Hackers' Pub is a place for software engineers to share their knowledge and experience with each other. It's also an ActivityPub-enabled social network, so you can follow your favorite hackers in the fediverse and get their latest posts in your feed.
+++ KITTEN NEWS +++
LOOK HOW FREAKING CUTE THEY ARE!!!
FNR - All the Fedi News you need!
Going on an international trip. I am downloading all the case law I can find about AI and copyright law so I can give the most informed take I can about "how does generative AI affect FOSS projects going forward?"
I'm going to focus on US case law first, including reading the recent high profile case that the US Supreme Court declined, but also the US Copyright Office's current analysis.
This is important, I think, because right now FOSS projects are moving fast to incorporate, but without anyone really knowing what the outcome will be, there's a great chance that, even on licensing grounds alone, we could be creating a huge mess for FOSS projects.
And (unfortunately?) my background in having done FOSS licensing stuff previously as part of my dayjob might mean I can do a pretty good job summarizing. Let's see!
If you have case law you think I should read, put it in this thread.
I am starting to upload all my "One Advice for a Younger Self from People that I admire" videos to my #peertube channel, in an effort to ditch tiktok/youtube for good.
follow my channel here 
@mahoMaho Pacheco and check the videos here https://makertube.net/c/maho.pacheco/videos !
ๆดๆฐใใฆใทใฃใใใใฆใณใใทใฃใใใใฆใณใใใชใใฃใใใจๆใๅบใใชใใใทใฃใใใใฆใณใใใชใฉ
Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock
Link: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/qatar-helium-shutdown-puts-chip-supply-chain-on-a-two-week-clock
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47363584
+++ KITTEN NEWS +++
LOOK HOW FREAKING CUTE THEY ARE!!!
FNR - All the Fedi News you need!
Big news from #arXiv:
https://jobs.chronicle.com/job/37961678/chief-executive-officer
1. It's becoming an independent #nonprofit organization.
2. It's leaving #CornellU and moving to NYC.
3. It's hiring a CEO, with a salary in the range of $300k.
Somebody decided to sleep late today.
Me? Cause absolute havoc and destruction? Never!
@MisterOpenData Gibt es eine offizielle API oder einen Datensatz, der sich regelmรครig aktualisiert, mit dem ich die Feiertage oder Schulferien von Schleswig-Holstein oder am liebsten von jedem Bundesland erhalten kann?
Ich weiร, dass es viele private Anbieter gibt, aber ich habe keine offizielle, maschinenlesbare Quelle gefunden. Gibt es da etwas?
Drodzy, musimy siฤ Wam czymล pochwaliฤ! ๐๐๐
Wลaลnie zdobyliลmy grant 46 000 PLN na rozwรณj Rentgendroida โ narzฤdzia do analizy i audytu prywatnoลci aplikacji mobilnych.
Dziฤki niemu kaลผdy bฤdzie mรณgล sprawdziฤ i przeanalizowaฤ aplikacje bez zaplecza technicznego i podejmowaฤ bardziej ลwiadome decyzje.
Wierzymy, ลผe prywatnoลฤ nie powinna wymagaฤ doktoratu z informatyki.
Z tego miejsca dziฤkujemy wszystkim, ktรณrzy przyczynili siฤ do tego sukcesu! ๐๐๐
browser default stylesheets
Permalink: https://wizardzines.com/comics/default-stylesheets
alright tanglers, it's back to shipping ๐ณ๏ธ ๐ Tangled Sites is here: serve websites straight from your repo. grab your `tngl.io` domain at tangled.org/settings/sites. already have a `tngl.sh` handle? that's your domainโready to go! ๐ docs.tangled.org/hosting-webs...
Show HN: Channel Surfer โ Watch YouTube like itโs cable TV
Link: https://channelsurfer.tv
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47336100
NASA targets Artemis II crewed moon mission for April 1 launch
Link: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/12/nx-s1-5746128/nasa-artemis-ii-april-launch
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47365784
Good article on the divide caused by #AI-assisted coding in the realm of programming https://blog.lmorchard.com/2026/03/11/grief-and-the-ai-split/
What's your take on this?
RE: https://mastodon.social/@glyph/116220498263137455
The thing that would ameliorate my daily crash-outs is not so much a dozen enthusiasts posting "that's it I'm done with AI" but to have a single one post something like "in my considered opinion the risks *are* worth it, but I recognize that they exist, and here's the safety protocol I use to make sure it's not getting the better of me".
Search Timeใใใใ่ๅณใชใใฃใใใ ใใฉใใฉใใๆฅไปใdd.mm.yyyyๅฝขๅผใซใชใฃใฆใใใใใฎใ่ฆใใใใใใจใผใญใใ็บ็ฅฅใ ใญใw
Afterwards.
lewd, direct, "slut" at reader
this mouse is requesting some cleanup down there. be thorough, slut
The Wyden Siren Goes Off Again: We'll Be "Stunned" by NSA Under Section 702
Link: https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/12/the-wyden-siren-goes-off-again-well-be-stunned-by-what-the-nsa-is-doing-under-section-702/
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47366374
Drodzy, musimy siฤ Wam czymล pochwaliฤ! ๐๐๐
Wลaลnie zdobyliลmy grant 46 000 PLN na rozwรณj Rentgendroida โ narzฤdzia do analizy i audytu prywatnoลci aplikacji mobilnych.
Dziฤki niemu kaลผdy bฤdzie mรณgล sprawdziฤ i przeanalizowaฤ aplikacje bez zaplecza technicznego i podejmowaฤ bardziej ลwiadome decyzje.
Wierzymy, ลผe prywatnoลฤ nie powinna wymagaฤ doktoratu z informatyki.
Z tego miejsca dziฤkujemy wszystkim, ktรณrzy przyczynili siฤ do tego sukcesu! ๐๐๐
Buckle your seat belts. Someone just tried to pull one hell of a scam on me.
It began with an email I received on March 2nd. The email was from RB (name withheld), an editor at Pan MacMillan in the UK. She began by referencing a specific and somewhat obscure story thread from my one year run on writing Birds of Prey for DC Comics.
She went on to sing my praises, talk about interest in the Jem memoir, and mentioned many other highly specific works and aspects of my career. She talked about how my work might align with Pan MacMillanโs graphic novel and non-fiction catalogues. The final kicker was when she ended the email with a friendly quip about the number of my cats, something Iโd just written about on my MoggyBlog FB page.
I was fairly stunned, not by the praise, but the extreme detail and specificity of the approach. Iโve seen plenty of samples of scams sent to authors that are always a bit vague and might mention one book title at most. This went way beyond that.
Which is why I failed to do the absolute number one smart thing I would normally have done โ I didnโt look closely at her email address. I saw that it said macmillan and left it at that. I did look her up on the Pan MacMillan website and saw that she was a real person.
We exchanged a couple of emails and she strongly wanted me to have a literary agent. Iโve never needed one in the past and have always operated with only my entertainment agent. She was quite insistent that I needed one and recommended an agent named CD (name withheld) as someone she had worked with closely and had the right sensibility for my background. She gave me a personal email address for him, to โensure he prioritizes your messageโ.
I checked out this agent and saw, once again, that he existed and was with a reputable UK agency. I found that the agency had a couple of co-agent associations with agencies in the US, including one I knew, the Howard Morhaim Agency. He looked legit.
So I did the thing -- wrote him an introductory email, and weโve been exchanging a daily email every day for the past week, including on weekends. He was all about my โlegacyโ. We discussed specific projects, and he relentlessly pushed me to get something called a Dynamic QR code to create a Digital Authorโs Bridge. I had never heard of such a thing, was only familiar with regular old static QR codes. We went back and forth on it a lot until I finally understood what he was talking about. It sounded like a good idea, but when I researched them, I found they were rather pricey to obtain and maintain.
I wanted more info on what his agency contract would include, what his commissions were, how he handled ancillary rights, the usual business items I would naturally want to know. He kept on about the QR code. His relentless push on the QR code is when I began to suspect something was off about this whole situation.
I pushed back harder and he finally gave a minimal amount of info on commissions, and kept pushing about the QR code. He insisted that we had to put that in place BEFORE signing a contract, or as he called it, a Letter of Engagement.
By now, the many little red flags grew into a Big Red Flag. Had I paid more attention to the fake email address in the very first message, that would have been a Big Red Flag right there, but I missed it. Mucho stupid on my part.
The red flags piled up:
โข RED FLAG: insistence on doing this QR code before signing a contract.
โข RED FLAG: not providing standard agent information about a contract or even wanting to discuss it.
โข RED FLAG: the fact that the layout, structure, and phrasing of his emails were extremely similar to the RB emails, right down to the constant use of 3-bullet points as selling points.
โข RED FLAG: a total lack of feedback to a creative project I proposed and instead simply accepting it without comment. No agent worth his salt is going to accept a quarter-page pitch without having feedback, opinions, wanting to know more, etc.
โข RED FLAG: the constant push-push-push to get this blasted QR code before anything else.
โข RED FLAG: ending nearly every email with the promise of a โglobal roll-outโ. Of what? I had yet to write any of the things we were discussing.
When I began looking over the exchanges from the beginning, it seemed unlikely to me that โRBโ would have done such a deep, deep dive into my work and background to include the specifics she did, not to mention reading my MoggyBlog. I mean, sure, itโs flattering, and it massages my ego, but Iโm realistic.
Which left the notion that all or much of this was created using an LLM. If so, itโs the most nuanced one Iโve seen. It would have had to scour the internet for references to my work, such as articles, reviews, interviews, my amazon author page, and so on, then compiled it into a convincing email without including hallucinations or false references. If so, it represents a huge advance in the ability to scam authors and is therefore a significant threat.
If not, if it done by a person(s), they sure put one hell of a lot of effort into it.
During this process, I consulted with Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware. She gave me the official email for CD. I sent him an email in which I forwarded one of the last messages from โhimโ with a query. I received an automated reply that he was at London Book Fair and out of touch for email. The reply included the name of a colleague, so I sent the same email to her. She confirmed that the messages did not come from CD and appreciated that I brought it to their attention.
Iโm trying to get a valid contact for RB, so I can warn her as well.
Meanwhile, fake CDโs next message went on about how his QR code set-up was so much better than other sites because it was free and permanent. RED FLAG. And it would integrate straight into my Amazon store to my authorโs page. RED FLAG. And for the umpteenth time, he ended with a variation of โOnce we have this simple link live, we can sign the formal agreement and get the global rollout moving immediately.โ RED FLAG.
I played this out a bit longer, very carefully, because I couldnโt figure out what the ultimate scam was here. However, the mention of amazon store integration made me wonder whether I even had an amazon store.
I have a page that lists all my books. I donโt know whether thatโs actually a store. I certainly donโt make any money off it, but I guess itโs meant to be my โstoreโ.
Looking at my authorโs bio on the amazon store, I suddenly realized that the reference to the number of cats was actually pulled from there, NOT from my MoggyBlog. By a bizarre coincidence, at the time I wrote that bio I mentioned a sixth cat possibly joining the horde. And very recently, I wrote almost exactly the same thing in the present. Different cats, different places, but so alike that itโs no wonder I assumed RB was speaking of my present situation, not the past.
I wrote that bio in 2018 shortly before the fire. After the fire and losing everything, being homeless and whatnot, I completely forgot this page and bio even existed. I havenโt looked at it since then.
I see where much of what was referenced came from there, including an off-hand comment about a ridge from RB that had puzzled me. In the bio I mentioned we lived on a volcanic ridge. That clinched that the material in RBโs emails was drawn from this seven-year-old bio on amazon, treating it as current.
The last email from the hoaxer is again about tying a QR code to my amazon store. All this effort is to gain control of my amazon store? To do what, create a horde of fake AI books with my name on them? To steal digital assets from me? Those are the best guesses I can make.
I sent an email today that will show the hoaxer Iโm aware of the scam. Weโll see whether they bother to respond.
Iโm posting this in detail to alert other authors and to lay out how the scam has proceeded. I would love to hear from anyone that has had a similar scam run on them. Take care out there.
Please spread this far and wide.
My "project time" this week (when I try to improve something about my business) was spent on investigating how to move from our current blog generating tool, hugo, to 
@stefanoStefano Marinelli's BSSG.
So far, so good! I'm not quite ready to switch over just yet, but it has been pretty straightforward so far.
You can press Ctrl-L while in the shell to clear the screen.
Lost Doctor Who Episodes Found
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g7kwq1k11o
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47360978
Weirdo.
#CatsOfMastodon #FediCats
a whale: "I'm hungry" another whale: "krill issue, bro"
a very old project of mine, but still a fun one!
You can pet the cat at:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=52894
I'm trying to take care of a household of 6 people, only two of who can work right now, and with my longterm illness (I was bedridden for 16 months) I'm not able to cover all my bills this month, as a bunch of unexpected costs hit right in a row.
(my rent was covered with last week's post, thanks so much! I've still got storage, car, and electric to cover)
If you've can donate any amount at all, it'd really help. Thanks so much.
Me? Cause absolute havoc and destruction? Never!
๐ 2026-03-13 18:00 UTC
๐ฐ ใใญใฐใฉใใฎๆฑใใฆใใไธๅ็ฃใใผใฟใซใคใใฆใฎ่ชค่ฌฌ (๐ 91)
๐ฌ๐ง Common programmer misconceptions about real estate data modeling, especially building addresses and registry dataโa homage to "Falsehoods About Names"
๐ฐ๐ท ๋ถ๋์ฐ ๋ฐ์ดํฐ ๋ชจ๋ธ๋ง์ ๋ํ ํ๋ก๊ทธ๋๋จธ์ ํํ ์คํด๋ค - ๊ฑด๋ฌผ ์ฃผ์์ ๋ฑ๊ธฐ๋ถ ๋ฐ์ดํฐ๋ฅผ ์ค์ฌ์ผ๋ก ("์ด๋ฆ์ ๋ํ ์ค๋ฅ" ์ค๋ง์ฃผ)
I'm savoring the feel-good vibes that come with starting a new website, knowing fully in the back of my mind that my track record would say it won't see any updates after a week's time or so
ATMs didnโt kill bank teller jobs, but the iPhone did
Link: https://davidoks.blog/p/why-the-atm-didnt-kill-bank-teller
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47351371
You can press Ctrl-L while in the shell to clear the screen.
I'm savoring the feel-good vibes that come with starting a new website, knowing fully in the back of my mind that my track record would say it won't see any updates after a week's time or so
ใฒใFlatpak็ๅบใใใ
ใปใใActivityPubๅฏพๅฟใฎ่ชไฝใใญใฐใใคใใฃใใใผ
์ฟ ์ฐ์ฟ ์ฐ ๋๋ฌด ๋น์ธ
24000์์ด๋ ํด โ
โ
Adding new room types is quite fun and most of the systems are in place.
Here is one I did today... i must say, I had to add a system for moving "hazards" around the room in an orderly fashion. Reusable and configurable ofc :)
RE: https://social.wake.st/@liaizon/115344356761253011
I'm really sick of this timeline
Microsoft will soon let you pick a custom name for your user folder during the Windows 11 setup ๐ blogs.windows.com/windows-insi...
Cat ๐๐ฅ (D.Burch) 
โ 
@
Misty
nicole mikoลajczyk
Ael Yokan
Kaito
@reiver โผ (Charles) 
๋ถ๊ฐ์ฌ๋ฆฌ ์๋
