Hacker News: num42

New comment by num42 in "Deezer says 44% of songs uploaded to its platform daily are AI-generated"

num42 — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 07:17:45 +0000

These days YouTube has so much AI generated music, very hard to differentiate from originals. For examples look at these YT channels uploading AI generated music:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Xw8Jrwf009nHTV165UuQw

https://www.youtube.com/@ForeverDisco80s/videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQn7ZUixKXg&list=RDMQn7ZUixK...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUph_6i5Pr0&list=RDWUph_6i5P...

so on..I think uncountable amount of AI gen stuff is uploaded to YT everyday

New comment by num42 in "Ask HN: What skills are future proof in an AI driven job market?"

num42 — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 06:10:07 +0000

Metrology, mechanical and materials science engineering, manufacturing and tool engineering, precision engineering, and electrical and electronics engineering, combined with being a generalist and having one specialization in physical or hardware engineering along with computation.

As people often say, matter, energy, and information are the fundamentals of everything. I think we need mathematics, analytic philosophy, the arts and humanities, and physics too. Sorry we need every skill. /s

New comment by num42 in "I learned Unity the wrong way"

num42 — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 03:25:02 +0000

The most enlightening part of learning is finding our own unknown unknowns.

For me it is different, making a best piano in the world is different from composing like Beethoven. Well what I am saying, learning unity is doable but what you do with it is most important. Back then I used to think learning photoshop, paint tools makes me artist, but I have realised being artist is actually faraway being from tool operator.

The Match Act Is the Missing Piece in America's AI Export Control Strategy

num42 — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 03:34:39 +0000

Article URL: https://www.thefai.org/posts/the-match-act-is-the-missing-piece-in-america-s-ai-export-control-strategy

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47821604

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Bipartisan Bill to Tighten Controls on Sensitive Chipmaking Equipment

num42 — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 03:33:49 +0000

Article URL: https://baumgartner.house.gov/2026/04/02/baumgartner-introduces-bipartisan-bill-to-tighten-controls-on-sensitive-chipmaking-equipment/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47821603

Points: 27

# Comments: 16

The "SpaceX Mafia": Fostering Innovation Across Industries(2023)

num42 — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 05:24:19 +0000

Article URL: https://www.spacetalent.org/resources/spacex-mafia-fostering-innovation

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47802677

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Is it possible to live without killing?(2024)

num42 — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 04:14:11 +0000

Article URL: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/254210/is-it-possible-to-live-without-killing

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47727329

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Letting go of climate guilt in 5 easy steps [pdf]

num42 — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:15:58 +0000

Article URL: https://hsph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/21.08-Letting-go-of-climate-guilt-in-5-easy-steps.pdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47699540

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Ebenezer Everett

num42 — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 04:33:19 +0000

Article URL: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Ebenezer_Everett

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47513274

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

The Film Experience (2013)

num42 — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:52:45 +0000

Article URL: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/21l-011-the-film-experience-fall-2013/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47423602

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by num42 in "Electric motor scaling laws and inertia in robot actuators"

num42 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 07:23:15 +0000

Sorry for going off topic. "Electric Motor Scaling Laws and Inertia in Robot Actuators" by Ben Katz who designed the MIT Mini Cheetah in 2018 is very well known in the legged robotics community. His master’s thesis on actuator design is also widely referenced.

During the COVID period, some Chinese companies even sold variants of actuators inspired by the Mini Cheetah design.

Aaed Musa has also mentioned in some of his videos that his actuator designs were inspired by the Mini Cheetah actuator. Yes, His capstan drive video is especially impressive.

For example, in Aaed Musa’s video "I Built a Rubik's Cube Solving Robot" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0bMMALYMYk), he states in the description that the design was inspired by Ben Katz’s work.

Ben Katz master thesis, is worth reading: "A low cost modular actuator for dynamic robots" 2018 https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/118671 and also has a good post https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2019-12-16-the-mini-cheetah-...

And also, The Rubik's Contraption (2018), 297 points, the work done by same author https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16561049

New comment by num42 in "Programming Is Free"

num42 — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 05:18:51 +0000

Adding to the original post, yes, a lot of things are free now. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of resources available on the internet. At the same time, many topics turn into deep rabbit holes if you look closely enough.

For example, I never realized how much there is to learn about something as simple as a bolt. To me, it was just a cylinder with helical grooves. Then I watched the video “Life of Bolts” on YouTube and was amazed by the number of steps and processes required to manufacture a high-precision, high-performance bolt for a Formula 1 car. Another eye-opening moment was watching “Origin of Precision.” It completely changed the way I look at everyday objects.

Once I started digging deeper into bolts, I discovered how many fields are connected to making them: materials science, process engineering, manufacturing engineering, metrology, precision engineering, and more. I have even come across PhD theses focused on bolts, O-rings, and seals. One time I found a technical paper on O-ring modeling from NASA’s technical server, and it was full of complex partial differential equations. It honestly surprised me how much knowledge and effort go into designing and producing things that seem so simple.

It makes me realize that the biggest bottleneck in learning anything deeply is mathematics. At the same time, you also need some philosophical grounding to ask the right questions, along with the willingness to learn and apply knowledge in the real world.

What happened to the technical drawings of old and obsolete vehicles, machines?

num42 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 05:15:20 +0000

Article URL: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/1af8muv/what_happened_to_the_blueprintstechnical_drawings/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46791347

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

Building pawns that transform into every piece [video]

num42 — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 04:49:05 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lISr1OjhjQ

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46675160

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Fitdrop: Personal exploration of fashion from 1980 to 2025

num42 — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 11:28:47 +0000

Article URL: https://fitdrop.cc/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46657194

Points: 18

# Comments: 4

Lot of Mechanical Engineering Comes Down to 5 Ideas [video]

num42 — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 02:41:57 +0000

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2lY9IbDSbM

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484270

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by num42 in "Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design (2011) [pdf]"

num42 — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 12:24:28 +0000

TL;DR:

Minimize negative(painful) notions as much as possible, ideally approaching zero, while maximizing positive (pleasurable) notions.

Minimize negative(painful) notions: Uncertainty, Risk, Chaotic behavior, Randomness, Non-deterministic, Instability, Cost, Energy losses, Time consumption, Resource usage, Excessive complexity, Failure modes, Noise

Maximize positive(Pleasure) notions: Reliability, Efficiency, Deterministic, Predictability, Precision, Accuracy, Verification, Validation, Safety, Stability, Simplicity (lower complexity), Robustness, Redundancy

New comment by num42 in "1 html search engine"

num42 — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 08:10:48 +0000

I search for nano positioning stages. I didn't get much on that. BTW, great work. Keep it up. UI looks so good.

New comment by num42 in "Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help"

num42 — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 14:34:13 +0000

Off-topic and a stupid question: why does anything related to Apple attract so much attention on HN? As a newcomer, I assumed HN focused mostly on reverse engineering,retro computing, and deep technical topics.