frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Evocation: Weaving the Blue-Green Flame of Computation into Our Fabric

https://code.irenes.space/evocation/tree/README.txt
1•birdculture•26s ago•0 comments

AI Has No Wisdom and Neither Will You

https://alexn.org/blog/2026/09/22/ai-has-no-wisdom-and-neither-will-you/
1•dimonomid•58s ago•0 comments

Search the Past

https://sk500.online/tech/search-the-past/
1•airhangerf15•1m ago•0 comments

NanaZip: The 7-Zip derivative intended for the modern Windows experience

https://github.com/M2Team/NanaZip
1•aniviacat•1m ago•1 comments

Omarchy: Alibaba as a Founding Corporate Patron for the Omacom Foundation

https://twitter.com/dhh/status/2102366320369016915
1•tosh•2m ago•0 comments

This app turns off the MacBook display when it connects to an external monitor

https://manualdousuario.net/en/one-display-turns-off-macbook-display/
1•rpgbr•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Nimblegate – Git push guardrails for AI agents

https://github.com/nimblegate/nimblegate
1•nimblegate•3m ago•0 comments

Building AI MVPs: Testing Demand, Model Quality, and Cost

https://geekyants.com/service/mvp-development-service
1•Harish_0089•3m ago•0 comments

Alibaba Cloud Joins Omarchy as a Founding Corporate Patron with $3M

https://omarchy.org/news/2026/09/alibaba-cloud-joins-as-founding-corporate-patron/
3•tommica•4m ago•0 comments

Agents That Edit Documents: Measuring Agentic PDF Forgery Against a Non-Agentic

https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.23953
1•sbulaev•4m ago•0 comments

Will Open Source Survive the Agents That Replaced It?

https://albertoarena.it/posts/will-open-source-survive-the-agents-that-replaced-it/
2•albertoarena•6m ago•0 comments

CleanShot's Bulldozed Settings

https://unsung.aresluna.org/cleanshots-bulldozed-settings/
1•haeseong•7m ago•0 comments

The Agenda Behind the AI Panic

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-hidden-agenda-behind-the-ai-panic-19ef191f
2•Bostonian•8m ago•1 comments

Working for a just world, where conflict is resolved without the use of force

https://caat.org.uk/
1•Bluestein•10m ago•0 comments

Open-source "PostHog" for AI visibility

https://github.com/Canonry/canonry
1•arberx•10m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Owl24.dev – Hand a production error to your coding agent, get a PR back

https://owl24.dev
1•owl24dev•11m ago•0 comments

The mystery animal on an ancient god's head

https://signoregalilei.com/2026/09/13/the-mystery-animal-on-an-ancient-gods-head/
1•surprisetalk•11m ago•0 comments

Automating Wi-Fi setup testing on the ESP32

https://groundrun.io/blog/automating-wi-fi-setup-testing-on-the-esp32/
1•adunk•12m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Roblox wiki for 100 Days At Sea that only lists confirmed codes

https://www.100daysatsea.com
1•leiships•15m ago•0 comments

About Spurious Correlations

https://tylervigen.com/about-spurious-correlations
1•quijoteuniv•17m ago•0 comments

Véhicules utilitaires électriques et diesel performants

https://www.maxusmotors.fr/
1•davidbarefdg•17m ago•0 comments

The Life of Death and the Enshittificator (Norwegian Consumer Council) [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6SPV4GZp-U
2•rekl•17m ago•0 comments

Compositor – The Photoshop alternative for Mac

https://robbietilton.com/compositor
2•tobr•19m ago•0 comments

Memorisation versus Generalisation for AI and for Us

https://wilsoniumite.com/2026/09/21/a-thing-we-may-be-able-to-learn-from-ai/
1•Wilsoniumite•19m ago•0 comments

A dataset hub for LLM serving research

https://data.freeinference.org/
1•Anon84•21m ago•0 comments

MCP was always a bad idea?

https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/20/hn-49779718/
1•hnp9j9qtda•23m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Business Logic in the Database?

2•boxesnlines•24m ago•0 comments

EU Transformative AI Strategy

https://transformative-ai.eu/
1•cc62cf4a4f20•24m ago•0 comments

Simurg – Kills LLM hallucinations mid-stream, with free web search built in

https://huggingface.co/MergenAI/SIMURG
1•lebagetdefrance•25m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Matcha – fresh job postings pulled directly from company career pages

https://matchajobs.co/
1•jpercy•28m ago•1 comments
Open in hackernews

Sierpiński Triangle? In My Bitwise and?

https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/sierpinski-triangle-in-my-bitwise
217•guiambros•1y ago

Comments

jcul•1y ago
I can't dismiss the cookie popup on this page. After rejecting or accepting cookies it reloads and reappears.

Apologies for a comment not related to the content, but it makes it difficult to read the article on mobile.

jcul•1y ago
Really interesting, and surprising article though!
IceDane•1y ago
Same problem here. Firefox on Android.
Jolter•1y ago
Same. Safari on iPhone.
adrian_b•1y ago
This might be a Firefox problem.

I have never seen it before, but today I have seen it in 3 or 4 sites linked from HN.

What has worked for me is to click "Accept all", then, after the pop-up reappears, click "Only necessary", which makes the pop-up disappear.

Clicking "Only necessary" without clicking before that "Accept all" has not worked. Likewise, clicking multiple times one of those options has not worked.

jrockway•1y ago
Substack is kind of a weird site, but this newsletter in particular is worth subscribing to and getting in your email.
peterburkimsher•1y ago
Wolfram did a lot of research into cellular automata, and the Sierpinski Triangle kept showing up there too:

https://www.wolframscience.com/nks/

GuB-42•1y ago
This one in particular: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_90
jesuslop•1y ago
You get those also doing a Pascal triangle mod 2, so a xor. Is a zoom-out fractal as oposed to Mandelbrot set.
anthk•1y ago
True. pas.f in Forth

    : .r u.r ;
    : position  ( row -- )  cr  33 swap 2 *  - spaces  ;
    : pas ( 0 ... 0 -- 0 ... 0 )    0 >r begin
    over + >r  dup 0= until
    begin  r> dup while  dup 4 .r  repeat  ;
    : pass  ( -- )    0 1 0    18 0 ?do  dup position  >r  pas  r>  1+  loop      drop  ;
    : pax  ( 0 ... 0 -- )  drop begin 0= until ;
    : pascal  ( -- )  pass pax ;

    pascal
    cr
The same mod2:

    : .r u.r ;
    : position  ( row -- )  cr  33 swap 2 *  - spaces  ;
    : pas ( 0 ... 0 -- 0 ... 0 )    0 >r begin
     over + >r  dup 0= until
     begin  r> dup while  dup 2 mod 4 .r  repeat  ;
    : pass  ( -- )    0 1 0    18 0 ?do  dup position  >r  pas  r>  1+  loop     drop  ;
    : pax  ( 0 ... 0 -- )  drop begin 0= until ;
    : pascal  ( -- )  pass pax ;

    pascal
    cr
A Forth for people in a hurry:

     git clone https://github.com/howerj/subleq
     cd subleq
     sed -i 's,0 constant opt.control,1 constant opt.control,g' subleq.fth
     gmake subleq
     ./subleq subleq.dec < subleq.fth > new.dec
     ./subleq new.dec < pas.f
kragen•1y ago
Output from `cr pascal` in GForth:

                                    1
                                  1   1
                                1   0   1
                              1   1   1   1
                            1   0   0   0   1
                          1   1   0   0   1   1
                        1   0   1   0   1   0   1
                      1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
                    1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1
                  1   1   0   0   0   0   0   0   1   1
                1   0   1   0   0   0   0   0   1   0   1
              1   1   1   1   0   0   0   0   1   1   1   1
            1   0   0   0   1   0   0   0   1   0   0   0   1
          1   1   0   0   1   1   0   0   1   1   0   0   1   1
        1   0   1   0   1   0   1   0   1   0   1   0   1   0   1
      1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
    1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1
   1   1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1   1 ok
By changing `4 .r` to `bl + dup dup dup emit emit emit emit` I get this:

                                      !!!!
                                    !!!!!!!!
                                  !!!!    !!!!
                                !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                              !!!!            !!!!
                            !!!!!!!!        !!!!!!!!
                          !!!!    !!!!    !!!!    !!!!
                        !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                      !!!!                            !!!!
                    !!!!!!!!                        !!!!!!!!
                  !!!!    !!!!                    !!!!    !!!!
                !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
              !!!!            !!!!            !!!!            !!!!
            !!!!!!!!        !!!!!!!!        !!!!!!!!        !!!!!!!!
          !!!!    !!!!    !!!!    !!!!    !!!!    !!!!    !!!!    !!!!
        !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      !!!!                                                            !!!!
    !!!!!!!!                                                        !!!!!!!! ok
But this is not using bitwise AND, just the Pascal's triangle approach. (Interestingly, you can reformulate that as a neighborhood-2 2-state 1-dimensional cellular automaton pretty easily; it occurs in a couple of different guises in Wolfram's catalog.)

Here's an ASCII-art version that uses AND as Michał describes:

    32 value size  : line cr size 0 do dup i and if bl else [char] # then dup emit emit loop drop ;
    : pasand size 0 do i line loop ;                                                           
Running `pasand` then yields this:

    ################################################################
    ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  
    ####    ####    ####    ####    ####    ####    ####    ####    
    ##      ##      ##      ##      ##      ##      ##      ##      
    ########        ########        ########        ########        
    ##  ##          ##  ##          ##  ##          ##  ##          
    ####            ####            ####            ####            
    ##              ##              ##              ##              
    ################                ################                
    ##  ##  ##  ##                  ##  ##  ##  ##                  
    ####    ####                    ####    ####                    
    ##      ##                      ##      ##                      
    ########                        ########                        
    ##  ##                          ##  ##                          
    ####                            ####                            
    ##                              ##                              
    ################################                                
    ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##                                  
    ####    ####    ####    ####                                    
    ##      ##      ##      ##                                      
    ########        ########                                        
    ##  ##          ##  ##                                          
    ####            ####                                            
    ##              ##                                              
    ################                                                
    ##  ##  ##  ##                                                  
    ####    ####                                                    
    ##      ##                                                      
    ########                                                        
    ##  ##                                                          
    ####                                                            
    ##                                                               ok
dvt•1y ago
Just a heads up, all (binary?) logical operators produce fractals. This is pretty well-known[1].

[1] https://icefractal.com/articles/bitwise-fractals/

wang_li•1y ago
The change rate in binary notation is fractal.
Timwi•1y ago
Ask yourself why you added the “pretty well-known” phrase, and consider xkcd 1053.
marginalia_nu•1y ago
It would be interesting to see how this generalizes to other bases.

Base 3 has nearly 20,000 operators, of which 729 are commutative.

dvt•1y ago
Yeah, I'm pretty sure as long as you have symmetry somewhere (e.g. a commutative operation), you'll get self-similar patterns.
eru•1y ago
That's more or less, because binary numbers are already fractal.
zX41ZdbW•1y ago
Sierpinski also sounds nice in music. Examples here: https://github.com/ClickHouse/NoiSQL
gjm11•1y ago
Here's a possibly-too-highbrow explanation to complement the nice simple one in the OP.

"As everyone knows", you get a Sierpinski triangle by taking the entries in Pascal's triangle mod 2. That is, taking binomial coefficients mod 2.

Now, here's a cute theorem about binomial coefficients and prime numbers: for any prime p, the number of powers of p dividing (n choose r) equals the number of carries when you write r and n-r in base p and add them up.

For instance, (16 choose 8) is a multiple of 9 but not of 27. 8 in base 3 is 22; when you add 22+22 in base 3, you have carries out of the units and threes digits.

OK. So, now, suppose you look at (x+y choose x) mod 2. This will be 1 exactly when no 2s divide it; i.e., when no carries occur when adding x and y in binary; i.e., when x and y never have 1-bits in the same place; i.e., when x AND y (bitwise) is zero.

And that's exactly what OP found!

coderatlarge•1y ago
i really love the result you quote about the carries. do you know where it has been applied by any chance?
gjm11•1y ago
I don't know of applications offhand, sorry. For me it's in the "appreciated for its own sake" category :-).
coderatlarge•1y ago
i can see that for sure. do you have a reference by any chance? chatgpt hallucinates various references given the result. knuth’s “concrete mathematics” might have it.
gjm11•1y ago
I don't know whether it's in Concrete Mathematics, but perhaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kummer%27s_theorem will do?

(That page has a link to another beautiful theorem with a similar feel, Lucas's theorem: if p is prime, then (n choose r) mod p is the product of the (n_i choose r_i) where n_i and r_i are corresponding digits of n and r when written in base p.)

tomrod•1y ago
I prefer mine au naturale 3-adic.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tRaq4aYPzCc

Just kidding. This was a fun read.

kragen•1y ago
The 31-byte demo "Klappquadrat" by T$ is based on this phenomenon; I wrote a page about how it works a few years ago, including a working Python2 reimplementation with Numpy: http://canonical.org/~kragen/demo/klappquadrat.html

I should probably update that page to explain how to use objdump correctly to disassemble MS-DOG .COM files.

If you like making fractal patterns with bitwise arithmetic, you'll probably love http://canonical.org/~kragen/sw/dev3/trama. Especially if you like stack machines too. The page is entirely in Spanish (except for an epilepsy safety warning) but I suspect that's unlikely to be a problem in practice.

userbinator•1y ago
Sierpinski triangles are definitely a common sight in demoscene productions, to the point that they're acceptable in the smaller sizes, but others will think you're not good enough if that's all you do for a 64k or above entry.
marvinborner•1y ago
Very cool! This basically encodes a quad-tree of bits where every except one quadrant of each subquadrant recurses on the parent quad-tree.

The corresponding equivalent of functional programming would be Church bits in a functional quad-tree encoding \s.(s TL TR BL BR). Then, the Sierpinski triangle can be written as (Y \fs.(s f f f #f)), where #f is the Church bit \tf.f!

Rendering proof: https://lambda-screen.marvinborner.de/?term=ERoc0CrbYIA%3D

zabzonk•1y ago
I draw these with paper and pen when I am extremely bored in meetings.
susam•1y ago
I’d like to share some little demos here.

Bitwise XOR modulo T: https://susam.net/fxyt.html#XYxTN1srN255pTN1sqD

Bitwise AND modulo T: https://susam.net/fxyt.html#XYaTN1srN255pTN1sqN0

Bitwise OR modulo T: https://susam.net/fxyt.html#XYoTN1srN255pTN1sqDN0S

Where T is the time coordinate. Origin for X, Y coordinates is at the bottom left corner of the canvas.

You can pause the animation anytime by clicking the ‘■’ button and then step through the T coordinate using the ‘«’ and ‘»’ buttons.

kragen•1y ago
Gorgeous!
msarnoff•1y ago
Munching squares!
ttoinou•1y ago
Thank you for sharing. The third one has some kind of trippy 3d effect in the first seconds
Recursing•1y ago
Shadertoy link: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MllcW2

And, xor, and or are red, green and blue

anyfoo•1y ago
Ah. Is that why LFSRs (linear feedback shift registers) and specifically PRBS generators (pseudo-random binary sequences) produce Sierpinski triangles as well?

PRBS sequences are well-known, well-used "pseudo-random" sequences that are, for example, used to (non-cryptographically!) scramble data links, or to just test them (Bit Error Rate).

I made my own PRBS generator, and was surprised that visualizing its output, it was full of Sierpinski triangles of various sizes.

Even fully knowing and honoring that they have no cryptographic properties, it didn't feel very "pseudo-random" to me.

modeless•1y ago
Try this one liner pasted into a Unix shell:

  cc -w -xc -std=c89 -<<<'main(c){int r;for(r=32;r;)printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}'&&./a.*
It used to be cooler back when compilers supported weird K&R style C by default. I got it under 100 characters back then, and the C part was just 73 characters. This version is a bit longer but works with modern clang. The 73-character K&R C version that you can still compile today with GCC is:

  main(c,r){for(r=32;r;)printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
Terr_•1y ago
Instructions unclear, machine rooted. :p
modeless•1y ago
Hey, at least it's not doing `curl | bash` like some people's installers do. It's only 109 characters, you can review that right? :-P
eru•1y ago
For all I know, the whole thing might just be a very convoluted call to curl?
_7acn•1y ago
Sierpinski pirated it from Razor 1911 :)
lenerdenator•1y ago
It's more likely than you think.
ChuckMcM•1y ago
Y'all would really like https://www.gathering4gardner.org/ :-)

I tend to like lcamtuf's Electronics entries a bit better (I'm an EE after all) but I find he has a great way of explaining things.

msephton•1y ago
I first saw these sorts of bitwise logic patterns at https://twitter.com/aemkei/status/1378106731386040322 (2021)
fiforpg•1y ago
> the magic is the positional numeral system

— of course. In the same way the (standard) Cantor set consists of precisely those numbers from the interval [0,1] that can be represented using only 0 and 2 in their ternary expansion (repeated 2 is allowed, as in 1 = 0.2222...). If self-similar fractals can be conveniently represented in positional number systems, it is because the latter are self-similar.

pacaro•1y ago
There are so many ways to produce sierpinski gaskets.

It you specify n points and the pick a new point at random, then iteratively randomly select (uniformly) one of the original n points and move the next point to the mid point of the current point and the selected point. Coloring those points generates a sierpinski triangle or tetrahedron or whatever the n-1 dimensional triangle is called

linschn•1y ago
That's called a simplex :)

The same as in the simplex algorithm to solve linear programming problems.

CrazyStat•1y ago
I programmed this on my TI-83 back in the day and spent many hours watching it generate triangles during boring classes.

You can generate many other fractals (e.g. fern shapes) in a similar way, though the transformations are more complicated than “move halfway to selected point”.

deadfoxygrandpa•1y ago
yes, those are called iterated function systems (IFS) fractals
tikili•1y ago
Munching squares: https://tiki.li/show/#cod=VYxLCoAwDET3PcWsFWql4s7D1Fo/oBZqkf...
immibis•1y ago
basically, whenever a shape contains 3 connected couples of itself, you get a deformed Sierpinski triangle.
gitroom•1y ago
been down the bitwise fractal rabbit hole more times than i can count and honestly, i never get tired of these patterns - you think people start seeing shapes like this everywhere after a while or is that just me
tpoacher•1y ago
I reached a similar result when researching all possible "binary subpixel" configurations that would give a pixel its fuzzy value. Arranging the configurations in ascending order row-wise for one pixel and column-wise for the other, performing an intersection between the two pixels, and plotting against their resulting fuzzy value results in a sierpinski triangle.

(if interested, see fig 4.3, page 126 of my thesis, here: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:dc352697-c804-4257-8aec-08...)

Cool stuff. Especially the bottom right panel, you might not have expected that kind of symmetry in the intersection when looking at the individual components.

anthk•1y ago
Straight from the blog, too, from C to Forth:

   : sier cr 32 0 do 32 0 do i j and if ."   " else ." * " then loop cr loop ;
   sier

Output from eforth/subleq (with do...loop set in the config):

    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
    *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   
    * *     * *     * *     * *     * *     * *     * *     * *     
    *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       
    * * * *         * * * *         * * * *         * * * *         
    *   *           *   *           *   *           *   *           
    * *             * *             * *             * *             
    *               *               *               *               
    * * * * * * * *                 * * * * * * * *                 
    *   *   *   *                   *   *   *   *                   
    * *     * *                     * *     * *                     
    *       *                       *       *                       
    * * * *                         * * * *                         
    *   *                           *   *                           
    * *                             * *                             
    *                               *                               
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *                                 
    *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *                                   
    * *     * *     * *     * *                                     
    *       *       *       *                                       
    * * * *         * * * *                                         
    *   *           *   *                                           
    * *             * *                                             
    *               *                                               
    * * * * * * * *                                                 
    *   *   *   *                                                   
    * *     * *                                                     
    *       *                                                       
    * * * *                                                         
    *   *                                                           
    * *                                                             
    *                                                               
     ok
     ok
kragen•1y ago
That looks nicer than my version. But you should put the `cr` before the inner loop, not after it. That way you can remove the `cr` before the outer loop.
animal531•1y ago
Nothing much to do with your great post, but I almost REALLY liked that first pyramid, but the last line being off threw me visually, so I had to straighten it out:

                                    1
                                  1   1
                                1   0   1
                              1   1   1   1
                            1   0   0   0   1
                          1   1   0   0   1   1
                        1   0   1   0   1   0   1
                      1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
                    1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1
                  1   1   0   0   0   0   0   0   1   1
                1   0   1   0   0   0   0   0   1   0   1
              1   1   1   1   0   0   0   0   1   1   1   1
            1   0   0   0   1   0   0   0   1   0   0   0   1
          1   1   0   0   1   1   0   0   1   1   0   0   1   1
        1   0   1   0   1   0   1   0   1   0   1   0   1   0   1
      1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
    1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1
  1   1   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   1   1
gjm11•1y ago
I checked: the result is in Concrete Mathematics, as exercise 5.36, but there is no attribution to Kummer there.

Incidentally, I found the name of the theorem (and the Wikipedia page about it) using a new kind of tool called a "search engine". It's a bit like asking ChatGPT except that it hardly ever hallucinates. You should try it! :-)

svat•1y ago
For what it's worth: Concrete Mathematics does have an attribution to Kummer — it's just that the credits are given separately in Appendix C, "Credits for Exercises", where on page 634, next to 5.36 (the exercise number you mentioned), you can find "Kummer [230, p. 116]" and [230] (on page 621, in Appendix B, "Bibliography") gives the full citation:

> E. E. Kummer, “Über die Ergänzungssätze zu den allgemeinen Reciprocitätsgesetzen,” Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 44 (1852), 93–146. Reprinted in his Collected Papers, volume 1, 485–538.

Also, the answer to exercise 5.36 says “See [226] for extensions of this result to generalized binomial coefficients” and [226] (on page 620) is:

> Donald E. Knuth and Herbert S. Wilf, “The power of a prime that divides a generalized binomial coefficient,” Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik 396 (1989), 212–219

which of course begins (https://www2.math.upenn.edu/~wilf/website/dm36.pdf) by citing Kummer. (Looks like the authors published in the same journal as Kummer, 137 years later!)

gjm11•1y ago
Oh, good catch! I hadn't noticed they had a separate credits-for-exercises section.

I did notice that ex 5.36 references a paper of Knuth & Wilf, but references aren't transitive :-).

coderatlarge•1y ago
thank you for your help in tracking this down! i will check it out…
coderatlarge•1y ago
thank you! what an excellent and delightful related result as well :)
ethan_smith•1y ago
This elegantly explains why (x & y) == 0 produces Sierpinski triangles: it's equivalent to checking whether (x+y choose x) mod 2 equals 1, directly connecting bitwise operations to binomial coefficients.