
Ask HN: What’s the coolest thing you have built - mraza007
Hi HN,
As I’m getting more involved in HN community. I would love to see the coolest side project you have built since this will inspire me others to start building side projects
======
softwaredoug
I created one of the most popular Elasticsearch plugins, Elasticsearch
Learning to Rank[1], which uses machine learning to optimize search results.

HN helped make this happen - I built a 0.1 version for one client (Snagajob).
I encountered someone from Wikimedia Foundation on Hacker News who was going
to build something similar. We ended up partnering after meeting on Hacker
News, and now work together on version 1.0 of Elasticsearch Learning to Rank
which ultimately has been used on Wikipedia's search[2].

Wikimedia Foundation ultimately had super deep Elasticsearch internal
knowledge which helped tremendously, whereas I mostly worked on building out
the docs after the initial prototype[3]. I'm rather proud of the docs as it's
a bit of a mini book on Learning to Rank :)

[1] - Plugin itself [http://github.com/o19s/elasticsearch-learning-to-
rank](http://github.com/o19s/elasticsearch-learning-to-rank)

[2] - WMF article on the plugin
[https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/10/17/elasticsearch-
learning...](https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/10/17/elasticsearch-learning-to-
rank-plugin/)

[3] - Docs [http://elasticsearch-learning-to-
rank.readthedocs.io](http://elasticsearch-learning-to-rank.readthedocs.io)

------
DarrenDev
SmartEdit Writer, a desktop app for creative writers. Not a commercial
success, though the Microsoft Word add-in does sell a few copies a month. The
editing functionality is unique.

[https://www.smart-edit.com/Writer/](https://www.smart-edit.com/Writer/)

A lesson I've learned is that coolness and commercial success are not tightly
connected. You can build something great that users still will not be prepared
to pay for.

B2B is the way to go, not B2C.

~~~
mraza007
Really good project and looks very similar to word If its okay to share can I
ask what technologies did you use

~~~
DarrenDev
C#/.Net. I've outlined the tech stack in more detail here (aimed at a non-
techie reader): [https://www.smart-
edit.com/Blog/Post/TechOverview/](https://www.smart-
edit.com/Blog/Post/TechOverview/)

------
fiftyacorn
A few years ago I built a virtual cycling platform connecting ANT+ to Google
Streetview. It was before the current breed of indoor cycling platforms like
trainerroad and zwift. I ended up using it for my own training

I regret not trying to market it more, or moving into the virtual cycling
space -

[https://dzone.com/articles/virtually-cycling-the-alps-
with-a...](https://dzone.com/articles/virtually-cycling-the-alps-with-arduino-
and-streetview)

------
dchacke
I just released my first programming language called Berlin:
[http://berlinlang.org](http://berlinlang.org)

I had no idea what I was doing but it was super fun. Hopefully it's useful to
some.

~~~
mraza007
Oh wow that’s pretty cool. I’m pretty sure you learned alot while doing this
project

------
xgenecloud
Xmysql, an instant REST API generator for MySQL was a side project which led
to XgeneCloud[1]

XgeneCloud now generates REST & GraphQL APIs on any SQL Database. Plus there
is much more! :)

Supported databases : MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, SQLite, MariaDB & AWS
Aurora

[1] :
[https://github.com/xgenecloud/xgenecloud](https://github.com/xgenecloud/xgenecloud)

------
mvanga
[http://artbuffer.com/](http://artbuffer.com/)

I made Artbuffer to create my own wall art without having to spend years
learning to paint. I've successfully used it to create my own :-)

Some examples:

[https://www.artbuffer.com/view?a=wslyHCoGjqoA3ZKgsQ_hNAlnshT...](https://www.artbuffer.com/view?a=wslyHCoGjqoA3ZKgsQ_hNAlnshT-
jt)

[https://www.artbuffer.com/view?a=-9Wr6aLtgF383zsAWxchXJbt8CW...](https://www.artbuffer.com/view?a=-9Wr6aLtgF383zsAWxchXJbt8CWjko)

[https://www.artbuffer.com/view?a=OuIs3I6vHAyqV-
PoMb6EFiRVAFw...](https://www.artbuffer.com/view?a=OuIs3I6vHAyqV-
PoMb6EFiRVAFwRb5)

------
mkovach
I built three cigar box guitars for my son, my father, and myself make from
repurposed wood from my son's', my father's and my baby cribs.

Coolest computer related thing? I used to run
[http://uptime.openacs.org](http://uptime.openacs.org) (which I port from
Oracle -> Postgres) and [http://myturl.com](http://myturl.com) (a tinyurl
clone written in AOLserver). But as things tend to do, both projects are
shutdown.

I still find the cigar box guitars the cooler thing.

~~~
potta_coffee
Cigar box guitars are really fun and they sound neat! They look like toys but
they actually do something.

------
sunnyam
Six Degrees of Kanye West, a fun little website that lets you search for a
muscical artist to see how closely they're connected to Kanye West through
collabs.

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

I built it back in 2016 and haven't updated it since so newer artists don't
show up.

~~~
mraza007
Looks really cool How did you do it since I love music

~~~
sunnyam
Thanks! I posted about it in my blog [1] at a very high level.

To summarise, I used a Python library called Spotipy to request track
information from Spotify and then stored a big list of artists based on who
has collaborated with Kanye and built that web outwards.

[1] [https://blog.sunnyamrat.com/six-degrees-of-kanye-
west/](https://blog.sunnyamrat.com/six-degrees-of-kanye-west/)

------
seanwilson
I'm happy with my work on Checkbot, a Chrome extension that checks multiple
pages at a time for SEO, speed and security best practices:

[https://www.checkbot.io/](https://www.checkbot.io/)

I also wrote up a concise guide on everything the extension checks for and why
those checks are important:
[https://www.checkbot.io/guide/](https://www.checkbot.io/guide/)

I found working on the above solidified by existing knowledge I'd picked up as
a web developer and filled in the gaps. It's satisfying to know the extension
is helping people identify website problems every day and teaching them tips
they didn't know before.

Also, I've been wary of what seems like SEO snake-oil advice in the past (like
a lot of developers) so it was good to digest all the evidence-based SEO
advice I could find and condense it into small actionable tips most developers
would agree with.

~~~
mraza007
that's really helpful.Looking forward to use your extension

------
brettkromkamp
Contextualise, a (personal and collaborative) knowledge management system:
[https://contextualise.dev/](https://contextualise.dev/)

It's open source:
[https://github.com/brettkromkamp/contextualise](https://github.com/brettkromkamp/contextualise)

~~~
mraza007
Really interesting project. Love your idea since managing knowledge is the
best thing and I keep a small blog to keep things I learned

------
karterk
I've been working on a fast typo tolerant search engine
([https://github.com/typesense/typesense](https://github.com/typesense/typesense))
for 4 years.

It initially started off with a question of "Why is ES so difficult to grok
and manage?". Then I started researching around various data structures for
efficiently storing text and numerical values and various algorithms for
sorting the data in real time to surface relevant documents.

After 4 years of development, the project is pretty stable but I'm still
adding features and has been getting some traction finally. I recently added a
raft based replication aka clustering. I used a production ready Raft library
for that, but it was still very nice to understand the nitty gritties of the
Raft implementation.

I doubt I would build something more complicated ever, but who knows right :)

------
mguerville
I made a card game (www.intrapreneurs-game.com) to teach innovation to the
corporate crowd (I teach MBA classes part time and do speaking engagements
here and there). Building the mechanics of the rules and the game content was
fun and I tried to balance actual gaming entertainment with actual learning
and even built a companion app with supporting material for every concept in
the game.

------
karmakaze
My most recent is a keyboard layout (Qwickly) because Colemak/Tarmak was too
slow to learn.

[https://github.com/qwickly-org/Qwickly](https://github.com/qwickly-
org/Qwickly)

------
wreath
A bench for bench-pressing. It’s the single thing that I built and actually
use. I built a lot of software and never cared to use it myself (it never
solved my own problems, always a customer/user.. )

------
deepaksurti
A library (macOS, iOS) that converts the files supported by Assimp to Scene
Kit scenes. [1]

[1]
[https://github.com/dmsurti/AssimpKit](https://github.com/dmsurti/AssimpKit)

------
zooboole
futuretodo, a little software project management app. It can be useful
especially if you want to keep your notes, tasks, and the project progress in
order. [https://futuretodo.org](https://futuretodo.org)

