Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

makeit.netflix.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 91 posts

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#51

Post by josteink »

hugh4 wrote: post #9
daenz wrote: post #2

It's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in from management. These projects are great for culture.

Is it really just a fun project? Or is Netflix trying to use this as the nose of the camel to get into the house automation business? I've always thought house automation was cool, but a lot of trouble and likely to wind up a waste of my time and effort once I stop using it in three years because whatever standard I was using became obsolete. But if Netflix can start automating my house one bit at a time and slowly s…

> Is it really just a fun project? Or is Netflix trying to use this as the nose of the camel to get into the house automation business?

I doubt they would piggyback on others' home automation systems and standards if that were their goal.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#52

Post by ykguler »

lamby wrote: post #50

Speaking of which, do food APIs exist? I've often been tempted to make a generic pizza API that — by limiting options — will deliver a pizza to almost any address via Just-Eat or whatever is local to you.

Haven't really seen any food api's. It would be cool if it did exist though.. But I don't think Just-Eat like services will bite since you'll be driving traffic away from their website..

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#53

Post by qq66 »

lamby wrote: post #50

Speaking of which, do food APIs exist? I've often been tempted to make a generic pizza API that — by limiting options — will deliver a pizza to almost any address via Just-Eat or whatever is local to you.

In 2005, my friends Dave and Adam built a pizza button in our dorm, it actually used the modem to send a fax to a local pizza place because that's all they had. Pushing the button ordered a cheese, but there were two auxiliary buttons underneath to select a topping via a Huffman code. (0 for pepperoni, 10 for sausage, 110 for anchovy, etc.)

I presume there are better APIs today :)

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#54

Post by semi-extrinsic »

Animats wrote: post #20

It would be cooler, easier, and would yield better battery life to reprogram an Amazon Dash Button [1] to do this. Most Samsung TVs can be controlled from the network side, as well as with an IR remote.[2] Of course, the Netflix button just brings up power and puts you at the Netflix menu. At that point, you need another device to tell Netflix what you want. Authorized Netflix-compatible TVs already have a Netflix bu…

There's HDMI CEC which could let you do that even better: the TV remote could have a "cinema" button that sent the signal over CEC to an RPi which controls the lights and curtains.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#55

Post by verbin217 »

throwaway39201 wrote: post #43
johnhkg wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netflix seems like a great company to work for. Recommend reading Reed Hasting's presentation on their culture: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664

For another perspective (perhaps a more nuanced/less flattering one), NPR's Planet Money recently did a great episode on Netflix's work culture [1]. I'm not so sure I'd want to work there, but I'm sure it is great for some. [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/08/28/435583328/episo...

That was super interesting. Thank you for posting it. The DVD/Streaming split was an especially interesting period for Netflix. I didn't know the back story behind it. For anyone curious, it's at the end.

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#56

Post by oskob »

This can already be achieved with Flic: http://flic.io Flic is a Bluetooth button which uses your smartphone to communicate with smart electronics. If you have Philips Hue or LIFX smart lights and a Logitech Harmony Hub (for IR), this would work straight out of the box! (Disclaimer: I am associated with Flic)

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#57

Post by jakobegger »

We're in the golden age of DIY home automation. Wifi-enabled microcontrollers like the particle photon are a game changer; it's never been easier to make a connected device yourself.

Using the Photon I've built a device that connects to my doorbell and sends a push notification to my mobile when someone rings. (Might be useful when you're in the back yard and don't want to miss the delivery guy)

Yes, most of the stuff is still gimmicky. But when you're tinkering, it's not necessary to turn everything into a product that will change the world or earn a billion dollars. We can just have a bit of fun, and enjoy the things we can do.

I think that hackerspaces might be todays equivalent to the homebrew computer clubs where enthusiasts dabbled with early home computers...

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#58

Post by negrit »

johnhkg wrote: post #33
daenz wrote: post #2

It's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in from management. These projects are great for culture.

Netflix seems like a great company to work for. Recommend reading Reed Hasting's presentation on their culture: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664

They also pay incredibly well http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/netflix-inc/2015

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#59

Post by gedrap »

ykguler wrote: post #52
lamby wrote: post #50

Speaking of which, do food APIs exist? I've often been tempted to make a generic pizza API that — by limiting options — will deliver a pizza to almost any address via Just-Eat or whatever is local to you.

Haven't really seen any food api's. It would be cool if it did exist though.. But I don't think Just-Eat like services will bite since you'll be driving traffic away from their website..

What's the problem with the traffic being driven away from the web site? As long as it would be coming through their API (think of centralized API for local food joints), and they get their cut it's all good.

But I see valid reasons for not providing APIs like that. Imagine someone creates a gadget like that and there's a bug, instead of 1 pizza it orders 10 of them. A delivery guy comes with 10, and no one is willing to pay for that many. It wouldn't take long to infuriate enough food joints.

Well, yeah, you could pay with credit card when placing an order... But I never do that, I just avoid using my card on web if I can easily do it :)

Re: Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone

#60

Post by iraldir »

oskob wrote: post #56

This can already be achieved with Flic: http://flic.io Flic is a Bluetooth button which uses your smartphone to communicate with smart electronics. If you have Philips Hue or LIFX smart lights and a Logitech Harmony Hub (for IR), this would work straight out of the box! (Disclaimer: I am associated with Flic)

Nice, seems like a cool startup.
Post reply on HN