Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

news.ycombinator.com

1–10 of 219 posts

Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#1
This could be just about anything, from "project A but written in language B", "an API or library for real world activity C", "a unified solution for both D and E", all the way to "An open source version of proprietary solution Z", etc.

Go wild, dream big. You never know, someone might respond with a link to such a project that already exists... or decide to start one!

Re: Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#2
1 device with multiple Airplay points that can output to multiple amplified speakers. Price would determine how many Airplay points / speakers exist (1 device for 4 speakers, 1 device for 8, etc...) Bonus points if the device has the amplifiers built into it.

In my house, I have multiple Airport Expresses for the sole purpose of connecting them to different channels on an amplifier to to stream different audio sources to different parts of the house. So 1 point exists for the speakers in the kitchen; 1 for the speakers in the dining room; 1 for the patio, etc...

So the wife could be prepping dinner in the kitchen, listening to 1 music stream and I can be on the patio prepping the brick pizza oven listening to another stream (we have vastly different music tastes)

So I've always wanted 1 device with x endpoints that I could configure each and connect to specific speakers.

Then again, with the routers being put on "hold" - this may be moot and I might have to switch to a Creston or something else.

Re: Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#3
Source-specific IP Multicast support on the open internet, which probably needs some serious magic to make it feasible on core routers, if it is solvable at all.

Some shabby server in someone's basement could stream data to millions. CDNs would no longer be needed.

Re: Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#4
You know how the iPod is now this tiny little clip on chip with earphones? I want a phone like that. No app, no "smart this or that" - just a phone, with an contact list. The thing can to voice calls and SMS ONLY. It's a real cellular phone, but without all the crap, and a monthly use cost of under $20. Make that, and you'll see a revolution.

Re: Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#5
post #3

Source-specific IP Multicast support on the open internet, which probably needs some serious magic to make it feasible on core routers, if it is solvable at all. Some shabby server in someone's basement could stream data to millions. CDNs would no longer be needed.

That sounds a lot like taking the D out of DDoS.

Isn't this how multicast IP television works anyways? With IGMP and PIM?

Re: Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#6

You know how the iPod is now this tiny little clip on chip with earphones? I want a phone like that. No app, no "smart this or that" - just a phone, with an contact list. The thing can to voice calls and SMS ONLY. It's a real cellular phone, but without all the crap, and a monthly use cost of under $20. Make that, and you'll see a revolution.

like a burner t-mobile flip phone from Walgreens?

Re: Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#7
I want to slot my phone into a dock connected to three high resolution monitors and a keyboard/mouse and be able to do development work.

Essentially, when it's in my hand it's in Phone Mode, when it's in the dock it's in Desktop PC mode.

We are getting there with tablets. You can do this with the Surface for example thanks to Display Link technology. I just want the device to be phone sized, around 5.5" or so with a good battery life when operating as a phone, a decent processor, a decent amount of Ram (8GB at least), and about 500GB of SSD storage.

With a Surface or equivalent tablet, you still need to carry around a bag with you to carry it in which is a pain. If that could be small enough to fit in your pocket that would be ideal!

Re: Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#8
A solution for game assets building.

Ideally it would be possible to build all assets (maps, models, textures, binaries) in a game from source files to the format that's distributed to people.

Unfortunately due to the build times for certain things like maps it's not feasible to rebuild everything before every release. Combined with the fact that the files are relatively large means that we can't store everything in one git repository.

I'd be very grateful if anyone knows a solution to this.

Re: Ask HN: What “missing” technical solution(s) do you wish existed?

#9
post #7

I want to slot my phone into a dock connected to three high resolution monitors and a keyboard/mouse and be able to do development work. Essentially, when it's in my hand it's in Phone Mode, when it's in the dock it's in Desktop PC mode. We are getting there with tablets. You can do this with the Surface for example thanks to Display Link technology. I just want the device to be phone sized , around 5.5" or so with a…

I don't want VC funding, I want Microsoft to go in this direction. Their phone OS was great, I generally like their tablets, and most desktop software works already on Windows. If anyone from Microsoft is listening I want them to do this.
Post reply on HN