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Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

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351–360 of 709 posts

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#351
After reading recent HN post [1], I’ve started to work on my own implementation of open source fast file transfer client-server application. It’s in a very early stage now so it’s nothing to show yet, but I’ll be very glad to announce it when MVP will be ready. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21898072

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#352

I'm growing the freshest lettuce, iron-rich kale, and a lot of other leafy greens! While in college (CS & Math), I got heavily interested in growing food in the most efficient and healthiest way possible. I was a dreamer when I started so I thought more of how to grow 'earthly' produce on Mars, but then I realized that my own planet Earth is so massively underserved. It's basically like this- I mastered growing leafy…

This is awesome man, exactly what piqued my interest!

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#353
I'm re-implementing Chrome extensions for Electron. The existing implementations are specifically for dev tools extensions, and/or so aren't working for the extensions we want in our Electron app. I'm finding working through the various inter-process communication models (and resulting implementations) really interesting.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#354

I'm helping to build a scalable system for delivering high value and life saving medical supplies to hard to reach places via autonomous aircraft. The system is currently operating in Rwanda and Ghana, and aggressively expanding over the next couple years. Specifically, I spend a lot of time thinking about and writing embedded software. The aircraft is fully autonomous and needs to be able to fly home safely even aft…

Are you working on Zipline [1] ? [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEbRVNxL44c

Pro Tip: Search " + github" frequently gets a real name, and if not current job, then look on linkedin.

The answer to your question is: Yes.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#355

We're trying to improve the security of the Internet by replacing Certificate Authorities with a distributed root of trust. DNS is currently centralized and controlled by a few organizations at the top of the hierarchy (namely ICANN) and easily censored by governments. Trust in HTTPS is delegated by CAs, but security follows a one of many model, where only one CA out of thousands needs to be compromised in order for…

I just read your blog post. While I love the idea, I'm curious if you've considered scenarios where private keys from a pair of registered TLDs on your blockchain are lost or stolen.

With CAs and domain registrars it's possible to verify your identity through other means if you just forgot your password to access their database directly.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#356
I am trying to create a metasearch engine for apparel in India. Apparel shopping is different than commodity shopping and requires lots of browsing before selecting your final product to buy. A user will know about a limited number of vendors and will search for products only on them. A central web/app is needed to give results from the long tail of vendors. This product can be extended to furniture and lifestyle domain too.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#357
I am working on a natural language parser using symbolic AI (no machine learning...). It's working a bit like a multi-pass parser for programming languages, but with the ability to handle multiple ambiguous meanings of a sentence at the same time. An English sentence is translated into an intermediate representation. Or rather, depending on the complexity, hundreds or thousands of intermediate representations for the same sentence. Then there will be several passes to eliminate interpretations, until it finds the most probable one. It's tightly integrated with a database for human knowledge to evaluate the different interpretations. The goal is that you can add data to and query from the database using English language. I started working on it 3 years ago, and there is still a long way to go. I have done most of the infrastructure (including a high-level programming language for pattern recognition that can seamlessly handle asynchronous database accesses) and I am close to completing the first pass....

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#358
post #43

Dental treatments, besides being very expensive, are often (up to 28%) unnecessary. This happens because no-one keeps dentists in check. I am trying to make dental treatment and diagnosis reviews easy, cheap, reliable and fast.

Hi there, Thank you for sharing this very interesting idea, I would love to see it come to fruition.

I’m actually a dental student myself, and it saddens me that a significant chunk of dentists take advantage of the of the self-policing inherent to the field. It generates generalized distrust and resentment among the rest of dentists, in addition to being simply unfair.

As far as I know, there are no diagnosis codes in dentistry, just treatment codes. If it were, I imagine it could be possible to prevent this problem by randomly and routinely validating patients charts.

On a side note, it is a budding dream of mine to build a start up related to dentistry, particularly in the realm of dental informatics, but not limited to it. I was wondering if you would be willing to chat with me about your experience sometime. It sounds fascinating.

Thanks again.

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#359

I'm building an AI agent to help develop foreign language skills through realtime (spoken) conversations. It's funny how we're all working from different definitions of the word "problem" - I'm certainly not changing the world with medical supplies for developing countries, renewable energy, payment systems and so on. But it's something I'm really passionate about, and I'd be over the moon if I came anywhere close to…

I think it’s a great idea. I first started learning Dutch with Michel Thomas audio course which is very much about being in a simulated small language class, and you need to say sentences when prompted by the “teacher”. Later in, I learned almost all the Dutch I needed to pass the citizenship language exam just by conversing with friends and family in Dutch, gradually building up fluency. Let me know if you need a beta tester, email is davedx@gmail.com

Re: Ask HN: What interesting problems are you working on?

#360
I am working on a blogging platform that does not need any backend (in terms of an app listening for http connections). The overall architecture is an web app that is talking to WebDAV and then pages get build by a static site generator. I use getpelican.com but you can use Hugo or Jekyll based on your preference.
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