Hacker News: mgz

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

mgz — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:29:12 +0000

I continue with my suite of mobile apps for parents:

* https://screenspy.app - observe what youd child is doing on desktop PC. Roblox or homework?

* https://weblock.online - a VERY restricted, whitelist-first mobile browser for kids, use it instead of Safari. I want to feel calm when my children browse the web.

New comment by mgz in "Show HN: Sweep, Open-weights 1.5B model for next-edit autocomplete"

mgz — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 13:07:58 +0000

Definitely better. Next edit makes a difference. But it is not free, I think I pay $10/month.

New comment by mgz in "Show HN: Sweep, Open-weights 1.5B model for next-edit autocomplete"

mgz — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 04:49:41 +0000

I use Sweep’s Jetbrains autocomplete plugin daily, it really stands out.

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

mgz — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 08:27:37 +0000

I work on my iOS app - Weblock Browser, a restricted browser for kids with strong parental controls: https://weblock.online Recently I've added AI classification of websites to determine if a website is safe for a child to visit. If AI disallows a website, you can ask your parent to allow it. To give AI some context about a website, I used Cloudflare Intel API - it returns domain content categories, very handy to provide them to AI to help it make a decision. But turns out Cloudflare Intel has a ridiculous limit of 100 requests PER MONTH for non-Enterprise users.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"

mgz — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 06:55:51 +0000

Didn't get to this detail yet. What the app currently does is allow all resources but block the ones that come from any youtube domain (this will block youtube embeds). Currently this is enough for my kids.

Also I add some relaxing rules, eg: If you navigate to domain A and it redirects you to domain B, do not block B immediately, give it a couple of seconds. It may redirect you back to A and it just wanted to set a cookie on B.

I am adding some gift codes for those who want to check the app but not bother with trial/subscription:

* https://weblock.online/al/gift?code=438912467308

* https://weblock.online/al/gift?code=336293589225

* https://weblock.online/al/gift?code=021644422165

When Weblock asks you to subscribe, just open one of these links on the same phone and it will work for you for free.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"

mgz — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 10:41:35 +0000

Hey, more technical details follow.

Weblock uses a whitelist, not a blacklist, and it is domain based. Once you allow a domain, it can be browsed by a child. You can allow it forever/15 minutes/1 hour.

How it works: WKWebView, before loading a page, asks the backend if the domain is allowed. If not, it shows "Not allowed" screen and a "Request access" button - child can tap it and you (parent) will get a notification.

So traffic is not going through the backend or a filtering VPN, the app just asks the backend if a page (domain) is allowed to visit.

Visits are logged, so you, as a parent, can see what your child has been browsing. How much time did he spend on a homework website.

Some WKWebView callbacks used for that: * onShouldStartLoadWithRequest - to intercept a request and check if it's allowed * onLoadProgress - to show loading progress bar * onNavigationStateChange - to track browsing history

Also I had to implement a workaround for buggy Screen Time in iOS 26 - even if you add Weblock to "always allowed" apps, iOS will still treat each website as a separate "app" and block it, asking to you "allow' each website on system level. It happens inside WebKit codebase, but luckily this bug has another bug in it - if you re-open a website, it suddenly works and all other websites in this session work tooSo I need to listen to `onScreenTimeBlockingStateChange` event and automatically reload a website if that happens.

Also I added an ad blocker to Weblock. It uses uBlock Origin filters, converts them to WKWebView content rule JSON format and feeds to WKWebView. The app checks the backend if rules are updated and updates a local copy.

What's next: need to get "Default Browser" entitlement from Apple. Then you can block Safari on kid's phone using Screen Time and have Weblock open all HTTP(S) URLs.

App is written in React Native, no performance issues. Backend is Ruby on Rails.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"

mgz — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 05:31:03 +0000

Just launched a restricted browser for kids for iOS: https://weblock.online Now testing on my kids. The idea is that the browser is whitelist-only, so kids can open only approved websites. I receive a notification when they want to visit an unknown website and I can allow or deny it. Works great for my family, hope it will be useful for someone else.

New comment by mgz in "Show HN: Building sub-100ms autocompletion for JetBrains IDEs"

mgz — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 04:16:24 +0000

The best autocompletion for Jetbrains IDEs, highly recommended.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)"

mgz — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 18:41:02 +0000

No way currently( I hope Apple will open something in the next iOSes.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2025)"

mgz — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 05:28:00 +0000

I wanted to know what my kids were doing on the computer: homework or watching youtube shorts, so I built https://screenspy.app to monitor them. Now I’m working on turning it into a product.

New comment by mgz in "I Love Ruby"

mgz — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 06:38:25 +0000

Ruby one love

New comment by mgz in "MRSK vs. Fly.io"

mgz — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 11:35:25 +0000

Dokku is great, I switched to it from Capistrano and never looked back.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell"

mgz — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 06:02:09 +0000

I built an iOS app to control what my kids watch on Youtube: https://kidstv.family

Now it makes $1500/month.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: How to deal with children's online habits?"

mgz — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 11:51:17 +0000

Giant plastic spiders chasing kids. Momo. Kids behaving silly in front of camera and playing silly games. Kids with masks of superheroes. Something about SCP.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: How to deal with children's online habits?"

mgz — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 11:37:01 +0000

When my kids were small, I was fighting with crazy Youtube videos. Kids started with something innocent and soon were watching sick and disturbing pieces.

So I built an app to control their Youtube consumption, which later turned to a cool small business https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1431645198

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell"

mgz — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 05:27:52 +0000

It is a hobby project for 3 or 4 years.

No advertising except for $20/month for Apple Search Ads… I guess I should advertise more.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2022 – Show and tell"

mgz — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 18:35:47 +0000

I built an app to control what my kids watch on Youtube: https://kidstv.family Makes $1500/month

Hosted counters to use in your scripts

mgz — Mon, 20 May 2019 10:44:26 +0000

Article URL: https://getnextid.com

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19959026

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by mgz in "Putin Blames Outside Forces for Economic Woes"

mgz — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:33:59 +0000

Why do Russians like Putin? Look at Ukraine. Ukraine is Russia without Putin. Poor, ruled by american agents and going to disappear as a state, just like Russia in 90s.

New comment by mgz in "Ask HN: Show us your abandoned (and probably incomplete) side projects"

mgz — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 13:11:59 +0000

Choose 1 photo that you like among 4 random photos. Repeat 10 times. Can your friends guess which ones you liked? See if they know your taste. http://contaste.com