News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

curiousObject

What about modern devices (such as laptops) that have a fixed battery? They shouldn’t rely totally on software to force a hard power off because that’s not safe. If the software hangs you cannot power down
Re:GPT-6.1 Terra on Monday October 26, 2026 @08:38PM (#50253269)
This is legally dangerous for the company because those words have generally well understood meanings, so a lawyer could argue that they promise a certain level of service. It’s safer to use vague words to describe the product variants.
Re:The Curse of Soldered RAM on Monday October 26, 2026 @08:06AM (#50242309)
Windows used to have a method to map out bad memory areas with bcdedit. Did that ever work? Does it still work?

With the increase of soldered RAM it must be more important than it used to be ten years ago.

Just search for “bcdedit and ‘bad memory’” for more documentation

Re:Writing is no longer proof of work on Monday October 19, 2026 @04:40AM (#50149901)
>the complete obliteration of the basic assumption that ‘someone wrote this so it is at least worth a cursory glance’.

The OP is not disputing that a lot of writing already had less than zero value to the reader, even decades ago. So that is not their conclusion.

They are really only saying that problem suddenly got MUCH worse.

You said it perfectly - “All writing now is noise”

The other big wallet hardware maker, Trezor, already responded they will majorly cut back their authorized suppliers network.

They want to be certain they have the resources to properly personally verify the operations and trustworthiness of every authorized distributor that they’re vouching for.

https://xxcancel.com/Dantoshi/status/2110000117856248141

Re:Crypto thieves sell hardware wallets with secret eSIM on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @12:57PM (#50074903)
These recent teardowns of compromised Ledger wallets are frightening. Because the infiltration of hardware looks very pro. Mass production and standardized parts added.

Even weight difference might not be obvious. He compared weights for one Ledger product but the small variations in weight among genuine devices made comparisons not clear.

Possibly only X-ray would uncover the fake without cracking the case?

https://youtube.com/@MagicalTux

(Warning - MagicalTux is Tibanne or Mark Karpeles. He has a “complicated” legal history, but this looks legit)

Re:Crypto thieves sell hardware wallets with secret eSIM on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @12:42PM (#50074644)
Thanks. I believe you’re right a totally fake copy couldn’t verify. So that idea was wrong.

(The MITM supply chain attack which has happened succeeds because it preserves the original secure hardware but intercepts the secret data at the display interface. But a low-effort mimic of the entire device like I suggested? That wouldn’t work).

Re:Crypto thieves sell hardware wallets with secret eSIM on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @07:26AM (#50069965)
This story is a case of someone tampering with devices in the supply chain, before the user first receives them.

What you’re describing is a different thing. It’s an “evil maid” attack, when you tamper with a wallet that is already set up by the user. Also, it would be ultra difficult and expensive.

What you’re saying is possible. But:

It would probably be cheaper to build a total fake Ledger Wallet, then just replace the new real wallet and deliver a fake with a weak entropy generator. Any case, that’s not what has happened this time.

Re:Crypto thieves sell hardware wallets with secret eSIM on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @06:38AM (#50069577)
And the Vodafone NL SIM could also offer some leads
Re:Crypto thieves sell hardware wallets with secret eSIM on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @06:13AM (#50069368)
Here’s a new market for $500 Faraday Cages, if any HN readers are interested in selling that
Re:House with 15m underground tunnels for sale for 300k on Wednesday October 07, 2026 @10:43AM (#49993556)
not 15 million tunnels :D

That traditionally would be described as “a maze of twisty little passages, all alike”

>I can't really think of a use case for a grocery tracking system that only tracks a third of my groceries.

Me too. I think I’m not communicating clearly. Sorry.

What I’m talking about is a system that does only one third of the steps in the total end-to-end process for ALL your groceries. You do the rest yourself, or use other help.

I’m not advocating a broken system that claims to do that complete process, but really ignores two thirds of your groceries. That would be damn stupid.

Do you understand what I mean?

“tool” seems like a good way to describe a half solution. We use and combine various tools and our own skills to do what we want
>A working grocery tracking system is a half-solution to effortless shopping.

>A half-working grocery tracking system is useless, much like a car without an engine.

Yes. Something designed to be a half solution can be useful. But a full solution which is broken is probably worse than useless.

>”a smart fridge is a half solution at best”

A car is a half solution to going to work. A stove is a half solution to preparing food.

Half solutions are what people need. They’re the solutions we are using every day.

There is this huge problem with advertising that makes consumers think a half solution is a 100% solution. Most smart product makers do that trick. But, apart from that problem, ‘the perfect is the enemy of the good’

Edit: but no way would I buy any smart or connected fridge from Samsung. I don’t anticipate that being a positive experience

Re:Ask HN: Why 17? on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @10:44AM (#49713342)
Probably because it’s trained by humans and humans are more likely to choose certain numbers when they’re asked to choose randomly. 7 is a popular choice

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-often-pick-17-as-a-rando...

Re:Ask HN: Did anyone try to build game engine purely for LLM on Saturday September 12, 2026 @03:54AM (#49670037)
I assume that the support and community around Godot, Unity and Unreal still make them a no-brainer, unless you’re committed to relying on LLM for maintenance, non-stop

I don’t have any specific knowledge about more generalized dev environments such as rust for this scenario. If you go that route I think it would be important to be hyper competent in rust or whatever you use because the game-oriented support is less specific than dedicated game-dev rigs like Godot.

You are developing a project. So you could rethink and repost this later with more focus on your actual project not a hypothetical

Again? It sounds like we’re ready for ChatGPT Courts with ChatGPT judges for these lawyers to work in, and for the clients who’ll risk hiring them.

Low Low Prices! (Some Hallucinations)

More seriously. How do we fight this? Stricter penalties for these attorneys?

Edit - this case is particularly egregious because it’s not only false citations like you usually get, but even false testimony and false statements from witnesses

Re:Ask HN: Did anyone try to build game engine purely for LLM on Saturday September 12, 2026 @03:23AM (#49669836)
This is a very vague question.

You should explain what you want to do

You should say where’s the position of the LLM in the stack. Top, bottom, whatever

I guess the answer to your question is most likely to be No. Perhaps you can be the first one to do it?

Some pesticides may be linked to Parkinson’s Disease cases

https://www.apdaparkinson.org/article/the-relationship-betwe...

That is what OP was trying to say I assume

Re:Codeberg Bans Cryptocurrency Projects on Thursday July 23, 2026 @10:09AM (#49021897)
>the entire network probably has a smaller footprint than a single small/medium size bank

What research or statistics can you suggest to bolster this argument?

Re:Hacker wipes Romania's land registry database on Monday July 20, 2026 @11:31AM (#48980281)
>it had begun migrating its applications to Romania’s Government Cloud

This proclamation, coming from a governmental organization, makes me afraid they are doomed. Effectively they are saying they are fixing the mistake by repeating it.

What they should do is admit fault. Freeze the system. Get independent expert help.

Best wishes, recent Romanian land buyers and sellers

Edit: thank you @cbg0 for giving us this update

Karl Marx would be horrified
That rapid disaster response seems a good practical target to start with. Good luck.
I understand you have created this for teaching - to help other researchers use LLMs better.

But, in its current state of development, is it of any use in earthquake preparedness or immediate response to an earthquake?

Re:Show HN: 18 Words on Thursday July 09, 2026 @11:15AM (#48847333)
This a good game. It’s fun, simple and quick. It’s self explanatory and clear what you need to do.

The UI is almost perfect, it’s seamless on mobile and desktop.

I made some criticism in other comments therefore I also wanted to make a comment saying what I liked.

Re:Show HN: 18 Words on Thursday July 09, 2026 @10:42AM (#48846703)
Those are all good options.

Also a version in which your unused time is accumulated for future rounds would be interesting

Re:Show HN: 18 Words on Thursday July 09, 2026 @10:37AM (#48846618)
It’s the same reason people will instantly close a site with unwanted animations (ads).

But if this game was called “Do A Word Puzzle While Being Distracted By Animated Numbers in Your Peripheral Vision”, that would be alright.

Quake was an incredible leap forward in desktop games.

But Sandy Peterson is probably right, saying that it ‘Ruined’ the company - as an artistic creative force anyway.

The breakup of the brilliant and well-balanced ID Software team was caused by the trauma of developing Quake.

Romero and others were forced out or quit. This cut the heart out of the team, despite all of Carmack’s drive and technical brilliance

That is why the next leap ahead in games was not Quake 2 (1997), but Half Life (1998) which was, tellingly, based on the older tech Quake 1 engine

Older »