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Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

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Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#201

Post by Something1234 »

kichuku wrote: post #74

I am a network engineer for a medium size company (I have worked for very large enterprises too) and there a a lot of opportunities for startups in network engineering. 1)Simple network automation platform that works for "My" custom environment, simply and effortlessly and also it should not break any existing network. (I don't mean like HP Network Automation) 2) Network diagram software - Seriously, any experienced…

Dia, the diagram editor, seems pretty decent for diagramming. It has the CISCO symbols built right into it, and it's free.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#202

Post by Something1234 »

fermienrico wrote: post #33
SteveNuts wrote: post #3

Open hardware and software for PLCs for manufacturing.

Along with this, we need a better way to program robots. I program Fanuc i200D and that whole industry makes my blood boil. Want more than 200 variables in your program? Shell out $10k. High level programming language to program robots with safety in mind would be amazing. RoboDK is the only one that is doing this and they still suck.

If you have arrays why don't you implement a turing machine and compiler to turing machine so that you can have more variables without shelling out? Or some other model of computation.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#203

Post by nulagrithom »

dhruvkar wrote: post #142
nulagrithom wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in intermodal. Whenever one of our larger customers wants to give us a load to move, we use X12 EDI. This is standard throughout at least the intermodal industry, though from what I gather that may also be true of over-the-road as well. An example 204 EDI (Load Tender) looks like this: ISA*01*0000000000*01*0000000000*ZZ*ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO*ZZ*123456789012345*101127*1719*U*00400*000003438*0*P*> GS*SM*4405197800*999…

I work for a stone distributor and we have issues with trucking, but had never delved into it. This was interesting to read. Donyou have more sources for gaining more insight into how this all works? I'd love to take a crack at parts of this.

If you Google '204 EDI specification' you should find a lot of random specs in PDF out there for various companies. 214 will show you some of the status updates too. Stuff like this: http://www.shipfsp.com/media/pdf/it/EDI_214_X12_V4010.pdf

I've found this EDI notepad useful for parsing flat files: https://www.liaison.com/products/integrate/edi-notepad/

And this npm library actually parses EDIs pretty well too: https://www.npmjs.com/package/x12

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#204

Post by nulagrithom »

dchuk wrote: post #173
nulagrithom wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in intermodal. Whenever one of our larger customers wants to give us a load to move, we use X12 EDI. This is standard throughout at least the intermodal industry, though from what I gather that may also be true of over-the-road as well. An example 204 EDI (Load Tender) looks like this: ISA*01*0000000000*01*0000000000*ZZ*ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO*ZZ*123456789012345*101127*1719*U*00400*000003438*0*P*> GS*SM*4405197800*999…

Thanks for the reply! That certainly does look like a pain in the ass. Being on the telematics side specifically, we deal less with EDI stuff, but I'm sure down the road I will have to, and I agree that a structured API would be much better. If you don't mind me asking, what ELD are you running? My company specifically builds one of those, amongst the rest of the productivity suite necessary for a driver to do their…

We started out using XRS. We run almost 100% independent contractors. Started out putting our own tablets in all the trucks. We discovered drivers can run up enormous data bills when they figure out how to circumvent the MDM... It apparently was also a pain to physically install XRS (I don't know the details of that). We also have nearly 50% turnover per year. The whole situation was really untenable.

We've since switched to GeoTab and a BYOD model. The GeoTab devices are a lot cheaper, so a contractor walking away with one isn't that big of an issue. Rollout was much smoother this time.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#205

Post by ChristianGeek »

javiramos wrote: post #177

The process of getting quotes, sending POs, receiving invoices, paying them Net30 etc. is an extremely manual process. Companies have dedicated employees that all they do is send quotes, receive POs, and receive payments. The process is so painful. Edit: I am in the industrial space. Basically all large equipment purchases work via a [Quote > PO > Pro Forma Invoice > Final Invoice > Payment > Receipt] process.

I’m currently working on a solution for this.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#206

Post by dchuk »

nulagrithom wrote: post #204
dchuk wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the reply! That certainly does look like a pain in the ass. Being on the telematics side specifically, we deal less with EDI stuff, but I'm sure down the road I will have to, and I agree that a structured API would be much better. If you don't mind me asking, what ELD are you running? My company specifically builds one of those, amongst the rest of the productivity suite necessary for a driver to do their…

We started out using XRS. We run almost 100% independent contractors. Started out putting our own tablets in all the trucks. We discovered drivers can run up enormous data bills when they figure out how to circumvent the MDM... It apparently was also a pain to physically install XRS (I don't know the details of that). We also have nearly 50% turnover per year. The whole situation was really untenable. We've since swi…

I would really like to pick your brain a bit more if possible. We directly compete with both XRS and GeoTab, so getting insight into your fleet's decision making process would be super helpful if you're willing.

Also could potentially talk about our ELD offering (amongst a bunch of other stuff) if you're interested.

darrin [at] platformscience.com

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#208

Post by rando444 »

moorhosj wrote: post #73

Secure internet for people who travel frequently or work from coffee shops. Filter the “free” internet connection through a TOR router and protect your network/browsing.

TOR is not meant for security, it's meant for anonymity.

If you are logging into services that can identify you, checking your personal email over a TOR connection, or doing work over a TOR connection, you're putting yourself and your company at risk.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#209

Post by BjoernKW »

merinowool wrote: post #194
atmosx wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who will troubleshoot when shit hits the fan? It seems to me that you are introducing technical debt from day one because it’s cool.

What technical debt?

The kind of technical debt otherwise known as premature optimisation. If you don't even know yet that your app has to scale - and in which way - preparing for that contingency is a waste of resources.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#210

Post by eerikkivistik »

Semkas wrote: post #29

I do some illustration and have noticed on twitter how much every illustrator who gets some experience with 3d-tools likes to use 3d modelling to create block-outs for scenes they want to draw. By creating a simple scene out of blocks and shapes you can make your perspective work while drawing a lot easier. A tool that could be really populair would be something that makes making 3d mock-ups easier for 2d artstists w…

You can give https://3dc.io a shot. Disclosure: developer here.
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