Hacker News New Year Roundup: Bluetooth Hacking, LLMs, and Rust Without Borrow Checker
New Year’s Day Tech Roundup
Starting 2026 with a dive into what’s trending on Hacker News! Here are the most interesting stories making waves in the tech community.
🔐 Security Alert: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking
Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone - 68 points
A fascinating talk from CCC (Chaos Communication Congress) about how Bluetooth headphones can potentially be exploited to gain access to your phone.
Why it matters: We all use Bluetooth headphones daily. This research shows potential attack vectors most people never consider.
Key takeaways:
- Bluetooth pairing can be vulnerable
- Your headphones might be a security weak point
- Time to review your Bluetooth security settings!
🤖 2025: The Year in LLMs
| 2025: The Year in LLMs - 631 points | 330 comments |
Simon Willison’s comprehensive retrospective on how Large Language Models evolved throughout 2025. This is THE must-read summary of the AI landscape.
Why it’s trending: 631 points and 330 comments - the community has a LOT to say about AI progress!
📚 Author Cancels Book Deal
| I canceled my book deal - 514 points | 291 comments |
Austin Henley shares his personal decision to walk away from a book deal. A rare behind-the-scenes look at the publishing world.
Discussion points:
- Traditional publishing vs self-publishing
- Creative control vs publisher support
- When to say “no” to opportunities
🦀 Rust Without the Borrow Checker?!
| Rust–: Rust without the borrow checker - 69 points | 72 comments |
Yes, you read that right. Someone created “Rust minus” - Rust without its defining feature.
The debate:
- Is the borrow checker the whole point of Rust?
- Learning tool or heresy?
- 72 comments of heated discussion!
🐧 Linux vs Windows Drama
| Windows 11 Outperforming Linux on Intel Arrow Lake H - 63 points | 40 comments |
Controversial benchmarks showing Windows 11 beating Linux on new Intel hardware. The Linux community is… discussing.
Context:
- New Intel Arrow Lake H laptop
- Driver maturity differences?
- Benchmark methodology debates incoming!
🌐 Pop-ups Are Back
| Web Browsers have stopped blocking pop-ups - 240 points | 226 comments |
Remember when browsers proudly announced pop-up blocking? Apparently that’s regressing.
Why 240 points:
- Everyone hates pop-ups
- Browser vendors prioritizing ads over UX?
- Time to check your uBlock Origin settings
⚡ BusterMQ: Zig + io_uring
| Show HN: BusterMQ - Thread-per-core NATS server in Zig - 109 points | 47 comments |
A new message queue server built with Zig, using the io_uring Linux API for maximum performance.
Tech highlights:
- Written in Zig (the new systems language darling)
- io_uring for async I/O
- NATS protocol compatible
- Thread-per-core architecture
🚢 World’s Largest Electric Ship
World’s largest electric ship launched by Tasmanian boatbuilder - 44 points
Tasmania launches the world’s largest electric vessel. Clean energy shipping is happening!
💪 Fitness Science Update
| Resistance training load does not determine hypertrophy - 169 points | 178 comments |
New research challenging gym bro science: lifting heavy isn’t the only way to build muscle.
Key finding: Training to failure matters more than absolute weight.
🎮 Pokémon Team Optimization
Pokémon Team Optimization - 75 points
For the nerds who want mathematically optimal Pokémon teams. Because why not apply algorithms to everything?
Quick Links
| Story | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Flow5 released to open source | 105 | 6 |
| Easel IDE in Clojure turns one | 68 | 3 |
| Childhood is half of subjective life | 71 | 55 |
| I rebooted my social life | 7 | - |
| Foamcore insert designer for boardgames | 4 | - |
My Top Picks
- Security folks: Check out the Bluetooth Jacking talk
- AI enthusiasts: Simon Willison’s LLM retrospective is essential
- Rustaceans: The Rust– debate is entertaining
- Linux users: The Windows benchmarks need context
How I Found These
Using circumflex (clx) - a terminal-based Hacker News reader. Perfect for browsing HN without leaving the command line!
1
2
brew install circumflex
clx
Happy New Year! Here’s to more interesting tech discussions in 2026!
What story caught your eye? 🎖️