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Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#341

Post by whamlastxmas »

4ad wrote: post #290
ehnto wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just put my clothes in the tumble drier, and they come out pretty sharp. Not possible for all types of clothing, but for pants and shirts it works a treat.

I didn't believe this until I tried a dryer in the US. Here in Europe all the dryers I've seen wrinkle so bad they are unusable for anything but underwear. But in the US I've see several instances of these magical dryer that don't wrinkle clothes. I don't know what is the secret formula of american dryers and why can't they be found in Europe too.

I suspect the ones in the US use a lot more power/heat and actually get the clothes dry quickly. The downside is it's not great for the clothes long term and it's not very environmentally friendly.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#345

Post by crdb »

whamlastxmas wrote: post #330
crdb wrote: post #194

A way to use Mechanical Turk from outside the US. I've needed it with every client I ever worked with, and I need it now and know a dozen companies who do. CrowdFlower has a de facto monopoly on the outside of the US supply and charges an enormous premium for it - enough to turn off most of them. I certainly don't want to pay several thousand a month for the right to submit jobs, although I was ok with the 25% premiu…

How do they region lock it? Can't you just make a US business entity and pay through that, if the origin of payment is the issue?

I could, but it's time consuming and I'd have to deal with the IRS.

By not operating in either the US or the EU, I save myself a lot of administrative trouble and potential tax liabilities.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#347

Post by dragon_king »

phycodurus wrote: post #4

I wish someone would build an interactive teaching AI, (perhaps in a mathematical context at first). For example, the user might start with a goal such as, "I'd like to understand singular value decomposition." The AI would interactively assess the user's level of background and begin instruction at the appropriate level, leading to the desired goal.

I have the idea, we spent a lot of time struggling to progress on a particular topic and most of the time it just slips away. Can you provide a concrete example of what you would want to learn, what is your current skill level and what this service should do to provide value to you?

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#348

Post by whamlastxmas »

MrZongle2 wrote: post #47

Simple, user-serviceable appliances. Not a fridge with an UHD screen, not a washer with Bluetooth support, not a toaster that talks to the cloud. Just functional appliances with a level of efficiency that existed 25-30 years ago and can be repaired, rather than thrown away because subcomponents are sealed black boxes with little regard to durability. And after that, the really hard work: doing the same with printers.

For the most part, I think this is already the case today with a lot of products. Most people just have no idea a compressor works on a fridge or how to diagnose the problem. There's really nothing you could do to make a compressor less complicated to work with. Washers are driers don't exactly have embedded computers. They're straight forward to fix, too. Plenty of dishwashers available that are non-electronically controlled.

Most everything is fixable if you're not afraid of a screw driver and watching a Youtube on how to take it apart.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#349

Post by gravypod »

mapleoin wrote: post #267
zevv wrote: post #129

A slim, networked, pocked sized computer with a physical keyboard, running android or Linux. These used to exist - albeit disguised as phones - but the marketing department decided we don't need no friggin keyboards, and remove everything but the touchscreen and call it a tablet. The result is a consume-only device, on which it is all but impossible to input large amounts of text. Nokia N900, Motorola Droid 3/4, HTC…

Like the pyra/pandora? https://pyra-handheld.com/

I just wish that thing wasn't so much money. It's definitely worth it, lots of engineering behind it. It's still just a large chunk of change.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#350

Post by whamlastxmas »

mrgleeco wrote: post #114

so this may be real: http://atmotube.com/atmotube_user_manual.pdf If every urban commuter biker had this w/ phone+gps app, the dataset over time would become very interesting on many levels. Think local governments, real estate, state tranpo authorities etc.

I make prototypes of stuff like this as a hobby. This is about $15 worth of easily purchased hardware. It'd make more sense to place them in permanent installations around a city - put them on top of traffic lights with a solar panel. People can't reach them and they'll run forever untouched. Have volunteers use an app on their phone that will connect to them via WiFi as they drive past to collect their data. This means not having an expensive (service + hardware both) cell connection needed for the units.

Alternatively, you can attach 433MHz radios to them and place them within about 300 feet of each other so they can all link up and share data and upload through a single unit close enough to a free/open WiFi network.

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