Ask HN: HN data access

How can I get access to all of the submissions on news.ycombinator.com? I don't want the comments, just the posts.

It seems like it is getting increasingly more difficult to access the content on HNS. For example, it seems like you have to sign in now to access older posts. Also, the thrift database has only about 4million records but the hids on HNS are in the 5millions.