Man, Hacker News was buzzing yesterday, Tuesday, February 17, 2026. Let me give you the quick rundown on some interesting stuff:

GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple

First up, there's this GrapheneOS thing. You know how everyone's always complaining about Google and Apple tracking everything? This is like a custom Android version trying to actually break free from all that. Super privacy-focused. What's wild is people in the comments were saying their banking apps even work on it, which is usually the first thing to break on custom OSes. Though, weirdly, Google Wallet for NFC payments and some calorie tracker app called Macrofactor don't. Still, pretty cool for privacy nuts.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Then, big AI news, Anthropic just dropped Claude Sonnet 4.6. People are already saying it's a huge leap. Some folks at work are apparently getting max subscriptions for their teams because it saves hours a month, even just for searching codebases. One person shared a funny interaction where the AI gave them a super unhelpful, almost sarcastic, answer about pushing a car 50 meters to a carwash instead of driving it. Classic AI, right?

Thank HN: You helped save 33k lives

Okay, get this, there was this super wholesome post, a guy saying "Thank HN" because the community helped a non-profit called Watsi save 33,000 lives. Seriously, 33,000! He talked about the emotional toll of running a non-profit, and people in the comments were so inspired, some even said they're restarting their donations. Pretty awesome to see tech used for good like that.

Dark web agent spotted bedroom wall clue to rescue girl from abuse

Then there was this wild story from the BBC. A dark web agent, you know, investigating stuff, actually spotted a tiny detail on a kid's bedroom wall in a video and used it to rescue a girl from abuse. Like, a real-life detective movie. The comments got into some heavy stuff about how parents might not know and patterns of abusive behavior, but man, what a save. Here's the link.

CBS didn't air Rep. James Talarico interview out of fear of FCC

Remember that whole thing about censorship? Well, Stephen Colbert apparently couldn't air an interview with a Democrat because CBS was scared of the FCC. Like, they literally forbid it. People are debating whether it's actual government control or just companies willingly playing ball. Either way, pretty concerning for free speech, especially on TV. Check out the NBC News article on it.

Is Show HN dead? No, but it's drowning

And something a bit more 'inside baseball' for Hacker News itself: a post titled "Is Show HN dead? No, but it's drowning." The author thinks the 'Show HN' section, where people show off their projects, is getting swamped. A lot of comments pointed to AI being part of the problem – people just prompting something in 20 minutes and posting it, without really understanding it. Makes it harder for actual passion projects to get seen, which sucks.

Tesla 'Robotaxi' adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month – 4x worse than humans

Finally, another Tesla story, because there's always one, right? Their 'Robotaxi' in Austin apparently had 5 more crashes in a month, making it 4 times worse than human drivers. Ouch. The article also mentions a lack of transparency compared to other self-driving companies. Comments were, predictably, a mix of defending Tesla, blaming others, and pointing out the reporting issues.

Alright, that's the gist of it! Catch you later!