The best Hacker News stories from Show from the past day
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Show HN: ESPectre – Motion detection based on Wi-Fi spectre analysis
Hi everyone, I'm the author of ESPectre.<p>This is an open-source (GPLv3) project that uses Wi-Fi signal analysis to detect motion using CSI data, and it has already garnered almost 2,000 stars in two weeks.<p>Key technical details:<p>- The system does NOT use Machine Learning, it relies purely on Math.
— Runs in real-time on a super affordable chip like the ESP32.
- It integrates seamlessly with Home Assistant via MQTT.
Show HN: ESPectre – Motion detection based on Wi-Fi spectre analysis
Hi everyone, I'm the author of ESPectre.<p>This is an open-source (GPLv3) project that uses Wi-Fi signal analysis to detect motion using CSI data, and it has already garnered almost 2,000 stars in two weeks.<p>Key technical details:<p>- The system does NOT use Machine Learning, it relies purely on Math.
— Runs in real-time on a super affordable chip like the ESP32.
- It integrates seamlessly with Home Assistant via MQTT.
Show HN: ESPectre – Motion detection based on Wi-Fi spectre analysis
Hi everyone, I'm the author of ESPectre.<p>This is an open-source (GPLv3) project that uses Wi-Fi signal analysis to detect motion using CSI data, and it has already garnered almost 2,000 stars in two weeks.<p>Key technical details:<p>- The system does NOT use Machine Learning, it relies purely on Math.
— Runs in real-time on a super affordable chip like the ESP32.
- It integrates seamlessly with Home Assistant via MQTT.
Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter
Show HN: Whirligig.live
Hi guys, I stitched a few APIs together into a fun gig finder app and thought some of you might enjoy it. Warning - autoplay!
Show HN: ZenPaint, a pixel-perfect MacPaint recreation for the browser
I've been recreating the original MacPaint in the browser on and off for a few years. It's still alpha quality, but I'm finally ready to share it more widely.<p>The goal was pixel-perfect accuracy, so I spent a lot of time with Atkinson's original QuickDraw source code, emulators, and my iBook G3 to get details like font rendering and the shape tools exactly right.<p>Some technical notes:<p>- Font rendering was surprisingly tricky; understanding the original pipeline's quirks took lots of experimentation, and avoiding canvas smoothing/aliasing required careful handling.<p>- Written declaratively with React; performance is kept reasonable with a buffer pool and copy-on-write semantics.
- You can share links to artwork from within the UI.<p>E.g.: <a href="https://zenpaint.org/#p=KQumBQ5x" rel="nofollow">https://zenpaint.org/#p=KQumBQ5x</a><p>- Mobile support was not considered here (for obvious reasons). It might still be usable on a larger phone or tablet but I have not tested this at all.<p>There's something magical about making art within MacPaint's constraints: the 1-bit graphics, the limited resolution, the peculiar set of tools that still feel surprisingly expressive.<p>Still some rough edges and missing features, but I'd love feedback from anyone who remembers the original.
Show HN: High-Performance .NET Bindings for the Vello Sparse Strips CPU Renderer
Show HN: Spam classifier in Go using Naive Bayes
Show HN: Spam classifier in Go using Naive Bayes
Show HN: An easy-to-use online curve fitting tool
This is a powerful online curve fitting tool that supports fitting dozens of commonly used functions and implicit functions. It features a clean interface and simple operation. If you need to perform curve fitting but don't want to learn professional software like Matlab or Origin, you can try this tool.
Show HN: Chirp – Local Windows dictation with ParakeetV3 no executable required
I’ve been working in fairly locked‑down Windows environments where I’m allowed to run Python, but not install or launch new `.exe` files. In addition the built-in windows dictations are blocked (the only good one isn't local anyway). At the same time, I really wanted accurate, fast dictation without sending audio to a cloud service, and without needing a GPU. Most speech‑to‑text setups I tried either required special launchers, GPU access, or were awkward to run day‑to‑day.<p>To scratch that itch, I built Chirp, a Windows dictation app that runs fully locally, uses NVIDIA’s ParakeetV3 model, and is managed end‑to‑end with `uv`. If you can run Python on your machine, you should be able to run Chirp—no additional executables required.<p>Under the hood, Chirp uses the Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 ONNX bundle. ParakeetV3 has accuracy in the same ballpark as Whisper‑large‑v3 (multilingual WER ~4.9 vs ~5.0 in the open ASR leaderboard), but it’s much faster and happy on CPU.<p>The flow is:
- One‑time setup that downloads and prepares the ONNX model:
- `uv run python -m chirp.setup`
- A long‑running CLI process:
- `uv run python -m chirp.main`
- A global hotkey that starts/stops recording and injects text into the active window.<p>A few details that might be interesting technically:<p>- <i>Local‑only STT:</i> Everything runs on your machine using ONNX Runtime; by default it uses CPU providers, with optional GPU providers if your environment allows.<p>- <i>Config‑driven behavior:</i> A `config.toml` file controls the global hotkey, model choice, quantization (`int8` option), language, ONNX providers, and threading. There’s also a simple `[word_overrides]` map so you can fix tokens that the model consistently mishears.<p>- <i>Post‑processing pipeline:</i> After recognition, there’s an optional “style guide” step where you can specify prompts like “sentence case” or “prepend: >>” for the final text.<p>- <i>No clipboard gymnastics required on Windows:</i> The app types directly into the focused window; there are options for clipboard‑based pasting and cleanup behavior for platforms where that makes more sense.<p>- <i>Audio feedback:</i> Start/stop sounds (configurable) let you know when the mic is actually recording.<p>So far I’ve mainly tested this on my own Windows machines with English dictation and CPU‑only setups. There are probably plenty of rough edges (different keyboard layouts, language settings, corporate IT policies, etc.), and I’d love feedback from people who:<p>- Work in restricted corporate environments and need local dictation.
- Have experience with Parakeet/Whisper or ONNX Runtime and see obvious ways to improve performance or robustness.
- Want specific features (e.g., better multi‑language support, more advanced post‑processing, or integrations with their editor/IDE).<p>Repo is here:
`<a href="https://github.com/Whamp/chirp" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Whamp/chirp</a>`<p>If you try it, I’d be very interested in:<p>- CPU usage and latency on your hardware,
- How well it behaves with your keyboard layout and applications,
- Any weird failure cases or usability annoyances you run into.<p>Happy to answer questions and dig into technical details in the comments.
I made a better DOM morphing algorithm
At least I think it’s better, but also I could also be missing something obvious.
I made a better DOM morphing algorithm
At least I think it’s better, but also I could also be missing something obvious.
Show HN: Unflip – a puzzle game about XOR patterns of squares
Show HN: Unflip – a puzzle game about XOR patterns of squares
Show HN: Unflip – a puzzle game about XOR patterns of squares
Show HN: Dumbass Business Ideas
Discover hilariously terrible business ideas that probably shouldn't exist. Get inspired by the worst startup concepts, share them with friends, and submit your own dumbass ideas!