Hacker News
1More on Apple's Trust-Eroding 'F1 the Movie' Wallet Ad
- Apple's decision to send a push notification ad for F1 The Movie through Apple Wallet undermines trust and privacy expectations. Unlike physical wallets, which can't display ads, this digital intrusion damages Apple's reputation and raises concerns about user data tracking in an app meant for sensitive financial information.
Apple's declining standards
Discussion of how Apple's quality and taste have deteriorated since Jobs/Ive, with examples like F1 ad and U2 album showing a shift from user-focused design to profit-driven decisions that damage trust and brand value.Push notification abuse
Debate around apps violating guidelines on promotional push notifications, with examples from Uber, Amazon, and others. Users report widespread abuse forcing them to disable notifications entirely.Wallet app ads controversy
Criticism of Apple using Wallet for F1 movie promotion, seen as hypocritical given their anti-ad stance. Debate over whether Apple exempts itself from App Store rules it enforces on others.
2I made my VM think it has a CPU fan
- The article explains how malware checks for CPU fans to detect if it's running in a virtual machine, and details how to make virtual machines appear to have CPU fans by manipulating SMBIOS data in Xen and QEMU/KVM environments. This can help bypass malware's virtual machine detection mechanisms and aid in malware analysis.
Hardware fan detection
Discussion of using passively-cooled PCs and fan detection methods as anti-malware tactics, including SMBIOS checks, hardware specifications, and temperature sensors in both real and virtual machines.Malware detection techniques
Debate about effectiveness of API calls for malware detection, code signing certificates, and running software in VMs as protection, with insights into how malware authors try to evade analysis.Virtual machine masking
Suggestions to make regular OS appear as VMs or vice versa for security, including discussion of simulating hardware characteristics and temperature sensors to fool malware detection.
3We ran a Unix-like OS on our home-built CPU with a home-built C compiler (2020)
- A software engineer recounts a remarkable university project from 2015 where students designed their own CPU architecture, built processors on FPGA, created compilers, and successfully ran an operating system. Working in teams, they tackled challenges like implementing virtual addressing and interrupt handling, ultimately creating a functional computer system from scratch.
Minix3 porting project
Student describes porting MINIX3 to Raspberry Pi as a university project, facing challenges with hypervisor mode and debugging. Used knife to short-circuit GPIO pins for presentation control. Discussion of hardware debugging methods.Learning resources
Recommendations for tools to learn computer architecture, including Turing Complete game and nand2tetris course. Discussion focuses on accessible ways to understand building computers from basic components.Retro computing
Discussion of Oric-1/Atmos microcomputer, its active community, and development of unix-like environment called orix. Highlights ongoing hardware hacking scene and modern peripherals for vintage systems.
4US Defense Department will stop providing satellite weather data
- The Defense Department will stop providing satellite weather data, impacting hurricane forecasters and sea ice monitoring. The decision leaves gaps in real-time storm tracking as peak hurricane season approaches, raising concerns about the ability to predict rapid storm intensification. Cybersecurity concerns were cited as the reason, though specifics weren't provided.
Project 2025 and NOAA privatization
Discussion of plans to break up NOAA and privatize weather services, with concerns about climate change denial motivations and impacts on public access to weather dataInternational weather data sharing
Questions about how smaller countries without space programs will be affected and discussion of international meteorological collaboration between different nationsTechnical replacement programs
Discussion of JPSS and other satellite systems meant to replace the discontinued DMSP program, with debate about capabilities and coverage gaps
5Solving `Passport Application` with Haskell
- This humorous post describes the British passport application process as if it were a complex puzzle game, complete with challenges, side quests, and document gathering missions. The author playfully portrays the bureaucratic hurdles, document requirements, and interactions with passport office staff as game mechanics, comparing it to a recursive adventure that British citizens must replay every decade.
Government software challenges
Discussion of why government IT projects are expensive and problematic, focusing on contractor incentives, lack of in-house expertise, and challenges of codifying complex laws into software systemsUK passport application process
Experiences with UK passport applications, highlighting complex documentation requirements, varying rules based on birth/ancestry circumstances, and recent improvements to online renewal systemHaskell syntax discussion
Debate about Haskell's intuitive vs non-intuitive syntax, operator complexity compared to other languages, and whether difficulty stems from syntax itself or underlying concepts
6Show HN: Octelium – FOSS Alternative to Teleport, Cloudflare, Tailscale, Ngrok
- Octelium is an open-source, self-hosted platform that provides secure remote access and serves as a modern alternative to corporate VPNs. It offers unified zero-trust resource access capabilities, supporting various use cases from corporate VPN alternatives to API gateways and Kubernetes ingress.
Project explanation & complexity
Discussion around difficulty understanding what Octelium does due to dense technical language and many features. Debate over whether verbose documentation and multiple use cases help or hurt explaining the core value proposition.Zero trust architecture
Comparison to existing VPN/networking tools, with focus on how Octelium differs by providing true zero trust architecture similar to Google BeyondCorp, with L7-aware proxies and fine-grained access control.Kubernetes dependency
Discussion of Octelium's requirement to run on Kubernetes, with some seeing it as a limitation while others view it as providing necessary infrastructure for managing distributed identity-aware proxies.
7The Death of the Middle-Class Musician
- The article explores Canadian rapper Rollie Pemberton's (Cadence Weapon) career journey, highlighting the challenges musicians face in the modern music industry. Despite achieving success and recognition, he struggled financially due to unfavorable record deals, streaming's low payouts, and touring costs, illustrating broader issues in the music business.
Music as hobby vs profession
Debate over whether music should be treated as a career or hobby art form, with some arguing professional musicians are needed for quality/teaching while others say technology has made it unsustainable as a professionEconomic inequality impact
Discussion of how growing wealth inequality affects musicians' ability to make a living, with calls for UBI and wealth redistribution opposed by those questioning why they should subsidize artistsIndustry transformation
Analysis of how streaming, reduced physical media sales, and winner-take-all dynamics have made it harder for mid-tier musicians to earn living wages compared to previous decades
8BusyBeaver(6) Is Quite Large
- The author shares exciting progress in computing Busy Beaver numbers, particularly BB(6), which has been shown to be far larger than previously known through recent discoveries by researchers Pavel Kropitz and mxdys. This mathematical breakthrough helped rekindle the author's enthusiasm for research during challenging times, with the magnitude of BB(6) now so large it exceeds comprehensible scales.
BB(7) vs Graham's number
Debate on whether 7-state Busy Beaver function exceeds Graham's number, with some arguing BB(7) should surpass it given BB(6) already reaches pentation, while others discuss the limitations of computability and proof systems.Independence from ZFC
Discussion of how BB(748) can be independent of ZFC axioms, exploring concepts of computability, model theory, and the nature of numbers that can't be proven within ZFC despite being finite.Universe information limits
Analysis of whether BB(6)'s exact value could be written in observable universe, with calculations using Bekenstein bound showing universe's ~10^120 bit limit is insufficient for such massive numbers.
9Using the Internet without IPv4 connectivity
- The author explains how they resolved an IPv4 connectivity issue after a power outage by using Linux, WireGuard, and a Hetzner VPS server. While IPv6 connectivity remained functional, many websites were inaccessible. The solution involved setting up a VPN tunnel through IPv6 to restore full internet access despite the broken IPv4 connection from their ISP.
IPv6 outage characteristics
IPv6 failures manifest as partial outages with weird behavior and fallback issues, while IPv4 outages are simpler "hard down" states. Many major sites work on IPv6 but gaps remain with GitHub and others.IPv6 transition challenges
Debate over why IPv6 adoption has been slow, with some blaming complexity and lack of benefits, while others argue IPv6 is actually simpler than IPv4 but faces implementation and compatibility hurdles.Tunneling and workarounds
Discussion of various solutions for getting IPv4/IPv6 connectivity when lacking native support, including Hurricane Electric tunnels, NAT64 gateways, and SSH proxies - with notes on limitations of each approach.
10Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff
- The article explores the evolutionary persistence of schizophrenia through the concept of cliff-edged fitness functions. It explains how certain cognitive traits that enhance fitness up to a point can lead to catastrophic consequences when expressed beyond a critical threshold, similar to how racehorses bred for speed can develop fragile legs. This model helps explain why schizophrenia maintains a consistent prevalence despite reducing reproductive fitness.
Personal experiences with schizophrenia
Multiple users share first-hand accounts of living with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, discussing symptoms, triggers, coping mechanisms, and treatment experiences, including medication challenges and impacts on relationships.Drug use and psychosis
Discussion of how various drugs (marijuana, psychedelics, alcohol) can trigger psychosis in predisposed individuals, with debate about whether drugs directly cause mental illness or if predisposed people are more likely to use drugs.Genetics and evolution
Debate about whether schizophrenia-linked genes offer evolutionary advantages in cognition/creativity, questioning why these genes persist in population if detrimental, and discussing genetic screening and inheritance patterns.