Developer shares lessons from auto-repair failures that nearly wiped a WordPress install

A developer documented eight critical mistakes encountered while attempting to auto-repair a 'Plugin directory does not exist' error in WordPress. The flawed repair scripts came close to causing a complete site wipeout, reportedly affecting 228 files or installations. To prevent future incidents, the developer devised a three-layer safeguard system designed to catch errors before they escalate. The account was shared on DEV Community as a cautionary guide for others managing automated WordPress maintenance.

Developer Releases Free Local Desktop App to Replace Ad-Heavy Online Image Tools

A solo developer named Anmol Kumar Akhouri has released APIC (Advanced Image Processing Center), a free, open-source desktop application for editing, converting, and compressing images. The tool was built out of frustration with ad-laden web-based image converters that impose conversion limits and require file uploads. APIC runs entirely on the user's local machine, requiring no account, no internet connection, and no cloud processing. The app is built using Python 3 and PyQt6, and features a modular design with a custom dark theme, drag-and-drop support, and global keyboard shortcuts. It is available for free on GitHub under the developer's label, Akhouri Systems, with active development ongoing.

Galesburg opens $1.35m accessible park on former elementary school site

The city of Galesburg, Illinois, unveiled Cooke Park on August 26, transforming the site of the former Cooke Elementary School into a fully accessible public space. The project cost $1.352 million and includes an inclusive playground and a splash pad designed to serve residents of all abilities. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held to mark the occasion, attended by local officials and community leaders. The development highlights a collaborative effort between the local government and the wider community to promote inclusivity in public spaces.

Pre-Budget meetings for 2027 to begin October 12

NYC Mayor Mamdani Joins South Asian Seniors for Rakshabandhan at India Home

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani participated in a Rakshabandhan celebration hosted by India Home, an organization serving South Asian seniors. The mayor used the occasion to highlight the festival's core values of protection, support, and unity. He drew a connection between the symbolism of the rakhi and his own commitment to the well-being of all New Yorkers. Mamdani also praised India Home for building a strong sense of community and belonging among its members. He urged New Yorkers across the city to embrace and extend these values in their own communities.

'No need for general assistance’: Nepal lists conditions for foreign help

Couple Jumps Into Godavari River, Leaves Toddler Stranded on Bridge

A couple allegedly jumped into the Godavari River late Thursday night from the Chinchinada Vasishta Bridge in West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. The pair left behind their three-year-old child, who was found crying alone on the bridge. Authorities were alerted after passersby discovered the distressed toddler unattended. A search operation was launched to locate the missing couple in the river. The child has been taken into care while the circumstances behind the incident are being investigated.

GKE Launches VPA CPU Startup Boost to Cut JVM Pod Startup Times in Half

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) has released a Public Preview of the VerticalPodAutoscaler (VPA) CPU Startup Boost feature, available on clusters running version 1.36.0-gke.4447000 or newer in the Rapid Channel. The feature addresses a long-standing problem where JVM-based applications require far more CPU during startup than at steady state, forcing teams to permanently over-provision resources. VPA CPU Startup Boost temporarily elevates a pod's CPU allocation at launch and then uses Kubernetes In-Place Pod Resize (IPPR) to scale it back to baseline once the application passes its readiness checks — without restarting the container. Google claims the feature delivers up to 2x faster startup latency while eliminating the persistent CPU waste that inflates infrastructure costs and reduces node packing efficiency. Teams can configure the boost within a standard VPA custom resource, either standalone or alongside continuous vertical autoscaling.

India's quality checks may be scaring investors

Delhi gym trainer accused of model's murder has history of POCSO, assault cases

Mohammad Imran, the prime accused in the murder of model Muskan in Delhi, has a documented history of serious criminal offences. He was first implicated in a POCSO case in 2018 involving the harassment of a minor. In 2021, he was again accused in an assault case that left the victim in a coma. Before her death, Muskan had reportedly raised concerns about harassment she was facing at home. The case has drawn attention to Imran's repeated pattern of violent and predatory behaviour.

Motorola Offers Discounts and Promo Codes for Smartphone Upgrades

Motorola is providing a range of promotional deals to help customers save on smartphone purchases. The offers include promo codes, free shipping, and seasonal discounts. These deals are aimed at making it more affordable for consumers to upgrade their devices. The discounts are available for a limited period and apply to select Motorola products.

New AI grasp planners handle unseen objects without object-specific training data

Two new robotic grasp planning systems, GOAG and CoToGrasp, can generate viable grasps for objects they have never encountered by learning only the geometry of a gripper's contact surface. GOAG achieved an 86.93% average success rate on the MultiDex benchmark while using no object-specific training data, outperforming existing baselines across multiple gripper types. Its dataset was created in roughly 1 GPU hour on a single Nvidia RTX 4090, compared to approximately 1,400 GPU hours required by a comparable object-specific pipeline. CoToGrasp similarly achieved state-of-the-art results on the large-scale DexGraspNet dataset, surpassing taxonomy-guided planners while remaining fully object-agnostic. Both systems currently rely on simulated inputs and static benchmarks, and their robustness in real-world, cluttered, or dynamic environments has yet to be thoroughly tested.

Suryakumar Yadav reacts to surprise T20 captaincy removal after World Cup win

Suryakumar Yadav has expressed shock at being stripped of India's T20 captaincy despite leading the team to T20 World Cup and Asia Cup titles. The selectors communicated to him that it was time for the team to move in a new direction. Suryakumar accepted the decision, recognising that squad selection and leadership choices remain the selectors' authority. He confirmed he remains available for consideration as a player whenever the selectors choose to call upon him.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: How One Entrepreneur Weighed Cost Against Control

A first-time e-commerce entrepreneur recently shared their experience choosing between Shopify and WooCommerce for launching an online store. Shopify's basic plan starts at around $29 per month, but additional apps for shipping, marketing, and automation can push costs significantly higher. WooCommerce is free to install but still requires spending on hosting, a domain, themes, and plugins. Ultimately, the entrepreneur chose WooCommerce for its greater flexibility in customizing features, hosting, and integrations as the business evolves. They acknowledged that Shopify remains a strong choice for those who prioritize a quick launch and minimal technical upkeep over long-term control.

Four Ways to Use AI Coding Tools as a Learning Aid, Not a Shortcut

A developer guide published on DEV Community outlines how programmers can use AI coding assistants like Claude Code or Codex to deepen their understanding rather than bypass it. The approach reframes AI as a teaching partner by encouraging users to have the AI ask them questions before providing any code, ensuring gaps in knowledge are surfaced early. Learners are also advised to request progressive hints instead of instant solutions, and to share flawed code for structured reflection rather than direct correction. A fourth strategy involves prompting the AI to present multiple approaches to a problem and compare their trade-offs across factors like security, testability, and simplicity. The underlying principle is that intentional, Socratic use of AI builds stronger problem-solving skills and reduces over-reliance over time.

RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat Visits New York Iskcon Temple, Joins Food Drive for Homeless

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat visited the Iskcon temple in New York as part of his ongoing tour of the United States. He took part in a food distribution drive aimed at providing meals to homeless individuals. During the visit, Bhagwat spoke about Krishna consciousness and its potential to help resolve conflicts across the world. The visit came ahead of his scheduled address to the Indian diaspora at Madison Square Garden. Iskcon has been working to promote shared human values at a time of increasing global polarization and unrest.

How to Design a Lightweight API Key System for Service-to-Service Auth

A software engineering post on DEV Community outlines a minimal API key design for service-to-service authentication, using a single six-column database table instead of heavyweight solutions like OAuth2. The approach stores a SHA-256 hash of each key rather than the key itself, preventing full credential exposure if the database is ever compromised or accidentally dumped. Revocation is handled by recording a timestamp in the database and filtering it at the query level, avoiding logic scattered across application code. The design intentionally omits features such as scopes, caching, a CLI key-issuing tool, and expiry columns, with clear signals identified for when each should be added later. For teams with only one to three stable consumers, the author suggests an even simpler alternative: storing hashes in environment variables and loading them into memory at boot time.

How Idempotency Keys Prevent Double Charges Caused by Payment Timeouts

When a payment request succeeds on the server but the response never reaches the client due to a connection drop, the customer may retry and get charged twice. Idempotency keys — unique identifiers generated by the client and sent with each request — allow the server to detect and reject duplicate transactions. A naive database check-then-save approach is still vulnerable to race conditions when simultaneous requests arrive within milliseconds of each other. In Laravel, this can be solved using Cache::lock(), which ensures only one request is processed at a time by blocking concurrent duplicates until the first completes. Stored keys should include the original response and be deleted after a set retention window, such as 24 hours, to avoid unnecessary database bloat.

No escape for Trump in hush money case as US judge blocks bid to shift federal court

42 years on, Sukumara Kurup mystery returns with Brunei ‘sighting’ — and a photo twist