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Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

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Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#851
post #71

I've been working on extending Postgres to run on top of FoundationDB, effectively turning Postgres into a distributed database with all the modern features one would expect. Hoping to release an initial version for people to try out very soon!

Can you provide more info? Use-cases, how would it work, where will you publish it?

Sure! So my prototype is implemented as a Postgres extension that hooks into transaction as well table and index storage and implements them on top of FoundationDB.

This makes Postgres itself stateless and all data storage and transaction processing is handled by FoundationDB, turning Postgres into a fully distributed database akin to CockroachDB and others.

This has a number of advantages: - Simple horizontal scaling simply by adding more nodes, including automatic sharding (no need for Citus or similar) - Distributed and strictly serializable transactions across all your data - Automatic replication for durability and read performance. No need to set up read replicas or configure your client to route queries to them. - Built-in fault tolerance that can handle node failures and full zone outages. No need to configure replication and failovers. - Multi-tenancy through FoundationDB's built-in tenants feature

All this while not just maintaining Postgres compatibility but actually being Postgres, so hopefully all the features/extensions you know and love will be supported.

I'm planning on publishing to this repo if you want to keep an eye on it: https://github.com/fabianlindfors/pgfdb. Likely won't publish any of the source at first but just some instructions for testing it out.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#852
I'm working full time but looking at these streams outside of work

SaaS - I'm working on this https://prfrmhq.com - see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43538744 [Show HN: My SaaS for performance reviews setting goals and driving success] - Shows I can use AI and I've integrated into AWS Bedrock - Shows I can integrate with Stripe for payments

Consulting (Architecture, Strategy, Tech) - I'm working on getting my consultancy running but the market is hard atm. https://architectfwd.com

Next SaaS - Starting a SaaS for managing core strategy and tech concepts

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#853

I dusted off an old app (2012 or so) that I wrote for me and my girlfriend who are in a long-distance relationship which I call "Date Night Movie Player". It needs updates and she mentioned that she missed using it. Basically it lets two people sync watching a video/movie together, while chatting in a side transparent overlay and has a remote control with interesting buttons like timed "beer break", "bathroom break",…

Have you seen the YouTube Watch Together app on Discord? It's built into the client

I have! It was one of those "I should have moved when I had the chance" moments. But such is life as a developer.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#854

I dusted off an old app (2012 or so) that I wrote for me and my girlfriend who are in a long-distance relationship which I call "Date Night Movie Player". It needs updates and she mentioned that she missed using it. Basically it lets two people sync watching a video/movie together, while chatting in a side transparent overlay and has a remote control with interesting buttons like timed "beer break", "bathroom break",…

I would 100% pay for this as a big movie fan and living away from my gf

Interesting to hear. One big thing I had to address was the fact that she lives in a rural area with very slow internet access and I don't. So I built in and option for us both to select a movie and a time for the date and it would pre-download a high-quality version.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#855

Does “vibe coding” count :-) I’m from west Africa and lately been very interested in African fairy tales to read to my daughter. Ended up building ( a GPT-backed interface that can insert her in any African story she wants. We also have a list of African queens who’re not famous anymore but did amazing things (look up Queen Nzinga for example). So I’m doing a series of little children’s books about each queen - have…

This sounds pretty cool. As another commenter asked if you have a write up, I just want to throw my hat in and say, I would enjoy reading a write up what your doing. From the technical bits to a review by your daughter of how well the stories came out.

Thank you. Yes she’s been enjoying them a lot now that we don’t have to repeat the same stories every night :) I’ll share on here once I’m done and also the right up.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#856

Does “vibe coding” count :-) I’m from west Africa and lately been very interested in African fairy tales to read to my daughter. Ended up building ( a GPT-backed interface that can insert her in any African story she wants. We also have a list of African queens who’re not famous anymore but did amazing things (look up Queen Nzinga for example). So I’m doing a series of little children’s books about each queen - have…

Sounds super unique. Please include me too if you do any public follow up? I'd actually enjoy reading those, myself as I've collected folktale collections for years!

Will do. Hn has no way of tagging people or following up though so I’m not sure how to share once I go live. But if you shoot me a message I’ll update you once done. amrangaye at gmail dot com.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#857

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would 100% pay for this as a big movie fan and living away from my gf

Interesting to hear. One big thing I had to address was the fact that she lives in a rural area with very slow internet access and I don't. So I built in and option for us both to select a movie and a time for the date and it would pre-download a high-quality version.

It's a shame that apps like these are "illegal". There's so much fun innovation to be had.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#858

Does “vibe coding” count :-) I’m from west Africa and lately been very interested in African fairy tales to read to my daughter. Ended up building ( a GPT-backed interface that can insert her in any African story she wants. We also have a list of African queens who’re not famous anymore but did amazing things (look up Queen Nzinga for example). So I’m doing a series of little children’s books about each queen - have…

Would love to do something similar. Have you written about the technicals/set up somewhere?

Not yet as I’m still finessing it to her needs. She has a problem getting rid of thumb sucking, and finally asked for a fairy tale with a thumb sucking princess who eventually stops sucking her thumb lol. It’s a fun activity and also letting me learn about LLMs.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on? (March 2025)

#859
post #410

My side project now is a websockets based dashboard that acts as a todo list for my easily distracted children in the morning. The tv remote is an lg one that can be used as a mouse, and they pop the tasks on the screen. I used chatgpt to generate some kawaii style stickers (think big eyes and sparkes). They love it. The reward is (in the morning at least) however many Blueys they can watch before the predetermined d…

Sounds very cool! Are you displaying this on a dedicated screen or using an app on a lg tv?

Just using the TV web browser. Do you have kids? Mine are so easily distracted in the mornings. It spawned from the bewilderment of them having so few jobs to do in the morning (compared to us parents) and the complete lack of focus
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