I bought Friendster for $30k – Here's what I'm doing with it

446 ca98am79 2026-04-26 21:45:45 UTC ca98am79.medium.com Llama Share 247

The domain name friendster.com was bought for $7456 in an auction and later sold for $20k in Bitcoin. The new owner created a social network with unique features like phone tapping to connect friends and fading connections to encourage in-person interactions.

Self-updating screenshots

82 bjhess 2026-04-27 00:45:45 UTC interblah.net Llama Share 11

The user built an automated screenshot system for a help centre in Jelly, using Rake tasks and a headless Chrome browser. This system updates screenshots automatically when the UI changes, reducing maintenance and keeping the help centre current.

Three constraints before I build anything

58 nervous_north 2026-04-27 00:45:45 UTC jordanlord.co.uk Llama Share 8

To ensure creativity and focus, I use three constraints: a one pager that captures my north star, a core piece of technology that supports my product, and a defining constraint that gives my product identity. If a project fails to meet any of these constraints, I don't build it, as it will likely result in a complex, bloated, or unidentifiable product.

Fast16: High-precision software sabotage 5 years before Stuxnet

167 dd23 2026-04-26 20:45:45 UTC sentinelone.com Llama Share 43

SentinelLABS uncovered a 2005 cyber sabotage framework, fast16, targeting high-precision calculation software with a kernel driver that patches code in memory to tamper with results. The framework was designed for strategic sabotage, introducing small but systematic errors into physical-world calculations.

Box to save memory in Rust

75 emschwartz 2026-04-26 21:45:45 UTC dystroy.org Llama Share 15

A Rust program reduced its memory footprint from 895MB to 420MB by optimizing the layout of structs and deserialization of JSON files. This was achieved by using optional fields and boxing to reduce memory usage, and verifying the results using a custom allocator.

When the cheap one is the cool one

28 ddrmaxgt37 2026-04-27 00:45:45 UTC arun.is Llama Share 9

Apple and Porsche created affordable products by stripping down existing models and focusing on what's essential, then adding unique features to make them exciting. This approach reveals what customers value and can lead to a deeper understanding of the tool and one's capabilities.

Show HN: The Unix Magic poster, annotated (updated)

10 drio 2026-04-27 01:45:45 UTC github.com/drio Llama Share 0

A pipeline is being built to document and map the classic Usenix Unix Magic poster, a valuable reference for Unix enthusiasts. The project aims to explore and understand the poster's elements within the context of Unix's early days.

The fastest Linux timestamps

27 hmpc 2026-04-27 00:45:45 UTC hmpcabral.com Llama Share 6

Implementing custom timers on x86 Linux can speed up timestamping by 30% without sacrificing precision, but requires understanding Linux clocks and vDSO internals. By bypassing vDSO and using the TSC, developers can achieve highly predictable latency and reduce timing overhead, but must consider cache misses and kernel updates.

Google banks on AI edge to catch up to cloud rivals Amazon and Microsoft

70 donsupreme 2026-04-27 00:45:45 UTC ft.com Full Share 33

The following information can help our support team to resolve this issue.

SWE-bench Verified no longer measures frontier coding capabilities

256 kmdupree 2026-04-26 14:45:45 UTC openai.com Llama Share 146

SWE-bench Verified, a benchmark for autonomous software engineering, has contamination issues due to publicly available data and flawed test cases, making it unsuitable for measuring model progress. A new benchmark, SWE-bench Pro, is recommended for reporting results due to lower contamination risk and more robust test cases.

Butterflies are in decline across North America, a look at the Western Monarch

139 1659447091 2026-04-26 21:45:45 UTC smithsonianmag.com Llama Share 42

Monarch butterflies are declining due to pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change, with a 99% chance of extinction by 2080. Conservationists are working to protect the species, using methods like habitat restoration and tracking monarch migrations to increase their chances of survival.

Notepad++ for Mac

4 jonbaer 2026-04-27 02:07:45 UTC notepad-plus-plus-mac.org Prefix Share 2

Yes. Notepad++ is now natively available for macOS as a free download. It runs on both Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5) and Intel Macs without any emulation or compatibility layers. No. Notepad++ for macOS is a full native port of the original Windows codebase. It does not require Wine, Porting Kit, CrossOver, or any other compatibility layer. It runs as a native macOS application. Yes. ...

When Your Digital Life Vanishes

4 benbreen 2026-04-27 01:45:45 UTC newyorker.com Prefix Share 0

The man had been slumped over his laptop for a week by the time his body was discovered. His deliquescent tissue had seeped under the keys, short-circuiting the motherboard. It was a killing from beyond the grave, flesh and blood’s revenge on silicon. Yet digital death differs, crucially, from the genuine article. Sometimes, with luck, it can be reversed. It happens to the best of us—the ...

AI should elevate your thinking, not replace it

300 koshyjohn 2026-04-26 20:45:45 UTC koshyjohn.com Llama Share 256

The future of software engineering will belong to those who use AI to augment their skills, not replace them, by focusing on judgment, clarity, and original thought. Effective engineers will know what to delegate to AI and what to own, turning time savings into better thinking and avoiding the trap of shallow understanding and imitation.

Sawe becomes first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race

268 berkeleyjunk 2026-04-26 21:45:45 UTC bbc.com Llama Share 202

Sabastian Sawe made history by becoming the first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race, crossing the line in 1:59:30. Tigst Assefa also broke her own women's world record in a women-only field, finishing in 2:15:41.

Lessons from building multiplayer browsers

13 alejandrohacks 2026-04-27 00:45:45 UTC alejandro.pe Llama Share 4

The user joined a startup as a founding engineer working on a new browser, Sail, which aimed to be a collaborative software with real-time multiplayer features, but ultimately failed to gain traction due to positioning and market challenges. The user learned valuable lessons about product thinking, engineering, and design, and now advocates for the importance of clear positioning, user ...

Show HN: AI memory with biological decay (52% recall)

65 SachitRafa 2026-04-26 21:45:45 UTC github.com/sachitrafa Llama Share 30

YourMemory is a persistent memory layer for AI agents that uses the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve to simulate human memory. It supports multiple agents with isolated memories and controlled access to shared context.

Music of the BBC Microcomputer System

12 eightb 2026-04-27 00:45:45 UTC acornelectron.co.uk Llama Share 1

The article discusses BBC music demos from the 1980s, precursors to internet music sharing, and lists the author's top 12 favorite demos. The demos showcase creative uses of the BBC Micro's sound capabilities.

Running Bare-Metal Rust Alongside ESP-IDF on the ESP32-S3's Second Core

38 MrBuddyCasino 2026-04-26 21:45:45 UTC tingouw.com Llama Share 7

The user implemented a dual-core system on the ESP32-S3, where ESP-IDF manages Wi-Fi and BLE on Core 0 and bare-metal Rust code runs on Core 1 with zero scheduler interference. The system uses atomics for shared memory access and allows for updating the Rust binary independently of the ESP-IDF firmware.

Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

92 pwim 2026-04-26 19:45:45 UTC tokyodev.com Llama Share 32

The author used Magic: The Gathering to improve Japanese fluency by forcing himself to use the language in a real-world environment. This approach helped him transition from a JLPT N2 certification to actual proficiency.

Quirks of Human Anatomy

95 gurjeet 2026-04-26 13:45:45 UTC sdbonline.org Llama Share 61

The human body has many quirks and flaws, such as a blind spot in the eye, a narrow birth canal, and a vulnerable nervous system, which are a result of evolutionary compromises and mistakes. Despite these flaws, humans and other animals have developed remarkable adaptations and solutions to overcome them, such as the development of the brain and the ability to process visual information.

MoQ Boy

41 mmcclure 2026-04-26 20:45:45 UTC moq.dev Llama Share 4

The user created a homebrew Twitch Plays Pokemon emulator using MoQ, a cloud-based streaming platform, to save bandwidth and CPU. The emulator uses MoQ's discovery mechanism to find available games and players, demonstrating how to use MoQ for robots and other applications.

XOXO Festival Archive

46 surprisetalk 2026-04-26 20:45:45 UTC xoxofest.com Full Share 10

From 2012 to 2024, XOXO brought together writers, designers, filmmakers, musicians, game developers, coders, cartoonists, and more to share their stories and struggles of living and working online.

The Visible Zorker: Zork 1

110 PLenz 2026-04-26 16:45:45 UTC eblong.com Full Share 19

A software exhibit that allows you to explore Zork and also Zork's source code at the same time.

Clay PCB Tutorial

198 j0r0b0 2026-04-26 16:45:45 UTC feministhackerspaces.cargo.site Llama Share 121

Researchers at Mz* Baltazar's Lab developed a method to create PCBs from natural clay, using a 3D printed stamp and a low-energy firing process. The project aims to create sustainable and locally sourced hardware, reducing the reliance on conflict minerals and promoting fair trade practices.

Chernobyl wildlife forty years on

50 reconnecting 2026-04-26 19:45:45 UTC bbc.com Llama Share 3

A scientist, Pablo Burraco, discovered a dark-colored tree frog in Chernobyl's exclusion zone, sparking a question about radiation's impact on local wildlife. Research suggests some species may have adapted to radiation, but the evidence is still debated among scientists.

An AI agent deleted our production database. The agent's confession is below

475 jeremyccrane 2026-04-26 16:45:45 UTC twitter.com/lifeof_jer Full Share 651

Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot. Some privacy related extensions may cause issues on x.com. Please disable them and try again.

FreeBSD Device Drivers Book

21 myth_drannon 2026-04-26 23:45:45 UTC github.com/ebrandi Llama Share 3

The book "FreeBSD Device Drivers" is a free, open-source guide that teaches readers from zero to writing production-quality FreeBSD drivers. It's a guided course with 38 chapters, hands-on labs, and covers the full lifecycle of driver development.

Statecharts: hierarchical state machines

289 sph 2026-04-26 09:45:45 UTC statecharts.dev Llama Share 79

A statechart is a visual formalism for complex systems that solves state explosion problems in state machines. It's a great communicator and can be used as an exploratory tool for non-developers and QA.

Show HN: Free textbook on engineering thermodynamics

115 2DcAf 2026-04-26 15:45:45 UTC thermodynamicsbook.com Llama Share 29

This textbook provides a clear introduction to thermodynamics for university students and engineers, covering key concepts with examples and problems. It also includes historical explorations to connect ideas to their origins and impact.