Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44393993

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44176825

Points: 262

# Comments: 129

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44171865

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

Many organizations still have frustrating phone systems with long wait times, bad menus, or no online alternatives. And these same businesses will probably refuse to ever change. Alto is meant to give you a way around that, especially when the only option is calling.

Right now it's early, but you can try Alto out for free. I'm working on features like profile memory (so it can remember things like your birthday or frequent flyer number), follow-up call chaining, voice customization, and eventually uploading documents for Alto to reference on calls.

Since this is a soft launch, I would actually prefer if you reach out _before_ you buy a subscription — I want to ensure your intended use case works smoothly.

I would appreciate any ideas or pitfalls you see — thank you!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44089555

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Growing up, I often had to make phone calls for my mom because I spoke "better English." As a result, I’ve probably spent more time on hold with airlines, insurance companies, and small businesses than most people. But most AI calling tools today are built for businesses (sales calls, receptionists, etc.), so I wanted something for consumers — a personal agent you can use like Google Duplex, but with way more flexibility and real-world usefulness.

Many organizations still have frustrating phone systems with long wait times, bad menus, or no online alternatives. And these same businesses will probably refuse to ever change. Alto is meant to give you a way around that, especially when the only option is calling.

Right now it's early, but you can try Alto out for free. I'm working on features like profile memory (so it can remember things like your birthday or frequent flyer number), follow-up call chaining, voice customization, and eventually uploading documents for Alto to reference on calls.

Since this is a soft launch, I would actually prefer if you reach out before you buy a subscription — I want to ensure your intended use case works smoothly.

I would appreciate any ideas or pitfalls you see — thank you!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44056528

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

https://github.com/eh8/chenglab

I was a complete Nix beginner three months ago and thought Nix was terribly complicated and unnecessary. Glad to say I was wholly wrong and the transition was not that bad.

NixOS me provision my servers from scratch to functional file/media/home automation server in about 15 minutes using an entirely automated Nix installation process. It’s a beautiful OS for servers

The US doesn’t lose wars, it loses interest

I’m surprised The Economist mentioned XKCD! Whoever wrote this must’ve been a developer at one point or had some good sources.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39813456

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

About every six months I do a fire drill and completely factory reset my macbook. Takes about 10 minutes for me to go from a fresh device to one that has all my apps, data, and developer tools ready to roll. Only annoying thing you can't really automate is signing into services like OneDrive or Dropbox, but this isn't a problem if you use iCloud Drive.

https://github.com/eh8/dotfiles

Which emphasizes the importance of enabling full disk encryption immediately whenever you start using a new device--BitLocker if you're on Windows, FileVault on macOS, LUKS on Linux, etc. Trying to decrypt data is much harder than reconstructing deleted data on a stolen drive.

I would have thought the battery or the powertrain or some EV-specific component would be the source of the problems. Does anybody know why these more seemingly standardized parts are failing at higher rates?

I genuinely wonder why his captors even continue to let him live, when it seems like any post-2022 civil protest in Russia can and will be brutally repressed.

Best of luck, wishing the author all the best!

When I see a website...

- using a ridiculously thin or small font,

- relying on a high-end monitor to provide sufficient color contrast

- loading an unreasonable amount of resources only to provide laggy animations

...I'm wondering if the responsible designer(s) only have 32-in Retina displays and the latest Macbooks to work with. Because on any other combination of devices, the website looks and feels awful.

And I know this because I was formerly guilty of it!

- Does the blimp need to be in the vicinity of a base station or human operator to function?

- How fast does the blimp move?

- Any consideration of using this technology to inspect wind/solar farms?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37251364

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36821142

Points: 94

# Comments: 21