A few years ago I used Trello to keep track of my tasks for the day in a Kanban board separated by date. I had a large backlog of tasks and then a "Due this Month" "Due this Week" "Due Tomorrow" and "Due Today" sections. First I wrote code that automatically moved cards between the different sections, so I only ever had to look at the "Due Today" list. Then I used Twilio to build a bot that gave me a wake up call eve…
Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
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Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#572I have a robot lawn mower that is wire guided. Instead of the traditional lawn mowers that basically cut the grass in all directions (making a sloppy cut pattern) my mower knows how to cut in straight lines so you get a traditional cut pattern. It also has the ability to dump the grass cuttings into a composting bin. Basically, I put down wire guide cable into the lawn and into the cement as well. It is all powered b…
Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#573Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not particularly complicated but it’s far from optimal. If you’re not doing anything special your profits are taxed as ordinary income but you don’t get to deduct business expenses, nor do you get to count that income toward deductions like self employed healthcare or retirement account contributions.
Now you're just debating additional income. However, say your company lost -$10,000. If you profited $10,000 in stocks -- you technically made $0 in profit, which means you still don't need to pay taxes, even on the profit on stocks. ...and if your business is really killing it, and you're also killing it in the stock market, I am certain you won't have a problem paying a few dollars to the US Gov. It's still better…
Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#574Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think modern washers weigh the clothes and change their cycles based off that and other information. Mine is similar but seems to always overestimate the time instead, which is probably the better failure state.
Some industrial laundries do this, but I have heard this over and over again to describe residential HE laundry machines but never actually seen one with a way to measure this. The usual method is to tumble the clothes until the water level in the tub stops dropping. Now they're saturated with water. What you are probably getting when you start your washer is an estimate considering the steps of the cycle and loaded…
If I could turn all the load sensing stuff off, I would. All I really want is two sliders that give me 0-100% for load size and temperature and a switch for delicate.
Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#575My mum did run a B&B, in Italy, on the sea. Me and my sister do live in different cities. She was quite old, but did not want any help from strangers. She did refuse to use a computer keyboard, since she hated informatization, and her sight was short. So I did automate a system for her to scan the guests documents, detect the data required by local police for registration via OCR, fill up the form to send those data,…
Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#576A few years ago I used Trello to keep track of my tasks for the day in a Kanban board separated by date. I had a large backlog of tasks and then a "Due this Month" "Due this Week" "Due Tomorrow" and "Due Today" sections. First I wrote code that automatically moved cards between the different sections, so I only ever had to look at the "Due Today" list. Then I used Twilio to build a bot that gave me a wake up call eve…
I'm curious: How do you write code for Trello? I didn't realize there was an approach for this
Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#577Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#578I've also setup some things for the wife, who's an artist on Patreon, where she uploads works she's finished to a given folder and my machine grabs them, resizes them to whatever she needs for different purposes, and emails them to her. It also applies watermarks depending on the appearance of it (light vs dark) and will also add it to her Jekyll website, commit the new image to the git repo, build and push it live with no interaction unless something blows up along the way (122 days since last workplace accident)
I also have a bunch of LED ropes, night lights, and our bedroom TV setup on smart plugs that are turned on and off automatically, but I don't know if that counts since I didn't build it, I just bought them.
Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#579We (with the wife) automated menu for the week and the shopping list. A database store all recipes (ingredients, time taken...) and the menu composer chose semi-randomly* into the list. * : Menu composer takes into account : - in season vegetables, - number of reutilisation of the ingredient, - number of reutilisation of the meal, - expiration of the ingredients (vegetables can expire rather quickly) - various parame…
Re: Ask HN: What are the things that you have automated in your personal life?
#580Earlier quoted context omitted.
Building a clunky device that imitates human actions is hardly 'genius'. Resourceful maybe. An electrical coffee grinder isn't a normal coffee grinder with some rotating lever attached to it. An electrical coffee grinder has small motors attached to the grinder mechanism in order to make it move. This contraption is fun to build I am sure, but not 'genius'. Much closer to genius is the thermomix: https://thermomix.co…
Here in Australia, Thermomix was recently ordered to pay $4.6 million in penalties for knowingly keeping safety issues relating to one of their appliances secret. A malfunctioning lid caused hot liquid to escape from the bowl, giving several consumers severe burns. The Court found that Thermomix knew of this risk but still continued to promote and supply the faulty product. Beware of genius inventions, you may get bu…