzor-Demeo

https://blog.mozilla.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/278/files/2025/12/Distilled_Header_Anthony-1000x563.png
As Mozilla's new CEO, I will focus on building a trusted software company by giving users agency over their data and AI, and growing through transparent monetization. We will measure progress against a double bottom line, advancing our mission and succeeding in the market over the next three years.

Show HN: I built a WebMIDI sequencer to control my hardware synths

Web-based MIDI sequencer with AI-generated fugues

I ported JustHTML from Python to JavaScript with Codex CLI and GPT-5.2 in hours

https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2025/justjshtml-playground.jpg
The user ported JustHTML, a Python HTML5 parser, to JavaScript using Codex CLI and GPT-5.2 in 4 hours. The new library, simonw/justjshtml, passes 9,200 tests from the html5lib-tests suite and has a similar API to the original library.

P: Formal Modeling and Analysis of Distributed (Event-Driven) Systems

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P is a state machine based programming language for formally modeling and specifying complex distributed systems. It helps developers reason about correctness and find bugs early through automated analysis and model checking.

Living Particle System

Generated by create next app

Introduction to Software Development Tooling (2024)

This course, CS 4973, is an introduction to software development tooling at Northeastern University, teaching four fundamental categories of tooling: the command line, version control, build systems, and correctness. Students will learn industry-standard tools through hands-on projects and exploration of existing codebases.

Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years

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The Japanese government is planning to replace its 70-year-old romanization system with the more widely used Hepburn-style spellings. The changes are expected to be approved and rolled out in textbooks and materials within the current fiscal year.

Show HN: Titan – JavaScript-first framework that compiles into a Rust server

Titan Planet is a JavaScript-first backend framework that compiles JavaScript routes into a native Rust server. It provides a full backend engine, dev server, and Docker deploy pipeline.

Show HN: Mephisto – A RAM-only, ad-free disposable email PWA built with React

Sega Channel: VGHF Recovers over 100 Sega Channel ROMs (and More)

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A team has recovered over 100 new Sega Channel ROMs, including system data, exclusive games, and prototypes, and digitized internal paperwork and correspondence that reveals how Sega Channel operated. The recovered data includes nearly 100 unique system ROMs, dozens of previously undumped game variants, and Sega Channel exclusives, and accounts for almost all outstanding Sega Channel games.

The World Happiness Report is beset with methodological problems

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The World Happiness Report is based on a flawed methodology using a single question about life satisfaction, which doesn't accurately measure happiness.

Nvidia Nemotron 3 Family of Models

NVIDIA announces Nemotron 3, a family of open models with leading accuracy for agentic AI applications. The Nemotron 3 family includes Nano, Super, and Ultra models with varying capabilities and efficiency.

A Guide to Magnetizing N48 Magnets in Ansys Maxwell

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Ansys Maxwell is used to simulate the magnetization of a specific permanent magnet, the N48SH, using its manufacturer datasheet. The simulation accurately predicts the magnet's operating point, validating the workflow against Maxwell's built-in N48 material.