Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

180 followers 710 following 140 posts

'05, 🇮🇹 | Software dev 👨‍💻 into music production 🎵, illustration 🖍️, app 📱 and game dev 🎮, too. I work on a lot of projects, most of which are still in the works :) (see https://samdev.netlify.app).
My blog ✍️: http://sammed05.github.io/sm_blog

Posts Replies Media Videos

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

This NN visualizer is SO COOL (and it's open source)

nn-vis.noelith.dev

MNIST MLP Visualizer screenshot (taken from GH repo: https://github.com/DFin/Neural-Network-Visualisation)

November 14, 2025 at 8:55 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Even better with this option "Show accent color on Start and taskbar" enabled 🔴

Desktop screenshot with the option "Show accent color on Start and taskbar" enabled, making those two more reddish.

October 17, 2025 at 7:00 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

New taskbar improvement: auto-hide + subdividivision into thee three segments using www.startallback.com

There's also github.com/TranslucentT... for a cool acrylic effect I used in this previous configuration:
bsky.app/profile/sam-...
However, the two programs don't work well together.

New taskbar styling using StartAllBack, light mode.

New taskbar styling using StartAllBack, dark mode and Start menu + Notification opened.

October 17, 2025 at 2:06 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

I remade the extension "Make Trump Tweets Eight Again" from maketrumptweetseightagain.com which converts Trump's tweets into a child's scribble 😂
It wasn't available for Chrome anymore, but now it is!

🔗 Try it here: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/make-...
📜 Source code: github.com/SamMed05/mak...

Trump's tweets written with a font replicating the handwriting of an 8 yo child.

October 15, 2025 at 7:32 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

One cool thing about cyclamens is that the pigmentation pattern on their leaves looks like the Mandelbrot set!

October 13, 2025 at 5:34 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Using Lively Wallpaper and a custom depth map.

Art by ???
(please comment if you know who made this amazing work)

October 5, 2025 at 9:11 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

😌

October 5, 2025 at 9:11 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

- Improved cursor
- Animated background
- Always visible CPU/RAM/Network stats
- Cool audio visualizer
- Automatic light/dark theme switching

I think I reached the ultimate setup 🤩

When I'll switch to Linux, I really hope to be able to replicate this experience as closely as possible.

September 30, 2025 at 10:28 AM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

lol I randomly discovered a young photographer on Threads (@mutinamatyas_photo) that posted almost the same post and photos 6+ times and they blew up every time

Screenshots of @mutinamatyas_photo posts, all basically the same, each one with at least 5K likes

August 30, 2025 at 3:29 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Noticed @voljum.bsky.social removed some tracks from Spotify. I respect the choice, as this platform doesn't pay artists fairly and its CEO's actions are troubling, but it makes me a bit sad I can't listen to them anymore. Most of us are just too used or "stuck" to the platform to switch :(

Single "Basics" by voljum, released in 2018, now removed and grayed out on Spotify

EP "dayescapes" by voljum, released in 2021, now removed and grayed out on Spotify

August 23, 2025 at 4:29 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Someone forgot to change the camera app icon on dark mode

www.sketch.com/s/f63aa308-1...

August 19, 2025 at 12:31 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Simon has made the final counter offer to Riot Games to reacquire Hytale IP and save the game!

🤞 #SaveHytale

Simon (Ex-CEO of Hytale) tweeting "Just made my final counter offer [to Riot], the ONLY chance to see Hytale.

I’m going all in. This is the timeline.

Let’s fucking go."
and
"The offer is 10x what the true market value is.

They have no team, no one can even start or compile the game anymore, I hired most who could and will continue to do so in the coming days.

Hytale is for the players, by the players."

August 12, 2025 at 6:59 AM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

New to this, but I think today's POSEMANIACS pose is slightly out of proportions 😬

www.posemaniacs.com/tools/viewer...

POSEMANIACS screenshot showing a weird human pose which is supposed to be a "Standing pose with sword"

August 10, 2025 at 9:06 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Sad 😞

This is a huge missed opportunity. Maybe Bluesky wasn't ready when it exploded. Now it slowly keeps fading away and its user base shrinking.

Line graph showing daily active users of X (Twitter), Threads, and Bluesky worldwide from June 2023 to July 2025. X is represented by a black line, Threads by a red line showing a gradual increase (almost reaching X user count), and Bluesky by a blue line with a much low number of users.

Dashboard displaying unique active users on Bluesky over a specified time range. Key statistics include 10.1 million unique users posting in the last 30 days, a drop of 16.46% in daily posters, and various metrics showing decreases in daily likes and follows.

July 29, 2025 at 2:36 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

FINALLY!

Thank you @bsky.app 😄

Screenshot of the new feature to get notified when someone posts

July 9, 2025 at 6:10 AM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

News summary: x.com/vicgomlop/st...

And new updates ⬇️
(see x.com/not_mynes/st... for all tweets in text form)

https://x.com/Simon_Hypixel/status/1939853424025014316

https://x.com/Simon_Hypixel/status/1939845791234847087

https://x.com/Simon_Hypixel/status/1939848807086182421

https://x.com/Simon_Hypixel/status/1939855007529980266

July 1, 2025 at 6:18 AM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Ok so, I wrote a little feedback to the Bluesky Team and they were super nice and quick to respond to my (common) feature proposals.

I didn't know about the roadmap, BTW:
bsky.social/about/blog/0...

I'm really rooting for this platform to become better and finally more attractive than X. Please 🙏

A screenshot of the response from Bluesky Customer Support, reading:

"Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback — we really appreciate it!

Many of the features you mentioned, like native notifications, collapsible threads, saved posts, post stats, and improved content recommendations, are already on our roadmap. We fully agree that better discoverability and personalized feeds are key to a great user experience and creator engagement.

We will keep you updated on any developments regarding this feature and you can also view our product feature roadmap and Bluesky's blog.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Your suggestions have been shared with our product team, and we're actively working on improvements."

June 29, 2025 at 9:26 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Maybe my issue with Bluesky is not the recommendation algorithm, but the lack of (among others) funny/cool user interactions, because too few people are using it.

I recently reopened X and immediately found an example of that, which I've not really seen here, and I really miss since when I left X.

A Twitter screenshot shows a user asking about "gomez.png," an image of a dark brown cat found in game files. Another user then jokingly asks, "So like what happens if I were to remove Gomez from the game files..." The the developers sternly replies "Don't you dare"

June 29, 2025 at 1:28 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

The last point is very important. The current activity trend confirms that there's a slow decline in Bluesky usage
bsky.app/profile/sam-...

Both "Discover" and "Popular With Friends" feeds show mostly what *others* like, not what *I* like.

It should be tailored to reflect my own likes and reposts!

Daily Likers chart for Bluesky, almost slipping under 1 million unique likers, in contrast to the 2,5+ million of just a few months ago.

June 29, 2025 at 8:06 AM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

Things are moving... 🤞

Also, for the skeptics, the announcement trailer showcased only real in-engine features. I appreciate the developers' honesty about this.

Unfortunately, these discussions are taking place on X, so we’re missing out on all the updates here on Bluesky 😔

Slikey post on X:
"My wife asked me how my day was and I couldn't stop smiling. Hytale is and was a great idea and I never stopped believing in the vision we had back in 2018. If by any chance this timeline happens, it will be an absolutely wild ride and a massive opportunity to get involved."
https://x.com/slikey_dev/status/1939017636714561750

NinjaCharlieT (Senior Anim Lead at Hytale) on X:
"Hey now, designer of that trailer here. It was rendered ingame using tools and systems we had at the time, many of which lost support in the newer engine direction

The trailer was intentionally sandboxy and feature-focused, highlighting worldgen, exploration and a hint of story.

We had a strict internal rule: nothing shown unless it already existed. All features in the trailer were real, including the playable minigames. Of course, some shots were cinematic cutscenes, but all were in-engine and based on real, working features."
https://x.com/NinjaCharlieT/status/1938168889046929519
https://www.reddit.com/r/HytaleInfo/comments/1lkxuf0/it_was_all_fucking_real/

June 28, 2025 at 7:07 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

A few updates from #SaveHytale.
Maybe there's still hope, even if it's just a 1% chance. It would be *monumental*! But @riotgames.com needs to either save or sell.

For news, check out the discussion on Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/HytaleInfo/
There's also a Discord channel: discord.com/invite/rBxGm...

https://x.com/devolverdigital/status/1938353908407058476

https://x.com/Simon_Hypixel/status/1938944710334148817

https://x.com/tyronmm/status/1938331560849150136

A letter addressed to Riot Games discussing the cancellation of Hytale (credits: https://www.reddit.com/r/HytaleInfo/comments/1lkir8s/our_last_chance/), saying:

"Dear Riot Games,

We know Hytale’s cancellation was a difficult decision made after careful consideration of scope, cost, and feasibility.

Even so, the community is heart-broken to see the project end.

The work of hundreds of developers for the past 10 years, and likely hundreds of millions of dollars, shouldn’t vanish into a vault.

Please consider open-sourcing what you can:

A playable legacy build
The legacy/new engine
The creator/modding tools
The music & lore
Sharing the project would preserve Hypixel Studios’ achievements, earn Riot Goodwill as a champion of game preservation, and require no ongoing support.

Thank you, ❤️
The Hytale community"

June 28, 2025 at 3:32 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

This.

I was about the same age too. I grew up hoping to play it one day, but it will never happen 😞

YouTube comment from user @calebblaze1313 saying "This is heartbreaking. What a waste.
Hypixel Studios had all the hype, all the momentum, and all the backing they needed 6 years ago. 61 million views. Countless creators covering it. Many people - myself included - eagerly waiting to read every blogpost.
The technology they showed in the trailer looked amazing, but the devs let the perfect be the enemy of the good. They wasted years of effort trying to rebuild the game in a new engine. Had they just released a beta on time - even if it was literally JUST what they had shown in the trailer, and incomplete - they could have built it with support from an actively playing community.

I saw this trailer when I was about to turn 15. I was starting high school. Now I'm 21, almost done with university and looking at post-graduate degrees. They spent all that time for nothing, with their fanbase slowly growing up and leaving the game behind.
This had potential to be one of the best games out there, and instead, it died today without even one fan getting to play it.
RIP Hytale"

June 23, 2025 at 5:39 PM

Samuel

@sam-med.bsky.social

hytale.com/news/2025/6/...

This makes me so sad. Cancelling @hytale.com will never be something I accept or understand.

You could have scaled back the scope a bit, released what you had as alpha or at least give the community you created the source code to let Hytale grow in a crowdsourced effort.