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    Ask HN: Most interesting tech you built for just yourself?

    1901 points l2silver | 13 comments | 27 Apr 23 15:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.589s | source | bottom

    Maybe you've created your own AR program for wearables that shows the definition of a word when you highlight it IRL, or you've built a personal calendar app for your family to display on a monitor in the kitchen. Whatever it is, I'd love to hear it.
    1. simonsarris ◴[27 Apr 23 17:46 UTC] No.35731879[source]▶
    I built carefulwords.com simply because I wanted to type a word into the address bar and get a large list of synonyms and some historical quotes using the word quickly. For example:

    https://carefulwords.com/solitude

    https://carefulwords.com/think

    etc. Also unlike thesaurus.com, the search bar actually focuses so you can just start typing!

    It's not perfect, I need to do a lot of editing, but nonetheless I use it almost every time I write, now.

    The site is a little over 30,000 static HTML pages built with a number of TypeScript scripts that compile some sources for synonyms, parts of speech, and the quotes.

    replies(9): >>35737582 #>>35737741 #>>35738261 #>>35738311 #>>35740003 #>>35740279 #>>35742820 #>>35750424 #>>35751217 #
    2. AnonC ◴[28 Apr 23 04:55 UTC] No.35737582[source]▶
    This is wonderful, and fast too (because it’s static I guess)! Thanks for building it. I’ll be checking it when I need some inspirational quotes surrounding a word.
    3. kccqzy ◴[28 Apr 23 05:26 UTC] No.35737741[source]▶
    I don't particularly care about synonyms (when I consulted a thesaurus too much my writing became too flowery) but the historical quotes feature was just great! I can imagine downloading the full text of several of my favorite authors and index the words from that corpus.
    replies(1): >>35739741 #
    4. gmac ◴[28 Apr 23 06:48 UTC] No.35738261[source]▶
    Slightly similarly, I made a searchable word list to help with doing or compiling puzzles: https://jawj.github.io/wordtools/ (the ‘anagrams’ link does nothing yet).
    5. feiss ◴[28 Apr 23 06:56 UTC] No.35738311[source]▶
    this is lovely!! neat, clean and useful. I'm gonna use it, thanks for making it!
    6. greenpeas ◴[28 Apr 23 11:00 UTC] No.35739741[source]▶
    Sometimes I know that a precise word for what I want to say exists, and I'll know it when I see it, but I can't quite remember it in the moment. In those cases I search thesaurus for synonyms to related words; or maybe ask ChatGPT these days.
    7. greenpeas ◴[28 Apr 23 11:33 UTC] No.35740003[source]▶
    This is really cool! Could you please add a keyboard shortcut for focusing the input field? (perhaps a forward slash '/' like on Youtube or Github)
    replies(1): >>35740546 #
    8. dombili ◴[28 Apr 23 12:06 UTC] No.35740279[source]▶
    This is awesome! I'll definitely use it.

    It'd be a one time stop for me if it supported definitions (similar to Collins Dictionary) but beggars can't be choosers.

    9. simonsarris ◴[28 Apr 23 12:36 UTC] No.35740546[source]▶
    Sure thing, I'll add that tonight.
    10. davak ◴[28 Apr 23 15:48 UTC] No.35742820[source]▶
    Added as a Kagi bang! Love it.
    11. gniv ◴[29 Apr 23 05:57 UTC] No.35750424[source]▶
    I like it, especially the quotes. Reminds me of linguee.fr, which I use often while learning French.
    12. kristopolous ◴[29 Apr 23 08:41 UTC] No.35751217[source]▶
    It's worth noting the best thesaurus I've found is onelook. Compare to the solitude results

    https://onelook.com/thesaurus/?s=solitude

    This is by datamuse who also does rhymezone (https://datamuse.com/)

    replies(1): >>35759409 #
    13. simplify ◴[30 Apr 23 03:18 UTC] No.35759409[source]▶
    Onelook is incredible. Indispensable for any art of writing.