The best Hacker News stories from Show from the past week
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Show HN: I wrote a "web OS" based on the Apple Lisa's UI, with 1-bit graphics
<a href="https://lisagui.com/info.html" rel="nofollow">https://lisagui.com/info.html</a><p>This is a web OS I wrote in vanilla JS that looks like the Apple Lisa Office System (1983-85), with other contemporaneous influences and additional improvements and features. It's currently in alpha and isn't remotely bug free. I had been holding off on posting this here until it was somewhat presentable and useful. Please note; the Lisa conforms more literally to the desktop metaphor than most modern GUIs - some of the important differences are mentioned in the readme.<p>This is a complete recreation of the UI in JS; it all renders to a single canvas element. It's not a CSS theme, and not an emulator ported to JS. None of the code is written by Apple. I'll be happy to elaborate more in the comments, but the short version is the entire UI is defined outside the DOM using JS objects. Thus, every interface element - menus, windows, controls, and even typefaces - was recreated from scratch. There are no font files - I wrote my own typesetting system, which supports combining multiple text styles and generates new glyph variants on the fly.<p>Many of the technical decisions I made were motivated by a desire to have this look the same in every browser. That's harder to do with the DOM and CSS, and why I moved as much logic as I could to JS. Also, the only part of the project outside of vanilla JS and standard web APIs is the Gulp toolkit, which I'm using as a minification/build tool. No vibe coding was used to make this!<p>This is based on a UI from the 80s, and won't work well on your phone. If you insist on running it that way, turn on trackpad mode in the touchscreen settings panel of the preferences app. For best results, install it as a PWA (add it to your home screen). Also there are some odd Android bugs; the native touchscreen keyboard is currently broken, and there's an issue with the cursor when dragging windows.<p>I realize there's not a whole lot to do within LisaGUI right now; I've got a big list of additional features and apps I'll be adding in the future. I've been working on this project for a while, and I'm eager to hear people's feedback and answer questions about it.
I extracted the safety filters from Apple Intelligence models
I managed to reverse engineer the encryption (refered to as “Obfuscation” in the framework) responsible for managing the safety filters of Apple Intelligence models. I have extracted them into a repository. I encourage you to take a look around.
Show HN: I AI-coded a tower defense game and documented the whole process
I'm a software developer with 20+ years of experience but during this time I never programmed any games, but I really wanted to for the longest time. With the advent of AI coding agents I thought that this is the best time to try and so I've learned a bit of Phaser.js (a Javascript based game engine) and entered Beginner's Jam Summer 2025 - a game jam for beginners in the game dev industry that allows AI coding. After around 25-30 hours (working mainly after my full-time day job) I managed to submit the game I called "Tower of Time" (the theme of the jam was "Time Travel").<p>You can play it in your browser here: <a href="https://m4v3k.itch.io/tower-of-time" rel="nofollow">https://m4v3k.itch.io/tower-of-time</a><p>The goal of this project for me was first and foremost to see if AI coding is good enough to help me with creating something that's actually fun to play and to my delight is turns out the answer is yes! I decided to document the whole process for myself and others to learn from my mistakes, so both the code AND all the prompts I used are published on GitHub (see submission link). The art assets are largely taken from itch.io artists who shared them for free, with some slight touch ups. Sounds came from freesound.org.<p>I've also streamed parts of the process, you can watch me working on the final stretch and submitting the finished game (warning, it's 5+ hours long):<p><a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2503428478" rel="nofollow">https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2503428478</a><p>During this process I've learned a lot and I want to use this knowledge in my next project that will hopefully be more ambitious. If you have any comments or questions I'm here to answer!
Show HN: CSS generator for a high-def glass effect
There are lots of glassmorphism generators out there, but I wanted to push the effect further! This project is the result of months of experimenting with CSS property layering and battling browser quirks.<p>Cross-browser compatibility is actually the reason I rely on ::before and ::after pseudo-elements to build up the effect. Move the color/opacity to the main element, and you’ll get weird color bleed on the corners in Chrome. Move the texture, and it muddles the bevel’s specular highlight. Move the bevel, and it gets blurred out by the backdrop-filter. And so on!<p>Layers include:
* Adjustable blur, brightness, and saturation (backdrop-filter)
* Subtle translucent texture
* Faux 3D bevel (using box-shadows, not an outline)<p>Glassmorphism is rather heavy on resources, so it’s best used as an accent and avoided on wide desktop elements.
Should be compatible with recent versions of Chrome, Safari, and Firefox (desktop and mobile). If you spot bugs or rendering glitches, I’d love to know!<p>Side note: this is an early preview of a framework-agnostic glass SCSS/component library I’m building.
Show HN: Spegel, a Terminal Browser That Uses LLMs to Rewrite Webpages
Show HN: A continuation of IRS Direct File that can be self-hosted
the IRS recently open sourced most of Direct File, a tax tool it has been working on for a few years now. unfortunately, due to recent events, the IRS isn't working on it anymore. I decided to pick up where they left off and I'm trying to get it ready for next tax season<p>the work behind Direct File is really interesting and I made a lot of it available online to read as well - <a href="https://docs.openfile.tax/en/latest/" rel="nofollow">https://docs.openfile.tax/en/latest/</a>
Show HN: New Ensō – first public beta
Ensō is a writing tool that helps you enter a state of flow by separating writing from editing and thus making it harder for you to edit yourself - <a href="https://enso.sonnet.io/" rel="nofollow">https://enso.sonnet.io/</a><p>After 6 years and 2 million words of daily writing I feel like I've learned enough to make Ensō simpler and more accessible.<p>Related thread: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38025073">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38025073</a>
Show HN: New Ensō – first public beta
Ensō is a writing tool that helps you enter a state of flow by separating writing from editing and thus making it harder for you to edit yourself - <a href="https://enso.sonnet.io/" rel="nofollow">https://enso.sonnet.io/</a><p>After 6 years and 2 million words of daily writing I feel like I've learned enough to make Ensō simpler and more accessible.<p>Related thread: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38025073">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38025073</a>
Show HN: TokenDagger – A tokenizer faster than OpenAI's Tiktoken
TokenDagger is a drop-in replacement for OpenAI’s Tiktoken (the tokenizer behind Llama 3, Mistral, GPT-3.*, etc.). It’s written in C++ 17 with thin Python bindings, keeps the exact same BPE vocab/special-token rules, and focuses on raw speed.<p>I’m teaching myself LLM internals by re-implementing the stack from first principles. Profiling TikToken’s Python/Rust implementation showed a lot of time was spent doing regex matching. Most of my perf gains come from a) using a faster jit-compiled regex engine; and b) simplifying the algorithm to forego regex matching special tokens at all.<p>Benchmarking code is included. Notable results show:
- 4x faster code sample tokenization on a single thread.
- 2-3x higher throughput when tested on a 1GB natural language text file.
Show HN: TokenDagger – A tokenizer faster than OpenAI's Tiktoken
TokenDagger is a drop-in replacement for OpenAI’s Tiktoken (the tokenizer behind Llama 3, Mistral, GPT-3.*, etc.). It’s written in C++ 17 with thin Python bindings, keeps the exact same BPE vocab/special-token rules, and focuses on raw speed.<p>I’m teaching myself LLM internals by re-implementing the stack from first principles. Profiling TikToken’s Python/Rust implementation showed a lot of time was spent doing regex matching. Most of my perf gains come from a) using a faster jit-compiled regex engine; and b) simplifying the algorithm to forego regex matching special tokens at all.<p>Benchmarking code is included. Notable results show:
- 4x faster code sample tokenization on a single thread.
- 2-3x higher throughput when tested on a 1GB natural language text file.
Show HN: Octelium – FOSS Alternative to Teleport, Cloudflare, Tailscale, Ngrok
I have been working on Octelium for quite a few years now but it was open sourced only by late May 2025. Octelium, as described more in detail in the repo's README, is simply an open source, self-hosted, unified platform for zero trust resource access that is primarily meant to be a modern alternative to corporate VPNs and remote access tools. It can operate as a remote access/corporate VPN (i.e. alternative to Twingate, Tailscale, OpenVPN Access Server, etc...), a ZTNA/BeyondCorp platform (i.e. alterntive to Cloudflare Access, Teleport, Google BeyondCorp, etc...), and it can also operate as an API/AI gateway, an infrastructure for MCP and A2A architectures and meshes, an ngrok alternative, a homelab infrastructure or even as a more advanced Kubernetes ingress. It's basically designed to operate like a unified Kubernetes-like scalable architecture for zero trust secure/remote access that's suitable for different human-to-workload and workload-to-workload environments. You can read more in detail the full set of main features and links about how it works in the repo's README or directly in the docs <a href="https://octelium.com/docs" rel="nofollow">https://octelium.com/docs</a>
Show HN: Octelium – FOSS Alternative to Teleport, Cloudflare, Tailscale, Ngrok
I have been working on Octelium for quite a few years now but it was open sourced only by late May 2025. Octelium, as described more in detail in the repo's README, is simply an open source, self-hosted, unified platform for zero trust resource access that is primarily meant to be a modern alternative to corporate VPNs and remote access tools. It can operate as a remote access/corporate VPN (i.e. alternative to Twingate, Tailscale, OpenVPN Access Server, etc...), a ZTNA/BeyondCorp platform (i.e. alterntive to Cloudflare Access, Teleport, Google BeyondCorp, etc...), and it can also operate as an API/AI gateway, an infrastructure for MCP and A2A architectures and meshes, an ngrok alternative, a homelab infrastructure or even as a more advanced Kubernetes ingress. It's basically designed to operate like a unified Kubernetes-like scalable architecture for zero trust secure/remote access that's suitable for different human-to-workload and workload-to-workload environments. You can read more in detail the full set of main features and links about how it works in the repo's README or directly in the docs <a href="https://octelium.com/docs" rel="nofollow">https://octelium.com/docs</a>
Show HN: Octelium – FOSS Alternative to Teleport, Cloudflare, Tailscale, Ngrok
I have been working on Octelium for quite a few years now but it was open sourced only by late May 2025. Octelium, as described more in detail in the repo's README, is simply an open source, self-hosted, unified platform for zero trust resource access that is primarily meant to be a modern alternative to corporate VPNs and remote access tools. It can operate as a remote access/corporate VPN (i.e. alternative to Twingate, Tailscale, OpenVPN Access Server, etc...), a ZTNA/BeyondCorp platform (i.e. alterntive to Cloudflare Access, Teleport, Google BeyondCorp, etc...), and it can also operate as an API/AI gateway, an infrastructure for MCP and A2A architectures and meshes, an ngrok alternative, a homelab infrastructure or even as a more advanced Kubernetes ingress. It's basically designed to operate like a unified Kubernetes-like scalable architecture for zero trust secure/remote access that's suitable for different human-to-workload and workload-to-workload environments. You can read more in detail the full set of main features and links about how it works in the repo's README or directly in the docs <a href="https://octelium.com/docs" rel="nofollow">https://octelium.com/docs</a>
Show HN: Sink – Sync any directory with any device on your local network
i made sink. it's a simple little tool that continuously syncs folders between 2 devices. no cloud, no email, flash drives, no bs.<p>it just uses your local wifi. run it on your machines, tell them to trust each other, and you're set. and if you manage to edit the same file at once, it handles the conflict and saves both copies.<p>for anyone who just wants to get files from point a to b without the headache. hope it makes your life a bit less annoying.<p>github: <a href="https://github.com/sirbread/sink">https://github.com/sirbread/sink</a>
binary: <a href="https://github.com/sirbread/sink/releases/tag/v0.1">https://github.com/sirbread/sink/releases/tag/v0.1</a>
Show HN: Sink – Sync any directory with any device on your local network
i made sink. it's a simple little tool that continuously syncs folders between 2 devices. no cloud, no email, flash drives, no bs.<p>it just uses your local wifi. run it on your machines, tell them to trust each other, and you're set. and if you manage to edit the same file at once, it handles the conflict and saves both copies.<p>for anyone who just wants to get files from point a to b without the headache. hope it makes your life a bit less annoying.<p>github: <a href="https://github.com/sirbread/sink">https://github.com/sirbread/sink</a>
binary: <a href="https://github.com/sirbread/sink/releases/tag/v0.1">https://github.com/sirbread/sink/releases/tag/v0.1</a>
Show HN: Zenta – Mindfulness for Terminal Users
Show HN: Zenta – Mindfulness for Terminal Users
Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
Hey HN!<p>Pilots everywhere are required to keep a logbook of all their flying hours, aircraft, airports, and so on. Since I track everything digitally (some people still just use paper logbooks!), I put together some data visualizations and a few 3D globes to show my flying history.<p>This globe is probably my favourite so far: <a href="https://jameshard.ing/pilot/globes/all" rel="nofollow">https://jameshard.ing/pilot/globes/all</a><p>If you’ve got ideas for other graphs or ways to show this kind of data, I’d love to hear them!
Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
Hey HN!<p>Pilots everywhere are required to keep a logbook of all their flying hours, aircraft, airports, and so on. Since I track everything digitally (some people still just use paper logbooks!), I put together some data visualizations and a few 3D globes to show my flying history.<p>This globe is probably my favourite so far: <a href="https://jameshard.ing/pilot/globes/all" rel="nofollow">https://jameshard.ing/pilot/globes/all</a><p>If you’ve got ideas for other graphs or ways to show this kind of data, I’d love to hear them!
Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
Hey HN!<p>Pilots everywhere are required to keep a logbook of all their flying hours, aircraft, airports, and so on. Since I track everything digitally (some people still just use paper logbooks!), I put together some data visualizations and a few 3D globes to show my flying history.<p>This globe is probably my favourite so far: <a href="https://jameshard.ing/pilot/globes/all" rel="nofollow">https://jameshard.ing/pilot/globes/all</a><p>If you’ve got ideas for other graphs or ways to show this kind of data, I’d love to hear them!