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Ask HN: Idea Sunday

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171–180 of 182 posts

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#171

Post by cweiss »

A context-sensitive 'nag' app - Pops a simple notification (Growl-esque) when a window/URL comes to the foreground. Should support one-offs and repeating nags. Could be used to create habits as well as just follow up on the details.

Use cases:

- Remind me to CC someone when emailing someone else.

- Remind me that I need to include X information when opening a ticket on a web page.

- Remind me to use new technique X when using App Y.

- Remind me where I was when I closed this doc.

Bonus points for:

- Triggering off of typed text (like an email address or function name)

- Triggering off of a selected email subject/to/from

- "Do not show until" on one-offs (I dont need to do this until tomorrow morning)

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#172

Post by welder »

ishansharma wrote: post #16

A progress and time tracker like Habit RPG and Rescue Time that tracks number of hours spent towards a habit/skill. Basically, something that can track where you are on 10,000 hours rule. More automation is better!

I made this to track how long you were programming:

https://wakatime.com

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#173

Post by shadowfox »

Thriptic wrote: post #47

1. Roll your own Google Maps overlays / plugins for navigation of large facilities. I envision a system where you take a series of GPS readings using your phone around the facility (a few on each floor). You then scan a blueprint or floor map and are able to import the structural data via OCR. Finally you roughly correlate those GPS coordinates with spots on the floor map and the software uses them and the known stru…

A less organized version of #2 is available via http://www.reddit.com/r/scholar.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#174

Post by tysonp »

adam419 wrote: post #118

A way to motivate yourself to complete a task (writing a book, losing 10 lbs, etc) by saying I will put up X dollars towards this goal, and if I don't make it, I don't get it back and it gets donated to charity. The idea is that you need some sort of external consequence in order to really motivate yourself to do things outside of work, school, etc. What do you guys think?

http://www.stickk.com

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#175

Post by bennyhirsch »

syerram2 wrote: post #89
bennyhirsch wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting thought. How would this insurance plan work? monthly payment to Twitter for API insurance, and if their API goes down just a financial payout? This doesn't really make me whole again as my business is still impacted.

I don't think you'd pay Twitter - essentially - you would pay this "third" party service similar to any insurance company & when there is an incident - this service would investigate & offer you a payout. Just like any car/home insurance plan - where the payout is based on your coverage plan/incident. Then, based on the payout amount you can potentially give your customers a "discount" for that month. (in a SaaS B2B…

I like the ideal scenario. Are there multiple kinds of Twitter's API? where some are more reliable than others? And would the third party insurer have the ability to allow impacted clients of Twitter to access it? The financial payout makes the insurance a good hedge but the "ideal" scenario would ensure 100% up time.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#176

Post by syerram2 »

bennyhirsch wrote: post #175
syerram2 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you'd pay Twitter - essentially - you would pay this "third" party service similar to any insurance company & when there is an incident - this service would investigate & offer you a payout. Just like any car/home insurance plan - where the payout is based on your coverage plan/incident. Then, based on the payout amount you can potentially give your customers a "discount" for that month. (in a SaaS B2B…

I like the ideal scenario. Are there multiple kinds of Twitter's API? where some are more reliable than others? And would the third party insurer have the ability to allow impacted clients of Twitter to access it? The financial payout makes the insurance a good hedge but the "ideal" scenario would ensure 100% up time.

There are usually multiple levels of Twitter API access. (regular, white label, fire hose) The same can be applied to FB Ads API (reg, pmd, spmd) & many other APIs. In my experience, a lot of these APIs aren't as reliable and can sometimes cause huge financial loses. (Imagine if you use the FB Ads API to run an Ad campaign for a client - it goes out of sync & you sync back 10 mins later - in a matter of 10 mins - you could've spend $X) Since your relying on the networks API - they are not liable for any sync issues - you have to take that on as a liability on your end. Ideally, the third party would have premium level access all these APIs that you can leverage, but the big value add would be around the financial payout versus the premium level API access. (It would something like gnip.com with insurance)

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#177

Post by patmcc »

adam419 wrote: post #118

A way to motivate yourself to complete a task (writing a book, losing 10 lbs, etc) by saying I will put up X dollars towards this goal, and if I don't make it, I don't get it back and it gets donated to charity. The idea is that you need some sort of external consequence in order to really motivate yourself to do things outside of work, school, etc. What do you guys think?

https://www.beeminder.com has some similarities to this idea. You have goals that are tracked over time (lots of options on that) and if you derail they charge you an escalating amount. Money goes to them rather than charity, but it's still money lost to you.

I've been using it for several months and I'm quite happy with it. Been charged ~5 times for different goals, to the tune of maybe $40?

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#178

Post by tlogan »

cbg0 wrote: post #55
tlogan wrote: post #42

Email service for small business: something companies can use in combination with Box.com / Dropbox.com or other cloud storage instead of Google Apps. This is not really idea but more of our need: we started using more Box (and Dropbox) instead of Google Drive but we are stuck with email provided via Google Apps. There is no other service on the market as Google Apps email for small business. (I tried FastMail, Atmai…

> (I tried FastMail, Atmail, Rackspace, and none of them is a good alternative). Why not?

- interface is clunky

- no nice mobile app

- does not integrate with third-party systems (yea "not their problem" but they should do something to promote 3rd party system to integrate with them)

- spam filter is not so great (false positive is the problem - I'm ok having occasional spam in inbox, but email from wife linking some stuff I need order is really annoying.)

It is kinda hard to pinpoint the main reason...

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#179

Post by tlogan »

goofygrin wrote: post #67
tlogan wrote: post #42

Email service for small business: something companies can use in combination with Box.com / Dropbox.com or other cloud storage instead of Google Apps. This is not really idea but more of our need: we started using more Box (and Dropbox) instead of Google Drive but we are stuck with email provided via Google Apps. There is no other service on the market as Google Apps email for small business. (I tried FastMail, Atmai…

Office 365 is a good alternative if you use Windows.

Actually, Office 365 is currently the best alternative. But I kinda don't trust MS - this is startup idea.

Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday

#180

Post by solnyshok »

adam419 wrote: post #118

A way to motivate yourself to complete a task (writing a book, losing 10 lbs, etc) by saying I will put up X dollars towards this goal, and if I don't make it, I don't get it back and it gets donated to charity. The idea is that you need some sort of external consequence in order to really motivate yourself to do things outside of work, school, etc. What do you guys think?

Stickk.com?
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