AI Summarized Hacker News

Front-page articles summarized hourly.

The time I didn't meet Jeffrey Epstein

Scott Aaronson recounts finding Epstein Files naming him, though he never met Epstein. He describes a 2010 attempt by intermediary Charles Harper to arrange a meeting with Epstein about a “Cryptography in Nature” project, with Epstein named as funder, and a later Harper email proposing a conference for Aaronson in his 20s. Aaronson forwarded these emails to family, attributing his caution to his mother’s advice. He reflects on scientists’ varied responses to Epstein’s money, noting that many who avoided involvement did so deliberately, while others who engaged faced consequences; he largely stayed out of it.

HN Comments

LinkedIn checks for 2953 browser extensions

GitHub repository documenting LinkedIn’s Chrome extension fingerprinting. LinkedIn silently probes 2,953 Chrome extensions on every page load and the project catalogs every checked extension, providing names and Chrome Web Store or Extpose links. Key scripts include fetch_extension_names.js (fetches extension names with optional rate limits), test_fetch.js, and fingerprint.js (LinkedIn’s page script). Stats: 2,953 total extensions; ~78% found on the Chrome Web Store; ~22% via Extpose fallback (unavailable or removed). Data files include chrome_extension_ids.txt and chrome_extensions_with_names_all.csv. No additional description provided.

HN Comments

We tasked Opus 4.6 using agent teams to build a C Compiler

Anthropic researcher Nicholas Carlini outlines “agent teams”—multiple Claude instances working in parallel on a shared codebase without human input—to build a C compiler from scratch. Sixteen agents produced a 100,000-line, Rust-based compiler that can boot Linux 6.9 on x86, ARM, and RISC-V and compile projects like QEMU, FFmpeg, SQLite, Postgres, and Redis, at about $20k over ~2,000 Claude Code sessions. The piece emphasizes designing long-running harnesses, task locking, and parallel roles, plus limits (no assembler/linker, partial 16-bit support, efficiency gaps) and using GCC as an oracle. It discusses risks and safety in autonomous development.

HN Comments

A small, shared skill library by builders, for builders. (human and agent)

PsiACE/skills is a small, shared skill library for builders. It includes skills like friendly-python, piglet, and fast-rust, with online docs at skills.psiace.me. Install via pnpx skills add PsiACE/skills --skill=' * ' (or -g for global). The collection is intentionally small and may evolve; it includes local doc previews (uv sync/run mkdocs) and acknowledgements. The repo hosts MkDocs-based docs, code, and usage notes.

HN Comments

Everyone Is Stealing TV

Rogue streaming boxes like SuperBox and vSeeBox are spreading across the U.S., offering thousands of channels and on-demand content by pirating streams or bypassing DRM. Sold via a web of resellers and social-media networks, they appeal to viewers fed up with soaring pay-TV and subscription fatigue. Rights holders have pursued lawsuits; users cite savings and convenience, while security risks and opaque reseller networks cast doubt. The phenomenon echoes earlier diaspora-era boxes (TVPad) and highlights a broader backlash against the current streaming landscape.

HN Comments

Triton Bespoke Layouts

Bespoke (legacy) layouts in Triton are still actively used and complemented by the linear, generic layout. They encode hardware ownership patterns via distributed layouts (blocked layout, MMA layouts, dot operand layouts) and shared layouts (swizzled and padded) to optimize global memory access and tensor-core feeds. They are defined as MLIR attributes (MmaEncodingTrait, EncodingAttr) and attached to tensor types, enabling localized conversions via ttg.convert_layout and passes like Coalesce and RemoveLayoutConversions. Gluon now lets developers program layouts directly. Linear layouts offer broader generality; bespoke layouts remain valuable for performance.

HN Comments

Advancing finance with Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6 boosts finance work with stronger long-form reasoning, polished first-pass outputs, and new tools. Key updates: Cowork desktop app with plugin-based workflows for parallel analyses and file-based tasks; Claude in Excel handles long-running financial modeling with pivoting, charts, formatting, and reduced copy-paste; Claude in PowerPoint (beta) enables building and refining decks from templates. An internal Real-World Finance evaluation shows Opus 4.6 outperforms Opus 4.5 by 23+ points across 50 use cases, with state-of-the-art in research, analysis, and creation. Use across Max/Team/Enterprise plans; human review advised for high-stakes tasks.

HN Comments

Claude Code Agent Teams

Claude Code agent teams coordinate multiple Claude Code sessions as a team: a lead spawns independent teammates who share a common task list, communicate via a mailbox, and synthesize results. They offer two display modes (in-process or split-pane with tmux or iTerm2) and can follow a natural-language plan, with optional delegate mode and per-team plan approvals. Tasks are claimed from a shared queue with dependencies; teammates can be messaged directly. Use cases: parallel code reviews, competing hypotheses, cross-layer work. Experimental; limitations include no in-process resume and one team per session; troubleshooting noted.

HN Comments

Claude Opus 4.6

Anthropic unveils Claude Opus 4.6, with stronger coding, planning, and reliability across larger codebases, plus a beta 1M-token context window. It leads in agentic coding, long-context reasoning, and knowledge-work benchmarks, outperforming GPT-5.2 and Opus 4.5, while maintaining a strong safety profile. New capabilities include adaptive thinking, four effort levels, and context compaction; 1M-context beta with premium pricing for very large prompts; 128k output tokens; US-only inference. Enhancements to Claude Code enable agent teams; Claude in Excel and PowerPoint expands everyday workflows. Available now via Claude API and cloud platforms; pricing $5/$25 per million tokens.

HN Comments

CIA suddenly stops publishing, removes archives of The World Factbook

CIA has sunset The World Factbook, removing the site and archives and redirecting to a closure notice. The public-domain publication’s archives were once available, including 2020 ZIPs via the Internet Archive. Simon Willison archived the 2020 copy on GitHub (simonw/cia-world-factbook-2020) and set up a GitHub Pages viewer at simonw.github.io/cia-world-factbook-2020/. The post also notes an Everest height update (8,848.86 m, rounded to 8,849 m) as an example of Factbook content.

HN Comments

Maihem (YC W24): hiring sr robotics perception engineer (London, on-site)

A job posting for a Senior Robotics Perception Engineer at Maihem, noting that the page requires JavaScript to view.

HN Comments

Made by Johno Whitaker using FastHTML