HN Explorer

12 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 41.1 ms ] thread
bike_index
We're really excited to see more uses for the Index API. Thanks so much for working on this!
adherr
Thanks! It was a great learning experience. A Twitter bot is about the right size to learn a few parts of the language, how to work with gems, and access API's. The BikeIndex API sends nice clean JSON in logical (and well documented) structure, so it's quite easy to work with in Ruby.
sciguy77
Wow, that's super cool, especially for a first Ruby project. Hopefully my bike doesn't get stolen, but if it does I'll be sure to use this (Who am I kidding? It's the bay area, when it gets stolen).
erichurkman
Even better on the buying side, though, to quickly check if a bike is stolen before buying a used bike from a shop or off of Craigslist.
adherr
Yeah, I was aiming at high visibility research for Craigslist shoppers. I'm limited by Twitter, but luckily the bikeindex site looks good on mobile too.
mbesto
Love the idea but can't totally grok the incentive to lookup the stolen status as a buyer. If I'm getting a good deal why would I care?
bike_index
1. Reporting stolen bikes makes it harder to sell stolen bikes, making bike theft less profitable - and ultimately making it less likely that you'll be looking for a good deal on a new bike, since your old one won't have been stolen.

2. Some people actually do care.

3. Buying stolen property is illegal

DrJ
isn't (3.) 'knowingly' buying stolen property that is illegal? but 'unknowingly' buying stolen property would at worst mean you will have to surrender the property to the original owner?
[dead] mbesto
Love the idea but can't totally grok the incentive to lookup the stolen status as a buyer. If I'm getting a good deal why would I care?
deckar01
My bike lock got half way cut through outside the mission Bestbuy yesterday. The guys had a spotter watching me while I was in the store. Luckily I was just picking up a cable and came out before they got it O_O