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Ask HN: Idea Sunday

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#81

Post by roryokane »

forgotprevpass wrote: post #44
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…

Isn't this what beeminder.com does?

Yes, it is. (The specific punishment it uses is charging you money – more money each time you fail). Clickable link: https://www.beeminder.com/

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#82

Post by _mhr_ »

bequanna wrote: post #72

When an HN post is popular, we sometimes crash small websites/blogs. How about a URL Shortener that caches the page at the time the shortened URL is created? Then, when the short url is used, the service attempts to reach the site, if it fails, automatically inform user & redirect them to cached page. Or, the service can attempt to reach the page periodically (once/ couple minutes), if fails, redirect all users to ca…

Like a link shortener built on top of the Wayback Machine?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#83

Post by aspidistra »

DanBC wrote: post #39

Lower ligature risk USB charging cables. These would be used by mental health hospitals to allow (risk assessed) patient to charge their devices without introducing ligature risk. To go along with this: Bulk USB charger. Imagine a 20 port USB hub, but this has no USB connectivity. It only has USB power. It would be kept in a secure place in a mental health ward and would allow them to charge patient's devices. This w…

The anti-ligature cord I have seen works on the basis that as soon as too much force is applied, it breaks into pieces:

http://www.hoyles.com/acatalog/anti-ligature-sanipull-pull-c...

(scroll down for the examples)

Perhaps it would be possible to incorporate the USB charging wires inside that and still have it work?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#84

Post by zimbatm »

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.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#85

Post by throwaway_yy2Di »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #61
throwaway_yy2Di wrote: post #55

Offline navigation map for mobile. Small thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7171919 The entire OpenStreetMap dataset is 23 GiB with moderate compression. With some optimization/truncuation the whole world should fit comfortably on most phones. This is very useful, for the times you're lost with a slow connection, no connection, in a foreign country, or with roaming charges. Also it's a fun algorithm-he…

Do you mean navigation as in "routing" or just as in "viewable map"? If the latter, MapsWithMe does a good job of it already.

Um, never mind then.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/MapsWithMe

12 GB, impressive.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#86

Post by nostromo »

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."

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#87

Post by aspidistra »

bequanna wrote: post #72

When an HN post is popular, we sometimes crash small websites/blogs. How about a URL Shortener that caches the page at the time the shortened URL is created? Then, when the short url is used, the service attempts to reach the site, if it fails, automatically inform user & redirect them to cached page. Or, the service can attempt to reach the page periodically (once/ couple minutes), if fails, redirect all users to ca…

Something like http://archive.is ?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#88

Post by eitally »

DanBC wrote: post #77
aspidistra wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Chrome and the Google Toolbar already have spellcheckers ... ? Or do you mean something more like MS Word, which will correct misplaced letters and so on?

Yes, i mean a separate product that will integrate with whatever bit of office software you're using.

Google Drive (Docs/Slides/Sheets) already integrate Google's spellcheck.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#89

Post by Spittie »

Okay, a bunch of ideas. Probably nothing as good as my last one (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7542610), which was meh to begin with (but I'm happy to see that it sparkled a bit of interest).

#1) An anonymous blogging platform. A site that obviously doesn't log you, and that allow you to publish posts without having them attached to an username. Since many would like to somehow post under the same handle, but without having the post attached to an username, implement a system like tripcodes on 4chan (for anyone that's not familiar, you choose a random string, and then you get an "username" derivated from that string. No passwords, no login. As long as you're the only one that know the original string, you are the only one that can post under that "tripcode"). Problems: Money, it's hard to make profitable an anonymous site. Useless, it's not that hard to pick a random name and create a blog on wordpress.com, blogger or similar while using tor. Spam, a site where one can post anonymously without hassle is just asking for it.

#2) (totally inspired by Idea Sunday, but I've had this idea before for a while) a site to post ideas for a project, or a "I'd totally love if someone where to do this". Then implement a rating system or something similar, so that the most common/interesting ideas are always at the top. And a random button to get a random idea (ideas as service!). Call it "Jar for ideas" or similar :)

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#90

Post by roryokane »

bequanna wrote: post #72

When an HN post is popular, we sometimes crash small websites/blogs. How about a URL Shortener that caches the page at the time the shortened URL is created? Then, when the short url is used, the service attempts to reach the site, if it fails, automatically inform user & redirect them to cached page. Or, the service can attempt to reach the page periodically (once/ couple minutes), if fails, redirect all users to ca…

The free Coral CDN (http://www.coralcdn.org/) already does something like this. It caches the link the first time it is visited. But rather than redirecting you to the original page if it’s up, it always show its own mirror of the page (on its nyud.net domain).
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