Hacker News: botanical

New comment by botanical in "Israeli firm used online ads to run spy operation, researchers say"

botanical — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 13:18:19 +0000

How Israel Used Ad Auctions to Deliver Spyware to Journalists:

https://404privacy.com/blog/how-israel-used-ad-auctions-to-d...

Israeli firm used online ads to run spy operation, researchers say

botanical — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 13:16:07 +0000

Article URL: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/israeli-firm-used-online-ads-run-vast-spy-operation-researchers-say-2026-10-15/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50118015

Points: 10

# Comments: 3

New comment by botanical in "Someone on Torrent Sites Kept Fucking with My Sonarr"

botanical — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 06:44:31 +0000

How does the bittorrent protocol deal with removing bad torrents? I torrent from time to time, and luckily I've never come across malware; it seems the only way to avoid it is to not download a video with an exe extension.

New comment by botanical in "Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, monospace font"

botanical — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:50:32 +0000

I've been using Iosevka for more than 5 years now, it seems odd using anything else. The author is prolific and has made it really easy to build your own customised version. I don't think I'll ever move from using it.

Israeli producer had access to data harvested by Poland using Pegasus spyware

botanical — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 05:46:41 +0000

Article URL: https://notesfrompoland.com/2026/10/12/israeli-producer-had-access-to-data-harvested-by-poland-using-pegasus-spyware-say-prosecutors/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50082913

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by botanical in "Mozilla met with Microsoft to discuss their harmful design practices"

botanical — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 03:28:44 +0000

Mozilla Research: Over the Edge 2.0: Microsoft’s Design Tactics Still Undermine Browser Choice - https://research.mozilla.org/browser-competition/over-the-ed...

Mozilla met with Microsoft to discuss their harmful design practices

botanical — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 03:28:44 +0000

Article URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1wzzk6l/mozilla_met_with_microsoft_to_discuss_their/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50001608

Points: 46

# Comments: 7

New comment by botanical in "Keep Our Servers Running"

botanical — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 06:37:24 +0000

I also think archive.today is superior to web.archive.org as it breaks less when archiving sources. It's a shame Wikipedia blacklisted it now as an archive source.

New comment by botanical in "AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint"

botanical — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:12:46 +0000

I noticed this on AliExpress years ago with cheaper Bluetooth earphones. Actually, all Chinese e-commerce sites activate audio for some reason.

New comment by botanical in "Windows 11's built-in Weather app wastes more than 1 GB of RAM"

botanical — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 05:10:06 +0000

Anytime I go on the website, my fan start going crazy. But it is a good website with the most accurate forecasts, I feel.

Another annoyance is that tree planting initiative, I was able to plant like 10 trees, now they made it very difficult to be able to do 1 in a year. Microsoft, you cheapskates, you're destroying the environment, the least y’all could do is plant more trees in vulnerable areas.

New comment by botanical in "YouTube, your RSS feeds are broken"

botanical — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:12:15 +0000

OpenRSS, your website is broken. I get:

> Too many requests are being made from this network, which brings down the performance of feeds for other users. Please try back later.

With regards to the topic, I've noticed this when using FreeTube during certain periods of the day.

Palantir defends its role in the kill chain

botanical — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:16:16 +0000

Article URL: https://www.heise.de/en/news/Palantir-defends-its-role-in-the-kill-chain-We-are-very-very-proud-of-that-11211275.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47388830

Points: 107

# Comments: 60

New comment by botanical in "Iran-backed hackers claim wiper attack on medtech firm Stryker"

botanical — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 06:38:15 +0000

Sounds like justification for a false flag operation by the US government. How would they transport these massive things and launch them on a different continent? That, or the US is trying to justify that this illegal war is on their doorstep and need to expand their terror.

Cheap solar is transforming lives and economies across Africa

botanical — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 14:01:15 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/climate/solar-south-africa-china.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46444095

Points: 29

# Comments: 16

US 'Homeland Security' Twitter account seemingly run from Israel

botanical — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 14:26:12 +0000

Article URL: https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2025/11/23/twitter-location-data/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46034470

Points: 50

# Comments: 21

New comment by botanical in "South Africa's one million invisible children without birth certificates"

botanical — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 09:33:20 +0000

Load shedding hasn't been a problem for a while now. With proper maintenance of the coal stations and investments in solar, we haven't had it in Winter either. But you're right, it's always lurking. With increased renewable energy, and less reliance on coal, hopefully it stays in the past.

https://african.business/2025/10/energy-resources/has-south-...

New comment by botanical in "South Africa's one million invisible children without birth certificates"

botanical — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 09:25:18 +0000

True, but I meant in South Africa, SA is the most used. Less so with RSA or ZAR. ZA is somewhat used but SA (I would say) dominates in conversation and in written text.

New comment by botanical in "South Africa's one million invisible children without birth certificates"

botanical — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:43:00 +0000

By what metric is it in "steady decline"? As as South African, it's amusing to see how my country is generalised.

New comment by botanical in "South Africa's one million invisible children without birth certificates"

botanical — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:39:25 +0000

ISO 3166-2 code for South Africa. It's from Dutch: Zuid-Afrika. It's used quite often to refer to South Africa; RSA or SA is also used.

Developers drop Vercel, call for boycott after CEO posts selfie with Netanyahu

botanical — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:35:02 +0000

Article URL: https://www.middleeasteye.net/trending/developers-drop-vercel-call-boycott-after-ceo-posts-selfie-netanyahu

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45437551

Points: 31

# Comments: 2