4 ms·

Not sure if this is what you mean, but I 'switched' from an ML consultancy to entrepreneurship. I now build and market my own projects ([1], [2]) and try to gai

by pul 5y ago

Not sure if this is what you mean, but I 'switched' from an ML consultancy to entrepreneurship. I now build and market my own projects ([1], [2]) and try to gain enough ad revenue to replace my former salary. Started 1.5 months ago, and enjoying every minute of it! No longer occupying my mind with corporate power dynamics saves a lot of cognitive bandwidth, but to my surprise it has been replaced. I thought I'd feel more 'free', but instead I now feel self-imposed pressure to make this one shot count. I know my runway is limited, so every day that didn't tangibly contribute to bottom-line growth feels wasted. I can rationalize it by reminding myself that I can always get a job and try again later, and that I should be spending most of my time on mid to long-term goals that have delayed effects. But that hardly changes how I _feel_. All in all, I'm really glad I made the jump, and I'm still super excited about what I do now. [1] https://www.nslookup.io/ https://www.nslookup.io/ [2] https://www.whoismyisp.org/ https://www.whoismyisp.org/

jasfi 5y ago
I did something similar. Building is the easy part. Getting meaningful traction is difficult. My own projects: https://cxo.industries https://cxo.industries https://tradecast.one https://tradecast.one
- hwers 5y ago
  I like the "Copy successful traders if you don't know technical analysis." feature. I've always wanted that as an option for stuff like this.
  - jasfi 5y ago
    Glad you like it! It came about because the feedback I got was that not everyone knows or is good at technical analysis, or even wants to learn it.
- jasfi 5y ago
  I should mention I'm going to Open Source a lot of the dev tools I built, including a back-end SDK + Flutter renderer to make life easier building mostly CRUD apps in Flutter. I'm using Nim on the back-end, but a Python SDK is going to be added soon after the initial release. https://nexusdev.tools/ https://nexusdev.tools/
- lazyeye 5y ago
  My preferred tool for this (seems to cover pretty much everything):- https://viewdns.info https://viewdns.info
kentrado 5y ago
Are you actually making money with the web pages you provided? My understanding is that adsense no longer pays the way it did before.
- pul 5y ago
  Yes. I'm on Carbon ads for the first, and I've partnered with NordVPN and ipinfo.io for the second. ~400 USD/month at the moment for nslookup.io. Stats are open: plausible.io/nslookup.io The end game for that site is to partner with a hosting provider or CDN and sell ad space to them exclusively.
jw1224 5y ago
nslookup.io is great — bookmarked it, I’m sure I’ll be using it in future! Side note, curious how the domain name autocomplete works when searching? My domain wasn’t suggested, but all the other services I tried in my sector all came up. What’s the source for that data?
- xdfgh1112 5y ago
  The SSL CT logs are public domain. Zonefiles from major TLDs can be found if you pay enough.
- pul 5y ago
  It's a stale list (checked into git) of the top 1m sites according to alexa.com, back when it was still maintained. Will need to update it to https://tranco-list.eu/ https://tranco-list.eu/ some time.
meowface 5y ago
The first site is useful, but the second feels parasitic and slimy to me, sorry.
- pul 5y ago
  What would make it more useful, less parasitic and less slimy?
  - meowface 5y ago
    I'm really not trying to rag on anyone else's projects and detest it when other HN commenters do, but in this case the only honest answer I can think of would be "scrapping the site, domain, and concept and making something else instead". A slightly related concept I would find interesting would be a way of visualizing and summarizing ISP/AS information in general (without any expectation the user would be particularly interested in their own; though that could be displayed on the landing page, perhaps). For example, an alternative way of presenting what https://bgp.he.net https://bgp.he.net provides (example: https://bgp.he.net/AS33657#_peers https://bgp.he.net/AS33657#_peers, plus all the other tabs). Providing an easy, quick, simple way to see "what network providers are upstream of this ISP/AS?" could be a useful feature. Ideally without just being a proxy for bgp.he.net (unless the UI is totally unique and actually presents things in a fundamentally different way), and ideally without any VPN scarevertisements. Frankly, this is why I've yet to pursue solo entrepreneurship myself. Unless you get really lucky, it seems there's a constant trade-off between "parasitism/skeeviness" and "not being able to afford rent or food". I've got plenty of ideas, but, so far, all either wouldn't provide enough for me to sustain myself, or would be too shady for me to be comfortable with, despite being legal.
  - Gasp0de 5y ago
    All business models that promote VPNs feel parasitic to me. For example, there is this "unprotected" thing in red screaming DANGER to the unknowing visitor that feels exceptionally scammy. It says I am unprotected while I'm using a VPN to my server, Mullvad VPN or even Tor Browser. Why don't you say "You are not connected to NordVPN, the sponsor of this site"?
alexk307 5y ago
Does anyone actually use nslookup.io? Why wouldn't they just run `nslookup` and/or `dig` from their terminal?
- pul 5y ago
  About 7000 people per day [1]. Because they either - Don't know you can do it from a command line - Don't bother remembering the order of arguments - Want to see all record types in one go instead of repeating the command for every record type - Would like to have the output clearly formatted - Are currently on mobile - Would like to see additional ip info for A/AAAA records - Would like to check responses for multiple recursive resolvers without remembering all their IP's - Would like to test GEO DNS [1] https://plausible.io/nslookup.io https://plausible.io/nslookup.io
  - alexk307 5y ago
    That's awesome! Glad you found a niche
kirso 5y ago
Hey Ruurtjan! Funny just replied to you on Twitter yesterday :) I think any switch actually counts irregardless. I feel you on the uncertainty thing. Quite honestly don't think you ever can escape this feeling. What helps is sort of going backwards from your imagined lifestyle that you want to live and how much you need. Generally there is always a conflict of how much $ can I earn on the job and maximise my retirement account vs risking it with potential autonomy factor but less or no $. Think the best we can do is just try to accept that feeling and do the best to achieve the financial needs necessary to keep going.
- pul 5y ago
  > Think the best we can do is just try to accept that feeling and do the best to achieve the financial needs necessary to keep going. I think so too. Thanks :)

by pul 5y ago

jasfi 5y ago

I did something similar. Building is the easy part. Getting meaningful traction is difficult. My own projects: https://cxo.industries https://cxo.industries https://tradecast.one https://tradecast.one

hwers 5y ago
I like the "Copy successful traders if you don't know technical analysis." feature. I've always wanted that as an option for stuff like this.
- jasfi 5y ago
  Glad you like it! It came about because the feedback I got was that not everyone knows or is good at technical analysis, or even wants to learn it.
jasfi 5y ago
I should mention I'm going to Open Source a lot of the dev tools I built, including a back-end SDK + Flutter renderer to make life easier building mostly CRUD apps in Flutter. I'm using Nim on the back-end, but a Python SDK is going to be added soon after the initial release. https://nexusdev.tools/ https://nexusdev.tools/
lazyeye 5y ago
My preferred tool for this (seems to cover pretty much everything):- https://viewdns.info https://viewdns.info

kentrado 5y ago

Are you actually making money with the web pages you provided? My understanding is that adsense no longer pays the way it did before.

pul 5y ago
Yes. I'm on Carbon ads for the first, and I've partnered with NordVPN and ipinfo.io for the second. ~400 USD/month at the moment for nslookup.io. Stats are open: plausible.io/nslookup.io The end game for that site is to partner with a hosting provider or CDN and sell ad space to them exclusively.

jw1224 5y ago

nslookup.io is great — bookmarked it, I’m sure I’ll be using it in future! Side note, curious how the domain name autocomplete works when searching? My domain wasn’t suggested, but all the other services I tried in my sector all came up. What’s the source for that data?

xdfgh1112 5y ago
The SSL CT logs are public domain. Zonefiles from major TLDs can be found if you pay enough.
pul 5y ago
It's a stale list (checked into git) of the top 1m sites according to alexa.com, back when it was still maintained. Will need to update it to https://tranco-list.eu/ https://tranco-list.eu/ some time.

meowface 5y ago

The first site is useful, but the second feels parasitic and slimy to me, sorry.

pul 5y ago
What would make it more useful, less parasitic and less slimy?
- meowface 5y ago
  I'm really not trying to rag on anyone else's projects and detest it when other HN commenters do, but in this case the only honest answer I can think of would be "scrapping the site, domain, and concept and making something else instead". A slightly related concept I would find interesting would be a way of visualizing and summarizing ISP/AS information in general (without any expectation the user would be particularly interested in their own; though that could be displayed on the landing page, perhaps). For example, an alternative way of presenting what https://bgp.he.net https://bgp.he.net provides (example: https://bgp.he.net/AS33657#_peers https://bgp.he.net/AS33657#_peers, plus all the other tabs). Providing an easy, quick, simple way to see "what network providers are upstream of this ISP/AS?" could be a useful feature. Ideally without just being a proxy for bgp.he.net (unless the UI is totally unique and actually presents things in a fundamentally different way), and ideally without any VPN scarevertisements. Frankly, this is why I've yet to pursue solo entrepreneurship myself. Unless you get really lucky, it seems there's a constant trade-off between "parasitism/skeeviness" and "not being able to afford rent or food". I've got plenty of ideas, but, so far, all either wouldn't provide enough for me to sustain myself, or would be too shady for me to be comfortable with, despite being legal.
- Gasp0de 5y ago
  All business models that promote VPNs feel parasitic to me. For example, there is this "unprotected" thing in red screaming DANGER to the unknowing visitor that feels exceptionally scammy. It says I am unprotected while I'm using a VPN to my server, Mullvad VPN or even Tor Browser. Why don't you say "You are not connected to NordVPN, the sponsor of this site"?

alexk307 5y ago

Does anyone actually use nslookup.io? Why wouldn't they just run `nslookup` and/or `dig` from their terminal?

pul 5y ago
About 7000 people per day [1]. Because they either - Don't know you can do it from a command line - Don't bother remembering the order of arguments - Want to see all record types in one go instead of repeating the command for every record type - Would like to have the output clearly formatted - Are currently on mobile - Would like to see additional ip info for A/AAAA records - Would like to check responses for multiple recursive resolvers without remembering all their IP's - Would like to test GEO DNS [1] https://plausible.io/nslookup.io https://plausible.io/nslookup.io
- alexk307 5y ago
  That's awesome! Glad you found a niche

kirso 5y ago

Hey Ruurtjan! Funny just replied to you on Twitter yesterday :) I think any switch actually counts irregardless. I feel you on the uncertainty thing. Quite honestly don't think you ever can escape this feeling. What helps is sort of going backwards from your imagined lifestyle that you want to live and how much you need. Generally there is always a conflict of how much $ can I earn on the job and maximise my retirement account vs risking it with potential autonomy factor but less or no $. Think the best we can do is just try to accept that feeling and do the best to achieve the financial needs necessary to keep going.

pul 5y ago
> Think the best we can do is just try to accept that feeling and do the best to achieve the financial needs necessary to keep going. I think so too. Thanks :)