2026-02-14
news

Hacker News Digest — 2026-02-14

Daily HN summary for February 14, 2026, focusing on the top stories and the themes that dominated discussion.

Themes

  • Control vs addiction: users want ways to disable Shorts/recommendation dark patterns and regain agency.
  • Preservation vs paywalls: publishers are tightening access to archives as AI scraping turns public repositories into extraction pipelines.
  • Security debt in consumer devices: shared credentials and open brokers turn “smart” products into privacy hazards.
  • Small, joyful engineering: tiny chess engines and faithful web ports scratch the itch for craftsmanship.

uBlock filter list to hide all YouTube Shorts (https://github.com/i5heu/ublock-hide-yt-shorts/)

Summary: A maintained uBlock Origin filter list hides YouTube Shorts (and optionally comments) via a simple “import filter list” URL.

Discussion:

  • People complain Shorts and rage-bait get pushed even when they repeatedly signal “not interested.”
  • Popular coping strategies include turning off watch history (kills the feed) and using alternative clients/extensions.

Babylon 5 is now free to watch on YouTube (https://cordcuttersnews.com/babylon-5-is-now-free-to-watch-on-youtube/)

Summary: Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly uploading Babylon 5 episodes to YouTube on a weekly cadence, repositioning a legacy series on a free platform.

Discussion:

  • Many say the headline oversells it: only a handful of episodes are up, with missing/misnumbered entries.
  • Tangent: physical media vs streaming, and the practical reality that ripping often works better than “official” playback.

Ooh.directory: a place to find good blogs that interest you (https://ooh.directory/)

Summary: A one-person, hand-curated blog directory organizes sites by topic and spotlights recently updated/added blogs.

Discussion:

  • Lots of support for human curation as a response to search quality collapse and AI-generated “slop.”
  • Some want transparency/community governance; the maintainer emphasizes it’s a taste-driven hobby project.

News publishers limit Internet Archive access due to AI scraping concerns (https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/news-publishers-limit-internet-archive-access-due-to-ai-scraping-concerns/)

Summary: Publishers are restricting Internet Archive access (especially APIs) to reduce the risk that AI companies scrape their content via archival backdoors.

Discussion:

  • Many argue independent archives are essential for accountability and capturing silent edits.
  • Others propose delayed public access as a compromise between preservation and revenue.

My smart sleep mask broadcasts users’ brainwaves to an open MQTT broker (https://aimilios.bearblog.dev/reverse-engineering-sleep-mask/)

Summary: Reverse engineering found shared MQTT credentials in an IoT sleep mask app, exposing live EEG streams and potentially enabling remote control commands.

Discussion:

  • Worry that rushed “vibe-coded” products ship insecure defaults (shared creds, no auth) that become systemic hazards.
  • Debate about LLMs: helpful for skilled operators, dangerous when used as an “expert replacement.”

IBM tripling entry-level jobs after finding the limits of AI adoption (https://fortune.com/2026/02/13/tech-giant-ibm-tripling-gen-z-entry-level-hiring-according-to-chro-rewriting-jobs-ai-era/)

Summary: IBM says it’s expanding entry-level hiring while rewriting roles around AI fluency, arguing pipelines matter even as tasks automate.

Discussion:

  • Skepticism about measurable productivity gains and how orgs should actually evaluate them.
  • Some interpret it as labor-mix strategy rather than a true “AI limits” reversal.

Show HN: Sameshi – a ~1200 Elo chess engine that fits within 2KB (https://github.com/datavorous/sameshi)

Summary: A minimal chess engine (~1.95KB header) implements negamax + alpha-beta with a constrained ruleset and an estimated ~1170 Elo at fixed depth.

Discussion:

  • The project scratches a demoscene-style constraint: how small can you make something non-trivial while staying correct?

Ask HN: How to get started with robotics as a hobbyist? (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46934622)

Summary: A beginner asks how to get into robotics; replies emphasize motors/sensors + small projects before heavyweight stacks.

Discussion:

  • Strong advice to build a concrete project (“make it do the thing”) instead of spending months in ROS land.
  • Mixed views on ROS: overkill for hobbyists vs unavoidable standard for many “serious” platforms.

YouTube as Storage (https://github.com/PulseBeat02/yt-media-storage)

Summary: A tool encodes files into lossless video (with redundancy and optional encryption) so they can be uploaded to YouTube and later reconstructed.

Discussion:

  • Skepticism about ToS, deletion risk, and whether re-encoding breaks recoverability.
  • Broader thread on long-tail storage economics and whether platforms eventually compress/delete “low value” content.

Descent, ported to the web (https://mrdoob.github.io/three-descent/)

Summary: A browser-playable take on the classic 6DoF shooter Descent rekindles nostalgia and highlights web graphics experimentation.

Discussion:

  • People reminisce about controls, soundtracks, and recommend spiritual successors like Overload.
  • Some report choppy audio/stutter depending on browser/OS.