Gemini 3.1 Pro

214 MallocVoidstar 2026-02-19 16:16:46 UTC blog.google Llama Share 503

Gemini 3.1 Pro is released with improved core reasoning, achieving a 77.1% score on ARC-AGI-2 benchmark, more than double the previous version. It enables advanced problem-solving in various applications, including code-based animation, complex system synthesis, and creative coding.

Show HN: Micasa – track your house from the terminal

290 cpcloud 2026-02-19 16:16:46 UTC micasa.dev Full Share 92

Log incidents with severity and location, link them to appliances and vendors, and resolve them when fixed. A vendor directory with contact info, quote history, and every job they've done for you. Attach files—manuals, invoices, photos—directly to projects and appliances. Stored in the same SQLite file.

Micropayments as a reality check for news sites

36 speckx 2026-02-19 20:16:46 UTC blog.zgp.org Llama Share 52

Rick Bruner makes the case for micropayments to help legit news sites generate revenue and counter misinformation, citing the success of mobile games in getting users to spend money on in-app purchases. The survival of legit sites depends on marketers leveling up to more sophisticated methods, such as attribution tracking and randomized experiments, to counter Big Tech's manipulation of ...

Archaeologists find possible first direct evidence of Hannibal's war elephants

49 bryanrasmussen 2026-02-19 19:16:46 UTC smithsonianmag.com Llama Share 8

Archaeologists in Córdoba, Spain, found a bone that may be from one of Hannibal's war elephants used in the Second Punic War. The bone, dated to the third century B.C.E, is the first elephant bone linked to that chronology found in Iberia and Europe.

A terminal weather app with ASCII animations driven by real-time weather data

87 forinti 2026-02-19 18:16:46 UTC github.com/veirt Llama Share 12

The program displays real-time weather with animated effects and auto-location detection. It can be customized with a config file or flags to change settings such as units and HUD visibility.

Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

48 ZeroGravitas 2026-02-19 20:32:46 UTC hankgreen.com Full Share 35

Overall, the colorectal cancer story is very encouraging. Incidence has dropped 46% since its peak and mortality has fallen 57%, thanks to colonoscopy screening, better treatment, and earlier detection. Indexed to 100 at 1995. Sources: NCI SEER*Stat, ACS CRC Facts & Figures 2023–2025, Siegel et al. CA Cancer J. Clin. (2023), Siegel et al. JAMA (2026).

Paged Out Issue #8 [pdf]

248 SteveHawk27 2026-02-19 12:16:46 UTC pagedout.institute Llama Share 44

Paged Out! Institute's issue #8 is their biggest issue to date, with over 1 million downloads and a new web viewer for articles. The issue features various topics, including Breakout Model Synthesis, query-based compilers, and AgentRoam, a multimodal agent for exploring open-world games.

Pebble Production: February Update

233 smig0 2026-02-19 13:16:46 UTC repebble.com Llama Share 109

Pebbleland is busy shipping 3 new hardware products with associated software. Production is in the final stages with waterproof testing and last minute tweaks.

AI is not a coworker, it's an exoskeleton

7 benbeingbin 2026-02-19 20:16:46 UTC kasava.dev Prefix Share 2

Back to Blog I keep noticing the same pattern: companies that treat AI as an autonomous agent that should "just figure it out" tend to be disappointed. Meanwhile, companies that treat AI as an extension of their existing workforce, an amplifier of human capability rather than a replacement, are seeing genuinely transformative results. Thats not to say that AI can't act ...

Don't Trust the Salt: AI Summarization, Multilingual Safety, and LLM Guardrails

163 benbreen 2026-02-19 11:16:46 UTC royapakzad.substack.com Llama Share 68

The author discusses the limitations of AI-generated summarization tools, particularly in multilingual contexts, and how subtle shifts in system prompts can reshape summaries and influence downstream decisions.

Measuring AI agent autonomy in practice

55 jbredeche 2026-02-19 14:16:46 UTC anthropic.com Llama Share 21

People are granting AI agents more autonomy as they gain experience, but the risk of agent actions varies widely, with most being low-risk and reversible, while some involve sensitive security-related actions, financial transactions, and medical information. Effective oversight of agents requires new forms of post-deployment monitoring infrastructure and human-AI interaction paradigms that ...

Show HN: A physically-based GPU ray tracer written in Julia

148 simondanisch 2026-02-19 11:16:46 UTC makie.org Llama Share 49

Researchers integrated a physically-based GPU ray tracing pipeline into Makie, a Julia plotting ecosystem, to create photorealistic 3D scenes. This allows for interactive exploration and visualization of complex data in various fields.

My 1981 adventure game is now a multimedia extravaganza

18 vontzy 2026-02-19 19:16:46 UTC technologizer.com Llama Share 2

The author revived their 1981 text-based game Arctic Adventure using AI, adding graphics and features with Claude Code. The new version, Arctic Adventure 2026, is a collaborative effort between the author and Claude Code, with the AI generating most of the code and artwork.

Show HN: Mini-Diarium - An encrypted, local, cross-platform journaling app

98 holyknight 2026-02-19 12:16:46 UTC github.com/fjrevoredo Llama Share 47

Mini Diarium is a private journal app with AES-256-GCM encryption and local-only storage. It offers password and key file authentication, with key file support for secure unlocking and revocation.

US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere

40 c420 2026-02-19 16:16:46 UTC reuters.com Full Share 17

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Techno-cynics are wounded techno-optimists

29 latexr 2026-02-19 19:16:46 UTC aftermath.site Llama Share 30

A left-wing commentator on Bluesky discussed the idea that "the left hates technology" due to AI hype, but this is confusing as leftists often support high-speed rail and mRNA vaccines.

Bridging Elixir and Python with Oban

106 sorentwo 2026-02-19 11:16:46 UTC oban.pro Llama Share 51

To bridge the gap between Elixir and Python, Oban can be used to exchange durable jobs between the two languages, enabling collaboration and leveraging packages lacking in one ecosystem. A demo app called "Badge Forge" was built to print conference badges using WeasyPrint, a Python library, and Oban, which allows Elixir and Python to share a message queue and database.

Coding Tricks Used in the C64 Game Seawolves

99 atan2 2026-02-19 13:16:46 UTC kodiak64.co.uk Llama Share 8

The Commodore 64 game Seawolves uses unique techniques like combining NMIs and IRQs for efficient raster management and rendering. The game also employs various tricks like sprite multiplexing, real-time water distortion, and animation techniques to create a visually appealing experience.

Level of Detail

3 zdw 2026-02-19 20:16:46 UTC phinze.com Prefix Share 0

In 3D graphics, there’s a technique called Level of Detail (LoD). The idea is simple: why spend GPU cycles rendering every vertex of a distant mountain when the player can’t tell the difference between ten thousand triangles and a hundred? So the engine swaps in a lower-polygon model. As you get closer, it swaps in a higher one. Done well, the player never notices. The algorithms have gotten ...

Mark Zuckerberg Grilled on Usage Goals and Underage Users at California Trial

104 1vuio0pswjnm7 2026-02-19 16:16:46 UTC wsj.com Full Share 57

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Zero downtime migrations at Petabyte scale

56 Ozzie_osman 2026-02-19 15:16:46 UTC planetscale.com Llama Share 12

PlanetScale migrates large databases without downtime, using a process that involves taking a consistent non-locking snapshot of the data, replicating changes throughout the migration, and running a VDiff to verify data correctness. This allows for a seamless transition to the new system.

AI makes you boring

374 speckx 2026-02-19 18:16:46 UTC marginalia.nu Llama Share 232

User argues AI-aided development has led to boring projects on Hacker News, lacking original thinking and discussion. AI models can't replace human immersion in a problem, resulting in shallow ideas.

Voith Schneider Propeller

102 Luc 2026-02-19 09:16:46 UTC en.wikipedia.org Llama Share 28

The Voith Schneider Propeller is a highly maneuverable marine propulsion system with a cyclorotor design, widely used on tugs and ferries. It allows for almost instantaneous direction change and is highly efficient, making it a popular choice for vessels requiring extreme maneuverability.

Against Theory-Motivated Experimentation

29 paraschopra 2026-02-19 15:16:46 UTC journals.sagepub.com Full Share 24

Farewell, Rust for web

73 skwee357 2026-02-19 19:16:46 UTC yieldcode.blog Llama Share 47

The user tried to build a web application in Rust but faced issues with compilation time, lack of maturity in the web aspect, and difficulties with dynamic things like templates, i18n, and SQL. They eventually switched to Node.js, which provided a more suitable environment for web development, despite its imperfections, and allowed them to focus on their business.

IRS lost 40% of IT staff, 80% of tech leaders in 'efficiency' shakeup

157 freitasm 2026-02-19 19:16:46 UTC theregister.com Llama Share 90

The IRS tech arm lost 40% of its IT staff and 80% of tech leaders in a major reorganization. The agency aims to improve efficiency with cross-functional teams and AI, but faces challenges in digitizing paper returns and implementing tax changes.

ShannonMax: A Library to Optimize Emacs Keybindings with Information Theory

60 sammy0910 2026-02-19 11:16:46 UTC github.com/sstraust Llama Share 11

Shannonmax is a tool that helps optimize Emacs keybindings by analyzing logged data to determine the most efficient key sequences. It compares actual keybinding lengths to theoretical lengths based on usage frequency and keyboard size.

We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

7 mitchbob 2026-02-19 20:56:46 UTC theguardian.com Prefix Share 0

In April 2025, less than three months after Donald Trump returned to the White House, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out its latest public health alert on so-called “superbugs”, strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. These drug-resistant germs, the CDC warned, are responsible for more than 3m infections in the US each year, claiming the lives of up to ...

Old School Visual Effects: The Cloud Tank (2010)

90 exvi 2026-02-19 07:16:46 UTC singlemindedmovieblog.blogspot.com Llama Share 15

The Cloud Tank is an old visual effect technique using a large water tank with salt and fresh water layers to create organic shapes, like clouds, by injecting paint into the tank. This technique was used in films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Independence Day, but has since become obsolete with computer-generated effects.

Dinosaur Food: 100M year old foods we still eat today (2022)

75 simonebrunozzi 2026-02-19 16:16:46 UTC borischerny.com Llama Share 65

You read Oliver Sacks' book and learned about the Ginkgo biloba tree being a living fossil. You're interested in the oldest foods we consume today, noting Ginkgo nuts are an East Asian delicacy.