frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Why Does A.I. Write Like That?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/magazine/chatbot-writing-style.html
1•carabiner•35s ago•0 comments

Instagram Profit Margin Calculator Online Free Tool

https://metaconvert.blogspot.com/2025/10/instagram-profit-margin-calculator.html
1•MetaConvert•8m ago•0 comments

Unix Original Bell Labs v4 Found at University of Utah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR-f07LN0-Y
1•rasengan0•9m ago•0 comments

Grok 4.20 beats all other AI models in Alpha Arena test

https://www.sammyfans.com/2025/12/05/grok-4-20-beats-all-other-ai-models-in-alpha-arena-test/
1•terryds•11m ago•0 comments

High-Performance DBMSs with io_uring: When and How to use it

https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.04859
1•mfiguiere•15m ago•0 comments

Loopi – Open-Source Visual Browser Automation Platform

https://loopi.dyan.live/
1•0018akhil•15m ago•1 comments

Nano Banana Pro: reasoning-first 4K studio

https://nanobanapro.com
1•AnyVideoAI•23m ago•0 comments

Which protocol do you guys use in NAS shares to Proxmox – NFS or SMB?

https://old.reddit.com/r/Proxmox/comments/1i50jy9/which_protocol_do_you_guys_use_in_nas_shares_to/
1•sipofwater•23m ago•1 comments

Alternate Reality Christmas Gifts

https://medium.com/luminasticity/alternate-reality-christmas-gifts-9d9dd9c81a2b
1•bryanrasmussen•29m ago•0 comments

Show HN: How to play imposter game with impostergame.win

https://impostergame.win/how-to-play
1•tomstig•32m ago•1 comments

Turning everyday observations into investable signals

https://www.prophit.investments/
2•porterh•33m ago•1 comments

UK IVF couples rank embryos based on potential IQ, height and health

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/06/uk-ivf-couples-use-legal-loophole-rank-embryos-iq...
1•sorokod•35m ago•0 comments

Maher Arar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar
4•KnuthIsGod•41m ago•0 comments

Very Important People

https://dirt.fyi/article/2025/11/very-important-people
1•gmays•46m ago•0 comments

Why Theme Parks Keep Getting More Extreme

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2025/09/universal-epic-universe-disney-theme-park-att...
1•vinhnx•51m ago•0 comments

Rnj-1: Building Instruments of Intelligence

https://essential.ai/research/rnj-1
1•aratahikaru5•53m ago•0 comments

Pantone Color of the Year 2026

https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year/2026
1•vinhnx•56m ago•1 comments

Schizophrenia sufferer mistakes smart fridge ad for psychotic episode

https://old.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1pc7999/my_schizophrenic_sister_hospitalised_hers...
33•hliyan•1h ago•9 comments

Redfin's 2026 Predictions: Welcome to the Great Housing Reset

https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-predictions-2026/
1•toomuchtodo•1h ago•0 comments

St. Nicholas Day: NIS2 Implementation Act Comes into Force in Germany

https://www.heise.de/en/news/On-St-Nicholas-Day-NIS2-Implementation-Act-Comes-into-Force-11104146...
1•doener•1h ago•0 comments

The Hackers Lost. Freezenet Is Back

https://www.freezenet.ca/the-hackers-lost-freezenet-is-back/
1•doener•1h ago•0 comments

Wolfram Compute Services

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2025/12/instant-supercompute-launching-wolfram-compute-services/
2•nsoonhui•1h ago•0 comments

Wine 11.0 RC1 – Run Windows Applications on Linux, BSD, Solaris and macOS

https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/releases/wine-11.0-rc1
4•neustradamus•1h ago•0 comments

The largest startup losses in history

https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RI-PROD/PROD0000000000611818/The%20largest%20start-up%20losses%20...
1•doener•1h ago•0 comments

Appbundler.jl – Bundle Your Julia Application for Windows, macOS, and Linux

https://github.com/PeaceFounder/AppBundler.jl
1•MrJulia•1h ago•0 comments

Most people in prediction markets aren't trading–they're guessing

1•Miramaps•1h ago•0 comments

A New Anonymous Phone Carrier Lets You Sign Up with Nothing but a Zip Code

https://www.wired.com/story/new-anonymous-phone-carrier-sign-up-with-nothing-but-a-zip-code/
1•pabs3•1h ago•0 comments

The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to Criticizing AI – Cory Doctorow

https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/
1•beardyw•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Infinite Lofi Generative Music

https://loopmaster.xyz/editor?aidj&prompt=lofi%20gentle%20music,%20dub&swap=60&mix=60&temperature...
2•stagas•1h ago•0 comments

A Very Big Fight over a Very Small Language

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/08/a-very-big-fight-over-a-very-small-language
1•mitchbob•1h ago•1 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/