The Going Dark initiative or ProtectEU is a Chat Control 3.0 attempt

645 janandonly 2025-12-21 18:39:46 UTC mastodon.online Llama Share 279

The EU Commission plans to introduce "Going Dark" or ProtectEU, a law that would allow law enforcement to access encrypted data, potentially including VPN services. Mullvad VPN vows to continue fighting the law, even if it affects their business, and will never spy on customers, regardless of the outcome.

Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

609 seinvak 2025-12-21 16:21:04 UTC hackernews-readings-613604506318.us-west1.run.app Llama Share 212

The user discusses the limitations of copyright law and its impact on social justice, suggesting that famous works like Harry Potter should become public domain after reaching a certain level of fame. They also propose a tool for learning a new language through synchronized reading and listening to books in multiple languages.

A guide to local coding models

600 mpweiher 2025-12-21 20:55:15 UTC aiforswes.com Llama Share 350

The author initially thought upgrading hardware to run local coding models would be more cost-effective than paying for AI coding subscriptions. However, they realized local models are not suitable for critical tasks due to performance limitations.

Flock and Cyble Inc. weaponize “cybercrime” takedowns to silence critics

600 _a9 2025-12-21 01:12:31 UTC haveibeenflocked.com Llama Share 120

Cyble Inc filed false abuse reports with Cloudflare to remove a website exposing Flock's mass surveillance platform. The website was temporarily suspended but has since been moved to a new infrastructure.

Logging sucks

578 FlorinSays 2025-12-21 18:09:52 UTC loggingsucks.com Llama Share 223

The current logging system is broken due to its inability to provide context in a structured format, leading to difficulties in debugging issues. A better approach is to use wide events that contain all relevant context for each request, allowing for efficient querying and analysis of production traffic.

I can't upgrade to Windows 11, now leave me alone

549 firefoxd 2025-12-21 18:43:20 UTC idiallo.com Llama Share 559

Microsoft is harassing users with Windows 11 update reminders despite hardware incompatibility. The only options are to consent to future reminders or be shown ads for new laptops.

Show HN: WalletWallet – create Apple passes from anything

443 alentodorov 2025-12-21 16:04:05 UTC walletwallet.alen.ro Full Share 114

A simple utility to convert physical barcodes into digital passes for Apple Wallet®. Entirely free and runs directly from your browser.

Ruby website redesigned

426 psxuaw 2025-12-21 07:06:48 UTC ruby-lang.org Llama Share 187

Ruby has a vast collection of libraries and mature frameworks, allowing developers to build high-quality applications quickly. Its simple syntax, expressive features, and welcoming community make it a popular choice for programmers.

Show HN: Gaming Couch – a local multiplayer party game platform for 8 players

403 ChaosOp 2025-12-21 13:08:36 UTC gamingcouch.com Full Share 113

Gaming Couch is the ultimate social couch co-op party game platform. No consoles, no downloads, just pure fun!

CO2 batteries that store grid energy take off globally

369 rbanffy 2025-12-21 15:27:36 UTC spectrum.ieee.org Llama Share 310

Energy Dome's CO2 Battery stores excess renewable energy in a giant dome, generating 200 megawatt-hours of electricity daily. Replicas of this plant will be built globally, including in India and the US, to provide round-the-clock clean energy.

You’re not burnt out, you’re existentially starving

351 thanedar 2025-12-21 18:28:56 UTC neilthanedar.com Llama Share 412

The author feels stuck in the ordinary and is searching for meaning, but instead of giving up, they're finding their highest purpose and pursuing it. They encourage others to do the same by identifying their true passions and taking the first step towards making a positive impact.

Waymo halts service during S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams

318 rwoll 2025-12-21 05:12:03 UTC missionlocal.org Llama Share 456

Waymo suspended its ride-hailing services in San Francisco due to a citywide blackout. Autonomous vehicles were stuck in traffic, blocking roads and causing jams.

Autoland saves King Air, everyone reported safe

283 bradleybuda 2025-12-21 16:57:57 UTC avbrief.com Llama Share 185

Garmin's Autoland system successfully landed a King Air 200 at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Colorado after pilot incapacitation. All passengers are reported safe, with the system working flawlessly.

Disney Imagineering Debuts Next-Generation Robotic Character, Olaf

279 ChrisArchitect 2025-12-21 21:46:20 UTC disneyparksblog.com Llama Share 142

Disneyland Paris introduced a next-generation robotic Olaf character with advanced technology and AI, bringing the beloved snowman to life in a new way. This innovation marks a new chapter in Disney character innovation, with Olaf set to debut at Disney parks.

Indoor tanning makes youthful skin much older on a genetic level

258 SanjayMehta 2025-12-21 05:21:42 UTC ucsf.edu Llama Share 196

Young tanning bed users have more skin mutations than people twice their age, increasing their risk of cancer. Artificial UV radiation from tanning beds causes genetic changes that can lead to melanoma and other skin cancers.

Rue: Higher level than Rust, lower level than Go

256 ingve 2025-12-21 20:46:02 UTC rue-lang.dev Full Share 268

Familiar syntax inspired by various programming languages. If you know one, you'll feel at home with Rue.

Measuring AI Ability to Complete Long Tasks

246 spicypete 2025-12-21 04:06:36 UTC metr.org Llama Share 193

Researchers measured AI performance by task length, finding an exponential increase over 6 years with a 7-month doubling time. This trend predicts AI agents will complete week-long tasks in 2-4 years, with significant real-world impact.

Coarse is better

216 _dain_ 2025-12-21 12:57:44 UTC borretti.me Llama Share 115

The author is comparing old and new AI art models, finding the old ones more evocative and beautiful due to their imperfections. The new models are too precise and lack the creative gaps that allow imagination to breathe life into the art.

How I protect my Forgejo instance from AI web crawlers

187 todsacerdoti 2025-12-21 14:46:53 UTC her.esy.fun Llama Share 98

User's website was affected by crawlers ignoring robots.txt, causing system pressure. A simple nginx configuration with a JavaScript cookie redirect solved the issue, but may not be foolproof.

Clair Obscur having its Indie Game Game Of The Year award stripped due to AI use

186 anigbrowl 2025-12-21 07:16:19 UTC thegamer.com Llama Share 403

The Indie Game Awards stripped Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 of its Game of the Year and Debut Game wins due to alleged AI usage. The awards were given to Blue Prince and Sorry We're Closed instead, with acceptance speeches to be published in 2026.

Inca Stone Masonry

171 jppope 2025-12-21 07:26:39 UTC earthasweknowit.com Llama Share 43

The Inca civilization's stonework was accomplished through a combination of collective strength, ingenuity, and coordinated effort of multitudes of workers, using techniques such as hauling stones with ropes and earthen ramps to reduce friction. The Inca masons crafted remarkable stone monuments using hammerstones for shaping and splitting rocks, with their process and techniques being the ...

Reasons not to become famous (2020)

163 Tomte 2025-12-21 15:07:18 UTC tim.blog Llama Share 134

The author shares his experiences with fame, discussing the downsides of having a large audience, including death threats, stalkers, harassment of family members, and extortion attempts. He warns that seeking fame can lead to a loss of personal freedom and a constant need to deal with crazies, con artists, and predators, and advises people to carefully consider the costs and risks before pursuing fame.

Structured outputs create false confidence

155 gmays 2025-12-21 15:06:46 UTC boundaryml.com Llama Share 66

Structured outputs from LLMs force models to prioritize output conformance over quality, leading to lower quality responses and potential security risks. Allowing LLMs to respond in a free-form style can lead to higher quality responses and better results.

More on whether useful quantum computing is “imminent”

152 A_D_E_P_T 2025-12-21 20:53:34 UTC scottaaronson.blog Llama Share 125

The author has become more optimistic about quantum computing due to recent experimental milestones and hardware advancements, particularly in trapped ions and superconducting qubits. They now believe scalable quantum computing is plausible and imminent, but warn that the field is still plagued by hype and misrepresentations.

I wish people were more public

146 swah 2025-12-21 23:42:34 UTC borretti.me Llama Share 119

The author values sharing their thoughts and experiences online, finding it helps them connect with others and feel understood. They believe that doing things in public makes them more real and useful, and they encourage others to share their own work and thoughts.

ARIN Public Incident Report – 4.10 Misissuance Error

146 immibis 2025-12-21 15:19:41 UTC arin.net Llama Share 39

ARIN incorrectly allocated IPv4 block 23.150.164.0/24 to the wrong customer due to a manual inventory process error. The issue was resolved after the Original Customer reported the problem, and ARIN restored the block and issued a replacement to the correct customer.

Three ways to solve problems

144 42point2 2025-12-21 14:35:29 UTC andreasfragner.com Llama Share 22

Gerald Weinberg's problem definition has three approaches: change desired state, reframe current state, or decide not to solve it. Mastering tradeoffs and saying no to non-essential problems is key to success in startups and product management.

E.W.Dijkstra Archive

143 surprisetalk 2025-12-21 15:29:31 UTC cs.utexas.edu Llama Share 14

Edsger Dijkstra was a highly influential computing scientist who made significant contributions to the field, including the ACM Turing Award. He maintained a collection of technical notes called EWDs, which are now available online.

Get an AI code review in 10 seconds

140 oldmanrahul 2025-12-21 17:21:05 UTC oldmanrahul.com Llama Share 63

Add .diff to the end of a PR URL and paste it into a LLM for a quick initial review. This helps catch obvious issues and suggests improvements for a real code review.

Using Vectorize to build an unreasonably good search engine in 160 lines of code

139 ColinWright 2025-12-21 16:36:25 UTC blog.partykit.io Llama Share 40

Search has become easier to build with AI, thanks to vector databases that index documents as embeddings and store them in a vector database. This allows for semantic search and can be used for more than just search, such as in AI chatbots and copilot-like experiences.

I doubt that anything resembling genuine AGI is within reach of current AI tools

137 gmays 2025-12-21 05:02:36 UTC mathstodon.xyz Llama Share 113

The user discusses the limitations of current AI tools, specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), and the distinction between cleverness and intelligence, with some arguing that AI can be clever but not intelligent. The user also debates the implications of Rice's theorem and Church's theorem on the decidability of semantic properties, with some arguing that humans may have an advantage in ...

Show HN: Shittp – Volatile Dotfiles over SSH

135 sdovan1 2025-12-21 12:33:11 UTC github.com/fobshippingpoint Llama Share 85

shittp loads dotfiles via tar and POSIX shell, useful for Docker environments. It avoids two-stage SSH connections but may fail with large configs due to OS argument length limits.

The gift card accountability sink

130 walterbell 2025-12-21 21:07:01 UTC bitsaboutmoney.com Llama Share 110

The AARP claims gift card scams are always a scam, but gift cards are a legitimate payment method for people without banked transactions. The US has lax regulations on gift cards, making it harder for consumers to get help when scammed.

Jingle Bells (Batman Smells): An incomplete festive folk-rhyme taxonomy

119 helsinkiandrew 2025-12-21 11:38:48 UTC loreandordure.com Llama Share 58

A study of the "Jingle Bells (Batman Smells)" rhyme reveals a transatlantic divide in versions, with Americans favoring a specific version and Brits having more diverse and localized versions. The study suggests that The Simpsons may have influenced the spread of the American version, but not in the UK.

Isengard in Oxford

116 lermontov 2025-12-21 05:42:17 UTC lareviewofbooks.org Llama Share 17

J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumous publication, The Bovadium Fragments, is a complete work that critiques mankind's obsession with motor vehicles. The story, written in the 1960s, uses satire to highlight the absurdity of traffic congestion and the worship of material possessions.

How GNU Guile is 10x better (2021)

101 Tomte 2025-12-21 16:16:49 UTC draketo.de Llama Share 13

Guile Scheme offers 10x advantages over other languages, including efficient macros, delimited continuations, and homoiconicity. These features enable high-level concepts like fibers, embedded DSLs, and easy C interoperation.

Show HN: RenderCV – Open-source CV/resume generator, YAML to PDF

99 sinaatalay 2025-12-21 13:15:28 UTC github.com/rendercv Llama Share 41

John Doe's CV has a classic design with Source Sans 3 font and justified alignment. It includes education, summary, and design sections with specific details and settings.

I rebuilt FlashAttention in Triton to understand the performance archaeology

95 amindiro 2025-12-21 10:49:52 UTC aminediro.com GoogleT5 Share 17

Flash attention has become one of the most impactful optimizations in modern deep learning. it is extremely important to take i/o into account when designing highly performant algorithms. the current loop forces us to repeatedly read/write the accumulator $o$ and reload $q$ for every block of $k$. this stall reason is high in cases of extreme utilization of mio pipelines, as well as shared ...

PG&E outages in S.F. leave 130k without electricity

88 hamandcheese 2025-12-21 03:35:28 UTC sfchronicle.com Llama Share 62

A massive power failure in San Francisco affected nearly 130,000 homes and businesses, causing widespread blackouts and disruptions. Power was expected to be restored Saturday night, but no specific timeline was shared.

New mathematical framework reshapes debate over simulation hypothesis

86 Gooblebrai 2025-12-21 11:21:01 UTC santafe.edu Llama Share 106

A new paper by David Wolpert introduces a mathematically precise framework for the simulation hypothesis, showing that several claims break down when defined rigorously. The framework suggests a stranger landscape, including the possibility of infinite chains of simulated universes and multiple versions of 'you' in different simulations.

Show HN: The Official National Train Map Sucked, So I Made My Own

77 Pavlinbg 2025-12-21 12:15:59 UTC bdzmap.com Full Share 24

Track Bulgarian trains in real-time with live positions, delays, and routes on an interactive map. Проследявайте български влакове в реално време с позиции, закъснения и маршрути.

Mountain home near Aspen, built for monks, sold to Palantir CEO for $120M

74 mooreds 2025-12-21 17:38:48 UTC coloradosun.com Llama Share 64

Chuck McKenna, a principal, credits St. Benedict's Monastery for his habit of telling students he loved them. The monastery, recently sold to billionaire Alex Karp for $120 million, taught McKenna valuable life lessons he now uses as a therapist.

An 11-qubit atom processor in silicon with all fidelities from 99.10% to 99.99%

72 giuliomagnifico 2025-12-21 12:07:44 UTC nature.com Llama Share 44

Researchers have developed an 11-qubit atom processor in silicon that uses phosphorus atoms to achieve high-fidelity quantum computing. The processor enables efficient entanglement of nuclear spins across interconnected registers.

Handheld PC Community Forums

69 walterbell 2025-12-21 21:59:21 UTC hpcfactor.com Llama Share 31

The Handheld PC forum supports various generations of devices and operating systems including Windows CE 2.10 to 2013 and Linux/Unix ports. Users can find help with sales, trades, hardware, software, and technical support for their devices.

ELF Crimes: Program Interpreter Fun

67 nytpu 2025-12-21 16:30:09 UTC nytpu.com Llama Share 14

The user created a proof of concept that uses ELF executable format as a data storage format, where the ELF file contains a program interpreter that loads and executes the data stored in the ELF file. The user encountered several issues, including a NUL-termination requirement for the interpreter path, and eventually successfully implemented the concept using a linker script and objcopy.

ISBN Visualization

67 simon04 2025-12-21 11:09:27 UTC annas-archive.li Full Share 14

Day laborers protest noise machines installed at Home Depot

63 geox 2025-12-21 18:19:54 UTC latimes.com Llama Share 80

Home Depot installed noise machines in its Cypress Park parking lot to deter day laborers, but a nonprofit IDEPSCA claims it's an attempt to push them away. The machines cause headaches and stress for workers, who are already affected by ICE raids and lack of work opportunities.

Waymo suspends service in San Francisco as robotaxis stall during blackout

63 SilverElfin 2025-12-21 17:35:44 UTC techcrunch.com Llama Share 3

Waymo temporarily suspended services in San Francisco due to a power outage caused by a fire at a PG&E substation. The blackout affected traffic lights and may have caused Waymo vehicles to stall, leading to traffic jams.

Why did we use leaded petrol for so long? (2017)

54 simonebrunozzi 2025-12-21 20:40:00 UTC bbc.com Llama Share 53

Thomas Midgley, an inventor, demonstrated the safety of tetraethyl lead by washing his hands in it, despite having recently recovered from lead poisoning. The use of tetraethyl lead in gasoline was later linked to worker deaths and health issues, but it remained in use until the US banned it in the 1970s.

Mozilla right now (Digital Painting)

54 linschn 2025-12-21 14:15:24 UTC davidrevoy.com Full Share 33

License: "Mozilla right now." by David Revoy − CC-BY-SA 4.0 Tags: | Download: Markdown 139 comments

Show HN: Rust/WASM lighting data toolkit – parses legacy formats, generates SVGs

51 holg 2025-12-21 20:56:54 UTC eulumdat.icu Full Share 5

Weight loss jabs: What happens when you stop taking them

51 neom 2025-12-21 19:58:11 UTC bbc.com Llama Share 120

Tanya Hall and Ellen Ogley, two women who lost significant weight with GLP-1 weight loss medication, struggle to stop taking the injections due to the return of food cravings. They face a difficult decision: stay on the medication with potential side effects or risk regaining weight.

Feds order Washington power plant to keep burning coal

30 geox 2025-12-21 13:53:01 UTC washingtonstatestandard.com Llama Share 13

The Trump administration ordered Washington's last coal-fired power station to continue burning coal for 90 more days, sparking a clash with the state. Washington leaders aim to get coal power out of the grid by year-end, and officials are considering a lawsuit over the move.

Humankind's 10 million year love affair with booze might end

29 andsoitis 2025-12-21 00:20:53 UTC economist.com Llama Share 38

Alcohol quickly enters the bloodstream through thin mouth membranes, then reaches every cell and tissue in the body. It causes a burning sensation and can be detected instantly through its distinct taste and effects.

Show HN: HN Sentiment API – I ranked tech CEOs by how much you hate them

27 kingofsunnyvale 2025-12-21 15:06:05 UTC docs.hnpulse.com Full Share 9

A sentiment analysis API for Hacker News comments.

Show HN: Mushak – Zero config zero downtime Docker/Compose to server deployment

27 hmontazeri 2025-12-21 13:02:29 UTC mushak.sh Full Share 15

Uses Caddy reverse proxy to atomically switch traffic to new containers only after they pass health checks.

William Golding's Island of Savagery

24 samclemens 2025-12-21 03:18:14 UTC historytoday.com Llama Share 28

William Golding's Lord of the Flies explores the collapse of civilization and the descent into savagery, reflecting his disillusionment with rationalism and progress. His works often portray humanity's tendency to oscillate between progress and destruction, with characters drawn to novelty that ultimately leads to their downfall.

Fabrication Techniques Using Myco-Materials

22 andsoitis 2025-12-21 22:04:12 UTC encyclopedia.pub Full Share 4

You don't have permission to access "http://encyclopedia.pub/entry/27602" on this server.

CSRF protection without tokens or hidden form fields

22 ibobev 2025-12-21 19:03:00 UTC blog.miguelgrinberg.com Llama Share 15

The author of Microdot implemented CSRF protection using the Sec-Fetch-Site header, a modern method that is simpler than traditional token-based approaches. The implementation includes an allow_subdomains argument and uses the Origin header as a fallback for older browsers.

Engineering dogmas it's time to retire

20 kiyanwang 2025-12-21 21:26:09 UTC newsletter.manager.dev Llama Share 22

The author questions common software engineering practices, such as avoiding dependencies and mandatory code reviews, suggesting they may not always be the best approach. They propose alternative methods, like using feature flags and flexible project management tools, to improve team efficiency and productivity.

LVM Thin Provisioning (2016)

19 indigodaddy 2025-12-21 22:19:53 UTC storageapis.wordpress.com GoogleT5 Share 5

Thin logical volumes are a contiguous space of pointers to chunks in their pool. if you want to use thin provisioning, you need to change the size of the pool first - otherwise you will get bloated and lose your data! thlv1 is based on linux's vmdk, which is an open-source version of nfsdisk /dev/null/th

Redis vs. BoltCache

18 spotlayn 2025-12-21 20:16:33 UTC github.com/wutlu Llama Share 10

BoltCache is a Go-based in-memory cache system with Redis-like functionality and RESTful API support. It provides features like authentication, rate limiting, and clustering for scalable and secure caching.

DNS4EU Blocks Blog.fefe.de

14 koehr 2025-12-21 16:13:59 UTC news.ycombinator.com Llama Share 13

You filed a request that ended up on a block list and suspect it's due to a recursive block triggered by a link to a conspiracy site. You're unsure if the OISD block list is the reason, as you've also been blocked.

Luke Howard’s essay on the modification of clouds (1865)

11 Petiver 2025-12-21 12:38:25 UTC publicdomainreview.org Llama Share 0

Luke Howard, an industrial chemist and amateur meteorologist, classified clouds into four types: cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and nimbus, using Latin names still used today. His work inspired landscape painters and earned him recognition from Goethe, who wrote a poem praising Howard's ability to discern order in the skies.