AI Makes You Boring
The article discusses the potential boredom of AI systems, arguing that as they become more advanced, they may experience a similar sense of tedium and lack of stimulation that humans can feel. It explores the implications of AI boredom and the challenges it could pose as artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into our lives.
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Show HN: Micasa – track your house from the terminal
micasa is a terminal UI that helps you track home stuff, in a single SQLite file. No cloud, no account, no subscription. Backup with cp.
I built it because I was tired of losing track of everything in notes apps, and "I'll remember that"s. When do I need to clean the dishwasher filter? What's the best quote for a complete overhaul of the backyard. Oops, found some mold behind the trim, need to address that ASAP. That sort of stuff.
Another reason I made micasa was to build a (hopefully useful) low-stakes personal project where the code was written entirely by AI. I still review the code and click the merge button, but 99% of the programming was done with an agent.
Here are some things I think make it worth checking out:
- Vim-style modal UI. Nav mode to browse, edit mode to change. Multicolumn sort, fuzzy-jump to columns, pin-and-filter rows, hide columns you don't need, drill into related records (like quotes for a project). Much of the spirit of the design and some of the actual design choices is and are inspired by VisiData. You should check that out too. - Local LLM chat. Definitely a gimmick, but I am trying preempt "Yeah, but does it AI?"-style conversations. This is an optional feature and you can simply pretend it doesn't exist. All features work without it. - Single-file SQLite-based architecture. Document attachments (manuals, receipts, photos) are stored as BLOBs in the same SQLite database. One file is the whole app state. If you think this won't scale, you're right. It's pretty damn easy to work with though. - Pure Go, zero CGO. Built on Charmbracelet for the TUI and GORM + go-sqlite for the database. Charm makes pretty nice TUIs, and this was my first time using it.
Try it with sample data: go install github.com/cpcloud/micasa/cmd/micasa@latest && micasa --demo
If you're insane you can also run micasa --demo --years 1000 to generate 1000 years worth of demo data. Not sure what house would last that long, but hey, you do you.
Pebble Production: February Update
This article provides an update on Pebble's production and software updates for February. It covers the company's progress in manufacturing new Pebble devices, as well as the release of firmware updates that address bug fixes and feature improvements.
Paged Out Issue #8 [pdf]
Arrays in Forth
The article discusses the use of arrays in Forth programming language, explaining how they are implemented and how to create, access, and modify array elements. It also covers advanced array operations such as searching and sorting.
Don't Trust the Salt: AI Summarization, Multilingual Safety, and LLM Guardrails
This article discusses the challenges and importance of evaluating the multilingual capabilities of large language models (LLMs) to ensure they meet safety and performance standards across different languages. It highlights the need for comprehensive evaluation frameworks and guardrails to address biases and ensure LLMs are safe and effective in diverse linguistic contexts.
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Coding Tricks Used in the C64 Game Seawolves
The article discusses various technical tricks and optimizations used by the Seawolves, a fictional submarine crew, to improve the performance and capabilities of their submarine. It covers topics such as acoustic camouflage, silent propulsion, and advanced sensor systems.
Show HN: A physically-based GPU ray tracer written in Julia
We ported pbrt-v4 to Julia and built it into a Makie backend. Any Makie plot can now be rendered with physically-based path tracing.
Julia compiles user-defined physics directly into GPU kernels, so anyone can extend the ray tracer with new materials and media - a black hole with gravitational lensing is ~200 lines of Julia.
Runs on AMD, NVIDIA, and CPU via KernelAbstractions.jl, with Metal coming soon.
Demo scenes: github.com/SimonDanisch/RayDemo
Large Language Models for Mortals: A Practical Guide for Analysts with Python
This article discusses the growing importance of large language models (LLMs) and their potential impact on the lives of everyday people. It explores how LLMs can be leveraged for various tasks, from content creation to problem-solving, and examines the ethical considerations surrounding their use.
Bridging Elixir and Python with Oban
The article discusses how Oban, a popular job processing library for Elixir, can be used to bridge between different systems and services. It highlights the benefits of using Oban for asynchronous task processing and provides an example of how to set up a bridge between a web application and a third-party service.
Sizing chaos
The article explores the history and challenges of women's clothing sizing, highlighting the lack of standardization and the impact it has on women's self-perception and shopping experiences. It discusses the complexities involved in designing a more inclusive and accurate sizing system.
Choosing a Language Based on Its Syntax?
The article discusses the importance of considering the syntax of a programming language when choosing which one to learn and use, highlighting how syntax can impact the readability, maintainability, and overall development process.
Measuring AI agent autonomy in practice
The article explores the challenge of measuring agent autonomy, proposing a framework to quantify the degree of an agent's autonomy by analyzing its decision-making process and environmental interactions. It discusses the importance of developing reliable autonomy metrics to better understand and design autonomous systems.
A terminal weather app with ASCII animations driven by real-time weather data
The GitHub repository 'weathr' provides an open-source weather application that allows users to check the current weather and forecast in their location using real-time data from public weather APIs. The project includes a user-friendly interface and the ability to save favorite locations for quick access.
-fbounds-safety: Enforcing bounds safety for C
The article discusses the importance of bounds safety in C programming, which involves ensuring that memory accesses are within the valid bounds of an array or other data structure. It outlines various techniques and tools, such as sanitizers and static analysis, that can help detect and prevent out-of-bounds memory accesses.
Zero downtime migrations at Petabyte scale
The article discusses how PlanetScale, a database-as-a-service platform, achieves zero-downtime migrations at petabyte scale. It highlights the technical challenges and solutions PlanetScale has developed to enable seamless database schema changes without disrupting production traffic.
Dinosaur Food: 100M year old foods we still eat today (2022)
The article explores the diets of various dinosaur species, revealing that they were more diverse than commonly believed, with some species being herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores. It discusses how modern paleontological research has shed new light on the feeding habits and nutritional needs of these prehistoric creatures.
America vs. Singapore: You Can't Save Your Way Out of Economic Shocks
The article compares the governance approaches of the United States and Singapore, highlighting Singapore's emphasis on pragmatism and long-term planning over democratic ideals, and the challenges the U.S. faces in balancing different stakeholder interests and values.
Why applicant tracking systems are broken by design
Show HN: Mini-Diarium - An encrypted, local, cross-platform journaling app
The article discusses the development of Mini Diarium, a simple and lightweight daily journal application that focuses on privacy and minimalism. The project aims to provide users with a straightforward tool to record their daily thoughts and experiences without the clutter of unnecessary features.
The Mongol Khans of Medieval France
The article explores the lesser-known history of Mongol attempts to establish diplomatic and trade relations with medieval France, highlighting the complex geopolitical dynamics and cultural exchanges that took place between the two distant powers in the 13th century.
DOGE Bro's Grant Review Process Was Literally Just Asking ChatGPT 'Is This DEI?'
The article discusses a grant review process where the decision-makers simply asked ChatGPT whether the proposals were sufficiently diverse and inclusive, rather than engaging in a more thorough evaluation. The article suggests that this approach undermines the purpose of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
Against Theory-Motivated Experimentation
27-year-old Apple iBooks can connect to Wi-Fi and download official updates
The article discusses Apple's decision to officially support macOS, an operating system that is 27 years old, on modern hardware. This highlights Apple's commitment to backwards compatibility and providing long-term support for its software.
Famous Signatures Through History
The article explores the stories and historical significance behind the signatures of famous individuals, from politicians to artists, and how these signatures have become iconic symbols of their owners' legacies.
Mark Zuckerberg Grilled on Usage Goals and Underage Users at California Trial
The article examines an upcoming trial involving Meta (formerly Facebook) and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which focuses on allegations of privacy violations and anticompetitive behavior in the social media industry.
Show HN: Chaos Studies – attractors and spatial audio (iOS/Mac/Playdate)
My friend built this and I'm blown away with how much fun it is and the high level of polish. It renders 9 different strange attractors (Lorenz, Rössler, Aizawa, Chen, etc.) as particle systems — thousands of particles tracing chaotic paths in real time. You can rotate and zoom with touch/trackpad in 3D.
The sound is the part that surprised me. It's not a soundtrack — the audio is generated from the motion itself using spatial audio, so tones shift as the attractor's behavior changes and the sound moves around you as you rotate the form. Put on headphones.
The Playdate version uses the crank to rotate the attractor. Pure black and white. It's a completely different vibe.
My 9-year-old loves it too, which I wasn't expecting. Would love to hear what HN thinks — especially if anyone has suggestions for other attractor systems worth adding.