Ask HN: What tasks do you automate? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#311

Post by neya » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 2:34 AM UTC

etreymaster wrote: post #216

neya wrote: post #210

I had tons of startup ideas that I'd always wanted to give it a try. After a point, it became frustrating to test them out one by one, either by writing custom applications in Rails or use Wordpress. But, both costed me a significant amount of time. For example, I had this idea for a travel startup for a very, very long time and I decided to build it on Wordpress. The monetization model was selling some E-Commerce it…

Kind of what I was referring to here .... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14779517

Yep, that's correct :)

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#312

Post by leksak » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 6:30 AM UTC

ajarmst wrote: post #22

I'm the kind of nerd who greatly prefers writing automation code to doing anything remotely repetitive. (I'm afraid to work out the actual timings because I'm pretty sure that I often spend more time coming up with the automation than just doing the task would take). I've got a script that automatically rips, converts and stitches together audiobooks from the library so that I can play them on my phone. It just beeps…

Please share them macros, that would be gold

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#313

Post by leksak » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 6:32 AM UTC

kvz wrote: post #123

Since I have a toddler in longing for a house with a garden which starts ar 800k EUR in pleasant neighborhoods in Amsterdam now, which is above my paygrade. So i wrote a script that compares surrounding towns on a number of metrics (4+ rated restaurants per citizen for instance) and let's me know when there are houses for sale with a garden facing south (or north but only if it's sufficently long that we are likely t…

Is it general purpose enough to be used outside Amsterdam with minor modifications?

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#314

Post by leksak » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 6:36 AM UTC

etreymaster wrote: post #201

tjalfi wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a quote from Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann! . When you're young, you have all these things to worry about - should you go there, what about your mother. And you worry, and try to decide, but then something else comes up. It's much easier to just plain decide. Never mind - nothing is going to change your mind. I did that once when I was a student at MIT. I got sick and tired of having to decide…

What about trying new things, experimenting with life?

I always try to identify items I wouldn't be able to get elsewhere. For instance, if I want to order a beer I go for those that are in limited stock or from a local microbrewery. Spice of life and what not.

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#315

Post by leoharsha2 » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 7:41 AM UTC

I made a bot which tells what should I wear today depending on weather and the clothes that I have. It messages me every day at morning

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#316

Post by leksak » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 8:24 AM UTC

anotherevan wrote: post #189

Wrote a program that tracks Australian movie release dates for movies I'm interested in. Sends a daily email if a release date moves, or there a new movies for me to flag my interest in. Interfaces with themoviedb.org for plot summary, cast and crew info and such. Interfaces with Google Calendar for writing entries for each movie I'm tracking.

Yes please share!

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#317

Post by Andrenid » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 8:28 AM UTC

vinchuco wrote: post #308

EnderMB wrote: post #285

My most proud "automation" was writing a bot that would play Farmville for me. I was at university, and Farmville was all the rage on Facebook. My girlfriend wanted me to play because it'd mean she'd be able to trade stuff with me or something (I forget why exactly), and I eventually caved in. After ten minutes of playing it, I was bored. I couldn't really judge people that would click plants hundreds of times, sever…

Fun story: with an extremely slow internet connection (satellite) you could send valid requests to plow fields that allowed the otherwise impossible vertical farming

The only time ever my shitty Australian connection is a benefit.

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#318

Post by leksak » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 8:39 AM UTC

jessedhillon wrote: post #16

I have a script that downloads bank and credit card transaction data, then applies rules to create a journal in GNU Ledger format.

This sounds incredibly rude, but why? Maybe my income is too small for me to see the benefit (student) :p

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#319

Post by whiskers08xmt » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 8:47 AM UTC

Every robotic task tangially related to Auditing. I work with robotic task automation at one of the big 4, and it's really amazing how much trivial work that's being done by humans.

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#320

Post by anotherevan » Tue, Jul 18, 2017, 11:09 AM UTC

anotherevan wrote: post #189

Wrote a program that tracks Australian movie release dates for movies I'm interested in. Sends a daily email if a release date moves, or there a new movies for me to flag my interest in. Interfaces with themoviedb.org for plot summary, cast and crew info and such. Interfaces with Google Calendar for writing entries for each movie I'm tracking.

Okay, seeing as you asked.

https://github.com/evmcl/movieschedule

Let me know (or put in a pull request) if any of the instructions in the readme file are unclear.

Hope you find it useful.