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Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

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Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#131

Post by jwhitlark »

jcromartie wrote: post #32
jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The capstone project for my class had a teacher that required we used Blackboard as a code repository system instead of me setting up Github or beanstalk. She also asked that we use stored procedures for MySQL, which no one was familiar with and would take way longer. The code was horrible, the design was ugly, and half the class was spent designing by committee. It was all for an app that should have taken a couple…

That's really amazing. What was her title? Was this supposed to be a programming professor? How can anybody who purports to be teaching the practicalities of software construction require you to use the wrong tool ? Blackboard has terrible handling of file uploads... as of fairly recently two users couldn't two different files with the same name.

Heh, I had a CS Professor once refer to the command line as "a legacy technology that's still occasionally useful for testing." I didn't tell her that saying that at a hiring interview at my company would end the interview.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#132

Post by nostrademons »

fletchowns wrote: post #9

We need to eliminate packaging waste. My laundry detergent ran out, so I had to go get some more. Why am I throwing this big plastic jug back into the recycling loop? Why can't I just take it back to the store and fill it up again? I could use the same jug for years and years and years. How many of those jugs do you think are just going into landfills every day? I saw a link recently to a "bring your own container" t…

Safeway will give you a discount (yeah, it's only like a nickel or so) if you bring your own bags. I think many other grocery stores will too. It's very poorly advertised (though I'm starting to see flyers up), so most people still don't know about it. I've never seen a cashier complain about bringing your own bags, though.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#133

Post by nostrademons »

nradov wrote: post #123

Problem: Businesses require too much working capital. This slows down growth and reduces ROA / ROI. Solution: Create a B2B network that automatically finds and eliminates cycles in the A/R-A/P graph. For example, let's say that company A owes $100 to company B, which owes $80 to company C, which owes $50 to company A. The settlement network could tie into the accounting systems of all 3 companies, identify the debt l…

That would be a wonderful way to solve the financial crisis, too. If everybody knew who owed what to everyone else, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#134

Post by nostrademons »

larsberg wrote: post #87
keefe wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's also extraordinarily difficult if not impossible to prove. This is a problem for researchers, not people looking for ideas for startups.

You could probably make some money on a "proof validation service" where you charge all of the crackpots who think they've solved P!=NP to validate their proof. Or, if you just happen to find an error, send that back. But the service is free if you don't!

Why would a crackpot pay for this? Their incentive is for people not to find errors in their proofs, not for them to find errors.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#135

Post by jasonlbaptiste »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #122
edw519 wrote: post #6

Enterprise software sucks. We don't talk about it much here at hn, but think about it. Every man-made object you encounter every day was manufactured somewhere. And moved, more than once. Now add in all the sales, marketing, customer service, operations, accounting, finance, human resources, etc., etc., etc. needed to support that manufacturing and distribution. Next, add financial markets, healthcare, energy, entert…

The market is small (compared to consumer stuff), margins have to be huge, only the biggest customers can afford to sponsor it, bloated development projects on a schedule end up ... sucking. Similar to development tools, come to think of it!

The market is small compared to consumer stuff? Not true.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#136

Post by _delirium »

jwhitlark wrote: post #131
jcromartie wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really amazing. What was her title? Was this supposed to be a programming professor? How can anybody who purports to be teaching the practicalities of software construction require you to use the wrong tool ? Blackboard has terrible handling of file uploads... as of fairly recently two users couldn't two different files with the same name.

Heh, I had a CS Professor once refer to the command line as "a legacy technology that's still occasionally useful for testing." I didn't tell her that saying that at a hiring interview at my company would end the interview.

I've had more the opposite experience--- one CS professor used only a Unix command line without X installed, and his machine didn't have a mouse. Not sure which is worse.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#137

Post by JoeAltmaier »

jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #135
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market is small (compared to consumer stuff), margins have to be huge, only the biggest customers can afford to sponsor it, bloated development projects on a schedule end up ... sucking. Similar to development tools, come to think of it!

The market is small compared to consumer stuff? Not true.

Lets see, 360 million Americans, a good number use Excel spreadsheets. How many businesses in America that can be called Enterprise? Maybe 9000.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#138

Post by _delirium »

Tichy wrote: post #121
fletchowns wrote: post #9

We need to eliminate packaging waste. My laundry detergent ran out, so I had to go get some more. Why am I throwing this big plastic jug back into the recycling loop? Why can't I just take it back to the store and fill it up again? I could use the same jug for years and years and years. How many of those jugs do you think are just going into landfills every day? I saw a link recently to a "bring your own container" t…

Yes and no - I've heard that it would actually be possible to build machines that would be very good at recycling garbage. Maybe that would be a more feasible solution?

Machines are getting better at separating recyclables from general waste streams, but the actual recycling part is still pretty tricky. Apart from a few "easy" things like aluminum cans, most stuff is hard to recycle in a way that's both economical and a net energy win.

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#139

Post by _delirium »

brg wrote: post #54
steveklabnik wrote: post #11

I live in Pittsburgh. We have a huge lack of talent at the moment. There are tons of startups with funding that are looking to hire people, but a huge lack of skilled people around. We've got companies paying $1,000 bonuses to anyone who can get a hire. It's crazy. I'm not sure how to properly attract and keep talent in the city.

I looked into moving to Pittsburgh, and then I found out there was a city income tax and changed my plans.

I hope you didn't move somewhere like Silicon Valley then, since the taxes there are even higher! (Pittsburgh's top rate, including city and state taxes combined, is 6%, versus California's 10.5%.)

Re: Ask HN: What are problems that need to be solved?

#140

Post by robotempire »

mkramlich wrote: post #129

We should make it much easier, and more pervasive, and accepted, for people to be able to work from home or otherwise untethered to a central office. We might not want or even be able to achieve this 100%, but the more we can do this, we can reduce so much waste and pollution, and there would be so many less car accidents, gas/oil demand, pavement area, etc. Those of us in the software field are lucky in that many of…

The Obama administration agrees with you.

http://www.mnn.com/eco-biz/money-green-jobs/blogs/american-c...

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