
Ask HN: Manual daily task that takes = 5 minutes - tmaly
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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hanniabu
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

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FlopV
* 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?

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hanniabu
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.

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FlopV
Makes sense, thanks for the explanation.

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richerlariviere
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.

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joshschreuder
There was a service at [http://hnnotify.com/](http://hnnotify.com/) but it
seems to be down.

See here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10521491](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10521491)

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richerlariviere
Hey thanks! I will take a look.

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tmaly
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.

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oxguy3
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.

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tmaly
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.

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mod
Brushing my teeth.

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tmaly
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.

