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Computer-generated dream world: Virtual reality for a 286 processor Published: 2026-03-02 | Origin: Hacker News In "Virtual Reality for a 286 Processor," Nagy Krisztián explores the concept of virtual reality through the lens of a vintage 286 processor. He draws parallels between the computer's processor and the brain, suggesting that just as our brains interpret electrical signals to define reality, a processor could form the backbone of a simulated environment. Reflecting on his own experiences, he recalls starting this project two years ago with two Harris 80C286-12 processors, chosen for their resilience to |
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Everett shuts down Flock camera network after judge rules footage public record Published: 2026-03-02 | Origin: Hacker News The City of Everett has shut down its network of Flock license plate reader cameras after a judge ruled that footage from these cameras is considered public record under Washington law. This decision followed a public records request from Jose Rodriguez, who sought to understand what data the cameras were collecting. The ruling allows anyone, including potential criminals, to request the footage, leading Everett's Mayor Cassie Franklin to express concern over safety risks. In response, the city has temporarily disabled its 68 Flock cameras. Concurrently |
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Show HN: Timber – Ollama for classical ML models, 336x faster than Python Published: 2026-03-02 | Origin: Hacker News The content outlines the features of Ollama, a tool designed for classical machine learning models. It includes an Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compiler that transforms models from frameworks like XGBoost, LightGBM, scikit-learn, CatBoost, and ONNX into optimized native C99 inference code, resulting in a performance increase of 336 times faster than Python for single-sample inference. Ollama allows for easy loading and serving of these models via a simple command interface. Additionally, |
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If AI writes code, should the session be part of the commit? Published: 2026-03-02 | Origin: Hacker News The content describes "git-memento," a Git extension that records AI coding sessions associated with commits. It allows users to store a cleaned markdown version of their coding conversations as notes on new commits. Key features include the ability to initialize per-repository settings, track commits, share notes with remote repositories, and sync notes during pushes. It also provides functionalities for managing rewritten commits, auditing note coverage, and configuring the extension's behavior through environment variables. Users can access documentation for additional qualifiers, and the tool |
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Hacking Super Mario 64 using Algebraic Topology Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming In "Hacking Super Mario 64 using covering spaces (+ hyperbolic geometry)," Luca Leon Happel explores the concept of covering spaces in topology, emphasizing their connection to hyperbolic geometry, especially through universal covers of surfaces with genus \(g \geq 2\). The article defines key terms such as covering spaces, homeomorphisms, and universal covers, highlighting that a covering space is a topological space that locally resembles the base space through a continuous surjective map. A |
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Right-sizes LLM models to your system's RAM, CPU, and GPU Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: Hacker News The content outlines a tool designed to help users identify large language models (LLMs) that are compatible with their hardware specifications. It features a terminal interface that assesses a user's CPU, RAM, and GPU capabilities to recommend models based on quality, speed, and fit. The tool also supports multi-GPU setups, various quantization methods, and includes an interactive terminal user interface (TUI) as well as a classic command-line interface (CLI). Additionally, it allows users to switch to a planning mode |
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WebMCP is available for early preview Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: Hacker News The content describes a CSS stylesheet for author profiles, featuring two classes: `.wd-authors` and `.dcc-authors`, both of which define the layout and appearance of author avatars and their associated links. Key features include flexbox for layout, circularly cropped images, and adjustable avatar sizes. Additionally, it introduces WebMCP, a new standard designed to enhance the interaction between websites and AI agents. WebMCP provides two APIs that enable AI agents to perform tasks on websites more efficiently, making |
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Custom Data Structures in E-Graphs Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming E-graphs are advanced data structures used for reasoning about program equivalence, which play a crucial role in optimizers and compilers. However, their efficiency can diminish when many equivalent expressions arise, especially due to algebraic identities like associativity, commutativity, and distributivity (A/C/D). One approach to address this issue is to embed these identities within the e-graph's underlying structure, like Philip Zucker’s work on Gröbner bases and bottom-up e-matching. Instead of |
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January in Servo: preloads, better forms, details styling, and more Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming Servo 0.0.5 has been released with numerous enhancements to web platform features. Key updates include: - Support for OGG media playback in `<audio>` elements has been restored after previous bugs in GStreamer were resolved. - Non-pixel sizes for width and height attributes in `<svg>` elements are now supported. - Inactive documents will properly reject fullscreen mode changes. - The `navigator.sendBeacon()` feature is enabled by default, with the related preference removed. - Implemented keepalive |
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The real cost of random I/O Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming The blog discusses the outdated default setting of the `random_page_cost` parameter in Postgres, which has been set at 4.0 for about 25 years. With advancements in storage technology, particularly with flash storage's improved performance in handling random I/O, the default may no longer reflect current realities. Some suggest lowering it to 1.0, the same as `seq_page_cost`. To investigate this, the author proposes an experiment to measure the cost of reading a random page versus a |
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Fooling Go's X.509 Certificate Verification Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming The content discusses two X.509 certificates: a Certificate Authority (CA) root certificate and a leaf certificate signed by the CA's private key. When using a tool like OpenSSL, one can verify that the leaf certificate is indeed signed by the CA. The post suggests that if you were reading it from the year 2126, you would find the continued use of OpenSSL unexpected. The author proposes a Go program to verify the chain of trust but highlights that it might produce surprising results when using |
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Why is the first C++ (m)allocation always 72 KB? Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming The author shares insights on experimenting with custom memory allocators in C++, specifically regarding exception handling and memory allocation behavior in their environment. They explain how the C++ standard library allocates an "emergency pool" for exceptions if memory runs out. By creating a debug tool to log memory allocation requests, the author discovered that all programs tested begin by allocating 72 KB of memory (73728 bytes). They detail the process of overriding the default `malloc` in Linux using LD_PRELOAD and emphasize the |
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Decision trees – the unreasonable power of nested decision rules Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming The article by Jared Wilber & Lucía Santamaría discusses the process of using a Decision Tree to classify trees based on their Diameter and Height. They illustrate this with a hypothetical scenario where, after making an initial classification based on Diameter, subsequent splits are made according to Height and other features to refine the classifications into Apple, Cherry, and Oak trees. While splitting the data into more specific regions can lead to better classification, there's a risk of overfitting the model to the training data, making |
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Microgpt explained interactively Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming Andrej Karpathy created a 200-line Python script that trains a GPT model from scratch using pure Python, without any libraries. The script includes the core algorithm that drives large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. It trains on a dataset of 32,000 human names, aiming to learn their statistical patterns to generate new, plausible names. During training, the model outputs names such as "kamon" and "anton," showcasing its understanding of which characters commonly follow others and the typical |
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AWS Middle East Central (mec1-az2) down, apparently struck in war Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming Of course! Please provide the content you would like me to summarize. |
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[Feature #21930] Add Ractor#empty? method to check for pending messages without blocking Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/ruby The content discusses the need for a non-blocking way to check for pending messages in Ractor-based architectures, addressing limitations of the current Ractor API. It highlights that the existing Ractor#receive method blocks threads until a message arrives, hindering integration with cooperative multitasking systems. Developers are left with either accepting thread blocking or creating complex workarounds. To resolve these issues, the proposed solution is to introduce a new method, Ractor#empty?, which would allow developers to check if |
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The looming AI clownpocalypse Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming The author proposes a truce in the ongoing debate about AI risks, particularly focusing on terms like "the singularity," "superintelligence," and "doomers." They argue that the prevailing question shouldn't be about the worst-case scenarios but rather about the real, tangible risks of current AI technologies, which don't require superintelligence to pose significant threats. The author insists that people should be able to acknowledge these risks without being dismissed by either "denialists" or "doomers." They stress |
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Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: Hacker News The content introduces VMPrint, a pure JavaScript typesetting engine that produces accurate PDF outputs without relying on heavy dependencies or headless browsers. Unlike traditional HTML-to-PDF tools that compromise on layout consistency, VMPrint guarantees identical formatting across various environments by using a versioned JSON instruction stream. It aims to enhance the quality of documentation by offering a more visually appealing PDF export, which addresses the shortcomings of standard Markdown-to-PDF outputs. The engine supports multiple languages and maintains layout stability, providing a publication |
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Ghostty – Terminal Emulator Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: Hacker News Ghostty is a fast and feature-rich terminal emulator that operates on multiple platforms, utilizing platform-native UI and GPU acceleration. It requires no configuration for installation and offers ready-to-run binaries for macOS, with options to package or build from source for Linux. The emulator allows for customizable keybindings and comes with numerous built-in themes, including options for light and dark modes. Ghostty offers extensive configuration options for personalization and also provides developers with a reference on terminal concepts and supported control sequences. |
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Simple Made Inevitable: The Economics of Language Choice in the LLM Era Published: 2026-03-01 | Origin: /r/programming The author reflects on their experience managing microservices at Qantas and the challenges of maintaining synchronization and managing codebase complexity. A key strategy they implemented was adopting Polylith alongside Clojure, focusing on simplicity through composition and data, aiming to combat "accidental complexity" in software development. They draw parallels between their past challenges and current struggles faced by LLM coding agents, emphasizing that the choice of programming language significantly impacts managing complexity. The author references Fred Brooks' 1986 essay "No |