HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

apancik

301 karma · joined August 3, 2012

submissionscomments
apancik··on Excel never dies (2021)
Excel has some functionality that Google Sheets are missing that is used in this particular use case. More specifically, it has a primitive called Table. After you set up your data as Tables, you can then reference whole columns as Table1[Column1] and it also fills your formulas down as you add more rows.

I don't want to defend Excel too much, as it is not ideal in many ways. Nevertheless, over time, I found myself using it more and more to prototype and visualize data. With magic features like Pivot charts, Flash fill, and Data tables you can hammer out a one-off "app" in a matter of minutes.

apancik··on Cheap and simple way to mount a smartphone directly above a laptop display
I've been using this method with pretty good result: https://github.com/apancik/iphone-as-a-webcam
apancik··on Ask HN: Projects that don't make you money but you're doing it out of sheer joy?
I made Plain Email [0] just because I couldn't find any email client with clean work flow without distractions. I use it pretty much every day. Thinking about open sourcing it - just can't find the time to refractor it nicely.

I also built news aggregator 10HN [1] with throttling (ten best articles every morning and every evening). I use it daily and it helped to fight my procrastination a lot. It's also interesting to watch the data how stories evolve and get popularity.

[0] http://www.plainemail.com/ [1] http://10hn.pancik.com

apancik··on Ask HN: Which sites you visit on a regular basis for knowledge and inspiration?
Thank you! I definitely care and it's on my todo list. I use it mainly on a phone so naturally I keep forgetting to get to it.
apancik··on Ask HN: Which sites you visit on a regular basis for knowledge and inspiration?
Some time ago I built https://10hn.pancik.com/ to aggregate and rank interesting articles and make them easily readable on the phone. There are days when I don't read anything else, just swiping through 10HN reading few long reads.
apancik··on Quit Social Media, Your Career May Depend on It
What I found is that blocking completely works less than just delaying the page for a bit with something like https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/waitblock/kcnjfepp...

That way I have enough time to think and question whether I really want to open the page I was about to open, and I don't disable the whole thing if I actually need to visit it.

apancik··on Blocklist of all Facebook domains
I discovered that using https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/waitblock/kcnjfepp... to add a delay before opening the time-wasting website actually works better when trying to procrastinate less. Waiting 60 seconds before Fb loads gives you enough time to think about whether you want to visit it, but is also not so inconveniencing that it would make you disable it straight away when you actually want to visit the site.
apancik··on Show HN: Plain Email – An app for one-touch email processing
I've been checking out N1 before I started playing with this. Great job! Will shoot you an email soon!
apancik··on Show HN: Plain Email – An app for one-touch email processing
"Done" just archives
apancik··on Show HN: Plain Email – An app for one-touch email processing
Thanks for the note! I will look into it
apancik··on Show HN: Plain Email – An app for one-touch email processing
I've edited the title from "tinder for email" as causing confusion wasn't the goal. Thanks for all the feedback!
apancik··on Show HN: Plain Email – An app for one-touch email processing
I used "respond" straight from Merlin Mann's lecture. I agree that it might create some mental overhead. I'll make a note to change it
apancik··on Show HN: Plain Email – An app for one-touch email processing
Defer forces you to book a time in your calendar instead of "snoozing" the message just so that it reappears later. Actually, snoozing was one of the most exciting features I saw in Mailbox, but after using it heavily I realised I get plenty of messages on Monday morning back to inbox and I just snooze them again. It turned to be a complete disappointment for me
apancik··on Show HN: Plain Email – An app for one-touch email processing
I tried to explain that you have to decide what to do with the currently viewed email (you can see only one) without skipping
apancik··on Show HN: 10HN – Top articles from HN served every morning and every evening
Click and drag left on the "swipe left" label. Does that work? It's too mobile optimized :)
apancik··on Show HN: 10HN – Top articles from HN served every morning and every evening
Btw if you own an Apple device you can bookmark this to your homescreen for app-like behaviour (i.e. no URL bar)
apancik··on Show HN: 10HN – Top articles from HN served every morning and every evening
That is actually very interesting. I was wondering how Pocket (or any readitlater service) could operate if that was the case. I did this mostly for myself so didn't think about it much
apancik··on Show HN: 10HN – Top articles from HN served every morning and every evening
Should be back up now!