Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Idea Sunday

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 453 posts

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#251

Post by bazzargh »

crusso wrote: post #102

I'd like to see a site that focuses on the construction of logical arguments supporting various political and non-political views. I'd like for the system to allow for continued refinement of arguments on various topics and to allow for various branching of thought. That is, I'm not looking for a democracy that rewards majoritarian thought and punishes less popular but logically consistent argumentation. As an end pr…

(inserts tongue firmly in cheek) I think there would be more money for a site that helps you argue your position from available data, the truth be damned.

I'm thinking "How to Lie With Statistics"[1] as a service - tell it you want to, say, show that guns are becoming safer, or that higher taxation causes obesity, and it will produce a nicely manipulated graph containing only real figures from readily available datasets, ready for feeding to a journalist.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Lie_with_Statistics

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#252

Post by DanBC »

crusso wrote: post #102

I'd like to see a site that focuses on the construction of logical arguments supporting various political and non-political views. I'd like for the system to allow for continued refinement of arguments on various topics and to allow for various branching of thought. That is, I'm not looking for a democracy that rewards majoritarian thought and punishes less popular but logically consistent argumentation. As an end pr…

I love this idea.

I don't think most people -myself included- would be able to accept the rational arguments. (There is probably research showing that people's beliefs become more entrenched if you show them evidence to debunk or otherwise convert them).

Using gun control as an example. I have a position. I'm in a discussion with soomeone. I think I'll use evidence to persuade them, so I visit your site. I find that the argument pretty much demolishes my point. I thus ignore your site on that occasion, complaining about bias and lack of use of the site hy right-headed people, and I add my tedious arguments to my discussion.

Or I find that the argument supports my position, in whichcase your sote is brilliant and the Internet is a marvel so I post a link, which the person I am talking to ignores.

But it is still a great idea and you're right that some subjects (abortion; gay marriage; drug control; gun control; Israel / Palestine; circumcision; etc) get discussed a lot, with repetitive and circular and eventually boring arguments.

Seeing how well, or poorly, Wikipedia has handled hot-button topics points out some difficulties of finding "accuracy" when people are not rationally calm headed.

It would be great to see it though.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#253

Post by Spittie »

hikigo_wanders wrote: post #226
Spittie wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice :) One of my ideas about "tripcodes" was that eventually an user could upload a style-sheet to customize his blog, one could see all the post by a certain tripcode and could follow him (rss?). I agree, I like the simple design. One problem (or maybe I'm just dumb): I've pressed the "New" button a bunch of times to post something New, and only after that I realized that I should have pushed "Sumbit" instead. Mayb…

I knew nothing about tripcodes until now, thank you. Won't it be a drag to have to type in a tripcode each time you want to post something? Isn't it better to allow having a username and password, but hash whatever is displayed as an identifier on the screen to preserve anonymity? I'll consider adding tripcodes to something similar I built. It's a bit of an experiment: http://hikigo.com On spam, it's not anonymity th…

>I knew nothing about tripcodes until now, thank you. Won't it be a drag to have to type in a tripcode each time you want to post something? Isn't it better to allow having a username and password, but hash whatever is displayed as an identifier on the screen to preserve anonymity?

Yes and no, you could just say that the tripcode is a password, and then the user wouldn't even have to type the username :)

Also you can save it to localstorage or something, so that the user has to type it only once.

>On spam, it's not anonymity that leads to spam. You get spam on sites that have username/passwords too, like HN. You can fight it in the usual ways any site fights spam.

I agree, let me say that differently: such a site would have a very low barrier to entry, easily exploitable by bots. Just type in your post, eventually a name/password/tripcode/however you call it, and press the publish button. Easier that the usual register, confirm valid email, publish.

>(A note for HN moderators: your algorithm for detecting spam links automatically deletes a new post from a new user.)

Are you using tor? Because I remember reading that if you create a new account on tor you have to wait two weeks before your account is allowed to post.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#254

Post by allworknoplay »

zimbatm wrote: post #84

A subscription service for open source projects. As a company I would pay you monthly and get access to bug and features development for all the open source dependencies that I am using. The more I pay the more things I can get done in a month. If a feature is too big for my budget I can accumulate month to month value on a ticket or get other companies to participate.

I'm not taking a side (really!), but there's a lot to be said for keeping open source projects strong on their own without injecting cash. Cash coming in creates a disincentive to develop without cash and promotes a reliance on paid services rather than a mentality of contributing back. Also, when it comes to many projects, the organization that offers services around them has a negative incentive to contribute clear, quality code.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#255

Post by allworknoplay »

k8si wrote: post #230

Social graph app for tracking gang activity on Twitter, with the intention of predicting potential violence before it happens on the streets. According to Vice/other sources, it's becoming increasingly popular for gangs to communicate publicly via Twitter and other social media sources. It's an interesting NLP problem because Twitter language is crazy and an interesting "computational social science" problem because…

oh cool, pre-crime. worked for tom cruise, why not poor people in disadvantaged communities?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#256

Post by ldonley »

sadfnjksdf wrote: post #141

While we're at it * : Funding Monday - where everyone pitches to VC's in the same HN thread. Trial Tuesday - where everyone provides a link to their demo in the same HN thread. Writing Wednesday - where everyone writes an informative hacker-related topic on their blog and shares a link to it in the same HN thread. Throwback Thursday - where people all share something informative about past experiences or past apps/et…

I like some of these ideas. The Trial Tuesday could be a nice way for people to get feedback on their WIP projects and perhaps motivate them to keep up and have weekly updates.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#257

Post by neil_s »

carlio wrote: post #114

I'd love a "profiling firewall", so to speak. I hate it when tethering when iTunes downloads a 500mb update without telling me. In general, your Laptop has no idea that it's tethered and therefore data is more scarce than normal. Something that flips between "ok go for it" and "restrict these apps" would be nice, especially if it were automatic.

I know Windows 8 contains an option to avoid downloading updates on 'Metered connections', which is basically this. I don't know if 3rd party apps can access and obey this setting though.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#259

Post by neil_s »

colemorrison wrote: post #179

Something to help me switch between workflows. Everytime I want to switch to a different project (i.e. writing code for software project X to designing a mockup for software project Y), I don't even know how much time I waste getting my development environment, tools, documents, ideas, etc. setup. Sometimes I'll get an impulsive idea (i.e. how to fix that one bug), but what will stop me from doing it right then is th…

I keep each project in a different desktop (using Dexpot on Windows or Spaces on Mac). Rather than opening and closing applications, I simply switch desktops. The context switch cost decreases significantly.

An added advantage is a clear separation between work and play, its harder to sneak open a procrastination tab when you have to explicitly switch to the procrastination desktop to do it.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#260

Post by dreeves »

nostromo wrote: post #86
netcan wrote: post #33

Commitment device app that works on a dead man's switch. The idea is to use the discipline you have now to discipline your future self. eg1 - Enter your weight every month. If you go over a predetermined weight, it does something punitive. Posts embarrassing pictures online, emails your mom, donates $50 to the Klu klux Klan. eg2 Create a todo list with due dates, goals or somesuch. Failing to complete them does somet…

You might enjoy this story / podcast: http://freakonomics.com/2012/02/02/save-me-from-myself-a-new... One guy decided that he wanted to get healthy. So, he made a list of prohibited foods and actions and wrote a check for $750 payable to Oprah Winfrey (he dislikes Oprah for some reason). He told his wife, "If I do anything on this list in the next 30 days, send this check to Oprah, no exceptions."

Our rebuttal to the anti-charity idea: http://blog.beeminder.com/anticharity (In short: it's socially inefficient!)
Post reply on HN