Hacker NewsSunday, November 23

The author reflects on blogging's evolution from its golden age when niche blogs like Darren Rowse's Problogger thrived commercially. While personal blogging is experiencing a revival through IndieWeb movements, the author argues we need quality niche blogs to return as reliable information sources, learning from past monetization mistakes to create sustainable, reader-friendly content that compensates writers without compromising user experience.

The article argues that dependency cooldowns - waiting periods before using newly published software packages - are a highly effective and free method to prevent most open source supply chain attacks. Analysis shows most attacks have windows of opportunity under a week, so implementing 7-14 day cooldowns through tools like Dependabot would block 80-90% of these attacks with minimal effort.

The article explains how browser fingerprinting has become a major privacy threat that's harder to combat than traditional tracking cookies. Fingerprinting creates unique digital identities by combining browser information like version, fonts, canvas data, and window size. Simple countermeasures like disabling JavaScript often backfire by making users more identifiable. The author recommends using VPNs, managing cookies carefully, and choosing popular browsers on common operating systems to blend in with the crowd.

Users are worried about Arduino's new ToS removing patent protections and Qualcomm's potential to assert patents against makers. While Arduino issued a clarifying response, many remain skeptical about the company's direction under corporate ownership.

The author shares lessons from building AI agents, finding that high-level SDKs break with complex tool use and recommending direct platform SDKs instead. Key insights include preferring explicit cache management, using reinforcement to guide agents, isolating failures through subagents, implementing shared file systems for tool coordination, and using dedicated output tools for user communication.

Three brothers discovered a pristine 1939 Superman #1 comic in their late mother's California loft while cleaning it out last Christmas. The comic, hidden under newspapers since the Great Depression era, sold for a record-breaking $9.12 million at auction, becoming the highest-priced comic book ever sold.

The author discovered that PS2 games can be developed using JavaScript through AthenaEnv, an environment that embeds QuickJS to run JavaScript on PS2 hardware. After someone ported their web-based Sonic game to PS2, they investigated the technology and learned how to create PS2 games using familiar JavaScript APIs for rendering, input handling, and asset loading, then distribute them as ISO files.

Discussion of how the US provided childcare during WWII under the Lanham Act, which Nixon later vetoed from expanding. Commenters debate whether America has moved toward harmful individualism and abandoned policies that previously benefited society as a whole.

Experts say clinical guidelines should stop recommending Prozac for children after research found it provides no meaningful clinical benefit over placebo for treating depression in young people, while carrying risks of harmful side effects including weight gain, sleep problems, and increased suicidal thoughts.

Homeschooling in the U.S. is growing at 5.4% annually, nearly triple the pre-pandemic rate of 2%. Now representing about 6% of students compared to 3% before COVID, this growth reflects lasting dissatisfaction with public schools' rigidity, politicization, and poor performance rather than just pandemic effects.