
Offer HN: Tell me what you need, and I'll program it (for free) - dutchbrit
To refresh my mind, I'm looking at taking on one small project. So don't ask me to build a full crazy enterprise application here.<p>My skills include HTML5, CSS3, JS, PHP, Ruby, Python &#38; Perl.<p>So, if you're missing something that you'd really like to have, comment below.<p>See any comments you like? Comment on it so I can see which request is the most popular, and I'll whip it up!
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noinput
Create a web app that offers, your offer. A portal for HN devs to take on
jobs, possibly in tandem, to better their skills. Hackers helping hackers.

~~~
fieldforceapp
I like this idea too, but perhaps instead of just "hackers helping hackers,"
maybe you could open it up to something like "hackers helping charities" to do
some more good.

~~~
Kerrick
<http://giving.github.com/>

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forgotusername
I'd pay $20/year if you build a reliable HN <-> e-mail comment gateway. I'd
pay double if you convinced PG to let your app sync people's comment history.
Use e.g. Gmail OAuth IMAP authentication, sync to a label, optionally sync
bidirectionally (i.e. comment replies from Gmail), but that's only marginally
more useful than getting e-mail archives of comments here.

Hell, if you write it in Python then I'll even donate the comments page parser
I already have written (including a comment's original marked up plain text
recovered from the HTML).

One of many tiny projects that just need a few concentrated days that I've
never gotten around to. I suspect you might find quite a few here willing to
pay that same $20/year.

~~~
javajosh
Be careful about putting dollar figures on things like this and estimating
demand. What if this guy spends a few hundred hours on this and then no-one
buys it? Sure, it's his risk to take, and you carefully qualified your last
statement, but overestimating demand is a deadly thing. So let me as - why do
you think people will be willing to pay for this service, and what kind of
numbers are you talking about? 100? 1000? 10000?

~~~
forgotusername
It's just an alternative for someone already offering to work for free – I'm
certainly not about to write a business plan around it.

My use case is simply that I like my own comments/SMS/tweets/etc. archived and
searchable, as it's an easy way of keeping track of stuff with zero effort. In
the case of HN it would also serve to avoid the common situation where I miss
a reply until hours after the replyer's lunch break ended.

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niels_olson
I would like some help on a small(?) pyparsing project for a prostate cancer
research project I'm doing. First try and some test cases here.

<https://github.com/2grep/CoPATH-Parser>

What's in it for you?

1) Tell your Movember buddies you're actually working on prostate cancer
research

2) Maybe a trip to SD (big maybe, but hey)

3) a chance to make some connections. For example, I'm getting some help on
the postgres side from Joe Conway (has a postgresql commit bit, and author of
PL/R, <http://www.joeconway.com/>)

~~~
rustc
Could you explain what work do you need done?

~~~
niels_olson
Most immediately, I need to turn this file

[https://github.com/2grep/CoPATH-
Parser/blob/master/tests/Abb...](https://github.com/2grep/CoPATH-
Parser/blob/master/tests/AbbreviatedTestCases.txt)

into this file

[https://github.com/2grep/CoPATH-
Parser/blob/master/tests/Des...](https://github.com/2grep/CoPATH-
Parser/blob/master/tests/DesiredOutput.csv)

longer story:

I'm a doctor in the military, and we use IT systems derived from the VA's
original VIsTA project. If you've ever heard of Mumps, this is it. The manuals
date back to the early 80s. I am trying to build out some infrastructure so we
can sensibly work with external research institutions in the San Diego area. I
have figured out how to get some decent text out, which then needs to be
parsed for specific things, which may vary depending on the project.

Think of this as a startup within the largest of large organizations. The
downside is there's a huge bureaucracy. The upside is we're operating far
enough up, that everybody understands the bureaucracy problems and some key
people are willing to help facilitate some things along the way.

So my minimum viable product is a research paper published using 55 cases.
Trivial, right? Maybe if you're at Stanford. Here, not so much. getting enough
code written that I can automate the parsing and inject this (and some other
similar files) into postgresql, and then pull data back out and do data
analysis with it. I have struggled to find help. Joe has been very generous
with helping me wrap my head around postgresql. I have been through a lot of
python tutorials, but I have _never_ sat down with someone who knows python
and seen how they solve a problem. Go to a desert island and teach yourself
python with nothing but the internet. Can it be done? Yes, but it is very
hard.

So I'm hoping to build a relationship with someone who could help with
practical matters, like finishing this first step of a small parser. Paul
McGuire, the author of pyparsing, has been very helpful over Stack Exchange,
but crafting a well-formed question on Stack Exchange is very difficult when,
again, one learned to code on a desert island.

Here's my effort so far

[https://github.com/2grep/CoPATH-
Parser/blob/master/ProstateP...](https://github.com/2grep/CoPATH-
Parser/blob/master/ProstateParser.py)

Which I'm sure anyone here will look at and say: dude, you could have finished
this by the time you wrote this comment! Except it's really hard to wrap your
head around something you've never done, never seen anyone else actually do,
and can only spend 10-15% of your time on.

But I need to automate some of this work if we are going to undertake larger
projects in the future, which is the goal.

~~~
vlod
Unfortunately I don't know python, I'm ruby-rails-mysql for my day job.

If you're interested in going down ruby (and even mysql or i can probably get
up to speed on postgres, as it's a bit rusty), I can get involved.

~~~
niels_olson
If you want, the needed input cases and their desired output forms are in the
repo, I would love to see how it's done in Ruby.

<https://github.com/2grep/CoPATH-Parser>

I'm not completely wed to postgresql, but I would hate to give up Joe, who has
been tremendously helpful. And most of my admin experience is with postgresql
(blogs, wikis, etc).

~~~
nanijoe
If the sequence of the last 3 numbers is not important (does not appear to
be), then this appears to be relatively trivial. Unfortunatley, like the OP ,
I can only do this in ruby. I'll attempt to do it tonight, and reply to you on
here when its done.

------
l0gicpath
Here is an idea,

\- Upload multiple images

\- Add hot spots to them (annotations/marks, what ever you wish to call them)

\- Each hot spot gets set to link to a different image of the uploaded images

It's a way to demo a UI prototype/mockup. So what happens is, once you are
done, you'll share a link with someone.

And they would click through the images as they would normally do if those
weren't static images but an actual UI.

Let me know if you need more elaboration.

~~~
joshuafcole
This seems pretty interesting. There are options that provide this
functionality as a bonus (e.g. LucidChart), but its definitely secondary and
to use it meaningfully often costs some sort of membership fee. A nice simple
free solution for this might be popular with designers.

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SatvikBeri
At work I create a lot of flowcharts, e.g. [http://www.freshfreestuff.net/wp-
content/uploads/2008/05/gli...](http://www.freshfreestuff.net/wp-
content/uploads/2008/05/gliffy-interface.jpg) . I usually use Gliffy or UMLet.
The problem is, all of these have drag-and-drop interfaces where you have to
use the mouse all the time-and moving back and forth from the mouse to
keyboard is painful for me. It also means that making flowcharts takes much
longer than necessary-it would be really useful to have sane default keyboard
shortcuts like "create a node beneath the currently selected node."

So some method of using, say, Gliffy without having to use the mouse would be
awesome.

Disclaimer: I am not a programmer and have no idea how interesting this is, I
can only speak to how much it would help me.

~~~
r4vik
you should look into graphviz, this article posted a few weeks ago comes to
mind: <http://robrhinehart.com/?p=119>

~~~
SatvikBeri
At first glance that sounds like exactly what I need! I'll definitely take a
close look.

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niyazpk
I want this[1], but a version that works online. Should support multiple
calenders per user so that I can track more than one goal at the same time.

Have one dashboard view where I can see an overview of all my goals.

[1] <http://seinfeldcalendar.com/>

~~~
mistircek
<http://joesgoals.com> does a pretty good job in my opinion, but it shows last
7 days instead of full month.

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tomcavill
I have an app written in ASP.NET MVC with an API. Would like to either convert
it into, say, RoR (or Python/Django/whatever if you prefer). Or, write a
separate web app that uses the existing API.

To explain further, I had the app built in ASP.NET and find I don't give it
enough love because I'm a mac-using product person (design and front-end dev).
But it's a nice app that has some potential. There's an iOS app in existence
that utilises the API.

Would be nice to have a web-app to complement it that we could work on in
unison perhaps. It probably won't amount to anything more than a side project,
but I've always found it enjoyable to work on.

My twitter is @tomcavill if you'd like more details.

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mhedge
hey Sam.

google directions allows you to add up to 26 places. it gives you driving
directions, estimated time to drive each leg, and miles etc. It does not sync
up with date/time info though.

I have posted all my ideas on the mapwhen twitter
<https://twitter.com/mapwhen>

basically the idea is to have the interface like google directions,
<https://maps.google.com/> but add a date field and time field next to each
location you add. That way you can plan where you will be when.

This can work for everyone from parents doing errands, where they need to
leave work by a certain time, then get to the soccer practice by a certain
time, then home by a certain time. Or for someone planning a 2 week road trip.
you add 20 locations and the dates/times you need to be there. Using google's
genius directions info, you get the drive times, the distances etc.... but
then also create a way for all that data to be synced with date/time info.

I would imagine that once someone was logged in they would have a set of
favorite locations, where they could just set the times they need to be
places... also ideas like syncing with facebook checkins or foursquare, also
ideas like having the app show you various entertainment or eating places, or
gas stations along your planned trip, if you wanted.

I have all the ideas on the mapwhen twitter

Mike @mikehedge

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nrmn
Curve matching in javascript. Take a list of data points (x,y) and creates an
equation that offers the best fit.

Side question: you will be making the code open source right?

~~~
javajosh
This is a mischaracterization what curve-fitting algorithms do. You generally
have to pick the function you want to fit, and then it's parameters are varied
to minimize some comparison function. This means that this function would need
to take the data, a chosen function, and a comparison function to minimize.

Also, this is a pure JavaScript project, and the OP wants to do something with
HTML/CSS/etc.

~~~
nrmn
Do I need to create the function I want to fit? Or would I have to look for a
function that looks 'similar' to a plot of my data? So say my data 'looks'
like a cubic function, I would need to supply it a blank(missing the
coefficients) cubic function?

Also thank you for clearing up the mischaracterization.

~~~
javajosh
A good implementation will have a bunch of ready-to-use functions for -
polynomials of various degrees, at least.

~~~
davyjones
Polynomial curve fitting can be "dangerous". As in, extrapolating results can
be unpredictable if not done right.

I recall an example where 7-8 points, trending up, are fitted with a polycurve
that sharply dropped right after the last data point thereby giving erroneous
prediction.

------
DanBC
The game "Super Bub" with single player mode.

(<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSGOtsu-TFM>)

([http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/70649-ps1-homebrew-
supe...](http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/70649-ps1-homebrew-super-bub-
contest/))

There are other similar games, but this hit the "just one more game" sweet
spot. I'm not sure how.

------
fish2000
I need standalone code to read and write PVRTC files, to and from a simple
1-dimensional uint8 image-buffer -- "standalone" in this case means "something
tied to neither Objective-C nor an insanely gigantic C++ game-programming
framework". I will bake you a pie if it happens!

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omnisci
I've got an idea that is fairly simple (initially). Can you share a link or
something to work that you have done already? I've got a concept that does not
have any code written behind it yet, I'd be willing to see what could be
whipped up quickly.

~~~
dutchbrit
Links - not really, all work I've done lately is pretty much secret
unfortunately.. one of the main reason why I'm offering this (but not the main
one - I just love coding cool things).

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thom
I'd love to see a decent Python implementation of this natural language
processing paper: <http://www.aclweb.org/anthology-new/D/D12/D12-1072.pdf>

------
robotwisdom
I want to build an autobiographical timeline with Google App Engine using a
javascript bookmarklet that copies the url and title from any Wikipedia page
and lets me add dates and annotations (eg toy I loved, book I read, etc)

------
purirohan
An app that ranks content that we provide according to the popularity of an
associated twitter hashtag. Similar to andthewinner.is but where the tiles of
each event shift around in real time according to realtime popularity.

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ipimenov
May you find something interesting and in need of some help — ping me, I'll
help you out. Skillset: LESS, HTML5, JS (Backbone.js), hardcore Java, Node.js,
Hadoop, EC2.

Btw, I'm in Amsterdam, Netherlands; saw that you are from Eindhoven.

------
vicutoru
a software that help us to download all our pictures,data,comments,etc. from
facebook, so we can have it for us, and then be able to delete our accounts
from that evil web...

~~~
JonnieCache
They already kindof let you do that, the thing I can't find any simple way to
do is download all of my friends photo _albums_ that I'm tagged in somewhere.
I don't really take photos, so most of my precious memories are in other
people's photo collections. If someone makes that I may well even give them
money.

It shouldn't be too hard, just a few graph API queries and a loop to call
curl, but I've never got around to it.

~~~
tmarthal
Since IFTTT (<http://ifttt.com>) uses the Facebook push notifications, you can
actually auto-save pictures that your friends have tagged you in fairly
easily. Granted, this is not for historic purposes, but will work from when
you turn the recipe on.

<https://ifttt.com/recipes/1717> is the original recipe that most people have
modified that saves any pictured you're tagged in to Dropbox. I'm sure that it
can be modified to upload all the pictures in the album (which you have access
to).

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webwanderings
Bookmarks manager which is browser independent, most likely local app which
syncs online. Should have tagging, categories, notes etc. Should be super fast
and quick to use.

------
alhenaadams
An open source, secure, drop in login/authentication system for developers
hosting their sites as github pages (static only, no dynamic server side code
will be executed).

~~~
ryalfalpha
What do people login to do if there's nothing dynamic? To edit the pages?

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pawn
I'd like an iGoogle replacement. That's probably a lot to ask, but if it could
do three columns of widgets that display RSS feeds of my choice, that'd be a
good start.

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mogop
Django App for a user of certain role to create sub-user with another role
with a button to login as the sub-users created.

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andre3k1
Invent a new framework. Make use of what you already know -- i.e. HTML5, CSS3,
JS, PHP, Ruby, Python & Perl.

~~~
rustc
What kind of framework? Just anything random?

~~~
atdt
A lightweight micro-framework.

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omegant
How long are you willing to code?

~~~
dutchbrit
Roughly 10 hours depending on how interesting the idea is. :)

If I really like it, endless amounts ;)

Code will be released under MIT license.

------
lancefisher
I'd like a good bootstrap form builder. Preferably, one that I can gem
install.

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verelo
Say you do build something for someone, for free, who owns the work at the
end?

~~~
gbaygon
He says it will be MIT licensed.

Source: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4769947>

Edit: witch means he owns the original code but you can do (almost) anything
with it.

~~~
dutchbrit
Well, I'd even release it under something more free than MIT if that's
possible - I don't really need any rights, as long as the user can use it for
commercial work and doesn't need to credit me - as long as they don't claim
they made my part...

------
asuna
a bit meta: Build an offer HN

------
vacipr
Build your own hacker news extension.

------
mazsa
a roachspotting mashup: photo/video-api + maps api + real estate api :)

------
Toshio
Using node_pcap, make an npm package to capture multimedia packets as they
come over the wire and reconstruct them into the original multimedia file that
the browser was streaming down and playing back bit by bit.

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yozmsn
Can it be a personal project?

My mother's been bothering me to make a website for her, I just haven't had
the time...

~~~
mosselman
I think TS should take on this one :).

~~~
yozmsn
Thank you kind sir!

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elbukar
Iwant know hw to break any computer password and set a cafe timer

