Hasty Briefs - Daily Tech News Brief

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Auth.js Joining Better Auth
7 months ago
- Auth.js, formerly NextAuth.js, is now maintained by Better Auth team.
- Auth.js is a widely used open-source authentication library in the JavaScript ecosystem.
- Better Auth was created to address limitations in Auth.js and empower developers to own their auth.
- Existing Auth.js users can continue using it without disruption, but new projects are recommended to start with Better Auth.
- Better Auth's roadmap includes adding features like stateless session management without a database.
- A migration guide is available for teams considering moving from Auth.js to Better Auth.
- The Auth.js community and core maintainers are acknowledged for their contributions.
- The goal remains for developers to own their auth, with Better Auth and Auth.js working together to advance the ecosystem.
MCAP Support Lands in Rerun
7 months ago
- Experimental MCAP support added to Rerun for easier visualization of robotics data without altering existing workflows.
- MCAP is an open-source format for storing robotics log data, now the default in ROS2 since May 2023.
- Rerun's approach includes a layered architecture to process MCAP files, mapping data to distinct Rerun archetypes.
- ROS2 message types are semantically interpreted for visualization (e.g., images as Image, point clouds as Points3D).
- Protobuf messages are decoded into structured data but require additional steps for visualization compared to ROS2.
- Users can drag-and-drop MCAP files into Rerun or use CLI commands to load or convert files.
- Initial support focuses on common ROS2 message types, with plans to expand based on community feedback.
- Current limitations include unsupported custom messages, missing tf transforms, and no ROS1 message support.
Litex: The First Formal Language Learnable in 1-2 Hours
7 months ago
- Litex is a simple, intuitive, and open-source formal language for coding reasoning.
- It can be learned in 1–2 hours, even without a math or programming background.
- Litex aims to make formal reasoning accessible, lowering the entrance barrier by 10x and reducing proof construction costs by 10x.
- Comparison with Lean 4 shows Litex's simplicity—solving equations in minutes vs. hours in Lean 4.
- Litex has a growing community and ecosystem, including tutorials, cheat sheets, and collaboration opportunities.
- Resources for AI researchers include a 100% accurate solution on the gsm8k dataset and a powerful Litex Agent.
- All Litex repositories are open-source, encouraging community contributions and collaboration.
- Jiachen Shen, Litex's creator, acknowledges the support of friends and colleagues in the project's development.
Notes on Geiger Counters
7 months ago
- Divested projects updates and fun from Tavi are shared on the blog.
- Latest entries include notes on Geiger counters, Fedora 42 /boot space issues, and Google's AOSP changes.
- Geiger counters overview: types of radiation, safety, and device types (GM tubes vs. scintillators).
- Personal choice for a Geiger counter: Radiacode 102 for sensitivity and features.
- Fedora 42 /boot space solution involves removing old kernels and adjusting dracut settings.
- Google's AOSP changes include no longer publishing in-development source code and enforcing developer ID verification.
- Hard drives have workload rate limits (WRL), similar to SSDs' TBW limits.
- Web server upgraded to a new VPS for better performance.
- Jellyfin corruption issue resolved by restoring migrations.xml from backup.
- Ryzen laptop suspend issue fixed with acpi.ec_no_wakeup=Y kernel parameter.
- LUKS iterations reminder: increase for better security, though it may slow unlocking.
- Security issue in Invizible v2.5.4 beta reverted, affecting Tor guard selection.
- AMD microcode resigned for older BIOSes to mitigate security vulnerabilities.
- ECH rollout stats updated, distinguishing Cloudflare-hosted domains.
- Udderance packaged as an Android app for offline use, with various fixes and improvements.
- Tor Browser security slider issue fixed after years, emphasizing community involvement.
- GenAI opposition: new profile picture and Kairoscope updates favoring original sources.
- YouTube archiving tips using yt-dlp for preserving content against increasing restrictions.
- HTML to Markdown conversion improved with pandoc using markdown_strict.
- Kairoscope updates include more reading sources and tidied pages.
- Blog started with backfilled entries and GenAI usage disclosure.
- Dark mode added to websites by merging mini.css colors manually.
- Udderance updates: phrase boards, pictograms, and homepage improvements.
- Onion services reintroduced with vanity addresses for divested.dev, kairoscope.org, and udderance.app.
- Brace updates: chrony 4.7 compatibility and browser extension tweaks.
- Cable issues: CAT 6A cable failed at 10Gb negotiation, SATA cables replaced after UDMA errors.
- Fedora iptables update caused firewalld and Docker breaks.
- CAA record clipping issue with Cloudflare DNS resolved by removing spaces.
- Bounds checking in hmalloc for system-wide overflow detection under development.
- SCFW3 updates: AI crawler blocking and ancient versions list refresh.
- DivestOS and apps officially ended, with a full announcement shared across platforms.
Show HN: Privacy-First Voice-to-Text for macOS
7 months ago
- High-quality speech recognition using WhisperKit with multiple model sizes for different accuracy/speed trade-offs.
- Supports multiple languages with auto-detection and features real-time waveform visualization during recording.
- Local LLM processing for grammar correction and text improvement with models like Gemma, Llama, Qwen, and Mistral.
- Custom prompts for grammar fixing, email formatting, language translation, and custom text processing workflows.
- 100% local processing ensures voice data never leaves the device with no cloud services or data collection.
- Open source and runs in a secure sandboxed environment for transparency and security.
- Features include global hotkey support, auto-copy to clipboard, auto-paste, auto-enter, and menu bar integration.
- Beautiful dark-themed interface with real-time recording visualization and comprehensive onboarding guide.
- System requirements include macOS 14.0 or later, 20GB free disk space, and necessary permissions.
- Easy installation via whisperclip.com or building from source with detailed setup and usage instructions.
- Privacy-focused design with local processing only, no network requests, no analytics, and encrypted storage.
- Open for contributions with guidelines for forking, feature branches, commits, and pull requests.
- Licensed under MIT License allowing commercial use, modification, distribution, and private use with attribution.
Handy – Free open-source speech-to-text app written in Rust
7 months ago
- Handy is an open-source speech-to-text application for personal computer use.
- Features push-to-talk mode with customizable key bindings for transcription control.
- Operates locally ensuring privacy by not sending audio to the cloud.
- Designed for simplicity with a focus on transcribing speech into text fields.
- Supported by sponsors to remain free and open-source, encouraging community contributions.
Austria's military just ditched Microsoft for open-source LibreOffice
7 months ago
- Austria's military has switched from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice, affecting 16,000 workstations.
- The primary motivation was digital sovereignty and data control, not cost savings.
- Other European governments, like Germany's Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark, are also moving away from Microsoft for privacy reasons.
- Concerns over US-based companies' political influence have driven European governments to seek independence in ICT infrastructure.
- Austria's military invested in LibreOffice development, contributing features back to the open-source project.
- Microsoft Office 2016 has been completely removed from military systems, with limited exceptions for specialized needs.
- European governments and companies are increasingly prioritizing open-source solutions for data independence.
The Open Printer Is a Raspberry Pi Zero W-Powered Printer
7 months ago
- The Open Printer is a fully-open, highly-flexible inkjet printer powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero W.
- It prints on a continuous roll of paper and cuts pages to size automatically.
- Entirely open-source, barring off-the-shelf print heads and ink cartridges.
- Designed for makers, artists, and those tired of throwaway hardware.
- Features standard mechanical components and modular parts for easy assembly, modification, and repair.
- No proprietary drivers or cartridge DRM, allowing use of third-party or refilled cartridges.
- Uses off-the-shelf HP cartridges but supports third-party or refilled options.
- Includes an STM32 microcontroller and Raspberry Pi Zero W as the central brain.
- Offers multiple connectivity options: USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB MSD.
- Supports various paper sizes and continuous rolls with a built-in cutter.
- Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, encouraging repairs and upgrades.
Quantum computing with affordable components and innovative approaches
7 months ago
- Quantum Fuse is a project exploring the creation of a two-qubit quantum computer using affordable components.
- The project uses quantized mechanical vibrations in synthetic quartz crystals as qubits, controlled by an ESP32 microcontroller, a green diode laser, and an AD9850 DDS module.
- The Q-Resonator hypothesis investigates leveraging quartz's quantum mechanical properties for qubit creation and control.
- A Michelson interferometer is built to measure minute distance changes using a green laser and ESP32 for data interpretation.
- The codebase includes firmware for an ESP32-S3 web server to control the AD985x DDS module, enabling precise frequency and timing control via a web interface.
- The project encourages community involvement by forking the GitHub repository and building Q-Resonator nodes to advance quantum computing.
Open Printer
7 months ago
- Open-source, repairable inkjet printer designed for makers and artists.
- Built with standard mechanical components and modular parts for easy assembly, modification, and repair.
- Supports standard sheets or paper rolls with refillable black or color cartridges.
- No proprietary drivers or cartridge DRM, ensuring vendor independence and longevity.
- Flexible design adaptable to various workspaces (wall-mounted or desktop).
- Choice between standard sheets or paper rolls for versatile printing options.
- Integrated cutter for creative projects like banners or strips.
- Power: 24 V DC supply, 2.1 mm DC-in jack.
- Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iPhone (using CUPS open-source print server).
- Dimensions: 50 x 10 x 11 cm (19.7 x 3.9 x 4.3 in).
- Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for all files (electronics, firmware, etc.).
- Encourages community contributions for repairs, upgrades, and improvements.
- Sign-up available for campaign notifications and updates.
Open Printer is an open source inkjet printer with DRM-free ink
7 months ago
- Open Printer is an open-source inkjet printer designed to counter repairability and cartridge compatibility issues.
- Built with standard mechanical components and modular parts, simplifying assembly, modification, and repair.
- Runs on a Raspberry Pi W board and uses widely available HP 63 or HP 302 cartridges without DRM.
- Can print on standard A4, A3 sheets, and 27mm wide paper rolls with an integrated cutter.
- Features wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for printing from laptops or phones.
- Unique elongated design allows desktop placement or wall mounting.
- Pricing and availability details to be announced via a Crowd Supply crowdfunding campaign.
Atuin Desktop: Runbooks That Run – Now Open Source
7 months ago
- Atuin Desktop combines documentation with terminal functionality, allowing script blocks, embedded terminals, database clients, and Prometheus charts in one place.
- Addresses the issue of outdated or non-existent documentation by providing synced, searchable shell history and repeatable workflows.
- Features include reducing context switching, ensuring docs stay relevant by executing directly, and enabling reusable automation with Jinja-style templating.
- Supports collaboration through Git or real-time sharing via Atuin Hub.
- Since its closed beta in April, improvements include offline workspaces, team accounts, Kubernetes integration, and more block types.
- Used for automation, debugging, database operations, onboarding, deploying clusters, and incident response.
- Future plans include remote runbook execution, audit logs, more block types, and tighter cloud provider integration.
- Now open source under Apache 2.0 license, encouraging community involvement.
Simple, free and efficient ad-blocker
7 months ago
- Zen is a free, open-source ad-blocker and privacy guard for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- Blocks ads, trackers, and hidden threats across browsers and desktop apps without configuration.
- Includes built-in filters for ads, privacy, security, and malware, plus 36 regional filters.
- Supports custom filters and popular filter formats for additional protection.
- Lightweight, fast, and respects user privacy—no tracking or data collection.
- Requires a locally generated root certificate for HTTPS interception during first run.
- Available for download on Windows, macOS (including Homebrew), and Linux (GNOME-based environments).
- Community-driven with Discord support, bug reporting, feature suggestions, and code contributions.
Blockdiff: We built our own file format for VM disk snapshots
7 months ago
- Blockdiff is an open-source tool for rapid block-level diffs and snapshots of VM disks.
- Developed to address slow VM startup and snapshot times, reducing EC2 snapshot times from 30+ minutes to seconds.
- Uses a custom file format for instant block-level diffs, leveraging Linux's CoW implementation in XFS.
- Designed for dev environments, enabling efficient snapshotting without redundant storage of OS data.
- Supports features like sleep/wake with minimal data transfer and disk rollback via incremental snapshots.
- Avoids solutions like OverlayFS and ZFS due to limitations in performance and functionality.
- Implemented in Rust, focusing on simplicity, zero overhead, and instantaneous operations.
- Utilizes sparse files and copy-on-write (CoW) for efficient storage and quick operations.
- Includes a performance comparison showing significant speed advantages over traditional methods like tar and qcow2.
Nvidia Has Been Supplying NDA'ed Docs to Red Hat for Helping NVK Driver
7 months ago
- NVIDIA is providing NDA'ed documentation to Red Hat for NVK driver development.
- Red Hat engineer David Airlie highlights NVK's potential to compete with NVIDIA's proprietary Vulkan driver.
- NVK is an open-source Mesa Vulkan driver for NVIDIA GPUs, working with Nouveau or Nova kernel drivers.
- AMD's shift from AMDVLK to RADV in Mesa is seen as a model for NVK's development.
- Airlie notes NVIDIA's increasing cooperation, despite past issues, as a positive step for open-source drivers.
- Future benchmarks between NVK/Nova and NVIDIA's proprietary driver will be crucial for assessing progress.
Stable v2.0.0 Release of Immich
7 months ago
- Immich v2.0.0 has reached stable release, marking a significant milestone for the open-source and self-hosting community.
- The stable release signifies resolution of technical debt, improved compatibility, and easier updates. The warning banner on the website has been removed.
- A new version of the Immich website is announced, and a physical DVD version of Immich Stable is available for purchase to celebrate the release.
- Future plans include focusing on new features and improvements, with continued community support and feedback being highly valued.
- A Q&A livestream is scheduled for October 2nd, 2025, at 6 PM UTC, where users can submit questions and engage with the team.
- The importance of maintaining a 3-2-1 backup strategy is emphasized, with plans for a cloud backup service in the works.
- Docker images for v2.0.0 will be released shortly after the announcement, with upgrade documentation available for users.
- Immich will follow semantic versioning starting with v2.0.0, ensuring compatibility between mobile app and server versions within the same major version.
- New features will continue to be developed and released, with the team committed to the project's growth and user feedback.
JackTrip: Multi-machine audio network performance over the Internet
7 months ago
- Supports multiple channels of bidirectional, high-quality, uncompressed audio streaming.
- Compatible with various platforms including Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD.
- Allows cross-platform connections (e.g., Linux to macOS).
- Additional details and instructions available at https://jacktrip.github.io/jacktrip/.
- Security concerns can be reported to [email protected].
Show HN: YNOT – Free, Open-Source YouTube Downloader
7 months ago
- YNOT is a free, open-source YouTube video downloader for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- Features include HD and 4K video downloads, no ads or tracking, and a simple GUI.
- YNOT is powered by yt-dlp, ensuring fast and reliable downloads.
- The software is lightweight, privacy-focused, and has minimal system requirements.
- Downloading videos is straightforward: copy the URL, paste into YNOT, and click download.
- YNOT is completely free under the WTFPL license with no hidden costs.
- It is safe to use, open-source, and available for all major platforms.
- No additional dependencies like Python are needed; it's a standalone application.
Open Source Blueprints for Civilization
7 months ago
- Open Source Ecology is developing open source industrial machines at a fraction of commercial costs.
- The goal is to create an open source economy through open collaboration.
- Future Builders Academy offers interdisciplinary learning in literacy, numeracy, oracy, emotional literacy, and moral literacy.
- Builder Crash Course (Sep 1-14, 2025) includes building a modular 800 sq ft home with photovoltaics and learning design tools.
- Build Your Own House in 6 Weeks (Sep 15 – Oct 31, 2025) offers a chance to build a starter home with expert guidance.
- Participation in the founding cohort is free by application only.
The End of Tt-Rss.org
7 months ago
- On November 1st, 2025, the infrastructure for tt-rss.org, cgit, and related sites will be dismantled.
- The maintainer no longer finds it fun to maintain public-facing projects or websites.
- tt-rss is considered 'done' and maintaining it is no longer engaging.
- Users have one month to mirror repositories from gitlab.tt-rss.org or git.tt-rss.org before they are removed.
- The forum will be in read-only mode until the shutdown date.
- Public access to the maintainer's tt-rss instance will be discontinued.

Hasty Briefsbeta

#open-source

Auth.js Joining Better Auth

MCAP Support Lands in Rerun

Litex: The First Formal Language Learnable in 1-2 Hours

Notes on Geiger Counters

Show HN: Privacy-First Voice-to-Text for macOS

Handy – Free open-source speech-to-text app written in Rust

Austria's military just ditched Microsoft for open-source LibreOffice

The Open Printer Is a Raspberry Pi Zero W-Powered Printer

Quantum computing with affordable components and innovative approaches

Open Printer

Open Printer is an open source inkjet printer with DRM-free ink

Atuin Desktop: Runbooks That Run – Now Open Source

Simple, free and efficient ad-blocker

Blockdiff: We built our own file format for VM disk snapshots

Nvidia Has Been Supplying NDA'ed Docs to Red Hat for Helping NVK Driver

Stable v2.0.0 Release of Immich

JackTrip: Multi-machine audio network performance over the Internet

Show HN: YNOT – Free, Open-Source YouTube Downloader

Open Source Blueprints for Civilization

The End of Tt-Rss.org