Ask HN: What are you working on? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#391

Post by Jack000 » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 6:53 PM UTC

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #261

I'm designing a 3D printed robot arm that doesn't suck. It uses all brushless outrunner motors for at least the 4 large axes (final two in wrist may be hobby servos for now). The arm is similar dimensions to a human arm. Initial calculations show it will be able to lift more than 2kg at full extension if I can make it strong enough. Actually the (rough) calculations say more than 10kg but that would break something.…

will it be fully 3d printed (no metal/carbon tubes)? I think the main problem with hobby robot arms is flex in the arm itself and backlash in the motors.

Low cost arms (eg. dobot) have "0.1mm repeatability" with no load but the moment you put a kg on the end effector it starts flexing.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#392

Post by kennycarruthers » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 6:53 PM UTC

flashrider wrote: post #258

kennycarruthers wrote: post #79

In light of today's Apple Mac Pro announcements, I'll chime in... Problem: Building macOS desktop applications as an indie-developer. Project: Fileloupe for Mac and Videoloupe for Mac Fileloupe is a lightweight media browser that I actually announced on Hacker News a few years back. Videoloupe was just released and is a video player/editor in the spirit of the older QuickTime Pro 7. I work on both of these full-time…

wow this is great! I've been searching for a tool like videoloupe for a long long time!!

Glad to hear. Feel free to follow up by email with any feedback, comments or questions.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#393

Post by biztos » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 6:53 PM UTC

dalerus wrote: post #76

Problem: Writing regular content for your product's blog is time consuming. Project: We are working on automating the content writing process. Articly ( https://articly.me ) is a automated content strategy and writing platform. You give us your site or product and every week our platform sends you a new article to post to your blog.

I love this idea, and I'm curious where you get your writers and who they are, generally speaking. (I understand if you don't want to reveal that.)

As an American on-again, off-again expat, I have long thought that there should be good money in getting educated native speakers in "cheap" locales to write and edit stuff.

I know a few Americans and Brits who make a good (local) living as editors for various organizations that need to publish things in correct English for, say, the EU.

But your idea seems like it would scale much better. At the risk of everything sounding like it was written by a milennial backpacker. :-)

Best of luck with it!

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#394

Post by dvirsky » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 6:54 PM UTC

I'm working on an open source search engine as a Redis module, written in C. http://redisearch.io/

More specifically, right now I'm working on making it work on a multi-node cluster, so it can scale beyond a single node. This is not a trivial task even working on top of redis cluster.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#395

Post by venantius » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 6:55 PM UTC

Creating a new, technology-driven commercial and wholesale bank in the UK.

Fintechs in the UK need to partner with a bank or get a regulatory license to do business. Bank partnerships move slowly - their technology and processes are outdated and expensive. Similarly, getting a license takes time, people and money.

This makes starting a fintech company hard and costly. We want to change this by creating a new bank that's built to work with technology companies (focusing on fintechs, but for general technology firms as well).

https://griffin.sh

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#396

Post by BoysenberryPi » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 6:57 PM UTC

joshuaheard wrote: post #308

Scuba diving computers have become a necessary part of diving. Current models have indecipherable interfaces that hang from dongles or are worn as bulky wristwatches. I have developed a scuba diving computer HUD with a simple graphical interface placed in the diver's mask and is easy to learn and use. Also, scuba divers must maintain neutral buoyancy during the dive. The current method is manual, making it a difficul…

Are you hiring? I would love to work on this. This sounds incredible.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#397

Post by a1exyz » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 6:58 PM UTC

joshuaheard wrote: post #308

Scuba diving computers have become a necessary part of diving. Current models have indecipherable interfaces that hang from dongles or are worn as bulky wristwatches. I have developed a scuba diving computer HUD with a simple graphical interface placed in the diver's mask and is easy to learn and use. Also, scuba divers must maintain neutral buoyancy during the dive. The current method is manual, making it a difficul…

I believe buoyant wetsuits are a safety feature - if you run into issues, you can release your weight and float to the surface.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#398

Post by kieranr » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 7:01 PM UTC

We're building an SMS chatbot for the Canadian cannabis market. It allows you to purchase marijuana directly from dispensaries and licensed producers in a few messages. We’re adding NLP and a basic recommendation engine to help increase retention and drive purchases.

We built out the infrastructure in a hackathon and are grinding away at an MVP. Starting to demo for dispensaries soon. I think we’re really on to something! People have been texting their drug dealer since.. well, the advent of cell phones, so we aren’t changing behaviour. It’s just nicer to chat with a friendly bot (with dispensary to doorstep delivery) than exchanging goods from a blacked-out Malibu in a Walmart parking lot.

Landing page here: http://hicanna.io/ Super happy to discuss our stack or anything else if you’re interested in the project.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#399

Post by ajones05 » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 7:02 PM UTC

StephenCanis wrote: post #291

Entangled wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like this idea but extending it to the whole world based on geolocation. Use an app and earphones to find voice/text descriptions of places and landmarks, monuments, sculptures, buildings, etc. Everything can be geo-toured. Of course in a museum is perfect but based on geolocation it doesn't have to be linear, you can go anywhere in the museum and get voice/text about that particular place/masterpiece and when they…

Really cool idea, I think people would love that! The biggest hurdle would be getting enough interesting content. You would almost need to create a Wikipedia for real world locations. If you were able to get enough content I think that would be an incredible app/service.

I'm doing something similar for local news/events, called SeeAround.me, where people can see/submit local news stories and their locations. But I could see sort of a cross between that and Your Audio Tour as particular interesting for people who want to do their own walking tours, for example.

Re: Ask HN: What are you working on?

#400

Post by azaydak » Tue, Apr 04, 2017, 7:03 PM UTC

joshuaheard wrote: post #308

Scuba diving computers have become a necessary part of diving. Current models have indecipherable interfaces that hang from dongles or are worn as bulky wristwatches. I have developed a scuba diving computer HUD with a simple graphical interface placed in the diver's mask and is easy to learn and use. Also, scuba divers must maintain neutral buoyancy during the dive. The current method is manual, making it a difficul…

Have you looked into adding navigation / mapping / and comms to your dive computer? My company has a side project building a dive watch for divers. It has a navigation system and communications aspect where divers can send messages to each other and track a dive buddy's position. The project is mostly for fun but there is a market for it.