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busymichael

87 karma · joined June 1, 2017

https://basilai.app
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busymichael··on Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber
I think you're underweighting the Pelican test.

Not only does it give you a super easy-to-grok understanding of the model quality just by looking at the image, but when you compare tokens and costs (both input and output), you really get a good, simple COST x QUALITY evaluation across models.

Simon explains it well: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/16/kimi-k3/#what-can-we-l...

Simon, you should put up a summary table page that you update after every release.

busymichael··on Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads
Still no 256GB or 512GB Studio models at any price. 96 is the max for any Studio configuration on apple.com right now.
busymichael··on Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI?
I built an iOS app for my sons who play club basketball. It’s designed to bridge the gap between practicing solo on the court and the pressure of playing in a game.

It uses mechanics and body movement, via visual detection through the cameras, to identify when you’re about to take a shot or make a pass.

It then pumps distracting noises (honks, cheers, jeers, etc.) into the headphones to try to distract you. It also runs a continuous 24-second clock so you build a natural sense of how much time is left before you need to get a shot off.

I'm looking for more people to join the test flight: https://clutchshot.app/

busymichael··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (May 2026)
Building Basil (https://basilai.app), a privacy-first AI executive assistant / note taker. Everything is on-device: transcription, summarization, etc. So nothing is shared with any model provider.

Lately the interesting work has been less about raw transcription and more about making the output actually useful: recurring workflows, follow-ups, and personalized summaries that fit how someone runs their day. We are also pushing more toward reliable agent automation instead of one-off chat. And dealing with all the iOS limitations on background work.

Still early.

busymichael··on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)
Building a voice recorder/transcription/summarization app where everything runs on-device. No cloud, no uploads, no servers processing your audio.

Started with a web version using WebAssembly Whisper to validate the idea. Worked well enough to prove demand, but browser sandbox limits (no background recording, inconsistent model performance) pushed me to go native.

Rebuilt as an iOS/macOS app with CoreML. Apple Silicon handles Whisper-class models locally without issues, but its confined to recent devices.

I'm working on e2ee sync between web and mobile. I want to build a simplenotes but for audio transcription.

Try the web version at: https://basilai.app/app

busymichael··on Show HN: Scriber Pro – Offline AI transcription for macOS
My experience share only supporting the latest OS:

I have launched apps focused on a new feature in the latest OS and regretted it. The # of people who have the latest OS is much smaller than the full install base for much longer than I thought. As a result, my marketing conversion was unnaturally low - people who liked the app idea but couldn't install because they had the wrong OS. This causes two problems: potential users I activated but couldn't convert and this signal gets internalized by the App Store, pushing down future impressions.

Now I always have a fallback implementation of the feature so I can target the prior OS. Both Mac and iOS.

busymichael··on Show HN: Scriber Pro – Offline AI transcription for macOS
As a side project, I just launched a privacy-first web-based meeting transcriber (https://basilai.app/app). Everything runs entirely in your browser — both the transcription and AI summarization — so no audio or text ever leaves your device.

I'm using the browser built in transcription service plus downloading a model and running it via webgpu. No login. At the end of your meeting, you get a zip file with the audio, transcript and summary.

busymichael··on Notepat – Aesthetic Computer
I'm a big fan of digitpain (Jeffrey Scudder) and it is great to see him get airtime here. The tl/dr for Jeffrey is he make digital art, but first he makes his own digital tools to make that artwork.

For those that are new to him, be sure to browse to the top level (https://aesthetic.computer) and play around in the 'terminal'.

If you have a VR device, view Freaky Flowers in it.

busymichael··on Show HN: YourNextStore – an open-source Shopify with Stripe as the back end
The feature I like the most in your demo: the one page checkout. It comes very close to shopify's excellent check out. Nicely done!

WooCommerce should be filling the role of viable self host alternative to Shopify, but it falls short. Even with the plugin ecosystem, it is much harder to run an quality cart and checkout.

Congrats on your launch!

busymichael··on Ask HN: Google Ads Rejected My SaaS as Compromised Site
It looks like you still have rrweb running. Have you tried removing that?
busymichael··on Ask HN: Solo Founder Tips?
I am on a similar path with https://intro.wtf (AI product merchandising for online retailers). I am solo but am trying to make being a solo saas founder the 'water I swim in.' I am connecting with others in my network who are solo founders, joined microconf, listening to podcasts, etc. I am trying to connect with other people who are all focused on similar goals, combine that with my focus and work to get better over time.
busymichael··on Ask HN: Tell us about your project that's not done yet but you want feedback on
I'm working on building better product merchandising with AI/ML for online retailers.

The problem: creating unique, engaging product content is expensive and time consuming for retailers. Hiring content writers can cost $50-100 per product. Multiply that by 1000s of products and then add in constant product churn.

With uniquely tuned AI models, combined with a retailers raw product data, I can generate content that improves the buyer's experience and leads to:

- higher conversions

- improved SEO

- standing out from competitors

The app includes:

- the unique LL models

- pipelines to connect to the retailer's catalog

- a feedback mechanism to monitor the products (add to cart, conversions, on page time, etc) and test new content

I did pilot with a large wine retailer. We generated nearly 4,000 product descriptions and saw a near immediate increase in on page time and conversions. It is 90 days out we are now seeing an SEO gain too.

https://intro.wtf

busymichael··on Ask HN: What made your business take off that you wish you'd done much earlier?
I love to talk with you about this. Can you DM me on discord: busymichael#0001? I've joined a few crypto teams and am networking to find more.
busymichael··on Show HN: Polybox: An tiny PaaS to Git push to deploy micro-services and sites
This is really interesting. I use git to manage my deploys. I git pull from my servers whenever I deploy.

I have been toying with using github actions to automate the pull. My workflow would be something like:

1. work locally on a branch 2. test, merge with master 3. git push from local to github 4. a github action would see the commit to master and initiate a git pull on my server.

Something like this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/61447350/automatically-p...

What are the advantages to using polybox or piku?

busymichael··on Show HN: Reddit Hyped Stocks – A web app to explore hyped stocks on Reddit
There has been a lot of interest in these reddit/twitter stock trackers lately.

I built one (https://cutt.co). Here is an open source one: https://github.com/iam-abbas/Reddit-Stock-Trends

We should all get together and build one to rule them all.

My thoughts on this: The real question is whether tracking trends on reddit/twitter can reveal a coming price swing BEFORE it happens. AND, you have to have minimal/no false positives.

I have had some success generating alerts before the swings occur (https://cutt.co/track-record/) but still am working on sorting wheat from chaff.

busymichael··on Show HN: Track market trends from social media
I am tackling a similar problem at [the Cutt Newsletter](https://cutt.co).

I have taken a slightly different tactic than you. I am trying to surface actionable trade ideas from the social media mentions. Can I predict a stocks price trend from social media discussion?

I think that takes two forms:

1. Real-time alerts to stocks that are moving outside their normal 'mention' bands. Most times social media discussion of a stock is following public news. For example, a company releases earnings and the social media discussion is about those earnings. In that case, the 'mentions' rate will always trail the actual news. But, in some cases, an increase in mention rate is preceding price changes that day -- I am detecting that in real-time (sometimes, so far).

2. Over a long time (months, years) a company's social media mention rate will go up or down. A long-term trend (either positive or negative) could say something about the long-term financial prospects of the company. That could be tradable.

busymichael··on Ask HN: How do I sell a library/plug-in?
Thank you -- pyarmor is what I am looking for. It seems to provide for both code obfuscation AND licensing. Also, if you use the licensing, the code obfuscation is linked to the license, so you can easily track back code leaks.
busymichael··on VSCode on Google Colab
I have just started playing with repl.it and am enjoying it. repl.it is using a similar IDE to the VSCode fork from the OP.

I am trying to build a small web app using repl.it as my dev environment and deploy on google app engine. The stack is flask/mysql/html5/bootstrap.

I have a workflow where I can commit to a dev branch inside repl.it, push to github and them merge to master. If merge is no-conflict, it uses github actions to deploy to google app engine.

There are trade offs, but I am really enjoying the ability to just start coding by opening a browser and having my full dev environment in a tab. Really fun!

busymichael··on Umami: Self-hosted open-source alternative to Google Analytics
Congrats on launching -- really impressive. One important issue that these self hosted analytics solve is ad blocking. Ad blocking by users really undermines the ability of a site or app to figure out what is working and not working. When you host your own analytics, you can get usability information for all of your users, not just those that don't block. That allows you to make a better product.

I have been working on something similar at https://argyle.cc -- we combine cloud analytics with a self-hosted analytics collector js. That gives you the best of both worlds: privacy focused, user respecting analytics, but full featured reporting in the cloud and ad-blocker resistance. It also allows event tracking to be done over js/web or in-line/server side.

busymichael··on Show HN: Resources for Becoming a Better 1:1 Communicator
I've put together a short curriculum to become a better 1:1 communicator.

Why? My 'right' ideas are often ignored by family and colleagues. Later, those same people will put the same ideas into practice after hearing them from another source.

At first I thought it was my audiences fault: they were failing to pay attention; that my ideas were too early to be recognized as right; or even that the repetition of the idea was required to be seen as right.

Gradually, I realized I am not being persuasive when I present my ideas. I went on a search for ways I could improve my persuasiveness in 1:1 communication.

busymichael··on Ask HN: What SaaS or Apps are you paying for?
Isn't screen recording built in to windows, macos, ios now? Why pay for a separate tool?

I use quicktime to record screencasts all the time. The biggest issue I have is having to upload the video to youtube to easily share it. They are usually too large to just email around.

busymichael··on Ask HN: What SaaS or Apps are you paying for?
I forgot about password managers: I do pay for one; but I also use the built in keychain password manager
busymichael··on Fully Functional 32 Year Old Touch Screen in a Buick Reatta
After watching the video again I realized the screen has some kind of digitizer behind it. That was highly unusual for touch screens of the era.

Most touch screens from the 80s were not actually sensing touch; instead they had light beams and sensors in a grid around the screen. Your finger would interrupt the light and the sensors at the x and y axis would determine your finger's placement over the screen.

busymichael··on Fully Functional 32 Year Old Touch Screen in a Buick Reatta
Notice both the text and graphics. Further in the video he shows how pressing the eject button on the radio screen opens the cassette player. And how diagnostic messages "pop up" on the screen, taking over the screen.

My father had a 1988 Buick with the led speedometer -- nothing like this touch screen. But, we thought it was so hi-tech at the time. He also had a cell phone built into the car -- but we were never allowed to use it because it cost $2+ a minute!

busymichael··on Ask HN: Who wants to partner on my SaaS project? I have revenue and customers
What the app really needs is marketing. We would work together to define the scope of work, deliverables, ,milestones, etc.

Tech stack is python backend on google app engine. Plus a chrome extension.

busymichael··on I'm looking to buy a small SaaS business
Hi -- I am looking for a home for dndemail.com. It offers do not disturb on your gmail inbox, across all devices.

If you are interested, michael at dndemail dot com.

busymichael··on Cosmoteer: A starship design, simulation, and battle game
I have a question for the game devs who are developing games for PCs: Why are you developing new titles for PCs when mobile games are both the largest and fastest growing segment of the market?

I am curious. I was an early web app developer who missed the migration to mobile. I have always regretted it and am playing catch up.

Source: https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/global-games-market-rea...

busymichael··on Ask HN: Let's make an open source/free SaaS platform to tackle school forms
Good point about low income, homeless. We would have to figure that out.

I envision a database of template forms that make it easy for a school to get started. Also, a way for a parent to digitize a form on their own, then share it with other parents.

busymichael··on Ask HN: Let's make an open source/free SaaS platform to tackle school forms
The problem isn't that schools don't have options, it is that they don't have the incentive. The easy thing for them to do is just send out the same old paper forms. We need to build the template database and give parents the tools to do the form conversion.
busymichael··on Ask HN: Let's make an open source/free SaaS platform to tackle school forms
Not a startup. Free service for schools, parents. Built by parents, community-run, not for profit.

I think the real problem is incentive: the school has no incentive to digitize the form - it is easy for them to just copy the old form and send it out each year. If we build a database of common forms and give parents/schools easy ways to digitize old forms, it gets them over the hurdle.

Plus, docusign, etc. don't build a structured database with the data to make it easy to access.

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