| Name | Description | Tech | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Rhymer
2000
|
Advanced rhyming engine based on phonemes (slant, multi-syllable, ngrams, PoS, and more). Rebuilt this many times over the years from ideating it with Steve Sirianni in high school. Vowel-matrix built with Ryan Groves. Latest versions were neo4j based and super cool. Was hoping to revive one day, but probably unneeded with the advances of GPT.
|
PHP
Javascript
Postgres
Neo4j
Rails
CMU Dictionary
ngram libraries
|
Ongoing
|
|
NFL® Predictor
2002
|
My first application! Aside from a few silly TI-86 Basic apps. Predicts NFL® game scores from a season average offensive and defensive stats. Resurrected after stumbling on the ancient .exe and found an old DLL to run it.
|
Visual Basic Application
|
It lives on!
|
|
Trebuchet
2004
|
Built a trebuchet (catapult) with lots of spare wood, bricks, and parts after the deconstruction of a huge themed party. Idea was to launch water balloons towards De Neve.
|
💪
|
Destroyed
|
|
ReadyPour
2012
|
Liquid laundry detergent container design that incorporates easy-to-pour, pre-measured amounts.
|
CAD
|
|
|
Offer Otter
2013
|
My friend Jordan taught me about credit card churning, and later we wanted to make an affiliate, credit card offerings website. This was very early on in my webdev learnings, and while I was getting comfortable with backends, I was very bad at the front end. Didn't know javascript which I needed to make this work how I wanted and wasn't good with html or css. This is one I really think would have been a big success had it shipped. Similar offerings came up later like Nerd Wallet, creditscards.com, Value Penguin...
|
Rails
MongoDB
|
Never finished
|
|
ANewPet
2013
|
[Client] This was my first client/paid web development project after some self-taught web development learning (props to Song Zheng for getting me started on this path). Was over my head, learned a lot on the fly, and was able to deliver.
|
Rails
Javascript
MongoDB
|
Shut down
|
|
|
Cartext
2013
|
Hackathon project. Mobile app where you can text/message other users by license plate letters/numbers. Road rage, expired meter warnings, car buying/selling, etc.!
|
Rails
PhoneGap
Twilio
|
Didn't ship
|
|
tDCS device
2013
|
Transcranial direct current stimulation was starting to trend, so I built a tDCS device from simple electronic components. Used it maybe twice. Didn't feel any different but did see white flashes!
|
Breadboard
|
In storage
|
|
Take Buffett's Billion
2014
|
One of my favorite projects. Warren Buffett offered $1B for a perfect March Madness bracket. Built a sign up page at a hackathon to collectively "game theory" the competition and thought that was it. My friend Song posted it to HackerNews, and it blew up. Assembled a team to try to pull it off with little time. Insane time and super fun.
|
R
CSS
Rails
Mailchimp
Gibbon
MongoDB
|
Inactive
|
|
|
Partext
2014
|
For my friend Ryan's bachelor party, converted some Cartext code to create Partext: an app that would text different people randomly through the night with certain challenges . Buy X a shot of Y. Talk to the first <adjective> <gender> person you see. And the most infamous one from the night...Drink some Rumchata!
|
Rails
Twilio
MongoDB
|
Sleeping
|
|
|
ping200
2014
|
Simple SaaS subscription app that monitors your websites' up status. What Pingdom ended up doing or was doing I think.
|
Angular
Rails
Stripe
IronWorker
|
Shut down
|
|
#Poundcake
2014
|
Anonymous conversations on any topic (like a public Slack or IRC). Auto-generated channels/rooms for trending topics based on popular social media hashtags, or you could create your own public or private rooms to chat.
|
Obj-C (iOS)
Java (Android)
Rails
Redis
MongoDB
Firebase
Twitter API (stream)
Instagram API
Yo API
|
Shut down
|
|
Blips
2014
|
Location-based social network app to discover and create interesting events around you.
|
Objective-C
Rails
MongoDB
AWS
|
Shut down
|
|
|
Leverage
2014
|
Hackathon project. Prototype for a digitally integrated, mobile fitness app with voice-guided training, data tracking, fitness analytics, and geolocation. Won 1st prize with over $4,000 in cash prizes and a trip to Las Vegas.
|
ML pattern recognition
|
POC only
|
|
Butter
2015
|
Contacts reminder app to get in touch with people for personal or business reasons at recurring intervals you set.
|
Obj-C
Rails
Twilio
Mandrill
MongoDB
|
Shut down
|
|
Bokbok
2015
|
[WMA Client] MVP app to share short notes and gifs with friends.
|
Swift
Rails
MongoDB
|
Unreleased
|
|
Pitch Out Baseball
2015
|
Baseball home-run-derby-style AppleWatch tap game with increasingly difficult pitches. Super difficult to pull off on the first version of WatchOS, and something big brands couldn't figure out (communication was very restricted between the phone and watch).
|
Swift
Apple GameCenter
Mathematica
|
Shut down
|
|
|
Project Pivot
2015
|
[Client] Built for SpaceX, this was a personnel project-time management tool that helps project managers balance the different aspects of the Iron Triangle (scope, deadline, and resources) and help them optimize the allocation of resources to and prioritization of multiple projects simultaneously.
|
Angular
Rails
MongoDB
|
Delivered
|
|
Muskotage
2015
|
Social deduction game with Musk as the ?-tagonist. App for the host to start a The-Resistance-inspired session, where the game is played via text message response from the players. Got it shippable, but even at $0.01/text, the cost was too high for viably making money on it. Wanted to convert it to a web-based responses (Jackbox came around and executed on this concept very well).
|
RubyMotion
Rails
MongoDB
Twilio
|
Shut down
|
|
TofuYa.la
2015
|
Loved getting our routine soon tofu from Tofu Ya on Sawtelle, but their website had disappeared. Jon and I decided to build them one for free but could never connect with the right person to hand it over. Eventually they made their own, and we took it down.
|
Rails
MongoDB
|
Shut down
|
|
JustDM
2015
|
Twitter bot for auto-DM'ing users mentioning specified keywords or hashtags. Account got suspended.
|
Rails
MongoDB
Twitter API
|
Shut down
|
|
@ExplainHashtag
2015
|
Twitter bot that would monitor trending hashtags, ask what they meant, and respond with highest-liked responses if asked. Made obsolete since Twitter released a trending hashtag explanation feature soon after launch.
|
Firebase
Rails
Twitter API
|
Shut down
|
|
laser cut license plates
2016
|
Laser-cut license plates for motorcycles. Initial designs with UCLA/Engineering.
|
Laser cutter
CAD
|
Never sold
|
|
eightyninenine.com
2016
|
Historical data aggregator and analytics for Southern California's KCRW 89.9 play history - a project started by Jon Van Lew.
|
Rails
Postgres
|
Active
|
|
Slay the Spire clone
2018
|
Deckbuilder roguelike prototype (just the battle portion) inspired by Slay the Spire but with a party system and a fun way to learn Godot Engine. With help from my friend HumanBrains. Really enjoyed the Composition-over-inheritance structure for game programming.
|
Godot
|
Prototype only
|
|
|
Some ecommerce sites
2019
|
Built a site framework to learn some new technologies. Because the market is for in-person interactions, put on hold due to Covid.
|
Elixir
Phoenix
LiveView
Postgres
|
On hold
|
|
Crossword
2020
|
Custom crossword I made for my girlfriend (now wife). Painfully time consuming and later found tools that woulda helped!
|
Google Sheets
|
Shipped
|
|
|
NFTs
2021
|
Some fun activity in the NFT space, but the space dried up.
|
|
Inactive
|
|
|
Ophidian
2022
|
Coming soon.
|
Hardware
|
Active
|
|
TaylorSwitch.org
2023
|
Short, for fun project. Converts Taylor Swift's old masters albums and tracks to her new versions of them.
|
Rails
Hotwire
Spotify API
|
Active
|