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I turned my security cameras into an automatic bird identification system

https://jasontucker.blog/how-i-turned-my-security-cameras-into-an-automatic-bird-identification-s...
217•speckx•3h ago•63 comments

A walkable ASCII cyberpunk city in one HTML file [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YtygAx_C6A
80•keithcarolus•1h ago•15 comments

Playa Phone

https://playaphone.com/
355•cutoff•5h ago•146 comments

Show HN: Laser Graffiti

https://laser.consti.de
48•con•2d ago•12 comments

Smartphone LED detects hidden cameras with AI

https://www.chosun.com/english/industry-en/2026/08/30/SBFXUIJQYZEARKP5T4FBAY25HQ/
49•geox•1d ago•15 comments

ChatGPT Work Tool and Skill Reference

https://codex-tool-reference.simonw.chatgpt.site/
138•ijidak•6h ago•46 comments

Tmp.0ut, Vol. 5

https://tmpout.sh/5/
61•kmstout•6d ago•3 comments

Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/dwarf-fortress-is-getting-the-mother-of-all-magic-updates-extend...
141•Tomte•4d ago•30 comments

Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/30/apple-unexpected-mac-mini-and-studio-demand/
169•thm•7h ago•198 comments

Weave (YC W25) is hiring ML, AI, product, & design engineers

https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/workweave
1•adchurch•1h ago

ravynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source

https://ravynos.com/
104•Bluestein•3h ago•73 comments

Kids These Days

https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net/p/kids-these-days
23•speckx•2h ago•21 comments

Show HN: Corporate Mind Games – logic puzzles with a sarcastic corporate theme

https://corporatemindgames.com/
18•dontwordle•3h ago•8 comments

Terrance Tao explains 6 essential mathematical concepts [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOMx2BHHWtE
24•matthewsinclair•21h ago•0 comments

I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

https://signalandsilence.substack.com/p/i-think-someone-hacked-the-commissary
147•jcurbo•8h ago•84 comments

Dimethyl Mercury Exposure Incident at MIT

https://twitter.com/andrew_n_carr/status/2093524390390694232
70•notRobot•2d ago•45 comments

C++26: Standard Library Hardening Experiments

https://www.cppstories.com/2026/hardening-experiments/
65•ibobev•5h ago•37 comments

Launch HN: Almanac (YC S26) – AI that knows your company

https://usealmanac.com/
28•kushagrchitkar•4h ago•35 comments

Show HN: We built the smallest dual-band aircraft tracker

https://pantsforbirds.com/the-worlds-smallest-dual-band-ads-b-receiver-module/
52•CoolNamesAllTkn•4d ago•12 comments

Internet centralization and the original sin of NAT

https://dreamstation.systems/personal/ntppost.html
116•robinpie•17h ago•78 comments

The Snow/Leavis ‘two cultures’ clash

https://aeon.co/essays/at-the-heart-of-the-snow-leavis-two-cultures-clash
57•Hooke•5h ago•29 comments

'Stunning' percolation proof solves decades-old puzzle about phase transitions

https://www.quantamagazine.org/stunning-percolation-proof-solves-decades-old-puzzle-about-phase-t...
18•tzury•2h ago•3 comments

Cheap GPS jammers are filling the world with navigation dead zones

https://www.wsj.com/tech/gps-jammers-dead-zones-e76f3261
47•vinnyglennon•1d ago•41 comments

I built a forgetting curve for an agent with one user

https://eris-system.dev/blog/forgetting-curve
5•hagbardCelin3•6d ago•0 comments

Konrad Zuse Museum shutting down due to lack of funding

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Zuse-Computer-Museum-ZCOM-in-Hoyerswerda-faces-closure-11344513.html
112•virtualritz•3h ago•58 comments

Launch HN: Hebbian Robotics (YC S26) – Build scalable robotics data pipelines

https://github.com/Hebbian-Robotics/hflow
29•kstonekuan•5h ago•10 comments

OpenShot 4.0 – Open-source video editor

https://www.openshot.org/blog/2026/08/30/openshot-40-record-edit-color-like-never-before/
473•metrofun•10h ago•106 comments

Separating logic and language

https://news.mit.edu/2026/separating-logic-and-language-0708
25•myelinscience•3d ago•18 comments

Euphemisation of Taboo Areas [pdf]

https://ajmp.uwr.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2023/12/10_Kleparski.pdf
12•Eridanus2•4d ago•0 comments

Accidental Aesthetics and Romance of Power Wires

https://www.governance.fyi/p/accidental-aesthetics-and-romance
20•crescit_eundo•21h ago•8 comments
Open in hackernews

Extending a Language – Writing Powerful Macros in Scheme

https://mnieper.github.io/scheme-macros/README.html
92•textread•1y ago

Comments

neilv•1y ago
A few formatting changes might make this advanced example easier to understand:

    (define-syntax trace-let
      (syntax-rules ()
        [(trace-let name ([var expr] ...) body1 ... body2)
         (let f ([depth 0] [var expr] ...)
           (define name
             (lambda (var ...)
               (f (+ depth 1) var ...)))
           (indent depth)
           (display "(")
           (display 'name)
           (begin
             (display " ")
             (display var))
           ...
           (display ")")
           (newline)
           (call-with-values
               (lambda ()
                 body1 ... body2)
             (lambda val*
               (indent depth)
               (fold-left
                (lambda (sep val)
                  (display sep)
                  (display val)
                  " ")
                "" val*)
               (newline)
               (apply values val*))))]))
The biggest one is to make the rule template pattern variables all-uppercase. I also made a few other tweaks, including using indentation a little more, and naming the named-`let` variable as "loop" (I usually name it `loop` or prefix the name with `loop-` if there's more than one):

    (define-syntax trace-let
      (syntax-rules ()
        ((trace-let NAME ((VAR EXPR) ...) BODY1 ... BODY2)
         (let loop ((depth 0)
                    (VAR   EXPR) ...)
           (define NAME
             (lambda (VAR ...)
               (loop (+ depth 1) VAR ...)))
           (indent depth)
           (display "(")
           (display (quote NAME))
           (begin (display " ")
                  (display VAR)) ...
           (display ")")
           (newline)
           (call-with-values (lambda ()
                               BODY1 ... BODY2)
             (lambda val*
               (indent depth)
               (fold-left (lambda (sep val)
                            (display sep)
                            (display val)
                            " ")
                          ""
                          val*)
               (newline)
               (apply values val*)))))))
Incidentally, all-uppercase Scheme pattern variables is one of the all-time best uses of all-uppercase in any language. Second only to all-uppercase for the C preprocessor, where a preprocessor macro can introduce almost arbitrary text. Using all-uppercase for constants in some language that has constants, however, is an abomination.

(My suspicion of why Java did all-caps is that they were developing a language for embedded systems developers who were currently using C and C++, and they wanted to make it superficially look similar, even though it was an entirely different language. And then, ironically, the language ended up being used mostly by the analogue of a very different developer of the time: corporate internal information systems developers, who, as a field, didn't use anything like C. It's too late to save Java, but to all other language and API developers, please stop the insanity of all-caps constants, enum values, etc. It's not the most important thing that needs to jump out from the code above all other things.)

Y_Y•1y ago
FWIW, all-caps makes this look much worse to me. I understand that people like things like Hungarian notation, arrows over vector names, and shouting Common Lisp symbols. I understand the argument that it can make reading easier. I just can't appreciate that benefit, and it seems to me an ugly hack which obscures the abstract and general symbolic manipulation going on.

This is all highly subjective of course, de gustibus non disputandem.

neilv•1y ago
You mean aesthetically, in that interspersed all-caps makes the code visually less soothingly sensual?

I can sympathize, but let me make a non-aesthetic argument...

In large blocks of code, with all-caps, you can see at a glance where all the template substitutions are happening, and also instantly know as you're reading code what are variables and what are template substitutions?

I'm asking because one of my realizations in recent years is that not everyone reads or sees code the same way.

For example, maybe some people are stronger "visual" and some people are stronger "verbal".

For another example of a different in how people perceive and think, some people can visualize an object in their mind almost as if they're looking at it, but other people can only know and describe what it looks like without bringing a visual of it into their head.

With the benefit of the all-caps, I can glance at this and immediately see much of the structure of the template. Without all-caps, I'd have to work harder to find all the pattern variables, and the structure would be obscured.

For a bit kludgy practical matter, as I'm quickly looking at pieces of code in a template, with all-caps, I can look at a fragment of code in isolation and know what are and aren't pattern variables. Without that, I have to go read the top of the template clause (and read through any syntactic scopes of `let-syntax`) and get that in my head, until I get to the fragment of code I originally wanted to look at.

IDE support can make this unnecessary, with a hypothetical great IDE, with familiar syntax coloring. But still, if there is one thing that all-caps should be reserved for, it's something like this.

With all-caps, your code can be sensual, and the jolting all-caps bits are look out, potentially arbitrary code gets pasted into here.

mnemenaut•1y ago
https://github.com/rogerturner/scheme-macros/blob/main/examp... shows stepwise development of a trace-let [the `(example: (fn arg) => result)` forms are tests - see check-examples library]
Y_Y
•
1y ago
Since you asked, my objection is both aesthetic and semantic, though I was really referring to the semantic part above.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this visual vs. verbal distinction.

I can add a few clarifying details. I don't use IDEs as much as basic text editors maybe with highlighting, and I try not to rely on any fancy features. It does worry me that the allcaps use you describe is (afaik) not known to the editor or interpreter, so if you make a mistake or the symbol gets out of sync with its meaning (re: pattern variables) you may have a false signal. Finally I'll say that in the end I can't suggest a good way to treat these special variables, and so maybe I don't get it, or tastes like mine would be better served by a different formalism for macros.