5 ms·

Ask HN: How's your quarantine side project going?

18 points by robmerki 6y ago

( An update to this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23170881 ) What have you been working on? How's it going?

dmurr91 6y ago
I’ve been working on building an affiliate marketing business. I always wanted to start it but I kept putting it off. With all the extra time I have, I finally got around to it.
- robmerki 6y ago
  Is this based on Amazon's affiliate scheme, or someone else? Got a link?
hotshothobo 6y ago
I have been slowly and steadily making progress for https://www.ncovindia.in/ https://www.ncovindia.in/ Its an Covid Dashboard for India. Recently I added district wise 3-weeks trends for all districts in India. This feature was a result of personal necessity of checking daily cases in my district. I plan on adding more features like 5-day moving averages and trends on testing stats. Would be happy to hear some feedback from HN community.
- robmerki 6y ago
  This is really slick. Your share toolbar on the left does block the content a little
- _fourzerofour 6y ago
  Consider adding a logarithmic y-axis to each graph, but otherwise, nice presentation! Edit: also, perhaps y-axes of the form "Thousands of X", then increments can show "200, 400, 600..." and so on. Simpler to digest when lots of zeroes come into play, at least for me.
robmerki 6y ago
I've been steadily writing my book about ADHD: https://adhdpro.xyz/ https://adhdpro.xyz/ I posted on my blog a few times about my struggles with ADHD, and the response was enormous. I had over a dozen DMs on LinkedIn asking me for advice. It turns out very few people talk about building ADHD specific productivity strategies. The market gap was there so I started writing. I wrote an average of 1,000 words every day in June. It's the first project I've ever created totally solo and I'm almost done.
- throwaway180118 6y ago
  Thanks for sharing your project, I've signed up for the sample chapters and I'm eager to see the finished book. Are Are you finding your own strategies helpful in getting this book finished?
  - robmerki 6y ago
    Yes they are, surprisingly so. The most surprising fact was interviewing many different people who all had similar ways of handling it. I haven't had a single stressful or anxious day since I started, yet I've almost finished writing the entire book and it only took me 30 days.
- gt2 6y ago
  The signup form shows error when using Privacy badger and U block origin, just heads up. Assume because it uses convert kit. Sounds interesting, signed up.
  - robmerki 6y ago
    Thanks for the heads up!
non-entity 6y ago
I had a few project ideas that either got scrapped or put on hold for various reasons. I'm flipping between constantly gaining and losing interest on the one I actually got any real work started on.
- robmerki 6y ago
  What's the project? Maybe some feedback can kickstart your interest.
  - non-entity 6y ago
    I don't have anything publicly on the web yet, mainly because I haven't gotten very far to share, but I started working on an X.25 stack for fun and for toying with some old modems I have sitting around. I've "re-architected" the projects a few times and looks like I might again and working in unfamiliar stacks, so I've been reading more docs than I have been writing code so far.
frompdx 6y ago
For about 2.5 months I found myself unemployed during this mess so I picked up Starting Forth and taught myself how to program the Arduino Uno with FlashForth. My achievements are reading a thermometer and controlling a distance sensor. Forth was worth learning and I think it is the perfect platform for this type of work so long as you are willing to figure things out on your own because there isn't much google can do to help when you get stuck. I have a job again but I am looking forward to more embedded programming with Forth.
austincheney 6y ago
I am writing a file sharing and text messaging application that works with full file system explorer GUI in the browser. HTTP has proven insufficient to work within the applications security model so now I will need to investigate using WebRTC. But before that I will be figuring out how to interact with a Windows like GUI in the browser via remote control to different machines without dependencies for test automation.
seanwilson 6y ago
I've been working on a single player word game for web and mobile. :) https://seanwilson.itch.io/wordoid https://seanwilson.itch.io/wordoid Top score I know of is around 2,000 points if anyone wants to try and beat that! I'm also working on an ebook version of my web best practices guide: http://www.checkbot.io/guide/ http://www.checkbot.io/guide/
- Vetre 6y ago
  loved it. played until about level 11 or 12 and it froze on my Asus Rog 2, but it was a blast reminds me of Wordament or even Highrise Heroes (Android/switch) if you added a few more modes or challenges in there, and made it a stand alone app. I could see myself playing this alot.
matt_the_bass 6y ago
My side project is usually making high end wordclocks[1]. But I’ve been using those wood working tools to make wooden stands to make sneeze shields out of plexiglass sheets[2]. This started by my neighbor (a dentist) asking if I could help him make some stands for his office. I’ve since sold over $1200 worth of the stands. I wouldn’t say this effort is sustainable in the long run, but it feels nice to be helping small business reopen. I had plans to try and start some marketing efforts for my clocks but I haven’t had the time (no pun intended) [1] www.finewordclocks.com [2] etsy.me/2D7lrMW

18 points by robmerki 6y ago

( An update to this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23170881 ) What have you been working on? How's it going?

dmurr91 6y ago

I’ve been working on building an affiliate marketing business. I always wanted to start it but I kept putting it off. With all the extra time I have, I finally got around to it.

robmerki 6y ago
Is this based on Amazon's affiliate scheme, or someone else? Got a link?

hotshothobo 6y ago

I have been slowly and steadily making progress for https://www.ncovindia.in/ https://www.ncovindia.in/ Its an Covid Dashboard for India. Recently I added district wise 3-weeks trends for all districts in India. This feature was a result of personal necessity of checking daily cases in my district. I plan on adding more features like 5-day moving averages and trends on testing stats. Would be happy to hear some feedback from HN community.

robmerki 6y ago
This is really slick. Your share toolbar on the left does block the content a little
_fourzerofour 6y ago
Consider adding a logarithmic y-axis to each graph, but otherwise, nice presentation! Edit: also, perhaps y-axes of the form "Thousands of X", then increments can show "200, 400, 600..." and so on. Simpler to digest when lots of zeroes come into play, at least for me.

robmerki 6y ago

I've been steadily writing my book about ADHD: https://adhdpro.xyz/ https://adhdpro.xyz/ I posted on my blog a few times about my struggles with ADHD, and the response was enormous. I had over a dozen DMs on LinkedIn asking me for advice. It turns out very few people talk about building ADHD specific productivity strategies. The market gap was there so I started writing. I wrote an average of 1,000 words every day in June. It's the first project I've ever created totally solo and I'm almost done.

throwaway180118 6y ago
Thanks for sharing your project, I've signed up for the sample chapters and I'm eager to see the finished book. Are Are you finding your own strategies helpful in getting this book finished?
- robmerki 6y ago
  Yes they are, surprisingly so. The most surprising fact was interviewing many different people who all had similar ways of handling it. I haven't had a single stressful or anxious day since I started, yet I've almost finished writing the entire book and it only took me 30 days.
gt2 6y ago
The signup form shows error when using Privacy badger and U block origin, just heads up. Assume because it uses convert kit. Sounds interesting, signed up.
- robmerki 6y ago
  Thanks for the heads up!

non-entity 6y ago

I had a few project ideas that either got scrapped or put on hold for various reasons. I'm flipping between constantly gaining and losing interest on the one I actually got any real work started on.

robmerki 6y ago
What's the project? Maybe some feedback can kickstart your interest.
- non-entity 6y ago
  I don't have anything publicly on the web yet, mainly because I haven't gotten very far to share, but I started working on an X.25 stack for fun and for toying with some old modems I have sitting around. I've "re-architected" the projects a few times and looks like I might again and working in unfamiliar stacks, so I've been reading more docs than I have been writing code so far.

frompdx 6y ago

For about 2.5 months I found myself unemployed during this mess so I picked up Starting Forth and taught myself how to program the Arduino Uno with FlashForth. My achievements are reading a thermometer and controlling a distance sensor. Forth was worth learning and I think it is the perfect platform for this type of work so long as you are willing to figure things out on your own because there isn't much google can do to help when you get stuck. I have a job again but I am looking forward to more embedded programming with Forth.

austincheney 6y ago

I am writing a file sharing and text messaging application that works with full file system explorer GUI in the browser. HTTP has proven insufficient to work within the applications security model so now I will need to investigate using WebRTC. But before that I will be figuring out how to interact with a Windows like GUI in the browser via remote control to different machines without dependencies for test automation.

seanwilson 6y ago

I've been working on a single player word game for web and mobile. :) https://seanwilson.itch.io/wordoid https://seanwilson.itch.io/wordoid Top score I know of is around 2,000 points if anyone wants to try and beat that! I'm also working on an ebook version of my web best practices guide: http://www.checkbot.io/guide/ http://www.checkbot.io/guide/

Vetre 6y ago
loved it. played until about level 11 or 12 and it froze on my Asus Rog 2, but it was a blast reminds me of Wordament or even Highrise Heroes (Android/switch) if you added a few more modes or challenges in there, and made it a stand alone app. I could see myself playing this alot.

matt_the_bass 6y ago

My side project is usually making high end wordclocks[1]. But I’ve been using those wood working tools to make wooden stands to make sneeze shields out of plexiglass sheets[2]. This started by my neighbor (a dentist) asking if I could help him make some stands for his office. I’ve since sold over $1200 worth of the stands. I wouldn’t say this effort is sustainable in the long run, but it feels nice to be helping small business reopen. I had plans to try and start some marketing efforts for my clocks but I haven’t had the time (no pun intended) [1] www.finewordclocks.com [2] etsy.me/2D7lrMW