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What would you imagine in the future with AI?

1•HsuWL•2m ago•0 comments

Bad Dye Job

https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/bad_dye_job
1•latexr•4m ago•0 comments

Show HN: TidesDB – A storage engine that outperforms RocksDB

https://github.com/tidesdb/tidesdb
1•alexpadula•13m ago•0 comments

Russia Bans Roblox

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn41q11gy58o
8•disqard•18m ago•0 comments

Cassette tapes are making a comeback. Yes

https://theconversation.com/cassette-tapes-are-making-a-comeback-yes-really-268108
4•devonnull•22m ago•0 comments

Trees – J Wiki

https://code.jsoftware.com/wiki/User:Devon_McCormick/Trees
1•todsacerdoti•28m ago•0 comments

I Think I Found Something Weird About Physical Constants

https://quantummarmelade.substack.com/p/i-think-i-found-something-weird-about
2•obius_prime•37m ago•1 comments

Thieves are starting to steal RAM now that it's as expensive as gold

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ddr5/package-theft-leaves-pc-builder-without-ddr5
1•pabs3•39m ago•0 comments

Why is Anthropic saying "software engineering is done"?

https://www.augmentedswe.com/p/ai-augmented-software-engineering
2•wordsaboutcode•44m ago•2 comments

Rare earths startup Vulcan Elements scores $600M US federal government deal

https://www.ft.com/content/952f37ba-78b4-42a4-8d1b-2258de65f2c0
2•petethomas•49m ago•0 comments

Nano Banana Pro – AI Image Editor with Perfect Text Rendering and 4K

https://nanobanana.org
2•MikeMoh•52m ago•1 comments

From stadiums to cyberspace: How the metaverse will redefine sports fandom

https://phys.org/news/2025-11-stadiums-cyberspace-metaverse-redefine-sports.html
2•PaulHoule•59m ago•1 comments

Show HN: From Personal Script to Public Tool – How I Built a Windows Setup Gen

https://kaicbento.substack.com/p/from-personal-script-to-public-tool
2•kaicbento•1h ago•0 comments

New homes in London were delayed by 'energy-hungry' data centres

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mpr1mvwj3o
23•1659447091•1h ago•1 comments

Euler Conjecture and CDC 6600

https://fortran-lang.discourse.group/t/euler-conjecture-and-cdc-6600/10501
10•zaikunzhang•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: Kling O1 Image –Consistent Image Generation from Multi-Reference Inputs

https://www.klingo1ai.net/kling-o1-image
1•lu794377•1h ago•0 comments

AI coaching tool for Engineering Managers

https://www.managercommit.dev/
1•kentwills•1h ago•0 comments

How Epstein Infiltrated the Silicon Valley Network Behind Trump's New Tech Order

https://bylinetimes.com/2025/12/03/how-epstein-infiltrated-the-silicon-valley-network-behind-trum...
10•salkahfi•1h ago•0 comments

Marvell Acquires Celestial AI

https://techstartups.com/2025/12/03/top-tech-news-today-december-3-2025/
1•CodeCrusader•1h ago•0 comments

Automatic fix for React CVE-2025-55182

https://neurolint.dev/
1•Just_Clive•1h ago•2 comments

Static analysis to prevent Zip Bombs and architectural bottlenecks

https://codeprot.com/articles/program-performance.html
2•allenz_cheung•1h ago•3 comments

The 'extinct' antelope bringing hope in the Sahara Desert

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251202-the-extinct-antelope-bringing-hope-in-the-sahara-desert
2•1659447091•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Win Setup Generator – My setup script turned into an open-source tool

https://kaic.me/win-post-install/
1•kaicbento•1h ago•1 comments

KEF: A file format for easy encryption/decryption of data

https://github.com/tpkarras/KEF
3•tpkarras•1h ago•0 comments

Apple to resist India order to preload state-run app as political outcry builds

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/apple-resist-india-order-preload-...
3•happyopossum•1h ago•1 comments

Can you discover unknown elements by calculating their spectra?

https://www.scannedinavian.com/can-you-discover-unknown-elements-by-calculating-their-spectra.html
2•shae•1h ago•0 comments

JWST discovers an ancient Milky Way-like spiral galaxy

https://scienceclock.com/jwst-discovers-alaknanda-milky-way-twin-galaxy/
7•ashishgupta2209•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Video Watermark Remover – Remove Watermarks from Videos Instantly

https://vdraw.ai/video-watermark-remover
1•larkin_ward•1h ago•0 comments

'End-to-end encrypted' smart toilet camera is not end-to-end encrypted

https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/03/end-to-end-encrypted-smart-toilet-camera-is-not-actually-end-to...
8•bparsons•1h ago•2 comments

Understand Research Papers

https://knowthepaper.com/
2•harryhoffman•1h ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Millihertz 5 Mechanical Computer (2022)

https://www.srimech.com/MHZ5.html
95•gene-h•7mo ago

Comments

thechao•7mo 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•7mo ago
A shishi-odoshi ALU would be amazing to see…and hear too.

I love that idea.

blackhaz•7mo ago
I wanna run my neural net on shishi-odoshi.
rightbyte•7mo 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•7mo 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•7mo ago
> a 1100 hp motor to run it

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

thechao•7mo 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•7mo 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•7mo ago
A huge steam engine might be the ticket, that'll solve your starting torque problem
byronknoll•7mo 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•7mo ago
Beautiful! Thank you!
QuadmasterXLII•7mo 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•7mo ago
What a gem of a site Thank you for sharing
mrandish•7mo 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_•7mo 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•7mo 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•7mo 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•7mo 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/