bhu1st

I was at awe when I ran MARIO.BAS on QBasic back in 1998. Probably I got the code from a QB forum. It kept me glued to screen for weeks.

https://www.bhupal.net

I keep posting occassional reflections on work and Nepalese tech community.

If I were a PM at SO, I'd consider pivoting it to a social networking platform for programmers prioritizing relationships, messaging, jobs and interview support etc just enough features to make it not too generic like Linkedin.

Paid expert support in natural extension to bounty based q/a. Also, an AI with human in the loop.

I'm building a low-tech work tracker for my brother who is a consultant with small team.

LP: https://www.dodolr.com

Beta: https://beta.dodolr.com

Chess engine is already a solved problem, yes, but Baghchal would love some attention. I have been maintaining https://www.baghchal.net for more than a decade now and I dream of the day I could integrate Stockfish like Engine for Baghchal one day. I haven't gotten chance to dive deep into this myself because of work and personal reasons but it could be a great niche to explore since you mentioned about Chess. Look into it.

Also, check this: https://github.com/bhu1st/obx

Try beta release at: https://beta.dodolr.com?r=hn

Please drop your feedback.

It's on closed testing, not live for public yet. Could you please drop your email on the Request Early Access form which is above the footer of the landing page? I'd be happy to send you access details.

I have been working on a minimalist and calm work/task tracking app called Dodolr (doo-doo-lr) which supports tasks (dodos), notes and follow-up since last few months. I deliberately didn't build notification or reminders and leave it to the user to be fully accountable for completing their work (moving tasks to terminal stages). I'm building it for 3 local customers. Would be happy to give Early Access to any solo founder and power user who prefer non intrusive tools to keep a tab at their work. The app works well form small 1-3 person team very well.

The landing page is at: https://www.dodolr.com

Please submit the Early Access form if you want an access. Happy to answer questions here as well.

I bought jotnus.com for similar idea but it never saw a light of the day.

You need a fire on you a* to build a software yourself. Next time you have an urge to buy an app or a software, give a shot at vibe coding it with AI and piecing the software together yourself. You will learn a lot along the way.

At some point, spend a good time learning the grammar and syntax of a programming language (can be any). This will make you navigate vibe coding with ease.

Does Goji mean a pocket?

If you don't have an old device lying around to make use of, here's an X thread I found a while ago supporting similar habit for kids: https://x.com/ValKatayev/status/1926734004314624481

I have set up a similar Google sheet for my 12 yo, which is shared with him on view-only mode. He loves the idea that he's earning $$ every day out of his savings. He's on fire to grow his investment to the point that he earns $5 every day, "while sleeping". He's currently making ~$2/day.

I setup an old Kano OS on Raspberry Pi 3 for my 8 yo boy. He managed to finish challenges upto Level 8 by himself mostly. The OS has block based programming challenges and games. The Pi PC is his and he is hacking it whenever he feels like. No pressure, not forcing him to learn coding or anything. I'm curious how it will unfold in later years.

I built a polyphonic ringtone maker that could create Nokia 1600-compatible ringtones in QBasic. Good ol days.

I have interest in this space, but as you wrote the software will be only useful if kids want to create games and there aren't many kids (I think) who want to create their own game. Kids mostly want to play for fun.

My kids play Roblox for pure entertainment, but I think the experience can be improved. Making a platform like Roblox that's fun to play and has ability to extend (the learning and game creation) it easily would be great. Atmosphere was great but it vanished.

Looks great. How can I contribute as a dev?

For these same reason I hand coded a router with Psr4 autoloader which does work for my projects. Most clients I work for never ask for Laravel or anything specific, they just want the business logic working.

I built this for kids in my family https://bhupal.net/alphabees

It is 95% written by Claude with Cursor free tier. The good part, 5 yrs old want more features like more levels, nice graphics, they basically want all their book in this style but I don't have resources to take this further.

P2P collaborative document/code editor. Not reliant on a central server.

Good people are found, not changed, built, or nurtured. Don't get blindsighted thinking in terms of people's potential. If they are not what you want today, they will never become.

Hence, your best bet is to explore but be picky about who you'd want in your life, in your job/business/friend/relationship, etc.

SLYP for deep sleep:

- S *Shape Tomorrow:* Make a mental note of 1-3 major things to do tomorrow during work hours.

- L *Love & Gratitude:* 5 minutes on bed: acknowledge one positive thing from today about d2d life, family, and work & feel love and gratitude, and be thankful for this day.

- Y *Your Daily Movie:* Recall everything throughout your day, EVERYTHING, recall as many details as you can remember (audio, video, emotions, feelings). Play the daily movie forward & backward, slow or in a flash.

- P *Prayer & Sleep:* Pray for peace & have a deep sleep (by the time you reach this step you're already flat asleep.)

I wanted to have better sleep and created the SLYP steps and followed them ritually for about a year but nowadays I am flat as soon as I reach my bed.

If you speak two languages, you can look into translating books from one to another.

The teams I worked with in the past (even a Bay Area startup) never felt like a A-team. Over the last few years, I've developed a preference for Indie work and loving it.

I use it to convert (translate) complex sounding English text chuncks into Nepali language and it hasn't disappointed me.

I am working on BEXT https://github.com/bhu1st/bext

Wrote a basic parser for this and using it I get the records in JSON which I use to show simple progress bars and dashboard.

Parser: https://github.com/bhu1st/bext-php

Some things you can try: Taking a break and volunteering locally or abroad. Traveling to explore nature and culture. Mentoring first-time founders. Improving open source projects on your domain etc.

they lack a personal system for getting things done

What kind of system? Can you elaborate?

A Nepalese Movie Database like IMDB would be a cool project.

Reading isn't hard per se but actually sitting on your desk day and night reading your favorite creator's code statement by statement and trying to understand it is a hard but rewarding skill if you aim to become a better programmer.

I am practicing a different approach lately. Rather than spending energy on taking good decision I'd pick a decent one out of the options I have and work on it to make it good in the timeframe available for execution.