Hacker News: Slaul

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)"

Slaul — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:18:15 +0000

One of my priorities is end user privacy so I'm trying to minimize how much access my service would have to the users library of photos.

Rather than me scan all of the photos I'd prefer the user manually select them. Plus, you get the bonus feature of also getting to review your own photos again :) I find a lot of the time I never go back and look at photos I take. I'm trying to evoke feelings of printing photos and putting them in an album. Digital is no substitute for physical, but if I can get close I'll take it haha

I am considering some ease of use features like library scanning / tagging maybe on an opt-in basis perhaps.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)"

Slaul — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:00:54 +0000

In my evenings and weekends I've been working on a photo sharing app for families who want to keep their photos off of social media but still share with family.

I'm expecting my first child soon so I am building it for me and my family first but if it solves a problem for me, maybe others will like it!

The basic idea is that you are uploading a curated set of photos you want to share, not your whole camera roll.

You can create one or several family groups that you can share individual photos or albums to. Members of those family groups can view, comment on, like, etc those photos.

You can also generate sharable links for people who don't have an account with a configurable expiry time.

It currently more or less works on the web but I am also working on iOS and Android apps since that is how my extended family would want to interact with it.

I'm not quite ready to launch it to the public but if anybody is interested in trying it out or offering feedback I can privately share it :)

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: Who is doing Car UX well?"

Slaul — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 19:00:46 +0000

I'm interested in this as well. IMO any vehicle that uses a touchscreen for more than configuration when parked is dangerous and should not be on the road.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: Those making $0/month or less on side projects – Show and tell"

Slaul — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 16:36:04 +0000

I'm not ready to show it off yet, but I'm working on a workout and nutrition tracking service.

No other tool or service out there matches the feature set I want so I decided I'd just build it.

My goal for workout tracking is mostly to make it crazy simple and super fast. As close to 0 barrier between you and your tracking. I want PRs to be more than just "moved a bigger amount of weight". I think volume PRs from rep records, etc are also important.

For nutrition tracking, I want the ability to save some commonly used foods to my local storage to make it faster.

I want discoverable meal planning. The plan is to basically let the user pick a protein, then a cooking style, which expands into different recipes and then side dishes to fit the remaining macros of a given individuals macro goals.

For calorie tracking, I think its important to display that weight change isnt a day by day thing. You need to look at the caloric deficit or surplus for the week or the month vs weight change to see how you are doing. Most other trackers just give you feedback day by day which doesn't really represent reality. They also don't automatically adjust your TDEE over time with weight change.

Not sure if anybody will pay for it, but I want it so I'm going to build it :)

New comment by Slaul in "Japanese Knotweed: The alien shrub that can't be stopped"

Slaul — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 17:47:19 +0000

I see this plant all over the place in my area on the East coast of Canada. It's troubling.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: Meal Planning App?"

Slaul — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 13:42:29 +0000

This is something I'm super interested in and have been working on building something for some time.

I work out a lot and dabble in powerlifting / bodybuilding so I try to track my diet and workouts pretty closely. I haven't found any single app / tool that does everything I want it to.

I struggle with meal variety, shopping lists, and making sure N meals fit xyz macros.

I'm working on a tool where you can basically start from a super basic meal plan / grocery list and then expand the meal variety over time.

I'm also working on various methods of workout / goal tracking.

It's pretty far off from something I can release, even in MVP form, but if anybody is interested feel free to shoot me an email and I can add you to my list of potential early access / testers.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: What chair do you use?"

Slaul — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 18:09:32 +0000

I have a Herman Miller SAYL chairs and I hate it.

I have a $100 Amazon Basics Office Chair at home and its FAR more comfortable.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: What motivates you to do your best work, and work hardest?"

Slaul — Tue, 21 May 2019 12:23:22 +0000

I work best and am most motivated when I am well rested. When I get very tired I find myself feeling almost depressed and am unmotivated to do anything.

New comment by Slaul in "Game dev: Linux users were only 0.1% of sales but 20% of crashes and tickets"

Slaul — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 15:05:37 +0000

I'm in the same boat. I'd love to be done with windows but since I spend a large amount of my free time playing games with friends I need to be on windows.

New comment by Slaul in "LG Releases Gram 17 Laptop: An Ultra-Thin Notebook with a 17.3in Display"

Slaul — Fri, 07 Dec 2018 03:21:13 +0000

I kind of like a glossy screen.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (October 2018)"

Slaul — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 18:04:45 +0000

  Location: NB, Canada
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Probably not
  Technologies: JavaScript,Typescript,React,Angular2+,Java,Python
  Résumé/CV: Send me an email first please
  Email: ben.pottle@gmail.com

I have several years of experience working with both Frontend and Backend technologies.

I am currently most interested in Fullstack development, I quite enjoy designing the APIs my UI will interact with.

I've built, deployed, and supported many complex solutions on teams of various sizes ranging from just me to a dozen or more.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: Best alternative to Gmail?"

Slaul — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 14:58:13 +0000

If I switch from gmail and I set up automatic forwarding of my emails to my new service, does Google still read my mail? Is there any easy migration path from gmail to another service that doesn't involve updating my email for every service I've ever used?

New comment by Slaul in "Nvidia announces RTX 2000 GPU series with ‘6x more performance’ and ray-tracing"

Slaul — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 19:39:06 +0000

4k gaming is still very much GPU limited. The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X often do not render at the full 3840x2160, do not run at 60FPS, and have individual graphics settings turned down compared to a PC for example.

I am currently running a 1080TI with an 8700k and at 4k resolutions I still need to turn down some graphics settings to maintain 60FPS and <100% GPU usage while my CPU sits at 40-50% usage.

If the 2080TI is 50% faster than a 1080TI than perhaps it will be the card that is able to push 4k 144FPS for the faster refresh 4k monitors that are starting to come out.

New comment by Slaul in "Show HN: Javalin 2.0 – A Kotlin/Java web framework"

Slaul — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 13:33:01 +0000

I've kept an eye on this project for a little while, I'd like to use it for the backend of my next side project.

It looks pretty easy to get started with, I am looking forward to it.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2018)"

Slaul — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 17:23:34 +0000

  Location: NB, Canada

  Remote: Yes

  Willing to relocate: Probably not

  Technologies: Java, Python, JavaScript, React, Angular2+

  Résumé/CV: Shoot me an email :)

  Email: ben(dot)pottle(at)gmail.com

I am a fullstack dev currently focusing on React and Angular2+ with NodeJS/Java/Python backends.

I spend several hours a week coding in my spare time working on learning new things and practicing my craft.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: What were/are you doing at age 25? What would you change?"

Slaul — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 14:15:07 +0000

The best time to start getting fit is always yesterday. It is never too late!

Checkout /r/fitness on Reddit for some example beginner routines that were helpful when I first started out.

It's really easy to get overloaded with information when first starting out. Keep it simple, figure out what works for you.

I love heavy lifting so I focus on squats, deadlifts, bench press, etc but I also make sure I do at least 30-60 minutes of cardio to finish off a session at the gym to keep my heart in good shape too.

New comment by Slaul in "Announcing Rust 1.27.2"

Slaul — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 17:59:07 +0000

The post says Rust 1.27.2 will reject that code.

New comment by Slaul in "Reasons You Should Put the Mouse on the Left If You’re Right-Handed"

Slaul — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 13:55:42 +0000

I have always used my mouse on the left side of the keyboard despite being right handed. I think it comes down to being a child learning to play PC games and not really having the dexterity in my left hand to control WASD and the various keybinds properly with my left hand. So I adjusted to mouse on the left and right hand on the keyboard.

It does make it annoying to type and play games at the same time though since I usually have to move the keyboard pretty far off center to get comfortable and if I want to type I have to move it back to center first.

New comment by Slaul in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2018)"

Slaul — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 13:05:49 +0000

  Location: NB, Canada

  Remote: Yes

  Willing to relocate: Probably not

  Technologies: Java, Python, JavaScript, React, Angular2+

  Résumé/CV: Shoot me an email :)

  Email: ben(dot)pottle(at)gmail.com

I'm a full stack developer with about 4 years of experience working on everything from complex, data-driven applications to simple python scripts.

I've worked on UIs big and small, from simple dashboards to larger scale data analytics interfaces.

I enjoy working towards a high unit test coverage and ensuring that the code I write is of high quality.

New comment by Slaul in "Announcing NPM 6"

Slaul — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:04:17 +0000

That's definitely a fair reason, thanks.