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Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

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Re: Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

#431
I've been working on Codemap, a code visualization tool for many programming languages (JavaScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Terraform).

https://codemap.app

It parses any given codebase and visualizes all function calls as a hierarchical graph. Quite useful for onboarding new team members, digging through old codebases, or simply debugging issues.

You can further tweak the graph for various use cases. For example, a frontend engineer can view the dependency graph of all UI components, while an infra engineer can view connections between all cloud resources defined in Terraform.

Re: Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

#432
post #103

Long-term (decades), no-subscription archival storage. Essentially, you buy a block of space, upload your data over time, and it gets distributed when you need it (if you lost a primary backup), or on your death (to friends and relatives, or whoever you choose), or on a specific future date. It's a mashup of a safety deposit box, time capsule, and deadman switch. It's not ready yet, but will be ready in a few weeks.…

How it compares to the more established forever.com? I have an account but dont like that they dont accept zip/encrypted files. I have to diguise them as video files :)

Thanks for the link!

It seems like they mostly focus on digitization, with some cloud storage being offered. A few key differences:

Data distribution: one of the hard parts is actually sharing the memories you’ve saved when you die (or at some future date). When you create an archive, you choose someone to give that data to.

Storage: no restrictions of what you upload, subject to US law. If you want to upload big encrypted blobs and give the key to someone else, I am happy to support it. Over the timespans we’re talking about, you want to look into quantum resistant encryption.

Cost: on a per gb price, I am much cheaper, as there’s no digitization labor involved. I think digitization is declining, as even my grandma kept most of her pictures on her iPhone. There still exists a great digitization market, but it is getting smaller.

Re: Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

#433

I'm working https://annotate.dev , a tool inspired by the Stripe documentation, to let anyone create step by step code walkthroughs. Here's a sample of a walkthrough you can create: https://annotate.dev/p/hello-world/learn-oauth-2-0-by-buildi... Would love to hear any feedback thoughts!

This is great idea! I actually have several potential improvement ideas. 1. Put the walkthrough it in a graph, or a minimap to see the whole picture easily? Or in a https://c4model.com/ visualization 2. Why not make clickable code references visually stand out? 3. Make a VScode extension for it

Thanks for taking a look and sharing feedback!

I'm not familiar with the c4 model, I'll need to investigate.

> Why not make clickable code references visually stand out

Is the goal here that you want to know that a specific text block annotates a part of the code?

> Make a VScode extension for it

I think I will! I need to noodle a bit on the user experience here

Re: Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

#434

I'm working https://annotate.dev , a tool inspired by the Stripe documentation, to let anyone create step by step code walkthroughs. Here's a sample of a walkthrough you can create: https://annotate.dev/p/hello-world/learn-oauth-2-0-by-buildi... Would love to hear any feedback thoughts!

Great idea! What did you use for designing the UI?

Thank you for checking it out!

I use Figma to get a proof of concept of how I want things laid out. From there it's more tinkering at the code level.

Re: Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

#435
After[0] several[1] experiments[2] in structured code editing[3] (to list a few) I'm now ready to take a bigger stab at it and am working on coding environment/lang where UI is also a primitive of the language. Early days, but happy to chat if someone is curious.

[0]: https://dflate.io/shady-phoney

[1]: https://dflate.io/vscode-soy

[2]: https://dflate.io/state-of-tofu

[3]: https://dflate.io/code-is-not-just-text

Re: Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So people with allergies shouldn't tell the people who will be preparing food for them about their allergies before the food is served?

Exactly. Because being invited for dinner is not about stuffing your belly for free, it is a social meeting with more important matters. So if you have an allergy or a diet, you can mention that when you're seated. The host can make something that suits you, and if they aren't able, you can just have the drinks. That's why you eat before going out to dinner, so you don't have to worry about your belly. And it is also…

Goes both ways actually.

I cannot count the times someone felt the need to bend over backwards to accommodate me because of something I didn’t want to do/eat/drink/whatever when I‘d been perfectly fine without any special treatment and moving on with whatever we were doing.

Re: Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

#439

I've been working on Codemap, a code visualization tool for many programming languages (JavaScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Terraform). https://codemap.app It parses any given codebase and visualizes all function calls as a hierarchical graph. Quite useful for onboarding new team members, digging through old codebases, or simply debugging issues. You can further tweak the graph for various use cases. For example, a fronten…

I tried it for a python app I have, finished the setup in the desktop app, but the webpage kept telling me it failed to reach the desktop app.

I'm in Windows 11. I even disabled my firewall, used a guest account with Brave browser to make sure all my extensions were disabled, and disconnected from my VPN just in case. Still didn't work.

Re: Ask HN: What non-AI products are you working on?

#440
post #168

I’ve been working on a synthetic DNA assembly company. Basically, I figured out how to assemble DNA for people at a fraction of what it normally costs, so they give me a sequence, and then I make it in real life for them, then ship it to them. Most of my customers have been AI protein designers, ironically. Turns out SOMEBODY has to wrangle atoms in the real biological world and that’s me! After almost a year of work…

Do you have in-house protocols or are you using the off the shelf stuff?

I sometimes derive protocols from off-shelf ones, but pretty much everything beyond that is in-house. Most off-shelf protocols work for 1 sample in 1 tube - I had to adapt them to working on 1 plate of 384 tubes (and get those to work with robots). There is a significant amount of robotic code that I use, and a few custom protocols that are from a random obscure scientific paper in 1980s or 1990s
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