Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself. • Hacker News Board

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#121

Post by timf » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:28 PM UTC

rotw wrote: post #109

betageek wrote: post #89

Global Tabbing - I have a lot of windows open (as do you all i'm sure) and i'd really to be able to bundle them into one tabbed window in a Firefox stylee. Look at something like Coda (www.panic.com) and think instead of having all the apps built in to the app you just have a tabbed window container that you add app windows to that allows you to quickly switch from one to the other (eg. tabs for text editor,terminal,…

Try the tab feature of Fluxbox (www.fluxbox.org).

Yeah fluxbox is nice. I use (eight) virtual desktops to group things by what I'm doing logically. And then within each desktop tab things together when it works -- and automatically if it is the same program (very helpful for terminals etc.).

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#122

Post by rokhayakebe » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:29 PM UTC

LogicHoleFlaw wrote: post #44

tocomment wrote: post #36

Sell sunscreen in little packets (like ketchup packets) that can fit in your wallet. That way you'll never forget sunscreen. Should I patent* this? * I hate patents.

But what do you do when you have sunscreen on your burger and mayo on your back? I think this might backfire.

Well, you could have a weird color packet. Last I check all mayo packets were white.

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#123

Post by rokhayakebe » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:32 PM UTC

guruz wrote: post #69

An app that increases the number of hours a day has, e.g. makes time flow slower. That way I could accomplish more ;)

So far the closest thing to this would be to hire someone else.

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#124

Post by nailer » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:35 PM UTC

limmeau wrote: post #79

A database of MAC addresses of stolen equipment. Participants install a client which listens for the MAC addresses of all computers in the local network, alerting the participant that the new possessor of a stolen MacBook Pro 15", 2006 edition, two deep scratches on the lid, seems to be nearby. Of course, you'd have to find a way of guarding against malicious entries.

> Of course, you'd have to find a way of guarding against malicious entries.

The system is operated in conjunction with the police. Stolen systems are required to have a police report number.

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#125

Post by ConradHex » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:36 PM UTC

limmeau wrote: post #90

c1sc0 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty cool idea, but aren't you better off calling 911 or your local equivalent? What about liability issues? What about responsiveness? This thing needs to be fast and non-intrusive ! I was in a (non-life-threatening) accident last week and I can think of a couple of useful first-aid pointers lots of people overlook, like: * so what is the local emergency number? (based on GPS position) * "let's give him s…

Of course, the phone should also dial 911 (or 112 if you're in most parts of Europe). I like the idea of a decision tree. Big readable decision screens: "Does the person answer when spoken to? [YES NO]" etc.

This could be useful in the case of a mass emergency where 911 can't respond to everyone in a timely way. Also, when you don't have a cell signal. Or after the zombie apocalypse.

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#126

Post by jjs » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:41 PM UTC

mdasen wrote: post #99

So, many cities have bus systems and those bus systems now-a-days are usually GPS equipped for several reasons (notably that a central office can monitor the system and that the busses can announce ADA-compliant stop messages based on location without the driver being involved). I'd love to have something on my phone that would tell me where the next bus was on a cool Google Map (or other) and an estimated time to ar…

If you trust your local transit authority's posted timetables, then you could gather GPS coordinates for bus stops and write an app that correlates the two with your current location and time.

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#127

Post by Timothee » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:50 PM UTC

divia wrote: post #46

Timothee wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of like a mint.com of internet activities? I like the idea. I'm not sure how easy it would be to be exhaustive. I can see how you could add the regular places you hang out at. Casual comments would be harder to track but a bookmarklet could help there. But isn't that kind of like a YC startup? I forgot the name though but I remember the website being a place where you could follow people's comments on blogs. Is…

I think you mean http://www.backtype.com/ .

Yes I was thinking about this one. Thanks!

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#128

Post by mattdennewitz » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:53 PM UTC

aneesh wrote: post #28

mattdennewitz wrote: post #10

fwiw, perfectlygoodideas.com is available right now. perhaps someone could use the uclassify api to classify & cluster similar ideas & recommend partnerships. no idea how well it would work, but it might be worth a an hour or two on a weekend to find out. im just thinking out loud here :)

I really like that idea. domain name taken :) -- i presume you didn't want to do this since you didn't buy it yourself. If I get to it this weekend, I'll submit to HN when I have something ready. Thanks for mentioning uclassify -- I hadn't heard of it.

awesome! put it to good use :)

ive pared down my list of "want to dos" to a single choice, but i definitely want to use uclassify. if i hadn't buckled down, i'd have a half-working django prototype in ~/src/ right now that i'd revisit to burn some time on every 3 months.

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#129

Post by dirtyaura » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 4:53 PM UTC

mdasen wrote: post #99

So, many cities have bus systems and those bus systems now-a-days are usually GPS equipped for several reasons (notably that a central office can monitor the system and that the busses can announce ADA-compliant stop messages based on location without the driver being involved). I'd love to have something on my phone that would tell me where the next bus was on a cool Google Map (or other) and an estimated time to ar…

A live public transport map for Helsinki, Finland: http://transport.wspgroup.fi/hklkartta/

It's a trial, there are most (all?) trams and a few buses.

Re: Post a possibly good app idea that you have no intention of doing yourself.

#130

Post by jjs » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 5:00 PM UTC

imgabe wrote: post #105

A visual dictionary/wiki for finding the names of obscure things. Users could submit definitions and pictures. They could also tag pictures with the names of related things so you could search based on objects that are commonly found near or work with the thing you're looking for. The picture would help you confirm you found the right thing. For example, suppose you didn't know what the little plastic thing on the en…

Visual dictionaries (including online ones) already exist, although according to one ( http://visual.merriam-webster.com/ ), the aglet is actually called a "tag".