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

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141–150 of 219 posts

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

#141
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…

What you want is nearly possible: Intel's current generation of Compute Sticks (CS325 and CS525) are the size of a USB stick but have 2 cores, 4GB of RAM, and 64 GB of disk space. Granted, you can't use it on the go but it is ultra portable.

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

#144

I would really like a (preferably cross-platform) solution for browsing the internet in a maximally silo-ed way. I think Firefox has been making some progress on this, but here's my ideal workflow: - I can set up any number of "site groups" that sites go into by default - "www.google.com" and "www.gmail.com" are in the "google" group, and those sites open in their own pseudo-profiles with their own history and own co…

Have you seen Qubes OS [0]? I have never used it, but the video demo [1] looks to have exactly what you want. You define different "security domains" and can open applications in each. Each domain has it's own data and can have multiple applications. Like you could download a file from your Google Drive (in your Google domain) and open it. But, that doesn't have any effect on other domains. And, those domains don't s…

I specifically meant in a browser. I'm certainly planning on looking into Qubes for an OS, but this is really more of a problem with data leaking within a browser, I don't think the OS has much say in that.

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

#146
post #68

In the age of Single Page Applications that work almost without any backend I am missing a BaaS - Backend as a Service, that would handle users (sign up, sign in, forgot password), their data (save some user generated data, load user generated data) and payment processing at the same time. Right now you could try to combine Kinvey with Stripe or Cognito with PayPal but it is not easy at all.

Back.io

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

#147

A peer to peer encrypted datastore that everyone can use to store their own metadata. Facebook knows what movies I like and interests I have, Spotify knows what songs I listen to, Amazon knows what books I like to read. All of these pieces of data are currently silo'd and controlled by private corporations many of which can do whatever they like with that data. I want a private encrypted datastore that does this inst…

Sounds like something you could build on top of Retroshare:

http://retroshare.net/

If you can export the meta data you want from Facebook et al then you should be able to find a way to share it in an encrypted peer-to-peer network.

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

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen Qubes OS [0]? I have never used it, but the video demo [1] looks to have exactly what you want. You define different "security domains" and can open applications in each. Each domain has it's own data and can have multiple applications. Like you could download a file from your Google Drive (in your Google domain) and open it. But, that doesn't have any effect on other domains. And, those domains don't s…

I specifically meant in a browser. I'm certainly planning on looking into Qubes for an OS, but this is really more of a problem with data leaking within a browser, I don't think the OS has much say in that.

Well, you'd ideally create different VMs for where you want barriers to data leak-age via cookies, history, session- + localstorage, and loading assets/scripts/etc from or making requests cross domain to 3rd parties.

But to your point, even within a given browser/VM/whatever that I intend on using for a single task. I'd still eventually end up slipping up and going to a site that should have been in a different group or logging into something that I wanted in an ephemeral group.

There is a real problem currently with data sharing on the web, where it's pretty much all or nothing. That'll still be true under the scheme you mention, just the goalpost will be moved to within whatever grouping scheme you pick.

It seems there isn't a good way to allow sites to do useful things like ajax to lots of services not on the same domain, while preventing the site provider from sharing your data with people you don't want to have it.

Ad- and tracker- blockers alleviate some of this by preventing certain undesired code from running and thus sharing data. But, user tracking is still possible (and used to actually happen by) using server-side logging and shipping info to 3rd parties.

Ultimately, we are relying on the people or organization behind a site to not share our data.

And, yes the tools could get a bit better with grouping/profiles. But, the vast majority of users won't use these tools. And, even if you use them, you have to be diligent in only opening certain sites in certain "groups" and/or managing which group you are logging into your account in.

So, features like this always will be niche unless there is a revolutionary shift in users' technical ability and attitude towards data protection / privacy.

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

#149

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.

Build your own: https://www.seeedstudio.com/RePhone-Kit-Create-p-2552.html#

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

#150
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really miss the laptops that had physical switches and the little sliding camera covers. I'd even settle for a good case that just covers/muffles all of that.

especially microphones are a problem - you can always sticky tape the camera but you can not easily reversibly incapacitate the microphone

Sure you can. Think out of the box. A small speaker that sticks over the microphone opening and constantly plays a recording with two voices overlaid, one reading the Gettysburg address and the other reading the declaration of independence, constitution and amendments. You would have to be shouting to be intelligible over top of that.
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