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Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?

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Re: Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?

#371
I made Timmy (https://timmytimer.com), a social pomodoro timer with free web and mobile apps. Sort of like “Twitter for productivity.” No login required.

It’s getting a lot of use by college students and coders. Pretty fascinating to see what everyone is working on or learning. The social accountability and leaderboard are proving to be strong motivators.

Re: Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?

#372

I upgraded my 3D printer's X and Z axes to MGN12 linear rails in order to stiffen up the extruder significantly. I also switched the hot bed from glass to a magnetic pad. I finished a PID toaster oven project from a few years ago. I've been using it to dry out filament. I also made a nice filament dry box to battle oozing. I thought I was having anxiety over the last couple months, but it just turned out to be all th…

> I thought I was having anxiety over the last couple months, but it just turned out to be all the nerves in my heart electrically failing for no reason. Now I have a pacemaker. I ordered some electronics to capture my own ECG traces so I can detect the pacemaker pulses for fun.

Hope you're feeling better; I know how scary heart stuff can be.

After my own scare (luckily a false positive) I also learned that weird anxiety problems can be heart related. Since then I've started mentioning to people that they should discuss things like that with their doctor. I know many people don't like talking about anxiety with their doctors, thinking it's more a therapist thing, but yeah it can be a heart issue and good doctors can smell a heart problem from a mile away. EKGs are quick and easy.

Re: Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?

#374
I made a "self-hosted wetransfer with audit trails" for use at work. Pretty basic for now, but it's been fun. Hadn't touched any HTML, CSS or JS in over a decade, so I spent some time brushing up on that.

It automatically generates checksums in various formats. It keeps an audit trail of who uploads/downloads what. Enforces a couple of company specific rules. Scheduled expiration of uploads. Nothing too fancy, but it's been a fun distraction.

I'll be trying to open source it once I take out all the company specific stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?

#375
Deployed a web app that I've been working on for a few years:

https://codeexplainer.org

It's an educational application to teach the basics of coding syntax to beginners. I'm not quite finished with all the parsed explanations, but I try to get a little bit done every day.

Hopefully in the future I can add more languages and explain 'sentences' instead of just 'words'.

Re: Ask HN: What did you make during lockdown?

#376
Just before lockdown I started a product management role at a scale-up in the UK, and to get a wider perspective of product and advice from people who have been through it before I've been chatting to other people who have built product teams. I've kicked off a blog to share what I've learnt from these conversations. Hope it's of use to others who are on a similar path!

https://axelthomson.com

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