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FDA Intends to Take Action Against Non-FDA-Approved GLP-1 Drugs

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-intends-take-action-against-non-fda-appro...
1•randycupertino•33s ago•0 comments

Supernote e-ink devices for writing like paper

https://supernote.eu/choose-your-product/
1•janandonly•2m ago•0 comments

We are QA Engineers now

https://serce.me/posts/2026-02-05-we-are-qa-engineers-now
1•SerCe•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Measuring how AI agent teams improve issue resolution on SWE-Verified

https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.01465
2•NBenkovich•3m ago•0 comments

Adversarial Reasoning: Multiagent World Models for Closing the Simulation Gap

https://www.latent.space/p/adversarial-reasoning
1•swyx•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Poddley.com – Follow people, not podcasts

https://poddley.com/guests/ana-kasparian/episodes
1•onesandofgrain•11m ago•0 comments

Layoffs Surge 118% in January – The Highest Since 2009

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/05/layoff-and-hiring-announcements-hit-their-worst-january-levels-si...
4•karakoram•11m ago•0 comments

Papyrus 114: Homer's Iliad

https://p114.homemade.systems/
1•mwenge•12m ago•1 comments

DicePit – Real-time multiplayer Knucklebones in the browser

https://dicepit.pages.dev/
1•r1z4•12m ago•1 comments

Turn-Based Structural Triggers: Prompt-Free Backdoors in Multi-Turn LLMs

https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14340
2•PaulHoule•13m ago•0 comments

Show HN: AI Agent Tool That Keeps You in the Loop

https://github.com/dshearer/misatay
2•dshearer•15m ago•0 comments

Why Every R Package Wrapping External Tools Needs a Sitrep() Function

https://drmowinckels.io/blog/2026/sitrep-functions/
1•todsacerdoti•15m ago•0 comments

Achieving Ultra-Fast AI Chat Widgets

https://www.cjroth.com/blog/2026-02-06-chat-widgets
1•thoughtfulchris•17m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Runtime Fence – Kill switch for AI agents

https://github.com/RunTimeAdmin/ai-agent-killswitch
1•ccie14019•19m ago•1 comments

Researchers surprised by the brain benefits of cannabis usage in adults over 40

https://nypost.com/2026/02/07/health/cannabis-may-benefit-aging-brains-study-finds/
1•SirLJ•21m ago•0 comments

Peter Thiel warns the Antichrist, apocalypse linked to the 'end of modernity'

https://fortune.com/2026/02/04/peter-thiel-antichrist-greta-thunberg-end-of-modernity-billionaires/
3•randycupertino•22m ago•2 comments

USS Preble Used Helios Laser to Zap Four Drones in Expanding Testing

https://www.twz.com/sea/uss-preble-used-helios-laser-to-zap-four-drones-in-expanding-testing
3•breve•27m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Animated beach scene, made with CSS

https://ahmed-machine.github.io/beach-scene/
1•ahmedoo•28m ago•0 comments

An update on unredacting select Epstein files – DBC12.pdf liberated

https://neosmart.net/blog/efta00400459-has-been-cracked-dbc12-pdf-liberated/
3•ks2048•28m ago•0 comments

Was going to share my work

1•hiddenarchitect•31m ago•0 comments

Pitchfork: A devilishly good process manager for developers

https://pitchfork.jdx.dev/
1•ahamez•31m ago•0 comments

You Are Here

https://brooker.co.za/blog/2026/02/07/you-are-here.html
3•mltvc•36m ago•1 comments

Why social apps need to become proactive, not reactive

https://www.heyflare.app/blog/from-reactive-to-proactive-how-ai-agents-will-reshape-social-apps
1•JoanMDuarte•36m ago•1 comments

How patient are AI scrapers, anyway? – Random Thoughts

https://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/2026/02/07/how-patient-are-ai-scrapers-anyway/
1•samtrack2019•37m ago•0 comments

Vouch: A contributor trust management system

https://github.com/mitchellh/vouch
3•SchwKatze•37m ago•0 comments

I built a terminal monitoring app and custom firmware for a clock with Claude

https://duggan.ie/posts/i-built-a-terminal-monitoring-app-and-custom-firmware-for-a-desktop-clock...
1•duggan•38m ago•0 comments

Tiny C Compiler

https://bellard.org/tcc/
5•guerrilla•39m ago•0 comments

Y Combinator Founder Organizes 'March for Billionaires'

https://mlq.ai/news/ai-startup-founder-organizes-march-for-billionaires-protest-against-californi...
4•hidden80•40m ago•4 comments

Ask HN: Need feedback on the idea I'm working on

1•Yogender78•40m ago•1 comments

OpenClaw Addresses Security Risks

https://thebiggish.com/news/openclaw-s-security-flaws-expose-enterprise-risk-22-of-deployments-un...
2•vedantnair•41m ago•0 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/