A pen-sized device which gives you cleaning advice. It has various chemical sensors built in to the tip and then displays a readout of what cleaning product to use.
Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
111–120 of 209 posts
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#112Kindle-ize all your books (in a DRM-free form, guaranteed accessible for 25 years). I want a service which is both legal and easy to use. Don't make me sit there and laboriously use some CueCat thing and make a huge bibliography.
If this means that someone has to cart them away and destroy them, I don't really care; actually it's kind of a benefit if you live in a small apartment. Most of them are not remarkable as far as physical form goes.
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#113Plastic bags that are not a pain to open.
Especially the ones in the produce section of the grocery.
Why aren't these dispensed like Kleenexes or something, where just pulling one out automatically opens the mouth of the next one?
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#114An alternative internet for file-sharers, using line-of-sight radio communications and other methods. There are enough people in many urban areas to make this work.
Perhaps implausible since you can already do most of that with VPNs on the regular internet, and hardware is expensive and obvious.
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#115Video Twitter. Post updates of 10 seconds or less. I have a feeling people are already working on this, though.
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#116Video Twitter. Post updates of 10 seconds or less. I have a feeling people are already working on this, though.
It already exists: 12seconds.tv ;)
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#117Since the newspapers are about to die, we need something to replace the government/corporate watchdog function of journalism. (sensational news, sports, classifieds, entertainment, and celebritard news have already migrated elsewhere, so let's not consider them.)
Some form of hyper-customizable newsletter service, providing updates on upcoming legislation or business deals. There are large firms who already subscribe to such things in the form of clipping services; this goes one level deeper.
The target market should be small business owners and people who have some interest in local politics.
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#118Set up inexpensive wireless cameras pointed at all street parking spots in the city. (doesn't have to be wireless cameras - pick any method or device that can reliably detect whether a parking spot is empty, cameras are the most flexible). Feed that data to a server, then dish it out to mobile devices (iPhone, etc.) combined with GPS to find the nearest street parking spot. Bonus points for intelligent behavior like…
On a related note, for the past year I've lived in a city with time-limited parking spaces on the street (i.e. "Two hour parking this block this day" or something similar). I would love to have something that detects when the meter maid comes by the first time and notifies me via sms so I can stay parked for the extra time between when I park and when the mm first comes by. I've racked up way too many $15 parking vio…
Only $15? Last parking ticket I got was for $85
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#119A junk gym, wherein all equipment would be gathered from a large junkyard, and could be housed within a cheap warehouse. Bench press could be a small bench with perhaps an axle and two tires on each side, or metal plates, all with weights marked. Various other car parts could be transformed into different exercise machines. Dumbbells would be various pieces of metal with marked weights.
Re: Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool
#120A search engine for your house. Tag every object that you care about with a tiny electronic label (could be an rfid chip). Some objects could come pre-tagged and added to your library the first time they cross your door. When you can't find something, find the object on your computer and start walking around the house with a wand that beeps louder as you get closer to the object. Would also work when you lose somethi…
Alternatively, just sell matching pairs of electronic tags (sticky) that both have buttons and beep when the other one is pressed.
Yep. I'd be sticking them on my kids shoes