A hidden workforce behind Meta’s new smart glasses
The article explores the privacy concerns raised by Meta's (formerly Facebook) new AI-powered smart glasses, which can potentially monitor workers' activities and conversations without their explicit consent. Employees express concerns about the lack of transparency and the implications for their privacy and autonomy in the workplace.
British Columbia is permanently adopting daylight time
The Government of British Columbia has announced that the province will be adopting year-round daylight saving time, eliminating the biannual clock changes effective November 2023. This decision aims to provide consistency and reduce the disruption caused by the twice-yearly time shifts.
Show HN: I built a sub-500ms latency voice agent from scratch
I built a voice agent from scratch that averages ~400ms end-to-end latency (phone stop → first syllable). That’s with full STT → LLM → TTS in the loop, clean barge-ins, and no precomputed responses.
What moved the needle:
Voice is a turn-taking problem, not a transcription problem. VAD alone fails; you need semantic end-of-turn detection.
The system reduces to one loop: speaking vs listening. The two transitions - cancel instantly on barge-in, respond instantly on end-of-turn - define the experience.
STT → LLM → TTS must stream. Sequential pipelines are dead on arrival for natural conversation.
TTFT dominates everything. In voice, the first token is the critical path. Groq’s ~80ms TTFT was the single biggest win.
Geography matters more than prompts. Colocate everything or you lose before you start.
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/NickTikhonov/shuo
Follow whatever I next tinker with: https://x.com/nick_tikhonov
A case for Go as the best language for AI agents
The article discusses the advantages of the Go programming language for developing intelligent agents. It highlights Go's performance, concurrency support, and ease of deployment as key factors that make it well-suited for building effective agent systems.
Closure of the Weatheradio Service in Canada
The article discusses the closure of the WeatherRadio service in Canada by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The RAC (Radio Advisory Board of Canada) has responded to this decision, expressing concerns about the impact on public safety and the availability of critical weather information for Canadians.
Show HN: uBlock filter list to blur all Instagram Reels
A filter list for uBO that blurs all video and non-follower content from Instagram. Works on mobile with uBO Lite.
related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016443
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica, a popular technology news website, has terminated the employment of a reporter after it was discovered that they had been using AI-generated quotes in their articles without properly disclosing this to readers. The incident has sparked discussion about the ethical use of AI in journalism and the importance of transparency.
Show HN: Pianoterm – Run shell commands from your Piano. A Linux CLI tool
A little weekend project, made so I can pause/play/rewind directly on the piano, when learning a song by ear.
U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for "Armageddon,"
The article reports that U.S. troops were allegedly told that a war with Iran is for the purpose of protecting Israel, contrary to the stated reasons for U.S. military involvement in the region. It suggests the existence of a potential disconnect between the public rationale and the actual motivations behind the military actions.
Bars close and hundreds lose jobs as US firm buys Brewdog in £33M deal
The article discusses the rising popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) and the potential challenges they face, such as the need for more charging infrastructure and the cost of EVs compared to traditional gasoline-powered cars.
Apple AI servers unused in warehouses due to low Apple Intelligence usage
According to the report, some of Apple's AI servers are reportedly sitting unused in warehouses due to low usage of Apple's AI intelligence technology. The article suggests that Apple may be overproducing AI hardware, leading to excess inventory.
Show HN: Gapless.js – gapless web audio playback
Hey HN,
I just released v4 of my gapless playback library that I first built in 2017 for https://relisten.net. We stream concert recordings, where gapless playback is paramount.
It's built from scratch, backed by a rigid state machine (the sole dependency is xstate) and is already running in production over at Relisten.
The way it works is by preloading future tracks as raw buffers and scheduling them via the web audio API. It seamlessly transitions between HTML5 and web audio. We've used this technique for the last 9 years and it works fairly well. Occasionally it will blip slightly from HTML5->web audio, but there's not much to be done to avoid that (just when to do it - lotta nuance here). Once you get on web audio, everything should be clean.
Unfortunately web audio support still lacks on mobile, in which case you can just disable web audio and it'll fallback to full HTML5 playback (sans gapless). But if you drive a largely desktop experience, this is fine. On mobile, most people use our native app.
You can view a demo of the project at https://gapless.saewitz.com - just click on "Scarlet Begonias", seek halfway in the track (as it won't preload until >15s) and wait for "decoding" on "Fire on the Mountain" to switch to "ready". Then tap "skip to -2s and hear the buttery smooth segue.
Trump Admin. Still Used Anthropic's Claude in Iran Strikes, Hours After It
The article reports that the Trump administration continued to use Anthropic, a San Francisco-based AI company, in Iran strikes mere hours after Trump had banned Anthropic. This contradicts the administration's stated position and raises questions about the use of AI technology in military operations.
Show HN: I simulated 1200 Iranian missiles attacking air defences in a browser
I've built airdefense.dev, which is able to simulate all kinds of ballistic missiles, one-way-attack drones like Shaheds, and most of the commonly deploy anti-air defence systems. All of this inside the browser. I've now added a scenario of the current attacks in the Middle East by Iran. It was quite the challenge to optimize it enough to not completely kill a common laptop, although it still runs best on a bit beefier systems.
He wanted to use ChatGPT to create sustainable housing. It took over his life
The article explores the potential impact of ChatGPT, an advanced AI chatbot, on mental health, discussing both the benefits and concerns around its use, such as its ability to provide support for mental health issues, as well as the risks of dependence and the spread of misinformation.
Astro and Svelte: Why I believe they're the future of web development
This article explores the rising popularity of Astro and Svelte, two modern web development frameworks that offer improved performance, developer experience, and flexibility compared to traditional approaches. It highlights the key features and use cases of these technologies, positioning them as promising contenders in the evolving web development landscape.
Zed: We Overhauled Our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Zed.dev, a popular programming blog, has updated its terms of service to clarify user rights, data collection practices, and content moderation policies. The changes aim to provide more transparency and user control over their personal information and interactions on the platform.
Show HN: Writing App for Novelist
Novelos Studio is a creative agency that specializes in web design, branding, and digital marketing services. The agency offers a range of services to help businesses build a strong online presence and achieve their marketing goals.
ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after DoD deal
The article reports that ChatGPT uninstalls surged by 295% after a controversial deal with the U.S. Department of Defense, raising concerns about privacy and the use of AI technology by government agencies.
Five People in Their 60s, 70s, and 80s Share How They Plan to Age at Home
This article explores how seniors are planning to age in place, highlighting their strategies for maintaining independence and safety in their homes as they grow older. It provides insights into the challenges and considerations faced by seniors who wish to remain in their homes as they age.