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Altermagnets: The first new type of magnet in nearly a century

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2487013-weve-discovered-a-new-kind-of-magnetism-what-can-we-do-with-it/
235•Brajeshwar•6h ago•45 comments

Artisanal handcrafted Git repositories

https://drew.silcock.dev/blog/artisanal-git/
39•drewsberry•2h ago•8 comments

Tin Can – The Landline, Reinvented for Kids

https://tincan.kids/
8•derwiki•13m ago•1 comments

How and where will agents ship software?

https://www.instantdb.com/essays/agents
78•stopachka•3h ago•33 comments

Show HN: Improving search ranking with chess Elo scores

https://www.zeroentropy.dev/blog/improving-rag-with-elo-scores
122•ghita_•7h ago•40 comments

Pgactive: Postgres active-active replication extension

https://github.com/aws/pgactive
229•ForHackernews•12h ago•68 comments

Chain of thought monitorability: A new and fragile opportunity for AI safety

https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11473
82•mfiguiere•7h ago•42 comments

Scanned piano rolls database

http://www.pianorollmusic.org/rolldatabase.php
8•bookofjoe•3d ago•1 comments

Show HN: 0xDEAD//TYPE – A fast-paced typing shooter with retro vibes

https://0xdeadtype.theden.sh/
35•theden•3d ago•7 comments

PyPI Prohibits inbox.ru email domain registrations

https://blog.pypi.org/posts/2025-06-15-prohibiting-inbox-ru-emails/
107•miketheman•3h ago•71 comments

Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 Incident on July 14, 2025

https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-1-1-1-1-incident-on-july-14-2025/
506•nomaxx117•18h ago•337 comments

Young graduates are facing an employment crisis

https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/jobs-unemployment-rise-young-people-ce4704d8
52•bdev12345•1h ago•46 comments

I'm switching to Python and actually liking it

https://www.cesarsotovalero.net/blog/i-am-switching-to-python-and-actually-liking-it.html
277•cesarsotovalero•14h ago•444 comments

Shipping WebGPU on Windows in Firefox 141

https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/shipping-webgpu-on-windows-in-firefox-141/
321•Bogdanp•15h ago•131 comments

A Recap on May/June Stability at Neon

https://neon.com/blog/an-apology-and-a-recap-on-may-june-stability
9•nikita•1h ago•0 comments

Weave (YC W25) is hiring an AI engineer

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/weave-3/jobs/SqFnIFE-founding-ai-engineer
1•adchurch•4h ago

What's happening to reading?

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/whats-happening-to-reading
108•Kaibeezy•3d ago•232 comments

Mkosi – Build Bespoke OS Images

https://mkosi.systemd.io/
46•leetrout•5h ago•14 comments

'Gentle parenting' my smartphone addiction

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/gentle-parenting-my-smartphone-addiction
44•fortran77•6h ago•38 comments

Tilck: A tiny Linux-compatible kernel

https://github.com/vvaltchev/tilck
251•chubot•17h ago•48 comments

Atopile – Design circuit boards with code

https://atopile.io/atopile/introduction
75•poly2it•3d ago•17 comments

How I lost my backpack with passports and laptop

https://psychotechnology.substack.com/p/how-i-lost-my-backpack-with-passports
96•eatitraw•1d ago•89 comments

GPUHammer: Rowhammer attacks on GPU memories are practical

https://gpuhammer.com/
254•jonbaer•21h ago•88 comments

Ukrainian hackers destroyed the IT infrastructure of Russian drone manufacturer

https://prm.ua/en/ukrainian-hackers-destroyed-the-it-infrastructure-of-a-russian-drone-manufacturer-what-is-known/
564•doener•13h ago•381 comments

Show HN: Timep – a next-gen profiler and flamegraph-generator for bash code

https://github.com/jkool702/timep
13•jkool702•1d ago•0 comments

Intel's retreat is unlike anything it's done before in Oregon

https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2025/07/intels-retreat-is-unlike-anything-its-done-before-in-oregon.html
45•cbzbc•2h ago•31 comments

Pascal's Scams (2012)

http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2012/07/pascals-scams.html
56•walterbell•4d ago•43 comments

MARS.EXE → COM (2021)

https://chaos.if.uj.edu.pl/~wojtek/MARS.COM/
138•reconnecting•4d ago•40 comments

Mill: A better build tool for Java, Scala, and Kotlin

https://mill-build.org/mill/index.html
68•lihaoyi•6h ago•47 comments

Show HN: BloomSearch – Keyword search with hierarchical bloom filters

https://github.com/danthegoodman1/bloomsearch
37•dangoodmanUT•3d ago•9 comments
Open in hackernews

Show HN: An MCP server that gives LLMs temporal awareness and time calculation

https://github.com/jlumbroso/passage-of-time-mcp
67•lumbroso•6h ago
This is an open‑source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives any LLM a sense of the passage of time.

Most MCP demos wire LLMs to external data stores. That’s useful, but MCP is also a chance to give models perception — extra senses beyond the prompt text.

Six functions (`current_datetime`, `time_difference`, `timestamp_context`, etc.) give Claude/GPT real temporal awareness: It can spot pauses, reason about rhythms, and even label a chat’s “three‑act structure”. Runs locally in <60 s (Python) or via a hosted demo.

If time works, what else could we surface? - Location / movement (GPS, speed, “I’m on a train”) - Weather (rainy evening vs clear morning) - Device state (battery low, poor bandwidth) - Ambient modality (user is dictating on mobile vs typing at desk) - Calendar context (meeting starts in 5 min) - Biometric cues (heart‑rate spikes while coding)

Curious what other signals people think would unlock better collaboration.

Full back story: https://medium.com/@jeremie.lumbroso/teaching-ai-the-signifi...

Happy to discuss MCP patterns, tool discovery, or future “senses”. Feedback and PRs welcome!

Comments

rlupi•6h ago
Physical/mental health and personal journaling?

I just finished some changes to my own little project that provides MCP access to my journal stored in Obsidian, plus a few CLI tools for time tracking, and today I added recursive yearly/monthly/weekly/daily automatic retrospectives. It can be tweaked for other purposes (e.g. project tracking) tweaking the templates.

https://github.com/robertolupi/augmented-awareness

riedel•5h ago
I am giving a lecture on context sensitive systems. One thing where all this context awareness failed was getting it into higher level reasoning and adapting program logic (think for example the android activity API). I was just telling the students that with MCPs as interface to all the context sources (like sensor based activity classifiers but definitely also time) we might overcome that challenge soon. Cool to see starting to implement that kind of stuff...
lumbroso•4h ago
That's exactly what I've been thinking too!

MCP + LLMs = our solution to data integration problems, which include context awareness limitations.

It's an exciting development and I am glad you see it too!

jayd16•5h ago
I was looking for the calendar app that was built but I guess it's metaphorical.

"We made an API for time so now the AI has the current time in it's context" is the bulk of it, yes?

morkalork•5h ago
The current time (and location of the user, looking at you google gemini) is injected in most LLM chats now isn't it?
kridsdale1•3h ago
At the start. But then human my perceive the rest of the conversation taking many minutes or hours, but the LLM never gets any signal that latter text is chronologically divided from earlier text. It needs a polling API like this.
cjlm•5h ago
The sycophancy from Claude is incredibly jarring. I agree with Ethan Mollick that this could turn out to have more of a disastrous impact than AI hallucination.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/emollick_i-am-starting-to-thi...

unshavedyak•5h ago
It's even a blocker for some design patterns. Ie it's difficult to discuss options and choose the best one when the AI agrees with you no matter what. If you ask "But what about X" it is more likely to reverse course and agree with your new position entirely.

It's really frustrating. I've come to loathe the agreeable tone because every time i see it i remember the times where i've hit this pain point in design.

ghc•5h ago
I absolutely hate this too. And the only way around it is to manipulate it into cheerfully pointing out all the problems with something in a similarly sycophantic way.
danielbln•5h ago
If found that three words help "critical hat on". Then you get the real talk.
jayd16•4h ago
What a ridiculous world we live in.
shagie•5h ago
In my ChatGPT customization prompt I have:

    Not chatty.  Unbiased.  Avoid use of emoji.  Rather than "Let me know if..." style continuations, list a set of prompts to explore further topics.  Do not start out with short sentences or smalltalk that does not meaningfully advance the response.
I want an intelligent agent (or one that pretends to be) that answers the question rather than something that I chat with.

As an aside, I like the further prompt exploration approach.

An example of this from the other day - https://chatgpt.com/share/68767972-91a8-8011-b4b3-72d6545cc5... and https://chatgpt.com/share/6877cbe9-907c-8011-91c2-baa7d06ab4...

One part of this in comparison with the linked in post is that I try to avoid delegating choices or judgement to it in the first place. It is an information source and reference librarian (that needs to be double checked - I like that it links its sources now).

However, that's a me thing - something that I do (or avoid doing) with how I interact with an LLM. As noted with the stories of people following the advice of an LLM, it isn't something that is universal.

organsnyder•5h ago
I'm struck by how often Claude responds with "You're right! Now let me look at the file..." when it can't know whether I'm right until after it looks at the file in question.
CamperBob2•5h ago
They have introduced a beta 'Preferences' feature recently under Custom Instructions. I've had good results from this preference setting in GPT:

    Answer concisely when appropriate, more 
    extensively when necessary.  Avoid rhetorical 
    flourishes, bonhomie, and (above all) cliches.  
    Take a forward-thinking view. OK to be mildly 
    positive and encouraging but NEVER sycophantic 
    or cloying.  Above all, NEVER use the phrase 
    "You're absolutely right."
I just copied it into Claude's preferences field, we'll see if it helps.
saberience•5h ago
This title really doesn't fit what the submission did actually.

The submitter made a basic MCP function that returns the current time, so... Claude knows the current time. There is nothing about sundials and Claude didn't somehow build a calendar in any shape or form.

I thought this was something original or otherwise novel but it's not... it's not complex code or even moderately challenging code, nor is it novel, nor did it result in anything surprising... it's just a clickbaity title.

whartung•5h ago
Give it a picture of the Sun at the same time every day, and lets see if it comes up with a calendar from that.
deadbabe•5h ago
Agreed. I’m tired of these ridiculous claims by people just trying to hype up LLMs. Flagging this article.
lumbroso•4h ago
Fair point on the metaphor—let me be concrete.

What’s new here isn’t just exposing `current_datetime()`. The server also gives the model tools to reason about time:

  (1) time_difference(t1, t2)  – exact gaps with human wording  

  (2) timestamp_context(t)      – “weekend evening”, “workday morning”  

  (3) time_since(t)             – “2 h ago, earlier today”  
I also request that Claude ask for time at every turn, which creates a timeseries that is parallel to our interactions. When Claude calls these every turn it starts noticing patterns (it independently labelled our chat as a three-act structure). That was the surprise that prompted the title.

Ask Claude “what patterns do you see so far?” after a few exchanges.

If you still find it trivial after trying, happy to hear why—genuinely looking for ways to push this further. Thanks for the candid feedback.

Finding a good title is really hard. I'd appreciate any advice on that. You'll notice I wrote the article several weeks ago, and that's how long it took me to figure out how to pitch on HN. I'd appreciate any feedback to improve. Thanks!

dang•4h ago
Clearly an honest mistake but yeah a metaphor probably shouldn't be used in a title like this, since many readers will take it literally. I've changed the title now to language from the article.

(Submitted title was "Show HN: I gave Claude a sundial and it built a calendar")

fennecbutt•4h ago
That's MCP/AI libraries for ya.
Disposal8433•5h ago
Again and again, your code lacks the basics of engineering. Where is your package manager and requirements? Your code would never pass any test in a professional context. It's like you haven't went past a Python tutorial and feel the AI output is acceptable.

The docs are pictures, and what is a Pipfile in any context? It looks like a requirement file but you never bothered to follow the news about pip or uv.

Every AI project is like that and I'm really scared for the future of programming.

dewey•5h ago
You can program just for fun, without having to make it a professional project. Just like you can do some woodworking without having the goal of becoming a professional carpenter.
Disposal8433•5h ago
Yes you can. Until managers and CEOs demand that you use those tools or you're fired. Whenever I sent such a bad project, I think of what may happen in the next 5 years and its dreadful. We're professionals after all.

And BTW it's already happening, it's not a fantasy.

dewey•5h ago
You can both write hacky projects in your free time and write good, well-tested code in your professional life. It’s not that deep.
qingcharles•34m ago
This is how I've always coded. My own projects are like freeform doodles on scrap paper. My professional work is completed, polished commissions.
lumbroso•4h ago
Disposal8433, I am not unsympathetic to your point, but I think that bad managers and CEOs are bad managers and CEOs.

For instance at Boeing, the fault of software problems lies entirely on the managers: They made the decision to subcontract software engineering to a third party to cut cost, but also they didn't provide the contractor with enough context and support to do a good job. It's not subcontracting that was bad — because subcontracting can be the solution in some circumstances and with proper scoping and oversight — it was the management.

The MCP protocol is changing every few weeks, it doesn't make sense (to me at least) to professionalize a technical demo, and I appreciate that LLMs allow for faster iteration and exploration.

barbazoo•4h ago
What someone builds privately using AI has nothing to do with what expectations organizations decide to put on their employees. This isn't something that will make it into a professional context so who cares if it is in fact shit?!

Imagine a woodworking forum and someone being called out for showing off their little 6 piece tool box and someone saying how this doesn't adhere to residential building code and what this does for the profession of woodworkers...

orsorna•3h ago
This really isn't dissimilar to any work I've seen in a professional setting, minus the screenshot docs. I agree those are bad. Everything useful is in the README.

`uv` is great but `pipenv` is a perfectly well-tested Python dependency manager (albeit slow). Down in the instructions it explicitly asks you to use `pipenv` to manage* dependencies. I also do not think your assertion of "what is a Pipfile in any context" is fair, as I don't think I've ever seen a project list a dependency manager and then explicitly call out artifacts that the dependency manager may require to function.

gmiller123456•5h ago
Not really anything in there regarding the sundial. I'm guessing that was put in there metaphorically for clickbait reasons.

Knowing quite a bit about sundials I was genuinely curious about how that would work, as a typical (horizontal) sundial doesn't have enough information to make a calendar. It's a time of day device, rather than a time of year device. You could teach the model about the Equation of Time or the Sun's declination, but it wouldn't need the sundial at that point. There are sundials like a spider sundial, or nodus sundial, that encode date information too. But there's overlap/ambiguity between the two solstices as the sun goes from highest to lowest, then back to its highest declination. Leap years also add some challenges too. There are various ways to deal with those, but I think you can see why I was curious how producing a calendar from a sundial would work (without giving it some other information that makes the sundial unecessary).

lumbroso•4h ago
I'm sorry for the misleading title about a sundial, it was a metaphor, and based on the feedback here, if I had to do it again I would pick a different one. :-)

My only worry with these MCP "sensors" is that they add-up to the token cost — and more importantly to the context window cost. It would be great to have the models regularly poll as new data and factor that into their inferences. But I think the models (at least with current attention) will always have a trade-off between how much they are provided and what they can focus on. I am afraid that if I provide Claude numerous senses, that it will lower its attention to our conversation.

But your exciting comment (and again I apologize for disappointing you!) makes me think about creating an MCP server that provides like the position of the sun in the sky for the current location, or maybe some vectorized representation of a specific sundial.

I think the digitized information that we experience is more native to models (i.e., require fewer processing steps to extract insights from), but it's possible that providing them this kind of input would result in unexpected insights. They may notice patterns, i.e., more grumpy when the sun is in this phase, etc.

Thanks for your thoughtfulness!

cwmoore•5h ago
I would argue that "that gives any LLM a sense of the passage of time" is but a suspension of disbelief and metaphorical hope.

For those looking for "a calendar", here is one[0] I made from a stylized orrery. No AI. Should be printable to US Letter paper. Enjoy.

EDIT: former title asserted that the LLM built a calendar

[0] https://ouruboroi.com/calendar/2026-01-01

MarkLowenstein•3h ago
I love the basic point. Timing based association is fundamental to thinking, across species. How does the bunny knows that you're stalking it? Because your eyes move when it moves. I had no idea that LLMs missed all this. Plus the political reference is priceless.
erispoe•1h ago
Claude can run code. Add to your customs instructions to check the time regularly and you're done. Why do you need an MCP?