Game Devs Explain the Tricks Involved with Letting You Pause a Game

74 speckx 2026-04-19 04:46:24 UTC kotaku.com Llama Share 41

Game developers use various methods to pause games, including manipulating time, freezing frames, and ignoring pause commands for certain functions. Pausing a game can be a complex process, but most modern game engines support it, and developers can implement it with proper testing and consideration of different pause scenarios.

NIST scientists create 'any wavelength' lasers

296 rbanffy 2026-04-18 21:46:24 UTC nist.gov Llama Share 133

Scientists at NIST have developed a way to make integrated circuits for light, which could power emerging technologies like AI, quantum computers, and optical atomic clocks. The new technique allows for the creation of complex circuits that can manipulate light in various ways, potentially making these technologies more powerful and portable.

Anonymous request-token comparisons from Opus 4.6 and Opus 4.7

514 anabranch 2026-04-18 16:46:24 UTC tokens.billchambers.me Full Share 503

Anonymous request-token comparisons from the community, showing how Opus 4.6 and Opus 4.7 differ on real inputs Open source · stored rows contain anonymous submission IDs onlyNot affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.

What are skiplists good for?

60 mfiguiere 2026-04-19 03:46:24 UTC antithesis.com Llama Share 13

The user encountered a problem at Antithesis where they needed to efficiently query a large tree data structure in Google BigQuery, but point lookups were slow. They solved this by inventing a "skiptree" data structure, which is a hierarchy of skiplists that allows for efficient querying with a fixed number of JOINs in SQL.

College instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work

266 gnabgib 2026-04-18 19:46:24 UTC sentinelcolorado.com Llama Share 253

Grit Matthias Phelps, a Cornell University instructor, introduced manual typewriters to her German language class to prevent AI use and teach students the value of writing without digital assistance. The "analog" assignment allowed students to experience the raw feeling of typing without screens, online dictionaries, or delete keys.

The electromechanical angle computer inside the B-52 bomber's star tracker

326 NelsonMinar 2026-04-18 16:46:24 UTC righto.com Llama Share 91

Before GPS, aircraft navigated using celestial navigation, which was automated in the 1960s with the development of the Astro Compass system that used an electromechanical analog computer called the Angle Computer. The Angle Computer physically modeled the celestial sphere to solve the navigational triangle and provide accurate heading and position information to the aircraft navigator.

SI Units for Request Rate (2024)

62 fanf2 2026-04-19 02:46:24 UTC entropicthoughts.com Llama Share 32

Request rates should be measured as the number of requests per second to ensure consistency. Using the becquerel (Bq) unit is suitable for request rates due to its association with average frequency.

Updating Gun Rocket through 10 years of Unity Engine

75 tyleo 2026-04-19 00:46:24 UTC jackpritz.com Llama Share 28

The user is updating their 10-year-old Unity project, Gun Rocket, to the latest version, starting with Unity 5.5 and migrating through various versions, noting changes in Unity's tech and UI along the way. The user successfully updates the project to the latest Unity version, 6000, and fixes various bugs, concluding that simplicity and luck played a significant role in the project's success.

Why Japan has such good railways

398 RickJWagner 2026-04-18 12:46:24 UTC worksinprogress.co Llama Share 363

Japan's railway system excels due to good public policy, business structure, and land use rules, not cultural factors. Its unique model of private companies building cities and capturing value from real estate and commercial side businesses has contributed to its success.

Keep Pushing: We Get 10 More Days to Reform Section 702

42 nobody9999 2026-04-19 07:46:24 UTC eff.org Llama Share 4

Lawmakers blocked a reauthorization of Section 702 with no changes, pushing for a 10-day extension to pass real reform. They want probable cause warrants for FBI access to collected information, not just a blanket reauthorization.

The RAM shortage could last years

20 omer_k 2026-04-19 07:46:24 UTC theverge.com Llama Share 15

Memory makers will meet only 60 percent of demand by 2027 due to production shortages. New fabrication capacity won't be online until 2027 or 2028, exacerbating the RAM shortage.

The world in which IPv6 was a good design

34 signa11 2026-04-19 03:46:24 UTC apenwarr.ca Llama Share 7

The user attended an IETF meeting to learn about TCP BBR and observed the ongoing debate about IPv6 replacing IPv4, which led them to investigate the history of networking protocols and their complexities. The user discovered that the intertwining of ethernet and IP protocols has resulted in a complicated system, making it difficult to imagine a network without MAC addresses and IP addresses, ...

State of Kdenlive

395 f_r_d 2026-04-18 11:46:24 UTC kdenlive.org Llama Share 122

The Kdenlive team made significant progress in 2025, releasing new features, bug fixes, and improvements to the user interface, with a focus on stability and community support. The team is now looking ahead to upcoming features, including 10/12 bit color support, playback optimizations, and OpenFX support, and is grateful for community contributions and donations that enable continued development.

Modern Common Lisp with FSet

145 larve 2026-04-18 20:46:24 UTC fset.common-lisp.dev Full Share 18

Top (Modern Common Lisp with FSet)

Migrating from DigitalOcean to Hetzner

769 yusufusta 2026-04-18 13:46:24 UTC isayeter.com Llama Share 385

A company migrated from DigitalOcean to Hetzner dedicated servers with zero downtime, saving $14,388 per year. The migration involved six phases, including MySQL replication, DNS TTL reduction, and reverse proxy setup.

Optimizing Ruby Path Methods

95 weaksauce 2026-04-18 20:46:24 UTC byroot.github.io Llama Share 35

The author optimized Ruby's Bootsnap and File.join methods to improve performance, reducing setup time and boot time in Ruby applications. The optimizations included load path caching, reducing syscalls, and implementing fast paths for UTF-8 and ASCII encodings.

Binary Dependencies: Identifying the Hidden Packages We All Depend On

9 PaulHoule 2026-04-19 05:46:24 UTC vlad.website Prefix Share 0

On 31 Jan 2026, I gave a talk at FOSDEM 2026 on phantom binary dependencies — packages that we depend on in binary form, even though these dependency relationships are invisible to us. If we cannot reliably identify these phantom dependencies, the sustainability and security of our tech infrastructure will be at risk, which threatens critical services such as hospitals, transportation and the ...

Metatextual Literacy

25 dado3212 2026-04-19 02:46:24 UTC jenn.site Llama Share 3

The author discusses how people misinterpret confessional essays by assuming the writer lacks self-awareness, when in fact the writer may be intentionally portraying themselves in a negative light. This phenomenon is often seen in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and real-life examples like Daniel Oppenheimer's NYT article.

It's cool to care (2025)

7 surprisetalk 2026-04-19 07:46:24 UTC alexwlchan.net Prefix Share 3

I’m sitting in a small coffee shop in Brooklyn. I have a warm drink, and it’s just started to snow outside. I’m visiting New York to see Operation Mincemeat on Broadway – I was at the dress rehearsal yesterday, and I’ll be at the opening preview tonight. I’ve seen this show more times than I care to count, and I hope US theater-goers love it as much as Brits. The people who make the show will ...

Dizzying Spiral Staircase with Single Guardrail Once Led to Top of Eiffel Tower

24 bookofjoe 2026-04-19 02:46:24 UTC smithsonianmag.com Llama Share 9

A section of the original Eiffel Tower staircase is going to auction on May 21, expected to fetch between $141,000 and $176,000. The staircase fragment, owned by a French businessman, is one of 24 sections dismantled in 1983 and recently restored by Eiffel Tower maintenance workers.

Zero-Copy GPU Inference from WebAssembly on Apple Silicon

72 agambrahma 2026-04-18 23:46:24 UTC abacusnoir.com Llama Share 27

The user discovered a zero-copy path for WebAssembly modules to share memory with the GPU on Apple Silicon, eliminating expensive serialization boundaries and enabling near-zero overhead between the CPU and GPU. This discovery is the foundation for a runtime called Driftwood, which will allow stateful AI inference and actor mobility with GPU acceleration, including portable snapshots of ...

Thoughts and feelings around Claude Design

299 cdrnsf 2026-04-18 19:46:24 UTC samhenri.gold Llama Share 193

The author thinks Figma's systemization led to a complex, manual design process that's being replaced by code as the source of truth. This shift will make Figma's infrastructure look outdated.

Sumida Aquarium Posts 2026 Penguin Relationship Chart, with Drama and Breakups

208 Lwrless 2026-04-18 12:46:24 UTC sumida-aquarium.com Full Share 10

The 2026 edition of our penguins relationship chart is finally here! It's fun, adorable, and as complicated as always!

Bypassing the kernel for 56ns cross-language IPC

39 riyaneel 2026-04-19 01:46:24 UTC github.com/riyaneel Llama Share 17

This directory contains Architecture Decision Records for Tachyon, documenting significant design choices and their consequences. New ADRs use a template and are never deleted once accepted.

My first impressions on ROCm and Strix Halo

39 random_ 2026-04-18 22:46:24 UTC blog.marcoinacio.com Llama Share 33

User installed ROCm and Strix Halo on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, requiring a BIOS update and adjusting video memory settings. They successfully ran PyTorch and Qwen3.6 with Podman.

Show HN: MDV – a Markdown superset for docs, dashboards, and slides with data

112 drasim 2026-04-18 15:46:24 UTC github.com/drasimwagan Llama Share 42

The user writes documents, dashboards, and slides in a Markdown superset using a theme and named styles. The rendered output is self-contained HTML and PDF, and can be previewed live in VS Code with auto-reload.

NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating

166 sohkamyung 2026-04-19 00:46:24 UTC science.nasa.gov Llama Share 76

NASA engineers shut down Voyager 1's LECP instrument to conserve power, giving the spacecraft about a year of extra life. The move is part of a plan to extend Voyager operations, with a more ambitious energy-saving fix, called "the Big Bang," planned for later this year.

Scientists discover “cleaner ants” that groom giant ants in Arizona desert

99 t-3 2026-04-18 15:46:24 UTC sciencedaily.com Llama Share 37

Scientists discovered a unique partnership in Arizona's desert where tiny cone ants act as "cleaners" for larger harvester ants, licking and nibbling their bodies. This behavior is the first known example of one ant species cleaning a much larger ant, similar to cleaner fish in the ocean.

Understanding the FFT Algorithm (2013)

90 peter_d_sherman 2026-04-18 16:46:24 UTC jakevdp.github.io Llama Share 9

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a fast algorithm to compute the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) with a time complexity of O[N log N]. It was introduced by JW Cooley and John Tukey in 1965 and exploits symmetries in the DFT computation to achieve this speedup.

Fuzix OS

100 DeathArrow 2026-04-18 15:46:24 UTC fuzix.org Llama Share 25

Fuzix kernel 0.4 has bug fixes, improved interfaces, and a reworked networking layer for modularity. It supports various 8-bit and 16-bit processors.