I'm a former Facebook engineer who has struggled with smartphone / social media usage (ironic) for many years. The accountability of a personal trainer really worked for me to start a consistent fitness routine, so I've spent the past two years building out a low cost, lightweight coaching service (with real human coaches!) to help people with everyday habits -- screen time, fitness, sleep, diet, hobbies, personal hygiene.

We recently launched a dedicated screen time coaching service for iPhone users, which integrates with the iOS Screen Time API to block problematic apps. Instead of most screen time apps where your lizard brain can just keep ignoring / overriding your limits, if you want to override your limit in Zabit you have to write a 25+ character justification to your coach. Combined with removing all social apps and setting a 30 daily minute limit on Safari, I've cut my phone usage to around an hour per day.

We're currently offering 2 weeks of free coaching for new users to try out the service. Check it out!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43208445

Points: 11

# Comments: 2

The transition of the major social networks over the last 10-15 years -- from being a space for friends to interact to being a space to consume content produced by "unconnected" entities like influencers -- has created a huge opening for someone to claim the friends and family network. There is no one better positioned (at least in the U.S. where iPhones are the majority handset) than Apple.

We're a small behavioral health + AI startup looking for a seasoned mobile engineer with specific expertise building local-first apps using Expo / React Native, who also has has strong native iOS / SwiftUI chops and can stretch across the stack into the backend and database layers. Strong product + UI/UX talents a big plus. Hit me (Roddy, CEO) up at: hello αt zabit.com.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yzsZ2KuUXYMUyzPAuVTYueYX...

For example, here's an example of an effort to persuade Congress not to update copyright laws to account for model training, which was only revealed because of metadata accidentally included in a PDF file. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/23/tech-lawyer-ai-lett...

We're a small behavioral health + AI startup looking for a seasoned mobile engineer with specific expertise building local-first apps using Expo / React Native, who also has has strong native iOS / SwiftUI chops and can stretch across the stack into the backend and database layers. Strong product + UI/UX talents a big plus. Hit me (Roddy, CEO) up at: hello αt zabit.com.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yzsZ2KuUXYMUyzPAuVTYueYX...

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42491955

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

And there's no incentive for the carriers to care. Sure, they get yelled at by Congress and the FCC every now and again, but since they're all roughly in the same boat there's zero competitive advantage for them to invest the tens of millions of dollars+ it would take to build out their security capabilities. Their lobbying arm, the CTIA, is funded by tens of millions of dollars in short-code messaging fees and they have bought an iron grip on the FCC and relevant Congressional committees that ensures any enforcement effors are only a wrist slap. Consumers also largely don't seem to care.

So until something dramatic happens, you should assume that voice and messaging traffic flowing through the U.S. wireless carriers is completely exposed.

Is anyone successfully using tools which, via large context windows/RAG/other IR techniques, are able to generate or review code with complex dependencies across many different files and code areas (i.e. db, backend, API, frontend)? Or is this still a ways out?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40970707

Points: 5

# Comments: 3

Zabit is a small startup building messaging applications that pair human workers with AI to enable affordable and accessible behavioral health outcomes, such as habit formation and cessation.

Looking to bring on a staff-level, full-stack-but-backend-leaning software engineer who loves Postgres, Kubernetes and node, but is able to pitch in on frontend (React / React Native) too.

Please send your resume and github to hello@zabit.com

The board will bring in an adult CEO who can balance the nonprofit charter with Microsoft and the commercial business, and who doesn't have a million side projects taking his or her focus away. Some employees will leave but the vast majority will stay for the usual reasons (i.e. inertia), the business will keep growing because ChatGPT is already a worldwide brand at this point and the vast majority of users don't give a hoot about any of this palace intrigue as long as the product works.

And the board will ultimately be vindicated for acting as fiduciaries for the nonprofit's mission and bylaws -- and not for the financial interests of Satya Nadella, Vinod Khosla, and the like.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38293766

Points: 3

# Comments: 1

This is a great point, and any requirements must also extend to these new upstart GPU cluster companies, which in their rush to grow will probably be tempted to cut corners on compliance and look the other way when some sketchy / foreign sovereign entities come knocking.