DEV Community: peter zou

TikScript — Turn TikTok links into audio, subtitles, and ready-to-ship copy The story

peter zou — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:44:55 +0000

Short-form video is where ideas are born—but text is where work gets done. Our team kept doing the same painful loop: open TikTok, replay, pause, type, lose the good line, repeat. We didn’t want another “watch the video again” tool. We wanted a handoff: something that treats a link like a source file—audio you can save, subtitles you can read, and copy you can actually edit.
So we built TikScript. Paste a public TikTok URL. The app helps you grab an audio download link (so you’re not screen-recording sound), pulls subtitles you can scan and quote, and then stays in the workflow with the boring parts automated: AI rewrite for cleaner tone, hooks and framework modes when you need angles fast, and subtitle translation when the same clip has to work in another language.
The value
Less replay, more shipping. Subtitles turn “what did they say?” into something searchable and shareable.
Repurpose without starting from zero. Hooks and frameworks exist because one viral clip should seed ten assets—not one tired caption.
Multilingual without retyping everything. Translation sits next to the subs so campaigns don’t stall on manual rework.
Who it’s for
Creators, social teams, and marketers who live in docs and calendars more than they live in the For You page.
What we’re not claiming
There’s no public API product here—this is a focused web experience for humans who need the output, not another integration bill to justify.
Try it: https://tikscript.org
We’d love feedback on what to tighten next—especially if you’re juggling TikTok → blog → ads every week.

Best Time to Post on Instagram

peter zou — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 12:03:39 +0000

Best Time to Post helps marketers and creators plan Instagram publishing using an interactive weekly heatmap, industry filters, and methodology grounded in large-scale posting benchmarks. The site includes day-specific guides, Reels-focused notes, and a 2026 social trends report. Free to use in the browser at besttimetopost.xyz.

TikTok Story Viewer & Download

peter zou — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 07:46:54 +0000

I built a free tool called tikstoryviewer. Paste a TikTok username or URL to view public profile/video data, check quick KPI signals, and download available media in one workflow. If you do creator research or social ops, I’d love your feedback: https://tikstoryviewer.org/

Funny Birthday Cards

peter zou — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 14:31:38 +0000

Funny Birthday Cards https://www.birthdaycards.cc/ is an AI-powered online tool for creating genuinely funny birthday cards in minutes. Users can choose from curated meme, couple/parent, and flip-card templates, customize a few text fields, and instantly generate download-ready cards. The platform offers both free and premium options, works perfectly on mobile and desktop, and is ideal for anyone who wants to send hilarious, shareable birthday wishes without any design skills.

I got tired of my phone distracting me, so I built a frictionless Web Timer (Astro + Cloudflare) ⏱️

peter zou — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 02:36:10 +0000

Hey DEV community! 👋

I recently transitioned from a long career in hardware engineering (NPI, manufacturing) to full-time solo software development. When you work for yourself, you quickly realize your biggest enemy isn't the code—it's managing your own attention.

I rely heavily on the "1-Minute Rule": if I’m procrastinating on a complex feature or just need to rest my eyes from the screen (the 20-20-20 rule), I commit to just 60 seconds.

But there was a huge flaw in my system: Using a smartphone as a timer.
I would pick up my phone to set a 1-minute alarm, see a notification, swipe down, and suddenly 30 minutes had vanished. The tool meant to keep me focused was distracting me.

I needed a timer that lived right where I worked—in the browser—with absolute zero friction. No app downloads, no logins, no heavy JavaScript payloads.

So, I built 1 Minute Timer.

🛠️ The Tech Stack & Architecture

As developers, we love to over-engineer things, but for this project, I forced myself to keep it blazing fast and minimal.

Framework: Astro 🚀 I chose Astro because of its "Zero-JS by default" architecture. A simple utility timer shouldn't require a massive React payload to render a clock. Astro allowed me to build a highly performant static site that loads instantly.
Hosting & Edge Delivery: Cloudflare Pages ☁️ Deploying via GitHub integration to Cloudflare Pages is incredibly smooth. The site is served from the edge, meaning Time to First Byte (TTFB) is virtually non-existent regardless of where the user is.
Audio Strategy: Web Audio API vs. MP3s 🎵 Instead of loading heavy .mp3 files for the alarms, I experimented with generating custom soundscapes (like a 'Zen' marimba for stretching, or a 'Sport' buzzer for HIIT) programmatically using the browser's native capabilities.

🐛 A Funny Deployment "Gotcha" (Watch your robots.txt!)

Here is a quick lesson learned for anyone deploying on Cloudflare right now. After pushing the site live, my SEO tools started screaming that my robots.txt was blocking all crawlers (Disallow: /).

I checked my local build, and it was perfect. It turns out Cloudflare's new "Block AI Bots" security feature automatically intercepts and rewrites your robots.txt at the edge to block LLM scrapers (like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc.). While great for preventing scraping, it triggered false positives in standard SEO validators.

Tip: If you are launching a new site and need those initial Googlebot crawls, make sure to double-check how your CDN's security rules are modifying your headers and bots files!

🚀 Try It Out

You can check out the live project here: https://1minutetimer.org

It’s completely free, and I built it to be the perfect "tab companion" for developers who need to timebox micro-breaks, do a quick plank while compiling, or just force themselves to start writing a daunting piece of documentation for 60 seconds.

I’d love to hear your feedback on the UI, the sound design, or your own strategies for staying focused when the entire internet is just one tab away.

Happy coding (and focusing)! 💻

Why Digital Birthday Cards Are Becoming More Popular Than Ever

peter zou — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 03:27:47 +0000

Why Digital Birthday Cards Are Becoming More Popular Than Ever

In a world where almost everything is going digital, birthday celebrations are evolving too. While traditional paper cards still hold sentimental value, more people are turning to digital birthday cards as a faster, more creative, and eco-friendly alternative.

Whether you're celebrating a friend's birthday from across the world or simply forgot to buy a card at the store, online birthday cards have become an incredibly convenient solution.

The Convenience of Sending Birthday Cards Online

One of the biggest advantages of digital birthday cards is convenience. Instead of going to a store, choosing a card, writing a message, and mailing it, you can now send a personalized birthday card in just a few minutes.

All you need is an internet connection. You can browse designs, add a heartfelt message, and share the card instantly through email or social media.

There are several platforms that provide online birthday cards, but one simple option worth checking out is https://www.birthdaycards.cc/
. The site allows users to quickly create and send beautiful birthday cards without complicated steps.

More Personalization Than Traditional Cards

Another reason digital birthday cards are growing in popularity is personalization.

With traditional cards, you are limited to whatever message is printed inside. Online birthday cards allow you to add:

Personalized messages

Custom images

Unique card styles

Different themes for different recipients

For example, you might want a funny birthday card for a friend, a cute one for a child, or a warm and elegant card for a parent. Online tools make it easy to match the tone of your message to the personality of the recipient.

Platforms like birthdaycards.cc offer a variety of styles that make it easy to find something suitable for almost any birthday celebration.

Perfect for Long-Distance Relationships

Modern life often means that friends and family members live far apart. Digital birthday cards help bridge that distance.

Instead of worrying about shipping time or international postage, you can instantly send a thoughtful birthday greeting anywhere in the world.

This small gesture can mean a lot—especially when someone wakes up on their birthday to find a personalized card waiting for them online.

An Eco-Friendly Alternative

Another benefit people often overlook is the environmental impact.

Traditional greeting cards require paper, printing, packaging, and shipping. Digital birthday cards eliminate most of these steps, making them a greener option for people who want to reduce waste.

By choosing online cards, you can still share a meaningful message while minimizing environmental impact.

The Future of Birthday Greetings

As technology continues to evolve, digital greetings are likely to become even more interactive. Features like animated cards, AI-generated designs, and personalized messages are already making online birthday cards more creative than ever.

If you’re looking for a quick way to send a thoughtful birthday greeting, trying an online platform like https://www.birthdaycards.cc/
can be a great place to start.

Sometimes the simplest message—sent at the right moment—can make someone’s birthday truly special.

[ShowDev] I built an aggregator to discover and install popular AI Agent Skills from GitHub

peter zou — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:16:24 +0000

Hey DEV community! 👋

If you are building AI Agents right now (using frameworks like AutoGPT, LangChain, or custom implementations), you know that the LLM is only the brain. The real magic happens when you give your agent skills—the tools to browse the web, execute code, read files, or interact with APIs.

There are thousands of amazing, open-source agent skills scattered across GitHub. But finding the right one, figuring out if it's popular/reliable, and integrating it into your project is a huge time sink. We end up reinventing the wheel instead of building the core logic.

That’s why I built AgentSkill.club.

🌟 What is AgentSkill.club?
AgentSkill.club is a centralized hub that aggregates the most popular and useful AI Agent skills from GitHub.

Instead of endlessly searching through repositories, you can browse a categorized directory of tools, see what's trending, and most importantly: directly download and install them for your own agents.

🛠️ Why use it?
Centralized Discovery: I've aggregated the best open-source skills scattered across GitHub into one searchable platform.

Direct Download & Installation: No more copy-pasting code from random README files. Find the skill you need, download it, and install it right into your agent's environment.

Curated & Categorized: Skills are organized by use case (e.g., Data Analysis, Web Scraping, File System, API Integrations) so you can quickly find exactly what your agent needs to complete its tasks.

Always Up-to-Date: Tapping into the power of the open-source community to surface the latest and greatest tools.

💻 The Tech Behind It
(Tip: Share a bit about how you built it! Developers love to know how you fetch and parse the GitHub data. Feel free to edit the below:)

Building an aggregator meant interacting heavily with the GitHub API to fetch repositories, parse their metadata, and present them in a clean, user-friendly UI. I built the frontend with [Next.js / React] and handled the backend/database with [Node.js / Supabase / PostgreSQL], focusing heavily on making the search and download experience as frictionless as possible.

🤔 I'd love your feedback!
If you are building AI agents, I’d love for you to check it out. The goal is to make this the ultimate "package manager" vibe for agent capabilities.

What specific types of skills are you currently looking for?

How do you currently install external tools into your agent workflows?

Are there any awesome GitHub repositories with agent skills that I should add to the platform?

Check it out here: https://www.agentskill.club/

Let me know what you think in the comments! 👇 Happy building! 🚀