Hacker News
1Tell HN: Merry Christmas
- The author wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, hoping people can rest and spend time with loved ones while focusing on what's important rather than stressing about perfection. They also send love to those who can't be with dear ones during Christmas and share a link to Christmas markets as a holiday tradition.
Christmas ASCII art trees
Users shared creative ASCII and Unicode art Christmas trees, including binary trees, BSP trees, MCTS trees, and braille art. Discussion included programming humor, accessibility concerns for screen readers, and nostalgic references to old internet traditions.Holiday generosity and community support
Remembrance of Alex Thomas Drummond who organized holiday help threads, with users continuing the tradition of supporting community members in need. Stories of gratitude and assistance shared by those who received help in previous years.Personal holiday experiences
Users sharing travel stories, spending holidays alone in new countries, family challenges, car troubles, and reflections on technology's fragility. Mix of difficult circumstances balanced with appreciation for community connections.
2We invited a man into our home at Christmas and he stayed with us for 45 years
- In 1975, Rob and Dianne Parsons invited homeless autistic man Ronnie Lockwood into their Cardiff home for Christmas. What started as a temporary act of kindness became a 45-year companionship until Ronnie's death in 2020. Despite challenges, Ronnie enriched their family life, helped raise their children, and left £40,000 to charity - exactly the amount needed to complete a community center roof named in his honor.
Personal experiences with kindness
Multiple users shared stories of family members helping students during holidays, taking in struggling individuals, and creating lasting connections. These personal anecdotes highlighted how individual acts of compassion create ripple effects of warmth and community.Homelessness and autism connection
Discussion revealed that a significant percentage of homeless individuals have autism, making them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Users debated systemic versus individual solutions, emphasizing the need for humanity toward homeless populations.Emotional impact and human connection
Many users expressed being moved to tears by the story, discussing how acts of kindness restore faith in humanity while highlighting the importance of person-to-person care over institutional systems.
3Ruby 4.0.0
- Ruby 4.0.0 has been released with two major new features: Ruby Box, an experimental isolation mechanism for separating definitions and monkey patches between different execution contexts, and ZJIT, a new just-in-time compiler that's faster than the interpreter but not yet as fast as YJIT. The release also includes significant Ractor improvements for better parallel execution, various language changes like modified behavior for logical operators at line beginnings, and numerous updates to core classes including Array, Binding, Enumerator, File, IO, Kernel, Math, Pathname, Proc, Range, Set, and Socket with enhanced functionality and performance optimizations.
Ruby vs Python comparison
Heated debate over Ruby's merits versus Python, with arguments about performance, syntax, ecosystem size, and design philosophy. Ruby advocates cite better language design, package management, and fewer footguns, while Python supporters emphasize ecosystem dominance and tooling.Ruby 4.0 features and improvements
Discussion of new Ruby 4.0 capabilities including RBS typing standardization, improved LSP support, Ractors performance gains, and syntax enhancements like multiline conditionals. Some debate over adoption rates and experimental features like ZJIT and Box.Ruby ecosystem and tooling challenges
Concerns about Ruby's development experience, particularly LSP/IDE support on Windows, REPL quality compared to IPython, and the broader trend of developers switching to Python for better ecosystem and library availability.
4Nvidia to buy assets from Groq for $20B cash
Anti-competitive acquisition concerns
Users express concern that Nvidia's deal with Groq is effectively eliminating competition through a "non-exclusive" licensing agreement that includes hiring key executives. Many see this as antitrust evasion and worry about Nvidia maintaining monopolistic control in AI chips.Impact on employees and investors
Discussion centers on how these quasi-acquisition deals affect employees who may not benefit from equity while founders cash out. Commenters share experiences of similar "not acquired" scenarios where regular employees were left behind.Strategic implications for open source AI
Debate over whether Nvidia is trying to slow down open source AI models that threaten their business model, or actually benefits from increased AI adoption regardless of whether models are open or closed source.
5Phoenix: A modern X server written from scratch in Zig
- Phoenix is a new X server written from scratch in Zig as a modern alternative to Xorg. It aims to be simpler by supporting only modern applications and hardware, more secure through automatic protocol parsing and application isolation, and improved with features like HDR support, multiple monitor handling, and built-in compositing. Currently in development and only runs nested within existing X servers.
Phoenix X server approach
Discussion of a new X11 server implementation that adopts Wayland-like features (merged display server/compositor, app isolation, no legacy protocol support) while maintaining X11 compatibility. Users debate whether this fills a real need versus existing solutions like XLibre or XWayland.Wayland vs X11 comparison
Extended debate about Wayland's readiness for productivity users, with specific concerns about accessibility support, window positioning, remote desktop capabilities, and missing features compared to X11's established functionality.Accessibility concerns
Critical discussion about Wayland's poor accessibility story, including broken screen reader support, eye tracker compatibility issues, and the importance of designing accessibility features from the beginning rather than as an afterthought.
6Show HN: Minimalist editor that lives in browser, stores everything in the URL
- A developer created a minimalist notes app using only modern browser features without any frameworks or external dependencies. The app stores notes in the URL hash for easy sharing, includes automatic compression, supports plain-text editing, browser history, and respects system theme preferences.
URL storage applications
Users shared various projects that store data directly in URLs, including a collaborative map drawing tool, guitar tablature viewer, and spreadsheet calculator. These "just-in-time apps" can be built quickly and hosted cheaply without backends.URL length limits and technical constraints
Discussion of browser URL limits (Chrome supports 2MB, Firefox 1MB) with examples like encoding entire books in URLs. Users reported mobile browser crashes with very long URLs and Safari truncation issues on iOS.Privacy and tracking concerns
Despite claims of no tracking, users discovered Cloudflare analytics beacons and discussed privacy implications. Some suggested self-hosting alternatives and questioned the privacy benefits versus local text editors.
7Alzheimer’s disease can be reversed in animal models? Study
- Researchers at Case Western Reserve University discovered that restoring NAD+ energy balance in the brain can reverse Alzheimer's disease in mouse models. The study showed that declining NAD+ levels drive AD progression, and using a drug called P7C3-A20 not only prevented disease but also restored cognitive function in mice with advanced Alzheimer's. This breakthrough challenges the century-old belief that Alzheimer's is irreversible and offers hope for future human clinical trials focused on recovery rather than just prevention.
Mouse models limitations
Discussion centers on the fundamental problem that mice don't naturally get Alzheimer's disease, making transgenic mouse models poor predictors of human outcomes. Many commenters note hundreds of "cures" have worked in mice but failed in humans.NAD+ supplementation safety concerns
Debate over whether NAD+ precursors like NMN/NR are safe alternatives to P7C3-A20, with concerns about cancer risk at high doses. Some argue the cancer risk is minimal compared to Alzheimer's severity, while others question the evidence.Study credibility and conflicts of interest
Critical analysis of the research methodology and claims, highlighting that the senior author owns the company developing P7C3-A20. Commenters question whether this represents legitimate science or a commercial pitch deck.
8Show HN: Vibium – Browser automation for AI and humans, by Selenium's creator
- The creator of Selenium announced Vibium, a new browser automation tool designed for AI agents. Built with Go but accessed via npm install, it aims to be what they would build if starting Selenium today. Version 1 is now available, with Python and Java support coming soon.
Vibium vs Playwright comparison
Users questioned how Vibium differs from Playwright, with the creator explaining that Vibium is built from the ground up for AI agents rather than traditional testing, using WebDriver BiDi protocol and focusing on "vibe coding" workflows.Missing browser automation features
Discussion about Vibium's current limitations compared to Playwright, particularly lacking JavaScript injection, DOM modification, and network request monitoring - features users consider essential for browser automation.Legacy Selenium migration path
Users interested in bridging from existing Selenium installations to AI-powered automation, with the creator describing Vibium as providing an upgrade path for the massive Selenium user base to more agentic coding options.
9I sell onions on the Internet (2019)
- A web developer accidentally won a domain auction for VidaliaOnions.com in 2014 for $2,200, then built a farm-to-door Vidalia onion business. Starting with no farming experience, he partnered with a local Georgia farmer and grew from an estimated 50 orders to over 600 in their first season, becoming a successful direct-to-consumer operation.
Domain-driven business approach
Discussion about buying domains first then building businesses around them, treating domains as inspiration that guides development. Some see it as "insane" to spend $2K without a plan, while others view it as creating a foundation and unfair advantage for the business.Personal service vs automation
Comments on how phone orders sometimes outsell the website, with many businesses still preferring human interaction over automated systems. Discussion about the value of personal communication in capturing nuances and building trust that automation misses.Regional food protection and authenticity
Conversation about Vidalia onions' geographic trademark protection, comparing it to champagne and other regional food designations. Discussion includes challenges facing other regional producers like rotting oranges in Spain due to economic constraints.
10Fabrice Bellard: Biography (2009) [pdf]
Bellard's programming focus and GUI applications
Discussion about why Fabrice Bellard appears to focus on "set-and-run" applications rather than interactive GUI programs that require continuous user interaction and state management, with debates about the complexity differences between these approaches.Historical accuracy of technical claims
Users critique the article's exaggerated claims about Bellard's innovations, particularly regarding JIT compilation and binary translation, noting that similar technologies existed before his work, though acknowledging his significant contributions.LLM usage speculation
Speculation about whether Bellard uses AI coding tools given his productivity, with mixed opinions on whether LLMs would be helpful for his low-level, novel programming work, and discussion of his own LLM-related projects.