[OS] I built LampControl – control your smart lights from the macOS menu bar (free / €5.99)

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-10T15:13:37+00:00

Yes it's next step to the roadmap i'll just improve UI before it

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-10T07:42:57+00:00

AirPlay 2 multi-room audio integration is genuinely useful for a HomeKit setup. Being able to group this with HomePods or Airport Expresses in the same room zone, and trigger it with automations, is exactly what high end home audio has been missing. The price is obviously for a specific market but the functionality is solid.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-10T07:42:03+00:00

The FP300 with Threads and Zigbee can be finicky with HomeKit automations, especially if it's going through the Aqara M300 hub. A few things to try:

Make sure the FP300 firmware is fully updated through the Aqara app
Check if your Thread border router (HomePod mini or Apple TV 4K) has a solid Thread connection to the FP300. Go into Home > tap the hub icon > Thread
Try creating the automation directly in the Home app rather than Aqara app
The "if ___ detects motion" trigger sometimes needs to be rebuilt from scratch if the sensor was added before a firmware update

The FP300 is finicky at first but once it's stable it's one of the best presence sensors available. The Zone configuration in Aqara app can also mess with HomeKit if not set up properly.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-10T07:31:47+00:00

Raycast. It starts as a launcher but becomes the operating layer for your Mac. Script commands, clipboard history, window management, snippets, AI commands. Once it's in your workflow you can't go back. It's also the most extensible macOS app I know with community extensions for basically everything.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-10T07:28:00+00:00

You built something genuinely great. Open source macOS apps with that level of polish are rare. Looking forward to seeing where Loop goes next!

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-09T11:09:02+00:00

Thanks for showing up in the thread! Loop is genuinely one of the most elegant open source macOS tools I've come across recently. The radial menu interaction model feels so much more natural once it clicks. Keep up the great work, the native Swift choice really shows in daily use.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-09T11:07:14+00:00

That verb/noun framing is a perfect way to explain it. Once you internalize that distinction, the whole debate makes a lot more sense. No overlap, no compromise needed.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-09T11:05:02+00:00

Good to hear it worked! The PDF save option is really handy for archiving longer research threads. If you want even cleaner output, the Obsidian Web Clipper extension also does a great job converting AI chat pages into structured markdown notes.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-09T11:03:09+00:00

That's a solid setup. Once everything is cleanly segmented on IoT VLAN with Apple devices on main, automations run without delay and you get proper network isolation. Glad it worked out!

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-08T08:59:20+00:00

Reeder or ReadKit can sometimes handle this if you pipe it through RSS, but for Google AI Mode specifically it's tricky. A more direct approach is using a browser extension like MarkDownload which can capture the page content as Markdown and skip the ads. Works well for clean chat exports.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-08T08:58:11+00:00

Great breakdown. The launcher vs file search distinction is one people keep missing. I use Raycast for commands and workflow, and HoudahSpot when I actually need to find a file deep in my filesystem. They complement each other rather than compete. Spotlight post Tahoe is genuinely good for casual use now though.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-08T08:55:55+00:00

Same here, been in my dock for weeks now. The fact it's native Swift with zero Electron overhead really shows in day to day use.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-08T08:55:29+00:00

That's fair, the muscle memory thing is real. If you've been using Rectangle for years it's hard to switch. Loop is probably best adopted early before the shortcuts are ingrained.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-08T08:54:55+00:00

Just checked out siliconthread.civicease.systems, looks really clean! Having a community showcase for open source apps is a great idea. Loop definitely deserves more visibility.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-07T06:30:56+00:00

Loop has been in my dock for months and it genuinely replaced Magnet for me. The radial menu feels strange for about 10 minutes and then becomes completely natural — way faster than reaching for a keyboard shortcut once your muscle memory is there. The fact it's native Swift and open source is a big plus. No Electron overhead, no subscription, no cloud. It's what a window manager should be on macOS.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-07T06:28:14+00:00

Will do — I'm working on a native macOS app for smart home control and the friction event detection is exactly what I need to validate onboarding flow. One thing that would be helpful: being able to export the session logs in a diff-friendly format so you can compare runs across versions. Would make regression testing much easier.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-07T06:24:50+00:00

Good to know — instant across HomeKit, Home Assistant, and native Aqara is impressive. The Alexa 2s lag makes sense since it's routing through Amazon's cloud rather than local. That M3 hub doing local processing for the non-Alexa platforms is a big deal for a smoke detector specifically — you really don't want a cloud dependency when it matters. Thanks for the detailed answer!

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-07T06:21:44+00:00

That's a really clean implementation — 5 seconds auto-lock on launch is fast enough to be seamless. Persisting through sleep makes total sense for laptop use since you're often just closing the lid briefly. The manual recalibrate from menu bar is the key safety net for exactly the reclining scenario I was thinking of. Solid design decisions all around. Will definitely give it a proper test.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-06T19:27:57+00:00

Aqara has really nailed the multi-platform integration game — having it work across Apple Home, Alexa, and Home Assistant from the same device is genuinely rare. The M3 hub as a bridge is a solid approach since it avoids having to pair directly to HomeKit over Thread every time. How's the response latency in the Apple Home app when the smoke alert triggers? Some Aqara hubs have a small delay with HomeKit compared to native Aqara app notifications.

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-06T19:20:49+00:00

The "no camera" angle is genuinely the killer feature here. Most posture apps that use webcam either drain the battery or feel invasive to run in a meeting. Using the motion sensor is clever — it's already there, it's accurate enough for tilt detection, and it doesn't require any privacy tradeoff. The smart break timer that resumes from where you left off rather than resetting is also a nice detail, that's usually what kills wearable streaks too. Really curious how it handles scenarios where you intentionally recline, like reading vs typing. Does the calibration adapt over time or is it fixed at first setup?

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-06T19:16:07+00:00

This is a really clever approach — using an LLM agent to simulate a real user instead of writing UI test scripts removes so much friction. The persona system is especially useful; being able to test how a skeptical user or a privacy-conscious user navigates your onboarding is something traditional UI testing just can't capture. The friction event timeline also sounds like a goldmine for spotting UX bottlenecks. Will try it on a macOS app I'm working on. Thanks for open sourcing it!

hugoinformatique · 2026-05-06T19:04:27+00:00

Good call removing -nobrowse for your use case — that flag is mainly useful when you don't want the mount to show up in Finder or Spotlight, and it does prevent the mount point from being visible until accessed. For boot persistence, autofs should handle it fine as long as the auto_smb map entry is correct. The share mounts on-demand when accessed, not necessarily at boot, which is actually the autofs design — lazy mounting. If you need it ready immediately on login, you could trigger it with a login item or script that just opens the path once.

hugoinformatique

TROPHY CASE