AI Summarized Hacker News

Front-page articles summarized hourly.

Perturb-MARS: Reading mouse experiments through a human lens

Perturb-MARS couples Perturb-Map, a scalable in vivo mouse perturbation platform with hundreds of genetic knockouts and preserved spatial context, and TARIO-2, a human-cancer foundation model that predicts spatial transcriptomics from H&E. Applying TARIO-2 to Perturb-Map H&E yields human-centric readouts of mouse experiments, enabling mapping of mouse biology to human biology, analysis of tumor microenvironment and immune infiltration, and rapid exploration of combination therapies (e.g., PD-1–related). It promises a scalable, end-to-end simulator for human cancer biology and seeks partners.

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SQLite Is a Library of Congress Recommended Storage Format

The Library of Congress endorses certain dataset storage formats to maximize longevity and accessibility. SQLite is listed as a recommended format, along with XML, JSON, and CSV (as of 2018-05-29). Criteria include disclosure (full specs/tools), adoption (existing widespread use), transparency (human-readability), self-documentation (metadata), external dependencies (future risk), impact of patents, and technical protection mechanisms.

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The Vatican's Website in Latin

Could not summarize article.

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ADT says customer data stolen in cyber intrusion

ADT said its systems were breached, with a limited set of customer and prospective customer data stolen, including names, phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and the last four digits of SSNs and tax IDs; payment data was not involved and customer security systems were not compromised. A cybercriminal group later claimed to have stolen 10 million records and threatened to leak them if not paid. ADT has notified affected individuals, offered identity protection, and engaged law enforcement and third-party cybersecurity experts. The attack is linked to the ShinyHunters group and follows prior breaches.

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What British people mean when they say 'sorry'

Britons use “sorry” as a cultural reflex and versatile social tool, not just an apology. They say it about nine times a day to ease interactions and avoid confrontation. On the street it can mean “excuse me” or “you go first”; “Sorry?” often requests repetition or signals processing; “Sorry, can I just…” softens a request; “Oh, sorry…” masks a rebuke; “Sorry, but…” prefaces disagreement; and “Sorry…” in queues or pubs acts as an etiquette correction. A window into polite, conflict-avoidant Britain.

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How do I inform Windows that I'm writing a binary file?

Windows can't know if a file is binary or text; it's just bytes. If you need text conversions (e.g., CR before LF or ASCII/Unicode), the runtime library may do it when you open a file in text mode ('w') vs binary ('wb'), but Windows itself does not perform transformations. An old MS-DOS ioctl (Set device info) is only for character devices; for files it fails. The correct approach is to perform content transformations yourself or rely on the runtime library. There is no Windows API to declare a file as binary/text.

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The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

Samuel Moyn argues that the United States faces a gerontocratic crisis: aging politicians and a parallel concentration of wealth among older Americans has hollowed representative democracy, dampened youth political participation, and slowed social progress. He traces this to demographic aging (Great Aging), primaries dominated by older voters, and powerful elder lobbying (notably the AARP), aided by tax policies that favor property owners. He links long tenures in political and corporate leadership to stalled renewal, calls for antigerontocratic reform—phased life-cycle leadership and wealth redistribution—to restore intergenerational equity while preserving elderly dignity.

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How I made $350K from an open-source JavaScript library using dual licensing

Sachin Neravath explains how he made over $350K in four years from the lightGallery JS library using a dual-licensing COSS model. It pairs a free copyleft license (GPL/AGPLv3) with a paid commercial license for proprietary use. GPL triggers open-sourcing on distribution; AGPLv3 closes the SaaS loophole. For contributions, use a CLA or, safer for COSS, a Copyright Assignment Agreement. If upgrading from MIT, obtain consent to re-license; otherwise, split versions and publish a new major release. Tools like Kelviq automate license delivery (3.5% fee).

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Following the Text Gradient at Scale

Reinforcement learning discards rich feedback by compressing it to a scalar reward. The post proposes Feedback Descent, a domain-agnostic loop using two text-based primitives: evaluators that provide structured natural-language feedback, and editors (LLMs) that revise top candidates based on accumulated feedback. Across molecular design, SVG optimization, and prompt tuning, this approach matches or outperforms specialized RL methods while requiring far fewer evaluations. Text becomes a persistent semantic layer for continual learning, enabling ongoing improvement without task-specific mutation rules.

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Programming Still Sucks

Langbroek argues AI won’t save engineers; greed and mismanagement did. Using a ship allegory, he shows a company hollowed by churn, bad metrics, and abolished apprenticeship. Sara, a seasoned insider with Ben's USB, holds the critical cron job and institutional memory. When she dies, the system falters; the industry will need a rare "person with a spoon" to rebuild. The point: preserve apprenticeships and memory, or the ship will burn.

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Kash Patel's Personalized Bourbon Stash

The Atlantic reports that FBI Director Kash Patel distributes personalized bottles of Woodford Reserve engraved with “Kash Patel FBI Director” to FBI staff and others, sometimes using DOJ planes and at official events. Current and former agents view the gifts as unusual and potentially undermining bureau norms, while the FBI says such gifts are routine and personally funded. The article also covers Patel’s merch-forward branding, prior gifts of a 3D-printed gun to New Zealand officials, and a whistleblower-related wrongful-termination suit alleging troubling conduct.

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Pope Leo called his bank's customer service line. They hung up on him

Pope Leo XIV tried to update his bank’s phone number and address, but the agent insisted changes must be done in person. When he revealed he was the pope, the call was hung up. He reportedly considered moving his account, but the bank eventually made an exception and updated his number, with Leo warning not to disclose it.

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DeepSeek V4 Pro at 75% off until 31 May

DeepSeek's Models & Pricing page explains token-based costs for two models: deepseek-v4-flash (non-thinking) and deepseek-v4-pro (thinking). Pricing is per 1M tokens (input + output), with separate rates for cache hits and misses; Pro has about a 75% discount. Context length is 1M tokens and max output is 384K. Features include JSON output, tool calls, Chat Prefix Completion (Beta), and FIM Completion (Beta) in non-thinking mode only. Fees are deducted from balance; topping up is advised. Prices may change.

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Mickey Mouse is watching you: Disneyland deploys facial recognition

Disneyland in Anaheim has begun using facial recognition in some entrance lanes to deter ticket/pass fraud and speed re-entry. Cameras convert faces into biometric codes; guests can opt out. The move comes amid broader privacy concerns about surveillance and scrutiny of law-enforcement use, with parallels to other venues exploring similar tech. Disney says strong safeguards exist, though no system is perfect. The company previously tested the tech at Magic Kingdom (2021) and Disneyland (2024).

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Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX

Anthropic announces higher Claude usage limits and a SpaceX compute deal. SpaceX will provide Colossus 1 with >300 MW and 220k+ NVIDIA GPUs, boosting Claude Pro/Max. Claude Code limits: double five-hour rate limits for Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise, remove peak-hour reductions, and Opus API rate limits raised. International expansion includes in-region compute (Asia/Europe) via Amazon, plus broader capacity deals: Amazon up to 5 GW (~1 GW by 2026), Google/Broadcom 5 GW online 2027, and Microsoft/NVIDIA Azure; Fluidstack investments. They also explore orbital AI compute with SpaceX and commit to US electricity-price protections.

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Building my own Vi text editor in BASIC

Lee Tusman describes building yvi, a tiny Vi-like editor in BASIC (Yabasic). Motivated by reinvention and preference for non-mainstream tools, he created a minimal editor inspired by Vim and Offpunk. It supports basic motion (h/j/k/l, gg/G), insert/normal modes, open/new, save, and editing commands like dd, u, S, c, with multi-command sequences and numeric prefixes. The 80-character display wrap keeps it simple; the code is about 500 lines and usable for writing and simple projects, though it has bugs and isn’t for critical work. Source is on GitHub/Tildegit.

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David Sacks crashed and burned in the White House

Trump’s shift to tighter AI oversight toppled David Sacks from his role as AI/crypto czar. Three drivers fueled it: Anthropic’s Mythos spooked national security, growing international AI regulation pressure, and Sacks’s aggressive, ‘innovation-at-all-costs’ tactics that boxed out agencies and alienated Republicans. He lost his special government employee status and access, undermining the White House. Policy broadened to national security and geopolitics, with CAISI vetting frontier models and Europe threatening to reshape rules. Iran attacked AWS data centers, underscoring critical infrastructure risk. Sacks retains influence with Trump but no longer sits in the inner circle.

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UK businesses brace for jet fuel rationing

Goldman Sachs warns the UK faces a “critical” jet-fuel shortage as inventories could fall to dangerously low levels within weeks, risking rationing that would hit airlines, freight operators, and SMEs reliant on air links. The UK is most exposed in Europe due to depleted stockpiles, high import dependence, and a hollowed domestic refining base after the Grangemouth closure (with Prax Lindsey unsettled). With no strategic reserves, Britain leans on imports; Gulf supply is tight as the Strait of Hormuz closure reduces cargoes. May–June disruptions threaten higher costs, tickets, and exports; Brussels to issue guidance.

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Apple is enforcing an old App Store rule against a new kind of software

Apple’s 2.5.2 rule blocks in-app generation that changes features, stalling Replit and removing Anything, because the reviewed artifact is static while runtime adapts. The piece argues software now evolves at use, so the artifact and runtime aren’t the same, challenging traditional review. OpenAI’s Apps SDK and ChatGPT directory show distribution by capabilities rather than fixed binaries. The author suggests platforms must rethink review and distribution for adaptive software, as the old binary-centric model may not survive.

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Show HN: PHP-fts – Full-text search engine in pure PHP, no extensions

php-fts is a self-contained full-text search engine in pure PHP with no extensions or external services. Designed for setups where a dedicated search service is impractical (shared hosting, small VPS), it offers offline indexing and runtime search with trigram indexing for typo tolerance and BM25+IDF scoring. Features: per-document scores, field boosting, complex filters (AND/OR, range, contains), bulk inserts, soft delete, compaction, and portable binary index files. Requires PHP 8.1+, writable index dir. Install via Composer or manual. API includes open/close, insert/insertBulk, search, update, delete, count, compact, and reset.

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