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Ask HN: Most interesting tech you built for just yourself?

1901 points l2silver | 7 comments | 27 Apr 23 15:04 UTC | HN request time: 1.28s | source | bottom

Maybe you've created your own AR program for wearables that shows the definition of a word when you highlight it IRL, or you've built a personal calendar app for your family to display on a monitor in the kitchen. Whatever it is, I'd love to hear it.
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glapworth ◴[28 Apr 23 06:51 UTC] No.35738280[source]▶
We recently remodelled our kitchen and dining area, and I wanted some art piece on the wall but couldn’t decide what. For months the wall was a little bare and we were having a lot of dinner guests. I realised our WiFi password was too complicated to keep reading out to family and friends so I built a QR code in Lego that automatically connects you to our guest WiFi. It looks good, and it’s Lego so it was a fun project with the kids. It took about 4 hours to build. The only problem was having enough 1x1 tiles to put on a 37x37 matrix.
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1. ra ◴[28 Apr 23 09:29 UTC] No.35739201[source]▶
Today I learned you can generate a QR that connects to WiFi.
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2. bombcar ◴[28 Apr 23 18:21 UTC] No.35745139[source]▶
https://www.qr-code-generator.com/solutions/wifi-qr-code/ can build one, this is cool.
3. nashashmi ◴[29 Apr 23 03:33 UTC] No.35749768[source]▶
Android has this feature for a long time. Share the QR code even with iPhone users. And it will add them to the wifi
replies(1): >>35749929 #
4. crote ◴[29 Apr 23 04:05 UTC] No.35749929[source]▶
The best part is that you can generate the QR code from your phone. It's a button in the wifi settings. Really easy way to share it from one phone to another.
replies(1): >>35754298 #
5. Shorel ◴[29 Apr 23 06:39 UTC] No.35750601[source]▶
You can also read the QR code from your Linux laptop.

Install zbar-tools and use zbarcam from the command line. It will read the QR code using the webcam, and now you have the Wi-Fi credentials.

Or any other data in the QR code.

6. nashashmi ◴[29 Apr 23 16:18 UTC] No.35754298{3}[source]▶
Is it on the iPhone too?
replies(1): >>35761114 #
7. ◴[30 Apr 23 09:58 UTC] No.35761114{4}[source]▶