GPT-5.2
https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/latest-model
System card: https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/3a4153c8-c748-4b71-8e31-aecbde944...
Going Through Snowden Documents, Part 1
The article explores the Snowden documents, revealing insights into the expansive global surveillance programs of the United States government and its intelligence agencies, which have drawn significant public attention and controversy.
My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2022)
The article discusses the benefits of using a plain text file for managing productivity and tasks, including its simplicity, flexibility, and ability to be easily integrated with various tools and workflows.
Litestream VFS
The article discusses Litestream, a lightweight, open-source database replication tool that provides a virtual file system (VFS) layer for SQLite databases. Litestream enables easy backup and restore of SQLite databases, making it a convenient solution for managing and maintaining SQLite-powered applications.
The highest quality codebase
The article discusses strategies for maintaining a high-quality codebase, including embracing refactoring, prioritizing technical debt, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. It emphasizes the importance of balancing feature delivery with sustainable code practices to ensure the long-term health and success of a software project.
Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative
Hey HN, Waleed here. We're building Sim (https://sim.ai/), an open-source visual editor to build agentic workflows. Repo here: https://github.com/simstudioai/sim/. Docs here: https://docs.sim.ai.
You can run Sim locally using Docker, with no execution limits or other restrictions.
We started building Sim almost a year ago after repeatedly troubleshooting why our agents failed in production. Code-first frameworks felt hard to debug because of implicit control flow, and workflow platforms added more overhead than they removed. We wanted granular control and easy observability without piecing everything together ourselves.
We launched Sim [1][2] as a drag-and-drop canvas around 6 months ago. Since then, we've added:
- 138 blocks: Slack, GitHub, Linear, Notion, Supabase, SSH, TTS, SFTP, MongoDB, S3, Pinecone, ...
- Tool calling with granular control: forced, auto
- Agent memory: conversation memory with sliding window support (by last n messages or tokens)
- Trace spans: detailed logging and observability for nested workflows and tool calling
- Native RAG: upload documents, we chunk, embed with pgvector, and expose vector search to agents
- Workflow deployment versioning with rollbacks
- MCP support, Human-in-the-loop block
- Copilot to build workflows using natural language (just shipped a new version that also acts as a superagent and can call into any of your connected services directly, not just build workflows)
Under the hood, the workflow is a DAG with concurrent execution by default. Nodes run as soon as their dependencies (upstream blocks) are satisfied. Loops (for, forEach, while, do-while) and parallel fan-out/join are also first-class primitives.
Agent blocks are pass-through to the provider. You pick your model (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama, vLLM), and and we pass through prompts, tools, and response format directly to the provider API. We normalize response shapes for block interoperability, but we're not adding layers that obscure what's happening.
We're currently working on our own MCP server and the ability to deploy workflows as MCP servers. Would love to hear your thoughts and where we should take it next :)
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43823096
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44052766
An SVG is all you need
The article explores the versatility of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) by demonstrating how it can be used to create complex visual effects and animations without relying on external libraries or frameworks. It showcases the power and flexibility of SVG as a standalone solution for web development tasks.
Craft software that makes people feel something
The article explores how Craft, a software company, aims to create products that evoke emotions and meaningful experiences for users, rather than solely focusing on features or efficiency. It emphasizes Craft's mission to craft software that makes people feel something.
Prove It All Night: With no fame or fortune, what keeps a band onstage? (1999)
The article explores the controversy surrounding Bruce Springsteen's 1978 album 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' and the legal battle that ensued between Springsteen and his former record label, which claimed ownership of his songs. It highlights the artistic and legal challenges faced by musicians in asserting their creative control.
Launch HN: BrowserBook (YC F24) – IDE for deterministic browser automation
Hey HN! We’re Chris, Jorrie, and Evan of BrowserBook, an IDE for writing and debugging Playwright-based web automations. You can download it as a Mac app here: https://browserbook.com, and there’s a demo video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODGJBCNqGUI.
Why we built this: When we were going through YC, we were a company that automated back-office healthcare workflows. Since the interoperability ecosystem in healthcare is so fragmented, we started using browser agents to automate EMRs, practice management software, and payment portals directly through the web. When we did, we ran into a ton of problems:
Speed: High latency on LLM calls vs. a scripting approach
Cost: We burned through tokens with all the context we needed to make the automations reasonably accurate
Reliability: Even with detailed instructions, context, and tools, agents tended to drift on multi-step tasks in unpredictable ways
Debuggability: When drift did occur, we were essentially playing whack-a-mole in our prompt and re-running the whole automation to debug issues (see above: speed and cost issues made this quite painful)
More and more we were just giving our agent scripts to execute. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that scripting is a better approach for web automation for these sort of use cases. But scripting was also too painful, so we set out to solve those problems with BrowserBook.
Under the hood, it runs a standalone TypeScript REPL wired directly into an inline browser instance, with built-in tooling to make script development quick and easy. This includes:
- A fully interactive browser window directly in the IDE so you can run your code without context switching
- A Jupyter-notebook-style environment - the idea here is you can write portions of your automation in individual cells and run them individually (and quickly reset manually in the browser), instead of having to rerun the whole thing every time
- An AI coding assistant which uses the DOM context of the current page to write automation logic, which helps avoid digging around for selectors
- Helper functions for taking screenshots, data extraction, and managed authentication for auth-required workflows.
Once you’ve created your automation, you can run it directly in the application or in our hosted environment via API, so you can use it in external apps or agentic workflows.
At its core, BrowserBook is an Electron app, so we can run a Chrome instance directly in the app without the need for cloud-hosted browsers. For API runs, we use hosted browser infra via Kernel (which is a fantastic product, btw), relying on their bot anti-detection capabilities (stealth mode, proxies, etc.).
Scripted automation can be unpopular because scripts are inherently brittle; unlike “traditional” software development, your code is deployed in an environment you don’t control - someone else’s website. With BrowserBook, we’re trying to “embrace the suck”, and acknowledge this “offensive programming” environment.
We’ve designed from the ground up to assume scripts will break, and aim to provide the tools that make building and maintaining them easier. In the future, our plan is to leverage AI where it has shown its strength already - writing code - to minimize downtime and quickly repair broken scripts as the deployed environment changes.
Browser agents promised to solve this by handing the reins to an LLM which can handle inconsistency and ambiguity. While we think there are some applications where browser agents can be genuinely helpful, tasks that need to be done reliably and repeatedly are not one of them.
We’d love for you to try it out! You can download BrowserBook from our website here: https://browserbook.com (only available for Mac so far, sorry!) And of course, we’d appreciate any feedback and comments you have!
An Orbital House of Cards: Frequent Megaconstellation Close Conjunctions
Golang optimizations for high‑volume services
This article explores various optimization techniques for high-volume Go (Golang) applications, including efficient data structures, concurrency patterns, and memory management strategies. It provides practical advice and code examples to help developers improve the performance and scalability of their Go-based systems.
Auto-grading decade-old Hacker News discussions with hindsight
Related from yesterday: Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205632
Deprecate like you mean it
This article discusses the importance of properly deprecating features in software development, emphasizing the need for clear communication, gradual rollouts, and a well-planned deprecation process to ensure a smooth transition for users and minimize disruption.
Things I want to say to my boss
Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration
The article discusses the author's frustration with obtaining a Gemini API key, highlighting the challenges of navigating the exchange's onboarding process and the lack of clear documentation, which can be a barrier for users seeking to integrate with the platform.
Patterns.dev
The article discusses the importance of design patterns in software development, providing an overview of common patterns and how they can be applied to create more maintainable, scalable, and efficient code.
Show HN: Local Privacy Firewall-blocks PII and secrets before ChatGPT sees them
OP here.
I built this because I recently caught myself almost pasting a block of logs containing AWS keys into Claude.
The Problem: I need the reasoning capabilities of cloud models (GPT/Claude/Gemini), but I can't trust myself not to accidentally leak PII or secrets.
The Solution: A Chrome extension that acts as a local middleware. It intercepts the prompt and runs a local BERT model (via a Python FastAPI backend) to scrub names, emails, and keys before the request leaves the browser.
A few notes up front (to set expectations clearly):
Everything runs 100% locally. Regex detection happens in the extension itself. Advanced detection (NER) uses a small transformer model running on localhost via FastAPI.
No data is ever sent to a server. You can verify this in the code + DevTools network panel.
This is an early prototype. There will be rough edges. I’m looking for feedback on UX, detection quality, and whether the local-agent approach makes sense.
Tech Stack: Manifest V3 Chrome Extension Python FastAPI (Localhost) HuggingFace dslim/bert-base-NER Roadmap / Request for Feedback: Right now, the Python backend adds some friction. I received feedback on Reddit yesterday suggesting I port the inference to transformer.js to run entirely in-browser via WASM.
I decided to ship v1 with the Python backend for stability, but I'm actively looking into the ONNX/WASM route for v2 to remove the local server dependency. If anyone has experience running NER models via transformer.js in a Service Worker, I’d love to hear about the performance vs native Python.
Repo is MIT licensed.
Very open to ideas suggestions or alternative approaches.
EFF launches Age Verification Hub
Also: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/age-verification-comin...
Helldivers 2 on-disk size 85% reduction
The article announces the release of Valve's new game, Half-Life: Alyx, a virtual reality (VR) title set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. It provides details on the game's features, release date, and system requirements, as well as information on pre-orders and VR headset compatibility.
Days since last GitHub incident
The article provides an overview of recent incidents and outages affecting the GitHub platform, including service disruptions, security vulnerabilities, and other technical issues that have impacted developers and users.
Kicking Robots
The article explores the controversial practice of 'kicking robots', where humans physically interact with humanoid robots in acts of aggression. It examines the ethical and legal implications of this behavior, as well as the potential impact on the development and public perception of advanced robotics.
Show HN: An endless scrolling word search game
I built a procedurally generated word-search game where the puzzle never ends - as you scroll, the grid expands infinitely and new words appear. It’s designed to be quick to pick up, satisfying to play, and a little addictive.
The core game works without an account using the pre-defined games, but signing up allows you to generate games using any topic you can think of.
I’d love feedback on gameplay, performance, and whether the endless format feels engaging over time. If you try it, I’d really appreciate any bug reports or suggestions.
Thanks in advance!
A “frozen” dictionary for Python
The article discusses the ongoing development of the Linux kernel, highlighting the addition of new features, improvements to existing subsystems, and bug fixes. It emphasizes the collaborative nature of the kernel development process and the contributions made by various developers across the Linux ecosystem.
Oldest attestation of Austronesian language: Đông Yên Châu inscription
The Dong Yen Chau inscription is a 6th-century stone inscription found in Vietnam that provides insight into the early history and culture of the Champa kingdom. The inscription offers valuable information about the religious beliefs, political structure, and economic activities of the Champa people during that period.
Show HN: GPULlama3.java Llama Compilied to PTX/OpenCL Now Integrated in Quarkus
wget https://github.com/beehive-lab/TornadoVM/releases/download/v... unzip tornadovm-2.1.0-opencl-linux-amd64.zip # Replace <path-to-sdk> manually with the absolute path of the extracted folder export TORNADO_SDK="<path-to-sdk>/tornadovm-2.1.0-opencl" export PATH=$TORNADO_SDK/bin:$PATH
tornado --devices tornado --version
# Navigate to the project directory cd GPULlama3.java
# Source the project-specific environment paths -> this will ensure the source set_paths
# Build the project using Maven (skip tests for faster build) # mvn clean package -DskipTests or just make make
# Run the model (make sure you have downloaded the model file first - see below) ./llama-tornado --gpu --verbose-init --opencl --model beehive-llama-3.2-1b-instruct-fp16.gguf --prompt "tell me a joke"
The Cost of a Closure in C
The article discusses the performance impact of using closures in C++, highlighting the additional memory and runtime costs associated with them. It provides insights into the underlying implementation and considerations for developers when deciding to use closures in their C++ code.
Pop_OS 24.04 LTS with COSMIC desktop environment
The article is a letter from the founder of System76, the company behind the Pop!_OS Linux distribution, discussing the company's commitment to open source, its vision for the future of Pop!_OS, and its efforts to maintain a strong community around the operating system.
Size of Life
The article explores the relative sizes of various living organisms on Earth, from microscopic bacteria to the largest known animals. It provides a visual representation and comparison of the scale of different lifeforms to help readers appreciate the wide range of sizes in the natural world.
Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free
Rivian unveils its custom silicon R2 LiDAR, a roadmap for universal hands-free driving, and details on its next-generation autonomy platform. The article highlights Rivian's advancements in developing in-house technology to enhance the safety and capabilities of its electric vehicles.