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Ask HN: What's your problem?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your problem?

#31

Post by skolor »

olalonde wrote: post #19
arihelgason wrote: post #8

Problems faced by the denizens of this site are more likely to be well-served by what already exists. Try asking people in industries that rarely interface with the tech world. That's where you find the big, underserved problems.

Which industries would that be? What is a good way to get in touch with them without looking too opportunist or ruining yourself? (genuine question)

It sounds obvious, but go out and talk to people. As a slowly reforming introvert, just sitting down and talking to a random person can do crazy things to the way you think.

Re: Ask HN: What's your problem?

#32

Post by Slashed »

drcode wrote: post #2

I want to program the iPhone/iPad, but don't want all the headaches required for this: - Buying a Mac dev box - Learning Objective C - Dealing with the whole Apple Developer's Program paper shuffle

Instead of writing code in Objective C, you can try to use something like PhoneGap( http://phonegap.com/ ). Though I'm not sure if it's suitable for making games and other graphic intensive stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What's your problem?

#33

Post by Mz »

cousin_it wrote: post #11

My problems? Okay, I'll try to list them honestly. Try to build some startups from this: 1) It's too cold in Moscow. The gray sky sucks. 2) I fall sick easily. Now slowly recovering from a brutal case of stomatitis. 3) I can't easily find new people to play music together in a casual setting. I'd do this every couple days if it were simple. 4) Whenever I have >1 concurrent girlfriend, I have trouble separating them.…

I fall sick easily. Now slowly recovering from a brutal case of stomatitis.

I've actually got a website for this one. But I still need to learn a programming language to write an app to go with it. :(

Re: Ask HN: What's your problem?

#34

Post by [deleted] »

Mz wrote: post #33
cousin_it wrote: post #11

My problems? Okay, I'll try to list them honestly. Try to build some startups from this: 1) It's too cold in Moscow. The gray sky sucks. 2) I fall sick easily. Now slowly recovering from a brutal case of stomatitis. 3) I can't easily find new people to play music together in a casual setting. I'd do this every couple days if it were simple. 4) Whenever I have >1 concurrent girlfriend, I have trouble separating them.…

I fall sick easily. Now slowly recovering from a brutal case of stomatitis. I've actually got a website for this one. But I still need to learn a programming language to write an app to go with it. :(

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's your problem?

#35

Post by krakensden »

dabent wrote: post #17
cousin_it wrote: post #11

My problems? Okay, I'll try to list them honestly. Try to build some startups from this: 1) It's too cold in Moscow. The gray sky sucks. 2) I fall sick easily. Now slowly recovering from a brutal case of stomatitis. 3) I can't easily find new people to play music together in a casual setting. I'd do this every couple days if it were simple. 4) Whenever I have >1 concurrent girlfriend, I have trouble separating them.…

"Three girl(friends)s at once..." This is a problem? :-) There are actually several web applications to help people get into that sort of situation. Seriously, doesn't caller ID help this situation? Maybe you could convince them all to download a location-based app so you can track them and see when two are headed to your apartment at the same time.

If they find out, it most certainly is a problem.

Re: Ask HN: What's your problem?

#36

Post by fragmede »

Make this use case easier, or just parts of it; for all critical IT infrastructure that isn't core to my business:

I'm looking for a wiki program to run. I want to force people to login before they can read any of the wiki (it's for internal use). It also needs to support LDAP.

Currently, I load up Wikipedia and find their table (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software). I can then take that table and import it directly into a Google Spreadsheet, which lets me do better filtering. Hopefully the table on Wikipedia has the fields for the comparison I want. If not, I have to go and fill out the list myself (and then add it to Wikipedia). I then spend the next few days playing around with the short list until I'm satisfied with my choice; then implement.

Thats all well and good. But I'm not the IT department! Okay, as a startup, I am, but it isn't core to my business. And I feel like it has got to be a solved problem. How about for inventory tracking? A trouble ticket system? Etc.

This shouldn't be that difficult.

Asking people what they use certainly helps, but they may or may not have the same requirements.

As an app, a better way to use tables on Wikipedia would be great (especially when things are split across multiple tables as the list of wiki software is).

(I'm not affiliated, but while writing up my use case, I came across this: http://www.wikimatrix.org )

Re: Ask HN: What's your problem?

#38

Post by waivej »

cousin_it wrote: post #11

My problems? Okay, I'll try to list them honestly. Try to build some startups from this: 1) It's too cold in Moscow. The gray sky sucks. 2) I fall sick easily. Now slowly recovering from a brutal case of stomatitis. 3) I can't easily find new people to play music together in a casual setting. I'd do this every couple days if it were simple. 4) Whenever I have >1 concurrent girlfriend, I have trouble separating them.…

Would a good CRM program help with the girls? You could maybe use a good forecasting and sales feature to line up new ones.

Re: Ask HN: What's your problem?

#39

Post by jiaaro »

mmelin wrote: post #28
prawn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have just described me too... Countless ideas started and very few completed or even got to a launchable status. I know exactly what's required in every case but struggle to wrap things up. Funnily enough, I think I'd make a solid startup/side-project coach and it's exactly what I need, also. Would love to see a small group work together to motivate each other, like an online version of the YC dinners (going by w…

I have the same problem. I find it difficult to keep up the motivation to do the boring work that makes the difference between cool side project and actual product. I think this in large part is because I do things alone, because I don't have a problem with day-to-day drudgery in my day job. Of course, I wouldn't be fiddling around with new product ideas if I was satisfied with the day job either. I'd definitely be i…

I'd also be interested in something like that.

maybe we need to make a new website? ;)

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