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Posted by david927 17 hours ago

Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)

What are you working on? What have you been curious about lately?
249 points | 884 commentspage 10
alphaBetaGamma 17 hours ago|
My wife and I are working on a math/science/CS-inspired jewelry business. We try to create pieces that stand on their own aesthetically but have a hidden meaning.

We currently have two styles: lambda calculus based pieces (we depict the lambda/Tromp diagram) where we have Y-Combinator earrings (well, strictly speaking they are one beta reduction away from Y-combinator. Aesthetic oblige) and a pendant depicting a lambda expression computing Graham's number. The other style is quantum computing circuits, based on quantum computing research my brother (a physics professor) is doing: a pendant that is actually a non-local controlled-NOT gate. I wrote a tiny DSL to describe the jewelry pieces, and an interpreter to produce CAD files. We then either 3D print them or have them produced by lost-wax.

We are 200% out of our comfort zone (and love it): I know nothing of front end dev, payments, or anything like that. The diamond district in New York is a neighborhood we normally actively avoid, but if you are forced to go there it is fascinating (people examining diamonds on the corner of the street, others in fur coats in summer straight out of a mafia movie...), and especial marketing. Jewelry is a completely saturated business (luckily we are not doing this to pay the rent); we think we have a unique angle, but we are still figuring out the target audience (if there is one), how to advertise, etc.

Any ideas on marketing are welcome.

Store: https://studio-galois.com/

spindown 11 hours ago||
This would be perfect for the Computer History Museum gift shop:

https://shop.computerhistory.org/

xkam 14 hours ago||
> Any ideas on marketing are welcome

Maybe contact CERN - they have a souvenirs shop https://visit.cern/shop

SleeperShip 17 hours ago||
https://www.play-when.com/daily

When? Is a timeline game I've been working on for a bit. It's a board game I love playing with my family and I wanted a slicker mobile version I could play with them.

properbrew 17 hours ago|
I didn't quite understand what you meant from your description, started playing it and love it! Educational too!
jason_zig 17 hours ago||
Solo founder (and sole employee) getting to 2M ARR with Zigpoll[0]

AI is making it possible to go after bigger clients so the strategy is to focus on marketing and going upmarket. A lot of new features to add and things to learn as you move up to bigger customers with larger contracts!

[https://www.zigpoll.com]

binsquare 13 hours ago||
A lightweight ,portable virtual machine that simplifies/replaces need for containers.

https://github.com/smol-machines/smolvm

baist0 12 hours ago|
I love small or tiny good products. suckless soft - it's good!
edumucelli 2 hours ago||
I am still working on a Linux dockbar for X11 and Wayland, it has all the goods of dockbars I have been using throughout the decades now, 60+ applets baked in, fairly good customization, etc * https://docking.cc/ * https://github.com/edumucelli/docking
michaelbrooks 3 hours ago||
I have been building a social network for Twitch, called Chattr. It is very Twitch specific as you log in with Twitch and it will automatically post when you go live. When your stream ends, it will automatically post the VOD to your followers feed. Also, if anyone who follows you on Twitch joins Chattr, then they will automatically follow you on the site too. This makes it much easier to move your community over.

You can also tip and receive tips for your posts, which can then trigger a stream alert.

You can use your own custom emotes in posts and your Twitch subscribers can also use them.

I'm really excited to be building this and we have 135 users signed up.

https://chattr.online is the link and the app is on the Play Store and Apple App Store

bmmcginty 12 hours ago||
I'm writing an add-on for the NVDA screen reader to allow users of Jaws to "seamlessly" migrate to it. Also a financial tool that answers “how much money can I actually spend?” by forecasting your cash balance through upcoming bills, cards, income, and transfers. (I'd love to turn this into a product, but I think the market is full as it is.) I also just completed a bare-bones web-to-mumble system because the app for the iPhone is...lacking. https://github.com/bmmcginty/wumble (To be clear, "I" is AI with human testing and reading over the code.)
voakbasda 16 hours ago||
Recently bought a Sovol SV08 printer. It comes with open source binaries, but there is no source code. Turns out they are a known to be violating the GPL. Looks like it can be rebuilt from other sources, so I have started to put together a clean implementation using Yocto. It will be possible to add support for similar 3D printers.

I bought that printer in order to print parts for two other projects: a baby monitor (security camera) and a hat-mounted teleprompter monocle. Both using COTS part and running Yocto-based open source images. All affordable products in both of those sectors are completely untrustworthy or otherwise unsuitable for my requirements, since one of which is total replacement of the firmware with my own custom versions.

In my day job, I am a principle embedded engineer consultant working on distributed embedded systems, so all of the above software will be relatively easy.

The mechanical work will be the most challenging, as I am presently only using OpenSCAD. I would entertain suggestions for alternative open source CAD solutions, but I hope to recruit a ME (or two!) to help drive that portion of the work to completion.

wbobeirne 6 hours ago||
I'll be flying to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival in a couple of days, and I've been putting together a much better app than the official one. It builds the full catalog of shows as a sqlite database and syncs it to your phone so that you can filter, search, sort, and build a schedule even with the traditionally spotty data during the fest. I also added a bunch of coordination features for planning your Fringe with friends.

It's a PWA, not a native app over at https://fringeflypost.com/ (or you can go directly to https://fringeflypost.com/shows to browse if you don't want to make an account.)

nha1 48 minutes ago|
Nice I love the Fringe. I don't suppose there is an easy way to track the street performers though which for me is the fun part.
andrewjk 8 hours ago|
Multi-language libs with implementations in TypeScript/C#/Swift/Zig so that they can be used directly in web or native apps:

- A Markdown parser/renderer (https://github.com/andrewjk/allmark). The TS version of this was hand written and the other versions are AI translations.

- A Git client (https://github.com/andrewjk/gitologist) and a diffs parser/renderer (https://github.com/andrewjk/differator). These were vibe coded in TS, checked and then AI translated.

I’ve used these libraries to build a native Mac Markdown notes app (https://staunchapps.com/stash) and a JS script launcher (https://staunchapps.com/launch).

nbbaier 8 hours ago|
Are the creator of the `.mdsv` format that's referenced in the stash manual? Never heard of it before. If you are, interested if there's a spec.
andrewjk 8 hours ago||
It's just a text file containing a single Markdown table. Making it a different extension seemed like the best way to force them to open in a different editor view inside Stash (while keeping them editable with any other text editor).
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