Ask HN: Anyone using augmented reality, VR, glasses, helmets etc. in industry?
Since Google Glass made its debut in 2012, there's been a fair amount of hype around augmented reality and related tech coming into its own in industry, presumably enhancing worker productivity and capabilities.
But I've heard and seen so little use in any industries. I would have thought at a minimum that having access to hands-free information retrieval (e.g. blueprints, instructions, notes, etc), video chat and calls for point-of-view sharing, etc would be quite useful for a number of industries. There do seem to be interesting pilot trials involving Hololens in US defense (IVAS) as well as healthcare telemonitoring in Serbia.
Do you know of any relevant examples or use cases, or are you a user yourself? What do you think are the hurdles - actual usefulness, display quality, cost, something else?
I built an app to backup Live Photos from iPhone to external hard drives
I noticed so many iPhone users are dealing with the same storage nightmare. Here's a common scenario that sounds familiar to a lot of people:
The widespread problem: iPhone storage fills up crazy fast, not everyone has a Mac, many don't want to pay monthly for iCloud storage, and home NAS setups aren't realistic for most users. The manual approach of creating folders and selecting photos one by one is tedious, and keeping up with new photos becomes overwhelming
So I built an app called BackiGo that addresses this exact pain point - it allows direct backup of Live Photos from iPhone to external hard drives, no Mac needed.
What makes it useful:
Backs up your Live Photos with all the motion intact
Can restore Live Photos back to your iPhone camera roll
Super easy to backup new photos
You can browse and view all your saved Live Photos directly from the external drive without having to restore them first
You can test it out with up to 500 photos & videos backup before deciding if it works for your needs
Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?
I'm a self taught dev that worked my butt off and endured years of "we promote internally" lies at multiple companies to finally get paid to write code.
I've been job hunting since I was laid off last November, and I'm just over it. Everyone is unicorn hunting for X years in Y framework and if you don't have exactly that you need not apply. Meanwhile FAANG, Microsoft, and Intel keep handing out pink slips.
I still love coding, I've spent most of my non "job applications and existential dread" time since layoff building projects. But the thought of working for another company run by braindead execs that want to shove AI into everything, or sitting through another round of Becky from HR (whose most technical skill is sometimes using excel) asking me "so why do you want to work here" fills me with revulsion.
I've taken to telling people with absurdly high meeting count hiring processes and one way video screenings that I'm not interested. I find myself excited about the prospect of doing almost anything other than sitting through another planning week at some company that swears up and down they are "doing Agile."
I'm furious at how companies have decided to kick us to the curb, outsource our jobs to the cheapest country they can find, or whatever AI company has the tastiest complimentary crayons this week. I'm furious at the RTO nonsense everyone is increasingly pushing, because their managers are so awful at their jobs they can't figure out how to replace interrupting us in person with interrupting us via a slack message. I'm furious, and tired at the same time.
Anyone else?
Ask HN: Why does my Node.js multiplayer game lag at 500 players with low CPU?
I’m hosting a turn-based multiplayer browser game on a single Hetzner CCX23 x86 cloud server (4 vCPU, 16GB RAM, 80GB disk). The backend is built with Node.js and Socket.IO and is run via Docker Swarm. I use also use Traefik for load balancing.
Matchmaking uses a round-robin sharding approach: each room is always handled by the same backend instance, letting me keep game state in memory and scale horizontally without Redis.
Here’s the issue: At ~500 concurrent players across ~60 rooms (max 8 players/room), I see low CPU usage but high event loop lag. One feature in my game is typing during a player's turn - each throttled keystroke is broadcast to the other players in real-time. If I remove this logic, I can handle 1000+ players without issue.
Scaling out backend instances on my single-server doesn't help. I expected less load per backend instance to help, but I still hit the same limit around 500 players. This suggests to me that the bottleneck isn’t CPU or app logic, but something deeper in the stack. But I’m not sure what.
Some server metrics at 500 players:
- CPU: 25% per core (according to htop)
- PPS: ~3000 in / ~3000 out
- Bandwidth: ~100KBps in / ~800KBps out
Could 500 concurrent players just be a realistic upper bound for my single-server setup, or is something misconfigured? I know scaling out with new servers should fix the issue, but I wanted to check in with the internet first to see if I'm missing anything. I’m new to multiplayer architecture so any insight would be greatly appreciated.
184,000 Ray AI Dashboards Exposed Online Without Authentication
https://medium.com/@hacker_might/no-auth-no-problem-how-184-000-exposed-ray-dashboards-are-putting-ai-infrastructure-at-risk-fe737116afa8
While digging into a known Ray Dashboard vulnerability, I discovered something alarming—over 184,000 Ray dashboards are publicly accessible without any login or access control. These dashboards allow anyone to remotely run code, steal secrets, or hijack AI infrastructure.
I detail the exposure, how attackers could abuse it, and what teams can do to secure their setups. This goes far beyond misconfiguration—it’s a systemic oversight in how AI infra is deployed.
Would love to hear your thoughts or see if others have found similar cases.
Ask HN: How to get rid of Gemini?
After the google+ fiasco I thought Google had learned their lesson about ramming new products down people's throats whether they like them or not, but with Gemini it seems like this lesson has been forgotten.
I usually am a pretty happy user of Google's products but they have really ruined the experience for me (and on top of that they are charging extra for the privilege of ruining the experience). Is there a way to completely and permanently get rid of Gemini in such a way that my normal workflow isn't continuously interrupted by Google pushing their bug-ridden and unnecessary AI contraption? If not, I will probably have to get rid of Google entirely, which will be a massive piece of work but I'm really done with having my train of thought interrupted 30 or more times per day by popups or 'helpful' suggestions that only serve to illustrate how incredibly immature the AI field still is.
What we have done so far:
- disabled AI suggestions where ever such options were given - removed the App components to the point that normal device functionality is not impeded - searched online to see if there is still more that we can do
Ironically just typing this query into google still gives me an AI overview (despite these being disabled) which contains a whole raft of nonsense advise.
If it takes a browser (Firefox) extension to do the job I'm game. I only want to see the word 'Gemini' when it relates to Alan Parsons records or to Zodiac signs.
Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Tell HN: Beware confidentiality agreements that act as lifetime non competes
Just a note of warning from personal experience.
Companies don’t really need non-competes anymore. Some companies take an extremely broad interpretation of IP confidentiality, where they consider doing any work in the industry during your lifetime an inevitable confidentiality violation. They argue it would be impossible for you to work elsewhere in this industry during your entire career without violating confidentiality with the technical and business instincts you bring to that domain. It doesn’t require conscious violation on your part (they argue).
So beware and read your employment agreement carefully.
More here https://www.promarket.org/2024/02/08/confidentiality-agreeme...
And this is the insane legal doctrine behind this
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inevitable_disclosure
The scam that is Visa Account Updater
Visa Account Updater is a service by which if you change your credit card number, or even close and open a new credit card account, Visa can give a merchant your new credit card details for subscription services without ever asking your permission
I ran into an issue where I had some subscriptions that were very difficult to cancel, so I decided to just cancel that credit card number. I called Wells Fargo, told them to give me a new credit card number, which they did and I moved on with my life.
Next month, a bunch of the same charges. I call them back, they tell me about Visa Account Updater. I am extremely taken back that this is even possible. I told them I didn't want to be a part of that program, they told me that Visa handles this and not them. I call Visa and they tell me they don't handle this and that Wells Fargo does.
I call back Wells Fargo, they tell me they have no idea how to opt out of it. The lady asks her manager, the manager also doesn't know. She spends some time searching their documentation, nothing in the docs. She tells me the sure fire way is to close the account entirely and create a new account with a new card. I'm deeply annoyed but go ahead and do this.
Next month, guess what? A bunch of the same charges again, on a fresh account I haven't even activated the credit card for. I call Wells Fargo back, they talk more about Visa Account Updater but have no way of turning it off or rectifying the situation.
I'm now on hold for the last two hours as they try to figure out what to do about this. I can't believe this is even legal, its the most insane business practice I've ever seen. I get that this may be handy in some situations but its clearly a scam designed to perpetuate charging subscriptions to credit cards.
Hope this helps the next person.
Ask HN: Anyone interested in taking over my indie app?
Hey folks — I'm looking to hand off a project I've been working on: Eyeball, a clean and minimal bookmarking app for iOS that uses AI to help users save, organize, and understand their links.
Website: https://eyeball.wtf/ App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/eyeball-ai-bookmarks-notes/id6670705634
The app is live on the App Store, has several hundred users.
Selling because my founding engineer took a full-time role and I don’t have the bandwidth to grow it solo. Would love to see it in the hands of someone who wants to take it further. Thinking a simple profit-share if it ever generates revenue?
If you’re into calm productivity tools, AI/notes, or second-brain apps, this could be a fun one to take on.
If you’re interested, drop your contact details and I'll reach out.
Ask HN: If you translate with LLMs, GT or DeepL–what features are missing?
What is still the single biggest headache when you translate with GPT, DeepL or Google?
If you use DeepL – what would you need to finally pay for GPT translation?
Which features are still missing in current classical or LLM based translators.
How do you prefer pricing: SaaS, per-token, seats, or a flat plan?
Context: I’m exploring a side-project and don’t want to build the wrong thing. Not looking for promotion—just war-stories and must-have features (LLM model selection? scanned-PDF OCR? bilingual output? segment-level edits? glossary? missing format support?).
Tell HN: Meta developer account suspended
Hi all, my Meta developer account was suddenly restricted without warning, and there’s no way to appeal or reach support. I believe this may have been triggered by a location (read, IP address) change: I’m a student-entrepreneur who recently moved from China to Kenya for school holidays.
I’m building a WhatsApp-based accounting tool for African small businesses, and this restriction is blocking critical operations. I’ve come across others facing the same issue, with no review option or clear reason: https://www.reddit.com/r/WhatsappBusinessAPI/comments/1kvolv...
https://www.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/1h1c79w/developer...
Some of the people in these posts were able to contact Meta support, but it seems like Meta has disabled direct support chats.
Thanks in advance.
Ask HN: How to regain the ability to read with focus and learn
I have noticed my own decline in terms of attention spans, and (in)ability to read long-form text online or offline. This leaves me with a disaatsifaction and I would like to rebuild a good habit cycle.
Curious to know if any of you went through the same and managed to recover from this rot. What worked for you, and any thoughts and learnings you might want to share.
Ask HN: Why can't AI fix all open source issues on GitHub?
Ask HN: Laid-off devs who left tech?
It's been almost 3 years since the post-covid tech layoffs began. And the tech job market has steadily gotten worse since then. So now is a good time to check in on the state of out-of-work devs. Specifically, if you have left tech as your main job, what do you do now? And do you work on personal projects or a tech-related side hustle? Are you looking to jump back into tech when things improve, or have you found something better?
Ask HN: How do you keep your SWE skills sharp outside of work?
For context I am employed as a SWE and I find my job generally enjoyable but I also feel like I’m not learning any new skills and maybe falling behind the industry. I’m not in a position to look for a new job at the moment but I want to do a little something each day to stay sharp.
What is currently worth focusing on for general longevity in this field?
A literary magazine accessible only via telnet
telnet://issue3.anewsession.com
Ask HN: How Do You Actually Use Claude Code Effectively?
I'm trying to figure out the right and effective way to use Claude Code. So far, my experience hasn't matched what many in the community seem to rave about.
Often, it either generates convoluted implementations when simpler ones clearly exist, or it produces code that's riddled with bugs — despite confidently claiming it's correct. I'm wondering if I'm just not using it properly.
Here's my current workflow:
- I first talk to Gemini to gradually clarify and refine my requirements and design.
- I ask Gemini to summarize everything. Then I review and revise that summary.
- I paste the final version into Claude Code, use plan mode, and ask it to generate an implementation plan.
- I review the plan, make adjustments, and then let Claude Code execute it.
- Long wait…
- Review Claude’s output and clean up the mess.
For refactors and bugfixes, I usually write some tests in advance. But for new features, I often don’t.
It often feels like opening a loot box — 50% of the time it does a decent job, the other 50% is pretty bad. I really want to understand how to use it properly to achieve the kind of magical experience people describe.
Also, I’m on the Pro plan, and I rarely hit the rate limit — mainly because there’s a lot of prep work and post-processing I need to do manually. I’m curious about those who do hit rate limits quickly: are you running lots of tasks in parallel? Machines can easily parallelize, sure — but I don’t know how to make myself work in parallel like that.
Ask HN: How do you learn Spanish guitar?
I've recently become interested in Spanish guitar, particularly the Gypsy and flamenco styles, but I don't know how to get started. Are there any beginner textbooks or videos available? I previously bought a book that started with scale exercises, which I found very tedious, and ended up giving up. Thank you very much.
Are we overfitting our code to trends instead of problems?
I've been thinking modern programming feels increasingly shaped by ecosystem fashion. Frameworks change yearly, build tools get swapped like phone wallpapers, and even language choices feel driven more by vibe than need.
My concern is are we optimizing for what’s "new and exciting" rather than what’s appropriate and sustainable?
What are some signals that we’re solving tooling problems instead of real ones? Have we trained a generation of devs to chase abstractions instead of understanding fundamentals?
Curious what others think, is this a natural evolution of software... or are we just collectively procrastinating with better toys?
Ask HN: Are you hesitant to open source your project because LLMs may steal it?
Is anyone hesitant nowadays to release their code as open source because they don't want it to be stolen to train LLMs?
I am wondering if my hesitancy is rational or not.
Is "MIT Software License but No AI" Possible?
An old friend of mine teaches programming and is building out a teaching language to try and make sure students don't cheat on intro lessons.
https://github.com/itstheraj/PhraseLang?tab=License-1-ov-file
They put a license in saying that basically AI cannot index this code but I think this is kinda silly and a waste of time. They told me they want to see if they can make "MIT license but no AI" a thing and they hope more open source projects hop on the train.
I do see that if an AI was trained with this in the set it probably obliterates the educational value maybe. I can understand the motivation but uh....
I don't think this would work tho and I want to convince them they are going a little over board LOL - what do y'all think? Is it possible to make an "MIT License but no AI?" and have it be a thing?
Ask HN: Could a "social mode" in AI chats replace social media?
The idea is that, while chatting with an AI, you could temporarily enter social mode.
In social mode, the AI learns from what you say and may tell other humans about it while chatting with them.
So in this sense, the AI provides a form of indirect communication between humans.
Do you think such a "social mode" in AI chats could replace social media?
Ask HN: How much would you pay to solve the largest problem you face?
I'm working on something new and I need to test it with real problems - the kind that keep you stuck for weeks or months. (basically stumbled on this framework, solving my own problems and want to see who else it could be useful for / what people would pay). Really just looking for a conversation. Here's what I'm looking for: complex situations where you've tried multiple approaches but nothing quite clicks. Business strategy paralysis, relationship dynamics you can't figure out, career transitions that feel impossible, creative blocks, or any problem where you know there's a solution but can't see it. Not selling anything - just testing whether this approach actually works for problems other than my own.
DTN in Rust
I just released [`sdtn`](https://crates.io/crates/sdtn), an open-source implementation of Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) based on RFC 9171.
It aims to provide a minimal, practical DTN node capable of: - Bundle transmission over TCP (CLA) - CBOR-encoded bundles - ACK-based delivery confirmation - Expiration and cleanup of bundles - CLI-based control and debugging
The goal is to extend this foundation to support BLE, LoRa, and dynamic routing for environments with intermittent connectivity—such as space, remote areas, or disaster recovery scenarios.
GitHub: https://github.com/Ray-Gee/spacearth-dtn Docs: https://docs.rs/sdtn
Feedback and discussion are very welcome!
Ask HN: Anyone using OpenAI's Agent SDK in production?
I'm exploring building a simple agent-based app and came across OpenAI's Agent SDK: https://openai.github.io/openai-agents-js/ . From what I understand, it wraps a lot of functionality — like the agent loop, function calling, and integration with the OpenAI MCP server — which could potentially save me a lot of work compared to using the plain OpenAI SDK.
However, I'm wondering:
Is the Agent SDK too abstracted or hard to debug?
Has anyone actually used it in a real production app yet?
Would I be better off just implementing the logic myself on top of the plain OpenAI SDK for more control and transparency?
Appreciate any insights.