HN Top 10 — May 18, 2026
Today’s Top 10 on Hacker News
1. The foundations of a provably secure operating system (PSOS) (1979) [pdf]
⭐ 30 💬 10 👤 rurban 🔗 Discuss on HN
Number of Pages: 9 The foundations of a provably secure operating system (PSOS) By Richard J. Neumann SRI International Menlo Park, California Proceedings of the National Computer Conference AFIPS Press, 1979, pages 329-334. INTRODUCTION PSOS has been designed according to a set of formal techniques embodying the SRI Hierarchical Development Methodology (HDM).
2. Where Are the Vibecoded Photoshops?
⭐ 86 💬 52 👤 gizmo64k 🔗 Discuss on HN
If vibecoding is what people say it is, the world should be drowning in vibecoded artifacts right now. Millions of people with the tools. The barrier supposedly fell, right?.
3. GenCAD
⭐ 338 💬 86 👤 dagenix 🔗 Discuss on HN
Abstract We present GenCAD, an image-conditional CAD generation model. Our model not only generates the 3D CAD but also the entire parameterized CAD command history, CAD program, as output. The complexity of CAD data structures such as boundary representation (B-rep) makes it difficult to train efficient AI models.
4. Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches
⭐ 58 💬 27 👤 wrxd 🔗 Discuss on HN
NBC News reports that multiple commencement speakers across several universities were booed by graduates for their comments about artificial intelligence during graduation ceremonies, reflecting growing student skepticism toward optimistic AI narratives from speakers at 2026 graduations.
5. Crystals found inside wreckage from the first nuclear bomb test
⭐ 89 💬 32 👤 jumploops 🔗 Discuss on HN
Underwood Archives/Contributor/Getty Images Nearly 81 years ago, the first nuclear bomb exploded. The Trinity test, conducted as part of the Manhattan Project in the New Mexico desert, detonated a plutonium bomb that released the energy of 25 kilotons of TNT. When the mushroom cloud faded, a weird, glasslike form of matter was left behind from the melted sand combined with vaporized sensor wires.
6. It is time to give up the dualism introduced by the debate on consciousness
⭐ 102 💬 259 👤 ahalbert4 🔗 Discuss on HN
Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist known for his work on quantum gravity, the foundation of quantum mechanics and the nature of space and time. A fierce debate is raging around the slippery notion of consciousness. It retraces a trotted pattern of cultural resistance: We humans are often scared by anything that may disturb our image of ourselves.
7. I turned a $80 RK3562 Android tablet into a Debian Linux workstation
⭐ 377 💬 174 👤 tech4bot 🔗 Discuss on HN
rkdebian is a build system that produces a complete, bootable Debian 12 Bookworm image for the $80 Doogee U10 Android tablet (RK3562 chip). No bootloader unlock required — boots from SD card, remove it to return to stock Android. Reverse engineered from scratch with no vendor BSP or official support, built with help from Claude, Codex, and Google Gemini, using Firefly RK3562 open-source repos as a starting point.
8. Ask an Astronaut: 333 hours of Q&A footage with astronauts
⭐ 155 💬 12 👤 gaws 🔗 Discuss on HN
Presented by ISS In Real Time, this project collects 333 hours of Q&A footage featuring astronauts answering questions from the public. The archive covers a wide range of topics including daily life in space, experiments aboard the ISS, spacewalk procedures, and perspectives on life from orbit — making it one of the most comprehensive astronaut interview collections available.
9. Jank now has its own custom IR
⭐ 152 💬 27 👤 DASD 🔗 Discuss on HN
jank has a new custom intermediate representation (IR) and we’re using it to optimize jank to compete with the JVM. We’ll dive into more of that today, but first I want to say thank you to my Github sponsors and to Clojurists Together for sponsoring me this whole year. You all are helping a great deal.
10. kharp – k version 3 Language Interpreter in C#
⭐ 32 💬 4 👤 tosh 🔗 Discuss on HN
A comprehensive implementation of K version 3, a vector programming language from the APL family, written entirely in C#. Features include full K3 language semantics, IPC support, MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration, and serialization research. Licensed under MIT with Commons Clause — free for use and modification but not for resale. Actively developed with 646 commits.