Ask HN: What are you working on and why is it awesome? Please include URL - sebg
======
bazillion
I created a completely new branch of advertising, which basically superimposes
advertisements directly over images in a way that actually benefits consumers:
[http://pleenq.com/](http://pleenq.com/).

Here's a demo video (fairly old, have to still update with the latest look):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GfKBvs53Ss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GfKBvs53Ss)

Say you have a picture on a blog post showing a car engine, explaining how to
fix something inside of it. You could highlight/link all the individual parts
in that car to where your users can buy them on O'Reilly Auto Parts, and make
a commission each time they make a purchase (affiliate marketing). I think
this type of advertisement is 1) beneficial for users for its informative
nature, 2) leads to bloggers being able to focus on content instead of worming
offputting advertising into their blogs (such as banner ads), and 3) could
lead to a more interactive internet where things in any image can be purchased
or even just linked to for informative purposes[1].

[1] A video showing how my product could link to wikipedia items:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwmbBa3TPgg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwmbBa3TPgg)

Edit: I appreciate the support votes! Feel free to ask any questions you have.
There's also a support forum at
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pleenq/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pleenq/) if you
want to subscribe and follow the progress along as we grow.

~~~
drewm1980
It's still impossible to search for a consumer good (say, a refrigerator, or a
bicycle), and quickly see what brands are available in what stores in your
town, and what they have in stock. Why are so many people in advertising
trying to get people to buy stuff when they are just trying to read some
article on the internet, while it is still hard to actually buy stuff when you
want to and your wallet is wide open?

~~~
bazillion
The vast majority of advertising is very active advertising that is designed
to draw your eye to something. The difference between us and them is that this
only does something when you interact with the image (hovering your mouse over
it). If you don't do that...it's as if it doesn't exist on the page. The state
of advertising I want to get to is one where it doesn't degrade the user
experience and only enhances it.

While what you're talking about sounds logical, the implementation details of
having a live inventory of stores that are local to you are so infeasible, as
to be completely ruled out without a huge technology overhaul backing stores.
Maybe in the future. But until then, we're here now.

------
iamleppert
Kespry - [http://www.kespry.com/](http://www.kespry.com/)

We provide a drone to the (primarily aggregates/mining) industry that can
create highly detailed survey quality maps. Our customers can use the data in
measuring the volume of their material (stockpiles) and in planning a big
project, construction, etc. Basically anything you can imagine someone would
need information about a physical location from above.

We develop the full stack in house. In that I mean electronics (PCB board
level), drone hardware (mechanical), low-level embedded software, and flight
controller software. We also develop an iPad app that allows customers to
easily operate the drone autonomously.

We also do all the data processing, using photogrammetry and open source
mapping frameworks and tools (gdal) and provide users with a web interface via
our Cloud platform for them to view, manipulate and download their data.

~~~
cprayingmantis
Hey that's pretty awesome have you thought about applications of this tech in
agriculture? Perhaps keeping an eye out on crops and trying to predict yields
or crop health?

~~~
brobinson
My first thought was futures trading. I've heard of people using their own
private satellites to do something similar. There was a company in SF building
and launching small, shoebox-sized satellites inexpensively which could be
used for it.

~~~
kartikkumar
I suspect you're referring to Planet Labs:
[https://www.planet.com](https://www.planet.com)

~~~
brobinson
That was it!

------
yoha
Spyce: Python in outer space!

Basically, a very much work-in-progress pile of code to plan orbital
trajectories and interplanetary travel. Its also quite handy when doing simple
computations:

    
    
        >>> # distance to the Sun, in light-seconds
        >>> Earth.orbit.semi_major_axis / c
        499.00650691887006
        >>> # Martian year, in (usual Earth) days
        >>> Mars.orbit.period / Earth.solar_day
        686.9944644093075
        >>> # ping to New Horizons (light roundtrip), in hours
        >>> (Pluto.orbit.periapsis - Earth.orbit.apoapsis) / c / 3600 * 2
        7.9167895224639375
    
    

The graphical interface does work though! (kinda) It's initially inspired from
Kerbal Space Program, so it defaults to showing Kerbin and its universe.
However, you can choose Earth instead. I like to just zoom in and out, and
explore the Solar system; the vastness of that is so mindblowing!

How yeah, and a link:
[https://github.com/qsantos/spyce/](https://github.com/qsantos/spyce/)

~~~
dovin
Awesome! Pretty easy to get it up and running, not counting OpenGL. What would
be really cool to see is an example of how you could use this to interactively
calculate, say, the path of some of the satellites we've launched into the
outer solar system that needed complicated orbital trajectories.

~~~
yoha
Thanks!

I know how much of a hassle it can be to handle even simple dependencies when
you use a different system and workflow, so I tried to make it as seamless as
possible.

There still is a lot of work to do. For now, I only implement patched conics
(i.e. I only consider one planet/moon at once and ignore the influence of
other celestial bodies on the trajectory), and it is not really easy yet.

Handling n-body physics would not be that hard, but I prefer to focus on
having a simple model (patched conics) work well first.

------
johnnyg
CPAP.com

Unlike 98% of the industry, we sell CPAP equipment for cash prices. This means
that you, not the insurance company, are the respected and valued customer.

The "cash CPAP" space means:

1\. A market incentive to build people first instead of billing code first
products.

2\. A market comfort items that would never be produced in a billing code
world.

3\. A system where it pays to pick up the phone and know all about the product
you are selling, which is different from the model where I ship it, bill it
and don't get paid to support it.

4\. $189 CPAPs (way cheaper than your copay and deductible through insurance)
and $1000 machines (way better than what an insurance provider could give you
profitably). The best of both worlds, whatever you need it available.

Insurance is great for heart surgery and awful for OTC and sub $1000 medical
products. We don't think that change is understood in our healthcare debate
and we've built a sustainable market that is the change we want to see.

When we're done, people with Sleep Apnea will have access to buy CPAP stuff
like they buy Amazon stuff and they won't think twice about it. It'll "just"
work and be nothing special. That may not be as sexy as building a drone or
going to Mars, but fixing a chunk of healthcare is difficult and worth it. If
we can do it, and we will do it, we'll have a huge and lasting impact.

~~~
danieltillett
Do you need a doctors prescription to buy?

~~~
johnnyg
Yes, but with your permission we will request one from your doctor at no
charge. It is baked into the order process.

------
dangrossman
I rewrote [https://www.w3counter.com](https://www.w3counter.com) from scratch
over the past month, and just put it online two days ago.

W3Counter was a 12-year-old website offering web stats reports and hit
counters with 30-something-thousand users. I ditched all the old code, and the
data model, and the business model, and started from scratch. New framework,
new way of storing and analyzing stats that scales better and provides more
value, and snazzy new design (I hope; design was never my strong suit).

The most awesome part for me was throwing out all the old code. Not having to
continue developing in and supporting a framework that barely runs in a modern
environment. It's going over well so far. The transition was pretty seamless.

You can watch the traffic from this comment as it comes in at
[https://www.w3counter.com/stats/1/visits](https://www.w3counter.com/stats/1/visits)

~~~
necrodome
Comparison between old and business model? Was it worth it to rewrite?

~~~
dangrossman
Old: Free web stats for one low-traffic website per user, in exchange for
displaying a counter or badge on their site. Back when hit counters were more
common, that wasn't a big ask, and seeing one was the way other people with
websites found out about W3Counter. I included ads on the reports, and offered
a paid subscription that would let you add multiple websites to the account
and not display a counter on your site. All reports were based on a circular
log of about 20000 page views per website.

New: Web stats reports for as many websites as you have for free, with no
requirement to display a counter/badge, and no ads on the reports. It's no
longer an ad-supported service, just freemium. Users can now upgrade
individual websites in their account to paid plans while others remain free,
like Cloudflare (I really like how their subscription model works). The per-
website upgrade unlocks extended data retention so you can run reports further
into the past (no more tiny logs), real-time dashboards, daily/weekly/monthly
e-mail summaries of your stats, and conversion tracking features for
businesses that sell things and want to track their advertising/promotions.

Was it worth it? From a business standpoint, I don't know if I'll make any
more or less money this way. I take big risks that way sometimes. Time will
tell. From a personal standpoint, I'll be much happier any time I need to dive
into the code to add or change something. Old code needs to die eventually one
way or another, just because you can't rely on old language/environment
packages forever, lest they pass their EOL and stop getting security updates.

------
egypturnash
I recently finished a graphic novel about a robot lady dragged out of reality
by her ex-boyfriend and am procrastinating on the Kickstarter for the printed
version. [http://egypt.urnash.com/rita/](http://egypt.urnash.com/rita/)

"Seriously folks, if you haven't looked at "Decrypting Rita" yet you really
ought to. Innovative, fresh, interesting, and it does my head in." \- Charlie
Stross (Accelerando)

"Deliriously confusing and addictive... It’s kind of wonderful." \- Peter
Watts (Blindsight)

I'm also getting started on two new graphic novels; one is a fantasy story
about smart people making very bad relationship decisions, and the other is
about a girl slowly turning into a monster while elves invade New Orleans.

~~~
bobwaycott
> _a fantasy story about smart people making very bad relationship decisions_

If only it were fantasy ...

------
schoen
Let's Encrypt CA - [https://letsencrypt.org/](https://letsencrypt.org/)

We made it free and fast to get browser-trusted certs and have already issued
over 1,000,000 certs for over 2,500,000 domains, most of which have never had
browser-trusted HTTPS before. Now many major hosting providers and platforms
are in the process of making an HTTPS cert automatic and standard for every
hosted site.

~~~
nojvek
Let's encrypt is awesome. Thanks for making this awesome utility. I still have
little idea how the ACME negotiation work, but its a pretty cool utility.

------
pcmaffey
[https://www.bicycl.com](https://www.bicycl.com)

Bicycl is a calendar for your life's work. Record what you learn and
accomplish each day (or week, month, etc). Organize these micronotes into
stories of progress over time. See lots of cool data come to life.

Screenshots coming. I'm testing things out right now in beta, but if you want
to give it a twirl, I can send out a few invitations to first comers.

 _A couple notes: As someone who 's struggled with depression, I built this
because I found at the end of a day, my mind was putting very little stock in
what I had actually accomplished. Fixating on futures constantly would degrade
my self-confidence. It's harder to ignore your progress when it's all right
there in front of you.

I still journal by hand and use Evernote daily. But found I also wanted
somewhere to put my "nuggets", epiphanies, things I learn, etc._

~~~
manu29d
As someone who's struggling to not fall into depression, I think this will do
wonders for me. I've come to believe that the trigger-activity-rewards
cycle[1] is the best for productivity and improving my focus.

This product might come in handy in the "rewards" phase of that cycle. PS:
Requested and invite through your website. [1]:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/judson_brewer_a_simple_way_to_break...](http://www.ted.com/talks/judson_brewer_a_simple_way_to_break_a_bad_habit?language=en)

~~~
_98fj
A tip for that, similar to the service:

Create a file, where each day you enter a list of positive things that
occurred or that you did that day. Can be really anything like "got out of bed
again :)", "didn't argue with my brother", "cleaned the dishes", "made a plan
to get better".

I did it for about half a year, it does wonders for your self-efficacy.

------
rdoherty
[https://www.race-capture.com](https://www.race-capture.com)

Realtime telemetry for race and street cars. Open source firmware, hardware
and mobile app.
[https://github.com/autosportlabs](https://github.com/autosportlabs) . Our
tech is used by many people, from car enthusiasts, to professional race teams
to even race boats that go nearly 200mph.

I focus mainly on the website and telemetry infrastructure. It's awesome
because we work with people who are passionate about racing, we truly do mean
'realtime' when we say it and we get to race and go to track days :)

Most of the incumbents are using 1990s tech and have 0 web presence. The next
available realtime telemetry systems cost > $30k, and ours is $600.

We have some big plans for the future, if you're interested in racing check us
out!

[https://github.com/autosportlabs](https://github.com/autosportlabs) \- Code

[http://www.autosportlabs.net](http://www.autosportlabs.net) \- Wiki

[https://www.autosportlabs.com](https://www.autosportlabs.com) \- Store

[http://www.autosportlabs.org](http://www.autosportlabs.org) \- Forums

~~~
LLG
Does this work for motorcycles as well?

~~~
rdoherty
It can, as long as it has power. By default RaceCapture/Pro and RaceCapture
have built-in GPS (location, speed, altitude) and a 6 axis accelerometer
(x/y/z accel, roll/pitch/yaw). So all you'd need is power to get that data.

RaceCapture/Pro has 7 analog inputs, timer inputs, digital I/O and PWM inputs.
Also it has 2 CANbus connections and a serial connection. So if you want to
hook up more stuff directly you can. RaceCapture/Pro can be a little big
depending on the motorcycle.

------
tezzer
Wave Gliders: [http://www.liquid-robotics.com](http://www.liquid-robotics.com)

It's a wave-powered, autonomous sensor platform built for longevity at sea. We
do things like monitor salinity in the arctic, circle oil platforms looking
for leaks, track tagged mammals on migration, and do coordinated fleet
maneuvers for ocean floor mapping and exploration.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Those are pretty cool. I suggested an idea to James Gosling that about 25,000
of them could be used to greatly remediate the Pacific Gyre[1] of its plastic.
Sure the initial cost would be high but they would work autonomously day in
and day out gathering and compacting plastic and dropping it off at a central
collection unit where it could be decomposed into carbon with a solar powered
incinerator.

Sadly not something you could kickstart.

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

~~~
tezzer
The initial cost of 25K gliders would be 7.5 Billion dollars, and
unfortunately, most of the plastic in the gyre isn't of a size you could pick
up with anything more porous than a coffee filter. 25K gliders pulling nets
would be amusing, but that's a lot of money for a partial solution!

~~~
ChuckMcM
Expensive yes, although I have it on good authority that I could get a
discount on that quantity :-) Also in discussing this briefly with some folks
the entrapment systems would be more complex than nets or coffee filters. But
lets say your investment was, all in $10B over 10 years and you remediated 60
- 70% of the problem. Would that be, in your opinion, a waste of money?
Understand the alternative is to live with existing fish stocks absorbing
material as they feed in the area and to have the problem get worse. Seems
like, if nothing else, it would make for a good NSF grant to understand the
question better.

~~~
tezzer
It definitely merits study, but I imagine the best ideas are going to be in
plastic-digesting microbes, and measures to reduce the amount of new plastic
that gets into the system. I'm afraid we're going to have a layer of
microscopic plastic sediment on our crust, just as we have a layer of
radioactive soil from atomic testing in the 50s and 60s. It will be one of the
geological landmarks of our era.

------
xando
[https://whoishiring.io](https://whoishiring.io)

It started as HN's "Who is hiring" thread but on the map and with better
search. Mainly to solve the mess with suff like: SOMA, SF, valley, San
Francisco, there is way too many ways to describe this one location ;) Also
there not much of a difference when you are looking from Europe if it's Palo
Alto or San Francisco.

Although right now it is more than that, I've wrote parsers for 8 major IT
related job websites, and more in progress.

At some point I was extremely annoyed by the fact that I have to visit many
sites to see all interesting job offers.

~~~
desdiv
Melbourne, Florida shows 299 jobs, beating out Seattle's 214 jobs. Probably
caused by a bug that's confusing Melbourne, Australia with Melbourne, Florida.

~~~
xando
I will call it a bug. On it.

------
woah
I'm working on an incentivized mesh network. Basically, routers pay each other
to forward packets. A routing protocol takes price into consideration and
tries to get packets over the cheapest routes. Intermediary routers pay each
other over payment channels. End users pay backbone connections with multihop
(lightning) payments over the payment channels of the intermediary nodes.

End result is that last-mile ISP's are replaced by individuals with network
equipment on their roofs, "mining" the airwaves.

[http://www.altheamesh.com](http://www.altheamesh.com)

~~~
drewm1980
Are you talking about money money, or some sort of cryptocurrency "data
transfer karma" ?

~~~
woah
Real money. Here's how we move it: [http://altheamesh.com/blog/universal-
payment-channels](http://altheamesh.com/blog/universal-payment-channels)

------
ksred
Open source banking software written in Go:
[https://github.com/ksred/bank](https://github.com/ksred/bank)

The project is an answer to "what would a bank look like if it were built
today?"

\- iOS Client: [https://github.com/ksred/bank-
ios](https://github.com/ksred/bank-ios)

\- Visa package to hook into the bank:
[https://github.com/ksred/visa](https://github.com/ksred/visa)

\- Articles on the process: [https://ksred.me/tags/banking-
infrastructure/?hn](https://ksred.me/tags/banking-infrastructure/?hn)

~~~
LAMike
What is your opinion on banks using bitcoin? Or Bitcoin as a way to route
around traditional banking?

~~~
ksred
I'm not sure banking can get away from the traditional. I like the idea of a
blockchain (or some version of it) being implemented to assist in interbank
communication.

Banks will probably only jump on BTC way down the line, if they ever do.

------
dreadpirate
[http://dreadtv.com](http://dreadtv.com)

Tracks my/your favorite TV shows.

I got tired of googling "Dr Who episodes" whenever I wanted to know if the
next half-season was starting soon, or to see whether any more episodes
remained before a hiatus.

So I built a thing which monitors the data from Wikipedia episode list pages,
normalizes it, and lets you easily view what's airing recently / soon. Also
sends an (optional) email each week listing the upcoming week's schedule of my
shows, plus a list of new / resuming shows.

Generally the only thing I need to do manually is to add primary network
feeds. The show and episode feeds are scraped from there, with noise filtered
out.

One of the coolest things is that it almost entirely heals itself -- canonical
URLs and redirects are used to ensure consistent feed resolution, deprecated
feeds are auto-removed after X time so long as it's a clear deprecation
scenario, renamed shows are auto-updated, and an admin dashboard shows me
stats about expected categories and outliers, so that I can easily investigate
logic gaps from time to time.

~~~
Semaphor
There is followshows.com, I've been using it for over a year now and it has
quite some features including an Android app. Do you wanna pitch your site vs
them?

~~~
dreadpirate
Yeah, we solve slightly different problems -- they focus on feature breadth
and syndication coverage, I prefer data breadth (lots more anime in
particular) and original airings only.

Personally I'm not really a fan of watching TV on my computer, or of trying to
track online what episodes I've seen (ends up being more anal-retentively
stressful than helpful)... so those features end up being just noise overhead
for my tastes.

They've got a really pretty site for sure. :-)

~~~
Semaphor
Ah, thanks. I need tracking what I watched because I watch way too many shows
(and barely any anime). And I have to watch stuff on my computer as I'm not in
the country those shows are aired.

> They've got a really pretty site for sure. :-)

Well… I'd prefer your design with their features :D

------
BHSPitMonkey
Prelude - [https://www.getprelude.net/](https://www.getprelude.net/)

A progressive web app for improving music sight reading skills. (Also perfect
pitch identification ability.)

I wasn't happy with my sight reading speed, so I've been building this to help
myself practice. Some distinguishing features:

\- Web MIDI, to connect to a MIDI keyboard you can use to "answer" the
practice questions (works in Chrome for Android or Desktop)

\- Web App Manifest, to allow adding to your home screen / desktop and getting
a native app feel

\- Service Worker (via sw-precache), for offline access (and cache-first
loading when online, so it always loads fast)

\- Web Audio, to synthesize pitches

\- VexFlow, for rendering sheet music to SVG

Built with React, Babel, Webpack; hosted on GitHub Pages. Source:
[https://github.com/BHSPitMonkey/Prelude](https://github.com/BHSPitMonkey/Prelude)

~~~
giodamelio
That's pretty neat. I have been meaning to work on my sight reading skills. I
will have to give it a try with my keyboard later.

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
Let me know if you have any feedback! Issues/PRs welcome.

Note that Android is still a bit finnicky about connecting MIDI devices (using
USB-OTG); After accepting the permission request, you might have to go through
some permutation of refreshing the page and unplugging/replugging the cable to
get it to work.

------
jtreminio
PuPHPet: A web-based GUI that allows developers to quickly and easily create a
highly customized virtual machine for local development as well as deployment
to any SSH-enabled host in the world.

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

Instead of having to learn the ins and outs of virtualization, Vagrant and
Puppet, you simply fill in some form fields, click a few buttons and download
a zip archive containing your choices. A simple `vagrant up` and a few minutes
later you have your virtual machine up and running, either on your local
machine or on a remote host.

PHP 5.4 - 7.0, Ruby, Node, Python. MySQL, PostgreSQL, Mongo (and more).
Apache/Nginx (or none).

Helps eliminate the tired "it works on my machine" excuse by allowing a team
to share exact replicas of a VM. Any changes made on one VM can easily be
shared with others because it's all driven through a single, simple YAML file.
Just check it into your repo and push, and everyone else can then replicate
your changes themselves.

It's MIT FOSS and contributors are welcome!

~~~
onion2k
I use that for most of my projects. It's awesome. Thanks!

------
__mp
I work on the 1km short range and on the 2km medium range probabilistic
weather model at MeteoSwiss that is scheduled to go operational this month. It
is awesome because MeteoSwiss is the first national forecaster that is going
GPU for their full forecast. See:
[http://www.cscs.ch/publications/press_releases/2015/meteoswi...](http://www.cscs.ch/publications/press_releases/2015/meteoswiss_and_cscs_pave_the_way_for_more_detailed_weather_forecasts/index.html)
My line of work mainly consists of porting Fortran code of the Dynamical part
of the model to our C++ DSL (STELLA) and maintaining said port.

Before that I developed the Apple Homekit protocol for the OberonHAP devkit
([http://oberonhap.com/](http://oberonhap.com/) ). This is THE HomeKit
Bluetooth implementation if you want to use really small and low-cost
solutions.

~~~
touristtam
That look like a very interesting field, thanks for sharing. :)

~~~
__mp
You're welcome.

------
wsvincent
EdScore - A school ratings website for parents.
[https://edscore.org/](https://edscore.org/)

GreatSchools has a monopoly in this space but their 1-10 ratings scale is
opaque and their website hard to navigate. EdScore has a more granular 50-100
rating scale, modern search, better mapping, and soon will feature search
filters by distance and home price so parents can evaluate, say, top schools
within a 1hr commute of SF with a median home price under $1m.

~~~
tixocloud
I think it's a good idea. One thing I worked on in the past was being able to
link school scores for my residential real estate startup. However, there's
always been the question of "How credible are these scores" \- are you guys
doing the rating yourselves?

~~~
wsvincent
Yes these are proprietary ratings. This is typically the first question we
get: how credible/accurate are these scores. Since this is HN I can dive into
this a bit more than with a typical parent:

-There are fundamentally two data sets in play here, a national one, NCES, that provides basic school information: name, # of students, demographics, etc. And a State data set.

\- Each state administers their own state assessment tests for most, not all,
grades. So for example, Massachusetts does tests for grades 3-8 and grade 10.
Other states do a different mix. To assign a "score" to an Elementary, Middle,
or High School you combine the grades, but there is judgement around, for
example, what constitutes a middle school? Grade 6? Grade 8? It varies by
school district, let alone state.

-The subjects covered are typically Math and English. Some sites, especially for high school, also test Science or additional subjects. In our case, we include ALL available tests in the score calculation. GreatSchools provides no insight into whether they do this or not. SchoolDigger used to just use Math/English but recently added all tests to their rankings.

-The "results" for, say, Grade 3 English are typically broken out by Advanced, Proficient, Not Proficient, Failing. But this, too, varies by state, some include 5 buckets.

~~~
numbsafari
Any thoughts on providing special scores for:

\- Special needs students. This could be a really active community for you.

\- Arts/Music/Theater programs and participation rates.

\- Innovative educational programs. One of the HS I attended had an on-campus
fish hatchery that was almost entirely student run, it also had a professional
choral program--as in, students in the "varsity chorus" got paid professional
rates for a summer show series. Another that I attended had a pretty unique
combined history/literature and later math/science program. I could imagine
parents being interested in finding those kinds of things.

\- University affiliation. Many colleges/universities are affiliated with K-12
schools where they are involved in applying the latest in educational
practices.

\- Early college programs. My wife managed to get her first 3 semesters of her
Mech-E degree paid for through an innovative relationship between her HS and
the local Community College. The local CC also has a great direct-to-
university relationship (all credits transfer) with two local Universities.
Allowed her to graduate undergrad a year early and with half the student loans
she otherwise would have.

\- Proximity to cultural institutions. Friends Select in Philadelphia is
located on the Ben Franklin Parkway... walking distance to the Franklin
Institute, Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila Art Museum, Barnes Foundation,
Rodin Museum... It's almost embarrassing.

Standardized test scores are important, but they aren't necessarily the only
thing parents are looking for.

~~~
wsvincent
I completely agree that standardized test scores aren't the only thing parents
are looking for. The main issue is: What other data set is there that exists
state/nationally given we're working with 100,000+ schools?

-Special needs: Hadn't considered this, but the data is there to break out numbers and performance of special needs students. Are there other factors we should consider?

\- Arts/Music/Sports etc: Yes, would LOVE to include data on this. I'm not
aware of a dataset that contains it. Manually it'd be tough to do for 100,000+
schools.

\- Innovative/college programs: Yup, great idea. As we expand the site we want
to find ways to highlight features like this. A simple example we can do now
is Language Immersion programs. But we want to extend it in the future.

\- Another "problem" with the education data in general is that there's no way
to compare schools across states. Common Core might have addressed this but
currently you can only say, This is a top high school in Massachusetts. What
if I live across the border in New Hampshire? How do 2 schools compare?

~~~
numbsafari
> What other data set is there that exists state/nationally given we're
> working with 100,000+ schools?

You could try to crowdsource this information, or contact schools in an effort
to get them to self report.

~~~
wsvincent
True, that has worked well for NPR's Playground app, for example.
[http://www.playgroundsforeveryone.com/](http://www.playgroundsforeveryone.com/)

The two main issues when we've thought of this are:

1) how do you ensure the data is accurate/up-to-date?

2) the graveyard issue where you don't want to show what's NOT on your site.
As an example (and I know I'm probably picking on them unfairly) check out
GreatSchool's crowd-sourced photos here:
[http://www.greatschools.org/search/search.page?q=boston%20ma](http://www.greatschools.org/search/search.page?q=boston%20ma))

~~~
numbsafari
Run contests for schools/clubs to incentivize people. Try scraping their
websites to come up with guesses. Maybe go state by state initially, merge the
data as it grows.

~~~
wsvincent
I think you're right that contests are the way to get reviews, at least, from
parents/students. Niche is taking this approach actually, largely through FB I
believe. It provides some interesting data. There is the same issue of timing
--how relevant is a review from years and years ago--but it's interesting
data.

Scraping sites is probably more of the way to go or just using Wikipedia as
Google does, for example, in their school info boxes.

It's definitely something that, longer term, would be good to seriously look
into.

------
JamesMcMinn
Scoop [https://scoopanalytics.com](https://scoopanalytics.com)

Automatically detects breaking news through social media (Twitter). Breaking
news, before it breaks.

We're often able to beat the mainstream media by several minutes (sometimes
hours), and we're particularity good at natural disasters, bombings,
explosions, shootings and celebrity deaths. There's no human in the loop, no
key word lists, just real-time algorithms figuring out what was unexpected.

~~~
Rainymood
You guys have access to the twitter firehose?

~~~
JamesMcMinn
Unfortunately no, we have a sample at the moment. The majority of the time, if
we're slow to pick something up, it's because the first tweets weren't in our
sample.

There's a bunch of clever tricks going on, so even if we miss something we can
still get the majority of content once we've picked up that something is
happening, and of course, we'll use the search API to go back and get any
content we missed.

------
aerophilic
Robot Turtles!

[https://github.com/RobotTurtles](https://github.com/RobotTurtles)
[https://github.com/RobotTurtles/home](https://github.com/RobotTurtles/home)

These turtles use a raspberry pi + webcam to turn to a face, recognize "flash
cards" via QR cods, and chase a ball. All parts are open source, so if you
have a 3D printer, you can pretty much build one yourself. (The pcb you would
need to order from dirtypcbs, though I have a few spare if needed).

~~~
metasean
There is already a popular board game named Robot Turtles.

[http://www.robotturtles.com/](http://www.robotturtles.com/)

~~~
aerophilic
Yup, well aware, I had originally started this idea before Dan Shapiro came
out with his excellent game. I haven't however bothered to change the name of
the project yet... If you have a good alternative name do let me know ;)

------
soheil
Speech recognition and search API:
[https://app.loverino.com/](https://app.loverino.com/) Highest quality engine
out there. Personalized radio:
[https://loverino.com/beta/](https://loverino.com/beta/) everyone should have
their own radio channel that they listen to.

~~~
Xcelerate
> Speech recognition and search API

I've been wanting to make something like this for a while. Really nice product
you have!

I think this kind of service will really take off in the future. Imagine
having an app that constantly records everything and allows you to search it
later. Questions like "What did James tell me last November about traveling to
Europe?". It would also eliminate hearsay, since you would no longer have to
trust one person's word against another — you could simply search the
transcript of that moment in the past. In the very long run, I almost wonder
if such a tool would make lying obsolete.

~~~
yoo1I
That technology has been commercially available at least since 2003
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj8jQy4nqLA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj8jQy4nqLA)

~~~
Xcelerate
That video is hilarious! Yet it also captures the essence of something that I
really want to exist...

------
zinxq
ClickRouter - because it allows me to use all my affiliate accounts (CJ,
Skimlinks, Viglinks, shareasale, etc) at once. This has nearly doubled my
affiliate revenue.

At first it was an internal tool I ran for a long time, but been working to
make it a service.

[http://clickrouter.com](http://clickrouter.com)

~~~
ClickQuestion
Looks interesting. I'm curious why you built this. Prosper202 is the canonical
approach used by most affiliates. It's got both self-hosted and hosted
options.

From your landing page, I can't tell what missing features led you to roll
your own.

~~~
zinxq
Maybe I don't get Prosper202 but it seems quite different.

ClickRouter makes a realtime decision where to send your clicks based on your
affiliate accounts.

Say you have a forums with thousands of posts which have thousands of links.
"Affiliatizing" them all would be a huge and nearly insurmountable task.

With ClickRouter, you install a piece of javascript in your footer. Every
click is intercepted and sent to the best Affiliate account you have. It also
tells you what affiliate accounts you SHOULD create because you're losing
revenue.

The issue for me was just that, trying to affiliatize thousands of links that
users put on my site. Now it's done automatically and if I signup with a new
affiliate network, it knows automatically those affiliates are available.

~~~
ClickQuestion
Thanks - completely different use case than Prosper202. Very cool, I'll add
this to my bag of tricks.

------
pedrokost
Zatresi - [http://www.zatresi.si/](http://www.zatresi.si/)

It's a map of sport clubs (gyms, karate dojos, swimming pools, etc) in
Slovenia.

Why I made it?

After moving back to Slovenia I started looking for a traditional Karate dojo.
My choice would be constrained by hour of training and dojo philosophy
(traditional karate vs sports karate). It turned out to be really difficult to
find all the dojos nearby, as they neither on Google Maps, and many have very
poor website (and terrible SEO). I spend two days Googling for all the
possible hits, and I had created a list of Karate dojos. After selecting one
(which turned out to be great), I thought that other people would be able to
benefit from the list. So I made this website, where all the karate dojos were
plotted on a map. Later, I started adding more categories.

Why it's awesome?

It's a time saver, and I am trying to convert it to a community maintained
website. And it's all open source. To exist it requires zero maintenance, and
hosting costs 0.30 EUR per month.

Going forward

1) I want to expand it to more categories 2) I am looking for partnerships
with sport organizations who would like to place a Zatresi map on their
website for their visitors to more easily find related klubs (e.g. a the
karate organization could show the map of all karate klubs in Slovenia) 3)
Even more brand awareness - this requires more time investment, so it's
tricky. I am trying to identify clusters where I could have the most impact
(sport forums, etc)

~~~
sillysaurus3
_To exist it requires zero maintenance, and hosting costs 0.30 EUR per month._

Whoa, cool! How is it so inexpensive? That's an order of magnitude cheaper
than a DO droplet.

Or to put it another way: I'm curious where the 0.30 comes from. It seems like
it would be either 0.00 or >1.00

~~~
rahimnathwani
That's about 4USD per year, which is about the cheapest you can get a VPS with
its own IPv4 address: [http://lowendstock.com/](http://lowendstock.com/)

You can even get cheaper than that. Although LowEndSpirit does not offer a
dedicated IPv4 address, they use haproxy to send requests to the correct VPS
based on the host header.

------
pedrokost
Sentinel Marine Solutions - [http://www.sentinel.hr/](http://www.sentinel.hr/)

A boat & fleet tracking solution, tailored fit for chartering companies.

What is it?

The device, once installed on a boat, starts tracking the GPS position (high
frequency measurements) as well as all the sensors which are connected to it
(bilge, battery voltage, motion sensors, etc. All this data is presented to
the charter owner on web and mobile dashboards. Additionally, the service
sends push notification if anything unusual occurs (like the battery voltage
being too low). It also offers virtual anchoring and locking functions, which
add an additional layer of safety to boats.

Why is it cool?

It improves safely on board. You are instantly notified of anything bad
happen, like the battery depleting rapidly. Who wants to get stuck in an
island without replacement battery?

It helps resolve conflicts between charters and guests in the case of an
accident. If a guests damages the boat (for example by cruising in shallow
waters), the charter can quickly find this out by glancing on where the boat
was travelling.

It produces beautiful data (trip history maps which can be shared by the
charter/guest on social networks) and enables services previously impossible
to imagine.

As a boat owner, it helps you keep a peaceful mind while you are away. You are
notified of the bilge operation, so you know it was working correctly during a
heavy storm.

We are soon releasing a B2C boat monitoring solution - stay tuned (bookmark
the website)

~~~
viperscape
nice! I was actually considering building something like this, for batteries
and bilge activity while away. great work!

------
cezary
Rddt.tv - [http://rddt.tv](http://rddt.tv)

Reddit.tv was an app to watch videos posted to reddit but shut down back in
January. Haven't been able to find a replacement that I liked, so I built my
own. Made the videos full-screen by default and added extra stuff like support
for Soundcloud embeds (so you could listen to music subreddits), a directory
of video-posting subreddits, multireddits, keyboard shortcuts.

~~~
Nadya
Neat, now I can browse /r/listentothis and discover new music easily! Thanks
for sharing this, I'll be using it today. :)

UX idea: I'd make the subreddit list alphanumerical. I had to look through it
a few times to find the subreddit I wanted.

Another UX idea: If a video/soundcloud fails to load, is it possible to detect
that the tab isn't playing audio (say after 10-15 seconds) and skip to the
next item in the list?

~~~
cezary
Awesome, thanks for the feedback!

The subreddit list definitely needs some attention. The aim was to bucket them
into categories, so I either need to flesh that out or sort them.

Skipping media that doesn't load is doable. Some content won't play or advance
automatically because a lack of an api to control the api (gifs, Liveleak,
Basecamp, iTunes, spotify) but I didn't automatically filter them out because
a lot of it is good content. Probably a good option to add to a settings page.

------
theseanstewart
Election Runner - [https://electionrunner.com](https://electionrunner.com) The
idea came to me after my wife (a High School teacher) told me about how her
students complained that the school's election software (Voting4Schools) was
hard to use. After doing more research I found that every single competitor in
this space sucked (ElectionBuddy, VoteNet), so I decided to build Election
Runner. It started as a fun side project, but has taken off A LOT faster than
I anticipated. Next step is to hire someone to handle sales to K12 Schools and
Universities, but I'm not sure how to start that process.

~~~
csense
Edtech startups are #7 on the list of "requests for startups" YC published a
few months ago [1]. From what I hear it's a good space to be in right now.

[1] [https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/](https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/)

~~~
theseanstewart
Very cool! I had no clue. I had been wanting to launch a SaaS company for the
last few years and realized that it's easier to get people (school
administrators) to spend other people's money (district, university, tax
payers, etc), than to spend their own money.

------
nategraves
Personally: [http://pentacular.com](http://pentacular.com) \- Draw/paint a
song. I think it's fun to play with.

Professionally: [https://tailorbrands.com](https://tailorbrands.com) \-
Algorithmically designed logos and branding assets. It's great for side
projects, inspiration, or any other situation where you want something quick
and usable.

~~~
mayank
Tailorbrands is great! I'd love to see move than 6 designs though. Previewing
the generated brand on various objects is a great idea!

------
xavi
I'm working on BankBotsBank
([https://github.com/bankbotsbank/bankbotsbank](https://github.com/bankbotsbank/bankbotsbank)),
an open effort to develop a collection of open-source bots that provide API
access to accounts on any bank.

I developed the first bot, which can be used as a sample, with JavaScript
(ES6, and ES7's async/await) and Nightmare (based on Electron, so on
Chromium).

It's awesome because free API access to this data for any bank in the world
may enable new and interesting fintech apps (actually, for me this project is
a stepping stone towards another project that I plan to build on top of it),
and I think that the open-source approach is the most effective way to achieve
that (i.e. free and comprehensive API access to accounts data on any bank of
the world).

~~~
goda90
I've actually been thinking about such an effort because I was sick of Mint
being more geared at selling me loans than giving me the tools that others and
I have requested, and none of the other services that automatically pull in
bank data are much better.

Have you thought of making some sort of framework that can handle security and
aggregate the data, and have developers plug in the bank specific bots?

~~~
xavi
My idea is to keep it simple: just a collection of bots that accept any
required credentials and return accounts data in a common JSON format. Storing
credentials and aggregated data is not in the scope of this project. If that's
needed (not all applications may need it), it has to be handled by the client
app.

------
Garthex
Symmetry Labs! [http://symmetrylabs.com/](http://symmetrylabs.com/)

I'm working on a new paradigm for creating generative content for 3D displays
(at the moment with LEDs). I'm also working on real-time, single-angle virtual
reconstruction and registration of 3D LED structures using computer vision
techniques.

~~~
abbasaamer
Holy crap, those are some beautiful designs.

~~~
Garthex
Why thank you! Everyone on the team is an artist in some way, so we tend to
agree :)

------
archagon
Composer's Sketchpad —
[http://composerssketchpad.com](http://composerssketchpad.com)

It's basically an iPad sequencer with the UI of a drawing app. You're given a
canvas that can be panned and zoomed like any scroll view, with a grid
indicating time on the horizontal axis and pitch on the vertical axis. You
draw notes with your finger, and although you can snap to the grid like in
most sequencers, you can also choose to start your notes at any point and bend
them to any pitch. This makes it simple to experiment with things like guitar
solos and complex rhythms. Usability was my primary goal through and through:
I wanted almost anyone to be able to pick up my app and start making music in
an instant. In a way, I see it as a kind of modern take on sheet music!

More about the design here: [http://beta-
blog.archagon.net/2016/02/05/composers-sketchpad...](http://beta-
blog.archagon.net/2016/02/05/composers-sketchpad/)

The app is out but I still have a ton of features I want to add, including
iPhone support.

~~~
muraiki
You might enjoy this; it uses a similar visual representation, but for sample
playback: [http://at.or.at/hans/solitude/](http://at.or.at/hans/solitude/)

~~~
giulianob
Looks great but the App Store link doesn't seem to work FYI

~~~
archagon
Nuts — the app uses Apple's appstore.com/<appname> forwarding service, but I
guess it's down? Here's the real link:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/composers-
sketchpad/id978563...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/composers-
sketchpad/id978563657)

------
rayalez
[http://rationalfiction.io](http://rationalfiction.io) \- collection of
rationalist fiction(if you don't know what that is -
[http://rationalfiction.io/story/rational-
fiction](http://rationalfiction.io/story/rational-fiction)).

[http://webcomics.io](http://webcomics.io) \- online webcomics publishing
platform.

I also have a dream of building a youtube competitor, video hosting platform
with a better design, functionality, and discovery system. MVP is almost ready
but not online yet.

------
ericabiz
We are setting up a trailer at 7th & Red River for SXSW doing cell phone
repairs and selling external batteries, cables, chargers and cases.

Why it is awesome: I have done a lot of things as an entrepreneur, but I've
never street hustled before. As an introvert, this is pretty intimidating, but
I think it will be good practice for doing more sales in the future. Plus, it
gets me out from behind the computer and into the real world, talking face-to-
face with folks! :)

~~~
numbsafari
Sounds like a cool idea for personal growth. Good luck.

------
samuell
A Scientific Workflow (Batch and Stream Processing) System written in Go:

[http://scipipe.org](http://scipipe.org)

It right now supports batch processing via local files as well as streaming
through FIFO files, but the architecture is extremely open, and connectors for
docker containers, mesos etc are planned.

What is awesome with SciPipe IMO is that half of it is not even a framework or
engine, but rather a pattern of how to use the concurrency primitives in the
Go language to build a dataflow network which also becomes an implicit
workflow scheduler.

This means that there is not an aweful lot of code, and since it is mostly
just Go language primitives it will fit in nicely with basically anything
else. Great orthogonality you could say. That is, as long as you can accept to
read and write on Go channels or write wrapper that does that for you. But who
wouldn't?

It is a bit rough yet but we are just starting work on putting it in
production later this month, so things should improve fast.

------
karussell
Very fast open source road routing engine GraphHopper
[https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper/](https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper/)
Apache Licensed. Try at
[http://graphhopper.com/maps](http://graphhopper.com/maps)

The challenge is to make money from open source. But so far we are successful
:)

------
jedberg
Yeobot, a Slackbot that's a SQL interface to the Amazon API and soon a whole
lot more.

It's cool because it works across accounts and across regions, which their API
doesn't do, and it adds new information like cost, so you can do stuff like
'select instance_id, monthly_cost from ec2.instances order by monthly_cost
desc'.

[https://cloudnative.io/yeobot/](https://cloudnative.io/yeobot/)

Oh and we had to make a bunch of tools to make this work, since we're building
it all on AWS Lambda, so there's these too:

[http://cloudnative.io/oss/](http://cloudnative.io/oss/)

------
kunle
[https://www.mailform.io/](https://www.mailform.io/)

It's a simple way to send any document (form, letter, receipt, invoice, tax
document) via USPS mail, right from your browser.

We built it because we're too lazy to go to the post office at times, and
we've since realized that most documents sent in the mail begin as a PDF on a
computer, so now we're working on bringing down the cost (currently we have to
pay both Lob and stripe for every mailing, which means lots of fixed costs).

Our next step will be enabling you to automate sending physical mail, the same
way you can automate sending emails (for invoices, thank you notes, receipts,
mailers etc, which lots of small businesses still use)

You can use the promo code "LIFEHACKER" to get 20% off. Would love your
feedback!

------
mikejarema
I'm spending some time creating a logo generator tool targeted at idea/early
stage products and companies, or for side projects, open source projects, etc.

It's called Logocaster - [https://logocaster.com](https://logocaster.com)

Logocaster is meant to help you explore a huge universe of logo designs when
brainstorming your brand/logo. It makes it quite easy to scan a bunch of
style/font/palette options and then "drill down" and see designs which only
incorporate the features you like.

Right now it's a playground for testing out fonts, colors and a few logo
styles. I'm planning on incorporating graphics from the Noun Project and
giving a bit more of a rich experience around tweaking a specific design.

You can explore the functionality without registering, and save/download your
favorites as SVG if you do register (edit: for free, at least until I've
incorporated Stripe).

I'm looking for any feedback on the direction the project is headed, or
interesting use cases where the API that powers this whole thing could be put
to use, cheers!

~~~
mindcrime
Dude, that is perfect timing! We need a logo for NeuralObjects (see my other
thread here), so this is great for us.

I'd totally pay for this if you had your Stripe integration going. But since
you don't, I can offer this: if you plan to use Machine Learning for anything,
shoot me an email and I can offer up a discount or something once
NeuralObjects is live, or maybe some free consulting or something.

Do you have a feel for how the pricing is going to work yet? Will you charge
per logo, or will it be a monthly subscription, etc? FWIW, I'd definitely be
willing to pay a monthly fee if it came with unlimited (or a large number) of
downloadable logos. I say that not because I need zillions of logos, but
because I think you'll always want to iterate and experiment with a lot of
different permutations until you find the "Just right" fit.

~~~
mikejarema
Thanks! Glad you can put it to use, hope you find something that works for
NeuralObjects. Pro tip: all of your saved logos as well as SVG downloads are
found on your profile page.

Re: pricing. Not quite sure about details yet. But the high level is that 1)
the design page and functionality ([https://logocaster.com/logo-
design/](https://logocaster.com/logo-design/)) will always be free to use and
explore, 2) I'll sell one-off logos at a price point that is competitive with
anything out there, 3) as you mentioned, offer a monthly option for people who
want to use the tool regularly and produce logos at some moderate volume and
4) offer up the API for other interesting use cases.

Re: (4) it's quite easy to see the API in action, eg.

[https://api.logocaster.com/v1/logos/new.png?action=recreate&...](https://api.logocaster.com/v1/logos/new.png?action=recreate&name=NeuralObjects&font_id=366&palette_id=1473&letter_spacing=-0.05&style=text)

Try playing with the style param (text,bubble,outlined), or letter spacing
(works only with style=text).

Metadata on a logo is tucked away in the HTTP headers for the curious.

------
ihinsdale
Sequiturs: [https://sequiturs.com](https://sequiturs.com)

Sequiturs is a platform for rigorous and civil discussion. Discussion revolves
around arguments, which consist of a series of premises and conclusions. This
argument format requires coherence, which improves the quality of the views
asserted, and makes it easier to identify where one might disagree.

~~~
schoen
I think I've seen a few attempts at this before -- do you have some awareness
of the previous ones and a comparison of how yours is similar or different?

The name is clever; as a Latin-speaker I keep wanting it to be "sequuntur".

[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sequuntur](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sequuntur)

But I bet that would be a lot harder for non-Latin speakers to remember!

~~~
ihinsdale
Thanks for your comment! And for the suggestion of sequuntur. My experience
thus far does suggest remembering spelling is an issue. Relatedly, I've
registered misspellings (sequiters, sequitors, sequitirs) and am redirecting
those to sequiturs.com.

As for other attempts in this space, I've encountered argüman [0],
TruthMapping [1], debategraph [2], and Rationale [3]. I like a lot about those
projects, and Sequiturs certainly shares with them the idea that there's
enormous room for improvement in the way we discuss ideas online, and that
structure is key to that. They all have an important difference with
Sequiturs, though, which is their emphasis on _mapping_. I see the format they
use as attempting to generate a sense of what the 'argument space', so to
speak, looks like: the format is basically saying, "Here are all these
different claims someone could make around this topic and here's how they
could feed into each other or conflict with each other".

By contrast, Sequiturs' format emphasizes _logical coherence in the series of
steps_ that comprise an argument. It highlights the reasoning that leads from
starting point to conclusion. By putting the reasoning in focus, the platform
facilitates iterative refinement of an argument into its strongest form.
Here's how that works.

Suppose I make an argument like: [https://sequiturs.com/arguments/tech-
companies-should-not-be...](https://sequiturs.com/arguments/tech-companies-
should-not-be-required-to-provide-law-enforcement-with-a-backdoor-to-bypass-
encryption). Someone could come along as they did today and comment on step 3:
[https://sequiturs.com/arguments/tech-companies-should-not-
be...](https://sequiturs.com/arguments/tech-companies-should-not-be-required-
to-provide-law-enforcement-with-a-backdoor-to-bypass-
encryption#comment-076caafc-925e-4b89-ac06-7c8adbd87571). That comment on step
3 makes me realize I could word that step better, so I revise the argument:
[https://sequiturs.com/arguments/tech-companies-should-not-
be...](https://sequiturs.com/arguments/tech-companies-should-not-be-required-
to-provide-law-enforcement-with-a-backdoor-to-bypass-encryption-3).

What emerges from discussion on Sequiturs is an argument for some position
boiled down to its essence--to its most digestible, shareable form. If I want
to convince you that backdoors are a bad idea, I can send you a link to my
argument on Sequiturs, and it's immediately clear what I think you should
believe and why. That's not the case with the other, mapping-based tools,
because they are more about charting the space of possible points and
counterpoints, and less about yielding rigorous sequences of reasoning (you
could call them proofs or syllogisms, but those terms connote a bit too much
formality and strictness for my taste).

I'd love to know if you know of other attempts in this space. And I'd love to
know what you think about Sequiturs!

[0] [http://en.arguman.org/](http://en.arguman.org/) [1]
[https://www.truthmapping.com](https://www.truthmapping.com) [2]
[http://debategraph.org/](http://debategraph.org/) [3]
[https://www.rationaleonline.com/](https://www.rationaleonline.com/)

------
fundamental
ZynAddSubFX - a musical software synthesizer
[http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/](http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/)

Right now everything is open source, but I've started work on a replacement
user interface which would be temporarily released under a proprietary
license. I think the project is awesome as understanding workflow in a
complicated application is a challenging task and at some stage all work will
be released back to the open source version.

~~~
normaldotcom
I used to mess around with ZynAddSubFX quite a bit... glad to see that there's
still some development going on!

------
vgmcglaughlin
IoT Foosball Table - [http://www.pointsource.com/blog/pointsource-foosball-
buildin...](http://www.pointsource.com/blog/pointsource-foosball-building-iot-
integration-on-ibm-bluemix)

The table uses break beam sensors, an Arduino, and a Raspberry Pi to send
score events to Node-RED instance running in Bluemix. A StrongLoop server in
Bluemix acts as the app server, and a Cordova/AngularJS app allows users to
identify themselves as the game players, follow the leaderboard, and monitor
game scores remotely.

We're using this to get better acquainted with various technologies so that we
can make the right decisions for our project work.

------
benjismith
I make a word-processor for fiction authors:
[http://www.shaxpir.com](http://www.shaxpir.com)

There's a quick walkthrough video here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFG8fpYkDxA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFG8fpYkDxA)

Every project includes a notebook alongside your manuscript, where you can
organize all your character notes, plot outlines, etc. It's especially great
for scifi or fantasy authors who do a lot of world-building.

Everything is stored in the cloud and synchronized between devices, and we
keep a version history of all your edits, so that you never lose any of your
work (even if you change your mind).

It keeps track of your daily word-count, so that you can set daily writing
goals and stay motivated, and it lets you export your writing projects to HTML
for publication (epub & kindle export are coming soon).

~~~
bobwaycott
Out of curiosity, why an ongoing monthly fee for a desktop app, instead of a
one-time purchase?

~~~
benjismith
All the data is stored in the cloud and synchronized between multiple devices,
with version histories of everything you write.

As we flesh out the software, we'll also be building realtime collaboration,
writing groups, etc... So in the long run, philosophically, it's more of a
service than a single piece of software.

~~~
benjismith
One other important reason:

We're a brand-new startup, and we're iterating the product _fast_. It's better
for the customers, and for us, if we offer frequent updates to all
subscribers, rather than releasing one big new version per year, and hoping
our users upgrade.

------
mcaravey
An automatic parallelizable language:

RxWrappers:
[https://github.com/RixianOpenTech/RxWrappers](https://github.com/RixianOpenTech/RxWrappers)

MonadSharp:
[https://github.com/RixianOpenTech/MonadSharp](https://github.com/RixianOpenTech/MonadSharp)

This is an idea in progress, but the idea is that by using the observable
pattern (ReactiveX implementation) you can describe a sort of 'meta' program
that breaks down function boundaries to automatically run your code in
parallel. Here is my initial paper describing the idea:
[http://rixianopentech.github.io/MonadSharp/Documents/Computa...](http://rixianopentech.github.io/MonadSharp/Documents/ComputationAtTheSpeedOfMonadsPaper.pdf)

------
bgrohman
The Work Explorer - [http://theworkexplorer.com/](http://theworkexplorer.com/)

It's a personal photojournalism project to learn more about different
occupations and the people who work in them.

"We spend about 30% of our waking adult lives working. During that time, many
of us experience only a small fraction of the available varieties of work. We
may have some understanding of the occupations held by our friends, family,
and coworkers. Outside of this subset of jobs, we likely have little insight
into the work lives of millions of other people.

Why do we work? How did we choose our occupations? Are we happy with our jobs?
I created The Work Explorer to answer questions like these through interviews
and photos. I hope to find interesting stories, jobs, and people along the
way."

~~~
therealdrag0
Cool! I've had this book on my to-read: "Working: People Talk About What They
Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do"
([http://www.amazon.com/dp/1565843428/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl...](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1565843428/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=A9JIDLSC6FO1&coliid=I3VFJTE1XXDRXG))

~~~
bgrohman
Cool, I'll have to check that out. Thanks for sharing!

------
wilhempujar
Stacktical, a Scalability Prediction platform!
[https://stacktical.com](https://stacktical.com) \- Awesome because to be able
to accurately fit the increasing and decreasing computing needs of your
digital services, you must nail down your capacity planning strategy.

But making informed capacity planning decisions involves repeated cycles of
defining, collecting and interpreting load testing campaigns until you get
actionable results.

That's exactly where we can help: Stacktical uses predictive technologies to
generate a scalability report of your infrastucture within seconds, using just
a dozen load testing metrics.

We're currently in beta, and our penny-pinching startups and DevOps love it so
far! We still have a couple seats left if you're interested.

------
rsync
We (rsync.net) just added attic and borgbackup support to our cloud platform:

[http://rsync.net/products/attic.html](http://rsync.net/products/attic.html)

This is awesome because attic (and the more polished successor, borg) is
quickly becoming the new de facto standard for remote, encrypted, you-hold-
the-keys backup:

[https://www.stavros.io/posts/holy-grail-
backups/](https://www.stavros.io/posts/holy-grail-backups/)

Best of all, we provide these remote server-side functions on our cloud
platform without adding any new attack surface or complications to our
platform: there is still _no python interpreter_ on our platform.

------
mindcrime
I'm working on a new Machine Learning Platform as a Service offering. We will
be providing an easy to use, API driven platform for quickly and easily
spinning up an environment for ML based on Spark and (in the first version)
SystemML. Eventually we'll add support for working with TensorFlow, Warp-CTC,
etc. I also envision having APIs for OCR, NLP, etc. as we develop.

One thing about this: everything will be Open Source. Obviously all of the
"back end stuff" (Spark, SystemML, TensorFlow, etc.) is already open source,
but even our provisioning code and API's will be OSS as well. The idea is to
put the customer in control. So if you don't like our service, or decide you
can do it cheaper running your own hardware on premises, whatever, you can
deploy the entire stack yourself.

There's nothing at the URL right now but a (very) primitive landing page, but
if any of you guys want to take a look, here ya go:

[http://neuralobjects.com](http://neuralobjects.com)

Everything is hidden behind a (temporary) login page right now, since this
isn't really public yet. The login is 'user123' with password 'realitybomb40'

Also, ignore the video that's there, it's a placeholder to mark out where our
explainer video will go when it's recorded.

We plan to eventually offer both "pre canned" routines that you can use out of
the box as well as the ability to deploy your own models. There a lot of other
stuff on the roadmap as well, but it's probably too early to talk about any of
it just yet.

------
jordanf
[http://bassoon.io](http://bassoon.io)

A heart-rate monitor for ecommerce conversion rate.

Most small-to-mid size ecommerce companies throw up their hands in frustration
trying to use Google Analytics.

Bassoon rescues them by slicing off their most important metric (conversion
rate) and emailing it to them every day, or alerting them when conversion rate
drops suddenly for any reason.

We integrate with Shopify and Magento, making it one-click easy for merchants
to get started.

~~~
bornon5
Not to derail, but as a bassoon player, I'm curious how you landed on the
name.

~~~
jordanf
Domain name was available. I wanted Bugle though.

~~~
bornon5
No worries, the bassoon is never anyone's first choice ;)

------
bonquesha99
Misc tools to make development more efficient:

[https://github.com/shuber/owners](https://github.com/shuber/owners) \- Take
ownership of your code! Knowing who owns a project or section of a code base
is very helpful when asking questions or requesting feedback. This gem allows
developers to define OWNERS files throughout their repository to provide a
human and machine readable way to determine who the maintainers are for
specific files of code.

[https://github.com/shuber/monolith](https://github.com/shuber/monolith) \-
Generate a monolithic repository for a set of git repositories!

[https://github.com/shuber/tmux-git](https://github.com/shuber/tmux-git) \-
Display git information in your TMUX status lines! Plays real nicely with vim-
promiscuous.

[https://github.com/shuber/vim-promiscuous](https://github.com/shuber/vim-
promiscuous) \- Instant context switching built on git and vim sessions! It
basically takes a snapshot of the following and let's you rollback to previous
states:

\- All of your vim tabs, buffers, splits, and folds along with their sizes and
positions

\- The location of your cursor for each buffer

\- The actively selected tab/buffer

\- Your undo history (each branch's undo history is saved separately)

\- Your git stage with all tracked/untracked files and staged/unstaged hunks

~~~
hokkos
Your monolith project seems very interesting to me, because I have 3 repos for
components of a common project that leaded to duplicated code. But I also
regret to have added some assets code that lead to a massive and slow repo, so
it seems it is also possible to filter the history from some directories but I
am not quite sure from your description.

~~~
bonquesha99
Nice, we had a similar issue which is why we decided to merge the
repositories. It makes sharing code, extracting shared dependencies, and
reviewing PRs so much easier when you can see changes across all projects in
one diff!

You can absolutely filter the history from some directories by specifying a
script to run after the repositories have been cloned. In your monolith.yml
you can add something like:

    
    
      # Optional list of commands to run right after
      # all of the repositories above have been cloned.
      #
      # These are handy for things like rewriting history
      # to remove large unused files or sensitive information.
      after_clone:
        - ./remove_large_assets
    

Then define the `remove_large_assets` script in whatever language you want and
have it run the appropriate git commands to filter that history!

After the files are filtered, the monolith repository will be generated
without all that junk that was bloating your git history.

------
chair-law
Add.Ninja: [https://add.ninja](https://add.ninja)

We wanted to make a website where people could give back to charity without
having to make a direct financial contribution. So we are using sponsored
content to see if people can find something they want to read, and support
good causes in this manner. Our end goal will probably not involve using links
from Outbrain, or Taboola, unlike our current product.

Feedback would be appreciated!

------
cryptoz
Sunshine! [https://thesunshine.co](https://thesunshine.co)

Weather forecasts generated using sensors in smartphones.

We use both crowdsourced reports of the current weather conditions and
barometric pressure data from iPhones to create more accurate and local
weather forecasts.

~~~
donbox
Thats a cool ( perhaps hot) idea. I would love to try it, dont have an iphone
though. Are you planning an android version in future?

~~~
cryptoz
Thanks! And yes absolutely, we are building our Android app right now (I'm the
Android developer actually). If you send an email to android@thesunshine.co
I'll add you to the Beta list!

------
spiderfarmer
I sold my internet marketing company in December last year to work fulltime on
a community for farmers. I made the website
[http://www.tractorfan.nl](http://www.tractorfan.nl) as a hobby, 8 years ago
and I need to modernize the website or accept that it's going to die by a
thousand cuts. I started working an a new version that's rebuilt from the
ground up. 2 more weeks before it's released for a focus group of passionate
users.

My goal is to make it the world's #1 website for users and fans of
agricultural equipment.

Here are a couple of screenshots of the new version:
[http://www.tractorfan.nl/topic/90241/](http://www.tractorfan.nl/topic/90241/)

This is the best project I have ever done because I have the chance to do
everything better. I now have the time to read up on best practices, new
technologies and am not afraid to throw away a couple of days of design or
coding work. Best decision I ever made (so far).

~~~
sebkomianos
Good luck with that, I really like your motives behind it.

------
dmvaldman
[http://samsarajs.org](http://samsarajs.org)

A JS library for the mobile web. Originally a fork of famo.us, where I was
Chief Architect.

Check it out if you're interested in bringing complex 60fps animation,
physics, gestures and 3D rendering to a website.

It's awesome because, you can push UI on the web further without sacrificing
on performance. Moreover, it sets a path to decentralize apps. No app stores,
distribute your app with a link. No install/uninstall. Index apps with
pagerank. Deep linking for free. App updates on refresh. Etc etc.

------
mkeeter
Antimony -
[https://mattkeeter.com/projects/antimony](https://mattkeeter.com/projects/antimony)

It's an open-source tool for computer-aided design, with a graph-based design
flow and pervasive Python scripting.

------
griffinmb
ScriptCat

[http://www.scriptcat.io](http://www.scriptcat.io)

Currently it's a "pingdom for ports", and emails you if a new port opens up on
your server. I'm working on making it a fuzzer for basic web vulnerabilities
that automatically scans your site on deployment. Basically, ScriptCat will be
your script kiddie in the cloud.

------
LogicX
[https://DNSFilter.com](https://DNSFilter.com) \- DNS-Based content filtering
and Threat protection; designed to meet the needs of managers of multiple
networks.

We're focused on entities that manage 20-100+ networks representing retail,
restaurants, hotels, chains, public spaces, etc.

These networks also need protection, and can benefit from centralized
management that a cloud-based solution brings over on-premise boxes. Our
biggest competitor is OpenDNS, but especially since being acquired by Cisco,
they're focused on the enterprise, pricing these users out of the solution.

We're utilizing a small subset of cloud providers who can support our BGP
anycast network (12 POPs next week!), and have built out amazing
infrastructure, an easy-to-use management interface with the stats these
providers need, comprehensive categorized domains and up-to-date threat
sources. We're in private beta right now and negotiating partnerships in the
space.

------
Mojah
Syscast: [https://sysca.st/](https://sysca.st/)

High quality screencasts that teach open source technologies. Instead of
having blogposts where you blindly copy/paste and pray it works, this aims to
_really_ teach you how it works and show the _why_ of each configuration,
instead of just the _how_.

------
kordless
Making revenue without VC investment. Revenue is awesome. Doing it without a
VC is even better.

~~~
carsongross
Amen, brother.

------
donbox
Lexi :[https://github.com/codenrun/lexi](https://github.com/codenrun/lexi)

Its a text editor being written in python. Its based on the case study
discussed in the GOF book. Still a work in progress.

If you do give it a try. It needs python 2.7 and pygame( for rendering text...
will be targeting other graphics libraries in future).

Press F1 for one column formatting and F2 for two column.

Control + b toggles bold ( its buggy ). Its awesome because it is teaching me
design. Will write one in java and c++ in future.

------
marcosdumay
Sealgram: [https://sealgram.com](https://sealgram.com)

A set of email extensions that make it possible to run a PKI over SMTP, making
email privacy easy to achieve.

And, besides the extra privacy, the PKI needed shared data and access control,
what led me to create a DAV-like system, that lets you grant other people
permission for querying your maildir (ok, not really a maildir, but very
alike), and let you do stuff like let a group of people work on a document you
hold on your email.

------
cheeaun
HackerWeb - [http://hackerwebapp.com/](http://hackerwebapp.com/)

I just recently launched an iOS app
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackerweb/id1084209377?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackerweb/id1084209377?mt=8)
in conjunction of the web app. It's my first ever iOS app and is built with
React Native.

I've also written a post on my journey in building the app:
[http://cheeaun.com/blog/2016/03/building-hackerweb-
ios/](http://cheeaun.com/blog/2016/03/building-hackerweb-ios/)

Here's a video preview:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3xDf67mjQw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3xDf67mjQw)

~~~
hugodahl
As a daily user from my phone, I've come to expect the HackerWeb UI to be the
default HN look/feel, and need to mentally adjust to the official look and
feel! The collapsing comments -> killer feature!

~~~
cheeaun
Nice! Glad to know you're using and liking it :)

------
rileyt
Amplitude

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

Interactive music discovery. Amplitude tries to get a feel for your current
mood and then gives you a 30 song playlist that you can save to Spotify.

Spotify's discover weekly is great, but you only get one playlist a week. The
radios are a great idea, but I found them to far to repetitive and playing
very mainstream music I'v already heard. Amplitude sits somewhere in the
middle.

~~~
alwaysdark
Just wanted to say that I found the music suggested by amplitudeapp to be
great! Thank you for creating it.

A feature request from me would be to add an option to create/save an Apple
Music playlist if it's possible at all.

------
rafBM
Missive — [https://missiveapp.com](https://missiveapp.com)

Started as a collaborative email client, but expanding to offer chat and
general team communication features. Your inbox already acts as a todo list,
so it’s the best foundation to build a powerful and unified collaboration
platform. We’ll ultimately become your one true todo list. One that gathers
tasks from all channels: email, chat, etc. This pretty much makes us
competitors to email clients, Slack, Basecamp, help desks, CRMs… name it. Big
ambitions! ;)

Read more here: [https://medium.com/missive-app/building-the-team-
communicati...](https://medium.com/missive-app/building-the-team-
communication-app-of-the-future-ec5418517738)

------
edandersen
Net Writer for Windows 10 - [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/net-
writer-previe...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/net-writer-
preview/9nblggh69f7s)

I ported parts of the gnarly old Windows Live Writer / Open Live Writer
codebase to the Windows 10 UWP platform. WLW now available on mobile
essentially. Adding features almost every week.

------
Qworg
Project Natick: [http://www.projectnatick.com](http://www.projectnatick.com)

No, we're not a startup (but our team/group is run like one). Also,
submarines!

------
dtwest
Menucamp - Online ordering for restaurants
([https://menucamp.com](https://menucamp.com))

Restaurants pay way too much for bad online ordering systems. Menucamp is a
simple, inexpensive system that gets the job done.

~~~
27182818284
I hope you keep working on this, simply because I hate how stuff like this is
considered acceptable for menus:
[http://metrodiningdelivery.com/](http://metrodiningdelivery.com/)

~~~
dtwest
Exactly. Thanks for sharing that one

------
jonathanbull
Pouring all my spare time into
[https://emailoctopus.com](https://emailoctopus.com) \- dirt cheap email
marketing via Amazon SES.

~~~
slig
Last week, I was googling for an alternative to Sendgrid and found out about
your service.

Besides being hosted, what advantages do your service offer over a self-hosted
option like Sendy?

Congrats on shipping!

------
charlesportwood
Modern Message Exchange Protocol - [https://github.com/charlesportwoodii/mmxp-
server](https://github.com/charlesportwoodii/mmxp-server)

A self hosted, distributed, secure communication "protocol" (server/app) for
exchanging messages. Think of it like a distributed, platform agnostic, self-
hosted iMessage. MMXP differs from email and other chat systems by encrypting
both the message and the metadata. Messages are encrypted and signed using
user public keys for verification. The server and application components are
open source for transparency.

------
maneesh
Pavlok -- ([http://buy.pavlok.com](http://buy.pavlok.com)) --- a wearable
device to change behavior. We just integrated with IFTTT and now it has become
a haptic feedback platform. The device can vibrate, beep, and send electric
shocks.

And we are releasing a developer API later this month :)

~~~
ClickQuestion
This is the perfect device for an internet of things horror story.

" And then my phone got hacked, and then my Pavlok started shocking me over
and over again. When I tried to remove it, it locked on tighter. 'I'm sorry
Dave, I'm afraid you've asked me not to allow that, Dave' "

------
gortok
Jewelbots: [http://www.jewelbots.com](http://www.jewelbots.com)

Friendship Bracelets that teach kids how to code. Currently working on the
firmware for our production bracelets, and then will be working on the Arduino
API and bootloader to allow our Jewelbots to run Arduino based code.

------
haldean
I'm working on a programming language which will allow fully automatic
distributed computing by having everyone using the language participate in a
SETI@HOME-style p2p network. I'm under no illusions about it being fast, but
it's certainly fun.

Not really ready to share the URL yet, things are still coming together.

~~~
jbpetersen
Are you targeting networks with or without malicious actors? I spend a lot of
time thinking about the latter.

~~~
haldean
Very delayed response: I'm focused on first building it assuming the
trustworthiness of the actors on the network; extending to trustless
distributed computing is an even bigger tangle than I've already gotten myself
into. Have you written about it anywhere? I'm always interested to hear how
other people think about these things.

------
jimaek
Working on v2 of [http://www.dnsperf.com/](http://www.dnsperf.com/) Opened an
office in Krakow and hired a team. Its going to have synthetic and RUM data
for every provider, plus the ability to test your own. Even more data will be
available for free!

------
abhishekdesai
I am working on ReadBoard
([https://www.readboard.io](https://www.readboard.io)) - a new way to converse
on the Web. And why do I think it is awesome? Because I believe it will really
change the way we converse on the Web.

I recently posted three different articles on medium explaining my thought
process but I would like to mention one article here.

[https://medium.com/readboard-blog/online-commenting-why-
do-b...](https://medium.com/readboard-blog/online-commenting-why-do-both-
disqus-and-livefyre-suck-so-bad-54b021e72985#.qt6j9yjal)

To summarise, ReadBoard lets you (the readers) own your conversations on the
Web.

And when I say “owning a conversation”, that means…

1\. I, as a reader, will decide on which part of the article I want to start a
conversation and with whom. 2\. I, as a reader, want all my conversations at
one place. 3\. I, as a reader, want to know what others are discussing on the
same article.

ReadBoard is still in private beta but if this thinking intrigues you, here is
a special link to sign up for all HackerNews users.

[https://www.readboard.io/signup/hackernews](https://www.readboard.io/signup/hackernews)

Following video (< 4 mins) explains What is ReadBoard and Why we created it?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xPLhARgM90](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xPLhARgM90)

I would really appreciate your thoughts on this. You can help me build a
better product or stop me from making a product, which nobody wants!

------
ransom1538
OpenDoctor.io [http://www.opendoctor.io/](http://www.opendoctor.io/)

Opening up doctor data. Building a massive doctor database, first US, then
internationally. Building out new search tools never seen before: eg, search
by publications, awards, or fellowships.

------
sjs382
Currently, a lot of woodworking. It's awesome because it keeps my mind free
from more stressful things. :)

~~~
Loughla
Our property is getting full of small (10'x10'ish) sheds, greenhouses, and the
like. It's so soothing to be able to just make and follow a plan and have
concrete solutions to straight forward answers.

That being said, building the old-fashioned pole barn (36'x54') using logs,
sawmill, and kiln to make the lumber, almost killed me. There needs to be some
sort of limit to everything.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Felt good to read that. I started an 8x12 shed two years ago and really need
to get it done this spring so we can actually use it. I kinda have the same
plan: just keep erecting outbuildings when I get bored.

------
apawloski
"Live" views of the Earth from Himawari-8 (a geostationary Japanese
satellite).

Latest image: [http://earth.apawl.com](http://earth.apawl.com)

Video of the previous 24 hours at:
[http://earth.apawl.com/recently](http://earth.apawl.com/recently)

Bonus: Video of the eclipse earlier this week.
[http://earth.apawl.com/eclipse](http://earth.apawl.com/eclipse)

~~~
kartikkumar
Amazing views! Have you considered trying to do some sort of change detection
based on the image stack?

------
krapp
I decided, against my better judgement, that I should teach myself Hack
(because why not), and by extension, how to set up a Vagrant box (since I'm
using Windows and the tutorials I found for that assume Vagrant.) As an
experiment, I'm porting over a HN clone I had written in PHP to it.

So far, I'm able to get the box working, get the database up and get
everything running, and a basic XHP based layout, but the actual application
barely exists. I do not guarantee the quality of anything since this project
is still just days old but here is a repo[0] if anyone wants to take a look.
It's awesome because I personally think it's awesome, or at least likely to be
awesome in the future. You are welcome and, knowing HN, likely to disagree.

I'm also... three months into my first one game a month project[1]. It started
as a Berzerk clone but will probably end up being some bog standard shooter. I
recently got state machines and a quadtree working.

[0][https://bitbucket.org/kennethrapp/based-
hack](https://bitbucket.org/kennethrapp/based-hack)

[1][https://bitbucket.org/kennethrapp/berzerk](https://bitbucket.org/kennethrapp/berzerk)

~~~
jtreminio
Hi! I created a tool that may help speed you along!
[https://puphpet.com](https://puphpet.com)

You can spin up a VM with Hack installed and get to learning HAck, not how to
manage a VM!

~~~
krapp
Thanks, that looks like it could have save me some time...

------
kadavy
I started a new podcast called "Love Your Work." I'm trying to make it free of
posturing about "killing it" and such – just people who have defined success
for themselves.

My first episode was an in-person interview with Jason Fried, and was a real
honor. He just spews brilliance – very easy to interview:
[http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/jason-fried-
basecamp/](http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/jason-fried-basecamp/)

Another popular interview is with a neuroscience who studies insightful
thinking: [http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/love-your-work-
episode-8-creati...](http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/love-your-work-
episode-8-creating-aha-moments-with-neuroscientist-dr-john-kounios/)

------
shahbazac
[https://fixparser.targetcompid.com/](https://fixparser.targetcompid.com/) FIX
parser allows users to paste FIX protocol snippets into the app, which parses
the log and displays the results in a nice, human readable format. This app is
for a very niche segment of technologists who work on financial trading
system.

This is a side project of mine and has been for a few years. It is very
gratifying to get emails from random users telling me how much they love the
app (and asking for additional features). Just a couple of weeks ago I added
an important feature: the ability to securely share FIX logs.

I'm pretty proud of the fact that the interface is pretty simple, yet hides
lots of functionality the users probably don't even notice. For example, the
logs you paste can be surrounded by other garbage, such as timestamps or log4j
noise and the correct message will still be extracted. It will guess
delimiters. Users can drag and drop a file on to the text field. Click on a
message (very subtly) highlights related messages. I'm sure I'm forgetting
many more.

There is plenty (plenty!) more I could add. Just a small matter of having no
time :)

------
eoinmurray92
Rinocloud [https://rinocloud.com/](https://rinocloud.com/) \- makes it easy to
handle all your research data. You can save data with metadata and integrate
Rinocloud with your instruments so that all the data can be curated
automatically.

(quick demo here
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFRPAAj1ijc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFRPAAj1ijc))

------
ericb
Our hosted load testing service which uses real browsers, driven by
javascript, ruby or java code the same way you'd write your usual
selenium/webdriver tests.

It is awesome because it will make load test script creation/maintenance just
like anything else. It will also be the first "opinionated" load testing tool.

beta access signup here:
[http://signup.browserup.com](http://signup.browserup.com)

~~~
tixocloud
Interested to see how it pans out. Just signed up.

~~~
ericb
Thanks!

------
ecopoesis
Codenames as a Service

[http://www.nightmare-green.com](http://www.nightmare-green.com)

~~~
Royalaid
really cool idea

------
evck
CANtact - [http://cantact.io](http://cantact.io)

Open source hardware for communicating on CAN buses, which are the main
network used in today's automotive systems. Hardware has been around for about
a year, but I'm currently working on new open source software for visualizing
and communicating on CAN buses. Hoping to demystify automotive electronics and
make them more accessible!

------
hluska
Professional - I'm a generalist with Vivvo Application studios. Right now, I'm
mainly doing deployment, but that is subject to change.

Personal - My girlfriend and I recently had a baby - Lauren turned 48 hours
old at 01:15 local time this morning. When I'm not at work, I am changing
diapers, holding the most incredibly cool thing I have ever helped create, and
feeling the most incredible awe that I have ever experienced.

------
boyter
[http://searchcode.com/product/](http://searchcode.com/product/)

A downloadable self hosted version of searchcode. I had gotten a lot of
requests for something like this and after getting a largish mailing list went
ahead and implemented. Slow uptake right now but hopefully in time and with
improvements will become more useful for more people.

------
ironmantra
I built a product that attempts to re-engineer how we interact with actionable
information at work by introducing a "meta" layer of intelligent shortcuts
(menu items are objects, not just links). The objects store meta data needed
to streamline access to information in databases, LOB web sites, etc. It's
awesome because it saves time. It's awesome because you can use it to quickly
access a large group of information resources. Want to open 4 Hacker News
sections with one click? Can do that. Spanning all monitors? Can do that. Want
to open four different files with four different apps needed to work on a
project with one click? Can do that.

Single user version video:
[https://youtu.be/gt67K6Pr7MY](https://youtu.be/gt67K6Pr7MY)

Enterprise user version video:
[https://youtu.be/dnuJicgGAtg](https://youtu.be/dnuJicgGAtg)

I saw pieces of this work at Microsoft when I took an early version of my
product and customized for specific teams. I've created the ability to do the
customization without any programming, except for the SQL Server menu options.

Trying to googlize personal and enterprise knowledge (i.e. making it as easy
to find as with google on the web). IOW, trying to eliminate the need to look
for actionable information on your PC or company network using a single
universal keyword driven information portal. The enterprise version uses a
simple SQL Server "meta" database.

More info at my website: [http://BrainDance.com](http://BrainDance.com)

Have no marketing budget. Wife about to kill me. Can also publish MenuSets to
cloud and have integrated cloud knowledge base about to go into beta. Yes the
current version works with Azure database.

Let me know if you see any value or if you think this is stupid and why.

------
jumpalottahigh
Anton Baby Data: [https://github.com/jumpalottahigh/anton-baby-
data](https://github.com/jumpalottahigh/anton-baby-data)

Our son was born about a month ago and after tracking some feeding, peeing,
pooping and sleeping data manually, I decided to write my own tool. This
project is using Firebase to store data.

------
avitzurel
The-Startup-Stack [http://the-startup-stack.com/](http://the-startup-
stack.com/)

I think that Devops is too hard and it shouldn't be. IMHO the main reason it's
happening is that there are many tools and no framework to consolidate them,
and a lot of the "cookbooks" or "recipes" out there are missing a production-
ready bullet proof version.

The way I try to solve it with the-startup-stack is to bring all the tools
under one roof with an easy step-by-step way to get your stack bootstrapped.

You can get started with terraform, chef-server and mesos in minutes.

It's still in very early stages of development.

I am trying to post weekly reports on my blog. Here's the latest:
[http://avi.io/blog/2016/03/02/the-startup-stack-progress-
rep...](http://avi.io/blog/2016/03/02/the-startup-stack-progress-report-
march-2-2016/)

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

The last hope to save mankind from civilizational collapse brought on by The
Javascript Complexity Singularity.

------
maxs
I am writing a simple note/journaling app. It has blogging feature, sharing
journals with friends and private (client-side encrypted) journals. Currently
it is web-only but I am planning hybrid apps for Android/iOS and the desktop:

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

------
screensquid
ScreenSquid: [http://screensquid.com/](http://screensquid.com/)

Record the screen of every visitor to your website. Helps you see exactly what
users are doing and understand where they're having trouble. Works on every
website including Angular, React, AJAX, and private user pages.

~~~
drwl
Do services like this exist already? And if so, why did are you working on it.
(asking as curious)

~~~
screensquid
Yes they do. I wasn't happy with any alternative, I wanted a service that:

\- Works with modern sites (angular, etc)

\- Records every visit (most are extremely expensive per recording)

Hotjar is listed below, but as I mentioned HotJar:

\- does not work with Angular ([http://docs.hotjar.com/docs/does-hotjar-
support-ajax--single...](http://docs.hotjar.com/docs/does-hotjar-support-ajax
--single-page-apps))

\- is limited to 2,000 recordings per month

------
mipmap04
Syndient - [https://www.syndient.com](https://www.syndient.com)

Syndient is a way to aggregate, curate, and share RSS / Atom feeds with a
wider community. Users create Digests (collections of RSS / Atom feeds and
keywords) and Syndient scans and tags content automatically. Digests can be
public or private and ultimately be used as Atom feeds themselves.
Additionally, Syndient provides thumbnails and descriptions of the links and
displays them in a simple and familiar UI. You can try it without creating an
account at [https://syndient.com/find/](https://syndient.com/find/).

Thanks for reading!

~~~
huvanile
impressive!

------
siscia
effe - an open source implementation of AWS Lambda

[http://github.com/siscia/effe](http://github.com/siscia/effe)

It is awesome because it gives,you more power than AWS Lambda and because you
have a sane way to manage it via effe-tool ([http://github.com/siscia/effe-
tool](http://github.com/siscia/effe-tool)), also it is written in go which
should make it faster than competitor...

------
s_kilk
BedquiltDB ([https://bedquiltdb.github.io](https://bedquiltdb.github.io))

A JSON document store built on PostgreSQL's jsonb columns.

These days I have client libraries done for Python, Clojure and NodeJS, so
I've been focusing on getting deb packages ready and gearing up for a 1.0
release.

------
fblp
Easy Office phonebooths \----- | | | | | | \----- I've found lots of startups
want more private spaces for individuals to work and do calls, but most
solutions cost thousands of dollars or require builders. Does anyone want to
test and give feedback on a better office phone booth?

~~~
Flammy
Its something the startup I work for needs, I'd be happy to provide feedback
(I'm a user researcher). Email in profile.

~~~
stevesearer
Here's some phone booths I've tried that are pretty awesome:
[http://www.frameryacoustics.com/en/home/](http://www.frameryacoustics.com/en/home/)

------
mandeepj
3D try room (women's only) -
[http://www.sensestyles.com/tryroom](http://www.sensestyles.com/tryroom)

It is in early beta version. UI have few issues but it is working.

We will create a 3d model from your uploaded head shot and you can try
different clothing on it.

------
benwills
ontolo.com : a fast, customizable search engine for marketing opportunities.

Written entirely in C, except for the front-end. Took 18 months. Didn't know C
before and was a hack programmer. Just released a major update yesterday.

The crawler, parser, and indexer can process over 250,000 web pages per minute
on commodity hardware and a gigabit connection. The parser is unlike any other
I've seen, in that it parsers a document into about 200 sections.

This allows you to search for very specific things like "web pages that
mention Donald Trump in the comments, where Bernie Sanders is mentioned in the
main article, and there are Adsense ads on the page."

Details at : [https://ontolo.com/app/guide/](https://ontolo.com/app/guide/)

~~~
tmaly
do you use regular expression parsing, xml, or some state machine type
parsing?

What do you store all the data parsed in?

~~~
benwills
the parser is all hand-written c. the only library i use outside of libc, is
xxhash.

documents are read and parsed byte by byte, where "sections" (e.g. side nav)
and "contexts" (e.g. comment author) are maintained in a stack of states. part
of the speed comes from writing a custom hashing tool that creates compact,
very fast hash tables with few or no collisions. so identifying html tags,
etc, is very fast and keeps everything as close to l1 as possible.

data is stored exclusively in sphinx. i don't know if it's a secret or not,
but i've seen no one talk about it: elasticsearch crumbled horribly under this
kind of load. sphinx performs beautifully.

depending on the path i take from here, creating my own index and engine is
becoming a serious consideration.

~~~
tmaly
I have used xxhash before, its very impressive for speed.

Do you tie sphinx to a database backend to store the data in?

~~~
benwills
nope. it's all in sphinx. sphinx has its own sort of data store called
'attributes', which are analyzed after a full-text match is performed.

this doesn't work well for relational searches (e.g. sql), where you might
look for results that match a specific location or metric (e.g. star-rating)
first. but if the text-based search query is the most important part of the
query, attributes can then be used to refine the results even further.
fortunately for ontolo, this is the case. and it lets me eliminate managing
another software package and data store. though that might change in the
future, depending on how the complexity and amount of data evolves over time.

properly designing the index here for size and speed was one of the biggest
challenges i faced; deciding what to keep in ram, what to keep on disk
(attributes), and how to organize so much data that it didn't kill the disk,
but still allowed everything you could want to be retrieved and searched
against. this might have been the most time-consuming part of the entire
project, in terms of thinking-time.

as for xxhash, it's amazing in a ton of ways. i've taken a sort of special
interest in hash functions, designed my own suite of testing tools, and
written many of my own. for every metric i've put xxhash up against, it has
performed beautifully. the only time i'm ever able to write anything faster is
when the quality of the hash is severely compromised in order to make a very
customized hash for a very specific and narrow set of data. and compared to
other 64-bit hashes out there, it consistently outperforms them in terms of
speed and distribution, across many hardware architectures. yann collet really
made something amazing there (in addition to several of his other projects).

[edited to add]: i forgot to mention that part of storing data in sphinx as
attributes is that you can store plain text data (or json, etc) that is
returned in the query result. this is how we return urls, page titles, etc to
the user in the browser and exports, thus eliminating the need for a raw data
store.

------
zvanness
Scoper - See where you want to be!

[http://scoper.video/](http://scoper.video/)

Scoper is awesome because instead of watching a random stream, you can request
one anywhere, for whatever reason.

An example use case would be if you were going to be moving to a new city
that's far away. Instead of making a deposit for an apartment based on pics
you find online, you could send a request on Scoper to someone nearby the area
you want to move to, get a live interactive stream, where you can talk back
and forth with streamer.

Also, Scoper is launching at SXSW:
[http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/awards/releaseit-at-
sxsw](http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/awards/releaseit-at-sxsw)

~~~
d0m
Reminds me of "localmind" where you could ask questions to people at a
specific location. They were acquired by airbnb a few years ago.

------
modeless
Eye interaction for virtual reality and augmented reality.

[http://eyefluence.com/what-we-do/](http://eyefluence.com/what-we-do/)

[http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/11/eyefluences-eye-tracking-
in...](http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/11/eyefluences-eye-tracking-interface-
lets-you-navigate-virtual-reality-hands-free/)

We create integrated hardware, software, and user interfaces that examine your
eye movements to figure out your intent and allow you to control computers
hands-free, using only your eyes.

It's clear that eye tracking is going to be a key feature of future VR
headsets. The only question is whether it will be introduced in generation 2
or 3.

------
obaid
[http://www.getairloop.com](http://www.getairloop.com)

AirLoop is a fully customizable digital loyalty platform that provides the
tools you need to optimize and enhance your customer engagement, to create
repeat business and increase revenue.

We are on a mission to change the way our merchant partners think about
customer loyalty and customer engagement. We help you understand and influence
your customers, and help you turn every single customer interaction into an
enduring relationship.

We believe that small businesses should be able to capture customer data
without breaking the bank. Our loyalty program is completely free -- all you
need is an iPad (Android coming soon), download our app, configure your
rewards and off your go.

------
vlucas
Countism! [http://countism.com/](http://countism.com/)

[iOS + Android] Tally counter mobile app with timelines, graphs and averages.
Count/track anything and see how you're doing over time. You can even export
your data to CSV.

~~~
hellbanner
Ah, much more robust than our [https://itunes.apple.com/ml/app/watchful-
counter/id999352003...](https://itunes.apple.com/ml/app/watchful-
counter/id999352003?mt=8), inspired by:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tally-
things/id387650080?mt=...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tally-
things/id387650080?mt=8)

Great job!

~~~
vlucas
Thanks! I see you already have an Apple watch app though, so you beat me there
:).

------
dizzystar
Item Hut: [https://itemhut.com/](https://itemhut.com/)

There is no single solution that integrates warehousing, inventory control,
order management, customer relations, email ticketing, shipping, and channels
management.

The goal is to build a system that is fast, accurate, and minimizes mouse-
clicks. Most other solutions I've worked with and evaluated were slow,
couldn't properly -1, and were a UI maze.

This system is awesome because it simply does not exist anywhere (Odoo is the
closest approximation), it is targeted to small and medium businesses, and it
has infinite customization in mind. Last but certainly not least, it is FLOSS,
and I plan to offer off-contract support for the open source users.

------
simonsarris
GoJS - [http://gojs.net/](http://gojs.net/)

Interactive diagrams for the web, built with HTML Canvas (and export to SVG).
Very customizable with a big foundation of node/link logic, undo/redo, data-
binding, and much more.

------
joeld42
Currently working on a little tool to create a "repeating" texture of
triangular tiles. More or less an implementation of the "Image Quilting" paper
but for triangles.

No URL yet (it's on github but not fit for human consumption yet), but you can
see progress on my twitter:
[https://twitter.com/joeld42](https://twitter.com/joeld42)

When it's done (next week or so) I'll write up a full blog post.

You can find other projects I've worked on (like tk_objfile) on my website
[http://www.tapnik.com](http://www.tapnik.com), there's a mailing list signup
thinggy at the bottom if you want to get updates when I release things.

------
kelukelugames
I made something small to help me debug colors on android and people told me
it was dumb. :( I thought it was helpful because there are no ARGB converters
online.

[http://kelukelu.me/argb/](http://kelukelu.me/argb/)

------
ejcx
I'm making internal honeypots a thing. I'm making statically compiled binaries
that make deploying a honeypot super super easy.

Right now, I've built an HTTP honeypot.

The idea is that if anything ever talks to these services you have an instant
alert you NEED to respond to and actionable information about it. I have
support for sending you a text message.

It has support for whitelisting certain IPs that you would be doing your
scanning from, and post all information to a second URL for logging, as well
as a lightweight dashboard to view logs generated by the binaries and more.
Next up I need to build an SSH honeypot, FTP, etc.

[https://www.chuckcanary.com](https://www.chuckcanary.com)

------
JimWestergren
DomainStats.io [http://domainstats.io/](http://domainstats.io/)

Collecting data and metrics for all domains, with API.

Also the website builder N.nu, [http://n.nu/](http://n.nu/)

------
jmquigs
ModelMod: modify art in games

[https://github.com/jmquigs/ModelMod](https://github.com/jmquigs/ModelMod)

I posted this as a "Show HN" a few months ago. It's awesome because for the
vast majority of commercial games, there is no way to customize the art, since
the Developer doesn't provide an end-user art pipeline. There are older
programs that allow texture customization, but as far as I know, ModelMod is
the first program that lets you snapshot models, edit them, and the reload the
edited version in game.

Currently I'm working on CoreCLR support (a lot of the code is F#) and
experimenting with pixel shader transplants.

------
ewmailing
BlurrrSDK: Write native cross-platform 2D games in C, Lua, JavaScript or
Swift. (iOS, Android, SteamOS/Linux, OS X, Windows, Raspberry Pi).

I just posted a demo video yesterday of Swift development for Android. I think
this could be the very first video of a (cross-platform) Swift program running
on Android. [https://youtu.be/w6FY_qSi8yY](https://youtu.be/w6FY_qSi8yY)

A more talky introduction here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCWFqHJC_gI&index=1&list=PLf...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCWFqHJC_gI&index=1&list=PLfQSQ4hu539MKtZZLdFSK63QAmiep1Ksj)

------
Ave
[http://presets.io](http://presets.io)

I'm working on a platform backing the existing desktop app for users to
create, share, and explore lightroom presets - kinda like a package manager
for photography presets.

------
brlewis
Flux-Mithril

The Flux overview video seemed convincing. It's a web app architecture that
lets you ask "How did my app get into this state?" and always have a
straightforward path to an answer. It turns out Mithril fits the architecture
as well or better than React does, and for me mobile-friendliness is important
so I really like Mithril's size.

My Hello World Flux-Mithril app's source is at
[https://github.com/brlewis/brlewis.github.io/blob/master/201...](https://github.com/brlewis/brlewis.github.io/blob/master/2016/mithril-
flux.html)

~~~
trequartista
Nice LoTR reference :)

~~~
brlewis
That's @lhorie's

------
csallen
Taskforce

[https://www.taskforceapp.com](https://www.taskforceapp.com)

Taskforce makes life easier for people who need to get real work done directly
from Gmail. It's a Chrome extension that lets you add notes to emails, convert
emails into to-dos, and schedule emails for later, all without leaving your
inbox. It makes email triage a breeze, and saves you from forgetting to handle
to important emails from clients, customers, etc.

I've been working on this as a side project for the past year, but it started
life as a YC company back in 2011, so some people have been using it for over
5 years now!

------
ilostmykeys
I'm sick and can only breathe thru one nostril. Would be awesome to make use
of the other one. I'm working on that!

~~~
ju-st
Drink a lot of water! Get well!

------
coreymaass
A kanban board plugin for WordPress
[https://kanbanwp.com](https://kanbanwp.com) it's awesome because it brings
simple project management to WordPress. It's also awesome because it's my
first big WordPress product, and it's already been more successful than most
of my other projects. I wrote some thoughts about my experience so far
[http://gelwp.com/articles/a-few-months-after-launching-a-
wor...](http://gelwp.com/articles/a-few-months-after-launching-a-wordpress-
plugin/)

------
sdegutis
Clean Coders: [https://cleancoders.com/](https://cleancoders.com/)

We have videos on how to apply clean coding principles. I'm really hopeful
that every coder learns these principles and how to apply them, because when
more people write clean code, everyone benefits. Plus Bob is just hilarious.
I'm really enjoying working on it because it's a pure-Clojure backend. We have
in only 80 lines of code a Clojure -> CSS generator that replaced Sass and
Less for us. Stuff like that just makes me really love this job.

------
MarioSpeedwagon
Hook Forms – [https://hookforms.com](https://hookforms.com)

Super simple form processing that starts attacking spam the moment a user (or
bot) hits your page. Captchas, no matter how "smart" are no longer necessary
with Hook Forms.

Just generate a form, copy the id into your own <form> tag, embed the JS and
it starts working.

See all form submissions in one place, and have people emailed any time a form
submission passes our crazy spam checks.

We're in beta for a very short time and almost going live, so TRY IT FOR FREE
and let us know what you think!

Thanks YC :D

------
K-Wall
Scat!: [https://getsc.at](https://getsc.at) Issue tracking utility for Slack.

Still a work in progress but with Scat you will be able to use Slack commands
to create and manage issues. The command will respond with a bot to list out
issues based on the initial prompt. The goal is to have nearly everything
related to an issue built into Slack commands and off load some of the editing
to a lightweight web UI.

I'm sure something like this already exists but it has been a blast so far
playing around with the Slack API.

~~~
pfarnsworth
Nice idea, but fyi, "scat" has some very negative connotations..., I would
look it up on urbandictionary.

~~~
K-Wall
Oh I knew that going into it.

------
tperry98
Live Recorder: [http://www.undo-software.com](http://www.undo-software.com)

Record a process on Linux and save an exact copy of the program's execution;
replay it later on a different machine, and step backwards and forwards
through the recording at the source level to figure out where it went wrong.

There are a few main things that make this possible:

\- lightweight copy-on-write process snapshots

\- re-executing (rather than recording) code we know to be deterministic

\- a lot of time spent on handling corner cases to create a mature product

~~~
ClickQuestion
This is incredibly cool. I saw [http://rr-project.org/](http://rr-
project.org/) on here recently.

Am I to understand this is basically the same, except you've added the ability
to follow along in source code? That sounds very very cool.

What capabilities do you have if no source is available?

~~~
tperry98
Just noticed your message, sorry for the delay. If you send a quick email to
support at undo-software dot com we'll be happy to answer your questions.

------
Huhty
A HN/Reddit alternative: [http://snapzu.com](http://snapzu.com)

Snapzu innovates on all the things that Reddit is lacking, such as:

1\. Your home feed provides all raw/live posts and activity from tribes you
join, people you follow, and/or posts you save. This is similar to how twitter
does it.

2\. You can post links and content into more than one tribe (community) at a
time which helps keep 're-posts' at a minimum.

3\. You can post images without using a 3rd party service like Imgur, and you
can embed Youtube and Vimeo videos directly.

4\. Instead of link/comment karma (yes, of the "karmawhoring" variety), you
earn Experience Points (XP) for participation used for leveling up your
profile, and Reputation, a percentage score based on how other users vote on
your posts.

5\. All members can contribute to your posts by adding "related links", which
add value to the post and are voted on by other members, just like comments.

6\. Each member has a limit on how many tribes (communities) they can operate,
based on XP level reached. No "power mods" here.

7\. A Partnership Referral Program
([http://snapzu.com/referralprogram](http://snapzu.com/referralprogram))
provides additional tools and incentives to help you grow your tribes (if you
have a blog, website, forum, or other social influence)

------
AlphonseJr
Toolwatch ! [https://toolwatch.io](https://toolwatch.io) It helps watch freaks
measure the accuracy of their timepieces. Accuracy has always been the holy
grail of watchmaking. Throughout the ages, watchmakers have been competing for
building the most accurate and precise watch movement but the consumers do not
have the tools to appreciate that effort.

With Toolwatch you can measure your watches for free and see how they compete
versus other measured watches !

~~~
vdnkh
Can you please show a demo/screenshots without me having to sign up? I'm
interested but I have no idea how it works (do I need a microphone? iphone?
etc), and I won't sign up until I know I can actually use it.

~~~
AlphonseJr
Hi, you are right, we should be able to see a demo before sign up. Let me
explain the process, it's pretty simple: you do not need any microphone or
device, just your watch! You will be asked to press a button when your watch
reached a certain time, this will synch your watch with our accuracy system.
24hours later, an automatic mail is sent to you asking you to come back and
synch again. After this second synch, we are able to determine the accuracy of
your watch. Let me know if you have any other questions.

------
doki_pen
Tubing is a Python I/O library.

I've been using it for batch data transformation tasks at Embedly. It's still
early and things can still change, but it's starting to stabilize. Tell me
what you think about the gross abuse of the __or__ operator. I love it, but if
I'm alone, I can remove it, or at least remove it from example code.

[https://tubing.readthedocs.org/en/latest/](https://tubing.readthedocs.org/en/latest/)

~~~
mixmastamyk
Needs an introductory paragraph. Had to read the whole page before I started
to understand what it is, and even then it is a bit vague. Looks like piping
of data like the shell in python.

------
scottbez1
DIY open source hardware split flap display:
[https://github.com/scottbez1/splitflap](https://github.com/scottbez1/splitflap)

It's one of those cool mechanical displays that were common in train/airport
terminals before digital signage took over.

Demo video of my prototype so far: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bslkflVv-
Hw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bslkflVv-Hw)

~~~
betimsl
Amazing. Though, downside of this is weight.

------
tomek_zemla
Two experiments in computational design. I call them data paintings. Digital
technologies already disrupted many fields - it is the time they disrupt
graphic arts and painting. More on the way...
[http://www.pixelbox.com/circuitflora/](http://www.pixelbox.com/circuitflora/)
[http://www.pixelbox.com/fishdna](http://www.pixelbox.com/fishdna)

------
metasean
GUN, an awesome Graph Database Engine! [http://gun.js.org](http://gun.js.org)
/ [https://github.com/amark/gun](https://github.com/amark/gun)

Things that make it so awesome: it is open-source, real-time, fully
distributed, and offline-first. It's also highly modular and easy to use, so
our community is growing, which of course makes it even more awesome!

------
Grue3
[http://ichi.moe](http://ichi.moe) \- Japanese text segmenter. Written in pure
Common Lisp. Works better than Google Translate.

------
Findeton
Agora Voting: [https://www.agoravoting.com](https://www.agoravoting.com)

Secure, secret ballot, fully auditable, universally verifiable electronic
elections. It has been used twice in the Spanish parliament, it scales up to
millions of votes per election etc.

It's quite interesting if you are security oriented. Of course nothing is 100%
secure, but the problem probably won't be on the server side, which is fully
verifiable.

------
Mz
[http://writepay.blogspot.com/](http://writepay.blogspot.com/)

I talk about how I make money writing online. It helps give ordinary people a
leg up on developing portable income that pays decently so that "the little
people" can benefit from new realities of the modern economy instead of being
victims of it.

------
zbyte64
[https://editllc.github.io/project-cms/](https://editllc.github.io/project-
cms/)

Static site generator that you manage from the browser. Currently publishes to
S3 or a zip file. No help from servers.

The load time is currently slow because I am pushing unminified code and all
the transpiling happens in the browser. With JSPM I can hot load applications
but sadly github doesn't allow cross origin requests.

------
lowtecky
Daily audio reactive music visualizer experiments posted to twitter:
[https://twitter.com/preziotte](https://twitter.com/preziotte)

These are largely coded in Processing and leverage the Minim audio library.
I'm doing this for several reasons: To get used to showing my work to other
people (vulnerability) and to be able to mentally move on from a piece that
I've finished so I can be more prolific.

------
walkingolof
A retro inspired computer, based on a 40 Mhz DLX/MIPS CPU, it got 640x480 1
byte per pixel graphics, Blitter, Sprites, DMA sound, raster co-processor. SD
card as storage.

Written in VHDL, running a simple DOS like "OS" based on Lua. GCC cross
compiler on Linux for writing demos/games and other fantastic software, for
the Amiga killer of yesteryear :)

Hopefully with a 3D printed case and open source plans, everyone can build one
in a few years :)

------
jasim
[https://protoship.io/#products](https://protoship.io/#products)

Protoship converts designs into code and generates full-blown web application
front-ends. HTML, CSS, SASS, React, the works. And not the typical auto-
generated crap, but real clean code as good as what we'd painstakingly write
ourselves. No absolute positioning; no mindless repetition of CSS; no slicing
and dicing.

I used to write business software in old-school tech like Visual Basic,
Clipper, and dBase, but have been building for the web for the past several
years. If you have ever worked on one of these technologies, you'll remember
how fast we could bang out database software and user-interfaces that gets
stuff done, compared to the boilerplate of modern front-end development. The
ever-shifting landscape, writing reams of HTML, CSS, DRY-ing up stuff with
SASS mixins, wiring up React components and props and `import`s... The sheer
tedium is mind-numbing to build even the simplest of applications.

We're excited because we think it can be fixed -
[https://protoship.io/story](https://protoship.io/story)

------
laundrysheet
We're building a recurring funding platform for adult content creators. Think
of Patreon but ONLY for adult, erotic, or pornographic content. We are looking
to cater to models, artists, game developers, and more.

An example use case would be an adult model creating a campaign with different
reward tiers such as $5/mo and $10/mo. $5/mo subscribers would receive
exclusive nude pictures whereas $10/mo subscribers would receive in addition
nude or special kinky pictures.

Our mission is simple: "To empower creators in the adult industry with the
freedom to pursue their passion". PledgeX is simply part of the movement that
is seeing more and more of those in the adult industry becoming more
independent and homegrown. And in a world where porn is thought of as free, we
feel that there are those of us who will actually pay for high quality
content.

We've just soft-launched but will be signing up our initial creators soon!

[https://www.pledgex.net/](https://www.pledgex.net/)

------
nzonbi
xoL icon based programming language:
[http://nzonbi.github.io/xoL/](http://nzonbi.github.io/xoL/)

Programs looks cooler than text, and are easier to work with (once you learn
it). Project current status is prototype under construction.

XoL is a programming language where code elements are designed icons. This
makes code flow and meaning easier to read than text. I have put a lot of work
to optimize the design as best as possible. The design shown in the page is an
earlier version. The current design has been improved greatly. I don't want to
reveal it until it is actually working. I find programs in xoL are beautiful
and engaging to look at. And are easier to understand than text. The user
interface is designed aiming to make writing and editing programs, easier than
editing text.

The actual language has been designed specially to work well with the icon
design. One key point is that xoL is statically typed. The type system aims
for simplicity -it is very easy to use-. The types are represented with icons.
This helps to make easier to understand the meaning of programs.

You can talk to me if interested in the project.

------
benHN
fedger.io ([https://fedger.io](https://fedger.io)) - We continuously feed our
machine intelligence tech with massive amounts of web data and provide easy
access via simple to use micro APIs.

------
perrylaj
I'm finishing up a retooled build for our primary product Ignition (quick info
[https://inductiveautomation.com/scada-
software/](https://inductiveautomation.com/scada-software/)). The build itself
is only 'awesome' to those of us who need to work on our product. Nearing the
final stretch of the project, but so far we've cut build times by 80+%, and
added in a bunch of tools/processes that will improve quality, not to mention
greatly ease onboarding for new devs. Been a fun little project.

Our product itself pretty awesome (IMO) for a number of reasons: performance,
flexibility, extensibility, easy of use (relative to other
SCADA/HMI/Industrial Automation platforms), secure, highly connectable. We're
one of the only companies (as far as I know) actually _delivering_ real
"Industrial IoT" (ugh, that term) solutions that are able to support the scale
and scope that we do. There are definitely others attempting similar things,
but not in such open and interconnected ways, and certainly nowhere near the
same value. Our technology is pretty innovative, but just as innovative is our
business transparency: We've done away with industry-standard artificial
pricing schedules that relate to how many data points you have. The result has
been adoption by many customers who simply couldn't afford to implement
automation in the past.

Anyway, as a developer, I really like being a part of a platform that touches
so many industries, in hugely varying ways. It's a fun challenge to build
things that are easy to use, yet abstract, powerful and scalable.

Now that I have met my "sound like someone from marketing" quota for the year,
I need to go wash it off with some code.

------
bradhe
[https://reflect.io](https://reflect.io)

We're a Techstars Seattle '16 company. We're making it possible for anyone to
embed gorgeous data visualizations in their apps or services for data they've
already got.

Check it out!
[https://demos.reflect.io/explore/](https://demos.reflect.io/explore/)

------
GavinB
I just had my first novel released this month! It combines gaming and literacy
for kids. It's themed around the idea of "becoming a player character in your
own life." The main character, Josh, uses the ideas of experience points,
quest hooks, and allies to get ahead in his life.

[http://amazon.com/Josh-Baxter-Levels-Gavin-
Brown/dp/05457729...](http://amazon.com/Josh-Baxter-Levels-Gavin-
Brown/dp/054577294X?sa-no-redirect=1)

The reviews so far have been great, saying that it's "Smartly paced and
emotionally engaging" ([https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gavin-
brown/josh-...](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gavin-brown/josh-
baxter-levels-up/)) and from "an author who gets his audience and knows his
games
([http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-545-77294-5](http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-545-77294-5))."

------
lolive
A visual tool for the Linked Data - [http://datao.net/](http://datao.net/)

A visual tool to create SPARQL queries and browse SPARQL endpoints. Plus a
Linked Data search engine of all the resources available in SPARQL endpoints.

One more thing : queries created in the visual tool are, when relevant,
displayed under each search result, and can be run upon it.

------
kimburgess
[https://vimeo.com/158477241](https://vimeo.com/158477241)

It's a 50K display that wraps two levels of a football stadium (the MCG in
Melbourne, Australia). Everything can be rendered in real-time. Control is
handled handled by an on-site operator, or can be handed over to an autonomous
system that links into game stats feeds, umpire systems and a host of other
triggers.

Content is generated at 60Hz and pushed to the physical displays at ~3600Hz to
provide smooth visual during broadcast and during slow motion playback. Being
~1KM long and outside individual sections of the display can also have
smoothed, real-time image adjustments adding to account for variation in
environmental conditions (shadowing etc) and provide continuous visual quality
across the full image.

------
programminggeek
Static Hosting - [http://www.statichosting.co/](http://www.statichosting.co/)

It's a static website hosting service for making hosting jekyll/hugo/etc.
sites way easier in terms of setup and updating. It's coming out of beta soon,
but if you want to try it out sign up for the beta list and I'll let you in
ASAP.

------
pushpaithal
[http://advo.ninja](http://advo.ninja)

I have seen even large companies with big marketing budgets have difficulty
getting eyeballs on their social content. Short lived sponsored ads fail them
with lack of virality, personal touch and being expensive. Why not utilize
employees’ social networks to spread the word. But, it’s painful to share
company posts regularly. So, I created Advo.Ninja to make it extremely
effortless to share content by ZERO-CLICK (auto posting) of company posts on
multiple social networks instantly. Set up and forget! or choose to share
every time.

This is proving to be a win-win situation - employees get to improve their
thought leadership and help companies ace branding by their best advocates -
employees!

Startups and mid-size companies are realizing the highest value with their
small marketing teams spending just a few mins every week and proud employees
sharing content.

------
nakodari
Jumpshare - [https://jumpshare.com/](https://jumpshare.com/)

An incredibly fast, real-time file sharing app. You drag and drop your files
to the menu bar (in Mac) / system tray (in Windows) and a link is
automatically copied to your clipboard, ready to be shared. If you're looking
for a more personalized way of sharing, you can send the files via email
directly from the app with advanced sharing options, such as, expire link
after x number of days, views or downloads, or simply disable downloading for
recipients.

The app comes with a slew of built-in tools, such as, capture and annotate
screenshots, record screen, bookmark, compose notes, and record audio clips.
You can upload "any content" from your clipboard using a simple hotkey.

We've built the product in such a way that we can offer the most advanced
enterprise level file sharing features to professionals and small businesses
at a very affordable price, while also making sharing dead-simple and easy!

------
misterdata
Warp: [http://warp.one](http://warp.one)

I want this to be the swiss army knife for all your data analysis/grunt work.
Key features are (1) work on small data set then repeat operation on the full
dataset so you can work faster, (2) query by doing what you would do in Excel
and (3) make loading and moving data super easy and fun to do!

------
IanCal
[https://grid.ac](https://grid.ac)

It's a free, entirely manually curated, database of research organisations
around the world with associated metadata and other linked IDs
(wikidata/geonames/NUTS/crossref/fundref/ucas/ukprn...). Everything has a
persistent ID so it doesn't matter if a university changes name.

It's awesome because this is the kind of thing you assume exists but actually
doesn't, and is really quite hard to build yourself. If you want to aggregate
data from multiple sources you need IDs. We built it because that's what we do
and it's what we need. Then we released it CC-BY :)

It's not glamorous, but I think it's pretty important. It lets you analyse
things far more easily than you would have been able to do before. I wrote a
blogpost about pay in universities vs regional averages in the UK [0] and the
analysis itself was really just a case of joining a few things together.

On the business side of things, we work with people to get their data cleaned
up & linked to GRID as well as offering other bits with . Please do get in
touch if you either want some help using it or just want to talk about these
kinds of things :) i.calvert@digital-science.com

[0] [https://www.digital-science.com/blog/tech/north-south-
divide...](https://www.digital-science.com/blog/tech/north-south-divide-uk-
university-pay/)

Edit - We're continually adding stuff, so get in touch if you think something
is missing or incorrect, you can raise a ticket here:
[http://gridac.freshdesk.com](http://gridac.freshdesk.com)

We tend to release once a month, so it might be a few weeks before you see the
fix go out.

------
hellbanner
Twitch Plays Minesweeper... because Twitch plays Minesweeper :)

Please do this every month on HN!

Also, an updated version of a turn-based game engine, now with ES6 classes.

~~~
detaro
You might enjoy this: [http://mienfield.com/](http://mienfield.com/) (Not
mine, saw it on HN a while back)

~~~
hellbanner
Yep, that's cool! AFAIK that's on a huge or infinite field. The Twitch Plays
one is built around small minefields and its voting based.

------
iamsalman
ImageServe -- [https://imgserve.io](https://imgserve.io)

Smart image CDN. Process images on-the-fly, store and serve with CDN of your
choice. No need to setup any imaging infrastructure (storage, processing and
CDN delivery) for web/mobile apps.

Developers get started within 5 mins to signup, point us to where your
original images are and replace the <img src=""> from your domain to the new
origin you just created.

One of the features is to serve the right image format which can reduce image
bandwidth on a page anywhere between 40% to 400%, or more.

------
guftagu
Manuscript. What if instead of pain-stakingly coding an API backend while
having to chose the web framework, language, libraries etc, we could just
describe the API and its routes as a set of operations that could be
implemented by any language, any framework, using any set of libraries.

What if you could build an API free of bugs on the first try? What if instead
of using a laptop or a desktop, you could build a custom API from your
smartphone? What if you could just build your API once and it could get faster
automatically as implementations improve performance?

I believe all of the above is possible and manuscript is my attempt to bring
this dream to life.

If this sounds awesome to you, help me build manuscript and let us change how
we create APIs forever.

I need help on this project so anyone interested is welcome to create some
issues and have some discussions.
[https://github.com/ArsalanDotMe/manuscript](https://github.com/ArsalanDotMe/manuscript)

------
localhost3000
Swizzle - [http://swizzle.onthebar.com](http://swizzle.onthebar.com)

Just launched this app. Daily round of cocktails curated by professional
bartenders from around the world. Swipe right to save the ones you like and
build you personal drink library and boozy shopping list. Share favorites via
iMessage and Facebook Messenger.

------
jventura
Flatangle reports:
[http://flatangle.com/products/reports/](http://flatangle.com/products/reports/)

It's a web application that generates the astrological interpretation of a
person's chart using traditional astrology methods. I hope next week to start
selling the Temperament analysis.

------
rch
StateBook

[http://statebook.com](http://statebook.com)

StateBook aggregates data from a wide variety of governmental and proprietary
sources to provide a geovisual platform that companies use to decide where to
launch businesses and create new jobs. We have great customers and are looking
forward to addressing a broader market.

------
marketforlemmas
www.guessthekarma.com

It's a simple game where I show you two images from Reddit (SFW of course) and
ask you to guess which was more popular. I'm using the data from the site as
part of my research into the dynamics on internet popularity.

It's awesome because it's showing that Reddit is a pretty random/fickle thing.
In the first iteration of the experiment (we're on the second now), people
couldn't really do much better than randomly guessing. If one image had 10,000
upvotes and the other 10, people could only guess the popular one about 55% of
the time. I wrote up some quick results in this blogpost:
[https://medium.com/@gregstod/guess-the-
karma-2-0-82a224a691f...](https://medium.com/@gregstod/guess-the-
karma-2-0-82a224a691f3)

I'd very much appreciate it if you played the game and donated a few data
points :-)

~~~
LAMike
I'm 3/3 so far! Cool site man

~~~
LAMike
One UI suggestion: make the images bigger!

~~~
marketforlemmas
Thanks for the suggestion. If you click on them, they'll pop out to the full
size. Otherwise, I couldn't figure out how to get it to appear OK on both
desktop and mobile (because I"m not really a web developer).

------
thenaterhood
A simple, plugin-based system for monitoring systems on a small scale. The
idea is to make it super fast to make plugins that either monitor something or
send data about what monitor plugins said through another service. It's not
intended to be a full-fledged monitoring application, just a "send me a push
notification if x breaks" sort of deal.

I use it myself since for my personal things I don't need a full fledged
application like Nagios, I just want to get told if something like a hard
drive fails. Right now there's plugins for checking systemd services, drives,
IP address, sending data to/from other heartbeat instances (super janky),
sending notices through pushbullet, dweet.io, blinkstick, and pulling URLs.

[https://github.com/thenaterhood/heartbeat](https://github.com/thenaterhood/heartbeat)

------
angeliquetoque
I'm 19 and I launched in January a productivity app Proud
([https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/proud/id891726847?l=pl&ls=1&...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/proud/id891726847?l=pl&ls=1&mt=8))
My main mission is just simply help people organize their life, goals in the
easiest way. Proud contains all the best tools in one place. \- through
reminders we teach people how to create habits and routines. \- timer lets you
track your time workflow and remind you about the breaks. \- destress
superpower lets you be present for a while, tibetan bowls influence your
thoughts and emotions. \- weekly performance dashboard shows you how many
tasks you did in the last 7 days.

I believe that our greatest asset is time, so we have to learn how to manage
it to grow day by day.

------
tixocloud
Connectomo - smarter marketing automation for startups and small businesses
([http://connectomo.com](http://connectomo.com))

It's awesome because we're building a marketing automation platform that
learns from customer preferences and behaviours to build a better customer
experience.

------
wirddin
I'm working on Shuffl, a virtual jukebox which allows you to start a
collaborative music station for your party where your guests can see the
current playlist, vote on the tracks and add their own track. Here :
[http://shuffl.in](http://shuffl.in)

~~~
touristtam
How do you create the virtual jukebox? I take that a lambda user has to have
the necessary software to play the music and this is 'just' a voting system.

~~~
wirddin
Once you create a hub, it fetches top songs from iTunes and starts playing
from YouTube. All the songs added by users from their devices are then added
as song meta data. I'm planning on making the YouTube player visible and
adding soundcloud as well.

------
jwcrux
gophish - [https://getgophish.com](https://getgophish.com).

It's awesome because it provides phishing simulation/training to _everyone_
for free. Traditional solutions cost $$$$$, so gophish makes this type of
training available to anyone regardless of security budget.

------
xcloud
DashFlow - A New Homepage For All Your Apps -
[https://dashflow.io](https://dashflow.io)

DashFlow is a simple cloud-based web app launcher enabling fast and one-click
access to frequently used apps, websites, software, shortcuts and bookmarks.

Simply select all the popular apps you use, add any custom shortcuts, re-
arrange and group the icons and set as your homepage!

With the growth of SaaS Apps and shift of software to become web-based, we
want to build a better way to stay organised and productive.

A useful planned feature is the ability to automatically set the apps for all
employees or users of the same domain name, saving the need for everyone to
create bookmarks individually.

Note: the web-app is not ready yet but you can register for early access once
we launch!

------
nealrs
Devpost Teams - [http://devpost.com/teams](http://devpost.com/teams)

We're trying to give developers a better look at dev teams & answer their most
common questions about dev process, benefits, who else works there, what it's
great, etc -- before they apply.

~~~
hndl
Really nice! Good luck to you guys.

~~~
nealrs
thanks! any suggestions / ideas for improvement?

------
BigBalli
[https://cruiseable.com](https://cruiseable.com)

I'm working on Cruiseable, a new platform for cruise discovery. It's awesome
because it is the only service to grab all cruise line data, normalize it, use
tagging criteria and provides the best cruise experience for you depending on
preference (not just price/date dropdown).

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

------
Jemaclus
I'm building a fancy schmancy word tracker for writers. I love NaNoWriMo's
tools, but they limit its use to just the month of November, which doesn't
help me for the other eleven months of the year! I originally built a simple
app in December when I was still trying to finish my novel after November was
over, and I wound up using my app up to today. In mid February, I tossed a
fancy Bootstrap theme or two on it.

It's still very much in early stages, with not a lot of features. The only
action you can really take is to update your word count, which should refresh
the charts and graphs and stats. I personally find it incredibly motivating,
but if you're not a writer... then maybe it's not for you.

Enjoy: [https://www.novelsarehard.com](https://www.novelsarehard.com)

~~~
Narretz
Feedback: "fancy charts and stuff" is already putting me off as it implies
that the charts are simply eye candy without any practical use. Likewise
"built in a weekend" but also "made in many many hours with love" doesn't
really sound serious. You also can't see the example charts at a bigger size,
and since this is one of the "selling points", there should definitely be
examples.

~~~
Jemaclus
Thanks for the feedback :)

------
flxn
Tor Relay Configurator: [https://tor-relay.co/](https://tor-relay.co/)

It's a simple configurator for generating a script that sets up a Tor node on
your server. I hope that way people with who are less proficient in Tor and
Linux can support the network.

------
phillc73
A database of thoroughbred bloodstock sale results:

[https://github.com/phillc73/pinhooker](https://github.com/phillc73/pinhooker)

The data is collected from currently six different bloodstock auctioneers in
Europe and covers the years 2009 - 2015. Future plans include additional
auctioneers around the globe.

The goal is to provide improved data analysis to the bloodstock industry.
Starting with a simple Jekyll based website (barebones found under the gh-
pages branch at the moment), reports will be written in RMarkdown, so R code
can be included directly, then "knitted" with the knitr package to vanilla
markdown.

It's awesome because I love horse racing and bloodstock. Combining a personal
passion with my data analysis skills should hopefully mean a stellar service.

------
colinbartlett
StatusGator: [https://statusgator.com](https://statusgator.com)

Monitors the status pages of cloud services and sends you alerts in Slack,
email, SMS, web hook, etc. You can even query the status of a service via a
slash command in slack:

/statuscheck github

...will tell you if GitHub is down.

------
jf
I've been enjoying doing literate programming using org-babel inside of Emacs.

Writing literate programs allows me to easily keep my code and documentation
synchronized. I make a update in one place and generate my "README.md" and
project files from that one document.

Here is a sample application that I wrote to demonstrate OIDC:
[https://github.com/jpf/okta-oidc-beta](https://github.com/jpf/okta-oidc-beta)

And here is another sample application I wrote to demonstrate implementing
SCIM: [https://github.com/joelfranusic-okta/okta-scim-
beta](https://github.com/joelfranusic-okta/okta-scim-beta)

(All of the files in both of those projects are generated from the README.org
file)

------
wtracy
[http://www.linuxonaposter.com/](http://www.linuxonaposter.com/)

A wall poster featuring Tux and Linux kernel code.

I haven't sold any yet. I'm not sure whether I'm advertising it wrong, or if
it's just not something people are interested in.

------
grahamburger
Managed NOC services: [https://goo.gl/15QA3Z](https://goo.gl/15QA3Z) We
provide live technicians to actively watch and troubleshoot problems with
network devices and web services during specified times of the day, up to
24x7. (Basically to let you and your employees get some sleep knowing
someone's watching things.)

We are launching in a niche that has a need for constant supervision of a
large number network devices but are often too small to justify the expense of
hiring internally. (WISPs, if you're familiar with that) but we believe are
services can be generally useful to a broader customer base.

We are still taking on beta customers at very reduced rates. Hit me up at the
link above or at the email in my profile.

------
jcr
youtubedown

It's awesome because youtube is (intentionally) annoying, plus, it's nice to
give back bugfix/feature patches when someone else (jwz) is kind enough to
give their code to the public.

EDIT: Thanks detaro. Link removed. I didn't know it was an issue, and
obviously, couldn't see it.

~~~
metasean
For anyone else wondering about the links, I _think_ one of these is the
archive.org version of the link jcr removed:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20150930225625/https://www.jwz.o...](https://web.archive.org/web/20150930225625/https://www.jwz.org/blog/2013/06/youtubedown/)

[edited with more recent version]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160310204843/https://www.jwz.o...](https://web.archive.org/web/20160310204843/https://www.jwz.org/hacks/youtubedown)

~~~
jcr
The second link you posted '/20160127052944/' is bad. It links to an old
version, 1.681, and the current version is 1.711 as of an hour or two ago. The
version number matters.

The url I posted and removed still works fine, so long as it's not originating
from HN (i.e. 'referer' checking). If you do a quick web search on
'youtubedown' you'll find it.

~~~
metasean
Thanks for letting me know the latest archive version was already outdated!

If jwz is trying to avoid the HN-effect, then sending people via another route
won't completely mitigate the problem.

I went ahead and updated the archive.org link. Providing that means HN users
don't need to do yet another search and his site shouldn't get hammered nearly
as much.

------
aroberge
Reeborg's World
[http://reeborg.ca/reeborg.html](http://reeborg.ca/reeborg.html)

A modern version of Karel the robot with different programming methods (a
Scratch-like interface, a function-based approach, or an OOP based approach)
with support for either Python or Javascript. A combination of tutorial and
documentation for a previous "stable" version can be found at
[http://reeborg.ca/docs/en](http://reeborg.ca/docs/en) (French and Korean
versions also available). This is slow on-going work that started first in
2004 with a desktop program (rur-ple) used by many in formal settings to teach
programming.

------
BigMonty
[http://www.ExchangeTree.Org](http://www.ExchangeTree.Org)

I've just recently launched a bartering website where users can exchange goods
and services without using money. Users can create profiles listing out what
they have to offer and what they may be looking to get in return, search other
users, and leave reviews detailing their experiences with other users.

In todays economy, sometimes it can be difficult obtaining certain necessities
in life, and ExchangeTree offers people an alternative platform from the
financial system that is so deeply rooted in todays society.

I urge anyone interested to check it out and ask any questions you may have :)

Cheers Josh CTO of ExchangeTree

------
grinich
We're building a new mail app at Nylas! [https://nylas.com](https://nylas.com)

Oh and it's open source :)
[http://github.com/nylas/n1](http://github.com/nylas/n1)

~~~
pmx
This is exciting! I'm really happy to discover a nice looking email client
that I can run on ubuntu!

------
kidproquo
MelloNote - Android app to create notes for MP3 files.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adhyet.mel...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adhyet.mellonote)

Demo video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqxAVGRPow0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqxAVGRPow0)

1\. Practice music

* Mark sections to practice and add notes with lyrics or helpful tips

* Jump to and loop sections to perfect your skills

* Create color coded notes to group themes (notes for vocals, guitarists, drums)

* Rehearse with notes played back as time cues

* Export and share notes with others by email

2\. Make notes on audio lectures

* Identify key sections and add descriptions

* Jump to relevant sections by tapping on the note title

* Export and share notes with others by email

------
jvanveen
Developing a library to build p2p webapps with that runs in the browser and on
nodejs using transport/connector adapters, ecdh/aes encryption, ractivejs
templating/prerendering and js-data orm. Not near alpha quality yet. What I
like about the project is the potential to easily connect users/systems to
each other, without the need of a centralized webrtc sdp message broker and
the fun of writing one codebase that runs simultaneously on the 'server' and
the browser.See
[https://github.com/jvanveen/high5](https://github.com/jvanveen/high5) for
more info

------
kpocza
Thriot is an open source IoT platform. There are no real usages yet, but since
it's open anybody can make use of it. The main advantage of this platform is
that it has configurable and extendable storage system so you can store the
configuration, telemetry data and M2M messages where you wish besides the fact
that it has been tested on Windows and Linux, as well.

Code: [https://github.com/kpocza/thriot](https://github.com/kpocza/thriot)

Documentation: [http://portal.thriot.io/](http://portal.thriot.io/)

Demo site: [http://central.thriot.io/](http://central.thriot.io/)

------
ganarajpr
I worked on this a couple of weeks back and its almost complete - but I
thought I would share it with the world.

 __Good for JSX projects transpiled using Babel __

[https://github.com/ganarajpr/gotofile-
chrome](https://github.com/ganarajpr/gotofile-chrome)

Its a set of 3 plugins ( chrome plugin, atom plugin and Babel plugin) that
allow you to jump to the right JS file in your editor directly from chrome. I
was thinking how would View Source look if it was implemented in this new
world of Front End JS. . This should provide a more seamless experience of
going from the Browser to your editor. Would love any feedback on the
experience or any enhancement requests.

------
j4pe
Not In My Country

\--------------------

[http://beta.notinmycountry.org/](http://beta.notinmycountry.org/)

It's a tool for organizations to fight corruption their community. Our main
deterrents are rating/ranking of public officials (think teachers & tax
collectors), responsibly controlled crowdsourcing of corruption reports, and
campaign pages to raise money and awareness to litigate a case or assist
victims.

Currently active in Uganda, talking with organizations in Ukraine, Kenya,
Nigeria, and Liberia and with major global anticorruption organizations.

If you're reading this and you know about network security and/or I2P & onion
server provisioning, leave a comment, I could use your help.

------
tmaly
Bestfoodnearme - food dishes by location
[https://bestfoodnearme.com](https://bestfoodnearme.com)

It is a side project I used to learn Go. The site is up, but it is not pretty
to the eye yet. I am working on a new theme for the it.

------
ryanckulp
Online reviews for ecommerce products are the only way that potential
customers knows if they should purchase something.

This strategy is one-dimensional and fading; just ask Yelp. People need more
than a 3-, 4-, or 5-star gesture before punching in their credit card and
feeling good about it.

So I'm working on a new kind of "social proof as a service," currently live
and integrated with Shopify. It's called Notify
([https://apps.shopify.com/notify](https://apps.shopify.com/notify)).

Notify shows recent orders as they occur on a storefront, compelling future
visitors to make a purchase.

------
escherize
CLJS Fiddle - [http://cljsfiddle.com](http://cljsfiddle.com)

Allows newcomers to jump into the best parts of Clojurescript development, and
lets those who understand Clojure{script} share their questions and examples.

------
smithgeek
[http://codehappy.info](http://codehappy.info) \- awesome because it's trying
to help people find information about a company that you can't easily get
anywhere else so they can code happy.

------
sixtypoundhound
Just rebuilt one of my projects: an automated website revenue strategy
consultant.

[http://www.marginhound.com/calculators/website-revenue-
calcu...](http://www.marginhound.com/calculators/website-revenue-calculator)

The tool is built off a set of revenue benchmarks I built up over the past
couple of years; this version looks at the expected performance for different
market niches and revenue strategies (for ad-supported sites). It guides the
audience towards the best options to improve their current results.

Future version of the tool will have additional features to help dial in
targets for SAAS and E-commerce businesses.

~~~
sixtypoundhound
BTW, I'd like to thank my lazy clients for the inspiration.

One of them decided that product managers shouldn't have to study performance
reports and draft an analysis of what was happening in their P&L. So....
here's an automated analyst.

<not that I endorse PM's that can't explain their own P&L>

------
seyz
I'm the founder of Forest (For REST):
[http://www.forestadmin.com](http://www.forestadmin.com)

Instant & Customizable Admin Interface

Save development and maintenance time. Focus on your customer product.

Want to test it? Let's talk!

------
booleanbetrayal
I have been working on a product called Smartly
([https://smart.ly](https://smart.ly)) for a couple of years now. It's an
interactive learning platform aimed at teaching in short, mobile-accessible,
"bite-sized" chunks. While the platform itself is novel in several aspects,
the real value is in the content, which centers around a business / career
development curriculum. We've landed on a business model which makes this
content entirely free to individual learners, which is pretty awesome, I
think! Please feel free to check it out.

------
cinquemb
Been working on a linearly constrained minimum variance beamformer with
decorrelation filtration available any given sample data matrix from
acquisition sensors[0] that I'll probably merge into a fork of the OpenEphys
project I created to add neurofeedback functionality (only temporal filtering
implemented now)[1].

[0]:
[https://github.com/cinquemb/LCMVBeamformer](https://github.com/cinquemb/LCMVBeamformer)

[1]:
[https://github.com/cinquemb/OpenEphysGUI](https://github.com/cinquemb/OpenEphysGUI)

------
Richallen1
We are looking into a new video storage and streaming service and are looking
for feedback. We are creating a cloud service to store all your movies and
allow you to stream them from anywhere. There will be both free and paid tiers
available depending on how much storage is required.

Its a bit like Plex however you don’t need a server at home and not have to
rely on your home upload speed.

Link to concept site: www.streamlyapp.com

We also have a way that you can scan the barcode of your DVD’s and we add it
to your account to save upload.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated

------
jimothyhalpert7
Beatified -
[http://beatified.herokuapp.com/library/](http://beatified.herokuapp.com/library/)

A YouTube Drum Machine / Beat Prototyper / VJ Tool

I just noticed that pressing hotkeys (1-9) on a YT video at one point was
really responsive, and you could play with them like on a drum machine. I also
like how many YT videos look, when played next to each other. Now I'm thinking
of a way of how to package that feeling into something less experimental, more
consumable.

------
trb8
Precipice - A java library providing monitoring and back pressure for task
execution

[https://github.com/tbrooks8/Precipice](https://github.com/tbrooks8/Precipice)

Precipice allows you to plug in a variety of metrics to collect result and
latency information about tasks (http requests, runnables, writes to a socket,
etc) that your application executes. You can pick mechanisms of back pressure
(rate limiters, semaphores, circuit breakers, etc) that can pause execution
depending on what your metrics indicate is going on.

There are no assumed threading or execution models.

------
matthewarkin
I plugged this before, but
[https://commencepayments.com](https://commencepayments.com), which basically
acts as a server for a Stripe integration which is pretty neat for people who
don't have access to their server-side code. Total Processed volume has
exploded over the last couple months (Jan did 4x Dec, and Feb did 2x Jan, with
March looking on track to beat Feb).

So with the new growth, looking to add a bunch of cool new features, like iOS
/ Android library, ACH support, and once Braintree opens the necessary API,
Braintree support.

------
shiny
Dr Kodama -
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dr.-kodama/id1060934796?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dr.-kodama/id1060934796?mt=8)

My first (iOS, very simple) game. Got to learn Swift and some basic game dev
principles - was fun (save for encountering this issue:
[http://stackoverflow.com/q/24223572/548170](http://stackoverflow.com/q/24223572/548170)).
Thanks for trying and please hit me with any feedback if you got it.

------
ahachete
ToroDB - [https://github.com/torodb/torodb](https://github.com/torodb/torodb)

It's both a NoSQL and SQL database in the same place. Has the best of both
worlds.

Speaks the MongoDB protocol, stores the data in PostgreSQL.

You no longer have to choose either Mongo or PostgreSQL: you can have both!

There is a lot of detail on this recent FLOSS Interview:
[https://twit.tv/shows/floss-
weekly/episodes/377?autostart=fa...](https://twit.tv/shows/floss-
weekly/episodes/377?autostart=false)

------
ogreveins
A VR desktop.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbyUZk3TGZ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbyUZk3TGZ8)

Futzing around with the operating system calls is the hardest part.

------
ChrisDutrow
Management software for small mobile service businesses (working demo):
[https://demo.enterprisejazz.com](https://demo.enterprisejazz.com)

Video of older, ugly version with way more features: [https://s3-us-
west-2.amazonaws.com/enterprisejazz/website/de...](https://s3-us-
west-2.amazonaws.com/enterprisejazz/website/demo_video_02/demo_video_02.html)

Got started on it cause I own a mobile auto detailing company: SharpDetail.com

Some features it has:

* Route optimization

* Call routing and call recording

* Track missed calls vs answered calls

------
amackera
Cadence - [http://getcadence.com/](http://getcadence.com/)

We've been hacking on hitting the sweet spot between the simplicity of Trello
and the power of JIRA.

It integrates deeply with github & bitbucket, as well as slack/hipchat/irc, so
you don’t have to spend a ton of time keeping the data in Cadence relevant or
accurate. This bottom-up approach allows us to help map your development
process and how work gets done on your team.

Sorry for the sparse page, we're slowly opening beta access to interested
teams.

------
effektz
I am working on GitMonitor which is a tool for developers to watch over their
GitHub repositories, and setup custom rules. Like "No merging pull requests
without an LGTM" or "No force-pushing to any of these branches: "

It has worked well in my experience when junior and even mid-level developers
join a team, helping expose them not only to git best practices, but to the
custom rules of their development team as well.

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

------
jensC
ResQ-Pi

A little Raspi-App to call for help via SMS and/or E-Mail. An IR-Control
triggers the alarm.

[https://github.com/oprema/ResQ-Pi](https://github.com/oprema/ResQ-Pi)

------
WithDom
I'm working on a new social media app called With. It's about who you're with.
You physically tap phones with the people around you to tell the world you're
with them. On your profile page it shows everyone you've met... so let's say
you tap phones with Jay-Z, everyone will know you're a pretty big deal because
you've met Jay-Z!! Check it out.
[http://apple.co/1SdYMhV](http://apple.co/1SdYMhV)

------
stevekemp
A system for managing DNS-data via git-repositories - [https://dns-
api.com/](https://dns-api.com/)

A console based mail-client -
[https://github.com/lumail/lumail2/](https://github.com/lumail/lumail2/)

A reworking of the Debian Administration website to make it better scale, and
experiment more with clustering - [https://debian-
administration.org/](https://debian-administration.org/)

------
hardmath123
Nearley: a JavaScript parsing toolkit
[http://nearley.js.org](http://nearley.js.org)

Nearley is fast, expressive, convenient, streamable, battle-tested,
bootstrapped(!), has a "standard library", and has an error handling API. You
specify grammars in BNF and compile it to a JS (node/browser-compatible) file.

Nearley also has fun tools like "output json.org-style railroad diagrams from
my parser" and "use this parser as a fuzzer that creates strings that match
the syntax".

------
konschubert
I am working on a useful and compatible micropayment standard:
[https://konstantinschubert.github.io/pennytoken-
spec//](https://konstantinschubert.github.io/pennytoken-spec//)

I know this has been tried before and it will probably fail but I think the
benefits are too plentiful to not try it.

I am also working on an example implementation: [http://pennytoken-
service.boosted.science/](http://pennytoken-service.boosted.science/)

------
hengheng
MAVinci - [http://www.mavinci.de/](http://www.mavinci.de/)

We're making high-end fixed wing surveying drones with custom autopilot, the
best RTK GPS that money can buy, an excellent camera (that we modify) and an
excellent flight planning software. We're making the whole package in-house to
keep the whole toolchain under our control, up until Agisoft Photoscan which
we heavily script. Surveying engineers seem to love the system, and rely on it
working perfectly every day!

------
lcall
OneModel - "atomic knowledge", or a new way to manage knowledge by looking at
it differently. The vision subsumes essentially all KM & notetaking etc
products, and the current iteration is a text-mode bare AGPL3 app that I use
every day (no mobile support yet, other features still in the pipeline...).

Hopefully explained at the site "About" link and its links (if not let me
know!): [http://onemodel.org](http://onemodel.org)

(ps: I'd love to talk about funding etc.)

------
xavivives
An audio-reactive, programable, super-awesome, buggy, free tool for
visualizing animated gifs: [http://ludovico.io/](http://ludovico.io/)

------
gonchs
On [https://upflow.co](https://upflow.co) – it's awesome because it saves
people time researching and scheduling great content to social media.

~~~
tixocloud
Very interesting tool. Are the content pieces usually just a link back to
someone else's trending piece? Is there a way for me to understand my own
content pieces?

------
fadys
lucyleaf.com

It's a subscription loose-leaf tea service. We source organic, premium teas
from suppliers throughout the world.

Here are two coupon codes for HN readers:

Monthly subscription - $5 off: HN5OFF31016

Yearly subscription - $50 off: HN50OFF31016

~~~
dimatter
i dont want/need to register to "discover new teas". potential customer lost.

------
Rezo
Cloudcraft - [https://cloudcraft.co](https://cloudcraft.co)

It's a free tool for creating AWS architecture diagrams in an isometric style.
You can snap together AWS services as if they were LEGO blocks. The latest
development is that you can now scan an actual live environment and import
your real resources.

Right now (when not reading HN...) I'm working on making the grid infinite,
adding zoom & pan, so it becomes usable for really large architectures. It's a
lot of fun.

~~~
stunthamsterio
That's all kind of awesome - I'd pay some good money for a more generic
version of the tool allowing me to draw out infrastructure for my clients that
self host.

~~~
Rezo
Thanks! There's generic blocks and icons in different colors and sizes
available too, and more networking gear coming up, but right now I'm still
trying to stay focused on AWS. With the massive service catalog AWS has, I
feel something like this is required to make sense of it.

~~~
stunthamsterio
Makes sense... I'll have a play with the generics, but my hat goes off to you
- great looking tool.

------
yaniksilver
I am working with [http://www.cloudways.com/en/](http://www.cloudways.com/en/)
these days.

We have built a platform to give front-end devs, designers and creative
agencies a relief from the server management tasks.

Its an high tech alternative to old control panels like Plesk or CPanel.

We are coming with a newer, more finished version of control panel soon.

We always believed in user experience and that's what make any product tick.

And we are trying our best to focus on creating the UX that has never been
achieved.

------
jishangiras
1News - [http://www.1news.me/](http://www.1news.me/)

\- built this completely from scratch \- gives you the right amount of text to
read about a news article \- custom algorithm to pick the best news phrases \-
iOS & Android

Latest News in Short. All the news in short bits Updated frequently
Artificially Intelligent News Engine picks only the important phrases

8 CATEGORIES

\- TOP - ENTERTAINMENT - SPORTS - TECHNOLOGY - \- BUSINESS - POLITICS -
LIFESTYLE - SCIENCE -

World News / Choose your country. - Australia - India - USA - UK

------
dividuum
info-beamer - [https://info-beamer.com/pi](https://info-beamer.com/pi)

I build a digital signage platform based on the Raspberry PI. It started as an
open source "for fun" project ([https://github.com/dividuum/info-
beamer](https://github.com/dividuum/info-beamer)) but has now evolved into the
most powerful software to build animated, hardware accelerated visualizations
on the PI. As using the software on its own can be complicated (if you're not
a programmer) I built a complete SaaS around it ([https://info-
beamer.com/hosted](https://info-beamer.com/hosted)) which allows you to get
your first screen running in a few minutes without any knowledge of Lua, Linux
or even the PI. The software running on the PI is written in C/Lua and uses
OpenGL/OMX to do its hardware acceleration. The hosted service is built using
Python and includes a complete readonly and custom built Linux distribution
that runs on the PI. On top of that it's possible to control the hosted
service using the API so you can build your own digital signage around the
technology. It's so much fun developing on all different parts of the product
that I'll never get bored.

~~~
TimHordern
Well done, that looks fantastic. I can immediately think of a bunch of uses
for it around the office and even at home!

~~~
dividuum
Thanks! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

------
sbauch
[https://vcardme.com](https://vcardme.com)

My current side project is Vcardme. It's a service for hosting your contact
information at a URL where it can be accessed or saved. Idea being you should
put your Vcardme URL in your email sig.

For me, what really makes it awesome, is the iOS app that allows you to save
Vcardme links to your iOS phone book and also _subscribes you to updates for
the contacts you saved._ So your iOS Contacts would stay up to date,
automagically.

~~~
tmoullet
Just tossing this out there. Could be an awkward name:
[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=V+card](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=V+card)

------
tristanburnside
Chocolate

[https://github.com/TristanBurnside/Chocolate](https://github.com/TristanBurnside/Chocolate)

An iOS framework where UI is designed in Interface Builder and all
functionality is defined in blocks that are automatically run asynchronously
on a background thread.

This allows developers to avoid creating massive view controllers by never
creating any view controllers at all.

Still a WIP and TableViewControllers and most of the view controller lifecycle
events are not yet supported.

------
parterburn
Dabble Me ([https://dabble.me](https://dabble.me)) is a private journal that
can be done all through email. It emails you daily, you reply. As you build up
entries it will start sending you past entries in the daily emails.

Some of the better use cases include: * Keeping a developer journal (I see a
few others here are working on something along those lines as well) * New
parenting journal * Daily journaling

------
ifcologne
[https://www.arangodb.com](https://www.arangodb.com)

A database that you can use as a JSON document store or a graph database - or
even both data models combined - within a single query.

Why it's awesome?

I can use one technology for so many different use cases, I'm not limited to
one data model and can use a single query language that supports graph
traversals and document JOINS.

It's designed to support modern microservice architectures and orchestration -
e.g. via Mesosphere DCOS.

------
mcone
Statusbot [https://statusbot.io](https://statusbot.io)

An API for programmatically monitoring the status pages of hundreds of web-
based applications.

------
needz
Pindigo - Social score-tracking for pinball players.

We're building an app to provide the first non-forum social network for
pinball players.

\- Score logging w/ image uploads

\- Machine look-up w/ links to third-party resources

\- Likes, comments, and following

\- Score timelines, analytics, and leaderboards.

\- Oauth integration of the world's leading pinball forum, Pinside

\- Plenty of stuff in the works!

After 5 months of development, we're starting our v2.0.0 closed beta next
week! [http://www.pindigoapp.com](http://www.pindigoapp.com)

~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
Does it play "Pinball Wizard"[0] at some point?

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKbUm8GrbM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKbUm8GrbM)

~~~
needz
No, but there's a cow-themed easter egg. :)

------
matthiaswh
[http://moviewatch.2helixtech.com/](http://moviewatch.2helixtech.com/)

A very simple, quick movie rating app. Functional but not quite production
ready.

Basically I wanted a list of every movie I've ever watched along with a quick
star rating, and it was taking too long to go through the other sites or
collect in a spreadsheet. I wanted something that I could browse through and
very quickly say whether I've watched it.

------
daenz
[http://formconstantdance.org/](http://formconstantdance.org/)

It's not a startup, but I work on the performances like they are.

~~~
hellbanner
So is the dancer aware of the light overlays?

~~~
daenz
She is..it's projected onto her in real time.

~~~
hellbanner
Couldn't tell if it was an after-effect or not. That's cool!

------
groovy2shoes
I've been working on a few things lately.

TMk: [https://github.com/baguette/tmk](https://github.com/baguette/tmk)

TMk is a replacement for UNIX `make` powered by Jim Tcl. It's awesome because
it's very portable (written in ANSI C) and provides all the features you
expect from `make` and then some: because it's backed by a fully-featured,
general-purpose programming language, you can customize your build with
procedures (functions, but in Tcl they can be made to behave much like Lisp
macros), loops, conditionals, etc. You can even write a loop that generates
new rules at (build script) runtime. It also has support for packages, where
commonly-used procedures can be collected (for example, we have plans to
provide a package to make writing TMakefiles for C projects more convenient,
etc.). TMk was originally called TMake, but when we googled that we found at
least two other projects already called "TMake", thus we renamed it "TMk", but
it's still pronounced the same. As an added bonus, it's got some pretty good
documentation, if I do say so myself.

Tiny7: [https://github.com/baguette/tiny7](https://github.com/baguette/tiny7)

Tiny7 is a fork of TinyScheme that I'm updating to support the R7RS-small
Scheme standard. It's implemented as a library that can be embedded into
applications to provide Scheme as a scripting/extension/glue/configuration/...
language, but it also comes with an (optional) REPL. It's awesome because it's
_tiny_! The REPL weighs in at under 150KB when compiled with debugging
information, and uses about 10KB of RAM on startup. The downside to being so
tiny is that the speed situation isn't great (it's been bearable for my usage
so far, but it won't be suitable for everything). However, I have plans to
implement a bytecode compiler, which should speed it up a bit. It has
virtually no documentation at the moment (outside of the outdated TinyScheme
documentation), but I'm working on a comprehensive manual.

I've got plans for a few more projects, like a fork of dwm that uses Tiny7 for
configuration, but I haven't started working on them in earnest yet.

There are other things I'm working on, too, but they're classified for the
time being ;)

------
stni
A wii style table tennis game played with a mobile phone on pc.
[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mlVtlnEWQEA](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mlVtlnEWQEA)
[https://saintni.pw/table-tennis](https://saintni.pw/table-tennis)

------
mattcosta7
[http://www.dailyc.io](http://www.dailyc.io) An RSS feed aggregator, that
parses the articles and brings saves the 'meat' of it. Caches 20ish articles
at a time, so you can flip through them, once loaded, even if there isn't
service (on mobile). Also includes weather and train status (currently
NYC,Chicago, Washington DC Supported).

Still working on formatting/parsing more feeds, but works for many.

------
orthecreedence
Working on Market.Space ([https://market.space](https://market.space)): a
competitive monitoring tool. We gather data from a lot of sources (news,
social, youtube, apps, etc) and give high-level views of companies and their
competition.

I spend nights/weekends working on Turtl
([https://turtl.it](https://turtl.it)) , an encrypted note-taking app
(Evernote alternative).

------
Stoo
Storytella: [https://storytel.la/](https://storytel.la/)

An online writing tool aimed at authors who self-publish. It's awesome because
of the database back which means you can store people / places / anything
really and insert them into your document (think variable replacement / an IDE
for writers). The one-click EPUB generation is also pretty sweet.

------
Spectral
Working on a way to buy a new car online and skip all the dealership
salespeople, haggling, upselling, etc.

You can build your car online (colors & options) and set your price, and your
customization gets distributed to all of our dealerships (LA only currently)
and see who accepts it. Cuts down on the dealer sales funnel as well so it's a
win-win on both sides!

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

------
hotcool
Working on the Wheatbin project management software and book:
[http://www.wheatbin.com](http://www.wheatbin.com)

Early access to the software is available through my "Rule of Nine" deal (and
helps me keep the lights on while I finish this):
[https://gumroad.com/l/ruleofnine/ruleofnine](https://gumroad.com/l/ruleofnine/ruleofnine)

------
derefnull
I am working on the "Fiera - Arouser for Her" product :
[http://fiera.com](http://fiera.com) . It is awesome because it's an elegant
product to enhance/jump-start arousal for women -- whether through stimulation
or as a conversation starter between couples.

It has some very cool technology under the hood which, if we've done our job
right, the user will never have to think about. :)

------
Dotnaught
[http://lot49.com/oversight](http://lot49.com/oversight)

About a year ago, I finished my second novel, Oversight, about advertising,
virtual reality, and terrorism. It got some recognition recently from Kirkus
Reviews and Publishers Weekly. It's awesome, if you accept a fairly flexible
definition of the term. Mostly, it has affirmed that promoting books is as
difficult as promoting apps.

------
simlai
I created [http://www.get3w.com](http://www.get3w.com) with golang and js, and
just put it online couple days ago. Get3W is Github for websites, combines
site editor and web hosting. the vision is to build a creative community for
discovering, sharing, and creating inspiring website. The most awesome part
for me was static page editor. Get3W can edit static page(html, css, js)
WYSIWYG.

------
nyddle
Mnemonic url shortener,
[https://github.com/nyddle/mnemonic](https://github.com/nyddle/mnemonic)

------
joshmanders
[https://www.printerdash.com](https://www.printerdash.com)

I work for a screen printing and embroidery company and the software to run
the business is absolutely horrible and bad business model, but the
alternatives aren't that great. We're building it for ourselves, and are going
to open it up to other companies and offer a modern efficient approach to
manage your whole business.

------
edencoder
[https://github.com/Alex-iFactory/eden](https://github.com/Alex-iFactory/eden)

A NodeJS/Mongo/Express framework kit

The idea is to bring back strong app/bundles namespacing for larger projects,
while taking care of many of the boilerplate decisions for you. Everything is
based on classes so thought it would be a smaller stepping stone for someone
coming from PHP or C#

------
akavel
A well-tested, easily extensible & customizable, offset-capturing, robustly-
specified Markdown parser in Go:

[https://github.com/akavel/vfmd](https://github.com/akavel/vfmd)

with a (long-term) plan of writing a WYSIWYG desktop Markdown editor around
it. A hobby project in spare time, so pacing is on and off.

Also much too many other hobby projects. But hey, that's what makes them
_hobby_!

------
kartikkumar
satsearch: [https://satsearch.co](https://satsearch.co)

We're building a search engine for satellite parts. Sourcing satellite parts
that meet your design requirements is really painful and leads to wasted man-
hours and procurement errors. With the advent of the small-satellite industry
and companies like Planet Labs, Spire, Skybox Imaging etc., there's an
explosion of activity in the supplier market across the world.

We're aiming to be THE place to get accurate, up-to-date information about the
state of the market. We're in the process of acquiring data by on-boarding
suppliers. We strongly believe that the data wants to be free, so we're going
to be offering an API so the data can be embedded in engineering, procurement
and market analysis tools.

We are in the process of positioning ourselves within the exciting push to
open-source the space industry. Given our expertise, we're focussed on
building open-source spacecraft design tools, and satsearch is a vital asset
for that. If you're interested in getting involved in building FOSS for the
space industry, drop me an email.

------
poushkar
[https://gritt.io](https://gritt.io) \- anonymous job search. Focusing on IT
field at the moment.

As developers ourself we want to change the way we get better jobs in IT:
eliminating unimportant details such as age, gender, skin color, etc and only
focusing on what is really important and what makes one a professional.

------
monknomo
I'm working on PyWE, which is a set of batch scripts that help install and
switch between multiple pythons, as well as manage virtual environments. It's
inspired by pyenv, but it works in Windows. It's awesome because it's a heck
of a lot easier than doing all this by hand

PyWE: [https://github.com/monknomo/pywe](https://github.com/monknomo/pywe)

------
satyajitranjeev
I'm working on an extensible notes platform for the web. Its called Saola:
[https://saola.in](https://saola.in). There are several platforms that you can
store notes/text etc in. Saola differs from them in the fact that it provides
you a scriptable environment also. You can write JavaScript scripts to
create/update/delete notes/text.

~~~
satyajitranjeev
You can use the demo account: email: demo@saola.in password: Areyouserious1

------
jraedisch
I work on [https://markmyday.net](https://markmyday.net) (no account needed).

It is awesome because it is rapidly becoming almost usable for simply tracking
daily activities (think "Don't Break the Chain!") and will probably add a dash
of microblogging soon. Since it is a one man spare-time project I am really
glad about all the advice/feedback I can get.

------
gxespino
[http://melthq.com](http://melthq.com)

I'm building the API for physical gifting.

Want to reward your best customers with chocolates, flowers, company swag,
etc. but don't want the operational overhead?

Automate making a call to Melt's API and we'll handle the buying, customizing,
and logistics.

The goal is to increase customer engagement, customer satisfaction, word-of-
mouth growth and lifetime value.

~~~
djb_hackernews
I like this. I've thought about something similar that was more targeted at
the high end market.

A woman comes in to your boutique clothing store and drops $10k in your store.
In the process your sales associate working with her learns she likes opera
and wine. You tell [SERVICE] and they source and deliver a personalized gift
according to their tastes on your behalf to show appreciation for their
business.

I like where you started. It might be interesting to "hire" a few expert gift
givers that can find awesome gifts given a persons likes and a budget to get
outside the flowers and chocolate options.

~~~
gxespino
Thanks! Yes, I'm working with a few luxury brands as it's much easier to
showcase the value of a $20-50 gift in comparison to a customer buying a $xK
item

------
andrew-lucker
Test all the things!
[https://jad.subarctic.org/services](https://jad.subarctic.org/services)

Startups usually don't have much time or budget for testing, so we're
improving the core technology to bring issue visibility to more businesses.

We manage writing tests/scenarios and customers get alerts, a dashboard, and
optionally a public service-status page.

------
cbeach
[http://www.caption.me/](http://www.caption.me/) \- an ongoing caption
competition that pulls three photos from Flickr per day and ranks amusing
captions. Featuring real-time collaborative mind-mapping of caption ideas
(D3/Faye) and an occasional cash prize funded from advertising revenue
originating from the SeedingUp marketplace

------
steventhedev
A password wallet that syncs over Dropbox, Google Drive, Syncthing, even
rsync.

[https://github.com/stevenkaras/kasefet](https://github.com/stevenkaras/kasefet)

Got fed up with Dropbox creating conflicted copies of my keepass database, and
decided there must be a better way. I expect the base KV store will be easy to
use for other apps in the future as well.

------
vermosi
[http://dontbemadman.com](http://dontbemadman.com)

I wanted to create a de-stressing website for myself.

Right now it's in the baby stage, long-term goals are to have full motion
video and audio based on weather and time of day. But for now, baby steps.

I made this as a challenge to make a site that is as compressed as possible,
and mobile responsive so anyone in any browser can use it.

------
fabianlindfors
I'm working on an online learning platform I'm calling Academiac. Teachers
with some expertise can write and publish text-based courses which user then
pay to enroll in.

Very similar to Udemy but really focused on text-based courses instead of
videos. The goal is to create a high-quality alternative to regular ad-
supported courses and tutorials

Not available yet but will be launching to course teachers soon!

------
sideproject
I'm working on HelloBox and SideProjectors -
[http://www.hellobox.co](http://www.hellobox.co),
[http://www.sideprojectors.com](http://www.sideprojectors.com)

HelloBox is a tool to create an online community like HN. SideProjectors is a
marketplace for buying and selling side projects.

------
thedailylist
The Daily List: www.thedailylist.co

Designed to cultivate focus and diminish distraction so that regular people
can achieve extraordinary goals.

Eliminates common pitfalls which turn most todo-lists into mental junk
drawers.

Shows your progress over time.

Discourages analysis paralysis by focusing your mindset on action rather than
thinking about action.

Designed for mobile browsers and for use in a narrow browser window off to the
side of your desktop screen.

------
bruceb
CourseBuffet - [http://www.coursebuffet.com](http://www.coursebuffet.com)
Trying to have best search results of any aggregator of free MOOCs and we are
only one to replicate bachelor's degree with our CourseBuffet Degree Paths.
Take courses from different universities and providers but still have a
focused learning path.

------
cnork
[https://www.iprevail.com](https://www.iprevail.com)

Online CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) program for helping people with
stress / depression / anxiety. We've built these modules (videos, exercises,
etc) & a community for everyone to interact and find ways to improve their
mental health. Feel free to check it out.

~~~
dome82
Nice project. How different is from
Pacifica([https://www.thinkpacifica.com/](https://www.thinkpacifica.com/))?

------
palidanx
I created a site where anyone can find foods highest in any given nutrient
given one serving size.

[http://www.getnutrient.com](http://www.getnutrient.com)

It is based on the usda-sr database, and a lot of manual work was required to
determine one serving size.

The people who use the site are mainly registered dietitians, but some power
consumers have occasionally used it.

------
andrewmcwatters
Grid (game engine)

[http://www.planimeter.org/grid/](http://www.planimeter.org/grid/)

[https://github.com/Planimeter/grid-sdk](https://github.com/Planimeter/grid-
sdk)

The Grid engine is a 2D game engine built on LÖVE.

Grid makes powerful concepts from 3D game engines accessible in a 2D game
environment.

------
stephenhuey
Here at Luminare in Houston we're tackling the most expensive reason for
hospitalization in the USA.

[http://www.luminaremed.com](http://www.luminaremed.com)

 _Every day_ the country spends $55 million on sepsis and Sagitta is a tablet-
based, bedside sepsis-screening app for acute care hospitals that aims to
drastically reduce this problem!

------
chuhnk
Micro - a microservice ecosystem

I'm building tools to simplify building and managing distributed systems based
on my experiences at Google and Hailo.

[https://micro-services.co](https://micro-services.co)
[https://github.com/micro/micro](https://github.com/micro/micro)

------
ratpik
Diagnostics and disease management on your smartphone -
[http://www.janacare.com/](http://www.janacare.com/)

The hardware is a device connected to your phone via the audio jack that can
do different types of blood tests and plugs into a system that helps patients
and health care providers improve health outcomes.

------
wnpowell
To Wear With - [http://towearwith.com/latest/](http://towearwith.com/latest/)

A Searchable - Shoppable Closet!

Find shoppable outfit ideas and street style inspiration to help you get
dressed and out the door! Whether dressing for a wedding or a job interview –
To Wear With has outfit ideas you can actually shop!

------
samfisher83
This is my ad blocking browser. Its based on qualcom code. It also has the eff
privacy badger built into to it so people can't track you.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rsbrowser....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rsbrowser.browser&hl=en)

------
MrMullen
Getting my AWS Solutions Architect Associate and Professional Certification so
I can move up in the world and make more money.

------
schizoidboy
Myplaceonline, an open source virtual life assistant:
[https://myplaceonline.com/](https://myplaceonline.com/)

It's amorphous; just anything my roommate and I find useful for computers to
automate. Latest feature is a way to share pictures and stories by email (with
a way to unsubscribe).

------
amatriain
I keep working on FeedBunch - [http://feedbunch.com](http://feedbunch.com)

It is an open source general-purpose feed reader (RSS/Atom). It attempts to be
as fast and intuitive as possible, hiding complexity from the user as much as
possible.

~~~
yitchelle
Just a little bit of feedback. I wanted to tried the demo version, but did not
get that far and bounced out of feedbunch.

When I clicked on the "try a free demo" button, I would have expected to try
it out immediately. Instead, I had to remember the login credentials for demo
user and to enter it manually in the login screen. Would have loved to see a
one click and stay using the demo version.

------
ashleyhindle
My Conference Is On Fire - Frontend for Twilio conferencing system

[https://github.com/ashleyhindle/myconferenceisonfire](https://github.com/ashleyhindle/myconferenceisonfire)

[https://conference.ashleyhindle.com](https://conference.ashleyhindle.com)

------
vital101
Private Wordpress Plugin & Theme updates + CI services -
[https://kernl.us](https://kernl.us)

It's awesome because I get to work on fun technologies (MEAN stack), learn how
to scale Node.js, and interact with a great community. Also, I have paying
customers which makes it even better :)

------
markneub
redditq - [http://redditq.com/](http://redditq.com/)

Currently requires a physical keyboard to operate. Keyboard commands listed at
[https://github.com/markneub/redditq#navigation](https://github.com/markneub/redditq#navigation)

redditq is an image browser for reddit. It features a minimal user interface
and is designed to be controlled via keyboard shortcuts. This project was
inspired by redditp[1], but I wanted to add support for image galleries and
Flickr photo pages and experiment with a minimal UI. From a technical
standpoint, I wanted practice using CommonJS modules for structuring my
JavaScript, as well as using webpack for bundling static assets (including JS
modules).

[1] [http://redditp.com/](http://redditp.com/)

------
m52go
BookStorm: an awesome way to explore the world of books.

Why it's awesome: we're helping to maximize intellectual freedom in a world
dominated by "smart" algorithms and "social" recommendations with old-
fashioned serendipity.

[http://bookstormapp.com](http://bookstormapp.com)

~~~
d0m
I'd personally much rather get recommendation of books based on what people
similar to me swiped.. This is how I discover new musics on streaming site (By
searching for new playlists containing songs that I like). But I'm sure you
know that already so what's the story behind the no "smart / social"? Is it
because you feel those are too easily abused by marketers? Or that some books
are just never suggested since they aren't yet recommended by friends?

Also, I see that you can rate books.. does that affect the algorithm? I.e. am
I going to see lots of 5 star books or will it be random? E.g. I'll get to see
lots of 1-3 star rated books. Again, I'd much rather have the rating of one
person I trust than hundreds of people I don't know. For instance, SICP has a
pretty amazing review by PG and a crap ton of 1 star reviews by students. I'd
take the pg suggestion any day.

~~~
m52go
The recommendations are implicit...i.e., the book will only be in the app
because someone felt strongly about it.

We're leaving out 'smart' because we feel that smart people are smart enough
to decide for themselves what they should explore, and we're leaving out
'social' because there's already many solutions out there to find out what
your friends are reading.

Personally, there are a LOT of books out there I a) wouldn't otherwise
consider reading or b) never even know about unless someone placed it front of
my face and told me why it was worth reading. That's the purpose of this app.

It's not meant to be the _only_ place for one to discover books...it's the
place you go to get lost. Sometimes you want that, and sometimes you don't.

------
oakio
BaseDeploy.com

Build web apps focused on user generated content, without coding.

\- Register users \- Create pages for user generated content. \- Connect to
Stripe.com for Subscriptions, Payments, Transactions fees, etc.

It's a builder like weebly or squarespace, except it allows you to build your
own communities or marketplaces like Etsy. I think it's cool.

------
leonelabs
Glow Glyphs : Chainable LED letters for making custom LED signs and displays.
Crowdfunding on Crowd Supply next week.
[https://www.crowdsupply.com/leonelabs/glow-
glyphs/](https://www.crowdsupply.com/leonelabs/glow-glyphs/)

------
nsimoneaux
[http://myfreedownloads.info](http://myfreedownloads.info)

I produced some music for the 'Record Per Month' challenge.

[http://coolguyradio.com](http://coolguyradio.com) \-- raspberry pi radio
station of improvised electronic music.

------
Malankov
Togethr.TV : [https://togethr.tv](https://togethr.tv) With our website, you
can watch videos in real time with your friends. Audio chat is also supported.
It is awesome because it makes it very easy to show specific part of a video
to anyone! :)

------
geospatial
I am working on a single file color pallete manager based on html5
localstorage
[https://github.com/girishpatil/palletene](https://github.com/girishpatil/palletene)

------
mixandgo
I'm working on an alternative to Google's URL Builder.

It helps marketing teams with tracking clicks in Google Analytics by making
the link building process a lot easier and less error prone.

Check it out: [http://utmtag.com](http://utmtag.com)

------
dmcswain
[https://treycent.com](https://treycent.com)

I created a smartphone, smartwatch, web app that let's you tag photos with a
voice command for easy retrieval later. I just published the iPhone / Apple
Watch app and am looking for some early adopters.

------
arisAlexis
Www.Writedown.co aims to be the immutable opinion archive. I hope it changes
the way people express and lead to a better political system. Anyone
interested in participating can email me

------
nraynaud
Webgcode, a cam ironically without g-code.
[https://github.com/nraynaud/webgcode](https://github.com/nraynaud/webgcode)

I use a bunch of randomly hacked stuff to generate toolpaths, like webgl, svg
etc.

It supports gerber, excellon, svg and stl files.

------
ninjazee124
[http://vetr.com/](http://vetr.com/) \- crowdsourced stock ratings.

Think of it as the yelp of the stock market, we get people to add projections
on where a stock is headed and calculate a five-point star rating and a
consensus target price.

------
david927
The sequel to SQL: It's a new approach to the relational database based on
years of research.

Brodlist.com ([http://brodlist.com](http://brodlist.com)) The name is bad, the
site is a placeholder, but the project is really exciting.

------
drewrv
I'm about to ship an app that lets you build and deploy crud web applications
in the browser.

------
wc-
PositiveEV - Using the latest and greatest in analytics, machine learning, and
game simulation techniques to predict sports teams' performance. Hard work
with big payoffs, reach out to me if you are interested and think you have
something to contribute.

------
perlgeek
I'm writing a book on getting started with continuous delivery:
[https://deploybook.com/](https://deploybook.com/)

It's awesome because it has a low barrier to entry, saving you time pretty
quickly.

Feedback very welcome!

------
ah-
Apache Kafka client for dotnet/C#: [https://github.com/ah-/rdkafka-
dotnet](https://github.com/ah-/rdkafka-dotnet)

Kafka is amazing, the new open source dotnet as well, and this brings both
together.

------
dgant
[http://ComboDeck.net](http://ComboDeck.net)

I'm building a faster, easier way to search for Magic: the Gathering cards.

The big question: how can you replace a clunky "advanced search" with a simple
smart text box?

------
canonicalcoder
OpenStudio: [https://www.openstudio.net](https://www.openstudio.net)

A desktop application and API for whole building energy simulation. Estimate
energy consumption and identify opportunities for energy savings.

------
alexandercrohde
[http://alexrohde.com/zennish/index.html](http://alexrohde.com/zennish/index.html)

A programming test build around the long term. Can you write code that adapts
well to the unknown?

------
eschutte2
Auto-complete from Stack Overflow: [https://emilschutte.com/stackoverflow-
autocomplete/](https://emilschutte.com/stackoverflow-autocomplete/)

Ushering in a new era of productivity

------
niccolop
zenit: [http://zenitanalytics.com](http://zenitanalytics.com)

We pull all your data (DB, POS, analytics, etc.) into one place, and take the
pain out of understanding, with an easy to use visual editor.

------
thearn4
OpenMDAO: An open-source Python framework developed here at NASA for multi-
disciplinary engineering systems analysis and numerical optimization.

[http://openmdao.org/](http://openmdao.org/)

------
deweller
tokenly.com - Secure Digital Gift Certificates

We're building merchant and consumer tools for using digital gift certificates
on the bitcoin blockchain. Our first use case is to enhance crowdfunding by
letting projects sell redeemable gift certificates to backers that can be
traded or sold before the product exists.

When you crowdfund Oculus Rift, you get a secure OCULUSRIFT token instead of
just a promise. If you change your mind you can sell it to someone else who
wants it even before the product releases. Or you can buy 10 at the pre-order
price and sell 9 at 80% of the retail price right before the product launches.

------
ilaksh
[http://tinyvillages.org](http://tinyvillages.org) is a sustainable
development concept that integrates a lot of ideas like tiny houses, urban
farming, and net-zero construction.

------
blklane
Churndown: [https://www.churndown.com](https://www.churndown.com)

One click to get customer feedback, connected directly to Stripe. Easy to get
feedback and reach out to customers about to churn.

~~~
ClickQuestion
How do you decide which customers are about to churn?

------
markbnj
[https://github.com/Markbnj/venv2docker](https://github.com/Markbnj/venv2docker)

Work in progress but pretty complete. Packages a python virtualenv into a
docker container.

~~~
bedros
nice

~~~
markbnj
Thanks!

------
skdfhksdf
[https://www.grimoire.org](https://www.grimoire.org) \- using a graph database
(Neo4j) to try to understand the content and relationships between historical
texts on magic

------
ChicagoDave
Wizely: Social Wisdom App. I'd share a URL (wizely.net), but that's just a
landing page. The app is still in development. It's essentially a marriage of
quora, twitter, and a decision-tree format.

------
monty5811
Open source sms software for your church
[https://github.com/monty5811/apostello](https://github.com/monty5811/apostello)

Been in production for over a year now.

------
onedayillbeokay
[http://uploadcare.com](http://uploadcare.com)

File system as a service. It's all in one file uploading, processing, storage
and delivery for web and mobile apps.

~~~
spiderfarmer
Very nice product. My project uses it and it's awesome.

------
jamesharrington
I reinvented a website that saves a text file to your local storage.
[http://anythingyouwant.dumbpaste.com](http://anythingyouwant.dumbpaste.com)

------
rukugu
Zinnia ([https://zinniapos.com](https://zinniapos.com)) is a POS system for
the retail and service industries, focusing on developing economies.

------
shauntrennery
An open source contextual action platform called #do.

Imagine tapping a #hashtag in a @Nike tweet to buy their latest sneakers.
[http://hashdo.com](http://hashdo.com)

Just #do it.

------
kelvin0
The really cool stuff can't be showed or discussed here unfortunately (so
called 'black projects'). But I admit many of the projects posted here do seem
quite interesting.

------
dv_says
Enchat, my take on a Mac app for Facebook Messenger:
[https://www.mornings.com/enchat/](https://www.mornings.com/enchat/)

~~~
kevinjcliao
Hi! I'm wondering how Enchat is different from other open source projects that
wrapped messenger.com into a Mac app with electron. What features does it have
that these free and open source projects don't have?

~~~
dv_says
Lots of desktop integration features! Custom chat notification bubbles,
screenshot taking, file downloads and uploads, resizable font, various
keyboard shortcuts, menu bar icon, and more.

------
jasonswett
A book about how to get freelance programming clients:
[http://www.jasonswett.net/book](http://www.jasonswett.net/book)

------
hoodoof
I'm not working on it but one idea is "camp country" in which farmers, country
and rural landowners offer their land for camping for a small fee.

Anyone this this is a good idea?

~~~
cprayingmantis
It depends. A lot of farmers/landowners don't want random folks on their
property but they'd love to have a little extra money. Just so long as the
guest review system I'd say go for it.

------
devarist
Working on new features and a new design for our developer's journal app
[https://devarist.com](https://devarist.com)

------
klippa129
DLN Shades aka Visor Shades - Awesome visor sunglasses with bright colors and
charitable goals. 10% of sales are donated to cancer research.

Http://DLNshades.com

------
sedzia
[http://voucherify.io/](http://voucherify.io/)

because life's too short to implement yet another voucher system again

------
mwarkentin
Shrinkray - [https://shrinkray.io/](https://shrinkray.io/)

One-click image optimization for your Github repos.

------
sidcool
Working on a web based mind mapping software. It has an Android app too!

[http://mindit.xyZ](http://mindit.xyZ)

------
chei0aiV
I'm working on Debian.

[https://www.debian.org/](https://www.debian.org/)

------
hakvroot
geminee - [https://gemin.ee](https://gemin.ee)

Simple file sharing between devices that don't have to be in the same network.
Awesome because it (should :o) work on pretty much any device with a somewhat
recent browser.

------
saiko-chriskun
eatsimply.io - nutrition and meal planning app, hope to launch a prototype in
a month or two, similar to the idea behind eatthismuch.com.

~~~
tixocloud
This idea just popped into my head last night. I'd love to give it a spin when
you're ready.

------
smilesnd
My resume because I am awesome

------
renaissancelabs
Channels [ [http://www.channelsapp.co](http://www.channelsapp.co) ] is a
simple app that lets you create posts about any topic (something for sale,
event, trip, something funny, rant, etc) which is then automatically geo-
tagged with your location or any location you choose on the map. Once it is
created, users can scroll around the map and/or perform tag & category based
search to find channels they're interested in, subscribe to that channel, and
immediately group chat with you and all other subscribed users.

How is Channels different? Most social apps require email, usernames,
passwords and sometimes other information. This app is meant to be as
anonymous as possible, so you only need to set an username, if and only if you
wish to chat with others or subscribe. Channels was created to be simple and
anonymous so there are no ads or hidden ways to make money; just 3 screens
that you can swipe between.

Rather than stick with the norm of comment based communication like other
social platforms, in this app each channel is actually a conversation. Just as
if this was a messaging app, you can go between channels to chat with
different people from all over the world anonymously about anything.

Main Features: \- Chat: Each channel has a group chat embedded in the channel,
as a pull up view once inside a channel. For now the chats are only text
based, but will improve to add other media support as we move forward. The
chats are color coded to differentiate you as a user, the creator of the
channel, and all other users. \- Create a channel anywhere: You can create a
channel through the floating button, but can also go to any location on the
map, hold the screen to create a marker, tap the marker and its pop up message
to create a channel at that particular location. This way you can start
conversations for places you are at and plan to go. \- Explore: The third
screen of the app is our Explore section which allows users to explore
channels by popularity. You can filter results to "Everything" which explores
all channels, "Map Area" which explores whatever area is visible on the map
screen, or by "My Location" which explores channels around you. \- Location
search: From the Map view (second screen), you can search for a particular
location, to then be taken to that location to perform a channel search. This
option allows you to go to any particular area in the world, and search for or
explore channels in that particular area at any time. Use this to plan talk to
people about whats there is to do in an area you're about to visit or to talk
about somewhere you visited already for instance. \- Navigate: For channels
that show their exact location, there is also a navigate button which takes
you to Google Maps and shows navigation options for that location. This is
ONLY for channels that have chosen to show their exact location, and this can
be changed at any time.

Channels is free and will always be free!

About us: We've created Channels completely on our own, between just two guys
who've never published apps previously but wanted to make something of value.
We want this app to be something you as users would want to use, so we accept
any and all feedback and incorporate it as quickly as possible. Feel free to
contact us with any suggestions or if you like it feel free to write-up a
review and publish it on your website - we highly appreciate it!

Thank you.

Babatunde Ogunfemi @ Renaissance Labs
[https://twitter.com/TheChannelsApp](https://twitter.com/TheChannelsApp)

------
ArkyBeagle
I can't tell you.

There is no URL.

------
umut
www.truecaller.com Because 250M users!

~~~
ClickQuestion
How are you defining user? Someone that clicks on a link in a Google search
because you have SEO juice? Or is there some kind of deeper relationship you
have with these users.

250M is a huge number.

~~~
umut
app users downloading the app from relevant appstores (plus some minor set of
users logging in on our website with social login providers)

------
hoodoof
I'm working on UbNb (www.ubnb.com) which is "AirBNB for Uber" or "Uber for
AirBNB" (not sure which is which).

Elevator pitch: _UBNB.com lets you rent someone else 's car to stay in for the
night._

Optionally you can request food service and in this case the concept also ties
in delivery hero in which the car you rent is being used for pizza delivery at
the same time.

The company tag line is "UBNB, sleep well, travel well, eat well."

~~~
imperialdrive
that's actually brilliant - possible way to stay somewhere cheap, but be safe
and protected from the weather! could also help with the homeless problem

------
rajjalan
Device42 - [http://www.device42.com/](http://www.device42.com/)

CMDB for the cloud era with REST APIs that can be used as a single source of
truth for automating your IT infrastructure.

We integrate with ITSM tools like JIRA/servicenow, automation tools like
puppet/chef. Integration with monitoring tools is coming soon.

------
phlee_
[http://kitchenillness.com](http://kitchenillness.com)

Only for the UK minus Scotland (Sorry, Scotland!). It maps hygiene ratings for
food establishments.

[http://thismuchlonger.com](http://thismuchlonger.com)

This one not so recent although I do plan on revisiting. Essentially it is a
motivational tool by visually representing the number of days you have left to
live with dots. A morbid motivational tool. I use it quite a lot personally,
and the few number of dots never seizes to amaze me.

