1. Stepping down as Mockito maintainer after 10 years
Total comment counts : 5
Summary
After a decade as Mockito’s maintainer, I plan to step down around March 2026 to ensure a smooth transition. The catalyst was frustration with Mockito 5’s breaking shift to an agent, prompted by JVM 22’s security flag, which I supported in principle but felt discussed poorly and without solid build support. Volunteers under pressure led to burnout and a sense the community underestimated its societal impact. Kotlin’s growing complexity further complicates maintenance, diminishing my motivation. I remain open to transition plans, to be discussed in a separate GitHub issue, and, lately, have found renewed enthusiasm in other projects like Servo.
Overall Comments Summary
- Main point: The discussion centers on Mockito’s breaking change to switch to an agent behind a JVM flag due to dynamic attachment, the rationale for Kotlin support, and the maintainer’s decision to step away.
- Concern: The changes risk breaking downstream users and enterprise adoption, while also highlighting perceived communication gaps and maintenance challenges.
- Perspectives: Opinions range from accepting the rationale and proposing a flag-based workaround, to criticizing the communication and raising questions about Kotlin support and the need for Kotlin-specific tooling.
- Overall sentiment: Mixed feelings
2. Growing up in “404 Not Found”: China’s nuclear city in the Gobi Desert
Total comment counts : 38
Summary
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Overall Comments Summary
- Main point: A memoir recounting growing up in China’s secret nuclear city “Factory 404” in the Gobi Desert and inviting discussion about life there and its historical context.
- Concern: The discussion raises safety and ethical concerns about nuclear secrecy, including potential radiation exposure, contamination, and questions about declassification and accuracy.
- Perspectives: Viewpoints range from warm appreciation and curiosity to skeptical questions about authenticity, declassification, and the implications of AI-assisted content and self-promotion.
- Overall sentiment: Mixed
3. Remembering Lou Gerstner
Total comment counts : 10
Summary
IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna announced the death of former IBM leader Lou Gerstner (1993–2002). Gerstner steered IBM through uncertain times by centering on client needs, delivering integrated solutions, and tying decisions to client impact. He kept IBM together when fragmented, shifted culture toward client value, and renewed IBM’s core values. Krishna recalls his direct, preparation-focused leadership and mentorship. Gerstner previously led McKinsey, American Express, and RJR Nabisco, chaired The Carlyle Group, and supported philanthropy. A celebration is planned next year; thoughts are with his family.
Overall Comments Summary
- Main point: Lou Gerstner’s IBM turnaround and its lasting impact on IBM’s strategy and culture are the central topic of the discussion.
- Concern: The main worry is whether IBM can replicate or sustain that transformative success given ongoing talent drain, timing, and changing technology trends.
- Perspectives: Views range from praising Gerstner as a decisive savior who steered IBM toward services, data, and branding, to critiques that the company has since stagnated, undercut his legacy, or failed to maintain momentum.
- Overall sentiment: Mixed
4. PySDR: A Guide to SDR and DSP Using Python
Total comment counts : 1
Summary
PySDR is a hands-on, visual introduction to software-defined radio (SDR) and digital signal processing (DSP) using Python. It defines key terms, explains how SDR systems digitize RF signals for computer processing, and targets beginners (e.g., computer science grads) with programming skills. The book emphasizes concepts over heavy math, using images and animations, with Python/Numpy/Matplotlib code examples. It serves as a gateway, not a full reference, and isn’t sold as a hard copy due to its animations. The author invites feedback, GitHub collaboration, and Patreon donations.
Overall Comments Summary
- Main point: The book is a practical, engineering-oriented guide and the hardware it recommends is affordable for beginners.
- Concern: No explicit concerns are raised; the reviewer is satisfied with both the book and the affordable hardware.
- Perspectives: The perspective is a positive endorsement based on personal hands-on learning with affordable RTL-SDR hardware.
- Overall sentiment: Positive and enthusiastic
5. Calendar
Total comment counts : 50
Summary
A printable, single-page calendar for 2026 that fits on any paper size. Print in landscape with headers and footers disabled, fold it for portability, and use it to jot notes, plan, and observe the year at a glance. The page also encourages kindness. Made by Neatnik · Source 2026.
Overall Comments Summary
- Main point: Users are discussing the neatocal calendar project and a range of enhancements, demos, data options, and related calendars/tools.
- Concern: The main worries are about practical usability and printing: modals that won’t close, inconsistent print layouts across browsers and paper sizes, and missing localizations.
- Perspectives: Opinions vary from high praise for the simple, one-page layout and printing ideas to requests for features like quarterly views, easier hiding of modals, better Android printing support, and broader localization.
- Overall sentiment: Mixed
6. Software engineers should be a little bit cynical
Total comment counts : 0
Summary
Some readers call me cynical for arguing that you should work to please your manager and that big tech sets your projects. Alex Wennerberg argued engineers are not politicians; valuable work is undermined when engineers see themselves as tools in a political game. The author concedes that cynicism helps see organizational reality but argues engineers are professionals solving meaningful problems. The idealistic view that one must resist all compromises is misleading and unethical; most big problems are solved through navigating politics. Real change—like enabling LaTeX in GitHub Markdown—requires working within the system rather than retreating into pure idealism.
7. MongoBleed Explained Simply
Total comment counts : 0
Summary
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8. Show HN: Pion SCTP with RACK is 70% faster with 30% less latency
Total comment counts : 0
Summary
RACK profiling showed SCTP throughput of 316 Mbps using ~0.044 CPU seconds versus 234 Mbps at ~0.056 CPU seconds, a ~71% improvement in throughput per CPU; max-burst CPU profiles remained similar. SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol) offers reliable transport with deduplication, supports in-order or out-of-order delivery, multiplexing across applications, and multi-homing for automatic failover. It underpins WebRTC data channels and enables applications from file sharing to remote control, cloud gaming, and real-time communications. For loss recovery, SCTP employs fast retransmission (three duplicate reports) and timer-based retransmission.
9. Building a macOS app to know when my Mac is thermal throttling
Total comment counts : 21
Summary
This is the story of MacThrottle, a SwiftUI menu-bar app I built to tell me when my Apple Silicon is thermally throttling. External high‑end displays made my M2 MacBook Air slow down, but standard indicators (ProcessInfo.thermalState) lump hot and throttled states together, while powermetrics— which relies on thermald and Darwin notifications— can reveal the actual pressure. Reading com.apple.system.thermalpressurelevel avoids root access. I built MacThrottle with MenuBarExtra, showing a thermometer icon that shifts color from green to red. It hides the dock icon (LSUIElement) and reports real-time thermal pressure at a glance.
Overall Comments Summary
- Main point: The discussion centers on detecting and monitoring thermal throttling on Macs with a tool called MacThrottle, including its potential usefulness, implementation ideas, and distribution.
- Concern: The main worry is that detection may not lead to actionable fixes on macOS, and misdiagnosis, edge cases (like a low-power USB-C charger), or reliability issues could mislead users.
- Perspectives: Viewpoints range from enthusiastic support for a throttling detector and its distribution via Homebrew to skepticism about practicality, concerns about macOS limitations and Apple’s cooling design, and practical worries about bugs and edge cases.
- Overall sentiment: Mixed
10. Show HN: Phantas – A browser-based binaural strobe engine (Web Audio API)
Total comment counts : 0
Summary
A neuro-optical entrainment system for high performers that enables instant access to Flow State and faster cognitive throughput.