Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

cron.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 71 posts

Re: Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

#51

Post by meiji »

18pfsmt wrote: post #49
icebraining wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming you have access to cron on the machine that code is running. Lots and lots of websites are running on shared hosting, where there's no such thing as cron access.

This is the perfect example of something that could be run on an always-connected, dual-core Atom machine (~$200) sitting in one's office. I don't understand the insistence on using a paid monthly service for something so simple. My crappy consumer router at home runs cron jobs.

Well the problem with that is, what happens when the atom machine dies. Or the ISP cuts you off? People outsource services not because they can't make a cheap version themselves but because it can be a hassle.

Re: Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

#52

Post by noinput »

Consider this feature which I've thought about building myself at times. With the cron request a token/guid/hash can be passed along with the job which is unique to the request. Then allowing for it to be passed back to a listener api call on your side to simply log that it was complete for user reference.

I'd pay for that feature hands down for crons which I want to ensure run consistently and see a simple chart or data of where the process possibly broke down.

With that a notification after a rule trips, similar to pingdom for downtime.

Re: Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

#53

Post by 18pfsmt »

meiji wrote: post #51
18pfsmt wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the perfect example of something that could be run on an always-connected, dual-core Atom machine (~$200) sitting in one's office. I don't understand the insistence on using a paid monthly service for something so simple. My crappy consumer router at home runs cron jobs.

Well the problem with that is, what happens when the atom machine dies. Or the ISP cuts you off? People outsource services not because they can't make a cheap version themselves but because it can be a hassle.

Ok. What happens when the 3rd party service is acquired and shuts down, or shuts down due to lack of funds? I've got several machines that have been running non-stop for 3-5 years, and I've had several services I've relied on that have shutdown after being acquired, so there seems to be a need for a backup solution either way. People that derive their income from providing 3rd party services seem to have a bias in favor of 3rd party services for everything.

Edit: Why am I not surprised to learn that you work for a hosting provider? I'm not trying to pick on you, I've just noticed a trend that makes little sense to me.

Re: Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

#54

Post by citricsquid »

18pfsmt wrote: post #53
meiji wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the problem with that is, what happens when the atom machine dies. Or the ISP cuts you off? People outsource services not because they can't make a cheap version themselves but because it can be a hassle.

Ok. What happens when the 3rd party service is acquired and shuts down, or shuts down due to lack of funds? I've got several machines that have been running non-stop for 3-5 years, and I've had several services I've relied on that have shutdown after being acquired, so there seems to be a need for a backup solution either way. People that derive their income from providing 3rd party services seem to have a bias in fa…

I'm not the person you're replying to, but someone that disagrees with you.

I run multiple servers, at this minute there's 8 web servers online and 1 mysql server. Each server has a different purpose, some are long term and some are short term (taken offline after purpose served). Having to manage the cron jobs running on each server is a pain, having 8 servers all running different things is fine if you have the time and want to save money, but for me I'd rather pay $20 a month and outsource it to someone else. It's the same reason I use Postmark (http://postmarkapp.com) for my email. I could manage email myself but I value my time, same deal here. Same reason I use google apps for personal email, same reason I use Linode for servers instead of buying hardware and colocating.

Time is my biggest constraint not money, so spending an hour to save $20 isn't worth it.

Re: Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

#55

Post by icebraining »

baby wrote: post #50
icebraining wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming you have access to cron on the machine that code is running. Lots and lots of websites are running on shared hosting, where there's no such thing as cron access.

But there are a lot of free cron service using a real interface and not an API.

An API is more flexible. For example, the code being called could itself adjust the job parameters to fit its needs dynamically. Or you could have a pre-packaged solution that the user can install on a shared hosting server that automatically sets up the cron job.

Re: Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

#57

Post by verelo »

Love it, very similar to something we're planing to add to our monitoring service (Since we already hit URL's on a specific schedule)

Interesting feedback around pricing, i've always wondered what people think is a reasonable price for a reliable service which does exactly this.

Re: Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

#59

Post by 18pfsmt »

citricsquid wrote: post #54
18pfsmt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. What happens when the 3rd party service is acquired and shuts down, or shuts down due to lack of funds? I've got several machines that have been running non-stop for 3-5 years, and I've had several services I've relied on that have shutdown after being acquired, so there seems to be a need for a backup solution either way. People that derive their income from providing 3rd party services seem to have a bias in fa…

I'm not the person you're replying to, but someone that disagrees with you. I run multiple servers, at this minute there's 8 web servers online and 1 mysql server. Each server has a different purpose, some are long term and some are short term (taken offline after purpose served). Having to manage the cron jobs running on each server is a pain, having 8 servers all running different things is fine if you have the tim…

>Having to manage the cron jobs running on each server is a pain

Agreed, that's why you would use a single, cheap Atom box sitting under your desk managing all of your cron jobs.

>spending an hour to save $20 isn't worth it

This isn't saving $20, it is saving $240 per year, so having your own hardware is break-even for year one. Year two is essentially free.

>it's the same reason I use Postmark [...] for my email

Email is an entirely different beast, dealing lots of config files, blacklists, and a kludge of MTAs/ MUAs. I completely understand outsourcing that piece of operations.

>instead of buying hardware and colocating

There is no reason such operations need to be run from a datacenter/ colo. Any office/ business connection should be adequate to run cron jobs.

Re: Show HN: Cron.io - Sharing a by-product. Should this be a full service?

#60

Post by qeorge »

One thing I love about Mailgun is that they keep retrying POSTs to our URL if it doesn't respond with a 200 status code. It adds a nice level of reliability to our email gateways.

I think you could add that here, and it might be a good value add. Depending on pricing, I could be convinced.

Post reply on HN