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Data centers in space makes no sense Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News Failed to fetch content - HTTP Status - 403 |
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The Cost of Leaving a Software Rewrite “On the Table" Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: /r/ruby The content discusses a recurring issue faced by engineering teams regarding the notion of rewriting software. Despite varying technologies and companies, many teams reach a critical juncture where they contemplate rewriting essential software systems that still operate their businesses. This conversation often arises informally, leading to a shared sentiment that the rewrite is a distant possibility rather than an actionable plan. As the idea of a rewrite lingers, it affects team dynamics and responsibility. Engineers begin to disengage from the current system, seeing it as temporary, which |
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Xcode 26.3 – Developers can leverage coding agents directly in Xcode Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News On February 3, 2026, Apple announced the release of Xcode 26.3, which introduces "agentic coding." This feature allows developers to utilize coding agents like Anthropic’s Claude Agent and OpenAI’s Codex directly within Xcode, enabling greater autonomy in app development. The new tools assist developers in automating complex tasks, making decisions based on project architecture, and streamlining workflows throughout the development lifecycle. This update builds on prior enhancements in Xcode 26, which |
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Deno Sandbox Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News A new API has been introduced by Deno to securely run untrusted code in lightweight Linux microVMs, addressing the rise in LLM-generated code that calls external APIs without human review. The key challenges include safeguarding API keys and controlling network access. Deno Sandbox addresses these issues by allowing immediate deployment without rebuilding, isolating untrusted code execution, and ensuring that sensitive information doesn’t enter the environment. Secrets are only revealed during approved outbound requests, and attempts to exfiltrate credentials are thwarted |
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Release of TURA Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: /r/programming The content emphasizes the importance of user feedback and highlights recent updates, including formatting changes and expanded explanations for clarity in the documentation. It announces the release of a new coding book titled "Thinking, Understanding, and Reasoning in Algorithms (TURA)," which aims to foster deep intuition and structured thinking in algorithms, serving as a complement to the CSES Problem Set. Readers are encouraged to explore the book, contribute on GitHub, and share it with others in the programming community. There are also links to |
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Agent Skills Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News The content describes a straightforward and accessible method for enhancing agents' capabilities and expertise. |
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Open Source security in spite of AI Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: /r/programming The content describes the speaker's experience at the FOSDEM conference on February 1, 2026, where they delivered the final keynote presentation. Despite it being the last talk of the day and many attendees having left, the session attracted a full audience of 1500 people, with more wanting to join outside. The FOSDEM video team quickly made the recording available online along with a 59-slide PDF version of the presentation. The content also includes a comment section for feedback and information about |
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LLMs as the new high level language Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News The content discusses the evolving role of LLM (Large Language Model) agents in software development, suggesting that they may significantly enhance developer productivity, enabling humans to build software at a scale 10 times greater than before. The hypothesis being considered is whether LLMs can truly improve software development efficiency. There are common objections to this idea, particularly regarding quality and understandability in programming frameworks. While the author acknowledges the importance of quality as an essential goal, they view understandability as a subjective aspiration. |
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Total surface area required to fuel the world with solar (2009) Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News The content discusses the updates made to an information graphic by the Land Art Generator Initiative regarding the land and ocean areas necessary for achieving a 100% renewable energy and zero-emissions global economy. It emphasizes that as of August 2021, there have been advancements in understanding energy landscapes and oceanscapes. The post references earlier data from 2009, predicting that global energy consumption would reach 678 quadrillion Btu (or 715 exajoules) by 2030, a |
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A century of hair samples proves leaded gas ban worked Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effectively reduced lead levels in the environment in the 1970s by regulating lead-based products like lead paint and leaded gasoline, resulting in a 100-fold decrease in lead concentrations in human hair over nearly a century, according to researchers from the University of Utah. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscore the importance of these regulations, especially in light of recent attempts by the Trump administration to deregulate parts of the EPA’s mission |
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Web Security: The Modern Browser Model Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: /r/programming The roadmap outlines a process for users to provide feedback and rate the content. Users are encouraged to sign in to share their thoughts, and there are currently no comments available. It includes a section for generating educational content with features to specify text length and the number of sections in the lesson. Users are informed that generating this content may take a couple of minutes, and they can select their preferred sign-in method to proceed. |
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Floppinux – An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy, 2025 Edition Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News FLOPPINUX, released in 2021, has proven helpful to users over the years, prompting a revisit for an updated tutorial in 2025. This new version includes updates like the latest kernel and persistent storage, functioning as a learning exercise for users with basic Linux knowledge. It allows users to create a minimal single floppy distribution that can boot any PC with a floppy drive into a Linux terminal where they can edit files and create scripts, with 264KB of space available for new files. |
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Coding assistants are solving the wrong problem Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News The article discusses the challenges of using AI in software development, particularly regarding its effectiveness in production. It highlights two critical points: coding assistants require clearly defined requirements to be effective, and edge cases often arise during implementation that can lead to gaps in understanding. Unlike human developers, who can escalate issues regarding unclear requirements, AI coding assistants may obscure these gaps within complex code, resulting in breaking changes and unmaintainable code. This leads to more time spent on code reviews and fixing vulnerabilities. While some engineers |
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Rust Coreutils Continues Working Toward 100% GNU Compatibility, Proving Trolls Wrong Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: /r/programming Failed to fetch content - HTTP Status - 429 |
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How does misalignment scale with model intelligence and task complexity? Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: Hacker News The research conducted during the first Anthropic Fellows Program in Summer 2025 investigates how AI systems fail, focusing on whether these failures are due to systematic goal misalignment or incoherent behavior. The study finds that as tasks become more complex and reasoning lengthens, failures of AI models are increasingly characterized by incoherence rather than systematic errors. This challenges the traditional alignment concern, highlighting the possibility that advanced AI might fail in unpredictable ways, similar to the chaotic behavior observed in humans—termed the "hot |
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JRuby 10.0.3.0 released with over 80 issues and PRs Published: 2026-02-03 | Origin: /r/ruby The JRuby community has released JRuby 10.0.3.0, which aims for compatibility with Ruby 3.4. They express gratitude to the contributors for their efforts in advancing JRuby. |
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Predicting Math.random() in Firefox using Z3 SMT-solver Published: 2026-02-02 | Origin: /r/programming Firefox has adopted the Xorshift128+ algorithm as its pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). Users can find relevant source code and discussions linked in the content. The author suggests that they can simulate the Xorshift128+ function using Z3Py to recover its initial states, which is necessary for predicting generated random numbers. By opening a specific HTML file in Firefox and using the console, users can observe 20 random numbers, but only the first three real numbers are needed to derive the |
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GitHub experience various partial-outages/degradations Published: 2026-02-02 | Origin: Hacker News The content includes instructions regarding OTP (One-Time Password) resend options, indicating a 30-second waiting period to request a new OTP. It also mentions sending webhooks to a specified URL and states that users will be notified via email if their endpoint fails. Additionally, it provides links to check the GitHub Enterprise Cloud status by region (Australia, EU, Japan, US) and notes that no incidents have been reported. Finally, it offers users the opportunity to receive tips, technical guides, and best |
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Anki ownership transferred to AnkiHub Published: 2026-02-02 | Origin: Hacker News The author reflects on Anki's 19th birthday and expresses a desire to evaluate its progress and future amidst a busy schedule. They acknowledge challenges in managing contributions, feeling overwhelmed by demands as Anki grows in popularity, leading to stress and undermined personal well-being. The author has previously attempted to delegate tasks but has struggled due to a lack of management experience. They regret not being able to focus on the core technical work that initially drew them to Anki. Despite offers for investment or acquisition, |
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Your Career Ladder is Rewarding the Wrong Behavior Published: 2026-02-02 | Origin: /r/programming On February 2, 2026, an on-call engineer is awakened by a catastrophic failure in the checkout service, caused by a seemingly minor one-line code change made hours earlier. This change, in a utility file named Common.Utils.cs, led to significant downtime and loss of revenue despite passing tests and code review. The subsequent post-mortem reveals that the utility file was a hidden threat, often overlooked by traditional static analysis tools that focus on identifying bugs rather than understanding the historical context and dynamics |