Apple News Ads are a Scam?

First off, there's this post about how one guy now just assumes all ads on Apple News are scams. It got a ton of attention, over a thousand points! People in the comments were debating if ads even work anymore. Someone said, "Yeah, everyone thinks ads don't affect them, but they still work on brand perception." Another commenter, port11, pointed out that if ads *are* scammy, it should be the ad network's job to vet them, not the user's. Makes sense, right?

Waymo's New World Model for Self-Driving

Then there's this big news from Waymo about their new "World Model" for simulating autonomous driving. Sounds like a huge step forward for self-driving cars. One comment, jellojello, was like, "Hey, Waymo's already driven millions of miles without intervention, unlike Tesla's FSD which still needs safety drivers!" They're really pushing the Lidar advantage. Someone else, disillusioned, gave a cool example of a human driver peeking out of an alley around a bush – super complex stuff for an AI to master, but that's what this model aims to help with.

TikTok's Addictive Design Banned in Europe?

This is wild: Europe just declared TikTok's "addictive design" illegal. So, like, algorithms that keep you hooked. People were really going at it in the comments. One guy compared banning recommendation algorithms to "banning TCP/IP because porn is bad," saying it's not the tech itself that's the problem. But others were quick to point out that some things *are* genuinely harmful and need regulation, even if it's not a black-and-white issue.

OpenCiv3: Civ III Reimagined

For all you old-school gamers, someone posted about OpenCiv3, which is an open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III. How cool is that? Finally, a modern way to play that classic. There wasn't a ton of deep discussion on the game itself, but one comment mentioned the idea of adding AI plugins to play as a player, which would be pretty insane for a Civ game!

NY Wants Disclaimers on AI News

And of course, AI is everywhere. New York is proposing a new bill to require disclaimers on all AI-generated news content. People were pretty skeptical about how they'd actually enforce it, saying it's tough unless you have whistleblowers. Someone else suggested that instead of just for minors, there should be a toggle for *everyone* to turn off algorithmic feeds – like, a super upfront, always-in-your-face toggle. I kinda dig that idea.

Hackers Movie Animated Experience

Total nostalgia trip! There's a "Hackers (1995) Animated Experience" that recreates the "Hack the Gibson" scene. So cool! Someone in the comments, greggman65, said it's a good example of something you could "vibe-code" today with AI tools like Gemini. Just goes to show how far we've come, man.

Heroku's Latest Update

Finally, a lot of buzz around "An Update on Heroku." Remember how awesome Heroku was back in the day? One comment, dpe82, suggested that when they "tripled their headcount in that first year," it probably *caused* more problems than it solved. Another, satvikpendem, reminisced about the legendary `git push heroku master` and how that simple UX changed everything. Seems like everyone still has a soft spot for what Heroku used to be.

Alright, that's the gist of it. Talk soon!