1. The MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge
Total comment counts : 34
Summary
The page notifies that JavaScript is disabled and asks users to enable it or switch to a supported browser to continue using X.com. It directs users to the Help Center for a list of supported browsers and lists links to Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Imprint, Ads info, and © 2025 X Corp.
Top 1 Comment Summary
Apple’s lid-angle sensor is serialized to the motherboard, so it can’t be replaced without calibration. Calibration must be done by an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or in regions with self-service parts by purchasing the sensor from Apple and performing online calibration after installation—only if the sensor was Apple-sourced. The hardware can calibrate, but Apple blocks third-party or recycled sensors.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Apple likely includes a sensor to support Desk View, which shows desk items in a geometrically correct top-down view. Knowing the display’s angle helps with keystone correction during this capture.
2. Pico CSS • Minimal CSS Framework for Semantic HTML
Total comment counts : 1
Summary
Pico CSS is a minimalist, dependency-free starter kit that styles HTML elements directly for responsive, elegant results. It includes a class-based version and a class-less option, requiring no JavaScript or external files. It auto-scales typography and spacing with viewport width for a consistent appearance. It ships with light/dark color schemes that adapt to prefers-color-scheme without JS. Customization is via 130 CSS variables, 20 color themes, and 30+ modular components. It emphasizes lean HTML, reduces CSS specificity to save memory, and avoids bloat. Created by Lucas Larroche; MIT license; current v2.1.1.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The piece questions the claim of a “Minimalist” CSS framework, arguing that at 71KB it isn’t truly minimalist and that the label feels misleading.
3. Keeping secrets out of logs (2024)
Total comment counts : 10
Summary
This post argues there’s no single fix for keeping secrets out of logs. Instead of an 80/20 rule, it offers 10 lead bullets that, with defense-in-depth, improve the odds but remain imperfect. It frames secrets as sensitive data with varied impact, from harmless credentials to data that could cause serious harm if exposed. Logs often contain plaintext secrets, undermining trust even with strong security elsewhere. The article notes that even mature companies reveal the difficulty and outlines six common causes of leakage, promising a practical framework for mitigation.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The piece praises a resource as excellent and universally valuable, regardless of agreement with the author’s conclusions. It emphasizes a clear breakdown of problems, well-described, with solid technical explanations of proposed fixes, and shows how to approach and elucidate a problem domain.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Suggests in-band exposure prevention using a taint-checking-like approach: insert a magic string (prefix plus a random UUID) into sensitive strings at the source, then strip it at the sink (or wrap secrets with the magic pair). Block or mask any strings containing that marker from persisting, including logs. This makes exposure points easy to identify—wherever the seal()/unseal() functions are invoked.
4. Everything from 1991 Radio Shack ad I now do with my phone
Total comment counts : 2
Summary
Buffalo storyteller Steve Cichon uses a 1991 Buffalo News front section and a Radio Shack ad to show how tech has changed. Of the 15 gadgets listed, 13 can now be replaced by an iPhone; buying all 15 then would have cost $3,054.82 (about $5,100 in 2012 dollars). Cichon ties this nostalgia to his Buffalo Stories LLC, his Trending Buffalo series, and his book Gimme Jimmy!. He notes Radio Shack’s arc and explains how apps like Waze or Trapster and digital phone books have supplanted many old devices, while the iPhone isn’t a full Tandy 286 replacement.
Top 1 Comment Summary
It observes that in desktop computing, almost nothing has changed since 2012—about 13 years ago.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses a $49.95 “Mobile CB” ad promising you’ll never drive alone, noting that smartphones don’t fully replace CB radios. It argues that the modern equivalent is LoRa/Mesh technology (such as Meshtastic), and predicts that future phones may include even more radios to add features.
5. How to make metals from Martian dirt
Total comment counts : 3
Summary
Researchers from Swinburne University and CSIRO have demonstrated iron production under Mars-like conditions using Gale Crater regolith simulant, advancing in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) via astrometallurgy. The regolith is heated to ~1000°C to form pure iron and ~1400°C for liquid silicon-iron alloys; at high temperatures metals coalesce into a large droplet and separate from slag. This zero-waste approach could yield Mars-made shells for habitats and machinery, reducing Earth launches. The work follows MOXIE oxygen production and highlights growing international interest and the need for cross-disciplinary teams.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The piece envisions a Mars lander processing regolith into iron chunks as a threshold goal for a SpaceX-style mission. It notes parallel interest in asteroid mining where platinum, gold, and silver could be valuable, and cites a Lunar regolith aluminum extraction proposal as another private-sector target. It argues that once basic metals are obtained, more complex structures could follow, with iron enabling reinforced concrete as a potential Martian building material.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Researchers heated simulated Martian dirt and produced liquid iron, then liquid iron–silicon alloy, with only small amounts of carbon needed. This is surprising, as steel production with controlled carbon content would be more difficult—Mars has carbon but only as CO2.
6. No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering (1986) [pdf]
Total comment counts : 2
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
This page is a hub of related materials on Fred Brooks’ No Silver Bullet. It lists multiple links to the 1986 “No Silver Bullet” and the 1987 “Essence and Accidents” papers (PDF and text), plus related Hacker News discussions and a 2017 video “No Silver Bullet with Dr. Fred Brooks.” It also carries a post announcing Brooks’s death in November 2022. Each item shows its source, date, and comment counts.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The speaker recalls a classic work that shaped their early career, notes unanticipated multipliers since, and argues that software engineering culture has degraded since that era, leading to fast but often poorly executed work.
7. Submarine Cable Map
Total comment counts : 3
Summary
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Top 1 Comment Summary
“Mother Earth Mother Board” surveys the hidden, planetary infrastructure behind the Internet: the global network of fiber-optic cables under oceans and across continents. The piece follows cable-laying ships, shore terminals, and data hubs to show how glass strands connect continents, carrying endless streams of bits. It contrasts technical marvels with human labor, culture, and geography, urging readers to see the Internet not as abstract software but as a sprawling, living backbone—the ‘motherboard’ of the Earth—built by the planet’s inhabitants, seas, and politics.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The piece lists two notable Hacker News discussions: Oct 6, 2022 (item 33110478) with 175 points and 62 comments, and Nov 7, 2020 (item 25020431) with 235 points and 135 comments. Each entry includes a link to the discussion.
8. Show HN: I’m a dermatologist and I vibe coded a skin cancer learning app
Total comment counts : 57
Summary
To get the best experience, scan the QR code with your phone to use the mobile app. It asks whether you’re worried about a skin lesion and lets you respond by swiping left (concerned) or right (not concerned), or by tapping the on-screen buttons.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author loves the DIY aspect of AI coding. They point out that ideas, even for professionals like a dermatologist, used to stay unrealized without a willing partner to handle the workload. With limited time for many ideas, they’re now using AI agents to make progress themselves.
Top 2 Comment Summary
A non-dermatologist with a sister who had early melanoma found learning about skin cancer eye-opening. They improved detection accuracy from about 50% to 85%, noting most cases are skin cancer and easy to learn. They suggest focusing on skin cancer—perhaps around half the cases—or prioritizing the more dangerous ones. The task was harder than expected, and the experience makes them want to see a dermatologist.
9. The Expression Problem and its solutions
Total comment counts : 7
Summary
The ’expression problem’ is the challenge of extending a system with both new data types and new operations without changing existing code. In OO languages, adding new types is easy but new operations require altering interfaces and all types (violating the open-closed principle). In FP, adding new operations is easy but adding new types forces changes to existing functions. Using an expression evaluator example, C++ lets you add types easily but requires edits to all nodes for new operations. The problem highlights fundamental OO vs FP tradeoffs (often shown via a types-vs-operations matrix) and has implications for interfaces and extensibility.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article argues that even with fancy language features, modeling a simple problem still requires O×T implementations for O operations and T types. If you fix O, you can add types with O implementations per type; if you fix T, you can add operations with T implementations per operation. If both vary, the number of implementations grows depending on what’s added before, and no language trick changes this basic count. The language acts as a registry of implementations for callers. C++ favors verbose inheritance/virtual calls; other approaches include multiple dispatch or a data table indexed by operation and type.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article notes that it omits three key extensible-programming approaches: Object Algebras, Tagless Final, and Data Types à la Carte, and provides direct links for each resource: Bruno’s Object Algebras page, the Tagless Final course/lecture PDF, and Swierstra’s 2008 JFP paper on data types a la carte.
10. SQLite’s Use of Tcl
Total comment counts : 3
Summary
SQLite began as a TCL extension, inspired by TCL’s data handling and code style. It is not written in TCL but designed for TCL usage and historically depended on TCL; today it runs standalone while development still relies on TCL. As an SQL engine, it’s among the most deployed databases, embedded in cellphones, macOS, Windows, browsers, and apps, with Windows booting via winsqlite3.dll. Open source; estimates cite billions of devices and about a trillion databases. Written in ANSI C with a TCL adaptor, it supports late binding, TCL-style variable binding, flexible typing with type affinity, and binary data since SQLite3.
Top 1 Comment Summary
Developers built a private chatroom with a Tcl/Tk script that serves as both client and server. It uses a proprietary protocol to prevent eavesdropping and protect sensitive discussions. The chatroom consists of a little over 1,000 lines of Tk code, making it accessible and customizable. The article asks for more details on the project and whether it includes encryption.
Top 2 Comment Summary
This resource provides a practical tutorial on Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MC/DC) for aviation software aiming to meet DO-178B Level A compliance. It cites a Wikipedia MC/DC overview and a NASA Hayhurst paper detailing MC/DC assessment approaches for safety-critical software.