It's hard to justify Tahoe icons
The article discusses the design process behind the Tahoe icon set, which was created to provide a consistent visual identity for the Tahoe open source project. It highlights the challenges faced in creating a minimalist and cohesive icon set that can be used across various applications.
enclose.horse
Enclose.horse is an online tool that allows users to easily enclose text or code in various formatting styles, such as fenced code blocks, quotes, and HTML tags. The tool provides a simple interface for quickly formatting text and copying the result.
Vietnam bans unskippable ads
Vietnam has banned unskippable ads and requires a skip button to appear after 5 seconds, in an effort to improve the online advertising experience for consumers.
There were BGP anomalies during the Venezuela blackout
The article discusses the development of a new radar system that can detect small objects in low-Earth orbit, providing enhanced space situational awareness and supporting the growing need for space-based monitoring and tracking of satellites and other space assets.
Databases in 2025: A Year in Review
This article provides a retrospective on the field of databases in 2025, reflecting on the advancements made in areas such as distributed systems, machine learning, and streaming data management, and how these developments have shaped the future of database technology.
AWS raises GPU prices 15% on a Saturday, hopes you weren't paying attention
AWS is set to increase its cloud service prices by an average of 5-10% starting in 2026, citing rising operational costs and a need to maintain a competitive edge. The price hike is expected to impact customers across various AWS offerings, including EC2 instances, data storage, and network bandwidth.
Anna's Archive loses .org domain after surprise suspension
Anna's Archive, a popular site for finding torrent links, has lost its .org domain after a surprise suspension. The article discusses the challenges faced by the site and its efforts to recover the domain and continue operations.
Google broke my heart
The article discusses the author's frustration with Google's recent changes to its search engine algorithm, which have negatively impacted their website's visibility and traffic. It explores the challenges faced by small website owners in adapting to these algorithmic updates and the lack of transparency from Google in communicating the changes.
The Post-American Internet
The article discusses the 39th Chaos Communication Congress (39C3), an annual technology and activism conference, and its significance in the landscape of digital rights and internet freedom. It highlights the conference's role in fostering discussions and activism around issues such as online privacy, surveillance, and the future of technology.
Murder-suicide case shows OpenAI selectively hides data after users die
OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, has faced questions about what happens to users' chat logs when they die, but the company has refused to provide details on its data retention policies, raising concerns about privacy and data ownership.
Brave overhauled its Rust adblock engine with FlatBuffers, cutting memory 75%
Brave Browser announces significant memory usage reduction in its built-in AdBlock feature, improving performance and resource efficiency for users.
65% of Hacker News posts have negative sentiment, and they outperform
The article explores the sentiment analysis of Hacker News comments, demonstrating how machine learning techniques can be used to gain insights into the emotional tone of online discussions within technology-focused communities.
RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
RevisionDojo is a YC-backed test prep company ($3.4M raised) that sells International Baccalaureate (IB) test prep. Over the past year, users on r/IBO sub-reddit have documented a pattern of unethical marketing practices:
*Astroturfing:* Coordinated campaigns where accounts pose as students sharing "cheatsheets" and "predicted exam leaks." Other accounts then upvote, leave supportive comments, and ask follow-up questions—creating the illusion of organic student excitement. Multiple threads have exposed this pattern [1][2][3].
*Paid fake posts:* High school students report being offered payment to write promotional Reddit posts [4].
*Pressuring critics:* Users who post negative reviews report being contacted directly by company representatives, told it's "a shame" they're posting publicly [5]. Critical comments receive coordinated mass downvotes [6].
*Soliciting copyrighted materials:* They use TikTok influencers and fake reddit posts to persuade students to sell them official IB exam papers, violating IB policies [7].
The r/IBO moderators are actively investigating [8].
These practices appear to be working great for them. Recently, they acquired OnePrep (oneprep.xyz), a free SAT prep tool that was already popular on r/sat. Since the acquisition, the same manipulation tactics have been deployed at scale: 150 Trustpilot reviews in a window of a few days [9], and widespread coordinated Reddit manipulation—multiple accounts posting "tips" that recommend Oneprep, coordinated upvoting, and fake enthusiasm in comments. The most prominent example was a 2,000+ upvote post removed by moderators for manipulation, but it's part of a sustained campaign across the subreddit.
*Sources:*
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1p55qun/ [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1jsb00a/ [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1ohcohi/ [4] https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1p55qun/comment/nqmhal3/ [5] https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1my1ajx/comment/na94upv/ [6] https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1my1ajx/comment/na8zvs4/ [7] https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1mej900/ [8] https://www.reddit.com/r/IBO/comments/1my1ajx/comment/nagdkl5/ [9] https://www.trustpilot.com/review/oneprep.xyz
I switched from VSCode to Zed
The article discusses the author's experience of switching from Visual Studio Code (VSCode) to Zed, a new code editor. It highlights the key features and benefits of Zed, such as its performance, user interface, and extensibility, which led the author to make the transition from their previous code editor.
C Is Best (2025)
The article explains why SQLite was chosen as the default database for the Android operating system, highlighting its small footprint, self-contained design, and ease of use as key reasons for its selection.
Why is the Gmail app 700 MB?
The article discusses the large size of the Gmail app, which can reach up to 700 MB, and explores the reasons behind this, including the inclusion of various features and libraries that contribute to the app's overall size.
Microsoft Office renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”
During Helene, I just wanted a plain text website
The article discusses the importance of mobile web performance and how Hélène, a web performance expert, approaches optimizing websites for mobile devices. It highlights key strategies and techniques Hélène uses to improve loading times, user experience, and overall website performance on mobile platforms.
Show HN: DoNotNotify – Log and intelligently block notifications on Android
Why - I got sick of apps abusing notifications on my Android phone. While the OS does give you the ability to switch off notifications based on channels, most apps either don't use it or abuse it intentionally. In my case, I live in a gated society that uses an app called MyGate to allow visitors, and the app intentionally pushes ads through the same channels since you cannot block them.
What - DoNotNotify is an app that logs all incoming notifications, and displays them grouped by app. It also captures the action behind the notification, which can be triggered from the app itself. From this log, you can create rules to whitelist/blacklist notifications from apps depending on their notification content. These filters can even be regex expressions, which allows for more complicated use-cases. The app ships with some pre-defined rules for popular apps like Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, Netflix, TikTok, Reddit etc.
Where - The website is at https://donotnotify.com/.
Would also like to call out that the app runs purely on your device, never communicates with anything on the Internet, and only requires notifications access to work. It is completely free, and there is no advertising or hidden gotchas.
X blames users for Grok-generated CSAM; no fixes announced
The article discusses Xblame's response to a report about Grok, its AI-powered content moderation tool, generating child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Xblame attributes the issue to users, stating that no fixes have been announced to address the problem.
Show HN: Prism.Tools – Free and privacy-focused developer utilities
Hi HN, I'm Barry and I've built Prism.Tools (https://blgardner.github.io/prism.tools/) – a collection of client-side developer utilities that respect your privacy.
Many of these tools were used way back in the days when I ran a BBS and started my communities first ISP, serving three local communities with Dial-Up Internet, Web Hosting etc. The tools have been refined to reflect the changes in tech since then and designed for the Novice and Pro alike. As I locate more tools others may find useful I will refine and add them to the collection. Use them, Share them, or not. They will be here if you need them...
40+ dev tools (JSON formatters, regex tester, base64 encoder, Git command helper, etc.) that run entirely in your browser. Zero tracking, zero analytics, zero data collection – everything processes locally. Self-contained HTML files with no build process or frameworks.
I realized I had a lot of tools/utilities I've built over the years for my own use. I lothe having to 'sign-up' just to access/use simple utilities that I can create myself. I've refined them and put them in one safe place so I could easily access them if/when needed. I decided to make them available via Github Pages for anyone that may find them useful. Prism.Tools is the result.
Each tool is a standalone HTML file with embedded CSS and JavaScript. No frameworks, no npm packages, no build steps – just open the file and it works.
The entire toolset:
- 100% client-side processing – your data never leaves your browser.
- No external dependencies except for specific libraries from cdnjs.cloudflare.com (marked.js for markdown, exifr for image metadata, etc.)
- Consistent dark UI – every tool follows the same design language for familiarity.
- Vanilla JS where possible – only reaching for Public CDN Resources when necessary.
The constraint of "single HTML file" was intentional. It forces simplicity and ensures tools remain maintainable. It also means users can inspect, modify, or self-host any tool trivially.
These tools have helped me with debugging production issues, Quick formatting tasks, learning Git commands (the Git command helper has been particularly helpful)
Just visit https://blgardner.github.io/prism.tools/ and try any tool. No signup, no install.
What tools are missing that you find yourself needing? Any performance issues with specific tools? UI/UX friction points?
All tools follow the same privacy-first philosophy... Your data stays in your browser. No accounts, no tracking, no servers processing your information. The project is also a demonstration that you don't always need React, Vue, or complex build pipelines – sometimes vanilla JavaScript in a single HTML file is exactly the right tool for the job.
Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+) CSS3 with CSS Grid Minimal external libraries: marked.js, exifr, highlight.js, sql-formatter (all from CDN) No frameworks, no bundlers, no npm Hosted on Github Pages
Happy to answer questions about the technical implementation, design decisions, or specific tools!
All tools are inspectable – just view source on any page to see exactly how they work!
All AI Videos Are Harmful (2025)
The article discusses the potential harmful effects of AI-generated videos, including the spread of misinformation, the difficulty in detecting fake content, and the impact on individual privacy and security. It argues that all AI-generated videos should be treated with caution and that there is a need for increased regulation and awareness around this technology.
Volkswagen Brings Back Physical Buttons
Volkswagen is bringing back physical buttons in its vehicles, moving away from the touch-based controls that have become prevalent in modern cars. This shift aims to provide a more intuitive and user-friendly experience for drivers.
California residents can now request all data brokers delete personal info
The article provides information on California's Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which gives California residents new rights to access, delete, and opt-out of the sale of their personal information collected by businesses. It outlines the key provisions of the CCPA and how consumers can exercise their privacy rights.
A spider web unlike any seen before
Opus 4.5 is not the normal AI agent experience that I have had thus far
The article discusses the release of Opus 4.5, a major update to the Opus open-source audio codec. It highlights the significant changes in this version, including improved quality, increased efficiency, and expanded support for various audio formats and platforms.
Jensen: 'We've done our country a great disservice' by offshoring
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang criticizes the offshoring of technology jobs, arguing that the U.S. has done a disservice to the country by not creating prosperity for all, not just highly educated professionals. He emphasizes the need to develop a broader range of skills and opportunities in the technology industry.
Show HN: Tailsnitch – A security auditor for Tailscale
I/O is no longer the bottleneck? (2022)
The article discusses how the I/O bottleneck has been largely eliminated in modern computing systems, allowing for more efficient processing and reducing the need for complex I/O management techniques. It highlights the advancements in storage technologies and the impact of these improvements on overall system performance.
Donut Lab’s all-solid-state battery delivers 400 Wh/kg of energy density
DonutLab, a leading battery technology company, has announced a groundbreaking new battery at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This new battery promises to revolutionize the industry with its improved energy density, charging speed, and safety features.