Hacker News: Mackser

New comment by Mackser in "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)"

Mackser — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:00:53 +0000

Cakedesk: Fast & simple invoicing app for small businesses (Windows & Mac).

Been working on this for about 4 years. It has some cool features, like letting you create your own PDF templates with HTML/CSS. Most users love that it's so simple and just a one-time purchase.

Currently thinking about how to implement an Obsidian-style cloud sync feature since that gets requested a lot.

https://cakedesk.app

New comment by Mackser in "Resizing windows on macOS Tahoe – the saga continues"

Mackser — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:08:03 +0000

Easy Move+Resize is great for this on macOS: https://github.com/dmarcotte/easy-move-resize

New comment by Mackser in "How I am deeply integrating Emacs"

Mackser — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 10:17:10 +0000

Are there any good videos showcasing a productive Emacs setup like this and how it's used for everyday tasks?

New comment by Mackser in "One-time purchase alternatives to popular subscription tools"

Mackser — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 08:20:53 +0000

I love sites like this. I'm always looking for more apps that let me keep using them even if I stop paying for updates. Adding a $10 monthly subscription will stop me from using most products but I'll gladly pay $100+ for some quality software that I can keep

New comment by Mackser in "Dokku: My favorite personal serverless platform"

Mackser — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 11:00:46 +0000

I've been using Dokku for many years. It's remarkably stable and easy to use. I wrote an extensive tutorial on how to deploy various apps and websites with Dokku in 2018 [1] and I'm sure that following the same steps still works 6 years later.

1: https://maxschmitt.me/posts/tutorial-deploy-apps-websites-do...

New comment by Mackser in "Toasts are bad UX"

Mackser — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 10:57:27 +0000

I haven't heard many developers/designers talk about the overused practice of using toasts for UI feedback.

The post shares a few real-world examples and illustrates some of the problems with how they use toasts.

What do you think? Are toasts overused? In which cases do you use them in your own apps?

Toasts are bad UX

Mackser — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 10:57:27 +0000

Article URL: https://maxschmitt.me/posts/toasts-bad-ux

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41298794

Points: 702

# Comments: 385

New comment by Mackser in "Show HN: I made a free animator. Think Adobe Illustrator but for animation"

Mackser — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:38:42 +0000

This looks really well done! I was able to create a simple animation easily even though I don't know anything about animation software.

By the way, your "Features" page is really well made. I would showcase those features on the homepage. I didn't find the list of features until I clicked the link in one of your comments on HN.

You can also make your project more appealing on the homepage by including a looping demo animation (to see what's possible) and a screenshot of the tool.

Best of luck with the project!

How Plausible Analytics Keeps a Tiny (< 1KB) Tracking Script

Mackser — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 10:33:08 +0000

Article URL: https://maxschmitt.me/posts/tiny-plausible-tracking-script

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38023828

Points: 7

# Comments: 1

New comment by Mackser in "Show HN: Invoice Dragon – An open source app to create PDF invoices"

Mackser — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:56:17 +0000

This is really well made! I know from my experience building Cakedesk [1] that the requirements of invoices vary greatly from country to country and from user to user.

Some things you can add to appeal to more people that are useful to most:

* Keep track of clients and personal info so the user doesn't have to type the address / invoice IDs every time

* Allow users to keep track of which items are paid/unpaid

* Allow users to declare sales tax on the invoices

* Allow users to upload their own HTML-based invoice designs

* Allow users to add subitems to items

Good luck with the project, it looks well-made and it will be useful for many people!

[1]: https://cakedesk.app

New comment by Mackser in "Show HN: Invoice Dragon – An open source app to create PDF invoices"

Mackser — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:55:55 +0000

I started similarly. I had built a really simple HTML template for my invoices and I generated them using some CLI scripts and Airtable as a database (to keep track of customer addresses, invoice IDs, etc.).

I didn't want to use a full-on accounting tool where everything is kept in the cloud with expensive monthly subscriptions and using Word or something along those lines also didn't work for me.