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MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format

https://maplibre.org/news/2026-01-23-mlt-release/
224•todsacerdoti•5h ago•50 comments

Porting 100k lines from TypeScript to Rust using Claude Code in a month

https://blog.vjeux.com/2026/analysis/porting-100k-lines-from-typescript-to-rust-using-claude-code...
46•ibobev•1h ago•20 comments

After two years of vibecoding, I'm back to writing by hand

https://atmoio.substack.com/p/after-two-years-of-vibecoding-im
201•mobitar•1h ago•82 comments

Exactitude in Science – Borges (1946) [pdf]

https://kwarc.info/teaching/TDM/Borges.pdf
12•jxmorris12•43m ago•1 comments

Google AI Overviews cite YouTube more than any medical site for health queries

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/24/google-ai-overviews-youtube-medical-citations-...
46•bookofjoe•1h ago•13 comments

The Holy Grail of Linux Binary Compatibility: Musl and Dlopen

https://github.com/quaadgras/graphics.gd/discussions/242
132•Splizard•7h ago•97 comments

Things I've learned in my 10 years as an engineering manager

https://www.jampa.dev/p/lessons-learned-after-10-years-as
324•jampa•4d ago•81 comments

The browser is the sandbox

https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jan/25/the-browser-is-the-sandbox/
250•enos_feedler•10h ago•144 comments

Apple introduces new AirTag with longer range and improved findability

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/01/apple-introduces-new-airtag-with-expanded-range-and-improv...
102•meetpateltech•1h ago•102 comments

Transfering Files with gRPC

https://kreya.app/blog/transfering-files-with-grpc/
31•CommonGuy•2h ago•7 comments

First, make me care

https://gwern.net/blog/2026/make-me-care
688•andsoitis•20h ago•206 comments

Windows 11's Patch Tuesday nightmare gets worse

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/windows-11s-botched-patch-tuesday-update-nigh...
15•01-_-•20m ago•3 comments

Vibe coding kills open source

https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15494
179•kgwgk•2h ago•143 comments

Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

https://github.com/kxzk/snapbench
38•beigebrucewayne•4h ago•22 comments

Text Is King

https://www.experimental-history.com/p/text-is-king
75•zdw•5d ago•32 comments

TSMC Risk

https://stratechery.com/2026/tsmc-risk/
25•swolpers•4h ago•14 comments

Scientists identify brain waves that define the limits of 'you'

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-identify-brain-waves-that-define-the-limits-of-you
252•mikhael•15h ago•67 comments

Cop-assisted extortion of DWI arrestees in New Mexico include getting them drunk

https://reason.com/2026/01/23/cop-assisted-extortion-of-dwi-arrestees-in-new-mexico-included-gett...
19•leephillips•18m ago•0 comments

Blade Runner Costume Design (2020)

https://costumedesignarchive.blogspot.com/2020/12/blade-runner-1982.html
15•exvi•5d ago•1 comments

Wind Chime Length Calculator (2022)

https://www.snyderfamily.com/chimecalcs/
23•hyperific•5d ago•7 comments

A macOS app that blurs your screen when you slouch

https://github.com/tldev/posturr
642•dnw•23h ago•207 comments

The future of software engineering is SRE

https://swizec.com/blog/the-future-of-software-engineering-is-sre/
200•Swizec•17h ago•89 comments

AI will not replace software engineers (hopefully)

https://medium.com/@sig.segv/ai-will-not-replace-software-engineers-hopefully-84c4f8fc94c0
5•fwef64•23m ago•1 comments

LED lighting undermines visual performance unless supplemented by wider spectra

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-35389-6
146•bookofjoe•17h ago•131 comments

Water 'Bankruptcy' Era Has Begun for Billions, Scientists Say

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-20/water-bankruptcy-era-has-begun-for-billions-sc...
62•ciconia•2h ago•58 comments

Clinic-in-the-loop

https://www.asimov.press/p/clinic-loop
13•surprisetalk•4d ago•2 comments

A static site generator written in POSIX shell

https://aashvik.com/posts/shell-ssg/
56•todsacerdoti•6d ago•27 comments

Using PostgreSQL as a Dead Letter Queue for Event-Driven Systems

https://www.diljitpr.net/blog-post-postgresql-dlq
240•tanelpoder•23h ago•72 comments

Running the Stupid Cricut Software on Linux

https://arthur.pizza/2025/12/running-stupid-cricut-software-under-linux/
44•starkparker•11h ago•10 comments

Emissary, a fast open-source Java messaging library

https://github.com/joel-jeremy/emissary
25•jeyjeyemem•3d ago•10 comments
Open in hackernews

Show HN: Only 1 LLM can fly a drone

https://github.com/kxzk/snapbench
38•beigebrucewayne•4h ago

Comments

bigfishrunning•1h ago
Why would you want an LLM to fly a drone? Seems like the wrong tool for the job -- it's like saying "Only one power drill can pound roofing nails". Maybe that's true, but just get a hammer
pavlov•1h ago
Yeah, it feels a bit like asking "which typewriter model is the best for swimming".
peterpost2•1h ago
Did you read his post?

He answers your question

macintux•1h ago
> Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that".

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

philipwhiuk•1h ago
I disagree. The nearest justification is:

> to see what happens

ceejayoz•1h ago
Isn't that the epitome of the hacker spirit?

"Why?" "Because I can!"

munchler•1h ago
Because we’re interested in AGI (emphasis on general) and LLM’s are the closest thing to AGI that we have right now.
notepad0x90•1h ago
There are almost endless reasons why. It's like asking why would you want a self-driving car. Having a drone to transport things would be amazing, or to patrol an area. LLMs can be helpful with object identification, reacting to different events, and taking commands from users.

The first thought I had was those security guard robots that are popping up all over the place. if they were drones instead, and LLM talked to people asking them to do/not-do things, that would be an improvement.

Or an waiter drone, that takes your order in a restaurant, flies to the kitchen, picks up a sealed and secured food container, flies it back to the table, opens it, and leaves. It will monitor for gestures and voice commands to respond to diners and get their feedback, abuse, take the food back if it isn't satisfactory,etc...

This is the type of stuff we used to see in futuristic movies. It's almost possible now. glad to see this kind of tinkering.

lewispollard•1h ago
The point is that you don't need an LLM to pilot the thing, even if you want to integrate an LLM interface to take a request in natural language.
notepad0x90•54m ago
We don't need a lot of things, but new tech should also address what people want, not just needs. I don't know how to pilot drones, nor do I care to learn how to, but I want to do things with drones, does that qualify as a need? Tech is there to do things for us we're too lazy to do.
infecto•38m ago
That’s a pretty boring point for what looks like a fun project. Happy to see this project and know I am not the only one thinking about these kinds of applications.
laffOr•36m ago
You could have a program, not LLM-based but could be ANN, for flying and an LLM for overseeing; the LLM could give the program instructions to the pilot program as a (x,y,z) directions. I mean currently autopilots are typically not LLMs, right?

You describe why it would be useful to have an LLM in a drone to interact with it but do not explain why it is the very same LLM that should be doing the flying.

iso1631•36m ago
You want a self driving car

You don't want an LLM to drive a car

There is more to "AI" than LLMs

dan-bailey•54m ago
When your only tool is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.
infecto•39m ago
What’s the right tool then?

This looks like a pretty fun project and in my rough estimation a fun hacker project.

bob1029•33m ago
The system prompt for the drone is hilarious to me. These models are horrible at spatial reasoning tasks:

https://github.com/kxzk/snapbench/blob/main/llm_drone/src/ma...

I've been working with integrating GPT-5.2 in Unity. It's fantastic at scripting but completely worthless at managing transforms for scene objects. Even with elaborate planning phases it's going to make a complete jackass of itself in world space every time.

LLMs are also wildly unsuitable for real-time control problems. They never will be. A PID controller or dedicated pathfinding tool being driven by the LLM will provide a radically superior result.

ralusek•18m ago
Why would you want an LLM to identify plants and animals? Well, they're often better than bespoke image classification models at doing just that. Why would you want a language model to help diagnose a medical condition?

It would not surprise me at all if self-driving models are adopting a lot of the model architecture from LLMs/generative AI, and actually invoke actual LLMs in moments where they would've needed human intervention.

Imagine if there's a decision engine at the core of a self driving model, and it gets a classification result of what to do next. Suddenly it gets 3 options back with 33.33% weight attached to each of them and a very low confidence interval of which is the best choice. Maybe that's the kind of scenario that used to trigger self-driving to refuse to choose and defer to human intervention. If that can then first defer judgement to an LLM which could say "that's just a goat crossing the road, INVOKE: HONK_HORN," you could imagine how that might be useful. LLMs are clearly proving to be universal reasoning agents, and it's getting tiring to hear people continuously try to reduce them to "next word predictors."

avaer•1m ago
Using an LLM is the SOTA way to turn plain text instructions into embodied world behavior.

I guess you can question why you would ever want to use text to command a machine in the world (simulated or not).

But I don't see how it's the wrong tool given the goal.

antisthenes•51m ago
LLMs flying weaponized drones is exactly how it starts.
accrual•29m ago
I think it's fascinating work even if LLMs aren't the ideal tool for this job right now.

There were some experiments with embodied LLMs on the front page recently (e.g. basic robot body + task) and SOTA models struggled with that too. And of course they would - what training data is there for embodying a random device with arbitrary controls and feedback? They have to lean on the "general" aspects of their intelligence which is still improving.

With dedicated embodiment training and an even tighter/faster feedback loop, I don't see why an LLM couldn't successfully pilot a drone. I'm sure some will still fall of the rails, but software guardrails could help by preventing certain maneuvers.

fsiefken•18m ago
I am curious how these models would perform and how much energy they'd take to semi-realtime detect objects: SmolVLM2-500M - Moondream 0.5B/2B/2.5B - Qwen3-VL (3B) https://huggingface.co/collections/Qwen/qwen3-vl

I am sure this is already worked on in Russia, Ukraine and The Netherlands. A lot can go wrong with autonomous flying. One could load the VLM on a high end android phone on the drone and have dual control.

avaer•9m ago
Gemini 3 is the only model I've found that can reason spatially. The results here are accurate to my experiments with putting LLM NPCs in simulated worlds.

I was surprised that most VLLMs cannot reliably tell if a character is facing left or right, they will confidently lie no matter what you do (even gemini 3 cannot do it reliably). I guess it's just not in the training data.

That said Qwen3VL models are smaller/faster and better "spatially grounded" in pixel space, because pixel coordinates are encoded in the tokens. So you can use them for detecting things in the scene, and where they are (which you can project to 3d space if you are running a sim). But they are not good reasoning models so don't ask them to think.

That means the best pipeline I've found at the moment is to tack a dumb detection prepass on before your action reasoning. This basically turns 3d sims into 1d text sims operating on labels -- which is something that LLMs are good at.