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Ask HN: Idea Sunday

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Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#291

Post by danieltillett »

whitef0x wrote: post #263

I always thought a DNA analyzer for potential dates would be a good idea. I know it sounds crazy but you want to know if the your date has any good bad genes or not so you can make a full gene ARRAY so you can see their store gene structure and see if they are eatable. This would also translate into better offspring for maximum efficient. /s before anyone jumps on me for posting this, know that this was posted as sar…

I know you are joking, but everyone carries around 250 defective genes with 2 new mutations per generation.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#292

Post by moollaza »

alexmic wrote: post #243

I'd like a service that allows me to write internet-connected scripts that can be scheduled or executed on demand via webhooks. I have a bunch of things I want to do (like monitor a site for example) without messing around with servers. To take it even further these scripts can come with their own store (just a simple key-value will do the trick), exposed over an API with a private key.

Perhaps Yahoo Pipes? http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#293

Post by jamesroseman »

digisth wrote: post #215

A service that figures out how to create and deliver healthy (meaning not extremely salty, sugary, etc.), same-day-prepared, vegetarian-friendly meals for $10 USD per day or less. The service would make one or two dishes so that they can be prepared in batch (maybe one non-vegetarian, and one vegetarian), and deliver them at a predetermined time. The current services in this industry tend to cost a lot more than this…

Does http://blueapron.com not fit the bill? $10/meal /person I think? Ship to > 85% of the country.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#294

Post by danieltillett »

dceddia wrote: post #211

It could be useful to have a site where researchers could post their failed attempts at solving difficult problems, a sort of "Journal of Failed Ideas". I saw this suggested in a reddit thread a while back, might've been the Bill Gates AMA, but the comment was something to the effect of, "What if cancer researchers could post things they've tried in some central location, without the overhead of publishing papers in…

The problem is the incentives are all wrong for reporting negative outcomes - basically you get no benefit, but it cost you time.

What would work would be to pay each researcher for every negative result they published and more importantly why the idea failed. Often the failure is caused by something minor that the researcher overlooked when doing the experiment initially - I have saved many a project in the pub, by just chatting informally with people about the problems they are having.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#295

Post by ggchappell »

allworknoplay wrote: post #254
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…

> ...there's a lot to be said for keeping open source projects strong on their own without injecting cash.

Money is already all over the open-source world. Many smaller projects will not involve it much, but it matters in the larger ones. E.g., much of the code contributed to the Linux kernel comes from people who write it as part of their jobs. That means that feature additions & bug fixes in Linux will be largely those that matter to (say) Red Hat. This idea offers a way to get work I want done prioritized without needing to know how to do it myself.

It also offers the possibility of software development midway between the start-up model that groups like YC and Kickstarter are pushing, and the no-money-involved-ever model. Surely somewhere between the two we might find something workable.

> Also, when it comes to many projects, the organization that offers services around them has a negative incentive to contribute clear, quality code.

A good point. I don't have an answer for that one.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#296

Post by andrewstuart »

mjadobson wrote: post #80

Hosted PostgreSQL service with exposed HTTP API and ACL/validation hooks. Also syncing hooks to plug into SQLite/iDB/etc for offline apps. Sort of like Cloudant/Firebase but using relational db.

Not quite what you are suggesting but....

http://aws.amazon.com/rds/postgresql/

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#297

Post by d0m »

Google map that can show me parking?

I'm driving to a coffee place, great, but then it's 10min turning around the place looking for parking. Ideally it should drive me in real-time to a place where I can park.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#298

Post by avalaunch »

hbt wrote: post #152

A site to organize systems. There are plenty of "List of frontend development tools" or "list of git tools". I want a site where users can build lists, share them, vote on them, categorize the content and update it with the new tools. alternativeto.net is a partial attempt at doing that but it doesn't take a systems thinking approach

somewhat similar: http://learni.st/

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#299

Post by d0m »

I have a hard time explaining this idea, so please bear with me.

As a founder and hacker, I want to know how my users use my web and mobile apps. But I haven't found an intuitive and dead-simple way to do it.

Mixpanel and google analytic are way more complex than what I have in mind.

What I would like to have is more similar to Facebook, but instead of looking at my friends activity, I'd like to see what's happening with my users.

I like the idea of a feed, or more specifically an exploratory object graph.

I'd like to open my phone and see a feed of what's happening, similar to a cat | tail but where I could click on a verb (Joined the website) or a noun (10 users) and it would direct me to that specific page.

So, for instance, it would tell me:

15 users joined . Bob And Alice got a new highscore of 2500. Marie played level 3 10 times.

I could change the Zoom ratio.. I.e. see the feed of the last minute or the last year, and it would sum up the actions to one statement.. "1541 users upgrated to premium", etc.

Basically, I don't want to look at graphes or stats or parse log files, I just want a beautiful and simple feed of what's happening. And when I see something that I'm curious about, I can just click and learn more. Just a dead simple way to understand how my users use my apps.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#300

Post by schlagetown »

wfbarks wrote: post #205

Highlight the Web A browser plugin that lets me highlight text on a web page. I can view other user's highlights on that same webpage, and see my highlights again when I revisit the web page weeks later.

Something like this, perhaps?

https://www.diigo.com/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/diigo-web-collecto...

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