Hacker News Reader

david_allisonon The GitHub wiki is an anti-pattern

They're not indexed if they're publicly editable

david_allisonon The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

Thank you!!

E-waste is awful, as is cutting off old devices. We still backport security fixes to minSdk 21.

To Google's credit, post-21 is a much more pleasant experience and requires very little developer time. API desugaring[0] has worked perfectly, their compatibility classes[1] handle most of the common cases, and there's often very little to actually code[2].

[0] https://developer.android.com/studio/write/java8-support-tab...

[1] https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/appc...

[2] https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/blob/main/compat/s...

david_allisonon The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

Google Play rejected our 2.24.1 release (Aug 31). F-Droid is typically slower, but we don't have to worry about distribution issues.

This is regarding 2.25.0alpha4.

david_allisonon The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

We use Roborazzi[0], which is an excellent screenshot library, but:

* We target minSdk 24

* We're still using XML views

* We target a large variety of form factors

* We have a lot of screens, and these have a lot of configuration options.

I really wish it was "point an agent at it, and walk away", but many screens ended up being hours of iteration with Fable driving my phone/an emulator to produce an acceptable outcome.

Given that my Pixel 9 Pro has system screens which are still broken under edge to edge, it's not an easy change, and takes up time which could have been going towards feature development.

[0] https://github.com/takahirom/roborazzi/

david_allisonon The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

Team effort, but thank you!! I've just taken the next month and a half off to work on things full time. I'm excited!

The next update won't be huge, (Google required us to make all screens 'edge to edge'[0], which took up most of my time last month). I'm hoping for some solid improvements now that's out the way, once the release pipeline has returned to normal.

Feel free to get in touch if you fancy contributing.

[0] https://developer.android.com/develop/ui/views/layout/edge-t...

david_allisonon The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week

AnkiDroid (~17 years old) submitted our latest alpha on Sept 03, 2026, 4:40 am. Still pending review.

david_allisonon AnkiDroid: Google Play no longer allowing Open Collective donation link

We've been seeking official clarification from Google on this for over a month. That's what we're seeking here.

It's not clear given Google's policy wording and replies. We've removed the links, and can move forward once clarification has been provided.

david_allisonon Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc

Worse: there's unpatched RCEs for Modern Warfare II: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-10718

david_allisonon Modern decor may be straining people's brains

> Like software, elementary school education is also a pool for adults on the autism spectrum substantially higher than general population average.

Interesting! Do you have a source for this?

david_allisonon A love letter to flashcards

There's an arena/research report by Ozzie Kirkby and Andy Matuschak at https://memory-machines.com/ which you might find interesting.

I predict that things will be 'good' within the next 5 years, but your intuition is correct (and the SOTA models are often producing worse prompts than older models).

david_allisonon A low-carbon computing platform from your retired phones

I have a large amount, some are occasionally useful when debugging.

david_allisonon The gamers taking on the industry to stop it switching off games

> Mirrors Edge Catalyst

Are you sure? I played in 2024 on PC and it was playable.

david_allisonon Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?

We define our API into the Rust via protobufs[0] and some codegen.

The wrapper around these is very lean, FFI-based[1], it's abstracted to a library so Android devs never need to know there's rust/codegen involved.

We then define a light Kotlin-based wrapper around the protobuf-generated API[2]. This is a candidate to move to Kotlin multiplatform in the near future (mostly for test speed improvements).

[0] https://github.com/ankitects/anki/tree/main/proto

[1] https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android-Backend/blob/a0428...

[2] https://github.com/ankidroid/Anki-Android/blob/68192585a7ae4...

david_allisonon Dumb ways for an open source project to die

> I'd happily share if "share" still meant "drop a gist." It doesn't, anymore.

It still does. Feel free to use https://unmaintained.tech/ on your repo.

david_allisonon Ask HN: Do you know the ethics of Developers?

https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics

1.1 Contribute to society and to human well-being, acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing.

1.2 Avoid harm.

1.3 Be honest and trustworthy.

1.4 Be fair and take action not to discriminate.

1.5 Respect the work required to produce new ideas, inventions, creative works, and computing artifacts.

1.6 Respect privacy.

1.7 Honor confidentiality.

2.1 Strive to achieve high quality in both the processes and products of professional work.

2.2 Maintain high standards of professional competence, conduct, and ethical practice.

2.3 Know and respect existing rules pertaining to professional work.

2.4 Accept and provide appropriate professional review.

2.5 Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer systems and their impacts, including analysis of possible risks.

2.6 Perform work only in areas of competence.

2.7 Foster public awareness and understanding of computing, related technologies, and their consequences.

2.8 Access computing and communication resources only when authorized or when compelled by the public good.

2.9 Design and implement systems that are robustly and usably secure.

3.1 Ensure that the public good is the central concern during all professional computing work.

3.2 Articulate, encourage acceptance of, and evaluate fulfillment of social responsibilities by members of the organization or group.

3.3 Manage personnel and resources to enhance the quality of working life.

3.4 Articulate, apply, and support policies and processes that reflect the principles of the Code.

3.5 Create opportunities for members of the organization or group to grow as professionals.

3.6 Use care when modifying or retiring systems.

3.7 Recognize and take special care of systems that become integrated into the infrastructure of society.

4.1 Uphold, promote, and respect the principles of the Code.

4.2 Treat violations of the Code as inconsistent with membership in the ACM.

david_allisonon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (May 2026)

  Location: Isle of Man/Europe
  Remote: Yes - Experience working with US/International teams
  Willing to relocate: Yes - For the right role. Happy to be on-site for onboarding
  Technologies: Kotlin, Android, TypeScript, React, .NET, Java, CI/CD, Accessibility, i18n
  Email: davidallisongithub@gmail.com
  GitHub: https://github.com/david-allison

Open source maintainer/top contributor of AnkiDroid: Android client for Anki. 10M+ downloads. ~10 YOE, with 6 YOE open source (4,000+ commits). Ready for stability after years of contracting and maintainership.

I lead a global volunteer team and take full product ownership: setting direction over multi-year horizons, planning and implementing architectural migrations, and keeping a project moving via community engagement, triage, fixes, reviews and mentorship.

Highlights:

  - AnkiDroid now releases in tandem with upstream, rather than lagging behind by years
  - Migrated a 15-year-old codebase from Java 7 to Kotlin, maintaining git blame
  - Migrated to a common Rust-based backend. Android contributors are fully isolated from this complexity
  - Improved app rating from 4.5 to ~4.8 stars, dramatically reduced crash rate
  - Mentored hundreds of contributors and co-launched AnkiDroid's Google Summer of Code programme

AnkiDroid continues as a hobby; my day job is fully separate.

Looking for: full-time or contract. IC or EM, I'm nontraditional so I'm open to a conversation about which fits. Drawn to work that makes people's lives better, in any stack.

david_allisonon A new spam policy for “back button hijacking”

Thank you!

david_allisonon StackOverflow: Retiring the Beta Site

> How could Stack Overflow succeed in a post-chatgpt eta?

As a data source for LLMs, and by becoming the place someone goes where ChatGPT can't produce a sufficient answer.

david_allisonon Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta

It's $50,000 per statement

david_allisonon The Claude Code Leak

What if it's used for training data? It seems like there's no penalty for training on copyrighted materials.

david_allisonon Universal Claude.md – cut Claude output tokens

Oh wow, thank you so much!!!!!

david_allisonon Universal Claude.md – cut Claude output tokens

Is this available online? I'd love documentation of my prompts.

david_allisonon Fedware: Government apps that spy harder than the apps they ban

https://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.per...

Fear-mongering. Not even dangerous permissions. Granted on install

david_allisonon AI isn't killing jobs, it's 'unbundling' them into lower-paid chunks

IMO: That's just due to the speed of responses.

Hardware will continue to improve, and eventually you'll have the choice of reaching a flow state with 2026 models, or using frontier models at our current level of performance.

david_allisonon I decompiled the White House's new app

Very unusual: 47.0.1 is showing these permissions when on my MacBook viewing the store entry.

The Play Store doesn't show these permissions when viewed on my Pixel 9 Pro, and the APK doesn't have these permissions when downloaded/extracted.

david_allisonon I decompiled the White House's new app

You need to state the permissions you *may* request/use in AndroidManifest.xml. This data can then be displayed to users pre-installation.

From the (limited) article, it doesn't seem they do this: https://thereallo.dev/blog/decompiling-the-white-house-app#p...

----

EDIT: I'm mistaken. From the Play Store[0] it has access to

* approximate location (network-based)

* precise location (GPS and network-based)

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.whitehouse...

This seems to disagree with:

> The location permissions aren't declared in the AndroidManifest but requested at runtime

*shrug*, someone should dig deeper. It looks like the article may not match reality.

david_allisonon Updates to GitHub Copilot interaction data usage policy

Cheers!

david_allisonon Updates to GitHub Copilot interaction data usage policy

I have GitHub Copilot Pro. I don't believe I signed up for it. I neither use it nor want it.

1. A lot of settings are 'Enabled' with no option to opt out. What can I do?

2. How do I opt out of data collection? I see the message informing me to opt out, but 'Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training' is already disabled for my account.

david_allisonon Show HN: Passport Globe (See where your passport takes you)

This is not using current data, which is a huge risk to take when it comes to travel.

You can travel visa-free (30 days) to China on a UK passport.

david_allisonon Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock

> Nothing (reasonable) can protect against direct lightning strikes

Belkin make a number of surge protectors which offer a connected equipment warranty in the UK. Admittedly: financial protection, not data protection, but I felt it was worthwhile for the peace of mind.

https://www.belkin.com/id/p/6-outlet-surge-protection-strip-...