Hackers' Pub

Syntax	Description	Examples
`"` keyword `"`	Finds the string within quotes, including spaces. Case-insensitive. (Escape quotes inside with `\"`)	`"Hackers' Pub"`
`from:` handle	Finds content written by the specified user.	`from:hongminhee` `from:hongminhee@hollo.social`
`lang:` ISO 639-1	Finds content written in the specified language.	`lang:en`
`#` tag	Finds content with the specified tag. Case-insensitive.	`#HackersPub`
condition condition	Finds content that satisfies both conditions on either side of the space (logical AND).	`"Hackers' Pub" lang:en`
condition `OR` condition	Finds content that satisfies at least one of the conditions on either side of the OR operator (logical OR).	`#HackersPub OR "Hackers' Pub" lang:en`
`(` condition `)`	Combines the operators within the parentheses first.	`(#HackersPub OR "Hackers' Pub" OR "Hackers Pub") lang:en`

Dominic Preston @theverge.space @dominic_preston@theverge.space

11/24/2025, 12:00:00 PM

Public

Is it superstition if it’s true?

A story about a time-traveling, game-breaking Half-Life 2 door bug is as good a reminder as any that programming is neither an art, nor a science, but one of the deep magicks.

Sly Mr. Fox:

This kind of thing is why good programmers are paranoid and superstitious.

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

A glitchy door traveled back in time to break Half Life 2.

Doors are a weird and notoriously tough nut to crack for game devs. Tom Forsyth, formerly of Valve, shared a story about how he discovered a game-breaking bug less than five minutes into Half Life 2 while building a VR port in 2013. The crazy part was that the bug persisted even when they built the original source for the desktop, instead of VR. It’s a wild tale of math, CPU instruction sets, and game physics. Grab a drink and go read the full thread on Mastodon. [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-22-at-4.40.19%E2%80%AFPM.png?quality=90&strip=all]

www.theverge.com · The Verge

If you have a fediverse account, you can quote this note from your own instance. Search https://theverge.space/actor/dominic_preston/note/dmcyOnF1aWNrUG9zdDo4Mjc0MDE= on your instance and quote it. (Note that quoting is not supported in Mastodon.)