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Ask HN: What are you working on over the winter break?
14 points by pshapiro on Dec 25, 2010 | hide | past | favorite | 21 comments



1) Writing a little RTS (similar to Space Game or Harvest, starting from creepsmash: http://towerdefence.hft-stuttgart.de/ )

2) Finding a job

3) QR Code Wrapping Paper https://github.com/tinystatemachine/QRapping-Paper

4) Learning Lift

5) A little app which parses police incident blotter PDFs and renders histograms, heatmaps, etc, of crime data

6) Arduino hacking with 802.15.4 (ZibBee) radios


Excellent question, I referenced it in a [post](http://blog.sprawsm.com/post/2455825582/breaks) on our blog.

In our case we will try our best to push out at least the private beta of a Web app we have been working on for a couple of months in-house. We have a working, semi-functional alpha already which we are using internally, but we're really hoping for a more completed feature set for the private beta.


Thanks man!

Interesting -- that's actually very similar in process to what we're doing. :)



1) http://digest.io - diet manager

2) http://spotted.at - social search


I'm optimizing the background services that do all the real work on Playtomic, and refining them a little. Two down, three to go.

Then I'm going to go and add error catching to one obsolete component of the system that's used by some games and throws just enough exceptions to bug me in the eventlog.

I sent my pitch off today too to a guy who wants to be a part of it, so I'm mentally exploring that possibility too.


My tan and my beach volleyball game. Working a couple of hours a day and getting back at it in January.



Working on implementing an interpreter for a functional language I designed called Scotch.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2037560


Redesigning my website, designing a website for Seva Mandir USA (an NGO I volunteered for), fixing RSS After 5, trying to implement Google Instant for text fields as a chrome extension


A Distributed Sat-Solver written in Java with networking in Erlang.

Fun but no $$$


One thing I'm finishing up is a bot written in C++ for a slightly popular chat program. First thing I've ever written that I expect someone will purchase.


A customized Google search-engine for ESL, Expat, and Korea-related info: http://searchESLCafe.com


Redesigning parts of the ux in one of our apps. I've sketched out the new layout, now awaits Coda.


Trying to revive the art style of Ultima 1-5, upres it, and generally make it more "stylish."


a dating site that treats men and women differently.


Reading "Programming Collective Intelligence".


FWIW, there's already a thread on this topic:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2026716

But to answer the question: I started out with a goal of integrating Apache Shindig[1] into Quoddy[2] to enable OpenSocial[3] support. A very basic version of that is up and working, so now I'm working on refining the account / profile "stuff" in Quoddy and factoring out some common code for use in another project[4].

I'm also trying to get in a fair bit of reading. I had started Googled[5] before the break, and I finished that earlier today. I'd also started Simply Complexity[6], which I finished sometime in the last 24 hours or so (time is starting to become a fuzzy concept to me here). Then I read The Facebook Effect[7] which I just finished up a few minutes ago, and now I'm starting to re-read Bill Gates' Business @ The Speed of Thought[8]. Once I finish that, I'm hoping to find time to squeeze in The Art of Enterprise Information Architecture[9] and - if things go smashingly well - Complexity - A Guided Tour[10].

1: http://shindig.apache.org

2: https://github.com/fogbeam/Quoddy

3: http://www.opensocial.org

4: https://github.com/fogbeam/Neddick

5: http://www.amazon.com/Googled-End-World-As-Know/dp/014311804...

6: http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Complexity-Clear-Guide-Theory/d...

7: http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connect...

8: http://www.amazon.com/Business-Speed-Thought-Succeeding-Digi...

9: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Enterprise-Information-Architectur...

10: http://www.amazon.com/Complexity-Guided-Tour-Melanie-Mitchel...


"FWIW, there's already a thread on this topic:"

Thanks for pointing that out. Had no idea.

You've quite an impressive list there!


Well, I don't go back to work at my $DAYJOB until the 4th of Jan., so I still have quite a bit of time for reading / hacking in front of me. :-)


Nothing as glamorous as you guys. Working as an intern at Gridbots Technologies[1] which is a robotics company. It has helped me expand my knowledge about embedded systems and pushed me to try out new things (like the LPC2148 which is an ARM7 based controller).

After that I will work on a handheld AtMega32 based Interactive Fiction platform on which you can write and play your own interactive fiction stories (a bit old school but there is atleast one user, ME!)




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