HN: Name a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve
92 comments
Here's a problem that I just realized bothers me way too much. I despise the SEO industry. It is polluting the web with useless content that shadows actually useful one. Places like odesk/freelancer.com are bombarded with requests for "article writers" to churn out "articles" with a level of writing lower than the average highschooler. Massive amounts of fake facebook accounts with fake friends, fake twitter followers, fake +1's, and fake links are manufactured every day.
How do you make it unprofitable for SEO's to game the system?
/rant
How do you make it unprofitable for SEO's to game the system?
/rant
Maybe the new semantic Google update will solve your problem: http://www.seoconsult.com/seo-news/google/algorithm-update-g...
An alternative to incarceration or a better experience while incarcerated. Something more humane, less costly or better yet, an alternative to the current prison system that has a net positive effect on society and the economy. Apparently, there's a lot of talent locked up - what a waste: http://www.quora.com/Prisons/What-are-some-aspects-of-incarc...
It's astounding to me that the US prison system is such a snake pit. The inmates rule everything but the surface. It should be all but impossible for murder and other major crimes to happen in prison; we already know where the criminals are!
This article contains descriptions of brutal crimes. It is a fascinating, disturbing, read.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/health/dealing-with-dement...)
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/health/dealing-with-dement...)
Substantially increased battery life. Seems to be one of the major factors holding back energy solutions and a true explosion of mobile device use.
Finding users.
I'm constantly brainstorming ideas, and rapidly prototyping them, but without being able to find the early adopters to begin the feedback loop, the ideas die. What's the best way to find early adopters for my ideas? I'm based in Australia, so meetup groups tend to be very lean around specific interests/technology, but geolocation shouldn't be relevant to internet startups.
I'm constantly brainstorming ideas, and rapidly prototyping them, but without being able to find the early adopters to begin the feedback loop, the ideas die. What's the best way to find early adopters for my ideas? I'm based in Australia, so meetup groups tend to be very lean around specific interests/technology, but geolocation shouldn't be relevant to internet startups.
http://betabait.com/ sends their newsletter subscribers (early adopters) a daily email with a new beta invite to an internet startup or app. I am a very busy college student but it's the only email I actually skim through every day. I can't speak to the effectiveness completely since I don't have a smartphone and only use the web apps but, it seems to be built around a community of willing participants. Hope that helps.
Search - I'm even going to pay for it. Search for the damn terms I enter into a search field. The "app" may at most have a CSS style sheet, 1993 look. No Javascript, no images. Give me options to limit my search to date ranges, domains, urls, languages, etc.
HTTPS basic auth. No cookies, no tracking, no country detection, no redirect to see what I clicked, no guessing unless I add a flag in the search field.
There was a company once that provided something like this for "free". Then they turned to SHIT.
HTTPS basic auth. No cookies, no tracking, no country detection, no redirect to see what I clicked, no guessing unless I add a flag in the search field.
There was a company once that provided something like this for "free". Then they turned to SHIT.
It's not EVERYTHING you want, but I started using http://duckduckgo.com/ about a week ago and it's probably the closest you're going to get to a useful search engine nowadays. Full keyboard usage and zero tracking. Simple and clean. I'm enjoying it thus far.
Love ddg.
As you become accustomed to using their bang codes, you'll find yourself trying/guessing a new bang code because "that's what it should be," and sometimes it works. That's how I discovered my pinboard tags are behind !pb
As you become accustomed to using their bang codes, you'll find yourself trying/guessing a new bang code because "that's what it should be," and sometimes it works. That's how I discovered my pinboard tags are behind !pb
Anonymous seems to like it also: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/03/14/duckduckgo-the-defa...
Fluid/continuous education. For the first two weeks of my junior year of high school, I was learning the same version of the scientific method in 3 classes. I learned it again in two different classes my senior year of high school.
I would like to see education that is based on a knowledge map so that a person never needs to learn something that they already know.
I would like to see education that is based on a knowledge map so that a person never needs to learn something that they already know.
my opinion on re-learning - there were multiple subjects that I took in college which went over same content that I had learned in High School. I actually enjoyed re-learning them because the content was presented in a different way, so it made more sense to me that it had before.
It is one thing to learn something once, but when I learn some concept over and over again, I tend to discover something new about it or related to it. Even small concepts can have greater meaning to it that I did not saw at first.
I have similar experience with movies - Dark Knight - I watched it 4 times and each time I find it more fascinating because I saw new details in the movie.
I have similar experience with movies - Dark Knight - I watched it 4 times and each time I find it more fascinating because I saw new details in the movie.
In North Korea, there are oppressed people who are brutally killed in actual concentration camps. They are taught by the government that the American people are evil. Is there a possible strategy for the U.S. to free the North Korean people from the North Korean regime without killing most of them?
I would like to see our health care costs go down by an open source "health care menu" system being created - where people can enter, for example, "gastroscopy" into a field - tell where they got it, how long it took, how much it cost, and a theory as to WHY...and then an opportunity for other people to input their information on the healthcare costs...create an open market so lower cost providers will steal business from more expensive ones...and so we can actually LOOK at why a 30-minute procedure can POSSIBLY cost $3,000.
Make television and entertainment an on demand system - I don't need Lifetime, but want Longhorn Network and can't get it. I should be able to subscribe to channels one by one. Similarly, why doesn't someone with a track record of making quality entertainment (Mike Schur, Dan Harmon, Tina Fey) bypass networks and middlemen, make a show, sell ads on it, and deliver it through the internet
Introduce coding to public school curriculum at the middle school level. Advanced middle school students can handle the basic concepts, and honestly, they won't be any more disinterested than they are in poorly taught foreign languages. It may even intrigue some who otherwise would not have gotten the exposure. Also, I love what Codeacademy is doing, but it's hard to delete all your work and start from scratch (which I find I need if there has been a long layoff between my coursework.) Also, there aren't enough exercises/concept. For me, I need 5-7 exercises to drill a concept into my memory, I get that it's new, but they should consider adding more exercises at each stage as they grow. I'd also love to see a brick and mortar Code Academy that offers some form of certification after taking classes and passing tests (a more traditional education approach). For those of us who have only learned in the traditional classroom for 20+ years, I think some would rather pay to attend a school like that.
When I'm in the grocery store, looking for an obscure item (cheese cloth is the one that made me think of this). Build me a mobile app to search and get info on where in the store the item is.
It is, of course, to the advantage of the store that you don't go directly to the one item you want. A lot of research goes into how customers wander through stores, and how to sell to them in that time.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=5702...
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1293.pdf
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/19990402c.asp
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=5702...
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1293.pdf
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/19990402c.asp
This is a particularly difficult problem, one that I actually happen to be involved with at the moment.
The short answer is that crowdsourcing is thus far ineffective, as there is as yet no suitable reward for tracking down where every single obscure product is in each store (and it will vary from store to store, even within the same chains). This means it's up to each individual chain to create their own item locator system.
Walmart is currently working on this.
The short answer is that crowdsourcing is thus far ineffective, as there is as yet no suitable reward for tracking down where every single obscure product is in each store (and it will vary from store to store, even within the same chains). This means it's up to each individual chain to create their own item locator system.
Walmart is currently working on this.
Curious: are you involved with Walmart in the creation of the problem?
If so, are you guys using that RFID system that was being used for keeping tabs on stock levels at all times?
If so, are you guys using that RFID system that was being used for keeping tabs on stock levels at all times?
I'm in the department that handles the layout of the store's major hardware fixtures. Not quite merchandise-level, but some of our projects overlap projects that deal with this from time to time.
I know we've researched the RFID solution extensively, and last I heard it would require installation of high-powered RFID readers throughout all the stores, as well as buy-in from all our suppliers to include RFID in their product packaging, so it wasn't quite viable.
I think currently the plan is to "number" all the aisles (departments other than grocery get letter-number labels) and then have the store employees scan in all the items for each aisle. Last time I was in Store 100 in Bentonville they seemed to be piloting that.
I know we've researched the RFID solution extensively, and last I heard it would require installation of high-powered RFID readers throughout all the stores, as well as buy-in from all our suppliers to include RFID in their product packaging, so it wasn't quite viable.
I think currently the plan is to "number" all the aisles (departments other than grocery get letter-number labels) and then have the store employees scan in all the items for each aisle. Last time I was in Store 100 in Bentonville they seemed to be piloting that.
How about asking one of the store employees lurking about?
(Your idea is indeed pretty cool. It would be nice if your smartphone walked you up to the item you are looking for. But I don't see a positive cost/benefit factor. It will be needed only on rare occasions.)
I can see this being useful in large libraries too.
(Your idea is indeed pretty cool. It would be nice if your smartphone walked you up to the item you are looking for. But I don't see a positive cost/benefit factor. It will be needed only on rare occasions.)
I can see this being useful in large libraries too.
Some of the positive cost/benefit factors will arise as a result of the data necessary to create such a system.
By knowing where every single item is in a store, you can create efficient routes through that store to make your shopping trip only as long as is necessary.
Also, in some big-box stores an employee may not be familiar with items outside of their assigned area. They may only be able to direct you to the general vicinity, or have to call in some additional help.
By knowing where every single item is in a store, you can create efficient routes through that store to make your shopping trip only as long as is necessary.
Also, in some big-box stores an employee may not be familiar with items outside of their assigned area. They may only be able to direct you to the general vicinity, or have to call in some additional help.
Solving a problem is often about finding the right approach / fudging the problem into something you can solve. And there is actually a disruptive solution to this: online shopping. Amazon has cheese cloth.
The problem is that it was a spur of the moment decision to try to make ricotta, needed it then and there. Amazon solves this if you regularly need cheese cloth, but not if you have never heard of it and all of sudden find out you need it that night.
This is a problem we've assessed a bit at http://foodtree.com - there are some efforts in this space but none seem to have the penetration to make it useful at scale. Our approach is to help grocers "spread their great story" as an incentive to start mapping their inventory, both in the "where it's from/who made it and how" perspective and the "what store near me has OBSCUREITEM available right now" perspective, which is your problem but only to store level. Getting to that level right now is tough with food retail chains, but they're moving in the right direction.
So that we don't have to wait for them, we're trying to enable crowd-sourcing as well; "I saw OBSCUREITEM here in case you're looking for it in town".
Again, very aware this is only your problem at the store's front door, but maybe it's nice to know someone's working on it? :)
So that we don't have to wait for them, we're trying to enable crowd-sourcing as well; "I saw OBSCUREITEM here in case you're looking for it in town".
Again, very aware this is only your problem at the store's front door, but maybe it's nice to know someone's working on it? :)
But they won't deliver it before dinner today.
Music genome project for food. There should be a restaurant genome project where restaraunts and food types are linked in a way similar to how the music genome projects works. That data should be available through an API, which others can incorporate in to their foodie apps.
Speaking of foodie apps, I travel a lot, and while apps like AroundMe are great, they have limited utility when I'm in central Georgia, driving south, and want to know what's along the way. Do I stop now, or do I keep driving to find something better than Chick-fil-a? What I'd really like is an app that knows my route, and the time of day, and recommends restaurants based on where I'll be at lunch/dinner time (give or take an hour).
I'd put considerable effort in to providing feedback to an app that provides that level of utility, even at the expense of loss of privacy. I don't really care if an app knows my dining preferences. I have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
Speaking of foodie apps, I travel a lot, and while apps like AroundMe are great, they have limited utility when I'm in central Georgia, driving south, and want to know what's along the way. Do I stop now, or do I keep driving to find something better than Chick-fil-a? What I'd really like is an app that knows my route, and the time of day, and recommends restaurants based on where I'll be at lunch/dinner time (give or take an hour).
I'd put considerable effort in to providing feedback to an app that provides that level of utility, even at the expense of loss of privacy. I don't really care if an app knows my dining preferences. I have nothing to lose and a lot to gain.
To piggy back off the restaurant genome project idea, it would be great if food allergies and restrictions were incorporated as well. My girlfriend is gluten free so we don't often eat out (or explore) because most restaurants can't accommodate her needs.
I would like short url encoding to be an RFC, and every browser implement it in the browser, encoding and decoding the url locally without having to query some random .ly site.
In fact, if short url encoding were an RFC, you could compress all links on your site to short, and the browser would expand them for display.
Other uses would probably reveal themselves.
In fact, if short url encoding were an RFC, you could compress all links on your site to short, and the browser would expand them for display.
Other uses would probably reveal themselves.
Free will, longer life span etc... :)
I would like an Android application that delays all notifications by a set amount a time.
So if I want to do an hour of work I could set it to an hour and it wouldn't notify me at all. After the hour is up, all the notifications appear as they normally would.
I would like an Android application that delays all notifications by a set amount a time.
So if I want to do an hour of work I could set it to an hour and it wouldn't notify me at all. After the hour is up, all the notifications appear as they normally would.
I'd like to see a home server. A central computer hooked to everything shouldn't be a pipedream. It should be hooked to the media center, handheld devices, thermostat and security.
Why shouldn't cable tv go to my computer, which then controls my dvr for the home, and also incoming video/video/audio calls through the media venter, or handhelds, as preferences determine.
Stream a desktop or any media to any hardware you have or buy with a login and password.
(The deaf community already uses third party set top boxes for video calls. I bet there's room for a platform agnostic solution there alone. Maybe a good open source project for someone.)
Why shouldn't cable tv go to my computer, which then controls my dvr for the home, and also incoming video/video/audio calls through the media venter, or handhelds, as preferences determine.
Stream a desktop or any media to any hardware you have or buy with a login and password.
(The deaf community already uses third party set top boxes for video calls. I bet there's room for a platform agnostic solution there alone. Maybe a good open source project for someone.)
1.) The average computer users fear of their own computer. It hurts me on a deep level (Deeper than just seeing a business opportunity.) to see the bicycle for the mind being marginalized in it's potential by people trying to sell things. (Microsoft, IBM, and co. Have probably done permanent damage to humanity by spreading the meme that computer knowledge is for 'nerds'. Whatever those are.) As we move further into the 21st century, and computers become ever more ubiquitous, it seems that computer knowledge becomes ever more scarce. (I'd have to run the numbers to be sure, but while the number of computer literate people has objectively gone up, I would think that the percentage of people with any sort of understanding deeper than the surface of point and click has gone down.)
I'm not even sure if it's a solvable problem. But if someone did it would be a great service to humanity.
2.) I'm 99% sure that this can't be solved by an external third party. But my 1% nagging doubt is enough to make me list it.
Quite simply, I have problems getting things done. It's not necessarily that I'm lazy, it's just that It takes more effort to figure out what I should be doing right now than it does to just keep procastinating on the same task. To-do lists help, but are ultimately inadequate. A pen and paper to-do list always seems to evade my attention when I try one. Writing it out in a text file usually works better, but it's still not a surefire thing. It's not necessarily that I need better to-do list software so much as it is that I need a better way to manage my time in a way that either:
A] I don't have to manually write down and erase tasks as I do them. Besides an erase shortcut I don't think that this is really feasible. Computers can't read my mind yet.
B] It will make or convince me to habitually update and read it in such a way that it's not annoying or somehow feels out of sync with my workflow.
Maybe I'm alone on this one, maybe I'm not. Maybe it's solvable, but I doubt it.
I'd just like to remind anyone who's read this far that not every problem is best solved by a start-up or business. If you feel strongly about anything in this thread you should at least consider the possibility of other methods of achieving your goals. (But being able to potentially make sizable sums of money while you do is a sweet bonus.)
I'm not even sure if it's a solvable problem. But if someone did it would be a great service to humanity.
2.) I'm 99% sure that this can't be solved by an external third party. But my 1% nagging doubt is enough to make me list it.
Quite simply, I have problems getting things done. It's not necessarily that I'm lazy, it's just that It takes more effort to figure out what I should be doing right now than it does to just keep procastinating on the same task. To-do lists help, but are ultimately inadequate. A pen and paper to-do list always seems to evade my attention when I try one. Writing it out in a text file usually works better, but it's still not a surefire thing. It's not necessarily that I need better to-do list software so much as it is that I need a better way to manage my time in a way that either:
A] I don't have to manually write down and erase tasks as I do them. Besides an erase shortcut I don't think that this is really feasible. Computers can't read my mind yet.
B] It will make or convince me to habitually update and read it in such a way that it's not annoying or somehow feels out of sync with my workflow.
Maybe I'm alone on this one, maybe I'm not. Maybe it's solvable, but I doubt it.
I'd just like to remind anyone who's read this far that not every problem is best solved by a start-up or business. If you feel strongly about anything in this thread you should at least consider the possibility of other methods of achieving your goals. (But being able to potentially make sizable sums of money while you do is a sweet bonus.)
Time Management: http://xkcd.com/876/
On serious note:
Problem: Help me manage what I need to do and motivate me to do it.
Issue with every possible solution: there can't be 1-shoe-fits-all.
There are various solutions proposed: 1. Have a "done" list - people get motivated by seeing what they get done and feel good about themseleves when they are reocrding what they have done, and feel bad when staring things they need to do .
2. Pair-wise to-do list. Randomly pair a user to a different user and they both use various means to motivate each other and provide means to help each other. This is social interaction and people feel some responsibility to get things done when they have someone to answer to, while others dont want to expose their private life.
3. Bombard the user with notifications on what needs to get done or give user with positive enforcement every hour, in order to motivate the user.
There are 2 issues to be addressed: Motivation and organization. If the data is not easily organizable, user dont feel like vesting. If user does not have anything motivating to do those actions, rather than procrastinating, your system is plain doomed.
On serious note:
Problem: Help me manage what I need to do and motivate me to do it.
Issue with every possible solution: there can't be 1-shoe-fits-all.
There are various solutions proposed: 1. Have a "done" list - people get motivated by seeing what they get done and feel good about themseleves when they are reocrding what they have done, and feel bad when staring things they need to do .
2. Pair-wise to-do list. Randomly pair a user to a different user and they both use various means to motivate each other and provide means to help each other. This is social interaction and people feel some responsibility to get things done when they have someone to answer to, while others dont want to expose their private life.
3. Bombard the user with notifications on what needs to get done or give user with positive enforcement every hour, in order to motivate the user.
There are 2 issues to be addressed: Motivation and organization. If the data is not easily organizable, user dont feel like vesting. If user does not have anything motivating to do those actions, rather than procrastinating, your system is plain doomed.
Really like this post; articulating something I experience and something I see a TON of entrepreneurs quietly struggle with.
I share your intuition that it's not entirely a machine-ready problem; productivity tools (using that term WIDELY) have certainly improved, corrected in innovative ways for all of our typical human tendencies, and in some cases work really well for "some" people.
I've been consulting lately on a project focused on providing human coaching to this specific problem for big-thinking tech entrepreneurs. Also definitely not for everyone, but after chatting with a number of investors about how they might 'enhance' their influence on their portfolio founders, this was something that always seems to be a "lightbulb". It's most surprised me that entrepreneurs themselves seem to be very much interested in the idea: "Yes, if my investors provided me with a productivity/well-being coach I'd take full advantage".
Thoughts?
I share your intuition that it's not entirely a machine-ready problem; productivity tools (using that term WIDELY) have certainly improved, corrected in innovative ways for all of our typical human tendencies, and in some cases work really well for "some" people.
I've been consulting lately on a project focused on providing human coaching to this specific problem for big-thinking tech entrepreneurs. Also definitely not for everyone, but after chatting with a number of investors about how they might 'enhance' their influence on their portfolio founders, this was something that always seems to be a "lightbulb". It's most surprised me that entrepreneurs themselves seem to be very much interested in the idea: "Yes, if my investors provided me with a productivity/well-being coach I'd take full advantage".
Thoughts?
I'm far too young to be of any help demoing products for entrepreneurs. However, I think that this and other problems are near or on what I like to call the "Deviation barrier.".
Basically it goes like this: Theres certain problems that seem solvable from your perspective, but the real problem is that the way in which the problem manifests itself deviates largely enough from one person to the next that it makes any solution non-portable to someone else's instance of the problem. As computer science techniques get better I would wager that this barrier gets thinner. I know that if I spent enough time on it I could solve this problem for myself. But solving it in a way that would help others too? That's a tall order.
There's a lot of problems that right now are near or on the deviation barrier. I like to think that as that barrier hypothetically thins that computers will be able to help us with more unique aspects of our lives and account for individual quirks.
But talking right here right now; I'm not sure that you would be able to find effective productivity coaches. Feel free to prove me wrong on this.
Basically it goes like this: Theres certain problems that seem solvable from your perspective, but the real problem is that the way in which the problem manifests itself deviates largely enough from one person to the next that it makes any solution non-portable to someone else's instance of the problem. As computer science techniques get better I would wager that this barrier gets thinner. I know that if I spent enough time on it I could solve this problem for myself. But solving it in a way that would help others too? That's a tall order.
There's a lot of problems that right now are near or on the deviation barrier. I like to think that as that barrier hypothetically thins that computers will be able to help us with more unique aspects of our lives and account for individual quirks.
But talking right here right now; I'm not sure that you would be able to find effective productivity coaches. Feel free to prove me wrong on this.
I agree this is a problem that's near the "Deviation barrier". I also agree it's narrowing, and admit that what I was suggesting is a 'low-tech' solution. I suppose I was simply offering that I'm seeing empirical evidence that this is a pain point in a particular market that's large enough that people look willing to pay to try and fix it.
> I also agree it's narrowing, and admit that what I was suggesting is a 'low-tech' solution.
That's not in itself a reason to reject an idea. A lot of the time the best solution is decidedly "Low Tech". Thinking that added complexity has any correlation with the usefulness of a system is a fallacy.
(Example: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Classic-WTF-Lock-and-Key.asp...)
It's not even that your idea is bad. It's not. I'm just skeptical of the availability of individuals who can make a difference without being out of the price range of just about anything that could be defined as a "startup". In fact, I'm skeptical of the availability of such individuals at any price range.
And I'm afraid that if you're serious about the idea that the onus is on you to figure these things out and prove their worth.
That's not in itself a reason to reject an idea. A lot of the time the best solution is decidedly "Low Tech". Thinking that added complexity has any correlation with the usefulness of a system is a fallacy.
(Example: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Classic-WTF-Lock-and-Key.asp...)
It's not even that your idea is bad. It's not. I'm just skeptical of the availability of individuals who can make a difference without being out of the price range of just about anything that could be defined as a "startup". In fact, I'm skeptical of the availability of such individuals at any price range.
And I'm afraid that if you're serious about the idea that the onus is on you to figure these things out and prove their worth.
Why is it so hard to choose health insurance? And then, once you're in the system, why is it so hard to keep up with all the paperwork, etc. I grew up in Canada and after living in the States for 10 years, it's been so frustrating to navigate the health care system, and I'm a healthy person. I can't imagine how people who are sick have time and energy to put towards getting better when they are consumed with just "getting through" the system.
On this note, as someone who just moved from Canada with a special-needs child, and let me tell you, the US is light-years ahead of Canada. You mentioned you are healthy, so I can only assume your experience is fairly limited. Myself, and mostly my wife, have experienced both of these systems (coming back to the US just last year), and she absolutely loves the American system. Having seen the results myself, I can't describe the Canadian system as anything better than outright child abuse.
Hi there :) I wanted to clarify, I'm not talking about the quality of care. I'm talking about just the act of choosing which health care you should get and then keeping up with all the paperwork once you're sick. I've been outside of Canada for the past 12 years, but when I've gone to the doctor in the states for something as simple as stitches or a bad cold, I've always been amazed at how complicated it is in terms of bills and co-pays etc. I know that everyone things the system is so great, but I agre with you, it's not. It's ugly. People wait months for critical cat scans. Surgery is often cancelled or bumped. And patients regularly abuse the system rather than be proactive about their health. So in summary (sorry this got so long!!) neither system is perfect, but when I came to the states, I felt like I was just totally blind as I was choosing which insurance to get. I'd love to see someone fix the issue of helping people choose the right health care that's best for them, make best use of the FSA system, and manage bills / paperwork in a more efficient way.
Gotcha. =) I have a knee-jerk reaction when someone starts promoting Canada over US healthcare. I blame Canada for that, not the person.
As for the health care in the US, a lot of that is based on your carrier. Shop around! You aren't stuck with a single health care provider, and you can choose your doctors. My wife was amazed that after she went to one doctor, she was asked if she wanted to continue to see that doctor, or wanted to try someone else.
She's the one that deals with this on a day to day basis, so I trust her in this department. She also mentioned that here, people are so much more willing to help with any paperwork that might arise. And considering all the paperwork she's done to get my son the care he needs, she knows what she's talking about.
That's not to say things couldn't be easier.
> I was just totally blind as I was choosing which insurance to get.
So many choices! Yep. It can be overwhelming. My wife abused the help line of our insurance provider, and our companies rep the first few months. She'd call at least once a week with questions. However, she found that generally, they were more than willing to walk her through everything, and in some cases, did it right over the phone on her behalf.
As for the health care in the US, a lot of that is based on your carrier. Shop around! You aren't stuck with a single health care provider, and you can choose your doctors. My wife was amazed that after she went to one doctor, she was asked if she wanted to continue to see that doctor, or wanted to try someone else.
She's the one that deals with this on a day to day basis, so I trust her in this department. She also mentioned that here, people are so much more willing to help with any paperwork that might arise. And considering all the paperwork she's done to get my son the care he needs, she knows what she's talking about.
That's not to say things couldn't be easier.
> I was just totally blind as I was choosing which insurance to get.
So many choices! Yep. It can be overwhelming. My wife abused the help line of our insurance provider, and our companies rep the first few months. She'd call at least once a week with questions. However, she found that generally, they were more than willing to walk her through everything, and in some cases, did it right over the phone on her behalf.
1) I would like my car cleaned and refueled while I'm not using it, without my intervention. During the night for example, or while at the gym.
2) I would like a unified api for events that happens and my computer can recognize: pc turn on/off/sleep, received email, a rss feed updated, someone from my contact list is online or goes offline, dusk/dawn, my presence in front of the computer, the presence of someone else in front of the computer, etc...
3) I wrote some scripts to scrape particular image-boards and blogs. I'd like a tool that identifies duplicates and could categorize pictures, maybe with some training (for example meme/macro images should not be too difficult).
4) a music tracker tool (like renoise) with some particularities: notes and durations are not absolute values but relative to a root note, patterns are per-instrument (like in buzz), patterns are zoomable or non-linear in size (some parts have 1 note per measure, others 64 per beat)
5) a file system where I could simply indicate the redundancy I want for a specific file or directory (like a per-file raid).
2) I would like a unified api for events that happens and my computer can recognize: pc turn on/off/sleep, received email, a rss feed updated, someone from my contact list is online or goes offline, dusk/dawn, my presence in front of the computer, the presence of someone else in front of the computer, etc...
3) I wrote some scripts to scrape particular image-boards and blogs. I'd like a tool that identifies duplicates and could categorize pictures, maybe with some training (for example meme/macro images should not be too difficult).
4) a music tracker tool (like renoise) with some particularities: notes and durations are not absolute values but relative to a root note, patterns are per-instrument (like in buzz), patterns are zoomable or non-linear in size (some parts have 1 note per measure, others 64 per beat)
5) a file system where I could simply indicate the redundancy I want for a specific file or directory (like a per-file raid).
Here's a tiny thing:
The UK uses the concept of "units" for public health when talking about alcohol. These aren't well understood. There's concern about binge drinking. But there's also concern about non-typical groups.
Make a little web-app game. Display a variety of glasses, and wine bottles. Include the ABV (alcohol by volume) rating. "pour" a glass of wine. tell the user how many mls are in the glass. (125 ml at 8%ABV is one unit. It's rare to see glasses that small, they're normally 175 ml or 250 ml. And wine is usually much stronger.) Then ask them how many units are in that glass. Give them a score. (and show them how much of that glass is just one unit) Repeat for 5 glasses. Show them the difference between what they guessed and true. Link to some alcohol awareness sites.
"Drinking "just a little more than they should" puts people at risk of serious illness including heart disease, stroke and cancer, the government is warning." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16869618
Nice chart: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Units_of_alcohol_char...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16886547
Young people, especially women, with alcohol related illness. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7092347.stm
Rise in Cirrhosis. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17513505
Baffling numbers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3303805.stm
Record numbers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13559455
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16443240
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15114325
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4581530.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15997695
The UK uses the concept of "units" for public health when talking about alcohol. These aren't well understood. There's concern about binge drinking. But there's also concern about non-typical groups.
Make a little web-app game. Display a variety of glasses, and wine bottles. Include the ABV (alcohol by volume) rating. "pour" a glass of wine. tell the user how many mls are in the glass. (125 ml at 8%ABV is one unit. It's rare to see glasses that small, they're normally 175 ml or 250 ml. And wine is usually much stronger.) Then ask them how many units are in that glass. Give them a score. (and show them how much of that glass is just one unit) Repeat for 5 glasses. Show them the difference between what they guessed and true. Link to some alcohol awareness sites.
"Drinking "just a little more than they should" puts people at risk of serious illness including heart disease, stroke and cancer, the government is warning." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16869618
Nice chart: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Units_of_alcohol_char...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16886547
Young people, especially women, with alcohol related illness. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7092347.stm
Rise in Cirrhosis. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17513505
Baffling numbers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3303805.stm
Record numbers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13559455
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16443240
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15114325
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4581530.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15997695
A controllable, smartphone-based car entertainment system.
Any smartphone could be plugged in via a USB-like cable which transfers I/O, audio and power. The car's up/down/left/right "radio" buttons would then control like/dislike/next/previous for Pandora-like apps running on the phone. Throw in another 2 buttons or so for other functions. There would be an open "key-mapping" standard which would be implemented in the OSes which music apps could tap into. There would be a standard set of programmable-per-app buttons (not unlike video game controllers)
Voice is unusable when music is playing and touchscreens are too dangerous. Mobile and digital entertainment technologies move so fast, yet I only change my car twice in 3 decades or so - I don't want to be constrained by what technology was available when I bought it.
Any smartphone could be plugged in via a USB-like cable which transfers I/O, audio and power. The car's up/down/left/right "radio" buttons would then control like/dislike/next/previous for Pandora-like apps running on the phone. Throw in another 2 buttons or so for other functions. There would be an open "key-mapping" standard which would be implemented in the OSes which music apps could tap into. There would be a standard set of programmable-per-app buttons (not unlike video game controllers)
Voice is unusable when music is playing and touchscreens are too dangerous. Mobile and digital entertainment technologies move so fast, yet I only change my car twice in 3 decades or so - I don't want to be constrained by what technology was available when I bought it.
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you would be looking for, but this popped up on Kickstarter a while ago and it's a good start.
Dash: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devium/dash-the-smart-ph...
Dash: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devium/dash-the-smart-ph...
Is there a way to stop this flood of accelators, incubators, and web startups that add little value to the billions of people on this planet who don't care about social media, apps, or tablets? Alternatively, why don't we focus on overpopulation, cures for cancer, and real alternative energy?
A proactive security tool to protect computers from malware, perhaps using a combo of Artificial Life, Genetic Programming and Artificial Immune systems, with social networking and swarm computing thrown in for good measure.
cf. our current reactive approach of applying antivirus updates post hoc.
cf. our current reactive approach of applying antivirus updates post hoc.
This sounds both useful and futuristic. However, I think it's more like a new field of research than something you could realize in a startup. We're not even close yet.
The major challenge for any photobook creation is the following:
An user has for example 100 images from vacation. Some choose nearly the same object, if this is he case some will be better than others (sharpness, contrast, and so on).
For an automatic creation process of a photobook without the need for the user to "choose" images it is necessary, to identify images with similar objects. Some attributes can be Location (if GPS Data available in the EXIF data) or Time (if multiple images was taken within less than a minute), but this kind of information are not very offen available or accurate. To analyse images to identify similar images and find the "best of the image" with less risk of false positive is a challenge.
An user has for example 100 images from vacation. Some choose nearly the same object, if this is he case some will be better than others (sharpness, contrast, and so on).
For an automatic creation process of a photobook without the need for the user to "choose" images it is necessary, to identify images with similar objects. Some attributes can be Location (if GPS Data available in the EXIF data) or Time (if multiple images was taken within less than a minute), but this kind of information are not very offen available or accurate. To analyse images to identify similar images and find the "best of the image" with less risk of false positive is a challenge.
There's a guy who's working in this area on HN.
I believe his web app is called Inapic.com
I believe his web app is called Inapic.com
Thanks, seems to be the right think.
How to disrupt enterprise software? Even with all the startups coming up in cloud, enterprise sales is still largely relationship based and takes forver to close... How does one convert the long sales cycles to rapid close?
Why is it still so hard to drop a file on a LAN from one laptop to another (except for Apple's AirDrop goodness)??? I mean the easiest way to get a file from my Mac to your Win7 laptop is still a USD stick. Sucks.
The technology exists, so why aren't more companies manufacturing motors that don't require oil or electricity. Most of the machines we use can run on solar, magnetic, or some form of hydrogen power.
Stock room inventory/management for the small and large business.
Must include Point of Sale recipe management/tracking. Counting is worthless without knowing what is leaving the store.
The problem with current "disruption" is that they think the cash register is the problem. The ability to scale and integrate back of the house management with front of the house interfaces is the only real way to disrupt the POS industry. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an industry outsider that will never really break in. aka Taking credit cards on an iphone is not disruption.
Must include Point of Sale recipe management/tracking. Counting is worthless without knowing what is leaving the store.
The problem with current "disruption" is that they think the cash register is the problem. The ability to scale and integrate back of the house management with front of the house interfaces is the only real way to disrupt the POS industry. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an industry outsider that will never really break in. aka Taking credit cards on an iphone is not disruption.
Facebook filter:
Situation: I have over 1,000 friends and ff several hundred twitter feeds. I end up seeing too much bs (spam ads, useless topics, and miss out on important info. Good events, interesting posts) I want something that can sort out my twitter feeds and facebook feeds and show me whats important while de-emphasizing od even junking the rest. Sort of like a spam filter for facebook and twitter
Situation: I have over 1,000 friends and ff several hundred twitter feeds. I end up seeing too much bs (spam ads, useless topics, and miss out on important info. Good events, interesting posts) I want something that can sort out my twitter feeds and facebook feeds and show me whats important while de-emphasizing od even junking the rest. Sort of like a spam filter for facebook and twitter
The archival of digital photography is unsafe. Photographs that are 100 years old and made out of glass are more resilient that a photo that has been updated to Facebook. I'd like to see a more secure form of digital archiving - better than cloud computing as that is still data and moving parts.
A software that successfully generates correct Bluebook citations (for lawyers and law students - law students would pay at least $100 each to avoid doing this, there are software's out there, the problem is they don't give correct citations).
This intrigues me, since it looks like some of the offerings are pretty good (e.g. Citrus looks quite powerful).
Would you be willing to chat over email? Mine is in my profile.
Would you be willing to chat over email? Mine is in my profile.
I want to pay when I've read a great article. I might even want to subscribe to that newspaper / magazine / journal.
But I don't want a print edition mailed to me. I only want an online subscription.
I want someone to make it easy for me to pay a dollar or so for a great article.
But I don't want a print edition mailed to me. I only want an online subscription.
I want someone to make it easy for me to pay a dollar or so for a great article.
Creating a substantial and culturally diverse world that runs without money.
Could you break that down into a few sub-problems?
p = np? haha, just kidding. Actually, my issue is this: how do we get the average Joe to understand (formal) logic and probability (so that we can get people to understand the aspects of risk better)?
Participate in, promote, and fund skeptical societies and skeptical outreach groups. This is one of many topics that these groups try to cover.
For example, these two podcasts have had positive influence: Skeptics Guide to the Universe Bad Astronomy
This is actually one of those problems where an established solution (outreach/education) with time and money would actually work well.
For example, these two podcasts have had positive influence: Skeptics Guide to the Universe Bad Astronomy
This is actually one of those problems where an established solution (outreach/education) with time and money would actually work well.
A way to automatically change double byte romaji characters to single byte
Try this in Python?
import codecs
fin = codecs.open('input.txt', 'rb', 'shift-jis')
fout = codecs.open('output.txt', 'wb', 'utf-8')
try:
fout.write(fin.read())
except ValueError:
print "Not encoded using Shift-JIS!"
I would like researchers to publish their results instantly so that they are freely accessible through natural language. Like: give me all the proteins that bind this molecule!
Yahoo! Pipes for web scraping. Don't have to write a line of code, just a GUI that can even do complex things.
There's a lot of information out there that should be freed.
There's a lot of information out there that should be freed.
[deleted]
Political concentration camps in North Korea. I'm serious.
Mind you, I do have an idea for this. If anyone is interest (even you Ben), hit me up on email.
Mind you, I do have an idea for this. If anyone is interest (even you Ben), hit me up on email.
Well... there's no email to hit you up by on your profile
A mobile app to share resumes, so you don't have to carry paper resumes to jobs fairs (thought of it at the SxSW Tech Career Expo)
Powered by NFC. tap here's my resume.
Why ate we still ok with resumes and degrees when we can instead have a full-breadth breakdown of skills and accomplishments?
Convince the general population that eSports are 1) an actual careeer and that 2) is a legitimate sport.
Anyone with ideas about how to solve the issues I proposed feel free to reach out to me to discuss.
Build on the Sporcle app and make it head to head - Words with Friends for Sporcle.
a just in time computer. just load what i need when i want it.
oh and help mohammad rahimi teach the afghan women how to use computers for life skills and education
oh and help mohammad rahimi teach the afghan women how to use computers for life skills and education
Solve hatred violence corruption and war.
Hatred leads to violence and war so if you could make a dent in the first, it might pay off in the long run. What about a an app like chatroulette (text only) that paired up people across the world from each other and translated text into their native language? It might be interesting to get to know someone from Iran and see their perspective on things.
Corruption - An anonymous whistle blower site would be interesting.
Corruption - An anonymous whistle blower site would be interesting.
Wikileaks?
Port emacs to clojure
How women's brain works?
ok check it out i have bank accounts and the money is mine my grandpa had passed away and he had left all is fundings to me ad my family had tkin the papers adn destoyed now i ae all th information too get into the account like routing number etc i jjst cant transfer the funds because i guess he needs to approve whatever i am totalyl looking for some one who is a little more advanced on the hacking into bank accounts i guess you can say welli willt otaly apreciate if someone got back with me thank you lmuch
bonnie
Who knows, maybe one of these ideas will turn into a YC company!
A continuation of a question I asked HN 3 years ago -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442571