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Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#341

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

splittingTimes wrote: post #288
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow. I just had a scan done a few weeks for precisely this sort of thing (drill guide), and I was really impressed by the software. But I was also completely puzzled by what the actual data input (from the wand-like thing) consists of? Any chance you could enlighten me? p.s. the drill guide arrived, the implants go in next week!

So our implant planning software coDiagnostiX actually used DICOM data coming from a CT-scan. You need the full bone/jaw information to make sure that the implant goes into a place where the bone is wide enough, had the right density and that you do not hit a nerve. Those are the clinical requirements. On top of that, the placement must allow for a proper aesthetic restoration design by the lab technician, too. For t…

Thanks for the explanation. IIUC, the "wand" object that was used to generate data inside my mouth is not using any absolute location data, it's just scanning whatever it can and then the point meshing Just Works (TM) ? It seems quite remarkable - the wand is essentially being waved around completely freely, and I was amazed that you could build a model from the data generated in that way.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#342

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

QuiiBz wrote: post #6

The guy from Inkdrop [0] makes a living with his note-taking app. He also has a YouTube channel [1] which I found very relaxing. [0] https://www.inkdrop.app [1] https://www.youtube.com/c/devaslife

Ok I can't thank you enough for exposing me to this channel. The aesthetics and vim and the complete coding is so relaxing. Do you have any other channel recommendations like this?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#343

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway204401 wrote: post #334
magicalhippo wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * B2B in a niche market > * Some viral component so you do not have to spend money on ads for growth. Indeed. For years our sales department was simply our customers. They'd call their friends and tell them they need to get our software, or when they switched jobs they'd work hard to get our software used at the new place. Now we have a small but proper sales team. However word of mouth got us very, very far. > * S…

> Now we have a small but proper sales team. However word of mouth got us very, very far. Note that viral is not the same thing as word of mouth. Viral means that one user expressly or subliminally forces other users to use that software. For example, a customer asking or encouraging a vendor to use some specific software because it makes things easier for the customer and later, when that vendor is also infected wit…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#344

Post by magicalhippo »

throwaway204401 wrote: post #334
magicalhippo wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * B2B in a niche market > * Some viral component so you do not have to spend money on ads for growth. Indeed. For years our sales department was simply our customers. They'd call their friends and tell them they need to get our software, or when they switched jobs they'd work hard to get our software used at the new place. Now we have a small but proper sales team. However word of mouth got us very, very far. > * S…

> Now we have a small but proper sales team. However word of mouth got us very, very far. Note that viral is not the same thing as word of mouth. Viral means that one user expressly or subliminally forces other users to use that software. For example, a customer asking or encouraging a vendor to use some specific software because it makes things easier for the customer and later, when that vendor is also infected wit…

Ah yes, my mistake. We have that for another product which works very much like that for our main product, but its effectiveness is mostly a quirk of our niche. Basically it's a product for the customers of our customers, or companies like them.

Since we integrate very well with our own products, we can supply superior data to this second product, causing the effect you're talking about as these other customers of ours puts pressure back up the chain.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#345

Post by ziml77 »

huhtenberg wrote: post #318
ziml77 wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacOS seems to be a good place to be if you're making paid desktop software. There's a lot of Windows utilities that are freeware and of course Linux is loaded with FOSS. I only run macOS on my laptop and yet it's where I've spent the most money on various utilities. MacOS-only software I've paid for: Bartender, BetterTouchTool, Forklift, SoundSource, Pixelmator Pro, iStat Menus, Nova, Alfred, DaisyDisk, and some oth…

The state of affairs is that Mac users are more willing to pay for software than Windows users, but not by a factor of 10, which is the Windows/Mac desktop market share ratio.

This wikipedia page shows that it's a bit under a factor of 5 difference between the two (based on StatCounter data): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...

But as you can see later on in the entry, StackOverflow's survey shows the numbers as being much closer. So your target audience matters. I'd expect that software developers aren't the only set of users where the ratio is far off of the average.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#346

Post by ungamedplayer »

Melatonic wrote: post #161
semireg wrote: post #68

This is my 3rd (or is it 4th?) year of developing and selling Label LIVE, an electron app for designing and printing labels. Originally it only worked with USB thermal printers, but over the last few years it's grown into a multi-function image-rendering pipeline that integrates data import (via spreadsheet, CSV or API) with barcodes, text, image output. My app revenue eclipsed my iOS/NodeJS consulting in 2021 and I…

Does it work with the tiny Dymo printers?

I wrote the original Dymo drivers for cups. They are now completely rewritten and a ppd iirc.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#347

Post by splittingTimes »

charlesg63 wrote: post #320
splittingTimes wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How cool. He should try the new "Easy" CAD software we shipped with our latest major release in December. It is a breath of fresh air and much more streamlined & intuitive workflows compared to our classic CAD Software he is used to. Reading your comment made me really happy. As a dev I am always excited to have contact with our customers. Other hate it, but I love giving 3rd level support.

Hello. So I'm the dad with the Dental Wings scanner, which I purchased from Straumann about 7 years ago. I'm using their version of the Dental Wings software. Would this be the same as the software that you're referring to, or is the Straumann version different? I am a dental technician, and I work with general dentists, so I don't take advantage of a lot of the software that's available to me. I do crowns, bridges,…

Hi there. Thanks for being a loyal customer.

Yes, your "Cares Visual" Straumann software is just a branded version of our Dental Wings one. In terms of functionality there is no difference, but I think with your version you got by default access to the vast Straumann product portfolio (hundred of implant kits and materials), plus their validated (FDA approved) workflow and access to their centralized milling facilities.

> dont take advantage of a lot of the software that's available to me. I do crowns, bridges, and implants mainly.

Yes Cares Visual is very flexible and offers many different ways to do restorations. It can be daunting at times :).

> Most of the general dentists do take impressions, and send those along, which I pour in gypsum, and scan in the scanner. I do have one dentist that I do work for that uses an intraoral scanner.

That is what we see in Europe as well (I assume you are US based). Dentists are more conservative when it comes to switching to digital dentistry. But I think it is understandable. Having their patients safety in mind, they want to be sure before applying completely new technology. Your dentists uses a Trios IO scanner. Since Care Visual is an open system we can deal with input from many 3rd party devices (i.e. non Straumann).

What topics would interest you? Or do you have any feedback in particular? I am happy to take this conversation elsewhere. See my email in my profile.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#348

Post by c_ma_gee »

em-bee wrote: post #337
hogrider wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pardon my ignorance but isn't it a huge mistake to place non german speaking children in these classes? They just hope they'll pick it up along the way? Isn't it throwing them to the wolves?

there aren't really many other options. having separate schools for migrants would make it difficult for the children to integrate into the local society, but integration is seen as critical for everyone to get along. immersion into the target language environment is also the most effective way for kids to learn a new language. they will make friends with native speakers, and that will only help their language learni…

That's right. In germany all children (no matter of their origins) have to go into the same class. That has been discussed controversial but that's the decision of the government. Once, there were so called "Welcome classes" where all immigrants were in for the first several weeks to get the basics very quick (which worked very good in our opinion by the way). But then the government decided that this is not good and started to tell all schools to integrate them from the start (which then leads to the massive language-problems we try to solve). But for integrating those children into the community it is probably not that bad.
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