Oh my goodness. I've had this my whole life too, and could never find out what it was! Wow, the relief I feel right now.
HN user
pr0vitamin
Great idea! I can see myself using this. One note: The Chrome extension would be much more useful if it was configurable to allow more use-cases. I installed the Chrome extension, and it appears to replace the "new tab" page, with no alternatives. Having it appear every single time I open a new tab would be productivity crushing, so I removed it again.
I'm not advocating illegal rentals, or Airbnb, nor am I "hardcore pro-enforcement" of a ToS. I merely advised the OP about the ToS, so he can make sure he's covering himself.
I'm not defending Airbnb, this guy could be harvesting personal details off any service as far as I'm concerned. Same issue.
I don't disagree that the situation sucks for landlords if their tenant breaches the tenancy agreement and uses Airbnb as a tool for sub-letting. This of course also places the tenant in breach of Airbnb's TOS too.
But you're now suggesting that this injustice to landlords justifies harvesting Airbnb's user's personal information and then selling it? That's morally and legally questionable any way you look at it.
I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, nor that you can't. Personally I think it's a terrible idea and bordering on evil, but that's neither here nor there.
Just be aware that if people find out what you're doing, it probably won't be looked at very fondly - legally or morally.
I think you'll find this is against Airbnb's Terms of Service on a few fronts, so be wary of that. "...you may not and you agree that you will not: - use manual or automated software, devices, scripts, robots or other means or processes to access, “scrape,” “crawl” or “spider” any web pages or other services contained in the Site, Application, Services or Collective Content;"
There's quite a few other clauses that you'll be breaching, so it might pay to have a read: https://www.airbnb.co.nz/terms
I had a fiddle with some Estimotes for a research project last year. Managed to get some fairly inaccurate indoor location tracking going on Android using 4 beacons and some fudged trilateration functions, then did some cool location-based things with Philips Hue bulbs. Was a blast!
Keep up the good work, can't wait for the Android Indoor SDK! (I appreciate that it's more effort due to differences in device hardware, etc)
Nice! I've got a similar project currently in the pipes. I've noticed that the playlist can get pretty out of sync when one of the clients disconnects and reconnects, sometimes by a few minutes. But otherwise really well done.
Kim Dotcom is doing a live event in Auckland, NZ, that starts in 20 minutes, which is supposedly going to touch on a lot of this.