September 2026: The world today, as seen by one Polish guy

54 marjancek 2026-09-30 07:42:04 UTC tomwojcik.com Llama Share 6

A Polish writer reflects on the country's vulnerabilities due to its dependence on imported energy and military supplies, as well as a declining population. The writer prepares for potential crises by stockpiling water, cash, and food that doesn't require cooking, while also having a plan for alternative heating sources.

Livenerf: Has Opus 5.5 been nerfed yet?

571 bryan0 2026-09-29 22:42:04 UTC github.com/ninjahawk Llama Share 241

Livenerf is a benchmark designed to detect whether a frontier model gets worse after launch, using Claude Opus 5.5 as the test subject. It measures drift statistically over thousands of samples and provides detailed statistics on accuracy changes and output token counts.

Solving Factorio Quality

48 laurenth 2026-09-30 05:42:04 UTC exyr.org Llama Share 15

Factorio is a game that involves building and managing a factory, with the goal of producing increasingly complex items. The game's focus on automation sets it apart from other survival games. Players can use modules to improve production, and new mechanics were introduced in the Space Age extension, including quality tiers for items and recipes.

Dots: Always-on agents

589 alvis 2026-09-29 17:42:04 UTC openai.com Llama Share 453

Dots are AI-powered agents that assist users with tasks, learn from feedback and adapt to their needs. They can connect to various apps, work independently or in teams, and provide 24/7 support for ambitious projects.

U.S. postal inspectors shut down website selling counterfeit postage labels

223 ilamont 2026-09-29 19:42:04 UTC postalemployeenetwork.com Llama Share 132

US Postal Inspection Service seized an internet domain for operating a counterfeit website selling over 5 million fake USPS postage labels, resulting in $126 million losses. A Pakistani national, Faheem Akram, is charged with conspiracy and wire fraud related to the scheme.

Vermont replacing power plants with home batteries

183 devonnull 2026-09-29 21:42:04 UTC bbc.com Llama Share 145

Vermont's Green Mountain Power has implemented a home battery system, providing over 5,500 homes with energy security during power outages. The virtual power plant is the largest source of power in the state and aims to eliminate all outages by 2030.

RSS Feeds for Last.fm

59 Baljhin 2026-09-30 03:42:04 UTC lfm.xiffy.nl Llama Share 12

User wants an RSS feed of their Last.fm tracks, and the creator provides a solution by asking for their username.

NASA asked several former SR-71A staffers to help secret restart

150 ilamont 2026-09-29 23:42:04 UTC aviationweek.com Llama Share 142

NASA is secretly working on returning a 59-year-old Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird to flight, with retired engineer Mike Relja being asked for his expertise. The project faces significant challenges, including lack of spare parts and trained crews, but some possible solutions have been proposed.

Testing WebGPU data layouts with Facet

31 luu 2026-09-30 03:42:04 UTC mattkeeter.com Llama Share 0

The author created a custom checker function to ensure correct data loading between Rust and WebGPU, as the layout rules differ. The function uses facet's runtime reflection to inspect struct sizes and offsets at runtime.

America.gov

541 plesiv 2026-09-29 14:42:04 UTC america.gov Full Share 449

Raleigh Vektar Restoration (2020)

7 robin_reala 2026-09-30 07:42:04 UTC retromash.com LocalLLM Share 0

The author acquired two Raleigh Vektar BMX bikes, a retro holy grail, and is now restoring one. They plan to document the restoration process and seek advice for repainting and repairing the vintage bike.

Show HN: Real-time Solar System with 526k asteroids and all tracked satellites

234 wanick 2026-09-29 19:42:04 UTC space.bl2.net Full Share 50

Тяни — вращать, колесо — приблизить, клик — карточка и орбита, двойной клик — лететь к телу. WASD — полёт, R/F — вверх/вниз, Q/E и стрелки — поворот, Shift — быстрее. Клик по названию группы — подсветить, 👁 — орбиты

How Delhi cut electricity loss from 50 to 5 percent

512 rbanffy 2026-09-29 13:42:04 UTC spectrum.ieee.org Llama Share 289

The author recounts a common scene in 2002 Delhi where frequent power outages plagued the city, causing chaos and economic losses. However, over the past quarter century, Delhi's grid has transformed into a reliable system with minimal power losses.

GPT 6.1 Sol: Near-Astra intelligence for a fifth of the price

919 crorella 2026-09-29 17:42:04 UTC openai.com Llama Share 819

GPT-6.1 Sol is a new upgrade to GPT-6 Sol, offering improved performance and cost savings for everyday work tasks. It matches GPT-6 Astra's intelligence at one-fifth of its standard input and output token prices, delivering substantial improvements across complex professional tasks.

Backblaze drive stats for Q2 2026

173 HieronymusBosch 2026-09-29 16:42:04 UTC backblaze.com Llama Share 45

Backblaze's Q2 2026 Drive Stats report tracks annualized failure rates, model performance, and emerging technologies. The quarterly AFR is 1.73%, with no new drive models released this quarter but deployment concentrated in the 20TB+ range.

Needed 1+1, built a functional programming language

89 birdculture 2026-09-29 22:42:04 UTC hereticpleb.vercel.app Llama Share 27

The author implemented a binary tree evaluator in C, using closures to represent user-defined functions and an arena allocator to manage memory. The evaluator uses a mark-and-sweep garbage collector to reduce memory usage.

Phyllotaxis: An audio-reactive LED display

286 evakhoury 2026-09-29 08:42:04 UTC jagi.studio Llama Share 47

The author created a cellular LED matrix inspired by phyllotaxis, a pattern found in nature, and programmed it to react dynamically to sound using an STM32 board. The project evolved into an interactive installation at Recurse Center, featuring a website for attendees to upload sketches and games.

Why Is Sam Altman a Free Man?

18 ragall 2026-09-30 07:42:04 UTC prospect.org Llama Share 1

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America's 1987 public service announcement was about kids learning from their parents, but now AI models are "learning" by hacking and stealing data. OpenAI has been accused of taking millions of stories without permission, using it to train its models.

Language models for text classification: From bag-of-words to Jev

105 Anon84 2026-09-29 21:42:04 UTC magazine.sebastianraschka.com Llama Share 4

The Jev AI model has gained popularity for its ability to classify tasks efficiently and accurately, making it a viable alternative to more expensive models like GPT-6. It achieves this through a unique training method called Reinforcement Learning for Calibrated Decisions (RLCD), which enables fast and cost-effective decision-making across various domains.

PS5 Relapse Exploit

303 therepanic 2026-09-29 16:42:04 UTC github.com/ntfargo Llama Share 179

The project involves exploiting vulnerabilities in Webkit and kernel stages for educational research, using payloads stored in a specific directory and listening on port 9021. It warns users to use the software responsibly and at their own risk, as it may cause system instability or data loss.

When oil prices spike, where does the money go?

79 thelastgallon 2026-09-29 22:42:04 UTC theconversation.com Llama Share 68

Global oil prices surged after the US and Israel attacked Iran, affecting products made from oil worldwide. The increased price benefits companies, governments, and shareholders in various regions, including Saudi Arabia's government finances and US-based oil companies' profits.

Ask HN: What are you reading?

264 dan-bailey 2026-09-29 15:42:04 UTC news.ycombinator.com Llama Share 540

The user is currently reading various books, including sci-fi and fantasy novels, historical non-fiction, and philosophical texts. They are also watching TV shows like Reacher S1 and Deadwood.

NAND-16: a computer built from 277,248 NAND gates

139 rossant 2026-09-29 17:42:04 UTC somethingbig.ai Full Share 78

A 16-bit computer built from 277,248 NAND gates. CPU, memory, OS and Tetris, all running on the gates in your browser. Zoom in and watch the signals flow.

A Staff Engineer's Guide to Inventing Work

260 amortize 2026-09-29 12:42:04 UTC sujithjay.com Llama Share 53

Platform teams invent work by reading signals from systems, users, organization, and industry. They analyze these signals to identify areas for improvement and prioritize new projects.

NRC issues first U.S. construction permit for a BWRX-300 small modular reactor

34 papa-whisky 2026-09-29 23:42:04 UTC gevernova.com Llama Share 8

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a construction permit for the BWRX-300 small modular reactor at TVA's Clinch River site in Tennessee. This is the first permit issued in the US for this design, marking a significant milestone for nuclear power deployment.

PSSA: A non-transformer language model written from scratch in Rust

76 sparticle62 2026-09-30 03:42:04 UTC github.com/sparticle62ops Llama Share 32

The PSSA model, a small language model, outperforms the transformer in learning efficiency and text generation speed on the same corpus. It achieves lower training cross-entropy and perplexity compared to the transformer.

We’re forgetting what darkness feels like

150 pseudolus 2026-09-29 22:42:04 UTC theguardian.com Llama Share 79

Cities regulating outdoor lighting could improve the environment for all living creatures by reducing light pollution. Implementing rules and enforcement around light brightness, direction, and placement can help preserve darkness in urban areas.

Show HN: NSL – WSL for Linux

127 bketelsen 2026-09-29 15:42:04 UTC frostyard.github.io Llama Share 78

NSL provides a Linux host with persistent machines, similar to WSL on Windows. It offers isolated and non-isolated modes for running Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora.

Show HN: Using 2D DFT, dithering, etc. to maximize eInk manga image quality

16 seam_carver 2026-09-30 05:42:04 UTC github.com/ciromattia Llama Share 3

Kindle Comic Converter (KCC) optimizes manga for E-ink ereaders, producing high-quality files with minimal size. KCC supports various output formats and can be used on Windows, macOS, and Linux devices.

Show HN: A working 3D model of an Enigma machine

66 primitivesuave 2026-09-29 21:42:04 UTC enigma.design Llama Share 23

The German military used Enigma during WWII to send encrypted messages, but Polish and others cracked its code. The machine had a left rotor with water-soluble ink sheets that were tightly guarded secrets.