Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

665 walterbell 2025-10-04 00:30:44 UTC windscribe.com Llama Share 410

A user created a map showing relationships between VPN companies, media companies, and affiliate programs, highlighting corporate ownership, paid relationships, and partnerships. The map reveals a complex web of connections between VPN companies, including ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark, and their affiliate programs.

SEC approves Texas Stock Exchange, first new US integrated exchange in decades

431 pseudolus 2025-10-04 16:04:24 UTC cbsnews.com Llama Share 304

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the Texas Stock Exchange as a national securities exchange, paving the way for its 2026 launch. This move is expected to spur economic development in Texas, which is home to many Fortune 500 companies and a large economy.

The UK is still trying to backdoor encryption for Apple users

394 CharlesW 2025-10-04 20:07:11 UTC eff.org Full Share 157

The Financial Times reports that the U.K. is once again demanding that Apple create a backdoor into its encrypted backup services. The only change since the last time they demanded this is that the order is allegedly limited to only apply to British users. That doesn’t make it any better.The demand...

Flock's gunshot detection microphones will start listening for human voices

355 hhs 2025-10-04 14:49:30 UTC eff.org Llama Share 255

Flock Safety is rolling out a new product that detects "human distress" via audio, raising concerns about civil liberties and potential misuses. Cities that adopt this technology may face headaches and lawsuits, as Flock has a history of causing legal challenges.

How I influence tech company politics as a staff software engineer

347 facundo_olano 2025-10-04 15:09:41 UTC seangoedecke.com Llama Share 205

Software engineers can get involved in company politics by making high-profile projects successful or aligning their pet ideas with existing campaigns. This can increase their political capital and help them achieve their technical goals.

ProofOfThought: LLM-based reasoning using Z3 theorem proving

326 barthelomew 2025-10-04 18:34:23 UTC github.com/debarghag Llama Share 170

User uses OpenAI to query whether Nancy Pelosi publicly denounces abortion, receiving a false answer. They then evaluate a dataset using a reasoning pipeline, achieving an accuracy of approximately 0%.

Paged Out Issue #7 [pdf]

301 todsacerdoti 2025-10-04 10:38:06 UTC pagedout.institute Llama Share 23

The user tested four AI checkers on four samples of text, including original, AI-generated, and edited text, and found inconsistent results, concluding that AI checkers cannot be trusted.

A comparison of Ada and Rust, using solutions to the Advent of Code

288 andsoitis 2025-10-04 15:10:49 UTC github.com/johnperry-math Full Share 236

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Self-hosting email like it's 1984

268 xmx98 2025-10-04 14:53:32 UTC maxadamski.com Llama Share 181

Self-hosting an email server is free and easy to set up, requiring minimal storage and energy consumption. It involves installing Postfix and OpenDKIM, configuring DNS records, and obtaining an SSL certificate.

Alibaba cloud FPGA: the $200 Kintex UltraScale+

256 signa11 2025-10-04 06:49:58 UTC essenceia.github.io Llama Share 99

The user purchased a Kintex UltraScale+ FPGA development board from eBay for $200, which came with a XCKU3P-FFVB676 FPGA, 2 SPF+ connectors, and a x8 PCIe interface, but lacked documentation and guarantees. The user aims to use the board as a dev board, starting by confirming its functionality, establishing a JTAG connection, and automating the Vivado flow to generate a SVF file for ...

Circular Financing: Does Nvidia's $110B Bet Echo the Telecom Bubble?

249 miltava 2025-10-04 13:06:32 UTC tomtunguz.com Llama Share 212

Nvidia's $100 billion investment in OpenAI and $110 billion in vendor financing may be a harbinger of another spectacular collapse like the telecom bubble. The GPU-backed debt market is built on the assumption that GPUs will hold their value over 4-6 years, but evidence suggests they last only 1-3 years in practice.

NSA and IETF: Can an attacker purchase standardization of weakened cryptography?

240 zdw 2025-10-04 22:16:33 UTC blog.cr.yp.to Llama Share 109

The NSA is trying to weaken post-quantum cryptography by pushing for single encryption instead of double encryption, which would make it easier for them to break the encryption and gain access to sensitive information. The IETF TLS WG has adopted a non-hybrid draft for post-quantum key agreement, despite objections from many experts who argue that it creates security risks and violates the WG charter.

Working pipe operator today in pure JavaScript

230 urvader 2025-10-04 09:54:01 UTC github.com/irony Llama Share 84

asPipes is a JavaScript library that models the proposed pipeline operator using bitwise OR and Symbol.toPrimitive. It enables clean, direct syntax for composing reusable, named higher-order pipes.

Blog Feeds

225 stevedsimkins 2025-10-04 19:08:46 UTC blogfeeds.net Llama Share 73

The writer misses the simple web where people shared thoughts and ideas through blogs, now suggesting a return to casual online communication. They recommend creating a blog and sharing an RSS feed to connect with others in a personal and organic way.

$912 energy independence without red tape

206 nikodunk 2025-10-04 21:22:05 UTC sunboxlabs.com Llama Share 163

User is referencing Will Prowse's 48V 3000W off-grid solar system, which provides 1100kWh/y energy with a 3.5 year payback period. The system draws power from the wall only when the sun is down and the battery is dead.

New antibiotic targets IBD and AI predicted how it would work

204 KLK2019 2025-10-04 01:09:37 UTC healthsci.mcmaster.ca Full Share 82

The Buchstabenmuseum Berlin is closing

199 t-vi 2025-10-04 11:58:58 UTC buchstabenmuseum.de Llama Share 68

The Buchstabenmuseum is open Thurs-Sun 1-5 pm, with guided tours available outside hours. They're also celebrating 20 years with a birthday party on June 14 and need help with storage and membership.

Microsoft 365 Copilot's commercial failure

194 jukkan 2025-10-04 19:39:00 UTC perspectives.plus Llama Share 169

Microsoft's paid Copilot product sales have failed with only 8 million active licensed users out of 440 million subscribers, a 1.81% conversion rate. The company is now shifting focus to agents and a per-agent monetization model, indicating a reimagined strategy to make up for the commercial failure of Copilot.

Discord customer service data breach leaks user info and scanned photo IDs

183 healsdata 2025-10-04 00:39:04 UTC theverge.com Llama Share 38

Discord was hacked by an unauthorized party that accessed user information including names, emails, and credit card numbers. The company is notifying affected users and has taken steps to secure its systems.

Scientists are discovering a powerful new way to prevent cancer

167 Earw0rm 2025-10-04 11:44:15 UTC economist.com Llama Share 124

Cancer starts with a mutation in a normal cell that allows it to multiply uncontrollably. This leads to tumour formation and spread to other body parts.

Thunderscan: A clever device transforms a printer into a scanner (2004)

163 dtgriscom 2025-10-04 12:16:37 UTC folklore.org Llama Share 36

The author worked on the Silentype printer project at Apple in 1979 and later joined Thunderware to develop Thunderscan, a low-cost scanner for the Macintosh. Thunderscan was a high-resolution scanner that used an ImageWriter printer and was priced under $200, but it was slow and had low image quality initially.

Orcas are bringing humans gifts

161 wslh 2025-10-04 01:00:00 UTC newscientist.com Llama Share 96

Orcas have been observed gifting dead prey to humans, suggesting they may engage in altruism and recognize sentience in other species. This behaviour, seen in 34 cases, may demonstrate orcas' ability to understand mental states and cooperate with other species.

AI-powered open-source code laundering

159 genkiuncle 2025-10-04 23:26:02 UTC github.com/sudomaker Full Share 86

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Google removes ICE-spotting app following Apple's ICEBlock crackdown

151 funkyfourier 2025-10-04 12:23:40 UTC theverge.com Llama Share 129

Google removed app Red Dot from its store after Apple took down ICEBlock due to concerns over user safety and potential violence against ICE agents. The apps allowed users to anonymously report ICE agent sightings, prompting the Department of Justice to pressure Apple and Google to remove them.

Track which Electron apps slow down macOS 26 Tahoe

147 mikamika83 2025-10-04 00:45:40 UTC avarayr.github.io Full Share 137

Track which Electron apps have fixed the major GPU performance issue on macOS Tahoe. Real-time status monitoring of Electron app compatibility with macOS 26.

Sora Update #1

136 davidbarker 2025-10-04 00:39:14 UTC blog.samaltman.com Llama Share 178

Sora will give rightsholders more control over character generation and share revenue with them for user-generated videos. The platform will undergo rapid iteration and change to balance user engagement and rightsholder value.

Toyota runs a car-hacking event to boost security (2024)

135 octagons 2025-10-04 03:11:28 UTC toyotatimes.jp Llama Share 110

Toyota organizes Hack Festa, a car-hacking event for IT students to test their skills against each other. The event aims to boost cybersecurity in the auto industry by simulating potential hacking threats.

How functional programming shaped and twisted front end development

132 jicea 2025-10-04 13:04:15 UTC alfy.blog Llama Share 121

A developer who built web applications for years before moving to backend work was confused by modern React codebases, feeling they had "declared war on the platform itself." This perspective is shaped by having lived through the first browser war and remembering a web where CSS cascaded naturally.

Say Goodbye

125 mooreds 2025-10-04 20:21:20 UTC mooreds.com Llama Share 83

Send a kind message to someone who was laid off, expressing sympathy and appreciation for their efforts. Keep it brief, sincere, and avoid offering help or criticizing their former employer.

OpenAI's hunger for computing power

119 doener 2025-10-04 22:14:29 UTC wsj.com Full Share 104

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Binary Formats Gallery

116 vitalnodo 2025-10-04 00:19:02 UTC formats.kaitai.io Full Share 25

Kaitai Struct is a formal language for binary format specification that can be compiled into parser code

Matrix Core Programming on AMD GPUs

114 skidrow 2025-10-04 21:22:11 UTC salykova.github.io Llama Share 5

The blog post explains how to use Matrix Cores in HIP kernels, focusing on low-precision data types such as FP16, FP8, and FP4, and the new family of Matrix Core instructions with exponent block scaling introduced in the AMD CDNA4 architecture. It provides code examples and illustrations to cover modern low-precision floating-point types, Matrix Core compiler intrinsics, and data layouts ...

Privacy Harm Is Harm

112 hn_acker 2025-10-04 16:19:04 UTC eff.org Llama Share 35

EFF joins an amicus brief in Mata v Digital Recognition Network, a lawsuit against a corporation that allegedly violated a California data privacy law. The case questions whether Californians can challenge harmful surveillance without proving additional harm beyond privacy harm.

How to inject knowledge efficiently? Knowledge infusion scaling law for LLMs

104 PaulHoule 2025-10-04 17:18:07 UTC arxiv.org Llama Share 35

Large language models underperform on specialized tasks due to lack of domain knowledge, but excessive infusion causes memory collapse. A proposed scaling law predicts optimal domain knowledge injection based on model size, improving performance and generalizability.

X-ray scans reveal the hidden risks of cheap batteries

100 CharlesW 2025-10-04 18:37:31 UTC theverge.com Llama Share 28

A study found nearly 8% of low-cost lithium-ion batteries have manufacturing defects that can cause fires and explosions. Buying from reputable brands like Samsung and Panasonic reduces the risk of such defects.

Cloudflare Introduces NET Dollar stable coin

97 holografix 2025-10-04 08:02:48 UTC cloudflare.com Llama Share 124

Cloudflare is introducing NET Dollar, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin for instant, secure transactions on the agentic web. This will enable a new business model that rewards originality, sustains creativity, and enables innovation in an AI-driven world.

Show HN: Run – a CLI universal code runner I built while learning Rust

95 esubaalew 2025-10-04 18:34:13 UTC github.com/esubaalew Llama Share 39

run is a polyglot command runner that lets you script, compile, and iterate in 25+ languages without another CLI. It's built in Rust for developers who live in multiple runtimes.

Microformats – building blocks for data-rich web pages

83 surprisetalk 2025-10-04 13:58:00 UTC microformats.org Llama Share 29

Consuming microformats 2 data involves parsing HTML, handling nested structures, and dealing with various property value types. Properly handling microformats 2 data requires flexibility, sanitization, and validation to prevent XSS attacks and ensure safe storage and display.

Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders

79 wildlogic 2025-10-04 01:24:35 UTC geonot.github.io Llama Share 59

The font has a monospaced design with no descenders, optimized for code and terminal use, and a retro aesthetic. It is available in TTF, OTF, and WOFF2 formats.

Cuckoo hashing improves SIMD hash tables (and other hash table tradeoffs)

78 ibraheemdev 2025-10-04 18:45:55 UTC reiner.org Llama Share 1

Cuckoo hashing can be a good choice for hash tables when combined with SIMD-accelerated probing, especially for high load factors, and can be engineered to beat standard implementations in many scenarios. However, cuckoo hashing is more complex than quadratic probing and requires careful engineering to achieve optimal performance, but can offer advantages such as shorter probe lengths and ...

Space Mission Options for Reconnaissance and Mitigation of Asteroid 2024 YR4

77 bookofjoe 2025-10-04 23:42:55 UTC arxiv.org Llama Share 21

Asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4% chance of lunar impact in December 2032, threatening astronauts and spacecraft. Options for space missions to deflect or disrupt the asteroid are available, with reconnaissance missions being the most feasible.

Unchecked and Unaccountable: How DOGE Jeopardizes Americans' Data

74 defrost 2025-10-04 23:30:16 UTC hsgac.senate.gov Llama Share 15

Senator Gary Peters' report reveals that the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency is operating outside law, putting Americans' personal data at risk. The report calls for agencies to halt DOGE operations citing lack of accountability, security breaches, and unqualified personnel handling sensitive information.

XiangShan Vector Floating-Point Unit Design

70 camel-cdr 2025-10-04 22:02:28 UTC docs.xiangshan.cc Llama Share 6

The vector floating-point unit receives uop information and performs vector floating-point instruction calculations. It consists of four modules: VFAlu, VFMA, VFDivSqrt, and VFCvt, which handle various floating-point operations.

Starship's eleventh flight test

68 starwatch 2025-10-04 04:25:54 UTC spacex.com Llama Share 78

Starship's 11th flight test is scheduled to launch on or after October 13, with a live webcast starting 30 minutes before liftoff. The test aims to demonstrate a new landing burn engine configuration and stress-test Starship's heatshield, with a splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Ask HN: Why is software quality collapsing?

64 razoorka 2025-10-04 16:09:08 UTC news.ycombinator.com Llama Share 96

The user discusses the decline in software quality, citing examples of popular apps and companies that have failed to maintain basic standards, and argues that this is not a collapse of software quality but rather a decline in the quality of specific programs and companies. The user proposes that users should prioritize quality by voting with their attention and dollars, and that engineers ...

A Mac-like experience on Linux

61 TangerineDream 2025-10-04 14:31:58 UTC pointieststick.com Llama Share 83

The user, a former Mac user, found that GNOME does not offer a Mac-like experience despite popular claims, but it does provide a near-zero distraction experience. They recommend KDE Plasma for those seeking a more Mac-like experience on Linux, citing its customizable dock, desktop widgets, and personalization options.

Amazon Is Digitally Erasing Guns from James Bond Posters

55 Khaine 2025-10-04 13:01:24 UTC kotaku.com Llama Share 21

The user is excited for their two-week vacation but shares news about a Halo remake, Amazon censoring guns in James Bond images, and updates on Payday 3 and upcoming game releases in October. They also mention AOL dial-up news but their internet connection is interrupted.

New California law restricts HOA fines to $100 per violation

54 JumpCrisscross 2025-10-04 21:14:35 UTC calmatters.org Llama Share 97

A new California law caps homeowners association fines at $100, protecting middle- and low-income residents from excessive fees. The law aims to prevent HOAs from misusing their power and impose fair standards for enforcing neighborhood rules.

Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App

54 frizlab 2025-10-04 19:40:52 UTC inessential.com Llama Share 11

The writer believes the web is the future platform, free from controlling vendors, and wants to make a free RSS reader available to everyone. However, creating a web app would require significant costs and compromise his goal of making it free.

Empathy for Dummies

54 surprisetalk 2025-10-04 13:58:13 UTC quarter--mile.com Llama Share 75

The author was frustrated with being told to "be more empathetic" without clear explanations. They found a more practical definition of empathy as building an accurate model of someone else's world to better understand them.

Man buys used Tesla only to discover it's banned from Supercharger network

53 toomanyrichies 2025-10-04 20:37:58 UTC cbsnews.com Llama Share 40

A used Tesla buyer was left stranded after discovering his car was labeled "salvage" due to a minor accident, voiding its warranty and supercharging capabilities. Tesla is now offering an inspection option for $2,000 to regain access to its charging network.

It's not a hack to satisfy known requirements

52 michalc 2025-10-04 13:20:15 UTC charemza.name Llama Share 58

To avoid over-engineering, focus on solving specific problems and deliver value frequently, rather than trying to design a perfect system. Regularly assess your code and be willing to simplify it, rather than adding unnecessary complexity.

Borehole Oscillators

51 sohkamyung 2025-10-04 23:02:32 UTC gregegan.net Llama Share 12

A test particle dropped into a radial borehole through a solid ball of uniform density undergoes simple harmonic motion with the same period as a test particle in a circular orbit around the ball. In General Relativity, the motion of the particle in the borehole is slower than in Newtonian gravity.

Explainer: Inodes and Inode Numbers

51 ingve 2025-10-04 14:22:04 UTC eclecticlight.co Llama Share 0

Inodes are numbered data structures used to identify files and directories in most modern file systems, with each inode number uniquely identifying one object within the file system. Inode numbers can be used to distinguish files with identical data, track file links, and determine which file system contains a given file in volume groups.

New Poll: Democratic Socialism Is Now Mainstream

48 PaulHoule 2025-10-04 19:27:01 UTC jacobin.com Llama Share 44

A new national survey found 58% of Democrats prefer democratic socialism to capitalism and 70% believe the economic system is rigged against the poor. Younger voters and non-whites are increasingly embracing democratic socialism.

Monumental rock art: humans thrived in Arab. Desert during Pleistocene-Holocene

47 ano-ther 2025-10-04 17:25:40 UTC nature.com Llama Share 20

Archaeological sites in northern Arabia show human presence from 12.8 to 11.4 ka, facilitated by playas and seasonal water bodies. Rock art and stone tools indicate connections to late Epipalaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic populations of the Levant.

Memorizing phone numbers

44 speckx 2025-10-04 15:16:19 UTC phong.bearblog.dev Llama Share 42

I don't save phone numbers in my contacts, instead relying on remembering them to gauge relationship importance. This method helps me memorize numbers naturally and serves as a reminder of relationships that need attention.

Solaris 2.1 for x86 (2017)

34 naves 2025-10-04 18:07:23 UTC os2museum.com Llama Share 0

Solaris 2.1 for x86 was Sun's first entry into the PC market, released in 1993 with a modern UNIX system designed for workstation and server use. It featured a graphical user interface, network support, and loadable modules, but had limitations such as slow NeWS support and unaccelerated graphics.

Provable scaling laws of feature emergence from learning dynamics of grokking

29 sva_ 2025-10-04 18:26:29 UTC arxiv.org Llama Share 0

Researchers propose a novel framework called Li2 to study grokking in 2-layer nonlinear networks, capturing three stages: lazy learning, independent feature learning, and interactive feature learning. The framework reveals how key hyperparameters affect grokking and leads to provable scaling laws for feature emergence and generalization.

How do drivers react to partisan bumper stickers?

24 PaulHoule 2025-10-04 22:18:06 UTC frontiersin.org Llama Share 17

Researchers studied how partisan bumper stickers affect driving behavior, finding that out-partisan stickers increase hostility towards bad drivers. The study suggests that bumper stickers can escalate road safety issues due to partisan divides.

An MVCC-like columnar table on S3 with constant-time deletes

20 shayonj 2025-10-04 18:18:55 UTC shayon.dev Llama Share 10

The user proposes a columnar table format using Parquet and S3 primitives with conditional writes for coordination, tombstones for constant-time deletes, and a single-object transaction pointer for snapshot isolation. This design is suitable for append-heavy analytical workloads with occasional bulk deletes, such as event logs, time-series data, or CDC streams, but has natural scaling limits ...

Optimizing a 6502 image decoder – part II: assembly

20 matt_d 2025-10-04 05:51:56 UTC colino.net Llama Share 4

The article discusses optimizing an algorithm for a 1MHz 8-bit processor, focusing on techniques to improve speed. The author uses various "tricks" such as predictive branching, lookup tables, and self-modifying code to achieve a significant improvement in performance.

Discord data hacked in latest customer service breach to expose user information

14 paulpauper 2025-10-04 17:30:29 UTC tomshardware.com Llama Share 1

Discord experienced a data breach on September 20, where hackers accessed user contact info through a third-party customer service provider. The breach affected mainly usernames, email addresses, and real names, but full passwords and sensitive info remain safe.

Mic-E-Mouse: Covert eavesdropping through computer mice

11 Timothee 2025-10-04 23:32:31 UTC sites.google.com Llama Share 0

Researchers discovered a vulnerability in high-performance optical sensors in mice that can leak confidential user speech. They developed a pipeline called Mic-E-Mouse to overcome challenges and achieve intelligible reconstruction of user speech.

Microsoft lays off thousands and jacks up Game Pass prices

11 speckx 2025-10-04 16:23:07 UTC pcgamer.com Llama Share 0

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has led to significant price hikes and layoffs, harming gamers and developers. Former FTC chair Lina Khan predicted this outcome, citing increased market consolidation and dominant firms prioritizing profits over customers.