Automated notifications?
July 7, 2011 5:58 AM
How to automate notifications from a wide variety of sources?
I'd like a program that watches data from a large variety of other programs and websites, and sends a designated notification icon to the system tray whenever certain conditions are met.
Specifically, I'd like for it to watch:
- Quicken (for major changes in portfolio value; for automatic payments)
- some kind of calendar I'd maintain for it -- Excel, Google Calendar, Outlook, whatever
- Amazon.com (for product releases I've expressed interest in)
- movie listings (for movie releases I've expressed interest in)
- news feeds (for events with large death tolls; for political resignations)
- maybe miscellaneous online accounts (Netflix, Mint, LinkedIn...)
- weather
The more I can customize it, the better.
Does some program exist that already approximates this? If not, how would you recommend I go about implementing it? (I'm not a programmer, but I'm pretty comfortable mucking about with Python or Autohotkey.)
Free implementations are not necessary, though obviously they'd be ideal, and I wouldn't spend more than $100 on this. I'm on Windows 7.
I've investigated web-scraping tools in the form of OutWit Hub, but I want to make sure I'm barking up the most efficient tree before I invest time or money in them.
Thanks in advance!
I'd like a program that watches data from a large variety of other programs and websites, and sends a designated notification icon to the system tray whenever certain conditions are met.
Specifically, I'd like for it to watch:
- Quicken (for major changes in portfolio value; for automatic payments)
- some kind of calendar I'd maintain for it -- Excel, Google Calendar, Outlook, whatever
- Amazon.com (for product releases I've expressed interest in)
- movie listings (for movie releases I've expressed interest in)
- news feeds (for events with large death tolls; for political resignations)
- maybe miscellaneous online accounts (Netflix, Mint, LinkedIn...)
- weather
The more I can customize it, the better.
Does some program exist that already approximates this? If not, how would you recommend I go about implementing it? (I'm not a programmer, but I'm pretty comfortable mucking about with Python or Autohotkey.)
Free implementations are not necessary, though obviously they'd be ideal, and I wouldn't spend more than $100 on this. I'm on Windows 7.
I've investigated web-scraping tools in the form of OutWit Hub, but I want to make sure I'm barking up the most efficient tree before I invest time or money in them.
Thanks in advance!
Yeah ditto on an RSS reader. I'd probably do this with Netvibes and Google Alerts for the things Netvibes lacked widgets for. Alerts sent to a Gmail account with a Gmail desktop client would accomplish a system tray alert of sorts.
posted by Ness at 6:24 AM on July 7, 2011
posted by Ness at 6:24 AM on July 7, 2011
Other possible components:
Yahoo Pipes
ifttt (still in beta)
posted by zamboni at 6:55 AM on July 7, 2011
Yahoo Pipes
ifttt (still in beta)
posted by zamboni at 6:55 AM on July 7, 2011
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posted by devnull at 6:16 AM on July 7, 2011