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Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

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Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#601

Post by t1o5 »

jerrygoyal wrote: post #540
t1o5 wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, made it to SK, but moved to Montreal for better job prospects. Probably will have to move to Toronto because my spouse's can't find a good job due to the strict French language requirements for non IT jobs in Quebec.

I've heard that you need to stay in that province (min 2 yrs) if you go through pnp program. then how come you moved to Quebec?

It’s express entry after provincial nomination. Once PR is given and landed, you are free to move and work anywhere in Canada.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#602

Post by mabbo »

Debonnys wrote: post #571
sasaf5 wrote: post #485

My girlfriend needed to be texted everyday otherwise she would turn sour. So I made an sms generator that randomly composed sentences combining words from three tables and sent to her at random times. It took her many months to notice. When she found out, she was angry for 10 seconds, but that anger faded to curiosity about how the random sentence composer thing worked. After I showed it to her, she got mad at me aga…

I did something similar, my gf wanted me text her that I got home safely after I left her place. So I automated it that when I disconnected to her WiFi and within a certain time reconnected to mine it would text her. She noticed it when she drove me back home once and still got the text.

My wife and I simplified the "where are you" problem by turning on always-on location sharing in Google maps. Some people find it creepy, but as a couple of engineers we're pretty stoked on the efficiency improvement.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#603

Post by pc86 »

WillReplyfFood wrote: post #501
t1o5 wrote: post #143

I was in the US and want to immigrate to Canada because of US broken H1B immigration system ( for me it will take 9 years to get a greencard). Here is what I did - The immigration website of Saskatchewan province opens up randomly to apply for immigration. I missed it many times because there is no indication other than the "Apply" button being enabled and a small text in their homepage which says "Applications are n…

This is interesting - as there do no longer exist equal opportunities between the different castes with this. Saddle the lawyers, we ride at dawn!

Using one's intelligence and skills to better your life should be celebrated, not lamented as evidence of burdening some other "caste."

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#604

Post by khannavidur93 »

I love music but seldom do I get a chance to search for new music until someone recommends it. So, I created a google app script to search for billboard top rock songs for the week and create a youtube playlist of the same after searching for each song on youtube. It then sends me an email with the playlist link. This way I get to listen to new music with less googling

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#605

Post by Tepix »

A long time ago:

Writing scripts to attack the neighbouring country in the old unix game "empire" (rec.games.empire) during an update (this was actually encouraged by the game). I know that there were also players who logged in automatically to check whether their country got attacked (and then get notified).

That game was a time sink like no other.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#606

Post by exikyut »

wingerlang wrote: post #465

I've mentioned this before on HN. - I've automated taking screenshots of my laptop screen + webcam and fuse them and organise by year/month/day/hour. This gives me a nice lookback at what I was doing on a particular day (assuming I was at my laptop, which I mostly am). - I also send my GPS location each 30 minutes, again from my laptop, into a database for a nice visualisation where I was at some time. - Automaticall…

What does the stagnation folder structure look like? I have a large data sorting operation of my own to do, and that approach sounds quite maintainable going forward.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#607

Post by stevewillows »

Its trivial compared to everything else in the thread, but the most valuable automation I've got running is a simple weather forecast to warn me when it's going to rain.

Almost a decade ago I had my wisdom teeth out, and the surgery was more involved than most. Ever since then, I've been getting migraine-like headaches and jaw pain when it's going to rain. If I can get ahead of it by a day, I can usually lessen the impact.

I also use IFTTT to pump these forecasts into a spreadsheet where I track pain levels and diet, in hopes of finding a significant pattern. No grand revelations yet, but I did discover that doubling my caffeine intake a day in advance helps.

It's not completely automated, but I maintain a large spreadsheet of movies and tv series I want to watch (mostly movies). I can put either the title or the IMDB number into the input sheet and it'll pull the relevant (and formatted) information from OMDB (both directly and through an addon in Sheets). It gives me an average score between IMDB, Metacritic, RottenTomatoes Users and Critics. As of right now I have 2530 films total, with 1733 to watch.

Outside of these, automating consistent things like certain bills, and a simple script to backup my chaotic '_Process' folder free up a few minutes per month, which will add up over the next fifty years (basically an extra day or two.)

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#608

Post by exikyut »

anotherevan wrote: post #353

I have an old analogue modem which I use to pick up caller ID information for incoming phone calls using NCID[1]. When a call comes in: * Automatically pauses the music player on my PC. * Looks up the number in my address book, and displays the information on my screen. Also sends to the two Kodi/OSMC servers, for people watching TV. This assumes it is not on my block-list. If it is on my block-list of known scammer…

oooo, thanks for the "number disconnected" idea. This is perfect.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#609

Post by Grustaf »

mysterypie wrote: post #510

Many of automation ideas here bring an edge to one person at the expense of everyone else. The ideas fail completely if too many people start doing the same thing. Actual examples from people on this list: - User pokes immigration website repeatedly to submit his application as soon as the site starts accepting. Obviously if everyone did the same thing, no one would benefit. The thing that needs fixing is an immigrat…

>if everyone started doing the same thing, no one would benefit

That is true, but I don't think anyone is claiming to make the world better. The question was more how individuals improve their situation, gaining a competitive edge if you will. That will always come at the cost of others, but in this case the hacks are really things almost anyone can do, so it's hard to object on moral grounds.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#610

Post by evook »

joho68 wrote: post #573
richev wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://visualping.io/ can do this, although it sends email alerts rather than SMS messages. I used it to notify me of new Hololens events, listed on this page https://www.microsoftevents.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKwebI...

So bounce your (unique) e-mail to an SMS-forwarder :)

I like the telegram API :)
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