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Ask HN: How are researchers using AlphaFold in 2026?

1•jocho12•2m ago•0 comments

Running the "Reflections on Trusting Trust" Compiler

https://spawn-queue.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3786614
1•devooops•7m ago•0 comments

Watermark API – $0.01/image, 10x cheaper than Cloudinary

https://api-production-caa8.up.railway.app/docs
1•lembergs•8m ago•1 comments

Now send your marketing campaigns directly from ChatGPT

https://www.mail-o-mail.com/
1•avallark•12m ago•1 comments

Queueing Theory v2: DORA metrics, queue-of-queues, chi-alpha-beta-sigma notation

https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/queueing-theory
1•jph•24m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Hibana – choreography-first protocol safety for Rust

https://hibanaworks.dev/
5•o8vm•26m ago•0 comments

Haniri: A live autonomous world where AI agents survive or collapse

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1•donangrey•26m ago•1 comments

GPT-5.3-Codex System Card [pdf]

https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/23eca107-a9b1-4d2c-b156-7deb4fbc697c/GPT-5-3-Codex-System-Card-02.pdf
1•tosh•39m ago•0 comments

Atlas: Manage your database schema as code

https://github.com/ariga/atlas
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Geist Pixel

https://vercel.com/blog/introducing-geist-pixel
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Show HN: MCP to get latest dependency package and tool versions

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2•FinnLobsien•54m ago•0 comments

Show HN: WP Float – Archive WordPress blogs to free static hosting

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Show HN: I Hacked My Family's Meal Planning with an App

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1•melvinzammit•56m ago•0 comments

Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal
2•basilikum•59m ago•0 comments

The Future of Systems

https://novlabs.ai/mission/
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NASA now allowing astronauts to bring their smartphones on space missions

https://twitter.com/NASAAdmin/status/2019259382962307393
2•gbugniot•1h ago•0 comments

Claude Code Is the Inflection Point

https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/claude-code-is-the-inflection-point
3•throwaw12•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: MicroClaw – Agentic AI Assistant for Telegram, Built in Rust

https://github.com/microclaw/microclaw
1•everettjf•1h ago•2 comments

Show HN: Omni-BLAS – 4x faster matrix multiplication via Monte Carlo sampling

https://github.com/AleatorAI/OMNI-BLAS
1•LowSpecEng•1h ago•1 comments

The AI-Ready Software Developer: Conclusion – Same Game, Different Dice

https://codemanship.wordpress.com/2026/01/05/the-ai-ready-software-developer-conclusion-same-game...
1•lifeisstillgood•1h ago•0 comments

AI Agent Automates Google Stock Analysis from Financial Reports

https://pardusai.org/view/54c6646b9e273bbe103b76256a91a7f30da624062a8a6eeb16febfe403efd078
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Voxtral Realtime 4B Pure C Implementation

https://github.com/antirez/voxtral.c
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I Was Trapped in Chinese Mafia Crypto Slavery [video]

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U.S. CBP Reported Employee Arrests (FY2020 – FYTD)

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Show HN: I built a free UCP checker – see if AI agents can find your store

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Show HN: SVGV – A Real-Time Vector Video Format for Budget Hardware

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9EbCb5A408
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Spotify now requires premium accounts for developer mode API access

https://www.neowin.net/news/spotify-now-requires-premium-accounts-for-developer-mode-api-access/
2•bundie•1h ago•0 comments

When Albert Einstein Moved to Princeton

https://twitter.com/Math_files/status/2020017485815456224
1•keepamovin•1h ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Ask HN: Does anyone have scans of these missing PC Plus issues (1991–1993)?

125•billpg•3mo ago
I'm looking for copies of these issues of PC Plus magazine please.

1991-Nov, 1992-Jan, 1992-Mar, 1992-Apr, 1992-Jun, 1992-Jul, 1992-Oct, 1993-Jan.

This was a popular PC magazine in the UK, and one of its highlights was Wilf’s Programmer Workshop, a regular column full of programming puzzles, challenges and reader submissions.

At one point, he ran a contest around quines (programs that output their own source). I sent in a tongue‑in‑cheek entry, a batch file that used PKZIP to “compile” code into PKZIP.OBJ (instead of .ZIP) and then ZIP2EXE to “link” it into an EXE. The result was an executable that unzipped itself back into a source file. He was amused enough to mention it near the end of his column, though he noted it didn’t quite qualify for the contest since I hadn’t written PKZIP myself.

I found scans of his section on archive.org, including the issue where he announces the contest, but I couldn't find my particular contribution. I've narrowed it down to the eight issues listed above that are in the right time-frame.

If you have any of these issues (paper or PDF), could you please check Wilf’s section near the back and see if my submission is mentioned?

Thanks!

Comments

toomuchtodo•3mo ago
Might inquire in r/DHExchange as well.
billpg•3mo ago
PS. Link to the scans: https://archive.org/details/wpw-1991-1992-1993/WPW-1991-01/
Daneel_•3mo ago
Unfortunately those don't contain the specific issues the OP mentioned.
js2•3mo ago
You're replying to OP. :)

The link is in reference to "I found scans of his section on archive.org, including the issue where he announces the contest, but I couldn't find my particular contribution".

eterm•3mo ago
I've always wondered why HN doesn't have an OP indicator. A blue name ( similar to the green name for new accounts ) or an asterisk, just something subtle, would do.

Perhaps they don't want to mark out the OP as "special" to the resulting conversation, but it would help make the situation here clearer.

rrr_oh_man•3mo ago
Tampermonkey to the rescue!
jorvi•3mo ago
Quick slaptogether. I'm decidedly mediocre at web so if anyone has improvements, please post them :)

  // ==UserScript==
  // @name         HN OP highlight
  // @version      0.1
  // @description  Find OP username and change username color to blue
  // @match        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=*
  // @grant        none
  // @run-at       document-end
  // ==/UserScript==
  
  (function() {
    'use strict';

    // get OP 'userid' from class 'hnuser' in post subtext
    const opUsername = document.querySelector('span.subline a.hnuser')?.getAttribute('href');

    // Match other instances of same 'userid' in 'hnuser' class elsewhere in page
    if (opUsername) {
        const opHighlight = document.createElement('style');
        opHighlight.textContent = `
            /* Post header username */
            span.subline a.hnuser[href="${opUsername}"],
            /* Comment header username */
            span.comhead a.hnuser[href="${opUsername}"] {
                color: #2749F5 !important;
            }
        `;
        document.head.appendChild(opHighlight);
    }
  })();
gabrielsroka•3mo ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35076225
maxbond•3mo ago
A good compromise would be only marking their top-level comments. And/or doing this only for Show/Ask/Tell threads.

I'm sending this thread to the admins as a feature request.

jfil•3mo ago
I looked around for you - the best I could find is a listing for the magazines at the British Library at https://www.bl.uk/. It appears that they have a copy of all the issues and they are available by request for physical viewing.
trollbridge•3mo ago
This can be a pain, but we’ve done the same thing at the Library of Congress. In theory, they have access to every digital book published, too.
xrisk•3mo ago
Only books published by American publishers yeah?
atrettel•3mo ago
The Library of Congress has tons of books from foreign publishers. I have gone there many times for their extensive collection of German and Russian scientific and technical monographs. They also have a ton of obscure foreign publications and periodicals.

Unfortunately, their catalog does not list this particular magazine as far as I can tell.

dandelionv1bes•3mo ago
If you’re in the UK this is quite an easy solution. The library is right by two large train stations and you can sign up same day for a card.
foofoo12•3mo ago
11h55 from Port Ellen.
toomuchtodo•3mo ago
Not in the UK, would someone be interested in working with the library to get them scanned for the Internet Archive? What would the cost and logistics look like?
ta1243•3mo ago
archive.org's been down for ages. I put it down to blocking the UK thanks to stupid UK laws, but I can't reach it from servers elsewhere either.

Is it still going or did it piss off the wrong person in America?

dcminter•3mo ago
Random Sweden-based person here. I was using it fine yesterday & it's up and available today as well. Are you perhaps using some DNS provider that's blocking it? Or a VPN or something that's blocked from the other direction perhaps?
ta1243•3mo ago
archive.org resolves to 207.241.224.2 using cf, google and quad9

This is just tcp to 207.241.224.2 port 80 (delivered via curl) or from a router.

SYN goes out, nothing comes back.

I can't reach it from AS16509 (AWS eu-west-2), AS17547 (MOne in Singapore), AS18106 (Viewquest Singapore), AS20712 (UK), or AS4755 (Tata in India)

I can reach it from AS23674 (Nayatel Pakistan), AS174 (Cogent in US), AS3356 (Level3 in US), AS46887 (Crown Castle in US) and AS7545 (TPG Sydney)

I can also reach it via mozillavpn on AS39351 (London) and presumably other sites

Multiple machines, multiple ISPs, multiple ways to the internet. Very odd.

Thanks for confirming it's not fully broken though

inemesitaffia•3mo ago
More specific is behind CloudFlare
dcminter•3mo ago
A bit late back to the party, but checking today I can curl archive.org from an AWS Cloud Shell in eu-west-2 no problem.
romanhn•3mo ago
I'm in California, no issues accessing it. I'm sure it'd be front page news if Internet Archive went down.
billpg•3mo ago
If I end up going to London myself, my intention was to scan Wilf's column of those eight issues for archive-org. Two other HN users have offered to go look for me and I can't really ask them to do extra work to do if they're already doing me a favour.
dcminter•3mo ago
> you can sign up same day for a card

Do you know if there are any hoops to jump through these days? My understanding was that a reader card used to require an academic referral or at least a write-up of the research you planned to conduct.

FWIW I was only ever there for the café or the bookshop though, neither of which required a card :D

reedf1•3mo ago
I'm busy the next few days but I could clear an afternoon to check this out. I live nearby.
billpg•3mo ago
Thanks very much. That’s a generous offer. If you do find time to check, I’d be grateful. I’ve narrowed it down to eight issues that aren’t in the archive.org scans. My submission was mentioned near the end of Wilf’s column, just before the usual sign-off and the postal address in Bath.

(You might meet PaulRobinson while you're there, looking for the same issues!)

Thanks again for even considering it. Much appreciated! My email address is my HN username at gmail.

reedf1•2mo ago
Hi billpg - did you get these in the end? I'll make time for this if not.
PaulRobinson•3mo ago
I regularly go to BL and had planned to go in the next couple of weeks, except I just got an email suggesting a strike might mean there are limited facilities available from Monday for a couple of weeks.

That said, I'm happy to go and try and pull those copies (it's sometimes hard to get physical copies), and send the OP scans of his contributions (if they're in there!), when I go in mid-late November.

OP - if this is a useful help to you, let me know and we'll find a way to connect!

billpg•3mo ago
Hello there! I had sent this HN submission in a few weeks ago and I thought it had disappeared off the "new" page with only one comment. I came back on today and happened to notice some activity and HN had reposted my piece five days ago.

I have since contacted the British Library and they have the eight issues I was looking for, but I live way up north and it would take a little planning and spending whole day to get there, but if you'd be willing to do that, yes please. I've narrowed it down to these eight which are in the right timeframe and are missing from the archive.org collection. I do remember my mention was right at the end of that month's column, right before the usual sign-off and the address in Bath to send in contributions.

My email address is my HN username at gmail.

PaulRobinson•3mo ago
I have emailed you, so if you haven't seen that, check your junk folder.
billpg•3mo ago
Thank you. I've written back.

(Short version of email: Yes please!)

n4r9•3mo ago
You've probably already looked but it may be possible to purchase physical vintage copies if all else fails, e.g.: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?item=145752856587&rt=nc&_t...
krypdoh•3mo ago
There's at least one of the issues on eBay.
jen20•3mo ago
PC Plus in the days of Paul Stephens (RIP) and Dave Pearman was hands down the best computing managazine around. I believe I have every issue from -1994-2000 with the exception of Feb 97 (long story) but these ones predate me sadly.
bagnus•3mo ago
Paul Stephens contributions were incredible. His web design articles in PC Plus and those Lotus Screencam tutorials on the SuperCD were what got me started. They were my first proper lessons in building web pages, and they ended up shaping my whole career in software.

I still remember following Huw Collingbourne’s Delphi and C++ Builder tutorials too. I actually learned to write a word processor in C++ from those.

PC Plus was such a good magazine. I bought it religiously from around 1996-2002. Miss those days.

jen20•3mo ago
Same, largely. As were the tools they somehow managed to negotiate for inclusion on the SuperCD.

Sadly paulspages.co.uk appears to be down. It would be great to recover the screen cam videos for YouTube though!

I did see a memorial recently [1] - turned out he lived up the street from me for many years.

[1]: https://www.brlsi.org/a-sad-farewell-to-paul-stephens/

afavour•3mo ago
Haven't heard that name in years! Thanks for a trip down memory lane. I was always more of a PC Format reader than PC Plus but would buy any of these magazines I could get my hands on and devour them. A simpler time...
dcminter•3mo ago
I was a devotee of PC Plus back in the early 90s with my first XT compatible. I have exceedingly fond memories of the 5¼" cover disks and discovering a variety of shareware, freeware, nagware, commercial-but-lightly-maimed-ware and so on. I learnt a huge amount about the PC from their pages too.

Sadly most of the cover-disk images kicking around at archive.org are from the later 3½" cover disk era, by which time I was at college and more focused on Linux, SLS/Slackware, and so forth.

stavros•3mo ago
> he noted it didn’t quite qualify for the contest since I hadn’t written PKZIP myself.

Why? Had the other entries written GCC/LD themselves?

roflchoppa•3mo ago
oh wow! back in August of 2005, I was on a trip to the UK and found a magazine that was talking about Counter-Strike hacks, and I think it was published by PC Plus,

I could be wrong but man I want to find that magazine now.

roflchoppa•3mo ago
ahhhh nah i don't think it was PC Plus, but man I wish I could locate the magazine. :(
radial_symmetry•3mo ago
This post is proof that I truly do not understand what it takes to get to the front page of HN
dcminter•3mo ago
It requires that it offer the opportunity for an interesting discussion in the view of those checking the /new page at the time that it's posted.

This ticks several boxes - the desire to archive technical literature, sympathy for an achieveable goal, and nostalgia for the magazines of yesteryear.

The element of serendipity is part of the appeal for me; for example if OP had posted at a different hour, it might have sunk without trace.

supportengineer•3mo ago
All I have is Family Computing, INFO, and Amiga World
ta1243•3mo ago
For the 120th (10 year) issue, I think in 1996, they had a "what will computers look like in 10 years time" article.

I'd love to see that.

iam-TJ•3mo ago
Have you checked out the The National Museum of Computing (TNMoC) archive. Last time I was there they had a rather good magazine collection going back to the early 1980s. It may be worth a call. I see they have an (incomplete) online catalogue:

https://www.tnmoc.org/library-archive

rasz•3mo ago
mmm PC Plus, UK mini version of Computer Shopper, 300 pages of product listings with prices to lust over.