

Ask HN: Tell us about your side projects. - anujkk

Let us know about your awesome side projects and weekend hacks. What are the cool things you have made or what you are currently working on or plan to work in near future?
======
shanelja
Since I was a little kid I've played on text based "mafia" games, where the
idea was like any other game, to be the highest rank, the richest, the one
with the most "kills" or in the best "crew", etc.

I started learning to code because of these games in all honesty, over the
last couple of weeks I've been working on an open source mafia game (with an
installer and configuration page, control panel for moderators, etc) to allow
inexperienced people to release their own version of the game (or to give
experienced programmers a solid base to work from.)

At this stage I'm getting in the content, the gambling aspects of it, etc. and
I am reaching the point where I will consider releasing it. About 90 hours
have gone in to it so far at about 6 hours per day (I also have a 40 hour/week
full time job with a 2 hour each way bus commute.)

I've come up against and defeated a lot of challenges, and the codebase is
very clean and MVC based (I use php5, CodeIgniter and MySQL) so I'm genuinely
proud that this revisit to my more youthful days has been a fruitful one. I
plan to go live with a demo and release the source on github and via my
personal website in about a week or two, depending on how I fare against what
I have left to code.

~~~
hoi
Sounds cool, I used to play an PBM (Play By Mail) game called It's a crime...
been waiting for a modern version of this since forever..
(<http://www.kjcgames.com/crime/index.php>)

~~~
shanelja
If you would be amenable to it being realtime and not play-by-mail, I could
send you a tweet with the source and demo (which will be running a live
version and won't be closed (assuming I don't become homeless and run out of
money for hosting any time soon =) )) link for you to take a look at?

~~~
hoi
sounds good. would be happy to give it a crack

------
jwomers
I have a terrible memory, and want to remember more about the little things
that happen in my life, and remember the facts I come across that I find
interesting. Spaced Repetition Learning is a proven tool for improving memory,
but still isn't available in a well designed simple app. (I've tried them
all!). I am busy building this app as a side project. I was excited when
<http://memstash.co/> launched but it doesn’t use spaced repetition, the key
aspect of improving memory. There are so many fascinating things around me,
and with this app I will remember everything I want to.

~~~
porter
I was just looking for something like this the other day. Memstash looks like
it sends you 3 text messages over a week. Are you doing longer term spaced
repetition?

~~~
jwomers
So the basic premise is that it would vary the spacing based on how well you
remembered the fact. Would start daily, then if you know it well, go weekly,
then monthly etc.. The idea is that it's dynamic and mimics your memory decay.
Memstash doesn't get feedback from each alert, it just shows you. There is no
interaction or feedback to know how well you remembered each item which would
then inform the spacing. You can read more here if interested:
<http://www.supermemo.com/articles/theory.htm>

------
cfontes
My side project is <http://www.imobee.com.br>, it's a real estate search
engine for Brazil...

We are trying to build something close to Trulia because our real estate sites
suck bad.

We are still on alpha and only the main interface is working, but we will add
a lot of statistics and analysis to it so it can become useful.

Coding on my free time with a friend and trying to find some money to work
full time on it, but it's very very very hard to do that here in Brazil.

Opnions are welcome.

~~~
xvolter
I really like this idea. I hate how existing services limit regions, such as
Trulia - it's not like the maps are hard to get - I hope your service works
out.

------
dclaysmith
Still hacking away on <http://www.thetaboard.com> on nights and weekends.
Getting a good flow of signups. Trying to decide whether to charge for it (and
if so, how to market it) or possibly just leaving it free (it isn't costing
much to run).

As always would love to have some feedback.

~~~
gawker
Great great job! I love the demo and love the clean interface compared with
Trello. I think eventually you'll reach a point where you need to decide if
this is still a side project or there's some potential there. Leaving it free
for now is perfectly fine but eventually as more and more people use it, it
might cost you a whole lot more (in which case, it might be a good thing).
Good luck!

~~~
dclaysmith
Thanks! Glad you like it. Yeah, I've got some features I would like to add but
am holding back b/c they would result in increased operating costs. I'll need
to make a decision in the next 6 months or so.

------
GotAnyMegadeth
I made my first ever Android app in march:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=kiteflyingmo...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=kiteflyingmonkey)
It's a dice rolling app called 'Time to Die', I did it in about 2 months of
evenings. I had never programmed in Java before.

I started making a website: <http://www.talesfromthemoshpit.com/> What I've
done there isn't really functional yet. It's taken about a month of evenings.
I had never used HTML, CSS, PHP, SQL or JavaScript before.

I kind of lost interest in my website when my Raspberry Pi arrived, and since
I have been working on a home media centre. It's going quite well so far, I'm
doing it in Perl, which seems to be quite a fun language.

------
helen842000
I put <http://www.foundcamera.com> together as a quick 1 day project a few
months ago. I wanted to put an interactive map at the centre of it all.

It really is an MVP of a project currently and I would like to expand on it as
I'm getting a backlog of cameras to list on the site even without any
promotion - just good search engine rankings for popular phrases.

Lots of people are offering rewards in their posts too, a few people have said
if I promoted the posts with rewards this would entice more people to help out
but I don't think this is right.

I'd also like to monetize it in an unobtrusive way, just to cover its own
running costs, as there's only so many projects that you can keep paying for.

I'd really appreciate feedback/suggestions.

~~~
vhf
Great project ! I really like both the idea and how you implemented it.

After clicking on a found camera pin-point, I was a bit disappointed : I
closed the left frame showing details of said camera and hoped for the map to
show every other pin-points again. I tried zooming out, before understanding I
had to either go back in my browser or to chose a top-menu item. IMO you
should automatically go back to the "whole map" upon closing the specific left
frame.

------
illdave
I'm still slowly working on Hackerbuddy: <http://hackerbuddy.com/> \- fun
fact, the user base is now at a level where I can find people on Hackerbuddy
to help improve Hackerbuddy. Is there a name for apps that recursively improve
themselves?

~~~
cfontes
Trendy antivirus doesn't like your site

Website blocked by Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Malicious website
blocked <http://hackerbuddy.com/> Rating: Dangerous Verified fraudulent page
or threat source. What You Can Do:

Contact your administrator about security settings on your network Copyright ©
2006-2011. Trend Micro™ Incorporated. All rights reserved.

~~~
illdave
Thanks for the headsup - first I've heard about it. I'll have to look into
getting it unblocked (I guess it's because of the domain name?)

------
hieu
I've been working on <http://www.hupland.com> for almost a year. The idea is
to help you to improve your Heads Up NL skill by playing, studying your games,
and monitoring your ELO rating. I had this problem myself few years back when
I was a graduate student struggling with financial issues. I was trying to
earn some money on online poker sites but I couldn't afford learning by losing
first. I'm pretty close to the MVP-version launch (only 1 feature: play with
friend).

One thing I've learnt was that it is really easy to get distracted due to all
context switches and conflict responsibilities. So I try my best to touch the
code every day (even 1 line CSS change is good enough).

------
jgrahamc
Here are some of my little hacks: <http://jgc.org/labs.html>

~~~
anujkk
I really liked <http://getpopfile.org> . I had a somewhat related idea where I
wanted to use ML to filter incoming emails and assign/tag them as to-do list
items.

Have you considered making a web/mobile version? Email overload is one hot
topic these days.

~~~
jgrahamc
Actually what I considered doing was making it a service. Since it can all
operate transparently through IMAP (including training and filtering) it's
trivial to make it work with any IMAP based email. I have it working against
my own gmail through OAUTH, but I decided that the market was likely too
small.

~~~
anujkk
How small is the market and how much work it will take to make a web/mobile
app for it? I think if done properly it can get some paying customers. Even if
it doesn't become a big startup, it has the possibility of becoming a good
source of passive income.

How about reimplementing the core logic in python and exposing it as
library/API so that all kinds of web/mobile/plugin front ends can be built on
top of it?

~~~
jgrahamc
I actually have the entire thing rewritten as a C library that I have been
licensing commercially to companies for years. That part's easy. The hard part
(for me at least) is building the web site, billing etc.

~~~
anujkk
May be you need a partner who is experienced and fluent in building modern web
interfaces.

~~~
jgrahamc
If someone wants to license my polymail library for this purpose I would be
happy to do that.

------
davesmylie
I created a disposable email service - <http://dudmail.com> \- this was a
interesting exercise to attempt as I didn't have any experience dealing with
mail servers before this.

It's been moderately successful (as far as disposable email sites go) -
there's about 5000 registered users, a few hundred active users, and after a
year or so am on the 1st page google results for "disposable email". (I'm
number 7 on the page, but at least it's the front page =)

------
hannesfostie
Currently working on a little app that sends email reminders for movies you
want to see in theaters. It happens far too often that I see a trailer
somewhere, think "woah I want to see that movie" then just forget about it,
only to remember when it's no longer playing in local theaters.

Just finishing up the frontend, should be able to release this soon... if I
find a good name, at least. Current working title is Filmnudger which I think
is pretty damn bad, haha!

~~~
mattvot
moviememory?

~~~
topbanana
or movieminder?

------
sjs382
New Orleans Music & Event Calendar:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wheredatwh...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wheredatwhendat)
and soon at <http://nolamusiccalendar.com>

<http://isshort.com> \- URL Shortener that uses publisher-provided short URLs
(flic.kr, n.pr, wp.me, etc)

------
vignesh_vs_in
Started working on a SAAS concept recently, nothing solid to show right now.

My list of side projects from 2010, Android: Personal Finance Calculator
(<http://bit.ly/STAJ8n>) helps you to calculate Loan Interest rate.

Baby Names (<http://bit.ly/STAJ8n)Provides> List of Baby names and their
meaning

Mobile Number Tracker(<http://bit.ly/STAIkI>) provides caller info based on
the mobile number (Only India).

Mobile Number Tracker US (<http://bit.ly/PGakKz>)

iOS Game: Juicy Fun (<http://bit.ly/Ub7IRv>) physics game Atom Ace
(<http://bit.ly/UxZ6F9>) a different kind of puzzle.

iOS App: London Tube Map (<http://bit.ly/QqAXo7>) shows london tube statues.

Movie Theaters (<http://bit.ly/SwedyD> ) shows info about latest movies and
movie theaters which plays them.

~~~
rockfort
Nice Side-projects, but you're in definite need of a designer ;)

~~~
vignesh_vs_in
Thanks. Ya i know, my games flopped big time :D

------
matb33
1) <http://my.sket.sh/> Paste screengrabs, sketch & add notes, share link with
friends (can share read-only version or collaborative version where you can
sketch together in realtime)

2) <http://my.groceries.io/> Input your grocery stores, then aisles in the
order you travel through them. Then make your grocery list and eventually
through use remembers which aisles to find your items

3) <http://www.gifttracker.net/> Family members each have an account, enter
gifts they want, and reserve gifts to avoid duplicates. NB doesn't run under
https, been meaning to take care of this. If you want to try it out keep that
in mind, pick a test password.

------
tonylampada
I'm working on FreedomSponsors (<http://www.freedomsponsors.org>) - a micro-
crowdfunding platform for open source projects. People can place money
bounties related to the projects' issues, and pay after they're resolved.

Currently, payments are handled by Paypal. Right now I'm looking into Bitcoin
and bit-pay to enable bitcoin payments into FS. There are a few user
experience challenges that I have to work out first though (see
[https://github.com/freedomsponsors/www.freedomsponsors.org/i...](https://github.com/freedomsponsors/www.freedomsponsors.org/issues/78))

FS is open source on Github. Any kind of collaboration and feedback is very
welcome :-)

------
anujkk
I will start with myself. I recently introduced the first version of my
wordpress theme "strapfolio" on HN [1]. Got lots of visitors, not so many
sales and some valuable insights through comments and analytics. I will be
utilizing my coming weekends to improve it.

I am also looking for ideas for my next side project that I will use as an
opportunity to get a better understanding of Flask & Angular.js. So, if you
aren't able to work on it yourself, let me know if you would like to get some
web app that you wish existed.

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4753200>

------
conroy
Working on my video game. It's a 2d platformer / adventure game, based on the
show Community. It's open source if anyone is interested in writing Lua.

<http://projecthawkthorne.com>

------
krustnic
My today's 3 hours project is: <https://ptweetcom.appspot.com/>. It is thought
to be a "How to" example project for Google App Engine. In general it is a
micro service that gives twitter users ability to post private messages to
anyone (not only for followers). You enter your secret message and addressee
(@person) and get a link in response which you add to your tweet. Only
addressee can follow the link and see your private message.

Next evening (now it's evening in Russia :) ) I replace this service to
ptweet.com, make it more sexy and write "How to" for my blog (I guess).

------
tkorri
I just released Device Debug to Android
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.korri.andr...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.korri.android.devicedebug)
It reads Android device specs and device log and shows them to the user. It
also allows the user to share this info through email or by writing it to a
file.

The main reason for making it was to have a way to get information from
devices you don't have access to. For example if your client complains that
your app doesn't work with her device, you just instruct her to install Device
Debug and email the info to you.

------
wukkuan
Yesterday I launched my iOS receipt management app, Simple Receipts. My goal
was to make the absolute simplest app possible, as all of the (many) existing
ones were complex.

By default it simply saves your receipt images to your camera roll. If you
link with Dropbox, it will upload them there.

As of today it's $0.99 in the App Store. You can find it here:

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simple-
receipts/id509966025?...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simple-
receipts/id509966025?ls=1&mt=8)

------
davman
I want to work on something where people can leave comments/reviews about
rented property they have lived in. Whenever I move to a new place I always
find myself wanting to ask the last person why they left, so I can be aware
beforehand if the shower leaks, or the rooms are damp or the landlord is
useless. I've found sites that have reviews of landlords or letting agents,
but not of the actual properties themselves.

I'd love to know if anyone else thinks this is feasible/useful.

~~~
anujkk
Useful Yes. Feasible? Depends.

~~~
davman
Upon what would it depend do you think? From a technical standpoint I wouldn't
expect it to need a huge amount of engineering, as I wouldn't expect a huge
amount of concurrent users. I have been vaguely concerned about the legal
aspect; would leaving a negative review be seen as slander/libel? I'm sure
there must be some legal protection for this based upon the hundreds of
product review websites.

~~~
anujkk
I don't think reviewing a property will invite legal troubles but reviewing
the landlord may do so. You need to check it with lawyer. There must be legal
protection for this or you can simply transfer the legal liability to reviewer
through your TOS. For example, people get sued for tweeting bad things about
other people but twitter doesn't get into trouble.

As far as being feasible is concerned it depends on your resources and what
you want from it. Do you want to earn money through it? Do you have the skills
to develop and market it properly? Is there a paying market? These questions
depends on research and lots of ifs and buts. So, it depends.

------
xvolter
I created a service called <https://www.cyphrd.com> \- previously called
passwords.cc - which is a secured personal information service, let's you
store passwords, notes, bank information, ssh logins, files/documents, and
whatever else you'd like - securely, encrypted with an AES256 encryption
client-side. The encryption library I've created is open source and the
service is in a private beta stage.

------
hboon
I built <http://thepaperboard.com/> with my wife over the weekend. It's a
gallery of drawings people made with the Paper iPad app and shared on Twitter.
We released an iPhone app based on it the next few days.

Wrote about it at [http://hboon.com/how-a-developer-spent-a-weekend-with-his-
de...](http://hboon.com/how-a-developer-spent-a-weekend-with-his-developer-
wife/).

------
makethetick
I came up with a way to automatically modify your websites outgoing links with
an affiliate code, useful for busy forums. Kind of like a lightweight, self
run Skimlinks.

<http://www.affililink.com>

<https://github.com/deanbarrow/Affililink>

Edit: When I find some time, I'd really like to improve upon this and document
it.

------
geoffw8
I've been working on <http://www.weartolook.com> for a while now, we're a
fashion shopping mall with 250 of the best high street, luxury and department
stores here in the UK, we _just_ crossed 2m products and are gearing up for a
proper launch over the next few weeks. Interested in any feedback.

(For you US guys, we're just about to add a wave of ~100 US stores)

edit: clickable

------
daliusd
I am working on todo service and apps (yes, I know, yet another one world
doesn't need, but I really enjoy it) where lists of tasks can be shared
between devices and people. Starting point here: <http://todoteria.com>

I have written apps for Symbian, MeeGo and J2ME (not happy with the last one).
As well I have BlackBerry PlayBook version ready for upload to App World.

~~~
cfontes
You need Android and Iphone... they are the ones that matter.

~~~
daliusd
I'm forced to learn both currently (I am not complaining). Android most
probably will come first - still I can't give specific dates because my time
is unpredictable.

------
charlieirish
I bought <http://livelystocks.com> and I'm rebuilding it. It's a live
streaming news service for stocks and shares. If you want to know why Apple
shares have tanked, you go to livelystocks and check the live news as well as
the latest headlines.

It's a little like stocktwits but many more sources and much more focused on
just news, as fast as it happens.

------
poissonpie
I've got <http://placeguitar.com> \- Guitar Image Placeholder written in
python on google app engine

<http://themepiggy.com> \- Open source themes based on bootstrap - written in
padrino - still a work in progress - I really need to get more themes up there
as well and finish off some of the code

------
yossilac
I've been working on <http://experimatch.com> \- a site for matching academic
researchers with potential test subjects. Most researchers resort to posting
flyers around campus, thus missing on a lot of people who are willing to
participate for compensation (that is offered anyway). Already being used
around London, and slowly growing.

------
droelf
I am working on <http://getprivatizer.com> , an open source chrome plugin,
that allows you to encrypt everything you send to facebook and decrypt
everything your friends want to share with you. The server and the plugin are
here: <https://github.com/wolfv/privatizer>

------
zacusk
Going slow on <http://www.migrainevibe.com> (a migraine journal) on weekends
mostly. I've been on HN a while now (just reading, no comments), and I have to
say that it really is worth going after your dreams one line of code at a
time.

Thanks for the thread, I would never have the guts do a "Show HN" post with my
project.

------
dpearson
It's not much, but I've been working on <http://nflscorebot.github.com> for a
while now. I built it mainly for myself; I always have a Twitter client open
and wanted an easier way to get football scores. I've since built versions for
hockey and college football, as well as French versions.

------
aditya_bh
I've written a greasemonkey script for reddit that pulls directly linked
images, resizes them and displays them inline. I recently updated it to
include flickr links as well.

<https://userscripts.org/scripts/show/124010>

------
stkim1
I'm trying to finish up a logger app for iPad. Based on NSLogger
(<https://github.com/fpillet/NSLogger>), my goal is to build an app that could
be useful out in the field when you're to debug or monitor how your app is
behaving.

------
sasoon
My two side projects:

<http://www.sizeall.com> site for comparing things by real size on screen

<http://www.newswebreader.com> web Usenet client (three pane, like
Thunderbird)

~~~
daliusd
sizeall not working for me. I tried with my phone. It was almost right size
when loaded but when I clicked "Actual size" it was 1.4 times bigger than
actual.

~~~
sasoon
Check if correct monitor size is selected (in upper right corner).

~~~
daliusd
Yes, that's better. That control was in my blind spot. Maybe you should do
something about that.

------
aychedee
I've been working on <http://www.thenpsx.com/>. It's a prediction market for
consumer products. I'm slowly growing the number of products represented and
getting a bit of market activity. Though it's pretty thin at the moment.

------
urlwolf
I'm writing a book on how to get seed funding with a team and an idea _for no
equity_ in exchange (up to 120000 eur). There are three methods, all EU based,
but you can apply no matter what nationality you have. I'm preparing a launch
page now.

------
rebyn
I'm a newbie to Rails, yet every free time I can get around to I try to build
a Kickstarter for charity in Vietnam. Still in development
(<http://charitymap.herokuapp.com>)

------
hayksaakian
Nothing mind blowing.

GameBalls.info Keeps track of viewer counts of video game streams.

ExtempEngine (.com) A mobile and chrome news database app for a very specific
niche - high school extemporaneous speech students

~~~
icebraining
Why .info?

~~~
hayksaakian
The .com was taken, and of what was left, .info made the most sense
contextually.

Information about eyeballs on video games.

Was debating .TV too but 25$/year was a bit too pricey for a one off side
project.

------
sangupta
Working on a cross-platform Java-based command line shell that aims to be
better than the powershell's available and bring the goodness of user prompts
to commands.

------
kliao
In order to learn Django and web development, I'm trying to build a simple
website for tracking weightlifting workouts.

------
mgz
<http://geospeak.co.uk> \- talk about places on Google Maps.

------
cpbotha
nvPY is my ugly but cross-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac) and open-source (new
BSD) simplenote-syncing keyboard-friendly realtime-searching note-taking tool!
<https://github.com/cpbotha/nvpy>

------
era86
wrote my own scraper for stock prices, now im writing my own chart analysis
app in ROR and jqPlot

also going to pull Twitter and FB updates to see if i can determine the
influence social media has on stock price movements

------
Sandman
I'm not sure what the point of this question is? Usually, if HNers have a
project that they want to show to the world, they submit it as "Show HN"...
But seeing as you're here for almost two years, I guess you already know that.

~~~
anujkk
1\. Not all side projects are posted as Show HN. For example, I know some cool
hardware hacks that never get posted.

2\. Not all side projects are yet developed. Some may never be ready for a
Show HN but I want to know about them.

3\. I find it informative to talk to developers when they are still developing
it. This is the time they talk about problems and solutions and don't make a
marketing pitch.

4\. Main reason : I want to know what problems people are currently working
on. It helps me in brainstorming and getting ideas for my own side projects.

~~~
Sandman
Fair enough. Thanks for answering!

