Apple locks a long-time user out of their digital life, researchers put a price tag on manipulating elections with fake accounts, and Apple quietly turns Thunderbolt into a DIY AI supercomputer fabric. In this episode, we dive into platform power, the economics of online manipulation, and the a blurring line between consumer hardware and AI clusters. We also explore how “skills” system could change how we build on top of AI models, and we pull out the most practical advice from an “Ask HN” on getting better at using AI for programming.
We also cover Twilio Segment’s move back to a monolith (and what it says about microservices hype) and a nostalgic celebration of Dick Van Dyke at 100 as an Amiga-loving computer animator.

Stories covered in this episode:

1. 00:54 Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help

- Rank: 7 - Points: 1457 - Comments: 876

- Article: https://hey.paris/posts/appleid/

- HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252114

2. 04:11 Want to sway an election? Here’s how much fake online accounts cost

- Rank: 5 - Points: 158 - Comments: 111

- Article: https://www.science.org/content/article/want-sway-election-here-s-how-much-fake-online-accounts-cost

- HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46257871

3. 08:20 macOS 26.2 enables fast AI clusters with RDMA over Thunderbolt

- Rank: 2 - Points: 520 - Comments: 277

- Article: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-26_2-release-notes#RDMA-over-Thunderbolt

- HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248644

4. 12:05 OpenAI are quietly adopting skills, now available in ChatGPT and Codex CLI

- Rank: 1 - Points: 548 - Comments: 310

- Article: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/12/openai-skills/

- HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46250332

5. 14:23 Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?

- Rank: 9 - Points: 302 - Comments: 322

- Article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46255285

- HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46255285

6. 16:53 Why Twilio Segment Moved from Microservices Back to a Monolith

- Rank: 1 - Points: 216 - Comments: 176

- Article: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/developers/best-practices/goodbye-microservices

- HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46257714

7. 19:55 Computer Animator and Amiga fanatic Dick Van Dyke turns 100

- Rank: 12 - Points: 236 - Comments: 85

- Article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252993

- HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252993