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Rocty

http://url:ube.com
1•scarot•1m ago•0 comments

Hostile Volume – A game about adjusting volume with intentionally bad UI

https://hostilevolume.com/
1•Velocifyer•1m ago•0 comments

Open-source dataset of 10 thousand hours of computer-use recordings

https://huggingface.co/datasets/markov-ai/computer-use-large
1•mellosouls•1m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Iris – first MCP-native eval and observability tool for AI agents

https://github.com/iris-eval/mcp-server
1•iparent•3m ago•0 comments

How to Navigate with Turbo Frames

https://ducktypelabs.com/how-to-navigate-with-turbo-frames/
1•sidk_•5m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How do you enforce least-privilege when an API token has full access?

2•ricberw•12m ago•1 comments

The Great Russian Disconnect

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/14/russias-self-inflicted-communication-crisis-00827197
1•627467•12m ago•0 comments

Windows To-Do-Lsit in the Taskbar

https://github.com/rknastenka/Krisp
2•baniii•12m ago•1 comments

Loupe: Lightweight dev tracing for LLM apps

https://matt-harrison.com/posts/14-3-26-loupe/
1•mtharrison•14m ago•0 comments

WA income tax clears House after 24-hour debate

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wa-income-tax-passes-house-after-24-hour-debat...
1•raybb•18m ago•0 comments

Can Car-T – A "Living Drug" – Cure Autoimmune Diseases?

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/can-a-living-drug-cure-autoimmune-diseases
2•bookofjoe•18m ago•1 comments

The Environment Is Greater Than the Will

https://pilgrima.ge/p/the-environment-is-greater-than-the-will
1•momentmaker•19m ago•0 comments

Show HN: AIP – A Cryptographic Identity Protocol for Autonomous AI Agents

https://github.com/theaniketgiri/aip
1•theaniketgiri•19m ago•1 comments

'The munchies' are real and could benefit those with no appetite

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-munchies-real-benefit-appetite.html
2•PaulHoule•19m ago•0 comments

US GDP Growth Revised Sharply Lower

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth/news/533306
3•bear_with_me•20m ago•0 comments

Kraken – open-source autonomous dev agent for the terminal

1•galfrevn•20m ago•0 comments

Burning money on cloud costs for AI tool creation

2•CostsentryAI•21m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Auto-Save Claude Code Sessions to GitHub Projects

https://github.com/ej31/claude-session-tracker
1•ej31•21m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Architecture question: running an LLM as core infrastructure

https://automazionezeli.com
1•senza1dio•26m ago•0 comments

Digg.com Closing Due to Spam

https://digg.com?hn
4•napolux•31m ago•2 comments

Rajon Rondo Profile

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12587848/old-questions-surface-new-dallas-mavericks-...
1•marysminefnuf•32m ago•0 comments

When Freemium Is Limiting: My Frustrations with Beehiiv

https://micahblachman.beehiiv.com/p/when-freemium-is-limiting
1•subdomain•33m ago•0 comments

The Download: Early adopters cash in on China's OpenClaw craze, and US batterie

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/03/12/1134207/the-download-china-openclaw-ai-craze-us-batte...
1•joozio•35m ago•0 comments

Why Little Was Done to Head Off Oil's Strait of Hormuz Problem

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/business/energy-environment/iran-strait-hormuz-oil-middle-east...
2•mooreds•37m ago•1 comments

Convert JPG Logos to SVG – Stay Sharp at Any Size

https://oneweeb.com/jpg-to-svg.html
1•Zepubo•38m ago•0 comments

Kalshi for People

https://vouchmarket.polsia.app/
1•Marcoven•40m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a Chrome extension to block Instagram's feed and keep only DMs

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/mindful-instagram/neiedkilefemabefjohneedlemngfdjh
1•Shivam_Dewan•41m ago•0 comments

Piqe – AI marketing co-founder that handles community engagement while you code

https://getpiqe.com
1•tsjose•42m ago•1 comments

Linux Page Faults, MMAP, and userfaultfd for faster VM restores

https://www.shayon.dev/post/2026/65/linux-page-faults-mmap-and-userfaultfd/
2•shayonj•43m ago•0 comments

The State Policy Network

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=State_Policy_Network
1•jamesgill•48m ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Millihertz 5 Mechanical Computer (2022)

https://www.srimech.com/MHZ5.html
95•gene-h•10mo ago

Comments

thechao•10mo 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•10mo ago
A shishi-odoshi ALU would be amazing to see…and hear too.

I love that idea.

blackhaz•10mo ago
I wanna run my neural net on shishi-odoshi.
rightbyte•10mo 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•10mo 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•10mo ago
> a 1100 hp motor to run it

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

thechao•10mo 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•10mo 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•10mo ago
A huge steam engine might be the ticket, that'll solve your starting torque problem
byronknoll•10mo 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•10mo ago
Beautiful! Thank you!
QuadmasterXLII•10mo 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•10mo ago
What a gem of a site Thank you for sharing
mrandish•10mo 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_•10mo 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•10mo 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•10mo 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•10mo 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/