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Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by 65 on Friday July 05, 2024 @11:09AM (#40883437)
Almost all of the software I make in my free time is for my own use.

My most used tool I have is a note taking web app that automatically saves markdown files to S3. The most important feature I added was a little button that would automatically make a note for the current day, and put it in the daily notes folder, all sorted and organized. I also have full text search which is very helpful for finding old notes.

I also use an RSS reader I made. Instead of just showing you the text of the page like a standard RSS reader, it proxies the web page so you can read the article directly from the website, but with the added benefit that since it's a proxy, I can control all the HTML, CSS, and Javascript on that page.

Another daily one I use is a random background music playlist for Spotify that is auto generated daily. Using the Spotify API you can find random music, then find random instrumental music from that random music. I use this to discover new songs to listen to while working.

Basically, making your own software is fun. Making production software is much less fun. I don't need to worry about a million things when I make my own software. Sure, I make $0, but if I spent months making, for example, my notes app production ready, and tried marketing it, I'm guessing I'd still be sitting at $0.

Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by newsbinator on Friday July 05, 2024 @11:57AM (#40883837)
> Using the Spotify API you can find random music, then find random instrumental music from that random music.

For this, I made a Spotify playlist with 41 hours of instrumental soundtrack music that helps me focus. It's not random like yours, but with that many hours, there's enough variation if you put it on shuffle.

It's mostly epic and uplifting movie scores. Or suspenseful and building up to something... none of that 8-bit video game beep boop shrill stuff.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/31buZEaVGW9f5Y4cEcKtbt?si=...

Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by jasondigitized on Friday July 05, 2024 @09:10PM (#40887466)
Added to my Spotify. Thank you.
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by duckmysick on Saturday July 06, 2024 @04:50AM (#40889088)
Since your #1 song on this playlist is a Star Wars track, there's a fun little easter egg in a Spotify client. The progress bar is replaced with a lightsaber and you can change its handle by clicking on it.
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by bavell on Saturday July 06, 2024 @09:24AM (#40890321)
Couldn't find it...
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by dougdimmadome on Friday July 05, 2024 @11:37AM (#40883660)
> My most used tool I have is a note taking web app that automatically saves markdown files to S3. The most important feature I added was a little button that would automatically make a note for the current day, and put it in the daily notes folder, all sorted and organized. I also have full text search which is very helpful for finding old notes.

I have a very similar thing, mine uses a dropbox folder as a backend so I can easily browse on laptop and use whatever. I like the daily notes idea though!

Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by dudus on Friday July 05, 2024 @01:58PM (#40884731)
Sounds like you'll be better served by obsidian. The free plan covers all those use cases and more
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by meiraleal on Friday July 05, 2024 @02:15PM (#40884841)
Did you read the title of this thread?
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by dudus on Sunday July 07, 2024 @03:35PM (#40899873)
Yes I did. So?
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by dougdimmadome on Monday July 08, 2024 @11:22AM (#40906223)
obsidian came out 2020 and I built my version before 2017. also the initial version was on Windows Phone and I migrated to android later
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by positr0n on Friday July 05, 2024 @11:35AM (#40883647)
How does the full text search work?

On-device copy of all the notes? Text index in another database? Just download them all from s3 when you search?

Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by 65 on Friday July 05, 2024 @11:48AM (#40883759)
Text gets indexed in another database every time a note gets saved/deleted/created. There might be better solutions with AWS Athena but using a simple MySQL database was by far the easiest (and quickest in terms of querying) way to add full text search. My database is paid via usage so I don't have to spend much money, if any, to index my notes.
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by co0lster on Friday July 05, 2024 @11:33AM (#40883638)
I’m stealing Spotify random instrumental music idea! Why I cannot come up with similar ideas by my own? Thats the hardest part I think…
Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by 65 on Friday July 05, 2024 @11:43AM (#40883709)
I actually stole the idea from a guy named Max Hawkins who made a Spotify Daily Random playlist. I made it to be just instrumental music since I wanted it for working.

https://maxhawkins.me/

Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by SushiHippie on Friday July 05, 2024 @12:32PM (#40884094)
> Using the Spotify API you can find random music, [...]

Which API endpoint do you use for this?

Re:Ask HN: Is there any software you only made for your own ... by 65 on Friday July 05, 2024 @12:49PM (#40884228)
There is no endpoint for random tracks. The method I found that works the best is to search for two random letters, e.g. "fq", pick a random result, and then use the API to find recommendations based on that track that have a minimum instrumentalness of, say 0.9, then pick a random recommendation from the results. I store all the songs that have been added to the playlist in a DynamoDB database and make sure no song gets added twice.