Audio Snoop: Monitor Input Live Online Web App

I got myself an electric guitar and an amp for it six months ago. But I don’t want to make a lot of noise, so I didn’t bother with a combo and a head, I just turn on my headphones or more often I play on the built-in speakers. It’s enough for me to play for fun.

What I lack is convenient monitoring in the system. I don’t know what it’s like on Windows, but on Mac I have to: start up Ableton, select a device, switch inputs and monitoring.

It’s a hassle every time. As usual, all I could find was a piece of crap that is impossible to use.

I decided to ease my suffering and in 5 minutes Lovable wrote me a perfect web application: it just works and does exactly what I need.

Lopaka Featured on Hackaday

They wrote about me on Hackaday! It’s a popular resource among electronics enthusiasts.

Turned out to be a really nice review of lopaka.app. They described all the main features, gave praise, and noted that the free version is pretty generous.

They also wrote that it’s missing a code editor. And that’s the most requested feature. But I can’t figure out how to make it convenient. And none of the users have been able to explain what exactly they want. Any ideas?

Also posted the link on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com If you hang out there often, please go to the New section and upvote: Graphics and UI editor for electronic projects (hackaday.com)

So far this is the most successful publication (see screenshot)

1. Post on a niche subreddit with 800K members—80K views
2. Mention and link in a YouTube video—250K views
3. Post on a niche news blog — web (?) + social media (250K on Twitter)

All of this was free.

I had the opposite expectations: thought Reddit was the bomb and sites were trash. Turns out it’s completely the opposite.

Fixing MacBook Battery Drain During Sleep

🍎 Back in the day, you could just close your MacBook, unplug it, leave it for a week, then open it and notice nothing: battery charged, apps right where you left them.

Recently I noticed I can’t even leave it overnight: 0% battery in the morning — what the hell?

Turns out there are some non-obvious settings you should turn off:

• Power nap: why do you need to check email and other crap while sleeping?
• Screen time: convenient if you want to observe yourself, but I never got any benefit from it;

(all of this is in System Settings, easiest to find through search)

If you want to maximize battery savings, turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

And for the nerds who want to dig deeper: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/11nhs8a/macbook_battery_drain_while_in_sleep_actually/

Now I sleep peacefully, even my old Intel MacBook doesn’t drain.

Another Year, Another Threefold Growth

Remember this post? Look what changed after yet another year 💀

Want me to summarize 2024? (spoiler: we grew 3x)

The Eiffel Tower's Bizarre Copyright Rule

Just found out that a photograph of the Eiffel Tower with its lights on is protected by copyright, and you can’t use it for any commercial purposes. Can’t put it in ads, can’t sell it on stock photo sites.

At night, the Eiffel Tower is lit up with a special light show, and it’s the design of this lighting that’s protected by copyright.

You can freely photograph the tower during the day, but night shots are considered intellectual property. So for commercial use you need a special permit. Wild, right?