Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#151

Post by ejs » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 3:53 PM UTC

albahk wrote: post #68

Something I thought of when I was studying engineering at Uni (I dropped out) was to fit a small device onto the accelerator cable of a car that can apply varying degrees of tension to the pedal. This device would be moderated by the computer in the car to "condition" the driver to adopt a more fuel-efficient driving style. If you drive in a non-fuel efficient manner, there would be more "drag" on the pedal, thus req…

This is being implemented, http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=130108

From the article: The [Nissan] Eco Pedal is designed to provide a "counter push-back control mechanism" if it senses "excess pressure" on the accelerator. In other words, it does not like lead foots. The premise of this new technology, which Nissan says is a "world first," is to help the driver get an immediate sense that he or she "could be using more fuel than required."

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#152

Post by oakmac » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 3:57 PM UTC

yan wrote: post #147

oakmac wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't know this for sure, but I would hope those sorts of comments/attitudes would be voted down. A modification on the idea would be to only allow a site with people who have a net worth greater than a certain amount or who are in certain positions of responsibility or power (like CEOs of companies with a market cap greater than 10 million). You could extend this for any classification system: people with doctorat…

What your advocating is exactly the opposite of the beautiful community that TED promotes and nurtures. Advocating an IQ or net worth barrier of entry for discussion will filter discussion by, in my opinion, by all the wrong values. While I'm not saying everyone in a top position of a profitable company has nothing new to say, there are people who are just hard-working, potentially well-connected and knew how to hack…

I think you may have misunderstood my idea.

I'm not advocating one site with a meritocracy filter; have as many as you'd like. One for Math PhDs, Chemistry PhDs, just having a bachelor's degree, CEO's, car salesmen, etc. The barrier to entry filter just assures that the community members share experience or ability, not just interest. The extent to which you wanted to quantify their experience or ability is up to you.

I see TED as the ultimate meritocracy-based conference. TED's official website is pretty fluffy about who gets invited to speak, but the reality is that everyone who gets on stage has done something amazing. If you're some college freshmen with an amazing idea to change the world but you haven't implemented it, you're not going to get invited to TED. Great ideas are a dime a dozen; implementing a great idea is what's amazing.

When I referenced "those sorts of comments/attitudes would be voted down" I was not referring to your post. I was referring to the sort of post you mentioned: the "mutual masturbation" posts. I apologize for any confusion.

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#153

Post by tocomment » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 4:04 PM UTC

damienkatz wrote: post #44

Wifi debugging tool. Something that can tell me why the hell my signal drops 30 seconds every 10 minutes, etc.

I've noticed that too. Changing the channel helped somewhat. I figured it was some weird interference going on; portable phone, leaky microwave?

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#154

Post by tocomment » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 4:09 PM UTC

Room temperature superconductors

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#155

Post by axod » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 4:09 PM UTC

Mystalic wrote: post #29

Dilpil wrote: post #16

One click install java IDE and compiler. One click install C IDE and compiler. One click install Erlange IDE and compiler. And so on and so forth.

It can be complicated for a non-techie to even set up an apache server on their computer. We'd probably have a couple more good programmers in this world just by breaking down that barrier.

"We'd probably have a couple more good programmers in this world just by breaking down that barrier."

Couple more mediocre/bad programmers.

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#156

Post by tocomment » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 4:12 PM UTC

A Headless HTML rendering engine: http://www.holovaty.com/blog/archive/2008/05/02/0136

So we can automate screen scraping of sites with a lot of javascript on headless servers, VPS's etc. It should be easy if I knew what I was doing (just remove the GUI part from Firefox, or webkit, no?)

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#157

Post by axod » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 4:15 PM UTC

oakmac wrote: post #78

ggrot wrote: post #71

A solution between owning and renting. I don't want to purchase a home because the cost is too high and I have no interest in being "invested" into the real estate market. However, renting has limitations imposed by the owner: - pet/smoking/# residents preferences - can't realistically make significant improvements to the property

Are you suggesting that you want to have your cake and eat it too? Who's going to take the risk for the rewards you want?

In the UK, (I don't know if such things exist elsewhere, I'd guess they do), you can go for shared ownership, Buy half the house, rent the other half, things like that.

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#158

Post by axod » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 4:17 PM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #8

keltecp11 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not solar power chargers?

That might technically relieve the "bulk" problem, but only by substituting a "surface area" problem in many cases. Better solar cells are also on the eternal wish list, though. Not that they haven't been slowly improving, and not that they aren't already good enough for many things.

I thought I remembered reading about a new LCD touchscreen, coming to an iPod/iPhone soon perhaps, which is also a solar cell... That would simply rock.

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#159

Post by oakmac » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 4:24 PM UTC

indiejade wrote: post #137

Elimination of Realtors as a profession! Real estate is something of an amateur gig where the "transaction costs" have been ridiculously inflated through obfuscation http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/nar.htm

Realty's value as a profession is not completely without merit. Just because the true nature of the job has been obfuscated doesn't mean it should be eliminated.

Re: Ask YC/HN: What's a problem you'd like to see someone solve?

#160

Post by alexandros » Wed, Jan 21, 2009, 4:32 PM UTC

ggrot wrote: post #67

End all fraud. The online version of this is, Spam, Phishing, Spyware, identity theft, etc. Offline: con artists, political bribery, tax evasion, ponzi schemes. I don't believe eliminating all crime is possible, as I can always whack my neighbor over the head with a stick and steal his wallet, but alot of crimes are only possible because the victim has a lack of good information. This is fraud. Eliminate or drastical…

Crime helps point out design flaws (case in point: Email) and can be therefore be thought as a force fostering or even forcing innovation.

Not defending crime, just pointing out that eliminationg crime is not a pure win-win situation.