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MI6 chief: We'll be as fluent in Python as we are in Russian

https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/16/mi6_chief_well_be_as/
1•datelligence•2m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for UI design?

1•bhu1st•3m ago•0 comments

Hollywood Unites to Fight for Future with Launch of Creators Coalition on AI

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/hollywood-creators-coalition-on-ai-launch-mem...
1•thm•4m ago•0 comments

Copying the Code Is the Easy Part

1•bobbyblackstone•4m ago•0 comments

iRobot's Cofounder (Colin Angle) Weighs in on Company's Bankruptcy

https://spectrum.ieee.org/irobot-bankruptcy-colin-angle-amazon
1•v9v•7m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How do you learn marketing as a developer? It's so different from coding

1•Gooblebrai•9m ago•0 comments

Apriel-H1: Towards Efficient Enterprise Reasoning Models

https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02651
1•guiriduro•11m ago•1 comments

One extension that replaces all the browser tools

https://exportelement.com/
1•mddanishyusuf•12m ago•0 comments

SK hynix and Nvidia formalize joint SSD development to boost AI inference

https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-it/2025/12/16/UWDZYH4W4VDKLFQSNPGPJ2BBDI/
1•walterbell•15m ago•0 comments

Legit: Git for AI Agents

https://www.legitcontrol.com/
1•jannesblobel•17m ago•0 comments

Boot manager RefindPlus is a fork of rEFInd that provides extended functionality

https://github.com/RefindPlusRepo/RefindPlus
2•doener•20m ago•0 comments

How to fundraise in 3 weeks: The modern playbook by vastpoint

https://vastpoint.substack.com/p/eng-how-to-fundraise-in-3-weeks-the
1•kaku05ac•23m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: MCP calls leading to dynamic context length issues

1•jinen83•24m ago•0 comments

Xiaomi MiMo-V2-Flash Model

https://github.com/XiaomiMiMo/MiMo-V2-Flash
2•echostone•25m ago•0 comments

The REFInd Boot Manager

https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/index.html
1•doener•25m ago•0 comments

1k True Fans (2008)

https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
1•Tomte•26m ago•0 comments

Sully's "Miracle on the Hudson" safety advice not carried out (2016)

https://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/15/sullys-miracle-on-the-hudson-safety-advice-not-carried-out/
2•Tomte•26m ago•0 comments

Pupils reveal 'aphantasia', the absence of visual imagination

https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2022/04/windows-to-the-soul-pupils-reveal-aphantasia-the-ab...
2•thunderbong•26m ago•0 comments

Frontier of the Year 2025

https://www.renaissancephilanthropy.org/frontier2025
1•ath_ray•28m ago•0 comments

An 8-year-old defeats AI

https://www.uva.nl/shared-content/uva/en/news/press-releases/2025/12/an-8-year-old-defeats-ai.html
1•amelius•29m ago•0 comments

Keeping secrets, or (less than two weeks ago)

https://kellett.im/a/keeping-secrets
1•todsacerdoti•30m ago•0 comments

Analysing the surge in anti-migrant harassment and violence in Ireland – ISD

https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/clout-kicks-and-clicks-analysing-the-surge-in-anti-m...
1•rbanffy•32m ago•0 comments

What are your plans or resolutions for 2026?

1•ensocode•34m ago•0 comments

Kris: Cross-compile Janet projects with Zig

https://github.com/pyrmont/kris
1•todsacerdoti•34m ago•0 comments

Show HN: CommerceTXT – llms.txt for e-commerce (95% token reduction)

2•tsazan•35m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built RetroRTC A privacy-first,P2P retrospective tool /w no back end

https://github.com/aligundogdu/RetroRTC
1•aligundogdu•40m ago•0 comments

AmiBootEnv – Another Way to Turn a PC "Into an Amiga" [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc6jz2P6ZNA
1•doener•40m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Ekphos – An obsidian alternative TUI for brainstorming

https://github.com/hanebox/ekphos
1•haneboxx•41m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built middleware to connect legacy SOAP APIs to AI agents in 2 weeks

https://www.hopelessapi.com
2•Ugyen_Tech•41m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Grid Maker – Effortless AI Grid Paper and Image Slicer

https://www.grid-maker.net
1•funiqlab•44m ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Millihertz 5 Mechanical Computer (2022)

https://www.srimech.com/MHZ5.html
95•gene-h•7mo ago

Comments

thechao•7mo ago
I've always wanted to build (distinct) mechanical computers out of the following kinds of elements:

1. Spur-gear differential; and,

2. Shishi-odoshi.

Both of these are saturating mechanical devices that can be used to build NAND gates; the latter, I think, would be very pleasing, if exceedingly slow.

For the spur-gear differential, you'd need to up-scale the output by a factor of 2 (since the output is half-speed), and use a locking wedge to build a one-way gear out of one of the spur-gear differentials. However, it has the nice property that the logic is made entirely out of a single element: the spur-gear differential.

Similarly, for the shishi-odoshi: you're going to have to do a bit of analysis (drilling a hole in the bottom part of the bamboo ladle), to figure out the in-flow and out-flow to build the basic AND gate, and then balancing out the NOT gate, to build your basic NAND. This is, obviously, very finicky; but, I supposed, that'd be quite a bit of the charm of a Zen computer garden?

hnlmorg•7mo ago
A shishi-odoshi ALU would be amazing to see…and hear too.

I love that idea.

blackhaz•7mo ago
I wanna run my neural net on shishi-odoshi.
rightbyte•7mo ago
Has any computer been built out of spur-gear differentials? Like maybe some sort of adder circuit, not necessarily a full instruction executing computer. The only uses I could find was what seems to me like the differentials being part of some sort of analogue computer.
thechao•7mo ago
Spur gear differentials are naturally adders (with carry!); so, traditionally they've only ever been used for analogue logic. They're overly complicated for digital logic: you need two spur gears to build a single gate (NAND) to perform a single binary operation. If you want any sort of reasonable lash characteristics you're going to need ~60 teeth. At that point, two 60 teeth spur gears give you a 3600-valued adder. That'd take something like 300+ spur gears in binary: it just doesn't make any damn sense.

I think the last time I looked at this, if I used the cast spur gears available I needed a staged approach to "start" the computer and a 1100 hp motor to run it.

rightbyte•7mo ago
> a 1100 hp motor to run it

Oh, ye that sounds impractical. A really big truck engine more or less.

thechao•7mo ago
Convincing Mrs. thechao that we needed to drop 80000$ on a blown V8 to build a 4b 3 function calculator didn't workout, BTW.
rightbyte•7mo ago
Well I want to be on your side but I think one need to keep the dreams not within grasp but at least in sight.
jcgrillo•7mo ago
A huge steam engine might be the ticket, that'll solve your starting torque problem
byronknoll•7mo ago
I built some logic gates using water and a 3D printed "seesaw" that tilts to the left or right: https://byronknoll.blogspot.com/2022/06/water-computer.html
thechao•7mo ago
Beautiful! Thank you!
QuadmasterXLII•7mo ago
the shishi-odoshu seems like the more promising avenue. The key question in mechanical computing is never designing gates, its designing power amplifiers.
eccentricwind•7mo ago
What a gem of a site Thank you for sharing
mrandish•7mo ago
I just smile hearing the term "Millihertz Computer". I'd love it if building and designing mechanical and analog computers grew as a hobby/educational activity as I find them both fascinating and somehow satisfying.

Also, this 1950s Naval Training film explaining the fundamentals of how mechanical fire control computers work to solve complex problems is excellent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4

256_•7mo ago
I was incredibly surprised to find that this actually is a computer. Normally when you hear about a "computer" constructed in an unusual medium, it turns out to just be a binary adder or an analogue computer. I've learned to expect disappointment.
ryukoposting•7mo ago
About 8 years ago I visited TU Chemnitz and they had a lab making similar things to this. It wasn't clear to me what the goal was, but it was very cool nonetheless.
ogogmad•7mo ago
Is anyone going to produce a proof-of-concept Analytical Engine?

Will robots (which will hopefully soon be available) be able to do it?

tenthirtyam•7mo ago
This brings to mind two stories: Exhalation by Ted Chiang (short story), and the Three Body Problem (specifically the human computer) by Cixin Liu (novel length).

Exhalation really gets me thinking about what it means to be sentient & self-aware. If the neurons in our brains could, even in theory, be simulated by logic gates then, equally in theory, a Turing machine could be sentient. I can even imagine a bunch of rocks being sentient: https://xkcd.com/505/