1. Thunderbird 115 “Supernova”
Total comment counts : 47
Summary
error
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author expresses skepticism about the claim that the latest version of Thunderbird email client is the fastest ever, citing the gradual decrease in speed over the years due to added features and changes to the user experience. They also note that their personal experience with Thunderbird dates back many years and that they have been using the same installation, updating and cloning it to other units. The author’s earliest email in a random folder is from December 1999, indicating that they have been using Thunderbird for more than two decades.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author likes the new layout of an unspecified program and compares it to that of Outlook/Evolution. They have been using Evolution but are now tempted to switch. They also ask for information about the connection between Thunderbird and MS Exchange or OWA.
2. Recreate the cavity-preventing GMO bacteria BCS3-L1 from precursor
Total comment counts : 22
Summary
Lantern Bioworks is seeking funding for BCS3-L1, a genetically engineered bacteria designed to prevent dental cavities. The bacteria was previously tested successfully in animal trials and human volunteers but the developing company declined to market it, instead opting to sell once-daily probiotic mouthwash. Recreating BCS3-L1 is not prevented by law, although the original inventors are the only holders of the organism. Lantern Bioworks is open to receiving funding as an investment and their chances of success are deemed high by the team.
Top 1 Comment Summary
Manifund, a company that just launched a regranting program, did not expect one of their grant proposals to be popular on Hacker News. Austin, one of the co-founders, announced that they are looking for grants to fund.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article mentions the significant impact that fluoridating municipal water systems had on reducing cavities/caries in children after the 1960s in the US. The author believes that the topic of fluoridation should not be ignored in discussions about factors contributing to different outcomes in dental health. Despite suspicions about the potential harm of fluoride, particularly on general health, it has been deemed miraculous in terms of improving teeth health.
3. Simpsons Hit and Run source code (2003)
Total comment counts : 23
Summary
An unknown individual uploaded stolen and slightly cleaned up source code from the 2003 video game “The Simpsons: Hit & Run” for PS2, Xbox, and PC onto a popular code-sharing platform. The person did not include the ‘documents/’ folder in the code because it contains private information about the development team and their project notes, vacation schedules, etc.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article is a personal comment by an individual who recognizes the coding style of a leaked game prototype from developer Radical Entertainment as being similar to the coding style used in games they worked on at Relic Entertainment. The article also contains a reference to a programmer who lectured at SFU, and who sadly passed away a few years ago.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Reubs on YouTube has been remaking the entire game of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic using modern engine, tools, and assets, but unfortunately, it will not be released to the general public. However, fans can still watch and enjoy the progress of the remake on Reubs’ YouTube channel.
4. PCSX2 is an open source PS2 Emulator
Total comment counts : 19
Summary
The article is about a website that is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. If a user triggers the security solution by submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command, or malformed data, they can email the site owner to let them know they were blocked. The user should also include what they were doing when the page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of the page.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article describes how an emulator has been improved with the use of the QT framework, making it smoother and easier to use. However, even with powerful hardware, some games still experience lag. The article includes images of the update dialog and the emulator itself in use.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article discusses the author’s experience using an emulator, which allows users to play original game copies from a computer’s DVD drive and save anywhere they want. The emulator played Grandia III well on a 2012 laptop, though some interlacing settings had to be changed. Taiko no Tatsujin did not work as well. The emulator also supports PS3 and USB-HID controllers.
5. Founder of crypto lender Celsius Network arrested, charged with fraud
Total comment counts : 26
Summary
Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network, has pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud, commodities fraud and wire fraud in the US. Mashinsky, 57, was released on a $40 million bond secured by his Manhattan residence and is charged with artificially inflating the value of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token, Cel. Celsius itself was not charged. Mashinsky is one of several crypto industry figures to be indicted recently in a sector going through a reckoning following a slump in crypto prices, leading to several collapses.
Top 1 Comment Summary
This article emphasizes the importance of journalists to provide links to court documents when reporting news. The article provides links to court documents of different cases including US v Mashinsky, SEC v Celsius, FTC v Celsius, and CFTC v Celsius.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article presents an analogy of a hypothetical scenario in which Pokémon cards become classified as securities and buying and selling them becomes illegal. The writer argues that if this were the case, people who previously promised to buy or sell the cards would become guilty of fraud and market manipulation. The writer also suggests that this analogy could be applied to cryptocurrency and that the future of cryptocurrency is uncertain.
6. Maker Faire Bay Area Returns
Total comment counts : 15
Summary
error
Top 1 Comment Summary
The author recounts a memorable experience at Maker Faire in 2011, where they held phone repair workshops and did a live teardown of a car, receiving multiple awards. They express disappointment that the event has become dominated by large corporate sponsors in recent years, taking away the space for independent makers to showcase their projects. The author hopes that the return of Maker Faire will also bring back the spirit of independent makers.
Top 2 Comment Summary
Open Sauce is a newly created maker event in the Bay Area, organized by William Osman, and scheduled to take place on July 15-16. This event was motivated by the cancellation of Maker Faire, which is why it was created. Although it appears to be sold out already, you can find more information about the event on their website.
7. Xbox360 –> Windows Executable Converter (2017)
Total comment counts : 11
Summary
The article discusses the difficulties involved in converting an Xbox360 game into a PC-compatible format. Technical challenges include differences in CPU and memory layout, encryption, outdated GPU architecture, and inlining of kernel functions. However, the author believes that it is still possible to achieve this conversion and outlines the steps taken to disassemble the game’s code, identify blocks, and generate C++ functions. The final result is a DLL with pointers to all block functions, allowing for easy retrieval of the block containing the code for a given instruction pointer.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article explains that emulators like CXBX for the original Xbox do not work well due to a mismatch between the code and actual Xbox hardware, leading to less surface area for the full system emulator approach. The complexity burden overwhelms the project, causing it to stagnate after some tech demo samples and a couple of bespoke games work okay.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article mentions four different posts on HN related to gaming emulators in the last 12 hours, including Xbox360 to Windows converter, leaked source code for The Simpsons Hit and Run, open source PS2 Emulator PCSX2, and Xenia, an Xbox 360 emulator.
8. Figma Is a File Editor
Total comment counts : 13
Summary
The article discusses the challenges faced by developers when trying to ship desktop-class apps to the browser, particularly when it comes to file editors, which do not translate as naturally to web architecture as database apps. The article uses Figma as an example of a file editor that runs in the browser and explains how Figma’s infrastructure avoids problems that could arise from treating S3 as a network file system. Instead, Figma loads files in two places, writes back only the changed data, and stores file metadata in a Postgres database. The article concludes by discussing Jamsocket and Plane’s recent introduction of “locking” to guarantee that at most one backend runs per document in an effort to build an open-source document database that takes a similar approach to Figma.
Top 1 Comment Summary
CloudFlare’s new Durable Objects can ensure synchronization between multiple users who open the same Fig file concurrently. This helps eliminate race conditions without overloading databases. Durable Objects also offer a transactional storage capability, which helps in scaling write transactions without melting the database. The article argues that Durable Objects could be useful for more demanding backends, and recommends separating metadata and “blobs” data for better organization.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The author of the article praises the impressive technology behind Figma but criticizes the fact that current collaborative tools are expected to be used collaboratively all the time. They claim that they only spend around 10% of their time using Figma for collaboration and the remaining 90% of their time is spent working alone. The author argues that an “offline mode” would be a valuable feature, but this is unlikely since Figma’s entire stack is built around collaboration.
9. Dt: Duck tape for your Unix pipes
Total comment counts : 19
Summary
“dt” is a utility and programming language released as open-source software under the BSD 3-Clause license. It aims to make shell execution ergonomic and allow for high-level, higher-order programming, supplementing other utilities like awk, sed, xargs, and shell built-ins. The language has a minimal syntax and follows a left-to-right evaluation rule, where bindings to values or quotations can be executed with the “do” command. The project is still in its early stages, with documentation being developed and binary downloads available on its releases page.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article explains that the word “duck” in reference to cotton duck fabric comes from the Dutch word “doek” which means “linen canvas”. It links to two Wikipedia pages, one about Vesta Stoudt and another about cotton duck fabric.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is about Nushell, a tool that structures pipes into lists or tables and provides useful features for manipulating data structures such as inserting/updating rows and cells, string interpolation, case transformation, and more.
10. Xenia: Xbox 360 Emulator (2022)
Total comment counts : 6
Summary
Xenia is an open-source research project aimed at emulating Xbox 360 games on modern PCs. It is built for fun and operates under a BSD license. The developers make it clear that any discussions or sharing of information related to illegal activities will not be allowed.
Top 1 Comment Summary
The article discusses the current state of Xbox 360, which is partially supported by newer devices but mostly relies on aging hardware. The article also mentions issues with the Xbox Live store and video streaming apps. However, the MS Video store still works well and offers recent releases. The author suggests that emulation may become the main way to play these older titles because of poor hardware quality.
Top 2 Comment Summary
The article is a brief statement about Xenia, a software program. The author’s opinion is that Xenia is great, and they provide a link to the more popular fork of the program, which they claim is stable and compatible with many games.