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[sjsmith56]

Stopping Winter, Chapter 3 - Azzano

Summary: September, 1943. Steven Grant is an agent in Army CIC, trying to keep the 107th away from Azzano without raising suspicion. When the order is given to the Regiment to prepare to move north, Sergeant Bucky Barnes tries to prepare his squad for the worse.

Length: 4.9 K

Characters: General Phillips, Steve Rogers, OMC, Bucky Barnes, Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones, Major Montgomery Falsworth

Warnings and other notes: Explanation of Romani terms were taken from the American Journal of Comparative Law https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2efc49d8-e2f3-48dd-897b-15450cae8fa2/content. If you are of Roma descent and wish to correct me if I got anything wrong, please do. The Romani leader referred to, Jovan Sakić, is portrayed in the one shot Starting From Scratch in the collection From There to Here. He is part of Steve Rogers original timeline before the latter’s return to the past.

<<Chapter 2

Final week of September 1943. Main US Army base, somewhere north of Rome.

"Special Agent Grant, I don't need someone from military intelligence telling me how to do my job," drawled an irritated General Chester Phillips, looking at the man in front of him.

"Sir, with all due respect, my job is to advise you of the possible consequences of the orders you give, especially when they involve full units of soldiers, like the 107th Infantry," replied Grant, who had showed up about a month previous with orders from General Eisenhower himself to provide information to the General on the deployment of HYDRA forces in northern Italy, near the border with Austria.

The fact they were forged orders hadn't yet been discovered. Nor had General Phillips, Agent Peggy Carter, or anyone else who had been in the secret lab when Dr. Erskine was killed been able to notice more than a passing resemblance between Special Agent Steven Grant and Captain America, Steve Rogers, currently finishing up his war bond tour in the United States before coming to Europe to entertain the troops. No one that is, except Howard Stark, already in the know, who had been able to pull strings to get Grant a legitimate commission equivalent to that of a Major in the Counter Intelligence Corps (known as Army CIC). This was the same division that would implement "Operation Paper Clip" at the end of the war, taking custody of German scientists before the Russians did and bringing them to the United States to continue their work. It was the same operation that would allow Arnim Zola free reign to continue his research, an event that Steven Grant wouldn't allow to happen.

It helped that Grant's hair was now dark, and he wore glasses. Like other agents of Army CIC, he wore plain clothes, except for a U.S. collar insignia, to signify he had a rank. He wore a fedora hat and had grown a beard to further disguise his appearance. Unlike other agents he "apparently" didn't speak another language but with Howard's help did find a young corporal, David Rose, whose name was provided to him in 2023 by an American Romani leader who had helped Bucky get to Bucharest in 2014. Apparently, Rose was known to have been involved in undercover work during the war. Fluent in German, Polish, and some Russian, as well as the Roma language, Rose became Grant's translator, and right-hand man in the army camp in Italy, where General Phillips oversaw the deployment of the land army infantry units. That future Romani leader, a man named Jovan Sakić, provided a list of words and symbols to the former Steve Rogers, that would identify him to Rose as a man to trust implicitly. Getting Rose transferred to Army CIC after finding him had been easy, again with Stark's help.

There were times when Grant wondered if this part had happened before as he navigated through this timeline trying to change it enough so that Bucky didn't get taken prisoner in Azzano. Right now, as he looked at the stubborn general, he resisted the urge to grab the man by the throat and shake some sense into him.

"You see, that's what bothers me about you," said General Phillips, interrupting Grant's thoughts, placing his stony gaze on the agent. "Your fixation on the 107th. They're infantry, Special Agent Grant. They're supposed to go into the field, fire their guns, and meet the enemy on the battleground. If you were a real soldier, you would know that."

"Sir, I served," answered Grant, struggling to stay respectful. "I've seen my share of battle, more than my share. That's why I do what I do now. I make sure that no one is sacrificed if they don't need to be. You sending the 107th into the Azzano area to form a second front could result in them being surrounded, cut off from reinforcements, and almost certainly end in major casualties and capture. Why submit them to that if the objective isn't important?"

"All objectives are important," declared Phillips. "That's been decided by better minds than you or me. They're already halfway there so they're the only ones who can be sent in. Now if you don't mind?"

Just like that Grant was dismissed and he stepped outside the tent where Rose was waiting.

"No dice, huh?" asked the brown-haired corporal. "Explain it to me why it's so important to delay the 107th?" Grant glared at him. "Right, you'll be interfering with the natural order of things. You being here has already done that." Grant looked at him with some alarm. "Relax, I heard you and Stark talking over a whiskey. The man isn't exactly discreet when he's had a few."

Taking the young corporal by the arm Grant led him to an area out of earshot. "Just what is it that you think you know?" he asked Rose.

"I think you know about stuff that hasn't happened yet," he said carefully. "It started with the symbols and words you gave me. No outsider I know of is aware of what those words mean to a Roma. Another Roma would have had to give that to you, and no offence, Grant, but you don't seem like the type who would be in with my people. How did you know my background? It's not on my enlistment papers so someone had to tell you and no one in my family would, unless I was needed for something big. I'm not going to blow your cover. I just want to know what's going on."

The taller man looked around, making sure they were still quite alone. "You're right, the words and your name were given to me as someone I could recruit to help me in this time," he said, fixing his gaze on Rose. "Have you ever heard of HYDRA?"

"Yeah, Nazi science division, headed by a guy rumoured to be crazy," said the corporal. "They're up to some crazy shit as well. There are rumours he uses Jews, queers, Roma and PoWs as slave labour and as subjects for experiments."

Steve nodded, realizing Rose knew a lot more than the average soldier. "If the 107th are sent to that northern front it won't work," said Grant. "Most of them will be killed or captured and taken to a HYDRA factory in Austria as slave labour and for several unlucky few, subjects in a project to create their own super soldier."

"You know that as a fact?" It was said as a statement and a question. "Are we going in to hit that factory?"

"It will be hit but not by us," said Grant. "I'm just making sure that the 107th aren't sent in there too early because the guy who does go in to get them doesn't get here for another month. Unless things have changed ...."

Corporal Rose smirked. "My kirvi, my godmother, sometimes sees things," he said. "She's a drabarni, a seer. She'd pull one of us aside at a family gathering, or a wedding, and say she dreamed that we did something or that something will happen to us. Before Pearl Harbour, I was at a gathering and all of the men were sitting, having a drink while the women prepared a feast. My kirvi calls to me. Čhavo, that means boy, come, I must talk to you. Until I get married, I'm considered a boy." He looked up at Grant to make sure he was paying attention. "Someday, you will be in Italy as a soldier and a gadžo, that's a non-Roma man, will need your help. It is meant to be, it is kintala, which is kind of a pairing that balances things. So, I'm here to be your guide in whatever you need to do because what you are doing here is patjivalo, honourable. You can tell me more, if you trust me, but if you don't, I'll still help you. Do you understand?"

Steven nodded, puzzled by this Romani soldier who had so far done everything he had asked of him. Although he had tried to keep the man somewhat at arm's length he realized that perhaps he was meant to confide in him. His knack for languages, and ability to scrounge resources had already proven helpful.

"I'm here to keep my friend from being taken by HYDRA, although that's seeming to become more difficult," said Steven. "I'm also here to prevent some people from being killed, including a pair of Polish-born sisters. They're part Roma, through their mother. They've already been conscripted by the Nazis and will be forced into HYDRA, against their will. In my ... time ... they tried to help my friend who was taken by HYDRA to become their super soldier, completely under their control. Obviously, I'm trying to prevent that from happening to him but I'm also trying to prevent their deaths, and any other people they have as the subjects of their experiments."

"So, you're not from this time?" asked Rose, tentatively.

"Not exactly," said Steven, deciding to go all in with the man. "I was but I ended up frozen in a glacier for over 65 tears. When I was awakened it was the future and I didn't know that my friend had been a prisoner of HYDRA all that time." Rose frowned, not quite understanding. A couple of soldiers were walking nearby, and Grant stopped talking for several minutes before resuming. "Originally, I was Steve Rogers, Captain America. I'll try to change it so the current Captain America, also Steve Rogers doesn't end up in that glacier. So, I'm him but a future him but obviously not the him he is now ... does that make sense?"

A grin spread across Rose's face. "No, but Kirvi Marie said I had to help you so I will. Even if it doesn't make sense. But if you're looking for two specific women of Roma descent, well, that might take some doing. Do you know where they are?"

"I know their names and the countries where they were killed but my coming here may have changed the times." Steven shrugged. "I have leads but basically I'm working on faith here."

"Alright," said Rose, as if he was all in. "We could probably do with some others. I can keep an eye out for the right sort of person, open minded people. It doesn't necessarily mean Roma but you're going to need a team of some sort for us to get to certain places. Let me know where and when things were supposed to happen, and I'll see what I can do."

He stuck his hand out and Steven looked at it. "Is this some secret Roma handshake?" he asked dubiously.

"No, it's just a regular one between two men who have agreed to work together," said Rose, then he muttered. "Secret Roma handshake. Where did you hear that?"

Grinning at each other the two men headed towards the Jeep that had been assigned to them. Rose was right about one thing. This was too big of a job for one or even two men. Special Agent Steven Grant needed to form his own group of open-minded people who could help him find the people that needed saving. He just hoped that Bucky's capture didn't happen this early, well before the USO tour and Steve Rogers arrived to undertake the rescue. That rescue is what led to the Howling Commandos, something that was necessary to the overall task of eliminating HYDRA before they ever infiltrated further. Grimly, he remembered what the Ancient One told him after his arrival that was two years earlier than was expected. It was possible he couldn't stop Bucky from being captured but he still had to look at the big picture, of keeping him from becoming the Winter Soldier.

"Special Agent Grant?"

He knew that voice, having dreamed of it for years. Even when she was an old woman in the throes of dementia it held his attention. Turning to the dark-haired Englishwoman approaching them he tried not to let his thoughts betray him.

"Agent Carter," he replied. "How can I help you?"

"What was that all about?" she asked. "Do you have intelligence on HYDRA movements that we don't?"

"What makes you think I was talking about HYDRA?" he countered. "I didn't mention the name."

"You didn't have to," she replied. "General Phillips is right about one thing. You are fixated on the 107th."

"I read the casualty reports. They've lost about a quarter of their men and now they're going up against some very experienced units of the Wehrmacht. Nothing good will come out of it." She stood there staring at him until he sighed, realizing he had to give her something. "I'll admit that I know some people in the unit. Good men who will give their all. There's nothing in the regulations that says I can't be looking out for our soldiers."

"I didn't think that was a function of Army CIC," she answered guardedly.

"I'm not a regular agent either," he admitted. "Let's just say I've been given the latitude to act independently at times. I may have intelligence that you don't." She began to interrupt but he put his hand up. "I don't have permission to share that intelligence as it may put the sources of it in jeopardy. That's all I can tell you."

Both he and Rose got into the Jeep as she came up to the side of the vehicle. "Then tell me this much," she said, pulling a paper out of her pocket, showing Captain America's upcoming itinerary. "Why did you have this?"

Grant looked at it and allowed the edges of his mouth to curl up in a slight smile. "You've been in my quarters. Let's just say that I disagree with General Phillips decision to leave the man back home, playing at being Captain America. I think he should be given the opportunity to be what he was supposed to be." She looked at him, surprised. "I know all about him, about the process, about the serum, the Vita-Ray radiation. I'm in intelligence, Agent Carter. It's my job to know. When he gets here, I want him to show the world that the war effort needs him. Have a good day, ma'am."

He smiled at her, then nodded at Rose to drive, leaving her standing there, wondering how this strange man from the Army Counter Intelligence Corps knew one of the biggest secrets of the United States war effort. There was something else about him, something familiar, but so far she hadn't been able to figure out what it was. She looked at the itinerary. Whatever Agent Grant was up to it had to have something to do with Steve Rogers, of that she was certain.

Somewhere north of Rome, Italy - 107th Infantry Regiment, last week of September 1943

The company wasn't going to like it, thought Sergeant Bucky Barnes as he left the command tent with the lieutenant and three fellow sergeants. Even the West Point graduate was fuming and stopped to take a cigarette pack out of his pocket, offering one to each of the sergeants and lighting theirs before lighting up his own. They all took a drag then Lieutenant John Heston looked around them to make sure no one was close by.

"Well," he drawled, "at least we know what the objective is. How the hell we're supposed to achieve it with our numbers is beyond me."

Barnes said nothing; neither did the others. It wasn't their job to contradict the lieutenant, especially when he was right. Taking another drag of his cigarette Barnes looked around the camp of newly erected tents, glad they had those finally. Those tents had followed them for weeks as they fought north from Rome, pushing back against the German Wehrmacht infantry divisions but only catching up with the 107th now, giving them decent shelter, including showers and a real mess tent. But now ... now they were being rushed back into action instead of being allowed to rest, heal from their wounds, and wait for reinforcements, as they were down to about 15 men per squad, instead of the 20 each that originally made up the four squads of A Company. The two other companies were facing the same issue. Going north towards the Gothic Line, the plan was to break through and fight right up to the Alps bordering Austria. It was supposed to be a pincer move, cutting off the German divisions still in the eastern half of Italy. Sure, it might work, but with their numbers Barnes doubted they could hold that line long enough. More likely was the chance they would be surrounded by the Wehrmacht and slaughtered.

"I'll give the guys in my squad the bad news," he said to the lieutenant. "At least we get two nights in the tents and hot food."

"Thanks," said the young officer, gratefully. "Gentlemen, I'll see about getting some extra ammo and rations. We're going to need it."

Nodding at each other, Barnes and the other sergeants left Heston there. He felt bad for the guy, as he took his first command seriously and had gone out of his way several times to make sure the men had what they needed. When you got right down to it, he was just as much at the mercy of the generals who thought up this cockamamie scheme as the enlisted men were. As he approached their grouping of tents, he saw Dum Dum sitting out in front of the one they shared, whittling a piece of wood; trying to make another whistle for one of his kids, probably. Even out here, thousands of miles away he was still a doting father. The big man looked up expectantly at Barnes.

"Sarge? What's the news? Are we getting a break from the action?"

"Not likely, Corporal," he said, making Dum Dum wince, as Barnes only ever addressed him by rank whenever it was bad. "Gather the men to meet here asap."

Ten minutes later Sergeant Bucky Barnes had his squad gathered around him. He looked at Dum Dum and Gabe, guys he had been close with through basic training. Most of the others had also been at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin for basic but he didn't get to know them well until they shipped out. A couple of guys were transfers from other units; ones that had been decimated in action. In the three months since they arrived, they had been in the middle of some pretty heavy fighting, going non-stop since landing in Salerno. He coughed, feeling some congestion bothering him, pretty sure his cold was going to get worse before it got better.

"What's the deal, Sarge?" asked Hoskins, a guy from Yonkers. "Are we waiting on reinforcements?"

"No, we're not," admitted Barnes. "We'll get tonight and tomorrow night here then we're back out in country. All three companies. We're headed towards the Gothic Line."

There were groans, not that he could blame them, but it was his job to make sure everyone was ready to do theirs.

"Stop being moaning Minnies," said Barnes. "The lieutenant is going to get us more ammo and rations. Make sure you take as much as you can carry. Wash your socks, check your boots for leaks, make sure your weapons are operational, you know the drill. If you want to write home, do it now or tomorrow morning at the latest. Mail goes out at 16:00 tomorrow. Hand your letters to Corporal Dugan before then. Any questions?"

"Yeah, how do we get out of this chicken shit outfit?" asked Spumoni, a nickname meaning "ice cream" as his real last name was Spinosi, another Brooklyn boy.

"When you find out let me know," joked Barnes. "That's it, that's the announcement. Dismissed."

There was still some mumbling but the others, except for Dum Dum and Gabe, dispersed. Gesturing with his head to follow him, Barnes went inside the tent. Taking his cigarettes out he offered them each one, although they lit theirs up themselves.

"Bucky, how bad is it?" asked Dum Dum.

"We could end up surrounded on all sides," he replied, tiredly. "No chance of reinforcements either. I'm only telling you because I trust you two not to say anything. If I buy the farm, I would appreciate you writing my parents. I'll do the same for you."

"Anyone else?" asked Dum Dum.

"Yeah, Eleanor Warren and I are still friends," smiled Bucky. "Thanks. You can write to Steve Rogers and send it to my parents. They'll make sure he gets it."

The other two men headed out leaving Bucky there as he laid back on his bunk. These latest orders were crazy. They were already low on numbers, plus many of them were fighting illness, either colds like him or worse, dysentery. Still, those weren't considered reasons to stay back, not unless you passed out in front of the general. Even then the stone-faced old bastard would tell you to shake it off. Bucky reached into his pocket for his wallet, pulling out the group picture of his parents, his sister Rebecca, and Steve.

"Glad you're not here, buddy," he said out loud. "Wish I knew what you were doing."

His mother had written him about Steve suddenly being drafted into a special division of the army. It was all hush hush but at least he was back in the States doing whatever it was he was doing, and not here where the conditions would likely kill the little guy. A fit of coughing overtook him again and he rolled onto his side, hoping it would lessen. Fuck, he felt like shit.

Two days later the men of the 107th boarded trucks, heading to a rendezvous closer to the front. They were replacing another battalion; one whose numbers were worse than theirs. Those lucky bastards would get the ride back to the base camp while the men of the 107th would begin advancing deeper towards enemy lines. For several weeks the three companies pressed forward, fighting many battles against the Germans and pushing the line closer towards Austria. With more casualties and injuries that sent soldiers off the line the luck of all three companies of the 107th finally ran out in the third week of October. As feared by Special Agent Steven Grant most of the 107th Regiment became surrounded by five mortar divisions of the German army, near the village of Azzano in northern Italy. They were pounded relentlessly by the bombs, losing many of their commanders, including Lieutenant Heston, in charge of A Company. Barnes, aware that B Company wasn't yet surrounded ordered contact be made for support from them, but their radio had been rendered useless by shrapnel damage. Before he could send a runner, they came under attack by an advance of the German infantry unit attached to the mortar division and retreated to the craters left behind by the mortar attacks, to begin what looked like the final defence of their position.

Out of the darkness blue flashes of light sped towards the German infantry, vaporizing the soldiers as they were hit. Puzzled by what seemed to be support of their position the remaining men in the 107th stood up, watching as a behemoth tank came over the rise, firing at the now retreating German infantry. Suddenly, it stopped, then the turret turned towards them. With several men yelling to take cover in the craters left by the mortar blasts the remaining members of the company huddled there, defenceless against the strange cannon that shot those blue flamed flashes. As quickly as the attack happened it ended and Bucky Barnes, along with the others still alive in his company, were surrounded by troops dressed in black armour-like coverings. As these strange soldiers pointed large rifles at them, seemingly powered by a glowing blue component, the Americans heard a word, aufgeben being yelled at them.

"They want us to surrender," said Private Gabe Jones, fluent in German. "Bucky, what do we do?"

The young sergeant grimaced. "Tell them we surrender. What choice do we have? We can't fight against those guns."

As they were rounded up Barnes asked Dum Dum to estimate a head count. While they were herded away from the battlefield they could see the dead, as well as the other survivors being brought to their position.

"As best as I can tell there's about a hundred of us," said the corporal. "There aren't many from B Company in the dead or in this group so maybe some of them got away and can bring reinforcements to rescue us."

"From that tank?" asked Barnes. "You saw what that cannon fired. We've got nothing that can defend against that. Our war is over, Dum Dum."

More German was yelled at the Americans by the mystery soldiers which Gabe translated into an order for the survivors to march. At first, they stumbled in the dark, overwhelmed by the carnage around them. As more orders were given to increase their pace it seemed anyone unable to keep up were shot and the healthier soldiers began supporting the weaker ones. After marching for what seemed like a long time they were finally ordered to stop and allowed to sit. It was then that transport trucks arrived, and they were loaded into them, jammed shoulder to shoulder, even sitting on the truck bed. It was a rough ride that lasted hours. When it ended and the truck flap lifted from the back of the truck a blast of cool air hit them. Stepping out of the trucks as best they could the men saw they were at a large facility, surrounded by forest and the mountains.

"Where are we?" asked Gabe, in German, receiving a blow to the head for his trouble.

Bucky and Dum Dum sprang to his defence and were both hit down as well, sent to their knees with rifles poked into the back of their necks. At that moment Bucky began coughing and was hit again. Raising his hands in total surrender he calmed himself and was helped back up by Dum Dum and Gabe. The order was given for them to move, and they were shoved through a doorway, into what looked like a factory. As they were pushed and herded through the space, they noticed the workers were PoWs, definitely against the Geneva Convention. Dum Dum brought it up and received a shove in his side that had him ready to fight.

"Easy, Dugan," said Bucky, putting a hand on his arm. "These guys aren't German. Look at their uniforms. They have an octopus symbol with a skull for the head."

"What do you think it means?" asked the big man.

"I don't know but they don't seem to care about treating us right," said the young sergeant. "I need you, Dum Dum, so take it easy."

The prisoners finally reached their destination, a series of round cages with a walkway above it. There were no beds, or chairs, or bathroom facilities. Whoever these people were they didn't seem bothered with treating them as people and Bucky began wondering just what was going to happen to them. The three of them were pushed into a cage with two men already in it. Dugan fell against the one and the man, an Englishman, pushed back against the bigger man, telling him to bloody well stand up. That brought Dugan's fists up, ready to fight the Englishman, a major, by the look of the insignia on his collar.

"Stand down," wheezed Bucky, as he doubled over, coughing again. "Don't waste your energy on fighting amongst ourselves."

The major relaxed then pushed his hand out to Dugan. "My apologies, Corporal," he said precisely. "Major James Montgomery Falsworth. The bastards have been forcing us to compete for food, water, everything. Your sergeant is right that we should stick together."

Dum Dum nodded and grasped the man's hand, shaking it once. "Dum Dum Dugan. What's the deal with these guys?"

"They're called HYDRA," said Falsworth. "Originally the deep science division of the Nazis but their leader has set himself against the Nazis. This factory is in Austria and they're using PoWs to build their weapons and machines. This facility is under the command of a sadist named Colonel Lohmer. Try to avoid his notice. He has killed several men just for displeasing him."

The others introduced themselves but when Bucky began coughing again Falsworth looked at him with concern.

"Try to get better," he suggested. "I know that's an impossible task in these conditions but if you show weakness they will treat you worse. There's a scientist here, a Dr. Zola, who has been performing experiments on the prisoners. He takes the ones who can't work anymore and we never see them again."

Bucky nodded and stood up. From what Dugan told him when he did a head count, he was the highest-ranking soldier left of the 107th Regiment. The other lieutenants were dead or had escaped and there was just him and one other sergeant who was worse off than him. Those who were left of the 107th were his responsibility now and he didn't want to lose anyone. He just hoped that some of B Company managed to escape and would be able to raise the alarm about HYDRA. These guys needed to be stopped but at least they could sabotage what was being built in the factory until they were rescued. At least that was his plan.

Chapter 4>>

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[pyreo]

It's time for another outreach post to see if I can get you interested in guild wars 2!!!!! we kinda have to do our own marketing here. So here's some handpicked reasons why you might want to check it out if you've not heard of it!!

you're not the only hero

You're a hero, for sure, but the other characters are given attention and space to shine. They have their own voices, perspectives and flaws. While the game frames this as your story, there's deft character writing that doesn't always revolve around you, which is something I value about a genre that too often falls back on telling the player they're amazing instead of letting them feel at home.

the enormous list of top tier voice talent

all those well-developed characters are nearly always voiced, barring the incidental occasional text box. Their quirks come through, and there's nailed comedic timing. You don't have to read and read and read, even in the open world - all NPCs have voiced dialogue to engage you in your surroundings. (There's even a whole blog about it! @talk-of-tyria) Here are just SOME of the cast!

no subscription, low FOMO

I'm no fan of games that keep you dangled on the hook for more money. GW2 is a buy-to-keep game. It will never have a monthly fee. In fact, the base game, everything that released on launch, is free to own right now.

You can buy the expansions and episodes as you reach them if you want, or you can wait for a half price sale and get the entire, decade long entire saga for about 50 bucks, and that's a lot of game.

There are no missable items or events, everything will cycle back in, nor any pressure to get your money's worth of a monthly subscription. You're in control of how much you want to play, and you can take a break any time.

no gear treadmill

If you've played other MMOs, you might be familiar with an ever-increasing level cap, constant power creep, and the fear of taking time off from the game leaving your head earned equipment outdated. This is the gear treadmill, a tactic to keep you playing for numbers rather than enjoyment. GW2 doesn't have this.

You can earn armours with different stat boosts, and it stays just as useful as the day you got it. The level cap has never increased. Instead, you complete your character's vertical progression and shift onto horizontal - obtaining cosmetics, unlocking more utility for your mounts, or training abilities to help traverse maps with ease. You never need to 'catch up' when you're not playing.

new trailer and new player boost event

having newly launched on epic store, there's a refreshed official trailer to get a better sense of who you'll be in this world!

To give everyone a welcome bonus, there's a big exp boost in game until Nov 25th, although levelling is quite easy and non-grindy anyways. The game's supposed to be fun, not work.

This isn't even getting into how much I like the map design, the music, the quest overhaul and the sense of community. And the mounts and achievements and the ease of inventory clearing and storing materials. The overall attention to QoL ... did I mention the official, independent wiki with API integration and dialogue transcripts that can even be used in-game?

If you liked the sound of any of this, give it a shot! You can just start playing right now for no money!!! Maybe I'll see you in tyria!

[mariacallous]

Palantir, facing mounting public scrutiny for its work with the Trump administration, took an increasingly defensive stance toward journalists and perceived critics this week, both at a defense conference in Washington, DC, and on social media.

On Tuesday, a Palantir employee threatened to call the police on a WIRED journalist who was watching software demonstrations at its booth at AI+ Expo. The conference, which is hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project, a think tank founded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, is free and open to the public, including journalists.

Later that day, Palantir had conference security remove at least three other journalists—Jack Poulson, writer of the All-Source Intelligence Substack; Max Blumenthal, who writes and publishes The Grayzone; and Jessica Le Masurier, a reporter at France 24—from the conference hall, Poulson says. The reporters were later able to reenter the hall, Poulson adds.

The move came after Palantir spokespeople began publicly condemning a recent New York Times report titled “Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans” published on May 30. WIRED previously reported that Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was building a master database to surveil and track immigrants. WIRED has also reported that the company was helping DOGE with an IRS data project, collaborating to build a “mega-API.”

The public criticism from Palantir is unusual, as the company does not typically issue statements pushing back on individual news stories.

Prior to being kicked out of Palantir’s booth, the WIRED journalist, who is also the author of this article, was taking photos, videos, and written notes during software demos of Palantir FedStart partners, which use the company’s cloud systems to get certified for government work. The booth’s walls had phrases like “REAWAKEN THE GIANT” and “DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP!” printed on the outside. When the reporter briefly stepped away from the booth and attempted to re-enter, she was stopped by Eliano Younes, Palantir’s head of strategic engagement, who said that WIRED was not allowed to be there. The reporter asked why, and Younes repeated himself, adding that if WIRED tried to return, he would call the police.

After the conference ended, Younes responded to a photo from the conference that the reporter posted on X. “hey caroline, great seeing you at the expo yesterday,” he wrote. “can't wait to read your coverage of the event.” Palantir did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.Got a Tip?Are you a current or former government employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at 785-813-1084.

Poulson tells WIRED that he, Blumenthal, and Le Masurier were also watching demos at Palantir’s booth prior to being kicked out. After a Tuesday panel with Younes and Palantir engineer Ryan Fox, Poulson says Le Masurier approached Younes near Palantir’s booth and asked about the company’s work for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. A Palantir employee stepped between them and claimed that Palantir had asked her to leave “multiple times,” according to a video of the interaction viewed by WIRED, and she was escorted out of the conference hall shortly after.

“Apparently, Palantir was so annoyed that they not only kicked her out, but demanded that Max and I be kicked out as well,” Poulson says. “So the security guards came and got us.”

The group was allowed back inside the conference hall after explaining their situation to friendly security guards, Poulson says. The guards asked them to respect any requests from attendees to stop filming.

Some conference organizers appeared to be on high alert after a pro-Palestine demonstrator interrupted a panel with Palantir’s head of defense, Mike Gallagher, on Monday. The demonstrator was subsequently ejected from the conference, Poulson reported. A handful of pro-Palestine activists were also thrown out on Tuesday after disrupting a panel with Eric Schmidt and Thom Shanker, a former Pentagon reporter at the The New York Times. (Palantir formed a partnership with the Israeli military in January 2024, and Google is part of a $1.2 billion cloud contract with the Israeli government.) Poulson tells WIRED that on Wednesday, the conference began mandatory bag-checks at at least one talk.

During Younes’ Tuesday panel with fellow Palantir employee Fox, which was focused on what the two men do at Palantir and why they like working there, Younes made passing references to perceived critics of the company. When talking about the reasons he joined Palantir, he said, “I was sick and tired of people with bad intentions,” Younes said, “many of them who are actually here.” He later added that he’s a “big believer” in the views of Palantir’s cofounders, particularly those of CEO Alex Karp. (Karp is known for his nonapologetic stance toward Palantir’s work with military and defense agencies and immigration authorities.) “Playing a role in helping them, to prove the doubters and the haters wrong, that just feels really good,” Younes said.

On Tuesday, Palantir posted on X claiming the Times article was “blatantly untrue” and said that the company “never collects data to unlawfully surveil Americans.” The Times article did not claim that Palantir buys or collects its own data, though it’s a common misconception that the company does so.

The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment by WIRED.

On Wednesday, Palantir’s official X account continued posting about the Times article on X. “Want to meet Dr. Karp?” the post read. “In 90 seconds, identify the technical errors in this article. DM us a video in the next 24 hours - whoever finds the most inaccuracies gets an interview with him.”

[triviallytrue]

i am not really interested in game development but i am interested in modding (or more specifically cheat creation) as a specialized case of reverse-engineering and modifying software running on your machine

like okay for a lot of games the devs provide some sort of easy toolkit which lets even relatively nontechnical players write mods, and these are well-documented, and then games which don't have those often have a single-digit number of highly technical modders who figure out how to do injection and create some kind of api for the less technical modders to use, and that api is often pretty well documented, but the process of creating it absolutely isn't

it's even more interesting for cheat development because it's something hostile to the creators of the software, you are actively trying to break their shit and they are trying to stop you, and of course it's basically completely undocumented because cheat developers both don't want competitors and also don't want the game devs to patch their methods....

maybe some of why this is hard is because it's pretty different for different types of games. i think i'm starting to get a handle on how to do it for this one game - so i know there's a way to do packet sniffing on the game, where the game has a dedicated port and it sends tcp packets, and you can use the game's tick system and also a brute-force attack on its very rudimentary encryption to access the raw packets pretty easily.

through trial and error (i assume) people have figured out how to decode the packets and match them up to various ingame events, which is already used in a publicly available open source tool to do stuff like DPS calculation.

i think, without too much trouble, you could probably step this up and intercept/modify existing packets? like it looks like while damage is calculated on the server side, whether or not you hit an enemy is calculated on the client side and you could maybe modify it to always hit... idk.

apparently the free cheats out there (which i would not touch with a 100 foot pole, odds those have something in them that steals your login credentials is close to 100%) operate off a proxy server model, which i assume intercepts your packets, modifies them based on what cheats you tell it you have active, and then forwards them to the server.

but they also manage to give you an ingame GUI to create those cheats, which is clearly something i don't understand. the foss sniffer opens itself up in a new window instead of modifying the ingame GUI.

man i really want to like. shadow these guys and see their dev process for a day because i'm really curious. and also read their codebase. but alas

[starmod]

500 mods? LETS PRAY WE DON'T CRASH!

Welcome to the blog where I document my stardew more mods then needed journey,

Give me recomendations for mods to add btw!!!

active mod list, will be updated as we go:

SMAPI - Stardew Modding API

Content Patcher

Stardew Valley Expanded

-stardew valley expanded-

Frontier Farm

Grandpa's Farm

Immersive Farm 2 Remastered

Grampleton Fields

Farm Type Manager (FTM)

CJB Cheats Menu

Generic Mod Config Menu

CJB Item Spawner

NPC Map Locations

Automate

Skull Cavern Elevator

Gift Taste Helper Continued x2

Chests Anywhere

Ridgeside Village

Custom Companions

SpaceCore

Winter Grass

Portraiture

Better Ranching

Bigger Backpack

StardewHack

Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion

Gender Neutrality Mod Tokens

Experience Bars

Elle's Seasonal Buildings

Ladder Locator

Miss Coriel's Unique Courtship Response CORE

Elle's New Barn Animals

Hats Won't Mess Up Hair

East Scarp

DaisyNiko's Tilesheets

Destroyable Bushes

Lumisteria Tilesheets - Indoor

Lumisteria Tilesheets - Outdoor

Mapping Extensions and Extra Properties (MEEP)

Better Artisan Good Icons

Happy Birthday

Stardust Core

Happy Birthday English Content Pack

Fast Animations

More Grass

Diverse Stardew Valley - Seasonal Outfits (DSV)

Cross-Mod Compatibility Tokens (CMCT)

Sprites in Detail

PolyamorySweet

Elle's New Coop Animals

Part of the Community

Better Crafting

No More Bowlegs

Show Birthdays

Custom Kissing Mod

Simple Crop Label

Romanceable Rasmodius - SVE Compatible

Mail Framework Mod

Loved Labels

PPJA - Artisan Valley

Artisan Valley

Artisan Valley - CustomCaskMod Add-On

Artisan Valley - Miller Time Add-On

Json Assets

Expanded Preconditions Utility

Producer Framework Mod

Project Populate JsonAssets Content Pack Collection

Event Lookup

Overgrown Flowery Interface

Overgrown Flowery Interface

Overgrown Flowery DigSpots

Overgrown Flowery Overlays

Industrial Furniture Set - For CP and CF

Mi's and Magimatica Country Furniture

Custom Furniture

Convenient Inventory

Elle's New Horses

Dynamic Reflections

To-Dew

GMCM Options

DeepWoods

Rustic Country Town Interiors

Elle's Cat Replacements

Wildflower Grass Field

Range Display

Elle's Town Animals

Industrial Kitchen and Interior

PPJA - Fruits and Veggies

Nyapu's Portraits inspired by Dong

Vibrant Pastoral Redrawn

MixedBag's Tilesheets

Pony Weight Loss Program

Zoom Level

Date Night

Date Night

Date Night Free Love Version

Event Repeater - A useful tool for Content Patcher Modding

Elle's Dog Replacements

The Farmer's Children (LittleNPC)

LittleNPCs

LittleNPCs

LittleNPCs

PPJA - More Trees

Project Populate JsonAssets Content Pack Collection

Rustic Country Walls and Floors

Rustic Country Walls and Floors

Rustic Country Walls and Floors for Custom Walls and Floors

Better Junimos

Hot Spring Farm Cave

Immersive Farm 2 Remastered (SVE) compatible version

[easylaunchpad]

💳Integrated Payments with Stripe and Paddle: Inside EasyLaunchpad’s Payment Module

When building a SaaS app, one of the first questions you’ll face is:

How will we charge users?

From recurring subscriptions to one-time payments and license plans, payment infrastructure is mission-critical. But implementing a secure, production-grade system can be time-consuming, tricky, and expensive.

That’s why EasyLaunchpad includes a fully integrated payment module with support for Stripe and Paddle — out of the box.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how EasyLaunchpad handles payments, how it simplifies integration with major processors, and how it helps you monetize your product from day one.

💡 The Problem: Payment Integration Is Hard

On paper, adding Stripe or Paddle looks easy. In reality, it involves:

API authentication

Checkout flows

Webhook validation

Error handling

Subscription plan logic

Admin-side controls

Syncing with your front-end or product logic

That’s a lot to build before you ever collect your first dollar.

EasyLaunchpad solves this by offering a turnkey payment solution that integrates Stripe and Paddle seamlessly into backend logic and your admin panel.

⚙️ What’s Included in the Payment Module?

The EasyLaunchpad payment module covers everything a SaaS app needs to start selling:

Feature and Description:

✅ Stripe & Paddle APIs- Integrated SDKs with secure API keys managed via config

✅ Plan Management- Define your product plans via admin panel

✅ License/Package Linking- Link Stripe/Paddle plans to system logic (e.g., access control)

✅ Webhook Support- Process events like successful payments, cancellations, renewals

✅ Email Triggers- Send receipts and billing notifications automatically

✅ Logging & Retry Logic- Serilog + Hangfire for reliability and transparency

💳 Stripe Integration in .NET Core (Prebuilt)

Stripe is the most popular payment solution for modern SaaS businesses. EasyLaunchpad comes with:

Stripe.NET SDK is configured and ready to use

Test & production API key support via appsettings.json

Built-in handlers for:

Checkout Session Creation

Payment Success

Subscription Renewal

Customer Cancellations

No need to write custom middleware or webhook processors. It’s all wired up.

🔁 How the Flow Works (Stripe)

The user selects a plan on your website

The checkout session is created via Stripe API

Stripe redirects the user to a secure payment page

Upon success, EasyLaunchpad receives a webhook event

User’s plan is activated + confirmation email is sent

Logs are stored for reporting and debugging

🧾 Paddle Integration for Global Sellers

Paddle is often a better fit than Stripe for developers targeting international customers or needing EU/GST compliance.

EasyLaunchpad supports Paddle’s:

Inline Checkout and Overlay Widgets

Subscription Plans and One-Time Payments

Webhook Events (license provisioning, payment success, cancellations)

VAT/GST compliance without custom work

All integration is handled via modular service classes. You can switch or run both providers side-by-side.

🔧 Configuration Example

In appsettings.json, you simply configure:

“Payments”: {

“Provider”: “Stripe”, // or “Paddle”

“Stripe”: {

“SecretKey”: “sk_test_…”,

“PublishableKey”: “pk_test_…”

},

“Paddle”: {

“VendorId”: “123456”,

“APIKey”: “your-api-key”

}

}

The correct payment provider is loaded automatically using dependency injection via Autofac.

🧩 Admin Panel: Manage Plans Without Touching Code

EasyLaunchpad’s admin panel includes:

A visual interface to create/edit plans

Fields for price, duration, description, external plan ID (Stripe/Paddle)

Activation/deactivation toggle

Access scope definition (used to unlock features via roles or usage limits)

You can:

Add a Pro Plan for $29/month

Add a Lifetime Deal with a one-time Paddle payment

Deactivate free trial access — all without writing new logic

🧪 Webhook Events Handled Securely

Stripe and Paddle send webhook events for:

New subscriptions

Payment failures

Plan cancellations

Upgrades/downgrades

EasyLaunchpad includes secure webhook controllers to:

Verify authenticity

Parse payloads

Trigger internal actions (e.g., assign new role, update access rights)

Log and retry failed handlers using Hangfire

You get reliable, observable payment handling with no guesswork.

📬 Email Notifications

After a successful payment, EasyLaunchpad:

Sends a confirmation email using DotLiquid templates

Updates user records

Logs the transaction with Serilog

The email system can be extended to send:

Trial expiration reminders

Invoice summaries

Cancellation win-back campaigns

📈 Logging & Monitoring

Every payment-related action is logged with Serilog:

{

“Timestamp”: “2024–07–15T12:45:23Z”,

“Level”: “Information”,

“Message”: “User subscribed to Pro Plan via Stripe”,

“UserId”: “abc123”,

“Amount”: “29.00”

}

Hangfire queues and retries any failed webhook calls, so you never miss a critical event.

🔌 Use Cases You Can Launch Today

EasyLaunchpad’s payment module supports a variety of business models:

Model and the Example:

SaaS Subscriptions- $9/mo, $29/mo, custom plans

Lifetime Licenses- One-time Paddle payments

Usage-Based Billing — Extend by customizing webhook logic

Freemium to Paid Upgrades — Upgrade plan from admin or front-end

Multi-tier Plans- Feature gating via linked roles/packages

🧠 Why It’s Better Than DIY

With EasyLaunchpad and Without EasyLaunchpad

Stripe & Paddle already integrated- Spend weeks wiring up APIs

Admin interface to manage plans- Hardcode JSON or use raw SQL

Background jobs for webhooks- Risk of losing data on failed calls

Modular services — Spaghetti logic in controller actions

Email receipts & logs- Manually build custom mailers

🧠 Final Thoughts

If you’re building a SaaS product, monetization can’t wait. You need a secure, scalable, and flexible payment system on day one.

EasyLaunchpad gives you exactly that:

✅ Pre-integrated Stripe & Paddle

✅ Admin-side plan management

✅ Real-time email & logging

✅ Full webhook support

✅ Ready to grow with your product

👉 Start charging your users — not building billing logic. Get EasyLaunchpad today at: https://easylaunchpad.com

[this-week-in-rust]

This Week in Rust 599

Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Rust! Rust is a programming language empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software. This is a weekly summary of its progress and community. Want something mentioned? Tag us at @thisweekinrust.bsky.social on Bluesky or @ThisWeekinRust on mastodon.social, or send us a pull request. Want to get involved? We love contributions.

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub and archives can be viewed at this-week-in-rust.org. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

Want TWIR in your inbox? Subscribe here.

Updates from Rust Community

Official

Announcing Google Summer of Code 2025 selected projects

Foundation

10 Years of Stable Rust: An Infrastructure Story

Newsletters

This Month in Rust OSDev: April 2025 | Rust OSDev

The Embedded Rustacean Issue #45

Project/Tooling Updates

Avian Physics 0.3

Two months in Servo: CSS nesting, Shadow DOM, Clipboard API, and more

Cot v0.3: Even Lazier

Streaming data analytics, Fluvio 0.17.3 release

CGP v0.4 is Here: Unlocking Easier Debugging, Extensible Presets, and More

Rama v0.2

Observations/Thoughts

Bad Type Patterns - The Duplicate duck

Rust nightly features you should watch out for

Lock-Free Rust: How to Build a Rollercoaster While It’s on Fire

Simple & type-safe localization in Rust

From Rust to AVR assembly: Dissecting a minimal blinky program

Tarpaulins Week Of Speed

Rustls Server-Side Performance

Is Rust the Future of Programming?

Rust Walkthroughs

Functional asynchronous Rust

The Power of Compile-Time ECS Architecture in Rust

[video] Build with Naz : Spinner animation, lock contention, Ctrl+C handling for TUI and CLI

Miscellaneous

April 2025 Rust Jobs Report

Crate of the Week

This week's crate is brush, a bash compatible shell implemented completely in Rust.

Thanks to Josh Triplett for the suggestion!

Please submit your suggestions and votes for next week!

Calls for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization.

If you are a feature implementer and would like your RFC to appear in this list, add a call-for-testing label to your RFC along with a comment providing testing instructions and/or guidance on which aspect(s) of the feature need testing.

No calls for testing were issued this week by Rust, Rust language RFCs or Rustup.

Let us know if you would like your feature to be tracked as a part of this list.

RFCs

Rust

Rustup

If you are a feature implementer and would like your RFC to appear on the above list, add the new call-for-testing label to your RFC along with a comment providing testing instructions and/or guidance on which aspect(s) of the feature need testing.

Call for Participation; projects and speakers

CFP - Projects

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but did not know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

rama - add ffi/rama-rhai: support ability to use services and layers written in rhai

rama - support akamai h2 passive fingerprint and expose in echo + fp services

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here or through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on X (formerly Twitter) or Mastodon!

CFP - Events

Are you a new or experienced speaker looking for a place to share something cool? This section highlights events that are being planned and are accepting submissions to join their event as a speaker.

No Calls for papers or presentations were submitted this week.

If you are an event organizer hoping to expand the reach of your event, please submit a link to the website through a PR to TWiR or by reaching out on X (formerly Twitter) or Mastodon!

Updates from the Rust Project

397 pull requests were merged in the last week

Compiler

async drop fix for async_drop_in_place<T> layout for unspecified T

better error message for late/early lifetime param mismatch

perf: make the assertion in Ident::new debug-only

perf: merge typeck loop with static/const item eval loop

Library

implement (part of) ACP 429: add DerefMut to Lazy[Cell/Lock]

implement VecDeque::truncate_front()

Cargo

network: use Retry-After header for HTTP 429 responses

rustc: Don't panic on unknown bins

add glob pattern support for known_hosts

add support for -Zembed-metadata

fix tracking issue template link

make cargo script ignore workspaces

Rustdoc

rustdoc-json: remove newlines from attributes

ensure that temporary doctest folder is correctly removed even if doctests failed

Clippy

clippy: item_name_repetitions: exclude enum variants with identical path components

clippy: return_and_then: only lint returning expressions

clippy: unwrap_used, expect_used: accept macro result as receiver

clippy: add allow_unused config to missing_docs_in_private_items

clippy: add new confusing_method_to_numeric_cast lint

clippy: add new lint: cloned_ref_to_slice_refs

clippy: fix ICE in missing_const_for_fn

clippy: fix integer_division false negative for NonZero denominators

clippy: fix manual_let_else false negative when diverges on simple enum variant

clippy: fix unnecessary_unwrap emitted twice in closure

clippy: fix diagnostic paths printed by dogfood test

clippy: fix false negative for unnecessary_unwrap

clippy: make let_with_type_underscore help message into a suggestion

clippy: resolve through local re-exports in lookup_path

Rust-Analyzer

fix postfix snippets duplicating derefs

resolve doc path from parent module if outer comments exist on module

still complete parentheses & method call arguments if there are existing parentheses, but they are after a newline

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

Lot of changes this week. Overall result is positive, with one large win in type check.

Triage done by @panstromek. Revision range: 62c5f58f..718ddf66

Summary:

(instructions:u) mean range count Regressions ❌ (primary) 0.5% [0.2%, 1.4%] 113 Regressions ❌ (secondary) 0.5% [0.1%, 1.5%] 54 Improvements ✅ (primary) -2.5% [-22.5%, -0.3%] 45 Improvements ✅ (secondary) -0.9% [-2.3%, -0.2%] 10 All ❌✅ (primary) -0.3% [-22.5%, 1.4%] 158

Full report here

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

No RFCs were approved this week.

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

Tracking Issues & PRs

Rust

Tracking Issue for non_null_from_ref

Add std::io::Seek instance for std::io::Take

aarch64-softfloat: forbid enabling the neon target feature

Stabilize the avx512 target features

make std::intrinsics functions actually be intrinsics

Error on recursive opaque ty in HIR typeck

Remove i128 and u128 from improper_ctypes_definitions

Guarantee behavior of transmuting Option::<T>::None subject to NPO

Temporary lifetime extension through tuple struct and tuple variant constructors

Stabilize tcp_quickack

Change the desugaring of assert! for better error output

Make well-formedness predicates no longer coinductive

No Items entered Final Comment Period this week for Cargo, Rust RFCs, Language Reference, Language Team or Unsafe Code Guidelines.

Let us know if you would like your PRs, Tracking Issues or RFCs to be tracked as a part of this list.

New and Updated RFCs

RFC: Extended Standard Library (ESL)

Upcoming Events

Rusty Events between 2025-05-14 - 2025-06-11 🦀

Virtual

2025-05-15 | Hybrid (Redmond, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group

May, 2025 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup

2025-05-15 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona

Sessió setmanal de codificació / Weekly coding session

2025-05-15 | Virtual (Joint Meetup, Europe + Israel) | Rust Berlin + Rust Paris + London Rust Project Group + Rust Zürisee + Rust TLV + Rust Nürnberg + Rust Munich + Rust Aarhus + lunch.rs

🦀 Celebrating 10 years of Rust 1.0 🦀

2025-05-15 | Virtual (Zürich, CH) | Rust Zürisee

🦀 Celebrating 10 years of Rust 1.0 (co-event with berline.rs) 🦀

2025-05-18 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Rust Readers Discord Discussion: Async Rust

2025-05-19 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Rust 🦀 TLV

Tauri: Cross-Platform desktop applications with Rust and web technologies

2025-05-20 | Hybrid (EU/UK) | Rust and C++ Dragons (former Cardiff)

Talk and Connect - Fullstack - with Goetz Markgraf and Ben Wishovich

2025-05-20 | Virtual (London, UK) | Women in Rust

Threading through lifetimes of borrowing - the Rust way

2025-05-20 | Virtual (Tel Aviv, IL) | Code Mavens 🦀 - 🐍 - 🐪

Rust at Work a conversation with Ran Reichman Co-Founder & CEO of Flarion

2025-05-20 | Virtual (Washington, DC, US) | Rust DC

Mid-month Rustful

2025-05-21 | Hybrid (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust

Linking

2025-05-22 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | Rust Berlin

Rust Hack and Learn

2025-05-22 | Virtual (Girona, ES) | Rust Girona

Sessió setmanal de codificació / Weekly coding session

2025-05-25 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Rust Readers Discord Discussion: Async Rust

2025-05-27 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Fourth Tuesday

2025-05-27 | Virtual (Tel Aviv, IL) | Code Mavens 🦀 - 🐍 - 🐪

Rust at Work - conversation with Eli Shalom & Igal Tabachnik of Eureka Labs

2025-05-29 | Virtual (Nürnberg, DE) | Rust Nuremberg

Rust Nürnberg online

2025-05-29 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Rust 🦀 TLV

שיחה חופשית ווירטואלית על ראסט

2025-06-01 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Rust Readers Discord Discussion: Async Rust

2025-06-03 | Virtual (Tel Aviv-yafo, IL) | Rust 🦀 TLV

Why Rust? למה ראסט? -

2025-06-04 | Virtual (Indianapolis, IN, US) | Indy Rust

Indy.rs - with Social Distancing

2025-06-05 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | Rust Berlin

Rust Hack and Learn

2025-06-07 | Virtual (Kampala, UG) | Rust Circle Meetup

Rust Circle Meetup

2025-06-08 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Rust Readers Discord Discussion: Async Rust

2025-06-10 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust User Meetup

Second Tuesday

2025-06-10 | Virtual (London, UK) | Women in Rust

👋 Community Catch Up

Asia

2025-05-17 | Delhi, IN | Rust Delhi

Rust Delhi Meetup #10

2025-05-24 | Bangalore/Bengaluru, IN | Rust Bangalore

May 2025 Rustacean meetup

2025-06-08 | Tel Aviv-yafo, IL | Rust 🦀 TLV

In person Rust June 2025 at AWS in Tel Aviv

Europe

2025-05-13 - 2025-05-17 | Utrecht, NL | Rust NL

RustWeek 2025

2025-05-14 | Reading, UK | Reading Rust Workshop

Reading Rust Meetup

2025-05-15 | Berlin, DE | Rust Berlin

10 years anniversary of Rust 1.0

2025-05-15 | Oslo, NO | Rust Oslo

Rust 10-year anniversary @ Appear

2025-05-16 | Amsterdam, NL | RustNL

Rust Week Hackathon

2025-05-16 | Utrecht, NL | Rust NL Meetup Group

RustWeek Hackathon

2025-05-17 | Amsterdam, NL | RustNL

Walking Tour around Utrecht - Saturday

2025-05-20 | Dortmund, DE | Rust Dortmund

Talk and Connect - Fullstack - with Goetz Markgraf and Ben Wishovich

2025-05-20 | Aarhus, DK | Rust Aarhus

Hack Night - Robot Edition

2025-05-20 | Leipzig, SN, DE | Rust - Modern Systems Programming in Leipzig

Topic TBD

2025-05-22 | Augsburg, DE | Rust Augsburg

Rust meetup #13:A Practical Guide to Telemetry in Rust

2025-05-22 | Bern, CH | Rust Bern

2025 Rust Talks Bern #3 @zentroom

2025-05-22 | Paris, FR | Rust Paris

Rust meetup #77

2025-05-22 | Stockholm, SE | Stockholm Rust

Rust Meetup @UXStream

2025-05-27 | Basel, CH | Rust Basel

Rust Meetup #11 @ Letsboot Basel

2025-05-27 | Vienna, AT | Rust Vienna

Rust Vienna - May at Bitcredit 🦀

2025-05-29 | Oslo, NO | Rust Oslo

Rust Hack'n'Learn at Kampen Bistro

2025-05-31 | Stockholm, SE | Stockholm Rust

Ferris' Fika Forum #12

2025-06-04 | Ghent, BE | Systems Programming Ghent

Grow smarter with embedded Rust

2025-06-04 | München, DE | Rust Munich

Rust Munich 2025 / 2 - Hacking Evening

2025-06-04 | Oxford, UK | Oxford Rust Meetup Group

Oxford Rust and C++ social

2025-06-05 | München, DE | Rust Munich

Rust Munich 2025 / 2 - Hacking Evening

2025-06-11 | Reading, UK | Reading Rust Workshop

Reading Rust Meetup

North America

2025-05-15 | Hybrid (Redmond, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group

May, 2025 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup

2025-05-15 | Mountain View, CA, US | Hacker Dojo

RUST MEETUP at HACKER DOJO

2025-05-15 | Nashville, TN, US | Music City Rust Developers

Using Rust For Web Series 2 : Why you, Yes You. Should use Hyperscript!

2025-05-15 | Hybrid (Redmond, WA, US) | Seattle Rust User Group

May, 2025 SRUG (Seattle Rust User Group) Meetup

2025-05-18 | Albuquerque, NM, US | Ideas and Coffee

Intro Level Rust Get-together

2025-05-20 | San Francisco, CA, US | San Francisco Rust Study Group

Rust Hacking in Person

2025-05-21 | Hybrid (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust

Linking

2025-05-28 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX

Rust Lunch - Fareground

2025-05-29 | Atlanta, GA, US | Rust Atlanta

Rust-Atl

2025-06-05 | Saint Louis, MO, US | STL Rust

Leptos web framework

South America

2025-05-28 | Montevideo, DE, UY | Rust Meetup Uruguay

Primera meetup de Rust de 2025!

2025-05-31 | São Paulo, BR | Rust São Paulo Meetup

Encontro do Rust-SP na WillBank

If you are running a Rust event please add it to the calendar to get it mentioned here. Please remember to add a link to the event too. Email the Rust Community Team for access.

Jobs

Please see the latest Who's Hiring thread on r/rust

Quote of the Week

If a Pin drops in a room, and nobody around understands it, does it make an unsound? #rustlang

– Josh Triplett on fedi

Thanks to Josh Triplett for the self-suggestion!

Please submit quotes and vote for next week!

This Week in Rust is edited by: nellshamrell, llogiq, cdmistman, ericseppanen, extrawurst, U007D, joelmarcey, mariannegoldin, bennyvasquez, bdillo

Email list hosting is sponsored by The Rust Foundation

Discuss on r/rust

[pentesttestingcorp]

Symfony Clickjacking Prevention Guide

Clickjacking is a deceptive technique where attackers trick users into clicking on hidden elements, potentially leading to unauthorized actions. As a Symfony developer, it's crucial to implement measures to prevent such vulnerabilities.

🔍 Understanding Clickjacking

Clickjacking involves embedding a transparent iframe over a legitimate webpage, deceiving users into interacting with hidden content. This can lead to unauthorized actions, such as changing account settings or initiating transactions.

🛠️ Implementing X-Frame-Options in Symfony

The X-Frame-Options HTTP header is a primary defense against clickjacking. It controls whether a browser should be allowed to render a page in a <frame>, <iframe>, <embed>, or <object> tag.

Method 1: Using an Event Subscriber

Create an event subscriber to add the X-Frame-Options header to all responses:

// src/EventSubscriber/ClickjackingProtectionSubscriber.php namespace App\EventSubscriber; use Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventSubscriberInterface; use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Event\ResponseEvent; use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\KernelEvents; class ClickjackingProtectionSubscriber implements EventSubscriberInterface { public static function getSubscribedEvents() { return [ KernelEvents::RESPONSE => 'onKernelResponse', ]; } public function onKernelResponse(ResponseEvent $event) { $response = $event->getResponse(); $response->headers->set('X-Frame-Options', 'DENY'); } }

This approach ensures that all responses include the X-Frame-Options header, preventing the page from being embedded in frames or iframes.

Method 2: Using NelmioSecurityBundle

The NelmioSecurityBundle provides additional security features for Symfony applications, including clickjacking protection.

Install the bundle:

composer require nelmio/security-bundle

Configure the bundle in config/packages/nelmio_security.yaml:

nelmio_security: clickjacking: paths: '^/.*': DENY

This configuration adds the X-Frame-Options: DENY header to all responses, preventing the site from being embedded in frames or iframes.

🧪 Testing Your Application

To ensure your application is protected against clickjacking, use our Website Vulnerability Scanner. This tool scans your website for common vulnerabilities, including missing or misconfigured X-Frame-Options headers.

Screenshot of the free tools webpage where you can access security assessment tools.

After scanning for a Website Security check, you'll receive a detailed report highlighting any security issues:

An Example of a vulnerability assessment report generated with our free tool, providing insights into possible vulnerabilities.

🔒 Enhancing Security with Content Security Policy (CSP)

While X-Frame-Options is effective, modern browsers support the more flexible Content-Security-Policy (CSP) header, which provides granular control over framing.

Add the following header to your responses:

$response->headers->set('Content-Security-Policy', "frame-ancestors 'none';");

This directive prevents any domain from embedding your content, offering robust protection against clickjacking.

🧰 Additional Security Measures

CSRF Protection: Ensure that all forms include CSRF tokens to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks.

Regular Updates: Keep Symfony and all dependencies up to date to patch known vulnerabilities.

Security Audits: Conduct regular security audits to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.

📢 Explore More on Our Blog

For more insights into securing your Symfony applications, visit our Pentest Testing Blog. We cover a range of topics, including:

Preventing clickjacking in Laravel

Securing API endpoints

Mitigating SQL injection attacks

🛡️ Our Web Application Penetration Testing Services

Looking for a comprehensive security assessment? Our Web Application Penetration Testing Services offer:

Manual Testing: In-depth analysis by security experts.

Affordable Pricing: Services starting at $25/hr.

Detailed Reports: Actionable insights with remediation steps.

Contact us today for a free consultation and enhance your application's security posture.

[bluellab]

How to Choose the Right Tech Stack for Your Web App in 2025

In this article, you’ll learn how to confidently choose the right tech stack for your web app, avoid common mistakes, and stay future-proof. Whether you're building an MVP or scaling a SaaS platform, we’ll walk through every critical decision.

What Is a Tech Stack? (And Why It Matters More Than Ever)

Let’s not overcomplicate it. A tech stack is the combination of technologies you use to build and run a web app. It includes:

Front-end: What users see (e.g., React, Vue, Angular)

Back-end: What makes things work behind the scenes (e.g., Node.js, Django, Laravel)

Databases: Where your data lives (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL)

DevOps & Hosting: How your app is deployed and scaled (e.g., Docker, AWS, Vercel)

Why it matters: The wrong stack leads to poor performance, higher development costs, and scaling issues. The right stack supports speed, security, scalability, and a better developer experience.

Step 1: Define Your Web App’s Core Purpose

Before choosing tools, define the problem your app solves.

Is it data-heavy like an analytics dashboard?

Real-time focused, like a messaging or collaboration app?

Mobile-first, for customers on the go?

AI-driven, using machine learning in workflows?

Example: If you're building a streaming app, you need a tech stack optimized for media delivery, latency, and concurrent user handling.

Need help defining your app’s vision? Bluell AB’s Web Development service can guide you from idea to architecture.

Step 2: Consider Scalability from Day One

Most startups make the mistake of only thinking about MVP speed. But scaling problems can cost you down the line.

Here’s what to keep in mind:

Stateless architecture supports horizontal scaling

Choose microservices or modular monoliths based on team size and scope

Go for asynchronous processing (e.g., Node.js, Python Celery)

Use CDNs and caching for frontend optimization

A poorly optimized stack can increase infrastructure costs by 30–50% during scale. So, choose a stack that lets you scale without rewriting everything.

Step 3: Think Developer Availability & Community

Great tech means nothing if you can’t find people who can use it well.

Ask yourself:

Are there enough developers skilled in this tech?

Is the community strong and active?

Are there plenty of open-source tools and integrations?

Example: Choosing Go or Elixir might give you performance gains, but hiring developers can be tough compared to React or Node.js ecosystems.

Step 4: Match the Stack with the Right Architecture Pattern

Do you need:

A Monolithic app? Best for MVPs and small teams.

A Microservices architecture? Ideal for large-scale SaaS platforms.

A Serverless model? Great for event-driven apps or unpredictable traffic.

Pro Tip: Don’t over-engineer. Start with a modular monolith, then migrate as you grow.

Step 5: Prioritize Speed and Performance

In 2025, user patience is non-existent. Google says 53% of mobile users leave a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

To ensure speed:

Use Next.js or Nuxt.js for server-side rendering

Optimize images and use lazy loading

Use Redis or Memcached for caching

Integrate CDNs like Cloudflare

Benchmark early and often. Use tools like Lighthouse, WebPageTest, and New Relic to monitor.

Step 6: Plan for Integration and APIs

Your app doesn’t live in a vacuum. Think about:

Payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal)

CRM/ERP tools (Salesforce, HubSpot)

3rd-party APIs (OpenAI, Google Maps)

Make sure your stack supports REST or GraphQL seamlessly and has robust middleware for secure integration.

Step 7: Security and Compliance First

Security can’t be an afterthought.

Use stacks that support JWT, OAuth2, and secure sessions

Make sure your database handles encryption-at-rest

Use HTTPS, rate limiting, and sanitize inputs

Data breaches cost startups an average of $3.86 million. Prevention is cheaper than reaction.

Step 8: Don’t Ignore Cost and Licensing

Open source doesn’t always mean free. Some tools have enterprise licenses, usage limits, or require premium add-ons.

Cost checklist:

Licensing (e.g., Firebase becomes costly at scale)

DevOps costs (e.g., AWS vs. DigitalOcean)

Developer productivity (fewer bugs = lower costs)

Budgeting for technology should include time to hire, cost to scale, and infrastructure support.

Step 9: Understand the Role of DevOps and CI/CD

Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) aren’t optional anymore.

Choose a tech stack that:

Works well with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins

Supports containerization with Docker and Kubernetes

Enables fast rollback and testing

This reduces downtime and lets your team iterate faster.

Step 10: Evaluate Real-World Use Cases

Here’s how popular stacks perform:

Look at what companies are using, then adapt, don’t copy blindly.

How Bluell Can Help You Make the Right Tech Choice

Choosing a tech stack isn’t just technical, it’s strategic. Bluell specializes in full-stack development and helps startups and growing companies build modern, scalable web apps. Whether you’re validating an MVP or building a SaaS product from scratch, we can help you pick the right tools from day one.

Conclusion

Think of your tech stack like choosing a foundation for a building. You don’t want to rebuild it when you’re five stories up.

Here’s a quick recap to guide your decision:

Know your app’s purpose

Plan for future growth

Prioritize developer availability and ecosystem

Don’t ignore performance, security, or cost

Lean into CI/CD and DevOps early

Make data-backed decisions, not just trendy ones

Make your tech stack work for your users, your team, and your business, not the other way around.

[manonamora-if]

Retrospective 2023 (2)

See Part 1 for the Retrospective Infographic

2023 has been a rollercoaster of stuff, with some very high-highs, and some pretty low-lows. Things have been pretty busy this year, then got busier and weirder. I didn't manage to do things I wanted to do, ending up doing a lot of different things instead. This year was kinda the perfect storm to do all those new stuff and experimentation I've published.

It's been good, it's been bad, it's been ugly, and it's been cool. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Long post ahead - breaking here.

Goals for 2023

Last year, I made big-ass post about what I hoped to achieved during those next 12 months. The main one being: Get things off my desk and shelf it for good! The goal was to finish WIPs and remasters of "completed" projects.

And I... somewhat did that? But also... did whatever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Taking the list of the "plan":

Goncharov Escapes! was: re-written, re-coded, and translated (to French). The new version also now includes music!

La Petite Mort was: re-written, added content, and translated (to English) for this year's Ectocomp. It just need one more or two things tho

The demo of P-Rix - Space Trucker is now playable on mobile! (and the template based on the game is out too)

The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt didn't get just one but TWO updates last year!

A bunch of templates! 5 to be exact: 3 focused more on visuals (Sci-Fi, VN, Title), and the other 2 more on code (Setting, Charac Creator).

So... what's extra? Well... a lot. Maybe too much...

A lot of new titles under my name: DOL-OS, The Rye in the Dark City (wip), The Roads not Taken, À la Campagne, Entre-d'oeuf coquilles/An Eggcellent Preparation, Collision, Intersigne, Clarence Street 14, The Dinner, In the Blink of an Eye, Tower of Sleep, and Dévoiement. From bite-size to full large game, that makes TWELVE new thing this year! I... may have gone a bit overboard with this...

Aside from the template, I've also worked on the SugarCube Guide, a guide that covers all markup, macros, functions, methods, and APIs of the SugarCube format. From the basics to the very advanced code ~ Which will receive another update when the 2.37 comes out for real.

After the @seedcomp-if, I continued to organised more IF events: Neo-Twiny Jam, Single Choice Jam, Orifice Jam, Bring Out Your Ghost, Bare-Bones Jam, ShuffleComp... and helped out other events (the IFComp, y'all!).

I've been a tad less active on the Tumblr front lately, mainly because I've hung out more on the Forum or the @neointeractives Discord. But I've been plenty active reviewing games, especially since last May (@manonamora-if-reviews). The count is over 300 now...

I made a zine?????

So yeah... A LOT this year. (and there would have been more had I not gotten sick...)

2023 Achievements and Milestones

There were probably a bunch of itch/analytics milestones this year, but... I've tried to stay away from numbers as much as I could, because I realised it was a source of anxiety. I want to make games for fun, not worry that I haven't achieved a certain play level by a certain date. So I've even edited my itch's dashboard to hide it all. (I'm still updating the analytics sheet once in a while tho) And anyway... nothing will ever be as popular as CRWL, even when I'm trying to push other - and much better imo - games down everyone's throats.

Some other stats on itch:

22 [total] games on itch (incl. the experiments & demos) we're getting closer to my goal of 1 game/birthdays

9 free-to-use prompts

7 free-to-use templates

3 coding guides

1 zine

I also participated in 22 different jams and comps, almost always using one game for multiple jams at once (I'm crazy, but not that crazy). I ranked pretty high on multiple jams, which I am really happy about, and got some amazing reviews and lovely comments. A bunch of my games from 2022 were nominated for the IFDB Awards (and two were mentioned in the Top50 IF too)! (maybe next time I'll get a spot too !)

But the major thing coming out of it all was winning a big competition too, with DOL-OS at the start of the year. Holy shit, did that make my year. I really wasn't expecting it because so many of the games that year were incredible! This was such a confidence booster! I think that's my biggest achievement this year. (I just finished the puzzle I won too, and that was loads of fun) I am so so so proud of that game, especially after releasing the remaster.

Some non-numerical achievements I'm happy about:

I continued experimenting this year, with non-linear stories (DOL-OS), shorter and more kinetic content (Neo-Interactive jam entries), and... well... a thing. The experimentation included trying out other programs to make game too!

Speaking of the thing... I've made a monster of a Twine, creating a bad (oh so bad in convention) parser... which I still haven't finished fixing. I talked at length about here.

I've made an actual proper parser game, following the conventions of the medium... and enjoyed it a lot. From creating puzzles to solving the puzzle that was coding it. It didn't rank super high, but it got some good reactions! Making a parser strangely helped me playing them, and appreciate them more.

Has it been a lot of stuff? Yeah... it feels a bit like a lot...

Some 2023 personal things

Like last year, I've continued to struggle with feeling like I was not doing enough during the year (or the month, before doing the monthly dev logs). Not enough words written or progress made. It was a pervasive thing last year, and I've been working on myself to feel less so, especially with all I've been doing anyway this year. But it's still there.

I think I recently found one of the reasons I've been feeling this way: not working on or finishing the WIPs I started with back in 2021 and in 2022, not making substantial progress that would warrant an update... It's been especially hard when seeing other authors churn out updates left and right and I have little to nothing to show for. Maybe that's why I've been compensating with all the new little projects and jam entries throughout the year (and half-way through 2022). I mean... there hasn't been a month where I didn't publish something new, whether it was an update, or a new game, or a template/guide, or brought out a whole-ass remaster of a game.

And by working on those other little things, I think I found myself in some sort of cycle, where the time spent on those new things is not spent on the WIPs, and I start feeling bad about it. But when I open the file, with all that pressure I put myself, nothing gets written or fixed. So I distract myself with a different thing... and I end up not making any progress on the WIP. It sucks, because I want to see those WIPs done. I want to finish those stories. But it's been hard. Who'd have thunk it??? I'm a stupid human being after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know breaking that cycle will happen... when I work on those darn WIPs. I just need to push myself to get there... But I also want to enjoy what I am writing too, because the quality of the writing really sucks when I force it... So silliness has been happening in the meantime.

Will it continue like this? In the near future, most likely. Hopefully not to the extend of the past year and a half. At best, I'd want to have 1-2 updates on a bit WIP, 1-2 new medium-sized games, and a handful small silly experiments, during a year.

Not that I owe anyone an explanation, but anons being nasty about the whole no-progress thing - essentially why @crimsonroseandwhitelily was offline for a whole while, or why I haven't answered many questions lately.

Also gonna take this moment to not address the very personal stuff that happened IRL, even with the very insisting messages I got. I was tempted to go on a whole tangent about what's been going on, but I'm a bit paranoid about my privacy on the internet (and with the anons wilding lately, I've become more careful), and I don't really want IRL to flood this space either (more than it has anyway - considered leaving a few times tbh). I like this specific corner to not be about IRL, to have it as an escape and spend some time just not having to think about it. So yea... you can ask all you want, I'm not going to answer. But it's been a time... I'm coping by being here damnit. Maybe you'll get an(other) autobio game about it one day xD

Here's to a more peaceful state of mind (and inbox) next year...

2023 is OVER officially

And what a fucking year this was. It's made me even more excited to see what 2024 has in store for me.

I want to learn more, for sure. I think I reached a bit of a plateau with SugarCube, where the only thing I feel I haven't tried yet is some sort of RPG adventure/combat system. Or diving further in JavaScript/jQuery (it's inevitable...). Or have less of a spaghetti code... Though it didn't really start as a conscious effort, I'm glad I tried different IF programs and Twine formats this year. It helped me think more about IF game structure and coding. It really pushed me to grow and appreciate the variety there is in IF outside of Tumblr. It did reinforce my love for Twine, especially SugarCube xD

I know I've complained about having done a lot but also not feeling I did enough, but strangely this year has also been pretty fulfilling. Having achieved things I didn't think I could, mess around and create unmentionable bits of code that should not have seen the light of day, learned how to handle new formats, met and talked with a bunch of cool and knowledgeable IF peeps, and just tried to do some good for the community.

I would love to be as fulfilled in this new year too!

I was shocked with all the good things I got in 2022, but I didn't imagine it would be even better this year. How much I got out of this year. How much I got done. How much I learned. How much I grew as a person and a creator. I'm glad I stuck around another year.

I'm really lucky I was able to have the year I had, to be surrounded by such lovely people, to get such positive return on stuff, to be in this community, to have the friends I have, to still be here.

So, thanks for sticking around too, and partake in my silliness :)

[chatbox360suite]

Use the Right Whatsapp Message to Communicate Better To Promote Business

WhatsApp become the right platform for communication in both personal and professional contexts. It reaches a large user base and provides free and easy communication. If you are an official business, you should switch to the WhatsApp Business API. You have to check out the whatsapp message api pricing before going to hire a service. Businesses may incorporate WhatsApp's messaging features into their apps with the help of this potent technology.

Benefits of WhatsApp Business API

For businesses trying to develop relationships with their clients, WhatsApp Business API is a one-time expense. Let us explore the ten greatest benefits of the WhatsApp business API. Capabilities for real-time messaging in one app connected to the cloud are WhatsApp Business API. Real-time message sending and receiving is the biggest benefit. This instantaneous dialogue and interaction with your clients offers immediate assistance and answers their questions. For example, you can answer right away to a customer's question regarding whether a particular product is available. This facilitates effective communication and encourages them to purchase it.

Increased customer satisfaction:

A component of the API enables chatbots or pre-written message templates to provide instantaneous answers to frequently asked questions. This implies that even beyond business hours, clients obtain prompt responses. You can set up an automatic message to respond to a customer's inquiry regarding the shipment status of their order in real-time, guaranteeing their pleasure and cutting down on response time.

Personalized interactions 

It is not feasible to manually compile information about your customers' preferences based on their transactions or interactions. This problem is resolved by the WhatsApp Business API, which collects client data and uses it to provide tailored messages. Provide customized product recommendations to customers based on their past purchases or searches. Customers are drawn to your website by targeted messaging, increasing the likelihood of a successful sale.

Multimedia messaging options

The WhatsApp Business API offers free support for rich multimedia communications, in contrast to regular SMS. Using WhatsApp, you may send your clients documents, photos, videos, and even voice snippets. This creates innovative opportunities for grabbing clients' attention graphically. Send infographics to your clients to highlight your most recent products so they can view the specifics and decide what to buy.

Automated responses and chatbots

WhatsApp Business API's ability to use chatbots and automated responses is one of its main features. You can program responses to be sent out automatically in the event that a consumer contacts your company with a typical question, like finding out the status of an order. With the WhatsApp API, a chatbot may be integrated to offer immediate assistance. Time is saved, and timely and consistent customer service is guaranteed.

Conclusion:

You are able to manage several discussions at once with efficiency. By allocating support agents to individual chats, the API is an excellent method of guaranteeing that clients receive prompt responses. Using automated routing increases client loyalty and happiness. The WhatsApp business API cost helps to provide great support at all times. The WhatsApp Business API enables better response times and round-the-clock accessibility. In contrast to conventional customer care channels that have set hours of operation, WhatsApp allows businesses to offer 24/7 service.

[thedigitalmuseum]

RLUK DSF | Exploring International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) in Cultural Heritage

The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) is a set of open standards for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. It’s also an international community developing and implementing the IIIF APIs. This event is the first in a series exploring and showcasing IIIF in cultural heritage. It begins with an accessible introduction to IIIF highlighting its functionality, APIs, opportunities, tools and the wider IIIF community and is followed by a demonstration of IIIF in action using free tools that anyone can access.

Alison Harvey is based in Cardiff University Special Collections and Archives, where she’s responsible for managing digitisation workflows, and supporting teaching in digital humanities and visual culture. She’s recently completed an RLUK/AHRC-funded fellowship that reviewed free, low infrastructure tools for creating and re-using IIIF images for digital archives and exhibitions.

Glen Robson works for the IIIF Consortium as the IIIF Technical Coordinator giving training and assisting the community to implement IIIF. Before this he spent 13 years working at the National Library of Wales (NLW), latterly as the Head of Systems. Glen started working with the IIIF standard in 2013 and implemented the IIIF standards within the library on its Newspaper, Photograph, Archive, Map and Crowdsourcing Systems.

[adsoperator]

https://www.fiverr.com/s/e2VVrr Hi, I'm a Web Analyst with 5 years of experience. I will help you fix/set infrastructure (Google Analytics 4, Facebook Conversion API, GA4 Ecommerce tracking, Cookie Consent Banner, Google Ads Conversion Tracking, etc.) to track your customer actions through the Server Side with GTM & Data Analysis, as well as enable Data Layer with GTM.

Feel free to message me with any questions.

Without the proper infrastructure (Google Analytics 4, Facebook Conversion API, GA4 Ecommerce tracking, Cookie Consent Banner, Google Ads Conversion Tracking, etc.) set up through Server Side, you may lose lots of data and can't run Remarketing Campaigns well. Moreover, you can't make the right business decisions without analysis.

Don't worry; I'll assist with everything.

My Services:

Setup Google Analytics 4

Facebook Conversion API with Event Match quality

Google Ads Conversion Tracking & Remarketing

Cookie Consent Banner

Enhanced ecommerce & Cross-Domain Track

GA4 Ecommerce tracking

Standard Events (Page_view|View_item|AddToCart|Checkout|Purchase)

Any Custom Event (Button|Link click, etc)

Any Lead Form Track with Field Data

Remarketing Audience on Google Analytics 4

I hope we will work together!

[priya-joshi]

Elevating Your Full-Stack Developer Expertise: Exploring Emerging Skills and Technologies

Introduction: In the dynamic landscape of web development, staying at the forefront requires continuous learning and adaptation. Full-stack developers play a pivotal role in crafting modern web applications, balancing frontend finesse with backend robustness. This guide delves into the evolving skills and technologies that can propel full-stack developers to new heights of expertise and innovation.

Pioneering Progress: Key Skills for Full-Stack Developers

1. Innovating with Microservices Architecture:

Microservices have redefined application development, offering scalability and flexibility in the face of complexity. Mastery of frameworks like Kubernetes and Docker empowers developers to architect, deploy, and manage microservices efficiently. By breaking down monolithic applications into modular components, developers can iterate rapidly and respond to changing requirements with agility.

2. Embracing Serverless Computing:

The advent of serverless architecture has revolutionized infrastructure management, freeing developers from the burdens of server maintenance. Platforms such as AWS Lambda and Azure Functions enable developers to focus solely on code development, driving efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Embrace serverless computing to build scalable, event-driven applications that adapt seamlessly to fluctuating workloads.

3. Crafting Progressive Web Experiences (PWEs):

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) herald a new era of web development, delivering native app-like experiences within the browser. Harness the power of technologies like Service Workers and Web App Manifests to create PWAs that are fast, reliable, and engaging. With features like offline functionality and push notifications, PWAs blur the lines between web and mobile, captivating users and enhancing engagement.

4. Harnessing GraphQL for Flexible Data Management:

GraphQL has emerged as a versatile alternative to RESTful APIs, offering a unified interface for data fetching and manipulation. Dive into GraphQL's intuitive query language and schema-driven approach to simplify data interactions and optimize performance. With GraphQL, developers can fetch precisely the data they need, minimizing overhead and maximizing efficiency.

5. Unlocking Potential with Jamstack Development:

Jamstack architecture empowers developers to build fast, secure, and scalable web applications using modern tools and practices. Explore frameworks like Gatsby and Next.js to leverage pre-rendering, serverless functions, and CDN caching. By decoupling frontend presentation from backend logic, Jamstack enables developers to deliver blazing-fast experiences that delight users and drive engagement.

6. Integrating Headless CMS for Content Flexibility:

Headless CMS platforms offer developers unprecedented control over content management, enabling seamless integration with frontend frameworks. Explore platforms like Contentful and Strapi to decouple content creation from presentation, facilitating dynamic and personalized experiences across channels. With headless CMS, developers can iterate quickly and deliver content-driven applications with ease.

7. Optimizing Single Page Applications (SPAs) for Performance:

Single Page Applications (SPAs) provide immersive user experiences but require careful optimization to ensure performance and responsiveness. Implement techniques like lazy loading and server-side rendering to minimize load times and enhance interactivity. By optimizing resource delivery and prioritizing critical content, developers can create SPAs that deliver a seamless and engaging user experience.

8. Infusing Intelligence with Machine Learning and AI:

Machine learning and artificial intelligence open new frontiers for full-stack developers, enabling intelligent features and personalized experiences. Dive into frameworks like TensorFlow.js and PyTorch.js to build recommendation systems, predictive analytics, and natural language processing capabilities. By harnessing the power of machine learning, developers can create smarter, more adaptive applications that anticipate user needs and preferences.

9. Safeguarding Applications with Cybersecurity Best Practices:

As cyber threats continue to evolve, cybersecurity remains a critical concern for developers and organizations alike. Stay informed about common vulnerabilities and adhere to best practices for securing applications and user data. By implementing robust security measures and proactive monitoring, developers can protect against potential threats and safeguard the integrity of their applications.

10. Streamlining Development with CI/CD Pipelines:

Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are essential for accelerating development workflows and ensuring code quality and reliability. Explore tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, and GitLab CI/CD to automate testing, integration, and deployment processes. By embracing CI/CD best practices, developers can deliver updates and features with confidence, driving innovation and agility in their development cycles.

[soubhagyaside]

Supernotes Review: Best Collaborative Note-Taking App?

Taking notes as a team or studying with friends by sharing notes, we all need a collaborative note-taking app.

Note-taking apps can help you to communicate with the team, and share notes with colleagues, friends, or students.

Supernotes can be a good choice for a collaborative note-taking app and to record your notes and events.

In this article, we will see Supernotes features, and pricing to understand the use cases. We will also discuss some alternatives to supernotes.

Subscribe to Productivity Side Newsletter to get useful productive hacks, tricks, and tips weekly.

What Is Supernotes

Supernotes is a note-taking app that is designed to record your ideas, tasks, and lists effectively. Supernotes has a clean interface and it takes notes as notecards.

Notes are organized with categories and tags and interlink between them like Obsidian and Flomo notes with the Zettelkasten method.

You can share your notes and collaborate with others with this collaborative note-taking app. The app is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, and Android. (Webclippers coming soon.)

Features Of Supernotes

Supernotes is a fully featured note-taking app that you can use for your personal use and professional use. Students can use it to get their study notes and teams can communicate on their projects.

Here are some of the features of Supernotes that are interesting look.

Notes are saved as notecards to make it collaborative and linkable and linked with other notecards with tags.

Take notes offline and sync once you are back online.

Heatmap calendar to look at your note-taking frequency.

Categorize and filter using tags

Universal search to find your notes easily

Notes are secured and encrypted at AES-256

Export your other markdown notes from Roam Research, Google Keep, and Notion.

Share your notes with secured links

These are the features of supernotes. You can use these features to organize your notes and quickly capture your thoughts.

Pricing

Supernotes offer a free and a premium plan. The free plan includes all the features and you will get 100 cards with an additional 20 cards per referral. The free plan also includes access to Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS with limited API access.

The premium plan costs $7.29 USD per month with all features, all device access, full API access, and other benefits. Supernotes also offers a student discount of 50% off to yearly plan.

Alternatives Of Supernotes

There are many good note-taking apps available as alternatives to supernotes. Here are some of the alternatives that you can consider using.

Obsidian: Obsidian is a unique note-taking app that supports a markdown editor, stores notes locally, and interlinks between notes to create a network of notes.

Roam Research: Roam research is also a good alternative for Supernotes. It connects notes with the Zettelkasten method.

Notion: Notion is an all-in-one productive app and you can use this app as a note-taking app to take notes, manage tasks, and collaborate with others. It is not best for quick note-taking.

Google Keep: Google Keep is a free notes app that you can use on Android devices or on the web.

Bear: Bear is a popular note-taking app for iOS users. It has many features that can help you to take better notes.

Apple Notes: Apple Notes is a free iOS app that you can use as an alternative to Supernotes.

In Conclusion

I think this is a good note-taking app to use if you are considering it, it has many features to support your needs and requirements.

It has a clean interface and quick response on notes. In the end, it is your choice to use it or not.

If you are not going to use then you can consider using Obsidian, Roam Research, Notion, and other note-taking apps.

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[javacrypto22]

The Moxy Platform uses blockchain technology to provide a trustworthy Global eSport Token

INTRODUCTION

Moxy claims to be the first and only eSports gaming platform to solve this gap in the industry. There are primarily two components needed for this to occur:

First, developers need access to a simple web3-free tech stack that allows them to add eSport game types to their games.

Second, there has to be a way for the eSport-ready players to get their hands on the game's eSport-enabled build. Nowhere. There is currently no eSports platform accessible to the general public.

You can get both of these features and more via the Moxy Platform. The Moxy Platform uses blockchain technology to provide a trustworthy Global eSport Token, MOXY, which allows instantaneous transactions and safeguards players and publishers against fraud, hacking, and other forms of cybercrime. The Moxy Platform is well-positioned to pioneer this emerging subgenre of video games, as seen by its rapidly expanding user base, novel approaches to game integration, and almost limitless competitive game types offering real prizes in actual games.

THE ECOSYSTEM OF MOXY

Making a platform for esports requires more than just adding a competitive mode to a game. The Moxy Ecosystem is comprised of numerous interdependent parts, such as:

Player Verification for eSports - For legal and safety reasons, players need to be "eSport ready" before they can take part in "Real Competition." A verification process is obligatory for all Moxy Club users.

MOXY - The Global eSports Token, a universal medium of exchange for competitive video gaming.

Moxy's Admin Dashboard - Members, statistics, collectibles and games that members want to be funded and published are all managed here.

The Moxy Club - Moxy Club provides eSport-ready players, the game marketplace, and the game launcher, centralizes all transactions from all games, lets players purchase and administer MOXY, and simplifies governance through voting.

Forge Moxy - This is the primary set of APIs that facilitates communication between games and allows for the creation of eSports.

Founded on Moxy - As a developer, you'll have access to Foundry. To get their games into the Forge, developers must first publish them to Foundry and receive an API key.

Rewarding Moxy Governance - The development of the Moxy Platform relies on the votes cast by Moxy Club members. Members of the Moxy Club who are actively participating and meeting their responsibilities will earn MOXY.

Platform for Moxy- Economy based on the MOXY token and the Flow network. The Moxy Platform is a token economy developed from the ground up, complete with patented smart contracts and an offline signature system written in Cadence.

Token of Play - Secure token balance that no one can hold. As the player base increases, the Moxy Ecosystem converts PLAY tokens into fresh MOXY.

KEY POINTS OF THE MOXY PLATFORM

The following claims are assumed to be correct and empirically verifiable:

• Global eSports can't happen without MOXY, the Global eSport Token.

• There will soon be a fourth subgenre of video games, and it's competitive online play known as eSports. There are now three types of gaming devices on the market: consoles, computers, and smartphones.

• Only blockchain technology offers any hope of ensuring the safety of esports games played in front of an international audience.

• The continued interest in video games depends on the inclusion of eSports game types where players may compete for cash prizes.

PROOF OF PLAYTM, PLAY SCORE, PLATFORM ENGAGEMENT REWARDS SYSTEM

There are three components of the Moxy Ecosystem that must be in sync for the "Proof of Play" incentive system to be implemented. There are three main components: the PLAY token, the SCORE token, and Proof of PlayTM events.

First is the PLAY token. A system must provide daily prizes for Moxy Club members' involvement. That mechanism is PLAY token. It's a worldwide balance that all Moxy Club members can see and generates a daily variable payout to qualified members. As Moxy Club membership grows, so will distribution. No one can own or sell PLAY tokens. PLAY token holders create MOXY, which must be delivered to Moxy Club members because the PLAY token wallet cannot retain it.

Moxy Club members only earn SCORE tokens. SCORE tokens are untradeable. SCORE is acquired through playing games, voting, participating in eSport events, buying games, and more. These behaviors receive different SCORE. Daily incentives increase with SCORE. This rewards active Club members most.

TECHNOLOGY OF MOXY

The Moxy Platform was developed with the Flow Ecosystem in mind. By partnering with Dapper Labs, Moxy is able to take use of the robust and resilient Flow ecosystem. The Moxy Platform could only accept Flow since it fulfilled all of the necessary criteria. The Moxy Platform is based on Flow because of its extensive technology stack, token mechanisms, pre-existing stablecoin and collectibles ecosystem, smart contract architecture, developer tools, and customer support.

Token Flow: The Moxy Foundation keeps MOXY reserves and will sell new MOXY to Moxy Club members based on events and milestones. The inaugural public sale distributes MOXY to the first Moxy Club members who want to play eSports. MOXY will be introduced if new games increase membership demand. For new Moxy Club members to play eSport game types, the Moxy Foundation will assign tokens from the appropriate internal wallet to the "Sale" wallet.

Token Flow Synopsis: The Moxy Club's "hot" wallet is the Moxy Foundation's sale wallet. This wallet accepts credit cards and USDC for MOXY purchases. Moxy Club members may always check the Sale wallet balance and MOXY pricing. Moxy Foundation funds the Sale wallet. The Moxy Foundation may transfer one million MOXY from the Treasury to the Sale wallet. In conclusion, the Moxy Foundation will distribute MOXY and move it from internal cold wallets to public "Sale" wallets.

Token Lifecycle: A Moxy Club member often purchases MOXY through the Sale wallet. Next, the user must deposit MOXY for eSport gaming into their wallet's "Authorized Gaming Balance." The Authorized Gaming Balance's MOXY can be used in any Moxy-enabled game. When the user opens a game, a specific amount of this balance will be shown in the game and utilized, at the player's discretion, when they engage an eSport game mode.

eSport User Flow: Moxy Club membership is required. They must submit KYC paperwork after logging in. The user will automatically receive a wallet after verification. The wallet will pay membership fees. The first MOXY placed to the wallet will cover the Association membership fee. If the membership criterion is 5 MOXY, the member's wallet will redirect the initial 5 MOXY to the Moxy Foundation treasury wallet. One transaction or several transactions.

TOKENOMICS

For more information visit:

WEBSITE: https://moxy.io/ WHITEPAPER: https://moxy.io/whitepaper/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/moxyio TELEGRAM: http://t.me/moxyofficial INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/moxy.io/ LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/Moxyio/ DISCORD: http://discord.gg/moxyio

AUTHOR

Forum Username: Java22 Forum Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3443255 BEP-20 Wallet Address: 0x39aEF5f1cf37c0f1d015435F592Ce632720cB713