Sunday, July 28, 2024

New top story on Hacker News: How can a time traveler encrypt info so it's only decryptable after a given date

How can a time traveler encrypt info so it's only decryptable after a given date
23 by azeemba | 20 comments on Hacker News.


New top story on Hacker News: Stanhope (optical bijou)

Stanhope (optical bijou)
4 by bookofjoe | 0 comments on Hacker News.


New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: I made a tool to receive alerts when answers change

Show HN: I made a tool to receive alerts when answers change
10 by saran945 | 4 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, I've created a tool called Alertfor that scours the open web to find the most relevant and up-to-date answers for complex questions. You can set up alerts to receive continuous updates whenever there are changes or new information becomes available for a given question. I used an agent framework (Autogen + Sibyl) to collect and answer questions, and I schedule a Celery job to run the same query continuously every six hours. I would love to hear your feedback, suggestions, or anything else you’d like to say. Note: I'm submitting this for a second time; I'm not sure if this is against HN policy.

New top story on Hacker News: Unjust content moderation at the request of Israel’s cyber unit

Unjust content moderation at the request of Israel’s cyber unit
31 by runarberg | 1 comments on Hacker News.


Tuesday, July 23, 2024

New top story on Hacker News: Ask HN: I built a Yubikey-based domain controller. Is it sellable?

Ask HN: I built a Yubikey-based domain controller. Is it sellable?
17 by elevation | 7 comments on Hacker News.
I once worked in R&D where our competitive advantage was in keeping our customer relationships and intellectual property private, so we kept everything on-prem. No cloud, no SaaS, no WFH. In my own SMB, I still self-host git, CI, chat, etc. I love the privacy and control, but I also needed to open these services to remote workers without exposing them to the world. So I built an appliance to protect my internal web apps by requiring user/pass+yubikey at multiple layers of the stack: L3 (p2p vpn), L4 (mTLS), and L7 (OIDC). The appliance is self contained (VPN, LDAP, NTP, CA, OIDC), like a classic domain controller, and it keeps servers safe from any users without an authorized hardware key. I'd love to bundle this with an admin panel and sell it, but I forsee problems connecting with the right market: * Clients who have meaningful IT budgets will require inter-operation with their legacy domain controllers. This means I won't have an MVP without major changes and lots of testing. It also puts my own product at risk: if Microsoft doesn't want to support my integrations, they can disable my product with a software update. * Clients who are too small to have lots of legacy IT requirements will have small budgets and require lots of support. Some of these clients will grow larger, but this is a long game. I would love to support these clients but don't want to die for lack of revenue in the short term. How would you sell what I've built?

Monday, July 22, 2024

New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: OpenDataCapture an electronic data capture platform for data collection

Show HN: OpenDataCapture an electronic data capture platform for data collection
10 by gdevenyi | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, We're the Douglas Neuroinformatics Platform[1], and we've been working on Open Data Capture, a web-based electronic data capture (EDC) platform for continuous clinical and research data collection. You can use it to administer instruments (like forms and interactive tasks) either in-person or remotely. The platform is based on a fundamentally longitudinal data model. Unlike other EDC platforms, which are centered around the concept of a study with rigid timepoints, Open Data Capture is designed for continuous data capture. Data is associated with a given session, which includes metadata such as date, time, and mode (i.e., in-person or remote). We've designed the system around the core restriction that many hospital institutions demand that data remain on-premise, while clinician-researchers often want to evaluate clients outside the institution with research questions. This has resulted in our innovative gateway concept, where assigned remote assessments are pushed onto an internet accessible service, and responses are encrypted in-place with HPKE[2] until the backend pulls them into the backend database. This makes the deployment firewall-friendly provided you can launch a minimal VPS or VM host somewhere globally accessible. We're also a big fan of making things easy to deploy, so we supply a docker-compose stack which can bring up a demo instance easily to run locally. The platform is free, open source, and written in TypeScript, with a NoSQL database underneath. Users can write instruments in TypeScript using a type-safe declarative form system (with native i18n support built in) or wrap and integrate completely arbitrary interactive tasks written in JavaScript (with optional support for TypeScript and JSX). Under the hood, this is based on dynamic imports and native ESM. There’s a browser-based IDE (the Instrument Playground) with live reloading and full Intellisense where you can try creating your own instruments. We have a local deployment going live at our institution and appropriately-licensed (free) instruments we're deploying here will be integrated directly into the codebase. Our future plans include expanding our instrument types to allow for binary data storage with an s3-like backend, and with abstractions for data types, like actigraphy, and MRI. Check it out on GitHub[3], try the Instrument Playground[4], or see the Live Demo[5]. Would love to hear everybody’s thoughts! Links: [1] https://ift.tt/aIpGRF0 @gdevenyi @joshunrau [2] https://ift.tt/SDTCuxp [3] https://ift.tt/ASKCDG6 [4] https://ift.tt/sqMyxPS [5] https://ift.tt/5k3fGeN

New top story on Hacker News: Boeing-owned Wisk expects to begin carrying passengers 'later in the decade'

Boeing-owned Wisk expects to begin carrying passengers 'later in the decade'
8 by JumpCrisscross | 0 comments on Hacker News.


New top story on Hacker News: The workers have spoken: They're staying home

The workers have spoken: They're staying home
104 by CrankyBear | 63 comments on Hacker News.


New top story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Is there a list of grey-hair-friendly IT companies?

Ask HN: Is there a list of grey-hair-friendly IT companies?
21 by rndaom | 8 comments on Hacker News.
E.g. something like that https://ift.tt/EMaX59P but for being actively anti-ageist or at least not bothered by one's age?

Sunday, July 21, 2024

New top story on Hacker News: Remove PDF password protection using qpdf and AppleScript

Remove PDF password protection using qpdf and AppleScript
7 by rkwz | 2 comments on Hacker News.


New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: Moocable – find people studying the same online course/book

Show HN: Moocable – find people studying the same online course/book
5 by junaid_97 | 4 comments on Hacker News.
Hey, everyone I made a website that lets you find study partners/groups based on the specific course/book you are studying. It's 100% free + no registration required. Why: I know there are many subreddits for finding study partners. But, one of the biggest reasons we can't find the right partner/group is lack of clarity. Most posts that I read on Reddit were something like: "I'm interested in programming. Let's study Python together..." - That's not a clear goal. But, when you say "Let's study the Python for Everybody course on Coursera . I'm from Mumbai, India, and I'm looking for study partners in the* timezone (UTC+5:30). I'm fluent in Hindi language. I have 2 years of experience in C++ , so I understand the fundamentals of programming. Happy to host the group and contribute " - that will lead to higher quality engagement. It's also difficult to search + filter posts on Reddit, based on my learning requirements. Keeping all these pain points in mind, I've built Moocable, where you can search & filter posts based on the course/book you're learning + timezones + languages + level of experience. Lastly, you can use it to discover new learning materials. Some of you might have used https://ift.tt/a7M6VfX I'm building a similar library for Moocable, you can easily search and discover new learning materials. If you are looking for study partners, give it a try! P.S.: I've manually filled the first ~100 posts. Each post is 100% authentic, scraped from subreddits/Coursera forums/niche websites.

New top story on Hacker News: Carving ELF Files

Carving ELF Files
7 by joren485 | 0 comments on Hacker News.


New top story on Hacker News: txtai: Open-source vector search and RAG for minimalists

txtai: Open-source vector search and RAG for minimalists
23 by dmezzetti | 1 comments on Hacker News.


Wednesday, July 17, 2024

New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: VisCircuit – A Note-Taking Website for Electronics and Circuits

Show HN: VisCircuit – A Note-Taking Website for Electronics and Circuits
10 by darrenyaoyaoyao | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Hi, everyone. I created a note-taking website for electronics and circuits where you can draw circuit diagrams and write text notes at the same time. I am a Digital IC designer, and I self-study different types of analog and digital circuits a lot. However, I found a problem. Circuits have many different architectures and are hard to memorize due to numerous experiential tips. I want to document what I learn in my note app, but I found there is no method for me to easily draw circuit and block diagrams alongside text notes. This issue has bothered me for a long time, from my master's school to my current working life. I decided to solve it, so I created a note-taking website specifically for electronics and circuits, called VisCircuit. With VisCircuit, you can easily draw circuit diagrams, block diagrams, and write text notes simultaneously. I have already used it for two weeks and have noted down things I find hard to remember, such as SRAM, amplifier circuits, and PCB components of Arduino and Raspberry Pi. I found this tool really useful for memorizing knowledge about electronics and circuits. Currently, I have opened VisCircuit for alpha testing, and I want to let some people use it and give me feedback. Feel free to try it, and I will really appreciate what you think about this project. Leave any suggestions for improvement. Thank you very much.

New top story on Hacker News: Prover-Verifier Games improve legibility of language model outputs

Prover-Verifier Games improve legibility of language model outputs
25 by davidbarker | 4 comments on Hacker News.


New top story on Hacker News: Against choosing your political allegiances based on who is "pro-crypto"

Against choosing your political allegiances based on who is "pro-crypto"
26 by bpierre | 3 comments on Hacker News.


Monday, July 8, 2024

New top story on Hacker News: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists
3 by onemoresoop | 0 comments on Hacker News.


New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project

Show HN: I coded my own JSON translation tool to easily localize my side project
7 by jboschpons | 3 comments on Hacker News.
Hi HN, I’m Joan, the developer of Quicklang. I made this app to easily translate and keep in sync all my localization JSON files for my side projects. While searching online for a similar tool, I only found enterprise solutions that do not allow direct editing of JSON files. I used to use ChatGPT to translate the JSON translation file changes before coding Quicklang. However, I realized that ChatGPT only allows you to input short content for translation into another language (even if you provide a .json file), and each time I had to request translations for one language at a time. So, I decided to build an app that only sends the changes I’ve made to the OpenAI API and easily translates them into all the target languages for my side projects. Technical details: I used Next.js to build the front end and backend, and I use a custom VPS (EC2 instance) on AWS to handle the translation process. This is because the translation can take several minutes, and Vercel Functions time out after 10 seconds by default (up to 60 seconds on the Hobby plan). Finally, I save the translation files in an S3 bucket. What’s next? I want to add cool features like change history, the capability to add context to the OpenAI API to make translations as accurate as possible, and maybe allow developers to interact with the API in order to use the tool. Let me know your thoughts and feedback. It’s been a blast working on this so far, and I think it’s just neat :)

New top story on Hacker News: Python Has Too Many Package Managers

Python Has Too Many Package Managers
43 by LarsDu88 | 24 comments on Hacker News.


Monday, July 1, 2024

New top story on Hacker News: Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers

Show HN: Edna, note taking app for developers
12 by kjksf | 2 comments on Hacker News.
I took a small break from coding SumatraPDF and wrote a note taking application that is perfect for me: https://ift.tt/9spZu4z Edna is a note taking app for developers and power users. A cross between Obsidian and Notational Velocity. Markdown, plain text, code, works in browser so no installation required, private (notes are stored in your browser or disk) and secure (can encrypt notes with a password). The story so far. I was always attracted to editors with minimalistic UI, like https://mak.ink/ , simplenote, Notational Velocity. I like having most of the screen estate for writing because writing and editing is what note taking apps are for. But: most of them are very thin on features and UI. I saw Heynote and it was one of those minimalistic writing UIs with not many features. I liked their concept of dividing notes into blocks so I forked Heynote and started coding. The goal was to combine writing-oriented, minimalistic main UI while also providing on-demand UI for features and efficient operation. Things like context menu, type-down note switcher, command palette, quick access shortcuts, plenty of keyboard shortcuts. Another goal was privacy and security. The notes never leave your computer and can be encrypted with a password. It also makes the code simpler because I don't need any backend storage, user accounts and auth etc. Sadly, only Chrome and Edge provide the necessary file system api, on other browser you can only store notes in local storage, which means no sharing between computers or accessing the notes with other software. 40 working days and 528 commits later, here's what I've added: * added support for multiple notes * ability to store notes on disk * and if you store notes in a directory managed by DropBox, OneDrive etc., you get sharing of notes between computers * Ctrl + P: UI for switching between notes, creating new notes, deleting notes, inspired by Notational Velocity * Ctrl + Shift + P: command palette like in vs code * context menu to access frequently used functionality * Ctrl + E to open note from history (list of recently opened notes) * ability to assign Alt + 0 ... Alt + 9 quick access shortcuts * ability to encrypt notes with a password * export all notes to a .zip file * automatic, daily backup of notes to a .zip file (optiona, see Settings) * Ctrl + B to navigate between blocks * re-designed Settings UI * added ability to execute Go blocks * support Svelte and Vue in code blocks * ported the UI code from Vue to Svelte 5, just because I could * converted from desktop app to run in the browser (Ctrl is on Windows, on Mac it's ⌘). I've been using it daily while working on it. 94 notes and counting. I still have ideas for improvements but it has all the core features for productive work. The app: https://ift.tt/9spZu4z The code: https://ift.tt/z6oTOjN