Show HN: InstallerStudio – Create MSI Installers Without WiX or InstallShield
3 by pkailas | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Hi, I'm Paul — 25 years of enterprise Windows development. I built InstallerStudio after WiX went from free/open source to $6,500/year support and InstallShield hit $2,000+/year. Every tool in this space is either unaffordable or requires writing XML by hand. InstallerStudio is a visual MSI designer built on WinUI 3/.NET 10. No XML, no subscriptions, no external dependencies. Handles files, Windows services, registry, shortcuts, file associations, custom actions, and full installer UI. $159 this month, $199 after. 30-day free trial. It ships its own installer, built with itself. Happy to answer questions about MSI internals.
Hack Nux
Watch the number of websites being hacked today, one by one on a page, increasing in real time.
New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Article to share with a technical manager about modern AI coding tools?
Ask HN: Article to share with a technical manager about modern AI coding tools?
4 by killmill | 0 comments on Hacker News.
I’m on an IT team, and my manager uses ChatGPT’s chat interface for some tasks, (IAC) so he’s generally aware of AI. However, he’s not familiar with more advanced tools like Claude Code, Codex, or other development tools. I’m looking for a, balanced article that explains: What these tools can realistically do today Where they still struggle or fall short Any recommendations?
4 by killmill | 0 comments on Hacker News.
I’m on an IT team, and my manager uses ChatGPT’s chat interface for some tasks, (IAC) so he’s generally aware of AI. However, he’s not familiar with more advanced tools like Claude Code, Codex, or other development tools. I’m looking for a, balanced article that explains: What these tools can realistically do today Where they still struggle or fall short Any recommendations?
New Show Hacker News story: Show HN: Free, open-source native macOS client for di.fm
Show HN: Free, open-source native macOS client for di.fm
2 by thucydides | 0 comments on Hacker News.
I built a menu bar app for streaming DI.FM internet radio on macOS. Swift/SwiftUI, no Electron. The existing options for DI.FM on desktop are either the web player (yet another browser tab) or unofficial Electron wrappers that idle at 200+ MB of RAM to play an audio stream. This sits in the menu bar at ~35 MB RAM and 0% CPU. The .app is about 1 MB. What it does: browse and search stations, play/pause, volume, see what's playing (artwork, artist, track, time), pick stream quality (320k MP3, 128k AAC, 64k AAC). Media keys work. It remembers your last station. Built with AVPlayer for streaming, MenuBarExtra for the UI, MPRemoteCommandCenter for media key integration. The trickiest part was getting accurate elapsed time. DI.FM's API and the ICY stream metadata don't always agree, so there's a small state machine that reconciles the two sources. macOS 14+ required. You need a DI.FM premium account for the high-quality streams. Source and binary: https://ift.tt/CZGvmEi
2 by thucydides | 0 comments on Hacker News.
I built a menu bar app for streaming DI.FM internet radio on macOS. Swift/SwiftUI, no Electron. The existing options for DI.FM on desktop are either the web player (yet another browser tab) or unofficial Electron wrappers that idle at 200+ MB of RAM to play an audio stream. This sits in the menu bar at ~35 MB RAM and 0% CPU. The .app is about 1 MB. What it does: browse and search stations, play/pause, volume, see what's playing (artwork, artist, track, time), pick stream quality (320k MP3, 128k AAC, 64k AAC). Media keys work. It remembers your last station. Built with AVPlayer for streaming, MenuBarExtra for the UI, MPRemoteCommandCenter for media key integration. The trickiest part was getting accurate elapsed time. DI.FM's API and the ICY stream metadata don't always agree, so there's a small state machine that reconciles the two sources. macOS 14+ required. You need a DI.FM premium account for the high-quality streams. Source and binary: https://ift.tt/CZGvmEi
New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Builder.ai ($1B Microsoft-backed AI company) who's lookin at the assets?
Ask HN: Builder.ai ($1B Microsoft-backed AI company) who's lookin at the assets?
2 by gamelock | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Builder.ai raised $450M from Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority. Peak valuation $1B+. Filed insolvency May 2025. Administrator: Alvarez & Marsal (Jul 2025) Assets available: - builder.ai domain ($50K-$200K est.) - Natasha AI platform ($100K-$500K est.) - Full source code ($500K-$5M est.) - Enterprise clients: NBCUniversal, Fujitsu, Virgin Unite ($50K-$300K est.) Total estimated: $830K-$6.65M+ Full intelligence report available covering collapse timeline, assets, administrator contacts, acquisition guide. Report: selar.com/s2121g2629
2 by gamelock | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Builder.ai raised $450M from Microsoft and the Qatar Investment Authority. Peak valuation $1B+. Filed insolvency May 2025. Administrator: Alvarez & Marsal (Jul 2025) Assets available: - builder.ai domain ($50K-$200K est.) - Natasha AI platform ($100K-$500K est.) - Full source code ($500K-$5M est.) - Enterprise clients: NBCUniversal, Fujitsu, Virgin Unite ($50K-$300K est.) Total estimated: $830K-$6.65M+ Full intelligence report available covering collapse timeline, assets, administrator contacts, acquisition guide. Report: selar.com/s2121g2629
New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: How do you handle duplicate side effects when jobs, workflows retry?
Ask HN: How do you handle duplicate side effects when jobs, workflows retry?
3 by shineDaPoker | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Quick context: I'm building background job automation and keep hitting this pattern: 1. Job calls external API (Stripe, SendGrid, AWS) 2. API call succeeds 3. Job crashes before recording success 4. Job retries → calls API again → duplicate Example: process refund, send email notification, crash. Retry does both again. Customer gets duplicate refund email (or worse, duplicate refund). I see a few approaches: Option A: Store processed IDs in database Problem: Race between "check DB" and "call API" can still duplicate Option B: Use API idempotency keys (Stripe supports this) Problem: Not all APIs support it (legacy systems, third-party) Option C: Build deduplication layer that checks external system first Problem: Extra latency, extra complexity What do you do in production? Accept some duplicates? Only use APIs with idempotency? Something else? (I built something for Option C, but trying to understand if this is actually a common-enough problem or if I'm over-engineering.)
3 by shineDaPoker | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Quick context: I'm building background job automation and keep hitting this pattern: 1. Job calls external API (Stripe, SendGrid, AWS) 2. API call succeeds 3. Job crashes before recording success 4. Job retries → calls API again → duplicate Example: process refund, send email notification, crash. Retry does both again. Customer gets duplicate refund email (or worse, duplicate refund). I see a few approaches: Option A: Store processed IDs in database Problem: Race between "check DB" and "call API" can still duplicate Option B: Use API idempotency keys (Stripe supports this) Problem: Not all APIs support it (legacy systems, third-party) Option C: Build deduplication layer that checks external system first Problem: Extra latency, extra complexity What do you do in production? Accept some duplicates? Only use APIs with idempotency? Something else? (I built something for Option C, but trying to understand if this is actually a common-enough problem or if I'm over-engineering.)
New Show Hacker News story: Show HN: I Built Smart Radio That Auto-Skips Talk and Ads by Using ML
Show HN: I Built Smart Radio That Auto-Skips Talk and Ads by Using ML
2 by FreeGuessr | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Hi, I built TuneJourney to solve a specific annoyance: radio ads and DJ chatter. The core feature is an in-browser "AI Skip Talk" filter. The Tech: Instead of processing on a server, it uses the Web Audio API to capture the stream locally and runs a lightweight ML classification model directly in your browser. It estimates the music vs. speech probability in near real-time. If enabled, it automatically triggers a "next" command to hop to another station the moment an ad, news segment, or DJ starts talking. Features: - In-browser Inference: Entirely local and privacy-focused; no audio data ever leaves your machine. - WebGL + Point Clustering: Renders 70,000 stations across 11,000 locations smoothly. - Real-time Activity: See other users on the globe and what they are listening to in real-time. - System Integration: Full Media Key support for physical keyboard and system-level Next/Prev buttons. - Customization: Includes a talk sensitivity slider for the ML model so you can tweak the threshold. Check it out: https://tunejourney.com Let me know what you think! I am interested if this project is worth further investment, building a mobile app, etc.
2 by FreeGuessr | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Hi, I built TuneJourney to solve a specific annoyance: radio ads and DJ chatter. The core feature is an in-browser "AI Skip Talk" filter. The Tech: Instead of processing on a server, it uses the Web Audio API to capture the stream locally and runs a lightweight ML classification model directly in your browser. It estimates the music vs. speech probability in near real-time. If enabled, it automatically triggers a "next" command to hop to another station the moment an ad, news segment, or DJ starts talking. Features: - In-browser Inference: Entirely local and privacy-focused; no audio data ever leaves your machine. - WebGL + Point Clustering: Renders 70,000 stations across 11,000 locations smoothly. - Real-time Activity: See other users on the globe and what they are listening to in real-time. - System Integration: Full Media Key support for physical keyboard and system-level Next/Prev buttons. - Customization: Includes a talk sensitivity slider for the ML model so you can tweak the threshold. Check it out: https://tunejourney.com Let me know what you think! I am interested if this project is worth further investment, building a mobile app, etc.