Show HN: I'll e-mail you in the morning if it's going to be a beautiful day. | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: I'll e-mail you in the morning if it's going to be a beautiful day.

beautifuldaybrian.com

111 pointsdustball77 comments

I like this. What I really like is that you don't take it so seriously. Now we need a competing service, "God Dammit, Brian" that highlights when you're wrong.

Use a weather rock. It's the most accurate weather prediction device. If it's wet, it's raining. If it's white, it's snowing. If it's not there, there's been a tornado. here's a photo of one: http://www.cookislands.org.uk/image/Tais%20weather%20rock.jp...

We don't get tornados in Australia. If your rock is missing, some bastard stole it.

Meteorologists have been known to steal them.

I thought there were no thieves in Australia either.

forgot that they were all thieves once upon a time did we? ;)

"prediction device" ... "there's been a tornado"

I'm certain this is the opposite of prediction.

Fine, postdiction device.

Perhaps I'm unusual but I think it would be more useful if it emailed early evening* before the beautiful day. By the time the beautiful day has come I'll be able to see it out the window.

Either way I do love the idea. Nice one!

* I'll expand on that to say that I'd ideally want it early enough that I'd be awake and could call a friend to plan something without worrying about waking them up. But for building excitement I think it would be best to send it after it got dark (the timing of which you could determine from the date and location). I think that would be the way to maximize utility and experience.

“But for building excitement I think it would be best to send it after it got dark (the timing of which you could determine from the date and location).”

On a somewhat related note, I recently went hunting for phone apps to help me better sync up with times as determined by the sun, rather than numbers on a clock. I like the feeling of getting enough sleep and of being up before the Sun, and I'd like to be relatively unaffected by jumps to and from daylight savings time.

I learned to think of a day in terms of...

Astronomical Twilight: The Sun is between 18 and 12 degrees below the horizon. Dark according to everybody except astronomers.

Nautical Twilight: The Sun is between 12 and 6 degrees below the horizon. You can easily distinguish the sky from the ground, so sailors can use the horizon to navigate.

Civil Twilight: The Sun is between 6 and 0 degrees below the horizon. Light enough to play outside without artificial lighting.

Sunrise/Sunset: The instant the upper edge of the sun appears or disappears on the horizon.

Golden Hour: The Sun is between 0 and 10-12 degrees above the horizon. No exact definition, but photographers consider this a time for great lighting conditions.

Solar Noon/Midnight: The Sun is at its highest/lowest point above/below the horizon.

I was interested in easily visualizing these times, and in setting alarms based on these times (possibly with fixed offsets).

I decided Nautical Dawn makes a good snooze alarm if you want to get a head start on the day, and Civil Dawn is a good backup if you didn't feel like getting up at Nautical Dawn. It helps psychologically that these times are attached to real events, and that the sky is starting to lighten at Civil Dawn.

I bought and tried a bunch of iPhone and Android apps. Below are my favorites.

iOS

Sol: Displays all the above times on a moving wheel, and can set alarms by them.

Android

Nothing I liked as much as Sol on iOS, but the widget capability allows an immediacy and combination possibilities that iPhone doesn't.

Sundroid: Widget shows pairs of times and can set alarms.

Daytime: Widget lists civl dawn/dusk, sunrise/sunset, and a prominent message such as "3:29 to sunset".

LunaSolCal: Lists all the times mentioned above (except golden hours) in a compact widget

AstroClock: Cool widget visualization with three concentric wheels: day/night, then lunar phases, then seasons

Sorry for the length of this, but I just dove into this a few days ago and I'm happy with what I ended up with, so I thought I'd share.

This was very helpful - thanks for writing it up!

You're most welcome. Let me know if you find one that improves on what I listed. I kinda got obsessed with this :)

One of my favorite apps is "Emerald Observatory for iPad":

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/emerald-observatory-for-ipad/...

The author is into "grand complication" watches (see one of his other apps), and this app is the grandest "complication" I've seen to display time on the iPad. In addition to all of the above you listed, he also displays the "Equation of Time", eclipses, direction and attitude of the sun, sidereal time, and positions of all the planets.

That is pretty cool. Certainly much more detailed and visually impressive than the apps I listed.

However, for me it also illustrates the value in not displaying details that don't matter. While the position of the sun has a big impact on my daily activities, the positions of the planets have none at all. I'd rather spend that visual real estate in a way that gives more value when I pull it up for a two second glance.

Perhaps a little offtopic, but I just went and bought Sol for my iPhone based on your post here, and I can't for the life of me figure out how to have it set alarms from within the app. It seems to only have two screens: the main screen that displays the wheel, and if you click the i it takes you to the screen where you can add cities and change the type of dawn you want displayed.

Do you mean that you can use the displayed times to set your alarm yourself? Because it does not seem to be a feature of the app.

EDIT: Wow. I'm sorry. Apparently my search found the app called "Sol: Daylight Clock", that appeared on first glance to be the app you were talking about. I went googling after this post to see if I could find the dev's website for instructions or something and discovered there is another app called "Sol: Sun Clock" that appears to be the actual app you were describing.

So that was a waste of $.99. Anyone who is interested in this app after reading the parent comment, make sure you get the right one. The first one I bought has minimal functionality in comparison.

Sorry, I didn't know about the other one. Was going by the name displayed underneath the icon.

No worries. They both displayed only Sol under the icon. I just wish the app store search didn't suck so hard. Searching 'sol' mostly found solitaire games and I had to scroll a bit to even find the wrong clock app. Google found the correct one with minimal searching.

Speaking of evenings... this would work much better if a beautiful day encouragement be made conditional on "get your ass to bed within next 5 minutes" clause :)

The idea is cute and it seems nicely executed, but I'm a bit turned off by the, err, narcissistic aspect. Me and Brian haven't met yet, I'm not sure I want to invite him into my daily life. Could just be me.

Edit: if the feedback isn't straightforward enough, I'll say it more plainly. I feel like the use of your image and name throughout adds a somewhat strange flavor to the tool that some people, like me, won't respond positively to.

I end up wondering why putting yourself everywhere improves the service, I fail to come up with an answer, and assume its vanity. Not saying that's necessarily true in this case. Rather that in passing that would be my thought process and that at best it distracts from the charm of the service.

I'd say don't be turned off by that. It used to be quite common to name a company after the founders (though usually last name. Sometimes this is the result of the natural evolution of the product. (craigslist)

Add in namespace collision (beautifulday.com was taken) and it doesn't take any weird level of narcissism to tack on your name as an arbitrary modifier.

Edit: Ah, clicked the link, giant picture of himself.

I think Brian's better than a large impersonal nothing, and I assume that was Brian's reasoning as well. On that note though, I agree that it would be cuter if Brian was a personified animal like a groundhog, or something along those lines. Removes the possibility of vanity perception.

I don't think it's vanity. I think the point of that was to make it more personal, and not serious.

When I looked at the page i didn't think it was narcissistic, I got the feeling it was trying to give you a more personal approach, over just a faceless site sending you an email.

Okay. Or I can look out the window. By the morning of, it's already pretty clear whether it's going to be a nice day or not.

What is the advantage of this service over a regular weather forecast that I don't have to give my email address to?

Well, even more: I have a weather widget on my phone -- on the home screen, even. That makes "knowing the weather" even that much easier.

So clearly, this isn't about convenience of knowing the weather. This is about _specially highlighting_ the fact that today's weather will be PERFECT. As in, bringing attention to the fact that the day really is great.

The point is to have fun, enjoy life, and to have a beautiful day.

I built the service because I personally wanted a service like it. Perhaps others will enjoy it.

i signed-up my mom. she'll love it.

personally, there's a 5/7 chance a beautiful day reminder will make me grouchy before i even head out the door.

a weekend/holiday only option might be nice for us slaves.

Do you live in California or something? Where I live, the weather is as shifty as the politicians, and the temperature dances around what's comfortable.

Yup ;)

Well, the service should be especially nice for you, since the beautiful days are more special? :)

> that I don't have to give my email address to?

is giving out your email really feels like giving out blood or your right hand to you??

go and create yourself one of free email accounts, such as google, yahoo hotmail, if you automatically assume that the author is devil himself and is just waiting to get his dirty hands all over your email address. or you can also use http://mailinator.com/

what is the advantage of Groupon email over a regular website? what is the advantage of Business Insider email over their website? what is the advantage of any email subscription over their website?

/rant

Last Thursday in Buenos Aires: * Very cold morning (10°C / 50°F): I forget to take my hoody. * Very warm sunny afternoon (25°C / 80°F): I think I should use my shorts. * Very strong storm, up to 120km/h / 75 mph wind, 17 dead.

Conclusion: In some place you can't trust the window to get a reliable forecast.

For people living in California, that's going to add up to a lot of email...

Edit: southern California :)

Those living in the pacific northwest will balance it out.

And if like me you are in Ireland, well I won't hold my breath...

beautiful day in seattle right now. One of the rare perfect spring days here. Normally we just skip this season.

I'm typing this on a porch in Fremont right now. Can't say I have this opportunity

I had a somewhat 'similar' idea last year. Pick a place in the world and every morning (or once a week) receive a picture of the sunrise there. The time of day can be altered and the location within the city can be altered. Would be cool for people who miss home or who wonder what it'd be like to wake up elsewhere.

On a side note, not sure if this exists but what about a desktop picture app that changes your desktop daily based on your settings/preferences?

Check out the "Magic Window" Mac App :)

Very interesting, I literally had the idea a year ago and Magic Window (looks awesome) was first revealed 355 days ago.

Does it work with a UK postcode? Put one in and it seemed to accept it, but sometimes UK postcodes don't work with US sites. Maybe a little map showing where the site thinks you are will help increase confidence.

Also, nice idea!

Yes, it should work with UK zipcodes :)

You'd never hear from Brian anyway ;)

Note this is a real hole in the ToS AFAICT but I'm not claiming the operator is using it with prejudice.

>"Beautiful Day Brian may revise these terms of use for its web site at any time without notice." //

So despite assurances that "we will not sell, trade, or give away your e-mail address to anyone for any reason" they can change those terms "at any time without notice".

In case you missed it that time could be when 'selling, trading, or giving away your email address [or any data they have on you] for any reason [within the law in the jurisdiction of their choice]' and they wouldn't even need to make a note of that instantaneous alteration on their website. Of course they can, if they please, change the ToS right back afterwards the following nano-second so as not to put off new punters.

Now, I'm not saying they will but just that the power of that one line in the ToS obviates any assurances that the ToS give - it's basically worthless. All you've got is your trust of the current owner and all their associates.

Also it's worth noting that they could offer a with notice and acceptance [eg via a link click] alteration as, of course, they have your contact details. "But it's just a simple little notification site" someone might say, "they're never going to alter those terms to your detriment". In which case why not just promise to have you opt in again for any new ToS.

Storm in a tea-cup? Most likely.

If you can point me to some other boilerplate TOS I can copy (freely, without stealing), I'd be happy to change it.

When building a site, I like to focus on features and usability. The TOS is usually just copied from another of my own projects.

Cool stuff! I've wanted to do something similar like this for a while that would email me what I should wear (I always pick the wrong jacket/sweater after simply checking temperature and not wind etc). Where are you getting your weather information from?

Just a small issue: My browser takes up most of my screen on 1920x1080 and the background image starts to repeat, making it look somewhat awkward.

Awesome, I just signed up. Now all you have to do is figure out when I need to get my snow tires on and you have a business.

Centigrade would be nice. Converting Fahrenheit is a faff.

Will do.

If someone is developing a web site in this day and age, do we really need to have all that legalese, including Terms of Service such as the one on this website? I get the importances of the Privacy statement, but are the whole "Use License" and "Limitations", etc really necessary? It's fairly obvious that the web site is just for fun.

I'm not ragging on the OP, I'm wondering if we are deciding on creating our own web site or blog that offers some non-monetary service, are these legal disclosures something that is necessary these days?

I was thinking of starting a fun little web site that offered some mundane and trivial little services, but if it opens me up to legal issues because some jackass wants to sue me because of a bug, then that just might kill my motivation.

I'm not a lawyer, so take all this with a very very large grain of salt.

I did some reading about this because I had some mild concern about a couple side projects, and basically, if you're not charging money and there isn't anything intentionally malicious about your web site, people will have a hard time winning in court. If you're giving away an opt-in service for free, even if someone tries to sue you, it will be very difficult for them to win.

If they were paying you, and their business relies on your service, then they may have grounds for a lawsuit (assuming you didn't do anything to remedy the situation or didn't react appropriately). But if you're giving something away, it's viewed as their fault for relying on your service when it didn't have any type of guarantee associated with it. Web sites have bugs and downtime -- that's an inherent problem with computers -- so unless you make a guarantee that you're providing a bug-free 100% uptime solution, you don't have any obligation to provide a service that exceeds the reliability of even the most advanced multi-billion dollar companies (does anyone have 100% uptime and no bugs?).

This is too narrow a need. ifttt does that and more.

See previous comparison to ifttt in comments :)

I don't know why but I was expecting a service emailing me some positive message to help me get out of bed and dismiss the cobwebs of depression and anxiety I usually feel every morning I wake up.

The only feature missing from this site is a 'Like on Facebook' button.

Thanks for the idea. I've now implemented this suggestion.

Great!

Whoa, and now it has 65 likes since adding the button 53 minutes ago. Heh, so I guess that was a good idea ;)

Curious how this compares to ifttt with its Weather channel?

http://ifttt.com/weather

Maybe it's improved since then, but when I first tried ifttt it texted me that it was going to rain after it started raining, and then it kept texting me "Its going to rain" thereafter. Not very helpful.

I set up an ifttt to email me in the morning if it will be too hot to wear a sweater that day. Love it.

Great question. ifttt is far more powerful -- and complicated.

Also, it seems to only support ONE criteria, such as "Sunny" condition OR temperature above a certain range. Maybe I'm missing it, but I can't find a way to replicate BDB.

Another perspective: There is something special about the packaging of meeting this niche use case. The e-mail notifications are super upbeat, have inspirational quotes, etc.

Also, BDB is easy enough my Mom has figured out how to sign up.

Nice idea. Can you tell us something more about technical details? How does it work, do you have to run a script every day? Does it use any API from weather forecast websites? Do you personally travel all around the world to check the weather ;-) ?

Nice job on the advanced options.

Had many beautiful days here since I signed up. Never got a single email. Sadness :(

"Brian loves Canadians, and everyone else that uses °C.Give me a day or two to add that option!"

That kinda made me laugh a lot. Does he mean the entire world pretty much?

Also what does Frogs mean?

And his site is messed up in any browser larger then 1600.

I like the idea of the Website, but the background image is too big. It's 1.2 MB. Which is about 1.1 MB's more than you should. It takes ages to load, partly because i'm currently in Europe.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! The site now has 400+ users.

I've implemented MANY of the suggestions and bugfixes posted to this HN thread, so I really appreciate the comments.

Nice, I usually check the emails I got during the night on my phone before I look out, so if I see a message saying it is a nice day, I'm sure I'll be fast to get up!

Great job. Can you add support for foreign cities with special characters? I tried "São Paulo, Brazil" and the encoding on the "success message" was wrong.

Yes! I have just fixed this bug. Give it another try?

Works fine. Thanks for the email notification too.

Does it send the notification based on my local time?

This is pretty cool.

I'm curious--what are you using as a weather source? I've been looking into them recently and haven't found a decent one that I liked.

I thought it was up to each person to decide whether it would be a beautiful day or not, but maybe that's just me?

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder?

Yup. You can set what parameters you consider beautiful.

half glass full vs half glass empty: I'm curious to see how adoption of this product compares with adoption of umbrellatoday.com.

Really cool idea. I look forward to using it.

This is absolutely fantastic.

I want to do rainydayjoss.com !!

This won't work in Seattle :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com