Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/programming

Sonic The Hedgehog XA is an open-source fangame developed by a single individual to explore the PlayStation hardware's capabilities. It is a non-commercial project that aims to create a Sonic game from scratch for the PlayStation, blending classic 2D gameplay with the console's unique features. The game utilizes modern development tools like PSn00bSDK and pays homage to Sonic CD by incorporating the "XA" audio format for background music. As a prototype, the game is highly unfinished, lacking

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: Hacker News

Rodney Brooks provides his seventh annual update on his predictions from January 1, 2018, regarding self-driving cars, robotics, AI, machine learning, and human space travel. He aims to hold himself accountable for the accuracy of these predictions and plans to continue reviewing them until 2050. Due to positive feedback, he will change his approach starting next year, making a new set of predictions covering the period from January 1, 2026, to January 1, 2036

Published: 2025-01-10 | Origin: /r/programming

The author reflects on their journey in software development, weighing the benefits of being a generalist versus a specialist. They note that their choice to become a generalist was influenced by their roles and the companies they worked for, which shaped their skills and career success. Generalists possess a broad range of skills and can adapt to various situations, making them valuable in leadership positions and at startups. Conversely, specialists focus deeply on one area, offering in-depth expertise that can resolve complex challenges. Both paths are valid

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

A/B testing, while popular for evaluating design changes, is fundamentally flawed as it forces a sacrifice among users, similar to drug trials where only half receive the treatment. This limitation leads to a loss for group B if the new design is superior. Instead of focusing on improving user engagement, many researchers are dedicated to refining techniques for maximizing clicks on ads. Current mainstream tools like Google Analytics rely on ineffective A/B testing methods. The author proposes an alternative method that can outperform A/B testing, allowing for the

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

Soldering may seem intuitive, but it requires practice and good habits, especially in a company dependent on high-quality solder joints. In response to this challenge during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tektronix produced comprehensive training videos to teach employees the proper soldering techniques. The first video, aimed at assembly line workers, focuses on practical aspects of creating strong solder joints on PCBs, introduces some soldering theory, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a soldering iron

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/programming

Since its inception in September 2008, Google Chromium has served as the foundation for many well-known web browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, largely driven by Google. In response, the Linux Foundation has announced the "Supporters of Chromium-Based Browsers" initiative, set to launch on January 9, 2025. This project aims to promote open development and support the creation of new Chromium-based browsers. The initiative will create a collaborative environment for developers and the open-source

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

Peter T. Kirstein, a prominent British computer scientist and Internet Hall of Fame inductee, passed away in January 2020 at the age of 86 after a nearly 50-year career at University College London (UCL). Before his death, he was commissioned to write an article about the early challenges of connecting the UK to what would become the modern internet, which was not published at the time but is now being released to honor his contributions. The article, edited by Michael Parker and overse

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/ruby

Jon Sully discusses common memory-related issues faced by developers when hosting Rails applications on Heroku, specifically the R14 and R15 Memory quota errors, which can cause significant downtime. He notes that while it’s challenging to provide a universal guide for reducing memory usage due to the varying nature of applications, there are some general strategies that can be applied. One key recommendation is related to process and thread counts, where he advises using WEB_CONCURRENCY settings tailored to the dyno types, despite Heroku

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/programming

Electron is a popular development tool that simplifies creating cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies by bundling Node.js and Chromium together. It is celebrated for its ease of use, allowing developers to rapidly build and deploy applications with features like automatic updates and a "write once, ship everywhere" philosophy, similar to React Native but with fewer build complexities. With its origins dating back to 2013, Electron was developed by GitHub and has since become an integral part of developer culture, particularly as many software projects

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

Quickwit has announced its joining with Datadog and plans to develop a new product together. To support their open-source community, they will release a new version of Quickwit under the Apache License 2.0 soon. The journey of Quickwit began four years ago, fueled by a long-standing friendship between three engineers—Paul, Adrien, and the author—who initially met in Paris in 2010 and dreamed of creating something innovative. The idea gained momentum in 2020 when Paul

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses how SQL handles NULL values, emphasizing that they are treated distinctly from one another. This is particularly relevant for columns with UNIQUE constraints, as multiple NULL values can exist in such columns because each NULL is considered a unique "unknown value." The author shares personal experiences with databases like SQLite, Postgres, and MySQL to illustrate this behavior. Key points include: 1. When using the logical equals operator ("="), comparing two NULL values results in NULL, as SQL treats them as unknown

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

The research presented at Black Hat Europe 2024 reveals a new attack surface in Windows through the exploitation of an internal charset conversion feature called Best-Fit. This vulnerability allows for practical attacks, including Path Traversal, Argument Injection, and Remote Code Execution (RCE), affecting several popular applications. The study highlights challenges in addressing the root causes, which involve compiler behavior and common developer mistakes within the open-source ecosystem. The article also poses a challenge to penetration testers by asking whether they can exploit specific

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/programming

The content discusses a conversation with Salvatore Sanfilippo, known as antirez, who is recognized for creating Redis and writing sci-fi novels. He shares insights on the importance of blogging for expressing passions and communicating about software projects. Antirez emphasizes that effective communication is crucial for a project's success, even though some developers may find success without it. He explains that his writing process is driven by his interests, where ideas coalesce into coherent thoughts, leading him to create blog posts. The piece aims

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

The provided content is a segment of a PDF file's structure written in PDF syntax. It specifies the document's catalog and form fields. The key components include: 1. **PDF Version**: The document is identified as PDF version 1.6. 2. **AcroForm**: The document contains an AcroForm with numerous fields referenced by their IDs (e.g., 50 0 R, 51 0 R, etc.). 3. **Page Structure**: There is

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/ruby

The content explains how to implement autosaving for inline input fields using Hotwire, specifically with Turbo and Stimulus. Autosaving automatically saves user input without requiring a specific action, such as when the user changes focus or after a period of inactivity. To achieve this, a Stimulus controller is created to handle the autosave functionality, removing the need for a traditional 'Save' button. The controller targets a form, and instead of calling the usual submit method, it uses requestSubmit to ensure a Turbo

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/programming

The author has been working on rendering the Sponza model using the WebGPU standard as a personal project to enhance their skills with the API and explore various rendering techniques. A demo of the project can be tried online, and the source code is available on GitHub. The article aims to provide a high-level overview of the rendering pipeline and various effects used in the demo without going into excessive detail about specific techniques like Screen Space Reflections. It also compares WebGPU to Apple's Metal rendering API. The

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

The content describes a Python library and interactive web demo designed to visualize Factorio blueprints. The creator is passionate about the game Factorio and aims to showcase the beauty of factories and blueprints. Users can import blueprints as text and visualize them with customizable settings, including viewing various building components and connections in scalable vector graphics (SVG). There is a note that blueprints from versions prior to 2.0 may require re-exporting after import to work correctly. Additionally, the creator has shared a

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

Phi 4 is a state-of-the-art open model with 14 billion parameters, updated 3 days ago. It is built using a combination of synthetic datasets, filtered public domain content, and acquired academic materials. The model has undergone thorough enhancement and alignment, utilizing both supervised fine-tuning and preference optimization to improve instruction adherence and safety. It offers a context length of 16,000 tokens and is intended to facilitate research and serve as a foundation for generative AI applications, primarily in English.

Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: Hacker News

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Published: 2025-01-09 | Origin: /r/programming

Agile methodologies prioritize speed and flexibility in software development but often neglect security, increasing risks to software integrity. To counter this, it is vital to integrate secure coding practices throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC), ensuring security is a core element rather than an afterthought. Research from Secure Code Warrior shows that 67% of developers acknowledge shipping code with vulnerabilities. By embedding security into each development sprint, organizations can proactively tackle risks and potentially reduce vulnerabilities by up to 53%. This proactive approach aligns with