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Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#361

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

jessriedel wrote: post #305
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany theres this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiftung_Warentest Not great, but it does a decent job. I use Wirecutter a lot, too.

Yea. To a less effective extent, the US has Consumer Reports. But as you might agree, these organizations are quite clumsy and difficult to finance, their recommendations are one-size-fits-all, and they have operated pretty much the same for half a century. My Mom and I want different things out of a cell phone...

That sums it up pretty well.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#362

Post by timecube »

olalonde wrote: post #230

An ebook reader/protocol that would let me write or read comments left by other readers or the author(s). It would also be nice to be able chat with other people currently reading the book, especially for more technical books. Basically, make ebooks a bit more like MOOCs.

https://hypothes.is

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#363

Post by 4ad »

whamlastxmas wrote: post #341
4ad wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't believe this until I tried a dryer in the US. Here in Europe all the dryers I've seen wrinkle so bad they are unusable for anything but underwear. But in the US I've see several instances of these magical dryer that don't wrinkle clothes. I don't know what is the secret formula of american dryers and why can't they be found in Europe too.

I suspect the ones in the US use a lot more power/heat and actually get the clothes dry quickly. The downside is it's not great for the clothes long term and it's not very environmentally friendly.

Yes, that could be it. In the US a drying cycle took 30-45 minutes, while here with the dryers I used took 3-4 hours.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#364

Post by cpcallen »

4ad wrote: post #294
cm2187 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on people's needs. Transfering a 4GB file over wifi is pretty painful. Transfering a 50GB VM... forget about it.

Do you have 10GbE on your laptop? I only have gigabit ethernet on my laptop, and 802.11ac is theoretically faster . In real life I get about 80% of performance of wired ethernet, and this number will only go up in the future. Today, I am very happy with the 80% I get.

Curiously enough, that ratio is about the same as it was with my first laptop and 10baseT vs 802.11b...

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#365

Post by Eridrus »

crdb wrote: post #194

A way to use Mechanical Turk from outside the US. I've needed it with every client I ever worked with, and I need it now and know a dozen companies who do. CrowdFlower has a de facto monopoly on the outside of the US supply and charges an enormous premium for it - enough to turn off most of them. I certainly don't want to pay several thousand a month for the right to submit jobs, although I was ok with the 25% premiu…

Do you use custom software to interact with MTurk, or is there already some good software for interacting with it already? I have an image dataset I want classified and I've been putting it off for a while...

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#367

Post by bonoboTP »

tajen wrote: post #293
bonoboTP wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually tried to talk about those supposed advantages to non-tech people? Try it. Even many tech people don't care about that stuff and get annoyed if you start bringing up this kind of democracy, privacy etc. stuff. People care about features and convenience. Getting stuff done and being entertained. Seriously, talk to "normal people" and see for yourself.

When I created my current startup, all product managers and bankers told me it wouldn't work. That was 3 years ago and I'm still living off it. (Can't disclose the details of the product because I've disclosed things that could be linked to my partners previously with the same account) So I'd bet people have been bitten enough by Android, Facebook, LinkedIn and Windows 10 that they're ripe to understand that their OS…

What do you mean by "bitten enough"? Concretely. That there were newspaper articles about problems with their data protection, or about some data leaks? People don't care about this. It's irrelevant unless it impacts their workflow right there and then. Not in the abstract, not about ideals like democracy and ethics. They want to get work done.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#368

Post by gravypod »

dTal wrote: post #360
gravypod wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wish that thing wasn't so much money. It's definitely worth it, lots of engineering behind it. It's still just a large chunk of change.

Depends on your perspective. What brought me around was comparing it to an iPhone - similar price, yet it addresses pretty much every standard nerd complaint about the mobile ecosystem (keyboard, free software phone, standard Linux). I felt that not buying one would be simply hypocritical :)

That's how I feel. Then again, I'm a college student who can't afford one sadly.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#369

Post by draker »

Arete314 wrote: post #339

A great-looking, affordable, modular home kit. We did it 100 years ago with the Sears houses -- imagine what we could do nowadays with mass production and 3-d printing? Imagine if you could order a home kit and save half of what a traditional builder would charge you? How would that change opportunities for the middle class? In a similar, Maslow's-Hierarchy-of-Needs vein, it would be great to have an app that crowdso…

You likely wouldn't save half, I would guess ~20-30% provided you do the majority of the assembly. The era of Sears homes benefitted from lax or non-existent building code (especially for electrical/plumbing).

You may also have problems selling the house in the future being it was not built by a professional. In the near term you may be unable to get financing (if you do, it will likely be much higher than a standard mortgage rate) as there is no contract or guarantee the house will be completed; they are just paying for materials.

One of the biggest costs will be the property. You need a lot zoned for residential housing with available utilities (sewer, water, gas, electric) or alternatives (septic, well, propane, wind/solar).

The lot has to be surveyed, plans approved by the building commission and permits paid for.

The foundation plan will have to be drawn up by an engineer or architect because frost depths and local regulations vary. An owner could maybe pour a slab but likely couldn't do a basement on their own; either is best left to professionals.

Now the person has to assemble the house. You could get by doing much of the work alone but would likely need a helper for various stages throughout the project.

Most of the materials are cut but you still need some tools which would be another ~$2000+ expense; ladders, air compressor, nailers (framing, trim, roofing), drills.

When it comes to the roof, especially if a 2 story house you will have no choice other than hiring a crane to set the trusses. You'd likely have to hire a crew or at least have someone experienced working with you because this part is dangerous even for professionals. After the trusses are in place you could sheath/shingle the roof yourself.

Once the shell in complete you can move inside to finish the house. This is where your local laws will make the biggest difference in price. Some will allow homeowners to run plumbing and electrical themselves, others require all work be completed by a licensed professional.

After all the systems are installed (electrical, plumbing, gas, hvac) you can start finishing the house. This part is most conducive to the DIY process as it is all aesthetic. Drywall, flooring, trim, kitchens/baths.

TL;DR -- It would still cost a significant amount and require a huge amount of labor from both the owner/builder and professionals.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build?

#370

Post by psyc »

whamlastxmas wrote: post #329
psyc wrote: post #325

A large p2p network for arbitrary content that's encrypted and anonymous by default. If only people cared as much about freedom of speech as they do about watching movies and playing video games for free.

Anonymous how? It'd have to be built on top of a network that worked like the Onion network. At which point there'd be absolutely massive overhead, and you can already today just use the Onion network to torrent (though it's a pretty dick move to do so).

Anonymous means your ISP knows that you connected to this network, and neither they nor anybody else knows anything else.

Tor has a lot of weaknesses, but yes I'm just talking about a better Tor.

What I want is a network designed so that it's mathematically impossible for person, government, or LEO to regulate the transmission of any given bit from one place to another. The whole point would be to eliminate all the pontificating, moralizing, and witch-hunting currently still associated with transmitting bits.

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