
Ask HN: What is your side project for 2018? - panching
I just started learning Developing application and I am looking for passive income ideas. I&#x27;m actively looking for income sources and my skills. I just launched https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cmyport.com&#x2F; as a side project and adding new feature soon. I am learning php&#x2F;mysql and looking for suggestions.
======
rayalez
I have 3 big ones.

\- Nulis - a tree text editor for writers

[https://nulis.io/](https://nulis.io/)

I have built a beta that was very well received, now it's time to clean up the
code(rewriting it from scratch), add some cool features, and follow the
roadmap to complete v1.0.

\- Helix - a habit tracking app

[https://helix.startuplab.io](https://helix.startuplab.io)

Designed this app mostly for myself, but I think it turned out great, has a
lot of potential, and users seem to love it. My goal here is also to complete
all the functionality I've set out to complete with my roadmap and reach a
solid v1.0.

\- Startup Lab - blog

[https://startuplab.io/blog](https://startuplab.io/blog)

I want to seriously pick up the pace and quality of my blogging. I want to
finally develop a sustainable daily writing habit, and make some successful
posts.

====

If I succeed, I will have two awesome SaaS projects to sell, and a great
traction channel(articles + medium publications + reddit) to promote them.

I've estimated that I will need 40k total visitors(or 9 months of 150 daily
visitors) to reach my goal of $1k MRR

(40k visitors * ~5% retention * ~10% conversion to paying customers = 200
paying users. 200 users * $5/mo = $1k/mo).

If I successfully accomplish my plan - I will finally achieve my dream and
become a successful startup founder.

====

As a bonus, I would love to find a good voiceover actor and produce YouTube
videos out of my articles(or learn to speak better and do voiceover myself);
and I would also experiment with engineering as marketing(I have 3 smaller
projects I could promote and use as a traction channel).

~~~
monaghanboy
Is there a "long-term" view for Helix where you can zoom out and see a map of
your activity? Kind of like GitHub's contribution graph.

I'd use this, looking forward to a V1.

~~~
rayalez
Yep, there is! Open the menu and click "Calendar".

~~~
monaghanboy
I just signed up. Going meta for a second, this only works if you make using
Helix a habit :).

------
Dowwie
I'd like to port the entire authorization module from my open source Python
project, Yosai, to Rust and use it as a shared library from Python. I PoC'd
this work last January, resulting in the release of my first crate and Rust
tutorial. I haven't touched Rust since, though, but intend to push on further.

A complete Rust implementation has the benefit that it can be adapted to
myriad other languages and thus has a much wider audience appeal. It's also
about 10x faster than cpython, but pypy may eliminate that gap entirely. Of
course there are the usual other benefits, as well.

Since Rust is in its infancy for application development, such an
authorization library would address a growing need by the Rust ecosystem.

If any programmers want in, email me.

References:

Yosai: [https://github.com/YosaiProject](https://github.com/YosaiProject)

Python-Rust adapter:
[https://github.com/YosaiProject/yosai_libauthz](https://github.com/YosaiProject/yosai_libauthz)

authz.rs: [https://github.com/Dowwie/rust-
authz](https://github.com/Dowwie/rust-authz)

blog post:
[http://daringordon.com/rust_tutorials/](http://daringordon.com/rust_tutorials/)

~~~
ejanus
I can't find your email.

------
louisswiss
As a side project to learn React and Firebase I threw together a side project
in an afternoon to help couples spice up their bedroom time (very slightly
NSFW, no nudity). [https://pairful.com](https://pairful.com)

Obviously a lot of CSS work to do, however with some better SEO and
animations, it could be a useful tool with affiliate possibilities. This isn't
an area I know much about/care for, however.

------
caser
If any of you are interested in working on side projects full time, we're
starting a community in NYC of people doing just that.

Check us out if interested: recesslabs.com

For me, my last side project was a crypto-related joke site
(sendcryptopeopletulips.com).

I think the next one will also be a humor + tech project. I'm really
interested to explore tech as a medium for comedy.

~~~
louisswiss
This sounds interesting - working on side projects full time sounds like a
contradiction in terms however...

------
pleasecalllater
Changing my job. As I'm looking for remote only in European hours - it will be
quite challenging. Family issues don't allow me to work in US hours from
Europe. I think this will be my full time project, as such a position is quite
unique in Europe.

Besides I'm going to read a lot, and finally understand Haskell.

As for the programming stuff: write a book about databases, and write some
Postgres patches for fun.

~~~
ejanus
I won't mine hanging around, reading your book, and testing your patch

------
veli_joza
Last few months I've been building digital musical instruments for Android
[0], I guess I'll continue working on that. So far I've built a few
'instruments' that emulate traditional instruments (guitar, organ, choir...)
that you can play in real time on your phone. During next year I would like to
take advantage of interactive platform, to make the instrument actually
respond to your playing (and then to augment it).

[0]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.castlewrat...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.castlewrath.hexpress)

~~~
catbird
Very cool! I love the guitar mode especially (as long as I'm leaning far to
the left to get a clean sound haha).

I was wondering, what are you using to make this? Are the sounds sampled, or
is there digital synthesis going on?

~~~
veli_joza
Thanks. I'm using free samples I find around (common source being decompiled
soundfonts). I also plan to integrate Faust audio processing which would
enable true digital synthesis and HiFi sound effects. Next version of guitar
should have wah-wah effect.

------
kanwisher
Been working on this game to teach people how to code on the blockchain,
Ethereum and Solidity. [https://cryptozombies.io](https://cryptozombies.io)

~~~
ejanus
Would you allow someone to work with you ??

------
krapp
My side project for 2018 is to finish my side projects for 2017, some of which
were also side projects for 2016.

I swear I'd end up late for my own funeral.

~~~
ejanus
I will stop you from attending your funeral.

------
tstieff
Mainly I'm devoting my free time to a native REST client in the vain of
Postman or Insomnia. It's also been an excuse to learn the Qt framework and
brush up on my C++ skills. So far, I've found C++ to be insane, but I quite
like Qt.

[https://github.com/tmstieff/Woke](https://github.com/tmstieff/Woke)

------
sreyaNotfilc
I'm working on a little project I've been tinkering with for the past 9 or so
years. Its a club-house of sorts for artists so that they can learn and
discuss art.

One of the features is called 'Lightbox' where you can draw overtop a picture
and follow steps of a tutorial. Another feature would be to help artists find
resources related to your niche with 'LinkKit'.

Right now its very old code and I've been working on a much cleaner update
during the past year. So, once its ready I'll do the show 'Show HN' thing for
feedback.

Here's a taste of the old code.

Lightbox
[http://artjutsu.com/lightbox/canvas/Default.aspx?q=3](http://artjutsu.com/lightbox/canvas/Default.aspx?q=3)

LinkKit
[http://artjutsu.com/beta/linkkit.aspx](http://artjutsu.com/beta/linkkit.aspx)

------
ambewas
I'll be continuing work on Jam Together.

Jam Together is a web application which you can use to play some music
together with your friends, remotely. Right now it's possible to play with a
midi keyboard as well as just your laptop keys.

I've got a piano, a synth and a drum kit working (if you create a free
account. Piano only without an account).

I'll be adding more instruments, work on reducing latency (anyone here with
multiplayer game development experience that would like to help out?),
different jamming modes, and most importantly work on some marketing to get
more feedback on the app so I can evolve it in the right direction.

Check it out on the link below. A couple of disclaimers though... Chrome only,
optimised for people residing in the EU for now, otherwise latency is too much
of an issue to reliably play.

[http://jamtogether.eu](http://jamtogether.eu)

------
gghyslain
I will keep working on CryptoProphet.co - a smart alert system to keep you
updated on any unusual changes of prices of your favourite cryptocurrencies.
We send our cryptocurrency price alerts through Telegram.

[https://cryptoprophet.co/](https://cryptoprophet.co/)

~~~
xcubic
What kind of algo are you using to detect changes?

------
wallflower
Learning video editing and video production to a level somewhere between
OK/meh Facebook video and Casey Neistat. I know it can be more an art than a
science, and I am learning from every videographer/producer/tech person that I
talk to. Just getting a workflow down is a WIP. No one reads blog posts
anymore, and I think this is a good skill to cultivate. I've done my share of
volunteering as a teacher/tutor, and I'm beginning to believe I can better
bring value to these organizations by helping them share what they are doing
through snappy, informative short videos. I don't think I am a good
teacher/tutor, and I am a natural storyteller. Does anyone have tips,
suggestions, recommended sites/books? I will be using Adobe Premiere Pro.

------
zjfroot
I will continue working on "The Better Wiki", which is a proxy to Wikipedia
with better readability. Inspired by "Reader View" of Safari.

[https://thebetter.wiki/en/](https://thebetter.wiki/en/)

------
muertaugh
I'm currently working on a sort of mind mapping system at the moment, with the
idea that I can use it as a sort of personal database.

I'm using ArangoDB ([https://www.arangodb.com/](https://www.arangodb.com/)) to
store ideas as collections of nodes, where the properties and details of those
ideas (or objects) can be connected to eachother. The properties can be simple
descriptions of the node, or documents such as html, pdf, or images.

Im doing this because my memory is terrible (ADHD), and I want to make a
system that lets me take notes and record ideas in a way thats more... organic
in the way that I think about things. I also tend to use a lot of
documentation from the web, and have no way of sorting it other than through
bookmarks. Being able to pull webpages off of the internet and reference them
within notes is a powerful tool, I have found.

I'm excited for the project for a lot of reasons, but what excites me the most
is what I can do once I have this personal database filled out enough. I will
essentially have a graph based model of what is typically floating around my
head, like a network of thoughts, interconnected by both objective and
subjective properties. I aim to use this database to build a sort of personal
assistant, personalized for the user.

I think that this is something that we are kind of missing today, where a lot
of our interactions come from the internet, this ephemeral space where you
can't exactly organize everything that you see and interact with. As an
example, imagine that you saw a neat article about cancer research that you
wanted to tell someone about later. You send the URL to your database server
where it is downloaded, parsed, tagged, and linked to other articles or notes
that you may have (this would start out being manual, but I hope to automate
it). Once that info is in the database, you can have it recalled through
either a direct request for that record, or through implicit actions such as
looking for scientific papers in the database and narrowing it down to the one
you want.

I have nothing to show for the project so far, it still in it's infancy, but I
really think that this is something that will be useful to people, if at the
least just myself.

~~~
cvaidya1986
Solve your own problem, I like it! Keep us posted.

------
ortuman
To finish the implementation of an XMPP server written in Go (Golang)
[https://github.com/ortuman/jackal](https://github.com/ortuman/jackal)

~~~
mxuribe
Curious, why not instead contribute your valuable Go expertise towards matrix
(specifically the homeserver called Dendrite)? Certainly don't want to take
away any of your passion for xmpp...but if you haven't read up on on matrix in
general, I encourage you to do so.

For matrix in general, see: [https://matrix.org/](https://matrix.org/)

For diff. between matrix and xmpp, see:
[https://matrix.org/docs/guides/faq.html#what-is-the-
differen...](https://matrix.org/docs/guides/faq.html#what-is-the-difference-
between-matrix-and-xmpp)

For Dendrite - matrix's homeserver written in Go - see:
[https://github.com/matrix-org/dendrite](https://github.com/matrix-
org/dendrite)

Cheers!

------
vfulco
Building an API based quick report service (around Typeform, Zapier, Mailgun,
and R-Project's Plumber service) for my professional and academic businesses
focused on essay editing and resume writing. People don't have the time or
inclination to do final edit themselves so these tools will tell them how bad
their doc is and whether they need a professional service like ours. Will
mostly be for Asian clients who find me on China's Taobao and Weidian where we
have our electronic shops.

------
unknown1111
I've two side projects that I plan on working on in 2018:

\- A "Travel Guide" for Physics, which collects the best explanations for any
physics topic and sorts them depending on the required level of
sophistication:
[https://physicstravelguide.com/](https://physicstravelguide.com/)

\- A platform, where students and researchers can publish their notes:
[https://physicsnotes.org/](https://physicsnotes.org/)

------
ronbeltran
I have been developing [https://useragentinfo.co/](https://useragentinfo.co/)
as a side project. It's a simple device, browser and OS detection. Currently
it's running in a single server setup over linode. By Jan2018 I'll be
migrating it to AWS Elastic Beanstalk for stability. This will be my weekend
timesink.

------
nikivi
I am working on an Open Source website to visualise most efficient learning
paths.

Website: [https://learn-anything.xyz](https://learn-anything.xyz)

Code: [https://github.com/learn-anything/learn-
anything](https://github.com/learn-anything/learn-anything)

Currently trying to move to a new design and format.

~~~
AquiGorka
I've seen your project before, amazing! keep up the good work.

------
DougWebb
I just finished my latest Hacker News reader. I usually read HN on my phone,
so over the years I've written several wrappers to improve the layout on
mobile devices, and also to test out new tech. This version uses Bootstrap 4
for the frontend and ASP.Net MVC Core 2 on the backend, running on a Linux
server.
[http://webbindustries.com/hackernews](http://webbindustries.com/hackernews)

For 2018 I'm hoping to make progress on an app I've started, which handles
Project Management specifically for software development consultants. The
difference from most other PM tools is going to be handling multiple projects
for multiple clients, client/role-restricted views, separate-but-linked
requirements and task+time tracking, and separate-but-linked budgeting and
estimating. I'm designing this primarily for myself, but also so that it can
become a SaaS product I can offer as either a hosted service or self-hosted
product.

------
kiwicopple
I'm working on a multilingual CMS that bundles all the core services that
startups have to sign up for:

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

It's more of a full-time project until it succeeds or fails. If it takes off
then I'd love to build SEO recommendations and Digital Marketing tools into
it. These are 2 industries in the content world that really need to be
commoditised.

As a side-project to Pollygot, I'd love to do an RSS reader app where you can
view discussions from both HN and Reddit within the same app. If this one
takes off, then I'd love to do a Flattr/Brave type model of micropayments
within the app

------
mabynogy
A small programming language, lisp-inspired (no parens with python's offside
rule) targeting js (and lua later). An example:

\- input: [https://p.sicp.me/gti5L.lisp](https://p.sicp.me/gti5L.lisp)

\- output: [https://p.sicp.me/bRaaf.js](https://p.sicp.me/bRaaf.js)

It's written in lua (915 lines at the moment). I do that to help me with the
building of a programmable voice assistant
([https://github.com/slasheva](https://github.com/slasheva)).

BTW this topic is a great idea. 4chan has a daily programming thread like
that.

------
ainiriand
12 smart contract projects, one for each month. So far I have a list of 9
projects to do, easy stuff. The usual, lottery, auction... But I want to do it
from the point of view of a python backend server, so I plan to use Viper.

~~~
dukeflukem
I'm interested in doing similar. Due to time constraints might be be per 2
months.

Some ideas:

Poker variant - quite hard but thought of a way to do it without a trusted
oracle.

Hodl contract - forces you to hold for X months

Simple asset price contract where 2 parties bet each way. Requires an oracle.

Sports betting. Oracle.

Reputation coin - prove your general rep by aggregating HN, SO, Reddit etc.
scores. Oracle.

The usual lottery

A "ponzi"

Let me know if you want to get in touch and I'll stick an email in my profile.
Would like someone to bounce ideas and help each other if stuck.

~~~
ainiriand
I am really interested! I particularly like your idea about the simple asset
price contract. Could be really cool to get in touch.

------
tkarandi
1.

Release finally my timetable generator application for
highschools/universities
[https://github.com/karandit/confetti/](https://github.com/karandit/confetti/)

2\. Finish my other long pending project, a REST API game inspired by the
detective game Cluedo
[https://github.com/karandit/rest_dojo_web](https://github.com/karandit/rest_dojo_web)

It was used as a motivation for me to learn elm [http://elm-
lang.org/](http://elm-lang.org/)

------
geekodour
I'll try adding few more feature to my static blog generator
[https://github.com/geekodour/gitpushblog](https://github.com/geekodour/gitpushblog)

------
smittysahn75
I started a website for my final capstone project for my Bachelors degree in
software/mobile development application and website design.

I am going to be working on finishing that up in 2018.

It's a huge project that is going to take me quite some time. I want to keep
the site 100% ad free, so I trying to put together some ideas on how to
monetize it. For now I an just asking for donations. But at some point I might
need to figure out some kind of way to monetize it.

\- United States Ghost Towns
[http://unitedstatesghosttowns.com](http://unitedstatesghosttowns.com)

------
lulz42
I've made an android app, 2 months ago, to keep track of your coins (Bitcoin &
altcoins). I'm still developing the app and new features will come in 2018 !
Don't hesitate to give me your feedbacks.
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.juniper.wa...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.juniper.wallet)

------
adnanh
Hookdoo: SaaS that allows you to create incoming webhook endpoints to run
shell scripts on your remote servers.
[https://www.hookdoo.com/](https://www.hookdoo.com/)

And of course my open-source webhook server project:
[https://github.com/adnanh/webhook](https://github.com/adnanh/webhook)

~~~
icedchai
How does Hookdoo differ from plain old CGI scripts? I have no idea why I would
need it.

~~~
adnanh
Hookdoo allows you to execute the same script on multiple servers. It's
centralized, and you don't have to maintain multiple versions of the same
script on multiple hosts. You can easily add or remove servers where the
script should be executed etc...

It also adds the concurrency control feature so you don't have to worry if you
want only one instance of the script running, or want to kill the currently
running one, or run them in parallel etc...

Another feature would be generic trigger rules where you can use values from
payload to see if the script should be run at all (i.e. push to the feature
branch, but you want to run the script on merges to master...).

As a developer, all of this might sound easy to implement, but whatever you
make, you also have to maintain... And as you know, the business requirements
tend to change quite often and you'll get to a point where you have to
generalize your custom CGI scripts, and you end up spending more time
maintaining infrastructure than doing development on the actual product.

Webhook on other hand is pretty much a CGI server with a few handy features
:-)

------
yehosef
[https://elastic.news/](https://elastic.news/) \- soon with 100% more
elasticsearch!

------
peterbraden
I need to improve the write up, but I'm coming to the end of my current
iteration of a genetic algorithm to evolve the Mona Lisa from polygons.

This year I reimplemented it in rust and did some low level optimization to
make it fast.

[https://github.com/peterbraden/genetic-
lisa](https://github.com/peterbraden/genetic-lisa)

------
jozi9
Getting users on my just-launched REST API Monitoring SaaS:

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

Initially I thought it'd be easy to acquire users since I'm speaking to my own
kind - but it's pretty hard to get into developers' head :) No instagram
influencers can be used, that's for sure.

Anybody have any ideas?

------
tokyokawasemi
I started out trying to figure out what a weekly sprint kanban board might
look like if it were a pocket notebook. Ended up somewhere a little different
([https://1rick.github.io/bluebird/](https://1rick.github.io/bluebird/)), but
it suits me ok for my own pocket task manager.

------
everling
If I have time it will be updating my last project,
[http://cinetrii.com](http://cinetrii.com) , with a more sophisticated
algorithm.

It infers inspirations for queried movies using their reviews:
[http://cinetrii.com?i=tt5580390](http://cinetrii.com?i=tt5580390)

------
if_by_whisky
Work on governed.io, a native app that makes it easy to fax and manage your
communication with your congressional reps.

------
Random_Person
I don't know yet. For me "side project" means significantly less planning. My
method is to listen to people around me, "I wish I had a tool that could do
x."

If it's simple enough, I don't bother Googling for a solution, I build it for
them. Exactly as they request. Nothing more, nothing less.

------
thecolorblue
Hydroponics.

Between farmbot and MIT openAg, it feels like there is momentum to disrupt the
food industry. From my first tests this year, it is way cheaper and gives
better results, to grow my own food either in the small plot in my back yard
or inside in some sort of hydroponic setup. My goal is to make it super
simple.

------
MrDresden
I've just started a native Android project for wrapping Wakatime operations (I
find current offerings not good enough). So that will be a project going
forward into 2018.

Also going to create some free example applications for hopefully teaching
more advanced native concept on Android to any who want.

------
mightyranger57
I will be definitely working on Appure (
[https://appure.io](https://appure.io) ) - screenshot generator for App and
Play stores, adding new features, improving existing stuff. Still, have a lot
of hopes for this app

~~~
mightyranger57
... And even though i don't have a lot of users, existing ones are very loyal
and happy with the tool. It gives me a boost every day knowing that someone
actually benefits from what i'm doing.

------
mariushop
I recently found a book for children featuring "NLP" for making them sleep.
Apparently it's a best seller on Amazon. I think I'll buy it and adapt it for
spicing up relationships. It's gonna be huge. Sigh.

------
sdangol
We are a software development company from Nepal. We launched
[http://www.99leave.com/](http://www.99leave.com/), a complete attendance and
leave management system.

~~~
jmnicolas
No exactly a "side project".

------
teemu47
Same as last year. New publishing platform for independent journalists
[https://www.demotico.com](https://www.demotico.com).

Looking for beta testers to give feedback at the moment.

------
superkalo
I'm working on a browser extension that replaces the New Tab page with a
Bitcoin price chart: [https://crypto-tab.com](https://crypto-tab.com)

~~~
Ftuuky
This is neat! Can we have an option to change from USD to EUR and select a
preferred exchange? I'd like to see Bitstamp prices in euros if possible.

~~~
superkalo
Not yet. Currently I'm working on adding Ether and Litecoin. But I'm adding
this suggestion on my suggestions list! Stay tuned :-)

------
crisopolis
I'm working on a freight brokerage to compete against Uber Freight and the
likes...

Using Elixir, PostgreSQL, Vue.js, Stripe Connect probably hosted at Packet,
Vultr or DO and maybe GCP.

Not a fan of AWS or Serverless-hype.

------
Q_the_Novice
I will continue working on NodeZA:
[https://nodeza.co.za](https://nodeza.co.za) \- will focus on content creation
and interaction between members.

------
mezod
The v2 of my habit tracker
[https://everydaycheck.com](https://everydaycheck.com) :P Already on the
works! Every day it gets a little easier!

------
sdangol
how do you prevent on [https://www.cmyport.com/](https://www.cmyport.com/)
which is allowing someone to port scan another IP?

~~~
Tom4hawk
Why would he try to prevent that? If you have computer/device facing the
internet with public IP you have to acknowledge that anyone can poke at it.

------
alphadevx
Add more features to my personal todo-list app, while still keeping it simple:
[https://five.today/](https://five.today/)

------
NicoJuicy
ECommerce platform for myselve and some sort of AI for stocks, i'm not sure if
it will be profitable though. But that's why i'll backtest it and give it a
go.

~~~
falsedan
For backtesting, try [https://www.quantopian.com/tutorials/getting-
started](https://www.quantopian.com/tutorials/getting-started)

------
gdiocarez
I have a point of sale system for mobile devices.
[https://posangel.com](https://posangel.com)

------
toisanji
I am teaching computers how to interact with the environment via touch, its a
machine learning project: github.com/jtoy/sensenet

------
robodale
A business guide (ebook), leading to a more in-depth online course, leading to
my SaaS offering which automates what the course entails.

------
pawelkomarnicki
I will keep working on CookArr, and maybe get my 2nd game out :-)

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

~~~
sreyaNotfilc
Gosh, those marshmallows looks devine! I'll make sure to link to it within my
side-project (once the new version is up).

------
cvaidya1986
One AR, one social network.

------
joekinley
porting and finishing a game I made to the nintendo switch

------
originof
new linux DE

------
originof
new DE

