
Show HN: Evertracker - My First Real Side Project - danielna
http://blog.danielna.com/post/26958036780/evertracker-first-real-side-project
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danso
Any developer/entrepreneur who realizes the wisdom and accuracy of Don
Rumsfeld's famous tongue-twister is on the right path:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns>

* [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know, we don't know. _

~~~
genwin
Even more wise is realizing that it's ludicrous to most people!

~~~
jacalata
And wisest yet is using it as a barometer to rule out ever listening to those
people who find it ludicrous.

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hughesdan
Don't feel bad about not creating a "profitable side-businesses after one
marathon 48-hour coding session in a single weekend". I bet a lot of side
projects posted to HN took much longer than 48 hours to complete even if the
author claims it was all done in a weekend. You should be proud for having
released anything at all. And kudos for being candid about the level of time,
effort and perseverance that went into your project.

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hoopism
Great job on the app and the video. Looks like you took care to really make
the process as simple as possible... that being said, tracking every minute of
my day gives me anxiety.

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thegranderson
Looks like a great app, but testflight says I can't install it on my iPhone 4S
- is there any reason you're not supporting this device?

~~~
danielna
I'm not exactly sure about the technical details, but that "can't install on
the device" notice is what everyone will see until they send us the email that
requests access. The email automatically submits an iPhone-specific identifier
that is used to install the application. I _think_ this is what is usually
required of testflight, but I could be wrong.

We're all on the 4S, so once we get the email we'll do our best to add you to
the testflight list as soon as possible. Sorry for the confusion.

And we've heard from a lot of Android users, and we feel your pain! One of the
developers on our project doesn't even own an iPhone so you have someone
vouching for you on the inside. It's definitely on our list of to-dos.

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alainbryden
Great idea, and well presented. For those new-year's resolution type of folk,
being in the habit of keeping track of your daily accomplishments goes a long
way towards helping you fulfill your personal goals.

If you have success with this, I'm sure people would be excited to see updates
that let one track units other than time and 'ones', such as calories and
distance travelled.

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deveac
That was a really enjoyable story about the process danielna. I don't have to
know the first thing about your app to have learned something. Much better
than barfing out "Here is my project vote for me."

So now I _will_ check out your project and vote for it if it is the best ;)

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samstave
I have loved this idea for years. I had wanted this same app when the iphone
first came out.

However, it would be great if some of these activities can be triggered based
on GPS location rather than clicking.

What about setting waypoints to track between. I set a waypoing GPS location
for my home. Then I set one at the rain station near my house, then again near
my job and finally at my job.

Measure commute times between all these points automatically.

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solchea
Yeah, this feature has been requested a lot. And one person even commented on
using NFC to have even finer control of automatic tracking. For example,
having a NFC tag in your car detect when you get in and when you arrive and
get out of your car. Tons of really cool ways to make this App even better.

~~~
samstave
I think NFC might not work too well, as the range is fairly small. So you may
need to swipe your phone near it? But I am not sure.

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roqetman
Now this is the kind of stuff I love to see on HN!

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michaelbuckbee
There was an interesting collaborative working hack in there with using
Dropbox for real time development with Xcode and two devs on different laptops
(at least thats what I think they were doing).

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solchea
Yup, you're correct. It worked well since there were only 2 of us and we were
working and separate parts most of the time. Updates were always instantaneous
and we always knew when someone was working on a file because we would get a
notification as soon as they saved a change. Not the best setup, but it worked
for us.

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solchea
Nice article Dan! And thanks for including a picture of Mochi, he'll
appreciate the celebrity status within the start-up community.

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vladexologija
Great app! Something I planned to build long time ago... Great job guys!

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omarish
Awesome work Dan. Excited to give this a try.

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kmc266
Awesome app and idea. very useful!

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blin
Awesome blog post Dan!

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nxtnctno
Great article!

