I tried building my startup entirely on European infrastructure
The article discusses the challenges encountered by a technology entrepreneur in starting a business in the European Union, including navigating complex regulations, finding talent, and securing funding. The author shares insights on the differences between launching a startup in the EU versus other regions.
The path to ubiquitous AI (17k tokens/sec)
The article explores the advancements and challenges in making artificial intelligence (AI) ubiquitous, discussing the importance of improved training data, hardware capabilities, and ethical considerations to enable widespread adoption and integration of AI systems into various aspects of society.
I found a useful Git one liner buried in leaked CIA developer docs
The article describes a one-liner command that can be used to clean up merged Git branches, which was allegedly leaked from the CIA's developer documentation. This command allows users to efficiently remove local and remote branches that have already been merged into the main branch.
Facebook is cooked
The article discusses Facebook's recent struggles, including declining user engagement, revenue challenges, and the company's rebranding efforts as Meta. It highlights the challenges Facebook faces in adapting to changing market conditions and user preferences.
Child's Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking
The article explores the rise of an AI startup, founded by Sam Kriss, that aims to create an artificial child capable of growing and learning. It examines the ethical and societal implications of this technology, as well as the personal motivations and challenges faced by the startup's founder.
PayPal discloses data breach that exposed user info for 6 months
PayPal has disclosed a data breach that exposed personal information of some of its customers, including names, addresses, and dates of birth. The company is working to notify affected users and has not found any evidence of unauthorized access to financial information.
No Skill. No Taste
This article discusses the importance of skill and taste in creative pursuits, arguing that both are essential for producing high-quality work. It explores the challenges faced by those who lack either skill or taste, emphasizing the need to develop both to achieve success in creative fields.
Show HN: A native macOS client for Hacker News, built with SwiftUI
Hey HN! I built a native macOS desktop client for Hacker News and I'm open-sourcing it under the MIT license.
GitHub: https://github.com/IronsideXXVI/Hacker-News
Download (signed & notarized DMG, macOS 14.0+): https://github.com/IronsideXXVI/Hacker-News/releases
Screenshots: https://github.com/IronsideXXVI/Hacker-News#screenshots
I spend a lot of time reading HN — I wanted something that felt like a proper Mac app: a sidebar for browsing stories, an integrated reader for articles, and comment threading — all in one window. Essentially, I wanted HN to feel like a first-class citizen on macOS, not a website I visit.
What it does:
- Split-view layout — stories in a sidebar on the left, articles and comments on the right, using the standard macOS NavigationSplitView pattern.
- Built-in ad blocking — a precompiled WKContentRuleList blocks 14 major ad networks (DoubleClick, Google Syndication, Criteo, Taboola, Outbrain, Amazon ads, etc.) right in the WebKit layer. No extensions needed. Toggleable in settings.
- Pop-up blocking — kills window.open() calls. Also toggleable.
- HN account login — full authentication flow (login, account creation, password reset). Session is stored in the macOS Keychain, and cookies are injected into the WebView so you can upvote, comment, and submit stories while staying logged in.
- Bookmarks — save stories locally for offline access. Persisted with Codable serialization, searchable and filterable independently.
- Search and filtering — powered by the Algolia HN API. Filter by content type (All, Ask, Show, Jobs, Comments), date range (Today, Past Week, Past Month, All Time), and sort by hot or recent.
- Scroll progress indicator — a small orange bar at the top tracks your reading progress via JavaScript-to-native messaging.
- Auto-updates via Sparkle with EdDSA-signed updates served from GitHub Pages.
- Dark mode — respects system appearance with CSS and meta tag injection.
Tech details for the curious:
The whole app is ~2,050 lines of Swift across 16 files. It uses the modern @Observable macro (not the old ObservableObject/Published pattern), structured concurrency with async/await and withThrowingTaskGroup for concurrent batch fetching, and SwiftUI throughout — no UIKit/AppKit bridges except for the WKWebView wrapper via NSViewRepresentable.
Two APIs power the data: the official HN Firebase API for individual item/user fetches, and the Algolia Search API for feeds, filtering, and search. The Algolia API is surprisingly powerful for this — it lets you do date-range filtering, pagination, and full-text search that the Firebase API doesn't support.
CI/CD:
The release pipeline is a single GitHub Actions workflow (467 lines) that handles the full macOS distribution story: build and archive, code sign with Developer ID, notarize with Apple (with a 5-retry staple loop for ticket propagation delays), create a custom DMG with AppleScript-driven icon positioning, sign and notarize the DMG, generate an EdDSA Sparkle signature, create a GitHub Release, and deploy an updated appcast.xml to GitHub Pages.
Getting macOS code signing and notarization working in CI was honestly the hardest part of this project. If anyone is distributing a macOS app outside the App Store via GitHub Actions, I'm happy to answer questions — the workflow is fully open source.
The entire project is MIT licensed. PRs and issues welcome: https://github.com/IronsideXXVI/Hacker-News
I'd love feedback — especially on features you'd want to see. Some ideas I'm considering: keyboard-driven navigation (j/k to move between stories), a reader mode that strips articles down to text, and notification support for replies to your comments.
Minions – Stripe's Coding Agents Part 2
The article discusses the development of an end-to-end coding agent, Minions Stripes, which is designed to automate the process of creating and managing Stripe-powered applications. It highlights the agent's capabilities, such as handling payments, managing customer data, and integrating with other services.
How to Stop Being Boring
The article provides practical tips on how to avoid being boring, including embracing your unique personality, trying new things, and engaging in active listening. It encourages readers to step outside their comfort zones and find creative ways to make interactions more interesting.
Lil' Fun Langs
ScrapScript is a Python library that simplifies web scraping tasks, allowing developers to extract data from websites efficiently. The article discusses the library's features, including its ability to handle dynamic content, manage cookies, and handle CAPTCHA challenges.
I found a Vulnerability. They found a Lawyer
The article discusses a researcher who found a vulnerability in a company's software and reported it, only to be met with a legal threat from the company. It highlights the challenges researchers can face when trying to responsibly disclose security issues.
Making frontier cybersecurity capabilities available to defenders
The article discusses the release of Claude, an AI assistant that prioritizes code security and safety. It highlights Claude's capabilities in areas like code generation, analysis, and security testing, aimed at helping developers build more secure applications.
Wikipedia bans Archive.today after site executed DDoS and altered web captures
Wikipedia has banned the website Archive.today after it executed a DDoS attack and altered web captures, undermining the integrity of Wikipedia's sources and content. This move aims to protect the accuracy and reliability of information on Wikipedia.
Blue light filters don't work
The article discusses the effectiveness of blue light filters, which are often used to reduce digital eye strain. It concludes that there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that blue light filters improve sleep or reduce eye strain, and that the benefits are largely placebo effects.
Tesla to pay $243M judgement over Autopilot crash
A Tesla driver was awarded a $243 million judgment after a fatal crash involving the Autopilot feature, highlighting the ongoing legal and safety concerns surrounding self-driving technologies.
Testing Super Mario Using a Behavior Model Autonomously
The article explores using a behavior model to autonomously test the video game 'Super Mario' without human intervention. It discusses the development of an AI agent that can navigate and complete levels in the game, analyzing the challenges and insights gained from this approach to video game testing.
SwiftUI Agent Skill: Build Better Views with AI
The article explores the use of an AI-based SwiftUI agent to build better views. It discusses how the agent can help developers create more efficient and intuitive user interfaces by analyzing design patterns, identifying code smells, and suggesting improvements.
Supreme Court strikes down Trump's tariffs
The Supreme Court ruled that President Trump had the authority to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, upholding the president's ability to use national security as justification for trade restrictions.
Why Is the American Diet So Deadly?
The article examines the harmful effects of the American diet, which is high in processed foods, sugar, and unhealthy fats, and contributes to the prevalence of chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in the United States.