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

1901 points l2silver | 5 comments | 27 Apr 23 15:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.848s | 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. api_or_ipa ◴[29 Apr 23 00:22 UTC] No.35748760[source]▶
https://neighbs.us/

Really fucking dumb. Uses browser geolocation to tell me which neighborhood in San Francisco I'm currently standing in. Grabbed the lat/longs of each neighborhood from the SFData [0]. It works by plotting a circle representing your location + uncertainty and determining which of SF's 117 neighborhoods intersect with it. If your circle intersects with more than one neighborhood, it's smart enough to categorize them in order of certainty. It even automatically updates as you move, it's pretty fun to sit in an Uber and watch the neighborhood change as you move across the city. Learned a lot about polygon intersection algorithms, they're pretty amazing!

Built it a number of years ago when I moved here. Since it runs entirely in the browser, it's hosted for free on github pages and I don't need to maintain a server.

0 https://datasf.org/opendata/

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2. KMnO4 ◴[29 Apr 23 00:36 UTC] No.35748833[source]▶
Small aside, I hate the concepts of neighborhoods. If someone tells me they’re from Highland, or Bakerson, or Rockwell, that means absolutely nothing to me. The boundaries are so arbitrary, and when I’m driving I don’t have any indication when I cross one or which one I’m in. I’d rather people just tell me they’re close to the intersection of Major St A and Big Road B. Or that they’re near the IKEA.

It’s especially frustrating on dating apps like Hinge which only show neighborhoods. Half the time I don’t even know if they live in the same city as me.

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3. api_or_ipa ◴[29 Apr 23 00:58 UTC] No.35748942[source]▶
Usually I'd agree with you, but San Francisco is _really_ into its neighborhoods. Woe unto you if you say you're in Potrero Hill when you're in Dog Patch, or say you're in the Mission when you're on 12th street on the edge of SOMA. It's why I built the webapp, since as a new-comer I was finding myself on the receiving end of a lot of unwarranted ribbing over where exactly I was!
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4. zamnos ◴[29 Apr 23 14:08 UTC] No.35752995[source]▶
But how does that work when you've never heard of Major St A or Big Road B? I know I don't know where all of the neighborhoods in my city are, but I know I've not heard of all of the major streets in my city.
5. robjs ◴[29 Apr 23 15:43 UTC] No.35753999{3}[source]▶
Oh, it definitely is (re: SF being into neighbourhoods)! Cool project.

Kudos on recognising “Fairmount” versus lobbing it in with Glen Park or Noe Valley. (I don’t /really/ have a complex about this - but the neighbourhood does have some interesting history!)