

Show HN: Alert Ferret - Let people know when to check up on you - wiggly
https://www.alertferret.com/about

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snoonan
I love the idea and the value prop. Excellent concept!

Imagine the press attention and resulting warp speed growth you'll be able to
muster when this works just once for someone.

You might get criticism over the design of your landing page, stock bootstrap
look and lean nature of your current site. Apart from those simple aesthetics,
it's very solid. I would imagine improving those aesthetics is likely
necessary if you want to get results from showing it to potential users and
stakeholders, however.

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616c
Very cool. I know some journalist in dangerous parts of the world and this
would be a very cool service. Some thoughts:

Does it support phone calls? I would think it is cool for when someone is
abroad and without data and have periodic phone calls to a number they have
updated when traveling once they land (through SMS or whatever). Don't pick up
the call? Check for a data connection and get data ASAP about location and
other metrics. No data? Try to build a phone app that will wait for SMS
(probably SMS, so Android only) that will try to send this data back to the
center via SMS so that person can follow up.

(I work abroad and I know my institution would pay for that service when
people come to more dangerous areas, for sure.)

Also, is the site designing Foundation or Bootstrap? Looks like the former
AFAIK, and it looks nicer than the Bootstrapped sites I am used to (granted I
have not checked up on the new hotness post-v3 rollout).

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wiggly
Yes, the site uses Bootstrap, I am, quite obvously, not a very front-end
person. I have been making back-end systems for the past 15 years or so.

Can you elaborate on the institution to which you belong, either here or over
email? Would like to discuss further.

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peteretep
Great idea. Have you considered if you are taking on liability by running it?

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wiggly
Whether or not I would be taking on liability by providing the service has
been discussed, yes. I'm not exactly sure where the conversation will end
though.

Do you have specific thoughts?

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peteretep
I would have thought it would vary by jurisdiction, and that you should be
sure not to assume legal advice in one translates to another.

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borplk
DMSAAS

Dead Man's Switch As a Service

Cool!

~~~
ZeroMinx
This could hopefully prevent the death part!

As a snowboarder, this could be very useful to let people know if I'm not back
from the mountain.

~~~
wiggly
As a snowboarder who has spent a lot of time alone on the mountain I agree :D

