Hacker News Reader

perihelionson 90M people. 118 hours of silence. One nation erased from the internet

This reads like a submarine ad for some kind of analytics startup. I'm confused why this post is HN's #1, ahead of numerous other sources expositing the same story; it isn't interestingly different.

perihelionson HP Reveals Keyboard Computer with Ryzen AI Chip

The historical irony is that Hewlett-Packard was (debatably[0]) the inventor of the PC—the personal computer—the product concept which liberated users from mainframes, which replaced dumb terminals with fully-independent local computation.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_computers#...

Here's[1] how HP marketed the "first personal computer", in 1968:

> "Ready to relieve you of waiting to get on the big computer," the ad declares. "Willing to perform log and trig functions, even hyperbolics and coordinate transformations at the touch of a key. Able to take on roots of a fifth-degree polynomial, Bessel functions, elliptic integrals and regression analysis."

[1] https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/personal... ("History of the 9100A desktop calculator, 1968")

They've now gone full circle, from "Ready to relieve you of waiting to get on the big computer", to "here's a dedicated key for remote computing, the core concept of this product".

perihelionson HP Reveals Keyboard Computer with Ryzen AI Chip

If there was any doubt left whether Hewlett-Packard is still a company run by engineers, that was a clean way to dispel it.

perihelionson The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane

> "The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first attack on a boat that the Trump administration said was smuggling drugs, killing 11 people last September, according to officials briefed on the matter."

Opening sentence. Title was clumsily written.

perihelionson China applies to put 200K satellites in space after calling Starlink crash risk

This is a misidentification:

> "The CTC-1 constellation proposes to be at 510 km altitude and 97.4 degrees inclination[0]"

That's an unrelated "CTC-1"; your reference [0] describes American CubeSats. This isn't the Chinese megaconstellation that was just announced; it's a name collision.

The CTC-1 in your link is identified as a trio of CubeSats assigned to the SpaceX rideshare mission Transporter 15. Cross-referencing, SpaceX does show of trio of small satellites by the name "CTC-1" (a,b,c) launched on Transporter 15, on Nov. 28, 2025,

https://www.spacex.com/launches/transporter-15 ("Transporter-15 Mission")

perihelionson Iran is likely jamming Starlink

Seems like a big flaw that low-orbit constellations have a dependency on GPS, which are high-altitude satellites. They're 40x further away and so have 1,600x greater path loss. Why can't they use their own satellites for this?

> "But Starlink receivers use GPS to locate and connect to satellites. “Since its 12-day war with Israel last June," The Times says, “Iran has been disrupting GPS signals.”"

perihelionson I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too

This HN thread is ongoing,

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46566465 ("I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great (theverge.com)"; 20 hours ago, 596 comments)

perihelionson Why Is Greenland Part of the Kingdom of Denmark? A Short History

In the context of the instant "debate", this is missing the mark. The moral question isn't what happened hundreds of years ago to dead people; it's what do living people want (as is their right to self-determine), and the polls are 85% against 6% in the "we don't want to be Americans" direction. (I infer "Ameerikkamiuunianngilagut" is their word for that?)

https://www.reuters.com/world/poll-shows-85-greenlanders-do-... ("Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose becoming part of the United States, poll shows" / "only 6% of Greenlanders are in favour of their island becoming part of the U.S.")

Here's a joint statement from yesterday by every major political party in Greenland speaking in unison, which you can't post on HN because it offends Americans and they flag these things on sight, though they desire to own the people who are speaking. ("The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice" (214 comments) is, of course, welcomed by HN). You're invited to translate it for yourself, as they have pointedly not released official statements in English, which is not and never has been their language.

https://siumut.gl/inuiattut-ataatsimoorpugut/ (Greenlandic)

https://dk.siumut.gl/vi-star-sammen-som-et-folk/ (Danish)

> "Ameerikkamiuunianngilagut, qallunaajunianngilagut, Kalaaliuniarpugut."

perihelionson NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

This describes NASA's pre-flight quarantines since Apollo 14, and makes (very brief) references to in-flight diseases (and apparent transmission) prior to Apollo 14 ("upper respiratory infection"; "viral gastroenteritis"),

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ochmo-tb-006... ("Health Stabilization Program (HSP)")

perihelionson NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew

Without taking a side, I'll share the interesting detail that NASA did not historically grant much medical privacy to astronauts. You can read medical reports of the Apollo-Soyuz crew here (documenting their poisoning by toxic rocket fuel, dinitrogen tetroxide),

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19770023791 ("The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: Medical report" (1977))

perihelionson Iran's internet shutdown is chillingly precise and may last some time

The Soviet Union had a population larger than the United States' at the time of its collapse. North of 100 million people were liberated virtually overnight from direct Russian rule, from USSR states (over 50 million in Ukraine alone); and another 100+ million from Russian-backed communist governments in Warsaw Pact states (40 million in Poland alone).

British India (three modern states) had a population of 400 million at the time of its independence from Britain. That was famously a coordinated, nation-wide movement.

Indonesia was around 200 million people at the end of the Suharto dictatorship and its transition towards democracy.

perihelionson Iran's internet shutdown is chillingly precise and may last some time

How they exfiltrated footage of the 1989 massacre is an interesting story in its own right. The AP photojournalist who captured (among others) Tank Man couldn't safely walk the streets, so he recruited a random tourist to smuggle his film rolls, in his underwear, from the hotel to the AP's press office.

> [Jeff Widener] "I had earlier accomplished my mission of photographing the occupied Tiananmen Square so I gave all my rolls of film to Kurt/Kirk who smuggled it back to the A.P. office in his underwear. The long-haired college kid was wearing a dirty Rambo T-shirt, shorts and sandals. Security would never suspect him of being a journalist."

https://archive.nytimes.com/lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/0...

From the AP office, it was scanned (?) and exfiltrated with a dial-up modem, over copper telephone landlines (unsure of the technology. 1980's gadgets).

perihelionson Flock Hardcoded the Password for America's Surveillance Infrastructure 53 Times

The license is for selling a commercial service to the general public; the underlying activity (following people in public places) is lawful.

It's how much of journalism works: they're labelled "paparazzi" when it's negative-sentiment, or conversely "investigative journalists" when it's positive-sentiment. If you outlaw private citizens observing happenings in public spaces, you outlaw much of journalism. The targets of journalism, practically by definition, do not consent to being observed, analyzed, and reported on ("Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations"–Orwell).

And certainly the first to be arrested—ironically, if it was entities like Flock you meant to target—would be journalists observing, in public, police and LEO actions. There are a lot of powerful people eager to outlaw that today.

perihelionson Iran's internet shutdown is chillingly precise and may last some time

A Time source is alleging hundreds of protestor deaths in Tehran[0]. It's a repeat of 2019 [1]; the network blocks aren't incidental, it's their purpose to create cover for coordinating massacres.

[0] https://time.com/7345092/iran-protests-death-toll-regime-cra...

> "A Tehran doctor told TIME on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital had recorded at least 217 protester deaths, “most by live ammunition.”"

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–2020_Iranian_protests

perihelionson Video filmed by ICE agent who shot Minneapolis woman emerges

Unedited audio:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/minneapolis-mayor-d...

perihelionson "If Starmer is successful in banning X in Britain, I will move forward in . . ."

> "It is not realistic policy."

Literally already happened, two weeks ago (Thierry Breton / Digital Services Act).

perihelionson "If Starmer is successful in banning X in Britain, I will move forward in . . ."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46374248 ("Former EU commissioner and activists barred from US (theguardian.com)"; 16 days ago, 39 comments)

("Rogers called [Thierry] Breton – who served as the European Commissioner for the internal market from 2019-2024 – “a mastermind” of the [Digital Services Act]")

That was, like this, a direct conflict between Elon Musk and EU regulators over illegal content, which resulted in Musk effecting US foreign policy, and sanctioning a top EU official.

perihelionson Iran vows regime will "not back down" as web blackout continues

That would unfortunately repeat the playbook of their 2019 internet blackout, which was likewise a cover to the government massacring "as many as 1,500 protestors".

> "To block the sharing of information regarding the protests and the deaths of hundreds of protesters on social media platforms, the government shut down the Internet nationwide, resulting in a near-total internet blackout of around six days.[25][26][27] In an effort to crush the protests, the Iranian government (according to Amnesty International) shot protesters dead from rooftops, helicopters, and at close range with machine gun fire. In an effort to mask the scale and casualty count of the protests, it hauled away large numbers of bodies of the dead protesters,[24] and threatened families of slain protesters not to speak to the media or hold funerals.[28]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–2020_Iranian_protests

perihelionson Minnesota officials say they can't access evidence after fatal ICE shooting

Radley Balko:

> "According to my sources, the FBI was initially open to a concurrent investigation with the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (the state agency that would do this investigation)."

> "Trumpy U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen heard about this and intervened, barring the FBI from cooperating with local police."

https://bsky.app/profile/radleybalko.bsky.social/post/3mbwfz...

perihelionson Minnesota officials say they can't access evidence after fatal ICE shooting

The primary source this seems to be reporting on is this link, which was posted earlier today and now 404's,

https://dps.mn.gov/news/bca/bca-statement-regarding-investig... ("BCA statement regarding investigation of ICE fatal shooting in Minneapolis")

https://web.archive.org/web/20260108163819/https://dps.mn.go...

perihelionson [dead]

https://web.archive.org/web/20260108163819/https://dps.mn.go...

perihelionson Minneapolis driver shot and killed by ICE

Primary source is:

https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/01/07/ice-officer-fatally... ("Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer")

https://web.archive.org/web/20260108053100/https://minnesota...

I've confirmed, with search engine caches, that this is the photo Reddit Trust & Safety intervened to remove from Reddit's front page, at the permalink here,

https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1q6tclo/removed_by_re... ("[ Removed by Reddit ]" (1147 comments))

Thankfully, Silicon Valley does not (yet) exert editorial control over newspapers who self-host.

perihelionson Minneapolis driver shot and killed by ICE

The Washington Post quotes that,

> "“I’m a physician,” the man protested."

> "“I don’t care,” the officer replied,"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/01/07/ice-sh... ( https://archive.is/hP0qR )

perihelionson Minneapolis driver shot and killed by ICE

https://imgur.com/a/vmnLFWv

The mother's 6-year-old child's stuffed animals overflowing the glovebox.

The child has lost both parents and is now an orphan.

perihelionson Minneapolis driver shot and killed by ICE

They (Google) routinely do that with or without ID laws; they have more than enough PII in the common-case.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39796550 ("Google ordered to identify who watched certain YouTube videos" (380 comments))

(That article does say this kind of "dragnet" search warrant is, in theory, precluded by the US Constitution. One can ask a certain 6-year old child in Minnesota who just their mother to masked constitution-men what that constitution means).

perihelionson 'We need Greenland': Trump repeats threat to annex Danish territory

Here's primary-source links to the full statements by Greenland's PM (in dual Greenlandic / Danish)[0] and Denmark's PM (in Danish)[1].

[0] https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1457648783035292

[1] https://stm.dk/presse/pressemeddelelser/2025/udtalelse-fra-s...

perihelionson A spider web unlike any seen before

That's the interesting part! (And which the submitted NYT story regrettably neglects). It's a chemoautotrophic ecosystem[0] largely independent of the sun, and of photosynthetic life.

Akin to hydrothermal vents[1] in the ocean, and the lifeforms that eat that effluent.

[0] https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/162344/ ("An extraordinary colonial spider community in Sulfur Cave (Albania/Greece) sustained by chemoautotrophy")

> "Stable isotope analyses (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) revealed that the trophic web sustaining this assemblage is fueled by in situ primary production from sulfur-oxidizing microbial biofilms then transferred through chironomid larvae and adults to higher trophic levels."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent

perihelionson ICE is using facial-recognition technology to quickly arrest people

In the Civil Rights era, segregationist states' police would systematically[0] stop and fingerprint black people, without individualized suspicion, to see if they were in criminal fingerprint databases. There's nothing new under the sun. Biometrics are centuries old; the tech we're talking about here is merely evolutionary, not something qualitatively new and different in human terms. The debate we're revisiting, safetyism vs. liberty, is old and well-trodden. And of course the part where these degrading searches are clearly targeted at minorities based on their appearance and skin color is of no novelty whatsoever.

[0] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/394/721/ ("Davis v. Mississippi (1969)")

perihelionson ICE is using facial-recognition technology to quickly arrest people

> "Basically anyone who trusted the government at any point in the past."

Over one million Afghanis voluntarily gave America their iris biometrics; now the Taliban has that data. US military negligently failed to secure it. Lists of American collaborators' biometrics and everything.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/taliban-afghanistan-biome... ("Taliban likely to have access to biometric databases of Afghan civilians who helped US" (2021))

perihelionson Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured after strikes

That's the false history of the felon Nicolas Sarkozy, who is going to prison for the crimes he did in Libya for his personal enrichment [0].

The reason France and its crook leader invaded Libya was, according to public reports[1], because they had negotiated back-room deals with anti-Qaddafi rebels for oil. 35% of Libya's oil production in exchange for French support. Literally a war for oil.

Qaddafi's atrocities were real, but they were never the motivation of the French-lead bombing of Libya. That was a false rationalization made up to manufacture public consent. Manufacture consent for a failed intervention, that left Libya worse off than it had ever been.

> "was approved by the full UN Security Council"

Whose members actually knew about the corrupt oil deal[2], and chose to go along with the fraud, lying to their own people.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_financing_in_the_2007_F... ("Libyan financing in the 2007 French presidential election")

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/01/libya-oil ("The new Tripoli government has denied the existence of a reported secret deal by which French companies would control more than a third of Libya's oil production in return for Paris's support for the revolution")

[2] https://www.vice.com/en/article/libyan-oil-gold-and-qaddafi-... ("Libyan Oil, Gold, and Qaddafi: The Strange Email Sidney Blumenthal Sent Hillary Clinton In 2011")