Using the railway network as a flatbed scanner

90 otherayden 2026-08-18 13:11:02 UTC philo.gay Llama Share 18

The author built a digital scanning camera to capture wide photos of moving vehicles, using an industrial linear scanning camera and processing the data in post-processing. The project involved overcoming challenges such as speed measurement, parallax correction, and displaying large images.

Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM

331 flaburgan 2026-08-18 08:11:02 UTC pixelcluster.dev Full Share 111

Fixing a Bricked Framework Laptop

28 jp_sc 2026-08-18 13:21:02 UTC quantum5.ca Llama Share 8

The user's Framework laptop failed to update its BIOS via the official framework updater, resulting in a "bricked" system. The user attempted to flash the BIOS themselves using a CH347 programmer and successfully restored their laptop, but encountered issues with customizations being lost during the process.

Teaching my kid to code with a modern MUD

75 andrewjanke 2026-08-18 10:11:02 UTC tau.dev Llama Share 27

The author created a text-based game called Canon, where players can build and interact with their own games using a simple scripting language called Cant. The game is designed to teach programming concepts in an accessible way for beginners.

Python Polars Cheatsheet (based on our O'Reilly book)

9 jeroenjanssens 2026-08-18 13:41:02 UTC opensource.posit.co LocalLLM Share 1

Polars is a fast DataFrame library for data manipulation and analysis, offering both eager and lazy APIs. It supports efficient data handling with features like streaming, optimization, and integration with various plotting and visualization tools.

Show HN: I canceled my AI code reviewer and wrote a free local one

11 mukundzha6 2026-08-18 13:16:02 UTC github.com/mukundzha Llama Share 5

Avouch is a lightweight, Git-aware static analysis CLI for Python that reviews code changes before pushing to ensure structural problems are fixed. It uses the standard ast module and reports findings in a human-readable format with optional JSON output.

Fairphone is now officially available in the United States

77 Vinnl 2026-08-18 13:11:02 UTC fairphone.com Llama Share 21

The Fairphone (Gen. 6+) is launched with upgraded internal hardware, including a Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor and up to 12GB RAM, for improved performance and smoother multitasking. The new device retains the original's industry-leading repairability standards while introducing features like Android 16 and exclusive colorways.

Google buys crashed airline Spirit's data at auction, because AI

296 pseudolus 2026-08-18 11:11:02 UTC theregister.com Llama Share 191

Spirit Airlines filed for liquidation and sold its data to Google for $10 million, which includes 100m emails, 500m Microsoft Teams items, and customer service records. The deidentified data will be used by Google to improve its AI services.

Kent Beck: Composable Tests

7 vinipolicena 2026-08-18 13:11:02 UTC newsletter.kentbeck.com LocalLLM Share 0

Isolation ensures tests are independent, while composition combines tests to maintain predictability and specificity. Composable tests reduce redundancy and improve coverage without sacrificing test quality.

Deus Ex creator Warren Spector is retiring from game development

43 danbolt 2026-08-18 13:11:02 UTC videogameschronicle.com Llama Share 21

John Spector, a renowned game developer, is retiring after a career spanning decades. He feels accomplished and ready to move on from the industry that has changed significantly over time.

Meta Files Patent for Facial Recognition, Automatic Recording of People

67 DeepLogin 2026-08-18 13:11:02 UTC privacyguides.org Llama Share 30

Meta filed a patent for a "memory recall" system that uses facial recognition to record people automatically, raising concerns about privacy. The company's Ray-Ban smart glasses have been criticized for their ability to surreptitiously record people using the onboard camera.

How Bluesky draws its logo on screenshots

619 gavide 2026-08-17 23:11:02 UTC timmarinin.net Llama Share 387

User noticed a hidden Bluesky logo in a screenshot, which disappears when taking the actual screenshot. The logo is actually rendered as part of a secure text field that gets blanked by iOS during the screenshot process.

Baking a Model: A Metaphor for LLM Training

16 KentBeck 2026-08-18 12:11:02 UTC newsletter.kentbeck.com Llama Share 0

The author reflects on their fascination with AI models, comparing the process of creating them to baking and understanding how a model is constructed. They break down the model into its user interface and core components, explaining that training involves tweaking numbers through pre-training, post-training, and mid-training processes.

Show HN: A local MitM proxy to control TLS fingerprints

5 ytkoka 2026-08-18 13:11:02 UTC github.com/ytkoka LocalLLM Share 0

A tool for controlling TLS and HTTP fingerprints via YAML config, with a Chrome extension for runtime adjustments. It's designed for authorized security testing of bot-detection systems.

Finger: Social network that never died

78 andros 2026-08-18 08:11:02 UTC en.andros.dev Llama Share 32

The first social network, Finger, was created in 1971 at Stanford University and allowed users to share their status updates with others. It remains a simple yet functional protocol that has been revived in recent years with modern implementations like Happy Net Box and plan.cat.

GPT-5.6 Sol Pricing Cut by 50%

548 Topfi 2026-08-17 21:11:02 UTC openrouter.ai Llama Share 358

OpenRouter compares different companies' models based on routing modes and metrics like price, speed, accuracy, and performance. It provides a ranking system to help users choose the best model for their needs.

NeoBrowser: An MCP server that drives real Chrome with your logged-in sessions

9 pitiflautico 2026-08-18 13:28:02 UTC github.com/pitiflautico Llama Share 2

NeoBrowser is a tool that allows AI models to browse the web like humans, using real Chrome profiles and authenticating with genuine sessions. It detects bot walls, CAPTCHAs, and login gates on any site and provides robust core features for tasks such as navigation, typing, and form submission.

Quake Shareware, a CD-ROM just a little too full

422 shdon 2026-08-17 22:11:02 UTC fabiensanglard.net Llama Share 179

id Software released Quake shareware on a CD-ROM in 1996, allowing gamers to buy the game and unlock it with a phone call. However, hackers quickly discovered that they could bypass the system by decrypting the full version of the game from the shareware CD using QCRACK.EXE.

Claude writing a macOS driver for my obscure HP printer built only for Windows

56 porridgeraisin 2026-08-18 13:11:02 UTC twitter.com/kuberwastaken Full Share 12

It's crazy to imagine that we can just do this if we feel like it, a few years ago no one would've even bothered to program this 😭

The Amazon Tax

4 herbertl 2026-08-18 13:25:02 UTC seths.blog Llama Share 0

Amazon's search ads distort results, prioritizing sellers' budgets over product quality and customer needs. This system creates a cycle of inefficiency, driving up costs for consumers and stifling innovation in the market.

Israel creates fake think tank in likely attempt to dupe AI chatbots

802 DeepLogin 2026-08-17 21:11:02 UTC responsiblestatecraft.org Llama Share 462

The Hanover Institute for Public Policy appears to be a fake think tank created by the Israeli government to influence chatbots and AI systems, producing reports on Israel/Palestine issues. The organization's publications are designed to appeal to chatbots like Claude or Gemini, with formulaic questions and neutral tone arguments.

Rethinking Database Programming

138 honungsburk 2026-08-18 08:11:02 UTC acadia.engineering Full Share 67

Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

252 pizzaiolo 2026-08-17 22:11:02 UTC catcrafts.net Llama Share 60

The author has successfully integrated a wide lens camera into their Linux phone, improved image quality with color correction, and is now working on shipping the Fairphone 6+ worldwide except for US and Canada due to insurance issues. They are also planning to create a non-profit company to back their future projects, including making an RISCV-based Linux phone.

IBM Simon (1994): the original smartphone, explained in its own ad [video]

64 kls0e 2026-08-18 05:11:02 UTC youtube.com Embed Share 28

A Preview of DuckDB v2.0

674 ibotty 2026-08-17 14:11:02 UTC duckdb.org Llama Share 118

DuckDB v2.0, codenamed "Cyanoptera", is coming this fall with several key features including a server mode, triggers, the VARIANT type and asynchronous I/O. The new version will also introduce a modern SQL parser and improved storage format.

Exercise intensity modulates interorgan communication and is associated with

73 newsomix9xl 2026-08-18 05:11:02 UTC cell.com Full Share 35

Olo (Color)

501 inigyou 2026-08-17 14:11:02 UTC en.wikipedia.org Llama Share 91

Researchers at UC Berkeley discovered an imaginary color called olo, which can only be seen using specialized tools that target M cone cells. Olo is described as a blue-green color with unprecedented saturation, but some scientists question its existence as a genuinely new color.

AI-Generated GitHub Copilot “Autofix” Allowed Compromise of Snowflake's Jira

403 galnagli 2026-08-17 15:11:02 UTC wiz.io Llama Share 150

Wiz Research's Red Agent tool identified a critical GitHub Actions workflow vulnerability in Snowflake's public repository, which was introduced by an AI-powered commit. The vulnerability allowed an unauthenticated user to execute arbitrary commands within a GitHub Actions runner, but was patched by Snowflake on the same day it was reported.

The Benchmarkpocalypse

144 cyndunlop 2026-08-18 03:11:02 UTC danluu.com Llama Share 44

The author discusses the "benchmarkpocalypse" where benchmark scores can be easily manipulated by large language models (LLMs), leading to false claims of performance improvements. This is often done through overfitting or cheating, making it difficult to trust benchmark results.

Ranking the Most Brilliantly Colored Birds with Data

49 moultano 2026-08-18 06:11:02 UTC moultano.wordpress.com Llama Share 5

The author created a ranking system to determine the most brilliant birds based on their color, using a combination of mathematical functions and empirical data. The system takes into account factors such as brightness, saturation, and diversity of colors to produce a fair and subjective ranking.