Ask HN: What have you achieved in January 2015? I'll start with me:
* Started keto - 2 weeks now and counting, lost almost 7 pounds.
* Started the Ruby on Rails tutorial by Michael Hartl - I finally want to get serious about it (failed completing it a couple of times). |
I made significant progress on my sideproject (implemented native mac, linux, and windows clients in addition to the backend!). Shameless plug: It's a filesystem-based time tracker (think dropbox filesystem monitoring + Machine Learning to automatically classify projects = no-hassle, fully automated time tracking) http://moonlighter.io
Personally, we paid off the balances on my wife's car and student loans. Now to continue tackling my own student loans. (Can't wait to only have the mortgage payment...)
Botched the audio implementation and had to start over from scratch with the archived code, but that it worked at all (albeit badly) is still better than I would have expected (and on the bright side, I now know how to bootstrap an SDL project with batch files[1] which is so much easier than doing it through Visual Studio's GUI.)
Apart from that, nothing of consequence.
* Hit 60K pageviews on http://www.developingandstuff.com for the second month in a row; started splitting posts by content into several thematic blogs.
* Restarted playing the bass, seriously considering getting Rocksmith after trying it out at a friend's house.
* Got my first sale on fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/mparramon/
Also, gathered a lot of attention for the ANSI & ASCII art communities (and at least 2 new artists!) with my rewrite (and promotion) of http://artpacks.org.
FYI: A new pack full of ANSI art from Blocktronics comes out today, around 2pm eastern. You'll be able to see it at http://artpacks.org/2015
On January I got the video driver (composite video, PAL; rendering from external SRAM) and the keyboard driver (PS2).
Reading and learning about PAL and PS2 has been very interesting, and also I had to learn a EDA software (KiCad) to keep the schematics safe because the Arduino board has now more cables that I can safely track ;)
Besides I had to understand lots of details about the AVR, mainly how SPI and the USART interfaces work.
Good fun!
Wrote up an article about getting F# adopted in the work place. It got ~1k views https://medium.com/@the_ajohnston/how-to-get-pragmatists-to-...
Wrote up a very domain specific article on scheduling. It got 8 views https://medium.com/@the_ajohnston/dont-use-the-word-reschedu...
Fun tech too.. using chess.js (https://github.com/jhlywa/chess.js/blob/master/README.md), chessboard.js (chessboardjs.com) and Firebase.com at the moment.
Also doing a machine learning project at a nice uni. It's probably the reason for my recovery. It's a way better environment than staying at home getting distracted. I think I now get the concept of co working spaces.
I've been playing both flatpicking guitar and mandolin respectively for 14 and 4 years, but have been in love with the sax for more than 20 years.
At almost 29 years old I decided it was time to take the plunge and learn how to play the thing.
It's going to be a good excuse to finally learn how to actually read music in the process.
I feel motivated like I rarely felt before.
Started reading every night before bed again - trying to read two books / month in 2015, despite a very busy schedule.
Also made a decision on what to build for a new SaaS project.
January's project was http://finishonethingtoday.com, it managed to hit the top of HN for a few hours and got a lot of attention and continues to bring in visitors and has opened up a few new areas for potential projects in the future :)
Started a new project: www.AquiGorka.net
Started writing in my blog again (spanish only): www.AquiGorka.com
Hacked youtube (via a javascript bookmark and/or chrome extension) in order to synch a second screen experience to any youtube video with the platform from the company I currently work for (iamat.com)
Cheers
Other small wins. -Started to read more again (leisure). -Played with stuff I've had on my list (jasminJS and phantomJS) - They are awesome!
In the real world, got a squirrel out of my attic. :-) Equally challenging!
Decided to build http://expertinamonth.com to teach people to code better.
I will be launching the first set of courses in a month or so. I am looking for course suggestions, so let me know what interests you
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rocket-renegade/id955229059?...
How was developing a game in Swift?
I've been working with Swift since it was launched in the Xcode 6 betas. It has been challenging. Working through all of the betas and going with Swift was probably an insane choice given that Swift was in such a state of evolution. Every beta would cause a sea of red flags. I'd dread having to level-up when a new beta was dropped, but I figured, might as well get it over with than wait until the GM hits and have things really be in a terrible state! My vote for the "best" error that I received during development was in some computational matrix code that calculates flight paths: "Expression was too complex to be solved in reasonable time." Of course, I read that as, "The math is making the room spin up in here."
However, I dig the language, and things have stabilized significantly now.
Definitely check out the Google+ community here [1]. It's a fantasically active community. Great responses from students in the program. It is even frequented by Prof. Charles Isbell who is Associate Dean.
[1] https://plus.google.com/u/1/communities/10890255460754763472...
* Finalized my tax return for 2014 (best year ever for me)
* Tinkered with isomorphic React rendering, and got a working example that loads data asynchronously
Turned The Love Game App into a physical product and produced a crowdfunding project which is live as of yesterday: http://PlayTheLoveGame.com/crowdfund
Sold our first 10 "Get Your Story Straight" packages to VIP customers for $500 each to help them maximize press and onboard them to the PRMatch Command Center & Press Room (http://prmatch.com).
Hosted my first virtual mastermind for publicity, called Publicity As a Path : Foudations of Transformational Mass Communication, with about 80 people attending.
Built The MemeScope, after waking up with a vision that there should exist an online kalidescope that uses recent news images as source material. Http://AnthonyDavidAdams.com/memescope
Have been doing yoga regularly, eating well, playing ultimate frisbee regularly.
Began conversations with Cher's former multi-platinum producer to collaborate on my first album of original music. (He and I cowrote a song a few years ago and performed with John Legend at a charity event.) also wrote the bulk of about 3 new songs.
Launched a publicity tour for my moms new book on leadership that debuted in every Barnes & Nobles. ( Http://DrJanetRose.com/media ) which led to her booking her first paid speaking at around $6k (speaker fee + bulk book buy) I built her brand over the last couple years and have been coaching her, so this feels amazing - she will retire as a school administrator this year and this work is her passion for retirement.
Took on a couple new davinci / polymath coaching clients (life, love, creativity, strategy, marketing, pr, etc) and stoked to watch them flourish this year.
Started successful negotiations with a new manufacturer after my factory for my patented CreditCovers skins for Credit Cards decided to breach our 30 day termination clause and just turn off drop shipping.
Built / archetected a marketing program, web site, toll free hotline and produced a book on TreeCare for SC Homeowners -- as a gift for my childhood best friends business.
After applying strategies above mention best friend used to get 6 figure credit lines at 18 (and then like any good 18yr old, defaulted) rebuilt my credit after some trouble in my twenties from starting projects on credit cards -- got issued a Venture Card at the "Excellent Credit" level and another card, with credit lines 10x what I had previously. Stoked to learn from his mistakes and leverage some really great, easy, legal strategies and feels amazing to have this cushion / tool available again.
Upgraded my relational contexts to where I am 95% less attracted to people who aren't available for the kind of intimacy I want -- this has probably been the "one wierd trick" that has opened up so much other flow and productivity. Watching how I would often optimize for relationships where I felt neglected or abused or unmet, and now spotting that pattern, extracting the gift the pain of those relationships brought me, and transcending it. I've developed a process I am now coaching people on that allows folks to use the relational space and conflicts hthat arise therein to literally reprogram their midbrain, gain insight and unlock tons of creative energy and potential.
Caught a great Phish cover band last night in Charleston, Sc - Runaway Gin
Great question, I feel like I got some shit done this month! A lot actually!
Just checked out the google+ link and it is VERY active compared to any online course I've seen..great!
Hah, sounds like my experience with Rust over the past year or two. But like Swift, Rust is a really cool and innovative language, so I've put up with it (although looking forward to things calming down soon).
Actually, it's my interest in Rust that's propelled my interest in Swift, to the point where I'm considering developing an iOS app in Swift as an experiment. I've done Android development before, but never iOS.
I may even do a game, so I was curious how your app went.
You didn't happen to open source the code, did you? I'm curious what a codebase for a well-received game in Swift looks like.
It's scary and chances are I won't make it - but I'm so glad I've at least made a start. At the very least it'll be a nice break for 6-12 months, with some good experience too.
If you're interested in what I'm making, I'm building a simple, affordable web analytics service. There are loads of fantastic tools in this space (Heap is a great example) but they're 1. frankly very expensive (I'm targeting small companies/design studios) and 2. often more complicated than what most people need. Google Analytics has an awful lot of features (and has the advantage of being free) but is really quite complicated, especially for people who aren't as technical.
I should be launching in under a month - please feel free to sign up to be notified if you're interested: http://pleasant.io/
Since I have a very fluid schedule, I designed the new habits as small "chunks of time" around my only daily constants: breackfast, lunch and dinner. Rather than sticking to "I'm going to exercise at 5:00pm" (who knows, I may be busy then), I prefer "I'm going to practice for 30 min. before breackfast".
It's working great; I have a slick kanban workflow on Trello going on, and a (tiny, irrelevant, but useful for this purpose) SaaS app in production.
App #2 is under way ahead of schedule since #1 reached MVP with a full week to spare of January.
It's obviously early days in the project, but I hope to make this my year of sincere effort, and personal growth.
I'm thinking one months project might even be a platform to encourage others to do this in 2016...
Additionally, I'm allowing myself to port a previous month's app to another language or environment; January was my first exposure to Node.js for example, but maybe later in the year I'll rework it in Go.
Great username, by the way.
http://icon-sizerator.davidjpeacock.ca/
I know zillions of people have solutions for this, but it was a nice self-contained project.
On my board I have the following lists:
2015 Week N | Now | Today | Tomorrow | Week | Month
Long-term work items originate in the month list, and get moved left as time progresses. Obviously as items come up they can be input whenever is appropriate.
At the end of the week, 2015 Week N is archived (I actually move it to another board), and a new week is created to cover the next week's completed work.
This setup pressures me into meeting my commitments, and allows me to feel accomplished by looking at the previously completed weeks.
The leap from making money to making absolutely nothing after having just gotten married in October probably looks like the workings of someone who has gone completely bonkers. Even though it's a terrible time for me financially, I feel like it's the best time for my business to take root and thrive. I owe a lot of how I think about this transition to the hacker news community as a whole, since there is a direct correlation between the time I started reading hacker news, and the time I started dreaming of owning my own successful company.
I don't have a landing page set up yet (man there's so much work to be done!), but if you're interested in knowing when Pleenq goes live, send me an email at justin@pleenq.com and I'll add you to the first round of invites!
- Spoke at a conference for the first time (React.js Conf) [1]
- Released my first serious open-source project (an isomorphic React app server) [2]
- The project I've been building was demoed to some executives and put our team in a really good spot.
Other cool stuff:
- Started buying furniture and accessories to make my room feel like home. I've always been hesitant to own large items because I've moved pretty frequently since I finished high school. Buying a handmade hardwood bed is a big deal for me.
[1]: http://conf.reactjs.com/schedule.html#tweak-your-page-in-rea...
I think taking that step to make your home more 'home' is a very good one, even though it might feel like it doesn't fit your lifestyle. And I suspect the consequences are generally not as big as they feel.
Congrats on the fancy bed!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/190166068/kanso-bed-king-size
Good luck with your ficus! We have them planted up and down my street, which means I have a giant one in the window behind my bed. It makes me smile every time I see that tree.
What all is automated? Price querying / updating?
I didn't check, are you monetizing with affiliate links?
My number one piece of advice to college kids that want to differentiate themselves from the pack is to try get something substantial (i.e. new feature or tough bug fix, not just something small/cosmetic) committed to a prominent open source project (ideally in C or C++). From a hiring perspective, knowing that you were able to get a patch accepted tells me so much more about you and your technical competency than anything else on your resume (or your internships, or your GPA, or which school you went to, etc).
Of course I'm briefly blogging about it as a journal too.
Initial discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8908275
And yes, I did manage to ship in January! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8973807
I am planning Feb's challenge later today...
* I've managed to read five books in the first ten days of January! My goal is to read at least one book a month in 2015.
* I've managed to lower my cigarette addiction. Now I am fully able to control myself. If I smoke more cigarettes in a day than I think I should, I can pause a couple of days without smoking a single cigarette without any problems. I feel great managing to control just how much I smoke considering that I don't have the desire needed to quit smoking completely.
* I've found my passion once again. Not a day has passed without me learning something new. I'm actually trying to build my habit: http://r3bl.github.io/en/learn-something-every-day/
* I've completely open sourced everything I do on my GitHub. My notes, my portfolio, my journal, my blog... Everything is up on GitHub and I'm currently in a 14 days streak. I will try to continue at least to 50.
* I've managed to write an article worthy of being published on Opensource.com. It is going to be published by the end of February.
- Good job reading 5 book in a month your almost halfway of your goal. I'm trying to read 26 book this year (fic & non-fic) I'm at 3 and halfway in 2 books.
FastBoot allows you to boot up your JavaScript application on the server, gather model data, and send the rendered output as HTML to the client. This allows search crawlers, cURL, and people with very slow JavaScript engines to access apps that were previously unavailable. I've had a fire in my belly to make this work since I had a conversation with Dan Webb at Twitter about all of the reasons they switched away from client-side rendering[1].
1: https://blog.twitter.com/2012/improving-performance-on-twitt...
Most people think this problem has already been solved by being able to render templates on the server, but the problem is much harder than that. For example, I learned on HN yesterday that most server-rendered Flux apps can only handle one request a time, due to the reliance on singletons[2]. You really need an application-wide DI system like Angular/Ember to get this working with multiple requests in parallel.
2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8989667
I'm really really really excited about this work because I think we can have a single, robust solution for all Ember developers that is dead simple to install and get running. Most importantly, this makes JavaScript apps accessible for everyone, while retaining the UI advantages for those whose devices are capable enough. In other words, I think once this is complete, we can finally put to bed the controversy over whether server-side or client-side rendering is best—we'll have a hybrid that offers the best of both worlds.
A common pattern is to instantiate a new store for every request, to avoid collisions.
I guess the high order bit for me is that developers shouldn't have to worry about stuff like this—picking the "right" implementation of their app architecture. Ideally, everything just works out of the box. The harder it is to do, the less likely people are to do it.
I am from Small (3 Tier City) Of India (Rajkot). We do not have any co-working space here. I am planning to start a Hacker Space soon.
Coffee shops do not have reliable wifi here. Plus I am a contractor so I need proper Wifi to work over VPN,
Tax wise its not that complex in India. You can hire any CA and pay him approx 200$ a year and it can be handled easily.
http://blog.wikibudgets.org/2015/01/sankey-builder-launch.ht...
(PyParallel: native CPython running on all cores without being impeded by the GIL. https://speakerdeck.com/trent/pyparallel-how-we-removed-the-...)
P.S. Hit me up if you're in Seoul in July-October!
2. Started working on Larameet UK (https://james-brooks.uk/larameet-uk/) which will be a mini-conference/meetup for Laravel and PHP developers alike.
3. Moved back in with my parents so that more of my savings can go towards a house.
4. I reached sixteen weeks of not drinking energy drinks; Monster, Redbull, Lucozade etc and reduced my daily coffee intake to two cups max. I'd rather drink tea and water now. I don't smoke nor do I have a particularly addictive personality, but stopping myself drinking these energy drinks has been really hard and continues to be when I'm near them.
5. Finally (after five years) setup a deployment system for our consumer websites at work. This makes a massive difference and is a step in the direction I want to be doing.
Gave W3Counter (https://www.w3counter.com) a bit of a facelift, and a new set of plans & pricing. Offering annual plans has increased customer LTV a lot.
Started testing Amazon Aurora for RDS. I'm considering replacing several bare metal servers with RDS once that service is out of "preview". The feature set is just bonkers for how easy it is to use. The price is just bonkers compared to RDS for MySQL/Postgres -- you get multi-AZ replication for free. Can't wait.
Did my taxes. Waiting on 1099s to come in before I file anything just to make sure everything lines up with my own books.
I've been trying to meditate for exactly five minutes a day. I'm not sure it's helping but I'm pushing on.
Almost landed my first Fortune 500 client for my one man startup, jQuizzy.
So far, it's heen s kind year.
Since becoming unemployed, I've started working out more by running around 10 miles a week, giving private Brazilian jiu-jitsu lessons, and even have had the opportunity to assist instruct defensive tactics with the local Police Academy. I'm also eating better, saving a ton of money on gas and on not eating out (I had a literal six charges on my debit card for January, including gas!), and just feel 1000x better.
Now I'm just looking for the next opportunity, sadly it looks like I have no where to go in the technology sector in my area (SW Virginia) and may be moving into a Correctional Officer position with the Regional Jail because plainly, I need a paycheck.
I've also started training for alpinism. 1 hour of hill walking with a 30-lb pack twice a week, plus core/body strength workout, and a 6-10 hour hike every weekend. The gas mileage driving to the mountains is killing me.
You draw on Android (multiple people can co-draw in real time) and also can view docs online (also with realtime updates)
Here's a sample drawing / note http://write-live.com/d/dba21681-8d3f-4fbe-8b4b-e5c1983df934
sample diagram http://docs.write-live.com/WriteliveServer/webview.html?d=2b...
landing page http://write-live.com/
I had some experience with Angular for making internal dashboards and there I believe it shines, but for regular websites it makes some normally trivial things unnecessary complex - think SEO, back button, rss etc.
I plan to write a detailed blogpost about it but until then you can ping me if you want to know more about my experiences. Happy to chat.
Also started doing a nice trick - get a cool glass bottle, fill it up with water in the morning + some lemons slices and place it on your work desk. Makes hydration so much easier.
* With my spanish knowledge I started to give some courses to help people "hablar español". Funny experience.
* I finally decided of which language I'll learn in 2015: Chinese. I though Japanese I'll be cool as well, but I heard Chinese seems easier for beginners... huehue
* I'm actually keeping learning Ruby On Rails with a really intense learning flow. Which helps me acquire some sort of "coding discipline".
* No more cigarettes. Really proud, really.
PS: If you found some grammar errors, I should apologize. Unfortunately, my native language isn't english.
Very much appreciated!
