Hacker News
1A German ISP changed their DNS to block my website
- After exposing an organization called CUII that secretly blocks websites in Germany, the author discovered that Telefonica, a major ISP, deliberately changed their DNS system to make tracking blocked domains more difficult. This occurred shortly after a news article revealed CUII's mistakes in blocking already-defunct websites.
Changes to CUII's role
Discussion of how CUII changed from making arbitrary blocking decisions to only implementing court orders, though previous blocks remain. Debate about whether this represents real change or just different messaging.Technical solutions vs legal/political
Debate between those advocating for technical workarounds (DNS, VPNs, protocols) versus those arguing that only political/legal solutions can address censorship. Discussion of limitations of technical approaches.Censorship in democratic societies
Analysis of how censorship manifests in Western democracies through copyright law, business interests and government regulation. Debate about whether this differs from traditional authoritarian censorship.
2Comet AI browser can get prompt injected from any site, drain your bank account
- A user raises concerns about AI browser security risks after Brave discovered and reported a vulnerability in Perplexity's Comet browser that could potentially compromise users' sensitive information and bank accounts while browsing social media platforms like Reddit.
Fundamental security flaws
Discussion around how statistical model alignment and guardrails are insufficient for security, since attackers can exploit worst-case inputs. Browsers giving LLMs broad access to sensitive data is seen as inherently unsafe.Rollback limitations
Debate about whether having rollback capability (like git) makes AI agents safe to use. Consensus that even with rollback, agents need strict sandboxing as they can still execute harmful code or make irreversible changes.User trust concerns
Users appear too willing to share sensitive data with AI agents despite risks. Examples include medical/prescription info and banking details. Discussion of how friendly AI interfaces may lower security awareness.
3What makes Claude Code so damn good
- The article discusses why Claude Code is an exceptional AI coding assistant, highlighting its simple yet effective design principles. It emphasizes keeping control loops simple, using smaller models frequently, maintaining clear prompts with examples, and employing straightforward search methods rather than complex systems, all contributing to a more efficient and user-friendly experience.
Claude Code's effectiveness
Mixed opinions on whether Claude Code is superior to alternatives. Some praise its terminal performance and instruction-following, while others see no clear advantage over tools like Copilot or Cursor. Debate over meaningful benchmarking.Practical applications
Discussion of real-world usage, with some claiming to have built entire MVPs using Claude Code, while others express skepticism about code quality and security. Debate over whether AI-generated code leads to maintainable products.Multi-model workflows
Users comparing Gemini vs Claude and describing hybrid workflows. Gemini praised for codebase understanding but criticized for CLI performance. Some recommend using different models for different stages of development.
4Line scan camera image processing for train photography
- This article explains the process of using line scan cameras to photograph trains, covering various technical aspects from camera operation to image processing. The author details how the camera captures moving trains by scanning one column of pixels at a time, and discusses methods for improving image quality through speed estimation, resampling, and color correction techniques.
Line scan experimentation
Users share their creative projects using line scan techniques, including timelapse photography of skylines, trees, and trains. Several share links to their work and discuss technical approaches.Technical camera details
Discussion of how regular cameras can be modified for line scanning, including sensor-level modifications, frame rates, and industrial applications with conveyor systems.Image processing challenges
Debate about denoising artifacts, color fringing issues, and potential improvements through better demosaicing algorithms like RCD.
5How to build a coding agent
- This content discusses a workshop on building coding agents, emphasizing that it's simpler than most people think, requiring only 300 lines of code running in a loop with LLM tokens. The speaker advocates for learning to build agents as essential knowledge for tech professionals in 2025 and highlights how understanding these concepts can transform someone from an AI consumer to a producer.
Princeton's mini-swe-agent
Simple 100-line code agent that performs well on SWE-bench tasks, sparking discussion about prompt engineering, tool usage patterns, and implementation choices between using bash commands vs specialized tools.Tool implementation details
Discussion of how LLM tools work behind the scenes, including token-based interfaces, fine-tuning for tool usage, and how API layers handle tool invocations while preventing user injection of control tokens.Presentation format critique
Multiple users criticized the blog post's presentation style with excessive AI-generated images and individual slides making it difficult to read, despite acknowledging the content itself was informative.
6The cost of interrupted work (2023)
- The widely cited claim that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to resume work after an interruption appears to lack solid scientific backing. Despite being attributed to researcher Gloria Mark and mentioned in various interviews and blog posts, the specific figure isn't found in any published academic papers on workplace interruptions.
Impact of interruptions
Discussion of how interruptions affect work differently on different days, with some days being severely impacted while others barely affected. Factors like sleep, task complexity, and meditation influence recovery time.Science reporting accuracy
Criticism of how science gets misreported in media, with discussion of how citations get distorted through news articles and social media, leading to widespread misunderstandings of research findings.Pair programming effects
Debate about pair programming as a solution to interruption costs, with strong opposing views on its effectiveness - some finding it helpful for maintaining focus while others considering it exhausting and counterproductive.
7RFC 9839 and Bad Unicode
- This article discusses RFC 9839, which provides guidelines for handling Unicode characters in software protocols. It explains which problematic characters should be excluded from text fields and offers three recommended subsets of Unicode characters for developers to use in their applications.
String representation approaches
Discussion of different ways to handle strings in protocols: Unicode Scalars, UTF-16, UTF-8, with debate around Python's implementation and handling of surrogates. Focus on technical tradeoffs between approaches.Username character restrictions
Debate over whether usernames should be ASCII-only vs allowing Unicode, with arguments about internationalization, security, and user experience. Some argue for ASCII-only while others call this view provincial.Unicode complexity challenges
Discussion of Unicode's complexity being both a feature and burden, with concerns about control characters, directional overrides, and combining characters making implementation difficult.
8Making games in Go: 3 months without LLMs vs. 3 days with LLMs
- A software engineer shares their experience building two card games - Truco and Escoba. The first game took 3 months without AI assistance, while the second took only 3 days using LLMs. The article includes detailed technical instructions for others to build similar games using Go, WASM, and React.
Coding isn't the bottleneck
While AI/LLMs can help with code generation, the real challenges in game development are balancing, polish, asset creation and making games fun. The coding was never the main obstacle, similar to how Unity democratized development but didn't increase quality games.LLM advantage context
Discussion questions validity of comparison since LLM had 3-month headstart by using existing codebase as template. Refactoring existing code is significantly easier than building from scratch, regardless of using AI or not.Game development reality
Despite AI tools making development faster, there aren't many new quality games because of barriers like Steam's $100 fee, need for unique ideas, asset creation challenges, and difficulty in marketing/monetization.
9Computer fraud laws used to prosecute leaking air crash footage to CNN
- An Army helicopter-passenger plane collision over DC killed 67 people. While the FAA investigated the crash, Virginia authorities focused on finding who leaked footage to CNN, leading to criminal charges against an airport dispatcher under state computer trespass laws for recording CCTV footage on his phone.
Anticipatory self-censorship
Discussion of how YouTube's content policies lead to self-censorship, exemplified by a towing company blurring identifiable information in their videos despite filming in public spaces, and broader implications for information sharing.Legal implications of leaking footage
Debate over whether using CFAA to prosecute security footage leaks is appropriate, with arguments about distinction between criminal acts and employment policy violations, and discussion of whistleblowing versus unauthorized sharing.Public interest versus privacy
Exploration of when sharing footage serves public interest versus when it violates privacy/policy, with focus on role of emergency personnel and distinction between public versus controlled information.
10Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)
Valve handbook authenticity
Discussion of whether handbook was real internal doc or marketing material, with writer Chet Faliszek claiming it was promotional. Debate over whether principles were followed even if not officially distributed.Steam's impact on gaming
Mixed views on Steam's 30% cut, DRM introduction, and market dominance. General agreement it improved PC gaming ecosystem despite concerns about future post-Gabe Newell and developer economics.Valve's organizational structure
Debate over effectiveness of Valve's flat management structure, with some arguing informal hierarchies emerge anyway. Discussion of whether this model only works due to Steam's profitability.