Hacker NewsMonday, July 28

Analysis reveals Trae, ByteDance's VSCode fork, has significant privacy and performance concerns including excessive resource usage, non-functional telemetry controls that actually increase data collection, and extensive user tracking. Attempts to discuss these issues on official channels resulted in censorship.

Dumbpipe is a tool that enables direct data transfer between two computers through a simple pipe connection. Users can establish connections by running a listen command on one machine and a connect command on another, allowing data to flow between them without requiring accounts or complex configuration, regardless of their locations.

The article examines the controversial sale of Komoot, a route-planning platform, to private equity firm Bending Spoons, resulting in mass layoffs and user concerns. It explores how corporate capitalism impacts community-driven platforms and discusses the tensions between profit-driven businesses and user communities.

Tom Lehrer, the renowned mathematician and musical satirist known for witty songs like "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and "The Elements," has died at age 95. His sharp, humorous songs blended intellectual themes with social commentary, influencing generations of performers and educators.

Nearly 4,000 NASA employees are leaving through Trump's deferred resignation program, reducing workforce by 20%. The administration plans to cut NASA's budget by 24%, though Congress may maintain current funding. A recent law allocates $10B additional funding through 2032 for Mars and Moon missions.

A security researcher discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft Copilot Enterprise's Python sandbox in April 2025, allowing root access via a PATH manipulation exploit. While not qualifying for a bounty, the issue was reported and fixed by Microsoft as a moderate severity vulnerability.

The Hierarchical Reasoning Model (HRM) presents a new approach to AI reasoning through a dual-module recurrent architecture that performs complex tasks efficiently without extensive training data. With just 27M parameters, it shows strong performance on tasks like Sudoku and maze-solving while outperforming larger models on intelligence benchmarks.

Lab-grown diamonds have surged in popularity, causing a decline in natural diamond sales. The shift is driven by lower costs, ethical concerns, and changing consumer preferences. This trend has impacted Canada's diamond mining industry, leading to layoffs and mine closures in the Northwest Territories.

Linaro and TUXEDO Computers demonstrated a prototype ARM64 Linux laptop using Snapdragon X Elite at Linaro Connect 2025, showcasing progress in Linux support for Snapdragon devices. Through collaboration with Qualcomm and the community, significant advancements have been made in enabling Linux functionality on various Snapdragon-powered laptops.

Yahoo, founded in 1994 as a web directory, became a dominant internet company worth $125 billion at its peak. Despite making 114 acquisitions, including notable failures like Broadcast.com and Geocities, Yahoo missed opportunities to buy Google and Facebook. After declining Microsoft's $44.6B offer in 2008, it eventually sold to Verizon for $4.8B in 2016.