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Products I Wish Existed

blog.eladgil.com

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Re: Products I Wish Existed

#201

Post by SamuelAdams »

AznHisoka wrote: post #175
SamuelAdams wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Global 2000 company IT needs. Splunk is a good example of this. I've worked at several public and private muti-billion dollar orgs, and they all rant and rave about how good Splunk is over whatever else they were using. So, build more splunks. Maybe something that aggregates monitoring multiple servers. A plug and play Status Dashboard for a company's internal apps. Like this: https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en…

If you knew the technologies/software that Fortune 2000 companies are spending the most on, you should build complementary products, or similar things that solve the same problems those products are solving?

I think there's value in both. Consider Duo. They took a common problem - authenticating servers and services with 2FA - and made it easy to add to existing infrastructure. There's not really a consumer use for this product, aside from maybe a VPN, but there's absolutely a huge demand for it in business.

I worked on many CRUD apps that had say 4 different groups of users. We made a library / system for determining what "level" a user is, based on what Active Directory roles the user is assigned. In the application, you can show or hide components based on this level. Making some sort of middle-ware that abstracts things for developers, so they don't have to think about things like AD, is a huge area of opportunity.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#202

Post by celticmusic »

munificent wrote: post #135
blackbrokkoli wrote: post #100

> 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…

On the point about package Theft.

This is going to be a bit ranty, so be warned...

I think people in general are kind of dumb in terms of useful vs shiny.

When I first heard about Amazon wanting to unlock your door to prevent theft, my immediate response was roughly: "It'll be a cold day in hell before I ever give control of my home access to any company".

I then went on to describe what I WOULD do, and that is purchase a box with a lock on it, chained to something. But here's the thing. There are so many low-tech ways to solve this problem.

- The aforementioned box with a child-safety lock on it and a plate on the inside lid that immediately disables the lock and springs the box open.

- An alcove in the side of your house that does essentially the same thing as the box, but looks more like a mail slot but for packages.

- The same thing as above, only in your garage door.

What these things all have in common is that they're low tech and effective, which isn't the new shiny. People are so goddamned dumb about this stuff that they would rather string up cameras everywhere, or give control of their home access to a company and allow strangers into their home. It blows my fucking mind.

And so many people haven't picked up on the fact that Amazon didn't go for the low tech solution because it doesn't lock you in. Your local chinese restaurant can just as readily use that box as Amazon can, whereas, if they haven't already started doing it, they're going to start giving other companies access to those doors and charging for it. They're going to start charging the grocery store delivery service to open that door for them, and that delivery service is going to pass that on to you. You're literally going to be paying amazon to open your goddamned door.

I feel like a sane person in a sea of crazy.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#203

Post by brixon »

jcadam wrote: post #136

> 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.

Take more normal stuff that exists and host it in FedRAMP and DOD IL4+ environments. I work for a DOD contractor and we can only use a few SaaS solutions, most are not secure enough. We have to host most stuff in-house and it's becoming harder to find software that we can either host in-house or is of a security level approved by the gov.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#204

Post by wDcBKgt66V8WDs »

oh_sigh wrote: post #186
blackbrokkoli wrote: post #100

> 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…

How do security cameras remove the "vibrancy of your young urban block" or "the sense of trust and community in your suburb"? Do the locks on your door accomplish the same incredible feat?

There are gentrifying city streets that I, a white male, will not walk down because the entire street is new construction with builder included Ring systems. I don't want to walk down a street and have literally 30 people get notifications on their phones that I'm there.

I can't imagine how the local PoC that are getting pushed back feel about that. Existing neighborhood watch networks already have people crying wolf at the smallest things. This is how the culture of the area dies.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#205

Post by take_a_breath »

GuB-42 wrote: post #190
take_a_breath wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If package theft is the problem, maybe the real solution is something closer to "Package Theft Insurance" than "Cloud-based Neighborhood Surveillance."

Package theft is not just about the money. If I buy something, I want that something, not my money back. Not mentioning that some of the things I receive may be "priceless" (understand: much more valuable than the price tag the insurance will use as a reference). Furthermore, insurance companies don't like to lose money, and they are likely the ones to encourage you to install a surveillance network. If anything, to…

==Not mentioning that some of the things I receive may be "priceless" (understand: much more valuable than the price tag the insurance will use as a reference).==

These are the types of deliveries that should require a signature for drop-off.

==Furthermore, insurance companies don't like to lose money, and they are likely the ones to encourage you to install a surveillance network.==

Profitability depends on the pricing strategy. If police departments don't act on these videos anyway (as stated prior), more of them would likely just act as a visual deterrent. No different than taping an old cell-phone to your front door.

==If anything, to make sure that you aren't stealing your own packages. ==

Fraud exists in every industry insurance companies serve.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#206

Post by gumby »

blackbrokkoli wrote: post #100

> 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…

Such a system could be designed in a privacy-preserving fashion which might be a customer-valued property. Even better if it could avoid the toxic crap fed by Nextdoor.

For example: I considered writing an app that verified that a caller did indeed work for the company they claimed (have a facial recognition digest, send to company, get a thumb up/down, then discard the local data on thumb up).

There’s nothing to stop me from remembering the faces of people I’ve met; what’s creepy is that the machines know essentially everybody’s face. But the opposite can be true to: we could make machines that discard everything inessential. There’s just no customer demand for that yet.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#207

Post by scarejunba »

blackbrokkoli wrote: post #148
scarejunba wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the normal result of this for people isn't that they have to go perform two minutes hate or praise Big Brother; it's that their packages don't get stolen. And the downside? Nothing. In fact, the expression of "I could be watched at any time but no one will" is a greater expression of trust. People live their lives very differently from the universe you're talking about. They enforce things through trust netwo…

Well, 300 million people are currently living under an administration whose election was most likely heavily influenced by mass data collection and analysis. Nobody cares if you and your friend read each others diaries or whatever. The problem is the metaphorical diary being owned by a global entity, along with two billion other diaries. Locked behind shoddy security and regarded as sellable for the right price at an…

It doesn't have to be sellable and it doesn't have to be shoddy security. Those don't come inherently with the product.

Nothing inherently wrong with mass data collection and analysis and nothing inherently wrong with an election being heavily influenced by that. If there were falsehoods advertised then the problem is the falsehoods.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#208

Post by otoburb »

Eldertech ideas would be a welcome addition to this list. Gil might say that Eldertech is a specific vertical under the RPA/NoCode category, but I'd argue that it's a large enough market unto itself that will become more relevant after 1 or 2 generational shifts.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#209

Post by coldtea »

triceratops wrote: post #181
coldtea wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> > get things shipped to work, use Amazon lockers, > These seem like reasonable solutions. Why not just do them? Because that's bending broken backwards to accept a broken neighbourhood and society. Where this stops? "Drive-by's are a thing, accept it and just were a bulletproof vest, it's a sensible solution"?

Needing to safeguard your possessions lest they get stolen is a sign of a broken society? By that yardstick, every human society past and present is broken. Leaving aside small sleepy towns, everyone locks up their house, car, bicycles, and other possessions, even the people complaining about stolen packages. That's not considered an unreasonable burden, but the minute unattended packages get taken off porches everyo…

>Needing to safeguard your possessions lest they get stolen is a sign of a broken society?

Yes. You are just probably too used to it to notice.

Decades before it didn't happen as often in places it does now (yes, it did happen in other places. No excuse for a neighbourhood to go bad though, e.g. through tons of meth/opioid addicted piling to the crime rate).

In nicer neighbourhoods it doesn't happen still.

In whole countries (like Japan) it's unthinkable.

>Leaving aside small sleepy towns, everyone locks up their house, car, bicycles, and other possessions, even the people complaining about stolen packages

In my place (like in places like Tokyo or Singapore today still) we used to sleep with open windows, and had no problems even living cars unlocked. So there's that.

Re: Products I Wish Existed

#210

Post by z3t4 »

blackbrokkoli wrote: post #100

> 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…

Its difficult to argue against safety. For some people there are no pros and cons, just black or white. 10% more safety vs 0% more safety. They dont want to do hard work to solve the problem. They just want short time fixes of the symptoms.
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