Just saw some interesting stuff pop up on Hacker News today, figured I'd give you the quick rundown.

Firefox on GitHub

First off, guess what? Mozilla's official Firefox code is now on GitHub. Big news for folks who like looking at or helping with the browser code. People were chatting about how it changes things for contributors, especially with GitHub's rules, like some saying the phone number requirement is a pain if you're not in a country that makes it easy to get a monthly plan just for that.

Old Hardware, Better Software?

Then there was this tweet from John Carmack, you know, the game guy? He basically said the world could totally run on older computers and phones if software people actually cared about making stuff efficient. Lots of agreement there, with people complaining about slow apps and how big companies don't optimize because they can just throw more hardware at the problem. Someone even brought up how regulation like Energy Star made companies care more about efficiency for appliances, maybe we need something similar for software?

How to Get Users?

Someone asked a classic question: how do you get your first hundred users for a new product? The comments were full of advice. People talked about talking directly to potential customers (especially for business stuff), using blogs, and finding alternatives to big services. One person mentioned how fun optimization problems are and how they fit the software-as-a-service model.

GNU Screen Security Holes

Okay, this one's a bit more techy, but important if you use command line tools. There were multiple security problems found in GNU Screen, that program that lets you keep terminal sessions running even if you disconnect. People were discussing switching to 'tmux' as an alternative, though some said tmux is overkill if you just need sessions to stay alive.

New CPU Attack!

Speaking of security, some smart folks found a new way to attack CPUs using something called "branch privilege injection." It's super technical, messing with how the processor predicts what code to run next. They showed it works on recent Linux versions. Comments were talking about how these things usually get fixed with software updates first, and how complicated modern CPU security is.

Google's Desktop Mode for Android

Big tech news: looks like Google is finally building its own version of Samsung's DeX, that thing that lets you plug your phone into a screen and use it like a desktop computer. Someone saw a leak of Android's "Desktop Mode." People were debating if it's actually useful, bringing up things like keeping all your data on your phone and the struggle of developing for Android if you don't want to use Kotlin.

Banks and Bad Security

And finally, a relatable one: why are banks still so bad at security and authentication in 2025? The article and comments vented about frustrating login systems, weak passwords (apparently some Canadian banks used phone passwords for online banking forever?), and how traditional banks feel way behind, even compared to crypto (though someone pointed out crypto has its own problems like losing your keys forever).

Anyway, that was the quick stuff. Talk later!