
Show HN: Bungholio – Get text messages when a product is available on Amazon - impostervt
https://github.com/johntitus/bungholio
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richwellman20
Best program name ever. We can all use some Beavis humor these days.

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sk5t
It took a moment to get the zeitgeist connection--one of Cornholio's few
intelligible phrases is "I need TP for my bunghole."

Wikipedia used to host a comically erudite page about Cornholio, e.g.
studiously noting such discrepancies in his speech such as "my people have no
bunghole" / "my people have but one bunghole".

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sweetgiorni
Couldn't find exactly what you mentioned, but this is still a terrific read:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beavis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beavis)

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sjs382
I was able to track down the most recent version, before the articles got
merged:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Cornholio&o...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Cornholio&oldid=306489241)

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brianpursley
This reminds me of a little Visual Basic program I hacked together about 20
years ago when I wanted to buy a PlayStation 2 but there was a shortage after
it launched.

Every 5 minutes, my program would make a request to the product page on Amazon
and look for the text "out of stock". If it didn't find it, the program would
sound off an alarm bell.

I still remember sitting nearby, watching TV one night when the alarm went
off. I jumped up and ran over to my computer and bought myself a PS2.

As silly as it sounds, what I remember most fondly about the PlayStation 2 was
making and using this little program to help buy it.

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jspash
I'm not trying to troll, so please hear me out.

But has Javascript become so universally liked that it's the go-to tool for
quick one-off scripts like this? Is it really much better or easier that you
would choose it over, say Python or just a shell script?

Or is it that Javascript happens to be the best tool for this particular job?

I guess what I'm asking is, do _most_ people reach for JS/Node over other
languages for this type of thing? I suppose I still don't see it outside of
the browser environment but maybe it's time to change that view.

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greggman3
I used to write scripts in python. I switched to node. Benefits for me.

1\. Python _by default_ requires tons of globally installed libraries. Node
_by default_ all libraries are installed local the the project. Nothing to
learn. It just does it. That means I don't have to worry about trashing my
system and I don't have to tell users a bunch of prerequisites to get it to
work.

2\. Node is ~8meg and installs instantly. Python is 18-30meg and the install
has a long build process IIRC

I will still sometimes reach for python. I needed to parse an 8 gig geodata
XML file. The libraries I tried in node were orders of magnitude slower than
python for that particular task. I did try node first though since it's where
I'm at.

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IgorPartola
I first tried my hand at Python in 2009. The problem of installing libraries
globally was no longer a problem then and still isn’t today.

Installing node is faster until you have to install local libraries. I am
currently working on a project whose dependencies consist primarily of Vue,
Bootstrap, and a few very small libraries such as moment.js. Our node_modules/
is over 1000 individual libraries and growing. It takes 45-65 seconds just to
do an npm install when I already have the libraries there. The build process
takes 90 seconds on a brand new top of the line machine. Contrast with Python
where that number is 0, and installing the dozen dependencies I actually have
is a one time process that takes no time at all.

I used to fuck around with Gentoo Linux where I would always triple compile
the latest gcc to make sure I had the latest and greatest and fastest. And
even I think Node’s library ecosystem is a bloated unnecessary mess. I don’t
have the words to write a more scathing review of it, but if I could I would.
There is a night and day difference in usability and speed between Node and
Python ecosystems and the latter wins by such a wide margin it is like they
aren’t even in the same league.

And don’t get me started on how quickly the JS community likes to break shit.
Remember when for a brief moment we were all supposed to switch to yarn? And
then migrate back to npm? It’s insane.

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hn_throwaway_99
> And don’t get me started on how quickly the JS community likes to break
> shit.

I totally agree with you on that one, but I would say the maturity of the JS
ecosystem is really settling down, and now that MS owns most of it
(Typescript, npm, github, vscode) I think it will only get more stable.

Also, Python community _definitely_ shouldn't be throwing any stones when it
comes to "breaking shit".

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IgorPartola
If you are talking about Python 2 vs 3, think of them as two separate
languages where Python 3 can often use a lot of the libraries developed for
Python 2. That makes it all make a lot more sense. Even with that, there was
maybe a dozen times in the past 8 years, which is how long I’ve been writing
Python code full time, where I felt a problem with the 2 vs 3 thing. They were
all quickly resolved. This is unlike Node where things like file access change
from version to version, and sometimes shit just doesn’t compile because gyp
is of the incorrect version, etc. Node is very high maintenance.

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hn_throwaway_99
The Amazon app lets me register for push messages when products become
available. Why wouldn't I just use that?

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artificial
Well, this way it can be recreated in another language, for _shakes 8ball_
fun!

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conroydave
i need this except for delivery windows on wholefoods and amazon fresh

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sneak
Instacart and Postmates still seem to work, I'm told.

(I won't outsource mortal danger to someone poorer than I simply because they
need the money more, and I don't want to give Instacart any of my business
since they got busted stealing their delivery staff's tips, but those are your
options if you want them.)

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bradknowles
InstaCart deliveries are pushed out to the one week limit, and that’s assuming
you can get anything at all.

Deliveries from all sources are getting hard to come by.

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sam1r
I wish i saw more of these one-off creative creations on a regular basis. Is
there a reason why this is not a "Show:hn"?

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dang
I've added it to the title.

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impostervt
Thanks!

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spiritplumber
Truly we needed this in these times of TP shortage.

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DeathArrow
Does it use an API or it scrapes the Amazon website? If it's the latter how do
you avoid being blocked?

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mkranjec
It scrapes Amazon websitewith Puppeteer.

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Tepix
It searches for certain english text which is why it only works on amazon.com

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staticautomatic
Are you the owner of bunghol.io?

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richrichardsson
So disappointed there was no content at that domain.

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doggodad
Obligatory: _Shut-up, Beavis._

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JadeNB
I'm not normally one to carp about product names—there was a semi-jokey
discussion about calling a shared-viewing product 'Covideo' that bothered some
people, but I didn't think it was such a big deal—but surely we can do better
than this?

Oh, well. As always with open source, it's my place to be grateful for the
work you share (thank you!), not to complain about your not doing it on my
terms.

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p1necone
This isn't a product, this is someones spare time non commercial open source
project that they're sharing for other developers to use. If the name bothers
you just clone the repo and change it.

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owl57
Yes, but why couldn't it also be a product name. For example, an express
delivery service focused on people who are willing to pay a premium to get TP
within an hour.

Now, writing this comment had me finally realize that TP, however we mock the
hoarders, really is almost unique in its urgency for most people. If you run
out of food, you probably have a few hours before you get hungry again.
Running out of TP is acutely uncomfortable right from that minute.

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richrichardsson
Unless you have no access to soap and running water (with the latter causing
quite an issue by itself with respect to bowel evacuation), why would it be a
problem? I struggle to understand why so many people have an issue with
_washing_ their own bunghole. Avoid visiting India (and many other countries
that practice increased cleanliness) if that idea is abhorrent.

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owl57
BTW, soap is exactly what I meant by "almost" unique.

You mean, a bidet? Long-term, seems like an interesting idea. Short-term,
filling a cart with TP during an unavoidable (because of food delivery
collapse) visit to the store seems like a less dangerous idea than inviting a
plumber.

