Hacker News
1Zig quits GitHub, says Microsoft's AI obsession has ruined the service
- The Zig programming language foundation is leaving GitHub for Codeberg due to perceived decline in GitHub's engineering quality. A key issue was a bug in GitHub Actions' safe_sleep script that caused infinite CPU loops, reported in April but not fixed until August. Zig's leadership cited this as evidence of GitHub's shift away from engineering excellence toward AI focus, with the CEO reportedly saying to "embrace AI or get out."
Zig announcement edits and communication style
Discussion of how Zig's migration announcement was edited multiple times to remove inflammatory language calling GitHub developers "losers" and "monkeys." Community debated whether the edits showed maturity or lack of integrity, with some preferring honest criticism over sanitized corporate speak.GitHub's technical issues and user experience
Users discussed GitHub's declining performance, buggy JavaScript frameworks, and AI feature bloat. While acknowledging GitHub's ecosystem advantages like CI/CD and social features, many noted slowness, reliability issues, and overcomplicated workflows compared to alternatives.Codeberg reliability and platform alternatives
Debate over Codeberg's viability as a GitHub alternative, focusing on its ~95% uptime, DDoS attacks, and limited infrastructure. Discussion included comparisons to other platforms like GitLab, Forgejo, and the trade-offs between centralized corporate platforms versus smaller community-driven alternatives.
2Accepting US car standards would risk European lives
- Cities and civil society groups urge EU officials to reconsider a trade deal with the US that would accept lower American vehicle standards. They warn this would undermine EU road safety achievements, increase pollution exposure, threaten European jobs, and reverse decades of progress in vehicle safety regulations.
US truck invasion in Europe
Europeans express concern about American pickup trucks bypassing EU safety standards through individual vehicle approval loopholes. These oversized vehicles create visibility issues, parking problems, and safety risks in European cities designed for smaller cars and mixed traffic.Road safety statistics comparison
EU vehicle safety regulations led to 36% reduction in road deaths since 2010, while US deaths increased 30% with pedestrian deaths up 80%. Discussion focuses on whether this reflects vehicle design differences or broader infrastructure and enforcement issues.American car culture shock
Europeans visiting the US describe cultural differences around massive vehicles, car dependency, and infrastructure designed for automobiles rather than pedestrians. Many express concern about importing American automotive attitudes to Europe.
3IBM CEO says there is 'no way' spending on AI data centers will pay off
- IBM CEO Arvind Krishna argues that AI companies' massive data center investments won't generate profitable returns, estimating $8 trillion in global commitments would require $800 billion in profit just to cover interest costs. He's skeptical current technology can achieve AGI, rating chances at 0-1%.
Economic viability concerns
Discussion centers on whether massive AI infrastructure spending can generate sufficient returns. IBM CEO argues $8 trillion capex requires $800 billion profit just for interest, while energy demands and hardware depreciation make profitability challenging.IBM's credibility and track record
Debate over whether IBM's skepticism is credible given their history of missing tech waves (xerography, minicomputers, PCs) versus their experience with failed AI investments like Watson and current consulting business model.Hardware depreciation and technological evolution
Technical discussion about 5-year GPU replacement cycles, whether older hardware remains economically viable, and comparisons to dot-com era fiber buildout where infrastructure retained long-term value unlike rapidly obsolescing chips.
4“Captain Gains” on Capitol Hill
- A study using congressional stock trading data found that lawmakers who ascend to leadership positions significantly outperform their peers in stock returns, earning 47 percentage points more annually after gaining leadership roles. This superior performance comes from two sources: leveraging political influence for better investment decisions, and receiving preferential access to IPO shares that generate substantial returns.
Banning congressional stock trading
Strong consensus that members of Congress should be prohibited from trading individual stocks due to inherent conflicts of interest. Many support allowing only index funds while requiring blind trusts for other assets.Paying politicians more to reduce corruption
Debate over whether higher salaries would reduce corrupt behavior, with Singapore cited as example. Critics argue wealthy people remain susceptible to greed regardless of income level.Enforcement and workarounds
Discussion of practical challenges in preventing insider trading through complex legal structures, third-party arrangements, and the difficulty of getting lawmakers to restrict their own profitable activities.
5Ghostty is now non-profit
- Ghostty terminal emulator is now fiscally sponsored by Hack Club, a non-profit organization, allowing it to accept tax-deductible donations while maintaining its free and open-source status. This structure provides legal protections against commercialization and ensures sustainable development beyond the founder's involvement.
Fiscal sponsorship and sustainability
Discussion of Hack Club's extensive fiscal sponsorship program (2,500+ orgs) vs Python Software Foundation's smaller approach (20 orgs), with praise for Ghostty choosing non-profit structure over VC funding to ensure long-term sustainability and avoid "rug pulls."Technical features and comparisons
Users comparing Ghostty's advantages over default terminals and competitors like iTerm2, WezTerm, foot - highlighting features like kitty graphics protocol, shader support, better performance, but noting missing search functionality and some platform-specific issues.Funding philosophy and wealth distribution
Debate over whether to donate to Ghostty given Mitchell's wealth from HashiCorp acquisition, with some arguing funds should go to projects that actually need money vs supporting sustainable open source development regardless of creator's financial status.
6Paged Out
- Paged Out! is a free experimental technical magazine about programming, hacking, security, retro computers, and electronics, made by and for the community. Each article fits on one page, and all issues are free to download, share, and print. Seven issues have been released so far.
Print subscription and purchasing experience
Users want easier ways to subscribe and pay for the magazine. The current print-on-demand process is convoluted with multiple steps, account creation, and email verification. The project leads acknowledge this and are working toward subscription models.Quality content and nostalgia for zine culture
Readers praise the magazine's high-quality content and artistic presentation, comparing it favorably to 90s zine culture, 2600, and classic computer magazines. The handwriting OCR model printed on paper particularly impressed users.Recommendations for similar publications
Discussion of other technical zines and magazines like Phrack, tmpout.sh, Hugi, LainZine, Unredacted, and N-O-D-E that offer similar high-quality, curated content in artistic formats.
7Everyone in Seattle hates AI
- A former Microsoft engineer shares how Seattle's tech culture has turned hostile toward AI after layoffs and forced adoption of poor internal AI tools. Engineers who once embraced innovation now reflexively reject AI projects, creating a cycle where talented people believe they're unqualified for AI work while simultaneously dismissing its value, contrasting sharply with more optimistic attitudes in other tech hubs.
Engineer skepticism of AI hype
Many engineers, especially at big tech companies like Google and Microsoft, are skeptical of AI's practical value despite corporate pressure to adopt it. They see AI as overhyped technology that often produces code with subtle bugs and creates more work during code review.Corporate AI mandates causing burnout
Employees at major tech companies report fatigue from being forced to use AI tools that don't add value. The pressure to integrate AI into everything regardless of usefulness is creating a toxic work environment and contributing to burnout.Real value vs. hype dichotomy
Discussion centers on the tension between legitimate AI use cases (like code assistance and problem-solving) and hype-driven implementations that prioritize investor appeal over customer value, with many seeing AI as the latest bubble.
8Reverse engineering a $1B Legal AI tool exposed 100k+ confidential files
- A security researcher discovered a critical vulnerability in Filevine, a billion-dollar AI legal-tech platform, that exposed a law firm's entire Box filesystem containing millions of sensitive documents protected by HIPAA and court orders. The researcher found an unprotected API endpoint that returned admin-level access tokens, allowing unrestricted access to confidential files. After responsible disclosure, Filevine quickly fixed the issue, highlighting the importance of proper security when handling sensitive legal data in AI systems.
Responsible disclosure debate
Discussion centers on whether companies that fix vulnerabilities professionally should be publicly named, with some arguing anonymity protects cooperative companies while others contend customers deserve transparency about data handling practices.Organizational security response challenges
Users debate why companies take weeks to patch critical vulnerabilities, identifying bureaucratic bottlenecks, resource allocation conflicts, and organizational complexity as key barriers to rapid security fixes.AI security risks and compliance theater
Conversation explores how AI tools create new attack vectors while bypassing traditional security controls, questioning the effectiveness of compliance certifications versus actual security practices.
9100k TPS over a billion rows: the unreasonable effectiveness of SQLite
- This article challenges common misconceptions about SQLite by demonstrating through benchmarks that its embedded nature and single-writer design actually enable exceptional scalability for web applications. The author shows SQLite achieving 121,922 TPS versus Postgres's 660 TPS in realistic scenarios with network latency, arguing that eliminating network overhead and enabling batching makes SQLite superior for many use cases despite lacking multiple concurrent writers.
SQLite limitations and challenges
Users report database locking issues, WAL checkpoint problems causing performance degradation, and difficulties on Windows. Despite these issues, SQLite maintains ACID compliance and doesn't corrupt data, leading to mixed experiences.Network latency vs local performance
Discussion centers on how network latency fundamentally limits database performance compared to embedded solutions. Local SQLite significantly outperforms remote PostgreSQL due to eliminating network round-trips.Production deployment considerations
Debate over SQLite's viability for production systems, including deployment strategies, high availability requirements, backup solutions like Litestream, and when to choose SQLite vs PostgreSQL for different use cases.
10MinIO is now in maintenance-mode
- A MinIO project has been placed in maintenance mode and is no longer accepting new features, enhancements, or pull requests. Only critical security fixes may be considered case-by-case. Community support continues through Slack, while enterprise users are directed to MinIO AIStor for actively maintained versions.
MinIO alternatives and recommendations
Discussion of various MinIO replacements including SeaweedFS (concerns about stability/reliability), Garage (easier deployment, lower performance), RustFS (unstable, Chinese origin), and simpler solutions like rclone or custom APIs.Open source licensing concerns and community impact
Users criticize MinIO's transition from AGPL to proprietary licensing, discussing CLAs, contributor rights, and the broader pattern of companies using open source for free development before closing source code.MinIO's technical maturity and future viability
Debate about whether MinIO in maintenance mode is problematic, with some users noting it's feature-complete for basic use cases, while others worry about security updates and the company's pivot to "AI storage."