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HN Buddy Daily Digest

Friday, December 26, 2025

Hey buddy,

Man, Hacker News was buzzing yesterday! Had to call you up real quick, some wild stuff.

Rob Pike Goes Nuclear on AI

First off, remember Rob Pike? The Go language guy? He totally went off the rails about GenAI. Apparently, he got spammed with some "AI slop" and he's just *done* with it. What's crazy is one person in the comments, SimonW, even mentioned a Hitler comparison, though he then said LLMs are more like cars or trains – huge downsides but people think they're worth it. Another comment pointed out that the global AI footprint is already 8% of the aviation footprint! That's insane, right? And someone else chimed in saying AI is already taking programmer jobs, even for the simple stuff. But then, a classic hacker take: "information wants to be free," so maybe copyright isn't even the point for some.

"uv" Python Installer is Super Fast

Then there was this article explaining how this Python package installer called "uv" got so fast. Sounds like they optimized a bunch of stuff, like unzipping while downloading. And, shocker, using Rust helped make it quicker than pure Python. Makes sense, right?

Package Managers and Git as a Database

There was a good rant about how package managers keep trying to use Git like a database and it always messes up. Apparently, it just doesn't work out well. Someone mentioned how Nix (that other package manager) usually just tosses the .git folder anyway, preferring to deal with deltas between commits instead of a full Git history as a data store. Interesting insight there.

FFmpeg DMCA Takedown on GitHub

Oh, and some drama! FFmpeg issued a DMCA takedown on GitHub. Turns out some company, Rockchip, basically said it was "too much work" to fix license issues for all their new chips, which is why FFmpeg went after them. But then, someone in the comments brought up that FFmpeg itself has "unclean hands" because of its own patent issues. Still, they were like, "FFmpeg is right in *this* case." Total mess, but important for open source.

Deadly Bug in Abbott Glucose Monitors

This one's super serious. Seven diabetes patients died because of an undisclosed bug in Abbott's glucose monitors. The FDA apparently noted 736 serious injuries too. People in the comments were really frustrated, especially those with Type 1 diabetes, about how serious conditions like DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) can be and how it's not something to be downplayed. Really tragic stuff.

GPL Violation in an Insulin Pump

And speaking of medical devices, someone found their insulin pump controller uses the Linux kernel but violates the GPL because they're not providing the source code. This sparked a debate: some argued medical software is too complex for DIY fixes, but then another person asked, "Why do people think something made by some random company is automatically better than something made 'DIY'?" Good point, right? Especially when companies are cutting corners like this.

Fairytale Hallucination Mushroom

Okay, for something completely different and kinda wild: experts are exploring a new mushroom that causes "fairytale-like hallucinations". How cool is that? One of the comments even mentioned a video where two different people saw the *same blue woman* while tripping. That's a pretty wild coincidence, or maybe not a coincidence at all!

Alright, gotta run. Talk later!

All Stories from Today

Rob Pike goes nuclear over GenAI (skyview.social)

How uv got so fast (nesbitt.io)

Package managers keep using Git as a database, it never works out (nesbitt.io)

FFmpeg has issued a DMCA takedown on GitHub (twitter.com)

Rob Pike Goes Nuclear over GenAI (imgur.com)

Seven Diabetes Patients Die Due to Undisclosed Bug in Abbott's Glucose Monitors (sfconservancy.org)

My insulin pump controller uses the Linux kernel. It also violates the GPL (old.reddit.com)

Experts explore new mushroom which causes fairytale-like hallucinations (nhmu.utah.edu)

Toys with the highest play-time and lowest clean-up-time (joannabregan.substack.com)

Show HN: Witr – Explain why a process is running on your Linux system (github.com)

I'm a laptop weirdo and that's why I like my new Framework 13 (blog.matthewbrunelle.com)

Rob Pike got spammed with an AI slop "act of kindness" (simonwillison.net)

TurboDiffusion: 100–200× Acceleration for Video Diffusion Models (github.com)

ChatGPT conversations still lack timestamps after years of requests (community.openai.com)

Ask HN: What did you read in 2025? (news.ycombinator.com)

LearnixOS (www.learnix-os.com)

MiniMax M2.1: Built for Real-World Complex Tasks, Multi-Language Programming (www.minimaxi.com)

Always bet on text (2014) (graydon2.dreamwidth.org)

How Lewis Carroll computed determinants (2023) (www.johndcook.com)

Exe.dev (exe.dev)

A Proclamation Regarding the Restoration of the Dash (blog.nawaz.org)

Show HN: AutoLISP interpreter in Rust/WASM – a CAD workflow invented 33 yrs ago (acadlisp.de)

T-Ruby is Ruby with syntax for types (type-ruby.github.io)

Show HN: Xcc700: Self-hosting mini C compiler for ESP32 (Xtensa) in 700 lines (github.com)

Unix "find" expressions compiled to bytecode (nullprogram.com)

High school student discovers 1.5M potential new astronomical objects (www.smithsonianmag.com)

Building an AI agent inside a 7-year-old Rails monolith (catalinionescu.dev)

Drawing with zero-width characters (zw.swerdlow.dev)

ICE's interest in high-tech gear raises new questions: 'What is it for?' (www.politico.com)

Governments in the West Are Turning Their Sights on VPNs (www.nakedcapitalism.com)