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A simple Python implementation of the ReAct pattern for LLMs

https://til.simonwillison.net/llms/python-react-pattern
1•auraham•1m ago•0 comments

NASA Invites Media, Public to Join Voyager 1 One-Light Day Activities

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-public-to-join-voyager-1-one-light-day-activ...
1•sohkamyung•2m ago•0 comments

Glider flight with night vision goggles

https://www.weglide.org/flight/1260716
2•sammelaugust•4m ago•0 comments

OpenRouter is now part of Stripe

https://twitter.com/stripe/status/2120240651778355306
2•mfiguiere•5m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Warmctl – Fast cold starts for vLLM inference

https://github.com/TensorRails/warmctl
1•kbesplv•6m ago•0 comments

How Did Greek Fire Work? and 6 Other Lost Inventions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/11/09/science/lost-inventions-to-time-greek-fire-antikythera.html
1•bookofjoe•8m ago•0 comments

Show HN: A Git friendly open API client

https://github.com/awake-client/awake
1•clementherve•9m ago•0 comments

Resistance exercise attenuates lean mass loss during tirzepatide therapy

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04752-5
1•ai_critic•10m ago•0 comments

GitLab patch release 19.5.4 fixes CVE-2026-105437 (vulnerability in Git)

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release/patch-release-blogs/-/blob/main/doc/releases/patch-release-...
1•p4bl0•10m ago•0 comments

One ticket a day, keeps the doctor away

https://tiagoaraujo.site/posts/one-ticket-a-day/
1•tiago_human•11m ago•0 comments

Update on October 2026 security incident

https://fireworks.ai/security/bulletins/october-2026-security-incident-update
2•maayank•14m ago•1 comments

The Breach Took an Hour. The Recovery Took a Day

https://rameninc.substack.com/p/the-breach-took-an-hour-the-recovery
1•Rameninc•15m ago•0 comments

After 7 Months, Glasswing Overwelms Maintainers with Underwhelming Findings

https://www.vulncheck.com/blog/anthropic-glasswing-november-update
3•panic•16m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Movement breaks that only show up while Claude Code is working

https://github.com/mamrezme/30yr-uptime
2•imohammadreza•16m ago•0 comments

Another Interesting SpiritFone Session

http://spirititc.org/2026/11/10/another-interesting-spiritfone-session/
1•pkshadygrove•20m ago•0 comments

$30M Raised to Redo the CPU

https://tendrils.co/blog/2026-11-10/30m-raised
2•shioyama•20m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Tabichat chat demo, LLMs (with thinking) remain in their Pi harnesses

https://tabichat.dev/demo.html
2•tabith•24m ago•0 comments

Show HN: SketchUp compatible modeler with AI capabilities

https://pushform.io/
2•steve918•24m ago•0 comments

DIY Open-Source Yubikey for 30 RMB (Supports FIDO2 Hardware Security Key)

https://blog.lyc8503.net/en/post/diy-fido-key/
3•xiaoyu2006•26m ago•0 comments

AMD Talks Up Their MEXT Software Amid RAM Crisis

https://www.phoronix.com/news/AMD-MEXT
1•sshah03•26m ago•0 comments

Formally verified write(2) syscall boundary in Fil-C

https://filnix.org/nanofil/rocq/rocq-glibc-ZsysWrite.html
1•pizlonator•26m ago•0 comments

UK social media ban expansion for under-16s could cover YouTube Kids, Spotify

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/nov/10/uk-social-media-ban-expansion-for-under-16s-could...
1•drayfield•27m ago•0 comments

The average cost for a new vehicle in the U.S. hits a record high: over $51,000

https://www.npr.org/2026/11/10/nx-s1-6026659/average-vehicle-price-record-high
2•geox•27m ago•2 comments

The Segway PT was supposed to revolutionize travel. Disaster followed instead.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/segway-rise-fall-san-francisco-22506724.php
2•Stratoscope•28m ago•2 comments

Google Fi adds Verizon network in addition to T-Mobile

https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/google-fi-wireless/super-network/
2•modeless•29m ago•1 comments

The humans are coming for AI's jobs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMSQtqUIlXY
3•aditya1rathore•31m ago•1 comments

An open source design system that's customizable and agent ready

https://github.com/meta/astryx
1•Fe2O3•34m ago•1 comments

Which free file tools upload your file? We measured 29 with Chrome's NetLog

https://drible.co/research/file-upload-test
1•deekshit989•34m ago•0 comments

OutRun AGA Delivers the Arcade Dream on Classic Amiga Hardware

https://blog.amigaguru.com/outrun-aga-delivers-the-arcade-dream-on-classic-amiga-hardware/
1•doener•37m ago•0 comments

Reducing PostgreSQL Memory Use by Shrinking Idle Connection Pools

https://pvrlabs.xyz/articles/spring-boot-jdbc-pool-reclaim.html
1•fksubs•38m ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Millihertz 5 Mechanical Computer (2022)

https://www.srimech.com/MHZ5.html
95•gene-h•1y ago

Comments

thechao•1y 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•1y ago
A shishi-odoshi ALU would be amazing to see…and hear too.

I love that idea.

blackhaz•1y ago
I wanna run my neural net on shishi-odoshi.
rightbyte•1y 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•1y 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•1y ago
> a 1100 hp motor to run it

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

thechao•1y 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•1y 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.
byronknoll•1y 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•1y ago
Beautiful! Thank you!
QuadmasterXLII•1y 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•1y ago
What a gem of a site Thank you for sharing
mrandish•1y 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_•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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/

jcgrillo•1y ago
A huge steam engine might be the ticket, that'll solve your starting torque problem