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Al Lowe on model trains, funny deaths and working with Disney

https://spillhistorie.no/2026/02/06/interview-with-sierra-veteran-al-lowe/
38•thelok•2h ago•3 comments

Hoot: Scheme on WebAssembly

https://www.spritely.institute/hoot/
101•AlexeyBrin•6h ago•18 comments

First Proof

https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.05192
51•samasblack•3h ago•38 comments

OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

https://openciv3.org/
789•klaussilveira•20h ago•243 comments

Stories from 25 Years of Software Development

https://susam.net/twenty-five-years-of-computing.html
38•vinhnx•3h ago•5 comments

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback

https://rlhfbook.com/
62•onurkanbkrc•5h ago•5 comments

The Waymo World Model

https://waymo.com/blog/2026/02/the-waymo-world-model-a-new-frontier-for-autonomous-driving-simula...
1040•xnx•1d ago•587 comments

Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

https://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2009/commands-with-comma/
462•theblazehen•2d ago•165 comments

France's homegrown open source online office suite

https://github.com/suitenumerique
506•nar001•4h ago•235 comments

Vocal Guide – belt sing without killing yourself

https://jesperordrup.github.io/vocal-guide/
183•jesperordrup•10h ago•65 comments

The AI boom is causing shortages everywhere else

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/02/07/ai-spending-economy-shortages/
63•1vuio0pswjnm7•7h ago•59 comments

Software factories and the agentic moment

https://factory.strongdm.ai/
48•mellosouls•3h ago•50 comments

Coding agents have replaced every framework I used

https://blog.alaindichiappari.dev/p/software-engineering-is-back
186•alainrk•5h ago•280 comments

A Fresh Look at IBM 3270 Information Display System

https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/a-fresh-look-at-ibm-3270-information-display-system
27•rbanffy•4d ago•5 comments

What Is Stoicism?

https://stoacentral.com/guides/what-is-stoicism
16•0xmattf•2h ago•7 comments

72M Points of Interest

https://tech.marksblogg.com/overture-places-pois.html
19•marklit•5d ago•0 comments

Unseen Footage of Atari Battlezone Arcade Cabinet Production

https://arcadeblogger.com/2026/02/02/unseen-footage-of-atari-battlezone-cabinet-production/
108•videotopia•4d ago•27 comments

Where did all the starships go?

https://www.datawrapper.de/blog/science-fiction-decline
58•speckx•4d ago•62 comments

Show HN: Look Ma, No Linux: Shell, App Installer, Vi, Cc on ESP32-S3 / BreezyBox

https://github.com/valdanylchuk/breezydemo
268•isitcontent•20h ago•34 comments

Learning from context is harder than we thought

https://hy.tencent.com/research/100025?langVersion=en
197•limoce•4d ago•107 comments

Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

https://github.com/pydantic/monty
281•dmpetrov•21h ago•150 comments

British drivers over 70 to face eye tests every three years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c205nxy0p31o
169•bookofjoe•2h ago•152 comments

Making geo joins faster with H3 indexes

https://floedb.ai/blog/how-we-made-geo-joins-400-faster-with-h3-indexes
152•matheusalmeida•2d ago•47 comments

Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

https://hackers-1995.vercel.app/
549•todsacerdoti•1d ago•266 comments

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/
422•ostacke•1d ago•110 comments

Ga68, a GNU Algol 68 Compiler

https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/PEXRTN-ga68-intro/
39•matt_d•4d ago•13 comments

Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use

https://vecti.com
365•vecti•23h ago•167 comments

An Update on Heroku

https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/
465•lstoll•1d ago•305 comments

Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

https://eljojo.github.io/rememory/
341•eljojo•23h ago•209 comments

What Is Ruliology?

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2026/01/what-is-ruliology/
66•helloplanets•4d ago•70 comments
Open in hackernews

Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics (2000)

https://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm
286•lachlan_gray•2mo ago

Comments

amelius•2mo ago
I don't see much connection here between miss BS and semiconductor physics.

It's just a physics book that happens to have pictures of the popstar in it.

conception•2mo ago
It’s a 25 year old joke. It was a simpler time.
aeve890•2mo ago
But what's the joke though?
artyom•2mo ago
Simpler time, simpler jokes.
twodave•2mo ago
It’s called absurdity. It’s funny because it’s obviously not true, and also funny because of the undertones that it’s a clever way to get horny teenagers to study physics who really just want to see the photos.
makeitdouble•2mo ago
It would be absurd if pop stars by defintion could not explain semiconductor physics. Like how a snake wearing boots is absurd.
ChrisMarshallNY•2mo ago
Dr. Brian May comes to mind...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May#Scientific_career

Maybe not so absurd.

Also, Todd Rundgren used to be a registered Apple developer. We'd see him moseying around the WWDC, every year.

twodave•2mo ago
You are being pedantic, but I’ll play along. Absurd has multiple meanings. It can mean nonsensical, but it can also mean utterly ridiculous or silly. Under those other meanings I believe the pop-star-physics-professor still qualifies.
makeitdouble•2mo ago
It sounds pedantic, but "absurd" is fundamentally different from "rare". A lot of baggage comes from flagging something as absurd, instead of just unexpected or uncommon. Winning the lottery isn't absurd, having 3 pairs of some chromosome isn't either, and being a successful pop singer with an academic background isn't either, it's just rare.
twodave•2mo ago
It IS pedantic, because we are talking not of pop stars in general, but Britney Spears specifically.
netdevphoenix•2mo ago
Very heteronormative even for 2000
jchw•2mo ago
It's a non-sequitur.
toast0•2mo ago
Everyone knows Alanis Morissette is a master electrician. That's why she has one hand in her pocket, while the other is probing a circuit.

Anyway, it's kind of Ironic [1] that the dude from Queen is an astrophysicist, and Britney Spears is writing Semiconductor Physics tutorials. Something something music and math.

[1] Sorry

sunrunner•2mo ago
> master electrician

It’s true, she’s high but she’s grounded (not sorry).

rybosome•2mo ago
Others have pointed it out, but it’s the juxtaposition of the fact that she’s definitely not an expert in this subject with a lesson in the subject.

There’s some subtle bits to the humor depending on how charitable you’re feeling. It might just be absurdist, as in “Blackbeard’s guide to astrobiology”, or it may be more mean spirited and playing on a belief that she is not intelligent.

TL;DR - the joke formula is just:

subject=…

person_not_familiar_with_subject=…

joke=“${person_not_familiar_with_subject}’s guide to {subject}“

And the amount of implied cruelty in the comparison is variable.

amelius•2mo ago
I guess we can now use an LLM to produce a new absurdist book every day.
stinkbeetle•2mo ago
"I don't get it."
dymk•2mo ago
Same as “the narwhal bacons at midnight” or 67.
chasd00•2mo ago
At the time she was ground zero for all of pop culture and pretty much every single man’s crush. When that website came out it was funny because we were all looking at pictures of Britney anyway so may as well learn some physics at the same time.

Btw, she really went downhill once she fell out of popularity. I think she has a life put back together finally but she got a raw deal. I’m rooting for her.

coqadoodle•2mo ago
Routergod.com was one of the greats, good times.
PlunderBunny•2mo ago
An attempt was made in the section "Band Structure and Effective Mass" of the chapter "Basic Semiconductor Physics" to tie the two disparate subjects together.
bjourne•2mo ago
I recently watched A Fish Called Wanda because some old folks said it is a great movie. It is not. It is shit.
davidham•2mo ago
I’m team old folks on this, youngun
commandlinefan•2mo ago
There was a meme that was floating around about the Hawk-Tuah girl analyzing differential equations (IIRC) just last year. I fell for it, though. My son had to explain to me that it was fake.
sheepscreek•2mo ago
Autistic me wanted to half believe it. You don’t get any cookies for bursting my bubble :(
rester324•2mo ago
Interesting, I can see a clear connection between the two subjects on this image: https://britneyspears.ac/physics/basics/images/britneycbvb.j...

This can't be coincidence!

Dilettante_•2mo ago
Non-sequitur humor was the style at the time.
shermantanktop•2mo ago
A joke is like a soap bubble. The act of explaining a joke pops it and reveals it to have no substance.

The essence of humor is simply surprise. Once the surprise is gone, or if it never was surprising, it seems flat or silly.

Some people enjoy humor with deeper meaning, and explaining that meaning might be illuminating. But that’s lipstick on a duck.

stavros•2mo ago
If I share the OP's objections, which I think I do, the problem isn't with the joke attempt itself, it's with the execution. The joke isn't tied in to the content at all, it's literally just the title, and nothing else.

If the author had tied song references into the text, for example, that would make it a much better execution.

shermantanktop•2mo ago
Agree, this is definitely Penguin of Doom level humor. But the mechanic is the same as most comedy - the tickle of surprise from two ideas coming together.
philipwhiuk•2mo ago
Author briefly/currently worked in SEO as a result.
gnabgib•2mo ago
(2000) Popular in:

2023 (37 points, 7 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35763307

2021 (168 points, 112 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25626532

2016 (94 points, 31 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10872658

andy99•2mo ago
Coincidentally I was just looking for this picture yesterday https://britneyspears.ac/wallpaper/bswp005_800x600.htm (the one absent Britney, but this did cross my mind)

I remember this, presumably from slashdot 20,years ago

opan•2mo ago
The picture on the front page reminds me of the Why's Poignant guide to Ruby, specifically it had a picture of a baby shouting some Ruby code.
JSR_FDED•2mo ago
I was crushed when I saw the site needed Flash.
embedding-shape•2mo ago
And also Java in the browser for the (presumed) awesome chat, provided the surely still amazing freejavachat.com
AdmiralAsshat•2mo ago
Meanwhile Dolph Lundgren has an actual MA in Chemical Engineering. It's a pity we can't get him to do something like this in earnest to teach engineering concepts.
leeoniya•2mo ago
and Mayim Bialik holds a neuroscience PhD
master_crab•2mo ago
And sadly a bit of a loon about vaccines and supplements.
skopje•2mo ago
MA is master of art according to google. MSc seems right.
dmd•2mo ago
Many (most, in the US; don't know about Sweden or Australia) institutions don't draw a distinction between the two and award MA regardless.
skopje•2mo ago
did not know!
arethuza•2mo ago
Some universities simply give you an MA a few years after getting a BA without you having to do anything additional.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Arts_(Oxford,_Cambri...

razakel•2mo ago
You do have to manage to not go to prison, though.
andrehacker•2mo ago
Brian May (Queen) has a PhD degree in astrophysics :)
DrewADesign•2mo ago
Tom Scholz, the guitarist for Boston with a masters in MechE from MIT, built his own effects, and much of his own recording equipment.
kazinator•2mo ago
The guitars on Def Leppard's Hysteria [1987] were supposedly direct recorded using a Rockman.
kQq9oHeAz6wLLS•2mo ago
The story of getting their first album made is epic
HanClinto•2mo ago
Link to a recommended write-up?
mek6800d2•2mo ago
I still remember a very interesting article about him in the Electronic Engineering Times back in 1998: "Boston's Scholz Engineers a Rock Dynasty"

https://web.archive.org/web/19990224204558/http://www.eetime...

"Wherever there's a microprocessor, there's trouble."

tombert•2mo ago
Greg Graffin, lead singer for punk rock band Bad Religion, has a PhD in zoology [1] and is a frequent university lecturer.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Graffin

Cosi1125•2mo ago
Dexter Holland (The Offspring) has a PhD in molecular biology [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Holland#Science

Cthulhu_•2mo ago
Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden is (was?) a fully qualified pilot and flew the band's 747 around the world
Guestmodinfo•2mo ago
From Wikipedia "...Lundgren received a degree in chemical engineering from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in the early 1980s and a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in 1982...."

Excerpt from https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/remarkable-rise-dolph-lundgren/ "....As a result, he was awarded a full ride to the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Fulbright Scholar..."

The above Wikipedia article says Dolph quit studying at MIT after two weeks for acting career.

AlbertoGP•2mo ago
Around the time this website was made, I was building an application for a big company in Spain that was to run as a Java applet and required the code to be signed.

They did not yet have their own certificates so I had to make my own CA during testing and sign the code, and I wanted to make sure that they did not forget to switch to their certificates later, so instead of signing the code with my name which some bureaucrat might decide to not bother changing, the code was signed by Britney Spears.

They noticed it, got the joke and made sure to switch certificates for the release. Everything went well thanks to Britney.

leeoniya•2mo ago
oh, good.

no longer will i have to settle for learning Quantum Physics from Kim Kardashian [1]

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/6a5mf7/whats_less_be...

sunrunner•2mo ago
There’s also Zara Dar and Chang Hsu’s PornHub/OnlyFans pages for maths and STEM subjects, if we’re going down this rabbit hole…
chris_wot•2mo ago
There used to be a series of network posts by the "Router God". They went missing, and someone resurrected a bunch of them. Sadly, the article "7 of 9 on OSPF" has left us for good.
lamontcg•2mo ago
They seem to be in the wayback machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100528044501/http://www.router...

https://web.archive.org/web/20100328035939/http://routergod....

Along with Gunney Sgt Hartmann:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100508022721/http://www.router...

modeless•2mo ago
From the same era of the internet I recall a site called the "Large Hardon Collider" making fun of the very common subtle typo. IIRC it had a light blue background and crude (in more ways than one) pencil diagrams. I can't find it now and I wonder if anyone else remembers it?
userbinator•2mo ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20170814124609/http://largehardo...

(NSFW, obviously.)

modeless•2mo ago
Ha, thanks, I should have remembered the URL
exabrial•2mo ago
The old Internet was so fricken cool before we allowed monopolies.
bigfishrunning•2mo ago
Nothing stops people from continuing to put up fun stuff like this; not everything has to be on X or Facebook
neilv•2mo ago
Before anyone has a lighthearted Sunday night moment of humor sharing: you probably don't want to link to this site in your employer's Slack watercooler channel.

Different people might deconstruct the humor of the site's gimmick different ways. Some innocuous, some not.

But no need to do any literary analysis and critical thinking this time, because...

Today most people will immediately realize that something like the "Booble" search form on that page is probably a bad idea for a welcoming modern work environment.

(Related: for the same less-welcoming reason, it's maybe not a great idea on HN.)

kopirgan•2mo ago
Not sure if this is a tribute to great women ( like Lamarr) that were entertainers and brilliant in science or a parody of them!
varenc•2mo ago
Love the old internet feel to the site.

You can see it's been basically unchanged for 25 years! Here's the 2001 snapshot from the wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20010202180000/https://britneysp...

Just keeping any site functional and up for so long is impressive by itself.

userbinator•2mo ago
It's only impressive if you've become accustomed to the unfortunate trend of forced obsolescence and the desire of many to justify useless recurring "maintenance" busywork. Basic HTML and CSS will always work.
adastra22•2mo ago
Maintaining a working server over that time is the challenge.
prmoustache•2mo ago
What makes you think the owner of this site maintain a server?

A quick look at the ip show that it is owned by hostgator.com, a web hosting company.

The key here is renting the domain indefinitely and moving to a new web hosting company if one goes bust.

varenc•2mo ago
I think the challenge is also caring enough to keep paying money to host a site for no clear purpose or gain. And moving hosting providers since guessing hostgator didn't exist back then. Based on the modified times on some assets on the site I'd guess it was last moved in Oct 2015. So glad they kept it up!
userbinator•2mo ago
HostGator has been around for a long time too - since 2002.
caliweed•2mo ago
"In the last section, we looked at the p-n junction. More efficient recombination of electron-hole pairs can be acheived by incorporation of a thin layer of semiconductor material, either p or n type semiconductor with a smaller energy gap than the cladding layers, to form a double heterostructure. (More on this in the future). As the active layer thickness in a double heterostructure becomes close to the De-Broglie wavelength (about 10nm for semiconductor laser devices) quantum effects become apparent."

Are you playing with my heart?

DeathArrow•2mo ago
There must be Mia Khalifa's Guide to Rocket Science somewhere on the Internet.
markatkinson•2mo ago
Don't go to the chat rooms...
captn3m0•2mo ago
I thought .ac was the Academic TLD, and was wondering how this domain was registered, but it is just a ccTLD (2 letter, so has to be). .ac just happens to be the academic second level TLD of choice for many countries.

Apparently, you could have gotten a .edu before 2001 without being an accredited institution in the US.

wink•2mo ago
There seems to be one odd case where I know zero details, but the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_University_of_Applied_S... - usually knows as "FH München" or "FHM" only rebranded to "HM" in 2007 (and then again somewhat in 2011) and yet they own hm.edu and they did own fhm.edu before that: https://web.archive.org/web/20070510152550/http://www.fhm.ed...
eloeffler•2mo ago
I'm mildly surprised there has been no mention of (Taylor) SwiftOnSecurity here yet :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SwiftOnSecurity

brabel•2mo ago
Doesn’t that constitute impersonation, or is it allowed since it’s supposedly obvious to be parody?
eloeffler•2mo ago
I guess it's mainly un-sueable because the reference is very implicit (nothing but the last name) and using the name Swift by itself constitutes neither impersonation of someone specific nor a Trademark violation or anything like that.

And Taylor Swift actually is invested in data security, so it's a compliment :) That's no reason against filing a lawsuit but much less for filing one.

fnands•2mo ago
Blast from the past.

I remember landing on this site when studying for my undergrad solid state physics exams.

nrhrjrjrjtntbt•2mo ago
The OG Margo Robbie
junon•2mo ago
I love the idea of this but the mention of Hedy Lamarr could be confused as parody too when she was in fact an incredibly intelligent engineer and physicist.

Anyway it reminds me of the deep fake of Kim K and Nicki Minaj explaining subnetting: https://youtu.be/KcgyGYTnk4M?feature=shared

hnhg•2mo ago
Has anyone made a ranked list of the most mentioned people or historical facts on HN. Hedy must be on there somewhere: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=hedy+lamarr
junon•2mo ago
I learned about her from HN so that tracks! As she should be.
Hoasi•2mo ago
> I love the idea of this but the mention of Hedy Lamarr could be confused as parody too

Exactly, that was a bit puzzling.

ekropotin•2mo ago
Dexter Holland from the Offspring, the punk band I was obsessed about during my childhood, has PhD in molecular biology.

I thought this thread is a good place to share this fact.