Comment by dontlikeyoueith

Comment by dontlikeyoueith 10 months ago

> United could provide you an API key to do so via an API, but in practice they won't, only some enterprisey travel software company can get that kind of access, for a steep fee. You could build a tool which automatically puts together an itinerary based on rules and books it, through a tool like this. Perhaps a slightly contrived example but I believe things like this definitely happen.

And you think that's NOT sketchy?

I'm almost afraid to ask where you think the bar is...

stickfigure 10 months ago

It's exactly as sketchy as having a hypothetical robot sit down at a console and type it out. Which, IMO, is not very sketchy at all.

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wruza 10 months ago

And why is it? A company provides you an API for a "fee" and a free web-based interface, as long as you are agile enough to use it, with some limitations per ip/cookie. You choose the second path and automate it. What's wrong with that? Limits of the free access are the public contract. You're not obliged to play along with someone's "monetary spirit".

And in practice, APIs are often much more PITA than the actual interface, but you can't buy unlimited web automation. Few years ago one of my projects literally OCRed data from an android phone screen because receiving it via API took a couple minutes longer and involved email-like back and forth with polling and id matching after a convoluted authentication that fails every few requests.

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xp84 10 months ago

I really wish I was a better programmer with more time, I would install the accursed "MyQ" garage door app on a dedicated Android, and bridge it into Home Assistant using an OCR type of strategy. (they are notorious for flipping the bird to the whole open home automation community by not integrating with anything)

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