The best Hacker News stories from Show from the past day
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Show HN: Meg-4, the Open Source PICO-8 alternative
Hi fellow hackers,<p>I've created a GPL licensed alternative to the proprietary PICO-8. It also addresses most of its shortcomings:<p>- multilanguage support<p>- uses UTF-8 encoding (BMP only)<p>- sophisticated user input methods (direct codepoint, composition, Hiragana and Katakana etc.)<p>- provides a large and efficient API library for your scripts<p>- supports C, BASIC, Assembly and Lua scripts (more to come)<p>- supports wide variety of file formats (Amiga MOD, MIDI, Tiled TMX, PNG, etc.)<p>- capable of importing PICO-8 and TIC-80 cartridges<p>- runs in your browser: <a href="https://bztsrc.gitlab.io/meg4/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bztsrc.gitlab.io/meg4/</a><p>It might not look like much at first glance, but it surely shows its strengths when you start using it (for example automatic API help as you type in the code editor, or invoking the built-in debugger if your script crashes, things like that which makes development easy and fun).<p>Also check out its well-structured and comprehensive documentation:<p><a href="https://bztsrc.gitlab.io/meg4/manual_en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bztsrc.gitlab.io/meg4/manual_en.html</a><p>Binaries are provided for emscripten (web), Windows, Linux (statically linked SDL and GLFW3+portaudio, dynamically linked deb package for Ubuntu and RaspiOS).<p>It is still in early in development, but almost feature complete. At this stage, expect minor bugs here and there, but should work most of the time. The interface is already translated to 25 languages, but the built-in help and the user manual is only available in English for now.<p>Let me know what you think!
Show HN: Roller Coaster (Failed YC S23) – Complex Automations Without Code
Hi HN! I'm Hugo, founder of Roller Coaster. It's a platform that lets you build complex automations without code using visual scripting (a powerful way of building logic visually), and I'm excited to share it with you today.<p>I just launched today, you can try it out here: <a href="https://roller-coaster.app" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://roller-coaster.app</a>. Here's a 5min introduction to it: <a href="https://youtu.be/1gtdlM774Ug" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://youtu.be/1gtdlM774Ug</a>.<p>---<p>I'm well aware that there are already a lot of no-code tools out there, but I think they all have a major flaw: they're not powerful enough. They're great for building simple things, but as soon as you want to build something more complex, you're stuck. You can't do it without code.<p>I've been using the Unreal Engine for a previous project and I was amazed by the power of Blueprints, their visual scripting engine. It's basically a way to build logic using nodes that represent functions, and wires that represent data. It's so powerful that you can build entire games without writing a single line of code.<p>I thought it would be awesome to have something similar for the web, to be able to build really <i>anything</i> without code. And that's how Roller Coaster was born.<p>---<p>The challenging part is that visual scripting is not something that can be used without a minimum of training. It's not as easy as drag and drop. So I had to find a way to make it accessible to everyone. That's why I built a gamified tutorial that teaches you how to use it. It's a bit like a game, you have to solve puzzles to progress. It's really fun and I think it's a great way to learn.<p>You can try it out here (it doesn't require any subscription): <a href="https://luna-park.app/challenge" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://luna-park.app/challenge</a>. Let me know what you think!<p>---<p>For now, Roller Coaster allows you to build webhook-based automations with integrations. I'm planning to support CRONs and webhook, and add more integrations in the future.<p>I'd love to hear your feedback! You can also ask me anything about the project, I'll be happy to answer.
Show HN: State Trooper – Tiny, no frills state machine for Go
Needed to isolate a bit of DRY logic for some of my projects. Might be of use to others out there.
Show HN: State Trooper – Tiny, no frills state machine for Go
Needed to isolate a bit of DRY logic for some of my projects. Might be of use to others out there.
Show HN: Explore large language models with 512MB of RAM
Show HN: Explore large language models with 512MB of RAM
Show HN: Explore large language models with 512MB of RAM
Show HN: Text a photo to send as a postcard
Show HN: Text a photo to send as a postcard
Show HN: Text a photo to send as a postcard
Show HN: 77 Year old launches SaaS platform today. Seeks feedback
Richard Montgomery (rm@propbox.co). I believe PropBox is the first advertising platform to facilitate a home seller and buyer to directly negotiate and close real estate transactions within the platform and zero commissions entirely online. Looking for feedback to continuously improve the product.
Show HN: 77 Year old launches SaaS platform today. Seeks feedback
Richard Montgomery (rm@propbox.co). I believe PropBox is the first advertising platform to facilitate a home seller and buyer to directly negotiate and close real estate transactions within the platform and zero commissions entirely online. Looking for feedback to continuously improve the product.
Show HN: 77 Year old launches SaaS platform today. Seeks feedback
Richard Montgomery (rm@propbox.co). I believe PropBox is the first advertising platform to facilitate a home seller and buyer to directly negotiate and close real estate transactions within the platform and zero commissions entirely online. Looking for feedback to continuously improve the product.
Show HN: 77 Year old launches SaaS platform today. Seeks feedback
Richard Montgomery (rm@propbox.co). I believe PropBox is the first advertising platform to facilitate a home seller and buyer to directly negotiate and close real estate transactions within the platform and zero commissions entirely online. Looking for feedback to continuously improve the product.
Show HN: AskYoutube – Ask YouTube Anything
Hi everyone, I built this recently and found myself and my friends using it for various different things so I figured I'd share it here.<p>It uses LLMs to answer queries from videos so you don't have to watch them yourself! Each video found is also included with a summary of its transcript for further exploration. Most importantly, it uses up-to-date videos and can answer question about real and recent things unlike ChatGPT.<p>It is particularly useful for:<p>1. Getting up to date information about the news from different sources
E.g.<p>- What are the features of the recently released Apple Vision Pro?<p>- How many people were evacuated from the recent eruption in Hawaii?<p>2. Product reviews
E.g.<p>- What's the best vegan & cruelty-free skin cream?<p>- What is best GPU for deep learning in 2023?<p>3. Learning about a specific topic
E.g.<p>- What are the requirements for the commercial pilot's license?<p>- How do I do a cartwheel?<p>Let me know what you tried and submit feedback in the interface, I read all of them! Also do include your email if you want a follow up for your feedback<p>Email: askutubeai@gmail.com
Show HN: Chronological List of All the James Webb Telescope Discoveries
Show HN: Chronological List of All the James Webb Telescope Discoveries
Show HN: Horizontal News, a column-based Hacker News reader
Show HN: Discuit – A Reddit alternative with a clean UI and a sensible vision
Hi HN, this is a platform (Discuit, pronounced "diskette") I've been working on for about two years. I initially built it for a niche demographic (my native country). But now with Reddit going dark and people looking for a new place to migrate to, I'm doing a quick launch today.<p>A few quick things:<p>1. I don't believe federated platforms will ever become mainstream. They have a whole host of problems, not the least of which is that they're too complicated for most people to use. This platform is not, therefore, federated.<p>2. I don't know what the best way of monetizing a thing like this is. I see only two options: the Wikipedia model of running on donations, or being advertising supported (along with a paid ad-free tier). The Wikipedia model works quite well for small-scale and bandwidth light projects, but I don't think a large social media platform can ever be funded that way.<p>3. Whichever option of monetization I take (if this takes off, that is) what I can say with certainty is that this will not go down the path of previous platforms. I don't believe the SV grow-fast model has worked very well for the end users. I have no interest in chasing growth for its own sake, or in chasing valuations, or in capturing as much attention from the users as possible. On this platform, therefore, there <i>never</i> will be any dark UI patterns. Avoiding enshittification is a primary goal of mine.<p>4. My vision for this platform, and for social media in general, is about giving users agency; the freedom to choose their social experience to their liking. What this would mean in practice are things like: ability to customize the UI; ability to filter content as one wants; ability to tweak recommendation algorithms; ability to turn on and off things like infinite scroll and suggested posts; and so on. I hate how all the current platforms want to tightly control my experience for me.<p>I go into all this in a bit more detail in my introductory blog post: <a href="https://discuit.substack.com/p/introducing-discuit" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://discuit.substack.com/p/introducing-discuit</a><p>I know many HN users hate the New Reddit layout, which is what I've based this site on, but don't be bothered by it too much, I will be adding a much more compact layout sometime later.
Show HN: Discuit – A Reddit alternative with a clean UI and a sensible vision
Hi HN, this is a platform (Discuit, pronounced "diskette") I've been working on for about two years. I initially built it for a niche demographic (my native country). But now with Reddit going dark and people looking for a new place to migrate to, I'm doing a quick launch today.<p>A few quick things:<p>1. I don't believe federated platforms will ever become mainstream. They have a whole host of problems, not the least of which is that they're too complicated for most people to use. This platform is not, therefore, federated.<p>2. I don't know what the best way of monetizing a thing like this is. I see only two options: the Wikipedia model of running on donations, or being advertising supported (along with a paid ad-free tier). The Wikipedia model works quite well for small-scale and bandwidth light projects, but I don't think a large social media platform can ever be funded that way.<p>3. Whichever option of monetization I take (if this takes off, that is) what I can say with certainty is that this will not go down the path of previous platforms. I don't believe the SV grow-fast model has worked very well for the end users. I have no interest in chasing growth for its own sake, or in chasing valuations, or in capturing as much attention from the users as possible. On this platform, therefore, there <i>never</i> will be any dark UI patterns. Avoiding enshittification is a primary goal of mine.<p>4. My vision for this platform, and for social media in general, is about giving users agency; the freedom to choose their social experience to their liking. What this would mean in practice are things like: ability to customize the UI; ability to filter content as one wants; ability to tweak recommendation algorithms; ability to turn on and off things like infinite scroll and suggested posts; and so on. I hate how all the current platforms want to tightly control my experience for me.<p>I go into all this in a bit more detail in my introductory blog post: <a href="https://discuit.substack.com/p/introducing-discuit" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://discuit.substack.com/p/introducing-discuit</a><p>I know many HN users hate the New Reddit layout, which is what I've based this site on, but don't be bothered by it too much, I will be adding a much more compact layout sometime later.