Qwen 3.8 27B is excellent, but it defaults to overthinking things

https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/qwen-thinking-bicycle-27b.jpg
The author has been testing Qwen 3.8 27B, a large language model from Alibaba's research lab, on various machines and found it to be highly capable but slow due to its dense architecture requiring significant memory bandwidth.

The Life and Death of Direct File [pdf]

Details: cache-dfw-kdfw8210074-DFW 1786944112 4183691575

AGI-64 Brings Sierra Adventures to the Commodore 64

https://meanhamster.com/games/agi-64/space-quest-2.png
AGI-64 is a free AGI interpreter for the Commodore 64, aiming to support most era games. It's currently around 75% complete and playable on Space Quest 1, with features like save/load and custom background pre-processing.

A 3rd World Embedded Engineer Responds to "RISC-V They Should Have Known Better"

The author criticizes Dmitry Grinberg's article on RISC-V, arguing that his criticism of the architecture is biased and misses the point. The author claims that RISC-V's openness and low cost make it accessible to developers in developing countries, allowing them to create their own projects without relying on expensive tools or licenses.

Claude: System Prompts

https://platform.claude.com/docs/og?locale=en&path=release-notes/system-prompts&design-rev=1
Claude's web interface and mobile apps use a system prompt to provide information, including the current date, at the start of conversations. The prompt is updated periodically to improve Claude's responses, but not for the Claude API.

Rhombus 1.1 is now available

The Racket team is adding annot and annot.def to define annotations without macro code, as well as a binding form for more readable naming.

Reticulum – Decentralized Mesh Network

https://reticulum.network/gfx/reticulum_logo_512.png
Reticulum is a cryptography-based networking stack for building decentralized, sovereign networks without control or censorship. It enables secure digital communication and end-to-end connectivity with self-sovereign addresses that can be moved freely within the network.

Interview with Amit Patel, Creator of "Solar Realms Elite"

https://breakintochat.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/amit-patel.jpg
Amit Patel created the BBS door game Solar Realms Elite in 1990 and has worked on various programming projects, including scientific equipment, data analysis, and artificial intelligence. He is now working on interactive reference materials for game developers.

Low-Tech Ceramic Water Filter

The ceramic water filter, developed in 1981 by Dr. Fernando Mazariegos, uses clay and combustible materials to remove pathogens and contaminants from water, with colloidal silver added for antibacterial properties. The filter can be produced locally using a hydraulic press and finishing process, requiring training and equipment to manufacture at scale.

Applying a photosynthetic process to treat "dry eye"

SIMD in the 90s: Programming Intel's Pentium MMX

https://pikuma.com/images/about/profile.png
Intel's MMX technology was introduced in 1997, allowing for single instruction, multiple data processing on x86 CPUs. It enabled significant speedups in multimedia software and paved the way for modern SIMD architectures like AVX-512 and GPUs with thousands of cores.

Dancing with friends and enemies: boids' swarm intelligence

https://community.wolfram.com/c/portal/getImageAttachment?filename=OPTfnlfrnds.gif&userId=11733
The user created a simulation of animal swarms using Mathematica, injecting randomness to create a "dance" pattern. The system follows simple rules: move towards friends and away from enemies, with contraction to prevent dispersal.

How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?

Passkeys are the simplest and most secure way to sign in to your account. To sign in with just your fingerprint, face scan, or screen lock, create a passkey.

Gmail might partially be to blame for receiving emails from other Sean Conners

https://www.conman.org/people/spc/about/2025/1203.t.jpg
A user shared their experience of receiving emails for other people with similar names, sparking a discussion about email confusion and Google's handling of it. They linked to an account holder who claimed Google made a programming mistake that caused the issue.

Protobuf has LSP support. You're welcome

https://buf.build/images/Dot-Grid.svg
Buf releases the Buf LSP server, providing modern IDE support for Protobuf development. The new implementation is faster and more flexible than protoc, enabling incremental compilation and better diagnostics.

The AI Credit Resale Economy

https://cdn.ploy.ai/2eb2235a-6b78-4d32-9713-f051311d8809/user/0a6c2555-convo-with-broker.webp
Token brokers buy unused credits from startups and resell them, offering discounts to attract buyers. This market is growing rapidly, with tens of millions of credits being offered across various sites and forums.

MathCode, Mathematical Coding Agent

https://math-ai-org.github.io/mathcode/Demo.png
MathCode is a terminal AI coding assistant that converts plain language math problems into Lean 4 theorems and attempts formal proofs. It features various tools for efficient proof-solving, including a persistent Lean REPL and theorem libraries.

Prolly: A content-addressed ordered map built on prolly trees

https://opengraph.githubassets.com/2dca2132632ec6cc4549c1c48a434abedb12a66187800d29faaf0bb03bba6fc9/crabbuild/prolly
The Prolly library provides an ordered map that can store multiple versions, diff them, merge them, and persist them into a content-addressed store, making it suitable for local-first databases and systems like Trail. It offers various features such as async support, durability guarantees through transactions and caching mechanisms to ensure data consistency across different use cases.

Plastic mechanical computer from 1963: The Digi-Comp 1 [video]

Red queen hypothesis – a new way forward for self-improving AI

https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/files/the-red-queen-adobe-square-image-250.jpg
Researchers have developed a new method for recursive self-improving AI agents to continue improving themselves without hitting an evaluation ceiling. This approach allows the agent and evaluator to evolve together, creating a self-improving loop that can lead to more capable and efficient AI systems.

Nvidia dramatically reduces amount of OpenAI infra financing it may guarantee

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Clamiga: Common Lisp for the Amiga

https://nnamgreb.de/static/gfx/blogs/clamiga-aos3_1.jpg
CL-Amiga, a Common Lisp implementation for the Amiga family, is built to run on m68k and PPC architectures. It has a self-contained bytecode VM with no external runtime dependencies and supports various features like object system, condition system, macros, and interactive development style.

Anton Chekhov played at love most of his life

https://commonreader.wustl.edu/app/uploads/2026/07/AntonOlgaFormatted.jpg
A favorite professor taught Anton Chekhov's short stories as models of writerly virtues, emphasizing his life and work. Chekhov's personal life was marked by a mix of romantic relationships, including with actress Olga Knipper, whom he married at 41 and died from tuberculosis at 44.

Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker

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St Lucie Nuclear Reactor Unit 1 manually shutdown, 3 control rods drop into core

https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0c79f55/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x720+0+0/resize/1280x720!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F01%2F44%2Ff13fd08c4b2fa4e87daa750b46c7%2Ffpl.jpg
The Saint Lucie Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 was manually shut down after 3 control rods dropped into the reactor core. The event, classified as a non-emergency by the NRC, had all systems responding normally post-trip.

The federal keyword lists that canceled billions in research funding

https://d1b6lhn2ymmy1x.cloudfront.net/journalist-headshots/highered/spitalniak-laura-circle-150x150.png
Researchers received surprise termination notices for federal grant funding after projects were deemed to express viewpoints disfavored by the Trump administration. The terminations targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, green energy, and other subjects at odds with conservative opposition.

Tell HN: Cloudflare silently injects its analytics when you switch nameservers

You recently switched to Cloudflare's nameservers, which silently added a JS analytics snippet to your site. This approach is invasive and should opt-in instead of opt-out for users' consent.

Stripe Clinches over $7B Deal to Buy AI Firm OpenRouter

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A True Telnet BBS on a Casio Calculator

https://ei3lh.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/1000013219-1024x683.png
The author, a hobbyist, has developed software for Casio Pocket Computer calculators and created a Bulletin Board Service (BBS) hosted on one of the devices. The BBS allows users to connect via telnet and log amateur radio contacts using the calculator's programming capabilities.

Chestnut – eGPU dock with open-source firmware

https://hwbusters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/comma-chestnut-egpu-hero.jpg
Comma.ai's Chestnut eGPU dock allows users to read and modify its firmware, a first for the industry. The $249-$799 dock enables more powerful driving models in cars, with some versions reaching 100W of power similar to Tesla's HW4.