Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Idea Sunday

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 453 posts

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#91

Post by bnt »

Spittie wrote: post #89

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, bu…

Regarding 2) Weekend hacker (http://www.weekendhacker.net) used to be a cool little email list with side projects people needed help with. Maybe expand your idea to something like WH?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#92

Post by thinkalone »

netcan wrote: post #19

Fix podcasts. I was helping someone set up her android phone for podcasts and noticed how problematic the whole process is. First, the android apps aren't very good. More problematic is the process of getting a feed into it. Sometimes searching by name works. Often it doesn't. Getting from podcast's website to the app is a problem. Discovery is also quite poor.

Throwing in a mention for PodKicker[1], since you mentioned searching/discovery. The UI needs a lot of work, but it is nice to have the search engine built-in (they claim an index of 250,000), instead of trying to grab RSS links from a podcast's homepage. The search itself is even available as a separate app[2].

[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.podkicker

[2]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ait.podsearch

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#94

Post by Spittie »

dang wrote: post #60

We like experiments and this is a good one that goes to HN's core. Also, "Idea Sunday" is a great name. I don't see why there shouldn't be a thread like this every Sunday, as long as the quality is good. If there aren't enough new good ideas, we can reduce the frequency. Consider yourselves challenged! If it is to become a regular thing, we'll ask the whoishiring account to post them. That's the only account allowed…

What I'd love to see is some kind of "meta" HN where all the ask HN, show HN and similar threads are posted. For two reasons: 1) those "meta" threads might gather to a different audience and 2) many people are more interested in normal threads, and many are interested in the meta.

One could just go ahead and create a site for that, but obviously it wouldn't have the same traction as HN, and 99% of the value of HN is in the people posting here.

I do realize that it will not get implemented, but maybe consider this :) Maybe instead of creating a new section of the site, make those meta thread listen under an url like https://news.ycombinator.com/meta, so that one interested could see the latest threads without much effort.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#96

Post by tectonic »

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 like this.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#97

Post by ondrasej »

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…

This is definitely not a short-term solution, and it might not be practical even in mid-term, but wireless charging sounds like a perfect solution for this kind of environments.

The hospital rooms could have special "charging" spots on the floor/build into the furniture or just a hole in the wall. The patients would charge their devices simply by placing them on the charging spot/shelf. Now there are no potentially dangerous cables or plugs, and all charging can be done without devices leaving the patients' reach, reducing the risk of theft at the same time.

There's already an international standard for wireless charging. The only problem is that it works only with a couple of the current phones, and it's not very likely to appear in low-cost low-end devices that the patients of the mental hospitals most likely to use. But if it ever gets a wider adoption, this would solve a lot of problems...

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#98

Post by gsteinb88 »

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…

Re: reducing ligature risk. Would having a rigid cable (i.e. hard/unbendable metal shell) that's short be a reasonable solution? Similar to the indiegogo project posted in a sister comment, but could be slightly longer and cheaper to manufacture.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#99

Post by bnt »

jtokoph wrote: post #49

I would suggest posting this every Thursday or Friday. Give people something fun to work on over the weekend.

Doing something properly requires time for preparation. Posting ideas on Sunday is actually a good idea as people have 5-6 days to calm down from the rush of adrenaline (OMG this idea is THE BEST IDEA EVER!), get some research done, prepare the time (some folks have family and need to micromanage their time) and finally do some work next Sunday.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#100

Post by netcan »

nostromo wrote: post #86
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."

I think I may have gotten the KKK idea from freakonomics podcast, might have been this episode. The Oprah things sounds familiar too.
Post reply on HN