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

1901 points l2silver | 1 comments | 27 Apr 23 15:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.31s | 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.
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speleding ◴[30 Apr 23 09:26 UTC] No.35760973[source]▶
I built the "Harry Potter clock", a screen that shows the location of each family member. It's just and old monitor on the kitchen wall + raspberry pi + zigbee 220V plug to switch it off at night.

I worked beautifully for a few years displaying Apple's "Find My" via a Chromium browser in kiosk mode. However, Apple closed off web access to Find My, so I've now redone it via Google Maps. The Google Maps version doesn't work nearly as well and the maps are cluttered with lot's of stuff you don't want to see, so I'm currently looking at redoing it again by using the Home Assistant app and API.

replies(1): >>35761041 #
tremere ◴[30 Apr 23 09:41 UTC] No.35761041[source]▶
Could you do it using Apple Maps app on the Mac?
replies(1): >>35763282 #
1. speleding ◴[30 Apr 23 15:13 UTC] No.35763282[source]▶
I suppose the "Find My" app on the Mac could indeed provide the same result more easily, but then I would need to sacrifice a somewhat recent Mac to the project instead of a raspberry pi (... cost times 10)