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Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

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171–180 of 722 posts

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#171
post #143

I was in the US and want to immigrate to Canada because of US broken H1B immigration system ( for me it will take 9 years to get a greencard). Here is what I did - The immigration website of Saskatchewan province opens up randomly to apply for immigration. I missed it many times because there is no indication other than the "Apply" button being enabled and a small text in their homepage which says "Applications are n…

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Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it counts. My favorite filter is anything containing "unsubscribe" goes to a "Mailers" folder never to be seen. I don't understand how people can deal with having unread emails in their inbox all the time.

Am I the only one who clicks the unsubscribe link? I live by Inbox Zero and I've been giving out my email address for over a decade (500+ sites and services in 1Password), but I very rarely receive marketing emails because I always unsubscribe. In the US, it's a law that businesses must comply with opt-out requests. Do most people feel their inbox is too far gone to manage manually?

I ignore them mainly because it's easier. Facebook alone might send me 10 emails a day begging me to come back.

If someone was smart, clicking the unsubscribe link would only validate that the address the mailer was sent to was being used. I suspect that several services do this either via the unsubscribe link or a pixel tracker.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#173

The grocery chain I shop at has a component of their loyalty card that lets you add certain coupons to your card and they change constantly. All told there may be a few hundred of items offered up daily, most of which I don't buy anyhow. So instead of wasting my time sifting through them to save $10 a month I just wrote a script to add all of them to my card every day at the same time. So long as I go shopping after…

Safeway does the whole digital coupon thing. It’s too much of a hassle to be worthwhile but this could help. Not sure it’s worth the effort of writing the script myself though. Do you mind open sourcing it?

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#174
post #102

I have set up a battery of scripts on google app engine and Im pretty happy with it. 1. I have a script to automatically buy small amount of BTC every day 2. For the more knowledge-dense books I read, I write summaries of them ( https://piszek.com/books/ ). I have a script that puts a random book review to my pocket for reviewing every week 3. I have an instagram account of lego minifig ( https://www.instagram.com/le…

Are you able to preserve the original caller ID when forwarding SMS?

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#175

In college I wrote a script to register for classes. I'd input the potentially-full classes I'd like to register for, and it would just hammer the registration site repeatedly until someone removed themselves from the class at which point I'd be registered. I'm still amazed IT didn't pull the network connection to my dorm room or have any kind of rate limiting. No 8am sessions for me!

I do this currently. I'm surprised our course catalog doesn't ban IPs that hit it every 30 seconds or so.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#176

I have a house plant that is watered automatically, but not based on any pre-determined schedule. I have the plant's livestream and its moisture level available publicly on pleasetakecareofmyplant.com and the decision to water is crowd sourced on reddit.com/r/takecareofmyplant by way of a daily vote.

What moisture sensor are you using? That's always been a sticking point for me, where soil moisture sensors just don't work, unlike air moisture sensors.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#178
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds terrible. Even more terrible a lot of people (probably you also) don't find it terrible.

No reason to be so harsh. She's married to a techie. This is a techie thing to bring a little bit of happiness is all. You're acting like he used a markov bot to reply to all his wife's messages.

Imagine two Neural Nets trained by husband and wife to do the usual conversations. Now add a solarcell and a speaker- and some noise generator for starters on a gravestone- and long after the couple is gone, the beloved ones arguing goes on.

This is brilliant! No, it is not, this is one of your worser ideas. Oh, Madam is constructive again today. You want me to say my true opion or not.. This is how you always swing that- no matter how rude - its freedom of expression in danger.

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it counts. My favorite filter is anything containing "unsubscribe" goes to a "Mailers" folder never to be seen. I don't understand how people can deal with having unread emails in their inbox all the time.

Am I the only one who clicks the unsubscribe link? I live by Inbox Zero and I've been giving out my email address for over a decade (500+ sites and services in 1Password), but I very rarely receive marketing emails because I always unsubscribe. In the US, it's a law that businesses must comply with opt-out requests. Do most people feel their inbox is too far gone to manage manually?

I attempt the click the unsubscribe link for everything I get but some sites seem to double down on the emails after the unsubscribe

Re: Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

#180
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great suggestion - will add it asap!

I thought so too, until I realize she could immediately call and ask what do I think about the picture.

Just spin up a good computer vision algorithm!
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