Folkscanomy: Tandy and Radio Shack Books
The article covers a collection of books published by Tandy Corporation, a notable electronics company known for their TRS-80 line of personal computers. The collection includes various Tandy-branded books on programming, computer applications, and electronics.
YC Partner Simulator
This article explores the Partner Simulator, an interactive game where players can engage in virtual relationships and explore the dynamics of interpersonal connections. The game aims to provide a safe and controlled environment for users to practice communication, empathy, and relationship-building skills.
Apple AMX vs. GPU: tech deep dive
Trying manual memory management in Go [video]
Show HN: Who Ships It?
Left Padding Mastery: The Definitive AI Agent Guide
This article explains how to implement a left-padding function in JavaScript, which adds a specified character to the beginning of a string until it reaches a desired length. It provides a simple implementation and discusses the benefits of using this function to format data for display.
Making the Switch to React Native
I analyzed 10k LinkedIn posts to understand what drives engagement
Ask HN: Any online tech spaces you hang around that don't involve AI?
I understand why Ai is dominating online discourse right now. The tech is novel, it’s pushing boundaries, the business side has trillions of dollars involved, and it’s made its way to the mainstream of every day people.
But, I just truly don’t find it interesting. For all those that do - great! But for myself, for whatever reason it just does not scratch that part of my brain. I’d rather spend days writing and debugging code (to create a 5 minute automation ;) ) than having Ai spit something out in 10 seconds.
I just use Ai like a supercharged stack overflow. Ask it something if I have a syntax error or whatever, and then move on by continuing to use my own brain to think through the logic and patterns of my project.
All that to say - I miss what HN was before Ai and LLMs started dominating everything!
Anyone have other spaces, blogs, communities, or whatever where you go to learn and/or discuss interesting things that don’t have anything to do with Ai?
Nvidia builds location verification tech that could help fight chip smuggling
Nvidia is developing location verification technology that could help combat chip smuggling by tracking the movement of semiconductor chips across the supply chain. This technology aims to ensure the authenticity and origin of chips, addressing concerns about counterfeit and diverted products.
An Interview with Jack Crenshaw
This article features an interview with Jack Crenshaw, a computer scientist and programmer who was involved in the early development of the TRS-80 microcomputer. It provides insights into the challenges and innovations that shaped the TRS-80 and the early personal computer industry.
Show HN: Quorum – CLI to orchestrate debates between local/cloud LLMs(React Ink)
The article provides an overview of the Quorum command-line interface (CLI), a tool for interacting with the Quorum blockchain platform. The CLI allows users to manage accounts, deploy and interact with smart contracts, and perform other blockchain-related operations.
AI is bringing old nuclear plants out of retirement
The article examines the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the nuclear power industry, exploring how AI could help optimize operations, improve safety, and address challenges like radioactive waste management.
Ask HN: What's the most real value you've seen AI create so far?
There’s no shortage of AI announcements, startups, and benchmarks but less clarity on where it’s making a meaningful difference in practice.
What’s the most concrete, sustained value you’ve seen AI create? Modest examples are welcome.
Could be:
Better outcomes for customers or users
Work that’s now possible (or enjoyable) that wasn’t before
Scientific, educational, or social impact
Revenue, margin, or productivity gains
Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books
I read many non-fiction books, but recently noticed that only a few qualify as truly heavy, thought-provoking reads, that you literally can't finish in a manageable time because you keep telling yourself, "Wait a minute," then stop to Google something, run an experiment, or just think deeply. My current example (still unfinished) is "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer. It's mind-blowing - the entire memory universe around us that I never properly explored before.
Great Green Wall (China)
The Great Green Wall of China is an ongoing ecological project aimed at combating desertification by planting a belt of trees and vegetation across northern China. The project has made progress in expanding forest cover and reducing sand and dust storms, though challenges remain in sustaining long-term growth and managing water resources.
I Know This Sounds Like Crackpot Physics – Please Read It Anyway
Designing a DSP architecture for 1M QPS CPM ads without overspending
I’m working on the system architecture for a high-throughput AdTech DSP and would love feedback from people who’ve built large-scale bidding / serving systems.
Constraints / Goals
DSP only (no exchange)
Target: 1M ad requests/sec
End-to-end DSP latency budget: ~100ms
Pricing model: CPM
Hard requirement: no advertiser or campaign overspend
Targeting / Campaign Fetch
I modeled targeting (geo, interests, etc.) using Redis + Roaring Bitmaps.
Fetching candidate campaigns alone:
Redis: ~1000 RPS at ~8ms (local machine, not cloud)
Aerospike: ~200–400 RPS at ~10ms
This is only campaign fetching, not bidding or scoring.
Budget / Wallet Model
Advertiser has a wallet
Campaign has:
Total budget
Daily budget
Daily spend tracking
Overspend is not acceptable (even a small % matters at scale).
Budget Control Approaches Considered
Splitting daily budgets into hourly buckets
Rate limiting via:
Token bucket
PID controllers
These reduce overspend but don’t guarantee correctness under bursty traffic.
Recently considering micros (integer currency units) to reduce rounding errors.
Open Questions
At 1M QPS, how do people actually enforce budget guarantees in production?
Soft overspend with reconciliation?
Hard atomic checks in the hot path?
Is Redis bitmap–based targeting viable at this scale, or does everyone eventually:
Pre-materialize campaign sets?
Push logic into memory / C++?
How do you balance:
Strict budget enforcement
Low latency
High throughput without introducing global locks or cross-region contention?
Is “no overspend ever” a realistic requirement, or is bounded error the industry norm?
I’m less interested in textbook answers and more in what has actually worked (or failed) in production.
AI is making the workplace lonelier
The article discusses how Anthropic's advanced AI chatbot is transforming remote work, with the technology enabling more efficient communication, task management, and productivity for distributed teams. It highlights the potential of AI-powered tools to reshape the future of work and employment.
Please stop using middleware to protect your routes
The article discusses the use of middleware in authentication systems, explaining how it can be used to manage user sessions and handle authentication-related tasks in a modular and scalable way, improving the overall security and maintainability of an application's authentication process.
Show HN: Browser-Use as a REST API with VNC, persistent sessions, and tools
I wrapped browser-use in a REST API with features I needed for production use.
browser-use is great but it's a Python library. I wanted an API I could call from anywhere with proper session management, visibility into what's happening, and extensibility.
Features: - VNC streaming: watch the browser live at /vnc.html - Session management: launch browsers, reuse across tasks, save profiles - Custom tools: register HTTP endpoints the agent can call (APIs, webhooks, etc.) - Task control: start/stop/pause, step-by-step execution updates - 15+ LLMs: GPT, Claude, Gemini, Groq – swap with one parameter
Dev branch also has R2 backup for browser profiles (useful for serverless).
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 reqeique/browser-use-api:dev
Couldn't find an existing API layer for browser-use with these features, so I built one. MIT licensed.Happy to hear what's missing or what you'd want from something like this. MCP support is coming soon.
SMIC N+3 Kirin 9030 Analysis Reveals How Close SMIC Is to 5nm
The article analyzes the Kirin 9030 chip, revealing how close SMIC's 5nm process technology is to TSMC's. It examines the chip's design, performance, and implications for China's semiconductor industry.
Revisiting Forth after 40 years for Advent of Code 2025
This article discusses the development of a Forth programming language interpreter for the Advent of Code 2025 competition. It covers the implementation details, challenges, and the author's experience in creating a custom language solution for the programming puzzles.
Making lightning in a bottle with a particle accelerator
Gemini tops leaderboard on research math problems
The article explores the field of frontier mathematics, which involves the study of mathematical concepts at the boundaries of human knowledge. It highlights the importance of this field in driving innovation and pushing the boundaries of what is possible.
LOL
The article explains how to create a new user and grant permissions in MySQL, covering steps to create a user, set a password, grant specific permissions, and test the new user's access to the database.
We Built Another Object Storage (and Why It's Different)
The article discusses the motivations behind building a new object storage solution, highlighting the limitations of existing options and the need for a more flexible and scalable solution to meet the evolving data storage requirements of modern applications.
How to review AI generated PRs
The article discusses the process of reviewing AI-generated pull requests (PRs) for code changes. It provides guidelines on how to effectively review such PRs, including checking for code quality, functionality, and adherence to established best practices.
Take the web for a fresh spin with GenTabs, built with Gemini 3
Google has launched its Gentabs Gemini 3 browser, a new open-source web browsing experience that aims to provide a faster, more focused, and privacy-preserving alternative to traditional web browsers. The article highlights the key features and benefits of the Gentabs Gemini 3, such as its lightweight design, improved performance, and enhanced privacy controls.
Philosophy Lectures on YouTube
The article provides a curated list of the best philosophy lectures on YouTube, covering a wide range of topics from ancient Greek philosophy to modern existentialism, and featuring renowned philosophers and professors delivering engaging and informative lectures.