Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

news.ycombinator.com

21–30 of 63 posts

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#22

This is really interesting. It promises to help bridge the gap between conscious periods, while allowing us to capture bits of our unconscious and dream state musings.

Exactly! I actually had these two separate ideas, and they came together while I was trying to build the first idea. What was awesome was I was actually able to capture my dream on my first usage. You should try too! Would love feedback :)

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#23
post #8

Very cool, congrats on shipping! Are you using Twilio to power the calls? Some quick feedback: 1. I'd recommend having a clock selector for the "wake up time" -- right now it's not clear whether I'm setting an alarm for minutes from now, or for a specific time in the future, and what time zone it will be in. 2. Signing up initially is a friction point -- you might want to just let people set an alarm with a phone num…

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback! Yes I used Twilio API. I went to a hackathon last weekend and built this using Twilio API, and it was cool so I decided to refine it some more and release it. 1. Yeah currently it's alarm for hours and minutes "from now" rather than actual time, because you know, time zone conversion thing is really annoying and takes up too much time. But you're right I gotta make that more clear. 2…

Re: 1, you can set it in the database as a UTC record and then have it visually change in the HTML (using javascript) with several options.

Eg: If I select 7am on 6/15 from your dropdown list, you render some inline HTML that shows some/all of the following:

"7am EST" "4am PST" "6am CST"

etc

Timezones are definitely tricky, but if you search StackOverflow or other sites there might be some good recommended approaches.

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#24

Nice. I did something like this (tho MUCH more limited!) back in the 80s. I created a little Turbo Pascal program that let you enter the wake-up time, and at that time it would make my home phone ring, which was guaranteed to always wake me up. It used the AT commands of the modem to do a little onhook/offhook toggling and then dialing my own number and then going back onhook. The local phone company would interpret…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#25

Nice. I did something like this (tho MUCH more limited!) back in the 80s. I created a little Turbo Pascal program that let you enter the wake-up time, and at that time it would make my home phone ring, which was guaranteed to always wake me up. It used the AT commands of the modem to do a little onhook/offhook toggling and then dialing my own number and then going back onhook. The local phone company would interpret…

Wow that's pretty hardcore. Respect.

But I bet you weren't able to do text-to-speech thing back then :)

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#26

Nice. I did something like this (tho MUCH more limited!) back in the 80s. I created a little Turbo Pascal program that let you enter the wake-up time, and at that time it would make my home phone ring, which was guaranteed to always wake me up. It used the AT commands of the modem to do a little onhook/offhook toggling and then dialing my own number and then going back onhook. The local phone company would interpret…

"it would make my home phone ring, which was guaranteed to always wake me up."

That would work for me the first 5 times, maybe. After that I'll have built up an ironclad immunity to the sound.

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#27
This is brilliant. I would seriously pay for this service if it could use translation (edit: transcription) to keep my dreams sorted - I never remember dreaming after a few moments after waking up and this would fascinating for me.

An important request: make entries deletable, I just tried a test and the sound quality wasn't sufficient (mobile issues).

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#28
I like the dream idea a lot. In a similar vein, I made http://keepdream.me/ to help people record dreams via email when you wake up. I can definitely see how people might prefer voice recording though. Another option to consider is SMS, as a phone call requires you to know when you're waking up.

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#29
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback! Yes I used Twilio API. I went to a hackathon last weekend and built this using Twilio API, and it was cool so I decided to refine it some more and release it. 1. Yeah currently it's alarm for hours and minutes "from now" rather than actual time, because you know, time zone conversion thing is really annoying and takes up too much time. But you're right I gotta make that more clear. 2…

Re: 1, you can set it in the database as a UTC record and then have it visually change in the HTML (using javascript) with several options. Eg: If I select 7am on 6/15 from your dropdown list, you render some inline HTML that shows some/all of the following: "7am EST" "4am PST" "6am CST" etc Timezones are definitely tricky, but if you search StackOverflow or other sites there might be some good recommended approaches…

I've worked in a lot of time/timezone related apps and Moment (Javascript) has treated me the best so far.

http://momentjs.com/

Re: Show HN: WakeMyself. Get a wakeup call from your yesterday's self.

#30
post #20

I've tried services likes this before but it's too easy to know what it is and ignore it and then fall back asleep. Maybe I'm just more stubborn than everyone else.

Have you ever tried something that tells you what to do? I've tried things that wakes me up with music or all kinds of things, but the key here I think is the message you can write to yourself. If you could tell yourself all the things you need to do for the day, that would be a really good way to start the day. Because I find that even when I do wake up most of the times I just do nothing productive. I think it's gr…

There's still the issue that you have to answer your phone with this service (provided you don't write an Android app that automatically answers calls from this number and puts them on the loudspeaker). Once I get used to knowing the phone call will happen every day, I'll just start holding the pillow around my head until the ringing stops and return to sleep.

I'm much more tempted to write something for a Raspberry Pi with speakers attached that will immediately begin yelling at me at the proper time. More configurable, and less prone to weird phone-related issues. (The only vulnerability would be if I started unplugging the device or speakers in my sleep, but there are ways to mitigate that.)

Post reply on HN