Learning Software Architecture

To learn software design skills as a researcher physicist, it's essential to understand that software design is best learned by doing and adapting to the social context of the project, rather than following formal rules or guidelines. Key recommendations include practicing, paying attention to boundaries, testing, and Conway's Law, and considering resources such as the Boundaries talk by Gary ...

Screenshots of Old Desktop OSes

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The user provided a large collection of screenshots showcasing various operating systems and graphical user interfaces from the 1980s to the early 2000s, including GEM, OS/2, Windows, and NeXTSTEP. The screenshots demonstrate the evolution of GUIs, highlighting the differences in design, functionality, and performance across various platforms and releases.

Postmortem: TanStack NPM supply-chain compromise

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An attacker compromised 42 @tanstack/* npm packages by combining GitHub Actions cache poisoning and runtime memory extraction of an OIDC token, publishing 84 malicious versions on 2026-05-11. The attack was detected within 20 minutes by an external researcher and all affected versions have been deprecated, but users who installed the affected versions are recommended to rotate their credentials.

Toxicity on Social Media – The Noisy Room

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Stanford researchers analyzed 2.2 billion social media posts and found a small minority of users produce most toxic content, creating a distorted view of public opinion. This distortion leads to self-censorship, false consensus, and hostility between opposing groups.

They Live (1988) inspired Adblocker

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A fork of uBlock Origin Lite, uBOLite_theylive, replaces cosmetic-blocked ads with white tiles bearing They Live slogans. It requires manual installation and configuration in Chromium-based browsers.

EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids

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The EU plans to target addictive design features on TikTok and Instagram to protect children from social media harms. The EU Commission may propose a legal measure as early as summer to enforce age verification and stricter regulations on social media platforms.

Coursera and Udemy are now one company

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Coursera and Udemy have merged to create a comprehensive skills platform, reaching 290 million learners and 18,000 customers worldwide. The combined platform aims to deliver more choice, value, and innovation for learners and organizations in the AI era.

If AI writes your code, why use Python?

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AI has improved significantly in writing systems languages like Rust, Go, and Swift, making them easier to use. This shift changes the constraints of software development, favoring languages that are easiest for agents, not humans.

UCLA discovers first stroke rehabilitation drug to repair brain damage (2025)

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UCLA researchers found a drug called DDL-920 that reproduces the effects of physical stroke rehabilitation in mice. The drug targets a brain cell called a parvalbumin neuron to help recover movement control after stroke.

Rtwatch: Watch videos with friends using WebRTC

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rtwatch allows real-time video synchronization with friends using Pion WebRTC and GStreamer. It stores state on the backend, sending only the current frame to viewers, and requires host networking enabled on macOS.

Claude Platform on AWS

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The Claude Platform on AWS is now generally available, offering full access to Claude features with AWS authentication and billing. It brings native Claude API features to AWS customers with features shipping the same day as the native API.

Docker images are MB; a full game engine compiles to 35MB WASM

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I exported a game skeleton to WebAssembly a few hours ago and was surprised by the artifact size. Full 3D engine – GL Compatibility renderer, Jolt physics, GDScript runtime, Ink narrative interpreter. The binary: 35MB. Runs in any browser, zero install. python:3.14-slim-trixie – the slim base, before you add a single dependency – is 144MB. Even a careful minimal build with uv lands at 282MB. ...

Extremely Low Frequencies

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The development of submarine communication technology involved overcoming challenges such as seawater blocking radio waves and limited antenna capabilities, leading to the use of long-wave radio and Very Low Frequency (VLF) signals. The Navy's pursuit of Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) signals in the 1960s and 1970s aimed to enable submerged submarines to receive nuclear launch orders, but was ...

Optimize for change not application performance

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Teams optimize rendering performance by milliseconds, but fear codebase changes. This creates a slower business due to frustration, diverting energy from customer problems.

Google says criminal hackers used AI to find a major software flaw

A hacking group used AI to detect a previously unknown bug, posing a threat to digital security. Google thwarted the attack, highlighting concerns over AI's potential impact on cybersecurity.

A HN post with negative points – how?

-4 points on this submission? What? How did that happen? I've never seen it go negative. Do a get a biscuit or something for somehow managing this? Interestingly on the Harmonic client on my Android phone it is claiming -10 points. Very odd.

Software Internals Book Club

You run a global email book club with 2,500 members discussing high-level books on databases, distributed systems, and software performance. The club is open to all and features experienced discussion leaders and text-based discussions via a Google Group.

I let AI build a tool to help me figure out what was waking me up at night

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The user built a system to identify and record noise events that wake them up at night using AI tooling, a Raspberry Pi, and a smart home setup, allowing them to pinpoint and address the causes of their sleep disruptions. This project demonstrates how AI tooling has lowered the barrier for personal tooling, enabling the user to tackle small problems that were previously deemed not worth building.

Remembering Planet Source Code: Sharing Code Before GitHub Made It Easy

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The author reflects on their early days as a developer, discovering archived code submissions from 20 years ago on PlanetSourceCode.com, a site that helped developers share and learn from each other. The author reminisces about the era before GitHub, when sharing code was more challenging, but still a vital part of the developer community.

Music has scales / raagas. What about storytelling in movies and prestige shows?

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Researchers analyzed 405 films to derive 15 structural archetypes from Hindustani classical music parameters. The framework identifies patterns in completed films, not prescribing a formula for all successful movies.

I hate soldering

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The user dislikes soldering due to health concerns and mess. They want soldering to be replaced by a safer alternative.

Nullsoft, 1997-2004 (2004)

Justin Frankel, founder of Nullsoft, was a rebellious programmer who created popular music tools like Winamp and Gnutella, often challenging the music industry and his corporate parent AOL. He quit AOL and Nullsoft after releasing a private file-sharing system WASTE, which made it difficult for authorities to track copyright infringement.

Show HN: A modern Music Player Daemon based on Rockbox firmware

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Rockbox is an open source audio player extended with Rust and Zig, exposing audio engine features through APIs and adding multi-room output via various protocols. It can stream audio to multiple devices and supports various output protocols.

Boriel BASIC

Boriel BASIC SDK is a Sinclair BASIC-like compiler with enhanced features and integer data types, suitable for ZX-Spectrum development. It includes a library of functions, sample programs, and a community forum for support and bug reporting.

Interaction Models

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Researchers at Thinking Machines are developing a new type of AI model called interaction models that can handle real-time conversations and collaboration with humans. These models can perceive and respond to humans in real-time, across multiple modalities such as audio, video, and text, and can be used for a variety of applications including customer service, education, and healthcare.

Library for fast mapping of Java records to native memory

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TypedMemory is a Java library for working with contiguous off-heap memory through strongly typed views. It provides a type-safe abstraction over memory for systems, interop, graphics, and data-oriented programming.

Unitree GD01: China's $537k rideable transformer robot is now in production

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Unitree Robotics launched the GD01, a manned mech suit that transforms between two-legged and four-legged movement, priced at $537,000. The robot is currently available only in China, with regulatory and distributor hurdles to clear before it can be sold in the US or UK.

Show HN: TikTok but for scientific papers

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Discover, read, and engage with academic papers. AI-powered summaries, quizzes, and a community of researchers — all in one beautiful app.

HDMI 2.1 Display Stream Compression (DSC) Ready for Amdgpu Linux Driver

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AMD has updated its open-source AMDGPU driver to support HDMI 2.1's Display Stream Compression and Fixed Rate Link for higher resolutions and refresh rates. This support is expected to be upstreamed to the mainline Linux kernel with Linux 7.2.

GitLab announces workforce reduction and end of their CREDIT values

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GitLab is undergoing a restructuring process to meet the opportunities of the agentic era, including reducing its country footprint by 30%, flattening its organization, and right-sizing roles. The company is reaffirming its Q1 and full year FY27 guidance and will reinvest the majority of savings into accelerating its progress against growth and technological initiatives.