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Show HN: Enter a message, delivery at a random time up to 6 months from now

futuremessage.me

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Re: Show HN: Enter a message, delivery at a random time up to 6 months from now

#41

Post by pbhjpbhj »

ForrestN wrote: post #40
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #8

That reminds me of something I've been thinking about again and again over the past years. Is there any reliable way to send myself a message that I would receive, say, 40 years from today. So far I haven't been able to come up with a good solution.

Get a locket engraved with the date. Write the message on thin paper, roll it up, and store it in the locket. Wear it everywhere until it's time to open it. Keep some spare copies in a safety deposit box. If you lose the locket, you'll notice, so you can go and get another one from the box.

>Keep some spare copies in a safety deposit box.

// Prepay for 40 years, leave the message in the box, forget the lockets. The bank will chase your for an extension for the rental of the box.

Far from foolproof but if you're already relying on a deposit box ...

Re: Show HN: Enter a message, delivery at a random time up to 6 months from now

#42

Post by Baadier »

Interesting idea, I sent my girlfriend a soppy message for the heck of it and I'm thinking of sending myself some tech message reminders for example re-check this framework/site/idea/open source project in 6 months.

I'm always finding stuff that I'm interested in but don't necessarily have a use for now or I'm interested in seeing how the project turns out in the future, this will send me a reminder that I will actually take note of.

Re: Show HN: Enter a message, delivery at a random time up to 6 months from now

#43

Post by ForrestN »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #41
ForrestN wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a locket engraved with the date. Write the message on thin paper, roll it up, and store it in the locket. Wear it everywhere until it's time to open it. Keep some spare copies in a safety deposit box. If you lose the locket, you'll notice, so you can go and get another one from the box.

> Keep some spare copies in a safety deposit box. // Prepay for 40 years, leave the message in the box, forget the lockets. The bank will chase your for an extension for the rental of the box. Far from foolproof but if you're already relying on a deposit box ...

Right, you should definitely prepay. But if you don't use the locket system then you have to remember to go and get the box. The nice thing about the locket is that it's always there around your neck, so you don't have to remember that the box exists or the date (which is engraved).

Re: Show HN: Enter a message, delivery at a random time up to 6 months from now

#44

Post by [deleted] »

palish wrote: post #36
yid wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very familiar with MT from my PhD research :) It's a nugget of gold hidden in a single .c file. I asked the question in relation to the LC generators in stdlib, where it seemed like reseeding from the (probably MT? I believe BSD uses Yarrow) generator in /dev/urandom would actually result in more entropy than the internal state of the LC generator in Perl/C stdlib. Totally agree with not reseeding MT though -- I…

Oh, sorry... if you're asking whether it's possible to hack the "crappy rand()" such that it has more entropy by constantly re-seeding from MT... then I have no idea =) I just use MT itself.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Enter a message, delivery at a random time up to 6 months from now

#45

Post by ForrestN »

yid wrote: post #7
ForrestN wrote: post #5

I think this is an interesting idea with some potential. Good job building something for people! I'm sure you're not at this stage yet, but the best way I can add value is to offer a few design notes as you move forward: - The alignment, especially around the form, is sort of wonky. "E-mail" is separated to two lines (at least in Chrome), and the "Schedule for delivery" button is neither left aligned or center aligne…

Thank you SO much for the feedback...working on some of those changes right now. EDIT: changes are now live, thanks again!

Had a few extra minutes, made a mockup of the more literal approach. Needs a lot of tweaking, and not exactly the right bottle, etc., but just something quickly thrown together to get you thinking:

http://forrestnash.com/mockup.png

Re: Show HN: Enter a message, delivery at a random time up to 6 months from now

#49

Post by jaekwon »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #8

That reminds me of something I've been thinking about again and again over the past years. Is there any reliable way to send myself a message that I would receive, say, 40 years from today. So far I haven't been able to come up with a good solution.

Pay $2000 to a local school to host a time-capsule event where all the kids write letters to themselves for 40 years from now.

Pay another $1000 to dig a hole in the school yard and put a proper decorative cover on the thing so people remember to dig it out when the time comes.

Re: Show HN: Enter a message, delivery at a random time up to 6 months from now

#50

Post by fauigerzigerk »

jaekwon wrote: post #49
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #8

That reminds me of something I've been thinking about again and again over the past years. Is there any reliable way to send myself a message that I would receive, say, 40 years from today. So far I haven't been able to come up with a good solution.

Pay $2000 to a local school to host a time-capsule event where all the kids write letters to themselves for 40 years from now. Pay another $1000 to dig a hole in the school yard and put a proper decorative cover on the thing so people remember to dig it out when the time comes.

That might work but it's expensive and what if the school is refurbished or relocated or something?
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