←back to thread

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

1901 points l2silver | 1 comments | 27 Apr 23 15:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.243s | source

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. 0xbadcafebee ◴[28 Apr 23 18:42 UTC] No.35745382[source]▶
A bootable mini-CDROM that I would pop into two dozen computers in a computer lab after hours that would turn the lab into an OpenMOSIX SSI cluster and auto-eject the CDs. All I had to do to reset the lab is ctrl+alt+delete on all the machines.

I also built a CarPC back before we had smartphones that could do everything. I wrote some custom Perl software for it:

- An audible user interface that allowed a remote control, a keypad, or voice commands to speak-navigate a series of menus, to allow running programs, selecting music to play, etc. It was extremely low-latency, fast and clear, to allow very rapid navigation. No need to look away from the road, unlike every annoying car navigation menu I've ever used.

- A music interface to allow selecting playlists, shuffling music, pausing/skipping, etc

- A program to play the next of a pre-written instruction when approaching a GPS coordinate; basically, ghetto turn-by-turn GPS nav

- A wardriving interface to tell you when a new access point was captured and if it was unencrypted and high signal

- A video player hooked up to a mini monitor installed in the dash