HACKER Q&A
📣 chirau

I'm looking for ideas for API or dataset projects to build on vacation


So my vacation plans fell through, I was supposed to travel but because of COVID, I've had to cancel. Which means I have 3 weeks to do absolutely nothing. I want to occupy myself. I'm not much of an idea guy, but am a seasoned engineer.

I want to work on building either an API or a dataset. Any field, the only requirement is that is it be useful to someone or some people.

So if you have any ideas on what might be worthwhile or useful to work on.. or even just lots of fun, please let me know. I have way too much time on my hands. Thanks.

  👤 ggm Accepted Answer ✓
Photo tagging in EXIF for date is pretty bad. Do some analysis on the problem, how to handle approximate dates, not before and not after and circa or year certain month uncertain, and write code to do the fixes without using exiftool which is perl and .. (sigh)

Same for keyword tagging. Too many competing models. Do a good job on the problem and the world will thank you. The librarians have a different take on this to the photo nuts.

You can find this problem all on the Web, in all its glory. Finding a dataset of peoples photos to learn tag soup in the wold might be challenging but again, a good dataset of variant EXIF tags would be useful.

👤 ogwh
This path leads to burnout.

You have three weeks to find a new hobby. Your challenge starts now.