Hacker News 250

Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane. — That Privacy Guy!

Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users

Canada’s Bill C-22 Is a Repackaged Version of Last Year’s Surveillance Nightmare

Last year, the Canadian government pushed Bill C-2, which would erode Canadian digital rights in the name of “border security.” The bill was so bad it didn’t even make it to committee because of the backlash from the privacy community. Now, the spring’s worst sequel, Bill C-22, aka The Lawful Access Act, is trying it again.

The KIDS Act Would Require Age Checks To Get Online

Buried inside the KIDS Act are provisions that will push online services to verify all users’ ages, require government-directed moderation policies for online speech, and even create new rules about private and encrypted communications. While supporters continue to claim this bill protects minors online, its requirements come at the expense of privacy, free expression, and the ability of people of all ages to use the internet without revealing sensitive data.

api-docs.deepseek.com

Change Log | DeepSeek API Docs

Date: 2026-09-10

We Found a Stable Firefox Identifier Linking All Your Private Tor Identities

We discovered a privacy vulnerability in Firefox Private Browsing and Tor Browser that allows websites to fingerprint and track users across origins using IndexedDB database ordering, even after closing all private windows.

TechCrunch

France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech | TechCrunch

France's move to ditch Windows for Linux is its latest effort to reduce its reliance on American tech giants.

The Cult Of Vibe Coding Is Insane

Bad software is a choice you make

A.I. Should Elevate Your Thinking, Not Replace It - Blog - Koshy John

Read about the hidden divide between self-inflicted irrelevance and real engineering leverage.

Anchor Hosting

Someone Bought 30 WordPress Plugins and Planted a Backdoor in All of Them.

Last week, I wrote about catching a supply chain attack on a WordPress plugin called Widget Logic. A trusted name, acquired by a new owner, turned into

GitHub - sterlingcrispin/nothing-ever-happens: Polymarket bot that buys "No" on all non-sports markets. For entertainment only, mostly a meme.

Polymarket bot that buys "No" on all non-sports markets. For entertainment only, mostly a meme. - sterlingcrispin/nothing-ever-happens

@adlrocha - How the "AI Loser" may end up winning

Apple’s accidental moat

Bluesky Social

Serenity Forge (@serenityforge.com)

A statement regarding the removal of DDLC from the Google Play Store:

[MODEL] Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with the Feb updates · Issue #42796 · anthropics/claude-code

Preflight Checklist I have searched existing issues for similar behavior reports This report does NOT contain sensitive information (API keys, passwords, etc.) Type of Behavior Issue Other unexpect...

No, I Won't Download Your App. The Web Version is A-OK. | Sid's Blog

Servo

Servo is now available on crates.io - Servo aims to empower developers with a lightweight, high-performance alternative for embedding web technologies in applications.

Initial crates.io release and LTS version of Servo

blinry.org

DIY soft drinks

Cola, orange soda, and almond soda!

bcantrill.dtrace.org

The peril of laziness lost | The Observation Deck

Android now stops you sharing your location in photos – Terence Eden’s Blog

Most people can't juggle one ball — LessWrong

TLDR: A complete guide to juggling, from zero to siteswap notation, by someone who juggles in nightclubs. …

New York Post

US appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of ‌Appeals in New Orleans on Friday declared unconstitutional a nearly 158-year-old federal ban on home distilling.

Every train, a note.

A jazz combo played in real time by every active NYC subway train.

A Cryptography Engineer’s Perspective on Quantum Computing Timelines

The risk that cryptographically-relevant quantum computers materialize within the next few years is now high enough to be dispositive, unfortunately.

belief.horse

What Being Ripped Off for $35k Taught Me | Belief Horse

Expensive lessons

Germany Doxes “UNKN,” Head of RU Ransomware Gangs REvil, GandCrab – Krebs on Security

Spain Orders Blocks On Archive.today And Its Mirrors

No court ruling was required; only a complaint, a commission, and a censorship protocol built for speed.

The Economics of Software Teams: Why Most Engineering Organizations Are Flying Blind

A breakdown of what software development teams actually cost, what they need to generate to be financially viable, and why most organizations have no visibility into either number.

hamvocke.com

Make tmux Pretty and Usable - Ham Vocke

Customize the look and feel of tmux

arXiv.org

All elementary functions from a single binary operator

A single two-input gate suffices for all of Boolean logic in digital hardware. No comparable primitive has been known for continuous mathematics: computing elementary functions such as sin, cos, sqrt, and log has always required multiple distinct operations. Here I show that a single binary operator, eml(x,y)=exp(x)-ln(y), together with the constant 1, generates the standard repertoire of a scientific calculator. This includes constants such as e, pi, and i; arithmetic operations including addit

Advanced Search for YouTube - Playlists.at

Advanced search for YouTube videos with filters for duration, date, title, and more.