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The better you get at something, the harder it becomes to do

https://seekingtrust.substack.com/p/improving-at-writing-made-me-almost
1•FinnLobsien•49s ago•0 comments

Show HN: WP Float – Archive WordPress blogs to free static hosting

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Show HN: I Hacked My Family's Meal Planning with an App

https://mealjar.app
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Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal
1•basilikum•5m ago•0 comments

The Future of Systems

https://novlabs.ai/mission/
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NASA now allowing astronauts to bring their smartphones on space missions

https://twitter.com/NASAAdmin/status/2019259382962307393
2•gbugniot•10m ago•0 comments

Claude Code Is the Inflection Point

https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/claude-code-is-the-inflection-point
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Show HN: MicroClaw – Agentic AI Assistant for Telegram, Built in Rust

https://github.com/microclaw/microclaw
1•everettjf•12m ago•2 comments

Show HN: Omni-BLAS – 4x faster matrix multiplication via Monte Carlo sampling

https://github.com/AleatorAI/OMNI-BLAS
1•LowSpecEng•12m ago•1 comments

The AI-Ready Software Developer: Conclusion – Same Game, Different Dice

https://codemanship.wordpress.com/2026/01/05/the-ai-ready-software-developer-conclusion-same-game...
1•lifeisstillgood•14m ago•0 comments

AI Agent Automates Google Stock Analysis from Financial Reports

https://pardusai.org/view/54c6646b9e273bbe103b76256a91a7f30da624062a8a6eeb16febfe403efd078
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Voxtral Realtime 4B Pure C Implementation

https://github.com/antirez/voxtral.c
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I Was Trapped in Chinese Mafia Crypto Slavery [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOcNaWmmn0A
2•mgh2•26m ago•0 comments

U.S. CBP Reported Employee Arrests (FY2020 – FYTD)

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/reported-employee-arrests
1•ludicrousdispla•28m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a free UCP checker – see if AI agents can find your store

https://ucphub.ai/ucp-store-check/
2•vladeta•33m ago•1 comments

Show HN: SVGV – A Real-Time Vector Video Format for Budget Hardware

https://github.com/thealidev/VectorVision-SVGV
1•thealidev•35m ago•0 comments

Study of 150 developers shows AI generated code no harder to maintain long term

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9EbCb5A408
1•lifeisstillgood•35m ago•0 comments

Spotify now requires premium accounts for developer mode API access

https://www.neowin.net/news/spotify-now-requires-premium-accounts-for-developer-mode-api-access/
1•bundie•38m ago•0 comments

When Albert Einstein Moved to Princeton

https://twitter.com/Math_files/status/2020017485815456224
1•keepamovin•39m ago•0 comments

Agents.md as a Dark Signal

https://joshmock.com/post/2026-agents-md-as-a-dark-signal/
2•birdculture•41m ago•0 comments

System time, clocks, and their syncing in macOS

https://eclecticlight.co/2025/05/21/system-time-clocks-and-their-syncing-in-macos/
1•fanf2•43m ago•0 comments

McCLIM and 7GUIs – Part 1: The Counter

https://turtleware.eu/posts/McCLIM-and-7GUIs---Part-1-The-Counter.html
2•ramenbytes•45m ago•0 comments

So whats the next word, then? Almost-no-math intro to transformer models

https://matthias-kainer.de/blog/posts/so-whats-the-next-word-then-/
1•oesimania•46m ago•0 comments

Ed Zitron: The Hater's Guide to Microsoft

https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com/post/3me7ibeym2c2n
2•vintagedave•49m ago•1 comments

UK infants ill after drinking contaminated baby formula of Nestle and Danone

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c931rxnwn3lo
1•__natty__•50m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Android-based audio player for seniors – Homer Audio Player

https://homeraudioplayer.app
3•cinusek•50m ago•2 comments

Starter Template for Ory Kratos

https://github.com/Samuelk0nrad/docker-ory
1•samuel_0xK•52m ago•0 comments

LLMs are powerful, but enterprises are deterministic by nature

2•prateekdalal•56m ago•0 comments

Make your iPad 3 a touchscreen for your computer

https://github.com/lemonjesus/ipad-touch-screen
2•0y•1h ago•1 comments

Internationalization and Localization in the Age of Agents

https://myblog.ru/internationalization-and-localization-in-the-age-of-agents
1•xenator•1h ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

The rise and fall of the Hanseatic League

https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-hanseatic-league/
192•loeber•6mo ago

Comments

KingOfCoders•6mo ago
I live in an Hanseatic League city (Stralsund) and the city still owns lots of land and is a rich one, hundreds of years later (though insignificant today).
yu3zhou4•6mo ago
Same here with Gdańsk, Poland. You can see the same Hanseatic influence even in this he architecture
cenamus•6mo ago
I was amazed when I visited, you can see just how much it looks like other Hanse-cities, Bremen for example. Of course a lot of it is newly constructed/restored, because there wasn't much left after the German did their thing with Poland in WW2
zurfer•6mo ago
Little nitpic, Gdansk was a free city, neither Polish nor German when nazis annexed it in 1939. Most of the destruction happened in 1945 because of fighting with the red army.
KingOfCoders•6mo ago
And the Russians. For some reasons everyone seems to forget that the invasion of Poland (and other East European countries) was a joint operation by Germany and Russia (not to diminish any atrocities etc. perpetuated by Germans).

Especially in this case, because the city was also called Danzig before and (after various owners over the centuries, mostly Polish [0]) was co-owned-German (free city, German leaning because of ethnicity) at the time of WW2. Destruction should then have been (haven't verified that) by the Red Army (again not to diminish any German war crimes - also [1]).

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gda%C5%84sk

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Westerplatte

rpastuszak•6mo ago
Ha, my high school was named after a related event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_of_the_Polish_Post_Off...)

Also known for a song about three boys, the youngest of whom—who, to put it mildly, didn’t have his life together—made a choice. (This is heavy dad-humour though.)

    Trzech synów matka miała,
    Dwóch słynęło z mądrości,
    A trzeci, co był głupi,
    Poszedł do łączności!
That said, it's a paraphrase of an older song about WWI.

(the school was fine, and my dorm was a constant nerd-fest, so I am not complaining)

geokon•6mo ago
i think its because the germans deliberately destroyed cities, like Warsaw (not sure if it was done as systemstically in other cities). they literally dynamited the old city and levelled it to the ground

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Warsaw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pabst_Plan

Krakow was famously deliberately spared on Hitler's orders

i dont think the soviets did the equivalent. And they poured a lot of resources in to restoring the old town in warsaw after the war

Id love to be corrected if im wrong

pirate787•6mo ago
Both Russia and Germany engaged in scorched earth destruction when on the retreat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbCGhqhKK-8

KingOfCoders•6mo ago
So you agree it was a joint military operation and everyone forgets that, but want to add the Germans were worse, which made everyone forget it was a joint operation?
bragh•6mo ago
Trying to paint Russians as the good guys, in 2025?

> The most extensive and destructive of the Soviet air assaults was carried out on 9–10 March 1944 in connection with the Battle of Narva. A week before, the mayor of Tallinn had given an order to the city dwellers to leave the town, but the evacuation failed, as the extent of the attack was beyond the expectations of the local people and the German Army Group North. The first attack, from 6:30 – 9:00 pm, saw 300 aircraft drop 3068 bombs, 1725 explosive and 1300 incendiary.[4][5][3] Bombers hit the capital again at 2 a.m. for an additional hour and a half.[3] The fire brigades were scarce on water, as Soviet saboteurs had blown up the city pumping station before the air raid. A large part of the wooden suburbs went up in flames, and the city centre suffered major damage. In all, about twenty percent of the buildings in Tallinn were burnt to the ground.[3]

> Military damage was minor, with a few military installations and supply stores destroyed. The major military loss was the burning of a million litres of fuel in the fuel depot. Of the enterprises with some military importance, the "Luther" plywood factory and the Urania-Werke-run cable factory were destroyed. Most of the bombs fell on the dwellings and public buildings, including the Estonia Theatre, St. Nicholas Church, the city synagogue, four cinemas, and the Tallinn City Archives.[6]

> According to the official report, 757 people were killed, of whom 586 were civilians, 50 were military personnel, and 121 were prisoners-of-war. 213 had serious injuries, 446 had minor injuries. Amongst the injured were 65 military servicemen and 75 prisoners-of-war. Later, more victims were found, with the number of deaths estimated at up to 800.[5] More than 20,000 people were left without a shelter in the spring thaw, while the military objects were almost untouched.[4][7] Immediately after the bombing raid Finnish air force bombers followed returning Soviet bombers to three military airbases near Leningrad and bombed them.[8] During the attack, fuel tanks were destroyed and ca 25 Soviet airplanes were shot down in Tallinn with an additional ten destroyed by the Finnish Air Force (Ilmavoimat) later the same night.[3] Finland's actions prevented a third attack wave, likely saving Tallinn’s old city from complete destruction.[9]

atlasunshrugged•6mo ago
Shameless plug for Tallinn but as I used to live there I have to also mention that despite the Soviets efforts the old town is well-preserved, lovely, and definitely worth a visit! I put together a visitors guide after a monthlong visit this May in case its useful: https://www.rebootinganation.com/exploring-tallinn
cenamus•6mo ago
Of course. But I'm the Russians did not make sure to level any building over three stories in basically any Polish city during their retreat
funnymunny•6mo ago
I would HIGHLY recommend visiting Visby (and Gotland, Sweden in general) for anyone interested in this sort of history
perihelions•6mo ago
There's a remarkable painting depicting that (Hanseatic-era Visby). I'd always been fascinated by the hats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdemar_Atterdag_holding_Visb... ("Valdemar Atterdag holding Visby to ransom, 1361")

wood_spirit•6mo ago
In the battle the local farmers resisted the Danes as they retreated to the walls of the town where the townsfolk didn’t let them in. They were slaughtered and then the townsfolk surrendered. The mass graves of the farmers have been a major archeological excavation.
woodpanel•6mo ago
looks like the urbanites always had a lack of compassion for the ruralites.
dgan•6mo ago
"Patrician II/III", anyone ? my favorite game when i was kid, second only to Civilization
thatspartan•6mo ago
Ahh, half-timbered houses, parties and pirate hunting. It was a nice day when GoG put it up as one of their good old games.
alecsm•6mo ago
I wanted Imperium III and I got Patrician III by mistake. I didn't know how to play it at first as it wasn't your typical strategy game but after a while it became my favorite game.

I ended up controlling the whole Hanseatic League from Lübeck.

Good times.

dgan•6mo ago
Lübeck wasn't even the "best" for anything

i distinctly remember the "beer from Gdansk -> Textile from Malmo -> sell everything in Lübeck" route

alecsm•6mo ago
No, it wasn't the best but it's the first city I picked and I ended up liking it the most.

Also I think it was the easiest wealthy city to raid as a pirate, so you could donate a lot of money as a mayor and then steal it as a pirate only to donate it again and earn reputation.

spankibalt•6mo ago
The first title of the series either came bundled with my first sound card, or I bought it separately at the same time.
weinzierl•6mo ago
I enjoyed "Die Fugger" a lot. Unfortunately it never saw the success of "The Patrician".

The following funny little side story might have contributed to that:

The game's publisher Sonflower was sued by a descendant of the Fugger family because they claimed the game puts the name of his family in a bad light. They won and "Die Fugger II" could not be sold anymore. "Die Fugger III" appeared under the name "Die Gilde".

fleischhauf•6mo ago
die Fugger, best Game of my childhood! thanks for the reminder!
p_l•6mo ago
Oh, didn't know the game I know as "The Guild" had a longer past.

It had 2 more sequels after Die Gilde, in fact.

SilasX•6mo ago
When I was an exchange student in Germany, the host family had Hanse: Die Expedition[1] on their computer, which they explained to me but I also had to kind of feel my way through, not being completely fluent in German. You'd play as a merchant, sending out salt to other ports to trade for goods. Each turn was a year, and it would go through many generations, the goal being to contribute enough from your profits to build a cathedral.

Other things I remember:

- When you'd die, you'd pick an heir from your kids. They would be described as (sometimes you were supposed to understand as) being skilled at either fighting, exploring, or trading. If you didn't have an old enough one to pick, you'd have to pay a lot for some godparent to take over in the interim.

- You could raise capital by selling shares in your operation, but the more shares outstanding, the more interest (Zinsen) you'd have to pay. (You could also buy them back, but they'd be more expensive when you had a good year.)

- If you couldn't pay your obligations, you'd lose a turn to the Schuldturm (debtor's prison, lit. "debt tower").

- You could send explorers to find more lucrative ports, Novgorod being a good one.

- Depending on the weather, you might lose ships. Sometimes you wouldn't want to send any out, in which case it would warn you, "Keine Koggen auf der See! Zug wirklich beenden?" ("No cogs[2] on the sea! Really end turn?")

- You would get random events each turn, one of them being a soothsayer that would offer to predict your fortune. They would then give you the option to pay for extra advice, which would always be "Don't trust charlatans!"

- As your empire expanded, you'd be promoted in rank, some of the higher ones being Senator or Patrician.

- There would be battles, as nobles would sometimes attack your ports.

[1] https://www.mobygames.com/game/9273/hanse-die-expedition/

[2] A kind of ship used back then (also mentioned in the article as replacing the Knarr): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cog_(ship)?useskin=vector

webslung•6mo ago
If you’re interested in merchant trade especially on the sea, explore the history from 970-931 BCE. It’s incredibly interesting.
nkzd•6mo ago
Any specific recommendation? I'd like to watch a documentary on it.
hnthrowaway3000•6mo ago
Found some:

History Channel Documentary - King Solomon And The Queen Of Sheba https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VE9-6kHW6Q

The Priceless Treasure Of The Queen Of Sheba | Myth Hunters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tpoz1rGuM

The Story of the Queen of Sheba https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSPuFjFeuYQ

The Queen of Sheba's Mysterious Legacy (S2, E8) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq32h2zzg5o

Sheba: The Lost Kingdom of the Queen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySHMIeJW3lE

The Lost Gold of King Solomon (S1, E7) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWG4geGLHQ

The Naked Archaeologist 206 - The Legacy of King Solomon Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGjETo2221k

The Entire History of the Phoenicians (2500 - 300 BC) Ancient History https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-p8OZz5KJoo

The Phoenicians: Princes of the Sea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLHj1n9VTdI

History of the Phoenicians: The Maritime Superpowers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU4aU5yoyp4

Revealing a Lost Mediterranean Civilization from the Levant to Spain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmp-d6XhQjM

The Quest For The Phoenicians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBObLQZdeq8

Quest for the Phoenicians (National Geographic Documentary) https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9hsjf8

The Phoenicians Before Columbus Expedition | WYL Ep. 201 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcnYtAqn0iw

Phoenicians Before Columbus - Video for the Explorer's Club NY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-jjFiiosh7A

Ancient Egypt - When Egyptians Ruled the Sea | FD Ancient History https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGTXqmbM-0w

When Ancient Egyptians Ruled the Sea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RMuyEyCDTw

Sea Peoples: The Ancient Warriors Who Challenged Egypt https://www.youtube.com/shorts/i0XTCjjg3mQ

Sea Peoples and the Bronze Age Collapse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CB7bo4f6E8

1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M4LRHJlijVU

The Minoans | Ancient Worlds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VJqnTlbCS0

The Surprisingly Sophisticated Conveniences of Mycenae https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VmObzEWIEA

Ancient Sailing Ships from Bronze Age Scandinavia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aFoy25t_Ns

The Nordic Bronze Age: Best Time to Ever be Alive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_yKrkna1Dc

Lost Worlds of the Mediterranean | Drain the Oceans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmH4FDs3yl0

Explore the Hidden Wonders of Jordan and Iran with Christopher Clark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeF_Y4OU9ow

dr_dshiv•6mo ago
Man I hate to ask for a non-video resource after your link generosity, but if you know one, I’ll be that guy.
codethief•6mo ago
> History Channel Documentary - King Solomon And The Queen Of Sheba

Thanks, I just spent 2 months in Ethiopia and have been wanting to learn more about Queen Sheba!

Bridged7756•6mo ago
I thought of the Hanza from the Metro books. I guess my European history knowledge isn't that great.
m0d0nne11•6mo ago
Firstly, the article is appreciated - thanks. Now a minor gripe: several links I've clicked for further info point at paywalled matter, even for straightforward explanatory stuff like "moldboard plows" and, yes - I can go find info about such plows elsewhere but it breaks the stride when all that's needed is a sentence or two for clarification, not somebody's curated PhD thesis... ;->
dr_dshiv•6mo ago
Hansa wasn’t a democracy or an autocracy — in my understanding, it was an entirely consensus-based organization. At the Bremen town hall, I learned about the tagfahrt, where they would wait for the representatives to come to consensus. Once they started the meeting, it would continue for days until they actually reached consensus.
nabla9•6mo ago
Just like European Council or NATO.

In European Council proposal will only be adopted if all member states are in agreeance. Formal voting does not take place, the member states deliberate until they reach general agreement.

NATO is the same. Any Article consultations like Article 4, or 5 end with consensus. One country can water it down.

Consensus based does not mean equal. Big participants usually throw their weight around a lot.

ecshafer•6mo ago
There is a great podcast, The History of the Germans, that have a season on the Hanseatic League. Its a great podcast if you enjoy history in general, the host isn't a professor or anything, but he does a great job with research and also makes interesting connections with how certain events were interpreted by German Nationalists, Fascists, Modern Day, etc. which is interesting.

https://historyofthegermans.com/hanseatic-league/

eatonphil•6mo ago
Hamburg is mentioned in the article but not shown on the map?
aswegs8•6mo ago
It just shows the Kontors
junon•6mo ago
If you are ever in the Hamburg area, I highly recommend making a day trip with the Regional train up to Lübeck to visit the Hanse Museum.

It's one of the most beautifully designed museums on a specific topic like this I've ever seen (it's also very accessible). The entire museum and all of its stations are translated into various languages by scanning a card you set up at the beginning, including customizing your information experience with certain topics you're particularly interested in (I chose naval architecture, if memory serves).

There's a cute coffee shop or two right there in the complex too, and the entirety of Lübeck is a beautiful, cozy area too. Many of the old Hanseatic buildings still stand as they were relatively untouched by the war.

Another hour in the same direction on the train takes you to the Travemünde beaches which are also gorgeous. Makes for a good day trip.

weinzierl•6mo ago
And if you always wanted to visit Hamburg you could easily combine it with attending Chaos Communication Congress. Two birds with one stone!

Other nerdy things to do there:

- Visit the container terminals of Europe's third busiest port

- Go to the Miniaturwunderland

- If you are into architecture or music: Elbphilharmonie

willvarfar•6mo ago
Yeap have heard from (grown up!) friends about https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ and always wanted to visit!
ahartmetz•6mo ago
I spent three and half hours there and it felt rushed0. I would highly recommend watching some behind the scenes videos before going, it makes things that much more interesting.
elcapitan•6mo ago
> easily combine it with attending Chaos Communication Congress

"Easily" as in "26th to 30th of December, and tickets are available on three days in November if you can click fast enough" ;)

weinzierl•6mo ago
I hear you but 26th to 30th of December is the perfect time, what else are going to do in this otherwise useless part of the year? Have family? Bring them, C3 is a pretty family friendly event.

Also, clicking fast is what we nerds excel at, right;-)

More seriously, when it comes to tickets my impression was that the post-pandemic years were pretty relaxed with only last year becoming more difficult again.

elcapitan•6mo ago
I've been to C3 when it was in Berlin, then in Hamburg, then in Leipzig, but haven't been to it since it's back in Hamburg after the pandemic - before that it was always a bit of a fight with crashing ticket systems and other people's perl scripts :D So not necessarily my definition of something that you can easily just do on a spontaneous visit to Hamburg ;)
hermitcrab•6mo ago
>Visit the container terminals of Europe's third busiest port

I wish more big industrial sites were set up for tourist access: mines, quarries, dams, ports etc. But maybe I'm just strange.

LargoLasskhyfv•6mo ago
What exactly do you mean by - Visit the container terminals of Europe's third busiest port ?

It's not like you could walk or ride around in there, and you shouldn't either.

It's all fenced, secured.

There are a few vantage points from where you can see into them, from afar, or the other side of the river, but that's it.

Drones? Uh Oh! Better not! Lingering around the fences to get a better view? Are you trying to find the smuggled drugs in some container? Trespassing into some empty quay which has recently been torn down, then elevated, now lying empty, to explore the growth of so called 'pioneer plants'? Better not, because signs say fine is 1000EUR. GULP!

danans•6mo ago
> The next year, Edward II reaffirmed Hansa merchants’ freedom from taxes, travel, and arrest in exchange for £1,000 (which would have been three percent of the Crown’s total annual tax revenues). Remarkably, he even promised that neither he nor subsequent kings would place new restrictions on the Hansa without their consent. These privileges ensured that Hanseatic merchants paid even lower tax rates than their English counterparts.

Autocracy and the absence of accountability (either financial or criminal) for the very wealthy is an age old problem that we still deal with.

carlosjobim•6mo ago
How can people muster up the bile to be jealous and resentful of people who died hundreds of years ago? They are dust, you are alive. Do something with the fantastic gift of life while you still have it. Soon enough you will also be dust.
psalaun•6mo ago
Where do you see jealousy in the comment?
doug_durham•6mo ago
What a well written piece. This is why I come to Hacker News. Bravo.
aswegs8•6mo ago
My thoughts exactly!