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Explore the hottest developer projects on Show HN for 2024-01-20. Dive into innovative tech, AI applications, and exciting new inventions!
Summary of Today's Content
Today's Product Highlights
- Product Name: Coffeehouse
- Highlight: Innovative one-on-one voice chat platform connecting Hacker News users randomly, fostering spontaneous intellectual discussions within the tech community
Quick Summary
- Most Popular Category: Communication & Social Tools
- Top Keywords: Voice Chat, Android, Chess, Weekend Planning
- Most Popular Product: Coffeehouse (229 points, 150 comments)
Technology Trends
- AI Integration
- Voice Communication
- File Sharing
- Calendar Management
- Gaming & Learning Tools
- Privacy-focused Solutions
- Cross-platform Development
Project Distribution
- Communication Tools: 25%
- Productivity Apps: 20%
- AI Applications: 15%
- Gaming/Education: 15%
- Developer Tools: 15%
- Content Management: 10%
Trend Insights
- Strong emphasis on community-building tools and social connectivity
- Growing demand for cross-platform solutions (Android-iOS integration)
- Rising focus on privacy-conscious applications
- Increased integration of AI in everyday tools
- Shift towards simplified, user-friendly interfaces
- Emergence of specialized tools for specific user communities
- Growing interest in educational gaming applications
The analysis shows a clear trend towards social connectivity tools while maintaining privacy and security. There's also a significant focus on making complex technologies more accessible through intuitive interfaces.
Today's Top 10 Trending Products
Top 1. Experience spontaneous conversations with fellow HN users through Coffeehouse – a unique one-on-one voice chat platform that connects you with random tech enthusiasts for engaging discussions. (Likes: 229, Comments: 150)
Top 2. An innovative app hailed as the "Airdrop for Android," enabling seamless file transfers between devices. Experience effortless sharing, intuitive interface, and lightning-fast connectivity, making it the go-to solution for Android users seeking to exchange files with ease. (Likes: 116, Comments: 135)
Top 3. Checkmate Champ is an innovative chess training tool designed to sharpen your tactical skills and elevate your gameplay. Perfect for players of all levels, it offers interactive exercises and engaging challenges that will help you master essential strategies and improve your decision-making on the board. (Likes: 192, Comments: 39)
Top 4. Presently.live: Your Ultimate Weekend Planning Companion for Insightful Experiences! (Likes: 23, Comments: 12)
Top 5. A user-friendly tool that effortlessly generates Open Graph meta tags for enhanced social media sharing and visibility. Perfect for developers and website owners looking to improve their online presence. (Likes: 19, Comments: 4)
Top 6. Introducing AskYoutube: a smarter way to search for videos! Discover content more efficiently with advanced search features that streamline your video exploration experience. (Likes: 12, Comments: 4)
Top 7. Discover the ultimate Hacker News Simulator, powered by cutting-edge GPT technology, designed to replicate and enhance your favorite tech discussions and community interactions. Experience a realistic and engaging platform where you can explore, share, and learn from a vibrant tech-driven environment. (Likes: 3, Comments: 9)
Top 8. Revolutionize user interaction with our API that transforms plaintext input into executable functions for your site. Enhance user experience and streamline functionality effortlessly! (Likes: 7, Comments: 3)
Top 9. Postcrest.com: The ultimate faceswap and image generation tool for creative and innovative visuals! (Likes: 6, Comments: 3)
Top 10. A modern take on the classic Minesweeper game, crafted with innovative features and engaging gameplay. Join the community to challenge your skills and uncover buried treasures while avoiding hidden traps. Perfect for both nostalgia seekers and new players alike! (Likes: 6, Comments: 2)
1. Show HN: Coffeehouse, one-on-one voicechat with random HN users
URL: https://coffeehouse.chat/hn
Author: amadeuspagel
Description:
Popularity: 229 points | 150 comments
2. Show HN: I made an app people call "Airdrop for Android"
Author: alexstyl
Description:
Popularity: 116 points | 135 comments
3. Show HN: Checkmate Champ – a training tool for chess tactics
URL: https://www.checkmatechamp.net/
Author: Tommah
Description:
Popularity: 192 points | 39 comments
4. Show HN: I built presently.live for better weekend planning and insights
Author: jonnyparris
Description: Hi HN , my partner and I were looking for easier answers to our weekend planning ritual, such as:
- When is our next free weekend?
- What weekend activities have we got planned?
- How busy/available are we to travel / host?
Especially at the start of each year, when we're trying to plan flights and/or commit to hosting friends & family visits, I struggled to find a usable overview of multiple months that wasn't cluttered with weekdays. Our social events are overwhelmingly centered around weekends and we wanted a view of the year ahead that reflected that.
How about just a line of 52 boxes, one per weekend ahead, shaded differently whether it was free or maybe busy or definitely busy? That was the initial sketch on a napkin that lead to a first proof of concept script that I ran locally.
Now, it's a webapp* that reads from our calendars (Google only for now, sorry) to visually summarise weekends - all with readonly access. I've since added some calendar-write features from there ("pro" version, completely free) as our lives become busier with a dog, and parenthood more recently. Features like event templates, summarising events by hashtags, flagging draft/unconfirmed events etc.
We've been using it to scratch our own planning itches for some years now already, and I'm sharing here now in case it can be useful for others. Even better if you have any feedback.
What / how have you hacked to get clearer and direct insights into your time?
I think time management and calendars have been lacking a UX overhaul for a long long time so it's a space I'm passionate about tinkering within.
*stack is Nuxt 3, backed by Supabase, hosted on Cloudflare Pages.
Popularity: 23 points | 12 comments
5. Show HN: Simple tool to generate Open Graph meta tags
URL: https://imgsrc.io/tools/open-graph-meta-tag-generator
Author: fadymak
Description:
Popularity: 19 points | 4 comments
6. Show HN: AskYoutube, Smarter Video Search
URL: https://www.askyoutube.ai/
Author: sammyatman
Description:
Popularity: 12 points | 4 comments
7. Show HN: I Built a Hacker News Simulator Powered by GPTs
URL: https://hnsim.vercel.app/
Author: skeetmtp
Description: Hello HN!
I'm excited to share a project I've been working on: a Hacker News simulator powered by GPT. Why create this, you ask? Well, sometimes "Why not?" is the most compelling reason to dive into a new endeavor!
The idea is simple: give the simulator a URL, and it generates a complete Hacker News discussion thread, complete with debates and varied opinions.
Although it might seem like just a fun experiment, the journey of building this simulator taught me a lot. Here’s how I did it:
1. Crafting the UI with v0.dev
I utilized v0.dev from Vercel to construct a React-based clone of the Hacker News main page. This was my second attempt using v0.dev, and it was far more successful than the first. My approach was:
Step 1: I started by taking a screenshot of the Hacker News site and submitting it to v0.dev with the prompt: "The thread page of hacker news site. Topics with some comments." Step 2: Next, I imported the original Hacker News CSS into ChatGPT and asked it to "summarize" to retain the key elements. Step 3: Finally, I iterated on v0 using the CSS suggestions from ChatGPT. The result? A React component that closely mimics the style of Hacker News. You can check out the v0.dev iterations here: https://v0.dev/r/xdrdBGJhWu0
2. Building the App with Me and ChatGPT
With the UI ready, it was time to develop the actual Hacker News simulator using Vercel Next.js. As a first-time user of Next.js, ChatGPT was invaluable in guiding me through the process.
Step 1: I started by transferring the code generated by v0.dev into ChatGPT, asking it to refactor all hardcoded values to use a JSON data source. Step 2: Then, I replaced the JSON with a function that pulls data from Redis KV. Step 3: Lastly, I added an API to post articles.
3. Crafting the Custom GPT
This part was relatively straightforward for me, as I've built various GPT models before. The key was simply providing the API through an OpenAPI specification. Asking GPT to browse given URL and posting through the API a typical HN discussion about it.
4. Navigating the Challenge of Increasing GPT Bot Blockages
A big challenge I faced after getting the first version up and running was that more and more websites started blocking GPT bots. When I started a month ago, most URLs worked well for creating simulations, except for those behind paywalls or captchas. But recently, I've noticed that more websites are stopping GPT bots from accessing their content. They're doing this either by recognizing and blocking the GPT bot's user agent or by using rules in their robots.txt files to keep bots out.
It also seems like Bing/OpenAI is now following these robots.txt rules more closely, which means there are fewer websites we can access. This change has made it harder to simulate content from a wider range of sites. I'm currently trying to figure out how to deal with these new challenges as more websites react to bots like GPT.
5. The Result
And there you have it! Feel free to give it a try and simulate your own Hacker News discussions (GPT Plus subscription needed)
Custom GPT: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-ycNVwVcX9-hnsim App: https://hnsim.vercel.app/ Looking forward to your feedback and seeing how the community engages with this just for fun project!
Popularity: 3 points | 9 comments
8. Show HN: API to convert users' plaintext input into functions your site can run
URL: https://rehance.ai
Author: jasontlouro
Description: Created a way for anyone to define the data types associated with their SaaS/website such that we can parse plaintext user requests into function calls that the backend can handle. For example. User types “Rename all my documents in the ‘Memos’ folder to follow the pattern “[Department] Memo: [Date]”, our API yields JSON with the IDs of functions to be called and their parameters.
Popularity: 7 points | 3 comments
9. Show HN: Postcrest.com – faceswap and image generation tool
URL: https://postcrest.com/ai-content-generation/faceswap
Author: mbalk
Description: Hey HN! I created a tool that includes multiple image generation models, faceswapping and face enhance, with more AI models coming soon.
It allows you to create workspaces where you can generate images, faceswap, face enhance and have a structured way to save your results.
Popularity: 6 points | 3 comments
10. Show HN: I Built Minesweeper
URL: https://the-minesweeper.vercel.app/
Author: rithmic
Description: A fun project using SvelteJS and Tailwind
Popularity: 6 points | 2 comments
11. Show HN: Codeshare.app – open-source pastebin for developers
Author: fayazara
Description:
Popularity: 5 points | 1 comments
12. Show HN: An OpenAPI spec editor powered by AI
Author: peisong
Description: The ultimate tool for efficient API development, testing, and documentation. Streamline your workflow with our AI-powered solutions.
Popularity: 4 points | 2 comments
13. Show HN: FridayGPT – Fast and Native ChatGPT Mac app
URL: https://www.fridaygpt.app/
Author: naveennaidu
Description: Hey HN, I made FridayGPT to instantly access ChatGPT back in August 2023 for my own needs using SwiftUI. I shared it with a few of my friends, and they were using it every day.
Recently, I added a one-click grammar fix and an OpenAI-powered Voice-to-Text feature. I also released it to the public as a one-time paid app.
Please check out: https://www.fridaygpt.app
Popularity: 5 points | 0 comments
14. Show HN: I built a GH Action to add missing alts to images defined in markdown
URL: https://github.com/jonathanalgar/docs-demo/pull/1
Author: jonathanalgar
Description:
Popularity: 2 points | 3 comments
15. Show HN: WingmanAi – Upload text conversations and get reply suggestions with AI
URL: https://www.usewingmanai.com/
Author: codingknight
Description:
Popularity: 2 points | 2 comments
16. Show HN: Hackviser – Boost Your Cybersecurity Skills
Author: sadican
Description:
Popularity: 3 points | 1 comments
17. Show HN: UmBox, a Package Manager for Umka Lang
URL: https://umbox.tophat2d.dev
Author: mr_ms
Description:
Popularity: 4 points | 0 comments
18. Show HN: Privacy oriented suite of web apps
Author: sunnox
Description: Appscyborg is a privacy oriented suite of 78 web apps. The webpage are in the following categories:
-APPS FOR AUDIO:
Our suite of powerful online audio tools empowers you to convert, extract, and enhance your audio effortlessly. From format conversion to vocal extraction, bass isolation, drum separation, and more.
-APPS FOR DOCUMENT: .
Effortlessly transform your files from one format to another with just a few clicks. Whether it's converting PDF, Word, EPUB, MOBI or any other document format, our apps handles it all.
-APPS FOR IMAGES:
Download, convert, crop, and compress images with ease. Effortlessly transform your visuals to suit your requirements. Whether it's resizing, format conversion, cropping, or reducing file size.
-APPS FOR MICROSOFT EXCEL:
Split Excel worksheets, effortlessly convert Excel files to various formats, and seamlessly insert images into your spreadsheets. Streamline your workflow, enhance collaboration, and simplify data manipulation.
-APPS FOR PDF:
Convert images to PDF, extract text from PDFs, extract images from PDFs, compress PDF files, and convert PDFs to images effortlessly. Streamline your document management process with our versatile and user-friendly tools. Whether it's image to PDF conversion, text extraction, or compressing files for easy sharing.
-APPS FOR VIDEO: .
The ultimate web app suite for video management tasks. Download, compress, extract, convert, and flip videos effortlessly. Whether it's resizing, format conversion, extracting specific segments, compressing files for easy sharing, or flipping videos horizontally or vertically. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, it's the perfect companion for video enthusiasts and professionals seeking seamless video manipulation online.
-APPS FOR WEBPAGE: .
The versatile web apps suite for converting webpages to various file formats effortlessly. Convert webpages to Word, PDF, TXT, RTF, EPUB, or ODT formats with just a few clicks. Need a webpage in PDF? Convert it instantly. Want to capture a webpage as an image? Take a screenshot with precision.This empowers you to save, share, and repurpose webpage content according to your needs.
Popularity: 1 points | 2 comments
19. Show HN: A Digital Movement of Founders / Entrepreneurs
URL: https://discord.com/invite/KgqazycHJW
Author: Asadrhmn
Description: I want to start a digital movement - a place where all the most talented entrepreneurs / founders reside, share expertise and build the companies of tomorrow.
All these startup accelerators and top 50 universities hoard talent and most of the other founders are left to make it by themselves without the same network or resources.
I want there to be one place, one community where all the "less likely to succeed", beginner or rough hustler founders across a plethora of industries are building together.
I'll arrange weekly events with VC's, founders and investors + I want to eventually raise a round from VCs to build out physical locations in all major cities and open up a startup studio
Check it out and join if you want to take part
Note - Everything is 100% free.
Popularity: 2 points | 1 comments
20. Show HN: Hacker News Search
Author: larose
Description:
Popularity: 2 points | 1 comments
21. Show HN: Pulsar – Micro creative coding playground
URL: https://muffinman.io/pulsar/
Author: stankot
Description: Hey everyone, here is a small project that truly brings me joy. It allows you to create and share animations using code. Instead of me explaining, please try playing with it. If it doesn't click right away, consider going through a tutorial.
Pulsar is inspired by something I came across on HN a while ago. Unable to find it again, I decided to create my own version. I swear, only after finishing Pulsar I managed to find it again [1].
As a bonus, I wanted to run these animations on my DIY LED frame. Check out the video:
https://github.com/Stanko/pulsar/tree/dev#led-retro-frame
I intended to write a blog post before sharing it on HN, but that is taking forever. So, I'll just give you a few technical details:
It is built in TypeScript and is open source. User code is executed in a web worker to minimize the risk of malicious use. I'm proud of the solution, and I find it quite nifty. Initially, I used to render it as an SVG, but in order to create GIFs for the frame, I switched to canvas. SVG gave me a few headaches which I'll cover in a blog post (if I ever write one). The syntax highlighter is a trick I found on Stack Overflow. The textarea is transparent, and as you type in it, the code is highlighted and placed into a div which lays on top of the textarea.
So, that is Pulsar. I hope it will be as fun for you as it is for me. Let me know what you think.
I prepared a simple animation of a Christmas tree for the holidays. It is a bit late, but here it is anyway :)
https://muffinman.io/pulsar/?grid=classic&animate=both&code=...
Popularity: 2 points | 0 comments
22. Show HN: MenuTimer – a minimal, yet powerful 1-click menu bar timer for macOS
URL: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/menutimer-menu-bar-tiny-timer/id6473223526?mt=12
Author: busymom0
Description:
Popularity: 1 points | 1 comments
23. Show HN: Find Books Recommended by Top Influencers Like Elon Musk
URL: https://readwithstars.com/
Author: data-leon
Description: Uncover the stories and ideas that inspire the people who inspire you. Dive into the world of books recommended by famous personalities and find your next great read.
Popularity: 1 points | 1 comments
24. Show HN: Chai - remote PDF and Hex Viewer service accessible via remote browser
URL: https://github.com/BrowserBox/BrowserBox/tree/boss/src/services/pool/chai
Author: keepamovin
Description: I'm really happy with this. It doesn't provide the "best" PDF support (it converts to images, page by page) -- but it does support a bunch of other documen formats supported by the union of LibreOffice, Pandoc and MuPDF -- and it was hella fun to write and get working: a mix of bash scripting glue, nodejs servering, and dependency installation.
Next up in the todo for Chai is getting it working on Windows (which will basically involve finding the right dependencies and maybe branching within the bash glue for their different paths from the Windows dimensions haha! :)).
I was particularly proud of the hex viewer part. I just felt it was not complete without really being able to see the byte by byte playout of a file.
Obviously there are some file size limitations (but the hex viewer is streaming, so should work for any size the underlying system can handle), and therefore optimally efficient.
Oh, and it also should handle archives just fine, as in, you can open {zip,tar.gz,... etc ...} archives and inspect them "file viewer" style.
Somehow I just felt this kind of capability (remote viewing files, from a safe and secure distance) was absolutely necessary for a remote browser.
I often think of these things like a "glovebox"^0
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glovebox specifically designed for handling hazardous materials, including biological, chemical, or radioactive substances. Gloveboxes provide a sealed environment where researchers or technicians can manipulate hazardous substances safely
Popularity: 2 points | 0 comments
25. Show HN: Raylib demo running in exaequOS
URL: https://exaequos.com/?a=/usr/tests/raylib6
Author: baudaux
Description:
Popularity: 1 points | 0 comments
26. Show HN: Ampter, Paint on Sound
URL: https://github.com/echometerain/Ampter
Author: echometerain
Description:
Popularity: 1 points | 0 comments
27. Show HN: Ballast – a simple CLI for snapshot load testing API performance
URL: https://github.com/synoet/ballast
Author: synoet
Description: A simple cli that lets you run iterative load tests on your api. Set thresholds for testing, and compare performance to previous runs.
Popularity: 1 points | 0 comments
28. Show HN: Freshet, a new smart RSS reader
URL: https://freshet.net/
Author: palfrey
Description: This is our new smart RSS reader, Freshet. It's in an open alpha stage and free to use (donations to our Ko-fi welcome however!), and we hope it's of use/interest to at least some of you.
Popularity: 1 points | 0 comments
Conclusion
Today's Show HN roundup showcases a diverse range of innovative projects. From AI-powered tools to creative coding solutions, these projects reflect the dynamic nature of our tech community. Which project caught your attention the most? Let us know in the comments!
Tags: #ShowHN #TechInnovation #DeveloperProjects #AI Applications #Open Source Software