Hacker News

Top stories

Live mirror
30 storiesupdated just nowView source snapshot
  1. Nvidia announces native GPU programming in Rust(nvidia.com ↗)
    122comments
  2. Training a 4B model to produce 81% faster query plans than Postgres(rohanbansal.com ↗)
    84comments
  3. Xiaomi Mimo 2.6 live post-training dashboard(xiaomi.com ↗)
    66comments
  4. Breaking the 1.58-bit Barrier for Ternary LLMs(arxiv.org ↗)
    19comments
  5. Backups Aren't Simple(filipovski.net ↗)
    41comments
  6. Small programming tricks(will-keleher.com ↗)
    185comments
  7. The engineering behind the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve(johnjwang.com ↗)
    37comments
  8. Developing provably correct Rust code with Verus(amazon.science ↗)
    1comments
  9. OpenSpec – A lightweight and configurable AI spec framework(openspec.dev ↗)
    26comments
  10. Performance Improvements in .NET 11(devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet ↗)
    34comments
  11. Reversing Factorio's RNG(gegell.github.io ↗)
    19comments
  12. HarnessTax: How Much Does the Harness Matter for Coding Agents?(harnesstax.github.io ↗)
    13comments
  13. The Return of Sail Power: Cargo Ships Are Turning Back to the Wind(gcaptain.com ↗)
    3comments
  14. Australia says it could follow Canada in forging deeper ties with EU(independent.co.uk ↗)
    95comments
  15. Japan's book scene is moving from bookstores to libraries(untranslatedjp.substack.com ↗)
    46comments
  16. Reverse-engineered Jev-like model(github.com/vinnylarouge ↗)
    12comments
  17. OpenAI Discloses Six New Incidents of ‘Concerning’ A.I. Behavior(nytimes.com ↗)
    29comments
  18. AWS says it can't restore some data from mideast facilities struck by Iran(wsj.com ↗)
    219comments
  19. Show HN: An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations(github.com/arnegiacomo ↗)
    240comments
  20. Anecdotally, programmers dislike "reduce"(evanhahn.com ↗)
    164comments
  21. Why Does the Universe Expand?(cosmicave.org ↗)
    22comments
  22. Anatomy of a Texture(agentlien.github.io ↗)
    14comments
  23. Dream-RSI: Recursive Self-Improvement through Evolving Worlds(arxiv.org ↗)
    49comments
  24. Accurate Models of AMD Matrix Cores(arxiv.org ↗)
    7comments
  25. The DeepMind Institute(deepmind.com ↗)
    45comments
  26. I replaced my brown-noise browser tab with a menu bar app(oldmanrahul.com ↗)
    9comments
  27. Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera(wired.com ↗)
    218comments
  28. Training Text-to-Image Models 3.6× Faster(linum.ai ↗)
    8comments
  29. Tell the speakers that you liked their talks(ohhelloana.blog ↗)
    75comments
  30. WalShadow: Sub-second Postgres replication to ClickHouse from physical WAL(clickhouse.com ↗)
    5comments

The Return of Sail Power: Cargo Ships Are Turning Back to the Wind

17 pointsby 1h agogcaptain.com
3 comments
22m agoHN ↗

Growing up as I did in an old seafaring town, quite near Ahab's ports of call, I love the romance of the sea and I listen exclusively to sea chanties.

For low-value and bulk cargo, ships make sense, and modern computer-controlled sail trim and wind energy harvesting probably makes a great case. But high value cargo is largely today shipped by air. Nvidia wants money for its chips ASAP, too valuable to sit around non productively while being steamered. Maybe with surplus wind energy they could mine bitcoin while en route?

A sort of related topic, about 20 years ago during peak farm-to-table "buy local" fashion, the NY Times pointed out that lamb shipped from New Zealand (where is that on a map, I can't find it?) to New York City arrives with a lower carbon footprint than lamb delivered by trucks from nearby upstate NY farms, such are the economies of scale in shipping.

But now, blow me down me hearties, I look forward to dining on New Zealand lamb carried to my door by the winds of fortune!

14m agoHN ↗

If anyone else was confused why those pictures were of giant tubes and not canvas sails, you are not alone. Apparently those are some version of "Suction Sails". The vendor's website has a graphic that explains it, though it was fighting my ability to scroll.

https://bound4blue.com/esail/