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traviswingoon Ask HN: What are your profitable side projects?

I launched this as a Show HN because I thought it would be fun to build, and it just exploded :). It's profitable, and only a side project. I'll never make it a full-time thing, but the daily users make it a real joy to maintain.

traviswingoon Ask HN: Where can we find the YC W17 company list?

Thanks all. For some reason I thought we usually hear about who's in the batch at the beginning of the term...but it makes more sense to reveal on demo day.

traviswingoon Show HN: Heroku Add-On to Integrate APIs Faster

It's working here Campbell, CA

traviswingoon Why Introverts Are Better at Sales Than Extroverts

I can't take this article seriously. I've never met a (good/great) salesman who was introverted. They are always super comfortable meeting new people and shooting the shit. Saying an introvert is better just because they research and listen doesn't exactly prove a point. All of the aforementioned great, and extroverted, salesmen I mentioned prior researched and listened - that's why they are great.

traviswingoon Most used words in programming languages

Where do the language files get pulled from? GitHub API or web scraping? Or is it not file parsing and some other method?

Super rad project :)

traviswingoon Ask HN: Leaving my job to boostrap my projects. Advice?

First of all, congratulations! This is a big step (albeit a little scary), but it's the kind of step you'll never look back and regret.

I quit my job about a year ago to pursue my startup. It didn't work out, but I don't regret it.

I think the biggest thing that I messed up is truly underestimating my expenses. Make sure you budget (on paper, not just in your head :)) for "miscellaneous" expenses. When bootstrapping a project, it's really easy to say "woah, this really is valuable, I'll just put it on my high interest credit card because I'll be able to pay it off in a couple months with my cash flow." I made the mistake of looking at what it took for me to live and pay my bills, and severely underestimated all those little "misc." expenses that show up when bootstrapping a project.

Oh, and for what it's worth, the company I quit to work on my project full-time hired me back with open arms and a raise :). So don't worry too much about quitting, people understand and support your decisions more than you might think!

Good luck!

traviswingoon Ask HN: People who did coding boot camps, what did you think?

I've never done a coding bootcamp, so feel free to ignore my comment if you feel it is irrelevant.

My overall observation with coding bootcamps is you shouldn't do them. At my current company we have turned away a very, very, large number of applicants who have come from coding bootcamps.

The reason being they have a very narrow skill set and no actual real-life skills. They all build the same projects (this isn't always the case), and seem to always share their bootcamp projects as their own projects.

The best applicants we come across are simply passionate about building quality software. They build things just to build things, and learn because they're interested. They gain a very solid understanding of mathematics and algorithms through MIT OCW, Stanford Online, Coursera, etc...see a pattern? If you're looking to learn to code just to get a job, you'll have a really tough time.

The top 1% of software devs choose where they want to work, they don't ask for jobs and cross their fingers - they're actually very passionate about their work and it truly stands out.

The point is, anyone who is looking to do a coding bootcamp should really ensure this is not the only thing they have when they come out of it. Love coding and solving problems, that's priority #1. The skills will come to those who enjoy it simply because you're always asking questions and learning something new.

traviswingoon Show HN: Explore ideas whose patent protection expires today

This is a great idea! There are undoubtedly many great solutions to be found through here that were either before their time, or simply ignored after filing.

Great work!

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Thanks for the input. I don't intend on putting in full time work on this (maybe just a couple hours a week). It's a side project and will remain as such indefinitely.

I actually built it solely for myself to use when I travel, and I thought it would be fun to build.

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Guilty as charged, with the stories.

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

At first I actually wasn't sure if you were joking or serious, but gifpop.io looks awesome. I'll start looking into how/if I can integrate.

However, If I sent my grandma a postcard that moved, she'd probably collapse :p

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Here's an example. Found in FAQ.

https://postcardbot.co/examples/psc_58b3f6b96b4b9b44.pdf

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

At some point I'll create a web interface and allow CSV address components. Whenever I find the time though :p.

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Exactly. I think we're a bit too impersonal and anti-social with Snaps, Grams, etc. Taking something digital into the analog world makes it more meaningful :).

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

This project was actually pointed out to be when I originally built postacard.io. The difference between the two is I support international postcards, and include a Messenger bot (also an international perk). Other than that, they're essentially the same service, and I think The Simple Postcard is incredibly well built!

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Thanks, will do. Still a work in progress.

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Thanks for the tip :). I honestly didn't take that into consideration when naming the project. I'll see what I can do and if it's worth the extra effort :).

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Good tip! That could be because I'm a bare metal tech geek :p

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Yeah, I'm playing with the pricing model. As a side project, I'd like it to at least break even. The NLP required for parsing addresses uses quite a bit of memory, so this increases the monthly costs to keep it online. Also, sending a postcard outside of the US costs substantially more than within the US. I wanted to find a good pricing structure that's flat, regardless of where the postcard is going.

There's room to reduce these costs as more people use the service. As long as I'm breaking even on servers I'll be happy :).

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Well essentially the platform simply looks at the difference between the width and height, and rotates to fit a 4x6 aspect ratio, gravitated towards the center of the photo. It works best with photos taken directly from a smart phone, uncropped. It also scales the resolution if its not high enough, but this typically isn't an issue if the photo was taken with a modern smartphone today.

You can read a bit about this in FAQ

https://postcardbot.co/faq

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Thanks!

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

It's actually been completely rewritten from the original project. This time it includes NLP for address parsing (this was a huge issue with the first version and didnt work properly internationally). It also includes a Messenger bot integration to avoid the international fees with SMS.

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

Except it isn't an app :), which is the reason for the original inspiration behind the project. Postcards aren't a very popular thing anymore (hopefully that changes!), and I don't quite believe a dedicated app is justified when you can do it straight from SMS or Messenger.

traviswingoon Show HN: Send a Custom Postcard to Anywhere, from Your Phone, for $2.99

This is a full rework of my original project, Postacard.io. The entire project has been completely rewritten. The new version includes a Messenger bot for international use without the SMS fees, as well as statistical NLP in address parsing for faster creation (from start to finish) and better accuracy internationally.

FYI, for those of you using "UK" as your country code. The postcard service this uses recognizes "GB" as the country code for United Kingdom. I'll be putting in an alias for this.

traviswingoon A one-side-project-per-month challenge

I really like this idea. There is a terrible tendency to over engineer the things we make as developers. The practice of finishing and shipping as actually much easier said than done.

I'm in!

traviswingoon Facebook’s Face Recognition Tech Goes on Trial

This seems ridiculous to me.

That being said, Facebook can't just allow users to opt out of biometric data stores?

traviswingoon Creative Tim: Growing a side project into a $17k/month business

Its more about earning passive income from something that was fun to build. I built my side projects simply because I thought it would be fun to build them. The passive income from something I only maintain a few hours a week is just a nice bonus.

traviswingoon Show HN: Postcard Bot - Send a Custom Postcard Anywhere on Earth for $2.99

This is a re-work of my original project (Postacard.io). It introduces statistical NLP for address parsing, as well as a Facebook Messenger bot for better international functionality.

traviswingoon Harassment at Apple: A personal perspective

Exactly. It's hard to understand sometimes until you've witnessed it yourself. Albeit we are living in a "cry wolf" time, actual harassment is a true issue that needs to be taken seriously. Equality and respect aren't that difficult to achieve, I never understood why people are so corrosive towards others. It makes me happy hearing stories about them getting canned over their childish behavior.

traviswingoon Gates, Bezos, and 18 others commit $1B to new cleantech fund

Because these people understand that there are experts in these fields that can do it better than they can. Usually there is always someone who can do it much better, but is really only limited by money.