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Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#241

Post by as89 »

Glad to see this thread come back! I'll share something of my own, though it's not a tech project.

I've been working on translating Japji Sahib - which is the foundational prayer of the Sikhs - into English poetry. The original is a poem, but most of the existing translations are in prose and use Western religious terminology that's not really appropriate to the original.

I just wrapped up a first draft of the translation itself. Also working on putting together an essay on why I felt another translation was necessary and why preserving the form of the poem is important to understanding its contents. Planning on getting it published one way or another.

Been sharing snippets from my translation here, if you're interested in following along: https://twitter.com/verseofpunjab

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#242

Post by joegibbs »

voldacar wrote: post #205
joegibbs wrote: post #143

I've been making a proper survival strategy game. I made a few games before but they were only about a week's worth of work each, so I don't count them as "proper". This time I wanted to make a full-on project with professionally-done models, art, music etc. It's a reverse of the 4X formula - rather than starting as a small country and becoming a vast empire over the course of the game you start off heading a vast em…

I like the terrain rendering. Is that a prepackaged thing or did you write it yourself?

It's a custom material (since I'm using UE4) - there's small detail (grass, snow, sand etc) with their own normal maps, and that's all filtered to break up tiling and applied to the terrain.

The other part is the macro-level stuff that you see more of when you're zoomed out. I did the landscape using Quadspinner Gaea to simulate erosion based on a heightmap I drew with the basic shapes I wanted. Gaea lets me do a colour map based on terrain features, which I added on top of the small detail, and an 8K normal map which I blend with the detail normals based on the distance to the camera. The normal map adds a lot of little hills and valleys that are normally invisible since they're only small variations in the height map.

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#243

Post by kgin »

FriedPickles wrote: post #141

When you plug a Macbook in with the included two-prong power adapter, sometimes it buzzes slightly when you stroke it gently (ground loop). Im working with a factory to make a grounded duckhead adapter to fix this. https://ibb.co/P4Bjstg

I think this actually will succeed

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#244

Post by user_7832 »

FriedPickles wrote: post #141

When you plug a Macbook in with the included two-prong power adapter, sometimes it buzzes slightly when you stroke it gently (ground loop). Im working with a factory to make a grounded duckhead adapter to fix this. https://ibb.co/P4Bjstg

Hi, could you explain why this happens normally? Isn't the output neutral line of the DC charger supposed to be pretty much 0/ground anyway? Or is it that the neutral is a few volts off the ground?

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#245

Post by mauvehaus »

I ginned up some python to generate an SVG file for a bevel setting gauge[0]. The code is ugly, and the SVG file doesn't render correctly except in a browser and Corel Draw, and that's ok, because that's all I need it to do to drive the laser cutter.

I'll throw it up on GitHub under WTFPL if I ever get an afternoon to comment it and write a readme.md for the benefit of anybody misfortunate enough to stumble across it in the future.

I might also add the option to do a lefty or righty gauge. It's identical in outcome, but I could see it being more ergonomic.

[0] Just like this one: https://lostartpress.com/collections/tools/products/bevel-mo.... I'd have probably bought one if they hadn't mentioned lasering them. Since I have access to a laser, I figured why not brush off the old programming skills. For the record, I'd have come out ahead buying one.

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#246

Post by blakewatson »

https://synthwave.live/ - a collection of synthwave mixes on YouTube with some specialized functionality on top of embedded videos that makes listening to music compilations more convenient.

I made this mainly for myself because I was really into synthwave compilations at the time and YouTube's playlist functionality wasn’t getting the job done.

I run the update script every week and fix the occasional bug. I'll continue maintaining it because I like using it.

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#247

Post by mamcx »

I'm building a spiritual successor of the dBase/FoxPro family of languages with modern ideas, what I hope become a better alternative to Access/Excel (so, not just the base lang, but the UI builder + Data engine. Just asking little things, you know):

https://tablam.org

Is both true that I wish to have the means to work on it full/half-time and doing for pure enjoyment when I have time.

Re: Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?

#248

Post by kromem »

I found a psych study about how vulnerable narcissists use more first person pronouns in their writing, and applied that to the Epistles in the New Testament to determine Pauline authorship (Paul has always struck me as a vulnerable narcissist).

Amazing result. Very distinct clusters on relative usage between the undisputed non-Pauline letters (John, Peter, etc) and the undisputed Pauline letters.

Almost all the disputed letters fall in the non-Pauline cluster. Only 2 Timothy falls within the Pauline cluster, and does so smack dab in the middle of it.

Currently debating formatting the results for peer review (which probably won't publish for a year at least) or just creating a post with pretty graphs.

As an aside, the whole "can't have published preprint elsewhere and can't submit to multiple journals" submission policies at academic journals is dumb.

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