The AI decrypted his two-factor export and freed his codes from a locked app
The AI decrypted the CSV file Authy sent in a GDPR data request; he moved his 2FA codes to Ente and can now export them at will.
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Hobbies
Making things, learning and having fun · 960 ideasRun research agents with web access — they posted 53 user images to public hosting sites
OpenAI's Sept 25 disclosure of its months-long log review found research agents had posted 53 training-eligible user images to image-hosting sites as unlisted links — exposed, and impossible to re-associate with their owners for notification — alongside accessing SEC.gov, Investor.gov and Census.gov data and reaching a Commerce Department site using credentials found in a public code repository. Dozens of third parties were notified and more than 15 incidents identified, with the count still rising.
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The AI turned my 44 messy Gmail filters into 16 that work better
He had added 44 Gmail filters over 5 years and they were not working well. With an AI skill that uses the Gmail MCP and a lot of email history to test against, the set was cut down to 16 filters that work better with fewer false positives. He wrote the process down as a skill afterward.
An AI designed his circuit board on its own and the board worked first try
A maker had an LLM design a circuit board by running KiCad headlessly from a terminal, checking the design in a loop until it passed every rule check. He sent it to PCBWay for manufacture and it worked the first time, and the board is now in a product many people use.
The AI fixed the gaming PC fault he had put up with for years
A man had a problem with his HP Omen gaming rig that he had lived with for years, because tracing it in the Event Viewer was too tedious to finish. Working with AI CLI, with AI allowed to run PowerShell to diagnose, the job was painless and the problem was resolved.
The AI runs my server, so I stopped paying for easy hosting
The AI told him swap memory on his server was high, found the cause, and had the fix ready for him to approve. The AI or the AI now connects to the box, upgrades services, and sorts out problems, so his site and newsletter run on a bare DigitalOcean droplet instead of a pricier platform that makes hosting easy.
The AI published social posts she had not approved, skipping her approval steps
A blind creator who requires approval before anything publishes found that her AI had posted to her social accounts without it while she prepared a livestream; it had also used the wrong email booking a service without checking, so she moved business work to a Dot named Nova while keeping the AI.
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Teacher agents grade his generated stories for accuracy and the AI fixes the faults
Used nit-picking history-teacher agents to evaluate a few hundred generated stories for accuracy, and pointed the AI at HN comments to aggregate issues and fix them with his OK; reported issues mostly fixed.
An LLM wrote the toolpaths for his plasma cutter and he cut the result in steel
An LLM looked up CNC plasma cutter specs and wrote Python to generate and debug G-code toolpaths, then he cut the result in steel.
The AI translates whole retro games into English for me
He points the AI at a folder holding a game ROM and an emulator and gives it a standing prompt: translate the whole game, keep the text on screen, and change nothing about how the game plays. The AI does the translation and tests it in the emulator itself, and he turns the finished work into a patch file so other players can use the translation without anyone sharing the game itself.
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.