4 ms·

> Like, what's the point, if the next AI can do it in 5 seconds? I built a phone app recently, not released to the public, just an idea I had for ages but coul

> Like, what's the point, if the next AI can do it in 5 seconds? I built a phone app recently, not released to the public, just an idea I had for ages but could never spend the time actually building. Its 100% vibe coded, and took me a few weekends to build... I'm talking a few hours in total. The point I'm making is that you now have the power to create stuff you would never have had the time to build. You can think big, wild stuff. Experimentation. Throw-away code. What a time to be alive!

rmsaksida 1mo ago
My car has offline maps and navigation. I don't really care for navigation, but I find the maps pretty handy. VW releases updates very infrequently, and I don't know for how long they'll keep doing that. Recently I wondered whether I could convert OpenStreetMaps into the format used by the car. Codex took around a week to do that for me, with some light steering. That project would no doubt have taken me months - maybe a whole year to do on my own, and I'm not fully confident I could pull it off as well as Codex did. I can pull the most up to date maps from OSM, edit them as much as I want, and they look great on the car. It's mind boggling to me that we have this tech.
- echoangle 1mo ago
  Does the car not check a signature or anything like that? You can just use any selfmade data?
  - rmsaksida 1mo ago
    It does, but someone leaked valid encryption keys on GitHub a few years ago (Codex found them).
    - kami23 1mo ago
      Love that, I have similar desires to be able to control some climate controllers so I can get a more native bluetooth connection to it and override their programming for fine control of devices and have it never phone back home. One of these days I'll have time to throw an LLM at it, but I've been working on a dead project for 4 years ago I dropped because I realized how daunting it was going to be turn it into a product, but now I've made progress that would have taken me a year, in a few weekends.
    - wallst07 1mo ago
      Does that key work for all VWAG cars? VW, Porsche, Audi..? Thank you!
      - rmsaksida 1mo ago
        I'm not sure. To be more specific, my car has a Delphi MIB2 Standard head unit (which uses NDS.Classic maps). I think the keys are likely to work with all MIB2 Standard head units, as that's how VW categorizes the updates, but I don't know about other MIB versions.
        cromka 1mo ago
        This absolutely sounds like a project that would take off if you published it!
XCSme 1mo ago
Yes, that's cool and useful. Creating stuff for ourselves, for our own use. But we are social animals, we like sharing. Before it was cool to share an app you made, but now? What's the point of sharing an app, if the other person can make their own, even better suited for their needs, in a few seconds?
- fantasizr 1mo ago
  indie hacking seems dead-ish because everything can just be cloned instantly, and if you don't have a serious go to market plan with a latent user base you're SOL.
  - tripledry 1mo ago
    In game dev (weirdly enough) I don't think this is true. I was thinking about this yesterday and realized that I don't even want to play only my own games (made by LLMs or me), I explicitly want to experience what other people have come up with, what stories they have invented. And yes, might be it's all made by LLMs in the future, but that's another discussion. In "art" I think it still matters, I care about how it's made, not only that it exists. EDIT: "And if you don't have a serious go to market plan with a latent user base you're SOL" ths is probably true though :D
- user43928 1mo ago
  As of now users do not know how to build custom software nor how to deploy it. They never heard of Codex. Building production ready software also takes hours to months, depending on the scope of the project. In my opinion now is the best time for building apps that you sell to users.
  - XCSme 1mo ago
    I very strongly agree. I think the next 2-4 months are the best time ever to build and sell software. But it has to sell now. It will likely be obsolete in 1 year, and no one will care anymore. I think this is the last easy chance to capture an audience.
Powdering7082 1mo ago
Me too! (although I am hoping to release it, but it was primarily for me) I was thinking about writing something and hopefully starting a community/resource area around hyper-personalized software, it's so easy to make now. I was thinking about how it'd be useful to have a place to share these, for ideation, sharing techniques and the ability for LLMs to riff on something already existing. It's not quite like open source's advantage of having many people contribute to the same project, but rather something that is closer to evolution, giving the next generation a place to start modifying. Would you have any interest in sharing what you've made?
- Flere-Imsaho 1mo ago
  > Would you have any interest in sharing what you've made? It's a collaborative mapping app. I hope to release and opensource it one day. Under the hood uses MQTT for users to subscribe to map updates from other users. The problem with it, like other apps of this nature, is that it requires the "network effect". ie. enough people using it to make it useful. So I'm trying to make it useful for a small group or organisation. I have a million ideas flying around in my head, and given the capabilities of modern LLMs, they are all within reach. It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes...
_zoltan_ 1mo ago
I'd love to learn more about this as I have some toy app ideas as well :)
- topnde 1mo ago
  What do you need to learn? Just open codex or claude and tell the idea, go back and forth a few times and you have a prototype you can use.
  - _zoltan_ 1mo ago
    that's clear, of course. but I can't just use claude/codex cli, as it needs to see the platform emulator (android/iOS), does it not? so it's cowork?
topnde 1mo ago
Exactly! After years of having running data in one app, walks in another, workout in another, I vibecoded a private and tailored to me app for all things fitness. It has been great. Has all the features I need and nothing more and it's private by definition.
mostertoaster 1mo ago
Yes! This is exactly how I feel. I have fun ideas that are kind of complex and I can just experiment and see now with a couple spare hours on the weekend. Trying to explain to my non software engineering friends that they could build any small app they have an idea for and they’re like I wouldn’t know how, and I’m like, you just ask and you can literally figure it out now so quick. Maybe software engineers are the most excited and the most cynical.

rmsaksida 1mo ago

My car has offline maps and navigation. I don't really care for navigation, but I find the maps pretty handy. VW releases updates very infrequently, and I don't know for how long they'll keep doing that. Recently I wondered whether I could convert OpenStreetMaps into the format used by the car. Codex took around a week to do that for me, with some light steering. That project would no doubt have taken me months - maybe a whole year to do on my own, and I'm not fully confident I could pull it off as well as Codex did. I can pull the most up to date maps from OSM, edit them as much as I want, and they look great on the car. It's mind boggling to me that we have this tech.

echoangle 1mo ago
Does the car not check a signature or anything like that? You can just use any selfmade data?
- rmsaksida 1mo ago
  It does, but someone leaked valid encryption keys on GitHub a few years ago (Codex found them).
  - kami23 1mo ago
    Love that, I have similar desires to be able to control some climate controllers so I can get a more native bluetooth connection to it and override their programming for fine control of devices and have it never phone back home. One of these days I'll have time to throw an LLM at it, but I've been working on a dead project for 4 years ago I dropped because I realized how daunting it was going to be turn it into a product, but now I've made progress that would have taken me a year, in a few weekends.
  - wallst07 1mo ago
    Does that key work for all VWAG cars? VW, Porsche, Audi..? Thank you!
    - rmsaksida 1mo ago
      I'm not sure. To be more specific, my car has a Delphi MIB2 Standard head unit (which uses NDS.Classic maps). I think the keys are likely to work with all MIB2 Standard head units, as that's how VW categorizes the updates, but I don't know about other MIB versions.
      - cromka 1mo ago
        This absolutely sounds like a project that would take off if you published it!

XCSme 1mo ago

Yes, that's cool and useful. Creating stuff for ourselves, for our own use. But we are social animals, we like sharing. Before it was cool to share an app you made, but now? What's the point of sharing an app, if the other person can make their own, even better suited for their needs, in a few seconds?

fantasizr 1mo ago
indie hacking seems dead-ish because everything can just be cloned instantly, and if you don't have a serious go to market plan with a latent user base you're SOL.
- tripledry 1mo ago
  In game dev (weirdly enough) I don't think this is true. I was thinking about this yesterday and realized that I don't even want to play only my own games (made by LLMs or me), I explicitly want to experience what other people have come up with, what stories they have invented. And yes, might be it's all made by LLMs in the future, but that's another discussion. In "art" I think it still matters, I care about how it's made, not only that it exists. EDIT: "And if you don't have a serious go to market plan with a latent user base you're SOL" ths is probably true though :D
user43928 1mo ago
As of now users do not know how to build custom software nor how to deploy it. They never heard of Codex. Building production ready software also takes hours to months, depending on the scope of the project. In my opinion now is the best time for building apps that you sell to users.
- XCSme 1mo ago
  I very strongly agree. I think the next 2-4 months are the best time ever to build and sell software. But it has to sell now. It will likely be obsolete in 1 year, and no one will care anymore. I think this is the last easy chance to capture an audience.

Powdering7082 1mo ago

Me too! (although I am hoping to release it, but it was primarily for me) I was thinking about writing something and hopefully starting a community/resource area around hyper-personalized software, it's so easy to make now. I was thinking about how it'd be useful to have a place to share these, for ideation, sharing techniques and the ability for LLMs to riff on something already existing. It's not quite like open source's advantage of having many people contribute to the same project, but rather something that is closer to evolution, giving the next generation a place to start modifying. Would you have any interest in sharing what you've made?

Flere-Imsaho 1mo ago
> Would you have any interest in sharing what you've made? It's a collaborative mapping app. I hope to release and opensource it one day. Under the hood uses MQTT for users to subscribe to map updates from other users. The problem with it, like other apps of this nature, is that it requires the "network effect". ie. enough people using it to make it useful. So I'm trying to make it useful for a small group or organisation. I have a million ideas flying around in my head, and given the capabilities of modern LLMs, they are all within reach. It can be a bit overwhelming sometimes...

_zoltan_ 1mo ago

I'd love to learn more about this as I have some toy app ideas as well :)

topnde 1mo ago
What do you need to learn? Just open codex or claude and tell the idea, go back and forth a few times and you have a prototype you can use.
- _zoltan_ 1mo ago
  that's clear, of course. but I can't just use claude/codex cli, as it needs to see the platform emulator (android/iOS), does it not? so it's cowork?

topnde 1mo ago

Exactly! After years of having running data in one app, walks in another, workout in another, I vibecoded a private and tailored to me app for all things fitness. It has been great. Has all the features I need and nothing more and it's private by definition.

mostertoaster 1mo ago

Yes! This is exactly how I feel. I have fun ideas that are kind of complex and I can just experiment and see now with a couple spare hours on the weekend. Trying to explain to my non software engineering friends that they could build any small app they have an idea for and they’re like I wouldn’t know how, and I’m like, you just ask and you can literally figure it out now so quick. Maybe software engineers are the most excited and the most cynical.