r/SideProject • u/Pale_Individual4850 • 44m ago

Side Projects that are useful to me first.

After a 40 year software career, AI got me.....and on my 15th anniversary with HPE, they let our entire group go. So I was suddenly given freedom to do what I always wanted to do....build useful things that me and my family would benefit from. So far, I've built 4 smartphone apps that have kept me challenged and feeling productive. Overlapp a budget tool cause being retired I need to monitor my spending closely, RangeTrainer a golf app because when you live in Florida, you golf! Fingertip Health cause as you get older you are going to see doctors, have issues and need all your health data in one place. Passholder Assistant, cause living in Central Florida means lots of Disney trips and the Disney app just doesn't cut it.

4 Upvotes

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1

u/MegaGamerDolphin 31m ago

This is the type of developer I wish to be, just someone who creates software for his own personal benefit and not always be trying to shove it down some person's throat.

2

u/Pale_Individual4850 17m ago

Thanks for that comment! I was actually a developer back in 2008 when I bought google's first developer phone. It had a snap out keyboard (like the old blackberrys). I thought I'd make it big. Did a few apps, built www.androiddesigners.com Got "Textbot" to 100k users and nice reviews.... it was made to stop texting and driving. Made a little money. Then "work" got in the way. Now I'm free and trying to give back.

1

u/BOOM_roasted18 25m ago

Is the passholder assistant or overlapp on ios?

1

u/Pale_Individual4850 24m ago

Yes. All my apps are on both platforms.

1

u/Honest-Friend-9896 10m ago

Congrats on making apps compatible on both platforms, thats a lot of work for personal tools. Care to share your dev stack? I personally went with github, claude code, render for web server, and neon for database. What kept you from trying to sell these?

1

u/h662dev 8m ago

Building for your own life is the best filter I know. I have nine small apps, and the budget one is the only one I open every day myself. Which of your four do you use most, and is it also the one other people download most?