Hacker News
1DigiCert: Threat of legal action to stifle Bugzilla discourse
- DigiCert's legal team sent a threatening letter to Sectigo regarding comments made by their Chief Compliance Officer in a public bug discussion, demanding they stop making critical statements. Sectigo's General Counsel responded, defending their right to engage in open dialogue about PKI industry practices and expressing concern about attempts to silence legitimate discussion through legal threats.
DigiCert's violations and delays
DigiCert delayed certificate revocations beyond requirements, used a TRO as excuse, and made legal threats against criticism. This sparked concerns about their trustworthiness as a major Certificate Authority.Legal implications for PKI
Discussion of how legal actions like TROs could undermine web PKI system, and whether courts should be able to block certificate revocations. Debate over proper CA response to legal challenges.DNS validation security
DigiCert's failure to require underscore prefix in DNS validation created security risks for services allowing user-controlled subdomains. This highlighted importance of following precise validation requirements.
2“The closer to the train station, the worse the kebab” – a “study”
- A data enthusiast investigates a hypothesis from French social media claiming that kebab restaurants near train stations have lower quality. Using Paris as the study area, they collected data on train stations, metro entrances, and kebab restaurants through Google Places API to analyze the relationship between restaurant ratings and their proximity to transit stations.
Correlation analysis validity
Discussion about whether the study's weak correlation (0.091) actually disproves the hypothesis, with debate about proper statistical methods and suggestions for alternative analysis approaches like non-linear correlation.Money laundering kebab shops
Detailed discussion of how kebab shops are used for money laundering, with explanations of methods like fake receipts, cash transactions, and mixing clean/dirty money to make illegal funds appear legitimate.Train vs metro stations
Debate about including metro stations in analysis, noting that Paris metro stations are ubiquitous and different from train stations, which tend to have more negative effects on surrounding neighborhood quality.
3I Went to SQL Injection Court
- The article discusses a legal battle in Illinois regarding whether public bodies can withhold database information from Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests. It centers on Matt Chapman's case against Chicago for access to a parking ticket database schema, involving expert testimony about database security and public access rights.
Local politics effectiveness
Discussion of how local politics is more responsive than national politics, with emphasis on using message boards and community engagement to effect change, including passing laws at municipal levelSecurity implications of schema disclosure
Debate about whether revealing database schema helps attackers, with some arguing it aids SQL injection while others contend knowing schema names provides minimal security benefitLegal interpretation challenges
Discussion of how courts disagree on interpreting ambiguous legal language, particularly around whether database schema constitutes "file layouts" and the challenges of writing unambiguous laws
4Hyperspace
- John Siracusa announces Hyperspace, a new Mac app that finds files with identical content and converts them into APFS clones, saving disk space without deleting files. The app is free to scan but requires payment to reclaim space. It's his most risky but potentially most useful app yet.
File scanning privacy concerns
Discussion about data security implications of letting software scan files, debate over open source vs paid model, and ways to safely use the app while maintaining privacy/securityFilesystem deduplication approaches
Technical discussion of how different filesystems handle deduplication, including ZFS, NTFS, and APFS, with focus on memory usage, performance impacts, and implementation challengesPricing and trial model
Debate about the app's pricing structure where scanning is free but cleanup requires payment, with some praising the model while others note it's similar to older shareware approaches
5How Core Git Developers Configure Git
- The article discusses lesser-known Git configuration settings that could improve the default Git experience. It explores settings recommended by core Git developers and groups them into categories like "Clearly Makes Git Better," "Why the Hell Not," and "A Matter of Taste." The author explains various configurations for branch sorting, diffing, pushing, and other Git operations, providing examples and rationale for why these settings might be better defaults.
Git aliases and custom commands
Discussion of useful Git aliases, including "git out" for showing unpushed commits, with humorous references to Terminator quotes. Users shared their favorite aliases and debated their efficiency vs shell completion.Alternative Git tools
Debate about tools like Delta and Bat for enhancing Git's CLI experience. While these tools offer improved visuals, some users prefer vanilla Git for better copy-paste workflow and terminal compatibility.Essential Git configurations
Users shared important Git config options, focusing on diff algorithms (zdiff3), whitespace handling, and merge settings. Some advocated for these becoming Git defaults, while others discussed VSCode integration.
6DeepSeek open source DeepEP – library for MoE training and Inference
- DeepEP is a communication library focused on Mixture-of-Experts and expert parallelism, offering high-performance GPU kernels for MoE dispatch and combine operations. It supports low-precision operations, provides optimized kernels for asymmetric-domain bandwidth forwarding, and includes low-latency kernels for inference decoding.
Open source legitimacy
Debate over what constitutes truly open source AI - whether releasing just weights is enough vs need for complete code, training data and processes. OLMo highlighted as most genuinely open source while Meta/DeepSeek criticized.Ptx instruction optimization
Discussion of DeepSeek's use of undocumented PTX instruction for performance gains on Hopper architectures, with concerns about future compatibility and option to disable if needed.Model of experts adoption
Discussion of MoE (Model of Experts) becoming standard in SOTA models like GPT4, but less common in academic/open models due to memory requirements and setup complexity.
7Breaking into apartment buildings in five minutes on my phone
- A security researcher discovered that many apartment buildings using MESH by Viscount access control systems were vulnerable due to unchanged default login credentials, allowing unauthorized access to resident information and door controls. The issue affected 43% of exposed systems in recent scans, primarily in Canada.
Digital literacy decline
Discussion about how Gen Z has lower computer literacy than previous generations, having grown up with locked-down devices and apps rather than configurable PCs, leading to reduced understanding of technology fundamentals.Security of gated communities
Widespread issues with access codes being shared/written down, suggesting gated communities provide more psychological comfort than actual security. Delivery drivers and others regularly find ways around access controls.Default passwords
Debate over manufacturer responsibility for security, with many arguing default passwords are inadequate and systems should require secure passwords before use, similar to how modern routers come with unique passwords.
8Signal to leave Sweden if backdoor law passes
- A new Swedish bill proposes requiring encrypted messaging app Signal to install backdoors for law enforcement access to message history. Signal opposes this, stating it would compromise network security, while the Armed Forces warn of potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited by third parties.
Swedish military opposition
Swedish Armed Forces opposes backdoor proposal, citing security vulnerabilities. They recently advocated Signal use for non-classified communications and warn that backdoors would compromise security for all users.Signal's response to legislation
Discussion of Signal's threat to leave Sweden, limitations of Swedish jurisdiction over US-based company, and potential enforcement methods like app store restrictions or ISP censorship.European privacy regulations
Context of broader EU privacy issues, including commissioner Ylva Johansson's controversial proposal for AI scanning of private messages and criticism of the lobbying process behind these initiatives.
9Clean Code vs. A Philosophy Of Software Design
- The text presents a discussion between John Ousterhout and Robert Martin (Uncle Bob) about software design principles, focusing on method length, code decomposition, and the "One Thing Rule." They explore different perspectives on ideal function sizes and debate whether extreme code decomposition helps or hinders code readability and maintenance.
Clean code dogmatism
Developers discuss how dogmatic adherence to Clean Code principles leads to over-engineered solutions, with many sharing experiences of dealing with colleagues who treat the book's guidelines as inflexible rules rather than suggestions.Function size debate
Discussion centers on Uncle Bob's controversial recommendation for 2-4 line functions, with most arguing this creates unnecessary complexity and abstraction layers while making code harder to understand and maintain.Comments in code
Developers challenge Uncle Bob's anti-comment stance, arguing comments are essential for documenting non-obvious behaviors, workarounds, and complex implementations, especially in systems interfacing with external components.
10Introduction to Stochastic Calculus
- This document provides an accessible introduction to stochastic calculus, focusing on Brownian motion's physical intuition rather than complex mathematical formalism. It covers applications in physics, finance, and biology, explaining how the concept evolved from discrete probability to continuous mathematical models.
Stochastic calculus difficulty & prerequisites
Discussion of the advanced mathematical nature of stochastic calculus, with debate about prerequisites and learning path. Several note it's PhD-level material, while others suggest resources for different skill levels.Practical uses & applications
Exploration of stochastic calculus applications in actuarial science, mouse genetics, finance and molecular dynamics. Includes debate on when simulation vs analytical solutions are appropriate.Monte Carlo vs analytical solutions
Discussion of when stochastic problems require computer simulation vs when they can be solved analytically, with focus on Fokker-Planck equations and probability density functions.