Engaging lay science journalism that doesn't suck.
What about The Economist's science section? Or do you mean something a bit more lowbrow, or with more multimedia?
Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
191–200 of 231 posts
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#192A practical, robust method for separating essential complexity from accidental complexity in software engineering. Trevor Blackwell has written about something like this: http://tlb.org/busywork.html
The world is definitely in need of more programming tools in general that reduce cognitive load while keeping details accessible. Personally, I think that's going to come in the form of a programming language that's completely different from everything that's come before, something that's more than just lines of plain text. Perhaps something along the lines of StarLogo TNG, which lets you write games by fitting puzzle pieces together, but much more polished and general-purpose:
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#1931) ubiquitous public transport. 2) Safe bicycling in most cities. 3) Better treatment for chronic pain
It might not be much safer than regular bikes, but electric bicycles are great for expanding the non-car commuting range of the average suburbanite. I ride a scooter-style ebike that has enough cargo room for a few bags of groceries and looks more like a Vespa scooter than a 10-speed. The headlights, tail lights, and turn signals make me feel safer than my mountain bike. Of course, cars don't pay much attention to mopeds or motorcycles either, so it's probably just a psychological safety net.
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because of legacy hardware. Getting loads of locks re-cored is expensive.
There's probably thousands of undeveloped patents preventing innovation too. I have a naive idea of how to get around the legacy locks problem without re-coring but I'm sure patents would stop any development.
Not sure why I was downvoted. A 2 minute search yields just these patents:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7069755.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5701828.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5974367.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5999095.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6325429.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6867685.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6483424.html
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#195Safe liposuction. (Going to be a few self-righteous "just eat less and exercise" replies to this one by metabolically advantaged folks who haven't got the slightest clue how difficult it can be to lose weight when your body doesn't want to cooperate.) Alternatively, put some rats on Seth Roberts's set-point diet (aka Shangri-La diet) and figure out the path of action, then develop it in pill form for those of us wher…
moral blindness may be a reason why people aren't looking as hard in this direction
Working for a medical instrument manufacturer, I think a more likely reason is that a stand-alone machine that processes large volumes of human body fluids with no/little daily maintenance while maintaining precision is either going to be so difficult or expensive that the profitability disappears.
It's a great idea, but would probably have to cost more than about $20/test to be viable largely due to its having to be maintenance free. But if it could be made cheap enough I think you're right. It would be like what the VCR did to the pr0n industry.
If you're in the Twin Cities area and ever decide to do a startup in this area get back to me :-)
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#196How about improving medical forms. I recently signed up with a new doctor and literally filled out 5 pages, which all asked for the same information. Name, address, social sec. #, insurance, signature etc... I felt like I was back in 1980. SO frustrating!
This should be a very simple iPad app...
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#197A better way to communicate between cars -- honking a horn seems kind of stone age at this point.
I often wish I had a huge LED board on top of my car, so I could send messages to other drivers: * "Your allowed to drive 120km/h here, your doing 95!" * "The right lane is free you know!" (replace with left lane in rhd countries ;) ) etc...
I'd like to have the same for my bicycle, y/telling something like "you're supposed to give me 1 meter, not 30 centimeters".
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#198figure out how content is stored in brains, so we could skip learning and implement/initialize knowledge directly
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#199Keys. Why, in 2010, do I still have 10 metal keys in my pocket. Why?
maybe somebody could make some shape-shifting general purpose key, locked/jailed down to only take the shapes matching the locks in your possession. Would need some very small actuators -- I guess, it's doable.
Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve?
#200Solar powered 3D printers that use the carbon in CO2 to make stuff.
That sounds crazy, but why not actually? Trees do it. CO2->O2+C where the C is used for say nanotube production sounds pretty awesome.
...or, why not some kind of Lego (?) nano bricks that can easily be ordered/reordered?