Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#31

Post by PhasmaFelis » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 4:56 AM UTC

mathetic wrote: post #8

Maybe Orwell's vision wasn't accurate. The title suggests Huxley got it right.

I'm still not convinced that Brave New World was actually a dystopia, relative to either our modern world or the one that Huxley was writing from. It had some stuff that was pretty fucked up, but was it more fucked up than e.g. the way we treat the poor and homeless? BNW at least dramatically reduced the total volume of human misery in the world.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#32

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:05 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#33

Post by johnhkg » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:09 AM UTC

daenz wrote: post #2

It's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in from management. These projects are great for culture.

Netflix seems like a great company to work for. Recommend reading Reed Hasting's presentation on their culture: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#34

Post by halcyondaze » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:10 AM UTC

Damn, this is how you have fun. Both on the tech side and the marketing side. Much respect to Netflix.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#35

Post by chrissnell » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:14 AM UTC

Any ideas what they might be using to mill the wooden enclosure? I have a few projects that need enclosures and it's been a few years since I looked but the CNC mills were still thousands of dollars.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#36

Post by SEJeff » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:18 AM UTC

mattbettinson wrote: post #19

SEJeff wrote: post #17

FYI for the DIYers, there is a little project that I contribute to on the side for fun. I also use it to do things just like the title suggests: https://home-assistant.io/

Looks cool! One question - Why android switches on an iphone app? Is it just for the screenshot?

This isn't a native app, that is a very responsive webapp. It uses nuclearjs and the polymer web frameworks, but the backend is all evented python.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#37

Post by reportingsjr » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:21 AM UTC

chrissnell wrote: post #35

Any ideas what they might be using to mill the wooden enclosure? I have a few projects that need enclosures and it's been a few years since I looked but the CNC mills were still thousands of dollars.

You could just use regular woodworking tools to get it done.

If you really want to CNC mill something like that then maybe look at the inventables x carve.[0] I got to use a shapeoko for a while which was the previous inventables CNC and it was pretty OK.

I would highly recommend looking in your area for a hackerspace that may have tools like these.

[0] https://www.inventables.com/technologies/x-carve

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#38

Post by barrecan » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:22 AM UTC

chrissnell wrote: post #35

Any ideas what they might be using to mill the wooden enclosure? I have a few projects that need enclosures and it's been a few years since I looked but the CNC mills were still thousands of dollars.

CNC would be one of the better routes. Like you mentioned, the cost is a barrier. Luckily you can rent CNC time at some hardware stores, university wood shops and some local hacker-spaces. http://100kgarages.com/ can locate you a CNC and answer any questions you may have.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#39

Post by bcx » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:24 AM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #15

hugh4 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really just a fun project? Or is Netflix trying to use this as the nose of the camel to get into the house automation business? I've always thought house automation was cool, but a lot of trouble and likely to wind up a waste of my time and effort once I stop using it in three years because whatever standard I was using became obsolete. But if Netflix can start automating my house one bit at a time and slowly s…

It's so far from a scalable product, I would guess it's not even a good test for market fit. Only a small subset of hackers/makers will tackle this. And, there's nothing to even buy from Netflix here...it's all stuff from other vendors. I'm not saying it isn't on their radar, but this particular project is clearly for fun.

It could be fun, plus a recruiting technique, since it creates awareness around Netflix's culture, and I am sure they hire a lot of engineers.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#40

Post by balloob » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:25 AM UTC

SEJeff wrote: post #36

mattbettinson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks cool! One question - Why android switches on an iphone app? Is it just for the screenshot?

This isn't a native app, that is a very responsive webapp. It uses nuclearjs and the polymer web frameworks, but the backend is all evented python.

You can check out the demo here: https://home-assistant.io/demo/