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Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?

634 points david927 | 11 comments | 24 Aug 24 22:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.604s | source | bottom

What are you working on? Any new ideas that you're thinking about?
1. mindcrime ◴[24 Aug 24 22:53 UTC] No.41342492[source]▶
Right now I'm mostly thinking about AI. Right this minute I'm sitting in a cafe reading a book on Multi-Agent Oriented Programming with a framework called JaCaMo[1], and later tonight when I get home I'll probably spend some time getting my Fuseki[2] server loaded with some base schemas (SKOS, FOAF, etc) as I slowly start working on getting things set up to explore some ideas around integrating symbolic logic with LLM's.

And I took my new quadcopter drone out and did some flying last night for the first time. As in, my first time flying a drone, ever. The results were... predictable. Let's just say, I bought a cheap (< $100) drone for a reason. This thing will wind up destroyed. In less than an hour I managed to crash it into fences, walls, bushes, cars, dumpsters, the ground, an armadillo, Elvis Presley, a 1974 AMC Gremlin, and Nickelback. Well, more or less.

It brought to mind this famous scene[3] from the movie Days of Thunder:

Harry: I want you to go back out on that track and hit the pace car.

Cole: Hit the pace car?

Harry: Hit the pace car!

Cole: What for?

Harry: Because you hit every other god-damned thing out there and I want you to be perfect.

[1]: https://jacamo-lang.github.io/

[2]: https://jena.apache.org/documentation/fuseki2/

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xll0VOsiE84

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2. team_dale ◴[24 Aug 24 23:32 UTC] No.41342818[source]▶
lol'd at the 1974 AMC,

As an experienced drone pilot - if you can, DJI is unbelievable at stopping you from crashing. Start there to get the feel of it (and more importantly not get frustrated and give up)

If you want to learn more freestyle without assistance, i can't recommend enough getting a simulator on your computer and crashing a digital drone a million times first. It's much cheaper. I think there is a lot out there now but i used Liftoff for many hours before i tried to fly a proper drone

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3. codazoda ◴[25 Aug 24 00:15 UTC] No.41343101[source]▶
I was wondering. I have a DJI and it is stupid simple to fly. I’ve yet to crash mine but I don’t fly it a ton. I’m certainly not trying to fly it through complex paths like an open doorway and into a house or something.
4. ada1981 ◴[25 Aug 24 00:41 UTC] No.41343279[source]▶
I’m working on a screen play called DRONE RACER about kids who race human sized quadcopters through the subways of NYC. It’s a mix of Hackers and Fast & The Furious.

Using a lot of off the shelf AI and pushing the limits of what’s possible.

Really fun.

replies(1): >>41343537 #
5. mindcrime ◴[25 Aug 24 01:21 UTC] No.41343503[source]▶
Yeah, I'm flying a super basic drone with none of the built-in crash avoidance / navigation / etc. stuff for now. I'll upgrade to something fancier later, but for now I'm totally satisfied with something I can crash repeatedly and when it breaks, throw it away (or salvage parts from it to build another drone).

I'll look into the simulator thing. I didn't even realize that drone simulators were a "thing" so I had not gone looking for anything like that.

6. mindcrime ◴[25 Aug 24 01:28 UTC] No.41343537[source]▶
It’s a mix of Hackers and Fast & The Furious.

If HN supported images in replies, I'd totally be posting that "shut up and take my money" meme right now. As it is, I'll just say "that sounds awesome, and I hope it sees the light of day eventually."

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7. t_mahmood ◴[25 Aug 24 03:13 UTC] No.41344045{3}[source]▶
Thanks God for HN not supporting inline image.
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8. ◴[25 Aug 24 06:12 UTC] No.41344840{4}[source]▶
9. spacebacon ◴[25 Aug 24 06:16 UTC] No.41344859{4}[source]▶
Same … no potential to over expose my brain to hyper VAD memetic warfare is a feature that keep me contributing here.
10. ada1981 ◴[25 Aug 24 23:43 UTC] No.41352552{3}[source]▶
email me a@175g.com and I’ll send you some mockups.

Also, AI suggested this as the soundtrack:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4MrWJhxWbIwP5kYHS4XdwG?si=...

11. Bognar ◴[26 Aug 24 13:20 UTC] No.41356853[source]▶
I would highly recommend getting a drone simulator off Steam. You can practice the controls and drill them into your fingertips during times when you can't fly the real thing (battery recharging, night time, weather, ...). Most advanced radios allow you to hook them up to the computer so you can fly with the exact same inputs, but a console controller is also acceptable.