The best Hacker News stories from Show from the past day
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Show HN: Smallville – Create generative agents for simulations and games
Smallville can be used to create NPCs with the same level of realism as human players without having to pre-program interactions. The agents store and retrieve past memories which they use to create plans so they can decide where to move, what to say, and how to react to observations. Agents are also capable of interacting with the world around them to change the state of objects on their own.<p>This project was intended to make it easy for anyone to create custom simulations and my attempt to recreate Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior. I’ve been working on Smallville for the past few weeks and hope other people also find it useful. Would love to hear any thoughts about the project and where I should take it from here.
Show HN: Smallville – Create generative agents for simulations and games
Smallville can be used to create NPCs with the same level of realism as human players without having to pre-program interactions. The agents store and retrieve past memories which they use to create plans so they can decide where to move, what to say, and how to react to observations. Agents are also capable of interacting with the world around them to change the state of objects on their own.<p>This project was intended to make it easy for anyone to create custom simulations and my attempt to recreate Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior. I’ve been working on Smallville for the past few weeks and hope other people also find it useful. Would love to hear any thoughts about the project and where I should take it from here.
Show HN: Smallville – Create generative agents for simulations and games
Smallville can be used to create NPCs with the same level of realism as human players without having to pre-program interactions. The agents store and retrieve past memories which they use to create plans so they can decide where to move, what to say, and how to react to observations. Agents are also capable of interacting with the world around them to change the state of objects on their own.<p>This project was intended to make it easy for anyone to create custom simulations and my attempt to recreate Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior. I’ve been working on Smallville for the past few weeks and hope other people also find it useful. Would love to hear any thoughts about the project and where I should take it from here.
Show HN: Pinbot – An extension to privately search one's browser history with AI
Hello HN, I’m Kamil.<p>The past months have been filled with news about ChatGPT, Bard, etc. Thankfully, there are some heroic attempts to bring that power to the users.<p>I wanted to contribute to that effort with my side project, an extension for Chrome: it makes searching the history by meaning – instead of the exact words – possible.<p>This is only a proof of concept, building on the excellent transformers.js[0], and running entirely in the browser. My goal here is to explore the possibilities unlocked by a client-side AI.<p>I would love to have your feedback, to know which direction that project should follow!<p>[0] <a href="https://xenova.github.io/transformers.js" rel="nofollow">https://xenova.github.io/transformers.js</a>
Show HN: Pinbot – An extension to privately search one's browser history with AI
Hello HN, I’m Kamil.<p>The past months have been filled with news about ChatGPT, Bard, etc. Thankfully, there are some heroic attempts to bring that power to the users.<p>I wanted to contribute to that effort with my side project, an extension for Chrome: it makes searching the history by meaning – instead of the exact words – possible.<p>This is only a proof of concept, building on the excellent transformers.js[0], and running entirely in the browser. My goal here is to explore the possibilities unlocked by a client-side AI.<p>I would love to have your feedback, to know which direction that project should follow!<p>[0] <a href="https://xenova.github.io/transformers.js" rel="nofollow">https://xenova.github.io/transformers.js</a>
Show HN: Pinbot – An extension to privately search one's browser history with AI
Hello HN, I’m Kamil.<p>The past months have been filled with news about ChatGPT, Bard, etc. Thankfully, there are some heroic attempts to bring that power to the users.<p>I wanted to contribute to that effort with my side project, an extension for Chrome: it makes searching the history by meaning – instead of the exact words – possible.<p>This is only a proof of concept, building on the excellent transformers.js[0], and running entirely in the browser. My goal here is to explore the possibilities unlocked by a client-side AI.<p>I would love to have your feedback, to know which direction that project should follow!<p>[0] <a href="https://xenova.github.io/transformers.js" rel="nofollow">https://xenova.github.io/transformers.js</a>
Show HN: Postgres query lock explainer
This is like 4 years old, but I’m braver now and ready to share stuff with this community. I’ve been a lurker for a while.<p>I made this tool - it’s kind of like “explain” but it tells you about what locks would be required by the query.<p>I was making it as part of a larger tool that would try to prevent deadlocks during migrations at my last company, I never finished it.
Show HN: Postgres query lock explainer
This is like 4 years old, but I’m braver now and ready to share stuff with this community. I’ve been a lurker for a while.<p>I made this tool - it’s kind of like “explain” but it tells you about what locks would be required by the query.<p>I was making it as part of a larger tool that would try to prevent deadlocks during migrations at my last company, I never finished it.
Show HN: Postgres query lock explainer
This is like 4 years old, but I’m braver now and ready to share stuff with this community. I’ve been a lurker for a while.<p>I made this tool - it’s kind of like “explain” but it tells you about what locks would be required by the query.<p>I was making it as part of a larger tool that would try to prevent deadlocks during migrations at my last company, I never finished it.
Show HN: Beepberry – a portable e-paper computer for hackers
Hi. I heard HN likes e-paper gadgets so I wanted to share a little side project I’ve been working on with @sqfmi. We’re building Beepberry - a portable e-paper computer for hackers, designed for chatting on Beeper. My day job is running Beeper [0], but I will always have a soft spot for building hardware.<p>I wanted to create a ‘weekend’ device that would let me stay in touch with friends and family, without the distractions of a full smartphone. I imagined a tiny, hackable e-paper screen with a physical keyboard, powered by a Raspberry Pi, that I could use to chat around my home…and pretty much nothing else.<p>Before Beeper, the idea probably would not have gone anywhere. Most chat apps do not have an API, making it practically impossible to hack something like this together. Enter Beeper, with connections to 15+ chat networks. Built on top of Matrix, Beeper is fully hackable. You can write alternative fun clients [1], bots [2] and more!<p>Today, sqfmi is starting to take pre-orders at <a href="https://beepberry.sqfmi.com" rel="nofollow">https://beepberry.sqfmi.com</a> for the first batch. It’s $79 (or $99 including a Pi Zero). Specs: Sharp Memory LCD (same display tech as in Pebble!), Pi Zero (BT/WIFI), physical keyboard, 2000mAh lipo.<p>On top of being an amazing Beeper chat device, it’s basically an e-paper Cyberdeck that fits in your pocket. It’s a ton of fun to hack on. Keep in mind - THIS IS NOT A REAL FINISHED PRODUCT. It’s basically a devkit.<p>More info in the blog post: <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry">https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry</a>, or join the Discord/Matrix channel <a href="https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/docs/getting-started#join-the-beepberry-discord" rel="nofollow">https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/docs/getting-started#join-the-be...</a>. I’ll hang out a bit here to answer questions as well.<p>[0] <a href="https://beeper.com">https://beeper.com</a>
[1] <a href="https://github.com/tulir/gomuks">https://github.com/tulir/gomuks</a>
[2] <a href="https://github.com/maubot/maubot">https://github.com/maubot/maubot</a>
Show HN: Beepberry – a portable e-paper computer for hackers
Hi. I heard HN likes e-paper gadgets so I wanted to share a little side project I’ve been working on with @sqfmi. We’re building Beepberry - a portable e-paper computer for hackers, designed for chatting on Beeper. My day job is running Beeper [0], but I will always have a soft spot for building hardware.<p>I wanted to create a ‘weekend’ device that would let me stay in touch with friends and family, without the distractions of a full smartphone. I imagined a tiny, hackable e-paper screen with a physical keyboard, powered by a Raspberry Pi, that I could use to chat around my home…and pretty much nothing else.<p>Before Beeper, the idea probably would not have gone anywhere. Most chat apps do not have an API, making it practically impossible to hack something like this together. Enter Beeper, with connections to 15+ chat networks. Built on top of Matrix, Beeper is fully hackable. You can write alternative fun clients [1], bots [2] and more!<p>Today, sqfmi is starting to take pre-orders at <a href="https://beepberry.sqfmi.com" rel="nofollow">https://beepberry.sqfmi.com</a> for the first batch. It’s $79 (or $99 including a Pi Zero). Specs: Sharp Memory LCD (same display tech as in Pebble!), Pi Zero (BT/WIFI), physical keyboard, 2000mAh lipo.<p>On top of being an amazing Beeper chat device, it’s basically an e-paper Cyberdeck that fits in your pocket. It’s a ton of fun to hack on. Keep in mind - THIS IS NOT A REAL FINISHED PRODUCT. It’s basically a devkit.<p>More info in the blog post: <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry">https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry</a>, or join the Discord/Matrix channel <a href="https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/docs/getting-started#join-the-beepberry-discord" rel="nofollow">https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/docs/getting-started#join-the-be...</a>. I’ll hang out a bit here to answer questions as well.<p>[0] <a href="https://beeper.com">https://beeper.com</a>
[1] <a href="https://github.com/tulir/gomuks">https://github.com/tulir/gomuks</a>
[2] <a href="https://github.com/maubot/maubot">https://github.com/maubot/maubot</a>
Show HN: Beepberry – a portable e-paper computer for hackers
Hi. I heard HN likes e-paper gadgets so I wanted to share a little side project I’ve been working on with @sqfmi. We’re building Beepberry - a portable e-paper computer for hackers, designed for chatting on Beeper. My day job is running Beeper [0], but I will always have a soft spot for building hardware.<p>I wanted to create a ‘weekend’ device that would let me stay in touch with friends and family, without the distractions of a full smartphone. I imagined a tiny, hackable e-paper screen with a physical keyboard, powered by a Raspberry Pi, that I could use to chat around my home…and pretty much nothing else.<p>Before Beeper, the idea probably would not have gone anywhere. Most chat apps do not have an API, making it practically impossible to hack something like this together. Enter Beeper, with connections to 15+ chat networks. Built on top of Matrix, Beeper is fully hackable. You can write alternative fun clients [1], bots [2] and more!<p>Today, sqfmi is starting to take pre-orders at <a href="https://beepberry.sqfmi.com" rel="nofollow">https://beepberry.sqfmi.com</a> for the first batch. It’s $79 (or $99 including a Pi Zero). Specs: Sharp Memory LCD (same display tech as in Pebble!), Pi Zero (BT/WIFI), physical keyboard, 2000mAh lipo.<p>On top of being an amazing Beeper chat device, it’s basically an e-paper Cyberdeck that fits in your pocket. It’s a ton of fun to hack on. Keep in mind - THIS IS NOT A REAL FINISHED PRODUCT. It’s basically a devkit.<p>More info in the blog post: <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry">https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry</a>, or join the Discord/Matrix channel <a href="https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/docs/getting-started#join-the-beepberry-discord" rel="nofollow">https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/docs/getting-started#join-the-be...</a>. I’ll hang out a bit here to answer questions as well.<p>[0] <a href="https://beeper.com">https://beeper.com</a>
[1] <a href="https://github.com/tulir/gomuks">https://github.com/tulir/gomuks</a>
[2] <a href="https://github.com/maubot/maubot">https://github.com/maubot/maubot</a>
Show HN: Beepberry – a portable e-paper computer for hackers
Hi. I heard HN likes e-paper gadgets so I wanted to share a little side project I’ve been working on with @sqfmi. We’re building Beepberry - a portable e-paper computer for hackers, designed for chatting on Beeper. My day job is running Beeper [0], but I will always have a soft spot for building hardware.<p>I wanted to create a ‘weekend’ device that would let me stay in touch with friends and family, without the distractions of a full smartphone. I imagined a tiny, hackable e-paper screen with a physical keyboard, powered by a Raspberry Pi, that I could use to chat around my home…and pretty much nothing else.<p>Before Beeper, the idea probably would not have gone anywhere. Most chat apps do not have an API, making it practically impossible to hack something like this together. Enter Beeper, with connections to 15+ chat networks. Built on top of Matrix, Beeper is fully hackable. You can write alternative fun clients [1], bots [2] and more!<p>Today, sqfmi is starting to take pre-orders at <a href="https://beepberry.sqfmi.com" rel="nofollow">https://beepberry.sqfmi.com</a> for the first batch. It’s $79 (or $99 including a Pi Zero). Specs: Sharp Memory LCD (same display tech as in Pebble!), Pi Zero (BT/WIFI), physical keyboard, 2000mAh lipo.<p>On top of being an amazing Beeper chat device, it’s basically an e-paper Cyberdeck that fits in your pocket. It’s a ton of fun to hack on. Keep in mind - THIS IS NOT A REAL FINISHED PRODUCT. It’s basically a devkit.<p>More info in the blog post: <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry">https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-x-sqmfi-beepberry</a>, or join the Discord/Matrix channel <a href="https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/docs/getting-started#join-the-beepberry-discord" rel="nofollow">https://beepberry.sqfmi.com/docs/getting-started#join-the-be...</a>. I’ll hang out a bit here to answer questions as well.<p>[0] <a href="https://beeper.com">https://beeper.com</a>
[1] <a href="https://github.com/tulir/gomuks">https://github.com/tulir/gomuks</a>
[2] <a href="https://github.com/maubot/maubot">https://github.com/maubot/maubot</a>
Show HN: DevPod – Codespaces but Open Source, Client-Only, and Unopinionated
Hi everyone - Looking for feedback for this new open source project we launched. It's called DevPod and it's built on the devcontainer.json standard to create reproducible dev environments. It lets you spin up dev environments in any infra, kind of like a Terraform but for dev environments.<p>Compared to hosted services such as Github Codespaces, JetBrains Spaces, or Google Cloud Workstations, DevPod has the following advantages:<p>- Open Source: DevPod is 100% open-source and extensible. A provider doesn’t exist? Just create your own.<p>- Client-only: No need to install a server backend. DevPod runs solely on your computer.<p>- Cross IDE support: VS Code and the full JetBrains suite is supported. Other IDEs can be connected through ssh.<p>- Rich feature set: DevPod already supports prebuilds, auto inactivity shutdown, git & docker credentials sync, with many more features to come.<p>I've gotten tons of good feedback from folks here in the past for other OSS projects, so I'm hoping to get some thoughts on this new project today.<p>What do you think? Open for any feedback - even if you think DevPod sucks, let me know.
Show HN: DevPod – Codespaces but Open Source, Client-Only, and Unopinionated
Hi everyone - Looking for feedback for this new open source project we launched. It's called DevPod and it's built on the devcontainer.json standard to create reproducible dev environments. It lets you spin up dev environments in any infra, kind of like a Terraform but for dev environments.<p>Compared to hosted services such as Github Codespaces, JetBrains Spaces, or Google Cloud Workstations, DevPod has the following advantages:<p>- Open Source: DevPod is 100% open-source and extensible. A provider doesn’t exist? Just create your own.<p>- Client-only: No need to install a server backend. DevPod runs solely on your computer.<p>- Cross IDE support: VS Code and the full JetBrains suite is supported. Other IDEs can be connected through ssh.<p>- Rich feature set: DevPod already supports prebuilds, auto inactivity shutdown, git & docker credentials sync, with many more features to come.<p>I've gotten tons of good feedback from folks here in the past for other OSS projects, so I'm hoping to get some thoughts on this new project today.<p>What do you think? Open for any feedback - even if you think DevPod sucks, let me know.
Show HN: Neucards – Privacy based digital contact card
Neucards is an end-to-end encrypted contact information sharing and updating iOS app that protects your identity while letting you keep in touch with people. I started working on neucards as a side project more than ten years ago, and I decided three years ago to go full-time and try to build a community around it.<p>There are two major problems that neucards addresses. First, most people end up with contact lists that are hopelessly out of date. Over time, people move, change jobs, or add social profiles and unless they tell you, chances are you could lose touch. Second, your contact information ends up in the wrong hands. There has been a huge increase in robocalls, unsolicited emails, data breaches, and online scams that is driven by accessing a person's contact info. Even worse, with AI now being able to imitate a person's voice or other mannerisms, knowledge about the connections you have with others can be used against you.<p>Neucards automatically updates your contact information for anyone who has your digital contact card. You control your contact information and who has access. This is possible because of end-to-end encryption. Neucards brings the same level of protection for your contact information as Signal or WhatsApp does for your chats. Privacy is built it.<p>But, even with these protections, you can share your contact info with anyone. As an example, here is a link to my Social card:<p><a href="https://www.neucards.com/of/braddominy?id=M6TC5PLngD&k=4R98iwnoRi" rel="nofollow">https://www.neucards.com/of/braddominy?id=M6TC5PLngD&k=4R98i...</a><p>I'm excited about how much neucards has grown and what I have planned for the future to do even more to protect people's privacy. If you have any comments, please let me know.<p>Brad
<a href="https://www.neucards.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.neucards.com</a>
Show HN: Neucards – Privacy based digital contact card
Neucards is an end-to-end encrypted contact information sharing and updating iOS app that protects your identity while letting you keep in touch with people. I started working on neucards as a side project more than ten years ago, and I decided three years ago to go full-time and try to build a community around it.<p>There are two major problems that neucards addresses. First, most people end up with contact lists that are hopelessly out of date. Over time, people move, change jobs, or add social profiles and unless they tell you, chances are you could lose touch. Second, your contact information ends up in the wrong hands. There has been a huge increase in robocalls, unsolicited emails, data breaches, and online scams that is driven by accessing a person's contact info. Even worse, with AI now being able to imitate a person's voice or other mannerisms, knowledge about the connections you have with others can be used against you.<p>Neucards automatically updates your contact information for anyone who has your digital contact card. You control your contact information and who has access. This is possible because of end-to-end encryption. Neucards brings the same level of protection for your contact information as Signal or WhatsApp does for your chats. Privacy is built it.<p>But, even with these protections, you can share your contact info with anyone. As an example, here is a link to my Social card:<p><a href="https://www.neucards.com/of/braddominy?id=M6TC5PLngD&k=4R98iwnoRi" rel="nofollow">https://www.neucards.com/of/braddominy?id=M6TC5PLngD&k=4R98i...</a><p>I'm excited about how much neucards has grown and what I have planned for the future to do even more to protect people's privacy. If you have any comments, please let me know.<p>Brad
<a href="https://www.neucards.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.neucards.com</a>
Show HN: Neucards – Privacy based digital contact card
Neucards is an end-to-end encrypted contact information sharing and updating iOS app that protects your identity while letting you keep in touch with people. I started working on neucards as a side project more than ten years ago, and I decided three years ago to go full-time and try to build a community around it.<p>There are two major problems that neucards addresses. First, most people end up with contact lists that are hopelessly out of date. Over time, people move, change jobs, or add social profiles and unless they tell you, chances are you could lose touch. Second, your contact information ends up in the wrong hands. There has been a huge increase in robocalls, unsolicited emails, data breaches, and online scams that is driven by accessing a person's contact info. Even worse, with AI now being able to imitate a person's voice or other mannerisms, knowledge about the connections you have with others can be used against you.<p>Neucards automatically updates your contact information for anyone who has your digital contact card. You control your contact information and who has access. This is possible because of end-to-end encryption. Neucards brings the same level of protection for your contact information as Signal or WhatsApp does for your chats. Privacy is built it.<p>But, even with these protections, you can share your contact info with anyone. As an example, here is a link to my Social card:<p><a href="https://www.neucards.com/of/braddominy?id=M6TC5PLngD&k=4R98iwnoRi" rel="nofollow">https://www.neucards.com/of/braddominy?id=M6TC5PLngD&k=4R98i...</a><p>I'm excited about how much neucards has grown and what I have planned for the future to do even more to protect people's privacy. If you have any comments, please let me know.<p>Brad
<a href="https://www.neucards.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.neucards.com</a>
Show HN: Capillaries: Distributed data processing with Go and Cassandra
I started thinking about this approach after working on a large-scale project for a major financial company where our group developed a distributed in-house data processing solution. On a regular basis, it ingested a few gigabytes of financial data and, within a tight SLA time limit, produced a lot of enriched/aggregated/validated data for a number of customers. Sometimes, source data had errors, so operators with domain knowledge had to verify data validity at some checkpoints, immediately make corrections, and re-run parts of the workflow manually. The solution involved complex web service orchestration, custom database and was very demanding on the infrastructure availability.<p>Capillaries is a built from scratch, open-source Go solution that does just that: ingests data and applies user-defined transforms - Go one-liner expressions, Python formulas, joins, aggregations, denormalization - using Cassandra for intermediate data storage and RabbitMQ for task scheduling. End users just have to provide:
- source data in CSV files;
- Capillaries script (JSON file) that defines the workflow and the transforms;
- Python code that performs complex calculations (only if needed).<p>The whole data processing pipeline can be split into separate runs that can be started independently and re-run by the user if needed.<p>The goal is to build a platform that is tolerant to database and processing node failures, and allows users to focus on data transform logic and data quality control.<p>“Getting started” Docker-based demo calculates ARK funds performance, using EOD holdings and transactions data acquired from public sources. There are also integration tests that use non-financial data. There is a test deploy tool that uses Openstack API for provisioning in the cloud.
Show HN: My solar-powered, ePaper digital photo frame
This is version 2 of my ongoing heirloom device project, a digital photo frame built with the goal of lasting longer than your typical gadget.<p>There's a part of me that wishes to commercialize a polished version of this product, but the more I speak to people, the more I become convinced that I belong to a very small minority.