Hacker News: jsattler

How not to fork an open source project

jsattler — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 16:41:46 +0000

Just saw this post on reddit where someone shared a project and claimed the following:

> I've been working on this for quite a while now after getting tired of the monopoly Screen Studio has on screen recordings. I didn't see any free screen recorders that actually offered the same motion blur animations and zoom animations as Screen Studio, so I decided to create an app with the missing features.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1rsf44t/os_i_made_a_free_opensource_screen_studio/)

Reading this, gives the impression that the author built the project entirely from scratch. Looking at the GitHub project shows that it's forked and many of the forked commits are simply rebranding and adding donation links. They don't mention that it's a fork in the reddit post and looking at the project's README.md it "credits" the original project exactly once at the very end, not even providing a link.

Please don't get me wrong — I think forks are great and completely valid. However, I do think such behavior is misleading, damaging the community and frankly disrespectful to the original project. The person forking the project did nothing wrong from a legal perspective, but I think it's questionable from a moral/ethical point of view.

Why am I sharing this? With the rise of AI-assisted coding, I think we will see a lot more forks - which is great. However, I think it's important to preserve some moral/ethical guidelines and credit the people who deserve the credit, even when you are not required to based on the license.

Btw, it's not my intention to publicly blame the person - I have already asked them to properly acknowledge/credit the original project via comment and DM. This is about sharing how not to promote a forked project.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47378448

Points: 8

# Comments: 3

New comment by jsattler in "The Dress: Blue or White? (2015)"

jsattler — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:28:00 +0000

I was thinking exactly the same haha

The Dress: Blue or White? (2015)

jsattler — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 20:14:59 +0000

Article URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47328258

Points: 7

# Comments: 2

New comment by jsattler in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

jsattler — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:39:57 +0000

https://github.com/jsattler/BetterCapture

I'm building a lightweight screen recorder for macOS. It supports lots of features you'd expect from a professional screen recorder such as ProRes 422/4444, HEVC/H.265, and H.264, capturing alpha channels and supports HDR. Frame rates from 24 to 120fps. Can capture system audio and mic simultaneously. You can also exclude specific things from recordings, like the menu bar, dock, or wallpaper.

No tracking, no analytics, no cloud uploads, no account. MIT licensed. Everything stays on your Mac. Still early, but happy to hear feedback!

Service Down? Your Notch Will Tell You

jsattler — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:12:59 +0000

Article URL: https://jsattler.github.io/Pulse/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47219885

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Show HN: Pulse – a beautiful service monitor that lives in your notch

jsattler — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:19:32 +0000

I built Pulse to have a quick way to see if a service is down without opening a browser or checking Slack, mails, etc. IMO, it looks beautiful and doesn't get in the way when you don't need it. It also supports macOS notification and you can easily mute individual services if needed.

No tracking, no analytics, no account. MIT licensed. Config is stored locally.

Happy to hear feedback!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47217068

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

How to Be Bored

jsattler — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:17:09 +0000

Article URL: https://sattlerjoshua.com/writing/2026-02-15-how-to-be-bored/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47033696

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Show HN: Boredom Challenge – Test and Improve Your Boredom Tolerance

jsattler — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 11:42:28 +0000

Boredom is uncomfortable but important. I built a neat little website to test and improve your boredom tolerance. Data stays in your browser or can be exported/imported. Website is open source: https://github.com/jsattler/boredom-challenge

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022967

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

New comment by jsattler in "The Sling: Humanity's Forgotten Power"

jsattler — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 13:41:26 +0000

You're welcome, I also enjoyed the video very much.

Show HN: BetterCapture – free and open source screen recorder for macOS

jsattler — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 13:36:32 +0000

Article URL: https://bettercapture.app

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47014431

Points: 5

# Comments: 1

New comment by jsattler in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)"

jsattler — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 08:22:52 +0000

I'm not aware of it. Found this reddit comment though: https://www.reddit.com/r/AV1/comments/1lkqzii/comment/mztwd5...

Seems like just a HW AV1 decoder.

New comment by jsattler in "The Sling: Humanity's Forgotten Power"

jsattler — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:13:54 +0000

Recently came across this website after watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpxSaOiT2LE. Seems like a cool hobby to try for when I'm finally replaced by AI. I knew about the sling from movies but I didn't know this is actually a thing to do. Very impressed how far you can sling something with it (477m/1564feet). Sharing this in case someone is on the hunt for a new cool hobby.

The Sling: Humanity's Forgotten Power

jsattler — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:13:54 +0000

Article URL: https://www.slinging.org/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46951430

Points: 110

# Comments: 31

New comment by jsattler in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)"

jsattler — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:12:23 +0000

Thanks, really appreciate the feedback!

New comment by jsattler in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)"

jsattler — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 05:36:36 +0000

https://github.com/jsattler/BetterCapture

It's a lightweight screen recorder for macOS that lives in your menu bar. It's built with SwiftUI and ScreenCaptureKit, uses the native Content Picker to select what you record, and supports ProRes 422/4444, HEVC, and H.264 — including alpha channel and HDR. Frame rates from 24 to 120fps. System audio and mic simultaneously. You can also exclude specific things from recordings, like the menu bar, dock, or wallpaper.

No tracking, no analytics, no cloud uploads, no account. MIT licensed. Everything stays on your Mac.

Show HN: A macOS screen recorder for the rest of us – free and open source

jsattler — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 19:20:26 +0000

I built this screen recorder over the past couple of days. It's lightweight and uses native macOS features through ScreenCaptureKit. It supports various codecs (ProRes4444/422, HEVC/H.265, H.264) and additional features such as HDR and alpha channel / transparency. Feedback and contributions are welcome!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46937539

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Show HN: I built a free, open-source macOS screen recorder with modern features

jsattler — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:32:48 +0000

I built a screen recorder for macOS because the one I used before broke with macOS 26 and seems to be not well maintained.

I think it turned out pretty cool, so I'm sharing it here: It uses ScreenCaptureKit and SwiftUI, supports ProRes 4444/HEVC/H.264 including alpha channel and HDR, and records system audio and mic at the same time. No accounts, no analytics. Recordings stay local. MIT licensed.

Feedback and contributions are welcome!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46934504

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

New comment by jsattler in "Agentic Productivity System with Plain Markdown"

jsattler — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 06:29:26 +0000

Anthropic released Cowork a few days ago. I tried it for a few minutes and it was unusable for me. It crashed several times and felt very buggy. What I liked was the idea of the productivity plugin. I set up my own version of it that is agent agnostic and can be easily customized. Here are the main ideas and a link to a template to fork.

Agentic Productivity System with Plain Markdown

jsattler — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 06:29:26 +0000

Article URL: https://sattlerjoshua.com/writing/2026-02-06-agentic-productivity-system-with-plain-markdown/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46909773

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

New comment by jsattler in "I miss thinking hard"

jsattler — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 07:56:47 +0000

I had similar thoughts recently. I wouldn't consider myself "the thinker", but I simply missed learning by failure. You almost don't fail anymore using AI. If something fails, it feels like it's not your fault but the AI messed up. Sometimes I even get angry at the AI for failing, not at myself. I don't have a solution either, but I came up with a guideline on when and how to use AI that has helped me to still enjoy learning. I'm not trying to advertise my blog and you don't need to read it, the important part is the diagram at the end of "Learning & Failure": https://sattlerjoshua.com/writing/2026-02-01-thoughts-on-ai-.... In summary, when something is important and long-term, I heavily invest into understanding and use an approach that maximizes understanding over speed. Not sure if you can translate it 100% to your situation but maybe it helps to have some kind of guideline, when to spend more time thinking instead of directly using and AI to get to the solution.