A few minutes ago,I successfully posted the first test article using my own Haiku-native Usenet newsreader Item.Took me some time to figure out why...A few minutes ago,I successfully posted the first test article using my own Haiku-native Usenet newsreader Item.Took me some time to figure out why it didn't work initially.Now the basic functionality is there,but there's still much to do before the application is ready for primetime. Show more

Arc Raiders has several missions that test your combat skills and your understanding of the game’s mechanics. One of the early quests that most players encounter is “The Right Tool.” In this guide, I’ll break down how this quest works, what to expect in practice, and tips based on what most players do when they tackle it.What is “The Right Tool” quest about?In general, this quest is designed to familiarize you with upgraded weapons and the mechanics of taking down ARC machines. The story context is minimal: you’re asked to test a new weapon called the Ferro IV on several enemy types.The in-game dialogue is straightforward: Tian Wen asks for a volunteer to test out the upgraded Ferro, saying it should cut through ARC plating easily. Your task is to put this to the test on specific enemies and report back.For most players, this quest serves both as an introduction to weapon upgrades and as a low-risk combat challenge.What are the objectives?“The Right Tool” has a few clear objectives:

1. Destroy a Fireball
2. Destroy a Hornet
3. Destroy a Turret

These are common ARC enemies that players usually encounter in the early areas. In practice, Fireballs and Hornets are mobile targets, while Turrets are stationary and require a slightly different approach.

• Fireballs move quickly, so most players find it easiest to use the Ferro IV’s high damage output and aim for the weak points.
• Hornets often fly in patterns, so patience and timing are key. Waiting for them to come close rather than chasing them usually works better.
• Turrets can be tricky if left unattended because they deal constant damage. In general, players try to take cover and use heavy ammo to destroy them quickly.

Completing these objectives rewards you with in-game items and helps you practice your aiming and weapon handling.Where do I find these enemies?The quest can be completed in three main maps:

1. Dam Battlegrounds – Most players start here because the layout is relatively open, which makes tracking Fireballs and Hornets easier.
2. Spaceport – This map has a mix of open areas and enclosed corridors. Turrets can be tricky here because they often cover choke points.
3. Buried City – Usually the final map in the sequence, it’s more vertical. Players often have to manage line-of-sight and watch for enemies above or below them.

In general, your choice of map doesn’t change the objectives, but it can affect how you approach each enemy.What equipment do I get for this quest?When you start, you are granted:

• Ferro IV – This is the main weapon you’ll test. Most players find it effective against the ARC plating because it deals high damage per shot.
• 20x Heavy Ammo – Useful for turrets or situations where you need to deal a lot of damage quickly.

Additionally, completing the quest gives:

• Cheer (Emote) – Mostly cosmetic, but fun to use in squads.
• 1x Stitcher II – A useful upgrade for your arsenal.
• 1x Extended Light Mag I – Helps with sustained shooting during fights.

In practice, most players rely on the Ferro IV for its efficiency and use heavy ammo sparingly to ensure they don’t run out during the fight.How should I approach the combat?From experience, players usually follow a few basic strategies:

1. Prioritize enemies – Start with Fireballs or Hornets before Turrets. Moving targets are easier to eliminate early while you have full resources.
2. Use cover wisely – Especially in Spaceport or Buried City, cover helps mitigate turret damage.
3. Conserve heavy ammo – Most players reserve it for turrets or when multiple enemies cluster together.
4. Coordinate in squads – If you’re playing with others, dividing targets works well. One player can handle mobile enemies while others focus on stationary ones.

Also, for players looking to maximize their resources, some in-game communities trade or sell blueprints. It is possible to sell ARC Raiders blueprints quickly on U4N , which many players do to free up inventory space or gain in-game credits.What are common mistakes?Based on general player behavior, some mistakes to avoid include:

• Rushing all targets at once – This often leads to running out of ammo or being overwhelmed by Turrets.
• Ignoring map layout – Verticality and choke points can make mobile enemies harder to hit if you aren’t paying attention.
• Wasting heavy ammo on easy targets – Fireballs and Hornets can often be handled with standard ammo, so save heavy ammo for Turrets.

Avoiding these mistakes makes completing the quest smoother and faster.Why is this quest useful?Most players see “The Right Tool” as more than just a tutorial mission. It helps you:

• Get familiar with upgraded weapons.
• Learn enemy behavior for different ARC units.
• Practice aiming and ammo management in real combat scenarios.
• Earn initial upgrades that will be useful in later missions.

In general, completing this quest early gives you a slight advantage, especially in terms of understanding how different weapons interact with enemy plating. “The Right Tool” in Arc Raiders is a straightforward but practical quest. By focusing on enemy priorities, using cover effectively, and managing your ammo, most players can complete it efficiently. The rewards, especially the Ferro IV and related upgrades, are useful for early gameplay. Additionally, the quest introduces strategies that are relevant in almost all subsequent missions, making it a valuable learning experience.For players who want to manage their in-game resources efficiently, knowing that you can sell ARC Raiders blueprints quickly on U4N is a practical tip that fits naturally into the gameplay loop.

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Today I had to deal with AI scrapers DDoSing my OpenGrok instance once again.Oh,how much I hate that.Can't they just,like,clone the Git repository...Today I had to deal with AI scrapers DDoSing my OpenGrok instance once again.Oh,how much I hate that.Can't they just,like,clone the Git repository as every normal person on the planet would do,rather than scraping every single source code page from the web view?My custom Nginx if rules worked well enough for the last months,but now that they started using residential proxys,literally thousands of random IPs,and their requests start to look more like those of a normal browser,I had to add annoying countermeasures.I tried to avoid something like Anubis as long as I could,but in the long run,there's no way around it.I deployed git.swee.codes/swee/sweetCAPTCHA ,which is more lightweight compared to Anubis,but follows the same core principles.It's easy to circumvent if you try,but it works perfectly fine against that stupid sort of bots for now.I hope the problem is now solved for a long time. Show more

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BeAIM is now BumbleBe.For that reason,I released a new version 1.8.0 that contains the new branding (but no difference in functionality).As...BeAIM is now BumbleBe.For that reason,I released a new version 1.8.0 that contains the new branding (but no difference in functionality).As always,you can download it from Codeberg releases at codeberg.org/nikisoft/BumbleBe/releases/tag/1.8.0 or from the Downloads area on this site,or build it from source by cloning the Git repository and running "make package".Note that it doesn't automatically replace BeAIM,so make sure to uninstall BeAIM after installing BumbleBe. Show more

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Translation support in Item is now ready,and to try that everything works as expected,I already created a complete German translation.Now the...Translation support in Item is now ready,and to try that everything works as expected,I already created a complete German translation.Now the integrated viewer/editor is the last missing puzzle piece to finally publish a first release.It may happen next week.No promises yet,but I'm slightly optimistic. Show more

I'm making good progress with Item,my Usenet newsreader project,lately.It does now use the Layout Kit for everything,which fixes various UI glitches...I'm making good progress with Item,my Usenet newsreader project,lately.It does now use the Layout Kit for everything,which fixes various UI glitches and adds support for HiDPI screens.Besides that,I removed support for custom colors and instead use system color constants or hardcoded colors that get mixed/tinted based on system colors,resulting in much improved dark mode support.There's still much to do,however.The next step I'm planning to do is integration with the Locale Kit,so that the UI can be translated to everyones native language.Then,we should probably also have an integrated viewer/editor before releasing the first version to the public. Show more

Yesterday I took some time fixing a number of small bugs in Haiku once again. I should do that more often. Yes, it also means less time for my other...Yesterday I took some time fixing a number of small bugs in Haiku once again. I should do that more often. Yes, it also means less time for my other projects, BeAIM and the Usenet client. However, direct Haiku contributions have the biggest impact for all Haiku users and they'll still have impact many years in the future. Can't think of a more useful thing to spend my time on. Show more

I have now uploaded my Usenet newsreader project to Codeberg, so you guys can see the progress I make and try it out yourself. There are no releases...I have now uploaded my Usenet newsreader project to Codeberg, so you guys can see the progress I make and try it out yourself. There are no releases yet and no binaries you can install, because the project is still missing too much functionality to be generally useful. You can compile it from source if you want to try it.
codeberg.org/nikisoft/Item Show more

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Here's a first preview of Item, my Usenet newsreader project. The editor that shows the article content is not part of Item. I plan to add a...Here's a first preview of Item, my Usenet newsreader project. The editor that shows the article content is not part of Item. I plan to add a built-in article viewer and editor, but that will most likely come later, not in the first release. One of the first things I did was add support for decoding RFC2047-style subjects and authors, without that most entries look broken. There's a lot to do to make Item a modern Haiku application, like using system colors, adding translations with the Locale Kit and improve scaling by using the Layout Kit. Don't expect too much from the first version, but I try to release one soon that at least allows you to read some content. Show more

If you want to chat with other Haiku fans sign up at haikumail.online and then add your new account to the XMPP/Jabber client of choice... If you...If you want to chat with other Haiku fans sign up at haikumail.online and then add your new account to the XMPP/Jabber client of choice... If you need any help just let me know! Show more

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Today I started work on a new project, a native Usenet Newsreader for Haiku. There are two different ones in HaikuArchives, NewsBe:...Today I started work on a new project, a native Usenet Newsreader for Haiku. There are two different ones in HaikuArchives, NewsBe: github.com/HaikuArchives/NewsBe and Item: github.com/HaikuArchives/Item - I found NewsBe a few months earlier and planned to base my work on it, but it crashes frequently and I didn't make a successful network connection with it so far. Item, on the other hand, works without major issues and connects to my newsserver just fine. That it only shows the logged-out content should be rather easy to fix. The major missing puzzle piece is a built-in article viewer and editor, it uses a external text editor that isn't optimized for this task currently. Anyway, I decided for Item to be the base for my modernization efforts, so that Haiku will hopefully soon have a first-class native Usenet experience. Show more

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For a long time I've been looking for a BASIC dialect to extend for Haiku. Not to replace yab, but to act as a lower-tier tool to produce quick CLI...For a long time I've been looking for a BASIC dialect to extend for Haiku. Not to replace yab, but to act as a lower-tier tool to produce quick CLI utilities that still have access to Haiku-specific tools like alert, filepanel and extended attributes. I had some success with bas and yabasic, but it's increasingly looking like BaCon is going to be the one. Show more

Haiku porter is a useful tool

I've just released BeAIM 1.7.1 which fixes several bugs and small annoyances. The most notable changes are that you can now see the profile message...I've just released BeAIM 1.7.1 which fixes several bugs and small annoyances. The most notable changes are that you can now see the profile message and away message of other people (which never worked before), and that I added two small links for registering a new account or resetting a password, so you don't need to find that website yourself. You can download the packages from codeberg.org/nikisoft/BeAIM/releases/tag/1.7.1 or build your own by cloning the repository and running "make package". Have fun! Show more

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To subscribe to a mailing list or not to that is the question

Bugs that only happen randomly sometimes without a way to reliably reproduce them can be really hard to fix.I have now already collected three BeAIM...Bugs that only happen randomly sometimes without a way to reliably reproduce them can be really hard to fix.I have now already collected three BeAIM bugs that I can't reproduce.Unfortunately,they all happened in a release build.Had they happened in the debug build,I could probably have read some details what happened in the Debugger.
- If you close BeAIM with multiple chat windows open,it can sometimes crash with a segmentation fault.
- I had BeAIM just randomly crash,also while multiple windows were open but I wasn't doing anything in that moment.
- The settings file can contain window positions for the same chat multiple,but during my test,it was cleaning up the old entries correctly (maybe my entries were still there from a older version,not sure about that).
Anyway,I'm making good progress towards releasing the next version of BeAIM.Some small annoyances have been fixed already.Maybe I'll finish it in the coming week. Show more

yay I got the latest version of minetest working on haiku but I have to keep the viewing range at 30 or it's unplayable

I hoped I can make some progress on the next BeAIM update today,but without testing that's difficult.The server is super unreliable today.Most times...I hoped I can make some progress on the next BeAIM update today,but without testing that's difficult.The server is super unreliable today.Most times I can't login.Sometimes I can,but then I'm often thrown out after a while.One bugfix is ready now,only waiting for the final test.Maybe it works better later or tomorrow. Show more

pokeing around with webPositive