Published: 2025-03-28 | Origin: Hacker News

The author has spent a year developing an autorouter for tscircuit, an open-source electronics CAD kernel in Typescript, and reflects on 13 key insights they wish they had known from the beginning. They highly praise the A* algorithm, suggesting it should be renamed "Fundamental Algorithm" due to its versatility and effectiveness in informed search compared to Breadth-First Search (BFS). A* prioritizes exploring nodes closer to the goal, leading to faster and more intuitive results. The author

Published: 2025-03-28 | Origin: Hacker News

On March 22, 2025, Arctic sea ice extent reached its annual maximum at 14.33 million square kilometers, marking the lowest maximum recorded in the past 47 years, surpassing previous low records from 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. This maximum is 1.31 million square kilometers below the average maximum for 1981-2010 and 80,000 square kilometers lower than the previous record low from March 2017

Published: 2025-03-28 | Origin: Hacker News

In the early days of USB, Microsoft mice came with a USB plug and a green adapter that converted this USB type-A plug to a PS/2 plug. This adapter was purely mechanical and did not contain any circuitry, meaning it only connected different pin sets without converting signals. The mouse itself detected whether it was receiving USB or PS/2 signals and adjusted its behavior accordingly. This functioning is similar to basic electrical outlet adapters that connect different plug types, with the intelligence residing in the device rather than the

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

Researchers are re-evaluating the ancient organism Prototaxites, which was previously thought to be a type of fungus, suggesting it may actually represent a previously unknown branch of life. Prototaxites lived during the Devonian period, around 420 to 375 million years ago, and could grow up to 26 feet tall. Initially discovered in 1843, its classification has remained uncertain—alternating between being considered a plant, fungus, or algae. A 2007 chemical analysis

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

The content discusses the evolution of Apple's Mac OS, highlighting the launch of Leopard with its 300 new features and the subsequent release of Snow Leopard, which focused on refining existing elements and improving system performance rather than adding new features. Snow Leopard is praised as one of Apple's best operating systems for its stability and ability to streamline the system. The author notes that the tradition of releasing significant updates without major new features was unusual but effective, marking a high point for the Mac platform. In contrast, modern Apple releases

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: /r/ruby

The content discusses a lightweight gem designed for Ruby and Rails projects that simplifies the installation and configuration of a specific Chrome version and its corresponding Chromedriver for testing using Selenium/Capybara. It addresses issues associated with manual management of Chrome and Chromedriver by allowing users to easily set up a specific version for consistent testing in both local and CI environments. The gem automatically registers a `:chrome_for_testing` Capybara driver and offers options to specify versions and switch to a non-headless browser for

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

The em dash (—) can be used similarly to commas, colons, or parentheses to set off additional information or introduce explanations. For example, in a narrative about Mabel the Cat and Harry the Dog, em dashes highlight their differing opinions on a new bakery's offerings. Mabel appreciates the variety of pastries, while Harry is disappointed by the absence of cheese Danishes. The bakery’s operational hours and diverse selection of baked goods, including croissants and a wide array of cookies, are

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

The author reflects on their fascination with a DIY Perks video about creating artificial sunlight using a large LED and parabolic reflector. Inspired, they embarked on a similar project but aimed for a more compact design. Instead of a bulky reflector, they opted for a grid array of lenses and multiple LEDs—one for each lens. This design approach had the potential for greater efficiency and was a learning experience in manufacturing and 3D design, shifting from their background in software. The author successfully completed their first version

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The post discusses the importance of reducing exploitable errors in C programming by emphasizing the concept of "parsing, not validating." It argues that instead of validating inputs, such as an email address, at various deep levels of the system, developers should focus on handling untrusted inputs more safely at the boundaries. This approach minimizes the risk of inconsistent validation across different functions, which could lead to security vulnerabilities. The author highlights that while C has type safety features, they are not as strict as in other languages

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: /r/programming

We value your feedback and take it seriously. For a complete list of available qualifiers, please refer to our documentation.

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: /r/programming

Engineers require fast feedback for efficient software development, particularly in large Python projects where traditional hot-reloading methods can become slow. This slowness often arises because the entire Python server restarts when only one module changes. Popular hot-reloading tools like Django's runserver and gunicorn can lead to delays of up to a minute. To combat this, building a dependency map can facilitate hot module replacement (HMR), allowing for near-instantaneous feedback. A dependency map, implemented as a flat

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses the development of "Scour," a personalized content feed designed to filter through various noisy sources like Hacker News, subreddits, and blogs to deliver quality content efficiently. Scour is built in Rust and is recommended for others developing in the same language. The author has adopted a specific stack known as the "mash 🥔 stack," which includes Maud, Axum, SQLx, and HTMX, praised for its speed and ease of use. The decision to use

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses how Apple Pay operates, using a narrative about Kenji, a student who learns about the service while visiting London. Initially doubtful of its safety, Kenji decides to try Apple Pay after experiencing long wait times for train tickets. The post emphasizes that transitioning to microservices is challenging, involving both technical and organizational changes, and promotes a free eBook that addresses common issues encountered during such migrations, with insights from major companies like Uber, Spotify, and Netflix. Regarding the architecture of Apple Pay

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: /r/programming

The "State of Vue.js Report 2025" is a comprehensive study that reflects on the evolution of Vue.js, including contributions from 30+ experts and insights gained from a survey of over 1,400 developers. It includes 16 case studies from notable brands like GitLab and DocPlanner, highlighting how Vue and Nuxt address complex challenges. The report covers various topics, such as major upgrades, migration to Vue 3, future prospects, and scaling with Vue. Created by Monterail

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: /r/ruby

The provided content appears to be a non-textual data stream, likely representing binary or encoded data such as an image or other file format. It contains a series of characters, symbols, and control codes that do not convey readable, coherent information in normal text form. Thus, it cannot be effectively summarized or converted into a meaningful narrative without additional context or a specific approach to decode or interpret the data.

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

arXivLabs is a collaborative platform that enables individuals and organizations to create and share new features for the arXiv website, emphasizing values such as openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. The platform invites project ideas that can benefit the arXiv community. Additionally, users can receive operational status notifications via email or Slack.

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

The content emphasizes the importance of customer feedback and assures that all input is carefully considered. It also directs users to the documentation for a complete list of available qualifiers.

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

Apple has launched a new feature called DJ with Apple Music, allowing subscribers to build and mix music sets directly from their streaming catalog of over 100 million songs. This feature integrates with leading DJ software and hardware platforms, including AlphaTheta, Serato, InMusic’s Engine DJ, Denon DJ, Numark, and Rane DJ, as well as Algoriddim's Djay Pro software. Stephen Campbell, Apple Music's global head of dance, electronic & DJ mixes, emphasized Apple's commitment

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

An editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation highlights ongoing mysteries surrounding cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation in the brain. Despite the brain's intricate protective barriers and high metabolic activity, scientists have long questioned how waste products are eliminated. Unlike other organs with accompanying lymphatic systems for waste removal, the brain's blood vessels lack a similar outlet. However, recent interest has focused on CSF, which fills the spaces surrounding blood vessels, potentially serving as a means for the flow and exchange

Published: 2025-03-27 | Origin: Hacker News

Blender 4.4 focuses on stability and quality, following a dedicated effort called the "Winter of Quality," during which developers addressed over 700 reported issues and improved documentation. A significant new feature is the introduction of Action Slots, which allows multiple data-blocks to share a single Action, streamlining animation workflows and enabling easier integration of various elements like object movement and material properties. The Video Sequencer has also received enhancements, including improved text editing features, expanded codec support (with H.