Not bad for a beta web app! Keep up the good work, it will pay off eventually.
Show HN: Café Wifi Search
41–50 of 51 posts
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why would user data contributed to your application be any better than the user data contributed through OSM? I populated my data manually. I visited stores personally, talked to staff & store owners, measured GPS co-ordinates & WiFi speeds & counted power outlets in person. "Do Things That Don't Scale." Even as one person, I was able to create a dataset for my city that was 2.5x larger than OSM had, with better ac…
> Even as one person, I was able to create a dataset for my city that was 2.5x larger than OSM had Then why in the world don't you contribute it to OSM so millions of users can benefit from it? (Or maybe you did, I don't know, but you seem to be pushing a separate platform here.)
I have better things to do with my time than to work for no pay :) If someone wanted to pay me commercial rates for my time & travel costs, I'd consider that.
I did contribute some to OSM, but it looks like only a handful of edits before I just gave up on OSM altogether. Most of the OSM edits in my city (Perth, Australia) seem to be from 4 - 5 years ago and are somewhat out of date. I shelved my app, so I have no competing platform to promote.
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Even if you took a simple algorithm, whereby you preferred any data you had for a location over any OSM data for the same location, surely you would wind up with a richer dataset? That gives a messy, inaccurate dataset. It ends up including cafes that were closed years ago, places that aren't even cafes, or places several blocks from where they actually are. As a user, I don't think you want to walk out to a new ca…
> If you have to review the entire OSM dataset anyway, you may as well create your own. I don't know what terribly mapped place that is - probably one with lots of people where it made economical sense for Google to have a very high map quality, resulting in nobody using OSM - but I cannot imagine that that statement is true anywhere in the world. I've only used OSM extensively in the Netherlands, Germany and Finland…
> I don't know what terribly mapped place that is...
I mentioned above, but it's Perth, Australia. Google seems to have won the mapping wars here. Google even includes live feeds of how busy a store currently is (measured in realtime by Android phones), and shows busy/quiet trends for each store so you can plan ahead when you want to go.
The Open Street Maps Australia website appears not to have been updated since 2009.
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Even as one person, I was able to create a dataset for my city that was 2.5x larger than OSM had Then why in the world don't you contribute it to OSM so millions of users can benefit from it? (Or maybe you did, I don't know, but you seem to be pushing a separate platform here.)
I have better things to do with my time than to work for no pay :) If someone wanted to pay me commercial rates for my time & travel costs, I'd consider that. I did contribute some to OSM, but it looks like only a handful of edits before I just gave up on OSM altogether. Most of the OSM edits in my city (Perth, Australia) seem to be from 4 - 5 years ago and are somewhat out of date. I shelved my app, so I have no com…
> I have better things to do with my time than to work for no pay :)
Are you serious? If everyone thought like that, the world would be a much grimmer place with no volunteering work, let alone open source software or open projects such as OSM.
I understand that it might seem futile to contribute to a huge project (mapping the physical world) when few other people near you are helping, but please tell me you aren't serious about having something better to do than volunteering work in general.
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#45Not bad for a beta web app! Keep up the good work, it will pay off eventually.
Thanks! Will keep at it.
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#46This data is already in OpenStreetMap. Looking around, there are zero places in the Netherlands and I am certain I tagged at least a few places myself so this map is less complete because they want to do it themselves. It also contains opening hours, addresses, etc., which is all in OSM. I don't understand why people always try to start anew when the data is right there. I can understand there is some complexity in g…
You're incorrect. This data is not in OSM or elsewhere, it's fragmented.
People have tried to build massive databases of places, yet there are clear gaps in the data all over the place.
Perhaps topic-based apps and data are better. Here's the solution for that, starting with Café Wifi.
If you think one company and site can do everything well, look at what is happening to Facebook.
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#47Why does the website seem to be a cheap ad whose only purpose is to get you to install the app, which could presumably do anything it wants with your data?
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have better things to do with my time than to work for no pay :) If someone wanted to pay me commercial rates for my time & travel costs, I'd consider that. I did contribute some to OSM, but it looks like only a handful of edits before I just gave up on OSM altogether. Most of the OSM edits in my city (Perth, Australia) seem to be from 4 - 5 years ago and are somewhat out of date. I shelved my app, so I have no com…
> I have better things to do with my time than to work for no pay :) Are you serious? If everyone thought like that, the world would be a much grimmer place with no volunteering work, let alone open source software or open projects such as OSM. I understand that it might seem futile to contribute to a huge project (mapping the physical world) when few other people near you are helping, but please tell me you aren't s…
Very serious. I have other work to do and my own customers to serve, and they pay me for my work.
If you'd like to volunteer yourself to do the work on OSM, go for it. You can do some of it remotely by researching coffee brands in my city, going to their websites & finding contact details for each of the stores. Telephone each store owner and ask them to confirm details you're not sure of. Then contact the city council for lists of local cafe businesses (probably already on their tourism website) and do the same process with those cafes.
I'll give you a head start: my two favorite cafes in the Gloria Jean's Coffees chain are both missing from OSM, if you'd like to add those.
[Edit: Actually it's missing 19 of their 20 stores here, so there's 19 POIs you could add for that cafe chain in my city. At 15 minutes per POI, it's about 5 hours work.]
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#49So, first impressions:
-From the comments I see you state network speeds, but there's nothing in my current circle so I can't tell if you can lead me to someplace with Verizon FiOS where I can finish a large backup job in a day as opposed to 3 months on cable.
-Can't change my location. Tried dragging the dot & clicking my current spot after searching my city at the top.
-No Android app, so there's the end of my testing.
Re: Show HN: Café Wifi Search
#50Just wondering whats your stack?