

Ask HN: Plans for side projects in 2014? - adsrikanth

Would love to know your plans&#x2F;goals for any (tech) side projects in 2014
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mr_spothawk
I've not yet committed to the project, but I'd like to make a portable
raspberryPi server that will connect with nearby, likeminded servers and
provide a wifi-mesh for anybody in range. Users on the network should get chat
+ filesharing services. If I can get that to happen, I'll try to make it
battery/solar powered.

I'll be headed over to SudoRoom (Oakland) in the coming weeks to get input on
the project. If anybody's interested, please reach out.

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xSwag
I'm working on a freemium SaaS which provides security for WordPress based
websites. It remotely scans for vulnerabilites in your wordpress website the
same way an attacker would and notifies you. Zero programming knowledge
required. No installation required.

I need more money for the servers so I'm currently waiting for my Google bug
bounty to come through (it's been over 6 weeks!) so I can fund a security
startup with security money from Google.

~~~
jusob
You should check [http://sucuri.net/](http://sucuri.net/) They have a similar
site scan.

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zem
i'd like to start a blog that tries to recapture the spirit of the old "acorn
user" magazine
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_User](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_User)],
focused squarely on the hobbyist programmer, but not shying away from
accessible write-ups of complex topics. a sampling of articles i remember off
the top of my head:

1\. pacman style game developed from scratch, with a discussion of sprite
animation and techniques to make a monster chase your character through a maze

2\. software + hardware guide to connecting a beep-when-you-whistle keychain
(remember those?) to one of the input ports and make your computer do
interesting stuff when you whistled

3\. graph an arbitrary f(x, y) = 0 function via numerical methods (trace the
intersection of z = f(x, y) with the xy plane)

4\. basic text adventure with a discussion of representing a map via a graph,
using an array to simulate pointers

5\. an introduction to forth for basic programmers

the key point is that these were both complete projects, and jumping-off
points to explore the topic in greater depth. as a kid i found it very
inspiring, and learnt a lot from it.

~~~
Larrikin
Is this still just a thought or have you already started on it. I'd love to
read something like this. Where will it be when you put it out?

~~~
zem
still just a thought, but one i've been turning around in my head for months
now. i'm hoping the new year will give me the psychological motivation boost
to actually start writing it.

i'll add a link from my website
([http://zem.novylen.net](http://zem.novylen.net)) when it's up.

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conorgil145
Not sure if I will have time to get back to it, but I plan to create a set of
tools for working with Schematron [1]. I worked with it quite a bit at my last
job (and actually enjoyed it), but it is a niche thing and I found it
difficult to get started/productive. I plan to create a set of updated
(Schematron is old) and interactive web-based tutorials and also create a
command line tool to help develop, test, and maintain large Schematron
rulesets. I define large as being in the 100s of rules per spec and having
several specs which interact. I don't know too many groups which work with
Schematron at that scale, but I have some lessons learned in terms of
organization and maintainability which I'd like to share.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schematron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schematron)

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adsrikanth
I mostly work on PHP/MySQL with some frontend so, to diversify my skills - I
want to spend some time learning Android application development and release
at least one app in the Android Market. Not very sure about the app itself;
may be something like sending my phone's sensor data to a web server using
REST API.

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japhyr
This year I ended up focusing on an open resource for teaching and learning
Python, [http://introtopython.org](http://introtopython.org). In 2014 I hope
to bring that project to an appropriate level of completion.

After that, I'd like to go back to another project I started,
[http://opencompetencies.org](http://opencompetencies.org). This project aims
to help educators build and maintain their own sets of education standards.

These projects have been well-received so far. I just need to keep making time
for them, and see them through to maturity.

~~~
erichurkman
Open Competencies sounds like an awesome idea. Curriculum is not as open or
transportable in the US education system as it should be, particularly at
secondary schools. Too many teachers are reduced to teaching to exams, because
that's the only thing their school district has time or resources to focus on.

It would be fantastic to see more educators relying on (crowd, open, ...)
sourced plans, and rely less on the mediocre textbooks and resources that most
districts provide.

~~~
japhyr
Thanks for the encouragement!

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basicallydan
I plan to release an app for londoners, focused on finding good pubs around
tube stations. It's pretty funky: [http://dribbble.com/shots/1326115-London-
Pub-Crawl-Interacti...](http://dribbble.com/shots/1326115-London-Pub-Crawl-
Interaction)

Plus I want to play with creating a few games. I have 5-6 simple ideas I'd
like to spend a couple of weeks at a time trying out that I'll be putting on
my blog at [http://danielhough.co.uk](http://danielhough.co.uk)

~~~
bichiliad
Out of curiosity, what did you use to prototype the interaction?

~~~
basicallydan
No prototype there my friend, that's the real thing, although a few builds out
of date. I recorded it in the iPhone Simulator using Quicktime and then turned
it into a GIF using photoshop.

~~~
bichiliad
Nice! Thanks a lot, I appreciate it. Cheers, and best of luck. I sent that gif
off to some friends in London, they're definitely excited.

------
alasdair_
[http://www.mtgprice.com](http://www.mtgprice.com) \- automated price guide
for Magic: the Gathering cards.

~~~
applecore
I'm looking forward to when you transition to a Bitcoin price guide.

------
ScottWhigham
How about you start? Why don't you seed this discussion with at least
something other than just a question and "I'd like to hear your side
projects..."? Show us that you're invested in this by giving us your
thoughts/ideas instead of asking us to "do all of the heavy lifting" here and
I suspect you'll get a lot more response.

~~~
adsrikanth
I agree; updated the description.

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goldenkey
Thank you all for the ideas, I will be grinching the best and brightest in
return for 0 shares of my future company.

~~~
bdcravens
So I should try to come up with the best sounding, longest to implement, but
in reality most unprofitable idea and hope you burn 9 months on it?

~~~
goldenkey
Wait, these were quick ideas? I need to rewrite my grinch playbook.

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relevate
All my past side projects have dabbled at the surface of a new or interesting
technology. I hope to do at least one project which can take me deep into a
specific language/framework so I can get a good feel for all the features in a
specific technology.

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tectonic
I plan to continue building community around Huginn
([https://github.com/cantino/huginn](https://github.com/cantino/huginn)), and
hopefully to start blogging about different ways to use it.

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zengr
I enrolled in codepath's iOS bootcamp starting Jan 15th 2014, so I am planning
to launch an iOS app in the app store. Not very sure about the app itself. But
I am planning to make some sort of utility app for education.

~~~
pcharles
Nice plug. Thanks!

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publicprivacy
I plan on porting code samples/frameworks from Objective-C to RubyMotion.

Also I want to release some standalone novelty apps with in-app purchases and
guerrilla market the shit out of them.

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akg_67
In 2014, I want to setup an experimental Openstack based cloud, blog about my
experiences with it, and possibly setup a training, consulting and development
services around Openstack.

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garrettdreyfus
A web app with simple artificial life simulator with simple AI. All the
computation would be done by the client through Meteor to do the real time
stuff.

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carsongross
[http://intercoolerjs.org/](http://intercoolerjs.org/)

Please help, if you are interested.

~~~
thunderbox
Look cool, However there is are a few 404s in your docs. All Action Attributes
404 as well as a few more links.

~~~
carsongross
Yep, I'm writing this shit up as I type. :)

Hope to have it done by the end of the weekend.

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LAMike
Got a white label podcast app, WSYWIG email thing and possibly a Bitcoin
Mining guide/authority site

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leoplct
A TV Guide

[http://zapping.io](http://zapping.io)

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businessgeek
I'm trying to get one of my ideas out of my head into coding :)

