Show HN: Timelinize – Privately organize your own data from everywhere, locally (timelinize.com)

This is an amazing idea but do I have to run Google takeout every time I want to update the data[0]? Unfortunately that's such a a cumbersome process that I don't think I'd use this. But if my timeline could update in near real time this would be a killer app

[0]: https://timelinize.com/docs/data-sources/google-photos

Interesting; how easy is it to backup it up somewhere - yes, on a cloud for example - and then restore/sync it on another machine? Is the data format portable and easy to move like this?

I had this same idea for a long time. Even took github.com/center for it (I've since changed how it's being used). Cool to see someone actually achieve it, well done.

I've always wanted this but not enough to build it. I wonder if I can integrate this with my Monica instance. Thank you! I'm going to try it.

Oh yeah, mholt is notable for having created Caddy (the webserver). My interest in Timelineize just went up.

Cool idea. Thanks for sharing. I was really annoyed by the way Google nerfed the maps timeline stuff last year. Obviously this project is way more ambitious than that, but just goes to show you how little Google cares about the longevity of your data.

Very cool! I have a sketchy pipeline for exporting my data from Gmaps to my personal site and always thought about building something like this.

This could be a really interesting as a digital forensics thing.

Beautiful app. Surprised to see JQuery for your frontend; brings back good old memories.

Sounds really cool. I’ve been wanting something like this. Kudos for building it!

I don’t see the link to the rep on on first glance of the linked site, so linking it here: https://github.com/timelinize/timelinize

I really like the local storage of this. Files and folders are the best!

(When noodling on this, I’ve also been wondering about putting metadata for files in sidecar files next to the files they describe, rather than a centralized SQLite database. Did you experiment with anything like that by any chance?)

This is great. I want this but for much more. I want it to also be a nextcloud and zotero replacement, storing all my documents and books and documenting when I added, opened, edited them. I want it to store all notes that I write. I want it to record and display all browser tabs I open, when I do so, everything I copy and paste, every key I press. I want a record of everything I do in the digital world that is searchable and that can answer the question: "what was I working on 2 weeks ago on this day?" and bring back all the context also.

For obvious reasons this has to be self hosted and managed. I'm not interested in creating surveillance software or technology.

It sounds extreme but whenever I have seen peoples obsidian set ups with heaps of manual and bidirectional linking I always thought that time is the one thing we should look at. If I look up some concept on wikipedia today, there is a higher chance of me looking up related concepts or working on something related to that around this time also.

Hey - this is awesome. I've been working on a small local app like this to import financial data and present a dashboard, for the family to use together (wife and I). So yeah - great work here, taking control of your data.

I'm curious about real-time data, or cron jobs, though. I love the idea of importing my data into this, but it would be nicer if I could set it up to automatically poll for new data somehow. Does Timelineize do something like that? I didn't see on the page.

That's great, I've been running a timeline of my life in excel, I wonder if this could replace it.

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I've been basically doing this for years via a private mastodon instance. Very nice to see!

Nice project! If you don't like "timelinize" - have you looked at latin names? Perhaps something like Temperi?

In terms of Features, i'd like to see support for FindPenguins. A lot of interesting data (photos, videos, GPS coordinates, text) is already there.

Very nice project! Curiousity question: since you are taking data dumps once-twice a year, and let's say you also copy the photos as well, do you do any updates incrementally or just replace the old one with new dump?

Love the grind! One suggestion would be to add a demo link with some test data so we can see it in action.

I am also slowly "offlining" my life. Currently, it is a mix of synology, hard drives and all.

I have always thought about building a little dashboard to access everything really. Build a financial dashboard[1] and now onto photos.

[1] https://github.com/neberej/freemycash/

Wow that's great! Interesting if it's possible to use not just a folder but like a s3-compatible backend for photos and for db backups as well

(I don't think all my photo/video archives would fit on my laptop, though the thumbnails definitely would, while minio or something replicated between my desktop plus a backup machine at Hetzner or something would definitely do the thing)

As for branding, IMO you could go a bunch of directions:

Timelines

Tempor (temporal)

Chronos

Chronografik

Continuum

Momentum (moments, memory, momentum through time)

IdioSync (kinda hate this one tbh)

Who knows! Those are just the ones that fell out of my mouth while typing. It's just gotta have a memorable and easy-to-pronounce cadence. Even "Memorable" is a possibility LOL

-suggestions from some dude, not ChatGPT

Like others I really like the idea and the realisation looks great too!

I might not be the typical user for this, because I'd prefer my data to actually stay in the cloud where it is, but I'd still like to have it indexed and timelined. Can timelinize do this? Like, instead of downloading everything from gphoto, youtube, bluesky, wtv, just index what's there and offer the same interface? And only optionnaly download the actual data in addition to the meta-data?

Nice one, thanks for sharing. For sure I’ll give it a try.

Have you thought of creating a setup so as to package all libraries and dependencies needed? You have a very nice installation guide, but there are many users who just want the setup.exe :-)

This looks really cool and like something I've been subconsciously looking for!

A couple thoughts & ideas:

- Given the sensitivity of the data, I would be rather scared to self-host this, unless it's a machine at home, behind a Wireguard/Tailscale setup. I would love to see this as an E2E-encrypted application, similarly to Ente.io.

- Could index and storage backend be decoupled, so that I can host my photos etc. elsewhere and, in particular, prevent data duplication? (For instance, if you already self-host Immich or Ente.io and you also set up backups, it'd be a waste to have Timelinize store a separate copy of the photos IMO.) I know, this is not entirely trivial to achieve but for viewing & interacting with different types of data there are already tons of specialized applications out there. Timelinized can't possibly replace all of them.

- Support for importing Polarsteps trips, and for importing Signal backups (e.g. via https://github.com/bepaald/signalbackup-tools ) would be nice!

Nice work. I’ve been frustrated with how closed off location history tools have become lately. This looks like a solid step toward giving people real ownership of their data again. Definitely checking this out.