You Wouldn't Steal a Font
The title "You wouldn't steal a font" references classic anti-piracy campaigns, suggesting a discussion around font licensing, usage rights, and the value of digital assets like fonts. However, the provided content is extremely minimal, consisting only of the title, a link, and emoji categories.
There is no substantive article content or Hacker News comments provided to elaborate on specific points or community perspectives regarding font licensing or digital asset ownership.
A 20-Year-Old Bug Exposed by Windows 11 24H2
A long-dormant bug in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, affecting the Skimmer seaplane, has been exposed by a minor stack layout change in Windows 11 24H2. The issue stems from the game relying on uninitialized variables during file parsing, which coincidentally held benign values on older Windows versions but now receive corrupted data from unrelated OS internal operations. This leads to bizarre in-game behavior or crashes.
The Bug's Manifestation
Players reported the Skimmer seaplane disappearing or causing glitches like launching the player high into the air, often resulting in crashes or graphical errors. This behavior was specifically linked to Windows 11 24H2 and not observed on older Windows builds.
The Root Cause: Undefined Behavior
Investigation by modder Silent revealed corrupted floating-point values in the Skimmer's bounding box calculations. The game's sscanf function failed to check how many parameters were read from the vehicles.ide file, leaving variables for missing wheel scale parameters uninitialized. For two decades, these variables happened to contain usable values from previous stack data, masking the bug.
The Windows 11 24H2 Trigger
Windows 11 24H2's updated LeaveCriticalSection function, called by fgets during file parsing, uses slightly more stack space. This change overwrites the memory locations where the Skimmer's uninitialized wheel scale variables resided, replacing the benign values with large, arbitrary data from the critical section's operations and exposing the latent bug.
The Fix and Key Takeaway
The fix involves intercepting the sscanf call and providing default values for the missing parameters, a solution similar to one Rockstar implemented in later console versions. The key takeaway is that this is not a Windows bug, but a 20-year-old game bug relying on undefined behavior and a specific, non-guaranteed stack layout that was finally broken by a standard OS change.
Community Discussion: Undefined Behavior and Debugging
Commenters widely praised the detailed debugging analysis, comparing it to work by Raymond Chen. Much discussion centered on Undefined Behavior (UB) in C/C++, debating whether languages should prevent UB or rely on developer tools like sanitizers. Newer languages like Rust and Java were noted for preventing this class of bug. Hyrum's Law was mentioned regarding reliance on undocumented behaviors. The specific code for angle normalization also sparked debate. There was curiosity about the exact Windows 11 24H2 change and historical Windows compatibility shims.
AI Horseless Carriages
Many current AI applications feel ineffective because they are designed like "horseless carriages," simply adding AI features without fundamentally rethinking the user experience. The author argues that allowing users to customize the AI's core behavior via editable "System Prompts" is crucial for creating truly useful and personalized AI agents. This shifts the focus from developers building fixed agents to building "agent builders" and tools that users can configure.
The "Horseless Carriage" Problem
Current AI apps often mimic traditional software interfaces, leading to AI features that feel clunky or useless. Examples like Gmail's "Help me write" feature produce generic "AI Slop" because the user cannot define the AI's persona or style.
The Need for Customizable AI Agents
The core issue is the inability for users to customize the AI's "System Prompt," which dictates its general behavior. This forces a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to meet individual user needs or preferences.
The Power of Editable System Prompts
Allowing users to define their own System Prompts dramatically improves AI output, making it sound like the user and perform tasks precisely. This process of "teaching" the AI is described as powerful and provides instant feedback on instruction clarity.
The Developer's Evolving Role
In an AI-native world, developers would shift from writing all the logic to building interfaces for creating and managing agents, providing templates, and building "tools" (APIs) that allow agents to interact with the outside world securely.
Community Discussion: Design, Customization, and Challenges
Commenters largely agreed with the "horseless carriage" analogy and the need for greater AI customization, particularly through editable prompts. Discussions included the technical challenges and security risks of exposing prompts (like injection vulnerabilities), alternative design ideas (learning from user behavior, better tools), and the potential for domain experts to build custom agents. The debate also touched on how the developer role might change and whether AI excels more at reading/transforming text than generating it from scratch.
Whistleblower Alleges Data Siphoning at NLRB
A whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleges that a government efficiency team (DOGE) siphoned gigabytes of sensitive data from case files using privileged "tenant admin" accounts exempted from logging. Technical evidence includes the download of web scraping and reverse engineering tools, one linked to a DOGE employee with a history of data handling issues. The allegations raise serious concerns about data security, auditability, and potential misuse of sensitive information.
Allegations of Data Siphoning
Daniel Berulis, an NLRB whistleblower, claims DOGE officials obtained highly privileged accounts that allowed them unrestricted, unaudited access to sensitive case data in early March. This access allegedly enabled them to copy and potentially alter data while hiding their activity.
Technical Evidence and Tools
Berulis discovered that one DOGE account downloaded three external code repositories: async-ip-rotator (for web scraping/brute-forcing, linked to employee Marko Elez), Integuru (for reverse engineering APIs), and Browserless (a headless browser for automation). Elez's code had prior public criticism for being insecure. The sensitive data allegedly includes information on union organizing and proprietary business documents.
Security and Auditability Concerns
The granting of "tenant admin" accounts with disabled logging was widely criticized as a fundamental security failure, violating principles like Least Privilege and auditability. Downloading external, potentially insecure code onto government systems with such privileges was also flagged as a major risk. The subsequent deletion of Elez's GitHub repo after the story broke fueled suspicions.
Community Discussion: Technical Analysis, Security Risks, and Political Divide
Commenters technically analyzed the downloaded tools and confirmed the GitHub repo deletion, interpreting it as an attempt to hide evidence. Security experts expressed alarm over the unaudited privileged access. The discussion also revealed a political divide, with some dismissing the claims as politically motivated while others viewed the actions as a clear abuse of power with dangerous implications for data security and potential conflicts of interest given companies like SpaceX's legal battles with the NLRB.
Scrimba Brings Interactive Node.js Tutorials to the Browser
Scrimba has expanded its unique interactive coding tutorial platform to fullstack development, specifically Node.js, by integrating StackBlitz WebContainers. This allows users to pause video lessons and directly edit, run, and experiment with the code in a full Node.js environment within the browser. The platform aims to provide a more engaging and effective learning experience than traditional passive video tutorials.
Interactive Coding Tutorials Expand to Node.js
Building on their success with interactive frontend tutorials, Scrimba now offers fullstack Node.js courses. This enables learners to interact with backend code, terminals, and file systems directly within the video player, powered by WebContainers.
How the Interactive Format Works
The platform records code edits and cursor movements as events, resulting in much smaller "videos" than traditional screencasts. Users can pause, make changes, and run the code; hitting play reverts their changes to continue following the teacher's flow. The preview pane renders live, not as a video.
Technical Implementation and Future Plans
The platform is built using the Imba language. Scrimba has launched several fullstack courses and offers free interactive video creation for open-source projects. Future plans include improving support for other languages (like Python) and developing a desktop app to record tutorials for any language running locally, though viewer interactivity might vary.
Community Discussion: Enthusiasm, Technical Details, and Future Directions
The response was overwhelmingly positive, with users praising the interactive format's effectiveness for learning. Discussions covered handling state in the browser environment, how user edits interact with playback, and the technical challenges of supporting various languages. There was significant interest in expanding language support and using the platform for private or company-internal training. The Imba language itself also received praise.
NTT Claims World's First Drone-Triggered Lightning
NTT in Japan has announced the successful triggering and guiding of lightning using a drone, aiming to protect cities and infrastructure from strikes. They developed a lightning-resistant cage for the drone and a method to trigger strikes by rapidly changing the electric field with a ground-connected wire. While a significant technical achievement, the practicality for widespread protection and energy harvesting, as well as potential weaponization, were debated by the community.
Actively Managing Lightning Strikes
Recognizing the significant damage caused by lightning, NTT is developing "drone-triggered lightning" as a method to actively control where strikes occur. The goal is to guide lightning away from vulnerable areas, offering a potential alternative or supplement to traditional lightning rods.
The Drone-Triggering Technology
Experiments involved flying a drone equipped with a conductive wire into thunderclouds. By connecting the wire to the ground via a switch at the right moment (detected by electric field sensors), they successfully triggered a lightning strike directed at the drone.
Technical Achievements: Protection and Triggering
NTT highlights two key developments: a lightning protection cage for the drone, tested to withstand massive currents, ensuring the drone's survival and operation; and the electric field-based triggering technology using the ground-connected wire to initiate the discharge towards the drone.
Future Vision and Practicality
NTT envisions using these drones for precise lightning prediction, triggering, and guidance, and is researching lightning energy capture. However, community discussion raised skepticism about the practicality of flying drones in storm conditions for widespread protection and the feasibility of large-scale energy harvesting from lightning strikes.
Community Discussion: Technical Feat, Practicality, and Weaponization Concerns
Commenters were impressed by the drone's ability to survive a lightning strike, acknowledging it as a major engineering feat. However, many questioned the practicality of deploying drones in severe weather for urban protection compared to static lightning rods. A significant concern raised was the potential for this technology to be weaponized, using drones to trigger strikes on specific targets. Skepticism was also high regarding the feasibility of capturing and storing lightning energy on a large scale.