Hacker Times

A DOS utility inspired Andy Hertzfeld to consider a Macintosh application switcher

In an account dated October 1984, Andy Hertzfeld recalls seeing Byte reviewer John Markoff switch between programs on a DOS PC during a Thunderscan demonstration. The experience prompted Hertzfeld to consider a similar utility for the 512K Macintosh. Microsoft’s Macintosh applications team was also interested in an application switcher and invited Hertzfeld to discuss developing one under contract.

folklore.org11 comments

Google Antigravity adds Gemini 4 Hydrogen and Orchestrator

Google says Gemini 4 Hydrogen is rolling out in Antigravity for paid AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. Its new Orchestrator option dynamically combines Hydrogen with a stronger model, such as Gemini 4 Carbon, across a task. On Terminal-Bench 4.1, Orchestrator achieved near-Carbon task success rates while using 24% less quota on average and finishing 19% faster. Orchestrator is rolling out as Carbon and Argon options for Ultra subscribers and as Argon for Pro subscribers.

antigravity.google96 comments

Astronomers identify distant dwarf planet candidate with a 281-year orbit

Astronomers identified 2026 ED138 in Vera C. Rubin Observatory data and confirmed its presence in earlier images dating back to 1937. The object is about 46 times farther from the Sun than Earth and takes 281.1 years to orbit it. Its estimated diameter ranges from 370 to 930 miles, but astronomers must measure its size more precisely to determine whether it is round enough to qualify as a dwarf planet.

smithsonianmag.com109 comments

The conversation

Technology

Nvidia employees urge board to bring back Jensen Huang after resignation

An internal Nvidia suggestion-box post urging the board to consider employee sentiment before acting on Jensen Huang’s future has drawn more than 1,600 comments, some calling for his return, WIRED reports. One employee also sent a companywide email demanding transparency about Huang’s exit and expressing support for him. Huang resigned after reports of multiple alleged affairs; in an email to employees, he acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife. Nvidia named CFO Colette Kress interim CEO and appointed Harvey Jones board chair.

wired.com226 comments

Residents shoulder most grid costs linked to data center growth, study finds

A Cornell study of four U.S. power grids found that data centers paid an average of 38% of the $8.25 billion in infrastructure costs linked to their growth in 2025, leaving $5.13 billion largely to residents. The researchers said data center expansion also raised wholesale electricity prices in some hubs, while rural and lower-income households faced disproportionate energy burdens. They recommend revising cost-sharing rules and reducing data center use during peak demand.

news.cornell.edu208 comments

AI

Google introduces Gemini 4 Hydrogen model for coding and agent workflows

Google has introduced Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a model designed for coding and agentic workflows, either as a standalone tool or alongside its Carbon and Argon models. The company says Hydrogen is available across Google AI Studio, the Gemini API, Gemini for business, the Gemini app, Google Search and paid AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions in Google Antigravity. Google lists prices of $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens, and says the model can use a context window of up to 1 million tokens.

blog.google317 comments

Study finds Blackwell fingerprints in six Chinese AI models

A forensic analysis of publicly released model weights reports numerical patterns matching NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in six models from DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax and Ant Group, while earlier releases from the labs matched Hopper-generation hardware. The analysis says the fingerprints indicate how the weights were initialized and support, but do not prove, that Blackwell chips were used for training. It does not establish where the chips were located, how access was obtained or whether export controls were violated. Estimates of GPU counts and costs are described as uncertain.

unemploymentlabs.com62 comments

Software

Researcher describes 22-year-old PostgreSQL type-confusion flaw

In a blog post, Mehmet recounts how investigating memory-corruption bugs in PostgreSQL extensions led him to study how PostgreSQL represents and interprets data. He says he uncovered a 22-year-old zero-day in PostgreSQL core: changing the declared type of a field in a composite value and reading it back caused type confusion and, he writes, a highly reliable memory-corruption exploit. The supplied excerpt explains PostgreSQL’s Datum and type-system basics but does not include the remainder of the investigation.

mehmetince.net29 comments

Science

Article examines why writing correct software is difficult

The article explores the difficulty of producing correct software, drawing on computability and complexity theory. It explains how results including the halting theorem show that no algorithm can decide whether every program terminates or determine every non-trivial property of program behavior, and argues that verification tools can help but correctness carries unavoidable costs.

pron.github.io173 comments

Radio pulses traced to white dwarf orbiting Sun-like star

Researchers linked recurring radio pulses from the long-period transient system GPM J071507−114153 to a region near, or possibly on, a white dwarf that spins every eight minutes and orbits a G-type star similar to the Sun. It is the first time radio pulses have been detected from a white dwarf paired with a Sun-like star. The team also detected stellar flares on the companion, more than 5,000 light-years away. The study was published in Nature Astronomy.

curtin.edu.au60 comments

Culture

Sierra’s rise, upheaval and return in a history of the game developer

A 2017 retrospective traces Sierra from its 1979 beginnings as On-Line Systems, founded by Ken and Roberta Williams, through the creation of Mystery House and the King’s Quest, Space Quest and other adventure series. It recounts the company’s growth, acquisitions and restructuring, its closure after Activision’s 2007 merger with Vivendi Games, and Sierra’s 2014 return as a studio focused on new downloadable games.

retrofreakreviews.com24 comments

Business

Anthropic IPO roadshow set to begin Nov. 10, shares expected to trade Nov. 19

Anthropic says its IPO roadshow is scheduled to begin Nov. 10, with the final share price expected to be set Nov. 18 and trading on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT expected to start Nov. 19, subject to regulatory clearance. The company reported Q3 2026 revenue of $17 billion and a net loss of $23.3 billion, including a $21.9 billion non-cash charge tied to changes in the fair value of convertible notes, derivative liabilities and SAFEs. It plans to offer Class A common stock; investors can request shares through participating brokerage platforms, but allocations are not guaranteed.

ipo.anthropic.com838 comments

Games

OpenQ4 update makes unreleased Quake 4 expansion playable

OpenQ4 0.14.1 adds The Awakening, an unreleased Quake 4 expansion, as a second campaign alongside the original. The mod rebuilds the expansion’s monsters, weapons and vehicles in its own engine and fixes issues in the recovered alpha content. Players need their own copy of Quake 4; openQ4 does not include the expansion’s files. The Awakening is based on unfinished alpha content, and full-playthrough testing is still in progress.

moddb.com91 comments