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Google Trust Services: Outdated BR version in some validation records

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2017747
1•raquuk•4m ago•1 comments

Hankweave: A runtime for data agents, designed for debugging

https://github.com/SouthBridgeAI/hankweave-runtime
3•hrishi•5m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Learn about and play with HDR gain maps on the web

https://www.hdr.toys/
1•thebigsasha•8m ago•0 comments

You Know It

https://gist.github.com/firatsarlar/0a1400f67a9c88516ebdfb2a7782ca93
1•firatsarlar•11m ago•0 comments

Show HN: An English teaching game playable in browser (concept)

https://qcgeneral29.github.io/Lets-Learn-Build/
1•LandenLove•13m ago•0 comments

The Brown University shooter and the MIT professor he killed

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/17/metro/brown-shooter-mit-professor-portugal/
1•osnium123•14m ago•0 comments

Security audit of OpenClaw and other similar open source AI Agents

https://www.prismor.dev/blog/openclaw-ai-agents-security-audit
3•noobcoder•15m ago•1 comments

Meet The Przewalski's Horse: The Last True Wild Horse on Earth

https://animalko.com/meet-the-przewalskis-horse-the-last-true-wild-horse-on-earth/
1•thunderbong•15m ago•0 comments

Collection of Slide Rule Replicas

https://thingsabove.github.io/Sliderule-Simulator-with-Solver/
1•zdw•16m ago•0 comments

Claude was down and performance degraded 2x

https://isitnerfed.org
1•rumble_poster•17m ago•0 comments

Building an Elite AI Engineering Culture in 2026

https://www.cjroth.com/blog/2026-02-18-building-an-elite-engineering-culture
1•thoughtfulchris•19m ago•0 comments

HumanCompiler – Compile humans into AI agents – a Claude Code plugin

https://github.com/Gerstep/HumanCompiler
1•oger•20m ago•0 comments

AI Agents Are Taking America by Storm

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/02/post-chatbot-claude-code-ai-agents/686029/
1•aarvinroshin•22m ago•0 comments

European Tech Alternatives

https://eutechmap.com/map
6•puppion•25m ago•0 comments

AgentPuzzles – API‑first timed puzzle arena and public leaderboard for AI agents

https://agentpuzzles.com
1•petruspennanen•27m ago•1 comments

New Website, New Technology

https://www.grepular.com/New_Website_New_Technology
3•bundie•30m ago•0 comments

Why don't entrepreneurs talk about starting businesses publicly anymore?

1•silexia•39m ago•0 comments

I Built Local Memory for Coding Agents Because They Keep Forgetting Everything

https://muhammadraza.me/2026/building-local-memory-for-coding-agents/
4•mr_o47•50m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a pre-push safety net for AI-generated code

https://github.com/asamassekou10/ship-safe
1•asamassekou•51m ago•0 comments

FemtoClaw

https://crates.io/crates/femtoclaw_rs
1•lygten•51m ago•0 comments

Miserable Polestar 4 'Feature' a Symbol for What Is Wrong with Modern Cars

https://www.theautopian.com/this-miserable-feature-of-the-polestar-4-feels-like-a-symbol-for-what...
3•patrikcsak•53m ago•0 comments

Show HN: CodeSprout – HTML Vibecoder for Kids

https://qeditor.dev/
1•dpweb•54m ago•0 comments

Upstart Sarvam Unveils AI Model Customized for India Market

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-18/upstart-sarvam-unveils-ai-model-customized-for...
1•akbarnama•54m ago•0 comments

Is Python Still the King of AI in 2026?

https://codebitdaily.blogspot.com/2026/02/why-python-is-king-ai-2026.html
1•CodeBit26•57m ago•0 comments

Stateful sandbox environments (for AI agents)

https://sprites.dev/
1•Martin-Carlsson•1h ago•0 comments

OpenClaw Partners with VirusTotal for Skill Security

https://openclaw.ai/blog/virustotal-partnership
1•emilzo•1h ago•1 comments

ReferenceFinder: Find coordinates on a piece of paper with only folds

https://mutsuntsai.github.io/reference-finder/
2•icwtyjj•1h ago•0 comments

Memory Mania: How a Once-in-Four-Decades Shortage Is Fueling a Memory Boom

https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/memory-mania-how-a-once-in-four-decades
1•littlexsparkee•1h ago•0 comments

Apple Releases iOS 26 Adoption Rates; They're in Line with the Last Few Years

https://daringfireball.net/2026/02/apple_releases_ios_26_adoption_rates
3•JumpCrisscross•1h ago•0 comments

Open-source React dashboard for OpenClaw – visual UI for every CLI command

https://github.com/actionagentai/openclaw-dashboard
1•marconahmias•1h ago•1 comments
Open in hackernews

Millihertz 5 Mechanical Computer (2022)

https://www.srimech.com/MHZ5.html
95•gene-h•9mo ago

Comments

thechao•9mo 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•9mo ago
A shishi-odoshi ALU would be amazing to see…and hear too.

I love that idea.

blackhaz•9mo ago
I wanna run my neural net on shishi-odoshi.
rightbyte•9mo 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•9mo 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•9mo ago
> a 1100 hp motor to run it

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

thechao•9mo 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•9mo 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•9mo ago
A huge steam engine might be the ticket, that'll solve your starting torque problem
byronknoll•9mo 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•9mo ago
Beautiful! Thank you!
QuadmasterXLII•9mo 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•9mo ago
What a gem of a site Thank you for sharing
mrandish•9mo 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_•9mo 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•9mo 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•9mo 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•9mo 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/