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How I use AI in my geology research without losing the science I love

https://www.science.org/content/article/how-i-use-ai-my-geology-research-without-losing-science-i...
1•the-mitr•2m ago•0 comments

Machines will never understand language

https://astra.pizza/posts/machines-will-never-understand-language/
1•ankitg12•3m ago•0 comments

Request Timeout Is a Polite Suggestion

https://medium.com/devs-community/your-request-timeout-is-a-polite-suggestion-94171a66fb43
1•sukhpinder0804•4m ago•0 comments

A simple clustering algorithm for lists

https://cassidoo.co/post/clustering-tiles/
2•nreece•11m ago•0 comments

Space exploration game made using Claude Opus 5

https://twitter.com/anshuc/status/2081801966158811506
2•starshadowx2•13m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Over 150 side events of BlackHat 2026 in one page

https://www.chancity.ai/blackhat-vegas-2026
1•csujoy•13m ago•0 comments

AI Makes Starting Games Easier. Finishing Is Still Hard

https://twitter.com/robertvaradan/status/2078234518549311855
2•robertvaradan•13m ago•0 comments

Cursor Start

https://cursor.com/blog/cursor-start-india
2•twapi•20m ago•1 comments

OpenAI called the Hugging Face attack unprecedented. But we've been here before

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/27/1140836/openai-hugging-face-attack-precedent/
4•devonnull•21m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Drever – AI-first MDX presentations with expressive motion

https://github.com/Zhangdroid/drever
2•zhangdroid•24m ago•0 comments

Vibotify – Talk to 300 AI experts, one for every profession

https://vibotify.com/
2•nsoni369•26m ago•0 comments

Ars Astronomica – English translations of rare Hebrew and Latin astronomy texts

https://arsastronomica.com/
3•sweisman•26m ago•0 comments

Active buddies app – Kids earn screen time by being active

https://www.vegaco.nz/active-buddies.html
2•rasikass•26m ago•1 comments

Idempotency Fundamentals and API Guarantees

https://www.distributedrequest.com/idempotency-fundamentals-api-guarantees/
2•ankitg12•26m ago•0 comments

How to choose an AI Agent platform for your team

https://construct.computer/blog/how-to-choose-an-ai-agent-platform-for-your-team/
3•ankushKun•29m ago•0 comments

Why models write slop: the environments are too small

https://henriquegodoy.com/blog/why-models-write-slop
4•jxmorris12•37m ago•0 comments

Professor Created a Trap in His Midterm to Catch Students Using AI

https://www.today.com/parents/family/professor-catches-ai-cheating-hidden-word-rcna589421
3•curmudgeon22•43m ago•0 comments

How IMAX 70MM Film is Projected!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S_geBV5bLQ
3•saikatsg•48m ago•1 comments

I'm Sorry, Dave

https://world.hey.com/dhh/i-m-sorry-dave-380ec27d
6•3s•52m ago•1 comments

Show HN: My First OSS as a Teen

https://openotp.app
3•jeninh•54m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Orchard – Let AI agents set up your app's back end with one prompt

https://orchard-dashboard.pages.dev/landing
2•asd000hh•57m ago•0 comments

QuickOn – Explainable AI for qualifying inbound B2B SaaS leads

https://www.quickon.in
2•agevenkat•58m ago•1 comments

Neutrino-1 8B

https://www.fermionresearch.com/models/neutrino-8b/
8•handfuloflight•1h ago•1 comments

Seats on hundreds of Boeing 737MAX were incorrectly installed:US aviation agency

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/seats-hundreds-boeing-737-max-jets-were-incorrectly-install...
2•Markoff•1h ago•0 comments

AI crawlers don't render JavaScript – I audited my own 11 production sites

https://www.smithappstudio.com/blog/ai-crawlers-cant-see-your-spa-2026/
2•docmaasi•1h ago•1 comments

Framework Laptop 13 Pro review: better battery, worse price

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/framework-laptop-13-pro-review-much-better-battery-much-w...
5•signa11•1h ago•1 comments

Neural Representation of Minimal Surfaces

https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.23437
2•E-Reverance•1h ago•0 comments

CTO / Head of Eng / VPE folks at startups are leaving / burning out

https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/2081845248120988114
4•tosh•1h ago•1 comments

Meta disregarded its own research on teen harm, Tennessee teen tells jury

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/meta-disregarded-its-own-research-teen-harm-tennessee-te...
4•1vuio0pswjnm7•1h ago•0 comments

PyTorch: A Reference Language

https://docs.pytorch.org/devlogs/compiler/2026-07-25-pytorch-a-reference-language/
4•matt_d•1h ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Millihertz 5 Mechanical Computer (2022)

https://www.srimech.com/MHZ5.html
95•gene-h•1y ago

Comments

thechao•1y 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•1y ago
A shishi-odoshi ALU would be amazing to see…and hear too.

I love that idea.

blackhaz•1y ago
I wanna run my neural net on shishi-odoshi.
rightbyte•1y 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•1y 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•1y ago
> a 1100 hp motor to run it

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

thechao•1y 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•1y 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.
byronknoll•1y 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•1y ago
Beautiful! Thank you!
QuadmasterXLII•1y 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•1y ago
What a gem of a site Thank you for sharing
mrandish•1y 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_•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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•1y 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/

jcgrillo•1y ago
A huge steam engine might be the ticket, that'll solve your starting torque problem