1. Leaving Rust gamedev after 3 years

Total comment counts : 78

Summary

In this article, the author shares their personal opinion and experiences with using the Rust programming language for game development. They discuss the common argument that once you gain enough experience with Rust, everything will make sense, and explain that their extensive experience and effort in using Rust for game development has not dispelled their reservations. The author clarifies that their perspective is focused on creating commercially viable games in a relatively short time frame, rather than using game development as a means of learning Rust. They highlight their experience with using Rust for game development, as well as their work as a backend developer. The goal of the article is to serve as a reference for dispelling commonly repeated arguments and to explain why they are likely abandoning Rust as a game development tool, while still engaging in game development. The author also discusses their perception of the Rust community’s focus on technical aspects over the actual game development process. They acknowledge that learning Rust comes with its own set of challenges and patterns, but express frustration with the common response of “you just don’t get it yet” when facing fundamental problems with Rust.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article discusses the use of Rust in developing a metaverse client, specifically for Second Life and Open Simulator servers. The author mentions that there are very few people working on serious 3D game projects in Rust, highlighting the absence of big, popular titles. They agree with the author’s points about the challenges of refactoring and interconnecting different parts of the program. The author also comments on the rendering situation, stating that while it is almost adequate, the 2D GUI systems require too much code. They also agree with the author’s concerns about the excessive use of the “async” system. Despite the mentioned difficulties, the author states that compile times are not a major issue for the metaverse client. However, they acknowledge that those using C# and Unity are making faster progress.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article discusses the author’s perspective on using Rust as a programming language for game development. The author believes that Rust is not a good choice for game development due to their priorities of reasonable performance and fast iteration time. They believe that gameplay code should be flexible to accommodate various edge cases, and that compilation time and programming structure should also be considered. The author also mentions that game engines and other components of game development may require different considerations. Additionally, the author shares their opinion that the Entity Component System (ECS) pattern can be useful for some systems, but is challenging to use with gameplay or UI code.

2. Passkeys: A shattered dream

Total comment counts : 66

Summary

The author of the article expresses frustration with Webauthn, a technology meant to eliminate passwords. They recount their experience creating a Webauthn library and contributing to the standard. However, they mention issues with Chrome’s control over the standard and its lack of implementation of certain features, which hinders the open nature of Webauthn. The author argues that the ability to filter and control authenticator devices is important for businesses with specific security policies. They conclude by criticizing Chrome’s ability to enable its own features, which creates a discrepancy between Google’s needs and the broader goals of Webauthn.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article highlights the concern with passkeys, specifically the lack of trust in the companies that offer them. The author mentions that passkeys are often tied to a specific platform, like Apple, which can lead to lock-in issues. While passkeys provide security by preventing phishing attacks, they also pose problems if Apple deletes the key or if users want to switch devices.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The author argues that discussions about Passkeys often neglect the importance of the “something you know” aspect of security. In the US, authorities have the right to obtain usernames, fingerprints, retina scans, and face IDs, but not information from one’s brain. Passkeys avoid the need for “something you know” by focusing on “something you have,” which the author considers a security nightmare.

3. A BSD person tries Alpine Linux

Total comment counts : 25

Summary

The article discusses the author’s experience with Alpine Linux and highlights some of its features and benefits. Alpine Linux is described as a non-commercial, general-purpose Linux distribution designed for power users who value security, simplicity, and resource efficiency. It is known for its small footprint and proactive security features. The article also mentions that Alpine Linux has been used in embedded systems, routers, mobile devices, and Linux containers. The installation process is described as simple, and the author appreciates the familiarity of the system for BSD users. The article also touches on the package management system and mentions the availability of ZFS. Overall, the author is impressed with Alpine Linux and is considering switching to it as their primary operating system.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article discusses the security aspect of Linux binaries and compares the features of GLIBC and musl, two commonly used C standard libraries. It mentions that all Linux binaries are now compiled with PIE (Position Independent Executable) for increased security. It also highlights that GLIBC has a more hardened heap implementation and offers more mitigations for heap exploits compared to musl, which is used in Alpine. The article concludes that having a small and understandable system like Alpine can be advantageous for security, despite the potential drawbacks of using musl.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article discusses the author’s experience using Alpine Linux as a virtual machine on the bhyve hypervisor. They found Alpine Linux, specifically the busybox variant, to be a lightweight and fast option for running Unix utilities. However, they had to install several packages through the apk package manager to meet their specific needs. The author also mentions their desire for built-in support for ZFS and better integration with bhyve for using ZFS as the backing storage.

4. Jeff Lawson buys The Onion

Total comment counts : 46

Summary

I’m sorry, but I am unable to summarize the content of the article you mentioned as it requires JavaScript to be enabled and ad blockers to be disabled.

Top 1 Comment Summary

I apologize, but I am unable to access or summarize specific website links. However, if you provide the text or key points from the article, I would be happy to assist you in summarizing it.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article mentions a statement made by Twilio founder Jeff Lawson regarding whether he had purchased The Onion. Lawson responded by pretending to be unaware of The Onion and asking about a tetrahedron. Business Insider was uncertain how to react to these remarks.

5. I’m creating PBR Textures and 3D models since 2018 and sharing them for free

Total comment counts : 24

Summary

The article provides an overview of a company that offers high-quality 3D models and textures for various projects. They currently have 37 atlases, 1502 textures, and 184 models, with the numbers increasing daily. The content is copyright-free, meaning it can be used in any project, including commercial ones.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The author of the article expresses their support for the idea of releasing modular asset/utility development to the public domain. They believe that certain things, even if they require a lot of effort to create, are not worth paying for. They also mention that they are willing to contribute to the project once they have finished their current side project. The author finds uniformity in assets important and is interested in conforming to the specifications required. They express gratitude for the altruistic endeavor of providing these assets.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article you shared is a link to a list of free game dev resources on GitHub. The author is asking if there is a recommended tool for creating these materials.

6. The Optimizations in Erlang/OTP 27

Total comment counts : 5

Summary

The article discusses the optimizations made in Erlang/OTP 27, as well as the previous optimizations leading up to it. In Erlang/OTP 27, record operations have been optimized, allowing better performance. The article provides code examples to explain the optimizations and mentions other improvements made in previous versions. The optimization was implemented through pull requests, and a new hint called “inplace” was introduced to determine when to directly update records without copying them. The JIT (Just In Time compiler) is also mentioned as an improvement in Erlang/OTP 24.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The article mentions that OTP 27 will include a new built-in JSON module with potential performance implications for BEAM applications. The author did a benchmark comparing the new module with Elixir’s Jason library and found that it provides a significant performance improvement. The benchmark results suggest that the new JSON module will be beneficial for BEAM applications working with JSON.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article discusses a benchmark that measures the time it takes to convert a binary with 1,262,000 digits to an integer in Erlang/OTP 26. When running the benchmark on an unpatched version, it takes about 10 seconds to finish. However, when using Erlang/OTP 26.0.2, it finishes in approximately 0.4 seconds. The author mentions that while Erlang supports such large integers, it may not be the fastest language for mathematical computations.

7. Pharo 12

Total comment counts : 13

Summary

Pharo has released version 12 of its pure object-oriented programming language. The new version focuses on improvement, clean-up, and modularization, with various usability and speed improvements. One of the highlights is the new debug point system, which supersedes the previous implementation of breakpoints and watchpoints. The system offers configurable, composable, and extensible breakpoints, including traditional ones and new types such as chained-breakpoints. This version was developed with contributions from over 70 different contributors, and the Pharo team extends their gratitude to the community for their support.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The author started a new job in Smalltalk without any previous experience in the language. Despite this, they were able to grasp the codebase within a month because of the tooling and discoverability of the programming environment. The author praises the debugging experience and the fact that everything in Smalltalk follows basic design principles. They also mention their positive experiences with using Pharo in side projects, ranking it as one of their top three programming languages.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The author of the article found a particular programming language/IDE/Runtime difficult to learn due to its strangeness, lack of practical examples, and an overall feeling of being impenetrable. In comparison, they found learning and using Rust, including the ownership system, to be much easier.

8. GQL: A New ISO Standard in Graph Query Language

Total comment counts : 9

Summary

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Top 1 Comment Summary

The article suggests that the ISO GQL standard, which costs 217 CHF to access, should be made available for free if it wants to become a widely used standard. The author argues that in today’s world, most software innovation is driven by open source projects, and standards from organizations like IETF and W3C are available for free. Therefore, the author questions why the ISO GQL standard cannot follow suit and make its specifications freely accessible online.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article discusses Amazon Neptune, a graph database service provided by AWS. It mentions that Neptune supports both Gremlin and Cypher, with AWS stating that Cypher is the pathway to GQL (Graph Query Language). The author expresses their personal hope for Gremlin to go further, but acknowledges that GQL is on track to become the unified language for property graphs in the future. They also mention the need to learn Cypher as more graph database vendors are adopting GQL. The article includes links to the AWS blog post and the Tinkerpop open source project.

9. Visualizing malicious IP addresses

Total comment counts : 26

Summary

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Top 1 Comment Summary

The article provides information about two tools provided by IPinfo: IP map and IP summary. These tools allow users to send IP addresses via an API endpoint and can handle up to 500k IP addresses. Additionally, users can share the generated report via URL.

Top 2 Comment Summary

The article discusses the persistence of a particular IP address, 180.101.88.232, in attempting to log in to SSH servers using password authentication. The author finds it frustrating that this IP address, belonging to ISP ChinaNet Jiangsu Province Network, has been engaging in such activity for a long time. Although the author has implemented security measures like two-factor authentication, they express disappointment that some internet users are indifferent to the security concerns of others.

10. How Penelope Fitzgerald became a late blooming novelist

Total comment counts : 6

Summary

The article discusses novelist Penelope Fitzgerald and her late start in writing fiction. Despite coming from a family of writers and intellectuals, Fitzgerald didn’t publish her first book until she was fifty-eight. The article explores two possible explanations for this late start: her husband’s hindrance and her intense childhood. However, some critics argue that Fitzgerald’s earlier writings, such as childhood stories and anonymous reviews, suggest she wasn’t actually a late starter. The article emphasizes the biographical nature of Fitzgerald’s work, with her early books drawing from her own life experiences.

Top 1 Comment Summary

The author had their first work of fiction published at the age of 45 and has continued to publish at least one story per year since then. They had been writing their whole life but took breaks and had unfinished stories in their notebooks. They pushed themselves back into writing when nearing 40, pursued an MFA, and finally received external validation with their first published story. Despite facing many rejections, the author acknowledges that it is the act of writing itself that defines a writer. They believe that the 45 years of life experiences leading up to their first publication played a significant role in their ability to write something worth publishing.

Top 2 Comment Summary

This article argues for normalizing the idea of “late-blooming,” suggesting that not everyone needs to achieve success in their twenties. It emphasizes that the media tends to focus on young individuals who revolutionize industries, but most entrepreneurs don’t find success or start businesses until their thirties or forties.