I'm a browserless user, and the headache for me was cost. You're right that it's dirt-simple to spin up a puppeteer service in docker, and that's what I had been doing previously. But, for my usage, I found it was cheaper to pay browserless than to run my own EC2 instances. Granted, I probably account for a very, very tiny fraction of that $24k/mo :)
I'm Dan from Geofable. We're building a tool for telling stories with spatial data using interactive map-based infographics.
Our team has built geospatial software for the US Government for the past decade, and we've seen the same problems come up over and over: existing map-making tools are expensive, hard to use, and often don't make good looking maps. In order to make maps that do look good, agencies end up hiring entire teams of GIS experts, programmers, and graphic designers.
Geofable is a new tool with the goal of making it easier for people to build visualizations with their spatial data without being an expert. We're currently in beta, and would love your feedback. Thanks!
Congrats on the book, Patrick! I think that is a feat that a lot of hacker news readers hope to accomplish one day. I know I fall in that category.
Anyway, I really appreciate the earnest care you took in talking about the book in this linked-to post. You didn't publish "20 blog posts" in the book. You published "20 essays that appeared in your blog." Now I haven't read all of your blog. And for a few parts of a second, reading the word "essays" (instead of "blog posts") made me think you had some kind of book-marketer coach this enunciation. But, I have read enough of your blog where I think I know what you mean. I have definitely made posts in my own blog because I have felt it's been too long and I have needed to make a post. But, on the other hand, I have also had a teensy-handful of posts because I had something itching at the back of my head that needed to come out. Maybe I would call these essays. I would definitely try to distinguish them in my mind from just another "blog post."