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The Next Era of Software Architecture Is Data-First

https://aimdb.dev/blog/data-driven-design
1•lukastyrychtr•1m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Are there any engineering orgs that use incentives?

1•jppope•2m ago•0 comments

Claude Code is no longer a part of the Pro plan

1•csoham•3m ago•0 comments

SpaceX cuts a deal to maybe buy Cursor for $60B

https://www.theverge.com/science/916427/spacex-cursor-potential-deal-acquisition
1•htrp•3m ago•0 comments

BYD Looking to Open 20 Dealerships in Canada This Year

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2026/04/byd-looking-to-open-20-dealerships-in-canada-this-year/
1•whynotmaybe•7m ago•0 comments

Apple has an opportunity to rediscover humanity

https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/21/apple_ternus_rediscover_humanity/
2•LorenDB•10m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Agent Brain Trust, customisable expert panels for AI agents

https://github.com/bahulneel/agent-brain-trust
1•bahulneel•14m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Linux installer .exe without pendrives (secure-boot compatible)

https://www.1clicklinux.org/
2•arusekk•14m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Verdure Demo (Steam PC)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4069810/VERDURE/
1•sakamotosan•15m ago•0 comments

Highlights from Git 2.54

https://github.blog/open-source/git/highlights-from-git-2-54/
1•thunderbong•16m ago•0 comments

SpaceX says it has option to acquire Cursor for $60B

https://www.reuters.com/technology/spacex-says-it-has-option-acquire-startup-cursor-60-billion-20...
6•jbredeche•16m ago•0 comments

MARISKS warns of scam messages offering ships safe transit through Hormuz

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/scam-messages-offering-ships-safe-transit-through-hormu...
1•petethomas•17m ago•0 comments

You Can't Vote Out AWS: Fighting Internet Contracts One Library at a Time

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/04/21/you-cant-vote-out-amazon-web-services-fighting-adhesion-contr...
2•hn_acker•18m ago•1 comments

Bill banning people born after 2008 from buying tobacco clears UK parliament

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/21/bill-banning-people-born-after-2008-from-buying-t...
5•dazhbog•18m ago•1 comments

Claude Code Removed from $20-a-Month "Pro" Subscription for New Users

https://www.wheresyoured.at/news-anthropic-removes-pro-cc/
7•Xiol•21m ago•2 comments

Show HN: No JavaScript Club

https://nojs.club/
2•basilikum•21m ago•0 comments

The Lemming Effect

https://twitter.com/lopes_pm/status/2046722429075013822
1•lopespm•23m ago•0 comments

'Everyone Is Lying to You for Money' Digs into Cryptocurrency

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/movies/cryptocurrency-documentary-everyone-is-lying-to-you-for...
2•paulpauper•25m ago•0 comments

Opus 4.7 Part 2: Capabilities and Reactions

https://thezvi.substack.com/p/opus-47-part-2-capabilities-and-reactions
1•paulpauper•26m ago•0 comments

Recursive Superintelligence Raises $500M Funding Round at $4B Valuation

https://www.ft.com/content/a92bf04b-bbac-400f-9554-5b1c70957ad4
1•in-silico•26m ago•0 comments

Opus 4.7 Part 1: The Model Card

https://thezvi.substack.com/p/opus-47-part-1-the-model-card
1•paulpauper•26m ago•0 comments

New Hope Against Pancreatic Cancer

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/revolution-medicines-daraxonrasib-pancreatic-cancer-ben-sasse-675bac62
1•neehao•26m ago•0 comments

Say Goodbye to the Undersea Cable That Made the Global Internet Possible

https://www.wired.com/story/say-goodbye-to-the-undersea-cable-that-made-the-global-internet-possi...
1•divbzero•26m ago•0 comments

The provided text explains why the skin in Avatar 3 appears plastic-like

https://note.com/alive_bobcat1617/n/n40223d1cf9b2
1•tacwon•27m ago•0 comments

Continuous Respiration Rate Monitoring Device for Dairy Cattle

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/16/6/984
1•PaulHoule•28m ago•0 comments

Trump Is Said to Be in Talks to Send Afghans Who Aided U.S. Forces to Congo

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/world/europe/afghan-refugees-congo-us.html
4•duxup•29m ago•2 comments

Cursor has given SpaceX the right to acquire Cursor later this year for $60B

https://xcancel.com/SpaceX/status/2046713419978453374
7•marksully•30m ago•0 comments

Copyright and DMCA Best Practices for Fediverse Operators

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/copyright-and-dmca-best-practices-fediverse-operators
1•sohkamyung•31m ago•0 comments

Clojure Documentary Q&A [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc112UhpHow
1•bmillare•31m ago•0 comments

OnlyOffice says Nextcloud must restore removed logos in Euro-Office fork

https://www.neowin.net/news/onlyoffice-invokes-agplv3-says-nextcloud-must-restore-removed-logos-i...
1•bundie•31m ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Millihertz 5 Mechanical Computer (2022)

https://www.srimech.com/MHZ5.html
95•gene-h•11mo ago

Comments

thechao•11mo 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•11mo ago
A shishi-odoshi ALU would be amazing to see…and hear too.

I love that idea.

blackhaz•11mo ago
I wanna run my neural net on shishi-odoshi.
rightbyte•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo ago
> a 1100 hp motor to run it

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

thechao•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo ago
A huge steam engine might be the ticket, that'll solve your starting torque problem
byronknoll•11mo 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•11mo ago
Beautiful! Thank you!
QuadmasterXLII•11mo 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•11mo ago
What a gem of a site Thank you for sharing
mrandish•11mo 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_•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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•11mo 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/