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Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#581

Post by btrettel »

perlgeek wrote: post #105

Lots of small little scripts lying around in bin/, some of them for extracting information or downloading stuff from certain websites, some for small admin tasks. Possibly the most useful for others is a small wrapper around pdftk that splits a PDF file into smaller ones based on the "bookmarks" (the chapter annotations that many PDF readers show as outlines in a side bar).

> Possibly the most useful for others is a small wrapper around pdftk that splits a PDF file into smaller ones based on the "bookmarks" (the chapter annotations that many PDF readers show as outlines in a side bar).

I'm interested in this if you are willing to share.

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#582

Post by swores »

bgroat wrote: post #309
swores wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool product, it's something I'd personally be interested in if free or one-off license, but as someone who just dabbles now and then (but including sometimes for business stuff) it's nowhere near worth the monthly cost for me. $50 one-off would frankly be possibly more than the value I'd get, but I'd definitely buy it in the hope it would be useful. (Appreciate, I'm not everybody and just because that's where I fit…

I'm not saying the above poster is wrong, but never ever take pricing advice from devs. Especially not devs on Hacker News. If you want to sell this (and you may not), sell into QA or product leaders. "Are you tired of deployments from your devs with dead links? A yearly license of red light is only $6k for a team of 20"

I'm not even a dev, as I said I'm just a dabbler so certainly wasn't suggesting they build a business plan around my willingness to pay, was just adding a data point in terms of hobbyist interest :)

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#583

Post by sunsetMurk »

deadpanPotato wrote: post #560

Last week, I wrote an Add-on for GoogleSheets that scrapes a defined list of company job boards for jobs that fit my criteria, adds them to the sheet, and sends me an SMS with Twilio when a new one is added. Runs every hour, and I can be one of the first people to apply for a newly posted job without having to monitor 15 different sites manually. I also use the sheet to track the application status.

care to share the script(s)? any screenshots? sounds useful :)

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#584

Post by swores »

vax425 wrote: post #164
swores wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool product, it's something I'd personally be interested in if free or one-off license, but as someone who just dabbles now and then (but including sometimes for business stuff) it's nowhere near worth the monthly cost for me. $50 one-off would frankly be possibly more than the value I'd get, but I'd definitely buy it in the hope it would be useful. (Appreciate, I'm not everybody and just because that's where I fit…

Thanks for the feedback! It’s free to use for now. I’d like to bill heavy corporate users someday. Not sure what the criteria will be for that.

Maybe I misunderstood from glancing at the pricing table, what is the difference between "public projects" (free) and "private projects" (enterprise $50/m)?

My assumption from glancing at the page was that I'd only be interested if I could have the full version, and that I might be willing to buy a license to own it but not to pay a subscription to keep using it. Mainly because I don't mind an impulse purchase that's half hoping to turn out worth buying and half supporting a dev / product creator I think worth supporting, whereas if something wants money every month I want to actually know it's going to be a good use of money long-term, which is a much higher bar to clear in my mind.

A side-thought: if it turned out to be a useful enough tool that I started getting colleagues to use it, and incorporating it in work done for clients, then I'd prefer it to be open source and ideally easy to customise / potentially white label.

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#585

Post by DamnInteresting »

MrVandemar wrote: post #564
DamnInteresting wrote: post #46

I have a few homegrown tools, the most notable is one I use to record narration for an audiobook-like podcast. I paste my script into the software, then it will go through the script one sentence at a time. I record and re-record it until I am happy with the take, then it moves on to the next sentence. When I'm done, I can download the audio as one merged WAV file. I occasionally think about sprucing it up to offer f…

Doubleplus cool idea. What's the podcast?

I avoid mentioning it by name, I don't want to engage in obnoxious self-promotion. But if you search for my HN username on most podcast platforms it'll be the first result.

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#586

Post by ericboehs »

I created an offline version of YouTube (for Mac). I use Downie to download videos I'm interested in (usually videos download in 10-30 seconds). Then I go to the web app and click play. Using a shell command, it launches IINA and starts playing the video.

I have a mark watched and delete button so that YT's algorithm still works to surface interesting videos.

Having offline videos allows me to watch videos like I couldn't before (even on a stable 1Gbps connection). I can fast-forward instantaneously and there are no ads. Subtitles are also downloaded and a thumbnail.

Another nice feature inherent of offline video is if you want to grab your laptop and go somewhere (I'll sometimes go to the park and eat), you don't have to worry about your video stopping because you don't have internet/need to tether.

The whole app is contained in one executable file (you'll need Ruby) and stores its data in the JSON files that Downie provides.

Screenshot and code: https://gist.github.com/ericboehs/79e7799829d86c3b84d449ad3c...

I've been using it for ~6 months. I've shared it with a few friends but I think I'm the only one that uses it every day.

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#588

Post by MockObject »

maxmunzel wrote: post #443

After a quick burst of manic energy during exam phase, I decided to solve the pigeon problem on my balcony once and for all (and in a humane way). So I bought a cheap electric water gun from Amazon, built in WiFi using an ESP8266 and a relay shield; 3D printed a window mount for my old iPhone (running a webcam app) and hacked together some openCV code in python. After all this was working on my desk, I had the pleasu…

This sounds really amazing. I'd love to read more about this!

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#589

Post by vax425 »

swores wrote: post #584
vax425 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback! It’s free to use for now. I’d like to bill heavy corporate users someday. Not sure what the criteria will be for that.

Maybe I misunderstood from glancing at the pricing table, what is the difference between "public projects" (free) and "private projects" (enterprise $50/m)? My assumption from glancing at the page was that I'd only be interested if I could have the full version, and that I might be willing to buy a license to own it but not to pay a subscription to keep using it. Mainly because I don't mind an impulse purchase that's…

Thanks for the feedback.

I don’t know what to do about pricing, only that I’m leaning towards a freemium model where hobbyists and occasional users pay nothing.

It is a cloud-based service with ongoing costs to pay and work to be done, so I think it’ll be subscription-based.

I would love to do this full-time if there is enough interest to justify the effort.

For now, I’m really excited about welcoming some real users other than myself and getting lots of bug reports and feature requests. Please give it a try and get in touch with me over email!

Re: Ask HN: Have you created programs for only your personal use?

#590

Post by camgunz »

jonplackett wrote: post #140

Yes. And it’s a strange one. I made a program to gender swap any text you put into it and then got a book deal to rewrite and illustrate Fairy Tales. It’s been published around the world. https://genderswappedfairytales.com The idea is to shine a light on the original versions but it also creates a lot of never-written-before characters. A lot of brave princesses and lady-beasts, but also men desperately wanting chil…

Wow this book is beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
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