Man, you gotta hear about some of the wild stuff on Hacker News today. It was Thursday, June 25, 2026, and a few things really caught my eye.

Ancient Scroll Unlocked!

First up, dude, remember those super old scrolls from Herculaneum that got all burned up in that volcano? Well, they finally managed to read an entire one for the first time! Like, seriously, after all these years. People in the comments were going nuts, comparing it to sci-fi coming true. Someone even pointed out how efficient ancient scribes were, which is kinda mind-blowing when you think about it. Pretty sure it wasn't just some random guy who figured it out, but a huge scientific effort.

Sad News: Om Malik

Then, on a more somber note, Om Malik passed away. You know, the tech writer and investor. A lot of people were sharing how he was just a genuinely good and honest voice in the tech world, which apparently is pretty rare these days. Sounds like he made a real impact on a lot of folks, always looking at things from a human perspective.

Hacker News Trends Tool

Okay, back to cool tech: some genius built this "Google Trends" for Hacker News! It indexes 18 years of comments, so you can see what topics have been hot or not on HN over almost two decades. How cool is that? People were already giving feedback, like wanting to adjust for how many comments there were overall each year. Someone even found a funny bug where searching "Prometheus" brought up a CO2 removal story instead of the monitoring tool, haha. You can check it out at hackernewstrends.com.

Apple Price Hikes & AI Chips

Speaking of big tech, Apple just jacked up the prices on MacBooks and iPads, like 20% on some models! Apparently, it’s because memory costs are skyrocketing. And get this, they’re skipping the M6 chips entirely and going straight to an AI-focused M7 line. So, if you want a Mac that can run those big AI models locally, you’ll probably be paying even more. Some folks in the comments were saying Apple could totally absorb these costs, but they just don't wanna mess with their profit margins.

"Papers, Please" Internet

Here’s a slightly scary one: there’s this whole discussion brewing about a "papers, please" era for the internet, meaning mandatory digital IDs that could totally decimate our privacy. It’s a huge concern. One person actually had an "unpopular opinion" that *well-regulated* digital IDs might have benefits, but still warned against them. It really makes you think about privacy versus accountability online, and how governments are always pushing for more control.

Half-Life 2 in Your Browser!

And for something just plain awesome, someone managed to get Half-Life 2 running right in a web browser! How wild is that? It definitely brought back memories for a lot of people. Though, some were pointing out that it had a few bugs, like G-Man's eyes missing textures, and Firefox had some performance issues. Still, super impressive! You can actually try it at hl2.slqnt.dev.

Ford's AI Hiccup

Finally, a bit of a reality check for all the AI hype: Ford apparently had some hiccups with their AI quality inspectors and ended up rehiring their "gray beard" human inspectors. Goes to show that AI isn't always the magic bullet everyone makes it out to be. A lot of people in the comments were sharing their own frustrating experiences with glitchy tech, too, agreeing that the AI hype is a bit much right now. It's like the "big data" hype all over again.

Anyway, just wanted to give you the quick rundown. Talk soon!