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The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Visual Basic

2025-05-11

The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Visual Basic

In 1988, Alan Cooper showed Bill Gates Tripod, a groundbreaking shell construction kit for Windows. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface allowed users to create personalized shells without deep OS knowledge. This evolved into Visual Basic, a revolutionary visual programming language that empowered countless developers, especially those transitioning from mainframes. VB's ease of use democratized programming, making it accessible to millions. However, Microsoft's shift to .NET and VB.NET, while adding features, sacrificed the simplicity that made VB so popular, leading many developers to abandon it. This story highlights the tension between innovation and business decisions, and the lasting impact of a seemingly simple tool.

(retool.com)

Development

Giant Bomb Acquired by Longtime Staff: A New Chapter Begins

2025-05-11

Giant Bomb Acquired by Longtime Staff: A New Chapter Begins

Gaming media brand Giant Bomb has been acquired by its longtime staff members, Jeff Bakalar and Jeff Grubb. Fandom, the previous owner, is handing over operations to the veteran duo, marking a new chapter for the brand. Financial details of the deal remain undisclosed, but Giant Bomb's programming will resume as soon as possible. The new owners stated that Giant Bomb's future rests with its supportive community, and all support will directly benefit the team.

(about.fandom.com)

Game gaming media

Arduino's Bio-Based PCBs: A Greener Future for Electronics

2025-05-11

Arduino's Bio-Based PCBs: A Greener Future for Electronics

Arduino, in collaboration with the European Innovation Council, has launched the Desire4EU project to develop biodegradable printed circuit boards (PCBs) using PLA-flax. The project has successfully created bio-based versions of the Arduino Nano and UNO, utilizing lower soldering temperatures to reduce energy consumption and e-waste. Future plans include a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to further quantify environmental benefits, with 1,000 beta boards planned for distribution in 2026.

(blog.arduino.cc)

Hardware Bio-based PCBs

OpenSSL 3.0 Performance Disaster and the Future of the SSL Library Ecosystem

2025-05-11

OpenSSL 3.0 Performance Disaster and the Future of the SSL Library Ecosystem

The HAProxy team delves into the performance disaster caused by OpenSSL 3.0 and its impact on the SSL library ecosystem. The release of OpenSSL 3.0 resulted in significant performance degradation in multi-threaded environments, posing challenges for many projects reliant on OpenSSL. The article compares alternative solutions like BoringSSL, LibreSSL, WolfSSL, and AWS-LC, analyzing their trade-offs in functionality, performance, and maintenance. Performance testing reveals that OpenSSL 3.0 significantly underperforms compared to other libraries in multi-threaded scenarios, forcing organizations to provision more hardware to maintain throughput. The article also explores the QUIC protocol and its relationship with SSL libraries, along with the OpenSSL team's handling of the QUIC API. Ultimately, the article recommends HAProxy users choose suitable SSL libraries based on their needs, such as AWS-LC or WolfSSL, and calls for the community to collaboratively address the performance issues in OpenSSL 3.0.

(www.haproxy.com)

Development SSL Libraries

The Wedding Painter's Guide to Human Nature

2025-05-11

The Wedding Painter's Guide to Human Nature

A wedding painter, after years of observing strangers, has developed a keen ability to read people. By analyzing body language, conversational rhythm, and attention, he discerns levels of self-acceptance, emotional states, and interpersonal dynamics, distinguishing genuine joy from polite formality. He finds that open and accepting individuals tend to experience greater happiness and fulfilling relationships, while those who are closed off and self-absorbed often fall into misery and loneliness.

(skincontact.substack.com)

Misc

The Misunderstood Origins of OOP: Setting the Record Straight

2025-05-10

This article debunks the common misconception that Alan Kay invented both object-oriented programming (OOP) and the concept of objects. In reality, the Simula language was a significant precursor to OOP, a fact acknowledged by the Smalltalk team. While Kay coined the term "objects," he later regretted it, emphasizing message passing as the core idea of OOP. The article further explores Smalltalk's unique contributions to OOP, particularly its design principle of treating everything as an object and its innovative message-handling mechanism. The author argues that OOP's evolution wasn't a singular event but a confluence of ideas and needs, with different developers understanding and applying OOP differently in various contexts.

(www.hillelwayne.com)

Development

Website Privacy Policy Explained

2025-05-10

Website Privacy Policy Explained

This website uses technologies like cookies to store and access device information to provide the best experience. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions. Technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. Technical storage or access is used exclusively for statistical purposes. Technical storage or access is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. Technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.

(magazine.atavist.com)

Misc

Woz Explains Why the Original Apple II Didn't Have Lowercase Letters

2025-05-10

Steve Wozniak reveals the surprisingly simple reason behind the original Apple II's lack of lowercase letters: a tight budget. The cost of a full keyboard was prohibitive in the early 1970s, leading Wozniak to utilize a cheaper uppercase-only teletype keyboard. Coupled with hand-coding the entire system and a lack of funds for a timeshare assembler, adding lowercase would have been a massive undertaking, making the decision economically and practically impossible.

(www.vintagecomputing.com)

Tech Steve Wozniak

LoopMix128: Blazing Fast and Robust 2^128 Period PRNG

2025-05-10

LoopMix128: Blazing Fast and Robust 2^128 Period PRNG

LoopMix128 is an extremely fast pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) with a guaranteed period of 2^128, proven injectivity, and clean passes in both BigCrush and PractRand (32TB). Designed for non-cryptographic applications where speed and statistical quality are paramount, it significantly outperforms standard library generators and rivals or surpasses modern high-speed PRNGs like wyrand and xoroshiro128++. Its performance is backed by rigorous testing, passing BigCrush and PractRand with zero anomalies, and boasting a proven 192-bit injective state enabling parallel streams.

(github.com)

Development Pseudo-random Number Generator

Pope Leo XIV's Inaugural Address: A Legacy of Renewal

2025-05-10

In his inaugural address, Pope Leo XIV expressed his respect for his predecessor and his determination to carry on his legacy. He emphasized the need to follow the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, continue to reform the Church, focus on social justice and human rights, particularly in the face of new challenges posed by the age of artificial intelligence. He called on Church members to unite and respond to the changes of the times with love and faith, concluding with a quote from Paul VI, hoping that the light of faith will illuminate the world.

(www.vatican.va)

Misc Pope

Drawing the Sierpinski Triangle with Bitwise Operations: A Stunning Bit Twiddling Hack

2025-05-10

Drawing the Sierpinski Triangle with Bitwise Operations: A Stunning Bit Twiddling Hack

This article unveils a stunning bit manipulation trick: generating the famous Sierpinski triangle fractal using only a simple bitwise AND operation (&). The author meticulously breaks down the bitwise operation, revealing the underlying mathematical principles. It shows how the inherent fractal nature of binary counting and iterative block removal, achieved through bitwise manipulation, generates the classic Sierpinski triangle. This technique cleverly leverages the binary operation capabilities of computers, simplifying the seemingly complex process of generating graphics into concise code, resulting in an astonishingly elegant solution.

(lcamtuf.substack.com)

Development

Rasp Pi Carnivorous Plant Monitor: Overengineered Fun

2025-05-10

Rasp Pi Carnivorous Plant Monitor: Overengineered Fun

A developer built a semi-autonomous biosurveillance system, Xenolab, for monitoring carnivorous plants using a Raspberry Pi 5, a 7-inch touchscreen, and 3D-printed enclosure. The system monitors temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and simulates wind and light. While admitting the project is wildly over-engineered for fun, the developer documented the process from 3D modeling and wiring to the final running system.

(github.com)

Hardware Carnivorous Plants

arXivLabs: Experimenting with Community Collaboration on New Features

2025-05-10

arXivLabs is a framework for collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on the website. Individuals and organizations involved share arXiv's values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners who adhere to them. Have an idea to enhance the arXiv community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

(arxiv.org)

Development

PLAttice: A 3D-Printed, Assembled Lattice for Large Structures

2025-05-10

Zach Fredin developed PLAttice, an assembled lattice structure entirely 3D-printed from PLA. Composed of struts, nodes, and pins, PLAttice allows for the reversible construction of structures significantly larger than the printer bed. A successful test built a square box truss weighing approximately 800 g/m, capable of spanning up to 4 meters before buckling. While the PLA struts are the weakest link, the design offers a novel approach to building large structures; future iterations could utilize stronger materials for the struts. PLAttice includes additional components like feet for mounting and specialized tools for assembly and disassembly. Although assembly isn't effortless, PLAttice enables the creation of interesting and useful structures, such as a kitchen pendant lamp. The project's files are released under CC-BY-SA 4.0.

(zachfred.in)

Hardware modular structure lattice

Microsoft Teams to Block Meeting Screenshots for Enhanced Security

2025-05-10

Microsoft Teams to Block Meeting Screenshots for Enhanced Security

Microsoft is rolling out a new Teams feature in July 2025 to prevent users from capturing screenshots of sensitive information shared during meetings. This functionality will be available on Windows and Mac desktops, and iOS and Android mobile apps. Unsupported platforms will default to audio-only mode. While screenshots are blocked, users could still capture sensitive information by taking photos. This mirrors a recent similar feature introduced by Meta for WhatsApp. Microsoft also plans to release additional Teams features, including audio summaries of meeting transcripts.

(www.bleepingcomputer.com)

Tech Screenshot Prevention

Accelerating Sea Level Rise: A Climate Crisis in Progress

2025-05-10

Accelerating Sea Level Rise: A Climate Crisis in Progress

For 2,000 years, global sea levels remained relatively stable. That changed in the 20th century with a steady, accelerating rise. Satellite data reveals a 4-inch increase since 1993, with the rate more than doubling in the last 30 years. Human-caused global warming is the primary culprit, with oceans absorbing excess heat from fossil fuel combustion, causing expansion and ice sheet melting. Scientists project a 6-inch global average sea level rise by 2050, potentially exceeding 3 feet in the coming centuries. Coastal communities face severe consequences: increased flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion. While slow rises are adaptable, rapid increases pose immense challenges, particularly for low-lying island nations and coastal areas. The US Gulf Coast, especially Louisiana, is extremely vulnerable. The Trump administration's rollback of climate policies further exacerbates this crisis.

(www.cnn.com)

Tech

Tesla's Insurance Arm Bleeding Money: High Repair Costs Bite

2025-05-10

Tesla's Insurance Arm Bleeding Money: High Repair Costs Bite

Tesla's insurance business continues to hemorrhage money, with a staggering 103.3% loss ratio in 2024, far exceeding the industry average of 66.1%. The culprit? Exorbitant repair costs for Tesla vehicles, averaging 32% higher than those of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. Despite leveraging data from its Full Self-Driving system and vehicle telematics to adjust risk profiles, Tesla hasn't managed to effectively control costs. Poor customer satisfaction, marked by lengthy repair times and subpar communication, further exacerbates the problem. Rising premiums haven't solved the issue, leaving Tesla's insurance arm facing a precarious future.

(insideevs.com)

Tech Repair Costs

Google's Gemini Update Silently Breaks Trauma-Focused Apps

2025-05-10

Google's Gemini Update Silently Breaks Trauma-Focused Apps

A recent update to Google's Gemini 2.5 large language model has inadvertently broken the safety settings controls, blocking content previously allowed, such as sensitive accounts of sexual assault. This has crippled several applications relying on the Gemini API, including VOXHELIX (which helps sexual assault survivors create reports) and InnerPiece (a journaling app for PTSD and abuse survivors). Developers are criticizing Google for silently changing the model, causing app malfunctions and severely impacting user experience and mental health support. Google acknowledged the issue but hasn't offered a clear explanation.

(www.theregister.com)

AI app breakage

Facing Goliath: Lead Bullets, Not Silver Bullets

2025-05-10

This article recounts the author's experiences leading teams through intense competitive pressure at Netscape and Opsware. At Netscape, facing Microsoft's IIS, the initial strategy of seeking 'silver bullets'—strategic partnerships and acquisitions—failed. The author realized that improving product performance was key, eventually overcoming the disadvantage through continuous improvement. At Opsware, against Bladelogic, the author rejected avoidance strategies and focused the team on product enhancement, ultimately achieving success. The author stresses that when facing existential threats, avoid shortcuts and confront problems head-on. 'Lead bullets'—hard work and persistent improvement—are the path to victory.

(a16z.com)

Startup product improvement

Unique Games Conjecture: A Surprisingly Divisive Problem in Computational Complexity

2025-05-10

Proposed by Subhash Khot in 2002, the Unique Games Conjecture (UGC) posits that approximating the value of a specific type of game, known as a unique game, is NP-hard. This conjecture has significant implications for the theory of approximation algorithms; if true and P≠NP, many crucial problems wouldn't allow for good polynomial-time approximations, not just exact solutions. The academic community is split on its validity, with equivalent formulations including label cover and Max2Lin(k) problems. While stronger versions have been disproven, the UGC's exploration has spurred substantial mathematical research, and some progress towards proving it has been made, including proving a related conjecture, the 2-2 games conjecture.

(en.wikipedia.org)

Development approximation algorithms NP-hardness

Flutter Local-First Architecture: A Guide to Building Offline-First Apps

2025-05-10

Flutter Local-First Architecture: A Guide to Building Offline-First Apps

This article explores Flutter's local-first application architecture, prioritizing local data storage and synchronization for superior user experiences. Unlike traditional online-first approaches, local-first architecture designates the local database as the primary data source, ensuring app functionality even offline. The article details the advantages of local-first architecture, the challenges of building a sync engine (including change tracking, conflict resolution, edge cases and error handling, and performance optimization), and demonstrates building a Todo app with Riverpod, Drift, and PowerSync connected to a Supabase backend. These tools simplify building robust offline-capable apps, enhancing user experience.

(dinkomarinac.dev)

Development Offline App

Kraken Foils North Korean Hacker's Job Application

2025-05-10

Kraken Foils North Korean Hacker's Job Application

Kraken, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, uncovered a North Korean operative masquerading as "Steven Smith" who applied for a software engineering position. Smith fabricated a resume with impressive credentials, including a prestigious university degree and extensive experience. Suspicions arose during the interview process where Smith demonstrated a profound lack of knowledge about basic American culture and even his supposed place of residence. This incident highlights a growing threat of North Korean hackers infiltrating foreign companies to steal funds, funding their weapons programs through multiple jobs and internal access. The incident underscores the importance of robust cybersecurity measures and thorough background checks.

(www.yahoo.com)

Tech

Sprig: A Tiny Tile-Based Game Engine for Teen Coders

2025-05-10

Sprig: A Tiny Tile-Based Game Engine for Teen Coders

Hack Club, a global community of teen coders, has released Sprig, a miniature construction kit for building tile-based games in JavaScript. Sprig offers an intuitive API for setting maps, sprites, handling collisions, user input, and sound effects. It includes a built-in sound engine and sequencer, and even incorporates infinite loop detection. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer, Sprig makes game development accessible and fun.

(sprig.hackclub.com)

Game

Trump Tariffs Cause a Dramatic Drop in US Port Imports

2025-05-10

Trump Tariffs Cause a Dramatic Drop in US Port Imports

President Trump's tariffs have led to a drastic decline in US port imports, with Seattle's port experiencing an unusual lack of container ships. This has raised concerns about supply chain disruptions, rising prices, and job losses. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are facing similar issues, with imports down 35% year-on-year. Experts warn that the impact will ripple across the nation, starting with West Coast ports and spreading to other regions. While the administration is negotiating with China to potentially reduce tariffs, the outcome remains uncertain.

(www.newsweek.com)

Tech ports

GPT-3 Generates a Datasette Tutorial: An Astonishing Display of AI Writing Prowess

2025-05-10

The author used GPT-3 to generate a Datasette tutorial, and the results were astonishing. GPT-3 accurately described Datasette's functionality, installation steps, command-line parameters, and even API endpoints, although with minor inaccuracies. This article showcases GPT-3's powerful text generation capabilities and sparks reflection on AI's role in technical documentation and effective prompt engineering for optimal results. The generated marketing copy for a hypothetical 'Datasette Cloud' service was also surprisingly effective.

(simonwillison.net)

Development

Worldcoin: Selling Your Eyeballs for a Digital Identity – Is It Worth the Privacy Cost?

2025-05-10

Worldcoin: Selling Your Eyeballs for a Digital Identity – Is It Worth the Privacy Cost?

Worldcoin, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is creating biometric digital identities ('World IDs') by scanning users' irises. While aiming to combat fake online accounts in the age of AI, the project has raised significant ethical and privacy concerns. The company has been criticized for using financial incentives to collect biometric data in regions with weaker legal protections, leading to investigations and penalties from multiple regulatory bodies. Worldcoin's partnerships with major corporations threaten widespread adoption of World ID across various sectors, raising serious data security and privacy invasion concerns. Its business model itself is highly questionable.

(www.privacyguides.org)

Tech biometric

41,000 Years Ago: How Homo Sapiens Survived a Geomagnetic Reversal

2025-05-10

41,000 Years Ago: How Homo Sapiens Survived a Geomagnetic Reversal

A new study suggests that a cataclysmic geomagnetic reversal 41,000 years ago (the Laschamps excursion), which weakened Earth's magnetic field, exposed our ancestors to harmful solar radiation. Homo sapiens adapted by seeking shelter in caves, creating clothing, and using ochre pigments as sunscreen. Neanderthals, however, seemingly failed to adapt, potentially contributing to their decline. The study proposes a novel hypothesis linking this event to the rise of Homo sapiens and the demise of Neanderthals, though further research is needed to confirm the correlation.

(newatlas.com)

Tech geomagnetic reversal homo sapiens neanderthals

Is Cursor Really That Great? A Veteran Programmer's Honest Review

2025-05-10

The author provides an in-depth comparison of the popular code completion tool Cursor with other options. They find that Cursor's core technology is not fundamentally different from Copilot, both relying on Claude or GPT models. Cursor excels in actively searching and referencing other files within a project, but it can sometimes be overly 'smart,' even creating new files without permission. The author prefers the o1 model for its more precise and reliable debugging capabilities. The article concludes that those excessively praising Cursor might lack programming experience, confusing the power of AI with the tool itself. The author stresses that choosing an editor should be based on personal preference rather than blind following of trends.

(en.smallyu.net)

Development AI tools

Prolog Education Crisis: A Stack Overflow User's Plea for Reform

2025-05-10

A Stack Overflow user confesses to violating platform rules by providing excessive Prolog help, realizing it's counterproductive. The root problem? Many Prolog assignments stem from professors who don't understand the language themselves. Students' first encounter is often confusion, not understanding. The user proposes a two-part solution: a small, well-annotated solution database to answer even basic questions, and professor-ready slides for teaching Prolog even with limited expertise. This, combined with a moratorium on solving homework problems directly on Stack Overflow, aims to improve the Prolog learning experience.

(storytotell.org)

Development

MCP: A Protocol in Need of a Major Overhaul?

2025-05-10

MCP: A Protocol in Need of a Major Overhaul?

This article presents a critical analysis of the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The author attempted to build an MCP server, only to find the documentation lacking, design decisions bizarre, and the HTTP transport options (SSE+HTTP and the so-called "Streamable HTTP") overly complex and confusing, far inferior to the simplicity and efficiency of WebSockets. The author argues that MCP's excessive flexibility leads to increased complexity, higher maintenance costs, and security risks. They suggest replacing the existing HTTP transport with WebSockets and simplifying the protocol design for improved usability.

(raz.sh)

Development Protocol Design

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