Side projects I shipped in 2025
Every I built outside of BetterPrompt.me this past year
I often think of my job as a toolmaker. Making useful tools that are useful for myself, and hopefully for others. Except my main job building BetterPromtp.me, I’m also build small, useful little tools that helps hone my craft. 2025 has been quite productive, with lots of inspiration and pushed me to build more, and here are the results:
MacOS screenshot namebot
The Problem
The problem is simple, on Mac, when you use `CMD + Shift + 4`, you can take a screenshot. It’s a really useful shortcut and I use it all the time. Except it has an annoying behavior: it doesn’t prompt you for a name to save, and by default save with a name like `Screenshot 2025-12-27 at 12.01.27 PM` in your Desktop. If you use it enough, your Desktop becomes a pile of screenshots with not much meaning.
The Solution
I wrote a Python that constantly watch the `Desktop` folder for any new Screenshot that match the file name above, then send that screenshot to OpenAI for a description and a category. OpenAI models GPT-4o and after are able to see images and respond with what the script asks for.
Github link: https://github.com/mikeqle/ScreenshotAssistant
ChineseFlashcard.com
I started learning some Mandarin over the last year, and if you study Mandarin, you’ll sooner have to wrestle with Hanzi. Hanzi are these Chinese symbols that are very difficult to remember, and you basically have to rote memorize them.
One trick that sped up my learning was actually skipping writing Hanzi by hand and just focus on writing with my laptop. Writing Chinese digitally is a totally different skill than writing by hand, and a lot easier to handle. Just need to know the the pinyin pronunciation (with tones).
So I built a tool to help learn pinyin of Chinese hanzi. It has 500 words pre-loaded across HSK1-6. You can even bring your own vocab list in the form of a .csv and it will work here.
Note: login / signup doesn’t work anymore. Just haven’t had the time to fix it, but most of the site still functions at 100%.
Link: https://chineseflashcard.com/
Default-Clock.com
People may not know this but I did not have a technical background. I was a Finance major at TCU and a banker with UBS right of our school. So it deeply concerns me how much debt the US is taking on, and not much is being done to address it.
In July, the US passed OBBB which sparked a huge conversation about abysmal state of the US debt and spending problem. In 2024 the US paid $1.1 trillion in interest and adding about $1 trillion in debt every five to six months, and accelerating.
I got tired of hearing how bad it is rhetorically, yet no one actually had a real number. So I went digging, combining my finance skills of old with a bit of vibe-coding and made default-clock.com.
It’s a countdown clock that tells when the US will be mathematically bankrupt. Mathematically bankruptcy is when the total receipts (US government income) is less than interest expense only. The answer is 2062. (if everything stays the same: receipts and expense growth, and interest rate)
The actual bankruptcy will be earlier. Historically, just the perception of bankruptcy is enough to cause bankruptcies. So the 2062 is more or less the good case scenario. For worse scenarios, like higher interest rate (5%), lower growth (3%) and more expenses (10%), the US could be bankrupt within 12 years. You can play with your own scenarios and see how bad or good it could get.
Link: https://default-clock.com/
Gameplan 2026
There’s actually a few more that I built but didn’t know how to package them yet for publishing.
Screenshot annotation tool (can’t come up with a clever name yet)
No-code flexible workflow automation tool
Low-token AI Youtube summarizer
In 2026, I want to to ship more stuff, especially the things I’ve already built, collecting dust in the closet. I find these projects a great way to hone my instincts on what good software should be. It also allows me much opportunities to try out different deployment options, like Cloudflare, S3 + Cloudfront, Netlify and Vercel.
So the plan? Always be shipping.
Till next time,
Mike