Comment by artpi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by artpi | Hacker News Reader

I have set up a battery of scripts on google app engine and Im pretty happy with it.

1. I have a script to automatically buy small amount of BTC every day

2. For the more knowledge-dense books I read, I write summaries of them (https://piszek.com/books/). I have a script that puts a random book review to my pocket for reviewing every week

3. I have an instagram account of lego minifig (https://www.instagram.com/le.traveller/). I wrote a script that likes other profiles to get traffic

4. I have a script that parses my bank e-mail statements to fill up my spending spraedsheets

5. I also have a script that parses incoming email for invoices. That system basically does my taxes

6. My GTD methodology revolves around Evernote. I have cron jobs that throw me "checklists" with stuff to do around certain times (yearly taxes, etc)

7. Using Twilio and verified number, my calendar sends personalized SMS with birthday wishes to my family that appear as they are from my number

8. Also on Twilio I have DIY voicemail that is aware of where in world am I and either routes to my current SIM card or takes a message. I also have a US number that routes any SMS to my current SIM

I recently moved, so I have to rebuild all my Smart-Home hacks. I am currently trying to automate my Intercom at home to play pre-recorded message to postman and let him in automatically

I gotta say, #7, if something were to happen to you would be pretty scary. Have you considered that scenario? Tying the delivery of messages to some kind of manual online activity (e.g. recent emails sent)

Haha I thought of this too, imagine you're working for clients and you just died and this condition is met and they receive this email saying "If you received this email, then I am probably dead."

It exists... https://www.deadmansswitch.net

I assume my Twilio account would run out of money in that case :)

Why doesn't #7 send a message to you so you can wish them happy birthday?

Because a calendar reminder was already not helping himmer send out the greeting.

Source: doesn’t work for me.

You must miss a lot of meetings and appointments.

Because I frequently change sim cards due to semi-nomadic life and my Grandpa just does not understand timezones and gets cranky if I wish him next day. So I made this to be sure he gets his freakin wishes :)

There are quite a few Android apps to "Schedule SMS". Anyone have a personal recommendation?

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=schedule%20sms

This one gets bonus points for being MIT-licensed:

https://github.com/vinsol/sms-scheduler

To the best of my knowledge it is not possible to send SMS messages in an automated fashion on iPhone, you might as well use calendar reminders.

I like the idea of "a battery of scripts" I wonder about legality if say your code scrapes sites or does something uncool.

Anyway, yeah I've got that problem right now wrote code for a specific stack need to just drop it into a server that's not mine/easy for client to use.

I'm kind of curious about #1 regardless of the price you buy? What if it was like that day the ICO was banned and it dropped like $800 or whatever.

Wouldn't it be good to buy on the day it dropped $800? Then you have either - more BTC than expected for the same $ - spend less $ on the same amount of BTC

Yeah it would be good in that case but would the buy go up since it was cheaper and go down when it was more expensive sort of thing.

I always buy at the current price, at the same amount of $$$ I'm using "Dollar cost avaraging" approach without any psychology, because how do you decide trigger price?

Curios, why don't you post summaries on http://www.wikisummaries.org ?

For #6, are you storing checklists in Evernote as well? Just reading through GTD right now, is this to replace the "Weekly Review" concept in the book so it is automated?

I'm looking to implement a GTD-like system myself, and any automation is helpful.

#7 is genius. For lazy folks like me, that is a great way of wishing people bdays :)

Make sure you receive a notification of delivery, so you have an idea of why people are randomly thanking you months after you've forgotten about setting such a thing up.

For everyone who wants to get #7, I have created a mailing list to build this as a service.

http://wishsms.launchrock.com/

Why do you buy BTC every day? Is it cheaper than just buying once?

Helps with the volatility.

For the curious: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_cost_averaging

Yes!

Do you have any special way of avoiding transaction fees? It would seem to me that buying a small amount daily would rack up lots of transaction fees?

The exchange usually gives better rates to people who do larger transactions, but the monthly volume would be the important indicator, rather than single transaction volume.

I guess it just spreads the cost, as getting one bitcoin at once is getting a bit prohibitive these days.

I just realized that [7] probably works only because of [8] - I always give my Twilio phone number to people and pretend with my family that this is my main number.

That is why he mentioned "verified phone number" I guess. When you have verified your own phone number you can send texts from it as well.

According to twilio's documentation you cannot send sms messages from verified phone numbers, only twilio owned phone numbers.

https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223135427-What-...

Do you happen to have any of these available on GitHub? Particularly #7 would be very useful.

Is the script for #3 up on Github by chance? I'd love see how you went about doing that!

Are you able to preserve the original caller ID when forwarding SMS?

Twillio has to validate the number before allowing you to use it: https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223179848-Using...

That's only for calling. Twilio's docs say they do not support SMS sending from verified (not twilio owned) phone numbers.

https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223135427-What-...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com