Developer builds geofencing service that auto-silences phones without draining battery

·2 views

A developer was prompted to create a better solution after a phone ringing loudly in a silent lecture hall caused embarrassment. Existing options either used rigid time-based schedules or constantly polled GPS, which drained batteries. The developer built an app called Muffle that relies on Google Play Services' GeofencingClient, letting the operating system handle location monitoring more efficiently. The system runs as a foreground service to avoid being killed under memory pressure, and uses an enter trigger so users already inside a zone are handled correctly. A priority system also resolves conflicts between location-based and calendar-based sound rules.

Read the full story at DEV Community

This is an AI-generated summary. ShortSingh links to the original source for the complete article.

Discussion (0)

Developer builds math-first Texas Hold'em toolkit in C# with open collaboration

A solo engineer has developed an open Texas Hold'em toolkit in C# that emphasizes mathematical design over lookup tables. The project uses bitwise card primitives and Monte Carlo equity estimation, with extensible game-state abstractions for analysis and strategy modeling. It already includes Hold'em-specific logic, command-line tools for range-versus-range estimation, and benchmark projects. Reported timings for 10,000 simulations are about 284.5 ms with two players, 448.3 ms with three, and 628.7 ms with four. The author describes the work as early-stage and is inviting contributors interested in poker math, optimization, and simulation systems.

0 comments Read more at DEV Community

ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Unsubscribing does not always stop charges, and refunds can stall

Developers discussing subscription waste on Hacker News describe a recurring problem: users cancel or request refunds but still get billed or hear nothing back. One commenter says a refund request for a forgotten subscription was ignored entirely, while another recounts a vendor that agreed to a partial refund and then went silent, prompting a chargeback. Other threads point to recurring pricing models that charge for one-time needs and per-seat plans that keep billing for unused licenses. Commenters argue that the real failure happens after a subscription is discovered, not in finding it. Several suggest the most effective fix is cancelling directly through the bank or card provider, though that approach has limits.

0 comments Read more at DEV Community

ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Agent loops need runtime controls: budgets, deadlines, cancellation, and idempotency

The article argues that production failures in AI agents usually stem from the execution loop rather than model quality, such as runs that spin for long periods, duplicated side effects, or cancellations that fail to stop workers. It recommends treating the loop as a runtime with admission control, deadlines, cooperative cancellation, and at-most-once side effects. Agent runs should have separate limits on steps, wall-clock time, tool calls, and cumulative tokens or cost, since per-step costs rise as conversation history grows. Cancellation must also reach inside tool calls through propagated deadlines and explicit timeouts on every blocking operation. Finally, retried writes should be prevented with deterministic idempotency keys stored alongside the effect, and third-party APIs without idempotency support should use an outbox-style record-and-reconcile approach.

0 comments Read more at DEV Community

ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Zoho Founder Says One AI-Equipped Worker Could Match Ten, Warns of Faster Job Losses

Sridhar Vembu, founder and chief scientist of Zoho, warned in an October 29 post on X that one skilled worker using AI could perform the work of ten. He said the risk of job losses in computer-based office work is becoming more real as AI tools improve. Vembu did not forecast that 90% of jobs will disappear, but argued that reduced labor needs could arrive faster than new job creation. He acknowledged that cheaper work could eventually lower prices and spawn new businesses, but said the timing gap could hit wages, hiring and entry-level roles first.

0 comments Read more at DEV Community