Hacker NewsSunday, January 11

Jordan Maris argues that the 1984 Citroen C15 van is superior to modern SUVs and pickups like the Ford Ranger and Land Rover Discovery. He compares them on price, fuel efficiency, cargo capacity, off-road capability, speed, and emissions, claiming the C15 wins in most categories while being much cheaper to buy and run.

The content appears to be a Mastodon social media page that requires JavaScript to be enabled to view properly. The page shows a partial post title from Terence Tao about AI tools being applied to Erdos problems, but the actual content of the post is not accessible in this format. Without JavaScript enabled, only the platform's logo and instructions to enable JavaScript or use native apps are visible.

A security researcher discovered that Flock Safety, which operates one of the largest surveillance networks in the US with cameras generating 30 billion vehicle detections monthly, had exposed a hardcoded API key in their public JavaScript code. This key provided unrestricted access to their ArcGIS mapping system containing sensitive data from 5,000 police departments, 6,000 community deployments, and 1,000 private businesses, including license plate detections, patrol car locations, drone telemetry, body camera positions, 911 call data, and surveillance camera locations. The vulnerability was found across 53 separate instances and has since been remediated following responsible disclosure.

Nathan Edwards installed CachyOS Linux on his desktop after getting fed up with Windows. Despite some minor issues like a gaming mouse that only works in games and needing workarounds for Minecraft Bedrock Edition, the transition has been surprisingly smooth. Hardware like his Nvidia GPU, printer, and webcam worked immediately without configuration. He's been able to use Linux for work, gaming, and daily tasks with minimal troubleshooting, finding it a quieter experience without Microsoft's pushy features.

The alpha stage features basic visual components like menus, dialogs, and toolbars, along with website navigation, advanced tab management with session persistence, a simple bookmarks system for saving and organizing pages, history management, and password management framework foundations.

Markdown, a simple text formatting system, was created in 2004 by John Gruber to solve the problem of writing for the web without complex HTML code. Originally designed for his Apple-focused blog Daring Fireball during the early blogging era, Markdown allows users to format text using simple keyboard characters like asterisks for bold and brackets for links. The format became ubiquitous across the internet, now powering everything from AI systems to casual note-taking apps, demonstrating how smart individuals can create free tools that gradually transform how everyone communicates online.

A Cochrane review of 73 studies involving nearly 5,000 adults found that regular exercise reduces depression symptoms as effectively as psychological therapy, with similar benefits to antidepressant medication. Light to moderate intensity exercise with 13-36 sessions showed the best results.

The London to Calcutta bus service was the world's longest bus route, operating from 1957-1976. Run by Albert Travel, it covered 10,000 miles through Europe, Middle East and Asia, taking 50 days each way. The service included sleeping bunks, kitchen facilities, and tourist stops. It was discontinued in 1976 due to Middle East political instability.

Apple shut down the Dark Sky weather app in 2023 after acquiring it in 2020, integrating its technology into Apple Weather. Dark Sky was praised for exceptional information design that contextualized weather data based on user needs and location, showing relevant information at a glance through innovative visualizations, precise timing, and hyperlocal forecasts that helped users make daily decisions.

WebAssembly is a low-level programming language that serves as a compilation target for many languages like Rust, C++, and Go. It provides strong security guarantees through sandboxing, enables fast startup times, and allows running non-JavaScript code in browsers. Real-world uses include Figma's C++ code, game engines like Godot, image processing tools, and plugin systems. While not replacing JavaScript entirely, it excels at bridging language gaps and running performance-critical applications securely across different platforms.