The best Hacker News stories from Show from the past week

Latest posts:

Show HN: Driftmania – an open source PICO-8 racing game

I've been spending a lot of my spare time over the last year creating this little racing game. It's built in PICO-8, which is a really fun “fantasy retro console” that's been mentioned on HN several times. The console has strict limits and I wanted to see how far I could push them<p>The source code for the game is over here: <a href="https://github.com/maxbize/PICO-8/tree/master/Driftmania">https://github.com/maxbize/PICO-8/tree/master/Driftmania</a>. It's a bit of a mess, but I'm happy to answer any questions on it or development of the game. Cheers!<p>EDIT: For those not familiar with PICO-8, there's only a few inputs: arrow keys, Z/C/N, and X/V/M

Show HN: Driftmania – an open source PICO-8 racing game

I've been spending a lot of my spare time over the last year creating this little racing game. It's built in PICO-8, which is a really fun “fantasy retro console” that's been mentioned on HN several times. The console has strict limits and I wanted to see how far I could push them<p>The source code for the game is over here: <a href="https://github.com/maxbize/PICO-8/tree/master/Driftmania">https://github.com/maxbize/PICO-8/tree/master/Driftmania</a>. It's a bit of a mess, but I'm happy to answer any questions on it or development of the game. Cheers!<p>EDIT: For those not familiar with PICO-8, there's only a few inputs: arrow keys, Z/C/N, and X/V/M

Show HN: Gitlab Meeting Simulator 2024

Gitlab's meeting recordings on YouTube have tens of thousands of views by people pretending to work. Now you can appear to be in the meeting using your own webcam.

Show HN: Aldi Price Map

Hi HN, Inspired by the recent discussion on traderjoesprices.com, and sites such as mccheapest.com, here is a map of how much does it cost to shop (this week's promo items) at Aldi

Show HN: Play the game I'm developing directly on its website

I've been working on Athena Crisis for about two years, and full time for the past 9 months. The game is entirely built from scratch using React and CSS without a game engine. It runs anywhere, including the Steam Deck. You can even use a gamepad on the landing page to play!<p>Previously the landing page had a video of the game but my goal was to always just put the actual game on the website. I merged the landing page into the game's monorepo, added the game's React components, and boom – the video was replaced with a playable version of Athena Crisis.<p>Of course, the real game has tons more features, but the landing page now always runs the exact same code as the actual game – including assets, the AI, and the UI/UX – and it is pushed within 5 minutes as the actual game is being updated live.<p>I frequently talk about the tech behind this game (see this React Summit talk about "How Not to Build a Video Game": <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8SmXOTM8Ec" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8SmXOTM8Ec</a> ) and I'm planning on open sourcing as much as possible in the future.

Show HN: Reor – An AI note-taking app that runs models locally

Reor is an open-source AI note-taking app that runs models locally.<p>The four main things to know are:<p>1. Notes are connected automatically with vector search. You can do semantic search + related notes are automatically connected.<p>2. You can do RAG Q&A on your notes using the local LLM of your choice.<p>3. Embedding model, LLM, vector db and files are all run or stored locally.<p>4. Point it to a directory of markdown files (like an Obsidian vault) and it works seamlessly alongside Obsidian.<p>Under the hood, Reor uses Llama.cpp (node-llama-cpp integration), Transformers.js and Lancedb to power the local AI features.<p>Reor was built right from the start to support local models. The future of knowledge management involves using lots of AI to organize pieces of knowledge - but crucially, that AI should run as much as possible privately & locally.<p>It's available for Mac, Windows & Linux on the project Github: <a href="https://github.com/reorproject/reor">https://github.com/reorproject/reor</a>

Show HN: Bitwise Liminal – A Short Film in 256 Bytes of Code

A Short Film in 256 Bytes of Code<p>Programmed by KilledByAPixel Presented at Lovebyte Party 2024<p>...<p>I found an old VHS tape at a yard sale. It was labeled "Bitwise Liminal" in sharpie. But when I watched the video it was only static.<p>Then I started having vivid and... unsettling dreams. Also I couldn't stop thinking about that weird VHS tape. After researching I learned it was a digital backup. Using some special software I recovered the data. To my shock, it was a 256 byte program...<p>With trembling hands I opened it in a web browser. Strange. This reminds me of the dreams I've been having. Now I don't need to sleep anymore. I just keep watching.<p>...<p>l ɐ u ᴉ ɯ ᴉ ⅂ ǝ s ᴉ ʍ ʇ ᴉ ᗺ<p><pre><code> <canvas id=c><svg onload=setInterval("for(t+=.1,R=T=C=Math.cos,c.width=w=128,i=9986,V=t/9&3;Y=i--/w;c.getContext`2d`.fillRect(X,Y,(C(t/6)T^Vi/1e4T+t) ?(R=T++,1):(T=9,19/R),5/Z))for(Z=5,X=i%w+4/R;0<(V95+C(t/3)+ZX/64-Z^Z|(60-Y)Z/58);Z+=.2);",t=9)></code></pre>

Show HN: Bitwise Liminal – A Short Film in 256 Bytes of Code

A Short Film in 256 Bytes of Code<p>Programmed by KilledByAPixel Presented at Lovebyte Party 2024<p>...<p>I found an old VHS tape at a yard sale. It was labeled "Bitwise Liminal" in sharpie. But when I watched the video it was only static.<p>Then I started having vivid and... unsettling dreams. Also I couldn't stop thinking about that weird VHS tape. After researching I learned it was a digital backup. Using some special software I recovered the data. To my shock, it was a 256 byte program...<p>With trembling hands I opened it in a web browser. Strange. This reminds me of the dreams I've been having. Now I don't need to sleep anymore. I just keep watching.<p>...<p>l ɐ u ᴉ ɯ ᴉ ⅂ ǝ s ᴉ ʍ ʇ ᴉ ᗺ<p><pre><code> <canvas id=c><svg onload=setInterval("for(t+=.1,R=T=C=Math.cos,c.width=w=128,i=9986,V=t/9&3;Y=i--/w;c.getContext`2d`.fillRect(X,Y,(C(t/6)T^Vi/1e4T+t) ?(R=T++,1):(T=9,19/R),5/Z))for(Z=5,X=i%w+4/R;0<(V95+C(t/3)+ZX/64-Z^Z|(60-Y)Z/58);Z+=.2);",t=9)></code></pre>

Show HN: A platform for remote piano lessons based on the Web MIDI API

I'm building a video conferencing app designed to facilitate better remote piano lessons. My hope is to solve a lot of the challenges piano tutors and new students deal with when taking lessons through Skype/Zoom. It leverages WebRTC's data transmission to send media, MIDI state, and (eventually) send sheet music files and other musical data.<p>I'm surprised with how well the MVP has worked and would love to hear any feedback or suggestions!

Show HN: A platform for remote piano lessons based on the Web MIDI API

I'm building a video conferencing app designed to facilitate better remote piano lessons. My hope is to solve a lot of the challenges piano tutors and new students deal with when taking lessons through Skype/Zoom. It leverages WebRTC's data transmission to send media, MIDI state, and (eventually) send sheet music files and other musical data.<p>I'm surprised with how well the MVP has worked and would love to hear any feedback or suggestions!

Show HN: Multi-monitor KVM using just a USB switch

Simple KVM lets you control multiple PCs from one mouse, keyboard and monitor(s).<p>It is similar to Haimgel's display-switch (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29608967">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29608967</a>), but it provides a GUI which hopefully makes it a bit easier to set up. It also supports hotkeys which effectively lets you alt+tab between computers.<p>I was surprised by the star-to-download ratio (55:400) on GitHub, so I thought I'd post it here as it might be useful to someone.<p>Feedback welcome!<p>Thanks, Fidel

Show HN: Multi-monitor KVM using just a USB switch

Simple KVM lets you control multiple PCs from one mouse, keyboard and monitor(s).<p>It is similar to Haimgel's display-switch (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29608967">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29608967</a>), but it provides a GUI which hopefully makes it a bit easier to set up. It also supports hotkeys which effectively lets you alt+tab between computers.<p>I was surprised by the star-to-download ratio (55:400) on GitHub, so I thought I'd post it here as it might be useful to someone.<p>Feedback welcome!<p>Thanks, Fidel

Show HN: Presentations for your webcam, not a projector

CueCam Presenter is my Mac app (actually a suite of Mac and iOS apps) to run better presentations on your webcam.<p>Editing cards should feel natural to anybody used to Markdown.<p>I came to create CueCam as an "embedded entrepreneur". I had some success with my camera app "Shoot Pro Webcam" back in 2020 and built on this by creating squares.tv.<p>As I talked to more and more users, I discovered more opportunities to make their lives easier. I started with features in Shoot (camera options, pausing, drawing etc..).. Then I created Video Pencil (which connects to your computer and lets you draw on your webcam using your iPad). Then I created "Beat Sheet" which lets you run through "smart scripts", controlling Ecamm Live, OBS and mimoLive.<p>CueCam Presenter is how I'm connecting all these elements. It gives you a virtual webcam, virtual mic, and seamlessly connects to Shoot and Video Pencil running on other devices. There are various ways you can use it as a teleprompter while maintaining eye contact.<p>It's taken a lot to get it to this stage. The video pipeline has been through two major iterations and the audio pipeline even more. The UI has evolved and developed to cover the different ways it is understood by different people.<p>Educational discounts are a must for me, as I want to help improve the quality of remote teaching around the world. For other professionals, I believe it transforms the way you interact with people on video calls. It's useful for recording software demos and running live streams.

Show HN: Daily price tracking for Trader Joe's

Show HN: Improve cognitive focus in 1 minute

Staring at something for 30-90 seconds has been proven to improve & boost mental focus on subsequent tasks (from Andrew Huberman - <a href="https://youtu.be/CrtR12PBKb0?t=3367" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/CrtR12PBKb0?t=3367</a> ).<p>So I made something simple you can look at (and simultaneously meditate) for 1 minute to improve focus for your next task :) Let me know if it works for you

Show HN: Name That Nation

I made this map game. react, material ui, hosted on vercel cdn, no back end.

Show HN: Visit the front page of Hacker News on a random day

Hi HN. I was surprised that there wasn't a feature here that lets you go back in time to the front page of Hacker News on a random day...so I made one. <a href="http://randomhackernews.com" rel="nofollow">http://randomhackernews.com</a> is a simple HTML page that navigates you to the front page of HN on a random day between today and February 19, 2007 (the oldest date I could find with content).<p>I made this for myself, but figured others may find some interest in it.

Show HN: Natural-SQL-7B, a strong text-to-SQL model

Would love thoughts!<p>Here is the HF page: <a href="https://huggingface.co/chatdb/natural-sql-7b" rel="nofollow">https://huggingface.co/chatdb/natural-sql-7b</a>

Show HN: Atopile – Design circuit boards with code

Hey HN! We are the founders of atopile. We’re building a tool to describe electronics with code. Here is a quick demo: <a href="https://youtu.be/7-Q0XVpfW3Y" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/7-Q0XVpfW3Y</a><p>Could you imagine the pain of building an entire software product using only assembly code? That’s about how we felt designing hardware. We don’t currently have good ways to describe what we need, reuse existing designs and compile that description down to a product.<p>We started atopile to fix this. atopile is an open-source language and toolchain to describe circuits with code. The compiler is here: <a href="https://github.com/atopile/atopile">https://github.com/atopile/atopile</a> Docs are here: <a href="https://atopile.io/getting-started/" rel="nofollow">https://atopile.io/getting-started/</a> . For a detailed deep dive designing an ESP32 module, see this video: <a href="https://youtu.be/eMWRwZOajdQ" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/eMWRwZOajdQ</a><p>We realized this was a problem in our previous jobs. Narayan and I (Tim) had to manually, draw and export all our electronic circuit boards. This lasted until our friend Matt, a software engineer, showed us his development workflow. All his projects were built, tested, and merged automatically via GitHub. So we asked: Can we build the same for hardware?<p>We observed that the ability to abstract electronics effectively hinged on using a language to describe the requirements, so we came up with the “ato” language. In ato, you can break down circuits into modules, components and interfaces. You can nest and connect those blocks with each other. Here is an example with an RP2040 microcontroller:<p><pre><code> import RP2040Kit from "rp2040/RP2040Kit.ato" import LEDIndicatorBlue from "generics/leds.ato" import LDOReg3V3 from "regulators/regulators.ato" import USBCConn from "usb-connectors/usb-connectors.ato" module Blinky: micro_controller = new RP2040Kit led_indicator = new LEDIndicatorBlue voltage_regulator = new LDOReg3V3 usb_c_connector = new USBCConn usb_c_connector.power ~ voltage_regulator.power_in voltage_regulator.power_out ~ micro_controller.power micro_controller.gpio13 ~ led_indicator.input micro_controller.power.gnd ~ led_indicator.gnd led_indicator.resistor.value = 100ohm +/- 10% </code></pre> From there, the compiler produces a netlist that describes how the circuit is connected and selects jelly-bean components for you (<a href="https://atopile.io/blog/2024/01/31/cloud-components/" rel="nofollow">https://atopile.io/blog/2024/01/31/cloud-components/</a>). Our next focus will be to add layout reuse, mathematical relations between values and define circuits by traits (similar to Rusts’).<p>At the moment, atopile is intended to design all types of printed circuit boards (PCB) with low to medium complexity. The circuit complexity that the compiler can handle will steadily increase until it becomes suited for production usage. We often get asked if the compiler is meant for chip design rather than PCBs, but that is not the case. The language is exclusive to PCBs. At least for now..!<p>A big part of why the software community is so prolific is thanks to open source and open core technology. The ability to share software packages with each other and efficiently chain tools together has made the software world an awesome place for developers. As hardware engineers, we would love our field to benefit from this as well. That’s why we’ve made atopile’s core open source (Apache 2.0). We plan to generate revenue by selling entreprise targeted features, similar to GitLab.<p>We would love to have your thoughts on the compiler! What’s your story in electronics? What would you want us to build?

Show HN: The classic Minesweeper on an irregular grid

I'm experimenting game mechanics that are usually seen on a typical grid, but transposed on an irregular one.<p>This is a first game based on Minesweeper.<p>The changes an irregular grid brings are that cells don't all have 8 neighbors. Some can have less, some can have more. So when you try and deduce if a tile has a mine, you have to pay closer attention at the number clues and which tiles neighbors it.<p>My intention is to make a very classic game a bit more challenging & fun.<p>I've also released a first version of Checkers/Draughts, and plan to test similar variants for Chess, Othello and Go.