Hacker News
1Valve confirms credit card companies pressured it to delist certain adult games
- Valve has removed several adult-themed games from Steam due to pressure from payment processors like Mastercard and Visa. The company explained that keeping these games would risk losing payment processing capabilities for their entire platform, though they're offering credits to affected developers.
Payment processor power
Discussion of Visa/Mastercard's outsized influence on digital content, with calls for regulation of payment processors as utilities and criticism of their unaccountable ability to censor legal contentViolence vs sex in media
Debate about cultural double standards that allow extreme violence in games while restricting sexual content, with focus on American cultural attitudes and questioning of this inconsistencyContent moderation responsibility
Discussion of how payment processors became de facto content police, driven by government pressure and moral advocacy groups, creating a shadow regulatory system outside democratic control
2Hyatt Hotels are using algorithmic Rest “smoking detectors”
- A social media user named Zach Griff claims to have been scammed by a Hyatt hotel and suggests this incident points to a larger systemic issue. The post appears to be the start of a longer thread detailing his experience.
Smoke sensor scam
Hotels using "Rest" sensors to generate revenue through false smoking detection, charging $500 fees without verification. Company markets it as "unlocking revenue stream" while hotels dismiss complaints about false positives.Credit card protection
Discussion around using chargebacks and credit card protections against fraudulent hotel charges, with varying experiences of success. Debate over power dynamics between hotels and guests regarding payment disputes.Hotel brand damage
Impact on hotel brand loyalty and reputation from using these sensors. Guests vowing to avoid hotels with these systems, though complicated by franchise model where individual properties make decisions independently.
3My Self-Hosting Setup
- The author shares their journey in self-hosting services, moving from various approaches to finally achieving a stable setup using NixOS, ZFS, and Tailscale. They prioritize data control and privacy while maintaining ease of use for family and friends. The setup includes public and private servers, with careful consideration given to security, usability, and system maintenance.
Single sign-on challenges
Discussion of implementing SSO for home labs, with focus on making services accessible to family while maintaining security. Multiple approaches discussed including LLDAP, Authentik and OpenID Connect.Planning for death/incapacity
Concerns about what happens to complex home lab setups when the maintainer dies or becomes incapacitated. Focus on documentation, data accessibility, and simplifying systems for family members.NixOS vs Docker debate
Comparison of NixOS and Docker approaches for home labs, discussing tradeoffs between ease of updates, reproducibility, and configuration management. NixOS praised for rollback capabilities but has steeper learning curve.
4A 14kb page can load much faster than a 15kb page (2022)
- The article explains the TCP slow start algorithm and the importance of keeping initial webpage content under 14kB for faster loading times. It details how TCP packets work, the impact of latency on loading speeds, and provides practical tips for optimizing website performance within these constraints.
Small website performance
Discussion of keeping website sizes minimal, with examples of personal sites under 14KB and challenges when adding features like KaTeX for math rendering. Debate about tradeoffs between minimalism and functionality.Environmental impact
Debate about whether optimizing website size for environmental reasons is worthwhile, with some arguing it's negligible compared to video streaming/AI, while others support small optimizations as part of broader sustainability.TCP and networking
Technical discussion about TCP slow start, packet sizes, HTTP/3, and how network protocols affect page load times. Debate about whether 14KB optimization still matters with modern protocols.
5OpenAI claims gold-medal performance at IMO 2025
- OpenAI's experimental reasoning LLM has achieved a significant milestone by attaining gold medal-level performance on the International Math Olympiad (IMO), one of the most prestigious mathematics competitions globally.
Model capabilities and limitations
Debate over whether this is a specialized IMO model or general reasoning model, with skepticism about OpenAI's claims regarding its capabilities and lack of transparency about methodology used.IMO difficulty level
Discussion about how IMO problems are extremely challenging even for professional mathematicians, not just "high school math", with many noting only those with specialized training can solve them.Testing methodology
Questions about use of parallel testing, test-time compute scaling, and whether solutions were cherry-picked from multiple attempts, with debate about whether such approaches diminish the achievement.
6Fstrings.wtf
- A quiz or assessment tool focused on testing Python f-strings knowledge and functionality, specifically based on Python version 3.13, presenting questions with a scoring system.
String interpolation approaches
Discussion of different language approaches to string interpolation, from Python/C#'s permissive style to Rust's limited interpolation. Debate on finding the right balance between power and maintainability.Debugging with f-strings
Discovery and appreciation of f-string debugging features like the '=' operator for self-documenting output. Users share how this improves their debugging workflow compared to traditional print statements.Feature complexity
Debate about whether Python's string formatting features have become too complex, making documentation lookup necessary and encouraging developers to write simpler custom solutions instead.
7AI capex is so big that it's affecting economic statistics
- The article discusses the Federal Reserve's building renovations amid political criticism, followed by an in-depth analysis of AI datacenter spending's impact on the economy. It highlights unprecedented capital expenditure levels comparable to historical infrastructure investments, while examining funding sources and economic implications of this technological shift.
AI capex scale
Discussion of whether 1.2% GDP spending on AI is concerning, with comparisons to historical investments like Apollo (4%) and railroads (6%). Some argue it's modest while others note the rapid growth rate is significant.Infrastructure reuse
Debate about whether AI infrastructure investments will have lasting value like previous tech booms (e.g. dot-com fiber networks) or become stranded assets. Discussion of potential repurposing for drug discovery and research.Energy concerns
Discussion of powering data centers with renewables vs fossil fuels, nuclear options, and whether companies are adequately addressing energy infrastructure needs. Debate over permitting bottlenecks vs actual power availability.
8Meta says it won't sign Europe AI agreement
- Meta declines to sign EU's AI code of practice, with global affairs chief Joel Kaplan stating it will hinder AI development in Europe. The code, effective next month, aims to regulate AI safety and transparency. Some companies support delaying implementation, while others like OpenAI commit to signing.
European regulation approach
Discussion of EU's AI regulation implementation, with debate around whether it's reasonable oversight or bureaucratic overreach. Many note EU's history with GDPR and cookie laws as examples of well-intentioned but problematic regulation.Meta's motivations
Debate around whether Meta's opposition stems from genuine concerns about European tech growth or self-interest. Contrasts drawn with OpenAI's willingness to sign the agreement.Copyright implications
Discussion of how AI models should handle copyrighted content, with debate between protecting intellectual property rights versus allowing general-purpose models to operate without excessive restrictions.
9Cancer DNA is detectable in blood years before diagnosis
- Researchers discovered that tumor DNA can be detected in blood samples more than three years before cancer diagnosis. Using advanced genetic testing on archived blood samples, scientists found cancer-specific alterations in DNA, suggesting potential for early screening and treatment of cancer before symptoms appear.
Early detection challenges
Discussion of technical limitations in early cancer detection, including sensitivity/specificity tradeoffs, false positives, and the need for cost-effective screening strategies that can work at population scaleHealthcare system barriers
Debate around US healthcare system's reluctance to cover preventative screening due to costs, false positives, and misaligned incentives, with calls for universal coverage to better align financial motivationsData collection needs
Discussion of need for vastly more health data collection (>10^7 bits/day) through new sensors and longitudinal studies to enable effective ML-based early detection and prediction of health outcomes
10Asynchrony is not concurrency
- The article explores the distinctions between asynchrony, concurrency, and parallelism in programming, focusing on how Zig's approach separates asynchrony from concurrency. It argues that this separation leads to better software design, eliminating the need for duplicate libraries and allowing synchronous and asynchronous code to coexist efficiently.
Defining async vs concurrency
Multiple participants debate definitions, with some arguing async means code structured for concurrency, others saying it means tasks running out of order while being correct, and some citing Lamport's formal definitions.Zig's async implementation
Discussion of how Zig plans to implement stackless coroutines, handle FFI boundaries, and prevent recursion through single compilation unit analysis, with debate around whether this approach is novel or necessary.Testing async code
Developers share challenges of testing asynchronous code, particularly around race conditions and ensuring all possible execution orderings are covered, with some suggesting specialized testing frameworks as solutions.