Honest Hacker News Titles

First off, someone made this hilarious thing called "Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest" (link here). Basically, it's a version of HN where the headlines are what people *really* think or what the article *really* implies. It's pretty funny, but apparently, it sparked a huge debate in the comments about politics and humor. One person's comment even got called out for being a "loud expression of your political views," which just goes to show how sensitive people are getting online, you know?

Amazon Opening Up on eBooks

Big news for anyone who reads on a Kindle: Amazon's finally gonna let you download DRM-free ePubs and PDFs for the books you buy (check it out). This is huge because it means your books won't be locked into their ecosystem anymore. People in the comments were super excited, with some sharing how they used to trick Amazon into letting them buy books from European stores to get around US Kindle exclusivity. Someone even joked that Amazon's "moat" – what makes them unique – is basically gone now, just a bunch of fake Chinese stuff.

Mullvad's WireGuard in Rust

For the tech heads, Mullvad, that VPN company, completely rewrote their WireGuard implementation in Rust. They're calling it GotaTun (blog post here). Apparently, Rust is way faster for this kind of thing than Go, which is what they were using before. The comments got pretty deep into the crypto details, like how WireGuard uses ChaCha20 for encryption, not AES, and why that's better for software-only implementations. Super nerdy, but cool for performance.

A Digital Museum of Video Game Levels

This one's awesome for nostalgia: "Noclip.website – A digital museum of video game levels" (you gotta see this). It's a site where you can explore 3D models of classic video game levels right in your browser. Like, someone downloaded the entire map of Most Wanted to their browser in seconds! People were stoked, saying it brought back tons of memories. Someone even mentioned it works in VR, which is wild, imagining walking through these old levels.

TikTok Deal - A "Shittiest Possible Outcome"

There was a strong opinion piece titled "TikTok Deal Is the Shittiest Possible Outcome, Making Everything Worse" (read the article). It's basically saying the new TikTok deal is a disaster for privacy and competition. The comments on this one went *deep* – like, philosophical discussions about governance, polycentric law, and how minority groups get treated. Someone even brought up Somalia's xeer law as an example. Heavy stuff, man.

GTA Vice City in Your Browser!

Speaking of nostalgia, get this: you can now play Grand Theft Auto Vice City right in your browser (link to the game)! It's through that DOS.zone site that hosts old games. People were cracking up about how fast time flies, realizing Vice City is like 16 years old now and it still feels kinda recent. There was also a funny comment about Skyrim probably getting re-released another time before the next Elder Scrolls game comes out, and someone else joked about it already being on the Nintendo Switch 2's eShop.

Apple Adding More Ads

Finally, word on the street is Apple's gonna be adding even more ads to the App Store in 2026 (their own ad page). They're calling it "increasing opportunity," but everyone knows it's just more ads. People in the comments were pretty annoyed, saying Apple isn't the "darling" company it used to be. Many folks mentioned they already actively avoid those promoted apps because they're usually just scummy subscription traps. Seems like another step in the wrong direction for user experience.