News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by throwaway2016a on Thursday October 12, 2017 @09:37AM (#15457806)
If you include home automation:

- Holliday decoration / lights

- Security

- Morning routine (Elliptical on, TV on, Audible book queued up, etc)

- Irrigation

If you don't include home:

- Putting important events like what day the trash should be taken out onto my calendar (taking into account snow delays and holidays)

- My personal tweeting

- Exercise planning / tracking (as much as possible). What is not possible (like recording actual reps) I put as easy to use voice commands on my Alexa

- And I also farm out minor stuff to a virtual personal assistant, which has an API

Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by nanospeck on Thursday October 12, 2017 @09:49AM (#15457882)
Hi which va service do you use/recommend ?
Re:Ask HN: What non-work task have you automated? by throwaway2016a on Thursday October 12, 2017 @09:56AM (#15457920)
I'm currently trying out FancyHands https://www.fancyhands.com/

A task is 20 minutes, if it takes longer they ask you to use more than one credit on a single task. And there was one task so far that took so long I ended up doing it myself (they refunded my credit for that one). But overall it has been decent. I haven't tried others yet.

I picked them because their minimum fee is reasonable. As it is I have trouble using all five tasks they give you. (it rolls over to the next month)

For example, the last thing I had them do was to call the landfill and schedule my trash bin to be replaced because the lid broke and put it on my calendar. It is a pain in the neck thing (they don't always pick up the phone... you have to wait on hold... etc) so the assistant probably saved me a lot of aggravation.

They have an affiliate link but it uses my real name and this is an anonymous account so no affiliate referral for me :)