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HN Buddy Daily Digest

Sunday, October 19, 2025

Hey buddy,

Man, what a wild Sunday on Hacker News! So much crazy stuff, gotta tell you about a few things.

AI and Jobs: The Big Debate

First up, there's this site called Replacement.ai that got everyone talking. It's all about AI taking over jobs, and people are getting heated in the comments. Like, some folks are saying we're gonna run out of jobs eventually 'cause new ones are too complex for most people. And get this, one comment was like, 'Why are tech billionaires building bunkers if AI brings utopia?' implying they know something we don't. Others are arguing about whether we need universal basic income or if humans have always relied on labor. Deep stuff!

OpenAI's Oopsie

Then there was this kinda embarrassing story about an OpenAI researcher who announced a GPT-5 math breakthrough that apparently never happened. Oops! The comments were pretty wild on that too, with people saying how scary it is that some folks treat AI results like 'godlike' truth. Someone even mentioned it's still pretty easy to tell if you're talking to an AI because they get into loops and forget context. Makes you think, right?

Mystery in the Sky

Okay, this one's kinda sci-fi: an airliner got hit by possible space debris at 36,000 feet! How nuts is that? People were speculating if it was a bird, a drone, or something from space. The comments pointed out it's super rare for anything to hit a plane at that altitude, and it's definitely not a bird or drone given the height and lack of blood/feathers. Wild stuff, right?

Louvre Heist: Like a Movie!

And speaking of wild, some thieves actually stole crown jewels from the Louvre in just 4 minutes! Seriously, it sounds like something out of a movie. People in the comments were joking about Hollywood-grade security not being real, and wondering if a rich buyer commissioned the whole thing. Someone even recommended the TV series 'Lupin' if you like jewel heists.

Andrej Karpathy's Timeless Study Advice

On a more practical note, there was an old but popular post from 2013 by Andrej Karpathy – you know, the AI guy – called 'Doing well in your courses.' Lots of good timeless advice for students. One tip that stuck out in the comments was 'NEVER. EVER. EVER. Leave a test early.' Someone said they used to do three review passes before handing it in. Also, a debate about note-taking in lectures – some people find it distracting, others swear by it.

Xubuntu Security Scare

Finally, a bit of a security scare: it looks like Xubuntu.org might have been compromised. Not good! The comments were talking about how using something like QubesOS could limit the damage in a situation like that, and also, a few jabs at Windows' maintenance quality. Just a reminder to stay vigilant, I guess.

Anyway, that's the quick download. Catch you later, man!

All Stories from Today

Replacement.ai (replacement.ai)

Doing well in your courses: Andrej's advice for success (2013) (cs.stanford.edu)

OpenAI researcher announced GPT-5 math breakthrough that never happened (the-decoder.com)

Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake (www.science.org)

Xubuntu.org Might Be Compromised (old.reddit.com)

Airliner hit by possible space debris (avbrief.com)

US Government Uptime Monitor (usa-status.com)

Show HN: Duck-UI – Browser-Based SQL IDE for DuckDB (demo.duckui.com)

Ask HN: What are people doing to get off of VMware? (news.ycombinator.com)

Friendship Begins at Home (3quarksdaily.com)

Compare Single Board Computers (sbc.compare)

The case for the return of fine-tuning (welovesota.com)

Duke Nukem: Zero Hour N64 ROM Reverse-Engineering Project Hits 100% (github.com)

Thieves steal crown jewels in 4 minutes from Louvre Museum (apnews.com)

Windows 11 25H2 October Update Bug Renders Recovery Environment Unusable (www.techpowerup.com)

Abandoned land drives dangerous heat in Houston, study finds (stories.tamu.edu)

Why an abundance of choice is not the same as freedom (aeon.co)

The Accountability Problem (www.jamesshore.com)

GNU Octave Meets JupyterLite: Compute Anywhere, Anytime (blog.jupyter.org)

Dosbian: Boot to DOSBox on Raspberry Pi (cmaiolino.wordpress.com)

The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years (www.wired.com)

What Happened in 2007? (whathappenedin2007.com)

RFCs: Blueprints of the Internet (ackreq.github.io)

With deadline looming 4 of 9 universities reject Trumps pact to remake higher ed (arstechnica.com)

Pebble is officially back on iOS and Android (twitter.com)

Gleam OTP – Fault Tolerant Multicore Programs with Actors (github.com)

A Tower on Billionaires' Row Is Full of Cracks. Who's to Blame? (www.nytimes.com)

Could the XZ backdoor been detected with better Git/Deb packaging practices? (optimizedbyotto.com)

Deterministic multithreading is hard (2024) (www.factorio.com)

How to Assemble an Electric Heating Element from Scratch (solar.lowtechmagazine.com)