Hacker News

Subscribe to Hacker News feed
Hacker News RSS
Updated: 13 min 28 sec ago

Roast My Startup (thebuildnation.com)

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 12:05pm

Hello all, I'm an international student, and I have always had this problem of connecting with people who are near me that are actually building. Even if I have been to San Francisco, I think there aren't many ways to connect with people. So I built this https://www.thebuildnation.com

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49059500

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Categories: Hacker News

Make an Origami Circuit Board

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 11:56am
Categories: Hacker News

Show HN: A client side PDF and article reader backed by Google Drive

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 11:53am

I have been using different apps to read research papers, books, and web articles. On iPad, I read research papers and books on Apple Books, and articles in Safari; on Mac, I use skim for research papers and books, as it gives excellent annotation features.

But I wanted one reading library that worked across iPad and Mac without locking my pdfs and annotations into a single service/app.

So I have built a browser-based reader where your library lives in a folder you choose in google drive. The app itself is client side: pdfs, imported articles and annotations files are stored in your drive rather than on my server.

- PDFs and web articles live together in one library

- Articles stay as HTML instead of being converted into PDFs (because converting to PDFs often cuts words vertically such that the top half of the word is on one page and the rest on another)

- Highlights, handwritten annotations and notes are stored separately alongside each document

- The app first writes locally, then syncs with drive.

You can try it without signing in using the demo document.

Google is still reviewing OAuth verification, so signing into drive currently shows the standard unverified app warning.

I'm mainly interested in feedback on architecture, the annotation model and whether using drive as the storage layer feels like the right trade off.

It's almost entirely client-side. PDFs render with PDF.js, articles stay as HTML instead of being converted into PDFs, and annotations are stored as plain json alongside each document in your google drive folder. The browser keeps a local cache for fast reopening, while drive handles syncing across devices. I have deliberately avoided a custom backend thus your library is just files you own.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49059390

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Categories: Hacker News

Ask HN: Is an in-page speed reader useful?

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 11:53am

A friend suggested I embed an RSVP reader in my blog posts, so I did a floating button in the corner of the page. It uses the Spritz heuristic for the focus letter (letter 1 for short words, up to letter 4 for long ones) but maps back through punctuation, and the timing isn't uniform either. I don't want to bury this post in technical detail, so if you're curious about any of it, just ask and I'm happy to share.

But I'm not really used to speed readers, so I don't know if it's actually useful. What do you think?

And about browser extensions? does a per-site reader still make sense when an extension works everywhere, in theory?

It's on my blog (glitchedcat.com) on any post the lightning bolt button in the corner.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49059389

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

Categories: Hacker News

We Are Not Special (2021)

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 11:53am
Categories: Hacker News

Design Is Compromise

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 11:51am
Categories: Hacker News

Who's afraid of open source AI?

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 11:49am
Categories: Hacker News

Robotics development made dead simple (open source)

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 11:13am

Hey everyone,

My team and I have been working hard on this project: https://peppy.bot

It's a direct replacement for ROS 2. We already have the OpenArm robot (https://openarm.dev) working on the platform, both v1.0 and v2.0, plus Isaac Sim and MuJoCo integration.

If you're in a hurry, head over to https://docs.peppy.bot/quickstart/ and get started in 5min.

Our long term vision is to allow anyone (even non-devs) to go from a prompt to real humanoid robot actions, first in simulation, then on the physical robot.

Happy to answer any question.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49058956

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Categories: Hacker News

Ask HN: I spent personal money on game dev. How to turn stalled project around?

Sun, 07/26/2026 - 11:10am

Over the last year I spent a sizable sum on a personal multiplayer game project. I designed the idea until it was ready, contracted an offshore dev team, spent several months iterating on the production and then had the unfortunate luck to have the contracting company go out of business while the project was still in a pre alpha stage.

How should I rethink my problem space and move forward in this situation? Game dev is different from some trades in the sense that investment is heavily front loaded, which makes it difficult to start bringing in revenue while you’re still building out the MVP.

I firmly believe in the project itself, it already shows promise. The game is an online battle game, and what I currently have is a (rough) playable demo with placeholder art.

Professionally, I’m a dev, so I could keep building it myself, although it involves much more than just software hours. There is a huge amount of work that includes 2D/3D art, sound, music, networking, UI, onboarding, testing, etc. Without time constraints I would love to work on all of it, but I am trying to remain realistic.

For a production grade MVP I would still need: - production grade graphics and sound - that final 20% polish that it takes to make a game - more budget for the above

Thinking a bit brings me to these options: - finish the game myself (a few years?) - reduce the scope down into something else altogether? - open-source the concept

Is there a way I can break this into smaller problems that will allow some form of revenue to come in and reignite the project? Has anyone been through a similar experience that could offer some wisdom?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49058923

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Categories: Hacker News

Pages