side projects that I may never start but are fun to think about
10/10/2024
sometimes when something comes to mind I just message myself on whatsapp
as im pasting these screenshots here I now realize that 3/4 of the ideas came to me in the shower
7:54am is after morning shower for sure and the 3pmish ones are after showering at the gym
Track US rail cars the same way we track ships and planes
There's a new US rail digital initiative rolling out among the big rail corps called Rail Pulse
I called them up and asked about how their data platform and access would work. My impression is that for now its mainly for if you are the actual rail car owner or are on the waybill
Not totally sure if they're going to have a central portal that it operates through or if each rail corp simply will have their own tracking service
still going to keep it on the radar tho - i feel like it'd be cool to be able to open up my phone and look at rail cars moving around the map
gut also tells me there will be gaps in other functionality that the big corps will miss or not pull off well
^ admittedly this is pure speculation from my optimistic ignorance - I just would be surprised if a slow moving and old group of companies like rail corps are able to develop a nice app in house or successfully contract it out
unknowns:
- not sure what kind of information is usually shared in this environment
- not sure what their 'native' platform plan is
also I know virtually nothing else about the us rail ecosystem so im sure many unknown unknowns here
Update: 11/15/2024 - LED indicator for bathroom occupied status in my workplace
The only way to know if the bathroom is occupied is to try the door
Would be cool to have a little airplane bathroom-like LED indicator to give a quick green or red light
I prompted claude to see what it had to say about it:
Basically hook up an arduino nano to a hall effect sensor and put a neodymium magnet on the sliding lock of the door
When the door locks it should go over the sensor and change the LED color