# Talk of the Town - October 2026

> Source: <https://blog.val.town/talk-of-the-town-october-2026>
> Published: 2026-10-07 00:00:00+00:00

*Talk of the Town* is our series highlighting neat public vals in userspace.

## Community vals

[**Justin Uberti**](https://x.com/juberti), Head of Realtime at OpenAI, made
[hello-live.val.run](https://hello-live.val.run/) to demo GPT-Live. You can
literally call the val by telephone!

This might be a bit quaint in the age of Codex, but here’s a simple GPT-Live API demo of a voice agent that you can access via web or phone. web: https://t.co/vpSayItSyH phone: 425-800-0073 source: https://t.co/DyF68xwBRw It’s easy to customize - check out routes/agent.ts. https://t.co/G0JDKxe8Ix

— Justin Uberti (@juberti)[September 11, 2026](https://x.com/juberti/status/2098263283182817465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

Justin is a recurring friend of the town (see:
[March](https://blog.val.town/talk-of-the-town-mar-2026),
[May](https://blog.val.town/talk-of-the-town-may-26)) with many OpenAI Realtime
demo vals to his name. (If you’re interested in trying out more AI voice demos
on Val Town, we also have one for
[Gemini Live](https://www.val.town/x/valdottown/hello-gemini-live).)

[**Jim Nielsen**](https://www.jim-nielsen.com/) wrote an
[analytics-cron](https://www.val.town/x/jimniels/analytics-cron) val to stick
his Netlify web analytics data—which goes kapoof after 30 days—into SQLite.

📝 I'm officially a hoarder now.

Netlify throws away my analytics data every 30 days, but I finally setup a little automation with @val.town to persist it.

blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/preserv...[\[image
or embed\]](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ln6p42mckoylrkcd3ds6b7vv/post/3mvh6532h7s2z?ref_src=embed)

[@jim-nielsen.com](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ln6p42mckoylrkcd3ds6b7vv?ref_src=embed))
[September
13, 2026 at 11:28
PM](https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ln6p42mckoylrkcd3ds6b7vv/post/3mvh6532h7s2z?ref_src=embed)

[**Luis Gabriel**](https://luisgabriel.online/) published a Youtube RSS feed
val, using Codex and the Val Town agent plugin. He wrote a great
[blog post about it](https://luisgabriel.online/posts/youtube-rss-feed-grabber),
too. Thanks for the kind words, LG!

I was quite happy with the result. I think this is vibe coding at its finest. A simple tool written specifically for me, the way that I wanted it. -LG

**Arber Xhindoli**, founder of [Canonry](https://canonry.ai/), made two vals for
testing your brand’s [AEO](https://blog.val.town/aeo) on Val Town: a
[brand perception check](https://www.val.town/x/canonry/Brand-Perception-Check)
and an
[AI visibility check](https://www.val.town/x/canonry/AI-Visibility-Check).
Charlie also [interviewed Arber](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44h6_jjW62o)
about AEO as part of his “Charlie learns AEO in public for Val Town” series.

[**Owen Christofferson**](https://www.val.town/u/owenchristofferson) made a tiny
transit info website, [grand-perkins.val.run](https://grand-perkins.val.run/),
for (presumably) his stop in Oakland.
[A val can be a home-cooked meal](https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/home-cooked-app/).

On the topic of home-cooked transit apps,
[**Jonathan Blanchard**](https://www.val.town/u/jpblanchard) made a street
cleaning parking map for Park Slope, Brooklyn:
[parkslope-parking.val.run](https://parkslope-parking.val.run/).

And one more—[**Kirill Maltsev**](https://www.kirillmaltsev.net/) home-cooked a
personal transit val for his stop in Tallinn, Estonia.

*“Val Town? Oh, that’s the personal transit website builder, right?”*

[**Nico Baier**](https://nicobaier.com/) made
[example-domain.val.run](https://example-domain.val.run/), a canonical
`*.val.run` example URL, in the spirit of IANA’s
[example.com](https://example.com). Nico also created a
[Lorem Ipsum API](https://www.val.town/x/nbbaier/lorem-ipsum) at
[lipsum.val.run](https://lipsum.val.run/), which I am waiting for an excuse to
use!

```
# One paragraph
curl https://lipsum.val.run/p

# Three paragraphs
curl https://lipsum.val.run/p/3

# One sentence
curl https://lipsum.val.run/s

# Five sentences
curl https://lipsum.val.run/s/5
```

Nico is a [prolific](https://www.val.town/u/nbbaier) friend of the town, always
producing a steady stream of neat vals (or as he puts it in his bio: “Valin’ up
a storm”).

[**Devon Winrick**](https://github.com/winrid/), creator of
[FastComments](https://fastcomments.com/), built a
[blog-with-comments](https://www.val.town/x/fastcomments/blog-with-comments)
demo val and contributed a
[FastComments integration guide](https://docs.val.town/guides/fastcomments) to
our docs. If your agent is integrating FastComments in a val, it can refer to
agent skills on
[fastcomments-skills.val.run](https://fastcomments-skills.val.run/).

[**Fabian Iwand**](https://mootari.de/) asked Townie to make a
[Commitfest-to-RSS val](https://www.val.town/x/mootari/cf-rss) for following
Postgres patches without having to subscribe to the mailing list or wait for the
cool-off period on new accounts.

[**Paul Chin Jr.**](https://paulchinjr.com/) made a “cute feed of animals
skateboarding,” available for your viewing pleasure at the cleverly named
[boardmembers.val.run](https://boardmembers.val.run/). Paul is vibing all sorts
of Fun Software on Val Town, like his
[glamstrum](https://www.val.town/x/pchinjr/glamstrum) site (“Webcam air guitar.
Big hair. Bigger riffs.”) and [firstpage.val.run](https://firstpage.val.run/)
(“A 20-minute HTML website maker for kids”).

[**Mariano Guerra**](https://marianoguerra.org/) vibe coded
[his own coding agent](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJOE_EuyRTY) for Val
Town-specific code.

[**Derek Ahmedzai**](https://cheersderek.com/) made a
[Letterboxd heartbeat](https://x.com/derekahmedzai/status/2087471361572663417)
visualization that you can try at
[letterboxd-heartbeat.cheersderek.com](https://letterboxd-heartbeat.cheersderek.com/).

new letterboxd toy! it takes your last 50 ratings and makes a nice heartbeat monitor visualisation, and you can even save a png or gif

share your [#letterboxdheartbeat](https://x.com/hashtag/letterboxdheartbeat?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)![https://t.co/BIT6mXJdec](https://t.co/BIT6mXJdec) [pic.twitter.com/GYQtUzMXJd](https://t.co/GYQtUzMXJd)

[August 12, 2026](https://x.com/derekahmedzai/status/2087471361572663417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

[**Frank van Puffelen**](https://puf.io/) used Codex to create a
[goodreads-bookhive-sync](https://www.val.town/x/puf/goodreads-bookhive-sync)
val that automatically syncs his GoodReads updates to BookHive.

[**Ozan Öğreden**](https://ozan.ogreden.com/) made
[org-publish](https://www.val.town/x/cricks_unmixed4u/org-publish) (live at
[org-publish.val.run](https://org-publish.val.run/about)) for publishing plain
text files from Emacs or Neovim.

[**jellyj**](https://www.val.town/u/jellyj) created
[everyone-red-button.val.run](https://everyone-red-button.val.run/). It reminds
me of [The (Reddit) Button](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Button_(Reddit)>),
which—fun fact—was created by Josh Wardle of Wordle fame. (I also created
[The Val Town Button](https://www.petemillspaugh.com/val-town-button) a few
years ago, before I worked here.)

[**Holger Harzer**](https://www.val.town/u/fnxsdev) vibed
[readable.val.run](https://readable.val.run/) on top of the
[Mozilla Readability](https://github.com/mozilla/readability) library, which
lets you paste a URL and get the same webpage back with less “clutter” (like
Firefox’s reader mode).

**Romain Demesmay** vibe coded
[pizza-feu-de-bois](https://www.val.town/x/Romain/pizza-feu-de-bois), apparently
an app to order wood-fired pizzas for house parties, which I am including
because I initially assumed it meant “pizza for the boys.

Many people are vibe coding MCP servers to stick an API they use into their
chatbots, like Emad Gadou’s MCP servers for
[Brave Search](https://www.val.town/x/emadgadou/brave-search-mcp); Nososke’s for
[Google Classroom](https://www.val.town/x/nososke/google-classroom-mcp),
[Google Maps & Google Earth](https://www.val.town/x/nososke/maps-earth-mcp), and
[YouTube](https://www.val.town/x/nososke/youtube-mcp); Yuki Murakami’s for
[Oura](https://www.val.town/x/YukiMurakami/oura-mcp); and Lindsay Patrick’s for
[Sleeper Fantasy Football](https://www.val.town/x/lindsaypatrick/sleeper-mcp).

## From the Val Town team

[**Charlie**](https://charliemolthrop.com/) made
[Whose Jev is it anyway?](https://www.val.town/x/dcm31/whose-jev-is-it-anyway)
at [whosejev.val.run](https://whosejev.val.run/).
[Made me laugh](https://x.com/CharlieMolthrop/status/2100946286136406421?s=20)!

Charlie also made [JevHero](https://www.val.town/x/dcm31/jevhero) at
[jevhero.val.run](https://jevhero.val.run/).
[Made me laugh again](https://x.com/CharlieMolthrop/status/2100330435351920806?s=20).

[**Steve**](https://stevekrouse.com/) made a Jev demo to classify your prose at
[typesafe-demo.val.run](https://typesafe-demo.val.run/).

typesafe’s jev is fun! live demo you can play with: https://t.co/ctnPF0w70r https://t.co/i6kMGkkWOV

— Steve Krouse (@stevekrouse)[September 16, 2026](https://x.com/stevekrouse/status/2100287368221659289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

Steve also prototyped using Jev + Kernel for fast browser use at
[jev-browser-use.val.run](https://jev-browser-use.val.run/).

jev + kernel browser use demo

pretty freaking cool! so fast!

try it yourself: [https://t.co/CoVFzscaa0](https://t.co/CoVFzscaa0) [https://t.co/OyXdNA1H0F](https://t.co/OyXdNA1H0F)

[September
16, 2026](https://x.com/stevekrouse/status/2100321685081559542?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

One more from Steve: A Cerebras voice coder demo—

cerebras voice coder - this is realtime - no speedups!

the slow parts are me deciding what to change [https://t.co/F2KivGifzj](https://t.co/F2KivGifzj)

[September
4, 2026](https://x.com/stevekrouse/status/2095943522985603468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

[**Potluck**](https://potluckmittal.com/) made
[gmail-interactions](https://www.val.town/x/potluck/gmail-interactions) to scan
his email and keep his ducks in a row, where by ducks I mean CRM cards for email
correspondence with Val Town customers. (The Val Town CRM is itself also
[on Val Town](https://www.val.town/x/valdottown/crm).)

Potluck also made
[Dustbound](https://www.val.town/x/potluck/burn-group-planner), a planning app
for his burning man camp to coordinate rides, tents, slushie shifts, and
whatnot.

[**Pete**](https://www.petemillspaugh.com/)—I—put together
[abottom.org](https://abottom.org/), an infosite for the word *abottom*, meaning
“at the bottom,” an analogue of *atop*. (I know it’s silly, but I’m hoping to
spread the word and eventually get it in the dictionary, so I invite you to use
it!)

We—the Val Town team—also published an
[OpenRouter template](https://www.val.town/x/templates/openrouter) val. It’s
very easy to get an OpenRouter API key and try out hundreds of models.

We also migrated our official Val Town docs to
[a val](https://www.val.town/x/valdottown/docs) and wrote about the
[docfooding](https://blog.val.town/docfooding) process. This blog is also
[a val](https://www.val.town/x/valdottown/blog), and we have an older writeup
about [blogfooding](https://blog.val.town/migration).

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