Smart home devices should work without the internet
Core smart home functions should keep working without an internet connection or a vendor’s servers. Local tools such as Tasmota, MQTT, and Node-RED can run home automation on a Raspberry Pi.
Offline smart homes, .name grandfathering, and Starlink Mini 2
First things first
The big theme today is control: keeping smart homes, AI, and even SSH keys closer to home, while platforms and vendors keep shifting underneath us. There’s plenty of tinkering too, from Blender’s new tricks to fresh chips, coding tools, and tiny city-sized worlds.
Progress has friction too: maintainers face noisy security reports, developers hit patent walls, and young researchers look abroad. Plenty to chew on while tech keeps shifting fast.
The top 6
.name Grandfathered
Verisign reversed its plan to terminate 22,000 third-level .name domains and email redirects, so existing ones will remain indefinitely. New registrations will close, following a campaign involving domain owners, supporters, lawyers, and ICANN advocates.
Starlink Mini 2
Starlink Mini 2 is named, but the provided page content includes no product details. The page says JavaScript must be enabled for full functionality.
Toyota brand Scion is back and it's going to sell a kei truck in America
Toyota is reviving Scion as “Scion by Toyota,” a vehicle-design initiative whose first model is the KEI-01, a rebadged kei truck planned for U.S. sale. Limited to under 25 mph, the right-hand-drive truck is intended for low-speed roads and commercial or agricultural use.
Synaptics patent claims stop work on DisplayLink drivers
After Synaptics threatened patent action over an independent Linux driver for DisplayLink docks, developer Mike Lothian stopped work on his Rust-based Vino project. Synaptics provides Linux software only as proprietary binaries, and users still face crashes and limited feature support.
Apple has new Mac app coming to make running local AI models easy
Apple is developing Harbor, a Mac app that runs open-weight AI models locally, keeping data on the user’s hardware rather than sending it to the cloud. It can connect multiple Apple silicon Macs over Thunderbolt 5 to pool memory and handle larger models.
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Quote of the day
I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being.
Confucius
Also big today
After 7 Months, Glasswing Overwelms Maintainers with Underwhelming Findings
Seven months into Project Glasswing, Anthropic has logged 37,966 security findings but made only 217 fixes, while adding nearly 12,000 findings and just 15 fixes since September. Maintainers are also disputing many scanner reports, raising questions about the project’s claimed accuracy and the burden placed on open-source teams.
Blender 5.3 released with Gaussian Splat support
Blender 5.3 adds native 3D Gaussian Splat support, including import from PLY, SPZ, and glTF, Geometry Nodes processing, and rendering in EEVEE, Cycles, and Workbench. The release also brings DLSS denoising, light dispersion, EEVEE fisheye, Outliner sorting, and video-editing improvements.
Show HN: Get your coding agent off ~2019 JavaScript, onto modern web primitives
Google Chrome’s modern-web-guidance repository helps coding agents use current web standards and best practices instead of outdated JavaScript patterns. It provides guidance and plugins for several popular coding agents.
Val Town is winding down
Val Town is shutting down because it couldn’t compete in cloud computing, and it has paused billing while offering migration guides and partial refunds for annual plans. New signups ended Nov. 10, 2026; the service will close by Jan. 10, 2027, and the company plans to open-source Val Town on Feb. 1.
.NET 11
.NET 11 adds C# 15 union types, runtime optimizations, faster developer tools, and updates to ASP.NET Core, MAUI, and Windows development. The standard-term release receives two years of support, while .NET 10 remains a supported long-term option.
Gemini 4 Carbon is now available
Google announced that Gemini 4 Carbon is now available. The announcement provides no details here about the model’s features or access.
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Worth a look
Claude Whiteboards, Claude Sheets, and Claude Data
Claude launched Whiteboards and Sheets in beta, letting teams brainstorm together on shared boards and build or edit spreadsheets with Claude. Claude Dashboards is now Claude Data, with data stories, certified queries, and live sharing; all three are available on paid plans.
AMD's Zen 6 Family: Feeding the Beast
AMD’s Zen 6 builds on Zen 5 with faster branch-misprediction recovery, improved branch throughput, and the ability for one thread to use both decode clusters. Its execution core also boosts simple integer performance and restores Zen 4-style NOP pairing.
Protecting SSH Keys with macOS Secure Enclave
Secure Enclave SSH keys keep private keys on the Mac’s security chip and can require Touch ID for each use. The native setup works without third-party apps, but the author finds its workflow too cumbersome.
Six Math Essentials by Terence Tao
Terence Tao’s book introduces six core mathematical ideas: numbers, algebra, geometry, probability, analysis, and dynamics. It explains how these concepts help us quantify, abstract, reason under uncertainty, and understand change.
Palantir hires a former Democratic senator as it faces scrutiny in new Congress
Palantir hired former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester as an adviser as tech companies prepare for congressional scrutiny under incoming Democratic majorities. Lawmakers have questioned Palantir’s government contracts and surveillance risks, while the company denies enabling mass surveillance.
Don't buy AR glasses
AR glasses could bring ads, popups, and attention-grabbing apps into everyday surroundings, the author warns. Keeping a smartphone instead of adopting an always-on display can help resist that shift.
Song of the day
Deep cuts
Show HN: Valencia, Spain in Sim City/Isometric View
Tiny València is an interactive isometric pixel-art map of the entire city, depicting real buildings block by block. It renders 3D city data from a fixed viewpoint, then uses an image model to repaint the scenes in a seamless pixel-art style.
A great old-timey game-programming hack (2013)
A 1980s-era PC game ran too slowly because its side-scrolling background had to be redrawn pixel by pixel, despite already-tight code. The programmer used an unconventional assembly-language trick to speed up drawing on hardware with no graphics acceleration.
$30M Raised to Redo the CPU
Tendrils raised $30 million in a Benchmark-led round to develop a processor with thousands of parallel cores, designed to move beyond traditional CPU architectures. The company is also building Vine, an open-source programming language tailored to the new chip design.
What objective is reasoning solving?
Reasoning models are best understood as sampling paths through token space, with training aimed at increasing the chance that some path reaches a correct answer. Longer chains do not guarantee better results, helping explain overthinking, unfaithful reasoning, and reward hacking.
To deter bioterrorism, U.S. imposes new rules on ordering synthetic DNA
The U.S. is imposing new rules on ordering synthetic DNA to reduce the risk of bioterrorism. Government-funded scientists who make or manipulate DNA sequences will face stricter requirements, alongside controls on DNA orders.
The U.S. Is Driving Away Young Scientists
U.S. funding cuts are pushing young scientists to consider research careers abroad. France and other European countries are recruiting scientists, including those in mid-career.