Life & fun · February 11, 2023
Sauron – A live news visualization map
Hello! I'd like to share a demo I made that parses breaking news and displays the location based on referenced entities within the tweet text. It utilizes NLP and WikiData to identify and fetch the data.
Sauron – A live news visualization map launched on February 11, 2023 with 11 votes, #1,386 of 3,829 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 3 years on.
In plain words
Sauron is a live news visualization tool that automatically maps breaking news stories onto a geographic display. It analyzes tweet text using natural language processing to identify location references and entity data, then retrieves coordinates from WikiData to pinpoint where events are occurring. The tool is designed for anyone interested in seeing real-time news events visualized spatially as they happen.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
It utilizes natural language processing pipelines to identify entities and the WikiData API to georeference them into coordinates. Click any pin - you'll get a pop-up containing the tweet content! When you load the page, you should see a lot of events render. This is the backlog - I keep a deque (CSCI241 flashbacks) of the last 500 just so that new users don't have to wait for the latest tragedy to see how it works. Due to rapid changes to the Twitter API thanks to he-who-shall-not-be-named, I was forced to use Python against every fiber of my being for this project, and as such, the GIL may block a websockets connection until a tweet finishes processing. I'm on a dinky shared VPS so that…from sauron.matthew.science
Does a similar job
all alternatives →
Real-time system that tracks how news spreads across 200k websitesNov 2025 · yandori.io · ▲256I built a system that monitors ~200,000 news RSS feeds in near real-time and clusters related articles to show how stories spread across the web. It uses Snowflake’s Arctic model for embeddings and HNSW for fast similarity search. Each “story cluster” shows who published first, how fast it propagated, and how the narrative evolved as more outlets picked it up. Would love feedback on the architecture, scaling approach, and any ways to make the clusters more accurate or useful. Live demo: https://yandori.io/news-flow/
- HNHacker News Map 20112011 · jmarbach.com · ▲77
- ATA tool to analyze Hacker News sentiment on any term in seconds2024 · classysoftware.io · ▲126
Hi everyone, we developed a tool that can easily tell you the overall sentiment of a message based on a word. For now it’s hacker news only but we think this thing has potential. Whether you’re a startup, solopreneur or product manager, you can track trends with it. We are also planning to add predictive tools and real time analysis. Operationally this tool is a lot cheaper than Sprout Social or other similar solutions on the market. No sign-up required. Just type and see results. I'd love your feedback on the tool's usefulness and any ideas for improvement.
A snappy and resilient Hacker News clone in ~1k lines of rust2021 · github.com · ▲27A fast, resilient, isomorphic hacker news clone in ~1k lines of rust. - ivanceras/hackernews-sauron
TL;DR2025 · tl-dr.tv · ▲199I love Hacker News but I rarely have time to read full articles / comments, so I built a simple site to summarize the top posts & comments to make it easier to get a big picture. A few implementation details: - It pulls the top stories from the HN Firebase API (`/v0/topstories`) - Filters stories with >200 points - Uses Claude Sonnet for post + comment summaries - Tries to capture the sentiment of the comments (still working on improving this) - Refreshes both posts + summaries hourly It has already helped me I hope it helps you! Please let me know if you have any feedback --…
- HAHacker Atlas - A map of what Hacker News talks about28d ago · hackeratlas.com · ▲88
More life & fun this month
the category →
A free city-building game in your browser. You are the mayor. You know what the city needs. Now get it past the zoning board, the neighbors, the appeals court and the next election.
Life & fun · 3d ago · permit.petercai.com
- IV
Life & fun · 15d ago · tanzaniaeducationproject.org
Turn a phone, tablet or TV into a sign. Type a message and it fills the screen: welcome signs, timers, Wi-Fi passwords and more. No app, no account, free.
Life & fun · 16d ago · bigwords.page
Play a free virtual guitar online with your keyboard or by touch. Slow songs down and see every chord, string and strum. Acoustic, classic, electric and bass.
Life & fun · 10d ago · guitoro.com
Carrier settings from iPhone, Pixel and Galaxy firmware, decoded and compared: APNs, VoLTE, 5G and Wi-Fi Calling per carrier, and what each build changed.
Life & fun · 14d ago · carrierexplode.com
Life & fun · 24d ago · space.bl2.net
Source: Show HN post ↗
