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Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

diaryemail.com

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Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#211

Post by davchana »

maccaw wrote: post #198
alfonsodev wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also wrote > Unfortunately, though, in this one case I can't promise that if you build it, I'll use it. Unless I know you, I can't trust that you won't read my emails. (I trusted the previous startup that did it because we'd funded them.) How do you solve the "won't read my emails" problem ? I've seen the statement in your website: > Your data stored and transferred securely. No one will ever read or process your…

I've written an open-source version you can host yourself on Heroku: https://github.com/maccman/oped

I too scripted a Google Script to run daily, with sending me a reminder or question; & Gmail tags that outgoing mail as a specific label; script pulls that labeled mail every day, archives it, appends the contents to a Google Doc.

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#212

Post by josephwegner »

This is a real "Dropbox is just rsync" sort of comment, but I personally use a small CLI util for this[1]. It automatically creates a new text file for each day that I use it and stores it in a dated folder/file. I can look at notes by day, or grep around in that directory fairly easily. And it syncs to wherever, so I can also just search within my file storage service.

I use this for both regular "diary" sort of journaling as well as notes around what I was doing on a particular day. It's wildly useful keeping daily notes on things, for questions like "Hey, do you remember that bug we dealt with last year...?"

[1] https://gist.github.com/josephwegner/677ce82556fcbde6ae626a8...

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#214

Post by ViViDboarder »

mirimir wrote: post #209
kossnocorp wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I addressed it in a comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670 > But once the data leaves the browser there is no way to know, wouldn't you consider to partner with Gmail(or others) and appear as an addon to an already trusted company in order to start off the business ? Also, I understand the concern and that Paul most likely will not trust their secrets to anyone. The problem is that's not a business, b…

> I addressed it in a comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670 As I read that, users must trust you. There's nothing that would actually prevent you from accessing the data. So it's arguably misleading to call it a "private diary".

I disagree. I believe that it’s more common for “private” to mean “between you and the company”. Eg. Private accounts on other services, or private information associated with your account.

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#215

Post by davnicwil »

mtlynch wrote: post #182
davnicwil wrote: post #128

On seeing this tweet I wondered who would be the first to do it, and how long it would take. Congratulations, from a fellow hacker - what's it been, 2 days? That's really impressive speed, especially considering it's nice looking. A lot of people would confidently assume they could knock this out in a couple of days no problem, but it'd actually take them a few weeks at minimum. I had a post on the front page a few w…

OP mentioned in a comment that this tool existed before the tweet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045528

Ah, good spot.

Well, I'm still pretty excited for the OP at the right place right time nature of this. I mean, imagine browsing twitter and noticing that Paul Graham asks for someone to build the very product you're sitting on fully formed :-)

Kind of a perfect case study of the adage that you need to work really hard to prepare in order to be lucky!

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#216

Post by zaptheimpaler »

birdyrooster wrote: post #191
Angostura wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to PG's Tweet, it seems quite simple - just fund them.

Almost like VC extracts rent from their investments while minimizing any risk they are exposed to.

Do you do anything different in your own 401k?

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#217

Post by seancsnyder »

vonnieda wrote: post #150
latortuga wrote: post #77

This used to exist, it was called OhLife. They would email you every day and say "What's happening in your life" and "Hey do you remember this?" with one random email from your history included. I always liked this service and was sad when they shut down. Pretty sure I started using it due to a post right here on HN.

I wrote WhoaLife ( https://github.com/vonnieda/WhoaLife ) when OhLife shut down. It's self hosted for privacy and designed for Heroku Free Tier. Takes about 15 minutes and no code to deploy. I've been using it since OhLife shut down and it completely fills the gap for me. I recently modernized the code a bit, ported it from Mongo to Postgres and improved the selection of the random entry that is sent to you, but I ha…

I did the same thing, and even called it by the same name...woahlife :-)

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#218

Post by F_J_H »

haberdasher wrote: post #135

If anyone wants to give a multi-year journal (5-year Journals are popular in print form) chrome extension a try: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goal-board-vision-...

Thank you for the suggestion. Played around with it a bit an it looks interesting. Curious as I am not familiar with Chrome Extensions - where is the actual data stored?

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#219

Post by dpeck »

graeme wrote: post #103
athenot wrote: post #75

The very humble Notes app on macOS/iOS fulfills this for me. I just start typing, the minimalistic interface gets out of the way. Timestamping is on last modification instead of creation date but I add one manually. That's about my only drawback. Some features I find compelling: - I can start a train of thought on the mac, continue it on the phone and complete it on my mac. - It's not mined by some advertising compan…

My first thought when reading this was “how do you automate it?” as that was part of the spec. But you can actually do that with Shortcuts, which is build into the system. 1. Make a note with a title like “journal” or “daily log” 2. Open shortcuts, go to automations. Make a new one with a time of day trigger. (Or an alternate if you prefer) 3. Actions: “find all notes where” —> filter for notes name. “ask for input”…

Thats a nice little hack. Shortcuts is really powerful for little workflows like this.

I've done similar for reminders of things that I want to take measurement of in a simple way throughout a day. Like taking a childs temperature when they're sick and running a fever.

Re: Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email

#220

Post by slim »

masukomi wrote: post #204
maccaw wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've written an open-source version you can host yourself on Heroku: https://github.com/maccman/oped

very nice @maccaw unlike "Diary Email" your readme makes it very clear where the emails go, and since I'd host it I know no-one would read it.

err.. You know that emails transit un clear text, right?
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