Tech News

GitHub has launched a public preview of a new pull request overview page designed to make long PRs easier to navigate. The page surfaces merge status and blocking issues without forcing users to scroll through comments and timeline events to reach the merge box.

Show HN: Where Were We is a photo-guessing game that challenges players to identify where and when each image was taken. It uses the player’s own camera roll as the source of photos.

The Commodore PET, often regarded as the world’s first personal computer, is highlighted for its groundbreaking role in shaping modern technology. The piece explores its history and features, showing how it helped pave the way for personal computing.

A new study has solved a 150-year-old mystery surrounding the identity of an extinct giant crane. The research clarifies the classification of this oversized bird.

The news piece “Cancer at Sea” focuses on cancer-related issues in maritime settings, though no further description was provided. It likely examines risks, cases, or responses affecting seafarers and ocean-going operations.

Libghostty 1.0 has been released, with users praising the project for making it easy to embed a high-quality terminal emulator in other applications. The library already powers tools such as Ghostel for Emacs and the embedded terminal in JetBrains IDEs, and developers report it saves substantial work compared with older terminal implementations. It is written in Zig with a C ABI.

The reported end of Microsoft Research’s AI Frontiers group reflects a broader industry push to prioritize transformer scaling over exploratory AI research. Readers note similar moves at Meta and debate the tradeoff between racing down the current scaling path and preserving resources for alternative AI methods, with some arguing both should be pursued despite limited compute.

Sodium-ion batteries are approaching cell-level cost parity with LFP technology, with global supply agreements exceeding 70 GWh. Despite higher upfront costs, Wood Mackenzie estimates they could offer a 21% lower total cost of ownership over 20 years.

The Asahi Linux project has shared a progress update on its effort to bring Linux to Apple Silicon. The update, labeled Linux 7.3, covers the latest developments in that porting work.

The author shares the services and workloads they run on a $10 OpenStick homelab, demonstrating a low-cost self-hosting setup. The piece highlights practical uses for the tiny device and shows how affordable hardware can handle lightweight homelab tasks.

Coldframe is a new low-interaction honeypot that poses as supermarket refrigeration controllers, specifically Danfoss AK-SM 800A and Dixell XWEB 500 models. The project, from hedgerow-dev/coldframe, is presented on Show HN as a way to attract and observe attacks targeting exposed refrigeration systems.

A small RISC-V board priced at $8 can run full Linux with an MMU, rather than just a stripped-down microcontroller kernel. The low-cost device highlights how affordable Linux-capable RISC-V hardware is becoming for hobbyists and embedded projects.

Discord’s new Rust client opens before its Electron app finishes loading, skips the Starting screen, and uses 290MB of RAM with two accounts. The comparison highlights Electron’s performance drawbacks and makes the case that Windows 11 apps should move away from it.

MaxxBench tests coding models on familiar engineering tasks that ask for something different, questioning whether a high DeepSWE score reflects genuine capability. The benchmark aims to expose gaps between strong benchmark performance and a model’s ability to adapt when requirements change.

A security issue with Claude Code's “Don't Ask Again” option has exposed passwords in 1,122 public GitHub files. The finding highlights risks around coding agents and the software supply chain, underscoring the need to secure what agents build, use, and ship and to prevent risk before code exists.

GitHub has introduced a new Git storage architecture built to support thousands of agents pushing to a single repository at once. The company detailed how the system enables this high-concurrency workflow.

Ancient DNA supports the mythic Scandinavian origin story of a Germanic “barbarian” tribe, likely the Goths, challenging decades of scholarship that downplayed migration in favor of cultural diffusion. The findings suggest ancient sources knew more than many modern historians credited and point to a more balanced view of how languages and cultures spread through both migration and exchange.

A reader discussion around “Upload Your RAM” debates Sam Altman’s remark that consumer RAM is an inefficient way to run AI, with some arguing it was specifically about local inference and memory supply rather than a broad dismissal. Commenters instead criticize memory manufacturers for alleged price fixing and slow capacity expansion, while noting AI boom-and-bust risks and the shift toward HBM demand.

A discussion around running a law firm on free software highlights debate over whether avoiding Microsoft Word is practical, with one commenter relaying a claim that not using Word amounts to malpractice and another seeking gentle automation options for a solo lawyer. Commenters also warn about law firms ceding leverage to AI platforms like Harvey, while a small free-software stack raises concerns about single-person DevOps coverage, client security requirements, and missing ERP/accounting integration; tools mentioned include espanso, InvoicePlane, and Kimai.

Every Mac running macOS 13 or later includes undocumented daemons that build a detailed graph of users’ contacts, relationships, communications, locations, activities and timing. A new analysis explains how the system works and offers a tool for users to inspect their own graph.

A retrospective examines Borland Turbo Pascal 7, the influential development environment that taught roughly half a million people to program in Pascal despite the language’s limited practical appeal. It looks at how Turbo Pascal’s fast integrated compiler, low cost, and ease of use made it a gateway for aspiring developers.

All organizations can now use outbound SIP calling to connect phone calls directly to OpenAI via SIP. The feature expands access to voice-enabled OpenAI integrations for everyday phone calls.

A 2008 list of five memorable programming books prompted readers to add recommendations including Higher-Order Perl, The Computational Beauty of Nature, The Nature of Computation, Algorithms, On Lisp, and Expert C Programming. Commenters also highlighted Starting Forth, Let Over Lambda, and Software Design for Flexibility, with discussion focusing on practical functional techniques, language-focused classics, and underappreciated books.

A new optimization makes Pivot significantly faster on GROUP BY queries with a Top-K operator above them, showing that a long-standing database operation can still be improved. The article also walks through how analytical databases execute GROUP BY in the first place.

A new collection offers microscope photographs of 356 processor dies spanning 1972 to 2024, all released for anyone to use. The archive covers five decades of chip design and is freely available.

Readers suggested pitching self-hosted XMPP/Matrix servers to family and friends as a low-friction fallback for outages or sensitive conversations, adding perks like no file limits and shared in-jokes while giving users admin control and keeping moderation light. They noted success varies by group, with some holdouts preferring mainstream apps for convenience, and discussed Snikket as an easier-to-use XMPP option despite rough admin UX and a still-developing web client.

The British Library and other legal deposit libraries can copy UK-published material from the internet for archiving under legal deposit. This entitlement supports web archiving of UK online content.

The author reflects on a three-day visit to San Marino, a landlocked microstate surrounded by Italy whose people are called the Sammarinese. The piece contrasts the difficulty of traveling in Afghanistan with the ease of writing about it, noting that being white in such places tends to produce interesting experiences.

The AI-driven sell-off pushed the S&P 500 down 4.4% on Nov. 5, 2026—its worst day since April 2025—leaving the index 6% below its Oct. 6 record. A day-by-day comparison charts the decline against 1987, 2008, Covid-era and other major market falls since 1950.

A maker has created a 1:12 scale miniature of part of Terry Pratchett’s study, explicitly noting it is not an exact replica because precise measurements and photos from every angle were unavailable. The small diorama aims to evoke a space where Pratchett might have felt at home.