Show HN: Host a planet-scale geocoder for $10/mo https://ift.tt/2ejlkIS

Show HN: Host a planet-scale geocoder for $10/mo For the uninitiated, a geocoder is maps-tech jargon for a search engine for addresses and points of interest. Geocoders are expensive to run. Like, really expensive. Like, $100+/month per instance expensive unless you go for a budget provider. I've been poking at this problem for about a month now and I think I've come up with something kind of cool. I'm calling it Airmail. Airmail's unique feature is that it can query against a remote index, e.g. on object storage or on a static site somewhere. This, along with low memory requirements mean it's about 10x cheaper to run an Airmail instance than anything else in this space that I'm aware of. It does great on 512MB of RAM and doesn't require any storage other than the root disk and remote index. So storage costs stay fixed as you scale horizontally. Pretty neat. Demo here: https://ift.tt/zhb5aLf Writeup: https://ift.tt/H6aq72r... Repository: https://ift.tt/2WZ4KAl https://ift.tt/5v6rHUp February 16, 2024 at 09:51PM

Show HN: Driftmania – an open source PICO-8 racing game https://ift.tt/Xm3yO7L

Show HN: Driftmania – an open source PICO-8 racing game I've been spending a lot of my spare time over the last year creating this little racing game. It's built in PICO-8, which is a really fun “fantasy retro console” that's been mentioned on HN several times. The console has strict limits and I wanted to see how far I could push them The source code for the game is over here: https://ift.tt/qUtclGw . It's a bit of a mess, but I'm happy to answer any questions on it or development of the game. Cheers! https://ift.tt/1ZXEWt6 February 17, 2024 at 01:25AM

Show HN: A real-time speech-language model for $10 of training https://ift.tt/K8slv4A

Show HN: A real-time speech-language model for $10 of training https://tincans.ai/slm February 16, 2024 at 11:53PM

Show HN: Galactic Compass – an app that points to the galactic center https://ift.tt/kSHmuMW

Show HN: Galactic Compass – an app that points to the galactic center I made a single-serving iPhone app with a floating green arrow that always points to the center of the Milky Way, 26,000 lights years away. It’s weirdly grounding. I’ve never made an app before, so here’s how it worked with ChatGPT. https://ift.tt/ynP9u0V February 16, 2024 at 03:42AM

Show HN: BotArchive – Print Directly to Google Drive from Windows https://ift.tt/TyuUpHl

Show HN: BotArchive – Print Directly to Google Drive from Windows I built BotArchive ( https://ift.tt/wspR90N ) to make it easy to save content to cloud storage: you connect it to your Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox or Box, and then anything you send to it gets automatically saved in the attached storage location. I'd originally built it for Telegram and Slack, but I've been long interested in doing things with print: printing has long felt like one of the biggest underutilized output processes out there. Almost every piece of software has print integration, the output format is usually legible and for things like receipts I always find myself printing them out, and then copying them to Google Drive. So I built a custom IPP printer: no drivers needed on Windows, OSX or Android (haven't tried iOS yet but I assume its the same), easy configuration and prints PDFs that appear right in your cloud storage location of choice (handy replacement for the missing Google Cloud Print feature). Future work includes parsing the printed PDFs for things like conversion into a Kindle book, or extracting financial data. Feedback welcome! https://ift.tt/lnPhJ95 February 16, 2024 at 01:02AM

Cable Car 53 Climbs Halfway to the Stars in Honor of Tony Bennett

Cable Car 53 Climbs Halfway to the Stars in Honor of Tony Bennett
By Jeremy Menzies

On Feb. 14, Cable Car 53 was dedicated to Tony Bennett. Valentine’s Day was a fitting day, despite overcast skies and a chill in the air. After all, Bennett famously immortalized the city and its cable cars in his rendition of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”.  

To mark the occasion, we take a brief look back at the history of Car 53 and how it was chosen to be the Tony Bennett car. 

Cable Car 53 climbing halfway up Nob Hill on California Street in 1967. 

Cable Car 53 was originally built in 1907 by the San Francisco-based W.L. Holman Car Company for the California Street Cable Railroad Company. It initially ran on the O’Farrell, Jones and Hyde Line. 

Muni acquired the car from the Cal Cable Company in 1952. Around this time, Muni also reconfigured the entire cable car system into the three lines we have today. All but 12 of the cars from Cal Cable were auctioned off. Those that remained, including Car 53, ran along a shortened line on California Street. 

Car 53 at Market Street in 1960 before receiving a new paint job.

Tony Bennett debuted “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” just under a decade later at the Fairmont Hotel. That 1961 performance and the subsequent popularity of the song forever tied Bennett to the City by the Bay.  

When the cable system was rebuilt in the early 80s, Bennett appeared at parades held before the project began in 1982 and after it was finished in 1984. Support from celebrities like him highlighted the need to save this National Historic Landmark.

Car 53 on California Street in 2023 after frame repairs and repainting.

When the call came to dedicate a car to Bennett after he passed away in 2023, Car 53 was a natural choice. It recently had returned to service after nearly a decade off the rails. During major frame repairs and a complete repaint, the ends of the car were left blank. This gave us the opportunity to place a special ribbon-like banner commemorating Bennet’s love song to our city in that space. 

Unveiling the special ribbon design reading, ”Halfway to the Stars Since 1873” on Car 53 during dedication to Tony Bennett on February 14, 2024.

That banner was unveiled during a ceremony held next to the Tony Bennett statue at the Fairmont Hotel. The unique design commemorates both the words sung by Bennett and the 150-year legacy of the cable cars. Also on the car are plaques for Bennett and the duo who wrote the song, George Cory and Douglass Cross.  

Published February 16, 2024 at 12:03AM
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Show HN: SlideCross – a combination of a crossword and Rubik's Cube https://ift.tt/LgKXcG0

Show HN: SlideCross – a combination of a crossword and Rubik's Cube Hello! Try out a 3x3 puzzle and click the question mark in the top right for a tutorial. I'd really appreciate any feedback! Thanks https://slidecross.io February 16, 2024 at 12:11AM