
Ask HN: What did you build in 2019? - hackathonguy
I&#x27;ve had a rather uncreative year, and I&#x27;d love some inspiration going into 2020. Please share your side projects&#x2F;businesses&#x2F;hobbies, ideally with links and traction numbers. :-) Have a lovely new year!
======
CarrotCodes
Adopt Animals ([https://www.adoptanimals.io/](https://www.adoptanimals.io/)) -
a charitable passion project for free, independent, and ad/tracking-free
animal rehoming listings in the UK.

We're partnering with one shelter in Edinburgh (Scotland) to start, and built
the website and a pair of apps to showcase animal listings. We've had a few
success stories of people finding pets already, which is really motivating!

If you know of a shelter in the UK who might want their listings on there
(ideally they'll have a means of exporting them and we'll build an importer),
let them know to get in touch with us :)

~~~
bbstilson
I really like the design and, of course, the mission! Good luck!

~~~
CarrotCodes
Thank you!

For interest, we also just submitted our annual report to our regulator, if
you'd like to read about the first year of our parent charity
[https://www.kale.charity/reports](https://www.kale.charity/reports)

~~~
CoffeePython
How are the developers compensated? Are you all doing this for free? Love the
project but interested in the practicalities behind it.

~~~
CarrotCodes
There are currently 3 trustees of the charity, including myself, and no
employees. It’s illegal for trustees to be compensated for work relating to
the charity. We’re careful to pick problems (and solutions) that we can make
and maintain.

I focus on the engineering, my partner focuses on anything design related, and
our third trustee manages finances.

We do it because we’re passionate about it, and the legal structure gives us a
lot of weight and ability to negotiate reduced rates with services we depend
on. It also sets us up to pay other developers, if/when we decide there’s too
much for us to do as a team. Folks might want to donate their time as well,
but we will need to be mindful of properly compensating people for their time.

~~~
CoffeePython
Thanks for the response! Sounds interesting. I’ll have to look more into it. I
love the idea of building software as a charity

------
bjoli
I am a classical musician, programming for fun. I found guile scheme about 2
years ago, and I have been writing all my software in it since. Such a nice
language to be working in!

I wrote a SRFI (scheme request for implementation) for transducers, which are
efficient composable algorithmic transformations. They allow you to eagerly
transform collections, say like using map and filter, but without building
intermediate collections. The SRFI document is here:
[https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-171/srfi-171.html](https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-171/srfi-171.html)

Then I rewrote a large chunk of racket's for loops for guile:
[https://hg.sr.ht/~bjoli/guile-for-loops](https://hg.sr.ht/~bjoli/guile-for-
loops)

They are zero cost (apart from negligible macro expansion) and provide a
homogenous way to iterate through various collections. I am now in the process
of implementing foldr for it, which will allow for a general way of writing
lazy iterations.

------
shakna
SIXTEENmm ([https://sixteenmm.org](https://sixteenmm.org)), a streaming site
for old, hard to find and indie films.

I've spent most of the year working on colourisation and recovery techniques.
Colourisation is probably 70% of the way, but restoration is as hard as ever.

The project isn't meant to be a unicorn. The tech stack is boring, and
probably wouldn't scale.

There's about 50 people on board, and about two or three videos streamed a day
- so it isn't remotely "successful" yet, but I set a four year timeline for
it.

I don't have any specific stats to offer - because I don't collect it. I
collect as little data as I can get away with. Both for personal belief, and
economic reasons.

Hard to get massive fines for the inevitable breach when there's no PII to
steal.

~~~
greatatuin
This is great, my wife was looking for a site for old movies the other day. At
the risk of offending could I suggest working on the design a bit to increase
trust and look more established. If I stumbled upon your site I don't know I'd
be willing to put my credit card details in with the current look and feel of
the site.

~~~
shakna
No risk of offense. Styles are not my best skill, though I have found people
trust more when you throw things like pointless animation at them, which is
something I'm specifically avoiding. (Part of the site design guidelines is
that my highly autistic niece can use it without freaking out).

But, you don't have to put your CC in. Not until you've established a
relationship.

I am always looking to improve the look, however.

------
jmstfv
The biggest thing I have built this year is Hexadecimal
([https://tryhexadecimal.com](https://tryhexadecimal.com)). It is my first
SaaS business, so it is a pretty rough endeavor, both on the development and
the business side. Built on the vanilla Rails stack. As boring as it could
possibly get. I have described in some detail the tech behind it:
[https://runninginproduction.com/interviews/9-running-a-
websi...](https://runninginproduction.com/interviews/9-running-a-website-
monitoring-service-with-a-boring-technology)

Lessons learned:

* If you'd like to start making money on the Internets, don't start with a SaaS

* Making your first $currency will give you a (much needed) morale boost

* If you're just starting out and you're in for the long-term, optimize for learning and building relationships

* _Worthwile Things_ take time

* You probably won't get _it_ right from the first time (whatever _it_ is). It is far more important to keep iterating rather than getting the right answers from the very beginning.

* Most minor decisions won't matter in a few months', let alone in a few years' time. Don't overthink it. Make a fast decision and if necessary, re-evaluate it down the road

* Don't rush to automate tasks

* Build it, and _they_ will do absolutely nothing

* Businesses live and die by their distribution channels

* Running a lean operation (i.e. low-cost) is a competitive advantage

* Having an audience is an unfair advantage

* Writing is a gift that keeps giving. Write more!

* The true validation is people paying you money

After many months (or years?) of procrastinating, I finally published my
personal website ([https://jmstfv.com](https://jmstfv.com)). I have been
meaning to do this for a long time but kept putting it off for various
(artificial) reasons. So, I hand wrote the HTML, copy pasted the CSS from my
other projects, and called it a day.

Lesson learned: start with the least painful solution.

EDIT: added couple more "lessons learned"

~~~
Winterflow3r
So much this: "Build it, and they will do absolutely nothing" Experienced this
personally a few times in the last year.

------
Winterflow3r
I built a colour search engine for lipcolour products that's had a fairly good
response from the beauty community!

Main UI: [http://lipcolourmatch.com/](http://lipcolourmatch.com/)

Map of colourfamilies:
[http://lipcolourmatch.com/colourfamilies](http://lipcolourmatch.com/colourfamilies)

Gallery interface: [http://lipcolourmatch.com/browse-
all](http://lipcolourmatch.com/browse-all)

Main lesson:

* Making money with affiliate models in this space can be hard if you don't already have a big existing audience (ie. from a Youtube channel) - wrote a bit about it here

[https://blog.race-conditions.net/posts/experimenting-with-
th...](https://blog.race-conditions.net/posts/experimenting-with-the-
affiliate-business-model-for-tech-microbusinesses/)

------
wolfadex
This year I've been super productive with Elm and built a few things for the
community:

Elm Resources ([https://wolfadex.github.io/elm-
resources](https://wolfadex.github.io/elm-resources)) - opinionated list of
tutorials and tools for Elm

elm-license-finder ([https://github.com/wolfadex/elm-license-
finder](https://github.com/wolfadex/elm-license-finder)) - tool for listing
elm dependencies

elm-text-adventure ([https://package.elm-lang.org/packages/wolfadex/elm-text-
adve...](https://package.elm-lang.org/packages/wolfadex/elm-text-
adventure/latest)) - package for building text adventures in Elm

Grove ([https://github.com/wolfadex/grove](https://github.com/wolfadex/grove))
- WIP GUI tool for management of Elm projects

Slime Buddy ([https://slime-buddy.netlify.com](https://slime-
buddy.netlify.com)) - A little slime pal that you can take care of (re-wrote
it from JS to Elm)

And I have 2 other projects that aren't quite ready to show. Maybe I'll have
something for 1 of them before the 1st?

------
jeremiecoullon
I built a 3D graph visualisation of the Gypsy Jazz scene around the world
called the DjangoVerse (
[https://www.londondjangocollective.com/djangoverse/](https://www.londondjangocollective.com/djangoverse/)).
I used Django (obviously..), D3, and React.

It shows which players gigged together, and colours the players based on the
country they live in. It's a wiki, so anyone can add themselves or other
players, as well as add a link to a YouTube video to promote their music.

A bunch of people (Gypsy jazz a pretty small world!) added themselves (there
are over 200 players on it now) then it died down.

I also wrote a blog post about the design process:
[https://www.jeremiecoullon.com/2019/11/27/djangoverse/](https://www.jeremiecoullon.com/2019/11/27/djangoverse/)

It was fun and meant I got to learn a bit of React and D3 !

------
jurgenwerk
Synonyms Deluxe ([https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/synonyms-
deluxe/kf...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/synonyms-
deluxe/kfeajncmldifdopobhjlgbhilblhbekd)) - a browser extension for looking up
synonyms

Gitfuck
([https://www.instagram.com/gitfuck/](https://www.instagram.com/gitfuck/)) -
automated Instagram account featuring commit messages of frustrated developers
on GitHub

Windows 95 Accessories
([https://unexpectedcomputers.com/](https://unexpectedcomputers.com/)) -
Windows 95 swag and jewelry

My Handmade Story
([https://myhandmadestory.com/](https://myhandmadestory.com/)) - Success
stories from makers who make and sell handmade products

~~~
Answerawake
If you don't mind revealing, how much Windows 95 swag/jewelry have you sold?

------
vinrob92
I built the following things:

\- A SaaS for productized services
([https://www.manyrequests.com](https://www.manyrequests.com))

\- I wrote a book (in 24 hours) on productized services:
([http://www.productizebook.co](http://www.productizebook.co))

\- I also grew a FB group (Productized Startups) to 1950+ members on the topic
of productized services.

My goal for 2020 for my SaaS is to hit 150 customers or $10k/month in monthly
recurring revenue.

To achieve that goal I plan to:

\- Improve the UI of the SaaS in Q1 and Q2

\- Release one piece of content per day

\- Grow my community of productized startups founders to 4k members

~~~
abrichr
How did you go about building the community? Has it been worth the investment?

~~~
vinrob92
Totally! Building a community has helped me to know what customers wanted.

How I did it: \- Started a small Facebook group, added friends \- Started
connecting on FB with productized service entrepreneurs, added them to the
group \- Mentioned the group in various places (Twitter/Indie Hackers/...)

~~~
abrichr
Interesting, thanks for the info! Did you create a separate account for your
product, or did you just use your personal account? What sort of information
do you post to the group? Thanks again!

------
bussierem
I discovered my love of Elm and pumped out a few super simple apps with it:

Verbly ([https://verbly.3digit.dev/](https://verbly.3digit.dev/)) -- Simple
app for practicing Italian verb conjugations in various ways

Sw/Sh Pokedex ([https://dex.3digit.dev/](https://dex.3digit.dev/)) -- Easy
little app for type matchup information and party-planning for the new Pokemon
Sword/Shield

------
ryanmercer
A relationship, and got engaged. Getting married in May... never thought that
would happen!

Does that count?

~~~
cvaidya1986
Congratulations!

~~~
ryanmercer
Thanks!

------
jodiewyc
A way to visually compare how sites load inside vs. outside China
[https://www.chinafy.com/tools/visual-speed-
test](https://www.chinafy.com/tools/visual-speed-test) !

This tool was built as part of a larger suite of tools that highlight and
resolve the cost performance gaps businesses face when entering the Chinese
market.

------
he11ow
I built some NLP infrastructure, as part of a larger project I'm working on.
Two bits I was fairly pleased with were

1\. Something that takes a line-chart and turns into a word narrative of what
the graph is describing. [https://towardsdatascience.com/financial-
storytelling-using-...](https://towardsdatascience.com/financial-storytelling-
using-time-series-classification-185094f80db5)

2\. Sentiment-tagging (positive/negative) for financial news. Personally, I
don't believe there's a lot of alpha to extract from this, because news
usually lags market information. But A LOT of people believe differently, and
this article shot up on relevant Google searches, way ahead of academic papers
or other sources of authority. [https://towardsdatascience.com/a-new-way-to-
sentiment-tag-fi...](https://towardsdatascience.com/a-new-way-to-sentiment-
tag-financial-news-9ac7681836a7)

------
pramodzion
I created and launched Storry

[https://storry.io/](https://storry.io/)
[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/storry/id1485126254?ls=1](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/storry/id1485126254?ls=1)

~~~
skyyler
Wow, that's everything I like about snapchat without everything I dislike.

Gonna have to try to convince some friends to hop on it.

~~~
pramodzion
That'll be awesome! Yeah, have so many features planned. Will be releasing
updates soon!

------
johnkpaul
I built a prototype of an ingredient list scanner for Keto people. It's still
not launched and I'm sure there's bugs, but I'm hoping that posting this gives
me some motivation. :-)

[https://ketoscanner.site/beta](https://ketoscanner.site/beta)

~~~
ifend
I had this same exact idea a few years ago. Thanks for creating it!

------
reviel
Blook ([https://blook.io](https://blook.io)): Helping US and Foreign
entrepreneurs register their company in the US as an LLC or C-Corp. Go-live
will be on the first :) Particularly looking to work with the latin america
market.

~~~
chrisked
Looks great. Wish you all the best for the go live. We are in the same
business. I do this for Germany with firma.de. Trying my best to increase the
amount of entrepreneurs here.

If you ever want to talk about bundling other service offerings into the
company formation offering let me know. We had our fair share of learnings
there :)

~~~
reviel
I'll definitely take you up on that offer. Thanks for the feedback, I
appreciate it!

------
xojoc
I just released my first product
([https://www.keepmeon.top](https://www.keepmeon.top)). It fetches and filters
content from Reddit, Hacker News, Lobsters, etc. and generates a RSS feed or
sends a periodic email summary.

There are a lot of things to improve, but it's a start...

I also made a little game using TypeScript:
[https://xojoc.pw/games2d/4snakes/](https://xojoc.pw/games2d/4snakes/)

------
DougWebb
I built a new web application front-end to an old warehouse inventory tracking
and catalog management system for a very large corporation everyone is
familiar with. But thanks to the contracting arrangement, I can't talk about
it. Makes it tough to attract new clients.

I made some enhancements in 2019 to my Hacker News reader
([https://webbindustries.com/hackernews](https://webbindustries.com/hackernews)),
but who hasn't made one of those.

------
clintonb
I built a service to help maintain social connections:
[https://getfriendlyreminder.com/](https://getfriendlyreminder.com/).

------
DreamScatter
The Grassmann.jl package provides tools for doing computations based on multi-
linear algebra, differential geometry, and spin groups using the extended
tensor algebra known as Leibniz-Grassmann-Clifford-Hestenes geometric algebra.
Combinatorial products included are ∧, ∨, ⋅, *, ⋆, ', ~, d, ∂ (which are the
exterior, regressive, inner, and geometric products; along with the Hodge
star, adjoint, reversal, differential and boundary operators). The kernelized
operations are built up from composite sparse tensor products and Hodge
duality, with high dimensional support for up to 62 indices using staged
caching and precompilation. Code generation enables concise yet highly
extensible definitions. The DirectSum.jl multivector parametric type
polymorphism is based on tangent bundle vector spaces and conformal projective
geometry to make the dispatch highly extensible for many applications.
Additionally, the universal interoperability between different sub-algebras is
enabled by AbstractTensors.jl, on which the type system is built.

[https://grassmann.crucialflow.com](https://grassmann.crucialflow.com)

------
davibu
An interactive map of internet, or ipv4 block viewer:
[https://ipv4.dev.sarl/](https://ipv4.dev.sarl/)

~~~
troydavis
This is really well done. FYI, in Firefox on macOS, the search box doesn't
seem to do anything for me. I don't see any outputs or requests in the JS
console or network tab.

------
memn0nis
We built a lot, but here are two :)

Talkative (meettalkative.com) - The easier way to interview your users

Referlist (referlist.co) - Increase sign-ups via Robinhood-style referrals

~~~
kanwisher
looks cool, wish it linked to other mailing list providers like SendGrid or
Drip, Mailchimp has some really bad policies and I won't use them anymore.

------
langitbiru
I wrote a book about blockchain programming: [https://www.packtpub.com/big-
data-and-business-intelligence/...](https://www.packtpub.com/big-data-and-
business-intelligence/hands-blockchain-python-developers)

I didn't get rich by writing this book, but it's very useful for networking in
blockchain community. It's like an expensive name card. It also boasts my
reputation.

I developed a blockchain framework called Mamba:
[https://mamba.black](https://mamba.black)

For those who are familiar with blockchain programming, Mamba is like Truffle
but instead of based on Solidity+JavaScript, it is based on Vyper+Python.

For those who are unfamiliar, Mamba is like Ruby on Rails but it's for writing
decentralized / programmable money applications.

My plan for 2020 is to write more tutorial articles in Mamba website and
develop more features in Mamba framework.

For business: I am helping a company build their programming bootcamp (not
related with blockchain).

------
yboris
Released version 2 of my _Video Hub App_ and made it open source too! Search,
browse, and preview videos on your computer :)

[https://videohubapp.com/](https://videohubapp.com/)

[https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App](https://github.com/whyboris/Video-
Hub-App)

~~~
ovx99
So, I bought the app, and am in the process of creating a hub with 27000
videos, about 5 tb worth of videos, using 4 drives symlinked into one folder
:) Let's see how it works!

Initial thoughts:

Would love to see a 'display title of folder' upon hovering on a thumbnail in
compact view. I like compact view more than normal, but without displaying
filenames I can't see what things are.

Would like a way to change the font display/size/formatting of the filename
display somehow, but at least changing the preview sizes increases the font
size of it (it was too small a font size by default for my monitor setup).
Although now I'm getting bigger thumbnails by increasing preview size even if
I only want the font size increased, but better than nothing.

Tabbed hubs with a top bar instead of using recent history on left?

I like how there's such a good variety of search tools.

Love the auto tagger. Would be cool to fiddle with how it works/sensitivity
settings in terms of the threshhold for word frequency/whatever else is
triggering tagging conditions. This could be incredibly useful for ppl with
large libraries.

Since I have so many videos in one hub I'll probably end up wanting additional
sorting/categorizing options. Thinking I'm going to have to do that with file
system folder reorganization and then potentially doing 'show folders' enabled
within Video Hub currently eh? (Or separate hubs for each category I suppose,
maybe I'll end up doing that if this symlink stuff is too unwieldy).

On a related note, it would be cool to add in more autocategorization
functionality like the autotagger, and bundle in sort of 'library organizer'
functionality. A lot of people have tons and tons of videos that are really
difficult to sort/categorize by hand. There's probably some sort of library
management software out there but I haven't looked into it. If you know about
the software Calibre it has all these ebook databases it crosschecks your
files with and then auto-tags/auto-genres/ISBN classifies everything. Not sure
if something like that exists for video files, but there's probably ways of
detecting genre/patterns in the metadata and filename themselves I'd think.

Potentially but also maybe not, a minor bug/unintended functionality is
clicking on a video to 'show similar videos to' plays the video in my default
player. But maybe there's a toggle for single click > double click video
playing that I'd ideally set it to double click because I don't always want to
play a video if I just want to see what's related to it. Can't check the
options panel right now cause I'm at video 9000 in the loading bar of the 27k
total ;p. Another solution for this instead of single/double click would be if
one can just click the text filename it'll show similar videos to without
playing the video whereas clicking the thumbnail just once triggers the play
video. Also that 'similar videos to' has really interesting potential, can see
that also being very useful depending on what triggers a similar condition for
large libraries as well.

Anyways, great software! Will recommend to others. Pleased to find it because
it really does come in handy. Switching over from default Windows File
Explorer to One Commander was also another great thing I did in the past few
weeks that's going to improve my workflow like Video Hub will -- anybody who's
on Windows should really checked out One Commander, I prefer it now to even
directory opus.

~~~
yboris
Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback!

I didn't implement a font-size feature because I thought the 'zoom' would be
good enough -- it resizes the entire UI, but that's a benefit for some people
(my parents for example, or me -- with a 55" 4K monitor I use as my desktop -
but I sit far away).

I _just_ implemented a threshold feature (will be released in 2.1.0 --
probably in January). You can see the PR: [https://github.com/whyboris/Video-
Hub-App/pull/322](https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App/pull/322) \-- I
hope that's what you had in mind.

Another feature I plan to implement is fuzzy search (just have to pick one of
3 libraries to use: [https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-
App/issues/311](https://github.com/whyboris/Video-Hub-App/issues/311) )

Double-click toggle is something others requested -- I'll see if it's easy-
enough to implement. Perhaps single click would then just show similar as you
suggest, while double-click would open.

Just FYI -- all the generated screenshots & thumbnails are based off the
filesize, so when you decide to create a new hub that has a lot of the same
videos (perhaps when you're creating smaller hubs from individual folders from
the symlink one), you could just copy/paste the screenshots and the screen
generation process would go by quicker (the app will just check that the
screenshot exists and move on). After that, when you click the "Any changes"
resscan option - it will delete any screenshots for videos not in the hub.

------
WinonaRyder
I got tired of fighting SSR and implementing the same optimizations over and
over again so decided to launch [http://oya.to/](http://oya.to/) an optimizing
cloud proxy - kinda like Cloudflare. The main feature right now is
prerendering as an alternative to SSR, but there are a lot of things planned
for 2020.

In a similar vein I found myself doing a lot of work that I think should be
unnecessary just because I wanted to buy some fonts and not depend on yet
another subscription service so decided to build
[https://woff.cc/](https://woff.cc/) aka "Web of Fonts". It's currently in the
planning stage but when launched, it will allow you to upload your licensed or
(SIL) free fronts (including all Google fonts already built in), optimize them
(subsets, css embedding, etc.) and either host it there for free or download
and host it yourself.

------
matt_the_bass
I’ve been improving my production process for the wordclocks[0] I build. I’ve
also just barely started to try some basic marketing of them. I sold 2 this
year.

Part of my marketing effort is improving visibility on Etsy and so I’ve
started selling much less expensive items on Etsy too[1]. They are not so much
for the revenue as for the traffic, ratings, and learning how to best use
Etsy. These secondary products are all based on things I’ve designed and made
for/with my young kids.

Two observations:

\- I’ve really enjoyed the path of developing better processes of how to
fabricate things

\- I’ve really enjoyed getting my kids involved with making. It’s fun to
observe them thinking about how to make stuff and working with them to figure
things out (they are 3 and 6).

[0] [http://www.finewordclocks.com](http://www.finewordclocks.com)

[1]
[http://www.etsy.com/shop/FineWordclocks](http://www.etsy.com/shop/FineWordclocks)

------
Axsuul
I built and launched Trunk[1] which is a SaaS that syncs stock levels in real-
time and does other inventory management features for sellers that sell on
multiple platforms (e.g. Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Etsy, Squarespace, Square,
Faire, etc).

1\. [https://trunkinventory.com](https://trunkinventory.com)

------
hobo17
ShowsSpot - [https://showsspot.com](https://showsspot.com) A site to Browse
Disney Plus catalog

Being a Disney fan, I needed to browse Disney plus movies with IMDB rating.
Also, my friends wanted to view Disney plus catalog without registering. This
site serves both of these purpose.

------
rozenmd
I started building PerfBeacon -
[https://PerfBeacon.com](https://PerfBeacon.com) an automated alternative to
manually running Google Lighthouse tests.

I couldn't find a service that could tell me if the latest deploy of my web
app would make it slower, so I decided to build it.

~~~
bellwether
Looks like a cool idea! If this worked like Pingdom, where I could start for
free and then upgrade based on frequency of checks or number of sites / pages,
I’d sign up :)

------
getpixelpal
2019 was not a great year for me, too. However, as a side project I launched a
micro-social networking app for introverts. It's available for both iOS and
Android.

website: getpixelpal.com

To be honest, though, I've fallen out of love with it and I'm considering
shutting it down or making a pivot to something else.

~~~
mendelmaleh
Maybe open source it and let the community take over xD

~~~
getpixelpal
That's a very interesting point. Do you think people from the open-source
community would find this project appealing?

------
RMPR
While it's not mature yet, I started something I had in my mind during a long
time, I called it atbswp
([https://github.com/rmpr/atbswp](https://github.com/rmpr/atbswp)), it
basically allows you to record your mouse and keyboard moves and reproduce
them at will. There's something similar called tinytask unfortunately it's
neither multiplatform nor opensource. Back in time I used it to play
automatically some games (asphalt, plant vs zombies, ...) but I think the
usage can go far beyond that, for example you can use it to test software with
a GUI, to present a demo at a conference, ... It's kinda usable but I need to
polish things up (settings , language, ...)

------
rkwz
Freshlytics - self-hosted open-source privacy-friendly analytics software -
[https://github.com/sheshbabu/freshlytics](https://github.com/sheshbabu/freshlytics)

react-frappe-charts - lightweight (~17KB) React charting library with
TypeScript definitions and Storybook playground -
[https://github.com/sheshbabu/react-frappe-
charts](https://github.com/sheshbabu/react-frappe-charts)

airhealth - mobile webapp to check air quality -
[https://airhealth.now.sh](https://airhealth.now.sh) /
[https://github.com/sheshbabu/airhealth](https://github.com/sheshbabu/airhealth)

------
etherio
I built Metadigest ([http://metadigest.uzpg.me](http://metadigest.uzpg.me)).
It's a weekly newsletter that sends the most popular tech content from around
the web.

I am now working on Devolio ([https://www.devol.io](https://www.devol.io)), a
welcoming community for developers to share and discuss. I am really excited
about letting users custom-design their profile and integrating with Github. I
wrote about what I learned this year and how I got into programming at
[http://uzpg.me/2019/12/28/projects-and-learning-
in-2019.html](http://uzpg.me/2019/12/28/projects-and-learning-in-2019.html)

------
jtap
At the beginning half of this year I finished up an mvp of an idea that I had,
took me a bit of time to build, where I could make it a bit easier for product
managers to get analytics, and saas app feedback
([https://cruisedirector.io](https://cruisedirector.io)). I was hoping to
diversify my income a bit, but I've been pretty busy this year at my day job
and haven't done any marketing or improvements. I have also redirected any
potential customers, that I chatted with while building the app, to my
competition. The competition is absolutely killing it in this space. Hopefully
I can find some time this year to chat with some customers, maybe diversify a
bit, and be able to do a bit of marketing.

~~~
gangstertim
Is the competition you're referring to Pendo?

Your site looks nice. What did you use to build it?

~~~
jtap
Yes, Pendo. The site is just nodejs and a slightly modified html template that
someone posted here a bit ago.

------
needz
I rewrote my social, score-tracking app for Pinball in react-native.
Previously it was in Angularjs (ionic/cordova). Has ~6k registered users, ~300
daily active users, and earns ~$200 a month on Patreon.

Android:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ascrewaske...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ascrewaskew.pindigo2)

iOS: [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pindigo-social-pinball-
scores/...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pindigo-social-pinball-
scores/id1027062831)

Patreon: [https://www.patreon.com/pindigo](https://www.patreon.com/pindigo)

~~~
Solving_Time
Predictive Trading Model with 97% accuracy

~~~
Solving_Time
Completed the model in 2019 ... It took me 22 years to get it right

~~~
qorrect
Can you share any details ? I'm only about a year in , anything helps.

~~~
Solving_Time
Maybe we should meetup at Bocas for a Quant crash course ... :)

~~~
qorrect
Let's do it!

------
CoffeePython
Ottofield ( [https://www.ottofield.io/](https://www.ottofield.io/) )-
Conversational Scheduling for Home Service businesses.

The idea came from being in the trades in my previous career. Companies in the
trades spend a ton of money on advertising but fail to capitalize on a lot of
their incoming leads. We use humans to answer incoming text, fb messenger, and
webchat questions for people like electricians, hvac techs, plumbers, etc.

Long term idea is that as we get more data on how these conversations
typically occur, we can build some ML systems to lower the cost of answering
the questions.

It's still MVP stage right now. Got a few customers and planning on ramping up
marketing in January.

------
victorthehuman
Was tinkering with some hardware and synths, decided it might be fun to expand
the teenage engineering's OP-Z synth capabilities a bit.

It was a fun and frustrating learning experience. First meh prototype with a
Raspberry Pi Zero: [https://victorbitca.github.io/posts/2019/04/creating-an-
op-z...](https://victorbitca.github.io/posts/2019/04/creating-an-op-z-plugin/)

Second prototype based on the Teensy board:
[https://victorbitca.github.io/posts/2019/06/a-proper-op-z-
pl...](https://victorbitca.github.io/posts/2019/06/a-proper-op-z-plugin-
prototype/)

------
ganonm
I released ModularPro, a tool for the Unity game engine to massively improve
the process of assembling modular assets during level design. It started as a
side project and I ended up releasing it in the Unity store. Would be great to
get some feedback from anyone who actually does level design for a living to
see if they think it would be useful for them.

YouTube: [https://youtu.be/MvYTbIU1d-c](https://youtu.be/MvYTbIU1d-c)

Store page: [https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/level-
design/mod...](https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/level-
design/modularpro-level-design-151460)

------
karlicoss
I built promnesia, a browser extension to connect together different data
sources and enhance browser history. E.g. if you visit some blog post or
youtube video you had in your bookmarks, you would be able to tell if it was
coming from your reddit saved posts, or if your friend sent it to you on
telegram. Another feature is displaying annotations from any sources (e.g.
pocket/instapaper);as an overlay on any page

I've been using it for a while now, and just needs final touches before I'll
release it
[https://github.com/karlicoss/promnesia](https://github.com/karlicoss/promnesia)

------
rikroots
I recoded my HTML5 canvas Javascript library from scratch. Partly to add fun
stuff like modules, web workers, promises etc - but mainly because I'm
determined to make the canvas element much more accessible (and easier to add
analytics to, etc) - progress report here:
[http://scrawl-v8-progress-0919.rikworks.co.uk/](http://scrawl-v8-progress-0919.rikworks.co.uk/)

Question: traction numbers? If this is "how many people are using my side
project", I'm fairly sure the answer is "nobody" \- which has the bonus that I
don't need to worry about supporting backwards compatibility.

------
troydavis
I made it easier to opt out of data sharing that no one would have opted in
to: [https://simpleoptout.com/](https://simpleoptout.com/)

Lots of people have. There's now some consequences for customer-unfriendly
data sharing policies, too: someone will notice and you'll get negative press.
It was recently in the NY Times: [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/smarter-
living/privacy-on...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/smarter-
living/privacy-online-how-to-stop-advertiser-tracking-opt-out.html)

------
burritofanatic
I wrote with a friend his memoir about climbing - The Crux: A Climber's Search
For Meaning In Sport, Death, and Change.
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0834P85QG/](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0834P85QG/)

It was a fun project that took a year to write. The programming bit went into
developing a page for pre-orders and fulfillment using stripe and other tools.
But suffice it to say, I liked writing a lot more.

The landing page:
[https://thecrux.rockentry.com/](https://thecrux.rockentry.com/)

------
archivist1
I built a web browser you can deliver through a web browser. Technically a
view layer for a browser you connect to via DevTools. > 500 stars on GitHub.
[https://github.com/dosyago/skateboard](https://github.com/dosyago/skateboard)

I also build a way to archive anything you browse online so you can read it
again offline as if you were still online. > 500 stars on GitHub.
[https://github.com/dosyago/22120](https://github.com/dosyago/22120)

------
richrichardsson
Launched my audio plugins in July, averaged about $1k/month in sales (no idea
if this is good or bad).
[https://bomshankamachin.es](https://bomshankamachin.es)

~~~
whammywon
That's awesome! I've always thought the idea of programming VSTs/VSTIs was
interesting.

Can you link to any resources you used in learning to build them?

~~~
richrichardsson
I used the JUCE framework, which is free for personal/GPL usage (or you can
pay for a closed source license) and gives you cross platform. The examples
are pretty good for getting the basics, there is also The Audio Programmer
YouTube channel that has a lot of content (the only bad thing I would say
about it is that some of the early videos sometimes use bad concepts as it
seems this was a sort of a documentary series for learning plugin programming
for the channel owner). The JUCE community forum is really friendly and
helpful (and there is also a discord channel for TAP). Otherwise search
engines were my main source to learn (mostly to refresh my C++ knowledge), and
I managed to land myself a day job programming a plugin that helped a lot just
by looking at the existing code, but that obviously a very rare occurrence!

~~~
whammywon
Awesome. Congrats on your success, and thank you for your response!

------
mpurham
I was productive this year and was able to build many software apps from
dashboards to video apps.

I built: \- Software at [https://mattebot.co](https://mattebot.co) \- Revamped
[https://marcell.me](https://marcell.me) (native iOS, macOS development) \-
[https://focuswindow.app](https://focuswindow.app) (improves productivity by
allowing you to focus on the task at hand).

------
robodale
I created a Google Chrome extension to create and manage work orders (a
slightly enhanced version of an invoice). General info:
[https://WorkOrderSnap.com](https://WorkOrderSnap.com) Link to extension:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/workordersnap-
work...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/workordersnap-work-
order/pinejepediiidhifedmbagphemchghom)

EDIT: Built almost entirely in Vue.js :)

------
kfarr
I wrote Magic Matta, an artistic experiment to merge the real and virtual
worlds using toys as controllers.

Repo: [https://github.com/kfarr/magic-matta/](https://github.com/kfarr/magic-
matta/)

Write-up: [https://medium.com/@kfarr/creating-magic-matta-for-
the-2019-...](https://medium.com/@kfarr/creating-magic-matta-for-
the-2019-1-gray-area-showcase-37df8f5d8aa0)

------
abrichr
Construpdate ([http://construpdate.com/](http://construpdate.com/)): Project
management synchronization for construction teams.

Project managers import a project schedule from Primavera P6 or Microsoft
Project via Excel. Each contractor gets a personalized link where they can
submit daily updates on the status of their tasks. All changes are tracked for
auditing purposes.

It's a work in progress, comments and suggestions are welcome!

------
louisv
I built [https://www.ecommerceranker.com](https://www.ecommerceranker.com) in
this last month.

It's an interactive database of the top 100 Shopify stores, with 19+
e-commerce data points available for each one.

I'm really happy that the average time spent on the website is over 4 minutes
and 30 seconds - I never expected people to be this interested, so now I'm
thinking of ways to expand this idea.

------
joelrunyon
I launched [https://ultimatemealplans.com](https://ultimatemealplans.com)
after a bunch of checkout issues over the summer.

I also launched the web version of
[https://movewellapp.com](https://movewellapp.com)

Planning on a new site launch of
[https://impossiblehq.com](https://impossiblehq.com) on Jan 1

------
mrieck
SnipCSS ([https://www.snipcss.com](https://www.snipcss.com)) -- webdev tool to
copy styles of a portion of a webpage

SuperAnimo ([https://www.superanimo.com](https://www.superanimo.com)) - free
cartoon video maker I've been working on for years, recently made the
publishing more user-friendly

Neither project has any traction or sales.

------
realgabriel
I built my first side project.

www.itswinwinboardgames.com

It takes your wishlist from BGG and analyses the geek market looking for the
best prices for each board game in it.

I built it mainly with Python+Flask+Bulma, an all new tech stack for me, and I
use it almost daily, because who doesn't like to find some bargains.

All in all, 95% of the advice floating around about how to start something is
on point and I encourage everyone to launch THAT idea in 2020.

------
alashley
I built gymmr, an app that let's people meet at the gym based on their diets
and fitness routines:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrelashl...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andrelashley.gymmr)

My plan in 2020 is to focus much more on the marketing side of things

------
noone_youknow
I started building this in January and am at the point of sending out for
prototype PCBs:
[https://github.com/roscopeco/rosco_m68k](https://github.com/roscopeco/rosco_m68k)
\- MC68010-based single-board computer

I can really recommend a project like this as the opportunities for learning
are vast!

------
quickthrower2
If your exercise plan includes stretches or weight training try out this
unusual timer I built: [https://stretchtimer.com](https://stretchtimer.com)

Source: [https://github.com/mcapodici/stretch-
timer](https://github.com/mcapodici/stretch-timer)

------
eivarv
Cleave ([https://cleave.app](https://cleave.app))

Kind of a project-feature / workspace-switcher for macOS. Facilitates human
context switching by allowing you to save and load all open applications and
their state (open windows, tabs, etc.)

Not entirely finished - open beta pretty soon.

------
kyle_v
[https://farmsbeforepharmacies.com](https://farmsbeforepharmacies.com) a hemp
marketplace (ongoing)

[https://graphql-test-suite.herokuapp.com/help](https://graphql-test-
suite.herokuapp.com/help) a GUI for testing graphql apis

------
ve55
Tagmap ([https://tagmap.io/](https://tagmap.io/)) - allows communities to have
a map of their members and easily message people nearby or similar to you to
make new friends. Currently have a few thousand MAU, hoping to pick this up
significantly in 2020.

~~~
nkrisc
Looked around and clicked the tag that had a few thousand users (because
everything else was a hundred or less) and the few near me were bizarre NSFW
shock value profiles. Is that normal for this?

~~~
ve55
There's been a few malicious users here and there and some interesting
communities, we usually remove them pretty quickly, especially when they're
reported. I'll do a check right now and try to remove whatever it was you
stumbled across, thanks!

We're also working on a more robust system to filter content that some users
might not want to see, although anything extreme should be removed either way.

~~~
nkrisc
It could also be the community. For example, I don't know what "r9k" means but
it's far and away the one with the most users. Considering the number of 4chan
related tags I saw maybe it's something unsavory.

~~~
ve55
Yeah, quite a few users on that site have been using it. I'm hoping to get
more adoption from independent forums and Reddit in 2020.

~~~
nkrisc
Very cool concept though. And congrats on launching it all the same.

~~~
ve55
Thanks! It's difficult to get the product to be right for so many varying
types of use cases and communities, but hopefully we'll get a lot of traction
either way.

------
soulchild37
Numberer - [https://pdfpagenumber.com](https://pdfpagenumber.com) , a native
Mac app to add page number to PDF files, I did this in a few days (main
function is just one for loop that loop through each page).

It earns me daily coffee money haha

------
abinaya_rl
Built Remote Leaf ([https://remoteleaf.com](https://remoteleaf.com)) - We
hand-pick thousands of remote jobs and send you a personalized remote jobs
list based on your country/timezone and skills. reply

------
krapp
For some reason they keep letting me mess with Anarki[0], so I do.

[0][https://github.com/arclanguage/anarki/commits?author=kenneth...](https://github.com/arclanguage/anarki/commits?author=kennethrapp)

------
heycesr
Tomorrow I’ll be launching [https://typehut.com](https://typehut.com), a super
simple publishing platform for blogs, changelogs, newsletters, announcements,
etc that I’ve been building during this last month.

~~~
titanicwasahoax
Do you have any examples? I like the idea but I don't know what the end
product will look like.

~~~
heycesr
Sure! Just created this example site with some dummy content:
[https://example.typehut.com/](https://example.typehut.com/)

Right now there's only one template available, but I plan on adding custom
templating mid-January.

(It's fully functional btw, so don't hesitate and sign up!)

------
jzting
JMBL, a word game for iOS ([https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jmbl-word-puzzle-
game/id124873...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jmbl-word-puzzle-
game/id1248738929?ls=1))

------
khallyb
I built out my idea for a VR urban planning tool earlier this year & more
recently I built a network based music recommendation system as part of a
hackathon project. I’m still in school but hackathons really help keep my
creativity flowing!

------
andrewmcwatters
I released version 9 of Planimeter's Grid Engine, the largest pure Lua game
engine on GitHub. [https://www.planimeter.org/grid-
sdk/](https://www.planimeter.org/grid-sdk/)

------
_booty
Me and a friend built [https://xbuddy.app/](https://xbuddy.app/) a website to
help you keep track of your crossfit PRs (cause that is something you do
apparently)

------
wooolfgang
Currently building
[http://staging.thegigatlas.com/](http://staging.thegigatlas.com/), a gig
marketplace with a built in freelance/remote-workers community

------
searcheye
I decided to build out my “automated” SEO agency, myseosucks.com. It’s been
quite the rollercoaster ride but super exciting to see when clients / agencies
on-board themselves and can self-manage the SEO process.

------
lmiller1990
I released my first iOS app! Shirabe - a Japanese/English dictionary that
combines spaced repetition, periodically reminding me of new words I leaned.
Https://Shirabe.app for anyone interested :)

------
astrikos
I added 3 generator tools for artists to my website on
[https://artres.xyz](https://artres.xyz)! Helped me learn how to implement JS
libraries into my static site.

------
JoeCortopassi
In a similar vein, try this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=21918450](https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=21918450)

------
snisarenko
I built: [https://www.emailmynotes.com/](https://www.emailmynotes.com/)

Its a simple hack, and a niche use case. But I enjoyed building it.

------
austincheney
A peer to peer file system sharing application with GUI in browser

~~~
jlevers
While my knowledge of IPFS is pretty basic, this strikes me as a great use
case for it.

IPFS ([https://ipfs.io](https://ipfs.io)) is a P2P internet protocol that's
made to enable a decentralized internet...I believe its goal is to supplant
(or at least supplement) HTTP(S). As I said, my knowledge of IPFS is still
pretty basic, but I find it fascinating and I thought it might be relevant for
this application.

~~~
austincheney
I am probably wrong but my understanding is that IPFS is an addressing scheme.
While it can be private or peer to peer it can also be public. As an
addressing scheme it continues to follow the web’s client-server model. A
client-server model on the web is inherently public and anonymous.

A dedicated peer to peer system focused on privacy has no server and no third
party. Instead the model is client-client without third party routing. Privacy
is then achieved because connections are direct, in an application layer
sense, between nodes and each node is a client running the same application in
the same way. This is always confidential and never anonymous. This is
achieved because there is no application layer addressing used at all, not
even DNS.

Think about it more in terms of a shared disk drive on a private network
mapped to a local file system address instead of a web location.

------
badmon
Playlistor([https://playlistor.io](https://playlistor.io)) -- A simple Apple
Music to Spotify playlist converter.

------
dr_j_
An interpreted programming language
[https://github.com/benhj/arrow](https://github.com/benhj/arrow)

(Ongoing)

------
sidwyn
Kyrie.fm ([https://kyrie.fm](https://kyrie.fm)) – We help podcasters build
communities around their podcast.

------
buboard
a few things

[https://joybuddies.com](https://joybuddies.com) (warning: comic sans)

[https://reworkin.com](https://reworkin.com)

[https://pinplz.com](https://pinplz.com)

[https://opensimworld.com](https://opensimworld.com) (older, but redesigned
this year)

------
networkid
[https://santa.cash](https://santa.cash) \- Crowdfounding platform for
Christmas presents

------
mariushop
[https://textmine.co](https://textmine.co) \- text mining in the browser

------
rrrrrraul
fgBlox - an OSX Safari Extension. Prevents common ad-trackers from loading.

[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fgblox/id1460509929?mt=12](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fgblox/id1460509929?mt=12)

------
episage
NextPage chrome extension to automatically append next page when you reach end
of the page

~~~
ovx99
Any plans or know of any alternatives for firefox?

------
jlu
Stateskit.com

A visual statecharts editor, aiming to help with state management for frontend
apps.

------
milanchheda
jobs-uae.com - Job Aggregator to help job seekers find their dream
opportunities in UAE 🇦🇪

------
bneumann
I built some gears from
scratch:[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16yXRcZ04IGCZ0I9iUXS...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16yXRcZ04IGCZ0I9iUXS3okhpLio6U4m)
I built a really nifty steampunk floor lamp:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16yXRcZ04IEZqlddjFac...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16yXRcZ04IEZqlddjFac3Gv8Kjv9Gjkz)
And I elecrified my 20 ton shop press using a junk/recycled paint sprayer as a
pressure pump. That was a lot of fun:
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16yXRcZ04IF5T99iStpb...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16yXRcZ04IF5T99iStpbCjs_aevBdmD0)

