Hacker News: houssem_fat

New comment by houssem_fat in "A Summary of Electronics"

houssem_fat — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 10:11:27 +0000

Nice work. Need a a little more work on the website.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Textures.js is a JavaScript library for creating SVG patterns"

houssem_fat — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 08:50:58 +0000

Perfect timing, i just started building a tool to create dynamic customized charts without code. Thanks for sharing !

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: How can I pick a side project and stick with it?"

houssem_fat — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 18:31:40 +0000

Having exactly the same issue here, i have been working on many software side projects since a while (for 7 years now) and never launched a successful product. For the most of ideas i built about 30/40 % of the platform (user management, profile, authentication, backend apis, emails, architecture, messaging systems, dockerization, other stuff, blogs ...). For me the real obstacles (and what make me give up) were how to put the key features that make my solution better than others. I feel motivated and very exicited for some time but then it collapsed because i need to digg more for the best solution. Examples: 1-how to add e2e video/messaging encryption to an appointment medical app. 2- how to use sms alternative solution to web/mobile apps for farmers who don't have internet connection without using other third parties. 3- build a learning platform for kids but figure out how to provide the cheapest computer solution (raspberry based maybe) because these kids cannot afford a computer. I learnt a lot from these projects both in technical and business aspects but i still feel the imposter syndrome every time i talk about my ideas or when i see another solution similar to my idea who works just fine. But i'm sure that hard things need more hard work. Thank you for this thread.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Pure CSS – Lace"

houssem_fat — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 11:38:15 +0000

Wow, amazing work !!

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: How do you keep track of the interesting things you find on HN?"

houssem_fat — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 12:29:17 +0000

I think that https://notion.so worth a try.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Where am I going wrong?"

houssem_fat — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 21:18:16 +0000

I'm facing the same experience. I see how it's exhausting and depressive the feel of "failure". I quit my first job trying to clone some successful idea to run it in my country with no background in marketing or business. I was driven by dreams and hoped to be independent but there was no business vision. After two years, i returned to work with other companies, but i continue to work in side projects. I think the worst error that we made is the pursuit of "perfection", trying to do what big sass companies does with hundred of engineers. Big companies fail and fail a lot but they can surpass that by other resources. To summarize, i think the lean startup is the basic of any business (in software and all other business fields), it consists on building an "ugly" solution ( for a real problem) first than sell it and than continue till perfection. We can learn a lot from yahoo and nokia ...

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 09:16:06 +0000

Hi sammidelali, thank you for your interest. There's no 'our solution' in in the exact meaning of word, the hardware is a way for access to internet. Our goal is to provide (via internet or computer technologies) a lot of inaccessible software tools in a fun/animated way and that's may be achieved using computer, tablets, Tv with usb disk ..

This project was propsed 4 five years ago and i started by talking to education responsables who thought that's 'unmanaged and hard to set up'. The idea is simple, we believe that every child 'should' access to learning ressources in a virtual way regardless his location. For the sustainablity part, i think that the average age of a large numbers of electronics is limited, and may be recycled after that. We are talking about a game like tool.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 01:12:04 +0000

Thank you patrickserrano !! This is will be great if we establish an affordable plan with a 3 or 4 year engagement. We can support this if we found a partnership or an investment, that's will be a good option for better quality.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 00:21:16 +0000

This is very interesting, Thank you daniher !! Sharing and portability are nice features and these systems are so important, as they have already a lot of pre-build tools. Still need a pc or a raspberry pi like system to read usb. But thanks again !

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 00:02:16 +0000

Thank you jlgaddis ! Really, we don't try to be a hardware company, we just try to find a reasonable way to a child fo owning a device with internet access and 'reasonable' performance. Our freemium business model really didn't focus on such areas neither in hardware, if we found a hardware provider partner that offers affordable plans ( such as paying 5$ per month during a year instead of all), this will be great for us so we can focus only on software apps. In The zone that we target, they never used computers before, most use cellular phones or cheap smartphones but this is for parents not children.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 23:40:37 +0000

Thank you dlnb ! I really liked the idea, nice to know about it !! this will be very helpful !

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 23:35:41 +0000

For keyboards, we can deal with refurbished or used. For storage, you are right, SDcard is the primary option, in a standalone product, it's not cheap (about 20%) comparing the total board price but we can find a more suitable formula if it will be included within the board. But the display will still a challenge if we choose to build custom board. HDMI TV are not such used in rural zones, they still need some time to be accessible in price and popularity.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 23:19:11 +0000

Thank you hux_ !! will check it !

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 23:18:02 +0000

Thank you ronsor ! We really need a web browser, enough memory and kind of 'performant' CPU / GPU to run html and js applications. So, a customized os like chrome os will be suitable if we choose to build our custom solution.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 23:14:46 +0000

Hi DoreenMichele, Thank you !! And I greet you for your self learning.

Yes you are right, we are based in Tunisia. Really, we don't have a critical issues to access electricity compared to other african countries.

With 50$ (120 Dt) in average, you can buy smartphone and tablets, most are chineese brands either with their names or under white labeled 'Tunisian' brands, and some known brands (huwaiey, sumsing, ZTE) that provide some low-cost of their products dedicated to developing countries.

We first thought about tablets because it's provide large screen and they gave us the possibilities to develop the system. The smartphone is a great choice also but we need to adapt our apps in a responsive way so can be rendered in multiple screen sizes.

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 22:45:12 +0000

Hello, Thank you kazishariar ! Right now, we are not using a special framework for managing system, Edx maybe our primary choice if we think about a all-in-one system. But instead, we decide to build apps by categories instead of building a generic one. We are focusing on the way we create content by subject.

We started developing a story editor with basic images, texts, and sounds (so we can add effects in the story). We also developed a small version of a simple sheet music editor with a virtual piano and sounds. For geographic, historic and animals anatomy illustrations, we use a map-like editor, so the teacher can draw shapes, add voice, timelines ...

For the internet access, there are many places that already covered by 3G service, What's good for us, is that the area size of the country is small, so, network providers can extends theirs services without huge investments.

Tell me if i replied your question or missed something !

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 22:14:00 +0000

We don't aim to replace the standard ''book' support, our goal is to provide the inaccessible tools and based on child curiosity we open new opportunities to learning subject such as astronomy, music... I'm a computer engineer who born in a such region, and i only touched the keyboard at the university. We are talking about places where the school is the first and the only source of learning and the TV is the only source of entertainment. No public libraries, no clubs, no house cultures .... Our education system is designed to provide a standard vision for all kids in the country regardless their interests, cultures, communities background. They are designed based on 'old' vision for the industrial jobs needs, and as these jobs still decreasing, the unemployment rate in Tunisia is about 20% for graduated people (this rate does'nt include the dropouts). So, we all know sure that something wrong with current system, but this is not our first goal. Our main goal is simple, provide fun learning tools for kids (virtual telescope, piano, guitar ...)

New comment by houssem_fat in "Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones"

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 21:43:08 +0000

Thank you @tyngq! Chrome OS will be beneficial to us, as it already supports all of our web based solutions. But even with the prices of refurbished solutions, it still expensive, as we target a maximum 50$ solution for each child. Also, our business model is not the hardware part.

Ask HN: Providing cheaper EdTech tools for rural zones

houssem_fat — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 20:17:24 +0000

We are building a company (http://www.keedo.tn) to reduce the gap in education accessibility between urban and rural zones and private/public systems. We provide web apps and learning tools (we already started developing some tools like a virtual piano, body anatomy viewer, maps for geographic subjects, stories reader and so on) and we are fully cloud based, so everything is accessible and shared over the network.

Our big challenge is to provide a cheap computer with internet connection, (wifi/3G) support and acceptable performance. For information, the family income for our first clients in such regions, is on average $130 per month. We love the OLPC_XO http://laptop.org/en/laptop/ project idea (worldreader.org also) but their price is still high for our target clients and we try to avoid donations as much as possible.

First we thought about low cost white label tablets (most are china ODM/OEM providers), but from experience and reviews, they seems to be less performing with intensive usage. Now we have two solutions, either we use an already proven SOCs like PINE A64, Raspberry pi or we develop our custom pc. Any pointers, suggestions or collaborations will be highly appreciated!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16199748

Points: 43

# Comments: 42