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Ask HN: Idea Sunday

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Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#71

Post by namuol »

RivieraKid wrote: post #34

Like Gravatar but for everything, not just avatars. Gravatar is a service, where you save your avatar. Websites such as StackOverflow can connect to Gravatar and retrieve your avatar from there. So when you decide to change your avatar, you do it in one place. On a more abstract level, the problem here is that people and organizations often create some data and basically Ctrl+C Ctrl+V it to different services. Couple…

Seems like it would be very difficult to standardize so many different types of data...

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#72

Post by et1337 »

CodyReichert wrote: post #69
et1337 wrote: post #53

A CMS designed specifically for the solo contractor making a typical brochure-type website for a mom-and-pop organization or company. Every website is a fork of the main repo, so devs have full control and version upgrades are just git merges. Runs on SQLite and comes with in-page editing controls a la Medium. Basically Wordpress for the 21st century, but designed for devs rather than users.

I've thought about this too - what language would you think would be the most universal for devs? I think Wordpress pretty much covers this, though I do think there is room for another competitor.

There's definitely room for competition. Most recently we've got Wix and Squarespace, but again they target the end user rather than developers. I think most people are willing to shell out a bit more for a local developer rather than an impersonal SaaS site.

At the moment I'm working on a prototype using Python and Flask, which seems like Django without all the cruft. Pretty much the only other options would be Ruby, Go, and Javascript. But I really like Python. :)

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#73

Post by CodyReichert »

grantbachman wrote: post #66

Tutorials that actually validate whether they currently work. One use case would be tutorials on deploying to IAAS/PAAS providers. Deploying always seems to be the hard part after I build something; I don't like using the same language and IAAS/PAAS twice for learning purposes. It's complicated even more so as many tutorials don't reference when they were written or which code versions they used. The site would requi…

I thought about this after scrolling past a couple of times - and I think this is a good idea.

I'm thinking like a CI for tutorials. For example, I create an account on Tutorial CI (or whatever), give it the environment of the tutorial's code. It spits out a badge that I can put on my tutorial that says whether the build is passing or not. Pretty much exactly like the Travis badges you see on Github. That way, someone can verify before they even start reading that the tutorial is valid.

I actually like this idea a lot.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#74

Post by minthd »

Problem: the torrent network is not so good for hosting rare files, because often people download rare files, use it once or twice and delete them or place them in another library not accessible to the torrent.

So there are file hosting sites for that matter, but they're far from ideal - because they are centralized with all the problems that come with that.

That creates a lack of accessibility to rare files.

Not sure what would be the best solution that won't hurt the bittorent network(by splitting it), and that will have a reasonable monetization source.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#75

Post by yaraher »

grantbachman wrote: post #66

Tutorials that actually validate whether they currently work. One use case would be tutorials on deploying to IAAS/PAAS providers. Deploying always seems to be the hard part after I build something; I don't like using the same language and IAAS/PAAS twice for learning purposes. It's complicated even more so as many tutorials don't reference when they were written or which code versions they used. The site would requi…

We've been exploring this kind of scenarios at [http://codepicnic.com], where you can create your tutorial and then run some sort of test to see if it's running (perhaps returning non-zero values from some script or testing the existence of some files) but so far we think most of the attempts are a bit clumsy and would lead to false positives.

But would love to exchange ideas on the topic.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#77

Post by olalonde »

CodyReichert wrote: post #70
olalonde wrote: post #47

They don't fit in an HN comment but I recently dumped a couple of ideas on my blog: http://syskall.com/crazy-and-not-so-crazy-startup-ideas-2015...

Your cold calling as a service caught my attention. It's an interesting idea, but I feel the pitfall would be that random callers may not know or be as passionate about my product as an employee or myself. I could see a sale easily being lost because of an unexpected question.

Yes, that's definitely a big risk to take especially if your target market is relatively small and you don't want to burn bridges.

One solution could be to have different types of callers (similar to freelance marketplaces) to chose from. You could pick a less experienced/expensive caller for stuff that isn't really important and pick a more qualified/expensive caller for stuff that really matters. Callers could even specialise in certain industries.

Another solution could be to let users listen in on calls and provide live feedback to the caller but then most people would just opt to do the calls by themselves. Personally, I might still use such a service simply because I hate talking on the phone and am not good at sales.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#79

Post by conorpp »

Idea: A TENS Machine you can control with your phone

http://hackaday.com/2015/03/02/building-a-transcutaneous-ele...

TENS are currently kind of expensive and hard to use. People typically only use them when prescribed by a doctor and the devices are actually quite useful.

Many people get pain somehow or could use some sort of recreational relaxation, and a intuitive TENS machine for a smart phone could have a good market.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#80

Post by lazyjones »

srunni wrote: post #61
lazyjones wrote: post #30

Idea: a personal blood testing device for use at home (to test for many parameters including vitamin levels). It would be beneficial to be able to test at least monthly in order to avoid risks associated with various deficiencies, to detect possible diseases early, to monitor relevant parameters while on a diet or exercising etc.. Also, we'd like to keep our results confidential to avoid trouble with insurances and o…

What exactly is the advantage of a home device over Theranos, which has a Vitamin D3 test ( https://www.theranos.com/test-menu/test/82306 )? Data privacy?

Privacy, no need to mail tests around and wait for days, test price not dictated by 1 entity.
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