Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#691

Post by freehunter » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 9:48 PM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #465

YaxelPerez wrote: post #119

I used Tasker to make my phone vibrate in Morse code. Now I don't have to take it out of my pocket to read a notification.

That'd be even better on a smartwatch... and come to think of it, Morse code might very well be the quickest method of text entry on a smartwatch...

I've looked into this in the past (on an embedded device, not a smartwatch) and back then was convinced that it was a more difficult idea than I wanted to spend time on. Morse code is made for humans to write and humans to listen to, so it's often sloppy and difficult to parse in an automated fashion. Everyone writes a bit differently, at different speeds, and everyone has a different definition of how long a dash and a dot should be.

It's possible for sure, but like OCR there's a lot of variability in it. Just like parsing handwriting is full of edge cases, parsing morse code is as well.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#692

Post by CloudNetworking » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 9:54 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #621

marcol1n0 wrote: post #544

My mum did run a B&B, in Italy, on the sea. Me and my sister do live in different cities. She was quite old, but did not want any help from strangers. She did refuse to use a computer keyboard, since she hated informatization, and her sight was short. So I did automate a system for her to scan the guests documents, detect the data required by local police for registration via OCR, fill up the form to send those data,…

> detect the data required by local police for registration What data do the local police require?

Some countries require to report names and IDs of all guests staying. All of them, not just foreigners.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#693

Post by copperx » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 10:14 PM UTC

cstrat wrote: post #425

slg wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminds me of my favorite Douglas Adams quote: "I am rarely happier than when spending an entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand." Sometimes it simply isn't about net time saved.

oh man that is hilarious. I am so on that wavelength :)

Don't read his blog though, or you'll be tremendously disappointed.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#694

Post by fao_ » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 10:27 PM UTC

jscholes wrote: post #202

YaxelPerez wrote: post #119

I used Tasker to make my phone vibrate in Morse code. Now I don't have to take it out of my pocket to read a notification.

> Now I don't have to take it out of my pocket to read a notification. Definitely going to look into this. I'm a blind screen reader user and, when I had a phone with physical buttons, I could have it in my pocket connected to an external braille device or pair of headphones. I could easily carry on conversations, browse the web, ask for help, all sorts of things without taking it out of my pocket, and nobody had to…

If you have an android device you might be able to slave a keyboard and an earphone to it and use it that way? I don't know how feasable that is though!!

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#695

Post by Arete31415 » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 10:30 PM UTC

avshyz wrote: post #603

I'm 25, and single. I'm very social, and I work out regularly. But I find it hard to approach women in the street, and I've always detested loud pubs (My hearing is slightly impaired, which makes it hard for me to communicate in such a place). So I've decided to sign in to OKCupid. I've always heard the dating scene in this site is toxic, but I've had no idea. I've too many toxic and horrible things written plainly i…

Good for you!

FYI for all dating folks out there: women do not want you to approach them in the street. Like, let's say, 99.5% of the time.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#696

Post by chobytes » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 10:58 PM UTC

lma21 wrote: post #676

chobytes wrote: post #640

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a giant red flag to me. I hope you at least disclose your methods to people you contact.

What, why? It looks a reasonable solution for a missing 'filtering' feature :-)

They're treating people as objects to be measured and quantified. The sentiment analysis thing at the end sounds borderline sociopathic.

I would personally be terrified of anyone who thought this was an ethical or acceptable thing to do.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#697

Post by chobytes » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 11:01 PM UTC

Arete31415 wrote: post #695

avshyz wrote: post #603

I'm 25, and single. I'm very social, and I work out regularly. But I find it hard to approach women in the street, and I've always detested loud pubs (My hearing is slightly impaired, which makes it hard for me to communicate in such a place). So I've decided to sign in to OKCupid. I've always heard the dating scene in this site is toxic, but I've had no idea. I've too many toxic and horrible things written plainly i…

Good for you! FYI for all dating folks out there: women do not want you to approach them in the street. Like, let's say, 99.5% of the time.

This. I'm legitimately scared when random guys approach me, as I've had guys grope me, try to corner me, etc in past. Sadly, I feel like these are common experiences for women.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#698

Post by ghostbrainalpha » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 11:43 PM UTC

chobytes wrote: post #696

lma21 wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, why? It looks a reasonable solution for a missing 'filtering' feature :-)

They're treating people as objects to be measured and quantified. The sentiment analysis thing at the end sounds borderline sociopathic. I would personally be terrified of anyone who thought this was an ethical or acceptable thing to do.

He prefers people who fill out their profiles, and like reading..... that's a bit of a jump to sociopath.

There are some bizarre and horrible things people do on dating sites. If you have had bad experiences, that's not ok. But don't prejudge this person without really understanding the effect his code is having.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#699

Post by matt_the_bass » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 11:46 PM UTC

avshyz wrote: post #603

I'm 25, and single. I'm very social, and I work out regularly. But I find it hard to approach women in the street, and I've always detested loud pubs (My hearing is slightly impaired, which makes it hard for me to communicate in such a place). So I've decided to sign in to OKCupid. I've always heard the dating scene in this site is toxic, but I've had no idea. I've too many toxic and horrible things written plainly i…

Good luck! I met my wife on that site.

Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?

#700

Post by keerthiko » Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 11:52 PM UTC

chobytes wrote: post #696

lma21 wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, why? It looks a reasonable solution for a missing 'filtering' feature :-)

They're treating people as objects to be measured and quantified. The sentiment analysis thing at the end sounds borderline sociopathic. I would personally be terrified of anyone who thought this was an ethical or acceptable thing to do.

OkCupid recently added filtering features to inbox, to filter away messages under X word count, or match % < N. I think this is just a more advanced version of that. I think the time spent on the top of the online dating funnel (browsing often-misleading profiles, reading their essays, and trying to start a conversation that either results in no response or an offensive dismissal) does not contribute to personal development OR enjoyment in any way, so why not minimize that time, so that a person can focus on the human interaction that comes after?