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Ask HN: What projects are you working on now?

809 points by sakopov ↗ HN
With the quarantine being placed in effect in a lot of cities across the world, we all likely have a little bit more time to focus on personal projects or learning something new from the comfort of our homes. What are you guys up to these days?

1,269 comments

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brettkromkamp
Working on https://contextualise.dev/. Contextualise is a simple and flexible tool particularly suited for organising information-heavy projects and activities consisting of unstructured and widely diverse data and information resources.
codingdave
I'm putting even more hours into my day job. I build software for small government entities, and their transition to remote governance means we're picking up the pace and pivoting to features that will help them continue to govern our cities and schools during this crisis.
devgoth
Very curious but what kind of technologies do you use in the govt tech space?
asar
I wanted to explore game development in the browser for a long time and I got no excuses now :)

Currently looking at matter.js which was very easy to learn so far.

avdlinde
What made you chose matter over others, say phaser? I'm building a p2p thing and want to build some showcase simple apps on it
asar
The way I understand you could use phaser and matter.js together, matter being the physics engine for phaser. Out of the box matter.js already has a renderer so I simply didn't want to learn 2 frameworks at the same time. Once I reach a point where matter is not enough I'll consider a bigger more feature rich framework like phaser or pixi.
cris-ward
I've been using matter.js to help encourage my kids to learn to program in light of the recent school closure here in the UK.

Excellent resource that gives you interesting instant feedback. Reminds me of learning Basic in the 80's.

nprateem
Fitness. The prospect of spending months at home with all the gyms closed has made me think now's the time to actually take fitness seriously and train hard at home with bodyweight exercises and calisthenics. Also writing songs too.
taborj
One of my many projects is taking the motor from an old battery-powered mower a neighbor gave away using it as a generator and hooking it to the exercise bike and some batteries (actually the batteries from the mower, since they turned out to be fine). Want to watch TV, play a game, etc? Better get pedaling. :)
hashamali
Any references you would recommend?
zebnyc
These are my favorite channels on youtube

FitnessFaq (very good form and structure) Calisthenicmovement (same as above. Only downside is that their 'beginner` routines are more like intermediate)

If you are looking to mobility I would recommend Tom Merric

tillcarlos
There’s a video from athlean x “the perfect home workout” [0], which I tried a couple of times now. I didn’t expect me to be that sore even after months of regular gym.

[0](https://youtu.be/vc1E5CfRfos)

nprateem
That's been slated on Reddit [1] (for whatever that's worth). From my research on strength training, for muscle gain you need to be doing 6-12 reps for a muscle group then letting it rest before doing another few sets. The Athleanx workout seems more like circuit training. I'd imagine it's better for cardio (but I'm certainly no expert).

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/comments/flce7e/r...

nprateem
I've built a program based on:

* The Reddit bodyweight fitness Recommended Routine (RR) [1]

* Minus the Gym [2]

* Tao Physique [3]

They're all quite similar (which is good). Watching the second made me replace the RR's pulling progression with exercises using a dip station (cost £35 on Amazon), and the third shows a progression for handstand pressups and glutes.

Also, I switched the order of the RR exercises to be more like supersets based on the advice of the second link, so instead of doing pairs of exercises with rests in between each, I now do 8 types of exercise with a rest at the end before doing another 3 sets (so 4 sets in total). That seems a better use of time. This is the order of progressions I'll try in my next workout:

1. Press ups

2. Squats

3. Rows

4. Core

5. Dips

6. Glutes

7. Handstand pressups

8. Pull ups

Anyway the Reddit crowd know way more than I do so I'd definitely check that out.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay15dc2cvm0

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ4GKdK_Xps

chris_st
Wound up running across (har) the FitOn[0] app/website, which is a fitness site with a lot of good videos. They're free to watch, paying for "premium" gets you better music and diet plans.

Not affiliated with them, just very happy with their videos.

[0] https://fitonapp.com

akavel
I plan to start (again) doing the Reddit bodyweighting recommended routine:

https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...

nprateem
That's what I've started doing with a few little changes. It's a killer but I'm hoping it'll pay off. It seems to hit the right spots. I've also found the Minus The Gym guy on Youtube useful - I got a dip station a few days ago based on his video showing 15 exercises you can use it for [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8jXc1zaLuQ

uhoh-itsmaciek
I play bluegrass mandolin and I'm working on https://fretboard.cool to better understand scale and chords patterns across the neck. Guitar and ukulele are also supported. Very few chord and scale types are supported right now, but I plan to add more when I figure out how to integrate them without complicating the interface too much.
4lejandrito
I started something very similar a few years ago. The chord generator is a bit buggy though...

https://guitar.tardin.com

uhoh-itsmaciek
Nice! I was shooting for something that works better on a phone, but I really like how you tie chords to the scale. I'd like to do something like that, too, but in bluegrass, out-of-key chords like II and bVII are really important, too, and not sure how to make that work.

I also decided to show all the chord notes across the fretboard, rather than specific playable chord shapes. Both approaches are useful for different goals, but I wanted something that's more about leaning the fretboard than individual chords.

blakesmith
I play mandolin, but come from playing the cello: so chords are less familiar to me than scale based melodies. This looks really useful, thanks for sharing!
charliepark
This is great! Music theory is something I’ve wanted to learn, but have had a hard time finding the time/ resources that work with my brain. And I’ve been working on guitar, ukulele, and mandolin over this time of housebound-ness. I’ve learned a ton in just the last ten minutes playing with this. Like, honestly, barre chords have never made sense to me, and they just clicked with this. Still lots of practicing to do on my end, but this is great.

So so cool. Thank you for building this!

andawg
This is awesome! I play dobro, checking out the open D / open G guitar section. G6 / A6 / D6 tuning would be nice to have as well.

I am planning on learning pedal steel and also play 8 string dobro. I think this would be a huge asset for doing that. How hard is it to add a new "neck" and generate scales on it? I assume given a string tuning you just walk up the neck creating the next note for the scale as you go, right?

I also write software during the day, so let me know if I can help out :D

Also, the open G is not as I would expect, but I think the DGDGBD tuning is what people expect on guitar. Dobro uses GBDGBD tuning for open G, DADF#AD open D, 8 string dobro is GBDEGBDE. Would love to see those as well! Sorting out scales on an 8-string dobro is a brain melter, even worse for a pedal steel...

uhoh-itsmaciek
Thanks! I'll look up those other guitar tunings and add them. It's pretty trivial to add new ones--like you guessed, I walk up each string and find the notes of the scale or chord. I forgot to mention this in the original post, but the project is actually open-source [1] (it's on the about page but probably should have noted it). Feel free to submit pull requests or file issues. The code is pretty much create-react-app + typescript.

>Also, the open G is not as I would expect, but I think the DGDGBD tuning is what people expect on guitar.

You mean it's not what you'd expect for dobro, right? I haven't really played guitar in years, but I think that's right for guitar. I'll add a dobro section now, I just need to find the actual octaves for the notes in the tunings you list. Adding new tunings is just a simple-change [2] (though I may need to adjust mobile layout for more than six strings). I can add pedal steel, too. I wanted to add banjo, as well, but need to figure out that fifth string.

[1]: https://github.com/uhoh-itsmaciek/fretboard.cool [2]: https://github.com/uhoh-itsmaciek/fretboard.cool/blob/master...

andawg
Yeah, I just meant "not what I expect" because I play primarily dobro now which uses GBDGBD. The tuning on the website is the correct open G tuning for guitar.

Awesome, i'll check out the github repo and add a PR if I think of something to add! Thanks for adding those! I'll keep an eye on the site.

For dobro open G, an octave is four strings up or down. IE, if i'm play an A on the 1st (highest tuned) string at the 7th fret, another A can be found at the 7th fret of the 4th string.

Between strings, the steps between the strings varies so it's harder to have a single rule there.

uhoh-itsmaciek
Cool, just added six-string dobro open D and open G (right now calling it "standard" because that's most common in bluegrass and I seem to have a bug that every instrument right now needs a tuning called "standard" but can't find it).
andawg
Just checked back and see it on the site, awesome! Can't wait to mess around with some open D tonight
dpcan
I just completed an online adventure game engine that's a little different than what most people are used to. It's more like playing a live escape room than an old point and click game.

I made it so I can create a website of online adventures for people to play from their phone, tablet, or computer. I used to run an escape room business and I'm in the process of converting my closed rooms into online games. I'll be mixing up stories, puzzles, and answers a bit so they don't seem familiar to past players tho.

brlewis
Is it close to where you can supply a link?
dpcan
Thanks for asking, but not really. I have the back-end system done, so now the real work begins, creating the games from the escape room documents I have. I have a tutorial game done, but really want a playable game available before I launch.
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crorella
Auto tuning of table’s structure (partition, bucketing) based on access patterns
awscherb
Building a mobile analytics platform for tracking daily / monthly active / new users, etc. similar to Fabric (thankfully they extended the shutdown). Not a big fan of the Firebase console.
brlewis
I'm spending some more time on https://en.howtruthful.com/ which is for creating trees of arguments and evidence. I've also been thinking about using deno for multiplayer text adventures.
makeee
Been working on https://divjoy.com, a React codebase generator. Wrapping up database integration (can choose between Firestore or Mongo).
finaliteration
My current personal projects/areas of focus:

- Writing a lot of music, both for practice and for an indie rhythm game some friends and I are developing.

- Spending a lot of time with my kid now that she’s home from school and I’m working from home without my commute sucking up time. We’ve been playing games together, building with LEGO, and just enjoying some carefree kid time.

- Cooking all meals at home. My spouse and I are both decent cooks but this is a good chance to get more practice in and try some new recipes.

- “Socializing” with friends online via Slack and online games.

vially
I'm currently working on a Wayland Flutter embedder for Linux (the existing GLFW embedder is using X11 so desktop Flutter apps are running through XWayland in Wayland environments).
DLarsen
I'm working on https://spendlight.com a SMS-powered spending journal.

With all the uncertainty and risk to our personal finances, it seems fitting to work on a project that will (worst case) help me buckle down and improve my spending habits.

timwis
hah, cool to see this idea. I built something similar in 2010 to track my debit card purchases because I always pressed the 'credit' button (in the US) and the transactions didn't appear on my balance sheet for a couple days. So I sent a text just like your site describes and kept a ledger. Nothing like the tags or trends in yours though. Cool idea! The Monzo app in the UK has some really inspiring ideas.
bbernhard90
For me it's mostly fitness (as all the gyms are now closed in Austria, I've to become creative) and working on ImageMonkey - a public open source image dataset. (https://imagemonkey.io)
cygned
Reflecting on all my Go project I am trying to come up with a scalable and easy to maintain application structure that is not too much OOP (no hexagonal stuff) and easy to grasp. Lots of drawing and thinking ten steps ahead.
xrd
Learning Svelte and using it to build a site that allows you to read public domain works, take notes on the words by selecting them, and then automatically make flashcards (Leitner method) to help you remember them.

For example, read the classics in Japanese, take notes on the words you don't know, get them automatically translated, and then automatically generate flashcards to help you remember those words.

I've always wanted to read Kokoro from Natsume Soseki (perhaps the greatest Japanese novelist ever) in the original and this is helping me to get past the words I don't know.

If anyone is interested in playing with it I would love a to share: xrdawson@gmail.com.

eivarv
An app that persists your OS state as a "context" - saving and loading your open applications, their windows, tabs, open files/documents and so on.

Started because of frequent multitasking heavy work with limited resources, and I've found it to facilitate human context switching.

Open Beta (macOS) as soon as I finish license verification and delta updates.

https://cleave.app

Also working through Penetration Testing with Kali Linux (PWK) course toward the Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) certification, and trying to write and record more music, and work out more at home.

unwoundmouse
This is a super cool idea. I find that too often I have a bajillion applications open and get lost. Currently I try and partition by desktop but everything blends together after a while.

Will this be free / will there be an unlimited length demo version?

eivarv
Thanks!

There will likely be a one-time license fee (per major version). I'm implementing a trial period, but it will not be unlimited.

mulholio
Learning haskell, getting some writing done, trying out some hacking/info security.
holistio
I’m working on an IT job platform which aims to improve on a range of aspects that generally suck about recruiting and getting hired.

We focus on actual understanding and clear communication of tech expectations, personality and team fit, culture and meaningful benefits.

There’s too much bullshit going on.

I’m currently in the phase of doing demos for customers, it will soon be available at https://moonka.space.

Meanwhile, whether you’re a developer looking for a job in the midst of this turmoil or an entrepreneur looking for people, join us on Telegram, https://t.me/moonkaspace

ggerganov
Writing console applications with cool text UIs : https://asciinema.org/a/VUKWZM70PxRCHueyPFXy9smU8
ibizaman
I love everything about this. Now TBH I don’t think I’ll ever use it as I’m heading towards web UIs so my wife can use washy I’m creating. But it’s super cool!
tekknolagi
Love this. Please continue. I've always wanted a little TUI dashboard with my latest emails, instant messages, maybe some stocks, etc