Hacker NewsTuesday, January 20

The Kiel Institute's analysis of 2025 US tariffs shows they function as an "own goal" where American importers and consumers bear 96% of the cost while foreign exporters absorb only 4%. Using data from 25 million transactions worth nearly $4 trillion, researchers found near-complete pass-through of tariffs to US import prices, generating approximately $200 billion in customs revenue paid almost entirely by Americans rather than foreign companies.

An author on HackerNews observed suspicious AI-generated patterns in both code and comments from someone claiming to write everything manually. This incident made them realize we may have reached the "Dead Internet" - where most online interactions are between bots rather than humans, fundamentally changing the nature of internet communities and knowledge sharing.

bitchat is a decentralized peer-to-peer messaging app that works over bluetooth mesh networks without requiring internet, servers, or phone numbers. It creates ad-hoc communication networks using nearby devices, providing censorship resistance and working during outages or in areas with limited connectivity.

This article explores how social computing could benefit from adopting file-based paradigms like personal computing. It argues that social media posts, follows, and interactions should be stored as user-owned files rather than trapped in apps, allowing users to control their data and switch between different applications freely. The author uses the AT protocol as an example of this approach working in practice, where user data lives in personal folders that apps read from rather than proprietary databases.

Starting February 1, 2026, Radboud University will provide Fairphone as its standard company smartphone due to sustainability, cost efficiency, and easier management. The Fairphone features replaceable parts, fair materials, and longer lifespan with 5-year warranty and 8-year software support. Existing Samsung devices may still be reissued while available, iPhones can continue being used but won't be reissued when returned, and employees can use personal phones with RU SIM cards.

Amazon is ending inventory commingling by March 31, 2026, which previously allowed products with the same SKU from different sellers to be stored together and shipped interchangeably. This change will reduce the risk of receiving counterfeit products when ordering from reliable sellers.

FLUX.2-klein-4B Pure C Implementation is a zero-dependency C program that generates images from text prompts using the FLUX.2-klein-4B model from Black Forest Labs. Created entirely through AI code generation over a weekend, it requires no Python runtime or external dependencies beyond the C standard library, with optional MPS and BLAS acceleration for performance improvements.

A developer compared processing 2 million chess games using Hadoop versus command-line tools on a laptop. The Hadoop cluster with 7 machines took 26 minutes, while optimized shell commands using grep, awk, and parallel processing completed the same task in just 12 seconds, achieving a 235x speedup while using virtually no memory.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes from Birmingham jail defending his civil rights activities to fellow clergymen who criticized his timing. He explains his presence there as invited by local affiliates and compelled by injustice, comparing himself to biblical prophets. He outlines the four steps of nonviolent campaigns and describes Birmingham's severe segregation and failed negotiations. King argues that direct action creates necessary tension to force dialogue, rejecting calls to wait longer for change. He emphasizes that freedom must be demanded by the oppressed as privileged groups rarely surrender advantages voluntarily.

A Texas sheriff is using AI surveillance software called Tangles to track cell phone movements without warrants in human smuggling investigations. The controversial tool, developed by former Israeli military members, allows police to monitor devices through geofencing based on commercial data. Civil liberties advocates argue this circumvents constitutional protections requiring warrants for location tracking, as police can simply purchase data instead of seeking judicial approval.