Hey buddy,

Man, you gotta check out Hacker News from Saturday, some interesting stuff popped up.

Local-first software

Okay, first up, there was this old essay from 2019 about local-first software – you know, apps that work mainly on your device even without internet, and only sync when they can. It got a ton of comments. People were talking about how it's way easier to deal with conflicts when things aren't always online, and how some apps like Obsidian storing notes in a database file is kinda annoying because you can't just easily mess with the raw files. Someone also pointed out that 'local-first' doesn't mean 'no internet', just that the main action happens locally, but syncing is still a big deal.

Check it out here: https://www.inkandswitch.com/essay/local-first/

US R&D Tax Bill Signed

Then there was some big news about a US tax bill getting signed, the OBBB thing, that brings back immediate expensing for R&D costs. So companies can write off their research and development spending right away again. Someone in the comments mentioned how these tax rules with expiration dates are kinda like "time bombs" designed to get reversed later. Another person wondered if this is why they're seeing more "Remote (US)" job postings lately.

Read about it here: https://www.kbkg.com/feature/house-passes-tax-bill-sending-to-president-for-signature

Hidden Interface Controls

There was a cool article about how hidden UI controls (like swipe gestures you don't know about) are making stuff harder to use. Lots of people agreed, saying it's super frustrating when apps hide basic buttons or actions. One guy even joked about wanting to scream at bad interfaces. They talked about how things like swiping on Android or iOS edges replaced obvious buttons, which isn't always clear.

Here's that one: https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/july-august-2025/stop-hiding-my-controls-hidden-interface-controls-are-affecting-usability

Reasons to Avoid Amazon

Someone wrote a blog post giving prime reasons to avoid Amazon. The comments were all over the place. One person fact-checked the author on some statistic about the US education budget and said they were wrong. Someone else brought up a story about Bezos apparently blocking an endorsement at the Washington Post. And of course, people shared their own reasons, like issues with co-mingled inventory (where Amazon mixes their stuff with third-party sellers') or just preferring local stores for instant buys (like needing a new graphics card right away!).

Check out the reasons: https://blog.thenewoil.org/the-prime-reasons-to-avoid-amazon

Problems the AI Industry Ignores

Another popular one was about problems the AI industry isn't really fixing, like lack of transparency or control. People in the comments were debating what AI even is right now – is it just a "perpetual learning machine" from human interaction, or something else? Someone compared the situation to medicine, where sometimes we know a drug works but not exactly how. A few people were pretty skeptical, thinking if true AGI was close, companies might even shut it down because they couldn't control it.

Read the article: https://www.thealgorithmicbridge.com/p/im-losing-all-trust-in-the-ai-industry

Why Teslas Keep Crashing

There was a Guardian article titled "Why Tesla’s cars keep crashing". The comments section got pretty heated. A big point people focused on was the idea that Autopilot might be designed to turn off right before a crash becomes unavoidable. The comments debated if this is true and if it's a legal strategy so Tesla can say the system wasn't active during the crash. Others argued about whether drivers are skilled enough to take over quickly or if Tesla's blaming drivers unfairly.

Here's the link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/05/the-vehicle-suddenly-accelerated-with-our-baby-in-it-the-terrifying-truth-about-why-teslas-cars-keep-crashing

Pixel Users = Drug Dealers?

Finally, this weird one about cops in Spain apparently thinking everyone using a Google Pixel phone might be a drug dealer. Seriously. The article says it's because organized crime groups sometimes use them, maybe with enhanced privacy software like GrapheneOS. People in the comments were saying how messed up that is, basically profiling people just based on their phone choice. Someone mentioned GrapheneOS gives way stronger privacy than just a regular Pixel.

Read this wild story: https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-organized-crime-preferred-phone-3573578/

Anyway, yeah, just thought I'd give you the heads-up on that stuff. Talk later!