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

Show HN: HomeSheet – easy-to-use home inventory software

homesheet.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 86 posts

Re: Show HN: HomeSheet – easy-to-use home inventory software

#61

Post by brimble »

cyberge99 wrote: post #53
fanieldanara wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm definitely considering this, especially to enhance the in-app search for finding your items quickly. I like that you mentioned book ISBNs specifically as that's not something I had considered yet. Thank you for your feedback, I'll keep it in mind going forward!

FYI, most barcode readers just “type” the keys into the keyboard buffer or HID. You could literally just have a text input box (that honors enter key) to make it barcode enabled. Of course x-reference this info with something like the “what” database and you’d have great input.

I recall the "zbar" library being (relatively) easy to integrate and working damn well out of the box, on both iOS and Android, back in 2011 or 2012. I'd expect it's gotten even easier, if anything. It's been a while but IIRC you just find a way to hand it bitmaps from your camera, and it does the rest, spotting and decoding QR and bar codes.

Re: Show HN: HomeSheet – easy-to-use home inventory software

#62

Post by ShakataGaNai »

Interesting concept? Yes.

Major security risk? Oh heck yes.

Privacy policy that basically sells you down the rive? You becha.

TOS that basically take all content and allow them to do/sell it however they please? Totes.

Any mentions of encryption? Not a one.

Sorry, no thanks. Maybe if it was open source, run it yourself. But a hosted app to give away the data (remember, if it's free - you're the product) on my house hold goods... to be sold to the lowest bidder? No way.

Re: Show HN: HomeSheet – easy-to-use home inventory software

#63

Post by pempem »

mrandish wrote: post #20
gruturo wrote: post #15

I understand the SaaS model (after all, if my house burns down, I don't want the inventory to burn down with it), but this is an advertiser's (and a burglar's !!) wet dream. Any current commitments to safeguarding my privacy could be reversed in your future T&C, or you may be acquired (User data included) by a company with wildly different priorities. How could you convince me that the data will always be properly sa…

That's a potential objection that didn't occur to me. I think the reason why is that the vast majority of home break-ins and burglaries aren't premeditated. They are addicts seeking stuff they can quickly sell for cash or random crimes of opportunity. Not criminal masterminds or international jewel thieves. If it is a common concern I imagine the company could offer an encrypted option where the cloud data is never p…

Where did the data underlying that point come from?

There are organized rings of burglary and they come and go over time. Off the top of my head I can think of three or four that I personally have been exposed to including of course the one that had its own netflix special, the bling ring.

Re: Show HN: HomeSheet – easy-to-use home inventory software

#65

Post by oliwarner »

sarchertech wrote: post #50
justinlloyd wrote: post #41

It looks interesting. I congratulate you for making it. It will be a cold day in Hell before I tell some random corporation the detailed contents of my home which may or may not get data-leaked, sold to another company (yeah! yeah! you pinky promise to "never" do that), partners with external service providers to either sell me something I don't want, data mine what I have or use it to determine if I am a credit risk…

Databases already exist to provide enough info to target your house. For most people that don’t have million dollar paintings, the likelihood of an attack or a leak of a national database attracting more the thieves than the general property value of your house is extremely low. Also those “more expensive items” and the more general coverage limits are already in insurance company databases, and I wouldn’t bet on the…

But no random consumer analytics company is going to buy Visa or Amazon and all their data for six or seven figures, or whatever this would be valued at after a couple of years.

Why is it worth anything? The users of this system are the people with enough to lose. Top-1%ers. With deep metadata stored about their purchasing habits. The direct marketing and informatics value would be immense.

I'm with the GP and many other comments here. This data is valuable, both against you (in targeted marketing and theft) but also to you. You should collect this data, store it yourself, offline, in a safe with those other documents and keepsakes you could never ever replace. It's the same process. It's probably easier on a bit of paper too.

Re: Show HN: HomeSheet – easy-to-use home inventory software

#66

Post by pahn »

I'm not the type of person who would maintain such a catalogue, but thinking about the scenario: I'll take 15 min tomorrow to run through my flat and just photograph everything. That way, in case disaster strikes (knock on wood it never does!), I do have some proof and only have to do the tedious cataloguing when it's actually needed… so, thanks i guess!

Re: Show HN: HomeSheet – easy-to-use home inventory software

#67

Post by jeroenhd »

This is great! The features are all quite useful and the UI looks very friendly. Even better, the TOS and privacy policy will surely annoy and upset people enough to develop an open source competitor so if this catches on, we'll get an even better open source version down the line!

I'll be keeping an eye out for the inevitable open source competitor that'll be slightly worse but much more popular among geeks. Until then, I'm definitely staying away from something this bad a deal.

Re: Show HN: HomeSheet – easy-to-use home inventory software

#69

Post by henryfjordan »

azinman2 wrote: post #47
isuguitar12 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American Family Insurance used to offer an app for this called DreamVault ( https://appadvice.com/app/dreamvault/536354802 ). They discontinued it in 2016 shortly after I put my whole house inventory into it of course. It had enough features to make it useful but wasn't very impressive overall. There may be some perverse incentives in NOT having this service for home insurers. If you don't have a good home inventory,…

This is why I would never trust a hosted web app to do something like this. I fully expect my house to last much longer than any such company. I’d want an app I run on my computer with data that I can export to something time lasting like CSV/PDF/etc.

Good luck accessing that data after a fire. Would be better to have the insurance company store it.
Post reply on HN