Hacker News Reader

nathandalyon Show HN: 18 Words

Enjoyed this! I would love to be able to go back and review the words after completing the puzzle. I got one with exactly 1 second left, and wanted to tell my partner, but I can't remember which word it was now.

nathandalyon Show HN: The current sky at your approximate location, as a CSS gradient

I just did some googling and found at least one app to do exactly this on Android. This is now my phone background!!

(I used this, but it does leave a small "please purchase" banner at the top, until you pay: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nuko.livew...)

nathandalyon Evo, the DNA-trained AI that creates genomes from scratch

Very interesting to see the way other strings of tokens are being applied to the ideas for LLMs. DNA is a great candidate for that

nathandalyon Full scan of 1 cubic mm of brain tissue took 1.4 PB – Google's AI experts assist

Of course you don't need to store all the raw data though. Processing it and then throwing it away would allow you to churn through much larger parts of the breath this way without the absurd costs they calculate in this article.

nathandalyon Show HN: I'm open-sourcing my game engine

I should have started out by saying this looks really neat, which is why I downloaded it to try out on my phone! :) thanks for sharing! Sorry my only comment was a criticism/question.

Looking forward to trying it out on the computer instead!

nathandalyon Show HN: I'm open-sourcing my game engine

The android app sign up page seems to want me to enter my Google username and password _inside the app,_ in what looks like a web form, but as a user I have no way to tell if the app is snooping on my password.

It seems like Apps usually navigate away to a sign in, and then navigate back. Is that pattern hard to implement? Is the issue about cross platform support? Thanks

nathandalyon CRISPR silkworms make spider silk that defies constraints

Original article in Cell: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37623326

nathandalyon Young environmental activists prevail first-of-its-kind climate trial in Montana

More coverage: - https://www.npr.org/2023/08/14/1193780700/montana-climate-ch... - https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/1... - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/5-takeaways-from-...

nathandalyon A number system invented by Inuit schoolchildren

These are so neat. It seems like they would make arithmetic much easier!

If you ever played Riven, I think the Kaktovik numerals inspired the numbering system from the game.

Spoilers: https://lparchive.org/Riven/Update%2015/

nathandalyon Meta's Velox: An open source unified execution engine

Previous paper, from 2022: https://research.facebook.com/publications/velox-metas-unifi...

nathandalyon Ask HN: How to become good at Emacs/Vim?

I found this game very helpful for solidifying my vim skills, and I would highly recommend it! https://vim-adventures.com/

It helped me to be a better vimmer, and it was fun too!

nathandalyon Move Aside Solar, We’re Installing an Algae Panel

Linked original video: https://youtu.be/64cEmjtwRgw

nathandalyon How to Read a Jellyfish's Mind

Wow, this was such a fantastically well written article! Really a pleasant surprise compared with much of the popsci writing I see. Very clear and compelling communication!

nathandalyon Space Launch Startup Just Used a Giant Centrifuge to Fling a Projectile into Th

Full title: Space Launch Start-Up Just Used A Giant Centrifuge To Fling A Projectile Into The Upper Atmosphere

nathandalyon Varda will send its first space factory to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

Yeah I dunno, I had the same question.

nathandalyon Varda will send its first space factory to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

> Varda’s goal is to unlock the benefits of microgravity -- which can only be found for sustained periods in space -- for manufacturing novel materials, like bio-printed organs or specialized semiconductors. The startup’s bet is that the potential market for such materials is high enough to make the effort worth it.

nathandalyon Solving One Problem with 16 Programming Languages, on YouTube

The YouTube video linked from the article: https://youtu.be/UVUjnzpQKUo

nathandalyon Mirrors could replace A/C, and cool earth, by beaming heat into space (2014)

Whoops, thanks. Resubmitted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28590014

I was having trouble with AMP and HN. :/

nathandalyon Mirrors could replace A/C, and cool earth, by beaming heat into space (2014)

I'm posting this article from 2014 as a follow up to this very related discussion from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28579840#28583634

nathandalyon Scientists create whitest paint. Could eliminate need for A/C, combat warming

Hrmm this article here makes it sound like you can also do this with a mirror, but it implies that not any mirror would suffice, and that they had to design a special mirror surface to get one that also radiates heat at a wavelength that will let it escape the atmosphere:

http://theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/26/mirrors-air-condi...

> The first layer is reflective silver. On top of this are alternating layers of silicon dioxide and hafnium oxide. These layers improve the reflectivity, but also turn the mirror into a thermal radiator. When silicon dioxide heats up, it radiates the heat as infrared light at a wavelength of around 10 micrometres. Since there is very little in the atmosphere that absorbs at that wavelength, the heat passes straight out to space. The total thickness of the mirror is around two micrometres, or two thousandths of a millimetre.

> Fan puts the installed cost of mirrors at between $20 and $70 per square metre and calculates an annual electricity saving of 100MWh per year on a three storey building

HN discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28583676

nathandalyon Scientists create whitest paint. Could eliminate need for A/C, combat warming

Do mirrors ambiently cool the surface they're attached to in the same way as is described in the article? I wondered the same thing when reading it.

nathandalyon Scientists create whitest paint. Could eliminate need for A/C, combat warming

Ambiently cools by emitting more heat than it absorbs -- pretty nifty!

nathandalyon A Decade of Wind, Solar, & Nuclear in China Shows Clear Scalability Winners

Here's the r/Futorology discussion, which has some interesting comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/pik8s6/a_decade...

nathandalyon It’s time to cut the cord on electric vehicles

Subtitle: > EVs can truly bring about a transportation revolution—but not if we charge them like gas-powered cars

nathandalyon The Battery That Will Finally Unlock Massless Energy Storage

For another perspective on structural batteries

nathandalyon World-first home hydrogen battery stores 3x the energy of a Powerwall 2

It does say that there's a (hydrogen) fuel cell in it to convert the hydrogen back into energy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell?wprov=sfla1

They also say that it has pretty low efficiency, around maybe 50%.

nathandalyon Boston Dynamics robots take over the dance floor in latest video

At least the robots are having a nice time!

nathandalyon Carmakers want to ditch battery packs, use auto bodies for energy storage

This article was more interesting than it's title made it sound, IMO

nathandalyon Internal Google document reveals campaign against EU lawmakers

Behind a Paywall, unfortunately

nathandalyon Biological batteries generate renewable energy from the ground

I just looked up the company's crunchbase page: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/bioo