October 12, 2026
Today's top tech stories, deduped across the newsletters I read and briefly summarized. Click a source to open the original article.
AI
AI agents decompile a first-person shooter after 500 billion tokens
A developer describes letting AI agents decompile a first-person shooter, at a cost of 500 billion tokens. The post is a practical case study of what agents can do in reverse engineering.
Karpathy: The gap in shared understanding of LLM capability is widening
Andrej Karpathy writes that people increasingly disagree about what large language models can do. The post earned 303 points on Hacker News.
Security
Malware at contractor exposes over 8.7 million records in Japan
Daiichi Kosho, a major Japanese entertainment system maker, says a malware infection at its contractor Nippon Columbia exposed more than 8.7 million customer and employee records. The records include those of karaoke fans.
"Passkeys are a trap": critique of passkeys sparks debate
A Substack post warns against adopting passkeys and calls them a trap. It earned 371 points on Hacker News.
Dev
Total Annihilation rebuilt for modern computers
The Nanolathe project has recreated the classic strategy game Total Annihilation for modern hardware. The story earned 411 points on Hacker News.
Dwarf Fortress now uses version control
Simon Willison writes that Dwarf Fortress now uses version control. He had long believed the game lacked it, despite how complex its codebase is.
Python 3.15.0 added to actions/python-versions
Python 3.15.0 is now available in GitHub's actions/python-versions, which GitHub Actions uses. Simon Willison had been waiting for it for a couple of days.
BetterWispr: free, open-source dictation for Mac
The Show HN project BetterWispr is a free, open-source dictation app for Mac. It earned 170 points on Hacker News.
Web
"Fingerprints are the new cookies": browser fingerprinting replaces cookies
A blog post argues that browser fingerprinting has taken over cookies' role in tracking users. It earned 154 points on Hacker News.
Other
Terence Tao presents "Math 2.0"
Mathematician Terence Tao posted the slides from his "Math 2.0" talk at Caltech in 2026. The presentation earned 345 points on Hacker News.
Google accused of cutting forest for data centers in Finland
The Guardian reports that Google is building data centers in Finland, and that work is temporarily halted pending an environmental impact assessment. The story earned 235 points on Hacker News.
New York City's "Click to Cancel" rule is now in effect
The rule, which covers canceling subscriptions, is now in force in New York City. The story earned 390 points on Hacker News.