Show HN: I made an emergency page for my family

(help.delduca.org)

38 points | by delduca 3 hours ago

13 comments

  • ventana 56 minutes ago
    I would probably suggest switching the link to the GitHub source code and listing the actual page URL in the description; otherwise, I click the link in the article and get a location sharing request and a Send button; after a few seconds I matched that with the title, but I still had my WTF moment.
  • ge96 18 minutes ago
    When I was really bad at speeding all the time I had this fear I'd go to jail and my cat would die alone in my apt. So I started working on my own dead man switch, I actually have not finished it but I at least bought him like a self-feeding thing that would last a month or more and he unfortunately drinks out of the toilet too so I leave the top cover off.

    I've recently stopped or working on stopping the triple digits driving.

    The topic at hand this would be a Twilio thing sending a message like "so and so might be in jail take care of the cat" which is messed up/funny but I do tell them in advance can you be on this list. But at least this phase of my life is over/I have something to look forward to/behave for.

    • rsyring 2 minutes ago
      The right thing to do is stop speeding like that. Needlessly endangering others.

      Check out HPDE events to get your speed fix and keep it off the public roads.

      I've ran with Chin Track Days and 10/10ths and can recommend both orgs (USA based because that's what I know).

      • ge96 0 minutes ago
        I am past it but unless it's Nurburging track doesn't interest me although I am trying to buy a track car eg. Lotus Exige but I have time
    • chaidhat 0 minutes ago
      please don’t drive that fast (I’m assuming you mean triple digits MPH)
    • blitzar 7 minutes ago
      The right thing to do is to make you use your one call to phone your cat and make sure they are ok - or take them with you when you drive.
      • ge96 5 minutes ago
        Yeah I hope I don't find out but the one time I was arrested (too drunk at a bar) I was released ROR or something no bond. That was a scary experience like you just disappear.
  • hk1337 3 minutes ago
    I was trying to figure out if the bad gateway page was the page or an error
    • delduca 1 minute ago
      I was deploying a new version. For some reason sometimes I do not get zero down deployments with Dokku, probably missing the healthcheck.
  • zamadatix 1 hour ago
    Before MFA was mandated on every service this was an easy problem to solve. Now when you lose your phone while out and about you lose your ability to log in to even Dave's Speed Cow Milker's Enthusiast Forum unless you're at home with another computer already logged in to various things.
    • petesergeant 35 minutes ago
      Learning my 1Password recovery key took quite a while, but should allow me to do a cold reboot of my digital life.
      • et-al 22 minutes ago
        Yubikeys could be cheaper. In addition to the two I have, I bought two more to store offsite with friends and family for redundancy (with access to my password manager + important email accounts).
  • cbracketdash 1 hour ago
    Why is it more likely you'll have internet access when you don't have a phone? If you happen to find a computer, what's insufficient about writing an email?
    • SoftTalker 59 minutes ago
      How will you log into your email from a strange computer without your phone. Gmail has required 2-factor auth for a long time.
      • 306bobby 47 minutes ago
        I get your point, but believe it or not there's more email services than just Gmail
    • delduca 1 hour ago
      My wife doesn't check email frequently, so SMS (or even better, WhatsApp) would be more reliable.

      Maybe an alternative is to store the WhatsApp contact information of people who could help behind a password.

      Then, if I need help, I can ask to borrow someone's phone on the street. If they don't have WhatsApp, I can just make a regular phone call instead.

      • fn-mote 1 hour ago
        > If they don't have WhatsApp

        Is this really likely? I would guess only 70 year olds don't have WhatsApp.

        Seems more likely you forget the impoprtant phone numbers because you never enter them manually.

        • malfist 1 hour ago
          Nobody in my friend group has a WhatsApp and I'm a millennial.
          • j45 48 minutes ago
            It doesn’t have to be just for one type of user.
        • sheept 1 hour ago
          WhatsApp is not universally used. Line, WeChat, and KakaoTalk are more common in East Asia
        • NDlurker 55 minutes ago
          In the US, the only people I know who use WhatsApp are immigrants who use it to talk to friends and family back home.
        • x187463 1 hour ago
          With iMessage, Discord, and Signal, I can't imagine a use case for me or anyone I know to use WhatsApp.
          • nerdsniper 1 hour ago
            The vast majority of the world defaults to whatsapp. But yes, other than convention, any of these could be equivalent.

            I don’t see why you would care for Discord over whatsapp except that it’s what you happen to use already.

        • appreciatorBus 3 minutes ago
          lol not 70, no Whatsapp.
  • ahmedfromtunis 37 minutes ago
    I built life-link almost a year ago for the same purpose: https://github.com/ahmedsaoudi/life_link

    I even created a generator so people can configure it with their Telegram/Pushover settings and have it generate a static app easy to host on Netlify or Clouflare Pages/Workers.

  • sixhobbits 1 hour ago
    I did something similar, just a photo of handwritten phone mumbers and an easy to remember URL that's not indexed.

    Anyone will hopefully lend you a phone if you're in a pinch but I realized that I don't know very numbers to actually call and it's kinda weird to start using email/Whatsapp whatever on a strangers phone compared to asking to visit one site and make one call

  • NewEntryHN 32 minutes ago
    Hmm I'm not sure why in an emergency situation accessing a webpage would be easier than making a phone call.
    • tracker1 10 minutes ago
      You remember the URL but not a phone number.
    • delduca 23 minutes ago
      The problem is to remember numbers.
  • philipwhiuk 29 minutes ago
    I... I would not trust my emergency page to an LLM.
    • delduca 5 minutes ago
      The LLM is just to make the message short for the SMS. The entire message is sent by mail without any AI.
  • autoexec 54 minutes ago
    This isn't a terrible idea, but I'd password protect it and share the password with the people you want to be able to contact you. That'll help avoid spam/scams. "I'm your family member in trouble please send money now to X immediately no time to explain further" is a very common scam and a page like this would make it very easy.
  • mrdw 1 hour ago
    "LLM-summarized" lmao
    • cdot2 6 minutes ago
      I'm not especially anti-LLM but emergency messages seems like a terrible use case. If you're typing out a detailed emergency message then I would think you would need all of your details to be sent or you could simply type a shorter message.
    • delduca 1 hour ago
      Do you know another way to fit a 3000 long message into a 160ish SMS?
      • MSFT_Edging 49 minutes ago
        19 SMS messages.

        Does anyone still pay per text?

        • flexagoon 41 minutes ago
          > Does anyone still pay per text?

          It makes much more sense outside the US than to pay for a text bundle. My phone plan includes 0 SMS messages, and I don't know what was the last time when I've had to send one was. It's only useful when someone doesn't have internet, which only happens once every few months at most.

      • philipwhiuk 28 minutes ago
        Why 3000 ? Set a character limit. If the detail is important they can just send 2.. or 10.
      • TZubiri 55 minutes ago
        Ok I understand the usecase now.

        I would have used two textboxes, Title and description, but this works as well.

      • ForHackernews 1 hour ago
        write a shorter emergency message?

        "I was in a car accident, come to general hospital downtown"

  • comrade1234 1 hour ago
    Did you get my request for help?
    • delduca 49 minutes ago
      I got ~300 requests :)

      So far...

  • overfits 27 minutes ago
    [dead]