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Re: Share your ideas

#51

Post by trafficlight »

Timothee wrote: post #50
bufordtwain wrote: post #38

A realistic yet inexpensive robot hand that can curl its fingers in response to a remote wearer (wearing a glove). Would enable physical handshakes over the internet. And probably other things as well, people being as creative as they are...

That would be perfect for when somebody contacts you by email about millions of dollars to share. Once there's a real physical handshake, they would have no way to back out of that deal! Too much honor at stake!

Or if they do back out, you can stab them in the face across the internet. Provided you can get them to put a knife the robot hand first.

http://www.bash.org/?4281

Re: Share your ideas

#52

Post by trafficlight »

hanskuder wrote: post #49

A small device embedded in a car's dashboard that monitors events such as: - Anti-lock brakes or traction control kicking in (slippery road conditions) - Drastic changes in temperature/humidity (potential for ice, fog, or whatever) - Current speed (traffic flow) and uploads this data, along with GPS coordinates, to a central server via cell phone data link or WiMax or something. Aggregate data about traffic speed and…

This is a cool idea.

Along the same car lines: I'd like a small computer in my car that would record all of it's vital information. Fuel trims, coolant temperature, air flow, plus things like speed and rpms. The computer would track trends to let you know of any problems that may come up or to make sure you are getting the best performance. The computer would also sync up wirelessly, either Wifi or a 3G network.

It might also be interesting to have a website that compared your stats to others of the same make/model.

I'm not sure the technical requirements for such a thing, but obviously the car companies would have to be in on it.

Re: Share your ideas

#53

Post by trafficlight »

callmeed wrote: post #43

1. An URL shortening service for online stores. Online stores embed some JS into their store templates. Every page that displays a product now has an option to "share this product" (sort of like the UserVoice/GetSatisfaction "Feedback" tab). Clicking the tab/button gives the visitor a short URL for the product and options to share on Twitter/Facebook. Charge based on number of products. I actually think this could wo…

Number 2 would be awesome.

I've been wishing there was a CompactFlash to hard drive adapter for a while now.

Re: Share your ideas

#54

Post by lukifer »

chaosprophet wrote: post #24
vijayr wrote: post #19

something to reduce the waiting time while making customer service calls. may be an iphone app. I specify the service (PSEG), time I would be available (4 pm to 9pm), expiry date (3 days). It would call the damn service on my behalf, and connect me once a human is on the other side, without disrupting any of the other phone tasks. no clue how it is technically possible, or if something like this already exists.

Since the iphone is not advanced enough to support background processes, the only way it would be possible would be through a server side process. Interesting idea, and definitely worth a try I guess.

> Since the iphone is not advanced enough to support background processes

To be pedantic, the OS fully supports this. Apple simply doesn't allow third-party processes to do so (yet). Might be doable using push notifications, though.

Re: Share your ideas

#55

Post by lukifer »

A tablet-like touchscreen computer designed specifically for use in the kitchen, designed to mount on a fridge or cabinet. Inventories fridge and pantry, possibly with the aid of a barcode reader or camera to read UPCs. Connects via Wi-Fi to a recipe database, and attempts to find recipes based on fridge inventory, with full health statistics for each meal. (Oh, and a media player wouldn't hurt either.)

If the UI/UX was polished right, I think it could go very mainstream.

Re: Share your ideas

#56

Post by derefr »

GavinB wrote: post #31

A version of social discussion site optimized for continuous discussion around a topic. One of my biggest complaints about HN is that it is very reactionary and every discussion ends in 24-48 hours. One of the reasons we have less "Hacker News" is that we've exhausted superficial discussions of a lot of topics and don't have a way to go more in-depth. I have some ideas about how to implement this but I don't want to…

I've thought about this one too. I think I can write less than an essay, though: the solution is basically tagging in reverse. Comment threads aren't attached to individual links, but rather to tags (thus there is a 1:1 correspondence between "tag" and "discussion"; the words can be used interchangeably.) Discussions keep a list at the top of all the articles that go into them. The score of a link isn't an independent variable, but rather the sum of the "relevance" scores for each link-tag pair (that is, the weights of the graph edges.)

Re: Share your ideas

#58

Post by joshu »

derefr wrote: post #56
GavinB wrote: post #31

A version of social discussion site optimized for continuous discussion around a topic. One of my biggest complaints about HN is that it is very reactionary and every discussion ends in 24-48 hours. One of the reasons we have less "Hacker News" is that we've exhausted superficial discussions of a lot of topics and don't have a way to go more in-depth. I have some ideas about how to implement this but I don't want to…

I've thought about this one too. I think I can write less than an essay, though: the solution is basically tagging in reverse. Comment threads aren't attached to individual links, but rather to tags (thus there is a 1:1 correspondence between "tag" and "discussion"; the words can be used interchangeably.) Discussions keep a list at the top of all the articles that go into them. The score of a link isn't an independen…

so, an IRC channel?

Re: Share your ideas

#59

Post by derefr »

joshu wrote: post #58
derefr wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought about this one too. I think I can write less than an essay, though: the solution is basically tagging in reverse. Comment threads aren't attached to individual links, but rather to tags (thus there is a 1:1 correspondence between "tag" and "discussion"; the words can be used interchangeably.) Discussions keep a list at the top of all the articles that go into them. The score of a link isn't an independen…

so, an IRC channel?

Not quite—it's about half-way in between a Reddit-like model and an IRC server. Unlike an IRC server, everything someone "says" (links to) must be cross-posted to all the threads/channels they think it's applicable to, instead of hidden within the context of the conversation being had at the moment. Unlike an IRC server, people can vote on the articles' relevances to each conversation. And unlike an IRC server, the articles with the highest aggregate relevances show up on a "front page." It would take about the same amount of work to make an IRC service daemon that managed voting and gave a "front page" listing as it would to extend a social-news/bookmarking service with tag-link-pair voting and move discussions to tags. Plus, I think the IRC culture would be less willing to accept the resulting "conversation bleed" than the social-news/bookmarking culture.
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