Episode Details

This is a recap of the top 10 posts on Hacker News on Sep 14, 2026.

Feel free to leave feedback on Github: https://github.com/denolfe/hacker-news-highlights

• (00:00) - Intro
• (00:17) - Fable 5.1 Solves the Cyphral Distich, a 370-year-old cipher
• (01:34) - Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
• (02:53) - Astra and Fable still hack on simple variants of alignment evals from 2025
• (04:17) - Data collected by cars and sold to third parties
• (05:37) - Registration without a phone number on Signal will use zero-knowledge proofs
• (06:41) - Spaceships (Reverse Asteroid)
• (07:51) - Julia 1.13 highlights
• (09:00) - Apple's Dimensional Drawings
• (10:29) - Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)
• (11:41) - The case against JPEG XL
• (13:08) - Outro

Fable 5.1 Solves the Cyphral Distich, a 370-year-old cipher
https://www.vals.ai/blogs/fable-solves-cyphral-distich
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49688695

Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
https://www.atomic14.com/2026/09/13/why-is-google-still-serving-dodgy-ads
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686445

Astra and Fable still hack on simple variants of alignment evals from 2025
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/munJKF7iWMsWJLAH2/astra-and-fable-still-hack-on-simple-variants-of-alignment
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49684393

Data collected by cars and sold to third parties
https://www.theverge.com/column/994172/your-car-is-selling-your-data
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683953

Registration without a phone number on Signal will use zero-knowledge proofs
https://community.signalusers.org/t/registration-without-a-phone-number/2222?page=10
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689048

Spaceships (Reverse Asteroid)
https://spaceships.treybastian.com/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49638510

Julia 1.13 highlights
https://julialang.org/blog/2026/09/julia-1.13-highlights/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642645

Apple's Dimensional Drawings
https://developer.apple.com/accessories/dimensional-drawings/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690174

Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686380

The case against JPEG XL
https://giannirosato.com/blog/post/case-against-jxl/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690554