691
The insecure evangelism of LLM maximalists
I just can't help feeling these training wheels are getting in the way of my bicycle commute.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 8,147 posts.
Society, Policy & Culture
Any year
692
When hardware goes end-of-life, companies need to open-source the software
Blog post by Marciano Planque: EOL
693
The Cathedral, the Megachurch, and the Bazaar
If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember the essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar. The TL;DR was that old open source was the cathedral of exclusive developers and groups. Then the Bazaar showed up (which was the Linux Kernel for example) and that freed us from the shackles of the cathedral. Except if we look…
694
The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
2.8k words, 13 minutes reading time
695
What a year of solar and batteries saved us in 2025
Throughout 2025, I spoke a few times about our home energy solution, including our grid usage, our solar array and our Tesla Powerwall batteries. Now that I have a full year of data, I wanted to take a look at exactly how everything is working out, and, in alignment with
696
There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
So, I'm walking through a park when I see this thing lying on the ground: It's a disposable vape that someone has discarded because it's emp...
697
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Erich von Däniken has died
It is with great sadness and shock that we must announce that Erich von Däniken passed away on January 10, 2026.
699
‘Fuck you, make me’ without saying the words
Make the Trump administration object. Make them defend the indefensible — in public. Make clear why the apps were removed from the app stores and force Musk — and Trump, if he chooses — to argue that those things are A-OK by them. In court.
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My article on why AI is great (or terrible) or how to use it
Senior engineers are best positioned to benefit from AI. We're good enough to avoid slop, and there's so much we can accomplish. I wouldn't go back.
702
Let's call a murder a murder
Caitlin Callenson’s courage in the face of insane danger is just remarkable.
703
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We might have been slower to abandon StackOverflow if it wasn't a toxic hellhole
What the **** does that mean?
705
A4 Paper Stories
I sometimes resort to a rather common measuring technique that is neither fast, nor accurate, nor recommended by any standards body and yet it hasn't failed me whenever I have had to use it. I will describe it here, though calling it a technique might be overselling it. Please do not use it for installing kitchen…
706
Why the trans flag emoji is the 5-codepoint sequence it is
a tale about a young transgender intern
707
Are we tired of social media? (2025)
I've been asking this question to myself a few times now. When ...
708
65% of Hacker News posts have negative sentiment, and they outperform
Sentiment analysis of 32,000 Hacker News posts shows 65% skew negative and earn 27% more points. Six transformer and LLM models tested, full data included.
709
The Post-American Internet
On December 28th, I delivered a speech entitled " A post-American, enshittification-resistant internet " for 39C3, the 39th Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg, Germany. This is the transcript of that speech.
710
Gatekeepers of Law: Inside the Westlaw and LexisNexis Duopoly
Ever since a spate of mergers in the 1990s, Westlaw and LexisNexis have dominated legal research. And that might be why searching legal cases is so costly, even in the age of AI.
711
All AI Videos Are Harmful (2025)
When OpenAI released the first version of Sora, I was excited. For years, I'd had this short story sitting on my hard drive, something I'd written long ago and always dreamed of bringing to life as a
712
The Gentle Seduction (1989)
He worked with computers; she worked with trees, and the flowers that took hold on the sides of the Mountain.
713
Parental controls aren't for parents
I found a stranger texting my 12-year-old on a 'kid-safe' Gabb phone. Parental controls are broken.
714
2025 Letter
Corgis, compute, Cold War; Ecclesiastes; ties; Stendhal; humor; Pascal's Wager; deep infrastructure; Germanic obedience; Texas State Fair
715
Children and Helical Time
If childhood is half of our subjective life, how should that change how we live?
716
On privacy and control
I have 15+ years of software engineering experience across different parts of the tech stack including networking libraries, congestion control, performance improvements, Backend, and Android development.
717
AI employees don't pay taxes
Principal software engineer with deep experience in full-stack TypeScript, custom web browsers and real-time, media-focused systems.
718
Google is dead. Where do we go now?
It’s anecdotal, I know, but my main entertainment business revenue is down 50% over the past 3 months. Our main paid source of leads was Google Ads, which have served us well over the past 10 years or so – I think I know what I am doing in adwords by now. Once per month … Continue reading "Google is dead. Where do we…
719
LLMs Are Not Fun
I got into programming because it let me turn thought into reality. If I could reason precisely, then a computer could carry out my thoughts unerringly. I could step away from tiring, ambiguous human interaction for a while.
720
Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn
A Christmas Eve journey. Deutsche Bahn. 35 kilometers.