Look at useparagon.com for #9
Products I Wish Existed
151–160 of 434 posts
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#152For social networks, Manyverse is an interesting new player. It's p2p with no central server, and the app is open source.
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#153> 4. ADT 2.0: Digital neighborhood watch. That this is not only a market, but a "wish" which seems to get traction even here on HN confirms to me that the old joke "1984 is not a manual" is more relevant than ever, and scarily not only in regards to the usual suspects, corporate and nation states, but people themselves. Can anyone explain to me why anyone would advocate a profit-driven, systematic eradication of soul…
I agree with your overall point. However: > low-impact black-swan events like serial packet thiefs? I live in Seattle. Package theft is a white swan event here. Everyone I know has had packages stolen. Most people are forced to come up with some strategy to deal with it: get things shipped to work, use Amazon lockers, get a camera on your porch and make sure to bring the package inside as soon as it shows up, etc. Yo…
Do US postal services offer a shipping option where you need to sign for the parcel? I'd try and opt for something like that, if possible, rather than trusting the courier to leave the package on my doorstep.
What I'm saying is, the problem isn't people stealing your packages. It's that you leave valuable property outside. Perhaps a good analogy is locking your door.
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#154> 7. Software-only defense contractor. Yea, I keep thinking of doing this but there's so much red tape in starting a defense company, it's seriously daunting. I'm a software developer in the defense industry, btw. > ...be focused on a more SaaS-centric software-driven model... Actually, I think the time may finally be right for something like this in my industry.
Checkout Rebellion Defense https://rebelliondefense.com/
Bah, of course someone is already trying it :)
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#155+100 "I would love to see the following analysis: A map of repetitious tasks, spreadsheets, and manual data extraction by function in the Fortune 500. Budget breakdown of current software spend, by function, by line, in the Fortune 500. A view of what Accenture, CapGemini, and Deloitte keep building over and over for large enterprises. Undoubtedly a subset of these custom consulting projects can be turned into SaaS s…
FWIW, robotic process automation (RPC) is very hot these days, and it's always a bespoke service - unless two companies happen to use the exact same software, and follow the exact same business logic.
The RPC consultants, often titled AI / ML consultants, make money hand over fist traveling from site to site and implementing some automatic procedures.
Same with chat bots. The past 2-3 years there's been an explosion in demand for chat bots, and these often take entire teams to implement and train. Again, lots of bespoke products.
Who gets these gigs largely depends on networking and sales. The big companies (Accenture, etc.) are rolling in this, since they also have a good picture of company software from previous projects.
The accounting industry is also desperate to get in on the ML revolution. I've lost count on how many times I've been contacted by recruiters in that space, who want magic ML pixie dust.
The market is there, but it can be difficult to break into as an outsider, or smaller player - if you're planning in building some one-size fits all product. Best plan, IMO, would be to focus on some niche part of the process, and become the best at just that - and then pitch to the big companies that deal with actual F500 clients.
There are of course exceptions, but a 5 man startup vs Accenture offering the same base product, Accenture is gonna walk away with the gig 99 out of 100 times.
(But with that said, a lot of the startups that focus on these spaces, seem to be ex-consultants from said big consulting firms. Logical enough, as they have both seen the problems first hand, and built networks within the industry.)
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#156> 4. ADT 2.0: Digital neighborhood watch. That this is not only a market, but a "wish" which seems to get traction even here on HN confirms to me that the old joke "1984 is not a manual" is more relevant than ever, and scarily not only in regards to the usual suspects, corporate and nation states, but people themselves. Can anyone explain to me why anyone would advocate a profit-driven, systematic eradication of soul…
I agree with your overall point. However: > low-impact black-swan events like serial packet thiefs? I live in Seattle. Package theft is a white swan event here. Everyone I know has had packages stolen. Most people are forced to come up with some strategy to deal with it: get things shipped to work, use Amazon lockers, get a camera on your porch and make sure to bring the package inside as soon as it shows up, etc. Yo…
> I literally have video of the dude grabbing shit off my porch, but can do nothing about it.
In that case, what is the security system really doing for you?
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#157Regarding the remote work, companies have their own limitations like timezone requirements/tax complications in providing full-time jobs to the global workforce.
We at Remote Leaf [1], helping people land remote jobs by curating the jobs that are relevant to them. We filter jobs based on the user's location and skills.
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#158> 4. ADT 2.0: Digital neighborhood watch. That this is not only a market, but a "wish" which seems to get traction even here on HN confirms to me that the old joke "1984 is not a manual" is more relevant than ever, and scarily not only in regards to the usual suspects, corporate and nation states, but people themselves. Can anyone explain to me why anyone would advocate a profit-driven, systematic eradication of soul…
I played with this idea some with a startup called Perch, which intended to turn old smartphones into security cameras or modern webcams. While some users were interested in deterring crime, others just like to watch webcams. Sometimes weird and noteworthy stuff happens, though I found not nearly often enough. Also low-cost application specific cameras like wyze emerged that were easier to setup than old phones. Anyh…
> I played with this idea some with a startup called Perch, which intended to turn old smartphones into security cameras or modern webcams.
> Petty crimes are currently very interesting to people to catch in this sort of age of online shaming. This is evidenced by the stolen package bomb videos.
I hope you do not take this as a personal attack, but I consider this line of thinking...well, fucked up. Just because an idea is remotely viable in an economic sense it seems to be instantly within the Overton window of serious consideration.
> However, it is still possible to do terrible things in broad daylight and get away with it.
Like manipulating the self-assigned greatest democracy in the world as a foreign actor via, you guessed it, mass surveillance and analysis. I would rather prevent that instead of pleasing some digital mop and peoples craving for "vengeance" on criminals, but oh well.
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#159#4 is a no-go in my book. Things like Ring, Nextdoor, and Facebook already exist. Nextdoor and Facebook are riddled with inanity, from political rants to dumb jokes to hoaxes to common scams to law enforcement rants. I don't want more information from my neighbors -- 99% of it is garbage. I want highly-filtered information. Basically, a neighborhood watch but with an aggressive spam filter. Right now I glance at the…
The "SaaS-ification" of security cameras should also worry us. Ring — not its customers — controls the videos taken with their cameras, creating a video surveillance network that the police can access without needing a warrant. They've partnered with 400 police forces to give them access to that data [1]. Although they claim to let customers deny police requests for footage, their terms of service allow them to hand…
Things like Ring are really worrying because it's Amazon. Fear is the motivator in security camera sales. With Ring you've got a parent company whose CEO owns a national news organization(Washington Post) and a large media company(Amazon). Amazon is so aggressively pursuing being in every part of your life that the fear motivator is going to be really easy to manipulate.
Re: Products I Wish Existed
#160>Nuclear is a strong potential solution for climate change but is politically unpopular. Could something be done to address this
No. There are no political champions for nuclear, and most environmentalists are actively hostile to it. And to be fair, starting reinvestment in nuclear infrastructure in light of how inexpensive natural gas is, would be expensive. Nuclear also doesn't play well with solar and wind, while natural gas is a perfect complement to renewables.