Just wanted to give you a quick buzz about some interesting stuff I saw on Hacker News today, Tuesday, October 14, 2025. Some wild headlines, man. Check it:

FSF Announces Librephone Project

First up, the Free Software Foundation is kicking off something called the Librephone project. Basically, they want to make a completely open-source phone, no proprietary junk. People in the comments were pretty into it, but also skeptical, like, how much of 'open source' Android is actually open when stuff like eBPF for sandboxing and insights relies on proprietary bits? One guy even said having a separate "glorified digital token" phone for security is a smart move anyway. Another point brought up was how a phone like this could push back against governments mandating specific apps only work on mainstream Android or Apple phones, which is kinda messed up.

Link: https://www.fsf.org/news/librephone-project

What Americans Die From vs. What the News Reports On

This one was a real eye-opener. There's a study showing a huge difference between what actually kills Americans and what the news focuses on. Turns out, heart disease and cancer cause over half of deaths, but only get like 7% of media coverage. Meanwhile, stuff like homicides and terrorism get way more airtime than their actual impact. It's wild how skewed our perception can be because of what the news decides to highlight.

Link: https://ourworldindata.org/does-the-news-reflect-what-we-die-from

Sensitive Internal Links Leaking from Satellites

Okay, this is kinda spooky. Some researchers found that GEO satellites are apparently leaking sensitive internal links in the clear. Like, internal URIs just floating out there. People were talking about how this is a bigger problem than just satellites – like, our own browsers are constantly leaking URIs back to manufacturers. Someone even remembered tuning into old C-band satellite phone calls back in the day, so this isn't entirely new territory for eavesdropping, just a new medium.

Link: https://satcom.sysnet.ucsd.edu/docs/dontlookup_ccs25_fullpaper.pdf

Why Agentic AI When Models Can't Even Follow Simple Instructions?

This post hit a nerve. It's basically questioning why everyone's pushing for "agentic AI" – you know, AI that acts on its own – when current AI models still struggle with super basic instructions. A lot of people agreed, saying it's like we're running before we can walk. One comment highlighted a prompt where an LLM was told, "IMPORTANT: You must NEVER generate or guess URLs for the user" – which just goes to show how much hand-holding these things still need to avoid "hallucinating" or making stuff up.

Link: https://forum.cursor.com/t/why-the-push-for-agentic-when-models-can-barely-follow-a-single-simple-instruction/137154

GrapheneOS Breaking Free from Pixels

Good news for privacy buffs! It looks like GrapheneOS, that super secure Android version, is ready to partner with other major phone makers beyond just Google Pixels. This could mean way more options for people who want a truly private phone. There was some debate about basic stuff like VoLTE (calls over LTE) support being critical, but others chimed in saying that most banking apps, even European ones, actually work fine on GrapheneOS with a few tweaks. Someone suggested Sony phones could be a good fit because they're easy to unlock.

Link: https://www.androidauthority.com/graphene-os-major-android-oem-partnership-3606853/

DOJ Seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'Pig Butchering' Scam

Big news on the crypto front: the DOJ just seized a whopping $15 billion in Bitcoin from a massive "pig butchering" scam run out of Cambodia. That's a huge haul! Comments were talking about how Cambodia is apparently really into these scam centers, and there's even been regional political tension because of it. It just goes to show that even with all the fancy tech, good old police work can still track down these massive operations.

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/14/bitcoin-doj-chen-zhi-pig-butchering-scam.html

Why Is SQLite Coded In C?

There was a cool article explaining why SQLite, that super popular embedded database, is still written in C. It's all about performance, portability, and minimal dependencies, basically. The comments got into a bit of a debate about other languages like Rust, with some arguing that Rust adds an "unacceptable burden to the open source ecosystem" in terms of security support, while others pointed out that you can still expose a C API from Rust. It just highlights the deep-rooted reasons why C remains so critical for foundational tech.

Link: https://www.sqlite.org/whyc.html

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