Ask HN: Manual daily task that takes = 5 minutes | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Manual daily task that takes = 5 minutes

4 pointstmaly13 comments

Do you have a manual task that you wish was automated that you do at least 3 times a week that takes at least 5 minutes to perform?

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Pooping * checking on for that I know takes about +-5min to cook in oven or on stove, but every time is different so you must constantly check it * looking for something to watch on tv * turning on the comp, opening all my workflow programs, reseting all the window sizes to the proper size * organize and compile my notes, this means taking notes from my phone, desktop, and paper, and bringing them all into the same text file, at the same time I merge it with the previously existing file and organize all the notes in the correct sections * to go along with previous, coverting a text files dashes(bullets) and indents (more bullets) to json, using the tiered format in the text file to dictate the hierarchy in the json * reliably cleaning litter box * cleaning of bunny cage * reliably feed pets with fallback system in place * development environment setup, the overhead for starting a new language or framework sometimes is a lot, would be great to just download a docker styled program with everything I need for all languages in it to play around with and test new things out, not a full blown ide though

* reliably feed pets with fallback system in place *

Don't they have feeders that do this for dogs and cats? What's wrong with those?

They don't have any backups, such as feedback loop to make sure that food was dispensed and if it wasn't then have a second port dispense food. My friend got one and sometimes the food falls into the dispenser in a way that it creates a supported arch so it blocks the food from actually entering the dispensing channel.

Makes sense, thanks for the explanation.

Check if I got a reply on HN. I don't always go to threads page it would be nice to automatically be warned about a reply.

There was a service at http://hnnotify.com/ but it seems to be down.

See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10521491

Hey thanks! I will take a look.

So I posted this question because I saw this comic on xkcd that is a chart showing how long you should work on making a task more efficient before your spending more time than you save. I always see these ask hn questions about coming up with ideas for a startup. I thought if you phrase it a little different, you might get a better set of ideas by looking at manual tasks that take at least 5 minutes.

I have some weekly-updated government datasets I have to pull in. I'd love to automate it, but government tends not to run their websites with automation in mind, so the file names tend to be different every week, and the day it updates varies, and it's just a general pain in the butt.

Do you mind posting a link? I'm good with this stuff I could potentially help you out with a script.

I have a similar task, but I was able to automate it with a perl script. I use Web::Scraper module along with ORLite. I check the site on a frequency for a file or change to text on the page using a simple MD5 hash of the content, or the name of the file in a link. I keep track of it in a simple sqlite database. When there is a change in some SEC spec or a new file on Edgar, I grab it, mark it as processed in sqlite and then mail it to the people that need it.

Brushing my teeth.

I think we need to wait for some form of microbe of nanobot to handle this task. I remember Japan was testing some solution that you simply flush in your mouth and it is supposed to stop cavities. No need to brush in this case.

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