The lost joy of music piracy

https://www.pigeonsandplanes.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fpu3h3rl5%2Fproduction%2F905145d91ffcf3cd2b1c1aee720dfb4ea9b86d12-4000x3200.jpg%3Fw%3D1080%26q%3D100%26auto%3Dformat&w=3840&q=100
What.CD, a private music tracker with invite-only tiers and strict rules to avoid legal risks, fostered a dedicated community but shut down in 2016 after a Salinger manuscript leak and server seizure, leaving users in mourning.

Inkling: Our Open-Weights Model

https://thinkingmachines.ai/news/introducing-inkling/images/cover-social-inkling-post.png
The company released Inkling, a 975B-parameter Mixture-of-Experts model with 41B active parameters, supporting text, images, audio, and video, alongside Inkling-Small (12B active) for efficient customization via Tinker. Trained on 45T tokens, Inkling offers controllable reasoning, safety features, and is available on platforms like Hugging Face and Tinker, with partnerships for deployment and ...

If you want to create a button from scratch, you must first create the universe

https://madcampos.dev/assets/build/apple-pie.C6GE_Xvg_1VaYfW.webp
The article argues that recreating native HTML elements like buttons from scratch is a Sisyphean task due to their complex accessibility requirements, such as keyboard navigation and ARIA roles, which are inherently handled by native elements. It emphasizes using semantic HTML to avoid maintenance burdens and ensure user expectations are met.

Teardown: A Generic 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub That Wasn't

Purchased a low-cost USB 3.0 hub that's mostly USB 2.0 with flimsy build and safety risks, leading to buyer's remorse due to deceptive ads and return complications.

What's the story behind the names of Cloudflare's name servers? (2013)

https://blog.cloudflare.com/_image?href=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.cloudflare.com%2F_emdash%2Fapi%2Fmedia%2Ffile%2F01KW45WTVDFV8M7RH9BZJMSK0Z.png&w=1200&h=628&f=webp&fit=cover&position=center
CloudFlare assigns unique names like Bob and Lola to DNS servers to resolve conflicts when multiple users register the same domain, ensuring accurate DNS verification. A 101st name, Woz, was added after a ninja drawing resembled Steve Wozniak, expanding combinations to 2,550.

SQLite should have (Rust-style) editions

SQLite is praised for its embedded use and self-contained design but faces challenges with ROWID reuse, flexible typing leading to data validation issues, and concurrency limitations. Solutions like strict tables, WAL mode, and an edition system for updated defaults are proposed to address these issues while maintaining compatibility.

1,300 Beautiful Wildlife Illustrations from the 19th Century Now Restored

https://cdn8.openculture.com/2026/07/14224817/plate-6-1024x681.jpg
The Victorian-era *Naturalist’s Library* democratized access to natural history through illustrated books, now digitally restored by Nicholas Rougeux using AI, offering free online and affordable print/poster versions to inspire future naturalists.

Grok Build is open source

https://camo.githubusercontent.com/18491fb1cc6b8790b3f3b2d8cec5af377b6317da104e238e3b67777114ca9b71/68747470733a2f2f6d656469612e782e61692f76312f776562736974652f756e6976657273652d7475692d73637265656e73686f742d36663761303833372e706e67
Grok Build is SpaceXAI's terminal-based AI coding agent with a TUI for codebase interaction, file editing, shell commands, and task management, supporting macOS, Linux, and Windows. It uses Rust, offers CLI installation, and is Apache 2.0 licensed with third-party notices.

Governments, companies, nonprofits should invest in free, open source AI [pdf]

The article reflects on the 1980s shift from proprietary to open-source software, crediting Richard Stallman's advocacy for free knowledge-sharing as foundational to tech progress. It warns that AI's increasing closure risks stifling innovation and transparency, urging open access to models and data to preserve scientific and societal advancement.

Bluesky Trademarks ATProto

https://atproto.com/-/blog/at-protocol-trademark/opengraph-image.png?2117347caea57ee0
Bluesky acquired the "ATPROTOCOL" trademark to protect the atproto community from legal threats, ensuring free use while defending against misuse. Licensing is optional for most, mandatory for branding, and future ownership may shift to an independent governance body.

Can LLMs Perform Deep Technical Comprehension of Computer Architecture Papers

https://arxiv.org/static/browse/0.3.4/images/arxiv-logo-fb.png
Gauntlet, an open-source pipeline using five expert-persona reviewers and adversarial synthesis, outperformed human analyses in critical rigor for 15 of 20 computer architecture papers. Its multi-agent structure and synthesis pass drove success, though humans excelled in trust and usefulness.

Stripe and Advent have made a joint offer to acquire PayPal – sources

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Making 768 servers look like 1

https://planetscale.xyz/assets/making-768-servers-look-like-1-social-DXjwbEP8.png
Scaling relational databases beyond a few terabytes requires sharding to distribute data and queries across multiple servers, overcoming bottlenecks in write throughput and backup efficiency. Tools like Neki and Vitess act as intelligent proxies, routing traffic to the correct shards and abstracting complexity for applications.

G# – A modern .NET language with Go, Kotlin, and Swift ergonomics

https://davidobando.github.io/gsharp/img/gsharp-icon.png
G# is a modern .NET language that brings Go, Kotlin, and Swift ergonomics to the CLR.

I also filed the corners off my MacBook

https://www.brt.fyi/images/mac-book-filing/1.jpg
Upgraded from an 8-year-old Thinkpad to a MacBook for better battery and screen, but found its sharp edges uncomfortable. Modified the edges with a metal file and sandpaper, avoiding complex tools, to improve usability without noticeable wear.

Reynard: A real Firefox web browser for iOS 13 or later

https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/37860569/581925813-1c42dda2-b778-4342-9f94-8f852c3ad652.png?jwt=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.7Drtj9MlPAq00u_0pQmGDS0Ki-CXZTheaAog56OKC5s
Reynard is an iOS browser using Gecko (Firefox's engine) to bypass outdated WebKit on older iOS versions, enabling modern website compatibility. It's experimental, requires sideloading via TrollStore/AltStore, and relies on community contributions for development.

High-Bandwidth Flash offers efficient storage for model weights

https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/schematic-of-high-bandwidth-flash-die-stacked-on-top-of-a-logic-die.jpg?id=67145585&width=1200&height=750
LLMs drive demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM/DRAM), prompting new fabrication plans. High Bandwidth Flash (HBF), using stacked NAND, aims to offer cost-effective, read-optimized storage for AI inference, with Sandisk and SK Hynix advancing its standardization.

Netstrings (1997)

Netstrings are self-delimiting strings with length prefixes, enabling efficient parsing and safe network communication. They prevent buffer overflows by declaring size upfront, unlike CRLF-based methods.

The Tokio/Rayon Trap and Why Async/Await Fails Concurrency

https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/kgd6qp4xhkmjmj721nq4.png
Async/await simplifies writing asynchronous code but hides concurrency complexity, causing operational issues like latency spikes and OOM crashes. Project Tina addresses this by enforcing deterministic, bounded thread-per-core concurrency with explicit state management and predictable scheduling.

The Last Picture Show: A Conversation with George Lucas

https://a-rabbitsfoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/T0KAYE-Large.jpeg
George Lucas's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA, housing 100,000+ pop culture artifacts, challenges art hierarchies by elevating comics and film art. Despite curatorial tensions, Lucas prioritizes emotional storytelling and accessibility, rejecting focus groups to uphold his vision of art as a universal, emotional medium.

Running Gemma 4 26B at 5 tokens/sec on a 13-year-old Xeon with no GPU

https://www.neomindlabs.com/images/we-taught-a-dead-server/gemma4-running.png
A 13-year-old HP server with Ivy Bridge Xeons runs Google's 26B-parameter Gemma 4 model at ~5 tokens/second via CPU-optimized code, overcoming AVX2 instruction set limitations with custom patches. The project highlights adapting modern AI to legacy hardware through engineering, not just subscriptions, enabling local inference on outdated systems.

Job queues are deceptively tricky

The author explores job queues' scheduling complexities, comparing wholesale vs. incremental Git repo repacking strategies and concurrency limits. They emphasize system design principles like limits, fault models, and pessimistic assumptions to build resilient, predictable workflows.

Launch HN: Coasty (YC S26) – An API for computer-use agents

Coasty automates tasks via managed VMs, workflows, and primitives, with autonomous runs for single goals and workflows for multi-task programs. API keys control access, billing tracks usage, and BYOK allows custom models.

Command Line Interface Guidelines

https://clig.dev/CLIG-social-card.jpg
This open-source guide modernizes UNIX principles for CLI design, focusing on human-centric usability, composability, and clear documentation. It provides actionable best practices for intuitive interfaces, error handling, and output formatting to improve accessibility and efficiency.

LLM Networking with MikroTik

The author uses LLMs to streamline MikroTik network setups, leveraging their efficiency while cautioning against errors, and shares tips like REST API use, CAPsMAN, and MAC-Telnet for smoother, version-controlled configurations. Networking's complexity is acknowledged, balancing LLMs' chaotic help with meticulous testing and documentation.

Rebuilding My Homelab with Compose, Ruby, IPv6, and No Kubernetes

https://www.petekeen.net/images/homelab-resolved/nibbler-futurama.webp
The user's homelab faced hardware failures with a core server (nibbler) and found Kubernetes too complex, leading to a shift back to Docker Compose for stability. They now use Proxmox, TrueNAS, and Docker with IPv6 and Caddy for service management, prioritizing simplicity and control over complex orchestration.

Metal-Organic Frameworks, Chemistry's New Miracle Materials (2018)

https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/styles/width_400/public/yaghi_photo_hanschen.png?itok=eoCLU7nD&timestamp=1537464681
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), ultra-porous materials with vast surface areas, excel at trapping gases, harvesting water from arid air, and delivering drugs. Pioneered by Omar Yaghi, they offer scalable, solar-powered solutions for water scarcity, carbon capture, and medicine, with over 20,000 variants now enabling diverse environmental and medical applications.

Duskers, the scary command line game, is getting a sequel

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!WCka!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5671ee64-5699-42fa-a082-fdafa84bea18_1052x894.png
Misfits Attic announced *Duskers 2.0*, funded by Max McGuire’s Stray Signal, during PC Gamer’s event, expanding the survival game’s narrative with moral choices and deeper gameplay. EGG’s community-driven funding model, supporting indie developers like Tim through prototypes and partnerships, highlights a new era of collaborative game development.

Collection of Digital Clock Designs

A collection of thoughtfully designed digital clocks.

Show HN: One More Letter

One More Letter is a daily word game where every round adds one letter and rearranges them into a new answer.