Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#201

Post by sufyanadam » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:07 AM UTC

sufyanadam wrote: post #195

sufyanadam wrote: post #194

I made service that allows anyone with a domain to create their own private email server in less than 10 minutes: https://sealmail.net/ Using Postfix, Dovecot and PostgreSQL, you can read your mail securely via IMAPS on your phone and your desktop mail client. If your account gets hacked, you can just SSH into the server and reset your password yourself. No more getting locked out of your email account in an endless…

Forgot the 'learn' part of it. Well here it is: Where there's a will there's a way. I kept getting stuck at different points trying to automate things. I kept persevering because I figure anything a human can tell a machine to do, it should be able to do it by itself somehow. I managed to jump over all the roadblocks and achieve a reliable way to recreate a mail server (which is a real pain) altogether with SSL certi…

I see some people giving it a try; thank you!

If you have any trouble please email me with feedback at the email listed on the homepage.

People don't seem to make it past the DNS records though. Don't know if it's because they just looking around or they're having trouble. The DNS A record at a minimum is needed for SSL certs to be installed correctly. Even google hasn't been able to automate that part away :)

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#202

Post by soulchild37 » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:07 AM UTC

Wrote a web scrapper backend and mobile app as frontend to scrap my university online portal to check if any lecturer announced class replacement / cancellation and send notification to the mobile app if there is any class replacement/cancellation. The original goal is because of laziness to check the online portal. I have learnt Ruby, Rails, Linux server setup, Nginx configuration and iOS (Objective-C) from scratch during the development.

The app spread in the campus with word of mouth and gained 2000 monthly active users in the first two months. University found out and sent me a cease and desist letter and then later implement recaptcha on their online portal login form.

Thanks to this app I managed to get a decent paying job as an iOS developer. Kinda wild ride

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#203

Post by kfrz » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:09 AM UTC

maneesh wrote: post #3

After years of R&D, heartache, and rough decisions --- I finally turned my hardware company ( http://pavlok.com ) profitable! We make technology to break bad habits, wake up earlier, and reduce cravings. I decided to try to build a hardware company without raising VC --- which is probably one of the hardest decisions you can make. And required about 30 people to make a reality. But now that we have finally got our ma…

Hey I've been a follower for awhile, both you and your brother have been huge influences on my growth mindset. It's amazing to see you posting on HN and I will leave it at this: thank you.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#204

Post by FLGMwt » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:09 AM UTC

I finally got the company engineering blog off the ground! (http://engineering.rallyhealth.com)

It's nothing special and there's not a lot of content, but I hope to learn a lot and make more connections as the editor.

I definitely learned to share my accountability with other people. I had enough to launch in Feb of this year but I didn't launch until December when there started to be external pressure.

Additionally, I learned that for things outside of typical teamwork, it's necessary to put hard deadlines on things. When someone signs up to write a blog post I can't expect them to work on it in preference to sprint work unless there's a deadline or incentive.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#205

Post by SnowingXIV » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:10 AM UTC

Getting married. Definitely.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#206

Post by sufyanadam » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:12 AM UTC

nishs wrote: post #198

sufyanadam wrote: post #194

I made service that allows anyone with a domain to create their own private email server in less than 10 minutes: https://sealmail.net/ Using Postfix, Dovecot and PostgreSQL, you can read your mail securely via IMAPS on your phone and your desktop mail client. If your account gets hacked, you can just SSH into the server and reset your password yourself. No more getting locked out of your email account in an endless…

This is great. Is your backend open source? Could you share more about how it compares to mailinabox? [1] [1] https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox

Thanks!

Backend is not open source, but I'm thinking of shipping a front-end for server owners to administer their accounts. Have to figure out the security part of it though. I was thinking client side SSL certs. As to how it compares to mailinabox, this is pretty much the same, although it's lightweight with the bare minimum of Spamassassin, and anti-virus and supporting mail server software. Also, it 'makes' the box for you, rather than having you find your own hosting solution.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#207

Post by sjg007 » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:18 AM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #187

AznHisoka wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. how do you decide what to sell? 2. how do you write product descriptions and copy that will attract buyers especially on amazon?

2. I very rarely create product pages or change them. For the most part, I'm listing against existing, popular listings. I have created on occasion (when the last raspberry pi came out, I bought 10 from England and made a listing and sold quickly before others got stock and the price went down. Something I wouldn't do now, not worth the money for the time, did it to learn. I might buy a couple hundred when the next o…

So you bet on people who will pay a premium to not go to costco, target, walmart....?

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#208

Post by smnplk » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:23 AM UTC

egonschiele wrote: post #15

I published a book, and I've read 171 books so far this year. I think all the reading has made me more confident in daily life. A nice side effect of the confidence is I'm more okay with making mistakes.

wow. I am such a loser :/

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#209

Post by farm_code » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:29 AM UTC

matallo wrote: post #102

I ran an ultramarathon (64 miles). During this time of the year last year I was at a very stressful period at work changing to a new leadership role. I started working out more seriously, and signed up for a half-marathon, that I completed successfully (I had been running occasionally on my own, previously). As the rewards of physical exercise were kind of immediate and didn't depend on external factors but myself it…

Great. Maybe I should take running seriously. I am trying to run half marathon for the last year. Hope this year I'll do it.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#210

Post by jakobloekke » Wed, Dec 28, 2016, 3:29 AM UTC

JshWright wrote: post #166

2015 was a pretty rough year for our family. A miscarriage, several relationships ending in painful ways, etc... Our motto coming in to 2016 was "Well... it can't get any worse!". Our hubris was 'rewarded'... In February, my wife was admitted to the hospital, 25 weeks pregnant with twins, because one the babies was not getting enough blood flow through the umbilical cord. The doctors were hoping to get another week o…

Wow! I hope you will get to have a great 2017 with your family!