Ask HN: What are you hacking these holidays? - zakshay
======
caleblloyd
Adding rule-based sticky routing to the Traefik reverse proxy. The idea is to
write rules to route all requests matching a certain URL, query string, or
HTTP header to the same backend server.

This would allow for caching or synchronization in a distributed application
to happen in memory on an app server instead of always going back to the
database or Redis.

[https://github.com/containous/traefik/pull/2613](https://github.com/containous/traefik/pull/2613)

------
1mike12
Even though I know I should focus on my simple projects, what I can't wait to
get back to is this on demand/ peer to peer "micro consulting" marketplace. I
want to be able to get help in home maintenance, car repair, or any other real
world query and get someone to show up and guide me through it via a video
call. Even though we now have great diy websites and YouTube videos about just
about everything, it's one directional. If you have a specific question or if
your situation is slightly different, then you're in for hours of digging
around, or giving up.

It's also fun to make use of new technologies I don't get to play with at work
like webrtc,react native, node etc

------
is0tope
I'll be working on finishing off a small practice project for viewing
cryptocurrency mentions vs price on reddit.
[http://bitreddit.com](http://bitreddit.com)

------
roryisok
Porting FlatNote, my text/md based OneNote/ evernote alternative to mac.

Notes are stored in dropbox as plain text files. The app itself is basically
just a markdown editor with a file tree, autosave and a list of recent files.

I'm currently playing around with various display modes for content, so if it
sees a list it will render checkboxes which can be tapped to mark an item as
~complete~

My philosophy is that everything should be 100% open on the platform so you
can just walk away with your data with minimal effort. FlatNote files will
always be readable as markdown by any other app with no 'export' required

------
unrealornament
I am working on a web based successor to the Kid Pix painting program that I
loved as a kid. I hope today's kids love it just as much!

------
kiwijamo
Not sure if it counts. I'm working on making public several hundreds (if not
thousands) of photos of cell sites from around the world (but mostly in my
home country of New Zealand). Using Caddy as a webserver. Pages will be in
plain Markdown (which Caddy will render into HTML along with a reference to my
homegrown CSS). Not sure yet where I'll host it but perhaps in a Hyper.io
container or in a VPS I already have running for other sites. Photos will be
hosted on Backblaze B2. Nice simple project that I've been putting off for
years.

------
ar-nelson
Building a new programming language, Jaspr: [https://github.com/ar-
nelson/jaspr](https://github.com/ar-nelson/jaspr)

It's not nearly done enough for its own HN post yet, but it's coming together
slowly. Still working on the standard library and documentation.

------
askafriend
To be honest, the very last thing I want to do when I'm on vacation is to
code...

I'm a professional software engineer, I do it enough day to day.

~~~
hxnjxn
Yes.

------
AngeloAnolin
Not sure if this counts as hacking, but I am targeting to learn Elm. Starting
with the Elm: Getting Started [11] pluralsight course by Mike Van Sickle.

[1] [https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/elm-getting-
started](https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/elm-getting-started)

------
pcmaffey
Finally getting some time to dedicate to my 5 minute word game:

[https://www.pcmaffey.com/01100111011000010110110101100101](https://www.pcmaffey.com/01100111011000010110110101100101)

~~~
eat_veggies
That's a really great game! I've definitely played a game a lot like this
before (same hexagon concept too) but this is executed so well. The end-game
poetry is brilliant!

------
tranvu
Nothing new for me. Just trying to decouple some components from my side
project from a year ago.

For those interested, this is a JS/React project.

The app is an open-source version of Alfred built on top of Electron/React --
[https://github.com/vutran/dext](https://github.com/vutran/dext)

While it's very difficult at the moment to work on the app itself, I decided
to just extract the search component to be reused elsewhere so I've started
building Omnibar
([https://github.com/vutran/omnibar](https://github.com/vutran/omnibar)).

~~~
zanedb
Can't wait for Windows/Linux support!

------
lawrencewu
I'm working on better automation and alerts for my newsletter, Daily Coding
Problem ([https://dailycodingproblem.com/](https://dailycodingproblem.com/)).
Specifically, I set up a bot on Slack and now I want it to message each day's
stats (emails sent, open rate, click rate) as well as notify on events
(subscribe/unsubscribe, email).

I'm also working on a new landing page!

------
hxta98596
Our website promoting local short-term small businesses like popup shops and
food trucks and "summer businesses" launches January 1.

Our first feature story is an article and podcast interview about the
Christmas tree store popup business.

We are working on several feature stories about "summer businesses" that
people like school teachers start and run during summer holiday months before
going back to their "real" job in September.

------
malux85
I’m playing with some weird ideas I’ve had for Q-Learning, not sure they will
work, but it’s time to play. I’m finihing up some satellite imagery stuff to
go into my product [https://hydrachain.io/](https://hydrachain.io/) and I
bought Id spend a bit more time reading Quantum Computing since Democratis
because I’m finding it quite a challenging book and I love it

------
matchmike1313
Working on an in-app PDF viewer in a react side project. I am working with
PDF.js and experimenting with tracking page views, per page views, and total
time interacted with a document. Once I have that initial data I would like to
use some nice charts from ReCharts to really make the data look pretty.

------
pascalxus
I'll be working on my Test Case automation service. It'll make play/record web
testing a breeze.

[https://swif.club/?s=hw](https://swif.club/?s=hw)

~~~
mikgan
that landing page is pretty sparse on information, and the only next page is a
sign up page. Spend the holidays organising your landing page(s)

~~~
pascalxus
Thanks for the actionable feedback!

------
binarynate
This isn’t holiday-specific, but over the next week I’ll be knocking out more
features that are currently missing from my VR web browser app for iOS and
Android: [https://www.viewport.org](https://www.viewport.org)

------
SirLJ
Trying to see if there is a sports betting opportunity in NHL with the new
rules generating more goals... newer bet on a sports event in my life until a
week ago, so it looks fun...

------
rufius
This is a non-answer but in reality - not a damn thing.

Been working really hard lately so it’s time to recharge and read a couple
books.

------
DoreenMichele
Version number 3 of this project with a new name and new organization of info
based on a clearer conceptualization. I am fairly pleased with this take on
it:

[http://worldwidewebworks.blogspot.com](http://worldwidewebworks.blogspot.com)

------
anthk
Playing with C, flite 2.0 API (really easy) and Frotz. Hope I can create a TTS
enabled z-code interpreter soon.

------
jwho82
Picking away at Symfony 4, Ionic 3 and finishing up some Quickbooks
integrations with my time tracking SaaS.

------
pascalxus
I got tired of building side projects that never get used by anyone, so I'm
taking a market first approach.

If anyone is interested in reading about Nutritional density to find out what
foods have the highest nutrient count per calorie, check out:
[https://kale.world](https://kale.world)

~~~
tonyarkles
I read it top to bottom and found it super interesting. I appreciate the
normalization factor!

I'm chuckling a bit though. "Nutrients per calorie" is a fantastic metric, but
then I got to wondering... "How much spinach is necessary to reach 200 cal?"
[http://www.caloriegallery.com/foods/calories-in-
spinach.htm](http://www.caloriegallery.com/foods/calories-in-spinach.htm)
suggests that it'd be 870g! Almost 2lb! That's a _lot_ of spinach to eat.

So is the ultimate goal to be able to put together daily meal plans that
ensure you hit all your micro requirements?

~~~
pascalxus
Yup, that's exactly right. I'd like to build a tool that puts together meal
plans that help people meet their nutrition goals. But, I thought I'd build up
an audience first, to see if there's interest.

Yes 2 LBS of spinach is a lot. At costco they sell those 2.5 lb bags and their
pretty big. But, keep in mind, if you boil it down in a big pot, 1 lb of
spinach isn't so insurmountable, as the spinach becomes really small: best of
all it only takes a minute of cooking.

------
jwdunne
I have a laptop coming after Christmas. I've got plans to pick up Elm,
practice some of my core fundamentals and help my sister's e-commerce
business.

------
mipmap04
I'll be launching my phishing simulation SaaS in a week or so:
www.phishero.com

------
newusertoday
virtual keyboard for amazon fire tv on mac

------
chadbaud
Trying to figure out how to market my side project.
[https://www.printpost.co](https://www.printpost.co)

Any suggestions welcome.

~~~
eat_veggies
You could buy some Instagram ads or run some promotions (e.g. "post a picture
with the hashtag #printpost for a chance to get it printed").

------
gvb
Zynq MiniZed
[http://zedboard.org/product/minized](http://zedboard.org/product/minized)

My plan is to implement my own version of a neopixel driver to learn VHDL.

Ref:

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 37: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED
arrays with MicroZed Part 8 [https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-
Blog/Adam-Taylor-s-...](https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-
Taylor-s-MicroZed-Chronicles-Part-37-Driving-Adafruit-RGB/ba-p/476332)

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 36: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED
arrays with MicroZed Part 7 [https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-
Blog/Adam-Taylor-s-...](https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-
Taylor-s-MicroZed-Chronicles-Part-36-Driving-Adafruit-RGB/ba-p/472854)

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 35: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED
arrays with MicroZed Part 6 [https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-
Blog/Adam-Taylor-s-...](https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-
Taylor-s-MicroZed-Chronicles-Part-35-Driving-Adafruit-RGB/ba-p/471438)

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 34: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED
arrays with MicroZed Part 5 [https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-
Blog/Adam-Taylor-s-...](https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-
Taylor-s-MicroZed-Chronicles-Part-34-Driving-Adafruit-RGB/ba-p/466228)

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 33: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED
arrays with the Zynq SoC [https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-
Taylor-s-...](https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-Taylor-s-
MicroZed-Chronicles-Part-33-Driving-Adafruit-RGB/ba-p/461850)

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 32: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED
arrays [https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-
Taylor-s-...](https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-Taylor-s-
MicroZed-Chronicles-Part-32-Driving-Adafruit-RGB/ba-p/457596)

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 31: Systems of Modules, Driving RGB
NeoPixel LED arrays [https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-
Taylor-s-...](https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Xcell-Daily-Blog/Adam-Taylor-s-
MicroZed-Chronicles-Part-31-Systems-of-Modules/ba-p/453336)

~~~
godelmachine
Did you buy the Zync ZedBoard yourself? How much did it cost? What are the
specs?

~~~
gvb
You can buy it via Avnet (US distributor) for $88.99 + $8 (or so) S/H. They
sent me a promotion code THXNN6W for free shipping. It is an entry level Zynq
processor (single ARM core, pretty decent FPGA capabilities). It runs linux
well. Remarkable learning potential for $100!

[https://www.avnet.com/shop/us/p/kits-and-
tools/development-k...](https://www.avnet.com/shop/us/p/kits-and-
tools/development-kits/avnet-engineering-services/aes-
minized-7z007-g-3074457345632706668)

You can download the Xilinx IDE Vivado WebPack for free.

[https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-
tools/vivado/vivado-w...](https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-
tools/vivado/vivado-webpack.html)

Both Avnet and Xilinx require creating a (free) account.

------
jlizzle30
I've been thinking about prototyping a Firebase clone that uses a relational
database and SQL syntax. Instead of subscribing to "nodes" you would subscribe
to queries. Anyone know if this exists already?

~~~
cjbprime
How would you (as the DB author) know when a query has updated results?

~~~
jlizzle30
Something like this:

    
    
      subscribe ('SELECT * FROM tableA', callback)
    

On the initial subscription, 'callback' would be called once for each row in
'tableA', then again when a row is inserted or updated. It would be the same
as Firebase in this respect.

~~~
cjbprime
No, you as the person writing this new database, not you as the user of the
API.

~~~
eat_veggies
Not OP but I would watch for mutations in the subscribed columns, then test
the changed rows on the query's constraints and fire an event if it satisfies
them.

I'm sure there is a more clever/efficient way of doing this though, and I
can't wait to see how he/she implements it.

