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

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

#481

Post by ac2u » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 6:25 PM UTC

RobRivera wrote: post #323

I made a blackjack scalable game simulation with configurable decision matrix, bet scheme, and card counting rule configs (1 simple file). The software isnt novel, so I did it for myself both as a personal proof of concept of my blackjack years, and as an exercise to poke corners of my cpp knowledge base, google mock and google test knowledge base. Its a phase 0 core tech tho for a vidya Im making that I really reall…

Couple of questions, feel free to correct my assumptions as I've only ever played backjack casually at a casino after a conference.

- I'm guessing that the configurable decision matrix is only of use because of the card counting right? Because I was under the impression that there is already a "perfect" blackjack strategy (that the casinos even give you as an instructional card because they have their house edge anyway) assuming standard rules and no counting whatsoever.

- is the bet scheme for kelly criterion so you can figure out how long on average your bankroll would exist given a certain amount of counting?

- is this a way to figure out how to play to maximise your drinks comps in Vegas given a certain bankroll? :-) /s

Looking forward to seeing your videos posted.

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

#482

Post by ssalefske » Sun, Jul 14, 2024, 2:29 AM UTC

5pzv1kn3 wrote: post #191

I’ve developed several webapps to help our family and personal life: * Vehicle Maintenance Tracker: Logs all vehicle maintenance and sends reminders based on time or mileage for upcoming tasks. This one is probably one of the most used and useful of everything I have made. Lend/Borrow Tracker: Keeps track of items we've lent or borrowed, to/from whom, and when. We use it most for books, but it can be used for anythin…

Very interesting! We’ve always tracked medications on paper, but would love the option to add in reminders, etc. Would you mind sharing any of these projects if you have them on gitlab?

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

#483

Post by cxr » Mon, Jul 15, 2024, 9:46 PM UTC

jart wrote: post #193

boricj wrote: post #64

Over the past two years I've been working on tooling that allows me to delink programs back into object files. What started out as a bunch of Jython scripts is nowadays a full-blown Ghidra extension that can export working object files from a program selection in two mouse clicks. I'm using it as part of a video game decompilation project, but it also enables a whole bunch of other use cases I've documented on my blo…

Something like that really deserves to be written in C so you don't need to install Ghidra to use it. The way I imagine it working is if I want the function `foo` then I'd say `objsuck -ffoo -ofoo.o prog.elf` and it'd look at the elf symbol table to find the `.size` of `foo` and copy that symbol into the .o. I guess you would then need to use xed to disassemble the opcodes to see what other symbols it jumps into or c…

> Something like that really deserves to be written in C so you don't need to install Ghidra to use it.

By that logic, it should be written in JS so you don't need to install a C build toolchain for it.

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

#484

Post by galdosdi » Thu, Jul 18, 2024, 3:16 PM UTC

omerhac wrote: post #457

galdosdi wrote: post #41

Reminds me of a classic story that makes a good programming parable: Back in 2011, my girlfriend was working at a catering company that announced shifts via a webpage and workers had to sign up for them. Other workers tended to pick them up very quickly, so it was hard to get too many shifts. I wrote a quick web scraper to automatically accept any shift offered and email her. For a couple weeks it was great, suddenly…

Great story. Did they fire her for that one time she didn't show up? Thats tough

This was in 2011, just after the Great Recession. It was a tougher labor market then. It was normal for low skill jobs to fire people on the spot for no show / no call. The labor market has changed in that sector since then.