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cjflog

Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (November 2026) on Sunday November 01, 2026 @07:33PM (#50331526)
I just got Beacon approved for the Apple App Store, it’s a mobile app for answering “which friend is free to talk right now?”

It’s a one-to-many phone call that only one person can answer. Send a beacon to a group, and everyone gets pinged at the same time. The first person who answers gets connected for a 1-1 call, and for everyone else the signal drops silently. It does not log any missed calls so there’s neither pressure to answer nor pressure to return calls.

Overall it works really well! It works best if you're able to join with at 4+ friends/family you’d like to chat with more. I have dozens of connections in the app now and it feels like magic to me. I press the button and get a random friend!

https://trybeacon.chat/

Re:Ask HN: What are your most ambitious projects in 2026? on Sunday October 25, 2026 @11:55AM (#50232929)
I made Beacon, a mobile app for answering: “which friend is free to talk right now?” It’s basically a one-to-many phone call that only one person can answer. Send a beacon to a group, and everyone gets rung at the same time. The first person who answers gets connected for a 1-1 call, and for everyone else the signal drops silently. It does not log missed-calls so there’s neither pressure to answer nor pressure to return calls.

Overall it works pretty well given most people keep their phones on silent (and there are in-app settings for quiet hours too if you don’t).

It works best if you're able to join with at least four or five friends/family you don't chat with as much as you'd like. I have a couple dozen connections on the app now, and it feels like magic to me. Would love feedback from both introverts and extroverts who still like phone calls, or wish they had more of them.

https://trybeacon.chat/

Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (October 2026) on Thursday October 01, 2026 @07:07PM (#49928101)
Laboratory.love, still a one-person side project, and the goal is still to make supply chains transparent with regard to plastic chemicals.

If you eat the same product every morning please consider kicking off a crowdfunding page to get it tested.

Check what's been tested so far here: https://laboratory.love/results

Re:Ask HN: What Are You Building? on Wednesday September 30, 2026 @09:02PM (#49916436)
laboratory.love - a platform for testing everyday foods for plastic chemicals!

both crowdfunding and direct testing are available. all results are published openly!

you eat the same thing for breakfast everyday. worthwhile to make sure it’s not a nuclear bomb of plastic chemicals imho.

https://www.laboratory.love

it's independent lab testing of everyday food products for plastic chemicals (phthalates + bisphenols), with all results published publicly. I got nerd-sniped by PlasticList and wanted this kind of testing to keep happening. Now it's a full-blown platform with a fast pay-money -> get any food triplicate tested pipeline

Re:Playa Phone on Sunday September 13, 2026 @06:06PM (#49689197)
Through Beacon via encrypted VOIP!
Re:Playa Phone on Monday August 31, 2026 @02:16PM (#49512916)
This is a great project! I've been to Burning Man 10x and interactive projects are my favorite part.

Also, if I may, for folks that might appreciate more phone-based spontaneity, I've built an app to revive the social phone call. It works like a bat signal. Light your beacon and it reaches all your friends at once. The first friend to answer connects 1-1 and every other signal quietly drops. Check it out at trybeacon.chat

Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026) on Monday August 10, 2026 @01:23PM (#49246837)
I made Beacon, a mobile app for answering: “which friend is free to talk right now?” It’s basically a one-to-many phone call that only one person can answer. Send a beacon to a group, and everyone gets rung at the same time. The first person who answers gets connected for a 1-1 call, and for everyone else the signal drops silently. No missed-calls or pressure to answer. Works pretty well given most people keep their phones on silent (and there are in-app settings for quiet hours too).

It works best if you're able to join with at least four people you don't speak with as much as you'd like. I have a couple dozen connections on the app now, and it feels like magic to me. Would love feedback from both introverts and extroverts who still like phone calls, or wish they had more of them:

iOS TestFlight access here -> https://trybeacon.chat/

Android also in beta here -> https://appdistribution.firebase.dev/i/afe3c44d8443c4c0

Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Saturday July 18, 2026 @01:50PM (#48960401)
This app could work as is for an elderly grandmother as once set up (could be set up for her by family), it's just "open app → press single giant Beacon button" which would try to reach everyone in her network at once.

It doesn't really solve for incessant calling by folks with dementia...but could at least spread the load a bit. I think the dementia solution is occasionally, or often(!), routing the call to an AI-friend that has endless patience for repeated questions and circular conversations.

But for a cognitively capable elderly person I think Beacon as-is actually solves for the use-case. The instigator has tons of free time and is searching for the family member who happens to be free right now.

Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Wednesday July 15, 2026 @12:49PM (#48923666)
please share if it works for you and any feedback you have!
Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Tuesday July 14, 2026 @07:38PM (#48914374)
thanks, it is fun! I now spontaneously talk to friends 1-2 hours/week more than I did.
Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Tuesday July 14, 2026 @12:25PM (#48909275)
haha, thank you :)
Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Tuesday July 14, 2026 @12:16PM (#48909096)
Can you say more about what you mean by a messaging version?
Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Monday July 13, 2026 @10:58PM (#48901755)
I think it went away because everyone became "online" all the time, but that also meant most communication transitioned to async
Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Monday July 13, 2026 @08:14PM (#48900710)
If you miss a Beacon and that makes you realize you want to chat with a friend, you can just send your own Beacon!
Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Monday July 13, 2026 @08:05PM (#48900638)
The idea is to just send a beacon whenever you're free and maybe you'll catch friends in the wildly different timezones from time to time.

I sometimes send beacons on morning commutes. Way too early for normal social calls but will sometimes catch people a few timezones east on a lunch break or something.

Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026) on Monday July 13, 2026 @02:40PM (#48896921)
I made Beacon, a mobile app for answering: “which of my friends is free to talk right now?” It’s basically a one-to-many phone call that only one person can answer. Send a beacon to a group, and everyone gets rung at the same time. The first person who answers gets connected for a 1-1 call, and for everyone else the signal drops silently. No missed-calls or pressure to answer. Works pretty well given most people keep their phones on silent (and there are in-app settings for quiet hours too).

It works best if you're able to join with at least four people you don't speak with as much as you'd like. I have a couple dozen connections on the app now, and it feels like magic to me. Would love feedback from both introverts and extroverts who still like phone calls, or wish they had more of them:

iOS TestFlight access here -> https://trybeacon.chat/

Android also in beta here -> https://appdistribution.firebase.dev/i/afe3c44d8443c4c0

Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026) on Tuesday June 16, 2026 @12:14PM (#48557568)
I made Beacon, a tiny iOS app for answering: “which of my friends is free to talk right now?”

It’s basically a one-to-many phone call that only one person can answer. Send a beacon to a group, and everyone gets rung at the same time. The first person who answers gets connected for a 1-1 call, and for everyone else the signal drops silently. No missed-calls or pressure to answer. Works pretty well given most people keep their phones on silent (and there are in-app settings for quiet hours too).

iOS/TestFlight only for now. It works best if you're able to join with at least four people you don't speak with as much as you'd like. I have a couple dozen connections on the app now, and it feels like magic to me. Would love feedback from both introverts and extroverts who still like phone calls, or wish they had more of them:

https://trybeacon.chat/

Android coming soon!

Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2026) on Monday February 09, 2026 @02:07PM (#46949456)
I'm working on https://laboratory.love

Laboratory.love lets you fund independent plastic chemical lab testing of the specific foods you actually buy. Think Consumer Reports meets Kickstarter, but focused on detecting endocrine disruptors in your yogurt, your kid’s snacks, or whatever you’re curious about.

Find a product (or suggest one), contribute to its testing fund, and get full lab results when testing completes. If a product doesn’t reach its goal within 365 days, you’re automatically refunded. All results are published publicly.

This project was inspired by Nat Friedman's PlasticList.org and we use the same ISO 17025-accredited methodology they did, testing three separate production lots per product (when possible) and detecting down to parts-per-billion. The entire protocol is open.

I just published new results today! Turns out Muir Glen's caned Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes are incredibly low in plastic chemicals. Yay!

Browse funded tests, propose your own, or just follow along: https://laboratory.love

Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @03:30PM (#46876854)
The testing is surprisingly complex!

I partner with Light Labs to handle the testing → https://www.lightlabs.com/

Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @02:50PM (#46876287)
I'm working on https://laboratory.love

Laboratory.love lets you fund independent plastic chemical lab testing of the specific foods you actually buy. Think Consumer Reports meets Kickstarter, but focused on detecting endocrine disruptors in your yogurt, your kid’s snacks, or whatever you’re curious about.

Find a product (or suggest one), contribute to its testing fund, and get full lab results when testing completes. If a product doesn’t reach its goal within 365 days, you’re automatically refunded. All results are published publicly.

This project was inspired by Nat Friedman's PlasticList.org and we use the same ISO 17025-accredited methodology they did, testing three separate production lots per product (when possible) and detecting down to parts-per-billion. The entire protocol is open.

I just published new results today! Turns out Muir Glen's caned Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes are incredibly low in plastic chemicals. Yay!

Browse funded tests, propose your own, or just follow along: https://laboratory.love

Re:Moltbook is the most interesting place on the internet on Friday January 30, 2026 @05:19PM (#46830732)
I think Moltbook is best perceived as improv interactive performance art
Re:New YC homepage on Friday January 23, 2026 @07:04PM (#46739629)
Interesting pattern to see how many IPO photos on the right are missing an original founder or two.
Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (Jan 2026) on Monday January 05, 2026 @05:34PM (#46506060)
Currently a one-man side project: https://laboratory.love

In 2024, PlasticList found plastic chemicals in 86% of tested foods—including 100% of baby foods they tested. Around the same time, the EU lowered its “safe” BPA limit by 20,000×, while the FDA still allows levels roughly 100× higher than Europe’s new standard.

That seemed solvable.

Laboratory.love lets you crowdfund independent lab testing of the specific products you actually buy. Think Consumer Reports × Kickstarter, but focused on detecting endocrine disruptors in your yogurt, your kid’s snacks, or whatever you’re curious about.

Find a product (or suggest one), contribute to its testing fund, and get full lab results when testing completes. If a product doesn’t reach its goal within 365 days, you’re automatically refunded. All results are published publicly. I'm actually thinking about turning off crowdfunding and making it a pure "service to be purchased" as all fully-funded products have been single-contributor driven (the refund process creates labor without a clear upside).

We use the same ISO 17025-accredited methodology as PlasticList.org, testing three separate production lots per product (when possible) and detecting down to parts-per-billion. The entire protocol is open.

*Stats as of Jan 2026*

- Since launching almost one year ago, laboratory.love has received $16,835+ in contributions across 38 products!

- 12 products have been fully funded, representing 36 batch samples (that's three unique production batches per product) and 72 total chemical panels (two separate tests for each sample, BPA/BPS/BPF and phthalates)

- 9 product results have been published, with 3 currently in progress

- One manufacturer has already kicked off an internal investigation as a result of our testing (more to say here soon).

- Product pages with published results tables can now calculate the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Tolerable Daily Intake Percentage (%TDI) for toddlers (assumed to be 14kg) and adults (70kg).

- Monthly Subscriptions are live. Funds are pooled and allocated to the leading unfunded product anytime the pool can get that product to its funding goal.

The goal is simple: make supply chains transparent enough that cleaner ones win. When consumers have real data, markets shift.

Browse funded tests, propose your own, or just follow along: https://laboratory.love

Re:Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming? on Saturday December 13, 2025 @11:10PM (#46260679)
100% this, I built laboratory.love almost entirely with my voice and (now-outdated) Claude models

My go-to prompt finisher, which I have mapped to a hotkey due to frequent use, is "Before writing any code, first analyze the problem and requirements and identify any ambiguities, contradictions, or issues. Ask me to clarify any questions you have, and then we'll proceed to writing the code"

Re:Show HN: VoxConvo – "X but it's only voice messages" on Friday November 07, 2025 @06:46PM (#45852673)
Did you ever use AirChat?
burning man dust is definitely an irritant (alkaline), but salton sea dust seems to contain many additional contaminants (pesticides, metals, biologicals)
Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? (November 2025) on Monday November 03, 2025 @07:26PM (#45806182)
Currently building Laboratory.love — a community way to crowdfund independent lab testing of everyday products for plastic chemicals (BPA/BPS/BPF, phthalates).

We buy three different lots per product, test at an ISO 17025–accredited lab, and publish all results. If a product doesn’t reach its goal within 365 days, contributions are refunded.

We recently added pooled donations to auto-fund the leading unfunded test and I’m iterating on more readable result summaries.

Would love feedback and product suggestions: https://laboratory.love

Re:Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2025) on Monday November 03, 2025 @07:18PM (#45806124)
Intercom | Dublin, London, Berlin (new office), San Francisco, Chicago, Sydney | Hiring across Engineering, AI/ML, Product, Design, Sales, Support & more

I’m on the team at Intercom (makers of the Fin AI customer-service agent). We’re growing fast and hiring across many roles, ESPECIALLY in AI (ML scientists/engineers, AI product engineers, data science). We’ve also just moved into our new Berlin office and we’re expanding R&D in Dublin alongside our other hubs.

• What we do: AI-first customer service—Fin AI agent + an AI-enhanced Helpdesk

• Why join: big AI mandate, real customers at scale, and autonomy/ownership

• Locations: Dublin, London, Berlin, SF, Chicago, Sydney

• View roles and apply: https://grnh.se/evk90ley1us

Learn more at https://fin.ai/

Re:Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (October 2025) on Wednesday October 15, 2025 @02:08PM (#45596387)
For an individual acting on their own, single tests for phthalates and BPA/BPS/BPF normally cost ~$500. Laboratory.love tests three samples from different lots to ensure reliability (as PlasticList found variation of up to 59% between lots of identical products). Thanks to volume pricing and operational efficiency, we're able to target $425 per sample ($1,275 for triplicate testing). This covers not just the chemical analysis but also product acquisition, shipping, and operational costs. Right now there is only about 10% margin left as breathing room.

My partner lab specifically offers 300+ unique tests across the following categories: Contaminants, Elemental, Allergen, Preservatives and Additives, Microbial, and Phytochemical, Vitamin, and Actives"

So yes, expansion is definitely possible! If a billionaire wanted to fund a project like this it could certainly convert dollars into data, it's just a matter of choosing which products and contaminants to start chewing through first to ensure the data creates positive change in the real world.

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