Codex Micro - Hacker News

Posted by davidbarker 4 hours ago

220 points | 192 comments

gravypod 29 seconds ago|

How is this more expensive than a Stream Deck? Shouldn't OpenAI be able to undercut existing software / hardware stacks due to how automated their engineering team is?

https://openai.com/supply/co-lab/work-louder/ - $230

https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck - $130, with LCD sceens, works with any apps

geraneum 1 hour ago||

If you’re puzzled as to why this exists, imagine that, out of the goodness of your heart, you donate $230 to OpenAI to support their mission of rear ending the singularity, and receive Codex Micro memorabilia as a token of appreciation.

krzyk 55 minutes ago|

tokens are getting expensive these days

nikisweeting 14 minutes ago||

If you want an $18 DIY / open hardware version of this using an LED cube off amazon & WLED, here you go: https://github.com/pirate/led-cube-agent-monitor

kevinsync 1 hour ago||

Wouldn't surprise me if the real purpose of this is to get a physical object on your desk that makes you constantly think about Codex -- either babysitting your currently-running agents when it's lit up and running, or subconsciously bullying / shaming you into using Codex if you're not right at this very moment.

An electronic Siren's Song if you will.

joe_mamba 1 hour ago|

>An electronic Siren's Song if you will.

Notifications on your smartphone that's always on you are way better for that purpose, than on a device that's tied to your desk.

Add Gacha mechanics for +100% extra damage.

Devices tied to your desk are actually very good for tech detox.

So if getting you hooked was OpenAI's goal with this, they definitely missed by a 1000 miles.

kevinsync 55 minutes ago||

Agree, but there's also the psychological impact of having spent over 200 smackers on this thing and then letting it go unused lol

_doctor_love 41 minutes ago||

That's the key, a physical object is much more easily made part of a devs identity.

Projecting a hacker image has become very fashion based. e.g., some devs love their clickity-clackity keyboards with LEDs, others have those all-blacks ones with nothing on the keys.

landr0id 2 hours ago||

If anyone is looking at this thinking it looks pretty and wants to check out Work Louder's keyboards, let me save you the time. Their keyboards must be made by designers who do not type much because they are both not pleasant to type on and not very high-quality.

The Nomad [E] might be one of the worst keyboards I've ever purchased, and I owned one of the original butterfly switch MacBooks.

hmokiguess 1 hour ago||

I was interested in their knob1, and, if you go to their website today it still says pre-order with shipping in August 2025 (stuck in the past), at this point I accepted it's vaporware [1]

[1] https://worklouder.cc/knob1

pipes 1 hour ago|||

I'm guessing they didn't run "knob" past anyone from the UK.

Edit: as much as it pains me, this is hacker news, so, knob means cock in the UK.

RobMurray 39 minutes ago||

It also, and I would say more commonly, means a round thing that can be turned. I've never heard of anyone avoiding the term.

dybber 1 hour ago|||

Their website is blocked by my ISP as being unsafe.

porphyra 1 hour ago||

Many ISPs block .cc domains. Especially when .co.cc was a free domain name thing and tons of malware would use it.

porphyra 1 hour ago|||

What's wrong with it? I believe you but I'm just curious... since on paper it just uses Gateron low profile switches which seems reasonable.

landr0id 1 hour ago||

For the Nomad: The caps slightly rotate. If you look at them from the side profile, they are also all varying heights. I found enough variance in the physical layout of keys that I was constantly making mistakes and pressing multiple keys simultaneously. It has this gimmicky magnetic riser on the back which the magnets fell out of. The display is just a gimmick but has a fun Tamagotchi-type thing that analyzes WPM, so that's cool at least.

The company itself had crazy production delays on both the Nomad and the Knob1, and seem to depend on hypebeast marketing. For $400 you would expect a very premium product and it's easy to argue that they missed the mark pretty hard.

Oh I also placed a pre-order and they refused to cancel after many delays. Unfortunately after that point it was too late for a chargeback.

*just found a random review if you want to see other opinions. The comments discuss some of the weird company shenanigans: https://old.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/1ngka3...

porphyra 1 hour ago||

Thanks. I like low profile mechanical keyboards in theory but I guess I'll just stick to the Keychrons and Lofrees.

dgemm 1 hour ago||

Never heard of work louder, but it sounds like an idea I used to joke with coworkers about, around making a clickly keyboard with an amplifier and speaker to passive-aggressively demonstrate how annoying the clicky keyboards are in a high density office environment.

kelvinjps10 1 hour ago||

At this point these companies are going to release merch to fund themselves

dgellow 9 minutes ago||

Whatever is need to boost the numbers before the IPO

ilaksh 38 minutes ago||

they have, click on "back to store" -- there is more merch.

rykuno 1 hour ago||

My first question is this — what does this do that a $50 Streamdeck cannot?

hadlock 7 minutes ago||

Great question - nothing. I was a little surprised to see it doesn't even have a microphone or speaker - that means regardless of whatever compute is available (esp32 is pretty common in the $30 price class for smart assistants) this can never be a standalone device.

Topfi 1 hour ago|||

Donate 200 bucks to a struggling startup.

ilaksh 36 minutes ago||

yeah, they are barely hanging on. they only raised $144 billion over 14 rounds. who knows if they will ever get any more. we should all chip in for a t-shirt.

dgellow 8 minutes ago||

Marketing, you don’t end up in the news with a streamdeck plugin

wren6991 1 hour ago||

$230 for a macropad with an exposed PCB and no washers under the Allen screws.

I'm not sure what the joystick is for, and neither are they apparently: the only example they give is something that could just be a keybind.

elicash 1 hour ago|

RE: the joystick. They should have gone with the Playdate's crank instead, CrankGPT style.

Anyway, I think it's all a fun marketing thing. A desk toy for folks with disposable income. I imagine they'll sell out, given the limited release and then they'll be on eBay.

scottyah 47 minutes ago||

Overfunded startups will slap their stickers on them and give them away in exchange for a sales call.

dgellow 6 minutes ago||

For sure the next hackathon prize

jawns 4 hours ago||

It's not clear why this physical object is a better solution to the problem than, say, a window on your screen. Feels like more of a hobby project than something that provides $230 of value.

vel0city 3 hours ago|

I know a lot of people who really like things like the Stream Deck. This seems similar to that kind of a concept. I'd probably take the Stream Deck over this though, its a good bit cheaper and each button has a little screen on it. Having some physical knobs is an interesting twist on it though.

https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck

lrae 2 hours ago||

There is the Stream Deck Plus with physical knobs and a touch b... strip. :)

https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-plus

iammrpayments 2 hours ago|

This is pretty hilarious. Guess people forgot how to use PCs and can only prompt now.

plutomeetsyou 2 hours ago|

Someday my kid is going to ask me why we need 79 keys on a keyboard if we only use "accept" and "accept all".

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