I linked to a blog post about Collatz-like problems <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41609578">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41609578</a><p>But before that and after I tried to link to another by the same author, which I thought is even more interesting, but for some reason didn't get any attention :(<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41637592">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41637592</a><p>It's about the "first"/"smallest" program (in terms of the number of turing machine states needed to describe it - 6), that humanity doesn't know how to solve.<p>A codegolfed Python program with its behavior (by mxdys):<p><pre><code> a,b=8,3
while b:a+=a>>1;b+=2-a%2*3
</code></pre>
Does this halt or not?<p>Knowing this will be necessary to prove the value of the 6th busy beaver number (the 5th has been recently proven).
I'll start.<p>According to Hacker News, my top 2 submissions are :<p>- The Messaging Layer Security (MLS) Protocol (ietf.org) :
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36863915">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36863915</a><p>- Attacker with access to XML config can trigger
keepass.exe
to obtain passwords (mitre.org)
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34545010">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34545010</a><p>According to myself :<p>- Fast food makes the immune system more aggressive in the
long term (uni-bonn.de)
no comments, 2 points.<p>- Attacks on genetic privacy via uploads to
genealogical databases (elifesciences.org)
no comments, 2 points.
I liked Thomas Hawk's story -Collecting vernacular photography[1]<p>The top according to HN is when I asked about how to program without a build system [2]<p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33008376">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33008376</a><p>[2] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33574154">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33574154</a>
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17831272">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17831272</a><p>I’d say pretty accurate, especially if we take a long term view approach vs what I may think is the most important right now.
No spectacular successes here, but...<p>I got 16 points for this political drivel:<p>- The White House and Twitter Censorship <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32451727">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32451727</a><p>and mere 5 points for a Show HN of my side-project that I'd thought would have been of interest to many people here:<p>- Show HN: Find book authors with a specific background, e.g. sci-fi by physicists
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41680056">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41680056</a>