Quantum crypto demo debunked & Google’s conditional Anthropic investment - Hacker News (Apr 25, 2026)

Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - SurveyMonkey, Using AI to surface insights faster and reduce manual analysis time - https://get.surveymonkey.com/tad - Lindy is your ultimate AI assistant that proactively manages your inbox - https://try.lindy.ai/tad - KrispCall: Agentic Cloud Telephony - https://try.krispcall.com/tad Support The Automated Daily directly: Buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/theautomateddaily Today's topics: Quantum crypto demo debunked - A GitHub patch shows a quantum ECDLP “key recovery” demo still works when quantum output is replaced with /dev/urandom, highlighting how classical verification plus enough shots can mimic progress. Google’s conditional Anthropic investment - Google is reportedly committing $10B now, with up to $40B total tied to performance targets, underscoring milestone-based AI funding, compute access, and the soaring cost of frontier models. FPS counters that tell truth - A game-dev write-up argues for a rolling time-window FPS metric, using frame timestamps to avoid noisy per-frame spikes and misleading moving averages—better observability for real-time performance. Plain-text diagram tools resurgence - ASCII-style mockups and plain-text diagrams are gaining traction because they’re durable, version-control friendly, and constraint-driven—useful for humans and increasingly legible to AI workflows. USB-C 10 GbE reality check - New Realtek RTL8159 USB-C 10 GbE adapters run cooler and smaller than many Thunderbolt dongles, but real-world throughput depends heavily on confusing USB port bandwidth and driver support. Humpback whale super-groups surge - Scientists saw unusually large humpback whale feeding aggregations off South Africa—hundreds of whales—signaling conservation recovery and shifting ocean conditions in the Benguela upwelling system. Francis Bacon and tech ideology - A 400th-anniversary essay revisits Francis Bacon’s legacy, linking “knowledge is power” to modern technocracy, scientism critiques, and today’s AI-era drive to instrumentalize culture. Paraloid B-72 in conservation - Paraloid B-72, an acrylic resin used by conservators, stands out for clarity and aging stability; its solvent-dependent handling shows why materials science matters in restoration and museums. - Realtek RTL8159 USB-C 10GbE adapters shrink size and heat but depend on 20Gbps USB ports - Google Plans Up to $40 Billion Investment in Anthropic, Tied to Performance Targets - Use a Rolling One-Second Window for Accurate FPS Counters - Clad.you Builds 3D Body Models from an Eight-Question Survey Using a Physics-Aware MLP - Nex CRM open-sources WUPHF, a Slack-like office for coordinating AI agents with shared memory - Essay Argues Francis Bacon’s Legacy Fueled Modern Technocracy—and Today’s AI Moment - Humpback Whale ‘Super-Groups’ Swell Off South Africa as Populations Rebound - Plain-Text Diagramming Tools Make a Modern Comeback - Paraloid B-72: A widely used acrylic resin adhesive in conservation and restoration - Patch Shows Alleged Quantum ECDLP Key Recovery Works With /dev/urandom Instead of IBM QPU Episode Transcript Quantum crypto demo debunked First up, a reality check on a quantum-themed claim making the rounds. A GitHub document describes a patch to a quantum ECDLP key-recovery demo that replaces the IBM Quantum backend with random bytes from /dev/urandom. And here’s the kicker: the rest of the pipeline still “recovers” the same small challenge keys, and even succeeds on the headline larger challenge at a similar rate. The critique argues the demo is effectively generating random candidate keys and then using a classical check to accept a winner when enough attempts are made. Why it matters: it’s a reminder that verification can create the illusion of signal, and that we need rigorous baselines—especially when “quantum advantage” is the headline. Google’s conditional Anthropic investment Staying in the world of high-stakes computation, Google is reportedly planning to invest up to forty billion dollars in Anthropic, with ten billion committed immediately and the rest conditional on performance targets. Alongside the money, there’s also support for expanding compute capacity—still the chokepoint for training and serving top-tier AI models. The interesting angle here isn’t just the size; it’s the structure. Big tech is increasingly buying optionality: pay now for access, then pay more only if milestones are hit. Why it matters: it reshapes the competitive landscape into one where capital, chips, and contracts matter as much as research talent—and it signals that AI’s price tag keeps climbing. FPS counters that tell truth Now for a developer-facing piece that’s deceptively practical: how to build an FPS counter that doesn’t lie to you. The post argues that common approaches either jitter wildly or create distorted history because the averaging window effectively changes as performance changes. The recommended fix is to treat frames as events and compute FPS over a fixed rolling time window, so the number stays responsive without becoming noise. Why it matters: good metrics drive good decisions. Whether you’re optimizing a game, a UI, or a real-time system, measurement that’s stable and interpretable saves time—and prevents you from chasing phantom regressions. Plain-text diagram tools resurgence In a related “tools that fit the brain” theme, there’s an essay noting the small resurgence of plain-text diagramming and UI mockup tools—think ASCII-style layouts that live right alongside code. The argument is that constraints are a feature, not a bug: fewer visual choices can mean faster communication, easier version control, and more durable artifacts. There’s also an AI-era twist: plain text is easy to paste, diff, search, and feed into models without losing structure. Why it matters: as software teams juggle more automation, the formats that stay simple and portable often win—especially when they reduce friction in collaboration. USB-C 10 GbE reality check Let’s switch to hardware—specifically, the ongoing headache of “do I actually have the right USB port?” New USB-C 10 GbE adapters based on Realtek’s RTL8159 are showing up as smaller and cooler alternatives to chunky, hot Thunderbolt 10 GbE dongles. Jeff Geerling tested one across Macs and PCs and found the big limiter isn’t the adapter so much as the host port: near-full 10 GbE speeds showed up only on a machine with a fast enough USB 3.2 configuration, while many systems topped out well below that. Macs were largely plug-and-play, Windows needed a driver, and thermals looked notably improved. Why it matters: these adapters can be great—if your laptop’s port can actually feed them. The messy USB labeling problem is still very real for buyers. Humpback whale super-groups surge On the science and environment side, photographers off South Africa’s west coast documented unusually large “super-groups” of humpback whales—hundreds of animals packed together over just two days. Researchers link these gatherings to seasonal upwelling in the Benguela system, which concentrates food near the surface and triggers intense feeding behavior. The surge in sightings may also reflect a broader recovery since the global whaling moratorium, with lots of young whales showing up in identification data. Why it matters: it’s a conservation success story, but also a signal that ecosystems are changing. Recovery doesn’t mean risk-free—ship strikes, entanglement, noise, and warming waters still shape what comes next. Francis Bacon and tech ideology For something more reflective, an essay marking the four-hundredth anniversary of Francis Bacon’s death argues that Bacon didn’t just help inspire modern science—he also helped cement an ideology where knowledge becomes power and nature becomes something to dominate. The author threads this through a historical parable involving wealth, technological faith, and the Titanic, and then jumps forward to modern critiques of “only measurable things matter.” It even frames today’s AI moment as a continuation of that drive to turn culture and knowledge into instrument and leverage. Why it matters: these aren’t abstract debates anymore. How we talk about progress shapes what we build, what we fund, and what we ignore. Paraloid B-72 in conservation And finally, a surprising materials-science detour into museums and restoration: Paraloid B-72, an acrylic resin that’s become a staple for conservators. It’s valued for staying clear, resisting yellowing, and offering a balance of strength and flexibility—useful for ceramics, glass, fossils, and even labeling objects. The practical catch is that how it behaves depends heavily on solvents and handling, which turns “just glue it” into careful craft. Why it matters: preservation is engineering too. The long tail of technology isn’t only new inventions—it’s the quiet chemistry that keeps artifacts, specimens, and cultural memory intact. 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