Data Compression Explained (2012)

54 mtdewcmu 2026-06-20 01:14:45 UTC mattmahoney.net Llama Share 3

Data compression is the art of reducing the number of bits needed to store or transmit data, and it can be either lossless or lossy, with lossless compression being reversible and lossy compression discarding unimportant data. The best compression ratio is achieved by understanding the data to be compressed and using a model to estimate its probability distribution, with the goal of assigning ...

There are no instances in ATProto

380 danabramov 2026-06-19 15:14:45 UTC overreacted.io Llama Share 207

The concept of instances in social media is a category error, as it's a Mastodon-brained concept that doesn't apply to atproto, which separates hosting and apps. Decentralization in atproto is achieved by swapping hosting or making new apps, unlike Mastodon where decentralization is measured by the number of instances.

Snap Smart Glasses

21 hmokiguess 2026-06-20 03:14:45 UTC specs.com Llama Share 3

You can sign up for Snap Inc's Specs product updates and receive promotional communications. Specs augmented reality glasses offer a 51° field of view display with 16 million colors and customizable prescription lenses.

Surprising economics of load-balanced systems

68 KraftyOne 2026-06-19 21:14:45 UTC brooker.co.za Llama Share 18

The client-observed mean request time varies with c, asymptotically approaching one second as c increases. This is because the time spent in queue approaches zero as the number of servers increases.

Hyundai buys Boston Dynamics

724 ck2 2026-06-19 17:14:45 UTC startupfortune.com Llama Share 334

Hyundai is buying SoftBank's remaining 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics for $325 million, gaining full control of the humanoid robotics company. This move will allow Hyundai to deploy Boston Dynamics' robots in its own factories, starting with the electric Atlas robot at its Georgia plant by 2028.

Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school

541 ilreb 2026-06-19 20:14:45 UTC reuters.com Full Share 367

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Bobby Prince, composer for Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Duke Nukem 3D, has died

282 pgrote 2026-06-19 20:14:45 UTC legacy.com Llama Share 30

Bobby Prince, a renowned composer and sound designer, passed away on June 16, 2026, leaving behind a legacy in the video game industry. He is survived by his wife Connie, children, and grandchildren, and will be remembered for his kindness, humor, and love.

The discovery that changed how scientists think about memory – IBM

8 rbanffy 2026-06-20 03:14:45 UTC ibm.com Prefix Share 0

Every memory begins with tiny changes inside the brain. A discovery that helped explain those changes has earned neuroscientist Oswald Steward one of science’s highest honors. Steward received the 2026 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, a USD 1 million award and one of science’s most prestigious awards, for research that transformed scientists’ understanding of how the brain learns and stores ...

Meet Nikolai Evreinov, the 19th century Nathan Fielder

11 adrianhon 2026-06-20 02:14:45 UTC mssv.net Llama Share 0

Nikolai Evreinov, a Russian director, believed that people should turn their lives into theatre to fulfill their deepest desires, a concept he called "The Theatre for Oneself." This idea, which he shared with comedian Nathan Fielder, suggests that people should create their own personalized dramas and role-play to experience life in a more meaningful way.

Project Valhalla, Explained: How a Decade of Work Arrives in JDK 28

558 philonoist 2026-06-19 07:14:45 UTC jvm-weekly.com Llama Share 349

Oracle engineer Lois Foltan confirmed that JEP 401: Value Classes and Objects will be integrated into the main OpenJDK repository and target JDK 28. The feature allows programmers to declare value classes and objects that can be optimized for performance, enabling density and locality in memory, and is currently in preview mode.

A Perceptron in Age of Empires II

44 EvgeniyZh 2026-06-19 22:14:45 UTC adewynter.github.io Llama Share 17

An operational NAND gate and perceptron were built in Age of Empires II using the game's scenario editor, utilizing goats as signal carriers and rails to represent bits. The circuits use XNOR, AND, and OR gates to perform computations, with the environment serving as coding.

How many of the 170k English words do you know?

282 abnry 2026-06-19 14:14:45 UTC vocabowl-870366514258.us-west1.run.app Full Share 397

How many of the 171,476 English words do you actually know? Take our scientifically stratified 100-question challenge to find out.

Hey, n00b, we didn't hire you to complete tasks

130 rrvsh 2026-06-20 00:14:45 UTC newsletter.kentbeck.com Llama Share 61

To be considered a successful engineer, focus on completing tasks in a reasonable time and not causing others excessive work. To stand out, learn from each task, make a case for not doing it, and implement efficient solutions that benefit others.

Egyptian Fractions

75 luu 2026-06-19 17:14:45 UTC blog.plover.com Llama Share 3

The Ahmes papyrus contains a table of Egyptian fraction representations of fractions of the form 2/n for odd integers n. The Egyptians used a table of these representations to calculate other fractions by doubling and adding 1.

How to feed a dictator

111 Michelangelo11 2026-06-20 02:14:45 UTC theguardian.com Llama Share 39

A documentary film, How to Feed a Dictator, explores the lives of five private chefs who served notorious dictators, revealing the moral complexities of their experiences. The film highlights the chefs' deep trust in their dictators, which also ensured their distance from the outside world.

John Jumper to join Anthropic

98 artninja1988 2026-06-19 18:14:45 UTC twitter.com/johnjumpersci Llama Share 69

A researcher left Google DeepMind after nearly 9 years to join Anthropic, thanking the team for their support and learning experience. They expressed gratitude for the opportunity to lead the AlphaFold team and look forward to future discoveries at Google DeepMind.

Telescope Ranchers

112 bookofjoe 2026-06-19 14:14:45 UTC kottke.org Llama Share 43

Starfront Observatories in Rockwood, Texas, offers ultra-dark skies for astrophotographers to control their telescopes remotely. Owner Bray Falls hosts 550 telescopes, allowing users to access them from anywhere for as little as 99 dollars a month.

Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

59 amichail 2026-06-19 23:14:45 UTC news.ycombinator.com Llama Share 98

Software efficiency is not a priority due to abundance of resources and other business demands. Memory usage has not significantly changed in 20 years, with most users not noticing or complaining about it.

Think of the children: How to force real ID for all internet traffic (2023)

177 Bender 2026-06-19 21:14:45 UTC nochan.net Full Share 102

Court Records Should Be Free

307 hn_acker 2026-06-19 18:14:45 UTC eff.org Llama Share 66

The Open Courts Act of 2026 aims to eliminate PACER fees and modernize federal court filing systems, improving public access and cybersecurity. The bill is supported by EFF and other organizations, seeking to make court records easier to find and understand.

Big Banana Car

131 Bender 2026-06-19 19:14:45 UTC bigbananacar.com Llama Share 74

The plan is to drive a huge motorized banana car around the world, meeting people and selling merchandise to fund the trip. A partner is needed for filming, editing, and uploading videos, with a 50/50 split on resulting income.

Zen and the Art of Machine Learning Research

244 jxmorris12 2026-06-19 05:14:45 UTC blog.jxmo.io Llama Share 89

To become a successful researcher, you need to combine reading and building skills, and be willing to put in the time and effort required. A good researcher stays open-minded, refuses to let ego cloud their judgement, and is willing to learn from failure.

Building a robotics research setup that lives next to my desk

131 mplappert 2026-06-19 05:14:45 UTC dfdxlabs.com Llama Share 45

A researcher is conducting independent robotic manipulation research on a tabletop setup with a single industrial-grade robot arm, two cameras, and teleoperation, aiming to test the hypothesis that a single person can achieve meaningful results with a budget of €10,000. The setup includes a UFACTORY xArm Lite 6 robot arm, Intel RealSense D405 wrist camera, and Logitech C920 webcam, with a ...

Show HN: Metiq: a real time 3D globe for 100 public datasets

100 rakeda 2026-06-19 15:14:45 UTC metiq.space Full Share 30

Live worldwide data platform: flights, earthquakes, weather, conflict, markets, space and more on a 3D wireframe globe.

Zenzizenzizenzic

90 gyosifov 2026-06-19 22:14:45 UTC en.wikipedia.org Llama Share 25

Robert Recorde introduced zenzizenzizenzic to represent the eighth power of a number in 1557. It is an obsolete notation with more Zs than any other word in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Digital Printing of Arabic: explaining the problem

36 a_t48 2026-06-19 22:14:45 UTC digitalorientalist.com Llama Share 8

Arabic script has problematic digital representation due to its development in pen and ink, and the movable type printing technology that was not well-suited for it. This led to issues with encoding, searching, and displaying Arabic text on computers.

AURpocalypse now: a look at the recent AUR attacks

43 jwilk 2026-06-19 17:14:45 UTC lwn.net Llama Share 33

Arch Linux's AUR was subjected to a sustained attack where attackers created new accounts, adopted orphaned packages, and pushed malicious updates. The attack affected over 1,500 packages, with the attackers using various tactics to evade detection.

Ten years of ClickHouse in open source

290 saisrirampur 2026-06-19 08:14:46 UTC clickhouse.com Llama Share 72

ClickHouse is an open-source analytical database that was released in 2016 and has become the most popular open-source database with over 2000 contributors. It was created by a single developer who started with a custom data structure for incremental aggregation and eventually built a full-fledged database system from scratch.

The AirPods Effect

391 herbertl 2026-06-19 05:14:46 UTC theescapenewsletter.com Llama Share 701

The author noticed a significant increase in people wearing AirPods during a trip to the US, feeling isolated and disconnected from others. Regular human contact is essential for our well-being, but earbuds can hinder this by creating a "Do Not Disturb" sign and reducing opportunities for casual interactions.

Aikido Code Audit

29 ilreb 2026-06-20 00:14:46 UTC aikido.dev Llama Share 10

Aikido Code Audit fills the gap between SAST and pentesting by analyzing static code to surface multi-step vulnerabilities. It helps developers catch security flaws before production, reducing remediation costs and improving code quality.