Technical reports

Technical reports that Hacker News readers keep rediscovering.

Hall of Fame: 9
Candidates: 24
Topics: 12
Median span: 7.4 yrs

Topics in Technical reports

12 topics

Software engineering 12 links 5 Hall · 7 Candidates Hardware & electronics 5 links 1 Hall · 4 Candidates Computer science 3 links 0 Hall · 3 Candidates Culture & media 2 links 0 Hall · 2 Candidates Economics & business 2 links 1 Hall · 1 Candidates Mathematics & science 2 links 1 Hall · 1 Candidates Security & privacy 2 links 0 Hall · 2 Candidates AI & data 1 link 0 Hall · 1 Candidates Computer games 1 link 0 Hall · 1 Candidates Society & policy 1 link 0 Hall · 1 Candidates Web & internet 1 link 0 Hall · 1 Candidates Work & careers 1 link 1 Hall · 0 Candidates

Strongest Hall records

9 items

Big Ball of Mud (1999)

www.laputan.org Research & data 21 submissions · 20 people · 18.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-07 Resurfaced 2024-07-10

162max pts

SQLite small blob storage: 35% Faster Than the Filesystem

www.sqlite.org Research & data 8 submissions · 8 people · 7.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-01 Resurfaced 2024-10-26

612max pts

Xerox scanners and photocopiers randomly alter numbers in scanned documents

www.dkriesel.com Research & data 14 submissions · 14 people · 12.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-11 Resurfaced 2021-11-15

570max pts

DIB Guide: Detecting Agile BS (2018) [pdf]

media.defense.gov Research & data 10 submissions · 10 people · 5.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-07 Resurfaced 2024-07-25

396max pts

Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]

www.bankofengland.co.uk Research & data 9 submissions · 9 people · 6.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-09 Resurfaced 2021-09-09

227max pts

SQLite as an Application File Format (2014)

sqlite.org Research & data 5 submissions · 5 people · 10.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-11 Resurfaced 2025-11-28

567max pts

Mystery signal from a helicopter

www.windytan.com Research & data 6 submissions · 6 people · 9.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-01 Resurfaced 2023-01-24

1101max pts

How We Built Uber’s Highest Query per Second Service Using Go

eng.uber.com Research & data 7 submissions · 7 people · 3.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-11 Resurfaced 2019-11-14

187max pts

Thirty-three Miniatures: Applications of Linear Algebra (2012) [pdf]

kam.mff.cuni.cz Research & data 5 submissions · 5 people · 10.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-02 Resurfaced 2019-06-21

346max pts

Recently resurfaced in technical reports

latest 20+ point return

SQLite as an Application File Format (2014)

sqlite.org Research & data 5 submissions · 5 people · 10.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-11 Resurfaced 2025-11-28

567max pts

SQLite small blob storage: 35% Faster Than the Filesystem

www.sqlite.org Research & data 8 submissions · 8 people · 7.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-01 Resurfaced 2024-10-26

612max pts

DIB Guide: Detecting Agile BS (2018) [pdf]

media.defense.gov Research & data 10 submissions · 10 people · 5.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-07 Resurfaced 2024-07-25

396max pts

Big Ball of Mud (1999)

www.laputan.org Research & data 21 submissions · 20 people · 18.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-07 Resurfaced 2024-07-10

162max pts

Mystery signal from a helicopter

www.windytan.com Research & data 6 submissions · 6 people · 9.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-01 Resurfaced 2023-01-24

1101max pts

Candidates

Browse 24 candidates

God's Number is 20 (2010)

cube20.org Research & data 10 submissions · 10 people · 15.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-03-16

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

276max pts

What every programmer should know about memory, Part 1 (2007)

lwn.net Research & data 10 submissions · 10 people · 17.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-01-25

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

129max pts

Typing with pleasure, and low latency

pavelfatin.com Research & data 15 submissions · 13 people · 9.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-08-13

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

141max pts

Lifetimes of cryptographic hash functions

valerieaurora.org Research & data 10 submissions · 10 people · 14.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2017-02-25

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

153max pts

Diablo Pitch Document (1994) [pdf]

www.graybeardgames.com Research & data 4 submissions · 4 people · 7.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-06-15

Needs:5 submissions

330max pts

A Pixel Is Not A Little Square (1995) [pdf]

alvyray.com Research & data 7 submissions · 6 people · 10.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-04-23

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

143max pts

Research: The Average Age of a Successful Startup Founder Is 45

hbr.org Research & data 8 submissions · 8 people · 6.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-03-12

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

576max pts

Homemade GPS Receiver (2013)

www.aholme.co.uk Research & data 9 submissions · 5 people · 10.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-12-27

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

184max pts

SeaGlass: City-Wide IMSI-Catcher Detection (2017)

seaglass.cs.washington.edu Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 6.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-08-23

Needs:5 submissions

365max pts

Scalability, but at what cost? (2015)

www.frankmcsherry.org Research & data 7 submissions · 7 people · 11.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2016-06-07

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

165max pts

Software Engineering at Google (2017)

arxiv.org Research & data 4 submissions · 4 people · 4.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-01-03

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

685max pts

Haskell vs. Ada vs. C++ an Experiment in Software Prototyping Productivity (1994) [pdf]

www.cs.yale.edu Research & data 5 submissions · 5 people · 11.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-12-17

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

102max pts

Laws of Showrunning (2016) [pdf]

okbjgm.weebly.com Research & data 6 submissions · 5 people · 6.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-09-21

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

189max pts

Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code [pdf]

pixelscommander.com Research & data 5 submissions · 5 people · 6.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-10-18

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

171max pts

An optimization guide for assembly programmers and compiler makers (2018) [pdf]

www.agner.org Research & data 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-08-29

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

271max pts

Beirut Port Explosion

forensic-architecture.org Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 3.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-01-23

Needs:5 submissions

1215max pts

Longevity of Recordable CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays (2020)

www.canada.ca Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 3.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-05-02

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

298max pts

D-Expressions: Lisp power, Dylan style [pdf]

people.csail.mit.edu Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 15.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-05-16

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

89max pts

Best Practices for ML Engineering from Google [pdf]

martin.zinkevich.org Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 2.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-12-13 archived copy

Needs:5 submissions3 active years

406max pts

Most-mentioned links in Hacker News comments, 2006–2015

github.com Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 10.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-11-12

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

254max pts

Scaling Mercurial at Facebook

code.facebook.com Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 2.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2016-05-27

Needs:5 submissions3 active years

360max pts

Supreme Commander – Graphics Study

www.adriancourreges.com Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 8.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-04-09

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

162max pts

Bye Bye Mongo, Hello Postgres

www.theguardian.com Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 2.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-12-27

Needs:5 submissions3 active years

1562max pts

Computing 10,000x More Efficiently (slides)

web.media.mit.edu Research & data 3 submissions · 3 people · 3.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2014-02-24

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

185max pts