r/techiegeeks

Every time friends came over to watch something, we'd end up fighting over speaker volume — too loud for the neighbors, too quiet to hear from the couch, and using one pair of headphones meant everyone else was left out.

Windows only lets you play audio to one output device at a time, so I built PairUp — it captures whatever's playing on your PC and streams it to every Bluetooth headphone, wired headset, and speaker you connect, simultaneously and in sync. Everyone gets their own volume, their own delay correction for laggy Bluetooth codecs, even their own EQ.

A few things:

• No virtual audio driver. Every other tool I found for this needed Voicemeeter or a virtual cable setup. PairUp just listens to your current default device — nothing to configure, nothing that breaks your normal audio setup.
• Guests can control their own volume from their phone. Scan a QR code, get a PIN, and adjust your own headphones' volume/EQ from a simple web page — no app install.
• Tap-to-sync calibration. Instead of guessing at a delay slider, it plays a click track and you tap along — it works out your headphones' actual lag automatically.

It's free, open source (MIT), and there's a proper installer (no admin rights needed). Built solo, so bug reports/feature requests genuinely welcome.

• Landing page / screenshots: https://jamimmehdi.github.io/pair-up-audio/
• GitHub: https://github.com/jamimmehdi/pair-up-audio

Happy to answer questions about how the audio sync works if anyone's curious — it was the most interesting part to get right.

https://preview.redd.it/b1sxatyuwzjh1.png?width=1400&format=png&auto=webp&s=435e2a95924d5ffed0cff5a41d02d382355232d7

https://preview.redd.it/yc1i23aywzjh1.png?width=1400&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c846f92aef8d4701f83d36d1b339d46282ebcef

The announcement post - https://wordpress.org/news/2026/08/browser-extension/

https://preview.redd.it/25dgnhts8whh1.png?width=594&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5944c8ae3909a546167bb7d5545ebd29dca8a54

I think for a lot of people, their introduction to automation was LLMs and, shall we say, "modern AI". So they don't see what computers were already capable of just before LLMs.

I build a lot of automations with AI, and 90% of the steps can be done in traditional code. The remaining 10% just requires an API call to the LLM. So most workflows can actually be made fully reliable if you learn traditional code.

Even if you need an agentic architecture, the more determinism (hint: CODE) you introduce in it, the more reliable (and cheaper) your AI agent becomes.

I don't know why most people don't realize that.

People usually assume Windows became the default PC operating system because it was the best software available, but Microsoft didn't win by out-innovating everyone. They won by locking PC makers into exclusive contracts, pulling software compatibility tricks, and absorbing their rivals' core engineering talent.

We obviously still have Linux, BSD, macOS, and niche systems like Plan 9 today. However, Microsoft's tactics effectively wiped out independent desktop competition on standard PC hardware. It pushed Unix and Linux off consumer desktops and into servers, while Apple only survived by locking macOS to its own hardware. Without those tactics, mainstream consumer PCs wouldn't have been trapped in a single Windows monopoly for 30 years. Back in the late 80s and 90s, there was a huge variety of desktop systems with very different ideas for how computers should work:

• AmigaOS: While it originally ran on Commodore's custom hardware, open-source projects later proved AmigaOS could easily run natively on standard x86 PCs. It delivered smooth preemptive multitasking and color graphics long before Windows was usable. If Commodore hadn't collapsed and Microsoft hadn't locked up PC hardware, an x86 port of AmigaOS could have been a major mainstream contender.
• RISC OS: Built by Acorn Computers in 1987, it was an extremely fast desktop OS that ran directly out of ROM memory. Acorn literally designed the ARM processor architecture to run RISC OS. While ARM chips grew to power modern smartphones, Microsoft's PC monopoly squeezed RISC OS out of the desktop market.
• CP/M and DR-DOS: Digital Research built CP/M, the undisputed 8-bit microcomputer standard before MS-DOS. Later, DR-DOS offered a faster, far more advanced alternative to MS-DOS. Microsoft killed DR-DOS by using per-processor OEM contracts and embedding hidden AARD code inside Windows 3.1 to trigger fake error messages on DR-DOS machines.
• GEM and DESQview: GEM brought a clean graphical desktop directly to IBM PCs running DOS, which was so good that Apple actually sued Digital Research to force them to alter the PC layout. DESQview added text-mode windowing and app-switching to cheap DOS PCs long before Windows was stable.
• PC/GEOS (GeoWorks Ensemble): Delivered a fast, full graphical desktop with multitasking on cheap 8088 and 286 PCs long before Windows 3.1 was usable on low-end hardware. Microsoft starved GeoWorks out by bundling Windows directly with MS-DOS and using exclusive OEM licensing deals.
• OS/2 Warp: Built by IBM. It had crash-proof multitasking and a modern desktop layout, but Microsoft blocked computer makers from pre-installing it on new PCs.
• DEC (VMS): Digital Equipment Corp was a huge enterprise computer company with VMS, an incredibly stable operating system. Instead of competing with them, Microsoft hired DEC's lead OS architect (Dave Cutler) and his team, who essentially built Windows NT using VMS concepts. DEC threatened a massive lawsuit over the stolen design, forcing Microsoft into a huge financial settlement.
• BeOS: Fast, ultra-responsive, and designed from scratch for media performance. When computer makers tried to ship PCs that dual-booted BeOS alongside Windows in the late 90s, Microsoft threatened to cancel their Windows licenses. Be Inc later sued Microsoft for antitrust and won a settlement.
• Unix, NeXTSTEP, and Plan 9: Unix variants dominated high-end workstations, NeXTSTEP introduced a modern desktop interface long before Windows 95, and Bell Labs built Plan 9 to redefine distributed computing. Microsoft's monopoly on PC hardware prevented these systems from getting a foothold on consumer desktops in the 90s, though NeXTSTEP eventually survived by becoming the foundation of modern macOS, while Linux and BSD took over servers.

Obviously after OpenAI model found the WP2Shell Remote Code Execution 3 weeks ago - everybody noticed. So other AI and security companies including Anthropic, PWNai and Aikido wanted to prove they can too 🙂

7.0.3 release post: https://wordpress.org/news/2026/08/wordpress-7-0-3-release/

Patchstack security advisory: https://patchstack.com/articles/wordpress-7-0-3-released-12-vulnerabilities-found-and-fixed/