Show HN: I made an emergency page for my family(help.delduca.org)
38 pointsby delduca3 hours ago14 comments
  • ge9627 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.

    • rsyring11 minutes ago
      The right thing to do is stop speeding like that. Needlessly endangering others. It's good you are trying to stop. To help you continue in that effort...

      Check out HPDE events to get your speed fix and keep it off 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).

      • ge969 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

        I don't do the squeeze benz shit, if it's day time I see a gap in traffic that's when I floor it but yeah, even with a radar detector a lot of cops/troopers don't use their radar so not even helpful... and the tickets which I was dumb and paid... like I said I'm done with it as I want to stay out of jail

        It's almost a curse discovering fast cars the thrill of the acceleration... I used to drive like mundane just part of life... and with the RD now I'm just on edge looking for the cops so yeah... I'm glad not speeding now

    • chaidhat9 minutes ago
      please don’t drive that fast (I’m assuming you mean triple digits MPH). It endangers both yourself and others.
    • blitzar16 minutes ago
      The right thing to do is to use your one call to phone your cat and make sure they are ok - or take them with you when you drive.
      • ge9614 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.
  • ventanaan hour 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.
  • zamadatixan 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.
    • petesergeant44 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-al31 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).
  • Diti5 minutes ago
    I thought the unlabeled `<textarea>` was part of the prominent Cloudflare captcha that’s on the page. I sent intense swearing as a result. I’m sorry. But your UI could be made slightly better (by adding a label)!
  • cbracketdash2 hours 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?
    • SoftTalkeran hour 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.
      • 306bobbyan hour ago
        I get your point, but believe it or not there's more email services than just Gmail
    • delduca2 hours 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-motean 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.

        • malfistan hour ago
          Nobody in my friend group has a WhatsApp and I'm a millennial.
          • j45an hour ago
            It doesn’t have to be just for one type of user.
        • sheeptan hour ago
          WhatsApp is not universally used. Line, WeChat, and KakaoTalk are more common in East Asia
        • NDlurkeran hour 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.
        • x187463an hour ago
          With iMessage, Discord, and Signal, I can't imagine a use case for me or anyone I know to use WhatsApp.
          • nerdsniperan 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.

        • appreciatorBus12 minutes ago
          lol not 70, no Whatsapp.
  • hk133712 minutes ago
    I was trying to figure out if the bad gateway page was the page or an error
    • delduca10 minutes ago
      I was deploying a new version. For some reason sometimes I do not get zero down deployments with Dokku, probably missing the healthcheck.
  • ahmedfromtunisan hour 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.

  • sixhobbitsan 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

  • NewEntryHN41 minutes ago
    Hmm I'm not sure why in an emergency situation accessing a webpage would be easier than making a phone call.
    • tracker119 minutes ago
      You remember the URL but not a phone number.
    • delduca32 minutes ago
      The problem is to remember numbers.
  • philipwhiuk38 minutes ago
    I... I would not trust my emergency page to an LLM.
    • delduca14 minutes ago
      The LLM is just to make the message short for the SMS. The entire message is sent by mail without any AI.
  • autoexecan hour 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.
  • mrdwan hour ago
    "LLM-summarized" lmao
    • cdot215 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.
    • delducaan hour ago
      Do you know another way to fit a 3000 long message into a 160ish SMS?
      • MSFT_Edgingan hour ago
        19 SMS messages.

        Does anyone still pay per text?

        • flexagoonan hour 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.

      • philipwhiuk37 minutes ago
        Why 3000 ? Set a character limit. If the detail is important they can just send 2.. or 10.
      • TZubirian hour ago
        Ok I understand the usecase now.

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

      • ForHackernewsan hour ago
        write a shorter emergency message?

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

  • comrade1234an hour ago
    Did you get my request for help?
    • delducaan hour ago
      I got ~300 requests :)

      So far...

  • overfits36 minutes ago
    [dead]