Hacker News
1Europeans' health data sold to US firm run by ex-Israeli spies
Unit 8200 and Israeli military connections
Discussion about Unit 8200 being Israel's signals intelligence unit, not just cybersecurity, with debate over whether military service there is mandatory vs. selective placement. Some view it as elite training like MIT, others raise concerns about intelligence gathering capabilities.Privacy concerns and European digital sovereignty
Concerns about EU health data exposure through foreign acquisitions, with calls for European alternatives and criticism of governments forcing citizens to use US services. Discussion of GDPR enforcement and the challenge of paying for privacy-focused alternatives.Zivver's security model and vulnerabilities
Technical discussion about web-based encryption being inherently flawed since browser code can be compromised, with users reporting forced usage by healthcare providers without consent. Some note they stopped receiving Zivver messages after the acquisition announcement.
2VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits
- IPinfo analyzed 20 popular VPNs and found that 17 route traffic through different countries than advertised. Many VPNs claiming 100+ countries actually use the same data centers in the US or Europe. Only 3 providers (Mullvad, IVPN, Windscribe) had accurate location claims across all tested countries.
VPN server location verification challenges
WonderProxy and IPinfo discuss the difficulties of verifying true server locations globally. VPN providers often misrepresent locations, with some claiming servers in South America while actually operating from Texas. IPinfo uses cross-pings and network behavior detection across 530+ cities to maintain authenticity, while WonderProxy faced issues like nearly flying to Peru with hardware due to supplier dishonesty.Mullvad VPN reputation and performance
Multiple users praise Mullvad for taking security and privacy seriously, being one of only three honest providers in the study. Users report it works in China behind the Great Firewall and appreciate crypto payment options for anonymity. However, some note declining speeds/latency recently and blocking issues with sites like Reddit.VPN blocking and web accessibility issues
Users discuss widespread VPN blocking by websites including HackerNews and Reddit, with some sites shadowbanning VPN users. The conversation explores whether increased VPN adoption might force sites to accept VPN traffic, similar to Apple's Private Relay success. Users suggest alternatives like residential IPs and self-hosted solutions for better reliability.
3Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?
- A developer is rewriting a jQuery/Django project into SvelteKit, focusing on creating cleaner, more semantic code and replacing Bootstrap with Tailwind. While the manual process takes 1-2 hours per route, they're struggling to use AI effectively to speed up the work, as current AI tools only produce slightly better code that still requires significant manual refinement.
Tips for better Claude Code usage
Boris from Claude team shares key tips: use CLAUDE.md for persistent instructions, leverage Plan mode for better results, give Claude tools to check its work, and upgrade to Opus 4.5. Users discuss context rot issues and best practices for maintaining conversation quality.Voice transcription workflow
Users recommend voice-to-text for detailed prompts, finding it more natural than typing. Discussion covers various transcription tools like Whispering, Superwhisper, and VoiceInk, with many reporting 500+ word prompts via voice improve AI coding results.AI as programming assistant vs replacement
Debate over using AI for rubber duck debugging vs full code generation. Some prefer treating AI as conversation partner for high-level planning, while others embrace full automation with proper verification workflows and planning phases.
4I tried Gleam for Advent of Code
- The author completed all stars in this year's shorter 12-day Advent of Code using Gleam programming language. They found Gleam's functional programming style, clean syntax, helpful compiler errors, and features like echo debugging, pipes, and fold_until particularly well-suited for puzzle solving. While they encountered some friction points like file IO being external and pattern matching limitations, they enjoyed the experience and plan to use Gleam for real projects.
Llm impact on programming language adoption
Discussion about whether LLMs are freezing programming language innovation post-2021, with mixed experiences - some finding LLMs work well with Gleam despite limited training data, others concerned about a flywheel effect favoring established languages.Gleam language features and developer experience
Users praise Gleam's excellent language server, type system, and performance while noting drawbacks like aggressive formatting, verbose syntax requiring qualified imports, and limited library ecosystem compared to more mature languages.Gleam vs other functional languages
Comparisons between Gleam and alternatives like Elixir, Elm, OCaml, and Haskell, with discussion of Gleam's potential as "the new Elm" and debates about OTP support, typing systems, and ecosystem maturity.
5Linux Sandboxes and Fil-C
- Memory safety and sandboxing are orthogonal security measures that work best when combined. This document explains how to integrate Fil-C's memory safety with OpenSSH's seccomp-based Linux sandbox by adding API calls to prevent thread creation conflicts and modifying seccomp filters to accommodate Fil-C's runtime requirements while maintaining security protections.
Memory safety vs sandboxing approaches
Discussion on hybrid C→WASM→C compilation, differences between memory safety technologies like Fil-C that prevent memory corruption versus sandboxing technologies like WASM that limit blast radius but don't prevent internal memory corruption.Fil-C implementation concerns and limitations
Debate over Fil-C's readiness for production use, including setuid program compatibility, data race vulnerabilities with pointer/capability mismatches, and author's dismissive responses to legitimate technical concerns.Fil-C vs Rust comparison
Technical comparison between Fil-C's runtime garbage collection approach for existing C codebases versus Rust's compile-time borrow checker for new development, with discussion of performance trade-offs and use cases.
6Recovering Anthony Bourdain's Li.st's
- A developer used Common Crawl archives to recover lost content from Anthony Bourdain's deleted li.st posts, successfully retrieving several lists including his favorite hotels, spy novels, objects of desire, TV series preferences, and food photos. The recovered content showcases Bourdain's wit and personality through lists about things he had no patience for, places he wanted to visit, and items he coveted, though many original images were lost in the process.
Recovery of Anthony Bourdain's lost content
Multiple users worked to recover Anthony Bourdain's lost li.st entries from archives, with one person noting they did similar work a week prior. Almost all content was recovered except one "David Bowie Related" list, though a Reddit preview exists.Website design and readability issues
Users complained about light grey text being hard to read, though the site creator defended the color choices as meeting accessibility standards. The issue was traced to dark mode browser extensions causing display problems.Criticism of Bourdain's travel shows
Several commenters shared disappointment with how Bourdain portrayed their hometowns, feeling he connected with the wrong people or misrepresented local culture, leading them to question the authenticity of his other work.
7I fed 24 years of my blog posts to a Markov model
- Susam Pal shares his Mark V. Shaney Junior program, a minimal 30-line Python implementation of a Markov text generator inspired by the 1980s Usenet bot. The program analyzes word patterns in training text to generate coherent-sounding gibberish by predicting words based on previous word pairs.
Markov model definition and classification
Technical debate about whether LLMs and RNNs qualify as Markov models, with detailed explanations of state transitions, token emissions, and the mathematical requirements for different types of Markov models including learnability constraints.Tokenization and n-gram optimization
Practical experiments with different tokenization approaches (character-level vs BPE) and n-gram orders, discussing techniques to prevent verbatim reproduction and deterministic output through dynamic context length adjustment.Creative applications and personal projects
Users sharing experiences using Markov models for creative writing inspiration, generating content from personal writing corpora, and building IRC bots, with discussions about balancing coherence vs novelty.
8Google removes Sci-Hub domains from U.S. search results due to dated court order
- Google has removed dozens of Sci-Hub domain names from US search results based on a 2018 court injunction that wasn't enforced for years. The American Chemical Society won a lawsuit against the "Pirate Bay of Science" and obtained a broad permanent injunction requiring intermediaries to cease facilitating access to Sci-Hub domains. This appears to be Google's first deindexing of an entire pirate site in the US based on a site-blocking style order.
Alternative access methods
Users discuss various ways to access scientific papers when Sci-Hub is down, including Anna's Archive, Z-lib, open-slum.org for tracking shadow libraries, Telegram bots, and alternative search engines like Yandex that don't censor these resources.Decentralized solutions
Discussion about the need for decentralized, anonymous global libraries using technologies like Tor, IPFS, and P2P file sharing. Users express willingness to contribute resources to such systems and mention projects like nexus-stc as potential solutions.Search engine censorship and alternatives
Users debate Google's censorship of Sci-Hub versus other search engines. Some recommend Yandex despite concerns about Russian state control, while others point out that Bing and other alternatives still work for finding Sci-Hub mirrors.
9Why Twilio Segment moved from microservices back to a monolith
- Twilio Segment moved from a microservices architecture with over 100 separate services back to a single monolithic service. While microservices initially solved head-of-line blocking issues by isolating destinations, the team eventually faced exploding complexity, operational overhead, and maintenance burdens that required 3 full-time engineers just to keep the system running, prompting them to consolidate everything into one superstar service.
Distributed monolith vs true microservices
Debate over whether Twilio's architecture was actually microservices or a distributed monolith, with commenters arguing that needing to deploy 140+ services for library changes indicates poor service boundaries and shared dependencies that violate microservices principles.Organizational structure drives architecture decisions
Discussion around Conway's Law and how engineering team quality, structure, and technical discipline matter more than the monolith vs microservices choice, with examples of both approaches succeeding or failing based on organizational factors.Practical trade-offs between approaches
Comments exploring real-world experiences with both architectures, noting that the choice depends on business context, team size, and problem domain - with microservices better for loosely coupled problems and monoliths for tightly connected business logic.
10Computer animator and Amiga fanatic Dick van Dyke turns 100
- The content mentions a 2004 video and notes that today is someone's 100th birthday, but provides no details about who the person is or what the video contains.
Dick Van Dyke's longevity and exercise philosophy
Discussion centers on Van Dyke's famous quote about evolving exercise motivations from vanity to defiance, his history with alcoholism, and factors contributing to his remarkable longevity including genetics and positive attitude.Dick Van Dyke as an animator and digital artist
Users express surprise and admiration for Van Dyke's lesser-known work with Lightwave 3D animation software, comparing him to other multi-talented entertainers like Phil Hartman and Steve Martin.The Dick Van Dyke Show's availability and quality
Participants share enthusiasm about the show being free on YouTube, recommend specific episodes, and praise the quality of writing in classic comedy shows compared to modern entertainment.