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1901 points l2silver | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.495s | source

Maybe you've created your own AR program for wearables that shows the definition of a word when you highlight it IRL, or you've built a personal calendar app for your family to display on a monitor in the kitchen. Whatever it is, I'd love to hear it.
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modeless ◴[] No.35737709[source]
My townhome complex had one of those call boxes at the front gate. When Doordash/FedEx/the cleaners/the in-laws/etc arrived they would have to call me from the call box and I'd have to answer it and listen to garbled audio to figure out who it was and press 9 to open the gate. It was kind of a pain, so I made a Twilio app to answer calls from the call box.

I set up custom entry codes that I could hand out to anyone. Everyone got their own code, and it would text me whenever someone used a code so I'd instantly know who was coming. The text conversation was my timestamped access log. I also put time constraints on some codes so e.g. Doordash couldn't open the gate in the middle of the night, or I could set up a temporary access code for a party, and I rotated codes too, with text notifications if an outdated code was used.

I thought about making a paid app out of it, but it just didn't seem worthwhile. I didn't expect that many people would want to pay for it. For a while I was excited about a YC startup called Doorport that was going to make a hardware device that you'd install inside those dumb call boxes and make them smart with all sorts of cool features, better than my Twilio hack. But I think they pivoted to a much less interesting pure software thing and then got acquihired.

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6510 ◴[] No.35738001[source]
The product should be a LLM learning from each interaction globally. So you walk up to the door and it says Hello Jim, I see you work for fedex now. Could you please show me the label on the package?

With triggers like: If the cleaner is more than 15 min late 5 times in a period of 3 months and there are more than 5 resumes posted for cleaning positions do not open the door and fire them.

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1. ornornor ◴[] No.35756908[source]
> With triggers like: If the cleaner is more than 15 min late 5 times in a period of 3 months and there are more than 5 resumes posted for cleaning positions do not open the door and fire them.

I hope what you’re describing never becomes a reality. People aren’t disposable tissues for your convenience.

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2. 6510 ◴[] No.35757534[source]
The joke was that this is already the reality. If it is a letter, a text message or a friendly boss changes nothing to the fact. One cant pay bills with politeness. It might actually be hilarious in how clearly defined it is in advance! If you are rarely late no one will complaint when it happens, if there is a lack of resumes posted you can be late every day and if it is less than 15 min its never an issue. The option to call the employer is still there. Remember when I said I wasn't going to make it in time today? Well, the doorbell fired me.