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Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

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331–340 of 349 posts

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#331

In my city, there are many stadiums which cause traffic congestion during rush hours. I made a scraping bot which tells me if there's going to be traffic on my designated routes the next day. Going to try making it an app and see if it's any useful to others.

Relevant for people working/living in SF: http://www.isthereagiantsgametoday.com/

would like to know if the Sonoma Raceway is having an event for highway 37 too.

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#332

I have a script that downloads bank and credit card transaction data, then applies rules to create a journal in GNU Ledger format.

Do you use an API? Or just scraping? I've done the same, but stopped using it. Afraid my bank, if they detect it, might not like it.

I used to use pyofx and a lot of custom scraping to get this, but now I use Plaid. I work at Plaid now, but I used it before I got this position.

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#333
post #318

I have a script that downloads bank and credit card transaction data, then applies rules to create a journal in GNU Ledger format.

This sounds incredibly rude, but why? Maybe my income is too small for me to see the benefit (student) :p

It can be eye-opening to track and categorize every dollar spent, even if just for a few months. Especially for younger people who are earning serious money for the first time.

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have some news for you. You are a programmer.

If doing that stuff over about 4 or 5 years or so makes me a programmer, then I'm also a carpenter, because I've put together a few pieces of furniture over the same span.

A programmer is to a woodworker what a software engineer is to a carpenter.

You are a programmer, and a woodworker.

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#336
post #199

In Lausanne, Switzerland, it's very difficult to find an appartement because there are too few appartements for too many people and it mostly follows "First-come, first-served". So I created scrappers for 3 websites + 1 facebook group. It simply looks for apartments with my specifications and notify me when a new one comes up. I can say, I successfully found an apartment. The whole process usually takes at least 3 mo…

I had the same problem to find an apartment in Zurich and started scraping several websites to automate the process. The tool is at https://www.immomapper.ch perhaps you find it useful.

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have some news for you. You are a programmer.

If doing that stuff over about 4 or 5 years or so makes me a programmer, then I'm also a carpenter, because I've put together a few pieces of furniture over the same span.

Difference is, you're not a programmer professionally. "Carpenter" strictly implies a profession--I think. Native English speakers feel free to correct me :)

In my head, "carpenter" just has a different connotation. But it's not very clear-cut. I used to DJ a lot at parties during my university years, was I "a DJ"? I prepare dinner for 8-10 guests regularly, am I "a cook"?

It kind of depends, I guess. I've drawn a large number of cartoons in my life, but (with few exceptions) never sold them for money. I wouldn't call myself a cartoonist (mainly because I don't do it as much recently), but I would definitely not call myself "not a cartoonist" :) That would be selling myself short :)

I'm not a programmer professionally either. But then, I do have a CS degree, and I still write code almost daily. I'm a programmer.

I also generally don't feel that the fact if you do something professionally (for money) should really count as "what you do" (identity, in a sense), as this comic illustrates: http://i.imgur.com/MNJzpqL.jpg (I didn't draw this, btw)

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#338
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a quote from Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann! . When you're young, you have all these things to worry about - should you go there, what about your mother. And you worry, and try to decide, but then something else comes up. It's much easier to just plain decide. Never mind - nothing is going to change your mind. I did that once when I was a student at MIT. I got sick and tired of having to decide…

What about trying new things, experimenting with life?

Um yes, go for it? :)

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#339
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a quote from Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann! . When you're young, you have all these things to worry about - should you go there, what about your mother. And you worry, and try to decide, but then something else comes up. It's much easier to just plain decide. Never mind - nothing is going to change your mind. I did that once when I was a student at MIT. I got sick and tired of having to decide…

I've started to adopt a similar practice, although a somewhat more flexible one. Whenever I'm at a restaurant, or ordering food for whatever reason, I will check the menu for an item that prominently contains mushrooms. If such an item exists (and it doesn't sound awful or ridiculously expensive), then that's what I'm getting. Decision made. I started doing this mainly because I like mushrooms, enough that it felt li…

One thing I like to do, especially when I'm too tired or fuzzy to spend my limited energy on a large number of choices, is to wait and see what others are ordering and then pick from those options which you like best.

Also reduces the odds that you'll be looking at someone else's plate thinking "I wish I'd have ordered that instead" :)

Re: Ask HN: What tasks do you automate?

#340

This is a great question. The PC has been around for a long time now. For the most part, users/developers have been sitting around, twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the tool and app gods to rain their blessings. This question begs the need to be proactively involved in the process of designing how you use your PC

just to think one of the big breakthru ideas on how to use a 64k home computer was recipe indexing.
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