Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#81

Post by paloalto80 » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 2:34 AM UTC

shafqat wrote: post #2

I'll start. Wish there was an API that: 1) Allowed me to find high quality, license free images easily. 2) Let me access LinkedIn data. I know LinkedIn has an API, but its not open.

Try Photos8 for public domain photos

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#82

Post by schammy » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 2:37 AM UTC

Local movie times. It's stupid this isn't available from someone. The only thing it's going to do is increase the number of people going to see a movie.

Maybe there's one now but 3 years ago there wasn't one and I had to build a scraper for Yahoo movies to build the product I wanted.

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#83

Post by paloalto80 » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 2:41 AM UTC

bigbang wrote: post #69

Craigslist

Sorely needed. I can imagine pretty amazing mashups that revolved around your local community if Craigslist had an API. I'd imagine there would be a much bigger developer community than Twitter's because of the usefulness of their data and how important they are to local businesses

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#84

Post by zephjc » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 2:46 AM UTC

barredo wrote: post #24

systemtrigger wrote: post #14

My body, starting with my brain. Please provide clear documentation.

I would like: storeNewBrainMemory(); and saveBrainToDisk();

brain.pickle()

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#85

Post by zephjc » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 2:50 AM UTC

doWhatIMean("parse a bunch of names and sort")

This is from the same framework that has winTheGame() and doMyHomework()

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#86

Post by paloalto80 » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 2:50 AM UTC

paloalto80 wrote: post #80

paloalto80 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you do that already with a simple scrape?

"scrape != API" No kidding. He's looking to get "comments for a given thread, score of posts and comments, and user information", which you can use an HTML parser (like Hpricot if you're using Rails) to retrieve any info you need.

Care to explain why I'm being downvoted?

EDIT: If you're going to downvote, please leave an explanation to teach me what I'm missing. I'd sincerely appreciate that. Thank you.

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#87

Post by failrate » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 2:52 AM UTC

College class schedules (as well as registration schedules). Currently, even the best are buggy, slow and cumbersome. I have to take certain classes at different schools in order to fulfill my degree requirements and keep working full time. So, I often need to search for a single class across multiple institutions for the time that fits.

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#88

Post by steveklabnik » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 3:07 AM UTC

barredo wrote: post #24

systemtrigger wrote: post #14

My body, starting with my brain. Please provide clear documentation.

I would like: storeNewBrainMemory(); and saveBrainToDisk();

I think brain.serialize()

would be pretty cool...

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#89

Post by thorsview » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 3:12 AM UTC

tiffani wrote: post #44

Appliances: stove, oven, coffee maker, refrigerator. Various other household items: garage doors, locks, etc. This overly expensive, yet dumb, flat panel TV we just bought. Extending out to the driveway...my car. The energy meter on the side of the house (read-only access, obviously, just to keep the power co. happy). The most mundane stuff could use an API, if you ask me!

have you heard of http://www.pachube.com?

Re: Ask HN: What APIs do you wish existed?

#90

Post by doubleyooexwhy » Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 3:13 AM UTC

I'd like an API that had a function similar to this:

     make_this_many_dollars_magically_appear_in_my_bank_account(1000000000);