News Nug
RPG in a Box

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: Hacker News

RPG in a Box is an accessible game development tool that allows users to create games and interactive experiences without needing programming or modeling skills. It provides a comprehensive set of features within a single package, making it user-friendly for beginners. Key features include: - **Voxel Editor**: Build and animate 3D pixel-based characters, objects, and tiles, with support for importing from other software like MagicaVoxel and Qubicle. - **Map Editor**: Design grid-based worlds and populate

15 Years of Shader Minification

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Demosceners create intricate computer animations in limited space, often within just a few kilobytes, using tools like Shader Minifier, which optimizes GLSL code. The tool emerged in 2010 to streamline the tedious process of optimizing shader code for 4k intros. Initial features included removing unnecessary whitespace and renaming variables to single letters, as well as inserting preprocessor macros to reduce code length. However, the creator discovered that while Shader Minifier effectively minimized code, it sometimes resulted

How to Improve Performance of Your Database?

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: /r/programming

Scaling a database is essential for managing large volumes of data and high user traffic, as performance can degrade with increased data and concurrent requests, leading to slower queries and poor user experiences. High availability is also a key requirement for applications. To scale a database, various techniques can be employed, including: 1. **Indexes**: These improve data retrieval speed by creating pointers to rows, enabling faster searches without scanning the entire table. However, they can slow down write operations (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE)

Vision Now Available in Llama.cpp

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: Hacker News

We carefully review all feedback and value your input highly. For a complete list of available qualifiers, please refer to our documentation.

What's new in Swift 6.2?

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: /r/programming

Swift 6.2 is set to introduce a significant array of features and enhancements, particularly enhancing support for concurrency and simplifying its adoption. Key additions include raw identifiers, default values in string interpolation, and improved functionalities in Swift Testing, such as exit tests and attachments. These updates aim to create a more rounded development experience, akin to what many expected from Swift 6.0. Currently, Swift 6.2 is available only as a test release, and the final feature list may vary. Additionally

Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, and the Computer (2009)

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the limitations of compatibility between different computer systems, notably highlighting how various computers cannot share files or run each other's programs due to differences in operating systems and formatting. It then shifts focus to Charles Bukowski, who received a Macintosh IIsi on Christmas Day 1990. This new computer, along with the MacWrite II word processing program, significantly enhanced his writing output, doubling the number of poems he created in 1991. Despite his initial skepticism about modern technology, Bukowski embraced the

Brandon's Semiconductor Simulator

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: Hacker News

The program allows users to draw and simulate electrical circuits, observing the effects of voltage. It runs on a web browser, but a faster downloadable version is available that requires Java. For more information, users can read additional resources. The program was created by Brandon Li in 2025 and was ported to JavaScript with assistance from Paul Falstad.

Malicious NPM Packages Target Cursor AI’s macOS Users

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: /r/programming

The Socket Threat Research Team discovered three malicious npm packages—sw-cur, its clone sw-cur1, and aiide-cur—that target macOS users of the Cursor AI code editor. Posing as developer tools for a "cheap Cursor API," these packages steal user credentials and deploy a payload to compromise the software, including overwriting key files and disabling auto-updates. Registered by a threat actor under the aliases gtr2018 and aiide, the packages have been downloaded over 3,200 times

WebGL Water (2010)

Published: 2025-05-10 | Origin: Hacker News

The demo, created by Evan Wallace, necessitates a good graphics card and current drivers for optimal performance. If unable to run the demo, users can view it on YouTube. Additionally, it requires the OES_texture_float and OES_standard_derivatives extensions and features a tile texture sourced from zooboing on Flickr.

Fleurs du Mal

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: Hacker News

Fleursdumal.org is a dedicated online resource for Charles Baudelaire's *Les Fleurs du mal* (*Flowers of Evil*), featuring every poem from various editions along with multiple English translations. The site was launched on February 1, 2004, by Supervert, who has authored several books on related topics. The translations featured on the site are primarily those with which the site felt comfortable in terms of rights, often favoring Edna St. Vincent Millay's interpretations,

DIY Ruby on Rails Upgrades: Essential Open Source Tools

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: /r/ruby

FastRuby.io emphasizes its commitment to the Ruby and Rails communities, specifically through open source contributions. The company acknowledges that its success is built on numerous open source projects and offers tools to assist developers and teams with Ruby and Rails upgrades, particularly those with limited budgets. Key tools include: - **NextRails**: Helps dual boot Rails applications with different Ruby or Rails versions, aiding in tracking deprecation warnings for a smoother transition. - **RubyCritic**: Provides insights into Rails applications,

Business books are entertainment, not strategic tools

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: Hacker News

Most popular business books tend to prioritize emotional appeal over intellectual depth. They simplify complex market dynamics into generic advice and motivational slogans, often leading to widespread yet misleading conclusions. One central idea presented is to create something entirely new and avoid competition, with a focus on monopolies being more profitable. While it's accurate that monopolies are lucrative, the argument neglects the reality that successful companies often evolve through multiple iterations and strategic collaborations. Moreover, many authors, like Peter Thiel, come from privileged backgrounds,

What's new with Postgres at Microsoft, 2025 edition (cross from r/postgresql)

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: /r/programming

This post summarizes the progress of Microsoft’s work with PostgreSQL, covering both its managed Azure database service and contributions to the upstream open-source project. It highlights significant advancements over the past year, noting PostgreSQL's importance as the leading open-source relational database utilized by a wide range of users, from large enterprises to individual developers. Recently, PostgreSQL was mentioned multiple times in Microsoft's third-quarter earnings call, and it is now supporting large-scale applications like ChatGPT. The content includes an infographic that organizes the

Warning: Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media now wants every human programmer to be replaced by Gen AI

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: /r/programming

The O’Reilly learning platform offers resources for skill enhancement, with a 10-day free trial available. In an event titled AI Codecon, Tim O'Reilly addressed over 20,000 attendees, emphasizing that the rise of AI in programming represents an expansion of the field rather than a replacement of programmers. He argued against the notion that AI will take over programming jobs, stating that this belief misunderstands the evolution of technology. O'Reilly described programming as a conversation with computers, highlighting that

21 GB/s CSV Parsing Using SIMD on AMD 9950X

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: /r/programming

The blog post announces the release of Sep version 0.10.0 on April 22, 2025, which brings optimizations for AVX-512-capable CPUs like the AMD 9950X (Zen 5), resulting in a performance improvement in low-level CSV parsing from approximately 18 GB/s to an impressive 21 GB/s. The author plans to explore how machine code in .NET 9.0 was sub-optimal for AVX-512, detailing the changes

ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: Hacker News

CERN is dedicated to exploring the fundamental structure of matter and the universe using advanced scientific instruments. Its mission includes conducting fundamental research, contributing to societal advancements, promoting environmentally responsible practices, fostering international collaboration, and inspiring education. The organization has achieved significant milestones, such as the discovery of the Higgs boson and advancements in antimatter research. CERN's research programs cover a wide range of topics in physics, including antimatter and dark matter, and it serves as a hub for knowledge sharing and scientific community

Lets Be Real About Dependencies

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: /r/programming

The author expresses frustration about the common complaint in the Rust community regarding the extensive number of dependencies—often referred to as "crates"—required for various programs. They argue that this issue is not unique to Rust; rather, it mirrors a longstanding situation in traditional languages like C and C++. On Unix systems, while many dependencies still exist, they are typically managed by the operating system instead of the compiler directly, which means developers face these costs more transparently. To illustrate this point, the author

WebAssembly 2.0

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: /r/programming

The document is a W3C Candidate Recommendation Draft published on December 18, 2024, which details release 2.0 of the WebAssembly standard. WebAssembly is a low-level code format designed for efficient execution and compact representation. The draft integrates changes from a previous version, with the intention of maintaining it as a "living standard" and not transitioning to a Recommendation state before January 17, 2025. The document invites discussion through GitHub, archives all comments and issues,

Moving from a Rails Monolith to Microservices: Things to Consider Before You Regret It

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: /r/ruby

The content discusses the transition from a Rails monolith to microservices, likening it to moving from a bike to more complex forms of transport, indicating that while it's possible, it often complicates the journey. The author suggests that many teams consider this shift due to internal frustrations but argues that starting with a monolith is generally more beneficial. Complexities introduced by microservices usually do not justify their benefits unless there's a clear need for different architectural characteristics or scaling. Insights from experts like Martin Fowler and the

TypR: a statically typed superset of the R programming language

Published: 2025-05-09 | Origin: /r/programming

TypR is a new programming language that serves as a superset of R, designed for statistics and data science, and built with Rust. It enhances R by introducing strong typing, improved syntax, and modern features while maintaining compatibility with existing R code. Despite being in development and having some bugs, it offers the fundamental syntax and functionalities needed for use. TypR can transpile to Typescript, Javascript, and WebAssembly, and requires Rust and R to be installed for setup. The preferred file extension