5 ms·

Show HN: Duck as a Service

31 points by tga 9y ago

raybb 9y ago
How many ducks do you currently have?
- tga 9y ago
  The duck pool auto-scales to meet the demand, of course.
  - kinduff 9y ago
    Had a similar idea a while ago but correct me if I'm wrong, this service sets you up on a call with a rubber duck (an image I suppose) for x time? Are you using Google Hangouts API?
    - tga 9y ago
      Thanks for the comment, sounds like I should revise the text. You actually get a real human (ahem, duck), even one that can code and ask questions about what you are doing, and potentially help debug the problem.
      - WorldMaker 9y ago
        Now I'm disappointed, I was hoping for actual rubber ducks as a service. Find a nice pond or interior fountain. Fill it with rubber ducks. Add tracking cameras to track a random one for the length of a call. Soothing, random bobbing.
      - fenwick67 9y ago
        Wow I literally had no idea that you were actually pairing people up with real people, I thought it was a duck too (or some 3d animated thing).
lozzo 9y ago
the link on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging is broken. fix it
- tga 9y ago
  Thank you!
cabaalis 9y ago
#1- I've found that rubber ducky problems get solved fairly quickly.. but I can't schedule a duck until 3 days out as of 9/1 2:15 PM CST. #2- If you won't sign a custom NDA, I would certainly feel better if you presented me with a stock NDA that all of your ducks have agreed to. Edit: #3- To protect yourself and your customers I'd suggest that you make sure you have a no-PHI and no-real-payment-info (PCI) requirement :)
bdcravens 9y ago
So it's CodeMentor.io / HackHands? Without NDAs or live chat or ....?
- fiatjaf 9y ago
  Well, have you tried using Codementor or Hackhands? It's so horrible I think this will hardly be worse or even equal.
  - bdcravens 9y ago
    Yes, I have used both, though as mentor, not a mentee. I think there's a set of features that each offers that I'd consider minimal features in a similar product offering, and I'm not seeing those in Duck.
joshumax 9y ago
I'm actually a little bit sad because I thought booking a duck would start some two-way WebRTC session between me and a live stream of an actual rubber duck...
- meesterdude 9y ago
  yup - this is exactly what I thought! But I guess someone who can actually help with the problem is ok too.
redgetan 9y ago
Interesting project, but I feel like it's asking too many things upfront. I'd rather just put my email, the description of problem I need help with, and hit send.
osrec 9y ago
Looks interesting. Can you explain in a little more detail how your pricing works please? Thanks!
JCharante 9y ago
Dissapointed you don't get actual rubber ducks. I wish there was a rubberduckasaservice.com
jmadsen 9y ago
You may have been looking for this? http://rubberduckasaservice.codebyjeff.com/ http://rubberduckasaservice.codebyjeff.com/

31 points by tga 9y ago

raybb 9y ago

How many ducks do you currently have?

tga 9y ago
The duck pool auto-scales to meet the demand, of course.
- kinduff 9y ago
  Had a similar idea a while ago but correct me if I'm wrong, this service sets you up on a call with a rubber duck (an image I suppose) for x time? Are you using Google Hangouts API?
  - tga 9y ago
    Thanks for the comment, sounds like I should revise the text. You actually get a real human (ahem, duck), even one that can code and ask questions about what you are doing, and potentially help debug the problem.
    - WorldMaker 9y ago
      Now I'm disappointed, I was hoping for actual rubber ducks as a service. Find a nice pond or interior fountain. Fill it with rubber ducks. Add tracking cameras to track a random one for the length of a call. Soothing, random bobbing.
    - fenwick67 9y ago
      Wow I literally had no idea that you were actually pairing people up with real people, I thought it was a duck too (or some 3d animated thing).

lozzo 9y ago

the link on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging is broken. fix it

tga 9y ago
Thank you!

cabaalis 9y ago

#1- I've found that rubber ducky problems get solved fairly quickly.. but I can't schedule a duck until 3 days out as of 9/1 2:15 PM CST. #2- If you won't sign a custom NDA, I would certainly feel better if you presented me with a stock NDA that all of your ducks have agreed to. Edit: #3- To protect yourself and your customers I'd suggest that you make sure you have a no-PHI and no-real-payment-info (PCI) requirement :)

bdcravens 9y ago

So it's CodeMentor.io / HackHands? Without NDAs or live chat or ....?

fiatjaf 9y ago
Well, have you tried using Codementor or Hackhands? It's so horrible I think this will hardly be worse or even equal.
- bdcravens 9y ago
  Yes, I have used both, though as mentor, not a mentee. I think there's a set of features that each offers that I'd consider minimal features in a similar product offering, and I'm not seeing those in Duck.

joshumax 9y ago

I'm actually a little bit sad because I thought booking a duck would start some two-way WebRTC session between me and a live stream of an actual rubber duck...

meesterdude 9y ago
yup - this is exactly what I thought! But I guess someone who can actually help with the problem is ok too.

redgetan 9y ago

Interesting project, but I feel like it's asking too many things upfront. I'd rather just put my email, the description of problem I need help with, and hit send.

osrec 9y ago

Looks interesting. Can you explain in a little more detail how your pricing works please? Thanks!

JCharante 9y ago

Dissapointed you don't get actual rubber ducks. I wish there was a rubberduckasaservice.com

jmadsen 9y ago

You may have been looking for this? http://rubberduckasaservice.codebyjeff.com/ http://rubberduckasaservice.codebyjeff.com/