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Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

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Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#341

Post by dividefuel »

I spend a lot of time listening to music and have a large collection of MP3s. I never found a piece of existing software that works exactly as I want it, so I created my own web app for hosting my library during the pandemic.

It works great! Over time I've added all the features that I care about (powerful playlist rules, easy methods for shuffling my music, detailed stats about my listening, tools for managing the MP3 library, etc.). I've learned a lot on the way. As I'm sure everyone here can relate to, it's quite freeing to build something that's only for you. So many concerns go out the window.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#342

Post by owenpalmer »

I have a very simple AutoHotkey script that remaps [h,j,k,l] to [left, down, up, right] when the LeftAlt modifier is pressed. This prevents me from having to switch to the arrow keys all the time.

I use it for navigating the list of browser search suggestions, or for quickly moving around any program that doesn't have vim bindings.

I've found it to be especially helpful while using the https://www.desmos.com/scientific calculator.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#343

Post by vishalontheline »

I've made some quick stuff:

- Created an /etc/hosts file switcher script to swap out websites that I allow myself to visit during working and non-working hours.

- My ISP provies dynamic IP addresses, so I created a IP address updater script that lets Cloudfront know my updated IP, to among other things, host a website from a personal computer.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#344

Post by elric »

RobCodeSlayer wrote: post #336

I created a scraper that scrapes around ~30 different property management sites for new rental listings. It then sends me new listings on telegram It’s been useful for finding new places for myself and my friends - we can usually get tours before the properties are posted on Zillow. Though definitely against a few privacy policies

I did a similar thing when I was in the market for a new house. It was ugly and very hackish, used as many of the built-in filtering features of the sites I was scraping, but did a lot more filtering in post processing. It really bugs me how so many real estate websites don't let you filter on arbitrary fields. Faceted search has been a solved problem for 20 years ...

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#345

Post by bostik »

atlgator wrote: post #240
jeffreyrogers wrote: post #211

I wrote a script that looks at C++ files, figures out the dependencies (by looking at what headers they include) and automatically compiles and links out of date files. It makes programming in C++ sort of like programming in a modern language like Go. It took me a couple of days to implement and I use it any time I am working on my own C++ projects. I eventually want to add package management features to allow integr…

Bill of Materials (BOM) software for identifying dependencies along with versions that are out of date or vulnerable is a growing market in Government.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Syft.[0]

Decoupling SBOM data collection from vulnerability tracking (with your tool of choice) is a nice capability.

0: https://github.com/anchore/syft

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#347

Post by elseleigh »

Tons. A few recent pieces are documented on my site, at else.co.nz/code ... but there are also plenty of utilities as well.

I've written "radio station" music software that used text-to-speech to back and pre -sell music and include news headlines and calendar appointments (that was back when I used Windows).

For work, software to build deployment manifests for the various client instances of my research funding web app, software to update the dev MySQL databases for the same clients, software to export zips of all the current code for each client.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#348

Post by rye-neat »

digdugdirk wrote: post #126
rye-neat wrote: post #113

I'm building a streetable rock crawler out of a 78 F150 with a custom radius-arm suspension in the front. I needed to measure the deflection of the drag-link & track-bar as the front axle cycled up and down while changing a few variables: mounting locations, drag-link/track-bar angles, and drag-link/track-bar lengths. I used plain Javascript to display a graph, lines representing the drag-link and track-bar, enabled…

I'm a mechanical engineer, so I'm always intrigued by visual calculations like this that exist outside the standard CAD/excel paradigm. Is there any particular reason you went this route for this application? Do you use a pre-built framework to enable rapid creation and iteration of the setup?

I went this route because I'm a software engineer that mostly works with Javascript and needed it fast. No framework but bounced a lot of the problems off of Chat GPT to help me figure out how to get it done. I also figured it would be more useful than a CAD model to non-technical folks if I made it available online.

Re: Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own use but nobody else?

#349

Post by zzo38computer »

textlapse wrote: post #206

I would love to hear from people who created their own esoteric programming language or a game engine with no game in sight. [It does speak to a time where people create something they truly are passionate about but may not fit into the typical optimization of PMF, growth etc.]

I made a game engine called ZZ Zero (which is a ZZT-like game engine, and runs on DOS). There is no game other than an example.

[0] http://zzo38computer.org/prog/zzzero.zip

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