Best of Hacker News — May 2025

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   Hacker News·50w

   Dotless Domains

   Dotless domains are top-level domains that are accessible directly, without subdomains. These typically involve DNS records such as A/AAAA and MX, allowing direct access. Despite their technical feasibility, both ICANN and IAB oppose dotless domains, with restrictions applied primarily to gTLDs, while ccTLDs vary by country regulation. These domains face challenges in practical use, particularly concerning email protocols, which typically require more comprehensive domain structures.

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   Hacker News·50w

   Social Media via SSH

   itter.sh is a unique SSH-based micro-blogging platform tailored for terminal enthusiasts who prefer simplicity over web interfaces. Users can register and log in using SSH keys, post short messages called 'eets', and interact with others through commands similar to traditional social media features. The platform emphasizes minimalism, nostalgia, and a break from algorithm-driven content.

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   Hacker News·50w

   WebGL Water

   Evan Wallace's WebGL Water demo showcases advanced graphics techniques like raytraced reflections, refractions, and heightfield water simulation. Users can interact with the simulation by creating ripples, rotating the camera, and moving objects. Some features require specific WebGL extensions for enhanced effects.

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   Hacker News·49w

   Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)

   The post discusses the advantages of creating video games without relying on large commercial engines like Unity and Unreal. It highlights personal experiences of using smaller frameworks and open-source libraries such as SDL3 for game development. The author prefers using C# for its performance, accessibility, and modern features, and stresses the importance of controlling the development stack for small indie teams. Tools for rendering, audio, and asset management are examined, with a nod to cross-platform capabilities and the transition to Linux for development.

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   Hacker News·49w

   is-even-ai

   Explore the is-even-ai package which utilizes OpenAI's GPT-3.5-turbo model to check if numbers are even or odd. It offers various functions such as checking equality, greater than, and less than comparisons with examples of implementation. Users can adjust the AI model and temperature for more sophisticated uses.

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   Hacker News·48w

   CSS Minecraft

   Explore a Minecraft clone designed using only HTML and CSS, with no JavaScript involved. For optimal performance, close other tabs and programs. The project utilizes the CSS :has() pseudo-class, requiring an updated browser version for proper functionality.

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   Hacker News·47w

   My website is ugly because I made it

   A developer shares their philosophy on creating personal websites, emphasizing authenticity over perfection. They detail specific CSS techniques used to make their site unique, including rotating navigation links with different fonts, adding texture with CSS-generated dots, and creating hover effects. The piece advocates for embracing imperfection and personal expression in web design rather than following conventional design standards.

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   Hacker News·49w

   My Engineering Craft Regressed

   The author shares their journey of investing significant time in open source projects post-university, only to find job recruiters did not value it. Despite a strong skill set, they struggled to secure lucrative roles, and eventually shifted focus to Leetcode, which resulted in a significant salary increase but caused a regression in their technical skills. Now, they receive high-paying job offers without the same fulfillment they had from their open source work.

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   Hacker News·50w

   jaypyles/Scraperr: Self-hosted webscraper.

   Scraperr is a self-hosted web scraping solution that offers precise data extraction using XPath selectors. It features queue management, domain spidering, custom headers, media downloads, and visualization of results. Users can export data in multiple formats and receive notifications upon completion. Scraperr emphasizes legal and ethical use by respecting `robots.txt`, adhering to Terms of Service, and implementing rate limiting.

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    Hacker News·50w

    voideditor/void

    Void is an open-source alternative to Cursor and a fork of the VSCode repository. It is actively seeking contributors and offers resources like a Discord channel, contribution guidelines, a roadmap, and a changelog for users and developers. The project encourages collaboration and provides support through its Discord server and email.

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    Hacker News·49w

    Introducing Zod 4

    Zod 4 has been released, offering faster and more tsc-efficient performance along with several new features. It introduces improvements such as optimized parsing speeds, reduced tsc instantiations, and a smaller bundle size. Notable new capabilities include Zod Mini for strict bundle size projects, internationalization API, recursive objects, and enhanced error customization and JSON Schema conversion. Zod 4 also focuses on improving the user experience and scalability for larger codebases and schema libraries.

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    Hacker News·51w

    rzane/docker2exe: Convert a Docker image to an executable

    rzane/docker2exe is a tool that allows users to convert Docker images into executables, which can be distributed easily. Users need Docker, GoLang, and gzip installed on their systems to create binaries. By using docker2exe, you can embed a Docker image into an executable, enabling automatic loading if the required image is not present on a system. This approach is particularly effective for small Docker images, resulting in compact executables.

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    Hacker News·49w

    m4xshen/hardtime.nvim: Break bad habits, master Vim motions

    hardtime.nvim is a plugin designed to help Vim users break common inefficient habits and master proficient command motions. It blocks repeated key presses in short intervals, provides hints for faster navigation, and reports frequently seen bad habits. The plugin requires Neovim v0.10 or above and can be customized via configuration files for a tailored experience.

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    Hacker News·48w

    kepano/defuddle: Extract the main content from web pages.

    Defuddle is a tool designed to extract the main content from web pages by removing unnecessary elements like comments, sidebars, and headers. It creates clean HTML documents suitable for HTML-to-Markdown conversion and was intended for use with the Obsidian Web Clipper. Defuddle can serve as a replacement for Mozilla Readability, provides consistent outputs for various elements, and extracts metadata using schema.org. Installation requires npm and for Node.js, JSDOM. The tool is available in core, full, and Node.js bundles and offers configurable options for parsing and content manipulation.

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    Hacker News·51w

    evroon/bracket: Selfhosted tournament system

    Bracket is a self-hosted tournament system designed for easy use, leveraging async Python with FastAPI for the backend and Next.js with Mantine for the frontend. It supports various tournament formats such as single elimination, round-robin, and swiss, and allows for dynamic scheduling and management of tournaments and teams. The system can be run using Docker or independently with pipenv and yarn, and is configured using .env files or environment variables.

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    Hacker News·50w

    How Dare You Transmit at 1.4 GHz!

    NASA's SMAP satellite, known for measuring soil moisture, has unexpectedly detected unauthorized radio frequency emissions in the 1.4 GHz band, which is typically reserved for peaceful observation. These emissions are suspected to be military jamming signals occurring over Ukraine, Crimea, and parts of Russia, indicating electromagnetic warfare. The findings were made using open-source data and Python, highlighting the potential of climate satellites in identifying real-time electronic conflicts.

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    Hacker News·48w

    SVG animation software

    Expressive Animator is a professional SVG animation editor designed for creating stunning animations easily. It offers features like keyframe-based animations, motion paths, and easing editors, and allows import from Figma, PDF, and Adobe Illustrator. Users can export their animations in multiple formats including SVG, Lottie, GIF, and video. The software supports Windows and macOS with a single payment for a lifetime license.

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    Hacker News·49w

    An Asynchronous Coding Agent

    Jules is an asynchronous coding agent designed to streamline developers' workflow. By handling routine tasks like importing repositories, branching changes, and running tests, Jules allows users to focus on more creative coding endeavors. Utilizing Gemini 2.5 Pro, Jules creates plans, verifies changes in a Cloud VM, and produces diffs of proposed edits. Developers interact with Jules by providing prompts and approving changes before publishing them on GitHub.

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    Hacker News·51w

    open-source and privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics that is 10x more intuitive.

    Rybbit is an open-source, privacy-friendly analytics tool that serves as an intuitive alternative to Google Analytics. It offers comprehensive analytics metrics without cookies or user tracking, ensuring GDPR and CCPA compliance. Key features include customizable goals, advanced filtering, real-time dashboards, and support for organizations with unlimited sites. Rybbit can be quickly set up or self-hosted.

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    Hacker News·48w

    Why old games never die (but new ones do)

    Modern video games often become obsolete due to server shutdowns, microtransactions, and lack of modding support, whereas older games maintain longevity through compatibility, dedicated player communities, and player-hosted servers. To ensure new games have lasting appeal, developers should focus on offline functionality, mod support, and giving players more control over game environments.

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    Hacker News·48w

    Sketchy Calendar

    The post explores the idea of combining the convenience of digital calendars with the flexibility and personal touch of paper calendars. It discusses the limitations of current digital calendar apps, which often lack personalization and flexibility, and the unique advantages of paper calendars. The goal is to create a 'sketchy calendar' that offers interconnected views, personalization, and dynamic functionality while maintaining a personalized, sketch-like quality.

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    Hacker News·48w

    LiveStore: Local-first data layer for high-performance apps

    LiveStore is a state management framework utilizing reactive SQLite and event-sourcing for high-performance applications. It replaces traditional libraries like Redux and MobX, offering real-time sync capabilities and a type-safe schema API. LiveStore enables developers to build local-first, offline-first apps with complex data scenarios while providing advanced devtools for an optimal developer experience.

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    Hacker News·47w

    microsandbox/microsandbox: Self-Hosted Plaform for Secure Execution of Untrusted User/AI Code

    Microsandbox is a self-hosted platform for securely executing untrusted code using microVMs that boot in under 200ms. It provides true VM isolation with bulletproof security, supports OCI-compatible container images, and includes built-in MCP support for AI integration. The platform offers SDKs for Python, JavaScript, and Rust, along with project-based development workflows similar to package managers. Key use cases include AI code execution, data analysis, web browsing automation, and instant app hosting.

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    Hacker News·49w

    chatmcp/mcpso: directory for Awesome MCP Servers

    Guidance on setting up and running an MCP server directory, using Supabase for database creation and management. Includes steps for cloning a repository, installing dependencies, setting environment variables, and running a development server for preview.

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    Hacker News·51w

    astral-sh/ty: An extremely fast Python type checker and language server, written in Rust.

    Astral-sh/ty is an extremely fast Python type checker and language server, developed in Rust. The project is still in development and not production-ready. Contributions are welcome, and active development occurs in the Ruff repository. The project is under the MIT license.

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