Hey buddy,

Man, you wouldn't believe the stuff on Hacker News today. Just wanted to give you the quick download from Monday, January 12th, 2026.

AI Everywhere, Even Siri!

First off, big news in the AI world: Claude just dropped something called "Cowork" (link here). It's basically an AI assistant to help you with all your work. People were talking about how it could go "off the rails," but then others were like, "hey, move fast and break things, right?" Someone even suggested the AI should flag itself if it's asked to ignore previous instructions, which is kinda smart.

And get this: Apple is reportedly ditching their own stuff and using Google's Gemini to power Siri now! (check it out) That's a huge deal. The comments were speculating it might be part of a bigger package deal with Google for search and cloud services. But also, some folks mentioned a study that found Gemini was pretty bad with citations and straight-up incorrect in some cases, so that's a bit worrying for Siri.

Old School Tech & Quirky AI

Speaking of AI, there was this super cool project: a new LLM called TimeCapsuleLLM that was trained ONLY on data from 1800 to 1875! (link) Imagine an AI that thinks like someone from the 19th century! The discussion was all about what "intelligence" really means and how it's not just about being fast at math.

And on the old-school tech front, someone figured out that floppy disks are actually the greatest TV remote for kids! (blog post) They hooked it up so kids insert different floppies to pick shows. It’s a genius way to teach patience and avoid endless scrolling. People in the comments were reminiscing about Fisher Price cassette players and how good it is to not have everything be instant for kids.

Clever Hacks & Business Moves

Then there was this wild story about "Postal Arbitrage" (article). This guy figured out how to basically game the postal system, including adding fake companies to public listings to receive packages. Some people in the comments shared similar experiences, like using an eBay bot to snag 1-cent items with free shipping, ending up with mountains of packages. Sounds a bit legally grey, but definitely clever!

Also, back to AI, it looks like Anthropic (the Claude folks) might have messed up by cutting off third-party clients (read about it). People are saying their API is already too expensive and that Claude Code isn't as unique as they think, especially with other alternatives popping up. Could be a bad business move in the long run.

Linux Love

Finally, a nice positive one: a whole post about how "Xfce is great" (blog post). People were just showering Xfce with love for being lightweight, stable, and super configurable. Lots of comments about how it's a lifesaver for old machines, making them totally usable again, especially compared to heavier desktop environments like Gnome or KDE.

Anyway, that's the gist of it! Catch ya later!