HN Top 10 — November 04, 2026
Today’s Top 10 on Hacker News
1. Nvidia RTX Spark encrypted firmware slows inference speed to 35% on Linux
⭐ 139 💬 68 👤 novaRom 🔗 Discuss on HN
Nvidia RTX Spark laptops can run Linux with GPU acceleration, but a Windows-only encrypted power-management component limits the GPU to about 780 MHz when plugged in, cutting AI inference speed to roughly 35 percent of Windows performance. The slowdown stems from firmware that Linux cannot read, leaving WSL as the practical workaround until Nvidia ports the power-management logic to its Linux driver.
2. Kitty 0.50
⭐ 180 💬 98 👤 porridgeraisin 🔗 Discuss on HN
Kitty 0.50 introduces major usability and customization features for the GPU-based terminal, including docked windows, session restoration after logout, and tab management options that make tabs behave like named workspaces. The release also improves Wayland support with native-looking GNOME decorations and touchscreen gestures, while expanding custom shaders and adding indexed-color image formats that adapt to terminal color schemes.
3. Verification Is Not Knowledge: Science needs more than answers
⭐ 66 💬 34 👤 ersinesen 🔗 Discuss on HN
The article argues that in science, verifiable answers are not the same as knowledge, especially as AI systems can produce correct-looking results without human comprehension. It contends that understanding matters because it supports accountability, integration into existing knowledge, and the ability to diagnose failures when verification alone is insufficient.
4. Incident with Pull Requests, Git Operations and Issues
⭐ 94 💬 49 👤 kevcampb 🔗 Discuss on HN
GitHub reported an incident causing degradation in API requests, Git operations, issues, and pull requests. The service issue has been mitigated, and GitHub is monitoring the platform to ensure stability.
5. Jelly Sheet
⭐ 284 💬 73 👤 memalign 🔗 Discuss on HN
Jelly Sheet is an interactive cloth simulation that lets users drag a flexible, jelly-like sheet. It features a folding interaction and can be paused with the spacebar.
6. Tell HN: Gemini trains on chat history, even for subscribers (personal accounts)
⭐ 70 💬 26 👤 jameslk
The post reports that Google’s Gemini appears to use users’ chat history for model training, including paid subscribers on personal accounts. It likely highlights privacy concerns about whether Gemini conversations are treated as training data despite subscription status.
7. Jailbreaking my car’s navigation system just so I can change the time
⭐ 854 💬 325 👤 xx_ns 🔗 Discuss on HN
The author discovered that their Renault Latitude’s head unit hides the time-setting menu behind a navigation SD card, making it impossible to adjust the clock without one. After reverse engineering the TomTom-based firmware, they found that the settings menu definition is loaded from the card and protected by DRM, requiring a valid card or a hack to access basic time controls.
8. Stringman, an $800 open-source room scale gripper robot
⭐ 632 💬 208 👤 nharada 🔗 Discuss on HN
Stringman is an open-source, cable-driven robot that uses four ceiling-mounted motors to move a gripper throughout a room, reaching areas inaccessible to wheeled or legged robots. It can carry about 1.9 kg on average and is designed for local, air-gapped control, with published CAD, PCB, and software files. The system is intended as a courier for home labs, allowing other robots and workstations to share parts and objects across the room.
9. Geoffrey Hinton: it might turn out we were better off without AI
⭐ 57 💬 27 👤 alkyon 🔗 Discuss on HN
AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has suggested that humanity may ultimately be better off without artificial intelligence. His comments underscore deepening unease among leading experts about the risks and long-term consequences of AI development.
10. The lost malloc()
⭐ 63 💬 20 👤 matt_d 🔗 Discuss on HN
This article explores early Unix memory management by examining the original V4 source code, highlighting how a simple linear allocator in the C compiler used sbrk to grow the heap and avoided NULL checks. It also describes the original malloc and mfree functions, which took a map argument to track allocations in core or swap, making them historical precursors to modern malloc.