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Show HN: My collection of web-apps that I'm finally comfortable in sharing
- chime 16y agoI made these for personal use and have been working on them for about a year. I always feel like my apps are incomplete but I think they are functional in their current form. I appreciate any feedback/criticism. E2V: I use this to get calls when one of my servers go down and whenever my PayPal account is hit. It's a little difficult to setup for regular users (email filters aren't commonly used) but it is pretty reliable. It uses Twilio and Cloudmailin.net. I just created an HN coupon for 5 additional calls: https://zetabee.com/e2v/?coupon=hackernews https://zetabee.com/e2v/?coupon=hackernews Text: I use this constantly to note down and plan everything. E.g. here's how I note down random ideas: https://zetabee.com/text/share?n=1058338736&h=MU54djV5VFRGVkE2YjZhbXlkQ2tsZz09 https://zetabee.com/text/share?n=1058338736&h=MU54djV5VF... CashFlow: This app enabled me to plan my departure from my old job without going into a financial crisis. It has a slight learning curve but once you get used to it, you can plan your finances very easily. I run hypothetical scenarios with my wife all the time - can we afford a house worth X in October? Should she switch to part time and get a 2nd contract? How much can we spend on a vacation and when?
- mwdev 16y agoI really like your text implementation. I've done something similar at http://www.mindwallet.com http://www.mindwallet.com . I've added a social layer on top. You can post directly to facebook/twitter and keep the posts in context. People can reply in line by adding sub items to your lists. I'm trying to put an api together that lets users create all kinds of apps. I think there is a opportunity for this kind of interface. Maybe we should put our heads together. Here's my 'how to use page': http://www.mindwallet.com/?ItemKey=787541c7-0860-41ea-a21a-2322e06675c3&ParentID=7f364e54-d2a1-41f3-b257-99c2022bcc37 http://www.mindwallet.com/?ItemKey=787541c7-0860-41ea-a21a-2... You obviously have a much better eye for design than I do. Here is an example of how I used some of the social features to live-blog/document the SxSW startup bus stuff: http://www.mindwallet.com/?ItemKey=787541c7-0860-41ea-a21a-2322e06675c3&ParentID=06f246c1-b947-434a-95ce-2ca5bf7d0584 http://www.mindwallet.com/?ItemKey=787541c7-0860-41ea-a21a-2... Here is where you can see all the public nodes that are going through the stream(so far it is just me): http://www.mindwallet.com/home/public http://www.mindwallet.com/home/public Let me know what you think!
- boyter 16y agoThe text implementation is quite nice. I wish I had seen it before I did this, https://github.com/boyter/BATF https://github.com/boyter/BATF One issue I had with it though is I am unable to cut/copy paste multiple rows inside it using standard keyboard shortcuts, but other then that very impressed. EDIT - For the cashflow, I dont suppose you can add the option to not use pie charts? I find them so deceptive when looking at figures.
- chime 16y agoFor multiple rows, press Control+Shift+C, V, X. Since I allowed for autosizing textareas which can store multi-line data, I didn't want to override the normal Control+C/V. shortcuts.
- boyter 16y agoNo dice, since I have Clip-X installed and bound to that shortcut. Glad to hear you have that functonality in there though. It would have been a dealbreaker for me otherwise. I will have a go at using it as a replacement for my BATF for a while and see how it goes. Thanks for releasing this!
- chime 16y agoI just realized you could do Control+Alt+Shift+C/V because of how I implemented the keyboard events. I know it's quite annoying to press 4 keys at once but at least it would work. I've used a text-file myself for years but finally made this last year because I wanted features like access from any PC, sharing, and collapsing that didn't get reset all the time.
- johnnyg 16y agoCtrl + Alt + Shift + X worked for me on a Macbook Pro/Snow Leopard/Chrome
- chime 16y agoI'm not a big fan of pie-charts myself but I think I got just lazy and made those. I'll add an option for regular bar charts.
- tomp 16y agoText is amazing. A very cool idea, useful, clean, efficient. I'd like to propose that you add another key to use for expanding sections, as ` is not readily available on some European keyboards (I have a Slovenian keyboard). Maybe Shift/Ctrl+Arrows, or try hooking some F* key that is not in use currently (e.g. F2).
- chime 16y agoI just added Control+/ as the alternative to the ` key. Hope that helps.
- tomp 16y agoFirst of all, thanks for the quick response. Unfortunately, it doesn't really help. I access '/' by pressing Shift+7. How about '+'? That's right next to Backspace and doesn't need any special key.
- chime 16y agoCtrl+ zooms in browsers so wouldn't work. How about Control+Shift+Space? I can add that as another alternative.
- amnigos 16y agoThat should be fine and will be very useful.
- greendestiny 16y agoBeen a fan of Text for a while now, although I'm not sure I prefer the new styling over the old bulletext one :)
- chime 16y agoI spent a lot of time making sure the new one is better than the old design. It's got more room, closely resembles an empty notepad/text-editor, and keeps the toolbar on-screen even when you scroll far down. I couldn't do that with the old one because of how the html/css was setup. I took my sweet time polishing the UI to be as clean and simple as possible.
- greendestiny 16y agoOn reflection I just think the toolbar is a bit ugly. And the old colour scheme was more interesting.
- Jcasc 16y agoThe cash flow app's Balance chart doesn't scale well, the numbers on the axis get cut off when adjusting for money in your account. Same for income vs expense, using the demo on Firefox for mac. Otherwise these are awesome, great job!
- chime 16y agoFixed in FF. Still working on a fix for IE.
- sushumna 16y agoHey chirag, congratulations. Great apps. EMail2voice is a great idea. ATB.
- blakeperdue 16y agoI agree, E2V is a great idea. If you can find a way to simplify the setup, I have about 6 friends who would want to use it. Could you pick the most popular email app (Gmail? Yahoo?) and find a way to simplify the setup for just that app? Or build a plugin or browser extension to make it super simply to setup? I'm thinking a little phone icon on each row in gmail, you click on it and a box pops up and says "Hey, want to get a call when you receive emails like this?" They click Yes and boom it's setup.
- toufique 16y agoLove the Text implementation. Great work!
- Breefield 16y agoThese are great! Specifically Cash Flow. I've often wished I had an app on had to see what my cash flow will look like in 20 days, or 30.
- chime 16y agoI love the CashFlow app myself as a user. I originally made a non-VBA-code Excel file ( http://dl.dropbox.com/u/111770/CashFlow.xls http://dl.dropbox.com/u/111770/CashFlow.xls ) to do the same thing and used it for a while before turning it into a web-app. The web-app is faster but the Excel was a lot more fun to make.
- josh33 16y agoMan, that excel sheet was so good I'm ashamed of mine. Great work all around. I'm loving Cash Flow so far. QuickenOnline used to have a similar feature, but this is way better. I use "You Need A Budget" to plan and budget, but Cash Flow is way better at forecasting.
- johnnyg 16y agoI poked around ZetaBee Text for the last 5 minutes and am getting excited. I liked the concept, but not the keyboard shortcut style of workflowy.com. This is way closer. The "How This Works" section is great. I got moving fast. One gripe (or perhaps an oversight). I can ctrl + select a lot of lines, but I can't delete them. I think the concept here is that I can just collapse things, which mostly I'd do, but there are times when only delete will do and I don't see a way to accomplish this task. Specifically, I renamed the first sheet "HowItWorks" in an attempt to keep the instructions in case I forget. I went to delete the two example sections below and could not.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- chime 16y agoYou can cut multiple lines using Control+Shift+X or press Control+Del multiple times. I'll add "delete multiple lines" to my todos.
- mberning 16y agoVery nice apps. I like the simplicity and focus. I can definitely see myself using these, especially the cash flow app.
- gm 16y agoExcellent. Interested in what you think is the next level for these apps. EDIT: I should have said "next step" instead of "next level"
- chime 16y agoIf there is enough interest in CashFlow, I will make it easy to run multiple what-if scenarios (premium/paid feature). I do it all the time myself but it takes a bit of manual labor. I think it would be cool if you could just drag-drop-slide numbers and see real-time charts. Having an optimistic, realistic, and conservative view would be good too. There's not much I think needs to be done for E2V. It's pretty simple and does what I need easily. It already supports multiple users/emails/phones under a single account. For Text, I want to improve sharing. Right now it's just a read-only share of a specific note + subnotes but maybe I can make multi-user editing (kinda like Etherpad). The history feature works well but I want to make it as easy as using undo. Maybe an option to have more than 10 notes. Right now you can drag the notes left-right to organize them but some people have asked for the ability to archive old notes. There is no 'check off' button or log of completed tasks either. I've never need to go back to check anything but some users have asked for it.
- dannyr 16y agoChime, Shameless plug: Check out Profile.io. We built this mainly for developers to show the apps/projects they are working on. Here's the invite link: http://profile.io/invite/HACKERNEWS http://profile.io/invite/HACKERNEWS
- guynamedloren 16y agoShamless rip of about.me, also.
- dannyr 16y agoOur pitch: About.me for developers.
- guynamedloren 16y agoThis saddens me. I understand the need for such a service, but refuse to take you seriously with such a blatant disregard for originality and uniqueness. Next time a website inspires you, please don't copy + paste.
- dannyr 16y agocopy & pasted what? can you point out any of our code from about.me?
- m0tive 16y agoI think you would have a better argument if the sites graphic design didn't appear to copy http://about.me http://about.me
- JonoW 16y agoYou're being unreasonable, they're not exactly the same thing. Most popular sites are derivatives of similar ideas.
- novum 16y ago
- joshu 16y agoReally great stuff. I don't suppose you are looking for a job?
- saturdayplace 16y agoChime, in case you're unaware, you definitely want to at least consider an employment offer from joshu (the creator of delicious).
- joshu 16y agoThank you for the endorsement.
- jhuckabee 16y agoThese are really great apps. I especially like Cashflow and Text. I'm not sure how many times I've recreated a similar spreadsheet that I was never quite satisfied with and never did the awesome that you've implemented in Cashflow. Great work and thanks for sharing.
- chime 16y agoIf you want a spreadsheet, here's the precursor to my CashFlow webapp: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/111770/CashFlow.xls http://dl.dropbox.com/u/111770/CashFlow.xls
- learner4life 16y agoI love CashFlow and Text. Many places pay bi-weekly, so you might want to add that to your frequency drop down list.
- chime 16y agoYou can make it 'week' and put 2 in the frequency. I have gas set as 3 weeks because that's usually how it ends up being for me.
- learner4life 16y agoI ended up doing that. It is just that its a commonly used frequency.
- josh33 16y agoYou won't want to use "bi-weekly" as it can mean two things: twice-a-week, or every-other week. I don't think you need anything like this since your frequency column makes it very flexible. The term that would be correct is "fort-nightly", although I wouldn't use that either.
- boxedin 16y agoWow I was just thinking I needed something similar to your text app earlier. That is perfect! Cashflow will be handy too! Thanks a lot. EDIT: Is there an option to clear a whole sheet? and in the cashflow, you only allow the american format of dates. Oh and with cashflow, how is someone meant to handle long term use? Update their own balance?
- chime 16y agoI will add options to clear/disable specific rows or entire sheet (with confirmation). I'll see if there is an easy way to switch the date formats at the client-side. You do have to update the balances manually but if you have something like Mint, that takes minutes. I update the balances any time I want to review my finances. It seems simpler than having users add their bank accounts etc. like Mint.
- boxedin 16y agoDefinitely better than adding a real bank account. I can't use Mint because it's not in my country. (I am in Ireland).
- zcksjdn 16y agoJust spent a couple minutes in CashFlow and I'm looking forward using it more. I set up an account with Mint a while ago hoping I could do something similar but this is just so much better for what I wanted to do.
- chime 16y agoI am a heavy Mint user myself. I track my past expenses using their tools. I use CashFlow to predict my future balances. Just remember to manually update you current balances (bank, credit card) on CashFlow any time you want to do any form of analysis. It takes a minute or two for me to update my balances (login to Mint, refresh, copy-paste balances).
- ilconsigliere 16y agoGreat stuff. How about using the pricing model of pinboard.in for each app? I'd sign up :)
- ses 16y agoThese are really nice and I like the style, I'm particularly impressed with the cash flow one. I would even say you're too harsh on yourself in thinking your apps are incomplete, compared to many other freely available web apps I'd say they're actually very well rounded.
- huhtenberg 16y agoText is incredible. It is simple, unobtrusive and everything just works the way one would expect it to. I know how hard it is to design something as clean, simple and functional as Text, so - Great job, Chirag. Thank you for sharing this, made my day.
- macmac 16y agoLooks great. I especially like Text. An export option would be great (maybe .org, .md and pdf).
- chime 16y agoI have export on my todo list. For now, try clicking History. You can copy-paste from that. You can also share a node + subnodes and copy-paste from that or print to PDF. The shared note page prints very cleanly.
- lamppost 16y agoFunny that no one has mentioned E2V. It's the only one that hit the 'I wanted to do that' criteria for me. I think the lesson is that you need to work hard to educate your user to get it to catch on. Think of specific killer use cases. I would recommend going to the nearest business school during interview season and posting a bunch of flyers that say something like "We'll call you when you get the email that's going to change your life". Maybe target med school applicants similarly, anyone who's checking their email every 5 minutes waiting for the big one. Don't target developers, they already know how to forward emails to text message. This is also the easiest to monetize without charging. If people give you 5 email addresses, the domains may well give you insight into what they care about most. Targeting advertising rocket fuel (applying to Goldman, are we?).
- chime 16y agoYou're absolutely right. Setting up email filters or even realizing why someone would need E2V is not easy to grasp for most typical end-users. I love coding and designing but sales & marketing is something I haven't spent much time on. ZetaBee isn't a startup for me at this point (http://ktype.net http://ktype.net is my full-time project) so I haven't even thought of how I'd monetize/market ZetaBee. Only reason I even added a PayPal purchase option to E2V is so I don't go broke when someone gets 10000 emails sent to their phone.
- codeslush 16y agoDang - you're an app churning machine! I just looked at your profile and checked out all your projects....WOW! Talk about some achievements. GREAT JOB with these apps! I especially like Text and CashFlow. Very, very usable.
- AdamGibbins 16y agoThese are really awesome, thanks for sharing. Expecially liking Cash Flow, though I have two feature requests: * I'd like to plan multiple scenarios at once, so the ability to save, create new and duplicate different cash flows would be useful. * I'd like the ability to move multiple rows at once quicker. * I'd like you to monetise this so I don't feel guilty requesting things, I'd happily pay an upfront fee (pinboard.in style?). Thanks!
- chime 16y agoAll the things you mentioned are in the pipeline if there is enough interest in this app (and judging from this thread, it looks like there is). Feel free to keep using the app. In time, I will add these as paid features. I want the multiple what-if scenario feature myself.
- AdamGibbins 16y agoThanks! Keep up the awesome work.
- jpastika 16y agoChime, I admire and thank you for letting the HN community take a look at your creations. As a developer, I know I am sometimes reluctant to let my peers see what I'm working on. I really like the simplicity of TEXT and can't wait to try out Email to Voice. I'm about to launch a public application that I have been working on for about a year and will set up a filter to have Email to Voice call me when someone signs up! Here's to hoping my phone rings a lot, and to your continued hacking and success.
- AdamGibbins 16y agoText request: Ability to cross items off, sometimes I want to mark things as done but not totally erase their history. This allows me to review my progress at the end of the week etc and its also fairly satisfying to see stuff that you've completed. Add this as an option if you're worried about feature bloat. Email To Voice request: Support for UK phone numbers, happy to pay extra for this.
- chime 16y agoText: I've wanted to add check/cross off feature since I built Text. The previous incarnation of Text ( http://untodos.com http://untodos.com ) had that as an important feature. The problem is how does one log nested completed tasks and show them to the user in a readable format. Say you have 3 nested task: Wedding > Arrange Flowers > Setup florist appointment and you check off the middle or the bottom one. What do I log/show you later when you want to review your checked lists? I thought about logging everything from a task up to the top most parent but that could get weird. E2V: I just have to dig into Twilio API and then figure out the pricing plan. I've added this to my todo list. Thanks!
- thekevan 16y agoVery nice! What did you use to build these?
- maguay 16y agoThanks chime7, I really like your Text app and will have to go give CashFlow a try! Great work!
- sushumna 16y agoWould like to hear from you how you could realize Zetabee alone through your blog chir.ag
- bk 16y agoText is really a great lightweight outliner implementation. Indenting works for multiple rows at once, but moving them up/down does not. This would be a key feature for reorganizing nested outline sections. Also, since I just used the demo, does sharing allow others to edit or only to view?
- chime 16y agoIndenting multiple rows by dragging gets complex and I want to make sure it is stable across the various browsers before I push that feature. For now, it's pretty easy to select rows and copy/cut paste them. I use that feature all the time (with keyboard shortcuts mostly). As of right now, sharing allows others to only view, not edit.
- racerrick 16y agoI really like these. Thank you for sharing.
- troels 16y agoText is impressive. That's exactly how I write freeform notes in my text editor. Not sure if I could get used to using a web app for this, but I might give it a try. I think perhaps the toolbars are a bit distracting - a more minimalistic design would be suitable for this kind of application.
- krmmalik 16y agoThank you for putting this together. Cashflow is brilliant. I've always been looking for cashflow functionality in online personal finance apps like Mint/LoveMoney/WeSabe etc, but this app does exactly what i need it to do. The best bit is, i always struggle to put my own spreadsheet together to workout the cashflow, so for people like me who need help with the underpinnings, this is a great solution. Thanks again
- JonoW 16y agoExcellent work Chime. Do you have any plans to try and generate income from your apps, or are they just a fun side project?
- chime 16y agoI might make premium paid features when I get some time. For now, they are just fun (and useful for me personally) side projects.
- chubs 16y agoGood on you for launching. Congratulations, i hope you make a nice bit of money for your efforts :)
- sangaya 16y agoThanks for sharing! The apps look great and work like I would expect them to. You've also reinforced the notion that "ideas are worthless, execution is everything". I have had a near mirror of your CashFlow screen on my home office whiteboard since November. I kept saying, "I'll work on that after this semester.." or "I'll focus on that after this major project wraps up at work.." now I find myself saying, "Guess I'll use CashFlow by chime!"
- chime 16y agoIf you had made yours before mine, I'd certainly be using your version. I only make something because nobody else has.
- tianyicui 16y agoJust tried ZetaBee Text, it's really great! Switched from WorkFlowy. Feedback: 1. Why you have to limit length of the title? 2. Please add line-based bold, italic and color support. When list gets long I really needed them!