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Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)

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Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)

#31

Post by theblazehen »

tunesmith wrote: post #13
huseyinkeles wrote: post #3

Home Assistant [0] through bunch of automations we have around our home must’ve saved 100h in total for me and my partner so far. [0] - https://www.home-assistant.io/

What kind of automations have you found necessary? Any time I think about getting into it, I can only think of automations that sound silly or extra but nothing truly time-saving.

Where I live we have frequent scheduled power outages, I use that to schedule when and how far to charge my batteries

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)

#32

Post by namuol »

Seeing a lot of “fiddly” software being listed here. Stuff that lets you configure and tune a workflow endlessly. It’s ironic that this is the sort of thing most of us will think of, since it doesn’t really account for time saved so much as time spent fiddling…

Keeping an eye out for software that you barely use, as this is the kind with the most potential to truly save me time.

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)

#36

Post by bsnnkv »

kanata[1] and komokana[2].

kanata is basically like QMK for any keyboard without the firmware requirement. I use kanata with my trusty old iMac keyboard which is to this day my favourite keyboard of all time. But now I have all the cool QMK-style layers with it.

So that is awesome on its own, but where it gets even better for me, and this is where the seconds have really added up to hours, is that I wrote another piece of software which programmatically changes layers on kanata whenever a different window is focused in my tiling window manager.

This has honestly changed -everything- for me. I no longer have to waste keys on my keyboard to switch layers, I no longer have to -think- about switching layers, I just focus another window with alt+hjkl and whatever keyboard layer I expect for any given application is automatically applied. Definitely one of those "you can never go back" experiences for me.

[1]: https://github.com/jtroo/kanata

[2]: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komokana

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)

#37

Post by klinquist »

tunesmith wrote: post #13
huseyinkeles wrote: post #3

Home Assistant [0] through bunch of automations we have around our home must’ve saved 100h in total for me and my partner so far. [0] - https://www.home-assistant.io/

What kind of automations have you found necessary? Any time I think about getting into it, I can only think of automations that sound silly or extra but nothing truly time-saving.

I've documented all of the automations I have set up at my Airbnb: https://www.linquist.com/airbnb/automation

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? (2022 edition)

#40

Post by bath_ »

tunesmith wrote: post #13
huseyinkeles wrote: post #3

Home Assistant [0] through bunch of automations we have around our home must’ve saved 100h in total for me and my partner so far. [0] - https://www.home-assistant.io/

What kind of automations have you found necessary? Any time I think about getting into it, I can only think of automations that sound silly or extra but nothing truly time-saving.

Not the user you replied to, but for me:

Open blinds in the morning, shut them at sundown.

Turn on porchlights after dark if I'm not home. Turn them off 10m after I'm home.

Turn HVAC up/down when I leave the house, revert when I get home.

Unlock doors when I arrive home. Make sure they're locked when I leave.

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