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

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

#941

Post by pdimitar »

Not a business, just a library for other devs.

Finishing up https://github.com/dimitarvp/xqlite -- an Elixir library for working with SQLite, with the FFI code written in Rust via the `rusqlite` crate.

The Elixir ecosystem lacks a super stable driver for this. I've heard reports that the currently used library -- `exqlite` -- crashes every now and then. I aim to fix that once and for all, with Rust and careful programming.

Last items remaining are to make sure users can get precompiled native library + start doing proper release tagging. The software is functional otherwise.

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

#942

Post by jamesponddotco »

nbbaier wrote: post #933
jamesponddotco wrote: post #82

I’m working on an ISBN database that fetches information from several other services, such as Hardcover.app, Google Books, and ISBNDB, merges that information, and return something more complete than using them alone. It also saves that information in the database for future lookups. Mostly because I’m working on a personal library management service called Shelvica to solve my own problems[1], and none of those serv…

I'd love to know more about this project and follow along! I've also had an itch of having a personal library app that's better than libib

Sure, I’d love to keep you in the loop. Send a message to the email on my profile and I’ll let you know once I have something ready for testing :)

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

#943

Post by jamesponddotco »

geuis wrote: post #267
jamesponddotco wrote: post #82

I’m working on an ISBN database that fetches information from several other services, such as Hardcover.app, Google Books, and ISBNDB, merges that information, and return something more complete than using them alone. It also saves that information in the database for future lookups. Mostly because I’m working on a personal library management service called Shelvica to solve my own problems[1], and none of those serv…

Hey I'd like to learn more about what you're doing. I'm working on a tangentially related service but focusing on audiobooks. One big stumbling block I ran into early on was trying to find something close to a unified ISBN datasource. If you're up for it, shoot me an email at charles@geuis.com.

I’ll send you an email later today for sure!

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

#944

Post by jamesponddotco »

bwb wrote: post #517
jamesponddotco wrote: post #82

I’m working on an ISBN database that fetches information from several other services, such as Hardcover.app, Google Books, and ISBNDB, merges that information, and return something more complete than using them alone. It also saves that information in the database for future lookups. Mostly because I’m working on a personal library management service called Shelvica to solve my own problems[1], and none of those serv…

I'd love to get updates on this and talk with you. My email is ben@bookdna.com We are in the process of building Notion but for books (specifically aimed at your to-be-read list and book log): https://building.shepherd.com/roadmap/launch-our-tbr-app-to-... Very interested to hear how it goes.

Sending you a message later today!

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

#945

Post by jamesponddotco »

kretaceous wrote: post #325
jamesponddotco wrote: post #82

I’m working on an ISBN database that fetches information from several other services, such as Hardcover.app, Google Books, and ISBNDB, merges that information, and return something more complete than using them alone. It also saves that information in the database for future lookups. Mostly because I’m working on a personal library management service called Shelvica to solve my own problems[1], and none of those serv…

I need the search service so bad. I attempted something like this because I wanted a good books search service which provided me at-a-glance information I needed from Storygraph & Goodreads. The main things I look for when I search a book is genres/Storygraph's "moods", number of pages, whether it's part of a series, rating across services & how much does it cost. Could never make it work properly.

The algorithm to decide what to merge is the hardest part, in my opinion, and very basic right now. Eventually, I wanna try doing something with machine learning. Definitely a fun thing to work on, though.

Having a full time job and a baby to take care of make progress slow, but I should have the website ready soon. Shoot me an email and I can let you know when that happens.. email is on my profile.

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

#947

Post by elevation »

lblack00 wrote: post #928
elevation wrote: post #925

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was 14 I would have wanted to "shred at 220bpm" but today I wouldn't get my wallet out for that. What I really would pay for is help getting into the pocket. Anyone who can read a guitar tab can play the notes of "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder. But simply playing the notes against a metronome sounds mechanical -- the song only comes to life when you get the timings right (both the note attack and decay have t…

> When I was 14 I would have wanted to "shred at 220bpm" but today I wouldn't get my wallet out for that. That's fair, essentially why I put "shred" in quotes originally is that shredding guitar isn't necessarily playing fast. You laid out a nice example with Superstition for that. I don't see why that couldn't be implemented in some way (accenting specific notes and different sustain times). What would be difficult…

> What would be difficult is quantifying note attack exactly for XYZ's riff sections.

At 60 BPM, mathematical quarter notes are 1000ms apart. But in a pocket groove, you may notice that every other quarter note is "late", or "swung":

  |o---o---o---o---|  (mathematical)
  |o----o--o----o--|  (swung)
If you load a groovy song in Audacity you should be able to see these inter-note delays.

Another factor that affects rhythm is note duration relative to the tempo -- you'll want to measure that too.

> Matching another guitarist's intonation down to a tee

I suspect if you study a few groovy songs you'll find there's just a slightly different note grid that's common to these songs (there could be more than one grid!) Teaching this grid (rather than teaching one specific song) will help the student learn to shift notes away from the the mathematical metronome placement. This skill will equip many of them to mimic the feel of their favorite artist by ear.

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

#948

Post by boars_tiffs »

lblack00 wrote: post #152

Building an iOS app for metronome sequencing to get faster at playing guitar and reaching "shred" speeds at different subdivisions/time signatures in a single sequence. Planning on adding accuracy indicators and scoring so rushing or dragging can be easily identified when finishing a saved routine. I.e., some post-routine metrics. I've been playing guitar for a little under 6 years and ran into the common problem amo…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45450565

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

#949

Post by lblack00 »

boars_tiffs wrote: post #948
lblack00 wrote: post #152

Building an iOS app for metronome sequencing to get faster at playing guitar and reaching "shred" speeds at different subdivisions/time signatures in a single sequence. Planning on adding accuracy indicators and scoring so rushing or dragging can be easily identified when finishing a saved routine. I.e., some post-routine metrics. I've been playing guitar for a little under 6 years and ran into the common problem amo…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45450565

Beautifully designed IMO.

Unfortunately not a sequencer, which would be a programmable set of a series of blocks with different tempos, time signatures, subdivisions, etc., played in single sequence.

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

#950

Post by shaftway »

I have a friend who is having twins. I'm using some new woodworking techniques to make a pair of baby rattles for her. The real challenge is trying to make two shapes with organic curves and precise cuts that are as close to identical or mirror-image as possible, while also hiding the joints.

It's very low-tech. No screens, no CNC, the most technically advanced tool is the digital RPM readout on the lathe. It's nice to disconnect from my screens once in a while.

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