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Posted by david927 10 hours ago

Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)

What are you working on? Any new ideas that you're thinking about?
152 points | 515 comments
marginalia_nu 6 minutes ago|
Cooking up a NSFW filter for marginalia search.

Pipeline so far has gone like this:

* Use the search engine's API to query a bunch of depravity

* Use qwen3.5 to label the search results and generate training data

* Try to use fasttext to create a fast model

* Get good results in theory but awful results in practice because it picks up weird features

* Yolo implement a small neural net using hand selected input features instead

* Train using fasttext training data

* Do a pretty good job

* for (;;) Apply the model to real a world link database and relabel positive findings with qwen to provide more training data

Currently this is where I'm at

  Accuracy:   90.90%
  True  Positive: 1021
  False Positive: 154
  True  Negative: 2816
  False Negative: 230
  Precision:  0.8689
  Recall:     0.8161
  F1:         0.8417
There's a lot of vague middle ground and many of the false positives are arguably just mislabeled.
franze 2 minutes ago||
Google AI overview dissector

AIOs are a black hole - we dont know when they appear and whats in it. so i creates a tool thats starts with GSC data and enriches it via AIO data

works good and the major finding by now

the best AIOs you can get are ..... none.

doesn't matter if you are in it or not - as soon as they show up the CTR to tour web-property goes down massively ~60% to 70%

the CTR on the AIOs are ~0%

merlindru 7 minutes ago||
Tool that lets you build shortcuts and custom functionality for most macOS apps. You write JS snippets like this:

    const app = new App("com.apple.finder")
and then query for elements:

    const window = app.$({role: "window"})
    const someButton = window.$(/* another query */)
and then do stuff with it:

    someButton.press()
and you can bind everything to very specific shortcuts like "press and hold cmd, then scroll mouse wheel up"

Targeted towards music producers and AI (there's one collection of snippets that starts an MCP server and exposes some basic functionality) in the beginning.

YesBox 8 hours ago||
I changed gears and moved into the video games industry at the end of 2021.

I started developing a city builder called Metropolis 1998 [1], but wanted to take the genre in new directions, building on top of what modern games have to offer:

- Watch what's happening inside buildings and design your own (optional)

- Change demand to a per-business level

- Bring the pixel art 3D render aesthetic back from the dead (e.g RollerCoaster Tycoon) [2]

I just updated my Steam page with some recent snapshots from my game. Im really happy with how the game is turning out!

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/2287430/Metropolis_1998/

[2] The art in my game is hand drawn though

iknowstuff 3 hours ago||
So pretty. But:

> Both adults in a family will now own a car. This is required since there are not other transportation options, and sidewalks are optional.

Is this temporary or are you planning to release it like this? SimCity leaned into euclidean zoning (separate industrial/residential/commercial zones) and pocketable cars which needed no parking, and thus failed to properly showcase how ugly car-centric cities actually are. I’m sure they did it because it made for an easy gameplay loop/balancing but I’d hope we could come up with more realistic and interesting mechanics in 2026

sersi 2 hours ago|||
I actually would really love that in a city planner. A game that actually simulates walkable cities versus car centric abominations and would adapt families strategies based on the availability of sidewalks, public transports and incentives.
dumbaccount123 20 minutes ago|||
[dead]
zelphirkalt 1 hour ago|||
Can you tell more about your background? Making a sim like this also crossed my mind many times, but I learned in the past, that without much of any art skills, I would have to use resources of others or hire someone to make the graphics and so on. In the times of me playing around with RPG maker it was the missing story that was the problem. So it seems often that one core aspect is missing, when wanting to make a game. How did you learn to fill that gap, learn how to get that skilled with making the graphics?
smusamashah 5 hours ago|||
I have been following you on twitter since I saw it. It looks amazing. Recently tried the demo. It is like under 50MB (the demo at least) which is insane these days. Placing building required construction of the building room by room which was tedious. I am sure some people will enjoy that. Will that be the core part of final game?
tarokun-io 7 hours ago|||
Metropolis 1998 looks beautiful! (and addictive!)

Will you do a native Linux release, or has it been tested with Proton?

Also, just from watching the video and screenshots in the Steam page, it seems like a crazy amount of work. Are you doing everything by yourself?

zorked 2 hours ago|||
I only had to look at the first screenshot to think "yup, this was made for me, I am buying this".
_el3m3n7 5 hours ago|||
Love the concept! I would love it even more if you could add support for SteamDeck/proton
asimovDev 3 hours ago|||
The visuals are stunning, great work!
Folcon 7 hours ago|||
Awesome to see your progress YesBox!

Didn't realise you'd swapped to isometric, it's looking fabulous!

herpdyderp 7 hours ago|||
I came across your game last year! Can't remember how. Any hopes of macOS support?
joriskok1 4 hours ago||
Would buy it if it has mac support as well
999900000999 8 hours ago|||
Very very cool!

Did you roll your own engine, I know Godot has issues scaling past a certain number of simulations.

YesBox 7 hours ago||
Thanks! Yes, I created my own engine to maximize efficiency (where needed). I think it was the right choice for me.
adamgoodapp 6 hours ago|||
Looks amazing, added to my wish list!
Aeolun 8 hours ago|||
Cool! Isometric for the win :)
vldszn 8 hours ago|||
Looks amazing!
nickandbro 4 hours ago||
very cool
marusalu 7 minutes ago||
I'm building a microreading service that let's me get long books read with small chunks of time that I have - https://lauselt.ee Currently I've added some public domain Estonian books in there and tbh I do get a lot more reading done during the day. Basically you can use your 1-5 min breaks (waiting for a bus, during the commercials, waiting for food etc) to open the book quickly where you left off and read by scrolling small chunks of texts at a time. Duolingo style streak to create the habit of reading every day. Also the ability to upload your own book and it will automatically be split into these small chunks.
BrunoBernardino 18 minutes ago||
My wife and I continue to work on Uruky, a EU-based Kagi alternative [1]. Since last month we got deals with a couple more search providers but we’re still waiting for EUSP/STAAN to provide us with an API key (we have progressed through a few more forms and signatures and legal stuff, though).

We’ve continued to get some paid customers and have exited beta last week, given everyone seemed to be quite satisfied and there hadn't been requests for changes, only some specific search providers.

Because of bots there isn’t a free trial easily available, but if you’re a human and you’d like to try it for a couple of days for free, reach out with your account number and we’ll set that up!

Thanks.

P.S.: Because people have asked before, our tech stack is intentionally very "boring" (as in, it generates and serves the HTML + bits of JS to enhance settings and such — search can be done without JS), using Deno in the backend (for easier TypeScript), PostgreSQL for the DB, and Docker for easier deploying.

[1] https://uruky.com

lastodyssey 3 minutes ago||
https://playdropstack.com

Making improvements on this tetris meets block puzzle game

keithnz 8 hours ago||
Vibe-coded a YouTrack CLI tool in < 1 hour:

https://github.com/keithn/yt

Also working on a language for embedded bare-metal devices with built-in cooperative multitasking.

A lot of embedded projects introduce an RTOS and then end up inheriting the complexity that comes with it. The idea here is to keep the mental model simple: every `[]` block runs independently and automatically yields after each logical line of code.

There is also an event/messaging system:

- Blocks can be triggered by events: `[>event params ...]`

- Blocks can wait for events internally

- Events can also be injected from interrupts

This makes it easy to model embedded systems as independent state machines while still monitoring device state.

Right now it’s mostly an interpreter written in Rust, but it can also emit C code. I’m still experimenting with syntax.

Example:

    module WaterTank {
      type Direction = UP|DOWN
      let direction = UP
      let current = 0

      [>open_valve direction |> direction]
      [>update level |> current]

      [
        for 0..30 |> iteration {
          when direction {
            UP   -> !update level=current + 1 |> min(100)
            DOWN -> !update level=current - 1 |> max(0)
          } ~
          %'{iteration} {current}'
        }
      ]

      [>update level |> when {
          0..10  -> %'shallow'
          11..15 -> %'good'
          16..   -> %'too much!' then !open_valve direction=DOWN
        }
      ]
    }
keithnz 8 hours ago|
holy, downvotes on what I'm working on?
benterix 2 hours ago||||
You said "vibecoded", maybe it triggered someone. I upvoted you as I just learned YouTrack exists, and it has 10-users free plan, I'm going to give it a try,
mtsolitary 1 hour ago||||
You said the v word!
akkartik 8 hours ago|||
Yeah it's a nice project. Maybe it was an accidental click by somebody. I tried to compensate for it.
nhatcher 1 hour ago||
Well, I just jumped full time on IronCalc[1] a fully open source, light and fast spreadsheet engine designed and build from the ground up.

I have been working on it as side project for over two years and now, with funding from the EU for the next 2.5 years, I hope I can make of it a real product for everyone to use that can compete with the likes of Excel and Googl;e Sheets.

I can oly say, I am overly, off the Moon excited

[1]: https://www.ironcalc.com

arnorhs 1 hour ago||
Which EU grant did you receive? Ie. from which fund?

edit: nm, rtfm, it was on the landing page: Horizon Europe programme

nhatcher 1 hour ago||
Answered to a sibling comment. NLnet and HORIZON.

NLnet is just amazing and can keep you going if you are a student or have some extra sources of income

HORIZON is a huge grant but fairly hard to obtain. Generally related to reasearch grants in academia

FattiMei 1 hour ago||
Interesting, how was the EU funding process?
nhatcher 1 hour ago||
First we got a grant from the NLnet[1], which I highly recommend as a first step of any project. Single best thing I could have done. That wasn't enough money for me to quit my job. Also I didn't have any _evidence_ that IronCalc was a good idea or that there was a market for it. Then evidence started pouring and I kept working. I started talking to different folks, lots of people many of those were contacts through the NLnet. Then the folks from NextGraph[2] approached us and asked, "Hey do you want to be part of this consortium [3]?". Eventually we got a HORIZON grant after a lot of sweat and paperwork, but NextGraph took the brunt of it.

As you see there is a huge component of sheer luck

[1]: https://nlnet.nl/project/IronCalc/ [2]: https://nextgraph.org/ [3]: https://elfaconsortium.eu/

tomwojcik 4 hours ago|
Since subreddits related to identifying AI images/videos got very popular, my wife started to send me cute AI generated videos, older family members can't distinguish AI videos at all, I've decided to code a weekend side project to train their Spidey sense for AI content.

https://IsThisAI.lol

The content is hand picked from tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and other AI generating platforms.

Honestly I don't know where I'm going with this, but I felt the urge to create it, so here it is.

I learned how to optimize serving assets on CloudFlare.

Feedback welcome.

zelphirkalt 1 hour ago||
Tricky! I often also guess wrong. But I noticed it has some bug. Sometimes I can click either option "AI Generated" or "Real" and nothing happens. Even if I click 10 times, still nothing happens. The buttons must have some broken event handling or something.

EDIT: Hm, I switched tab, away to write this comment, now that I switched back, it showed me that I clicked correctly. So it seems, that sometimes it just has huge delay in accepting my choice?

tomwojcik 1 hour ago||
The project got some traction, over 5k requests since I posted this. Probably the DB state needs to be optimized a bit. Thank you for reporting! I really appreciate it

Edit: I don't see slow traces in Sentry. No idea what caused this. Also, voting goes through redis and the dB load is low. Weird. I probably have to add gunicorn workers.

Edit2: Bumped gunicorn workers from 2 to 4. Should be fine now, under the current load. Again, thank you for reporting!

wonger_ 2 hours ago|||
+1 for training parents' tech literacy.

I dunno if/how this could be taught, but I feel like half the battle is critical thinking with an adversarial mindset towards media -- who would make this, why would they want to show me, do I see anything that makes this impossible, is it worth engaging with in the first place, can I fact check this.

tomwojcik 2 hours ago||
Yep, my thoughts exactly. But the consumer rarely thinks critically when looking at ads, not to mention regular social media posts and the Big Corp has no money in proving what assets are AI generated.

I'm trying to gamify the training to make the experience more appealing.

I store a "proof URL" on the backend, but I don't know if it makes sense to serve it to the end user. Also, a Reddit discussion is not necessarily a proof one wants. A fingerprint would be better, but not all images are generated with Google. That's another problem to be solved.

wastewastewaste 1 hour ago|||
I somewhat like it for what it is, but expected something else based on description. This is just a real/ai guesser that doesn't really train you at all.
jayteedee 3 hours ago||
I love this. Each time my parents need their wifi fixed I'm going to make them do 5 of this app before it get to work.
tomwojcik 2 hours ago||
Thank you for the kind words. I don't expect it to spread like fire, but I'd appreciate if you could share it with your folks. I don't intend to monetize it, my goal is to have some small daily traffic.

It's SFW and localized to the most popular languages.

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