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'?

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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.

[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.

[logicalmike]

I've done this a few times in other countries, such as Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia. I'm interested in Guatamala as a future possibility, but I don't know much about it.

If you have some free time, can you give a run-down of your experience so far?

mike [at] logicalmike [dot] com

[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.

[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.

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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 :)

[lkozma]

I'd like to:

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

- become fluent in German (still quite far)

[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.

[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.

[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...

[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... :)

[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

[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 [e-mail]

[harrigan]

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

[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.

[jensnockert]

- Learn (basic) German

- Brush up on statistics

- Write a cloudish music player

[DTrejo]

jplayer.org is your friend :)

[badkins]

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

[taphangum]

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

[imjonathanlee]

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