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Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

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Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#11

Post by scrollaway »

Content and patch distribution for video games: Data integrity, progressive downloads, file-level patching, compression, encryption, and platform/version branching.

It's quite mind-boggling; nobody is really doing it on an industry-scale level. Every video game developer has their own way, all of which have their own problems.

It is a very hard problem. Blizzard actually came up with a very good system, but it's not in a state where it can be commercialized or open sourced.

I actually think whoever comes up with a system which solves these problems in a clean and consistent way will be sitting on a little revolution for content distribution.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#12

Post by tacostakohashi »

takinola wrote: post #10

As a SaaS provider, one of the key indicators of a customer at risk of churn is the presence of another competitor in their account. A service which notifies you once an account signs up for a competing service would be immensely valuable in helping to target retention activities.

As a SaaS provider, would you be ok with having your competitors find out when one of their customers signs up with you?

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#13

Post by contingencies »

Normally I live in China, and rarely eat western breakfast.

Recently I returned to Australia to spend some Christmas time with my extended family.

A few mornings ago, I put some real bread I cut from a sourdough loaf in a toaster. Due to its irregular size, when it popped it didn't pop out completely, resulting in a sort of "toaster is too hot to insert fingers, toast is too hot to hold, toast is ready, find metallic implement to insert in to mains-powered device to extract toast" problem.

I mentally facepalmed.

Someone should really fix toasters.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#14

Post by dvdhnt »

mason240 wrote: post #5
dvdhnt wrote: post #2

Semi-related... I work in wellness and healthcare. I don't know about you, but I despise filling out the same forms over and over again when seeing new healthcare providers. I'd love to start a service modeled after granular smartphone permissions where (a) I check in at a new office (scan a code, they scan my code, beacon, something like that) (b) the office then requests x, y, and z information (c) a push is sent t…

The military is terrible for this. You are constantly filling out forms that amount to a half page of your basic information, followed by a couple of text fields that form is actually for.

> The military is terrible for this.

Agreed. Especially considering they have an ENTIRE department devoted to personnel along with an office at every single unit level above platoon.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#15

Post by chipperyman573 »

scrollaway wrote: post #11

Content and patch distribution for video games: Data integrity, progressive downloads, file-level patching, compression, encryption, and platform/version branching. It's quite mind-boggling; nobody is really doing it on an industry-scale level. Every video game developer has their own way, all of which have their own problems. It is a very hard problem. Blizzard actually came up with a very good system, but it's not…

What's wrong with Valve's?

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#16

Post by mcheshier »

scrollaway wrote: post #11

Content and patch distribution for video games: Data integrity, progressive downloads, file-level patching, compression, encryption, and platform/version branching. It's quite mind-boggling; nobody is really doing it on an industry-scale level. Every video game developer has their own way, all of which have their own problems. It is a very hard problem. Blizzard actually came up with a very good system, but it's not…

Didn't Steam already solve this?

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#17

Post by zackbloom »

contingencies wrote: post #13

Normally I live in China, and rarely eat western breakfast. Recently I returned to Australia to spend some Christmas time with my extended family. A few mornings ago, I put some real bread I cut from a sourdough loaf in a toaster. Due to its irregular size, when it popped it didn't pop out completely, resulting in a sort of "toaster is too hot to insert fingers, toast is too hot to hold, toast is ready, find metallic…

Isn't a toaster oven a solution to this?

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#18

Post by no_protocol »

contingencies wrote: post #13

Normally I live in China, and rarely eat western breakfast. Recently I returned to Australia to spend some Christmas time with my extended family. A few mornings ago, I put some real bread I cut from a sourdough loaf in a toaster. Due to its irregular size, when it popped it didn't pop out completely, resulting in a sort of "toaster is too hot to insert fingers, toast is too hot to hold, toast is ready, find metallic…

I find using wood toaster tongs to be quite sufficient.

Mine are nothing so fancy as this image I could find online, but you get the idea.

A pair of popsicle sticks secured together at one end would be fine.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81HzpTQ93XL.jpg

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#19

Post by snomad »

bigmattystyles wrote: post #3

Not in my industry but I'm part of an HOA and I swear 2/3 of what the people paid to administer it do seems streamlinable/automatable with lots of opportunity for making money along the way. Every time I deal with them I proclaim to myself, STARTUP! Then I forget about it..

Have HOA and totally agree. So many key functions that could be improved: submit work orders and report security incidents online, pay dues and special assessments electronically, review association budget, monthly news and events, etc.

Problem is these who would benefit (residents) are often disconnected from those against it (the employees). You would need boards that really are sold on the benefit.

Re: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup?

#20

Post by ericcumbee »

contingencies wrote: post #13

Normally I live in China, and rarely eat western breakfast. Recently I returned to Australia to spend some Christmas time with my extended family. A few mornings ago, I put some real bread I cut from a sourdough loaf in a toaster. Due to its irregular size, when it popped it didn't pop out completely, resulting in a sort of "toaster is too hot to insert fingers, toast is too hot to hold, toast is ready, find metallic…

They did its called the toaster oven.
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