Qwen 3.8 27B is excellent, but it defaults to overthinking things

https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/qwen-thinking-bicycle-27b.jpg
The author has been testing Qwen 3.8 27B, a large language model from Alibaba's research lab, on various machines and found it to be highly capable but slow due to its dense architecture requiring significant memory bandwidth.

The Life and Death of Direct File [pdf]

Details: cache-iad-kcgs7200132-IAD 1786951282 123861401

Linear Algebra Done Right – Sheldon Axler

The fourth edition of Linear Algebra Done Right is an open-access book with over 250 new exercises, available in multiple languages. It's a best-selling textbook for undergraduate math majors and graduate students, focusing on the structure of linear operators on finite-dimensional vector spaces.

A third world engineer responds to “RISC-V: They should have known better”

The author criticizes Dmitry Grinberg's article on RISC-V, arguing that his criticism of the architecture is biased and misses the point. The author claims that RISC-V's openness and low cost make it accessible to developers in developing countries, allowing them to create their own projects without relying on expensive tools or licenses.

AGI-64 Brings Sierra Adventures to the Commodore 64

https://meanhamster.com/games/agi-64/space-quest-2.png
AGI-64 is a free AGI interpreter for the Commodore 64, aiming to support most era games. It's currently around 75% complete and playable on Space Quest 1, with features like save/load and custom background pre-processing.

Claude: System Prompts

https://platform.claude.com/docs/og?locale=en&path=release-notes/system-prompts&design-rev=1
Claude's web interface and mobile apps use a system prompt to provide information, including the current date, at the start of conversations. The prompt is updated periodically to improve Claude's responses, but not for the Claude API.

Reticulum – Decentralized Mesh Network

https://reticulum.network/gfx/reticulum_logo_512.png
Reticulum is a cryptography-based networking stack for building decentralized, sovereign networks without control or censorship. It enables secure digital communication and end-to-end connectivity with self-sovereign addresses that can be moved freely within the network.

Rhombus 1.1 is now available

The Racket team is adding annot and annot.def to define annotations without macro code, as well as a binding form for more readable naming.

GIMP Development Update

https://www.gimp.org/news/2026/08/16/dev-update-august-2026/gimp-nde-layer-mask.png
GIMP developers are sharing progress on upcoming features and UX improvements in GIMP 3.4, including a new project file format and non-destructive filter support.

Low-Tech Ceramic Water Filter

The ceramic water filter, developed in 1981 by Dr. Fernando Mazariegos, uses clay and combustible materials to remove pathogens and contaminants from water, with colloidal silver added for antibacterial properties. The filter can be produced locally using a hydraulic press and finishing process, requiring training and equipment to manufacture at scale.

Show HN: Vocal Slice – Cut audio by selecting text, fully on-device

https://vocalslice.com/demo-still.png
Vocal Slice exports a clip from any audio file, locally on the device without sending it anywhere. It offers features like transcription, text selection slicing and lossless export for $29/year with no account or card required.

Applying a photosynthetic process to treat “dry eye”

SIMD in the 90s: Programming Intel's Pentium MMX

https://pikuma.com/images/about/profile.png
Intel's MMX technology was introduced in 1997, allowing for single instruction, multiple data processing on x86 CPUs. It enabled significant speedups in multimedia software and paved the way for modern SIMD architectures like AVX-512 and GPUs with thousands of cores.

Interview with Amit Patel, Creator of “Solar Realms Elite” (2013)

https://breakintochat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/amit-patel.jpg
Amit Patel created the BBS door game Solar Realms Elite in 1990 and has worked on various programming projects, including scientific equipment, data analysis, and artificial intelligence. He is now working on interactive reference materials for game developers.

Design 3D-printable parts by talking

nurb lets AI create and check CAD models in real time. It generates printable STL files and adapts to user measurements for custom parts.

$12B of US ratepayers' money wasted on a modeling mistake in PJM

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!0djL!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F103d6c71-0e23-4b8c-a940-d1edfa399690_2300x1380.png
PJM's power bills have risen by ~20% due to its auction design choices and modeling errors, costing residents $12B between 2025-2027. PJM's model underestimates existing power plants' capacity by up to 4GW, leading to overprocurement of new plants and higher prices.

Strong gravitational lensing and microlensing of supernovae (2024)

Strong gravitational lensing and microlensing of supernovae offer new cosmological and astrophysical insights. They enable precise measurements of the Hubble constant and probe SN progenitors, dust properties, and high-redshift spectra.

Prolly: A content-addressed ordered map built on prolly trees

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/2dca2132632ec6cc4549c1c48a434abedb12a66187800d29faaf0bb03bba6fc9/crabbuild/prolly
The Prolly library provides an ordered map that can store multiple versions, diff them, merge them, and persist them into a content-addressed store, making it suitable for local-first databases and systems like Trail. It offers various features such as async support, durability guarantees through transactions and caching mechanisms to ensure data consistency across different use cases.

Dancing with friends and enemies: boids' swarm intelligence (2012)

https://community.wolfram.com/c/portal/getImageAttachment?filename=OPTfnlfrnds.gif&userId=11733
The user created a simulation of animal swarms using Mathematica, injecting randomness to create a "dance" pattern. The system follows simple rules: move towards friends and away from enemies, with contraction to prevent dispersal.

The AI Credit Resale Economy

https://cdn.ploy.ai/2eb2235a-6b78-4d32-9713-f051311d8809/user/0a6c2555-convo-with-broker.webp
Token brokers buy unused credits from startups and resell them, offering discounts to attract buyers. This market is growing rapidly, with tens of millions of credits being offered across various sites and forums.

MathCode, Mathematical Coding Agent

https://math-ai-org.github.io/mathcode/Demo.png
MathCode is a terminal AI coding assistant that converts plain language math problems into Lean 4 theorems and attempts formal proofs. It features various tools for efficient proof-solving, including a persistent Lean REPL and theorem libraries.

Stripe will reportedly acquire OpenRouter for $7B+

https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Stripe-resized.webp?w=1024
OpenRouter raised $113 million in Series B funding at a $1.3 billion valuation, valuing it over 9 times its previous valuation. It's reportedly being acquired by Stripe for more than $7 billion after talks began last month.

How do I permanently disable random Google Photos popup to backup photos? (2024)

Passkeys are the simplest and most secure way to sign in to your account. To sign in with just your fingerprint, face scan, or screen lock, create a passkey.

Red queen hypothesis – A new way forward for self-improving AI

https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/files/the-red-queen-adobe-square-image-250.jpg
Researchers have developed a new method for recursive self-improving AI agents to continue improving themselves without hitting an evaluation ceiling. This approach allows the agent and evaluator to evolve together, creating a self-improving loop that can lead to more capable and efficient AI systems.

Protobuf has LSP support. You're welcome

https://buf.build/images/Dot-Grid.svg
Buf releases the Buf LSP server, providing modern IDE support for Protobuf development. The new implementation is faster and more flexible than protoc, enabling incremental compilation and better diagnostics.

Plastic mechanical computer from 1963: The Digi-Comp 1 [video]

Clamiga: Common Lisp for the Amiga

https://nnamgreb.de/static/gfx/blogs/clamiga-aos3_1.jpg
CL-Amiga, a Common Lisp implementation for the Amiga family, is built to run on m68k and PPC architectures. It has a self-contained bytecode VM with no external runtime dependencies and supports various features like object system, condition system, macros, and interactive development style.

Nvidia dramatically reduces amount of OpenAI infra financing it may guarantee

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Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker

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Tell HN: Cloudflare silently injects its analytics when you switch nameservers

You recently switched to Cloudflare's nameservers, which silently added a JS analytics snippet to your site. This approach is invasive and should opt-in instead of opt-out for users' consent.