Smol machines – subsecond coldstart, portable virtual machines

In plain words

Smol machines is a virtual machine tool designed for developers who need fast startup times and portability. It delivers subsecond coldstart performance, making it useful for rapid testing, development workflows, and scenarios where quick VM initialization matters. The project is open source and available on GitHub, targeting technical users who prioritize speed and lightweight virtualization without the overhead of traditional virtual machines.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

• TL
  The load-bearing vocabulary of Claude▲703

  Life & fun · 9d ago · louisabraham.github.io

• 
  iPhone app takes simultaneous images from 2 lenses, fuses into 1 photo▲329

  Photosynthesis fires two of your iPhone

  Life & fun · 28d ago · photosynthesis.camera

• 
  SoloUno▲310

  Take control of hair pulling, nail biting & skin picking

  Life & fun · 28d ago · solouno.io

• 
  Scroll through all 43252003274489856000 Rubik's Cube states▲295

  Scroll through all 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 reachable Rubik's Cube permutations.

  Life & fun · 26d ago · everycube.alen.is

• 
  Expeditione▲265

  The Interactive 3D Encyclopedia

  Life & fun · 21d ago · expeditione.fun

• 
  Eigendrum - Draw any shape and hear what it sounds like as a drum▲243

  Hi HN, I built Eigendrum, a web tool that solves the 2D wave equation for arbitrary shapes so you can hear what they sound like as drums. How it works: * Solves -∇²u = λu using finite element analysis (Kφ = λMφ) on a triangle mesh. * Validated to <0.1% error against closed-form solutions for circles (Bessel zeros) and rectangles. * Sound model factors in strike location, Rayleigh damping, and mallet width. * Includes Kac drums I & II to demonstrate identical sound spectra from different geometries. * No frameworks, build steps, or dependencies. Repo and tests:…

  Life & fun · 26d ago · baselashraf81.github.io

• 
  Brila▲1,367

  One-page websites from real Google Maps reviews

  AI · Apr 2026 · brila.ai

• AG
  A game where you build a GPU▲964

  Thought the resources for GPU arch were lacking, so here we are

  Life & fun · Apr 2026 · jaso1024.com

• IB
  I built a tiny LLM to demystify how language models work▲915

  Built a ~9M param LLM from scratch to understand how they actually work. Vanilla transformer, 60K synthetic conversations, ~130 lines of PyTorch. Trains in 5 min on a free Colab T4. The fish thinks the meaning of life is food. Fork it and swap the personality for your own character.

  AI · Apr 2026 · github.com

• 
  Fathom 3.0▲803

  AI meeting notes: now bot-free, in ChatGPT & Claude + more

  AI · Apr 2026 · fathom.ai

• BC
  Brutalist Concrete Laptop Stand (2024)▲786

  Life & fun · Apr 2026 · sam-burns.com

• IB
  I built a frontpage for personal blogs▲783

  With social media and now AI, its important to keep the indie web alive. There are many people who write frequently. Blogosphere tries to highlight them by fetching the recent posts from personal blogs across many categories. There are two versions: Minimal (HN-inspired, fast, static): https:&#x2F;&#x2F;text.blogosphere.app&#x2F; Non-minimal: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogosphere.app&#x2F; If you don't find your blog (or your favorite ones), please add them. I will review and approve it.

  AI · Apr 2026 · text.blogosphere.app