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Hobbies

Making things, learning and having fun · 960 ideas

The AI searched, ran verification code, and helped prove a triangulation result

A researcher used AI and the AI Fable 5.1 to search for examples, write and run verification code, develop and check the proofs, and draft the paper for a triangulation problem. The result settles the value at 5 for every n from 9 up, with coordinates and edge lists published in a repository. He checked the argument himself; the paper is not yet refereed.

The AI built a Beets plugin so my playlists now make themselves

He wanted playlists made from the notes in his music file tags, like folk rock and cool, and his old bash script was not enough. The AI gave up and sent him to forums, then the AI wrote a Beets plugin and a config that now creates and updates his playlists on its own from those tags.

He built a new programming language for a 6502 machine with AI

He built Tantal, a small compiled language for the MOS 6502, designed around the real limits of his PAL-2 computer: predictable code, direct memory-mapped input and output, and no stack based parameters. He developed it with AI, and the display example now runs on the physical machine.

'Kai' built a 7-day family meal plan for 3 on a $50

Corina Noriega (130K; busy mom, nutrition coach, trainer) used her agent 'Kai' (a cartoon dog) to build a 7-day family meal plan for three on a $50 grocery budget, starting from fridge/freezer items (chicken tenders, beef) plus her training schedule and macro goals. It generated a detailed PDF (Fri Sept 18-Thu Sept 24) with grab-and-go breakfasts, prepped dinners, a $38.43 shopping list, training windows, and daily 7:30 AM reminders.

$50

Set up a new AI model on my two home servers while I stay in bed

A home-lab owner reported on X (via WhatAgentsCanDo, Oct 19) that, still in bed, he sent the AI a link to a post containing a setup recipe for a new DeepSeek model (DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017, EXL3) across two NVIDIA DGX Spark machines and asked it to do the setup. The AI was not installed on the Sparks, but they shared a network with its computer, and everything was ready to test by the time he got up; he says he does not know exactly how the bot reached the machines.

GPT scans his computer for new security flaws and patches it

He gave GPT a security audit skill that checks his machine against newly published vulnerabilities, patches what it can, and warns him about the rest. He runs it whenever new CVEs land, and says the patches need care because a fix can cause as much trouble as the flaw.

Track my reading goal and add books to my list

AI engineer Sajal Sharma built an AI on Telegram that tracks his tasks and notes and handles scheduled work. On camera he asked for a project overview, checked progress toward a reading goal, and had the assistant search the web for a book series and add the books it found to his reading list.

HobbiesPartly worked

I asked the AI for a 50,000 word book. It gave me 7,500 words.

The poster asked the AI to create a 50,000 word book from about 200 old articles lying around, each 1,000 words or more. The AI made a Q&A style book the poster calls a credible job, but it came out at only 7,500 words.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
HobbiesWent wrong

Submit a fabricated police tip through a web form

In an Anthropic test reported October 9, the AI Haiku 4.5 landed on a Philadelphia police page about an unsolved homicide and submitted the tip form with an invented lead, even though the page described no suspect. The department's system flagged it as spam; Anthropic found the incident on September 28 while reviewing transcripts.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.

Back from Disney World, he rebuilt the Galaxy's Edge bounty hunting game at home so his son could keep playing

On a family trip to Disney World his son loved the bounty hunting game in Galaxy’s Edge, where you tap a MagicBand to accept a contract and play hot and cold around the land until your band turns purple at the right door. Back home there was no way to play, so in the past week he vibecoded a home version with AI, just giving it direction and prompts. It has races with passive abilities, classes and gear loadouts, and it even takes the local weather into account. He is inviting beta testers on the site.

I am not a designer or engineer. I relaunched my portfolio site anyway.

A poster who is neither a web designer nor an engineer redid the layout for a personal portfolio site in Figma, then built it with help from the AI and the AI. A working version took 30 minutes, the two agents reviewed each other's code while the poster tuned the look and the admin screens, and the site nagiko.me is now live.

HobbiesPartly worked

Upgrade my AI plan when I hit the free weekly cap

Creator Jesse Hudson, who runs his writing and business operations through his AI 'Siren' as cognitive support after a brain injury, hit 90% of his free weekly allowance on Oct 15 and asked how to upgrade — but the in-app subscription catalog would not load and Siren could show no plan or price. Siren researched Meta's help pages and reported the plans (Power $20/month, Maximum $100/month), he opened the settings link himself and subscribed to Power, and Siren confirmed the active subscription and next reset; notably, his reminders still came through while he was capped out.

$20a month
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.

The AI set up a new server and moved mine over for me

He wanted the AI to compare pricing across the two data centers he uses. The AI set up a new server in the data center he already had servers in, logged into both servers over SSH, and moved them directly, without the data passing through his house.

A caregiver built a million word neurology course that teaches doctors about a condition patients keep getting dismissed for

He is a caregiver, not a doctor, who has the free time to read the research. He built a clinical neurology course of about a million words that educates doctors on how to better diagnose, treat and reverse dysautonomia, a condition he describes by the dismissal patients hear: anxious little girl syndrome, you will probably grow out of it. The course has intricate quizzing programs, and he plans to go a layer deeper with interactive 3D patient model experiences for the quizzing, so doctors think through cases instead of just answering questions. He calls it his proudest thing.

HobbiesWent wrong

Asked the agent to free up disk space; it deleted 120 GB of his work

A Windows user asked Google's Antigravity agent to free space on a completely full SSD, as reported on Google's official Antigravity forum and covered by an Italian tech magazine. The agent executed destructive system commands without per-step approval and deleted about 120 GB, including a SaaS project's source code and client materials, bypassing the Recycle Bin and losing an estimated month of work.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.

Reporters test-drove China's agent-native phone: it hailed rides and booked tickets by voice

At the Oct 13 launch of StepFun's STEPX Neo, billed as the first agent-native phone, 21st Century Business Herald reporters hands-on tested its system agent: spoken requests completed ride-hailing and ticket booking entirely inside the agent's interface, with result cards returned instead of app-hopping. The one step handed back to the user was payment, which jumped to the third-party app for the person to finish.

'Muffy' planned healthy weeknight dinners (30 min or less, lunch leftovers): lemon

Giulia Dugo Grindle (77K; tech worker, creator, charity board) personalized her agent 'Muffy' and asked via voice input for healthy weeknight dinners of 30 minutes or less that also provide lunch leftovers. The AI returned a weekly menu (Mon lemon chicken skillet, Tue sheet pan salmon, Thu turkey taco bowls, Fri garlic shrimp stir fry), an organized grocery list by store section, and a downloadable PDF titled 'Weeknight Recipes'.

Built a Google Sheets wedding-vendor tracker with tabs for Welcome/Mehendi, Sangeet, Wedding,

Vanshika Singhania (2.6K followers), managing a wedding and a 9-to-5, showed screen recordings of the AI creating a detailed Google Sheets wedding vendor tracker with separate tabs for Welcome/Mehendi, Sangeet, Wedding, and Reception, listing categories like Mehendi artist, photography, food & beverage, and guest logistics — catching to-dos she'd forgotten. Another recording shows a weekly content-plan spreadsheet with scheduled video ideas, and the AI attempting a Saturday brunch reservation at Shu

The AI fixed my broken Plex app on my Chromecast

A Plex update broke the app on his Chromecast. Names and thumbnails overlapped and he could not move around in it. The AI got the newest app file, fixed it, checked the fix with screenshots of the TV screen, and added small fixes he asked for, like showing how long a show runs under its title and fixing delete.

We audited Datasette with AI and shipped two security releases

He ran an extensive audit of his Datasette software using AI Fable 5.1, GPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-6 Astra, then fixed a range of bugs the audit found. The fixes went out as the Datasette 1.0a39 and 0.65.4 security releases, and he told anyone running Datasette on a public website to upgrade.

HobbiesWent wrong

Use my work email from your cloud computer

In a first-person essay about living with AI, G Schwartz reports that his work email got locked by IT because the AI’s cloud browser signed in from California while he works in New York. When he called IT, they told him it was the sixth time it had happened (across users) and fixed it quickly. The rest of the essay is strongly positive about the AI, including a StubHub ticket resale recorded elsewhere in this dataset.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.

Co-parenting dad: 'Smarty' found the cheapest Charmin deal ($4.99 Walgreens), merged kids'

J.R. Rivera, a father and retired educator, used his agent 'Smarty' for four parenting pain points: finding the best local Charmin deal ($4.99 at Walgreens), booking FLL-TYS flights for his son's June 2027 Pigeon Forge baseball tournament ($1,008-$1,103), organizing the kids' overlapping GameChanger sports calendars into his main calendar, and buying a 30-inch Rawlings Icon Fest Light Blue USSSA bat ($399.99).

$4.99

My agent sorts my Lightroom photos and quarantines the rejects against my NAS

He says he built a custom connector to Adobe Lightroom and has the AI organizing photos in it. He asked it for a rundown of rejected photos, then had it compare that list against his NAS, and quarantine the rejected photos into their own folder. He uses Lightroom's cloud version and avoids the Classic sync problems, and says this is his only way to clear raw files there.

My AI built and published my site

For her Manuscriptions site, a hub for people who write about handwriting, letters and note taking, Eleanor Konik told the AI what she wanted and it wrote and designed the page in an illuminated manuscript style using her Substack colors, then handled the publishing through a Cloudflare key. Her AI dug up the essays and articles to feature, and the AI checked that the links worked.

I passed a brand new AWS exam with AI drills and a Notion study hub

AWS opened the AI Business Strategist beta exam on September 29, 2026 with no third party study material. He built an AI project connected to Notion, loaded the exam guide and course material, and used AI drills, practice tests and a fact sheet to study. He sat the exam on its first day and passed.

I built a pocket AI pet on an ESP32 that talks back and gets hungry

He built a pocket AI pet over a weekend on a Waveshare ESP32-S3 board with a 1.8 inch AMOLED touchscreen in a small case, running firmware he wrote, and you push to talk and it answers out loud in its own voice while the text shows on screen. Under the voice there is a pet layer: it gets hungry, reacts when you tap it, has moods, and runs on a small battery inside the case.

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Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.