alain34's comments

alain34 | 7 months ago | on: I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains

I buy a domain name but struggled to find the time to work on it, so I put it up for sale as a holding page. I have accumulated a collection of... https://www.bankaccountstatements.com https://www.customerdatavalidation.com https://www.customerdatavalidation.co.uk https://www.confirmationofpayee.co.uk https://m.emori.es https://www.bankaccountchecker.com Grab yourself a bargain if you are interested to complete the project.

alain34 | 1 year ago | on: Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2025)

I have been working on https://m.emori.es to store photos and videos and to share with my parents.

I asked Gemini 2.0 to describe it and it is what was produced.

Discover a simple yet powerful way to organize and share your cherished memories with m.emori.es. Designed with ease of use in mind, even for those less tech-savvy, this private photo and video storage platform lets you create logical folders and effortlessly invite family and friends to view them. Perfect for sharing precious moments with elderly parents or loved ones, m.emori.es offers a secure and intuitive experience. With plans to integrate contact management, private chat, and genealogy tree support via GEDCOM files, m.emori.es is evolving into a comprehensive hub for family connection and memory preservation. Visit https://m.emori.es today and experience the joy of sharing made simple.

Ignore the pricing page and if you want a test account in exchange for honest feedback, please contact email me at alain AT aoware DOT co DOT uk

alain34 | 1 year ago | on: Ask HN: How to build site with payment, subscriptions, user login, registration

I have built a boilerplate for my own project using what I am proficient on. You can find it at https://github.com/aoware/slim-saas-boilerplate

There is a demo at https://boilerplate.aoware.co.uk

The reason for creating this boilerplate is because I needed to have a starting point that include account / user / subscription / pricing / payment for a number of B2B and B2C saas initiatives.

It did allow me to spin fairly quickly Memories (a photo / video storage to share with family ) https://m.emori.es/

In addition, I used the same boilerplate to reskin an old saas of mine. It is not live yet, but you can see the new version here https://test.bankaccountchecker.com

alain34 | 2 years ago | on: Ask HN: How do you come up with side project ideas in 2024?

For me, it is often out of necessity for my day job or personal needs. I needed a cheap way to validate bank accounts through modulus check. I created BankAccountChecker https://www.bankaccountchecker.com I was looking for a way to share photos with my elderly parents that live abroad. I create Memories https://m.emori.es At the moment, i am looking at a way to aggregate bank statements to do tax return. I am creating https://www.bankaccountstatements.com

alain34 | 2 years ago | on: Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell

I am working on a PSD2 / Open Banking solution to aggregate bank statements into a single CSV / webhook response. I think the target audience is business having multiple bank accounts and not only wants to have a CSV version, but also aggregating may be a large number of bank accounts their are using. https://www.bankaccountchecker.com

alain34 | 2 years ago | on: Ask HN: What apps have you created for your own use?

I made a simple web site to easy share photos and videos with my elderly parents (early 90's). They are not tech savy, and we live in different countries so it is rare when i can show them in person new snap of the family... They don t use facebook and get confused easily if i share photos throught whatsapp.

It is a simple interface, read-only (so they don t delete photos/videos from their devices as they have done already) and also private.

My extended family ia using it as well.

I might turn it up as a saas product but needs to find the time...

Https://m.emori.es

alain34 | 2 years ago | on: Ask HN: Show me your half baked project

I have created an easy way for me to share photos with my family, especially my ageing parents living abroad. You can see and road test it at https://m.emori.es

It is a companion site for a second project to convert old format (images, videos and audios) to digital. Converted media end up in the first site This is half baked at https://www.audiovideotransfers.co.uk/

alain34 | 2 years ago | on: Ask HN: How do you manage photos, philosophically?

I had the same problems as my elderly parents living abroad are not social media users.

So I decided to create a sort of private Google photos meeting Google drive.

It is called Memories (I realised FB have the same idea) and it can be found at https://m.emori.es

I would be happy to provide beta access in return for constructive feedbacks.

If you are interested, send me an email to alain AT aoware DOT co DOT uk

alain34 | 4 years ago | on: Ask HN: Great tools for solo SaaS founders?

I've been running https://www.bankaccountchecker.com since 2010 as a solo side project.

These are the only services I pay for:

- AWS for hosting

- names.co.uk for domains

- Paypal to receive payments (I started in 2010 and at this time stripe was not really an option in the UK)

- Twilio for inbound voice, which is $1 month to get a phone number

These are the used services with a free tier or totally free:

- A dev/ops stack that I am really familiar with

- Cloudflare for DNS management and SSL certificates

- sendgrid for smtp outbound emails (< 300 / days)

- names.co.uk for inbound emails (mail lite with 100mb mailbox) that I import in my own database (new saas product coming soon actually)

- Telegram for event notifications

- Crisp Chat

- Google Analytics

alain34 | 4 years ago | on: Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (November 2021)

SEEKING WORK | London, UK | Remote

Email: [email protected]

I'm a senior IT professional with over 25 years of experience building systems for large corporations to early stage start-ups

Strengths: - CTO on-demand - Help non-technical founders build and launch MVPs - Bridging the communication gap between technical and non-technical people - Application architecture / release management - Working in legacy codebases - Teaching and mentoring junior developers

Most recently help a US emerging travel agency to establish their web presence. Managed outsourced build (React/Python/PostGres/aws). Please check at https://www.elsewhere.io Build a companion software to produce beautiful itinerary (Bootstrap/php/mysql/aws) for Elsewhere. Please check at https://tripbuilder.elsewhere.io/71bd4fb1b18a0f8ffd49a8e7e19... ... Additional examples of work I've done for clients is available upon request. Help Legal Sidekick to find a CTO to help with scaling in the next 6 months. https://www.legalsidekick.com

From 1st Jan 2022, I will have 10 hours a week to allocate to new projects. Open for fixed price projects too.

Primary Technologies: PHP, Mysql, PostGres, Responsive HTML/CSS, Bootstrap, jQuery, AWS

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alainorset

alain34 | 4 years ago | on: Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (May 2021)

SEEKING WORK | London, UK | Remote

Email: [email protected]

I'm a senior IT professional with over 25 years of experience building systems for large corporations to early stage start-ups

Strengths: - Help non-technical founders build and launch MVPs - Bridging the communication gap between technical and non-technical people - Application architecture / release management - Working in legacy codebases - Teaching and mentoring junior developers

Most recently help a US emerging travel agency to establish their web presence. Managed outsourced build (React/Python/PostGres/aws). Please check at https://www.elsewhere.io Build a companion software to produce beautiful itinerary (Bootstrap/php/mysql/aws) for Elsewhere. Please check at https://tripbuilder.elsewhere.io/0360ec6e96accbae0da63644405... Additional examples of work I've done for clients is available upon request.

From 1st June, I will have 20 hours a week to allocate to new project and from mid-June and I can be dedicated fully to new projects. Open for fixed price projects too.

Primary Technologies: PHP, Mysql, PostGres, Responsive HTML/CSS, Bootstrap, jQuery, AWS

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alainorset

alain34 | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: What was your best passive income in 2020?

https://www.bankaccoountchecker.com

Pretty passive as validation rules are fairly static, and I have automated data source import and refresh.

Around £900 MRR

Existing customers have asked about other validation types like email which I might offer under a new site.

alain34 | 5 years ago | on: Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (November 2020)

Location: UK

Remote: Yes

Willing to relocate: No, willing to travel every once in a while.

Technologies: PHP, relational db (MySql, mariadb, DB2), AWS, Javascript, Html/css, jQuery, Git, Svn, Rest API design + integrations

Résumé/CV: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alainorset/ (official CV on request)

Email: alain.orset [at] googlemail.com

I have to 30+ years building or architecting applications and services. Experience leading a team, and would if needed.

I would relish a new opportunity that provides challenges and chances to grow my skill set.

alain34 | 6 years ago | on: Ask HN: Slack Alternatives?

Agreed, been using it for 5 years for around 30 of us in 5 to 7 teams. Drag and drop for upload, as well as desktop, mobile and web apps.

alain34 | 9 years ago | on: Ask HN: What kind of chatbot do you need?

@cc_bot on telegram provides bus times. Only for London, UK.

alain34 | 12 years ago | on: Show HN: API for Sales Research

I did do something similar to stacklead, but returning an xml document, as opposed to receiving an email. Not sure about the accuracy of stacklead against what I have done. You can check it at https://www.bankaccountchecker.com/apiSocial.php?email=alain... This is my own email address, so it should not be a problem. If you are using your own email address, please ensure that you are replacing @ by %40

alain34 | 12 years ago | on: Your best passive income? (2014)

https://www.bankaccountchecker.com enable the validation of UK bank account (web app and API). It is not making loads of money but I get enough traffic to pay for summer holiday. I often get request for the logic behind the API. the sort code file is also selling well. I have created another saas service at http://www.conceptuel.co.uk/burnDown/ but there is not enough demand to make it a profitable passive income.

alain34 | 12 years ago | on: Ask HN: Tools you use for remote working?

- MS Lync for IM

- New Relic for LAMP stack monitoring http://www.newrelic.com

- Zabbix for infrastructure monitoring https://www.zabbix.org/wiki/Main_Page

- Splunk for storing all syslog http://www.splunk.com

- TargetProcess for agile pm http://www.targetprocess.com

- burndown chart generation http://www.conceptuel.co.uk/burnDown (one of mine actually)

- reviewboard for code review http://www.reviewboard.org