Just wanted to give you a quick rundown of some interesting stuff from Hacker News today, Tuesday, June 24th. It was a pretty mixed bag.

Writing Toy Software is a Joy

First off, there was this post about how awesome it is to just write small, fun software projects, not for work or anything, just 'cause. People in the comments totally agreed. A cool point was how some folks are using AI now, but more like a super-powered search engine for coding questions, asking for references and stuff, rather than just spitting out code. Another guy brought up that error handling is a huge pain point in dynamic languages, which makes writing quick toy software feel faster, even if it's messier.

Man 'refused entry into US' over a JD Vance Meme

Okay, this one's kinda wild. Apparently, some guy was possibly denied entry into the US because border control found a meme on his phone, specifically a bald JD Vance meme. The comments section blew up with people talking about free speech at the border and how intense and unwelcoming US border checks can feel compared to other countries. Some quotes from old books about losing freedoms bit by bit came up, which was pretty heavy.

Fun with uv and PEP 723

There was a technical one about Python dependency management, specifically using a tool called `uv` and a new way to declare dependencies right in your script file (PEP 723). The discussion got into how annoying Python's dependency situation can be compared to languages like Go, Rust, or even JavaScript. Some people were saying they just stick to Go for simple scripts because it gives you a single, easy-to-share file, or even just use Bash for small stuff.

Starship: A Cool Terminal Prompt

Saw a link to Starship, which is this really fast, customizable prompt for your command line. If you spend a lot of time in the terminal, it looks pretty neat. People who use it love how easy the config file is compared to messing with weird old shell scripts. Some folks mentioned switching to it after using other popular prompt setups for years.

Plastic Levels in Foods

This one's a bit grim but important. It's about a site called PlasticList that tracks plastic levels in different foods. The comments were talking about how microplastics seem to be everywhere now, even in things like parchment paper and dust. People are worried because we don't really know the long-term health effects yet, and some commenters pointed out that these kinds of independent research efforts might become even more crucial if government funding for this sort of thing gets cut.

Finding a 27-Year-Old Easter Egg in a Power Mac G3

Had a fun one about someone finding a hidden easter egg, like a secret message or feature, in the software of a really old computer, a Power Mac G3, from 27 years ago! The comments were nostalgic about how fun and customizable classic Mac OS felt back then. There was also a discussion about why companies don't put easter eggs in software much anymore – mostly because modern software is way more complicated, and they don't want to risk breaking anything for a little joke.

ChatGPT vs. Copilot Rivalry

Finally, a Bloomberg article popped up talking about how ChatGPT is reportedly doing better than Microsoft's own Copilot in getting adopted by big companies, causing some friction between OpenAI and Microsoft. In the comments, a few people mentioned their companies tried Copilot but folks ended up using other AI models like Claude more. There was also a funny comment about Microsoft renaming Active Directory to "Entra ID" and how confusing and weird the new name sounds to IT people.

So yeah, that was most of the interesting stuff today. Talk later!