ylj

Show HN: 3D black hole animation for your new tabs

Posted by ylj on Monday April 21, 2025 @12:20PM
from the show-hn dept.

After watching a video about recent black hole research, I learned that the “bright line” often seen above a black hole is actually light from the back of the disk, bent toward us by gravity. Amazing, right? I wanted to capture that sense of wonder every time I opened a tab, so I built this minimal extension based on sagarambade's animation work.Chrome Web Store:...

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Re:Show HN: Connect macOS to WiFi by scanning QR code on Monday March 24, 2025 @08:13PM (#43466806)

Totally. Thanks for clarifying

Re:Show HN: Connect macOS to WiFi by scanning QR code on Monday March 24, 2025 @06:55PM (#43466264)

Sorry, these are two different apps on two platforms that complement each other. I thought this wouldn’t be considered a repost.

Show HN: Connect macOS to WiFi by scanning QR code

Posted by ylj on Monday March 24, 2025 @11:10AM
from the show-hn dept.

https://github.com/yilinjuang/WiFi-QR-Go

I frequently travel and work remotely. Every new place—cafes, hotels, coworking spaces—requires manually connecting both my Android phone and Mac to WiFi. Unfortunately, macOS doesn't sync WiFi credentials with Android phones nor does it connect to WiFi through QR codes.So I built WiFi QR Go, a macOS app that connects to WiFi networks by scanning standard WiFi QR codes.Now I can connect my...

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Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @11:02PM (#43384797)

No way! I’m using a Pixel 7 and would love to have that built-in. Could you share a screenshot of how that works on your phone?

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @11:01PM (#43384789)

Not at all. These are great questions I asked myself too!

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:56PM (#43384761)

That’s exactly the problem. Android’s API for directly connecting to WiFi is limited—it’s mainly designed for connecting to local or temporary networks, like the setup used by robot vacuums. More details explained here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43384614

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:54PM (#43384755)

Exactly. I initially went with that approach [1], but eventually opted for on-screen QR code scanning. Suggested networks have lower connection priority and don’t always auto-connect. Also, passwords for suggested networks can’t be viewed or shared later, unlike regular WiFi connections. This is inconvenient because I often need to connect my Mac to the same network later.

[1] https://github.com/yilinjuang/wify/commit/7e63f2a9e6759847b4...

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:51PM (#43384737)

That’s great! I’d love it if every place adopted this approach—then I wouldn’t even need to build this app.

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:49PM (#43384734)

I’m not sure about iOS either. Could you point me to how an Android app can directly connect the user to a WiFi network? I know about the WiFi suggestion API, but I haven’t found a straightforward way to initiate a direct WiFi connection. That’s why I ended up with this quirky QR code workaround.

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:47PM (#43384723)

Yes, exactly—the goal is to join a network using printed WiFi credentials when a QR code isn’t provided.

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:44PM (#43384709)

Thanks for looking into the code! Initially, I wanted the app to work consistently on both platforms, but I found that the WiFi connection APIs behave very differently. In the end, I focused mainly on Android to ensure it matched my intended use case.

You’re right about the LLM smell. I’ve been using cursor composer and find it very handy at times!

I added more explanation here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43384670

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:39PM (#43384683)

I know. The simple answer is that Android doesn’t allow apps to directly manage WiFi connections. I’ve provided a more detailed explanation here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43384670

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:36PM (#43384670)

I understand your point and initially wanted to avoid the overhead of generating and scanning a QR code just to connect to WiFi. The reason for this approach is that the Android API doesn’t allow non-system or non-rooted apps to directly manage WiFi connections. In other words, it’s not possible to create a simple app that directly connects to WiFi with known network name and password.

Generating and scanning a QR code is a workaround to minimize steps—avoiding the need to manually select the network from a long list and type the password.

Android does provide a WiFi suggestion API [1], but it has several limitations and doesn’t behave quite as expected. I initially tried using that, but eventually settled on the QR code solution.

Hope this clarifies things!

[1] https://developer.android.com/develop/connectivity/wifi/wifi...

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:29PM (#43384630)

Yes, exactly. If WiFi QR codes were provided in the first place, we could just use the built-in QR code reader to instantly connect. This app targets situations where WiFi credentials are displayed only as printed text.

Re:Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed on Sunday March 16, 2025 @10:26PM (#43384614)

Thanks for the suggestion! I initially went with that approach [1], but eventually opted for on-screen QR code scanning. Suggested networks have lower connection priority and don’t always auto-connect. Also, passwords for suggested networks can’t be viewed or shared later, unlike regular WiFi connections. This is inconvenient because I often need to connect my Mac to the same network later.

[1] https://github.com/yilinjuang/wify/commit/7e63f2a9e6759847b4...

Show HN: Quickly connect to WiFi by scanning text, no typing needed

Posted by ylj on Sunday March 16, 2025 @09:58AM
from the show-hn dept.

https://github.com/yilinjuang/wify

I travel and work remotely a lot. Every new place—hotels, cafes, coworking spaces—means dealing with a new WiFi network. Sometimes there's a QR code, which is convenient, but usually, it's a hassle: manually finding the right SSID (especially frustrating when hotels have one SSID per room), then typing long, error-prone passwords.To simplify this, I made a small Android app called Wify. It uses...

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