App / Updates — Comments Off
04
Jan 11

Download offset files in Subtitle Fixer

I was trying to get the download the result file in Subtitle Fixer, but it was getting late for the release and I had to miss that feature. Turns out it was a fairly simple task. Just create a Response object and set the Content-Type and Content-Disposition in the headers.

response = Response(content)
response.headers['Content-Type'] = 'text/srt'
response.headers['Content-Disposition'] = "attachment; filename=%s.srt" %key

So this makes the app a bit more complete and now I can sleep well. Actually I can stop thinking about the missing feature and work on the next project. Thanks Anish for the feedback – helped me to look at the code with a fresh mind.

App — 2 comments
04
Jan 11

Announcing App 1: Project Status Tracker

I was not checking my comments pending for approval queue and I missed the 4 comments by my friends. One comment was about my next app and I think it is time I blogged about it.

It is an idea given by a Hacker News user asking for an “Hacker News App Status Tracker app – Something where HN hackers can post a list of the apps they’re working on, basic details, start date, expected completion date, etc.”

I immediately thought that it is a good idea and decided my other app ideas are simple enough and if I get this one out first, I would atleast have a small community which will immediately use my app.

So, this is what I have in my mind. A social network kind of website where anyone registers and creates a project that they are (or want to) working on. And you start updating the project with status updates (just like what you do on facebook/twitter) but will be specific to the project you are working on.

Other users will be able to see your projects and follow you/your projects timeline. They will be able to see how complete your project is and can encourage you or offer help.

Important thing to note here is – its not another project management tool. It doesn’t have any issue tracker, source control, support forums, etc. Its plain simple way to get updates about your favorite projects and also help others.

I will keep updating on this blog and am open to any suggestions or criticism. I am also looking for a good name for this – with an unregistered domain name and hopefully also a twitter handle.

Lessons — 2 comments
01
Jan 11

Lesson 1: Software will always be delayed

One important lesson that I learnt is that any software planned for a release will be delayed. Classic example is the app 0 – Subtitle Fixer. I was working on it for the past two days and was almost finished. But as they say, the remaining 10 % takes 90 % of the time to complete.

I wanted to release it on December 31, but was off by a day. This shows that I need to plan my releases better. Let us see how my next release is going to be.

App — 6 comments
01
Jan 11

App 0: Subtitle Fixer

Subtitle fixer is an app that I started a few days back working on the spare time I got. It all started when me and my wife were watching a movie and downloaded lots of subtitle from OpenSubtitles and all we got were off by a few minutes. We tried the “track synchronization” feature in VLC to sync the subtitles with the voice, but we couldn’t go beyond 99 seconds. And everytime you watch the movie, you need to remember to sync your subtitles.

So, I thought I could write a simple app which can take in a subtitle file and an offset (both positive and negative) – returns back the new subtitles file. And I did write one and made it as an app using Google AppEngine and Tipfy.  Didn’t use any special extensions one gets with Tipfy. Right now it supports only .srt file.

Go to subtitlefixer.appspot.com and try it yourself with some .srt file. Do leave your feedback here.

Uncategorized — Comments Off
01
Jan 11

Suggest your ideas or vote for others ideas

Earlier this morning, I had posted to Hacker News about App A Month and someone suggested to have a way for people to suggest/vote on ideas from which I can choose one to work on.

I have created a uservoice site, where anyone can look at other’s ideas, vote on them or suggest a new idea that they would like to see. This will be an open list and anyone can pick an idea from here and work on it.

The list is pretty empty right now, so do go to appamonth.uservoice.com and suggest new ideas.

Uncategorized — Comments Off
31
Dec 10

What and Why?

App a month is an interesting project that I will be doing in the year of 2011. I will be developing and releasing an app every month. Check out the blogial blog post on why I am doing it. This blog (hosted by Blogial) will be used for  announcements, releases and other interesting things I learn while working on my ideas.

Here are some of the rules I will be following:

  • It doesn’t need to be a big and complex application. Can be a simple command line tool or a web/mobile app or even a library. The point is to create something that is useful to atleast 1 person in this world.
  • I will give a short blurb about the idea I am going to work on next. If the app is ready before the end of the month, I will release it before itself.
  • It need not be all open source. I may keep the source to all the work I am doing and may try to sell it or create a product out of it.

There is one more rule, but from my wife. I should get to bed by 12. Friday and Saturday nights can be a relaxed a bit.

That gives me about 2-3 hours of free time a day – with which I need to do my project, read my Google Reader and also do other stuff that may come by.

I would be needing the help of the community in supporting me in this project. For now, you can drop a comment with some of the app ideas you would like to see (make sure it is doable in less than a month). You can contact me by mailing cnu@blogial.com and follow me on twitter @appamonth.