

Ask HN: What personal projects/goals are people working on for this summer? - techdemic

Well, school's out for summer, but the learning doesn't stop. Jobs and internships aside, what personal projects/goals do you hope to accomplish during Summer 11'?<p>---<p>I just had my wisdom teeth (all four) removed, and to help pass the time I've been working through Zed Shaw's 'Learn Python the Hard Way'. My end-goal is to have a few Python/Django projects in my portfolio come September.
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swhopkins
I started my summer a bit early: In Feb. I quit my job and moved to Guatemala.
Here I'm spending the mornings learning Spanish, and the afternoons playing
with Rails and Javascript. After I finish my current project, I'd like to look
some into iOS development.

~~~
cj
What brought you to Guatemala?

~~~
swhopkins
Cheap spanish classes (cheap everything, really) and nice weather. The
internet could be a little faster, but I guess you can't have it all.

~~~
czheng
If you get a free weekend, and have an extra $75 or so, you should spend a
couple of nights at Casa del Mundo on Lake Atitlán. Amazing.

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benreyes
Interesting question, techdemic. Just to mention for questions like this on
HackerNews it's often common to prepend the post with 'Ask HN:' in the title.

\----

As for what I'm working on in the summer. If everything goes to plan.

\- A directory of startup tools

\- Brush up on my probability and statistics with the help of the Khan Academy
and some text books.

\- Then explore machine learning. Hope to go through the Stanford Machine
learning video lectures. Then apply some of the modelling to the project
above.

As for goals, I'd like to be ramen profitable with the tool/service directory.

~~~
techdemic
Thanks for the tip Ben, regarding questions for the HN community; it's been
noted.

I'm interested in learning more about this "directory of startup tools" you
mentioned. Will it be a self-compiled directory, or something more
collaborative in nature?

~~~
benreyes
No worries, happy to help. What I'm working on right now is a manually curated
directory for the MVP and hopefully I can get it to ramen profitability during
that phase.

Then will spend some time to work out the algorithms to do the automatic
curation of the services & tools. Hence my interest into exploring probably &
statistics modelling / machine learning further.

I'll send you an email.

------
DTrejo
I'm writing an app that helps you become a better programmer by recording
statistics on your coding style and habits. It is built with node and CouchDB.

If you want to beta test, sign up at <http://hackharder.com/> (really ugly,
gonna fix it soon).

Alpha testing has not yet started, but soon :)

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lkozma
I'd like to:

\- learn the 4 balls mills mess juggling pattern (almost there)

\- become fluent in German (still quite far)

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dkersten
I am currently working on (and will be all summer):

\- MIDI Controller-related stuff (just finished a hardware project, moving on
to some new and advanced firmware mods for the Midifighter).

\- 2D SciFi viking game, using a custom C++/Lua engine, using OpenGL 3 for
graphics, Intel Threading Building Blocks for multicore, SDL 1.3 for windowing
and input, GLM for math, Bullet for physics. Component entity system based. No
audio yet.

\- Backend web development for money.

\- Tinkering with various bits and pieces: a Qt-based mini-dwarf-fortress type
thing; programming language concepts; bitcoin related stuff...

Amount of time spent on each is roughly in the above order, from most time to
least time.

------
beck5
Building an app in Node.js, so will be learning that along with MongoDB.

Have another project to start and need to decide if I use as a tool to learn
Python by using django or if learning 2 new languages/frameworks at a time is
a silly idea.

~~~
m0hit
i'm working on building a node.js + socket.io realtime streaming web app. Also
hoping to run through some of the new javascript frameworks such as
Backbone.js for the frontend along with d3.js for visualization.

aiming to write some more <http://www.privacypatterns.org> so that I can talk
about the project more widely.

------
pkamb
Immediate goals for <http://www.onehandkeyboard.org/>

-Make/upload an example video

-Content... guides for different ailments, etc.

-First sale!

------
ad80
Being a non programmer I try to build my first web app in RoR, but as I am
learning from scratch it will take some time. Any others starting from scratch
here?

On the other hand I am completing a project I am really excited about, a long
kept idea, using external developers, which I hope to reveal in June -
<http://www.mindthebook.com> . Stay tuned.

------
czheng
I've been working on an idea for a data-driven, rule-based web templating
engine semi-inspired by CSS and XSLT. Been doing lots of research and working
on a spec. Maybe by end of summer I'll have found some collaborators.

Aside from that, trying to learn Python.

------
pavelludiq
I'm trying to teach myself how to write games using common lisp, and will be
documenting my experience in the form of a series of screencasts. Mostly
because i want to learn lisp better, learn game programming, and learn how to
produce good screencasts.

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tritogeneia
Learning Python, Django, and JavaScript for a project; goal is to have a
prototype by the beginning of July.

Stuff to learn: numerical linear algebra, dictionary learning, Judea Pearl's
Causality

Research: diffusion geometry for databases (?)

~~~
stc043
Learning Django and Javascript and probably PostgreSQL.

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nocipher
I am working on:

\- Learning Russian with a friend

\- Expanding my background in the core areas of Mathematics

\- Reacquainting myself with graphics programming and implementing at least
part of a game engine.

\- Finding a Thesis topic...

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cfdrake
\- Keep up my blogging streak.

\- Write a small webapp or two (I've got a few ideas).

\- Learn either Node or a functional language.

\- Keep a workout schedule.

Somebody has to remember to repost this question in a month or so... :)

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spcmnspff
My winter break is only about a month before I begin another semester of uni.
I will try to do as much of the following as possible: \- start going through
SICP \- learn python+django \- read up on some of next semester's courses

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callmeed
\- get closer to my blue belt in BJJ, maybe enter a tournament

\- continue my 6 year streak of visiting Hawaii every year

\- potty train my youngest kid and break my 6 year streak of buying diapers

------
harrigan
A real-time fantasy sports website using Rails, jQuery, and Faye -- all new
technologies for me ;-)

<http://www.fantasy5live.com>

~~~
aderaynal
glad to see I'm not the only one here working on fantasy sports ! I've created
<http://pickemfirst.com> and I'd love to chat with you about your project.
email me at alain@pickemfirst.com

~~~
harrigan
You seem to be a a lot further along than me ;-)

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Matt_Cutts
Training to run a marathon in the fall. There's a cool group called USA Fit
that helps folks find each other and run together.

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jensnockert
\- Learn (basic) German

\- Brush up on statistics

\- Write a cloudish music player

~~~
DTrejo
jplayer.org is your friend :)

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badkins
Officially launch my company's first product and snag a sale to a total
stranger.

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taphangum
I'm trying to find a way to show people the ads that they really want to see.

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imjonathanlee
learning another foreign language, going out of country for summer (i work too
hard, I really need a break) and meeting new friends.

