A Catalog of Side Effects

Compilers use various methods to track and represent the effects of IR instructions, including bitsets and heap range lists, to enable optimizations such as dead code elimination and instruction reordering. Different compilers, such as Cinder, JavaScriptCore, and Simple, use different approaches to represent effects, with some using bitsets and others using int ranges or abstract heaps.

Scaling HNSWs

The author shares their experience and findings on implementing HNSWs (Hierarchical Navigable Small Worlds) in Redis, a high-performance in-memory data store, and discusses the challenges and optimizations they encountered to make HNSWs fast enough for Redis. The author also explores the potential of HNSWs as a data structure, their limitations, and the benefits of exposing them directly to ...

A modern 35mm film scanner for home

https://framerusercontent.com/images/w5Fcd9QS59SlyiWzMrAxpDCIPM.png?width=2292&height=1854
Knokke is a modern 35 mm film scanner with high-quality and fast scanning capabilities. It runs on Korova, a native Linux, macOS, and Windows application, for a plug-and-play workflow.

Terminal Latency on Windows (2024)

https://chadaustin.me/wp-uploads/mintty_right_click.png
The user compared various Windows terminals including MinTTY, Alacritty, WezTerm, and Windows Terminal, finding that MinTTY has the best latency and throughput. MinTTY also supports all major ANSI character attributes and has a better default palette, making it a great choice for users who value performance and functionality.

Collaboration Sucks

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!2y1b!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fff09f674-3296-47aa-9ee4-d25de75728fa_1456x1048.jpeg
โ€œIf you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go togetherโ€ This phrase will slowly kill your company and Iโ€™m here to prove it. Imagine you are driving a car. Itโ€™s often useful to have someone give you directions, point out gas stations, and recommend stops for snacks. This is a helpful amount of collaboration. An unhelpful amount of collaboration is getting out of your car to ask ...

Creating minimal music with code in any programming language

https://zserge.com/images/etude-in-c-digital-sound.png
The user explained how to create simple music with C code by generating digital sound waves and playing them through the terminal using utilities like aplay or SoX. They demonstrated various techniques for creating oscillating sounds, applying effects like low-pass filters and delay lines, and even showed how to play melodies from text notation.

We ran over 600 image generations to compare AI image models

https://latenitesoft.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/model-comparison-widget/images/landscape.jpg
LateNiteSoft compared 600 image generations from OpenAI, Gemini, and Seedream models for various photo edits. They found that OpenAI excels at fully transformative filters and creative applications, while Gemini is better for realistic edits.

Pikaday: A friendly guide to front-end date pickers

https://pikaday.dbushell.com/ogimage.png
The guide suggests using native date and time inputs for user-friendly interfaces, as they are easy to implement and handle many important details. Complex UI can lead to errors and abandoned forms, so it's best to keep it simple for successful form submissions.

Cache-friendly, low-memory Lanczos algorithm in Rust

https://lukefleed.xyz/assets/lanczos/tradeoff_arcs500k_rho3_memory.png
The standard lanczos method for computing matrix functions has a brutal memory requirement. the full orthogonal method (fom) enforces that the residuals are always krylov subspace based on xkmathbfx_k - yk=f(hk)f (hkk) this guarantees that any new vector is automatically orthogonian to all earlier vectors, beyond vj+1

Xortran - A PDP-11 Neural Network With Backpropagation in Fortran IV

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/3789a2f0e533f817ce7f268c277a11ed1491d7862d338f6a1bae115ee4634852/dbrll/Xortran
XORTRAN is a multilayer perceptron (MLP) written in FORTRAN IV, compiled and executed under RT-11 on a PDP-11/34A (via SIMH simulator). The code compiles with the DEC FORTRAN IV compiler (1974). Execution requires a system with at least 32 kilobytes of memory and an FP11 floating-point processor. The PDP-11/34A was chosen as it was the smallest and most affordable PDP-11 equipped with an FP11 ...

Show HN: Cactoide โ€“ Federated RSVP Platform

Cactoide is a decentralized, open-source event RSVP platform for creating and sharing events without registration. It allows instant event creation, unique URLs, and RSVP tracking across a network of instances.

FFmpeg to Google: Fund Us or Stop Sending Bugs

https://cdn.thenewstack.io/media/2025/11/0c7ed4fb-allison-saeng-roanyq5ym74-unsplash-1024x679.jpg
A lively debate on Twitter revolves around how trillion-dollar corporations like Google should handle security disclosures and responsibilities in open-source software, particularly FFmpeg, which is maintained by unpaid volunteers. The issue is about money, with many arguing that Google and other companies should provide more support to critical open-source projects like FFmpeg to prevent ...

Weave (YC W25) is hiring a founding ML engineer

https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/983cb16d6906fc1a691557bf84b21313870ce3d0.png
Weave is hiring a founding ML engineer to build ML systems for software engineers, requiring experience with shipping ML systems, pragmatism, and excellent communication. The ideal candidate is a formidable, empathetic, and gritty engineer who can improve engineering productivity.

iPhone Pocket

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/images/2025/11/introducing-iphone-pocket-a-beautiful-and-wearable-carrier-for-iphone/article/Apple-iPhone-Pocket-and-ISSEY-MIYAKE-hero_big.jpg.large.jpg
Apple and ISSEY MIYAKE unveiled iPhone Pocket, a 3D-knitted accessory for iPhone. It features a ribbed open structure and is available in various colors, priced at $149.95 and $229.95.

The AI Surveillance Dystopia: Spying, Data Trafficking, & Corruption

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58c839976b8f5ba6ce6a8105/069654cc-a0f1-4398-b00b-e76994f8a2f8/ai-dystopia-heading-kickstart_START_0.5.png
We have multiple funding goals to update our website with new content including a 3D animation and timelines on financial exchanges between AI and tech companies. We aim to deliver high-quality content free of ads and paywalls for long-term archival purposes.

The history of Casio watches

You don't have permission to access "http://www.casio.com/us/watches/50th/Heritage/1970s/" on this server.

Show HN: Data Formulator โ€“ interactive AI agents for data analysis (Microsoft)

https://data-formulator.ai/assets/df-logo-7DDRLOPN.png
Turn (almost) any data into insights with AI agents, with the exploration paths you choose. Load structured data, connect to databases. Ask AI agents to extract and clean (small) ad-hoc data from screenshots, text blocks. ๐Ÿ“ฆ Data Storage: Uploaded data (csv, xlsx, json, clipboard, messy data etc.) is stored in browser's local storage only โš™๏ธ Data Processing: Local installation runs Python ...

My fan worked fine, so I gave it WiFi

https://ellis.codes/blog/my-fan-worked-fine-so-i-gave-it-wi-fi/modded-fan_hu_c7422fe5b18b5371.webp
I designed a fully revertible modification for a Vornado 633DC fan so I could control it remotely over WiFi. The final result is concealed entirely within the fanโ€™s housing, leaving no visible modification. If youโ€™re interested in building one yourself, the schematic, BoM, and PCB design are all available here. In terms of firmware, I used ESPHome with an external component, for which the ...

Firefox expands fingerprint protections

https://blog.mozilla.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/278/files/2025/11/image-32-1024x633.png
Firefox 145 introduces major privacy upgrades to combat browser fingerprinting, reducing trackable users by half. New defenses work on multiple layers, building on Firefox's existing privacy features to protect users without disrupting web usability.

Show HN: Creavi Macropad โ€“ Built a wireless macropad with a display

https://creavi.tech/img/blog/generic_macropad.jpeg
The user built a wireless macropad from scratch, overcoming numerous failures and challenges, including hardware design, industrial design, and software development, with the help of a colleague. The project, which started as a solo hobby, eventually turned into a real product with a team, and the user learned valuable lessons about motivation, teamwork, and the importance of taking small, ...

How I fell in love with Erlang

https://img.youtube.com/vi/xrIjfIjssLE/0.jpg
The author's journey with programming began at age 8 with Commodore-64 and BASIC, but it wasn't until university that he started to understand programming concepts. He discovered Erlang, a functional programming language, which changed his approach to building systems.

The R47: A new physical RPN calculator

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e3bcb8b5549c74b8b60a3c8/685dd69aea55fd06109daa34_adv_amazon_mute_r47_04_box.jpg
The R47 is a powerful RPN calculator with a refined software set, built from a community-driven project inspired by HP calculators. It features a high-resolution display, stainless steel case, and precise decimal arithmetic.

Grebedoc โ€“ static site hosting for Git forges

https://grebedoc.dev/grebe.webp
You can serve static pages from Codeberg or other compatible forges using a service called git-pages, which is a self-service static site server that integrates with Caddy for TLS termination and on-demand certificate provisioning. To use this service, you need to configure your domain's DNS settings and your forge or Git repository to issue a PUT HTTP request after a branch has been updated.

Drawing Text Isn't Simple: Benchmarking Console vs. Graphical Rendering

https://cv.co.hu/images/2025-10-14_152652.png
User decided to learn Go by rewriting FAR Manager, a text-based file manager, but found Go not suitable for complex tasks. User switched to C# and discovered the bottleneck in Windows font drawing, achieving speedup with DirectX and direct text drawing.

Advent of Code on the Z-Machine

https://entropicthoughts.com/image/aoci6_01.jpg
The Z-machine is a fantasy console developed by Infocom in 1979 to standardize and port text adventures across various platforms. It still exists and is used today, with modern compilers and languages like Inform 6 allowing developers to create games for it.

Array Programming the Mandelbrot Set

https://jcmorrow.com/mandelbrot.gif
User revisited the Mandelbrot set in J and translated it to Uiua, an array language with stack-based features. Uiua's immediacy and automatic output display make it a powerful tool for visual arts projects.

The Perplexing Appeal of the Telepathy Tapes

https://asteriskmag.com/media/pages/issues/12-books/paradigm-shifted-the-perplexing-appeal-of-the-telepathy-tapes/2d3df438f6-1762448241/facilitated_communication_dots_background2.png
The Telepathy Tapes series claims non-verbal autistic people can read minds, but lacks concrete evidence and relies on anecdotal accounts and unproven methods like Facilitated Communication.

Why effort scales superlinearly with the perceived quality of creative work

https://markusstrasser.org/media/essays/creative-work-landscapes/logseq-screenshot.png
The act of creation involves fractal exploration-exploitation under optimal feedback control, where resolution increases precision tax that scales superlinearly with perceived quality. Effort seems to scale superlinearly as perceived quality rises due to nested search and high-precision edits.

The 'Toy Story' You Remember

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oYAZ!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffcdc6e58-e9e5-4bc7-8d8e-5193a840a9e0_1863x1000.png
Pixar's 1995 film Toy Story was a transitional project that used analog film for theatrical release due to technology limitations. The film's look changed with digital transfers, and its original version is barely available today, sparking a conversation about film preservation.

Welcome, the entire land - "Hello, world!" in hieroglyphics (2009)

https://optional.is/required/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/venn-hieroglyphs.png
The author attended a conference in Brighton, UK, where they met friends who could read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. They created a "Hello World" program in hieroglyphs, translating "Welcome, the entire land" from the glyphs, which they printed on a t-shirt.