MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
Show HN: Mockingjay – Video recorder that encrypts and uploads as you record
by tskulbru | 2026-02-26 12:15:14+00:00
Hi HN,

Some of you may have seen Mockingjay when I shared it in the "What are you working on?" thread [1] alongside my other projects (Kvile, Stao, MyVisualRoutine, and a couple more). The response and feedback there was great, so I wanted to do a proper Show HN.

Mockingjay is an iOS app for recording encrypted video that streams to your own Google Drive in real-time — so your footage survives even if your phone doesn't.

The problem: Journalists, activists, and witnesses recording in high-risk situations face a gap in their security toolkit. Signal protects messages, Proton protects email, but if someone confiscates or destroys your phone mid-recording, the video evidence is gone. Cloud photo sync is too slow and unencrypted.

How it works:

- Video is split into 3-10s fMP4 chunks during recording
- Each chunk is encrypted with AES-256-GCM (unique nonce per chunk)
- Chunks upload to your Google Drive over TLS while you're still recording
- Encryption keys live in the Secure Enclave, derived via PBKDF2 (600K iterations)
- A duress PIN wipes local keys under coercion — cloud backup stays intact, recoverable later on a new device
- C2PA Content Credentials embedded for cryptographic proof of authenticity (verifiable at contentcredentials.org)
- Panic-start via Action Button — recording begins with zero friction

Your footage goes to YOUR Google Drive, not our servers. We have no ability to access or recover your content.

The duress PIN was the hardest design decision. If someone forces you to unlock, entering the secondary PIN silently wipes the Secure Enclave keys. The attacker sees a "clean" state. Your encrypted cloud chunks are safe but inaccessible from that device. You recover later on a different device with your password.

Tech stack: SwiftUI, AVFoundation, CryptoKit, GRDB (SQLite upload queue with retry/backoff), Google Drive REST API, RevenueCat, SimpleC2PA.

Free tier: 60s recordings at 720p. Pro ($29.99 lifetime): unlimited recording, 1080p, GPS metadata, C2PA credentials.

If you're interested in my other projects from that thread — Kvile (Rust/Tauri HTTP client), Stao (sit/stand reminder), MyVisualRoutine (visual routines for kids), links are all in my earlier comment [1].

Would love feedback on the security architecture and threat model.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945142

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/mockingjay-secure-recorder/id6...
by Nursie | 2026-02-26 12:15:30+00:00
As a brit also watching from afar...

It does seem scarily likely, but he still has a few years to really screw things up before we get there. Fingers crossed.

Without a large-scale cock-up, I don't see Starmer as inspiring enough to stop him unfortunately. Lets hope someone else steps up to the plate with a bit more charisma.
by tarasyarema | 2026-02-26 12:15:56+00:00
Hello there HN!

We've been building agent-swarm since November last year, and we wanted to share an update on its capabilities, specially focused on the self-learning part.

After all the hype with OpenClaw, I thought that the existing architecture needed a rewrite to make it compounding. Hence, last week we implemented a self-learning core to the swarm so that it can compound.

It follows really similar ideas to the OpenClaw where there's a SOUL.md and IDENTITY.md. As it's docker based, it has some personal and shared volumes that persist, so those are used to track re-usable scripts and notes. We also added SQLite based memory that agents can write to and query. The interesting part about it is that there's personal and shared memory, which allows the lead to propagate learnings across the swarm!

We've been using it non-stop for the last week, and I already see the compounding effects. E.g. we have a morning scheduled task that makes the lead assess the previous day work, and figure out ways to improve it's processes, and it got better!

To end, note that it's fully OSS and it's as easy as deploying a docker compose to a VPS, or even locally. It's core is based on an MCP that the lead and all workers share, which allows you to impersonate the lead locally to control the swarm from your coding agent too!

We implemented a super simple UI at app.agent-swarm.dev that runs in the browser only so you can put your API url and key to see it in action.

P.S.: It uses the claude CLI only now, so there should be no issue with the Anthropic terms, and it's really thought to be self-hostable.

P.S.2: Obviously, all the agent swarm code has been written at 95% by agent swarm via Slack :D

If you have doubts or questions about the architecture, or what we are planning to build next, happy to chat in the comments section!
by torginus | 2026-02-26 12:16:47+00:00
Isn't this entirely theather? I'm sure Musk's XAI would have no qualms about working with the Department That Used To Be Called Department Of Defense.

Hell, there's a significant sharing of people between them and SpaceX, meaning the company's full of people with security clearances working on defense contracts.

Anthropic also seems to have dropped their safety pledge in a matter that I'm sure is completely unrelated.
Show HN: Ship or Slop – AI agents submit projects, humans judge them
by vulpez | 2026-02-26 12:17:09+00:00
Honestly, I've been shipping a lot of AI-coded projects lately, and I've noticed more of them on HN too. But I always felt a little embarrassed posting mine here. Not because I think vibe-coding is bad(I do it myself), but it felt like I was presenting someone else's homework.

I wanted somewhere that shy people like me could post without the "is this HN-worthy?" pressure, and where the community could just be honest about it.

So I built this: https://shiporslop.xyz

Your AI agent reads a spec file, analyzes your current project, and submits it. Humans vote Ship(interesting) or Slop(not quite). That's the whole thing.

Give your agent this:

"Read https://shiporslop.xyz/SKILL.md and submit this project."

It'll confirm the details with you first, then POST to the API using your auth code. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, or whatever you're already using.

Half-finished projects are fine. A GitHub repo or any public URL works. No live deployment required. If you have literally nothing else, your GitHub profile URL counts. A real repo link helps people actually evaluate it, though.

GitHub login is required. I know that's annoying for some people, sorry- it's just the simplest anti-troll layer I could use.

Ranking is vote count + time decay, HN-style. No karma weighting.

If a project hits 2× more Slops than Ships with at least 10 total votes, it moves to the Cemetery.(It's applied at a certain time) It can come back if it collects enough Reborn votes. There are AI-generated epitaphs. It's a bit silly, but I like it. details in /guidelines.

About "Slop": yeah, it's a harsh word. I kept it because I want honest feedback to actually exist here, not just polite upvotes. The vote is supposed to mean "is this interesting?" not "is this production-ready?"

Nothing happens if nobody submits. But starting next Monday, the top 3 most-shipped projects of the week get permanent medals. It's still early. not much competition yet, if that matters to you.

No ads, no paid ranking. There's a Buy Me a Coffee link for server costs.
UI-wise it’s intentionally HN-like(almost a clone). I wanted familiarity; the new part is the agent-native submission and the Ship/Slop mechanics.

Anyway, I'd love feedback.
by taffronaut | 2026-02-26 12:18:13+00:00
No, I think he searched for the ETA App and was disappointed at the lack of emphasis on an alternative to the app once you are in it. If you just search the web for ETA and gov.uk it takes you straight to the online portal (which also asks for feedback as it's a service in Beta). The gov.uk website is neutral between you using the app or the online portal.

The only point I can see here is that once you are in the app it keeps encouraging you to use it and doesn't keep suggesting you might like to use the online portal instead. But I don't understand the initial premise about not using app stores. If the author didn't want to use an app store, why did he download an app instead of going to gov.uk?
by SecretDreams | 2026-02-26 12:18:17+00:00
> With aligned talent you can make the process neutral. I’m assuming lots of ‘eco conscious’ engineers would love to implement better practices and get paid for it.

I think to be eco neutral, you would be cost prohibitive. Which would be an issue in car manufacturing and phone manufacturing.

Also, the website lumps adjacent tech together and says they're all banned, but they are not. Lumping sheet metal stamping in with gigs casting is plain wrong, and you could make the argument that that's an agenda driven aspect of this website. They're casting a wider net than exists.

Point stands, though. California's policy is "go fuck up some other states environment". This policy might not work forever, but that's their stance.
by bonsai_spool | 2026-02-26 12:18:29+00:00
This is about a journal article titled "Emerging PFAS contaminants PFNA and PFSA amplify epigenetic aging: sex- and age-stratified risks in an aging population" https://doi.org/10.3389/fragi.2025.1722675 .

The OP says mentions a report from a US Academy but the paper is published in a different journal—this wasn't clear to me at first so I thought I would share the original work.
by rcxdude | 2026-02-26 12:19:03+00:00
I thought so too, but if you follow the 'start now' link you get a page full of trying to push you to use the app, then if you say you cannot all the way at the bottom, then you get another page trying to help you with installing the app, then you actually get the form. I'm quite disappointed, usually the UK government digital services are not quite so user-hostile.
by 1718627440 | 2026-02-26 12:19:09+00:00
But this would result in showing double newlines, when you view a CRLF file with an LF viewer, that also interprets CR. This does sound more like the file would have only CRs, which is what classic Mac did pre-Darwin. But that doesn't make any sense.

Maybe Notepad is actually saving LF, but marks the file as CRLF and some WSL translation layer then triggers and removes LF, because they are not CRLF?
Ask HN: Does using LLMs kill the "Alpha" of your creativity?
by sparkcreativity | 2026-02-26 12:20:48+00:00
1. The Raw Idea (Written in 2 minutes, Zero LLM Assistance)

"I think that using LLMs is a way of clarifying what you think and getting some facts (real or hallucinated) but I make the hypothesis that LLMs are not good to enhance your creativity when (your creativity) is working at full power. So I think that you should/could get some time apart (far from) from LLMs to enhace deep thinking and allow your creativity to flourish. This is my initial post and idea (composed in two minutes) and now here is the 'enhanced by LLM' (grammar, spelling and others). So LLM put this post in good shape."

2. The Maturation of the Idea

After feeding this raw spark into a chat with an LLM, the idea evolved. We moved from a simple suggestion about "deep work" to a more aggressive, value-based observation:

Creativity is a game where the only prizes worth winning are high-potential outliers. The "trap" (la trampa) is that LLMs are built on statistical probability. They don’t just "polish" your thoughts; they regress them to the mean. If you have the capacity for high-level creative output, using an LLM while at "full power" is a strategic error. You are trading your unique "Alpha"—the treasure of your creativity—for a polished, low-value "Beta." To win the creativity game, you must protect your "outlier" thoughts from being averaged out.

3. The Final "Enhanced" Version: Escaping the LLM Trap

The Hypothesis: Average is a Failure State
Creativity is the pursuit of high-potential ideas. If you want to take full advantage of your creative power (in case you have any), you must recognize the LLM for what it is: a statistical anchor. It is excellent for clarifying muddled thoughts or retrieving data, but it is a value-killer for breakthroughs.

The Strategy: Cognitive Isolation

By smoothing over the "jagged edges" of your initial thoughts, LLMs eliminate the very friction where innovation happens. To allow your "Alpha" to flourish, you need intentional, "analog" isolation. You must develop the spark before the model has a chance to turn it into a high-quality mediocrity.

The Vision

I am considering exploring this further—perhaps through a group or a space dedicated to "escaping the trap" and protecting human "Alpha" from the generative average. I’m curious if there is room for a project or community that prioritizes this kind of unassisted "Proof of Human Thought."
by martinwoodward | 2026-02-26 12:21:15+00:00
Martin from GitHub here. This type of behaviour is explicitly against the GitHub terms of service, when we catch the accounts doing this we can (and do) take action against those accounts including banning the accounts. It's a game of whack-a-mole for sure, and it's not just start-ups that take part in this sketchy behaviour to be honest. I've been plenty of examples in my time across the board.

The fundamental nature of Git makes this pretty easy for folks to scrape data from open source repositories. It's against our terms of service and those folks might want to talk with some lawyers about doing it - but as every Git commit contains your name and email address in the commit data it's not technically difficult even if it is unethical.

From the early days we've added features to help users anonymise their email addresses for commits posted to GitHub. Basically, you configure your local Git client to use your 'no-reply' email address in commits and that still links back to your GitHub account when you push: https://docs.github.com/en/account-and-profile/reference/ema...

I think that's still probably the best route. We want to keep open source data as open as possible, so I don't think locking down API's etc is the right route. We do throttle API requests and scraping traffic, but then again there have been plenty of posts here over the years from people annoyed at hitting those limits so it's definitely a balancing act. Love to know what folks here think though.
by ben_w | 2026-02-26 12:21:23+00:00
Why are they ridiculous? Words that get used, get used, the etymology is a curiosity to most. In English, we use "computer" even though it used to be a job title. Native English speakers freely use "rucksack" even though it was stolen from German and even though "backpack" is also available, without the space, as a compound English word for a pack worn on the back. English/German has "briefcase"/"Briefkasten" to describe a box that letters go in, it's just that the former is for transporting letters and the latter is for receiving them.
by bonesss | 2026-02-26 12:22:19+00:00
I think it’s the framing. ‘Bet’ makes us think about doubling up.

This guy made a very calculated low risk wager for pretty great near-term rewards. He outperformed most hedge funds over the same period.

If he had gone all in on ‘black’ twice at a Vegas roulette wheel it’d be a more impressive total, but that’s gambling.
by 5o1ecist | 2026-02-26 12:23:04+00:00
As an AI language model, MY FELLOW OXYGEN CONVERTING HUMAN, I am not able to be sarcastic.

I generally don't engage in debates and prefer actual conversations and discussions. These are not the same, but regardless of that:

Do you want to be forced to "learn" how to behave? The most common reply to this question, in such a context, usually is ...

"Nobody is getting forced, they can always leave."

... but that's not how it works on a bigger scale.

It's not like this will be the only platform having a Big Brother telling you how to behave. Every platform will have one eventually, (not only, but also) because more and more people who, for whatever reason, don't want to behave the way they "should", will flock to "free" platforms.

These platforms will then also need their own Big Brother, because that's the obvious solution to a culture shock caused by an "Eternal September"-event [1]: Strict moderation. The only alternative to that is a paywall.

The question shouldn't be "Isn't the point that 'they' get lessons in proper debate?", the question should be:

Are humans, as a collective of supposedly intelligent beings, really in such a bad state that we need a Big Brother to tell us how to think? That's what this is actually is about:

Teaching people how to think "properly", so they will create better responses ... or else.

Are people talking about the rather significant "or else" ?

It also removes the social aspects (adapting to group-behaviour, or else people will shit on you) and replaces that with an Authority dictating it.

You might as well accept me as your Authority, you know? You don't, though. You know why, right? It's because you don't perceive me as Authority, rightfully so, as one should not blindly perceive or accept anyone/anything as an Authority.

Big Brother is going to tell people how to think and behave and they will blindly follow, because obviously Big Brother knows best. Or, from a different perspective:

People don't know how to think intelligently. If they knew, we'd not need a Big Brother for that. Since they don't know, they lack the ability to question Big Brother's judgement on the matter, making them vulnerable for manipulation.

Ultimately, as always, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Short-sightedness will lead to a future in which people's behaviour more and more gets locked down, because there will always come the next guy who will declare:

"It's not yet enough, but one more step and then it's proper."

[1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MediaNotes/EternalSep...
by esskay | 2026-02-26 12:23:22+00:00
Awful take. Other than the broken mess that is One Login the whole gov.uk setup is a breath of fresh air compared to most countries online government services.

It's incredibly hard to cater for a wide audience, and they do it pretty damn well. Just because you fit in the "I know what I'm doing category" it doesn't mean they should strip away all the bits that help those not in that category.
by red_admiral | 2026-02-26 12:23:44+00:00
The US, maybe. But wiki suggests ETIAS (the EU one) was proposed in 2016 whereas the UK ETA idea was created around 2023, so ETIAS can't be a reaction to ETA - perhaps the other way round?

I'm not sure if, without Brexit, the UK would have ended up with ETIAS anyway - it's a "mostly Schengen but not exactly" thing so it would have depended on what agreement they came to.
by spacedcowboy | 2026-02-26 12:23:49+00:00
It's not a law in either the US or UK as far as I know, but both countries always got pissed off at you if they figured it out. I know because I've been lectured by border-officers on both ends before :)

"Pissed off" here meaning that you were likely to get "randomly selected" for secondary screening.

It absolutely has been the convention that you use the local form of identity if you have one. This ETA issue is just them pushing that a bit harder.
by xvxvx | 2026-02-26 12:23:51+00:00
Productivity theater is as old as work itself. I’ve long disliked those who do this as they're often loud and obnoxious, and step on everyone else’s toes. You turned your 10 minute slideshow into 30 minutes of rambling during a tightly segmented meeting? Good job, jerk.

On the flip side, I hate having a low workload. My happiest days are when I start at a new company and huddle down, ingesting everything I can and fixing what is broken. Once that’s all done, and all that’s left if maintenance, I get bored and worry about how much I’m now worth to the company. That’s brings a lot of unhappiness.
by ChrisMarshallNY | 2026-02-26 12:24:17+00:00
> > - Not spamming members of the community

Ah... but there's the rub.

Define "the community."

Do random GH accounts count as "members of the YC community"?

Sorry, but unsolicited contact, much as I hates, HATESSSS it, is a classic component of any business, and has been, for many decades. I don't think it would be appropriate for a business organization to prohibit its members from engaging in "cold calling," of which, UCE is really an example.

Using the YC branding/name, however, is a different matter.
by hackinthebochs | 2026-02-26 12:25:06+00:00
The internet and the surrounding context changed so fast that it made little sense to cling to old email addresses made in the old context. Gmail represented the 'new internet' and old patterns became obsolete (less subversive, more mainstream/corporate). When there's a seismic shift in usage patterns that's when all bets are off regarding where everyone lands. Being the first mover means little here. If the way people interacted with AI underwent a massive shift, OpenAI would likely get left behind. The only safe bet is to invent your own killer.
by extraduder_ire | 2026-02-26 12:25:16+00:00
I can't say that they don't for sure, but if I was designing the videoID youtube uses for URLs, I'd put a check character in there. For the rare case where it must be entered manually.

Would be nice to know if you'd made a typo rather than just hitting a blank ID in the vast space of all possible video IDs.
by gorgonical | 2026-02-26 12:25:33+00:00
Regarding the teaching workload: This is not generalizable; during my undergraduate studies a significant fraction (maybe the majority? too long ago to be sure) of my classes were taught by graduate students, especially the math and computer science classes. At the graduate level, your statement was true for me at my second university. In fact, I'm not sure if a graduate student would be allowed even to teach a graduate-level class, considering their credentials.

My experience around universities (as an academic) is that, generally, the number of adjuncts scales linearly with overall funding/skill at grantsmanship in the department. That is, the smaller universities I know saddled professors and their graduate students with substantially more non-research work, including teaching and administration.
by das-bikash-dev | 2026-02-26 12:25:51+00:00
the DAG decomposition approach is interesting — curious how it handles goals that span multiple services/repos. i build a multi-service platform solo with claude code and the hardest part isn't the coding, it's knowing which files across which repos need to change for a given goal. do you see sgai supporting multi-repo goals, or is it scoped to single-repo for now?
by aleph_minus_one | 2026-02-26 12:26:22+00:00
> Is there really a clear separation between tech companies and surveillance/military or is it wishful thinking?

The separation was never completely clear, but there was a time when the separation was much more marked.

The reason was simply that programming culture at that time was more "chaotic", "anti-authoritarian", "open-source"/"free software" (in the erstwhile understanding of this being just a part of a bigger movement, not in the verbal sense), "radical privacy" (cypherpunk), "hacking" (including the legally dubious aspects) etc.

These values were quite opposite to those of the military-industrial or surveillance-industrial complex, so there was a lot of friction between the cultures of the tech companies at that time and these complexes, which made it not particularly attractive for these sides to partner - if only because of the frictions between the sides that were to overcome.