RC RANDOM CHAOS

The Wire

Curated cybersecurity and tech news — AI-summarized, source attributed.

aitech-culture

AI-Built Solver Cracks Magic Hexagons Far Past the Previous Order-9 Record

A magic hexagon fills a hexagonal grid so that every straight line of cells, in all three directions, adds to the same total. Only one non-trivial 'normal' vers

via Hacker News ·
aicloud

Amazon Plans 7.65GW Off-Grid Gas Plant in Texas to Power AI Data Center

Amazon has acquired land and state permits in Pecos County, Texas, to build an AI data center campus fed by its own 7.65-gigawatt natural gas power plant—initia

via Hacker News ·
open-sourcetech-culture

Chrome Extension Kills LinkedIn's Home Feed, Keeps the Rest Working

A developer frustrated by LinkedIn's algorithmic home feed built a lightweight Chrome extension that surgically removes it while leaving the platform's more uti

via Hacker News ·
tech-cultureai

Designing Game Difficulty: Smooth the Curve, Don't Just Crank It Up

A common misconception in game design is that levels should get relentlessly harder as players progress. The real goal is to make players feel they're improving

via Hacker News ·
aitech-culture

Developer Pulls AI-Built Site After Discovering It Cloned an Existing Open-Source App

A developer who used Claude to spin up a stargazing web utility called Dark Hours has taken it offline after learning it closely mirrored an existing open-sourc

via Hacker News ·
devopstech-culture

Ditching a VPS to Self-Host on an Old Android Phone

Frustrated by the cost of a Hetzner VPS — especially the dedicated CPU needed to run a remote browser called Surf — and unwilling to buy new hardware amid absur

via Hacker News ·
cybersecuritypolicy

Ex-NSA chief: keep water plant PLCs off the internet after suspected Iran attacks

Retired General Paul Nakasone, the former NSA director now heading Vanderbilt's Institute for National Security, argues that the programmable logic controllers

via Hacker News ·
tech-culturepolicy

Gruber Retracts First Daring Fireball Post in 24 Years After App Store Rejection Story Unravels

John Gruber has retracted a Daring Fireball post for the first time in his 24 years writing the site, after the story he built it on turned out to be false. The

via Hacker News ·
tech-cultureopen-source

Hiding Photos Inside QR Codes with Two-Pass Error Diffusion

QR codes split into two zones: function patterns (the bold corner squares scanners use to locate and orient the code) and data modules (everything else, which s

via Hacker News ·
tech-culture

How Gateway 2000's Cow-Spotted Ads Went From Charming to Cringe

A retrospective on Gateway 2000's magazine advertising traces the PC maker's shift from scrappy, self-aware marketing to bloated corporate spectacle across the

via Hacker News ·
tech-culturepolicy

How Silicon Valley Founders Build Fraud: The 'Façading' Playbook

A new Organization Science study, 'Criminal Deception in Silicon Valley' by Tim Weiss (Imperial College London / Emlyon) and Nevena Radoynovska (Emlyon), dissec

via Hacker News ·
tech-cultureopen-source

Intel x86 Laptop Edges Out Apple Silicon on Efficiency, Undercutting ARM's ISA Myth

Jeff Geerling ran the HPL Linpack benchmark—the same test used to rank Top500 supercomputers—on a MacBook and a new Dell XPS 13, and the results upend a long-he

via Hacker News ·