# Apr 26, 2024

## Leaving Rust gamedev after 3 years

**After 3 years and over 100k lines of Rust code in game development**, the author shares insights on Rust's limitations for rapid prototyping and iteration in indie game development, highlighting issues with the borrow checker, ECS, and the Rust gamedev ecosystem's focus on technical perfection over practical game development needs.

## Show HN: I made a programmable computer from NAND gates

**NAND is a Turing equivalent 16-bit computer emulated on the web**, featuring its own CPU, machine code, assembly language, and more, based on the Jack-VM-Hack platform from the [Nand to Tetris course](https://www.nand2tetris.org/) and its [associated book](https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Computing-Systems-second-Principles-dp-0262539802/dp/0262539802/ref=dp_ob_title_bk).

## OpenVoice: Instant Voice Cloning

**OpenVoice V2**, released in April 2024, enhances **audio quality** and introduces **native multi-lingual support** for English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, building upon V1's capabilities in **tone color cloning** and **flexible voice style control**. [Paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.01479) \| [Website](https://research.myshell.ai/open-voice)

## Tiny rubber spheres used to make a programmable fluid

Researchers at **Harvard University** have developed a **metafluid** that can change its properties under pressure, using tiny rubber spheres that buckle, offering a new approach to **soft robotics**. [Adel Djellouli/Harvard SEAS](https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2024/04/intelligent-liquid)

## Nintendo forces Garry's Mod to delete 20 years of content

**Nintendo has issued a takedown notice** for all Nintendo-based user content in the Steam Workshop for _Garry's Mod_, a move confirmed by the game's creator, Garry Newman, on Twitter/X.

## What are your horror stories from being tasked impossible ML problems

**ML's effectiveness** is often overestimated by those without a deep understanding, leading to **unrealistic expectations** such as solving problems with **no or useless data**.

## Qwen1.5-110B

**Qwen1.5-110B**, the first model in the Qwen1.5 series with over **100 billion parameters**, achieves **comparable performance** with Meta-Llama3-70B and excels in chat evaluations like MT-Bench and AlpacaEval 2.0.

## The Optimizations in Erlang/OTP 27

**Erlang/OTP 27 introduces significant optimizations for record operations**, enhancing performance by merging consecutive record updates and combining record creation with subsequent updates, as demonstrated through [BEAM code](https://www.erlang.org/blog/a-brief-beam-primer/) improvements.

## Launch HN: Nango (YC W23) – Source-available unified API

**Nango** offers a **source-available unified API** that simplifies the creation of custom integrations for SaaS products, handling over **167 external APIs** and eliminating the need for in-depth API knowledge or complex infrastructure development.

## Removing Reflections from RAW Photos

**A new system** removes **real-world reflections from RAW photos**, utilizing an optional contextual photo from the opposite direction to enhance clarity.

## LLMs: Why does in-context learning work? What exactly is happening from a technical perspective?

**In-context learning** in Large Language Models (LLMs) operates not through cognitive processes but by **statistically weighting tokens** similar to provided examples, enhancing output relevance and accuracy.

## GQL: A New ISO Standard in Graph Query Language

**GQL, or Graph Query Language, has been officially published as an ISO standard**, marking a significant advancement in database technology with its first version released on April 12, 2024, accessible [here](https://www.iso.org/standard/76120.html).

## Stripe de-couples payments from the rest of its stack

**Stripe is de-coupling its payments services** from its broader financial services stack, introducing new embedded finance features and AI tools, aiming to reduce friction and increase flexibility for its customers.

## Survey reveals translators and illustrators losing work to AI

**A third of translators and a quarter of illustrators** have already lost work due to the adoption of generative AI, highlighting the **urgent need for ethical development** and copyright compliance in AI technologies.

## Big Tech and Silicon Valley are transforming the military-industrial complex

The **Pentagon's budget** is increasingly allocated to **AI-enabled systems**, with a significant shift towards **Silicon Valley's big tech** and defense tech startups, highlighting a **transformation** in the military-industrial complex.