Hey buddy,

Quick call, just wanted to tell you about some of the wild stuff on Hacker News today, Wednesday, August 20, 2025. It was a pretty busy day!

AGENTS.md – Coding Agents & Wild Formats

First up, there was this big thing about an open format called AGENTS.md. It's basically a new way to guide those AI coding agents. Sounds cool, right? But get this, some people in the comments were like, "3,000 words of prose is awful and imprecise for this!" And then someone else dropped a bomb: turns out, these agent files are often generated by other agents themselves. Like, AI making instructions for other AI. Wild!

Copilot Broke Audit Logs (and Microsoft's Quiet)

Then, a pretty worrying one: apparently, Microsoft's Copilot broke audit logs. You know, those important records of who did what? And the blog post claims Microsoft isn't even telling customers about it. People were pretty heated in the comments, talking about how AI agents access databases and the need for proper filtering. Classic Microsoft, I guess.

US Visa Website Doing a Port-Scan?

This one was just bizarre. Someone posted an "Ask HN" titled "Why does the US Visa application website do a port-scan of my network?". A port scan! Like, what the heck? People were freaking out about privacy and security, trying to figure out if it was a bug or some weird feature. One random comment even veered off into how bad 2G internet is for Google Maps. HN comments, am I right?

Zed Editor: Privacy Fork & Big Money

Remember that Zed editor we talked about? Well, there were two big stories. First, someone made a fork called Zedless that's all about privacy and being local-first, cutting out the cloud stuff. Then, a separate article popped up saying Sequoia just poured a ton of money into Zed. So, one side wants privacy, the other gets huge VC backing. Someone in the comments even brought up how Sequoia invested big in FTX, hinting that VCs aren't always right. Oh, and the term "vibe coding" came up a lot – apparently, AI-generated code can lead to a "bus factor of zero," meaning if the AI leaves, no one knows what's going on.

Anime Catgirls Blocking Linux Kernel (It's About Bots)

Okay, this title was clickbait gold: "Why are anime catgirls blocking my access to the Linux kernel?". You can't make this stuff up! Turns out, it's about a bot detection system called Anubis, and the catgirls are just a funny way to describe some CAPTCHA-like challenge. The comments were debating how effective these systems are, and someone even predicted that government-issued online IDs might become normal in the next decade to fight bots and spam. Yikes.

Cool 3D Visualization: Spherical Helix

On the lighter side, a cool "Show HN" was this spherical helix visualization. This guy was just curious about how to make objects move smoothly on a sphere in 3D, and he made this awesome interactive demo. He even explained in the comments why his first idea of linear motion for the 'z' axis wouldn't work to keep it on a sphere. Pretty neat for a casual project.

Pixel 10 Phones & Payment Debates

And finally, the Pixel 10 phones got a ton of comments, almost 800! People were still going back and forth about mobile payments – some found it super easy with fingerprint sensors, others were baffled why people "fuss" with unlocking their phones instead of just using a card. There was also talk about getting too many accounts and the constant bloatware on Android phones. Plus, a bit about how AI assistants will just call tools for you, not necessarily have all the knowledge themselves.

AWS in 2025: Stuff You Thought You Knew

There was also a piece about AWS in 2025, basically saying what's changed and what old assumptions are wrong now. The big takeaway from the comments: if you're just using AWS like a basic VPS, you're probably wasting money. You gotta use their "elasticity" to really save cash. And someone pointed out that while LLMs