One developer has just created a bot that searches for specific kinds of inexpensive items in online auctions then buys the items for him.
The concept comes from this strip from xkcd, a webcomic popular among the physics/computer science/general nerdist set. (If you haven't added xkcd to your must-read-daily RSS feed, please do so now.)
Paul Hunkin, a New Zealand developer, has a penchant for combining scripts and online P2P auction sites to great effect. This particular project involved Kiwi site TradeMe, an eBay-like auction site.
Hunkin wrote a Python script that would scrape certain categories on the site for cheap, buy-now items with free shipping. The script is optimized to search for rare, esoteric items, as well. The bot gets $1 added to its savings every day, and all purchases are deducted from the savings.
Not only does the bot buy these treasures on Hunkin's behalf; it also shares its finds with the world via Twitter:
If the bot doesn't find any items that meet its parameters, it simply tweets that it's putting its dollar into savings.
In other scripts-that-do-things-we'd-rather-not news, another developer recently wrote a Twitter bot that debates climate change critics.
What interesting automations of mundane tasks have you seen around the web lately?