Hacker News
1The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans
- A journalist was inadvertently included in a high-level U.S. government Signal group chat discussing plans for military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. The chat included senior officials like the Secretary of Defense and National Security Advisor, revealing sensitive operational details two hours before the actual bombing began on March 15.
Operational security failure
Senior officials sharing classified military operation details over Signal, accidentally including a journalist, demonstrating major security lapses and violation of federal records lawsRecord preservation concerns
Discussion about officials using Signal's auto-delete feature to evade federal record-keeping requirements, with debate about transparency and accountabilityJournalistic ethics
Debate about The Atlantic editor Jeff Goldberg's decision to leave the group and publish the story, weighing journalistic opportunity against legal/security risks
223andMe files for bankruptcy to sell itself
- 23andMe filed for bankruptcy amid struggles with a data breach and declining demand. CEO Anne Wojcicki resigned after failed buyout attempts, with shares falling 46% to 96 cents. The company, once valued at $3.5 billion in 2021, secured $35 million in financing and will continue operations during the sale process.
Corporate governance struggle
CEO tried repeatedly to take company private at decreasing share prices ($8 to $0.4), board rejected offers while company lost $50M quarterly, leading to bankruptcy. Discussion around whether board made right decision.Privacy and data concerns
Users worried about genetic data being sold/misused post-bankruptcy. Debate over value and risks of DNA data, from identity theft to health insurance discrimination. Many users rushing to delete data before sale.Deletion reliability
Questions about whether user data is truly deleted or just flagged as deleted. Discussion around regulatory requirements, soft deletion practices, and company's claims about retention obligations.
3Show HN: I built a website for sharing drum patterns
- A personal project aimed at reviving patterns from the defunct website 808.pixll.de evolved into a public resource. Currently focused on Roland TR-808 patterns, with plans to expand to include more drum machine patterns in the future.
Technical improvements
Discussion of feature requests and improvements including triplets support, pattern copying, drum kit ordering, hi-hat choking, audio-visual sync fixes, and ability to paste text patterns.HTTPS importance
Debate about whether HTTPS is necessary for a drum pattern site, with arguments for HTTPS including prevention of malware injection, ad insertion, content modification by ISPs, and maintaining browser compatibility.Audio issues
Discussion of iOS-specific audio problems, solutions for getting sound to work on mobile devices, and ways to handle audio latency and synchronization challenges across different platforms.
4Millions are visiting the European Alternatives site. What trends are we seeing?
- The European Alternatives website, showcasing privacy-friendly digital tools, has seen massive growth with 2M visitors and an 1100% surge in 2025. Reddit surpassed Google as the top traffic source, while privacy-focused search engines gained traction. Popular categories include email, search engines, and cloud computing, with strong demand from both European and global users.
European tech independence
Discussion of EU's shift away from US tech products/services due to political tensions, with focus on military spending and developing domestic alternatives to reduce dependence on American technology.Migration challenges
Debate about practical difficulties of switching from US to EU tech solutions, especially for enterprises using AWS/cloud services, with questions about timeline, cost and business justification.Trust and security concerns
Europeans' growing distrust of US tech due to Trump's hostile rhetoric toward allies and support for Putin, leading to concerns about data security and continued reliance on US military/tech infrastructure.
5Triforce – a beamformer for Apple Silicon laptops
- Triforce is a beamformer application designed for Apple Silicon laptops, specifically targeting their microphone arrays. It aims to improve microphone performance by isolating desired signals from background noise, though it currently has some limitations in performance compared to Apple's implementation. The project maintains minimal dependencies and is open to community improvements.
Beamforming history
Historical examples of beamforming tech discussed, from 20-year-old Toshiba tablets to Sony camcorders. Used in lecture recording and videoconferencing. Some debate about front/back differentiation and implementation methods.MacBook microphone quality
Discussion of built-in MacBook mic quality vs headsets. Many prefer built-in mic due to superior audio quality and noise reduction. Bluetooth codec limitations noted as reason for poor headset performance.Linux implementation challenges
Debate around complexity of implementing audio support in Linux/Asahi for Apple hardware. Discussion of speaker DSP requirements and software challenges in replicating Apple's audio processing capabilities.
6Show HN: LinkedIn sucks, so I built a better one
- OpenSpot is a new professional networking platform designed to help people showcase their talents through video, audio, and work samples. Unlike LinkedIn's noisy feed, it offers a clean, curated space where professionals can connect with recruiters and peers. Users can create profiles in under a minute by uploading their resume.
Photos and discrimination
Discussion about how including photos on resumes enables discrimination, with many noting cultural differences between US (where photos are discouraged) and other countries. Concerns raised about bias in hiring.LinkedIn's network effect
Debate about whether LinkedIn's dominance can be challenged, with some arguing its network effect is unbeatable while others point to historical examples of social platforms being disrupted despite incumbent advantages.Technical blogging
Discussion of personal technical blogs as way to stand out professionally, with mixed views on effectiveness - some cite success stories while others warn of saturation and AI-generated content diluting value.
7A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
- A comprehensive look at Douglas Engelbart's groundbreaking 1968 computer demonstration, where he introduced revolutionary concepts like the mouse, hypertext, and graphical interfaces. The demo, later dubbed "The Mother of All Demos," showcased collaborative computing and document editing, though his five-finger keyset input device never gained widespread adoption.
Chorded keyboard history
Discussion of early chorded keyboards including Engelbart's keyset, Baudot's 1897 telegraph keyboard, and later adaptations like Velotype and Twiddler. Covers their evolution and varying success in different applications.Practical applications
Debate about chorded keyboards' ergonomics, multilingual support, and modern use cases like stenography, wearable computing, and accessibility tools for the blind. Includes discussion of RSI considerations.Modern implementations
Examples of current chorded keyboard technology including QMK/ZMK firmware "combos", TapXR wearable device, and custom mechanical keyboard implementations that support chord-based input methods.
8Show HN: My iOS app to practice sight reading (10 years in the App Store)
- A personal project focused on teaching music notes through progressive difficulty levels. The application is mostly free to use, with optional in-app purchases available, and contains no advertisements.
App store optimization
Discussion of the app's excellent App Store presence including logo, screenshots, keywords and ratings. Explanation that ASO is like SEO for app stores.Feature requests and feedback
Users suggest improvements like better note generation logic, metronome functionality, endless lesson mode, and support for other instruments like guitar. Developer actively engages with feedback.Microphone input
Discussion about the app's microphone functionality, its limitations with vocal input, and whether acoustic piano players should consider MIDI keyboards instead. Developer notes they're working on improving this feature.
9Qwen2.5-VL-32B: Smarter and Lighter
- Qwen2.5-VL-32B-Instruct, a new open-source visual language model, offers improved human-aligned responses, enhanced mathematical reasoning, and better image understanding capabilities. It outperforms similar models in multimodal tasks and demonstrates superior text processing abilities.
Model quality & comparisons
Chinese models like Qwen and DeepSeek showing superior performance to Western counterparts, especially in vision tasks. 32B models approaching GPT-4 (March 2023) capabilities. Users reporting strong results with local deployment.Hardware requirements
Discussion of VRAM needs and quantization options for running different model sizes locally. 32B models need 64GB+ VRAM unquantized but can run on 16GB with 4-bit quantization. Users sharing experiences with different GPU setups.Privacy and censorship
Concerns about data collection in free model versions, Chinese models' censorship of certain topics, and comparison to Western models' biases. Users noting all commercial models align with their governments' restrictions.
10Project Aardvark: reimagining AI weather prediction
Weather data availability and sources
Discussion of how weather data is collected, stored and shared globally through organizations like NOAA, WMO, and EUMETSAT, with concerns about potential NOAA funding cuts impacting data access.AI vs traditional forecasting
Debate about whether AI weather models can match human intuition and traditional physics-based models, particularly for long-range forecasts and extreme events, with focus on how AI "understands" weather patterns.Model accuracy and limitations
Discussion of the practical accuracy limits of weather predictions, particularly for specific locations and longer timeframes, and how AI models might perform compared to current methods.