Building Effective "Agents"
651 by jascha_eng | 120 comments on Hacker News.
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New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I designed an espresso machine and coffee grinder
Show HN: I designed an espresso machine and coffee grinder
717 by smeeeeeeeeeeeee | 432 comments on Hacker News.
It was a lot of work as a solo project but I hope you guys think it’s cool. When I say “we” in the website it’s only in the most royal sense possible. I also did all the photo/videography. I started out designing a single machine for personal use, but like many things it sort of spiraled out of control from there. I felt like espresso machines were getting very large, plasticky, and app-integrated without actually improving the underlying technologies that make them work. The noisy vibratory pumps in particular are from 1977 and haven’t really changed since then. So I wanted to focus on making the most advanced internals I could and leaving everything else as minimalist as possible. The pump is, as far as I know, completely unique in terms of power density and price. Without spending several thousand dollars, it was difficult to find a machine with a gear pump, and adjustable pressure was also similarly expensive but this machine has those things and costs a normal amount to buy. You can also turn the pressure way down and make filter coffee. I also saw so many people (including myself) using a scale while making espresso, and even putting a cup below the group head to catch drips, entirely negating the drip tray, so I basically designed for that! The profile of the machine is much lighter on the eyes and doesn’t loom in the corner like my old espresso machine did. And for the grinder, basically everything on the market uses conical and flat burrs that have descended from spice grinders, and the same couple of standard sizes. Sometimes larger companies design their own burrs, but only within those existing shapes. There is sort of a rush to put larger and larger burrs into coffee grinders, which makes sense, but with cylindrical burrs, you can increase the cutting surface way more relative to the size of the grinder. When grinders get too big, maintaining alignment becomes mechanically cumbersome, but the cylindrical burr can be very well supported from the inside, and there is the added benefit of hiding the entire motor within the burr itself. The resulting grounds are just outright better than all the other grinders I have used, but obviously this is a matter of taste and my own personal bias. The biggest downside for the grinder is that it doesn’t work with starbucks style oily roasts, because the coffee expands so much while traveling down through the burrs and can sometimes clog up the teeth. It doesn’t hurt the grinder but it does require cleaning (which is tool-free!). Another downside for both machines is the fact that they run on DC power so it’s best if you have a spot in your kitchen to tuck away the power brick. I also made a kit that makes the gear pump a drop-in upgrade for other espresso machines, to reduce noise and add adjustable pressure. https://ift.tt/VsmcG2f The roughest part of this process were the moments midway through development where they weren’t working at all. When the grinder is just jamming itself instantly or the fourth factory in a row tells you the part you’re making is impossible or the pump is alternating between spraying water out the side and into your face and not pumping at all. And the default thought is “Of course it’s not working, if this was going to work someone else would have already made it like this”. The route you’ve taken is fundamentally different enough that there are no existing solutions to draw on. You’re basically feeling around in the dark for months on end, burning money, and then one day, every little cumulative change suddenly adds up to a tasty espresso. And it’s not perfect yet, but you at least can see the road ahead. Anyways, this is way more than I expected to write, thank you for reading! Tell me if you have any questions
717 by smeeeeeeeeeeeee | 432 comments on Hacker News.
It was a lot of work as a solo project but I hope you guys think it’s cool. When I say “we” in the website it’s only in the most royal sense possible. I also did all the photo/videography. I started out designing a single machine for personal use, but like many things it sort of spiraled out of control from there. I felt like espresso machines were getting very large, plasticky, and app-integrated without actually improving the underlying technologies that make them work. The noisy vibratory pumps in particular are from 1977 and haven’t really changed since then. So I wanted to focus on making the most advanced internals I could and leaving everything else as minimalist as possible. The pump is, as far as I know, completely unique in terms of power density and price. Without spending several thousand dollars, it was difficult to find a machine with a gear pump, and adjustable pressure was also similarly expensive but this machine has those things and costs a normal amount to buy. You can also turn the pressure way down and make filter coffee. I also saw so many people (including myself) using a scale while making espresso, and even putting a cup below the group head to catch drips, entirely negating the drip tray, so I basically designed for that! The profile of the machine is much lighter on the eyes and doesn’t loom in the corner like my old espresso machine did. And for the grinder, basically everything on the market uses conical and flat burrs that have descended from spice grinders, and the same couple of standard sizes. Sometimes larger companies design their own burrs, but only within those existing shapes. There is sort of a rush to put larger and larger burrs into coffee grinders, which makes sense, but with cylindrical burrs, you can increase the cutting surface way more relative to the size of the grinder. When grinders get too big, maintaining alignment becomes mechanically cumbersome, but the cylindrical burr can be very well supported from the inside, and there is the added benefit of hiding the entire motor within the burr itself. The resulting grounds are just outright better than all the other grinders I have used, but obviously this is a matter of taste and my own personal bias. The biggest downside for the grinder is that it doesn’t work with starbucks style oily roasts, because the coffee expands so much while traveling down through the burrs and can sometimes clog up the teeth. It doesn’t hurt the grinder but it does require cleaning (which is tool-free!). Another downside for both machines is the fact that they run on DC power so it’s best if you have a spot in your kitchen to tuck away the power brick. I also made a kit that makes the gear pump a drop-in upgrade for other espresso machines, to reduce noise and add adjustable pressure. https://ift.tt/VsmcG2f The roughest part of this process were the moments midway through development where they weren’t working at all. When the grinder is just jamming itself instantly or the fourth factory in a row tells you the part you’re making is impossible or the pump is alternating between spraying water out the side and into your face and not pumping at all. And the default thought is “Of course it’s not working, if this was going to work someone else would have already made it like this”. The route you’ve taken is fundamentally different enough that there are no existing solutions to draw on. You’re basically feeling around in the dark for months on end, burning money, and then one day, every little cumulative change suddenly adds up to a tasty espresso. And it’s not perfect yet, but you at least can see the road ahead. Anyways, this is way more than I expected to write, thank you for reading! Tell me if you have any questions
New best story on Hacker News: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
698 by adnanaga | 123 comments on Hacker News.
Every day, thousands of Cease and Desist letters are issued, telling people to stop what they’re doing (Looking at you, David Chang). What a bummer! That’s why we created: The Continue and Persist Letter. A official-looking legal letter that encourages and uplifts people, one that tells people to keep doing what they’re doing! Surprise someone you appreciate by sending them a Continue and Persist Letter.
698 by adnanaga | 123 comments on Hacker News.
Every day, thousands of Cease and Desist letters are issued, telling people to stop what they’re doing (Looking at you, David Chang). What a bummer! That’s why we created: The Continue and Persist Letter. A official-looking legal letter that encourages and uplifts people, one that tells people to keep doing what they’re doing! Surprise someone you appreciate by sending them a Continue and Persist Letter.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: A Marble Madness-inspired WebGL game we built for Netlify
Show HN: A Marble Madness-inspired WebGL game we built for Netlify
601 by franck | 224 comments on Hacker News.
Hello HN! We’re a small creative studio specializing in real-time 3D experiences. Netlify approached us to design and build an interactive experience to celebrate reaching 5 million developers. Inspired by the classic game Marble Madness, we created a gamified experience where users control a ball through playful, interactive levels. The goal was to blend marketing content with the look and feel of a game to engage users. The app is built with Three.js [1], using our custom render pipeline and shaders, and uses Rapier for physics simulation [2]. The 2D content is overlaid on the WebGL view using CSS 3D transforms for a seamless integration with the 3D view. We’d love for you to try it out and share your thoughts! [1] https://threejs.org [2] https://rapier.rs EDIT: More info on this project here: https://ift.tt/UaK0bXZ
601 by franck | 224 comments on Hacker News.
Hello HN! We’re a small creative studio specializing in real-time 3D experiences. Netlify approached us to design and build an interactive experience to celebrate reaching 5 million developers. Inspired by the classic game Marble Madness, we created a gamified experience where users control a ball through playful, interactive levels. The goal was to blend marketing content with the look and feel of a game to engage users. The app is built with Three.js [1], using our custom render pipeline and shaders, and uses Rapier for physics simulation [2]. The 2D content is overlaid on the WebGL view using CSS 3D transforms for a seamless integration with the 3D view. We’d love for you to try it out and share your thoughts! [1] https://threejs.org [2] https://rapier.rs EDIT: More info on this project here: https://ift.tt/UaK0bXZ
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties
Show HN: I built a(nother) house optimized for LAN parties
652 by kentonv | 233 comments on Hacker News.
I wasn't quite sure if this qualified as "Show HN" given you can't really download it and try it out. However, dang said[0]: > If it's hardware or something that's not so easy to try out over the internet, find a different way to show how it actually works—a video, for example, or a detailed post with photos. Hopefully I did that? Additionally, I've put code and a detailed guide for the netboot computer management setup on GitHub: https://ift.tt/isRc78U Anyway, if this shouldn't have been Show HN, I apologize! [0] https://ift.tt/sEpOQzd
652 by kentonv | 233 comments on Hacker News.
I wasn't quite sure if this qualified as "Show HN" given you can't really download it and try it out. However, dang said[0]: > If it's hardware or something that's not so easy to try out over the internet, find a different way to show how it actually works—a video, for example, or a detailed post with photos. Hopefully I did that? Additionally, I've put code and a detailed guide for the netboot computer management setup on GitHub: https://ift.tt/isRc78U Anyway, if this shouldn't have been Show HN, I apologize! [0] https://ift.tt/sEpOQzd
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: RF Hunter – Find hidden cameras and other devices
Show HN: RF Hunter – Find hidden cameras and other devices
535 by RamboRogers | 161 comments on Hacker News.
This project is an RF Signal Scanner built using an ESP32, AD8317 RF detector, and various other components. It's designed to detect and measure RF signals in the environment and display the signal strength on an OLED display. It's useful to find hidden cameras, wiretapping devices, and other RF-enabled devices.
535 by RamboRogers | 161 comments on Hacker News.
This project is an RF Signal Scanner built using an ESP32, AD8317 RF detector, and various other components. It's designed to detect and measure RF signals in the environment and display the signal strength on an OLED display. It's useful to find hidden cameras, wiretapping devices, and other RF-enabled devices.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: 2048 turned 10 this year, I built an updated version to celebrate
Show HN: 2048 turned 10 this year, I built an updated version to celebrate
498 by terabytest | 169 comments on Hacker News.
Hi all! My name is Gabriele Cirulli, I’m the original creator of 2048. Ten years ago, someone posted 2048 on HN[1] and suddenly it seemed like everyone was playing it. Back then, I wrote a bit about my experience during those weeks[2]. Even after all these years, that experience still feels a bit surreal to me. I’m deeply grateful to everyone who connected with the game, whether in small or significant ways, and for the stories shared along the way. Some people expressed how they were going through tough times and found some comfort, however small, in playing 2048. At the start of last year, I wanted to breathe new life into the game as it was starting to show its age. I quit my job last October to work on 2048 full time and spent a year building this new version (the original took just 5 days!). I wanted to pay tribute to what made 2048 great while modernizing and polishing the experience. The idea of adding powerups came when Prime Gaming and I connected to see if we could create a special version of 2048 for their members, with some exclusive extras. Some of those powerups made it into the main game, though there’s still a Classic[3] mode just like the original for those who prefer a more hardcore experience. The old site is also still online[4]. 2048 is now my full-time focus, and I’m excited about the ways it can keep improving. I wanted to share this update with the community where it all began, both for a bit of nostalgia and to hear your thoughts and feedback! Thank you all so much! — Gabriele [1]: https://ift.tt/ArUXZ9H [2]: https://ift.tt/YF4m9pL... [3]: https://ift.tt/3TzWG5C [4]: https://ift.tt/kE9N7KF
498 by terabytest | 169 comments on Hacker News.
Hi all! My name is Gabriele Cirulli, I’m the original creator of 2048. Ten years ago, someone posted 2048 on HN[1] and suddenly it seemed like everyone was playing it. Back then, I wrote a bit about my experience during those weeks[2]. Even after all these years, that experience still feels a bit surreal to me. I’m deeply grateful to everyone who connected with the game, whether in small or significant ways, and for the stories shared along the way. Some people expressed how they were going through tough times and found some comfort, however small, in playing 2048. At the start of last year, I wanted to breathe new life into the game as it was starting to show its age. I quit my job last October to work on 2048 full time and spent a year building this new version (the original took just 5 days!). I wanted to pay tribute to what made 2048 great while modernizing and polishing the experience. The idea of adding powerups came when Prime Gaming and I connected to see if we could create a special version of 2048 for their members, with some exclusive extras. Some of those powerups made it into the main game, though there’s still a Classic[3] mode just like the original for those who prefer a more hardcore experience. The old site is also still online[4]. 2048 is now my full-time focus, and I’m excited about the ways it can keep improving. I wanted to share this update with the community where it all began, both for a bit of nostalgia and to hear your thoughts and feedback! Thank you all so much! — Gabriele [1]: https://ift.tt/ArUXZ9H [2]: https://ift.tt/YF4m9pL... [3]: https://ift.tt/3TzWG5C [4]: https://ift.tt/kE9N7KF
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Graphite, a Blender-inspired 2D procedural design Rust app
Show HN: Graphite, a Blender-inspired 2D procedural design Rust app
614 by Keavon | 85 comments on Hacker News.
For the past three years I've been building what I hope will be the next Blender, tackling the lack of any good 2D design or image editing tools outside the Adobe monopoly. This was our first year participating in Google Summer of Code and this Q3 update includes the big payoff from that, covering the most progress we've made so far as a project. If you're a Rust dev, consider getting involved as we apply for the next GSoC in the new year— you could be our intern next summer :) Q3 progress report: https://ift.tt/9rd03DW
614 by Keavon | 85 comments on Hacker News.
For the past three years I've been building what I hope will be the next Blender, tackling the lack of any good 2D design or image editing tools outside the Adobe monopoly. This was our first year participating in Google Summer of Code and this Q3 update includes the big payoff from that, covering the most progress we've made so far as a project. If you're a Rust dev, consider getting involved as we apply for the next GSoC in the new year— you could be our intern next summer :) Q3 progress report: https://ift.tt/9rd03DW
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I built the most over-engineered Deal With It emoji generator
Show HN: I built the most over-engineered Deal With It emoji generator
619 by klimeryk | 122 comments on Hacker News.
Hi, all! Author here. What started as a small tool I built for a job interview, became "The Most Over-engineered Deal With It Emoji Generator": - All operations done fully client-side - no backend, no private data leaves your browser. - Uses machine learning models (MediaPipe Face Detector task) to automatically scale and position glasses on the detected faces. - Extensive customization options for glasses: - Placement of glasses anywhere on the input image (including slightly going outside it). - Change the size of glasses. - No limit on the number of glasses. - Flip the glasses vertically or horizontally. - Customize the direction from which the glasses appear on the image. - Different types of glasses. - GIF output options: - Looping mode. - Number of frames. - Frame delay. - Separate delay setting for last frame. - Output size. - Celebration confetti - Easter eggs. I've been working remotely for the last >9 years. When using non-verbal communication, it's important that your tone and intent comes across accurately.. Custom emojis became for me part of expressing yourself, creating bonds and camaraderie. I've originally created an MVP of this tool while applying for a exciting new job opportunity. As a showcase of my passion for programming, building teams and creating delightful user experiences. Unfortunately, they were not impressed and ultimately did not offer me the job :( But I wanted to polish it and release it for everyone to use for free, so that you can too "Deal With It"! I have more ideas for even more features (check GitHub[1]), but wanted to launch it and see what's the feedback and ideas from the community! And if you're looking for a Fullstack Developer with >14 years of experience, with passion for great customer experience (remote work or locally in Iceland), let's chat! [1] - https://ift.tt/umRZBpU
619 by klimeryk | 122 comments on Hacker News.
Hi, all! Author here. What started as a small tool I built for a job interview, became "The Most Over-engineered Deal With It Emoji Generator": - All operations done fully client-side - no backend, no private data leaves your browser. - Uses machine learning models (MediaPipe Face Detector task) to automatically scale and position glasses on the detected faces. - Extensive customization options for glasses: - Placement of glasses anywhere on the input image (including slightly going outside it). - Change the size of glasses. - No limit on the number of glasses. - Flip the glasses vertically or horizontally. - Customize the direction from which the glasses appear on the image. - Different types of glasses. - GIF output options: - Looping mode. - Number of frames. - Frame delay. - Separate delay setting for last frame. - Output size. - Celebration confetti - Easter eggs. I've been working remotely for the last >9 years. When using non-verbal communication, it's important that your tone and intent comes across accurately.. Custom emojis became for me part of expressing yourself, creating bonds and camaraderie. I've originally created an MVP of this tool while applying for a exciting new job opportunity. As a showcase of my passion for programming, building teams and creating delightful user experiences. Unfortunately, they were not impressed and ultimately did not offer me the job :( But I wanted to polish it and release it for everyone to use for free, so that you can too "Deal With It"! I have more ideas for even more features (check GitHub[1]), but wanted to launch it and see what's the feedback and ideas from the community! And if you're looking for a Fullstack Developer with >14 years of experience, with passion for great customer experience (remote work or locally in Iceland), let's chat! [1] - https://ift.tt/umRZBpU
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I Wrote a Book on Java
Show HN: I Wrote a Book on Java
520 by goostavos | 139 comments on Hacker News.
https://ift.tt/Wp6KGFV... This book is a distillation of everything I’ve learned about what effective development looks like in Java (so far!). It's about how to organize programs around data "as plain data" and the surprisingly benefits that emerge when we do. Programs that are built around the data they manage tend to be simpler, smaller, and significantly easier understand. Java has changed radically over the last several years. It has picked up all kinds of new language features which support data oriented programming (records, pattern matching, `with` expressions, sum and product types). However, this is not a book about tools. No amount of studying a screw-driver will teach you how to build a house. This book focuses on house building. We'll pick out a plot of land, lay a foundation, and build upon it house that can weather any storm. DoP is based around a very simple idea, and one people have been rediscovering since the dawn of computing, "representation is the essence of programming." When we do a really good job of capturing the data in our domain, the rest of the system tends to fall into place in a way which can feel like it’s writing itself. That's my elevator pitch! The book is currently in early access. I hope you check it out. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can get 50% off (thru October 9th) with code `mlkiehl` https://ift.tt/Wp6KGFV...
520 by goostavos | 139 comments on Hacker News.
https://ift.tt/Wp6KGFV... This book is a distillation of everything I’ve learned about what effective development looks like in Java (so far!). It's about how to organize programs around data "as plain data" and the surprisingly benefits that emerge when we do. Programs that are built around the data they manage tend to be simpler, smaller, and significantly easier understand. Java has changed radically over the last several years. It has picked up all kinds of new language features which support data oriented programming (records, pattern matching, `with` expressions, sum and product types). However, this is not a book about tools. No amount of studying a screw-driver will teach you how to build a house. This book focuses on house building. We'll pick out a plot of land, lay a foundation, and build upon it house that can weather any storm. DoP is based around a very simple idea, and one people have been rediscovering since the dawn of computing, "representation is the essence of programming." When we do a really good job of capturing the data in our domain, the rest of the system tends to fall into place in a way which can feel like it’s writing itself. That's my elevator pitch! The book is currently in early access. I hope you check it out. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can get 50% off (thru October 9th) with code `mlkiehl` https://ift.tt/Wp6KGFV...
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: iFixit created a new USB-C, repairable soldering system
Show HN: iFixit created a new USB-C, repairable soldering system
636 by kwiens | 314 comments on Hacker News.
After years of making screwdrivers and teaching people to repair electronics, we just made our first electronic tool. It's been a journey for us to build while hewing to our repairable principles. We're really excited about it. It's a USB-C powered soldering iron and smart battery power hub. Super repairable, of course. Our goal is to make soldering so easy everyone can do it: https://ift.tt/OYWzJcy We didn’t want to make just another iron, so we spent years sweating the details and crafting something that met our exacting standards. This is a high-performance iron: it can output 100W of heat, gets to soldering temperature in under 5 seconds, and automatically cools off when you set it down. The accelerometer detects when you pick it up and heats it back up. Keeping the iron at a lower temperature while you’re not soldering shouold prolong the life of the tip. What’s the difference between this iron and other USB-C irons on the market? Here’s a quick list: Higher power (our Smart Iron is 100W, competitors max out at 60W over USB-C, 88W over DC Supply) Heat-resistant storage cap (you just have to try this out, it’s a real game changer in day-to-day use) Polished user experience A warranty and a local company to talk to (I can’t find any contact information for Miniware) Comfier / more natural grip Shorter soldering tip length No-tangle, heat-resistant cable Locking ring on the cable, so it can’t snag and get disconnected (this happens to me all the time on other irons) More intuitive settings, either on the Power Station or on the computer We used Web Serial https://ift.tt/T2WlIzM for the interface, which is only supported in Chromium browsers. The biggest bummer with that is that no mobile browsers support it, yet. Hopefully that changes soon. Hardware is hard! It's been a journey for us. Happy to answer any questions about how we made it. Schematics and repair information are online here: https://ift.tt/hRbuWPg...
636 by kwiens | 314 comments on Hacker News.
After years of making screwdrivers and teaching people to repair electronics, we just made our first electronic tool. It's been a journey for us to build while hewing to our repairable principles. We're really excited about it. It's a USB-C powered soldering iron and smart battery power hub. Super repairable, of course. Our goal is to make soldering so easy everyone can do it: https://ift.tt/OYWzJcy We didn’t want to make just another iron, so we spent years sweating the details and crafting something that met our exacting standards. This is a high-performance iron: it can output 100W of heat, gets to soldering temperature in under 5 seconds, and automatically cools off when you set it down. The accelerometer detects when you pick it up and heats it back up. Keeping the iron at a lower temperature while you’re not soldering shouold prolong the life of the tip. What’s the difference between this iron and other USB-C irons on the market? Here’s a quick list: Higher power (our Smart Iron is 100W, competitors max out at 60W over USB-C, 88W over DC Supply) Heat-resistant storage cap (you just have to try this out, it’s a real game changer in day-to-day use) Polished user experience A warranty and a local company to talk to (I can’t find any contact information for Miniware) Comfier / more natural grip Shorter soldering tip length No-tangle, heat-resistant cable Locking ring on the cable, so it can’t snag and get disconnected (this happens to me all the time on other irons) More intuitive settings, either on the Power Station or on the computer We used Web Serial https://ift.tt/T2WlIzM for the interface, which is only supported in Chromium browsers. The biggest bummer with that is that no mobile browsers support it, yet. Hopefully that changes soon. Hardware is hard! It's been a journey for us. Happy to answer any questions about how we made it. Schematics and repair information are online here: https://ift.tt/hRbuWPg...
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?
Ask HN: Why is Pave legal?
645 by nowyoudont | 244 comments on Hacker News.
If you haven't heard of it, Pave is a YC-backed startup that helps startups with compensation. I can't actually access the system so I'm speaking from hearsay and what's information on public parts of their website. The way I understand it works is that you connect Pave to your HR and Payroll systems, they take the data about who you employ and how much you pay them, combine it with all their other companies, and give companies a collective breakdown of compensation ranges. My question is, isn't this specifically anti-competitive wage fixing? This seems exactly like RealPage but for employee compensation. As far as I know, colluding on wages like this is illegal. Is there something about the company that I'm missing?
645 by nowyoudont | 244 comments on Hacker News.
If you haven't heard of it, Pave is a YC-backed startup that helps startups with compensation. I can't actually access the system so I'm speaking from hearsay and what's information on public parts of their website. The way I understand it works is that you connect Pave to your HR and Payroll systems, they take the data about who you employ and how much you pay them, combine it with all their other companies, and give companies a collective breakdown of compensation ranges. My question is, isn't this specifically anti-competitive wage fixing? This seems exactly like RealPage but for employee compensation. As far as I know, colluding on wages like this is illegal. Is there something about the company that I'm missing?
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Infinity – Realistic AI characters that can speak
Show HN: Infinity – Realistic AI characters that can speak
468 by lcolucci | 292 comments on Hacker News.
Hey HN, this is Lina, Andrew, and Sidney from Infinity AI ( https://infinity.ai/ ). We've trained our own foundation video model focused on people. As far as we know, this is the first time someone has trained a video diffusion transformer that’s driven by audio input. This is cool because it allows for expressive, realistic-looking characters that actually speak. Here’s a blog with a bunch of examples: https://ift.tt/cjzy8Ms If you want to try it out, you can either (1) go to https://ift.tt/Sdmgbni , or (2) post a comment in this thread describing a character and we’ll generate a video for you and reply with a link. For example: “Mona Lisa saying ‘what the heck are you smiling at?’”: https://bit.ly/3z8l1TM “A 3D pixar-style gnome with a pointy red hat reciting the Declaration of Independence”: https://bit.ly/3XzpTdS “Elon Musk singing Fly Me To The Moon by Sinatra”: https://bit.ly/47jyC7C Our tool at Infinity allows creators to type out a script with what they want their characters to say (and eventually, what they want their characters to do) and get a video out. We’ve trained for about 11 GPU years (~$500k) so far and our model recently started getting good results, so we wanted to share it here. We are still actively training. We had trouble creating videos of good characters with existing AI tools. Generative AI video models (like Runway and Luma) don’t allow characters to speak. And talking avatar companies (like HeyGen and Synthesia) just do lip syncing on top of the previously recorded videos. This means you often get facial expressions and gestures that don’t make sense with the audio, resulting in the “uncanny” look you can’t quite put your finger on. See blog. When we started Infinity, our V1 model took the lip syncing approach. In addition to mismatched gestures, this method had many limitations, including a finite library of actors (we had to fine-tune a model for each one with existing video footage) and an inability to animate imaginary characters. To address these limitations in V2, we decided to train an end-to-end video diffusion transformer model that takes in a single image, audio, and other conditioning signals and outputs video. We believe this end-to-end approach is the best way to capture the full complexity and nuances of human motion and emotion. One drawback of our approach is that the model is slow despite using rectified flow (2-4x speed up) and a 3D VAE embedding layer (2-5x speed up). Here are a few things the model does surprisingly well on: (1) it can handle multiple languages, (2) it has learned some physics (e.g. it generates earrings that dangle properly and infers a matching pair on the other ear), (3) it can animate diverse types of images (paintings, sculptures, etc) despite not being trained on those, and (4) it can handle singing. See blog. Here are some failure modes of the model: (1) it cannot handle animals (only humanoid images), (2) it often inserts hands into the frame (very annoying and distracting), (3) it’s not robust on cartoons, and (4) it can distort people’s identities (noticeable on well-known figures). See blog. Try the model here: https://ift.tt/Sdmgbni We’d love to hear what you think!
468 by lcolucci | 292 comments on Hacker News.
Hey HN, this is Lina, Andrew, and Sidney from Infinity AI ( https://infinity.ai/ ). We've trained our own foundation video model focused on people. As far as we know, this is the first time someone has trained a video diffusion transformer that’s driven by audio input. This is cool because it allows for expressive, realistic-looking characters that actually speak. Here’s a blog with a bunch of examples: https://ift.tt/cjzy8Ms If you want to try it out, you can either (1) go to https://ift.tt/Sdmgbni , or (2) post a comment in this thread describing a character and we’ll generate a video for you and reply with a link. For example: “Mona Lisa saying ‘what the heck are you smiling at?’”: https://bit.ly/3z8l1TM “A 3D pixar-style gnome with a pointy red hat reciting the Declaration of Independence”: https://bit.ly/3XzpTdS “Elon Musk singing Fly Me To The Moon by Sinatra”: https://bit.ly/47jyC7C Our tool at Infinity allows creators to type out a script with what they want their characters to say (and eventually, what they want their characters to do) and get a video out. We’ve trained for about 11 GPU years (~$500k) so far and our model recently started getting good results, so we wanted to share it here. We are still actively training. We had trouble creating videos of good characters with existing AI tools. Generative AI video models (like Runway and Luma) don’t allow characters to speak. And talking avatar companies (like HeyGen and Synthesia) just do lip syncing on top of the previously recorded videos. This means you often get facial expressions and gestures that don’t make sense with the audio, resulting in the “uncanny” look you can’t quite put your finger on. See blog. When we started Infinity, our V1 model took the lip syncing approach. In addition to mismatched gestures, this method had many limitations, including a finite library of actors (we had to fine-tune a model for each one with existing video footage) and an inability to animate imaginary characters. To address these limitations in V2, we decided to train an end-to-end video diffusion transformer model that takes in a single image, audio, and other conditioning signals and outputs video. We believe this end-to-end approach is the best way to capture the full complexity and nuances of human motion and emotion. One drawback of our approach is that the model is slow despite using rectified flow (2-4x speed up) and a 3D VAE embedding layer (2-5x speed up). Here are a few things the model does surprisingly well on: (1) it can handle multiple languages, (2) it has learned some physics (e.g. it generates earrings that dangle properly and infers a matching pair on the other ear), (3) it can animate diverse types of images (paintings, sculptures, etc) despite not being trained on those, and (4) it can handle singing. See blog. Here are some failure modes of the model: (1) it cannot handle animals (only humanoid images), (2) it often inserts hands into the frame (very annoying and distracting), (3) it’s not robust on cartoons, and (4) it can distort people’s identities (noticeable on well-known figures). See blog. Try the model here: https://ift.tt/Sdmgbni We’d love to hear what you think!
New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care
Tell HN: Burnout is bad to your brain, take care
517 by tuyguntn | 208 comments on Hacker News.
I am depressed and burned out for quite some time already, unfortunately my brain still couldn't recover from it. If I summarize the impact of burnout to my brain: - Before: I could learn things pretty quickly, come up with solutions to the problems, even be able to see common patterns and see bigger underlying problems - After: can't learn, can't work, can't remember, can't see solutions for trivial problems (e.g. if your shirt is wet, you can change it, but I stare at it thinking when it is going to get dried up) Take care of your mental health
517 by tuyguntn | 208 comments on Hacker News.
I am depressed and burned out for quite some time already, unfortunately my brain still couldn't recover from it. If I summarize the impact of burnout to my brain: - Before: I could learn things pretty quickly, come up with solutions to the problems, even be able to see common patterns and see bigger underlying problems - After: can't learn, can't work, can't remember, can't see solutions for trivial problems (e.g. if your shirt is wet, you can change it, but I stare at it thinking when it is going to get dried up) Take care of your mental health
New best story on Hacker News: Low Cost Mini PCs
Low Cost Mini PCs
641 by mjcurl | 298 comments on Hacker News.
While searching for mini PCs for my home server, I figured I'd use the eBay API to find the cheapest ones. Inspired by diskprices.com, I built a static site using Eleventy and a python script that uses regex to parse the data. I tried to include as many filters as possible like OS, Wifi, HDMI etc. I would like to add power usage, noise levels, PCIe slots but that data is hard to find. Please let me know if you have any feedback / suggestions. Thanks!
641 by mjcurl | 298 comments on Hacker News.
While searching for mini PCs for my home server, I figured I'd use the eBay API to find the cheapest ones. Inspired by diskprices.com, I built a static site using Eleventy and a python script that uses regex to parse the data. I tried to include as many filters as possible like OS, Wifi, HDMI etc. I would like to add power usage, noise levels, PCIe slots but that data is hard to find. Please let me know if you have any feedback / suggestions. Thanks!
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?
Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?
540 by david927 | 1156 comments on Hacker News.
What are you working on? Any new ideas that you're thinking about?
540 by david927 | 1156 comments on Hacker News.
What are you working on? Any new ideas that you're thinking about?
New best story on Hacker News: Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane
Launch HN: Airhart Aeronautics (YC S22) – A modern personal airplane
675 by n_ermosh | 535 comments on Hacker News.
Hey Hacker News! I’m Nikita, founder of Airhart Aeronautics ( https://ift.tt/j7txSdl ). We are building an airplane for people who don’t fly airplanes. The goal is to make flying as easy as driving a car—while maintaining a high bar for safety. Here’s a video that shows a bit of our hardware and quite a bit of our software: https://youtu.be/PGJUGUceu8A In the US, trips that are 50-300 miles are almost all done by car because that distance is too short for commercial airlines and too far for public transportation. Thanks to the Wright Brothers we've had aerial transport for over 100 years. The US has over 19,000 airports, and large commercial airplane technology has developed to the point that the planes practically fly themselves. If we already have the infrastructure and the technology, why isn't everyone flying planes? The problem is that small airplane technology hasn’t innovated and is stuck in the past. Flying a small airplane is complicated, mentally taxing, and dangerous—about 28x more dangerous than driving a car. Outdated airplanes, coupled with outdated flight controls, lead to regular accidents, often due to some form of loss of control. The planes are expensive and margins are small. There is no incentive to innovate within the current market, so we are looking at the new, untapped market of those who don’t think about flying as an option today and making it an option. I first came across this when I learned to fly in 2020. I was learning in a “modern” GA airplane but was immediately struck by the fact that an airplane built in 2018 did not have an engine computer and there was a manual level to control the fuel/air mixture ratio. Starting it on a hot day was like starting a stubborn lawn mower. On top of that, my instructor was telling me all the various ways I could kill myself if I’m not running at 100% concentration for hours on end. This just didn’t sit right with me. At the time I was working at SpaceX as an avionics engineer, leading the development of the avionics for the fairing recovery program. I also built autonomous aircraft when I was a student at Cornell, where I got a degree in electrical and computer engineering. It was clear to me that the core problem is that airplanes are too unsafe and too complicated to operate which is keeping too many people out of aviation. So, I decided to leave SpaceX and was joined by my long-time friend Brendan (he was a software engineer at Apple at the time; we built autonomous aircraft together at Cornell) to start Airhart to tackle this problem and make flying safer and more accessible. We are developing a full hardware and software package to change how people fly airplanes. It’s a fly-by-wire control system, meaning instead of mechanical linkages between the pilot’s control stick and the control surfaces, it’s a joystick that sends digital commands to a computer that then moves the control surfaces accordingly with servo actuators. We’re developing all of the hardware ourselves: the computers, the sensors, the actuators–and all of the software that actually does the control. But it’s not just fly-by-wire. On top of it, we are implementing a simplified control scheme that reduces flying the airplane to just one action to perform one maneuver. For readers who aren’t pilots: all flying is basically coordinating the aircraft pitch, roll, yaw, and throttle to coordinate actions. Something as simple as a level turn to the right means you have to 1) roll the airplane, 2) use your feet on the rudder pedals to keep the turn coordinated, 3) pull back to increase your lift since you are now losing lift in a bank, 4) monitor your airspeed (especially if at slow speeds when coming in to land), 5) monitor your altitude as you’re adjusting your lift in (3), 6) monitor your turn coordination as you adjust it in (2). You are now established in a turn. To return to flying straight and level do those in reverse. And while doing all this, you need to be navigating through complex airpaces and talking to air traffic control over 1940s radio technology. All this together makes it very hard to fly and very easy for a pilot (especially a new pilot) to lose control of the airplane, which is still the leading cause of fatalities in general aviation. With Airhart Assist (that’s what we call our system), you just push a control stick to the right and the flight computers do all those steps to put you into a coordinated level turn. So, how does this actually work? The force-feedback joystick in the plane sends its position to a flight controller (actually 3 that work in parallel for safety and redundancy, more on that later). The flight controller interprets the position as a turn rate or climb rate command (for left/right or forward/back). The flight controller also reads a bunch of sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, air pressure, GPS, etc) to develop an accurate estimate of the airplane’s state: roll, pitch, yaw, velocity, position, etc. Using the current state from the sensor fusion algorithms and the desired state from the joystick, the controller does a bunch of aerodynamics and control theory math to compute the control surface position necessary to bring the aircraft to the desired state. Mixed into this is error checking, envelope protection, and other various safety measures to make sure the aircraft never enters an unsafe state. Unlike a traditional airplane, it becomes impossible to command the airplane into a stall, a spin, unsafe attitudes, or other bad states. This is the key to the safety of the system: it prevents the common mistakes that pilots make that lead to disastrous consequences. To make sure that this system is always functioning, everything is single-fault tolerant. That means that there are no single points of failure. Any fault that might occur–a broken wire, a fried resistor, a bitflip in a processor, a random hang in a kernel–does not affect the functionality of the system. This is achieved by having three flight controllers that take in information from two different sets of sensors (we call them “strings”), independently compute the desired actions to take, and vote on what to do. Each string has its own power source, backup battery, networking hardware, and set of critical sensors. The only real single point of failure is the engine. We only have one, though the engine itself has redundant ignition systems, fuel pumps, controllers, etc. If the engine were to die, the batteries would keep the system running for ~30 minutes, giving you time to make an emergency landing. If the pilot somehow becomes incapacitated, any passenger can initiate an autonomous emergency landing. And if many things go wrong and the system does fail, there’s a full airframe parachute that can be activated to bring the airplane safely to the ground. A lot of people will likely wonder: “isn’t removing stick and rudder skills going to make worse pilots”? Short answer: no. The core of what makes a good pilot isn’t stick and rudder skills; it’s good decision making and risk management. For single pilots in GA, it’s even more important. So we are building a system that will give our pilots the tools to focus entirely on decision making and risk management and remove the distraction of stick and rudder that creates so many problems today. We think stick and rudder skills are definitely a necessity for airline pilots flying hundreds of people on board for the extremely rare cases where emergencies do happen and many people's lives are at risk, but not for an average person flying a four seat airplane to go on a weekend trip to the mountains. Our system makes it impossible to lose control of the airplane, potentially solving 80% of today’s fatal accidents in general aviation. Fly-by-wire systems typically cost millions of dollars. We intend to build it for much less. How? By leveraging automotive grade components, clever sensor fusion math so that we can use MEMS gyroscopes that cost <$100 instead of laser-ring gyros that cost $1000 if not $10k, and by a first principles approach to the design of our system. This requires that we build a lot of our own hardware. We’ve developed our own control surface actuators, our own display assemblies, we’re developing our own radios and GPS hardware (an aviation grade GPS can cost upwards of $10k, but it’s the same hardware as in a $20 consumer grade GPS). To take advantage of this automotive style approach requires scale. Enter the final third of the problem: flying isn’t sexy. Modern airplanes look like they are from the 90s. With our first airplane, the Airhart Sling, we are redesigning the entire UI/UX of the flight deck to make it as easy as possible to use, redesigning the cabin to feel much more like a luxury car than an airplane today, and integrating Airhart Assist to make flying much more accessible and much more inviting. You can see previews of the Airhart Sling on our website, https://www.airhartaero.com/ . The sexiness of design is extremely important for the economies of scale of an automotive-style approach to work. There’s a plethora of other problems that make flying cumbersome: weight and balance worksheets, complicated route planning, talking to ATC, lengthy preflight checks, a fractured system of FBOs, difficult access to instruction, the list goes on. We are working on all of these too, but no amount of extra UI features can solve the fundamental problem that aviating itself is hard. So that’s what we’re solving first. We want people who don’t think about airplanes as a mode of transportation to start flying and are hoping that Airhart will pave the way. Whether you fly planes today or not, I’d love to hear your thoughts. This is a very exciting topic with lots to discuss so I’m very much looking forward to the conversation!
675 by n_ermosh | 535 comments on Hacker News.
Hey Hacker News! I’m Nikita, founder of Airhart Aeronautics ( https://ift.tt/j7txSdl ). We are building an airplane for people who don’t fly airplanes. The goal is to make flying as easy as driving a car—while maintaining a high bar for safety. Here’s a video that shows a bit of our hardware and quite a bit of our software: https://youtu.be/PGJUGUceu8A In the US, trips that are 50-300 miles are almost all done by car because that distance is too short for commercial airlines and too far for public transportation. Thanks to the Wright Brothers we've had aerial transport for over 100 years. The US has over 19,000 airports, and large commercial airplane technology has developed to the point that the planes practically fly themselves. If we already have the infrastructure and the technology, why isn't everyone flying planes? The problem is that small airplane technology hasn’t innovated and is stuck in the past. Flying a small airplane is complicated, mentally taxing, and dangerous—about 28x more dangerous than driving a car. Outdated airplanes, coupled with outdated flight controls, lead to regular accidents, often due to some form of loss of control. The planes are expensive and margins are small. There is no incentive to innovate within the current market, so we are looking at the new, untapped market of those who don’t think about flying as an option today and making it an option. I first came across this when I learned to fly in 2020. I was learning in a “modern” GA airplane but was immediately struck by the fact that an airplane built in 2018 did not have an engine computer and there was a manual level to control the fuel/air mixture ratio. Starting it on a hot day was like starting a stubborn lawn mower. On top of that, my instructor was telling me all the various ways I could kill myself if I’m not running at 100% concentration for hours on end. This just didn’t sit right with me. At the time I was working at SpaceX as an avionics engineer, leading the development of the avionics for the fairing recovery program. I also built autonomous aircraft when I was a student at Cornell, where I got a degree in electrical and computer engineering. It was clear to me that the core problem is that airplanes are too unsafe and too complicated to operate which is keeping too many people out of aviation. So, I decided to leave SpaceX and was joined by my long-time friend Brendan (he was a software engineer at Apple at the time; we built autonomous aircraft together at Cornell) to start Airhart to tackle this problem and make flying safer and more accessible. We are developing a full hardware and software package to change how people fly airplanes. It’s a fly-by-wire control system, meaning instead of mechanical linkages between the pilot’s control stick and the control surfaces, it’s a joystick that sends digital commands to a computer that then moves the control surfaces accordingly with servo actuators. We’re developing all of the hardware ourselves: the computers, the sensors, the actuators–and all of the software that actually does the control. But it’s not just fly-by-wire. On top of it, we are implementing a simplified control scheme that reduces flying the airplane to just one action to perform one maneuver. For readers who aren’t pilots: all flying is basically coordinating the aircraft pitch, roll, yaw, and throttle to coordinate actions. Something as simple as a level turn to the right means you have to 1) roll the airplane, 2) use your feet on the rudder pedals to keep the turn coordinated, 3) pull back to increase your lift since you are now losing lift in a bank, 4) monitor your airspeed (especially if at slow speeds when coming in to land), 5) monitor your altitude as you’re adjusting your lift in (3), 6) monitor your turn coordination as you adjust it in (2). You are now established in a turn. To return to flying straight and level do those in reverse. And while doing all this, you need to be navigating through complex airpaces and talking to air traffic control over 1940s radio technology. All this together makes it very hard to fly and very easy for a pilot (especially a new pilot) to lose control of the airplane, which is still the leading cause of fatalities in general aviation. With Airhart Assist (that’s what we call our system), you just push a control stick to the right and the flight computers do all those steps to put you into a coordinated level turn. So, how does this actually work? The force-feedback joystick in the plane sends its position to a flight controller (actually 3 that work in parallel for safety and redundancy, more on that later). The flight controller interprets the position as a turn rate or climb rate command (for left/right or forward/back). The flight controller also reads a bunch of sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, air pressure, GPS, etc) to develop an accurate estimate of the airplane’s state: roll, pitch, yaw, velocity, position, etc. Using the current state from the sensor fusion algorithms and the desired state from the joystick, the controller does a bunch of aerodynamics and control theory math to compute the control surface position necessary to bring the aircraft to the desired state. Mixed into this is error checking, envelope protection, and other various safety measures to make sure the aircraft never enters an unsafe state. Unlike a traditional airplane, it becomes impossible to command the airplane into a stall, a spin, unsafe attitudes, or other bad states. This is the key to the safety of the system: it prevents the common mistakes that pilots make that lead to disastrous consequences. To make sure that this system is always functioning, everything is single-fault tolerant. That means that there are no single points of failure. Any fault that might occur–a broken wire, a fried resistor, a bitflip in a processor, a random hang in a kernel–does not affect the functionality of the system. This is achieved by having three flight controllers that take in information from two different sets of sensors (we call them “strings”), independently compute the desired actions to take, and vote on what to do. Each string has its own power source, backup battery, networking hardware, and set of critical sensors. The only real single point of failure is the engine. We only have one, though the engine itself has redundant ignition systems, fuel pumps, controllers, etc. If the engine were to die, the batteries would keep the system running for ~30 minutes, giving you time to make an emergency landing. If the pilot somehow becomes incapacitated, any passenger can initiate an autonomous emergency landing. And if many things go wrong and the system does fail, there’s a full airframe parachute that can be activated to bring the airplane safely to the ground. A lot of people will likely wonder: “isn’t removing stick and rudder skills going to make worse pilots”? Short answer: no. The core of what makes a good pilot isn’t stick and rudder skills; it’s good decision making and risk management. For single pilots in GA, it’s even more important. So we are building a system that will give our pilots the tools to focus entirely on decision making and risk management and remove the distraction of stick and rudder that creates so many problems today. We think stick and rudder skills are definitely a necessity for airline pilots flying hundreds of people on board for the extremely rare cases where emergencies do happen and many people's lives are at risk, but not for an average person flying a four seat airplane to go on a weekend trip to the mountains. Our system makes it impossible to lose control of the airplane, potentially solving 80% of today’s fatal accidents in general aviation. Fly-by-wire systems typically cost millions of dollars. We intend to build it for much less. How? By leveraging automotive grade components, clever sensor fusion math so that we can use MEMS gyroscopes that cost <$100 instead of laser-ring gyros that cost $1000 if not $10k, and by a first principles approach to the design of our system. This requires that we build a lot of our own hardware. We’ve developed our own control surface actuators, our own display assemblies, we’re developing our own radios and GPS hardware (an aviation grade GPS can cost upwards of $10k, but it’s the same hardware as in a $20 consumer grade GPS). To take advantage of this automotive style approach requires scale. Enter the final third of the problem: flying isn’t sexy. Modern airplanes look like they are from the 90s. With our first airplane, the Airhart Sling, we are redesigning the entire UI/UX of the flight deck to make it as easy as possible to use, redesigning the cabin to feel much more like a luxury car than an airplane today, and integrating Airhart Assist to make flying much more accessible and much more inviting. You can see previews of the Airhart Sling on our website, https://www.airhartaero.com/ . The sexiness of design is extremely important for the economies of scale of an automotive-style approach to work. There’s a plethora of other problems that make flying cumbersome: weight and balance worksheets, complicated route planning, talking to ATC, lengthy preflight checks, a fractured system of FBOs, difficult access to instruction, the list goes on. We are working on all of these too, but no amount of extra UI features can solve the fundamental problem that aviating itself is hard. So that’s what we’re solving first. We want people who don’t think about airplanes as a mode of transportation to start flying and are hoping that Airhart will pave the way. Whether you fly planes today or not, I’d love to hear your thoughts. This is a very exciting topic with lots to discuss so I’m very much looking forward to the conversation!
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: Haystack – an IDE for exploring and editing code on an infinite canvas
Show HN: Haystack – an IDE for exploring and editing code on an infinite canvas
521 by akshaysg | 197 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, we’re building Haystack Editor ( https://ift.tt/LoFwVmT ), a canvas-based IDE that automates the boring stuff (plumbing, refactoring, and finding code) so that you can focus on the exciting parts of software development! You can see a quick overview of Haystack at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2uZnR5D_cc ! (It's currently only on Mac OS but we're working on Linux and Windows. Edit: just added a Linux download!) Haystack was born out of our frustrations with working in large and mature codebases, specifically with navigating and editing functional flows (e.g. the code flow for adding an item to the Amazon shopping cart). Oftentimes dealing with such flows would involve navigating a maze of files and functions, and making any edits would involve a lengthy process of doing corresponding downstream/upstream plumbing. Haystack attempts to address this in the following ways: 1. It allows you to explore your codebase as a directed graph of functions, classes, etc on the canvas. We feel like this better fits how your mind understands your codebase and helps you find and alter functional flows more intuitively. We especially want to utilize this for pull request reviews! 2. It has a navigational copilot that makes edits across files or functions much easier. After you make some changes, Haystack will try to predict your next action and create functions/methods or refactor upstream/downstream code for you. Haystack will surface these speculative edits on the canvas in a way that you can easily dismiss or incorporate them, allowing you to make large changes with a few clicks or keystrokes. 3. Haystack will utilize natural language search so you don’t have to play “Where’s Waldo” to find a functional flow in your codebase. This is coming soon! We’re still pretty early in development and we really want to perfect the experience of navigating and editing code on a canvas. Any feedback would be much appreciated! PSA: Since Haystack is a VS Code fork, you should be able to move your extensions and keyboard shortcuts. Please let us know if you have any issues with this!
521 by akshaysg | 197 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, we’re building Haystack Editor ( https://ift.tt/LoFwVmT ), a canvas-based IDE that automates the boring stuff (plumbing, refactoring, and finding code) so that you can focus on the exciting parts of software development! You can see a quick overview of Haystack at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2uZnR5D_cc ! (It's currently only on Mac OS but we're working on Linux and Windows. Edit: just added a Linux download!) Haystack was born out of our frustrations with working in large and mature codebases, specifically with navigating and editing functional flows (e.g. the code flow for adding an item to the Amazon shopping cart). Oftentimes dealing with such flows would involve navigating a maze of files and functions, and making any edits would involve a lengthy process of doing corresponding downstream/upstream plumbing. Haystack attempts to address this in the following ways: 1. It allows you to explore your codebase as a directed graph of functions, classes, etc on the canvas. We feel like this better fits how your mind understands your codebase and helps you find and alter functional flows more intuitively. We especially want to utilize this for pull request reviews! 2. It has a navigational copilot that makes edits across files or functions much easier. After you make some changes, Haystack will try to predict your next action and create functions/methods or refactor upstream/downstream code for you. Haystack will surface these speculative edits on the canvas in a way that you can easily dismiss or incorporate them, allowing you to make large changes with a few clicks or keystrokes. 3. Haystack will utilize natural language search so you don’t have to play “Where’s Waldo” to find a functional flow in your codebase. This is coming soon! We’re still pretty early in development and we really want to perfect the experience of navigating and editing code on a canvas. Any feedback would be much appreciated! PSA: Since Haystack is a VS Code fork, you should be able to move your extensions and keyboard shortcuts. Please let us know if you have any issues with this!
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