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.

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.

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.

A quick look at zero-knowledge proofs

The user is exploring zero-knowledge proofs, specifically the 3-coloring problem in graph theory, and implementing a Python code to demonstrate how it works. They discuss its potential applications beyond cryptography.

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.

Models Are Getting Dumber on Purpose

Large language models are getting smarter per parameter, but this comes at the cost of factual knowledge, which is often outdated and prone to hallucination. By decoupling reasoning from knowledge, frontier models can provide high-quality answers without relying on stale facts.

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.

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.

Dancing with friends and enemies: boids' swarm intelligence

https://community.wolfram.com/c/portal/getImageAttachment?filename=OPTfnlfrnds.gif&userId=11733
The latest way I have found to use my expensive math software for frivolous entertainment is this. Here's is a way to describe it. Randomness is deliberately injected. Here is the dance... n = 1000; r := RandomInteger[{1, n}]; f := (#/(.01 + Sqrt[#.#])) & /@ (x[[#]] - x) &; s := With[{r1 = r}, p[[r1]] = r; q[[r1]] = r]; x = RandomReal[{-1, 1}, {n, 2}]; {p, q} = RandomInteger[{1, ...

Nvidia dramatically reduces amount of OpenAI infra financing it may guarantee

Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker

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.

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

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our and .

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

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.

The Case Against Formal Verification, 50 Years Later

https://ivan-gavran.github.io/assets/images/robotReadingEverythingBright.png
Engineers are excited about software verification due to AI coding, making it faster and easier. Classic papers argue against formal verification, but recent developments invalidate their points.

Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker

A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.

Anthropic's 'Watermark' Text Adulteration in Claude Is a Perversion of Writing

https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/08/tropical-fruit-airplane.jpeg
Anthropic is implementing a watermarking system on its Claude models to comply with the EU's Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content, which requires marking AI-generated text. The system uses semantic watermarking techniques that subtly influence word choices at inference time.

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.

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.

Webmaster a Manifesto for Everyone

https://brennan.day/assets/images/blog/webmaster.jpg
A week ago, when I was working on my project for HTML Day 2026 I stumbled upon this passage from an essay on blink and marquee tags: At the time, there was a new breed of web professionals proudly labeled “webmasters.” Part designer, part developer and part evangelist, webmasters held enough esoteric knowledge about the web to manage, edit and create websites, both large and small. — Jay ...

NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

Asus Bike Booster

https://dlcdnwebimgs.asus.com/gain/36fca81d-66d4-4a3a-9fa3-05976be35494/w800
Follow the user manual for safe and proper use of the ASUS Oxiis E250G1. Failure to comply with instructions may result in damage to the product or others, and voids warranty.

Tasklet (YC P26) Is Hiring a Head of Design Engineering

https://tasklet.ai/og-image.png
Tasklet is hiring a Head of Design Engineering to create a simple, intuitive, and beautiful AI platform for businesses. The ideal candidate will be an exceptional product thinker, designer, and frontend engineer who can own the design process end-to-end.

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.

Before Rightmove, there was the Cosmorama

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/Cosmorama-room.jpg
Researchers found that a London estate agency used an early form of virtual property tour, called cosmorama, in the 1840s and 1850s to promote luxury homes. This technique allowed customers to view specially commissioned images through convex lenses, creating an immersive experience decades before digital technology.

A SAT Attack on Tarski's High School Algebra Problem

https://arxiv.org/static/browse/0.3.4/images/arxiv-logo-fb.png
A countermodel to Tarski's identity exists with 11 elements, but no smaller models satisfy it. The smallest possible countermodels are of size 12, and there are exactly 8,957,952 such models up to isomorphism.

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.

2,085 Tests, and None of Them Opens the Front Door

https://xaht2157.cloudimg.io/https://brandanthonymcdonald.com/api/og?title=2%2C085%20Tests%2C%20and%20None%20of%20Them%20Opens%20the%20Front%20Door&category=Software%20Development?w=1200&h=630&func=crop&sharp=1.95
I read all 22 repositories in my ecosystem and counted every test I had written. Then I counted how many of them could fail a deploy. The second number is the post. Here is what my tests are genuinely good at, the tier that is missing, and where a browser cannot help.

Asynchronous I/O in DuckDB: Work, Thread, Work

https://duckdb.org/images/blog/authors/pedro_holanda.jpg
DuckDB version 2.0 will support asynchronous reads of Parquet and CSV files, significantly speeding up queries when synchronous I/O saturates the available bandwidth. This change is particularly beneficial for remote data access, such as in data lakes like DuckLake.