Commenters extensively discuss the security risks of granting root-level AI agent access to homelab devices, with some viewing it as a convenient automation tool and others citing prompt injection and supply chain vulnerabilities as unacceptable threats. The conversation also highlights practical challenges regarding hardware availability, noting that original OpenStick sources are largely defunct while third-party sellers emerge.
140 readable replies · Supporting reply 1 · Supporting reply 2 · Supporting reply 3 · Supporting reply 4apenwarr
blip
JavaScript2013–2025
apenwarr / blip
blip
A tool for seeing your Internet latency. Try it at http://gfblip.appspot.com/
14Distinct people
15Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.8KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
A tool for seeing your Internet latency. Try it at http://gfblip.appspot.com/
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year15 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2013-04-27 03:32:33 UTC to 2025-03-31 00:07:51 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 3 | 0 |
What Hacker News says
15 sourcesAFaftbit·Mar 31, 2025Submission
Blip: A tool for seeing your Internet latency
2 points · Open discussionBlip: A tool for seeing your Internet latency
2 points · Open discussionBlip: A tool for seeing your Internet latency
2 points · Open discussionBlip: A tool for seeing your Internet latency
2 points · Open discussionBlip: A tool for seeing your Internet latency
4 points · Open discussionSeems like a great alternative to blip.
https://github.com/apenwarr/blip
In Speed TestBasically. It doesn't work with https. It also doesn't like mixed-content protection. So it doesn't work in modern browsers unless you jump through some hoops. https://github.com/apenwarr/blip/issues/10
In Blip: A tool for seeing your internet latencyAnswering my own questions.
There is a hard-coded list of RFC 1918 addresses that are commonly used as routers that the program tries first to see if they are faster than gstatic.com.
https://github.com/apenwarr/blip/commit/b284f922b047e9032112...
Instead of apenwarr.ca, the code tries a bunch of sites from measurementlab.net:
https://github.com/apenwarr/blip/commit/20f99c1d641e8cc607b6...
The DNS checkbox does the following:
Generate a pseudorandom hostname for each test and looks it
up in DNS. The hostname happens to be in a domain that returns a valid
IP (incidentally always the same one) for every hostname you ask for.
This triggers a new HTTP connection, but also validates that your DNS
is working reliably without weird dropouts. I made it optional for
two reasons: it hits your DNS server pretty hard, which is more rude
Read the rest
than blip is usually; and DNS is surprisingly crappy, so you might want
to turn it off while looking to see if you have *non* DNS related
problems.
https://github.com/apenwarr/blip/commit/0678d0668c14e2c7a7f0...
https://github.com/apenwarr/blip/commit/4a1640977303f6dc58db...
Blip: A tool for seeing your internet latency
603 points · Open discussionI like this one which I think was a Show HN a while ago
https://github.com/apenwarr/blip
In Show HN: An ultra-light-weight tool to quickly test your ping> If anyone has a detailed guide on using gfblip I'd be really curious to read it.
Check out the instructions in the GitHub repository, has two versions, neither are very long nor complex. https://github.com/apenwarr/blip
In gping: Ping, but with a graphTry https://github.com/apenwarr/blip - built by google fiber guys for exactly this.
In Building fast.comI'm sure you guys are on it, but: See apenwarr's 'Blip' for checking latency in the browser: https://github.com/apenwarr/blip
In Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFiBlip: a tool for seeing your Internet latency (in JavaScript)
3 points · Open discussionFull explanation here explains how it works:
https://github.com/apenwarr/blip#readme
As a point of comparison, my results are:
- gstatic.com ~75ms
- apenwarr.ca ~150ms
- wired ethernet network
- ADSL
- paying my ISP $52/month + taxes
Has anyone had luck in persuading their ISP to "do something" about poor latency?
In Instant visualization of your Internet latency via JavaScript