HN Explorer

Ask HN: What niche task/tool websites have you built?

35 points by xk3 ↗ HN
For example, I made a website which helps to find good cities for visa-free international meetings by estimating the cost of many people with different passports traveling from different places.

I will not link to it here suffice to say that it only got 1 HN vote likely because it is not useful for 99% of people.

What niche task-oriented / decision making websites have you built to completion? Especially, if you shared it previously but it didn't do well.

66 comments

[ 3.9 ms ] story [ 166 ms ] thread
paeselhz
Recently I've built a tool to explore Inflation data in Canada ( https://maplecpi.ca/ ). Certainly not interesting to everyone, but still gave me some insights on the current situation of the economy.
xk3
Yes! This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. I have absolutely no use for this (but I'm sure there are a few people out in the world who would love this) and I thank you for posting
mtmail
In my industry there's no standard if a position should be latitude,longitude or vice versa. Every tool wants them different, it's easy to have them mixed.

https://flipcoords.com/

xk3
I also do a lot of GIS stuff and I might actually use this in the future.

I agree it is pretty niche. It might be nice to support non-WGS84 coordinates

mtmail
You mean DMS (degrees, minutes, seconds) as input?
xk3
sure, or meters. These are common projections:

- EPSG:3857 Web Mercator

- EPSG:6933 https://nsidc.org/data/user-resources/help-center/guide-ease...

- UTM

You could just support Web Mercator, if normal or swapped are not valid coordinates, assume Web Mercator and check if they are valid coordinates. If they are swapped it will still be in the general area even if the projection is not exactly matching

mtmail
Good and useful idea, I added DMS input now.
mdwalters
I was inspired by GitHub Projects' new table layout to make it into a really simple to-do list website. I wouldn't say this is complete, but it does it's job.

https://tables.pages.dev/

xk3
not really niche yet but good starting point to branch off to niche tools!

You should definitely consider adding save to / load from localStorage, IndexedDB, or URL.

Nice thing about URL is you can send pages to other people like this:

https://unli.xyz/tabsender/?links=%22open%20a%20bank%20accou...

Or use LZString https://github.com/pieroxy/lz-string like this:

https://unli.xyz/html/edit.html?t=%22DwBwfALghgTgXlAdsA9OYAz...

An accidental page refresh shouldn't eliminate all your TODOs :/

mdwalters
True. I was thinking of picking this project back up, and this would be a good addition. I think using LZString would be a good idea, as it could be able to share tables with others.
j-rom
I build a minimal site that shows the current time in UTC. The goal was to create an effect like a "wall of clocks" that you see on TV and in movies.

https://currenttimeutc.com/

I also made a site that lets you schedule a Google Calendar meeting in 1-click:

https://carvemeetings.com/

a_bored_husky
Dealing with the steep costs of internet services in my country and being an avid podcast listener myself, me and a couple of friends came up with a solution. We developed a website that works as a mirror for users' selected podcast feeds and converts the episodes into opus format, slashing the mobile data consumption that's a real concern for internet access here: https://easypodcasts.live

It's FOSS and free as in beer.

dendrite9
Wow I like this idea at least for many conversation based podcasts. I try to download mine at home but data isn't as expensive for the times I don't. Still there are reasons to use this.

I need to look into how the mirroring works, for some time I have wanted a way to subscribe to a podcast with a timeshifted start. Say from the beginning up to the date I start, or a range between 2 dates. For podcasts that have existed for a long time I find it hard to work through the back catalog in any consistent way.

a_bored_husky
The mirroring part is for the rss feed specifically. When a podcast is added to the website a feed is generated with the same data as the original feed but only including the processed episodes and the media links pointing to our files. Then you subscribe to that feed instead of the original using your favorite podcasts app.

We have some "hidden" features like subscribing to a tag or merging many podcasts in one feed, but nothing time related.

xk3
yt-dlp works with many but not all podcast websites. You could download everything with metadata and mtime and then sort by earliest to most recent in a file browser.

I wrote a tool that might help with this if you don't want to download the files immediately but it definitely isn't required if you just download everything and use yt-dlp's download-archive.

    pip install xklb
    lb tubeadd podcasts.db 'http://www.hellointernet.fm/podcast?format=rss'
    lb listen podcast.db  # it will keep track of what you played and prioritize playing things that haven't been played before
And later do tubeupdate to check for new episodes:

    lb tubeupdate podcasts.db
If the website extractor provides metadata about file creation (eg. YouTube extractor) then you could use this to play the oldest videos first:

    lb listen podcast.db -u time_modified
If you want to download later you could do this:

    lb dl podcast.db --audio  # with the above example it saves to the folder "Generic" in the current working directory since it uses the yt-dlp generic extractor
https://github.com/chapmanjacobd/library
Syntaf
https://wetrockpolice.com/redrock

Rock climbing is really popular here Las Vegas, but due to the sandstone being brittle it's both dangerous and "bad ethics" to climb after rain and risk breaking popular climbing routes. I wrote a tool that checks precipitation information from the rain gauge at the park's visitor center and displays it in an easy-to-understand manner.

Nowadays the site supports a couple other rain-sensitive areas, but Red Rock is primary the reason people visit this site.

xk3
I love this! Most important information at the top and more detailed information when scrolling down. Perfect :)
hbcondo714
https://github.com/hbcondo/revenut-app

I built this web + mobile app (PWA) written in React Native + TypeScript that does simple revenue forecasting for a SaaS that uses Stripe.

Stripe's mobile app and others kinda do this already but some of their numbers can be inaccurate (as detailed in the repo's readme) so that made me open-source + solve an issue my own SaaS[1] has with Stripe.

As mentioned in the challenge section, getting data from Stripe is slow so I've been reluctant to put this app in front of others even though it is fully functional.

I actually shared this on a similar HN thread not too long ago[2]

[1] https://Last10K.com

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37156101

xk3
Interesting! Great submission.

> I've been reluctant to put this app in front of others even though it is fully functional

I have a few projects like that. I've built something that works for me but I don't really want to bare the maintenance costs so I don't tell anyone about it

JohnMunsch
https://paperquik.com

I still take notes on paper sometimes and most "paper" sites are just a bunch of pre-created PDF files. Mine creates a SVG on the fly and then can print it out from the page.

While I really loved creating it and still use it myself, I wish printer support in the browsers was better. I don't have to deal with garbage like IE anymore, but nobody gives me a chance to remove automatic margins and stuff that gets printed in those margins. I can tell the user to do it manually, but much better would be a chance to prompt the user and offer to remove all of that if they OK it.

nicbou
Did you also deal with the Safari margin issues? I can't make a proper DIN 5008 template because of it.
JohnMunsch
In the Mac printer settings under Safari the user can uncheck "Print headers and footers" manually and that's almost sufficient for me.

For reasons I've struggled with debugging, it wants to print a second blank page after the first one. As long as the user skips the second sheet everything looks OK for Safari for my app.

Brajeshwar
Wow! This is just bl**dy brilliant. I needed this. I love scribbling and think by writing a lot. I even made an Affinity Publisher template but I knew that was using a sledgehammer to kill a fly.

Is this source open? Can I tinker with it?

For those looking for well-done printables, especially with web/app development/design, you should check out https://www.sketchize.com

JohnMunsch
Of course it is my friend, of course it is :)

https://github.com/JohnMunsch/PaperQuik.com

Note: It should be very easy to work on if you know JS. It's a handful of very simple Web Components and the SVG paper generation code. I did my best to have nice clean code for all of it.

xk3
SVG is super fun to tinker with. Great site!
jorl17
https://www.open-elevation.com/

I know it always feels like it is "abandoned", but it isn't (it's serving millions of requests every day, especially for major iOS and Android apps!). The truth is I rarely have the time to improve upon it, especially because I've been (deep) in the red for so long it kinda affects my RoI to work on it.

Nonetheless, a couple of months go I completely rebuilt the backend and managed to triple the load we can handle. Still, we're constantly overloaded and I can't upgrade the machine due to the aforementioned lack of funds.

However, I am hoping to revamp the service over the next months, keeping it free, updating the docker image to a much more recent one, closing up PRs and perhaps finding ways to monetize it (again, while never making the free offer worse -- I hope to make it better, instead)

(I've been saying this for years but this time I think the right conditions are there)

tejado
Please describe what your service is for. I had to click on the Google Elevation API on your „What is Open Elevation“ page to finally understand what your service is for.
badcc
https://groupreceipt.com

Solves problem of being out at a group dinner and figuring out how much you owe the one person who inevitably put their card down. Take a photo of your receipt, it digitizes it in seconds, and gives a link to text to your friends/acquaintances. They open, click what they ordered, it proportionally adds tax and tip. No APP required, nor an account. That would be friction.

nicbou
This is brilliant. The scanning part solves the biggest pain point of expense sharing apps
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rrmdp
https://jobboardsearch.com/

A curated list of job boards (400+)

Helps:

- Job board founders: to promote and get traffic (5.4k Newsletter members, 5.2k Telegram members, 4.1k Subreddit members)

- Job seekers: to find jobs thanks to job posts from 50+ feeds

xk3
Thank you for sharing this. I was made redundant two days ago so this will be useful for me in the coming weeks.
skeoh
https://wake.lol/

Uses the screen wake lock API if available (or falls back to a hidden video file if unavailable) to keep your screen awake. It's cross platform, zero-install tool with offline support which I use to keep my work laptop awake all day.

ian0
https://www.sheetmonitor.com/

Tracks historical changes on google sheets. A lot of small businesses use sheets as a DB, editing/adding/removing rows & cells in realtime (eg orders, customers, tickets etc). The tool records change, like how average order value or backlog size is trending.

tyroh
This is great! I actually made another sheet in the same file to track historical changes in one of the values by manually checking based on Google's own version history. Of course, I would probably use this but the price tag isn't a match to how I'm going to use it (just for personal expenses)
gravitronic
https://synthmodes.com

Cheat sheets for multi-mode eurorack synthesizer modules. Before I made this the standard was to have a binder you flip through when going deep on a module

qup
I built a website to republish arrests/mugshots for my county. It's the best option for our area, and people actually use it.

The county's option is really bad and doesn't show any old records, just a live "roster" at the jail.

I'm not going to link it because I like to pretend I have some pseudo-anonymity here and it would pinpoint me.

The stack is python workers/scrapers, postgres, and a very basic PHP template. Two views.

In the past I built a lot of small poker tools, like a HUSNG push/fold calculator and a nash equilibrium calculator, that I published on free Heroku dynos, but I was pretty much the only user.

nicbou
What is the benefit of that?
codelikeawolf
https://transfermyti.me/

Tool to transfer data from Clockify to Toggl (and vice versa). It also provides the ability to bulk delete data from either service. For some reason, I have a weird fixation on time tracking tools. People have reached out to tell me how much they appreciate it, so I'm happy to keep it running.

CharlieDigital
https://turas.app

My wife and I were planning a trip over the holidays and it was getting out of hand on Google Docs.

Ended up building a small tool over 3 days (v1) and then sharing it to Reddit on day 7. Got a bit of traction and started working on it full time over the summer, but I don't think I can figure out a business model.

So enjoy an ad-free, complelety free collaborative trip planning and travel blogging tool for obsessive planners!

DoreenMichele
I don't know if you have seen this, but perhaps not as useless as you think:

Conferences are inadvertently excluding many attendees from foreign countries

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37206052

This seems to be your Show HN from 3 or 4 months ago. Seems to not have the best title, which may be a factor in its lack of attention.

Show HN: Plan international rendezvous with different passport holders

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35911110

xk3
Well if you want it, it will always be available right here:

https://unli.xyz/city/honeymoon/

The passport compatibility information is automatically refreshed on a daily basis.

There are some UI quirks which take a minute or two to figure out and I'm not going to change it. The search box is somewhat unconventional because making a list of tens of thousands of cities is not performant or easily navigable so you have to search and then filter the results.

nicbou
Where do you get the data from? This incredibly useful!
xk3
City names are from Natural Earth: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vect...

Passport data largely from https://www.passportindex.org with fallback to Wikipedia scraper

Monetary per diem estimates come from a multitude of sources and then blended together into a interpolated raster which the backend uses to query so that there are no empty spots for cities with no data.

Transit connection estimates are based on GTFS and airline sources

I also expose some of this data in my other tools:

- Reverse flight search https://unli.xyz/flights/

- Gap year planner https://unli.xyz/city/calc/

nicbou
I was especially interested in the passport requirements. It would be a nice addition to my website (see my comment above), instead of linking to BAMF's slightly confusing page. A simple dropdown with crude geolocation guessing would be wonderful.

Your website is a really good idea. I always refer to Wikipedia to know the entry requirements for Canadians, because embassy websites do a terrible job of sharing the most basic information.

I always wanted to build a technical travel atlas that would give basic information like power socket type, average weather, driving requirements etc. It would be a lot better than relying on a bunch of wordy travel blogs. If the APIs are there, it would be very doable.

nicbou
I create little tools to help with German bureaucracy. It's a nice break from writing content, and scratches my programming itch.

I built a bot to help you find a citizens office appointment, a few tax calculators, and a letter generator for specific bureaucratic tasks.

https://allaboutberlin.com/tools

https://allaboutberlin.com/docs/resignation-letter

These tools are embedded in the content wherever relevant. They remove the tedium and uncertainty from some tasks.

I'm currently working on a form filler for two of my most downloaded forms. In the future, I'd like to "close the loop" by faxing the forms through an API and catching the response through a mail scanning service. Instead of mailing printed forms, you could fill a form online and get your response by email later, in plain English.

If the government won't go digital, I will do it for them.

xk3
> If the government won't go digital, I will do it for them.

You are a kind human being. Your passion is overwhelming and I wish you great success. Time to abolish the tyranny of paperwork.

nicbou
The important half of this equation is that the website pays enough to let me take my hands off the wheel and work on fun things. This is something I'm immensely grateful for. Few people get to work on things without thinking about how they'll make money from it. Just imagine what we'd build if there were more.
Brajeshwar
Once upon a time, I clean up a table that my team refer to for HTML entities used in HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It became surprisingly popular and I haven't touched it in years, except for moving it to my family's Github account.

https://oinam.github.io/entities/

There are a few others, such as a tiny community informational site. People have made mobile friendly versions out of the website that I made, and the like. I gave that away, including the domain and the whole thing is now owned by that community.

xk3
This is nice! I've never heard of a family GitHub account before. Amazing haha!