_______ __ _______
| | |.---.-..----.| |--..-----..----. | | |.-----..--.--.--..-----.
| || _ || __|| < | -__|| _| | || -__|| | | ||__ --|
|___|___||___._||____||__|__||_____||__| |__|____||_____||________||_____|
on Gopher (inofficial)
(HTM) Visit Hacker News on the Web
COMMENT PAGE FOR:
(HTM) A macOS app that blurs your screen when you slouch
fidansin wrote 15 min ago:
Ok, I share my screen all the time.. not going to happen
accidc wrote 28 min ago:
Very cool. I did something extremely similar for a personal project.
However, I was not familiar with Swift, the app was more or less vibe
coded.
My next goal was to learn swift patterns to refactor the app into
something that was understood and robust.
I will be reading though your sources to understand production quality
Swift!!
JCharante wrote 1 hour 17 min ago:
might be obvious but you have to calibrate it while in your target
posture
_helporme wrote 2 hours 31 min ago:
I am using it 10 minutes and I already hate it since it's too good.
ifh-hn wrote 6 hours 10 min ago:
I don't have a Mac, but even if I did would I have it constantly
watching me? No. This sort of thing creeps me out.
Still, always good to see someone push out a new app. Well done.
Simran-B wrote 8 hours 16 min ago:
No image in the readme, bummer.
halapro wrote 4 hours 42 min ago:
Why are programmers so bad at this? It's never been easier to take
and share screenshots, but a lot of technical people would rather
write and have you read 500 words than post a single screenshot.
Boggles my mind.
cpt_sobel wrote 2 min ago:
Maybe it blurs on a level lower than what the screenshot can
capture
coolandsmartrr wrote 9 hours 32 min ago:
I think this is an interesting application of computer vision for
healthcare purposes.
I've noticed that the app tends to use 15% of my CPU constantly. I
wonder if there is room to improve efficiency so that the app does not
hog resources.
kusokurae wrote 6 hours 11 min ago:
And herein lies the rub: higher up in the comments we've got people
Very Excited that this was co-written with a bot.
acedTrex wrote 9 hours 51 min ago:
You can tell its slop cuz its 1k lines in a single main.swift file lol
kgarten wrote 10 hours 49 min ago:
Quite a while back, a former student of mine built Nekoze :D [1] Nekoze
warns you when you are hunched over.
Years back, we did a couple of whimsical prototypes along those lines
(using J!NS MEME, smart glasses):
(HTM) [1]: https://nekoze.app
(HTM) [2]: https://youtu.be/LXIY2g-twOA
rendaw wrote 10 hours 54 min ago:
Slouching is caused by the design of chairs and soreness in a single
sitting position. I have a love-hate relationship with my Salli chair,
but angle your legs down and slouching is no longer an issue, to the
point where you don't even need a back on your chair.
oug-t wrote 11 hours 3 min ago:
I code on my bed, guess no slouching at all
nsm wrote 12 hours 17 min ago:
Highly recommend the LookAway app if you are on macOS and looking for
something encouraging you to take breaks and maintain good posture.
cacoos wrote 14 hours 22 min ago:
this is great! I made one for nail-biters:
(HTM) [1]: https://github.com/cacoos/trackhands
rekabis wrote 15 hours 6 min ago:
Not that I have particularly bad posture, butâ¦
> Posturr uses your Mac's camera
Not all of us have web cams, or are willing to tolerate them from a
security perspective. [apologetic grin]
netik wrote 15 hours 16 min ago:
Great, so now my eyes and back are going to be f'd. Just step away from
the screen and take regular breaks.
minton wrote 15 hours 56 min ago:
Lots of things people might want to monitor for such as nail biting.
oarfish wrote 17 hours 24 min ago:
I guess it's technically cool, but one should be aware that there is no
such thing as "good posture" or no accepted definition that lends
itself to good science.
slouching isnt bad, remaining in the same posture for a long time is,
or at least it can lead to discomfort. people that sit up straight all
the time still get back pain. i slouch all the time and i don't. The
popular attachment to specific configurationa of your joints that look
aeathetically acceptable os orthorexia, not science.
joquarky wrote 9 hours 32 min ago:
Just make sure you stretch several times throughout the day.
Especially if you're an anxious person.
Otherwise when you reach your mid-40s, you may find that you'll have
to spend years painfully breaking up a lot of adhesions.
oarfish wrote 5 hours 20 min ago:
Adhesions are not really a thing as far as i know. Biggest priority
is strength and cardiovascular training and maintaining a good body
composition and stress level. Then I'd think about stretching.
aylmao wrote 13 hours 12 min ago:
Another thing to note: slouching and back pain tend to have more to
do with back strength than people realize.
I have suffered back discomfort and pain in periods I havenât gone
to the gym for long enough to lose back muscle.
oarfish wrote 5 hours 14 min ago:
Does it? I think strength may be related to pain if you're very
weak, and statistically there are big confounders (i.e. people who
are weak also have other conditions that exacerbate pain
experience). But past a certain point I don't think the evidence
suggests that strength itself is protective. Otherwise, competitive
lifters would never experience back pain for instance, but they
still do. Pain is multifactorial, and strength is not the only
determinant by far.
PlatoIsADisease wrote 13 hours 20 min ago:
Given I can be 2 inches taller if I stand up perfect. That's the one
I want.
How to achieve it? Not sure. Years of physical therapy and I know the
position, but:
>I can't remember to do it.
>I feel my body is tight and pulls me back, so I'm constantly
fighting it.
>It hurts. Both tiring, and I feel pains in other parts of my back
iwontberude wrote 16 hours 46 min ago:
I spend most of my time at work on a medicine ball switching between
switching, kneeling and standing. At home I switch between reclined,
semi-reclined, upright and standing. I think its been working great.
lexoj wrote 17 hours 21 min ago:
As my doctor used to say: the best posture is the next one.
yieldcrv wrote 17 hours 31 min ago:
.gitignore
> # Claude Code
> .claude/
Congratulations! I love seeing people express themselves to release
things that were previously not economically viable to prioritize
Forget worrying about a 10x dev, Claude Code with the Opus 4.5 model
has turned me into a 100x developer even in software stacks I'm not
even familiar with. And with playwright-mcp its completely absolved the
need for UX designers in my workflow because I just point
playwright-mcp at an already established and A/B tested website for its
UX principles. This gives me results far beyond what v0, lovable or
Claude Code would come up with on its own.
dottjt wrote 18 hours 8 min ago:
It would be great if there was something like this, but for not wearing
reading glasses.
nailer wrote 18 hours 13 min ago:
About 20 years ago they was an early XDG /Compiz plugin called
âliteral focusâ - as a joke, it only focused the focused window.
Itâs amusing to see this technique being used more practically.
hk1337 wrote 18 hours 32 min ago:
This is a really cool idea. Iâm a little put off with the idea that
my camera is always watching me but the thought behind it is really
cool.
cmckn wrote 17 hours 42 min ago:
I kind of feel the same way, but I want to try it. Iâm pretty sure
I have a spare webcam lying around, it could be interesting to have a
âtrustedâ sensor for this app so that I can still keep my main
webcam locked down.
RyanShook wrote 18 hours 36 min ago:
Works pretty well, probably too resource heavy to just always keep on.
Suggestion: give the user a shortcut key to close the app in case the
blur goes haywire on them.
tjohnell wrote 17 hours 49 min ago:
Hi - thanks for the feedback. I've improved CPU usage with the latest
release. I'll look into a kill switch.
einsteinx2 wrote 18 hours 41 min ago:
Iâve had chronic back problems due to computer use and back posture
for 20+ years. This past year I bought an adjustable height desk and an
Aeron chair to try and help, but I still slouch constantly without
realizing it.
I cloned this a few hours ago and started using it and itâs amazing
how effective the blur is! And itâs frustrating to learn how quickly
I start slouching the second Iâm not paying attention.
Iâll echo what Iâve seen others saying about how cool it is to see
something come about due to LLM coding that likely wouldnât have
otherwise. Glad to see you actively working on it, and Iâll be using
it every day!
P.S. Iâve been an iOS and Mac dev writing Obj-C and then Swift for 16
years now, so if you run into any issues that Claude isnât sorting
out feel free to reach out to me, you can find my contact via my GitHub
which is in my profile (same username as hear). Also as Iâll be using
this regularly, if I come up with any improvements Iâll be sure to
open a PR!
russellbeattie wrote 19 hours 3 min ago:
That whole "good posture" thing is future physical problems waiting to
happen. For 25 years, I've always put my feet up on the corner of my
desk (to the left), set the seat as high as possible (or adjust the
desk lower) and lean back, arms extended. Basically, I'm positioned
like an F1 driver in a cockpit.
No back problems as there's no weight on my spine. No carpal tunnel
issues, as my wrists are always flat. No fatigue from holding my body
at right angles for hours at a time.
The downside is I look like a total slacker in the office, especially
to narrow minded image conscious managers who expect me "to act
professionally."
didip wrote 19 hours 39 min ago:
lol, whenever I am hacking intensely, I am lying down on my bed with
laptop tilted with the perfect angle.
I guess this app wonât catch me slouching then.
lasgawe wrote 19 hours 45 min ago:
Is there anyone out there whoâs productive and sitting upright?
Asking for me..
altern8 wrote 19 hours 50 min ago:
I can't seem to open it. It keeps saying "Apple could not verify
âPosturr.appâ is free of malware that may harm your Mac or
compromise your privacy.".
I tried opening by right-cliking on the app file, holding option, etc.
I'm on Sequoia 15.7.3 (24G419)
tjohnell wrote 14 hours 12 min ago:
This should no longer be a problem. I am notarizing the app!
peesem wrote 19 hours 45 min ago:
you have to go into your Privacy & Security settings and scroll down
until you see something like "Posturr.app was blocked to protect your
Mac." and then press "Open Anyway"
altern8 wrote 18 hours 57 min ago:
Ohhh... Thank you!
Is this new? In previous version I could just right-click and it
would open it.
tom_ wrote 16 hours 17 min ago:
Looks like this changed for Sequoia: [1] And looks like Sonoma
was the last version to support the right click menu:
(HTM) [1]: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh40616/1...
(HTM) [2]: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh40616/1...
avhception wrote 19 hours 50 min ago:
So now I gotta squint while I slouch!
fatliverfreddy wrote 19 hours 59 min ago:
Guzzles my CPU, cool though! Would use if it didn't eat up half a core
to boot.
tjohnell wrote 18 hours 3 min ago:
I reduced the vision processing to about 10 fps as well as reduced
camera resolution. I saw about an 80% reduction in CPU! Thanks for
the feedback.
sahiljagtapyc wrote 20 hours 1 min ago:
I wonder if this is less about âbad postureâ and more about how
people unconsciously optimize for stability when thinking deeply. When
Iâm reasoning through something hard, I tend to lock into whatever
position minimizes micro-adjustments - even if it looks terrible
ergonomically.
zsoltkacsandi wrote 20 hours 2 min ago:
One thing I learned from my physio: in your spine, everything is
connected.
For example, even if you sit perfectly upright, if you have anterior
pelvic tilt, it can change the whole dynamics of your spine, that the
cervical segment takes a lot of load that it isn't supposed to do.
Or with bad habits you can reprogram your neuromuscular system that it
uses the wrong muscles to maintain posture, that can lead a series of
problems long term.
If you have back/neck pain or tension that does not resolve in 1-2
weeks, go to a physio.
hackernj wrote 20 hours 3 min ago:
Black Mirror is nearly here.
taf2 wrote 20 hours 9 min ago:
Love it - I did something like this for when codex is done - a script
runs to detect if Iâm at my computer or not and then notify my phone
if I walked away that itâs done - mostly so I can get back to
slouching ;)
byteflip wrote 20 hours 14 min ago:
Would be cool to see integration with something like Upright Go or
other sensors you place on your back that detect tilt etc.
jama211 wrote 20 hours 23 min ago:
Sounds like a good idea but âgood postureâ meaning being upright is
just such an outdated and incorrect thing. Be comfortable, relax in
your chairs, itâs fine.
byproxy wrote 18 hours 51 min ago:
A good video on this:
(HTM) [1]: https://youtu.be/n7h8H4nGeMw
rdslw wrote 20 hours 44 min ago:
Congrats on the app.
I'm seeing that "great-ai-unlock" is happening. I see in last month a
lot of new software being codeveloped with claude/codex/gemini/you-name
it.
Before, it was too costly to do sth like the Posture app: here, you
would have to know Swift and apple apis to write such tool. Would you
be C# (very good) programmer with free weekend, and an idea: no cookie
for ya.
These days, due to "great-ai-unlock" your skills can be easily
transferred and used to cross platforms boundary and code such useful
app in a weekend or so.
Jevons paradox is indeed working ( [1] ).
(HTM) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
__float wrote 11 hours 31 min ago:
Maybe this is a naive take, but I don't really think LLMs have done
that much to change the actual situation around ability/outcomes. If
you are actually a very good C# programmer, knowing Swift and
searching some Apple documentation seems very reasonable.
It might help "unstick" you if you aren't super confident, but it
doesn't seem to me like it's actually leveling up mediocre
programmers to "very good" ones, in familiar or unfamiliar domains.
suprfnk wrote 1 hour 56 min ago:
No I can confirm this. I am at least an average C# dev, with 16
years of experience.
I have built a very nicely responsive real-time syncing iOS app in
what amounts to a weekend of time. (I only have an hour here and
there, young kids) I had zero iOS/Swift development experience
prior to it.
I can also confirm that this wouldn't have been built if it weren't
for Claude Code. It's "just" an improved groceries app, that works
especially well for my wife and me.
Without LLM's, and with just an hour here and there, I wouldn't
have done the work to learn the intricacies of iOS and Swift dev,
set up the app, and actually tweak and polish it so it works well
-- just to scratch the itch of a bit better groceries handling.
bobbylarrybobby wrote 8 hours 59 min ago:
I don't care how good of a programmer you are, if you don't know
Apple stuff (Swift, Xcode, all the random iOS/Mac app BS) you
aren't making an Apple app in a weekend. Learning things is easy
but still takes time, and proficiency is only earned by trying and
failing a number of times â unless you're an LLM, in which case
you're already proficient in everything.
shlant wrote 9 hours 39 min ago:
> I don't really think LLMs have done that much to change the
actual situation around ability/outcomes
from my own experiences and many others I have seen on this site
and elsewhere, I'm not sure how anyone could conclude this.
> it doesn't seem to me like it's actually leveling up mediocre
programmers to "very good" ones
Oh well then if this is your metric then maybe your take is
correct, but not relevant? From the top level comment I thought we
were talking about the bar being lowered for building something
thanks to AI and you don't need to become any better at being a
programmer to do so.
fleebee wrote 12 hours 47 min ago:
I don't see how the Jevons paradox would apply here. Code being
cheaper and faster to produce obviously causes the demand for apps
such as this one to grow. That's just supply and demand.
An example of where I think the paradox would apply might be one
where LLMs made software engineers more efficient yet the demand for
SWEs would grow.
codersfocus wrote 13 hours 2 min ago:
What a stupid thing to call a paradox. When infrastructure is better,
you'd expect it to be used more.
avarun wrote 11 hours 10 min ago:
It's because they're misusing the term. Jevons' paradox doesn't
apply to the simple idea that "cheaper code leads to more demand
for code", that's just the concept of price curves.
Instead, Jevons' paradox refers to a counterintuitive rebound
effect: AI tools make engineers more productive, which you'd expect
to reduce the marginal demand for additional engineers (since the
same output requires fewer people). In reality, this efficiency
lowers the effective cost of software development, sparking even
greater overall demand for new features and projects, which
ultimately increases total spending on engineering talent.
tjohnell wrote 18 hours 17 min ago:
Thanks rdslw. I mentioned something similar on my blog post about
this app here: [1] I love coming up with fun ideas and only having to
worry about the fun part - not the toil. I would never have made this
app without llm support.
(HTM) [1]: https://tomjohnell.com/posturr-a-macos-app-that-blurs-your-s...
victor106 wrote 16 hours 22 min ago:
Neat app. Any tips on how you used Claude Code to develop this?
tjohnell wrote 15 hours 40 min ago:
My first prompt was:
"Help me develop a MacOS app that blurs my screen the closer my
mouse is to the top of the monitor"
That was my PoC to see if there's APIs Claude could find that
would make this easy to do. Once I proved that worked, I asked it
to instead help me devise a way to adjust that blur based on my
posture. It suggested the vision framework and measuring head
height.
Just kept iterating, one step at a time. Any toil I experienced,
I asked it to remove or automate.
idk1 wrote 6 hours 49 min ago:
This is going to sound very basic, but did you do it in a blank
repo or did you use the cloned integration in Xcode, or a third
thing I'm not thinking of?
mft_ wrote 44 min ago:
Not the OP, but Iâve had success starting with a blank app
created by Xcode with the appropriate language/frameworks (ie
something that will already run but does nothing). You then
ask Claude to start from that point.
The only issue Iâve had is sometimes Xcode not âseeingâ
new files that Claude has created along the way, and needing
to add these manually into the Xcode project. (A Google
around suggests this shouldnât happen if you create the
project in the right way, and yet it still sometimes does.)
iandanforth wrote 20 hours 48 min ago:
While this seems to detect posture fairly well, the screen blurring
doesn't work for me despite allowing what appear to be the relevant
permissions. (macOS 15.1)
tjohnell wrote 19 hours 0 min ago:
I've released 1.0.3 with compatibility mode to use public APIs. The
blur isn't as good, but better than nothing!
tjohnell wrote 18 hours 49 min ago:
1.0.4 is release with better descriptions.
wklm wrote 20 hours 22 min ago:
I had the exact same issue and have fixed it here:
(HTM) [1]: https://github.com/wklm/posturr
tjohnell wrote 18 hours 49 min ago:
I added compatibility mode that incorporates the public API. Give
it a shot please. I welcome any feedback.
incanus77 wrote 20 hours 57 min ago:
Anyone else with progressive lenses just think "I already have this"?
rossdavidh wrote 19 hours 26 min ago:
Yes, absolutely. One of the first things I noticed when I changed
from two pairs of glasses to progressive lenses. The other thing was
that, because I don't have to switch glasses to look away from the
screen, I remember to focus on a distant object every so often.
wkjagt wrote 19 hours 31 min ago:
I'm due for new glasses, so any laptop use is now a careful
equilibrium between "text is burry" and "text is too small".
kneel wrote 20 hours 59 min ago:
This is cool, I built something similar a while back. I originally
wanted the screen to dim when I slouched but I couldn't get access to
dimming on OSX. I ended up just playing a noise when I slouched. It
became so distracting I stopped using it.
The blurring of the screen is a much better idea.
aa_is_op wrote 20 hours 59 min ago:
Plz make a Windows version :)))
avalys wrote 21 hours 1 min ago:
You can measure my productivity by how slouched I am.
Sitting up straight at my desk, chair locked, perfect posture? Iâm
doing nothing, maybe looking through System Preferences to change the
system highlight color.
Sliding down in my chair like jelly, with my shoulders where my butt
should be and my head resting on the lumbar support? Iâm building the
next iPhone and itâll be done by 2 AM.
bartread wrote 3 hours 0 min ago:
This is interesting, because in many ways Iâm almost the exact
opposite.
If Iâm slouched in my chair, then Iâm either completely
disengaged or doing something mundane like dealing with email. If
Iâm upright or sat forward then Iâm engaged and executing, but
maybe not thinking deeply - Iâm doing something Iâve already
thought about and decided on. And if Iâm on my feet and moving
around, often doing some mundane chore like emptying the dishwasher,
then Iâm likely thinking.
Itâs actually a really good illustration of why one size fits all
solutions when it comes to work environment and conditions are often
so unsatisfactory.
dandellion wrote 2 hours 23 min ago:
I'm like you at 9 a.m. and like grand parent by 9 p.m.
crazysim wrote 5 hours 50 min ago:
It is OSS, I guess you could invert it.
keyle wrote 6 hours 7 min ago:
This is both funny and so true. I'm most productive when I'm about to
fall out of the chair and I don't even care that my elbow is hanging
off.
CTDOCodebases wrote 6 hours 20 min ago:
Get a lazy boy, fit a split keyboard to each arm and develop AGI
then. Iâm sick of these RAM prices.
paulmooreparks wrote 13 hours 39 min ago:
Exactly what I came here to say. I've been programming for 40 years,
35 professionally, and I didn't find my ergonomic, no-pain, no-RSI
happy place until I stopped following advice to sit up straight. I
set my chair with just enough resistance, set the head rest where it
puts my eyeline directly on my monitors, which are set considerably
higher than average and about a metre from my head. I can work for
hours like this now, with no pain.
I could never use an app like this. Maybe I should write one that
blurs the screen when I don't slouch.
brikym wrote 14 hours 10 min ago:
I've found something similar. I can measure my stress by how many
coffee mugs are on my desk.
bahmboo wrote 15 hours 37 min ago:
Thatâs funny, but this is about physical health not productivity.
Iâm guessing you are relatively young. Desk jobs are tough on the
body!
globile wrote 15 hours 37 min ago:
It would be much more interesting that the system blur when it finds
we drift from being "in the zone".
"I'm going to quickly shift from my terminal to this chrome tab to
check this documentation but while it loads I'll get a dopamine hit
from X."
Blur the screen and help me get back on track...
quinnjh wrote 15 hours 33 min ago:
it will be interesting to see as these tools emerge to what extent
the undercontrolled behavior is a piece of a larger cycle of
attention and context mgmt, or if all of that time can be nudged
back into the zone
simsla wrote 16 hours 28 min ago:
This was me, and now I have horrific back pain almost every week. Fix
what's broken before it breaks you.
sublinear wrote 17 hours 43 min ago:
Let's not forget the people who work from bed with AR glasses and a
projector pointed at the ceiling.
jaccola wrote 17 hours 59 min ago:
Funny, Iâm the same. I also like taking walks to think but Iâve
found that I must have my head pointing almost directly down (I.e.
looking at my feet). Itâs also how I stand thinking in the shower,
with the warm water hitting my angled neck. Maybe something
beneficial about that position of the neck, or maybe just habit!
I will also have conversations in my head during my walk, Iâve done
this my whole life and Iâm not sure to this day whether my lips
move during these or not. In any case, I must get some funny looks
with head bolted to the ground mumbling to myselfâ¦
average_r_user wrote 4 hours 34 min ago:
Alas, I'm not alone in meditating and thinking while taking a
shower.
It's one of the moments of my day when I recollect what happened,
what I need to do, and what not to do.
The problem is that I can get quite lost during this phase, and hot
water isn't cheap, so my SO is always threatening to put a big
timer in the bathroom.
neal_jones wrote 1 hour 12 min ago:
Iâve gone home from work before to take a shower. At least one
time I took multiple showers in a work day to think.
I now live somewhere that hot water is expensive and I didnât
realize how good things were before.
strogonoff wrote 1 hour 22 min ago:
My pet hypothesis about why shower is often praised to be such a
mindful place is that it has not so much to do with water and
more to do with the fact that for many people life alternates
between 1) constant social interaction and interruptions from
other people and 2) bathroom time.
How many people these days have a dedicated home office, off
limits to anyone else? How many partners sleep in different
rooms?
Sure, perhaps the sensory experience plays some role, but if your
bathroom is reliably the most interruption-free place for you,
naturally youâd form a habit of catching up on all the âslow
thinkingâ, most negatively impacted by interruptions, during
shower.
Iâve seen people with interruption-free solo hobbies (be that
hiking in the woods, motorcycling, rock climbing, etc.)
describing similarly mindful experiences, but unlike those shower
is the lowest common denominator and perhaps one that happens
most routinely.
whompyjaw wrote 12 hours 18 min ago:
Uhhh⦠are you me? No other comment has hit more home. Nice. Mayne
thereâs something about these physical practices helping mental
abilities.
Fnoord wrote 14 hours 16 min ago:
Sing it!
As for the software. I would not want a camera on 24/7 (on any
device, a compromise being my doorbell, which isn't cloud
connected). It'd defeat the small LED which informs you it is on
(since it is always-on), and if the machine is compromised this is
a method to receive personal data.
Actually, I'd prefer a hardware killswitch on things like camera
and microphone.
butvacuum wrote 10 hours 16 min ago:
Post-It makes an excelent kill switch for the camera. not
effective for audio though
parentheses wrote 14 hours 26 min ago:
I suppose in that position your head has lower elevation, allowing
for better circulation.
wowzaa wrote 16 hours 10 min ago:
In my case, though walks help declutter my mind somewhat, for
deeper thoughts, I have to write it down sitting or laying in the
bed in the worst of positions. Thinking too deeply while walking
only leaves me anxious in the end as I tend to get sidetracked a
lot in conversation and always have to restart the conversation
over and over again.
visarga wrote 8 hours 3 min ago:
I used paper a lot to jot my ideas and all sorts of diagrams but
lately I just pull Claude and chat it out, it works like a
thinking environment.
j45 wrote 17 hours 44 min ago:
Wear earbuds like youâre on call or recording something
soulofmischief wrote 17 hours 30 min ago:
I've fully embraced looking insane in public. Try it some time;
you won't go back.
j45 wrote 15 hours 29 min ago:
haha, sounds good.
marginalia_nu wrote 19 hours 35 min ago:
Gamer lean is when it gets really serious.
TheRealPomax wrote 20 hours 16 min ago:
Sounds like you're literally the target audience for this app.
amelius wrote 19 hours 49 min ago:
Not if there is a hard positive correlation between productivity
and slouching, like they say.
chongli wrote 20 hours 22 min ago:
My neck is screaming in empathetic pain for your future neck!
dgxyz wrote 20 hours 38 min ago:
My productivity is generally measured in how much time I sit on the
porcelain thinking throne first.
rr808 wrote 17 hours 43 min ago:
I never understood this. Is this why the cubicles are always full
in the office? WTF I go in there take a dump and leave while the
people on each side are just silent the whole time. I can think of
much better places to think.
jacobkranz wrote 20 hours 15 min ago:
Truer words have never been spoken. That and planning out your day
& thinking through problems in the shower.
jjp wrote 19 hours 25 min ago:
Walking the dog is my go to for thinking through problems. The
dog really loves the hard problems as they get a longer walk.
codyb wrote 20 hours 6 min ago:
If you delete social media, and leave your phone away from your
person all day with notifications turned off, you can have these
moments all the time it turns out.
Considering how much more productive these moments are for me
than the bullshit I used to do on my phone and social media, it
was an easy decision to make.
saagarjha wrote 20 hours 5 min ago:
How do you simulate the warm water?
j45 wrote 17 hours 29 min ago:
Play it on a speaker.
codyb wrote 20 hours 0 min ago:
Oh, lol, now I get your question. Yea, it turns out the
silence and lack of distractions are what produce "shower
thoughts", more so than the act of showering itself.
Doing any relatively rote act like washing dishes, walking
places, etc can also give rise to them. Not having a device
in your hand to constantly steal your attention really helps
though.
pfannkuchen wrote 18 hours 32 min ago:
Showers are generally considered to be relaxing separately
from the âshower thoughtsâ phenomenon.
Couldnât the relaxation be a factor in generating shower
thoughts?
I suspect that essentially none of our non-ancestors were
predated in a hot spring, unlike walking etc, so there may
be an environmental cue driven induced relaxation that
doesnât exist for many other activities.
j45 wrote 17 hours 29 min ago:
Solitude is extremely powerful.
codyb wrote 18 hours 24 min ago:
Yea, you relax, and then your brain produces random
thoughts about things.
I suspect it's just about getting the space to relax,
which is why I frequently have thoughts when staring at
the wall, or taking a walk, or washing dishes, or doing
any other myriad activities which are relatively easy on
brain processing.
lanstin wrote 19 hours 22 min ago:
I find pacing to be helpful. As long as thereâs not a lot
of poles to walk into accidentally. So while outside walks
can be more focused you do get the odd head bang.
codyb wrote 20 hours 2 min ago:
With a faucet my good friend!
collingreen wrote 20 hours 51 min ago:
This is how things get built for me as well. I have a standing desk
and like using it occasionally but if you see me standing at it you
can bet I'm doing something typical like emails or chat and not
thinking deeply.
digitaltinfoil wrote 20 hours 58 min ago:
this is the way
lcnmrn wrote 21 hours 2 min ago:
Install a pull up bar in your room. It will fix your back better than
anything else.
winrid wrote 21 hours 1 min ago:
1 min plank in the morning is a big help too
PlatoIsADisease wrote 21 hours 19 min ago:
Anyone want to vibe code this to work on linux or M$
borzi wrote 19 hours 53 min ago:
Great contrarian indicator for when people say that vibe coding is
not "real development work" or economically viable/a job in the
future - here is someone asking if another person can vibe code
something for them that is single file of swift, the prompt could be
as simple as "convert this to linux".
PlatoIsADisease wrote 15 hours 2 min ago:
I literally hire interns to vibe code... sooo.. I don't need to be
sold.
hungryhobbit wrote 17 hours 40 min ago:
I don't think Linux has an equivalent of Apple's vision API, and if
it does I guarantee it's not as robust and isn't baked-in to every
Linux distro (the way Vision is baked-in to every Mac released
after X date).
That alone will likely prevent this from just being a "convert to
Linux" vibe session ... which is unfortunate, as I would LOVE to
have this on Linux.
PlatoIsADisease wrote 16 hours 56 min ago:
Yep, this is the bottleneck. Otherwise I would have done the
prompt myself.
iammrpayments wrote 21 hours 21 min ago:
Staying in upright posture for too long is also not good for you.
jasonjmcghee wrote 21 hours 22 min ago:
I'm not sure how you can use a laptop with good posture. An external
monitor at the right height seems like a necessity.
I'm also optimistic about monitors in the form of glasses- even less
effort needed to set yourself up for perfect posture. But the sweet
spot problem is still very much a thing from what I've seen- can't wait
until it's normal for them to have eye tracking, foveated rendering and
streaming, and be wireless.
rectang wrote 19 hours 55 min ago:
When working at a desk I put my 16-inch MacBook Pro on a stand and
use an external keyboard and trackpad.
I don't like adapting my monitor layout when moving between working
environments.
Instead of an extra monitor, I have an iPad Pro on a stand.
cyh555 wrote 9 hours 45 min ago:
Usb type c port can be flickering sometimes when the macbook/laptop
is elevated.
cosmic_cheese wrote 20 hours 22 min ago:
Yeah, most of my computer use is with a properly adjusted desk setup
with external monitors and while it doesnât bother me to use a
laptop to jot down some notes or for a short study session, if I try
to do ârealâ work at all I quickly become uncomfortable. A cheap
folding laptop stand (which elevates the laptop enough that the
middle of its screen is eye level) and wireless KB+mouse dramatically
improves comfort (and productivity) but the tradeoff is that you need
a table or other sizable, stable flat surface.
The exception is if there happens to be a reclined-position chair
(IKEA POÃNG or similar) around; this gives back support and reduces
neck craning enough to make longer sessions more viable, but itâs
far from a given that this kind of seating will be available.
lanstin wrote 19 hours 21 min ago:
If you have interesting enough work, nothing else matters. I have
written big complex systems while car pooling on a laptop in the
passenger seat.
The reason for this app is not productivity but for posture.
MengerSponge wrote 21 hours 3 min ago:
My dog could, but a person with adult proportions probably can't. For
long-term use, a stand+KB is the only solution I know of [1] It's too
bad that nobody on the Surface team has managed to crack this! I'd be
much more interested in one if they had.
(HTM) [1]: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/86285180/the-roost-savi...
eastbound wrote 18 hours 16 min ago:
Laptop work is clearly not OSHA-compliant. Iâm in France so
itâs probably regulated a little bit more, but having a screen at
eye height and a keyboard slightly under elbow height is the first
line on the security analysis document (le DUERP), at least for
tertiary workers. And far above âFloor must be non-slipperyâ
and âThe right to disconnect after 6pmâ.
MengerSponge wrote 15 hours 25 min ago:
Your last sentence is something in quotes that just shows up as
"The right to ***** *** **". Doesn't look like anything to me.
physicles wrote 19 hours 52 min ago:
I use the Nexstand K2 (well, the Chinese knockoff I got for $5),
and I bent some coat hangers to attach to the top of the stand and
tilt the laptop forward. Iâm a tall guy, and the top of the
screen is even with my eyes. Bonus is that with an X1 Carbon, the
Lenovo M14 or M14d fits perfectly over the top of the keyboard.
The whole setup fits into a drawstring gym bag.
(HTM) [1]: https://nexstand.io/
duckruu wrote 21 hours 9 min ago:
My Apple Vision Pro has all that, and itâs perfect for posture when
using a MacBook.
mannanj wrote 13 hours 51 min ago:
Do you wonder about the wifi impact so close to your head?
vunderba wrote 20 hours 14 min ago:
Isnât the Vision Pro rather front loaded in terms of its weight
distribution? Seems like you might just be trading one ergonomic
problem for another.
duckruu wrote 20 hours 0 min ago:
Itâs not really, with the new dual band which changes the
weight distribution. If you lean back a lot itâs obviously
going to rest on your face then, but thatâs a good way to avoid
bad posture too.
Still, itâs not for everyone. I use it with my AirPods Max
comfortably, I have a sturdy neck. I donât think my wife could
pull it off.
jasonjmcghee wrote 21 hours 1 min ago:
Yeah- this and the upcoming steam frame seem like the best options
today.
There's something very attractive for me personally about the
sunglasses form factor.
Safer in public, draws less attention, more portable, less headset
fatigue, etc.
But obviously trading quality and features.
Also AVP is like $3k, steam frame will probably be $800+, xreal are
like half that
duckruu wrote 19 hours 53 min ago:
> But obviously trading quality and features.
For me itâs like settling for a CRT after trying a 4k TV in
terms of visuals, but with the form factors reversed.
jasonjmcghee wrote 16 hours 1 min ago:
Except the form factors are swapped, but yes.
Raed667 wrote 21 hours 26 min ago:
I would love this but for detecting when I'm not wearing my glasses!
jagged-chisel wrote 21 hours 21 min ago:
âIf only the world had some way to remind be to wear my glasses â¦
like going all blurry or something.â
I get you - but making it absurd is where my brain went immediately.
>.
dmurray wrote 21 hours 23 min ago:
Doesn't the screen already go blurry when you're not wearing your
glasses?
ngruhn wrote 21 hours 2 min ago:
I think he's joking
Raed667 wrote 20 hours 59 min ago:
I wish
Raed667 wrote 21 hours 6 min ago:
It's a spectrum I'm trying to avoid it getting that bad
dhosek wrote 21 hours 23 min ago:
If Iâm not wearing my glasses the screen blurs organically.
eeixlk wrote 21 hours 33 min ago:
Satire i hope
blauditore wrote 21 hours 34 min ago:
Does anyone ever reach a high level of productivity with correct
posture? I can't.
oarfish wrote 17 hours 23 min ago:
Luckily there is no such thing as "correct posture".
louthy wrote 21 hours 15 min ago:
Sure, but getting the right environment is a prerequisite. In my case
itâs a Herman Miller Embody chair [1] that stops me getting into a
bad position (itâs not impossible, it just encourages good
posture).
(HTM) [1]: https://www.hermanmiller.com/en_gb/products/seating/office-c...
apt-apt-apt-apt wrote 18 hours 48 min ago:
I ditched all my HM chairs for a standard wooden chair. They just
never felt right (maybe the non-forward-adjustable armrests had
something to do with it), but boy are they good at selling you an
expensive fantasy.
refactor_master wrote 10 hours 48 min ago:
Hell, my bed is on the floor, and my sofa is now also a pillow on
the floor.
joquarky wrote 9 hours 27 min ago:
I was the same for decades until I moved somewhere with black
widows.
cluckindan wrote 20 hours 12 min ago:
Word of warning: the Embody chair does not have front-to-back
adjustments for the armrests. They will be pretty useless unless
you like having your keyboard close to the edge of your desk.
hexbin010 wrote 20 hours 55 min ago:
The embodiment of overpriced and mediocre
esskay wrote 21 hours 13 min ago:
Totally a tangent here but it amazes me how a company as big as
Herman Miller could screw a product page up so much by not even
having a picture of the damn product.
emptybits wrote 16 hours 56 min ago:
Lol, I see the image fine but if I click the red "Buy Now"
button, I get a 404.
Fortunately, I type this, sitting in my wonderful 15 year old
Embody chair so I don't actually need to buy now. Everyone is
different and I never raved much about Aerons but the Embody has
been very good to me, whether my posture is textbook "good" or
"badly" slouched and reclined ... it supports and makes me want
to sit and work. :-)
mrbluecoat wrote 18 hours 58 min ago:
It's there, you just have to slouch to see it.
amelius wrote 19 hours 45 min ago:
I had the same problem.
StilesCrisis wrote 20 hours 53 min ago:
It's the first thing on the page. Your browser is doing something
funky.
esskay wrote 4 hours 55 min ago:
Was adguard dns. Apparently their asset delivery method is
flagged on a ton of adblocker lists.
hypeatei wrote 21 hours 8 min ago:
Something might be wrong with your client (ad-blocker, NoScript
maybe?) because there a ton of pictures on that page.
esskay wrote 20 hours 59 min ago:
Ha, yep you're right. How bizarre, wasn't a browser ad block,
it was adguard dns blocking a ton of tracking scripts needed to
show the images.
hashmap wrote 21 hours 16 min ago:
if im not sitting on my right foot with left knee under my chin my
thinking takes a hit, but i also have to constantly switch how im
sitting so i dont get annoyed. its hard not to slouch/melt into
whatever im sitting on and i think the only way to offset all that is
the gym.
VadimPR wrote 21 hours 35 min ago:
How can you tell if a short person is slouching? Or a tall person?
gcanyon wrote 21 hours 8 min ago:
I'm not the author, but I assume it benchmarks the highest height of
your head, blurs from there, and updates its baseline if you ever
appear higher.
Meaning that the way to have "perfect posture" is never to sit up
straight in the first place :-)
lokar wrote 18 hours 18 min ago:
It has a calibration step
kccqzy wrote 21 hours 22 min ago:
If you assume a personâs chair height and desk height are both set
optimally, then I guess the personâs height doesnât matter for
this detection.
p0w3n3d wrote 21 hours 38 min ago:
Great, now I'll get sick eyes too
* laughs histerically
amelius wrote 21 hours 39 min ago:
Why use a proprietary stack for building this when there is a far more
capable open ecosystem available at your fingertips? [1]
(HTM) [1]: https://huggingface.co/models?other=human-pose-estimation
(HTM) [2]: https://huggingface.co/models?other=3d-human-mesh-recovery
JCharante wrote 1 hour 16 min ago:
proprietary stack is probably more battery efficient
kazen44 wrote 21 hours 31 min ago:
do any more open applications like this exist? The idea seems great
tanelpoder wrote 21 hours 44 min ago:
Once launched, Posturr runs in the background and displays a brief
"Claude Mode Active" notification.
I havenât checked the code yet, but what does the âClaude Modeâ
mean? Is it a poor naming choice? It implies that the local app is
somehow connected to Claude (?)
tjohnell wrote 21 hours 39 min ago:
Hi - this is the author. I can explain that, ha!
Right now I'm using a vision library to detect head height which was
good enough. I went down a tangent where I hooked it up to my Claude
Code instance to take a screen shot and have Claude Code assess how
bad my slouch was. Claude would watch a folder for screen shots, read
it in, and if it detected bad posture, write to a file the program
was watching to adjust blur.
I did this weird work-around so I could use my Claude Code
subscription as opposed to the API.
Anyways, it was too slow and Claude was a bad judge of slouchiness.
Head height works well enough!
I'll clean this up.
tanelpoder wrote 21 hours 21 min ago:
Cool, thanks for the clarification. Indeed it's a good and
practical idea for a small app. As other comments have said, (some)
people might happily pay for this app.
I luckily won't need such feedback loop anymore, had some mild
lower back pain show up over 10 years ago and bought a chair
without a backrest that, after 3-4 weeks of struggling, trained me
to sit up straight. Now I have some random cheap office chair with
a backrest, but I rarely lean back to it. Funnily, I was going to
give up using that "backrestless" chair after 2 weeks of
inconvenience, but decided to give it one more week and then the
magic happened :-) Mild lower back pain automatically gone.
hn8726 wrote 20 hours 57 min ago:
Care to share an example of this backrestless chair? Is it like a
regular chair just without the backrest, or has some other
differences? Does it have armrests for example, and if not - does
it bother you?
manuelmoreale wrote 20 hours 44 min ago:
Not sure which one the parent was referring to but
personalizing I've been using one of these for more than a
decade at this point (I'm sitting on it right now) [1] The one
I have does have a backrest but because of the way it's shaped
you don't actually use it to slouch. It's more there to support
when you lean back and want to take a break from typing or
something like that.
(HTM) [1]: https://www.varierfurniture.com/en/products
tanelpoder wrote 20 hours 47 min ago:
I went with an overkill approach at first (as I often do :-)
and bought some expensive nicely designed "active chair" /
stool that was adjustable high enough so that I could lean on
it even when using my desk as a standing desk. It was
interesting, but not a game changer at all for me. I don't use
standing desks now at all.
But what I have now is this: [1] Just don't assemble the
backrest at first. If sitting up straight, I just lean wrists
on my keyboard wristpad and part of forearms on the desk, no
armrests needed either.
Edit: I still use my height-adjustable standing desk, but now
it's value is that I could adjust it for the perfect height for
my sitting-up-straight position (so no chair armrests needed)
and it's been fixed at that height for the last 7 years...
(HTM) [1]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002FL3LY4
auslegung wrote 21 hours 41 min ago:
A codebase search for "claude" only has 1 hit in the code (the
markdown that you referenced) and 4 commits which include the word in
the commit message, or one commit includes .claude/ in the git
ignore. See [1] Same with a codebase search for "anthropic"
(HTM) [1]: https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Atldev%2Fposturr+claude&ty...
xfactorial wrote 21 hours 54 min ago:
I think the idea is wonderful, but a not-audited application that uses
things like the camera is a âno goâ for me.
Get it notorized and ask for some money! I will gladly pay it (and I
hope others will do it as well).
Awesome concept: ergonomics and/or posture monitoring is a market
opportunity for heavy users.
tjohnell wrote 17 hours 29 min ago:
Posturr is now notarized!
alin23 wrote 21 hours 23 min ago:
Notarization is mostly a glorified malware scan. There's no Apple
engineer auditing what's being sent for notarization. Even clever
malware can evade notarization scans and be distributed as a
notarized binary, it has happened in the past [0]
There's no better way for auditing such an app than having the code
easily available and looking through it, and compiling it yourself.
Which is already the case here.
[0]
(HTM) [1]: https://thehackernews.com/2025/12/new-macsync-macos-stealer-...
burnerthrow008 wrote 21 hours 8 min ago:
Your link says that Apple revoked the certificate used to sign the
malware by the time the story was published.
jorams wrote 4 hours 3 min ago:
After a different company detected it, figured out what it did,
and reported it to Apple. The app was notarized on November 17,
screenshots in the researchers' post are from December 16. That's
a month of fully notarized distribution.
wizzwizz4 wrote 21 hours 42 min ago:
While I disagree with you, thank you for sharing your decision-making
process: you're probably not the only one who thinks this way.
In general, would you pay for a notorised build of free software, if
you had use for that software, even if an un-notorised build or the
source code were available?
xfactorial wrote 1 hour 28 min ago:
It depends: having it notarized is a way to show someone with a
certain reputation of "Hey! This is my code, this is me, if
something happens, you can kill the switch".
If notarisation requires you some kind of payment, I would be okay
with you charging me some money, if I obviously find your code has
a good value for me.
I read comments around here about "Well: you can compile it
yourself" or "it's open source! You can check the code by
yourself".
And, while all of those arguments are accurate and valid, the point
is "I do not feel like it" or, a little reminder, "The Great
Suspender" was an example of a beautiful open source little app to
suspend tabs on Google Chrome that, one glorious day, switched
hands and, suddenly, after some time, someone noticed the
repository and the code from the add-in were different, and those
changes were made with nefarious intent.
Luckily, somehow found out, but some people do not have the time or
the will to be playing that game.
A piece of code that requires access to my camera, regardless of
size (<1000 lines of code) or build, it's something I just don't
put on my computer without thinking it twice.
Thank you for the tone: I hope I responded to your question :)
IshKebab wrote 21 hours 16 min ago:
I seriously doubt that he actually would. And in that unlikely
event he'd be in a miniscule minority. Not a good open source
monetisation strategy.
xfactorial wrote 1 hour 36 min ago:
You may be severely wrong: I like to pay and contribute to things
I use, believe it or not.
I love to buy small apps from indie developers or donate some
money to things I use and I love: when I was a student, of
course, things were different.
Nowadays, luckily, I can contribute and I do it gladly.
tananaev wrote 21 hours 49 min ago:
Are you serious? It's open source. And there's less than 1000 lines
total. Get Codex or Claude to review it if you're paranoid.
encom wrote 21 hours 18 min ago:
Go easy on the guy. Mac users are so used to overpaying for trivial
functionality.
Alejandro9R wrote 21 hours 20 min ago:
The thing is that how do you know at the end of the day that the
compiled binary hasn't been tampered with "extra code" besides
what's in the repo?
I don't even think notarization gets rid of this problem neither,
so the best you can do for this is compile it yourself. Maybe I'm
wrong!
prmoustache wrote 20 hours 12 min ago:
What prevents you from compiling it if it is open-source?
That's what I do with every project delivered as docker image. I
rebuild the app and the image.
alexford1987 wrote 21 hours 18 min ago:
Compiling it yourself is the best/only thing you can do if you
really want to know what code went into a binary.
xpasky wrote 21 hours 50 min ago:
It's literally a single .swift file. Ask your LLM to audit it.
micromacrofoot wrote 21 hours 19 min ago:
then I need to get someone to audit the LLM, which is considerably
more difficult
JCharante wrote 1 hour 17 min ago:
ok but who will audit your compiler?
StilesCrisis wrote 21 hours 9 min ago:
Do you expect this programmer is in cahoots with Anthropic?
saagarjha wrote 20 hours 3 min ago:
The opposite, actually: that the code tricks the LLM.
publicdebates wrote 21 hours 58 min ago:
I would pay $10 for this.
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