

Show HN: My collection of web-apps that I'm finally comfortable in sharing - chime
https://zetabee.com/

======
chime
I made these for personal use and have been working on them for about a year.
I always feel like my apps are incomplete but I think they are functional in
their current form. I appreciate any feedback/criticism.

E2V: I use this to get calls when one of my servers go down and whenever my
PayPal account is hit. It's a little difficult to setup for regular users
(email filters aren't commonly used) but it is pretty reliable. It uses Twilio
and Cloudmailin.net. I just created an HN coupon for 5 additional calls:
<https://zetabee.com/e2v/?coupon=hackernews>

Text: I use this constantly to note down and plan everything. E.g. here's how
I note down random ideas:
[https://zetabee.com/text/share?n=1058338736&h=MU54djV5VF...](https://zetabee.com/text/share?n=1058338736&h=MU54djV5VFRGVkE2YjZhbXlkQ2tsZz09)

CashFlow: This app enabled me to plan my departure from my old job without
going into a financial crisis. It has a slight learning curve but once you get
used to it, you can plan your finances very easily. I run hypothetical
scenarios with my wife all the time - can we afford a house worth X in
October? Should she switch to part time and get a 2nd contract? How much can
we spend on a vacation and when?

~~~
boyter
The text implementation is quite nice. I wish I had seen it before I did this,
<https://github.com/boyter/BATF>

One issue I had with it though is I am unable to cut/copy paste multiple rows
inside it using standard keyboard shortcuts, but other then that very
impressed.

EDIT - For the cashflow, I dont suppose you can add the option to not use pie
charts? I find them so deceptive when looking at figures.

~~~
chime
For multiple rows, press Control+Shift+C, V, X. Since I allowed for autosizing
textareas which can store multi-line data, I didn't want to override the
normal Control+C/V. shortcuts.

~~~
boyter
No dice, since I have Clip-X installed and bound to that shortcut. Glad to
hear you have that functonality in there though. It would have been a
dealbreaker for me otherwise.

I will have a go at using it as a replacement for my BATF for a while and see
how it goes. Thanks for releasing this!

~~~
chime
I just realized you could do Control+Alt+Shift+C/V because of how I
implemented the keyboard events. I know it's quite annoying to press 4 keys at
once but at least it would work.

I've used a text-file myself for years but finally made this last year because
I wanted features like access from any PC, sharing, and collapsing that didn't
get reset all the time.

~~~
johnnyg
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + X worked for me on a Macbook Pro/Snow Leopard/Chrome

------
joshu
Really great stuff.

I don't suppose you are looking for a job?

~~~
saturdayplace
Chime, in case you're unaware, you _definitely_ want to at least consider an
employment offer from joshu (the creator of delicious).

~~~
joshu
Thank you for the endorsement.

------
lamppost
Funny that no one has mentioned E2V. It's the only one that hit the 'I wanted
to do that' criteria for me. I think the lesson is that you need to work hard
to educate your user to get it to catch on. Think of specific killer use
cases. I would recommend going to the nearest business school during interview
season and posting a bunch of flyers that say something like "We'll call you
when you get the email that's going to change your life". Maybe target med
school applicants similarly, anyone who's checking their email every 5 minutes
waiting for the big one. Don't target developers, they already know how to
forward emails to text message. This is also the easiest to monetize without
charging. If people give you 5 email addresses, the domains may well give you
insight into what they care about most. Targeting advertising rocket fuel
(applying to Goldman, are we?).

~~~
chime
You're absolutely right. Setting up email filters or even realizing why
someone would need E2V is not easy to grasp for most typical end-users. I love
coding and designing but sales & marketing is something I haven't spent much
time on. ZetaBee isn't a startup for me at this point (<http://ktype.net> is
my full-time project) so I haven't even thought of how I'd monetize/market
ZetaBee. Only reason I even added a PayPal purchase option to E2V is so I
don't go broke when someone gets 10000 emails sent to their phone.

------
AdamGibbins
These are really awesome, thanks for sharing. Expecially liking Cash Flow,
though I have two feature requests:

* I'd like to plan multiple scenarios at once, so the ability to save, create new and duplicate different cash flows would be useful.

* I'd like the ability to move multiple rows at once quicker.

* I'd like you to monetise this so I don't feel guilty requesting things, I'd happily pay an upfront fee (pinboard.in style?).

Thanks!

~~~
chime
All the things you mentioned are in the pipeline if there is enough interest
in this app (and judging from this thread, it looks like there is). Feel free
to keep using the app. In time, I will add these as paid features. I want the
multiple what-if scenario feature myself.

~~~
AdamGibbins
Thanks! Keep up the awesome work.

------
jpastika
Chime, I admire and thank you for letting the HN community take a look at your
creations. As a developer, I know I am sometimes reluctant to let my peers see
what I'm working on. I really like the simplicity of TEXT and can't wait to
try out Email to Voice. I'm about to launch a public application that I have
been working on for about a year and will set up a filter to have Email to
Voice call me when someone signs up! Here's to hoping my phone rings a lot,
and to your continued hacking and success.

------
huhtenberg
_Text_ is incredible. It is simple, unobtrusive and everything just works the
way one would expect it to. I know how hard it is to design something as
clean, simple and functional as Text, so - Great job, Chirag. Thank you for
sharing this, made my day.

------
dannyr
Chime,

Shameless plug: Check out Profile.io. We built this mainly for developers to
show the apps/projects they are working on.

Here's the invite link: <http://profile.io/invite/HACKERNEWS>

~~~
guynamedloren
Shamless rip of about.me, also.

~~~
dannyr
Our pitch: About.me for developers.

~~~
guynamedloren
This saddens me. I understand the need for such a service, but refuse to take
you seriously with such a blatant disregard for originality and uniqueness.
Next time a website inspires you, please don't copy + paste.

~~~
dannyr
copy & pasted what?

can you point out any of our code from about.me?

~~~
m0tive
I think you would have a better argument if the sites graphic design didn't
appear to copy <http://about.me>

------
sangaya
Thanks for sharing! The apps look great and work like I would expect them to.

You've also reinforced the notion that "ideas are worthless, execution is
everything". I have had a near mirror of your CashFlow screen on my home
office whiteboard since November. I kept saying, "I'll work on that after this
semester.." or "I'll focus on that after this major project wraps up at
work.." now I find myself saying, "Guess I'll use CashFlow by chime!"

~~~
chime
If you had made yours before mine, I'd certainly be using your version. I only
make something because nobody else has.

------
johnnyg
I poked around ZetaBee Text for the last 5 minutes and am getting excited. I
liked the concept, but not the keyboard shortcut style of workflowy.com. This
is way closer.

The "How This Works" section is great. I got moving fast.

One gripe (or perhaps an oversight). I can ctrl + select a lot of lines, but I
can't delete them. I think the concept here is that I can just collapse
things, which mostly I'd do, but there are times when only delete will do and
I don't see a way to accomplish this task.

Specifically, I renamed the first sheet "HowItWorks" in an attempt to keep the
instructions in case I forget. I went to delete the two example sections below
and could not.

------
codeslush
Dang - you're an app churning machine! I just looked at your profile and
checked out all your projects....WOW! Talk about some achievements.

GREAT JOB with these apps! I especially like Text and CashFlow. Very, very
usable.

------
krmmalik
Thank you for putting this together. Cashflow is brilliant. I've always been
looking for cashflow functionality in online personal finance apps like
Mint/LoveMoney/WeSabe etc, but this app does exactly what i need it to do.

The best bit is, i always struggle to put my own spreadsheet together to
workout the cashflow, so for people like me who need help with the
underpinnings, this is a great solution.

Thanks again

------
AdamGibbins
Text request: Ability to cross items off, sometimes I want to mark things as
done but not totally erase their history. This allows me to review my progress
at the end of the week etc and its also fairly satisfying to see stuff that
you've completed. Add this as an option if you're worried about feature bloat.

Email To Voice request: Support for UK phone numbers, happy to pay extra for
this.

~~~
chime
Text: I've wanted to add check/cross off feature since I built Text. The
previous incarnation of Text ( <http://untodos.com> ) had that as an important
feature. The problem is how does one log nested completed tasks and show them
to the user in a readable format. Say you have 3 nested task: Wedding >
Arrange Flowers > Setup florist appointment and you check off the middle or
the bottom one. What do I log/show you later when you want to review your
checked lists? I thought about logging everything from a task up to the top
most parent but that could get weird.

E2V: I just have to dig into Twilio API and then figure out the pricing plan.
I've added this to my todo list. Thanks!

------
Breefield
These are great! Specifically Cash Flow. I've often wished I had an app on had
to see what my cash flow will look like in 20 days, or 30.

~~~
chime
I love the CashFlow app myself as a user. I originally made a non-VBA-code
Excel file ( <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/111770/CashFlow.xls> ) to do the same
thing and used it for a while before turning it into a web-app. The web-app is
faster but the Excel was a lot more fun to make.

~~~
josh33
Man, that excel sheet was so good I'm ashamed of mine. Great work all around.
I'm loving Cash Flow so far. QuickenOnline used to have a similar feature, but
this is way better. I use "You Need A Budget" to plan and budget, but Cash
Flow is way better at forecasting.

------
boxedin
Wow I was just thinking I needed something similar to your text app earlier.
That is perfect! Cashflow will be handy too!

Thanks a lot.

EDIT: Is there an option to clear a whole sheet? and in the cashflow, you only
allow the american format of dates.

Oh and with cashflow, how is someone meant to handle long term use? Update
their own balance?

~~~
chime
I will add options to clear/disable specific rows or entire sheet (with
confirmation). I'll see if there is an easy way to switch the date formats at
the client-side.

You do have to update the balances manually but if you have something like
Mint, that takes minutes. I update the balances any time I want to review my
finances. It seems simpler than having users add their bank accounts etc. like
Mint.

~~~
boxedin
Definitely better than adding a real bank account. I can't use Mint because
it's not in my country. (I am in Ireland).

------
mberning
Very nice apps. I like the simplicity and focus. I can definitely see myself
using these, especially the cash flow app.

------
bk
Text is really a great lightweight outliner implementation.

Indenting works for multiple rows at once, but moving them up/down does not.
This would be a key feature for reorganizing nested outline sections.

Also, since I just used the demo, does sharing allow others to edit or only to
view?

~~~
chime
Indenting multiple rows by dragging gets complex and I want to make sure it is
stable across the various browsers before I push that feature. For now, it's
pretty easy to select rows and copy/cut paste them. I use that feature all the
time (with keyboard shortcuts mostly).

As of right now, sharing allows others to only view, not edit.

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troels
Text is impressive. That's exactly how I write freeform notes in my text
editor. Not sure if I could get used to using a web app for this, but I might
give it a try. I think perhaps the toolbars are a bit distracting - a more
minimalistic design would be suitable for this kind of application.

------
ses
These are really nice and I like the style, I'm particularly impressed with
the cash flow one.

I would even say you're too harsh on yourself in thinking your apps are
incomplete, compared to many other freely available web apps I'd say they're
actually very well rounded.

------
jhuckabee
These are really great apps. I especially like Cashflow and Text.

I'm not sure how many times I've recreated a similar spreadsheet that I was
never quite satisfied with and never did the awesome that you've implemented
in Cashflow.

Great work and thanks for sharing.

~~~
chime
If you want a spreadsheet, here's the precursor to my CashFlow webapp:
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/111770/CashFlow.xls>

------
macmac
Looks great. I especially like Text. An export option would be great (maybe
.org, .md and pdf).

~~~
chime
I have export on my todo list. For now, try clicking History. You can copy-
paste from that. You can also share a node + subnodes and copy-paste from that
or print to PDF. The shared note page prints very cleanly.

------
ilconsigliere
Great stuff.

How about using the pricing model of pinboard.in for each app? I'd sign up :)

------
tianyicui
Just tried ZetaBee Text, it's really great! Switched from WorkFlowy.

Feedback:

1\. Why you have to limit length of the title?

2\. Please add line-based bold, italic and color support. When list gets long
I really needed them!

------
zcksjdn
Just spent a couple minutes in CashFlow and I'm looking forward using it more.
I set up an account with Mint a while ago hoping I could do something similar
but this is just so much better for what I wanted to do.

~~~
chime
I am a heavy Mint user myself. I track my past expenses using their tools. I
use CashFlow to predict my future balances. Just remember to manually update
you current balances (bank, credit card) on CashFlow any time you want to do
any form of analysis. It takes a minute or two for me to update my balances
(login to Mint, refresh, copy-paste balances).

------
gm
Excellent.

Interested in what you think is the next level for these apps.

EDIT: I should have said "next step" instead of "next level"

~~~
chime
If there is enough interest in CashFlow, I will make it easy to run multiple
what-if scenarios (premium/paid feature). I do it all the time myself but it
takes a bit of manual labor. I think it would be cool if you could just drag-
drop-slide numbers and see real-time charts. Having an optimistic, realistic,
and conservative view would be good too.

There's not much I think needs to be done for E2V. It's pretty simple and does
what I need easily. It already supports multiple users/emails/phones under a
single account.

For Text, I want to improve sharing. Right now it's just a read-only share of
a specific note + subnotes but maybe I can make multi-user editing (kinda like
Etherpad). The history feature works well but I want to make it as easy as
using undo. Maybe an option to have more than 10 notes. Right now you can drag
the notes left-right to organize them but some people have asked for the
ability to archive old notes. There is no 'check off' button or log of
completed tasks either. I've never need to go back to check anything but some
users have asked for it.

------
JonoW
Excellent work Chime. Do you have any plans to try and generate income from
your apps, or are they just a fun side project?

~~~
chime
I might make premium paid features when I get some time. For now, they are
just fun (and useful for me personally) side projects.

------
learner4life
I love CashFlow and Text. Many places pay bi-weekly, so you might want to add
that to your frequency drop down list.

~~~
chime
You can make it 'week' and put 2 in the frequency. I have gas set as 3 weeks
because that's usually how it ends up being for me.

~~~
learner4life
I ended up doing that. It is just that its a commonly used frequency.

------
chubs
Good on you for launching. Congratulations, i hope you make a nice bit of
money for your efforts :)

------
maguay
Thanks chime7, I really like your Text app and will have to go give CashFlow a
try! Great work!

------
racerrick
I really like these. Thank you for sharing.

------
thekevan
Very nice! What did you use to build these?

~~~
chime
Mostly JS/JQuery on front-end and PHP/MySQL back-end. Nothing out of the
ordinary.

~~~
thekevan
Thanks for the inspiration to keep moving!

------
sushumna
Would like to hear from you how you could realize Zetabee alone through your
blog chir.ag

