8.21.26 | Aaron Swartz prosecution, AliExpress WebAudio fingerprinting, HTML capabilities

This is a recap of the top 10 posts on Hacker News on Aug 21, 2026.

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

• (00:00) - Intro
• (00:18) - Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence
• (01:41) - AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint
• (02:51) - HTML Can Do That
• (04:09) - I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
• (05:43) - Malicious Rust crate Arrayref runs a build-time payload
• (07:27) - The August 17 outage
• (08:47) - CIA funding helped keep NeXT afloat in the 80s
• (09:46) - Mojo is now open source
• (11:05) - Git at any scale
• (12:28) - Show HN: Huzzah – a novel approach to coding with AI
• (13:59) - Outro

Aaron Swartz was prosecuted for scraping, while Meta does it without consequence
https://blog.curiousquail.com/im-upset-again-about-a-co-creator-of-rss-being-prosecuted-for-something-meta-is-doing-with-little-consequence/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49379550

AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint
https://blog.laserphile.com/2026/08/aliexpress-webpage-keeping-multipoint.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49372583

HTML Can Do That
https://chrisburnell.com/html-can-do-that/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49362689

I like 'em thick: an apology to my English teachers
https://www.experimental-history.com/p/i-like-em-thick
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49347543

Malicious Rust crate Arrayref runs a build-time payload
https://safedep.io/arrayref-proc-macro1-rust-build-time-malware/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49374269

The August 17 outage
https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/the-august-17-outage-and-the-work-ahead/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49378957

CIA funding helped keep NeXT afloat in the 80s
https://www.wsj.com/tech/steve-jobs-apple-next-cia-161b65f9?st=NWWds1&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49368886

Mojo is now open source
https://www.modular.com/blog/mojo-open-source
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49348079

Git at any scale
https://cursor.com/blog/git-at-any-scale
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49348141

Show HN: Huzzah – a novel approach to coding with AI
https://www.danielvaughn.dev/posts/huzzah/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49378768