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minimalistab is an extension for Chrome that replaces the default "New tab" page with a blank WYSIWYG editor for taking notes.

Sometimes I need a blank screen to stare at, especially when context switching between tasks; so I made this Chrome extension with basic note taking capabilities.

I kept the code as simple as possible, formatted for developers with dyslexia. Let me know your opinions.

I hope you find it useful. Feel free to personalize and hack your own copy. Feedback very welcome.

DEMO: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hakaneskici/minimalistab/r...

Install as an extension: https://github.com/hakaneskici/minimalistab

Features:

* Take notes with formatting

* CMD/CTRL + {B, I, U} or toolbar

* Works offline by design

* Auto save to local storage

* Download as .html file

* Dark/light system theme

* Paste images and links

* Plain JS, no dependencies

* No tracking, no telemetry, no cookies

* Works without JS too (no saving)

* 100% handcrafted human code (TM)

Here's the primary trick that makes this possible:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43179649

Previous discussions and tools:

[1] Nash - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43358914

[2] Notetime - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43434152

[3] NoteUX - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43492415

[4] TiddlyWiki - https://tiddlywiki.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557761

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/the-worlds-largest-pdf-is-bigger-than-the-universe/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557757

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/nasas-new-spherex-space-telescope-takes-its-1st-cosmic-images-the-instrument-team-nailed-it

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557753

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://phys.org/news/2025-04-router-photons-transducer-enable-superconducting.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557747

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9ioqAuyl6UK-d0CS7KF9ToelBJVzxrkv

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557736

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://blog.heroku.com/heroku-fir-generally-available-new-platform-capabilities

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557730

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/02/apple-books-licensing-lawsuit/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557709

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

When AI agents are generating some, most, or all of your code, then occasional git commits of the resulting source code aren't sufficient. You also need a tool that ties the generated code back to the prompts and AI interactions that generated it.

Here’s a short technical explainer video of GOOD, a Git companion designed for this: https://github.com/specstoryai/getspecstory/blob/main/GOOD.m...

The core tool will be free (as in beer), but we may or may not be FOSS. We’ll figure that out soon’ish.

I would love some feedback on this!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557698

Points: 7

# Comments: 3

Article URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.21598

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557667

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

We’re two engineers who built a system that acts like a guardrail/policy enforcement layer for large language models (GPT, Claude, etc). It analyzes both prompts and responses in real time, and applies configurable policies like:

Blocking PII (emails, IPs, phone numbers, etc.) Detecting company secrets (e.g., passwords, API keys) Preventing accidental leaks of proprietary code Filtering toxic/inappropriate language Catching mentions of competitors, people, or locations Each policy can be tuned (strict or lenient), and you can decide whether to just log it or actually block the message. Everything is logged with full metadata: policy IDs, timestamps, token counts, etc.

The architecture has two parts: a self-hosted data plane (which handles all sensitive message content), and a hosted control plane (for configs and API keys). So it can be used in privacy-sensitive environments.

You can integrate it via API, browser extension, or a simple chat UI.

Now here’s where we’re struggling:

We don’t have a strong network of buyers or investors. Most of our outreach has been cold emails, and it hasn’t led to much traction. Pricing experiments (per seat, per org) haven’t helped. So it’s unclear whether the idea isn’t good—or we’re just not getting it in front of the right people.

We’ve started thinking about open-sourcing it. The idea would be: self-host for free, pay us if you want the hosted version (similar to MongoDB/Redis models). Probably support bring-your-own-encryption-key for hosted users.

But I’m honestly torn. Open-sourcing sounds right for trust and adoption—but we’ve spent a lot of time on this, and there’s that fear of releasing it and getting little to nothing back.

So: if you work with LLMs, or have faced issues around privacy/compliance/safety, I’d really love your take. Does this sound useful? Would open source make it more attractive? Are we just early to a problem people don’t feel yet?

Not promoting anything, just hoping to learn from folks who’ve walked this path.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557661

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/02/asia/myanmar-scam-center-crackdown-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557655

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://alp1n3.dev/blog/0005-dont-overthink-easy-choices/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557652

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/02/donald-trump-elon-musk-capitalism-us-democracy

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557644

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00933-3

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557629

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://old.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/s6haxm/one_year_with_brave_a_review_and_critique/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557623

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590174525000388

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557618

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://www.oreilly.com/radar/copyright-aware-ai-lets-make-it-so/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557615

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://news.mit.edu/2025/evelina-fedorenko-studies-brains-language-system-0402

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557607

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article URL: https://medium.com/@DougDonohoe/you-dont-have-time-not-to-test-e82bda121d64

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557083

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Hey HN,

Three months ago, I decided to shift careers into software development and indie entrepreneurship. This is my second web app since then.

The idea came from a simple, frustrating experience: I needed to organize a meetup with multiple possible dates. I looked for a quick tool to create a poll... and finally decided to use a group chat instead...

So I built quickpoll.cc – an AI-powered tool that lets you create scheduling polls just by describing what you want in plain language. For example:

“A team dinner next week with options on Tuesday evening, Thursday lunch, or Friday afternoon.”

It instantly turns that into a shareable poll. No sign-up, no fluff, no waiting.

Highlights: - No account needed - Available in English, French, and Spanish - Totally free (just a small promo for my first mobile app) - Designed to be simple and fast - Works well on desktop and mobile

This was mostly built to solve my own problem, but I’m hoping it can help others too. I’d love your feedback on: - How well does the natural language processing handle your inputs? - Any bugs or usability pain points? - Ideas for improvements or other use cases?

Appreciate your time!

Br. Alessandro

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43557081

Points: 1

# Comments: 0