Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated?

Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by sasaf5 on Thursday October 12, 2017 @01:07AM (#15455797)

My girlfriend needed to be texted everyday otherwise she would turn sour. So I made an sms generator that randomly composed sentences combining words from three tables and sent to her at random times. It took her many months to notice. When she found out, she was angry for 10 seconds, but that anger faded to curiosity about how the random sentence composer thing worked. After I showed it to her, she got mad at me again for not updating the tables more frequently :P

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by Debonnys on Thursday October 12, 2017 @06:23AM (#15456919)

I did something similar, my gf wanted me text her that I got home safely after I left her place. So I automated it that when I disconnected to her WiFi and within a certain time reconnected to mine it would text her. She noticed it when she drove me back home once and still got the text.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by mabbo on Thursday October 12, 2017 @08:21AM (#15457425)

My wife and I simplified the "where are you" problem by turning on always-on location sharing in Google maps. Some people find it creepy, but as a couple of engineers we're pretty stoked on the efficiency improvement.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by eximius on Friday October 13, 2017 @09:37AM (#15465473)

I'd still be creeped out. What if I want to go secretly shop for a gift?

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by Klathmon on Thursday October 12, 2017 @08:10AM (#15457361)

I did the same thing, only at the time I had a wireless charger, so it was setup on my phone to send the text when it was after 8PM and I put my phone on the charger.

One night she stayed over, set the phone down, got the text, and thought it was hilarious and said she did think it was weird that I said the exact same thing every night.

The next day I updated it to pick from one of 10 different text messages!

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by systemtest on Thursday October 12, 2017 @08:10AM (#15457356)

But what if the murderer took your phone and drove past your home?

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by flatfilefan on Thursday October 12, 2017 @06:54AM (#15457050)

Was a fair game still. You were safe at home.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by TeMPOraL on Thursday October 12, 2017 @08:39AM (#15457516)

Did the same; my SO wanted me to send her a periodic reminder as a text message on a given hour; I put together a Tasker task that composed a bunch of randomly selected parts into a sentence.

It took about a month or two for her to notice, though I believe that what ultimately did me in was that time when I was talking with her on the phone when the SMS task executed...

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by teacpde on Thursday October 12, 2017 @01:37AM (#15455893)

I have thought about doing this so many times, and yet dare to make the move. It will be fun at first but not so much after she finds out.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by MarkSweep on Thursday October 12, 2017 @03:06AM (#15456189)

Here's a idea for a compromise: make the SMS bot send you a message with a suggested message. This keeps you in the loop about what messages are being sent but relieves you from having to remember to send up a message or think of one.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by mschaef on Thursday October 12, 2017 @06:30AM (#15456943)

Yeah... one day her cat dies, and she gets the automated text you forgot to stop: "Hey babe... hope you're having a great day! xoxo"

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by jcun4128 on Thursday October 12, 2017 @03:52AM (#15456356)

That's awesome, what was the sms api/platform that you used and how much?

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by sasaf5 on Thursday October 12, 2017 @04:54AM (#15456592)

Nothing fancy, I used "Tasker" on my own android phone. Ugliest thing ever, but I managed to hack it during a bus trip, and it worked.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by amelius on Thursday October 12, 2017 @05:44AM (#15456780)

This makes me wonder, how could one implement something like this over a service like Whatsapp?

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by matthieucan on Thursday October 12, 2017 @07:19AM (#15457153)

I don't use WhatsApp, but if it allows to receive Intents (Android functions to execute something on an app, like sending a message to someone), then you can use Tasker to send the intent you want with the right parameters.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by jcun4128 on Thursday October 12, 2017 @05:10AM (#15456657)

Have not heard of that thanks.

I just assume you have to rent a number/sms service or put a usb cable into your phone to use your existing phone.

Would be cool to interface with it without usb.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by Moter8 on Thursday October 12, 2017 @05:17AM (#15456686)

Tasker is just an app, there's no need for any cable. Tasker lets you automate stuff on your phone, say send a SMS every day, turn the WIFI on when you are close to your house, etc.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by jcun4128 on Thursday October 12, 2017 @05:23AM (#15456705)

I see. I was looking at it with perpestive of being integrated with a "web coded thing" I don't know how to explain what I'm saying like you wrote something in JavaScript and want to send a message by your phone from JS.

Anyway that is pretty cool what it does.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by amelius on Thursday October 12, 2017 @05:42AM (#15456772)

How did she find out eventually?

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by sasaf5 on Thursday October 12, 2017 @09:18AM (#15457710)

Because I implemented the thing during a bus ride, the sending time was not very random, and looking at a stream of messages she suspected I was scheduling them. When I showed her that even the content of the message was automatically generated, that's when she got angry.

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Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by TeMPOraL on Thursday October 12, 2017 @08:41AM (#15457524)

Not OP, but in my case, I believe she finally noticed when a text message arrived on-schedule while I was having a coversation on the phone with her...

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