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Hey HN, I was the creator and lead developer of this project, and we've been rolling it out for launch over the last few weeks. The homepage is: http://quickfu

by pak 16y ago

Hey HN, I was the creator and lead developer of this project, and we've been rolling it out for launch over the last few weeks. The homepage is: http://quickfuseapps.com/ http://quickfuseapps.com/ We think it's really neat stuff--it basically takes the web mashup power of Yahoo Pipes and applies it to telephone calls. The technology behind it is also pretty impressive. If you have any questions, please send them to me here, and I'll do my best to answer them!

mcantor 16y ago
This is absolutely tremendous, and I am already having a blast. Thank you! Only one point of frustration: There should be an obvious way to get variables from the call row. You can update the call row with the "Update Call Row" module in the "Outbound Campaigns" section, but there should be a "Reserve Variable From Call Row" module, too. Otherwise, it seems the only way to do it is to "Reserve Variable" for every one you want to use, and manually set them as pre-filled every single time you create a campaign, which is a hassle. Also, $0.05 cents per minute feels kind of steep. You have a very novel and wonderful service, though, so maybe it isn't such a big problem. It was so easy and intuitive to make a demo app, assign it to a number after I registered and watch things coming together. You guys are Doing It Right. Kudos, kudos! One more thing... it'd be nice if there was an easy way to filter outbound calls on whether the person has already been called, according to whether the "outbound_result" field in their row is populated. There's a filter option "is..." that lets you select between "present" and "not present," but it's not clear whether that means "empty" or "is not even a hash key for that row," or if those two things are even different. Oh, and for God's sake, make sure you block requests on your site that have "4chan" as a referrer... ;-)
- pak 16y ago
  These are all great points. Re: filtering, this needs to be better documented, agreed. "present"==="field exists for row, with any value". There's a distinction between empty grey and empty white cells that we tried to make but it may not be apparent to non-programmers. Re: price, we are only a couple cents/min higher than what other barebones API providers are charging. But we are obviously much more than an API service. Hosting all apps in their entirety, along with slick web-based tools to build them, is the extra value we are hoping to provide.
  - barrkel 16y ago
    A "couple of cents" up to 5 cents implies charging 66% more.
AndrewWarner 16y ago
Pak, consider using your real name and email in your HN profile. What you're building really is impressive. It's worth making it easy for HN'ers to contact you directly.
- pak 16y ago
  OK, I've added a way to contact me. My real name actually is Pak, first name Ted.
prawn 16y ago
Love it. Wish we could make use of it more here in Australia but from what I can tell the dial-in stuff is US only, and out-going calls to mobiles here might get expensive quickly (20c+/min?).
- pak 16y ago
  We have some infrastructure for international dial-ins via our overseas datacenters, you might want to inquire via our phone number request form once you sign up. Also on our list is SIP integration to make international outbound cheaper; we are contemplating ways to gainfully monetize that.

by pak 16y ago

mcantor 16y ago

This is absolutely tremendous, and I am already having a blast. Thank you! Only one point of frustration: There should be an obvious way to get variables from the call row. You can update the call row with the "Update Call Row" module in the "Outbound Campaigns" section, but there should be a "Reserve Variable From Call Row" module, too. Otherwise, it seems the only way to do it is to "Reserve Variable" for every one you want to use, and manually set them as pre-filled every single time you create a campaign, which is a hassle. Also, $0.05 cents per minute feels kind of steep. You have a very novel and wonderful service, though, so maybe it isn't such a big problem. It was so easy and intuitive to make a demo app, assign it to a number after I registered and watch things coming together. You guys are Doing It Right. Kudos, kudos! One more thing... it'd be nice if there was an easy way to filter outbound calls on whether the person has already been called, according to whether the "outbound_result" field in their row is populated. There's a filter option "is..." that lets you select between "present" and "not present," but it's not clear whether that means "empty" or "is not even a hash key for that row," or if those two things are even different. Oh, and for God's sake, make sure you block requests on your site that have "4chan" as a referrer... ;-)

pak 16y ago
These are all great points. Re: filtering, this needs to be better documented, agreed. "present"==="field exists for row, with any value". There's a distinction between empty grey and empty white cells that we tried to make but it may not be apparent to non-programmers. Re: price, we are only a couple cents/min higher than what other barebones API providers are charging. But we are obviously much more than an API service. Hosting all apps in their entirety, along with slick web-based tools to build them, is the extra value we are hoping to provide.
- barrkel 16y ago
  A "couple of cents" up to 5 cents implies charging 66% more.

AndrewWarner 16y ago

Pak, consider using your real name and email in your HN profile. What you're building really is impressive. It's worth making it easy for HN'ers to contact you directly.

pak 16y ago
OK, I've added a way to contact me. My real name actually is Pak, first name Ted.

prawn 16y ago

Love it. Wish we could make use of it more here in Australia but from what I can tell the dial-in stuff is US only, and out-going calls to mobiles here might get expensive quickly (20c+/min?).

pak 16y ago
We have some infrastructure for international dial-ins via our overseas datacenters, you might want to inquire via our phone number request form once you sign up. Also on our list is SIP integration to make international outbound cheaper; we are contemplating ways to gainfully monetize that.