Ask HN: New Year's resolution – What projects are you planning to start in 2016? - kernelv
======
cableshaft
Get at least one, but hopefully two, signed publisher agreements for board
game designs. I already have one prototype that's been getting playtested by a
major publishing company. I've got two other prototypes that are probably two
revisions away from being able to submit them to publishers.

I also want to make a 3D (and hopefully VR) version of my old strategy video
game design, Proximity, and release it on as many platforms as possible.

Make a small app using Swift and self-publish that so I can prove to employers
that I have Swift experience (I've tinkered with it enough to get a good
handle on it but haven't finished anything) and maybe get back into mobile
development full-time again (currently doing ASP.NET development). I have a
good amount of Objective-C experience but no one seems to care about that
anymore.

Finally, I have a novel with a second draft that's nearly finished that I'd
like to turn into an ebook form, get some private readers, and do one more
quick revision before sending it off to publishers. Because of how screwed up
book publishing has gotten, I may end up self-publishing, but I know if I do
that it's only going to make like, 100 sales at best, so I'd rather try to
find a publisher first.

If I get all that accomplished next year it will have been a pretty good year.
I got a lot started in 2015 but nothing got finished.

------
suhail
I'd like to expand my knowledge in machine learning/AI. I am not that great at
math so this will push my boundaries a bit. I am on chapter 2 of this:
[http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/chap2.html](http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/chap2.html)

Ultimate goal is to be able to intuitively see valuable places where machine
learning would actually be useful in solving problems people have in the
world. I'd like to be able to debate ideas with people that know ML better
than I do and not be completely ignorant. And then apply them to my startup or
a future company.

~~~
nemild
You might enjoy Andrej Karpathy's work as a supplement as well:

[http://karpathy.github.io/neuralnets/](http://karpathy.github.io/neuralnets/)
[http://cs231n.github.io/](http://cs231n.github.io/)

------
pikzen
New project: Finish my projects

Weird, it's the same as my 2015 NYE's project.

EDIT: Otherwise, I'll keep bitching at Javascript for being terrible, will try
out Mithril, will try to do more FP and will definitely do some Rust. Wanted
to write libsavefile to read data from gamesaves and such. Might be fun.

~~~
empressplay
amen... 18 months and climbing...

------
drham
My resolution isn't a specific project, but more of a general commitment to
spending regular time on side projects.

I've very recently been enjoying using pomodoro[1] cycles to track my
productivity at work and I'd like to translate the same behavior to my side
projects and commit to getting 4 cycles done per week (~2 hours), and tracking
that information to keep myself accountable.

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

------
scottlilly
Like many others here, I plan to finish some things I've started before. In
particular:

1\. Complete an open-source 2-D RPG engine in C#

2\. Write a full-length science fiction novel

3\. Increase the number of tutorials/training videos I create for my site and
YouTube

I also have an idea forming around an in-person workshop to introduce teens to
programming. I'd like to do this in Paraguay, for less-privileged kids, and be
able to provide them with a laptop/netbook. But, that may end up being a 2017
project.

------
ejcx
I've already built it and I am finalizing website copy, static pages, etc
before launching.

I built network 'canaries', for lack of a better word, that do a couple
things.

    
    
      1) They emulate popular services, Web Server, FTP Server, MySQL server.
    
      2) They provide you with information and alert you when other machines talk to it (for example, it will give you information from a POST request on a page that has a password field).
    

They are essentially network trapdoors that let you find people doing things
they shouldn't on your network and are all precompiled ELFs, which make
deployment super easy.

I want this to provide me with real revenue (my 2016 goal). If you have input
for me please let me know what you think.

~~~
amirmc
Congrats! This is quite interesting and I look forward to seeing the site.
Have you come across CyberChaff [1]? It seems like you may have similar goals.
CyberChaff makes use of HaLVM [2] so this approach (using unikernels) seems
like it might suit you too.

I've put together a website to help gather the unikernel projects [3], so if
you choose to consider this approach for your next round of work, please do
share your experiences there!

[1]
[https://galois.com/project/cyberchaff/](https://galois.com/project/cyberchaff/)
[2] [https://github.com/GaloisInc/HaLVM](https://github.com/GaloisInc/HaLVM)
[3] [http://unikernel.org](http://unikernel.org)

~~~
ejcx
Thanks a lot. I'm familiar with those projects and while v1 of my project
doesn't use it it would be amazing to use it for the higher interaction
canaries/honeypots I build.

------
jonathanwallace
Objection!!! That's a leading question!

I plan to finish existing projects in 2016!

Actually, my current plan is to get outdoors more and play music more. That
may conflict with my earlier plan to finish existing projects.

------
AnkhMorporkian
I've had a project in mind for a while, and I've built a prototype for my own
use, but I'm looking into creating a public version of it.

A unified package tracking website. Put in some tracking numbers, get a
centralized list, get status updates for all your packages from a single
source. There's one site I've found that sort of does this
(packagetrackr.com), but quite frankly it's awful.

I also have some ideas for premium services: forward emails and automatically
extract/add tracking numbers to your account, SMS notifications, a few others.
I just have to pull the trigger and actually make it.

As someone who gets a metric butt-ton of packages, my prototype has been super
useful. I actually have it automatically parsing my mailbox and extracting
links already, which is really convenient. Where possible I also extract any
product names and display them next to the tracking number.

~~~
tommoor
Not discouraging your prototype/project at all, but make sure to check out
[http://www.aftership.com](http://www.aftership.com) \- service works really
well for lots of different couriers :)

~~~
AnkhMorporkian
Seems to be a slightly different concept. That seems to mainly be for
shippers, whereas mine would be for receivers. Also, their pricing seems a
little absurd, I'm pretty surprised they have such big name customers.

I still think my project would be viable though, since it would have a free
plan with unlimited packages.

Thanks for the heads up about aftership. If nothing else, it'll be a good way
to get a list of carriers I should look at supporting :)

------
NoughNo
Augmented Graffiti: A mobile app where users draw and post images to any
surface, which are able to be viewed through the camera by those in the user's
social network.

I've been a bit afraid to start this (or any) side project due to my time
consuming bad habits. However 2016 is the year for me, and you.

Best of luck everyone.

------
apoh
Prioritize my list of projects for a change. I'm far too guilty of "chasing
the shiny new object." I work on a project, realize how much work will be
needed, resignedly go on with it, something new comes along...you get the
idea. Recently found out about the Pomodoro technique, which will be helpful
for new stuff and the HabitBull app for ongoing projects.

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

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

------
rfc
Been talking/planning it for a few months but broke ground over the holiday
break.

I'm working on creating an accelerated genomics data pipeline. Core focuses is
on the following: 1) Accelerating the genome alignment process from ~45 min to
<1 min. (completed) 2) Database that allows users to compare up to 10 genomes
for their differences/similarities with basepair mutations (in progress) 3)
Ability to overlay data science-y stuff (H20 framework) against up to 10
genome mutation datasets to run clustering algos (or other methods). (Q2/Q3
2016)

I just got a basic prototype up and running that overlays a visual interface
on top of a full human genome mutation data set. Currently wrapping up a
disease comparison table so that user can run intersections to find potential
areas of diseases.

There's lots of tools out there that do stuff like this already but they're
often in terminal, require lots of coding exp. or stats, and are really
technical to use. Additionally, lots of challenges on the data front since
these data sets can be between 3gb to 150gb per human genome. This makes doing
comparative genomics at scale hard.

My hope is to build a basic prototype that is visually easy to use, straight
forward, fast, and provides proper insight. The ultimate goal would be to
create a platform that allows users to do massive population-based genomics
(10,000 genomes+). Reason? Because it's super fascinating and once I get my
genome sequence, it will be really fun to dive into the software of me.

------
pc86
A few months ago I took a position as a Team Lead. For the first time in my
career I am responsible for the work of others. My focus is going to be on
making it as easy as possible for the folks on my team to do their jobs with
minimal interruptions or annoyances. I know that means I'll have Outlook and
Word open at least as much or more than my IDE, which will be a big change.

I'd like to learn a JS framework as well. I don't know any and it's probably
getting to the point where that's going to start holding me back
professionally soon.

~~~
claudiug
good luck! After six months as cto, I have to tell you, ohhh boy I HATE IT!

~~~
cadr
What part?

------
l33tbro
"A few times I been 'round this track" \- Gwenneth Rennae Steffani.

Deep in a few years on a couple of things. Wish it was as simple as starting
new things each year, but I fall hard and commit deep to projects. This has
come from learning it's best to hang in there and see shit out. Personally
interested in the wilderness between Youtube and plain old television,
personally. Onwards we go into the new year I guess. Best of luck everyone
with 2016 projects.

------
kentt
* Publish a Shopify plugin I started recently. I need to just do it and not get distracted by perfecting every little thing.

* Other than that, I ran about 1000 miles this year but want to be more consistent and avoid taking weeks long breaks from running.

* Read less and but get more out of it. I read about 25 books, but so many of them I don't remember much from them. I'll try to sink my teeth into 12 or so instead.

* Lose 10 lbs. Lost 15 this year, 10 more would be ideal for me I think.

------
gremlinsinc
Finishing and working on getting more traffic to :
[http://startupwrench.com](http://startupwrench.com) \-- Also get some
advertisements going, and hopefully build out the job-board. Right now, to get
the first 5 jobs there's a coupon code: Firsties if interested go to:
[http://jobs.startupwrench.com](http://jobs.startupwrench.com) 65% off.

It's already bringing in some adsense money, and I'm not sure how much on
affiliate programs, as they are a little harder to track and see as they are a
bit over the place, maybe I'll try to use curl and pull in data from the aff
programs. But the job-board could be a gold mine.

I'm also wanting to start a service where users can submit their startup and
we push it out to all the startup listing directories like startupli.st and
producthunt, and tweet/dm and email a bunch of tech blogs, kind of like a PR
blast just for new startups and apps. I'd want to make it as automated though
to lower profit margin, rather than doing everything by hand.

~~~
WildGreenLeave
You might wanna disable debug in your Laravel config. There is a debug bar
that shouldn't be there.

~~~
gremlinsinc
thx, yeah I enabled that earlier today after a push failed, forgot to change
the .env back, thanks for catching that.

------
TACIXAT
I'm finishing up the mobile site for
[https://socialite.ooo](https://socialite.ooo), looking to start dropping
invites in a few days. I started it New Years last year, so I'm stoked that I
was able to get it to launch in one year of moonlighting.

I have a basic fitness app I want to build, should be super easy, hopefully be
able to crank it out in January. A friend pointed out the idea while on
vacation, there are no other apps for this on Android or iOS. I'll be giving
that friend half of the profit as a thanks for the idea.

February, start working with a former colleague on a business idea, we haven't
decided which idea yet though but we have a few that have potential. Finally
working on something security related in my spare time.

Do two classes per semester (after work). That should let me finish my masters
by June 2017. Then my girlfriend and I can get off the east coast to somewhere
warmer.

Save more money. Buy less stuff. Present at some security conferences.

------
bonobo3000
I have been writing a lisp interpreter and mind=blown. I really want to write
a harder one now - maybe a basic python interpreter, or make my own little
language :D

I also really want to get proficient enough in the JS world to make a simple
web app. So far everytime i start wondering what has changed since MVC+jQuery
and shopping around million frameworks.

------
sergiotapia
Some really exciting things coming down the pipeline in the startup I work on.

On the personal side, A huge huge undertaking for my brother and I that's been
a dream of ours for a long time. We'll be building the web app with MeteorJS
and React. These two tools enable us to really build our vision with the few
resources we have.

I also want to start a proper YouTube channel dedicated to Meteor programming.
I've ordered my Microphone which should arrive whenever, it's new years so no
rush. Once I get that I will start recording some cool stuff that hopefully
helps grow the developer base. They say that you don't really know the
material unless you can explain it in simple terms. That's my main reason for
launching the channel.

Maybe, if there's time and things take off, I'll dive into Elixir/Phoenix.90%
chance I won't though.

\---

@Sergio in July: How is the project going so far? How many videos have you
made?

------
davidy123
I want to find and develop high quality information 'scraping' and annotation
and find a good community to connect with, in support of research and health
system projects.

I posted about this here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10595190](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10595190)
but even though it seems to be a common desire, there doesn't seem to be much
organization around it, aside from the really heavyweight projects which I
don't think are necessary for most purposes.

hypothes.is and overviewdocs.com are two open source projects that are in the
right direction, but I want to find a less centralized design.

------
wingerlang
Last year, January 3rd, I started to rewrite one of my iOS projects thinking
it would take some one day or two. The last 10% has taken the whole year.
Obviously not working on it every day, and "burn out" is included.

------
pallavkaushish
Even though it is a side project, I want to grow
[http://griggi.com](http://griggi.com) to a full blown startup so that I can
completely move on from my day job.

A tentative goal is to cover all major areas of New Delhi and Bangalore in
India and make them Griggi enabled which roughly translates to setting up
~1000 Griggi WiFi routers in different restaurants and cafes.

Personal goal - Get more active, work out more (3 times a week) and really
finish what I start.

------
probably_wrong
A bit meta, but I want to finish the section of my homepage that lists which
projects I'm working on.

Once that's done, maybe I'll start writing a book. Or my PhD thesis. One of
those for sure.

------
simonswords82
I'm going to continue to get out of the way of my team who do an awesome job
running [http://www.staffsquared.com](http://www.staffsquared.com) which we
started three years ago.

Using the time this frees up I'll be launching
[http://www.thingsclick.com](http://www.thingsclick.com) and doing some
consultancy bits for various companies helping with their digital marketing.

~~~
gremlinsinc
Both services look pretty awesome, I wouldn't mind giving thingsclick a try on
some projects, I'm notoriously bad at testing my apps.

~~~
simonswords82
Thanks - pop your e-mail on the thingsclick.com site if you haven't already
and we'll let you know when it's ready. We just found the existing testing
tools (I'm looking at you Selenium) to be very powerful but too cumbersome.
We've built something that anybody can use to create tests and re-run them as
frequently as necessary.

We're already dog fooding Things Click internally and it's saved us a bunch of
time, especially around regression testing. I'm looking forward to seeing how
other people find it.

------
robmiller
I laid the groundwork in 2015 for a new SaaS[1] for my niche vertical,
building acoustics, that will include both project management and technical
tools. After a few release cycles and the software matures, the subscription
will transition to RaaS, or research as a service that will increase our body
of knowledge in the subject and improve the calculators creating a virtuous
cycle.

[1] [https://10log.com](https://10log.com)

------
krapp
Funny enough, I just made my first commit[0] to what I hope will be only the
first successful game project next year.

I have a ton of half-finished projects I need to either finish or abandon. I
even have a Hacker News clone that will probably never see the light of day.
But mostly I want to play around with games.

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

------
jjude
Now that swift is open source, I believe we will see swift on the server too.
With that thought, I started learning swift from mid-December. I am learning
it with solving programming challenges. I also blog about them here[1]. My Q1
project is to learn swift in-depth with this approach.

[1]: [http://tech.jjude.com/swift-challenges/](http://tech.jjude.com/swift-
challenges/)

------
ika
Make Your New Year's Resolution here:
[http://yresolution.com/](http://yresolution.com/) And support us at
[https://www.producthunt.com/tech/what-is-your-new-year-s-
res...](https://www.producthunt.com/tech/what-is-your-new-year-s-resolution)

------
wslh
Egont:

1/ A Web Orchestration Language: [http://blog.databigbang.com/ideas-egont-a-
web-orchestration-...](http://blog.databigbang.com/ideas-egont-a-web-
orchestration-language/)

2/ Part II: [http://blog.databigbang.com/egont-part-
ii/](http://blog.databigbang.com/egont-part-ii/)

------
r3bl
* Finish a book I have started a few days ago and release it under Creative Commons.

* Finish up a paper I've been working on for the last couple of months.

* Get a contract extension.

* Finish up the reading challenge for the next year (I've failed miserably this year with 16/25 books).

Also, I have two projects in my hand that seem more than interesting and I
can't wait to start them as soon as the holidays finish.

~~~
Jarcel
Tell us what your book is about

~~~
r3bl
Just my thoughts about the things such as the web, government transparency,
open source software, Internet monopolies and similar.

I've been blogging my thoughts for about two years now, but I found that blog
posts are too limiting to express my thoughts about these things.

That's why I have decided to write a book that will unite my opinions on these
topics, give my back story as a person who grew up in a war torn country
that's not very familiar for its technological advancements and the things
I've been through trying to compete with international developers and having
my right to free speech jeopardized a couple of times.

------
dcolgan
This year I want to get my first SaaS app out the door. Just started working
on making a tool with my friend for documenting and testing apis.

Tangentially related, I've been reading a book called The Willpower Instinct
by Kelly McGonigal that has a lot of good ideas that apply to making changes
in behavior if you have trouble (as I often do) getting things done.

~~~
hunvreus
Would that be more like Runscope [1] or Apiary[2]'s tools like API
Blueprint[3]?

[1]: [https://www.runscope.com](https://www.runscope.com)

[2]: [https://apiary.io](https://apiary.io)

[3]: [https://apiblueprint.org](https://apiblueprint.org)

------
bovermyer
I've already started mine - a personal dashboard app that combines all my
most-used features of various other apps/sites into one place that I control.

So far it handles note-taking and task management, as well as showing me all
issues and pull requests assigned to me.

------
dsiegel2275
Not a particular project per se, but there are a few technologies that I'm
going to devote some serious time towards learning. Elixir/Phoenix is
intriguing to me. Going to give TypeScript a serious look - particularly now
that it has support for JSX.

------
tuyguntn
Trying to practice fitness and healthy life, otherwise whole day sitting gives
weird feelings.

------
twovi
Turn my sudo movie/book/comic/game review site into something a little more

~~~
mattdotc
You've been spending too much time on the command line ;)

Is there a niche genre you'll be focusing on? I tried to set something up like
that for zombie-horror films about 10 years ago, but once I had started
college it became too much work to get and create enough content for me to
stay motivated.

The only thing I did get around to doing was setting up a store with affiliate
links. Go figure.

------
petercooper
A bit businessy and vague, but charge our readers/audience for things rather
than entirely relying on advertising/sponsorships (which is working well,
don't get me wrong)? So.. diversification, perhaps :-)

------
f14c0
\- join a startup job :) \- just started a personal blog, so keep writing. \-
travel to many countries to attend dev confs :) \- have in mind an IoT
solution for brt travel planning in my country.

------
sjs382
More realistic goals, this year:

* Publish my game to Google Play, then to iOS Appstore.

* Finish the collaborative art platform I've been working on.

* Launch 3 new side-projects that each sustain a MRR of $1000+/mo.

------
throwastone
Massive group video chat => WebRTC, phoenix/elixir :)

------
fapjacks
I've started making music. I will continue to do this, as well as hack my way
through the eternal pile of side projects.

------
milge
Becoming a vandweller. Fixing up and selling my house.

------
davidw
Getting back into bike racing after 20 years!

------
bbody
The same one that I tried to start in 2015.

------
claudiug
I will do swift (2d games and ios apps) :)

------
nailer
I'd like to properly understand Elliptic Curve Cryptography.

------
vlunkr
Build a 2D platformer in an HTML canvas with no game libraries.

------
billconan
Something VR, or a drawing app for ipad pro and apple pencil

------
tmaly
eating better especially when I eat out and helping others to eat better.

Trying to finish bestfoodnearme.com and give it a new look with pictures to
help in this endeavor.

------
Immortalin
Finish up Kloudtrader.com

Build an ecommerce platform

------
HackerVijay
I will provide one awesome Startup idea every Tuesday for the whole 2016 on my
website [http://ideasU.com](http://ideasU.com)

