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How to run the new RexGlue recompiler for Xbox 360

Reading time2 min
Reach and readers5

Build the project as follows:

This command is for downloading from GitHub: https://github.com/rexglue/rexglue-sdk

Warning: You can download a pre-built .exe file, which will allow you to decompile the game in C++ (but building it is unlikely). Furthermore, versions are updated frequently, and the latest versions (with more instructions) are worth building.

Prepare the necessary directory.
Specify it as REXSDK in the global variables.

Sometimes the project won't compile in x64, so it's worth adding these lines to CMakeList.txt.

Enable Windows developer mode to download the necessary packages.

And in the /thirdparty/libsmpack folder, enter the following commands.

Then the necessary updates for the package will be downloaded.

Try adding additional parameters here. If it doesn't compile, then:

And finish the build:

Testing

To test the tool, use the following commands:

Add it to the assets/default.xex folder (you'll need to create it and add it to the project that rexglue will create).

This video can be useful for installing clang-cl and preparing default.xex from an Xbox 360 ISO image (which was dumped).

The program will display all missing instructions and replace them with placeholders (but it's best to create an issue with the required instructions, and once they're implemented, return to the project).

Don't forget to support the developers with well-deserved stars and share with your friends. Also, subscribe so you don't miss the next part, which will explain how to run the recompiled project.

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Mandelbrot set. 32-bit TrueColor. 60 FPS. 80-bit long double. OpenMP. Supersampling 2x2 (4 passes). Color rotation

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time5 min
Reach and readers1.4K

Mandelbrot set. 32-bit TrueColor. 60 FPS. 80-bit long double. OpenMP. Supersampling 2x2 (4 passes). Color rotation. I want to say. This is the most necessary thing in the Universe. The most profound. And now, in my entire life, I finally started writing code and did it. Quite complex. And the most beautiful. Download and see! It's an executable file, on GitHub.

github: Download Latest Version Windows And Source code

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The Hidden “S” in “SaaSpocalypse”

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time6 min
Reach and readers3.4K

I like AI and have been working with the technology for over a decade. It’s been exciting, interesting, and inspiring — until recently.

As I write this in mid-February of 2026, software stocks are in freefall and social media is inundated with videos of AI company CEOs predicting the looming collapse of the software industry.

They tell us the story we’ve heard on loop for two years:

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Neurosymbolic AI: The Architecture of a Semantic Neural Network. How to Teach LLMs to Calculate

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time17 min
Reach and readers2.2K

LLMs fail at elementary math. Corporations spend billions, but ultimately are forced to attach calculators to computing machines of incredible power. All attempts to fix this via Chain-of-Thought, fine-tuning on arithmetic tasks, or context expansion have failed.

I conducted a series of experiments to understand why, and came to the conclusion that neural networks are simply not meant for discrete arithmetic. Their true purpose is continuous transformations.

This article describes the implementation of a novel neural network architecture that combines the precision of symbolic AI with the generalization capabilities of LLMs. As always, experiments and code are included.

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How to Speed Up and Optimize Windows 11

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time4 min
Reach and readers2.9K

Windows 11 is a modern and beautiful operating system, but sometimes it can run slower than you'd like. This is especially noticeable on older or less powerful PCs. The good news is that there are several simple and effective ways to improve system performance, making it faster and more convenient to use.

In this article, we'll look at how to properly configure Windows 11, get rid of unnecessary processes, and optimize its performance so that your computer runs smoothly and stably.

By the way, if you're interested in IT and useful tools, check out my Telegram channel. I regularly post fresh news, life hacks, and other useful things there. And now, to the heart of the article.

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How to Create a Telegram Chatbot with No Programming Skills

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time14 min
Reach and readers1.9K

We will write a bot like this one

Nowadays, anyone without programming skills can write a simple chatbot on their own. For example, to provide services via Telegram, organize a community's work, etc. Let's say, for tracking attendance in a classroom, for communicating in a building's group chat, or for downloading movies and music. And for a technical specialist, writing such a bot is a trivial task. In this article, we will discuss why chatbots are needed, how they can be used by businesses and individuals, and how to write a bot yourself, whether you have programming skills or not.
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Simple Telegram bot in Python in 30 minutes

Reading time4 min
Reach and readers1.7K
On Habr, and not only there, so much has already been said about bots that it's almost too much. But having become interested in this topic a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't find any decent material: all the articles were either for complete beginners and were limited to sending a message in response to a user's message, or they were outdated. This is what prompted me to write an article that would explain to a beginner like me how to write and launch a more or less meaningful bot (with the possibility of expanding its functionality).

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How to access Claude (web/api) from Russia in 2024?

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time9 min
Reach and readers1.7K

Accessing Claude from Russia might seem like a daunting task due to the service's regional restrictions. In this article, I will explain in detail how to register for the web version and API of Claude, what tools are needed to bypass the restrictions, and how to use the service safely in the future. This guide is based on personal experience and includes registration methods that are current as of late 2024 and have been tested in practice.

After searching Russian-language resources, I realized that there is very little practically useful information, or it might not account for changes in the service's operation. Ordinary users have to gather information piece by piece - from various YouTube videos, forums, or superficial articles.

Therefore, I decided to create an up-to-date guide based on my personal experience and knowledge, taking into account all the pitfalls that an inexperienced Claude user might encounter.

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Meshtastic – a tactical radio chat without cellular service and internet. Part 2. Commercial Radio Modems

Reading time9 min
Reach and readers1.2K

In the previous article, we got acquainted with the Meshtastic project. We learned that it's possible to build your own radio chat based on a Mesh network, a regular smartphone, and a radio modem. The next logical questions people started asking were: What's next? How do I build this network? What should I buy?

The second part will describe several commercial kits for a Meshtastic modem from Aliexpress, their differences, and application features. If for some reason you are not interested in ready-made products, you can build a radio modem yourself. It's not difficult at all and is manageable even for the youngest and most novice radio amateur. Interested? Welcome to the second part under the cut.

To buy or not to buy? If to buy, then what?

Nano Banana Pro — why is it a breakthrough model for image generation and editing? Let's check with real examples

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time5 min
Reach and readers1.1K

November 20 marked the official launch Nano Banana Pro (Gemini-3-Pro-Image-Preview) with the powerful Gemini 3 Pro as its foundation. This is a more mature tool for design, infographics, and content. We will not only look at the new features and why this particular model is a breakthrough, but we will also see it in action with real examples.

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Relation Normalization. Six Normal Forms

Reading time8 min
Reach and readers893
In this topic, I will cover the 6 normal forms and the methods for bringing tables into these forms.

The process of designing a database using the NF method is iterative and consists of sequentially converting a relation from 1NF to a higher-order NF according to certain rules. Each subsequent NF is constrained by a specific type of functional dependency and the elimination of corresponding anomalies when performing operations on database relations, as well as preserving the properties of the preceding NFs.
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ByeDPI for Android, SpoofDPI for Mac and Linux – fixing YouTube and sites not working in Russia on Android, Linux, and Mac

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time2 min
Reach and readers1.5K

Yesterday I wrote about the graphical shell Launcher for GoodbyeDPI, which allows you to intuitively use the GoodbyeDPI solution from ValdikSS to solve the problem of YouTube throttling and the unavailability of a number of sites in Russia. Everything was fine, but these were solutions only for Windows. In the comments, the main questions were about what to do with Android, Linux, and Mac, and why not in the source code. Alas, the repressions of the RKN (Roskomnadzor) force the Habr administration to censor articles, I am forbidden from making changes to yesterday's article, and the link itself is only available outside of Russia, so I am explaining about Android, Linux, and Mac here, with links to the source code.

So, for Android there are a lot of projects, I liked Release ByeDPI 1.0.0 · dovecoteescapee/ByeDPIAndroid · GitHub. For Mac and Linux I would install https://github.com/xvzc/SpoofDPI/releases. All in source code.

ByeDPI for Android is an application that runs a local VPN service to bypass DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) and censorship. A SOCKS5 proxy ByeDPI is launched locally on your device and all traffic is redirected through it.

Bypassing blocks on Android/Mac/Linux

Bypassing blocks on OpenWRT using v2rayA (xray-core) and GeoIP, Geosite Re:filter, Antifilter databases

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time6 min
Reach and readers1.3K

In this guide, we will install the v2rayA package on OpenWRT using the stable 23.05.0. A router with at least 128 MB of RAM (256 is preferable) and more than 16 MB of storage is recommended (the installation takes about 30 MB of storage)

v2rayA is a simple-to-use and powerful client focused on Linux. Despite its name, the current version uses xray-core, although it's also possible to use v2ray-core. It has a web interface for managing settings and importing configurations and subscriptions. It supports everything that xray-core supports:

Shadowsocks (incl. 2022), ShadowsocksR, Trojan, Vless (including XTLS-Reality, XHTTP), Vmess, Juicity, Tuic

The guide will include:

1. Installation from the repository

2. Configuring v2rayA and bypassing blocks using Re:filter, Antifilter GeoIP, Geosite

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Wireshark — A Detailed Guide to Getting Started

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time8 min
Reach and readers976

Wireshark is a widely used tool for capturing and analyzing network traffic, actively used for both educational purposes and for troubleshooting computer or network issues. Wireshark works with almost all OSI model protocols, has a user-friendly interface, and a convenient data filtering system. In addition, the program is cross-platform and supports the following operating systems: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD.

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(VLESS) VPN client for Windows

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time3 min
Reach and readers1.5K

Recently, I needed to run a VLESS subscription on Windows, make it work with my work VPN, and deal with all the associated 'joys.' I tried v2rayN, Nekoray, and Hiddify—and quickly realized I wanted to write my own client.
And so, singbox-launcher was born:
👉 https://github.com/Leadaxe/singbox-launcher

Below are a few details about why and what came of it.

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My TOP Android Emulators: Review and Comparison

Reading time8 min
Reach and readers638

Hello! How often in your work have you needed to run some strange application that you really don't want to or it's very dangerous to run on your personal smartphone, but you don't have a test device (a victim of future experiments) on hand to run it?

Yes, you can run Android Studio, but this software requires a preliminary study of the manual - without it, you won't be able to run anything on it, but there isn't always time and desire for such tasks. It is believed that the best task is one that can be delegated to another person, and all their emerging questions can be answered with a link to an article.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find such an article, and not to go far, I wrote one myself. In short, it's a common problem: if you can't find a good comparison, figure it out yourself.

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The Best Free Programs for Finding Duplicate Photos

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time7 min
Reach and readers485

Are you familiar with that feeling of slight panic when your laptop suddenly starts beeping plaintively, and a sinister warning appears on the screen: 'Disk almost full'? This happened to me recently too. I opened File Explorer and was stunned – my 1 TB external drive was filled to the brim – 95% full!

The culprits weren't movies or games, but a giant graveyard of photos. Twelve folders with the generic name 'DCIM,' mountains of screenshots I had copied five times 'just in case,' and heaps of nearly identical sunset shots taken in burst mode. Trying to manually find identical photos was like looking for a needle in a haystack the size of Siberia.

In a previous article, I discussed how to best sort photos, and even then I realized it was time to declare war on duplicates. And that moment has come. After testing more than 15 tools (and wasting a lot of nerves), I've selected 5 free programs that really help solve the problem. I'll share this experience with you.

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Regular expressions (regexp) — the basics

Reading time21 min
Reach and readers360

Regular expressions (also called regexp, or regex) are a mechanism for finding and replacing text. In a string, a file, multiple files... They are used by developers in application code, testers in autotests, and even just when working on the command line!

Why is this better than a simple search? Because it allows you to specify a pattern.

For example, you receive a date of birth in the DD.MM.YYYYY format. You need to pass it on, but in the YYYY-MM-DD format. How can you do this with a simple search? You don't know in advance what the exact date will be.

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Index page pruning in PostgreSQL

Level of difficultyEasy
Reading time11 min
Reach and readers324

Page pruning (HOT cleanup) is an optimization allowing to efficiently remove old row versions (tuples) from table blocks. The freed space will be reused for new row versions. The only space occupied by row versions beyond the database's xmin horizon is reclaimed. This article examines the algorithm behind a similar optimization for indexes. If the xmin horizon is held back - by a long-running query or transaction - neither page pruning nor VACUUM can reclaim space, forcing new row versions to be inserted into different blocks. With the standard pgbench test, we demonstrate how significantly performance can degrade when the database horizon is held back, and we analyze the underlying causes. 

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VPN Protocols: An Overview of the Most Popular Ones

Level of difficultyMedium
Reading time8 min
Reach and readers419

With the rise of privacy threats and constant internet restrictions, using a VPN has become the norm for many users. However, behind the simplicity of connecting lie technical features that can significantly impact

the user experience. One of the key factors is the choice of VPN protocol, which determines the speed, stability, and security level of the connection.

This article will provide a detailed breakdown of the most popular VPN protocols, their features, advantages, and disadvantages, and will also offer examples of how to use each of them.

By the way, I took all the pictures from those, you know, the internets, but I analyzed and explained them myself, just for you :)

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