Apps vs. Websites – The Big Debate

First up, there was this huge post about how we really shouldn't download apps and should just use the website instead. The article says a lot of mobile apps are just trying to trick you into installing them, even when the website works perfectly fine. And dude, the comments were all over it! People were saying how web apps are way safer 'cause they're sandboxed, and some even mentioned how the old Reddit site is a perfect example of a fast, simple web experience. Apparently, a lot of these "native" apps are just crappy web apps under the hood anyway. Makes sense, right? Like, why download an app to check bus schedules when the browser lets you open a bunch of tabs and compare stuff easily?

Game Censorship on Steam & Itch.io

Then things got a bit spicy with news that Steam and Itch.io are pulling 'porn' games. Critics are calling it a slippery slope, saying it's censorship. The comments were wild on this one, as you can imagine. One person was basically arguing for total freedom of expression, no obscenity carve-outs at all. Others were pushing back on the idea that porn is inherently harmful, saying there's no real psych evidence for "porn addiction" as a condition. It’s a hot debate about what platforms should or shouldn't host, super passionate on both sides.

Modern CSS vs. SPAs

Next, there was this article titled "It's time for modern CSS to kill the SPA". The author's basically saying we don't need those fancy Single Page Applications (SPAs) as much anymore because modern CSS can do a lot of the heavy lifting. But the comments had a ton of pushback! A lot of developers were like, "Nah, SPAs are often the 'least worst option' for complex stuff, especially if you're targeting Apple platforms." But it was cool to see a lot of regular users chiming in saying they hate SPAs because they load slow and feel clunky. So, developers might like 'em, but users often don't!

Dating App Data Breach – Yikes!

This one was pretty messed up: a women's dating safety app called 'Tea' got breached, and apparently, users' IDs (of reported men) got posted to 4chan. Yikes. The comments were talking about how sensitive this topic is, and how solutions need to be super careful, not like a "medieval town square's pillory." People were sharing crazy stories of bad dates, and there was a big discussion about the app potentially using facial recognition, which would be a huge GDPR nightmare. Just goes to show how much trust you put in these apps, and how easily it can go wrong.

Happy Birthday, MDN!

On a lighter note, MDN, the Mozilla Developer Network, turned 20! That's like, ancient in internet years. Everyone in the comments was just showering them with love, saying how essential MDN is for web development. Funny thing, one person said they used to avoid MDN because they thought the 'M' stood for Microsoft, and they didn't want anything to do with it back in the day. Haha!

DE9, Not DB9 – The Connector Naming Saga

There was this super nerdy but cool post about connectors: "It's a DE9, not a DB9 (but we know what you mean)." It's all about how people commonly misuse terms for D-sub connectors. The comments were great for this, talking about other confusing tech terms. Someone brought up how everyone says "kettle lead" instead of the proper "IEC mains lead" or "C13." It's just how language evolves, even in tech, you know?

LLM API Pricing Tool

And finally, this cool "Show HN" project called "Price Per Token" popped up. It's a website that helps you compare the pricing for different Large Language Model (LLM) APIs, like how much it costs per token to use Claude or GPT. People in the comments were saying how useful this is because it's a pain to track all that info, and some even suggested making it more user-friendly, like being able to filter by use case or speed. Apparently, even OpenRouter, one of the big players, has had a tough time keeping their own pricing data up-to-date, so this tool is definitely needed.