AI Summarized Hacker News

Front-page articles summarized hourly.

P[drive failure]: how reliable is your NAS?

An in-depth analysis of keeping personal data safe on a NAS by modeling drive failure and latent sector errors (LSEs). The author designs a four-drive NAS (two RAID1 groups) with local+remote copies, Btrfs/ZFS, SMART monitoring, and regular scrubbing. They model two failure modes—whole-disk failures (Poisson/AFR) and clustered LSEs—and derive P(one drive fails in t) and P[k drives share an LSE in t], then compute data-loss probability P_data_loss(N, T) over lifespan L. Numerical results: single drive ~0.08/year; 2 drives ~0.003 over 50 years; 3 drives ~8.7e-6; 4 drives ~3.5e-8. Conclusion: redundancy massively reduces risk; multi-drive setups with scrubbing are essential.

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The Prospects for 128 Bit Processors ( John Mashey SGI 1995)

Mashey distinguishes physical vs virtual addressing and projects how memory growth drives wider addresses. Physical addressing will likely require 36–40 bits as DRAM grows, with multi-memory systems demanding even more space; virtual memory pressure could exceed physical growth. Forecasts: if trends hold, 128-bit transitions could occur by about 2043 driven by physical address pressure; if file-with-holes and large-file mapping become dominant, pressure could push toward 2020. In practice, 32-bit is already limiting for some uses, but 64-bit CPUs should suffice for a long time; 1024-bit paths remain only with compelling use cases.

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The Cipher Behind QSYRUPWD: Reconstructing IBM i Password Hashes

Silent Signal discloses how QSYRUPWD, IBM i's API returning encrypted password data, can be reverse-engineered to recover offline password hashes. Through dynamic analysis of QPWDLVL 2–4 outputs, the author shows that QSYRUPWD's 32-byte structure embeds a DES-derived password, a SHA-1 digest, and an NT hash, arranged via a multi-stage CIPHER chain (MD5, AES-Rijndael-256, DES, SHA-1) across four CIPHER operations. By patching and tracing with SST, they reconstruct the data and demonstrate cracking NT hashes with John the Ripper. They conclude that privileged access (ALLOBJ, SECADM) can export crackable credential material; mitigations include restricting these authorities and redesigning QSYRUPWD.

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Linux desktop market share has hit over 10% in North America

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Don't credit the LLM

“Don't credit the LLM” argues against revealing AI tool usage. People cite LLMs for metrics or to claim authorship of tests and pitches, often to share credit or excuse sloppiness. The author says crediting a tool dilutes personal accountability: a tool can only be held responsible for what it can. If you create something valuable, take full credit; if it’s flawed, take full responsibility and improve. AI can help, but meaningful work predates and outlives AI, so accountability remains with the creator.

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Running Kimi K3 on MI355X at Better Performance per Dollar Than B300

Wafer benchmarks Kimi K3 (2.8T params) on AMD MI355X vs NVIDIA B200/B300. Kimi K3 won’t fit a single 8×192GB node, but MI355X delivers the best perf per dollar: ~952 tok/s per node (vs ~249 per node on B200), and ~118 tok/s decode per stream (vs 90 for B200 and 172 for B300). B300 has higher total throughput (~1568 tok/s) but ~2.4× the price. Across 1,024/400 tokens, MI355X ~48 tok/s/$ vs 7 (B200) and 33 (B300). ROCm fixes and prefill tweaks (pad heads 12→16) boosted performance 2–3×. AMD SOTA appears imminent; CUDA moat challenged.

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The Theater of Sport: Bill Buford Revisits Among the Thugs

Access to theparisreview.org is blocked by Cloudflare's security, requiring cookies. The page explains the site uses a protection service and that certain actions or data triggers the block. To resolve, email the site owner with what you were doing and include the Cloudflare Ray ID shown (a24a5383bc7a2847) and your IP address (192.155.84.206).

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Deep-sea vehicles spot 'alien' sharks deep beneath the waves in the Pacific

Could not summarize article.

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Atom is better than RSS, in ways that matter

Atom is technically superior to RSS and should replace it; RSS lacks encoding semantics for titles, causing interoperability problems; Atom's text construct supports three encodings for titles (text, html, xhtml); RSS uses HTML by default and allows inconsistent markup, leading to issues with characters like < and &. The piece notes the podcast ecosystem remains RSS-heavy, with Apple historically limiting Atom; mentions RFC 4287; author plans further surveys and testing.

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China begins producing advanced chipmaking deep-ultraviolet lithography machines

Could not summarize article.

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Show HN: CostPerPrompt – Live AI API pricing and real-workload cost calculators

CostPerPrompt offers live pricing for 232+ AI models with calculators that translate tokens into monthly costs for API, chatbot, agents, RAG, voice, image, and GPU rentals. Tools include a token counter, cost-cutting guides (prompt caching, batch API), and model-by-model pricing (input/output per 1M tokens). The page explains token-based billing (input vs output), discounts, and batch savings. Data is auto-refreshing (last updated 2026-08-02). Note: verify final prices on provider pages; some affiliate links may apply.

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When random.bytes() runs but doesn't work

An analysis of the Coldcard entropy bug shows a bad commit: a terse message ('runs') paired with edits that disabled the STM32 hardware RNG and attempted to override pyb_rng_get_obj, causing random.bytes(32) to use the weak Yasmarang RNG instead of hardware entropy. The Python layer calls into C, and a duplicate symbol issue was silenced rather than resolved. The author argues for clear, small commits, thorough understanding of cross-language code, and rigorous verification to prevent such security failures.

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Four Time Scales for Technology Development and Deployment

Brooks argues there are four time scales for technology development and deployment: (1) new ideas take 10–20+ years to mature into solid lab demonstrations; (2) hype cycles surge and fade as marketing outruns reality (AI, blockchain, metaverse as examples); (3) at-scale deployment requires decades for mass adoption and infrastructure; (4) reshaping the economy takes many decades, often a human lifetime. He cites neural nets, deep learning, LLMs, Unix/Linux, and self-driving cars to illustrate the pattern.

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Plug-in solar is coming. Plug-in batteries should follow

Regen argues standalone plug-in batteries should accompany plug-in solar to widen access for renters, flats and low-income households. A plug-in battery is a portable unit that plugs into a wall socket, avoiding professional installation. UK wiring rules currently block such devices, though plug-in solar rules have progressed. Regen’s analysis suggests a 3 kWh battery with a time-of-use tariff could repay in ~2.5 years and save up to £2,400 over 10 years, with broader system benefits. They urge the government to set a date for availability, fund safety research, and update wiring and safety standards (BS 7671).

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Futurism says Meta has "almost nothing" to show for AI. The numbers say

RuntimeWire counters Futurism’s claim that Meta has "almost nothing" to show for AI, arguing it ignores benchmarks, economics and massive distribution to 3.6 billion daily users. Muse Spark 1.1 scores near leading models on Artificial Analysis’s Intelligence Index; Muse Image shows strong capabilities, while Muse Video is in the pipeline. Meta’s billions of users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp enable broad deployment that rivals standalone AI firms. Q2 revenue rose; capital expenditures guidance sits at $130–$145B for the year. The piece says Futurism’s verdict is premature and a mood, not analysis.

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MkLinux and the pimped-out Apple Workgroup Server 9150

Rebuild of a 1994 Apple Workgroup Server 9150 to run MkLinux alongside Mac OS 8.6. The post blends Apple’s Unix/server history (A/UX, MkLinux, NetWare) with a hands-on refurbishment: recap of the 9150’s NuBus PowerPC 601, RAM, SCSI, PDS; a ZuluSCSI-based storage setup; partitioning MkLinux (A/UX root, swap, HFS exchange) and Mac OS; MkLinux R2 installation via a boot loader extension; first boot and dual-boot results; plus plans for hardware upgrades (G3, video) to improve both OSs.

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Show HN: I'm a 15 Year Old Wannabe Engineer, This Is a Cycloidal Gearbox I Built

Tom-Ilan's GitHub project documents a 3D-printed cycloidal gearbox and a Python script to generate it. It chronicles three versions: V1 a hand-cranked 1:9 gearbox to validate the generator; V2 a micro 1:9 design for a NEMA 17 that failed due to tight 3D-print tolerances; V3 a working, larger-footprint Version 3 for a NEMA 17. The Python equations govern the geometry; key parameters are N (outer pins), R (pitch radius), E (offset), and r (outer pin radius). Version 3 specs: 90 mm diameter, 1:9 ratio, PLA with M3 screws and 6704 bearings, tolerance offset +0.15 mm, torque ~1.28 N·m, efficiency ~66%.

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A Uiua Type System (2025)

Could not summarize article.

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Art Invented Humanity

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AI opens new era in cognitive studies of wild primates

Emory and Georgia Tech researchers developed CapuchinAI, a field-deployed AI system using facial recognition and real-time touchscreen tests to study cognition in wild capuchins. The Raspberry Pi-based platform, housed in a weatherproof box with a camera, touchscreen, and banana dispenser, identifies individuals (97% accuracy) and presents tailored tasks with automatic rewards. In a Costa Rica pilot with 16 monkeys, some learned quickly while others were slower; the system shifts tests between individuals, caps rewards to prevent monopolizing, and tracks learning, memory, impulse control, and cognitive flexibility. The open-source design aims to scale wild primate cognition research.

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