A meetings clock that counts UP the price of a meeting based on the the salaries of the people in the room.
Ha! I had this exact same idea when I was sitting in one too many meetings.
It was more an idea for the "snark" category though.
Ask HN: Idea Sunday
81–90 of 523 posts
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#82Ok I'll go first. It's an "Imgur for audio files". Now there's times when you record an audio and want to share it. What do you do? Uhh,, umm.... Yup. exactly. There's no reliable, easy-to-use app to share audio files (not music). So, this is a web/mobile app for easily uploading and sharing audio files, and playing them. I don't have a full plan laid out, but I'll work on it for sure. (If you'd like to be notified w…
Dropbox share link
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#83[X-post from the previous Idea Sunday thread that didn't make it to the front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7616132 ] Idea: a new way to purchase and set up a fish tank. Currently, you have two options: a) Buy everything separately - tank, filter, heater, plants, fish. You have to find out whether your fish and plants are compatible and your tank is big enough for what you want etc. You have to figure ou…
Is the market size worth it? How will you reach the every-day regular-John-Smith families who aren't going to be keeping an eye out for a service like this?
You sell the software to already existing fish suppliers.
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#84Ok I'll go first. It's an "Imgur for audio files". Now there's times when you record an audio and want to share it. What do you do? Uhh,, umm.... Yup. exactly. There's no reliable, easy-to-use app to share audio files (not music). So, this is a web/mobile app for easily uploading and sharing audio files, and playing them. I don't have a full plan laid out, but I'll work on it for sure. (If you'd like to be notified w…
ytmnd.com
And the blast-from-the-past award goes to you!
Sean sends his regards :)
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#85An IDE for ideas. Intellisense for thoughts.
For those of you who develop using powerful IDEs (such as Visual Studio, Eclipse, ...), it's hard to imagine going back to a basic notepad.
Most people, most of the time, don't write software. They exchange ideas, express wishes, share their feelings. And to do that, they use tools that are not more powerful than a basic notepad.
This forces them to be explicit, to explain what they mean, to repeat ideas, to think linearly.
I believe it's time for the average person to have access to tools that are just as expressive (if not more) than the ones developers have been using for years. It's time to break the speech metaphor and develop a completely new way to communicate. It's time for a UI-driven, computer-assisted, general-purpose language.
What I suggest we build is an IDE for ideas. Intellisense for thoughts.
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#86Airbnb, but paid with labor. Many travelers are short on cash but would love to trade services for a night's stay. Me, I would be happy to host a guest for free provided they did my dishes or laundry. Many homeowners, especially empty-nesters, have homes with plenty of space that they still have to maintain. This would provide benefits to both parties.
hm, this could have some legal / human rights issues potentially.
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#87A twitter/imageboard system where it takes 2 weeks for messages to appear once posted. The idea being that messages still relevant in 2 weeks are important and interesting ones.
This is an interesting idea. However, it's not always the case that timeless messages are more important than messages that are important during a specific timeframe.
In addition, most people nowadays expect things to have instant feedback. How would you address that concern?
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#88As a part of my venture into user interface and user experience design (http://www.caseyash.com), I created a few concepts. It would be excellent if I could implement them, however technical individuals are rare in Tennessee.
Below are the concepts:
Pack - A travel planning tool that integrates weather information to stay alert on what to pack.
RQRES - A real estate search that uses a collaborative algorithm to quickly find a home. The application pulls 10 homes; user rates them and then are shown results that are highly relevant.
Pattern - A more difficult game of Simon. Instead of four tiles, there are nine. The game also features ways to manipulate the game board.
Wonder - Hyper-local network.
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#89Here's one I've had for a little while: Say you're playing a sport with your friends. You're yelling at each other.. commands likes, "pass the ball here". Or if you're out playing paintball and trying to coordinate an attack - your sound, and your opponent's sound are both pretty important. As far as I know, such use of voice does not exist in any game. Player's voice does not really interact with the environment. So…
It is odd that sound plays very little part in actual gameplay other than rhythm style games.
There was "Enemy Zero" for Sega Saturn. I remember being amazed by the pre-rendered scenes, and mostly enjoying the game. But it wasn't great and even in that game sound wasn't super important part of gameplay.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_Zero
Having said all that my ideas for games that use sound as a key part of play are a bit, uhm, not good.
== Cat Detective ==
You play the part of a cat who is also a detective. You are investigating crimes. You use analogue sticks to generate meows and purrs - this is a cat language that you use to question suspects and witnesses. How well you ask the question governs what kind of i formation you get back.
Re: Ask HN: Idea Sunday
#90Sell anything in a snap.
1. Find something you want to sell
2. Snap a picture (or a short video)
3. Tap "list for sale"
4. Let mechanical turk + computer vision identify the object
5. Let the system pick a value (based on sales history, location, demand)
6. Contact the seller when a serious buyer made a deposit
7. Proceed to demo + sale
I shouldn't have to write down any spec when selling something as ubiquitous as an Xbox 360. I shouldn't have to go through 100 different ways to describe an iPhone 4S when looking to buy one.
Delegating item identification to a third party is how you reduce the friction of listing items for sale and improve semantics.
And to think that this system only applies to selling items is naive. The possibilities are endless.