Ask HN: What do you wish someone would build, that you can't be bothered to?
No matter how small or un-monetizable, what's that one product or website you'd love... yet, just don't have the time to make yourself, or may not know how to?
49 comments
A cloud-optional system for storing, tagging, and sorting family photos, videos, and documents. Maybe with a timeline or optional integration with family tree services. I've been spending the holidays over the past few years scanning, digitizing, and sorting these things, and an easy-to-use sharing system where other family members can add information is completely eluding me.
A creative assistant slash agent that pours over my uploaded data (pics, video, fiction, field recorded sounds, journal entries) and tries to find a market for them, comes to me with proposals, then submits them for sale and negotiates a good price. You know, like that scene in 'Her'.
Full wireless mesh networking where each computer has a broadcast-enabled wifi card and can do impromptu ad-hoc networks.
I think this type of thing would be very good at working around the recently struck down FCC NetNeutrality policy. Imagine plugging little self contained boxes into power outlets all around the city, building a mesh network organically, piece by piece.
I want a widget library that allows me to draw translucent shapes on top of functioning widgets, without trying to align to widget boundaries. Ideally this library would also be able to draw shapes between toplevel windows as well. It would need to be cross-platform and have bindings to common scripting languages.
I want to search for something in one place, and find it, no matter if it's in any of my gmail accounts, yahoo email, trello, git, google docs, my home pc or work pc anywhere. Basically, search though all my personal accounts.
Part of this functionality was a YC startup a while ago: https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/14/greplin-grabs-4-million-fr...
Does there exist a post mortem?
They got acquired by apple (greplin renamed themselves cue) for a reported $40-50MM.
I was more thinking about why the product failed, assuming it did.
Can you provide a specific use case? This is one of those products that seems like a true gap, but I have trouble thinking of many real use cases.
Sorry for late response. I usually take down notes, but don't always remember where I put them. They are usually organized into what makes sense, but if I later remember and want to go back to that topic, I may not remember where it was written down.
For example I may have an idea to do something, and that would be in google docs, but then I might have some tasks and put them into trello. By searching for the idea's name, I should be able to see both the original write up and the tasks in trello, and potentially any messages I wrote to other people about it.
For example I may have an idea to do something, and that would be in google docs, but then I might have some tasks and put them into trello. By searching for the idea's name, I should be able to see both the original write up and the tasks in trello, and potentially any messages I wrote to other people about it.
Add "securely" to the features for this one. Because if it's going to log on to all your accounts, it has to have names and passwords for all your accounts. If it can be compromised, the attacker gets all your stuff.
Probably can't be cloud based then. I would never trust one single entity online with that much information about myself.
>inb4 Equifax
I have no control over what they do. Sad, but these are the times we live in. However, users should have control for the above idea.
>inb4 Equifax
I have no control over what they do. Sad, but these are the times we live in. However, users should have control for the above idea.
Password reset functionality effectively gives this universal access to your email provider.
Not for services that enable 2fa.
I am actually in the early stages of building this at visifile.com
Doesn't work over the cloud so it's secure too
Doesn't work over the cloud so it's secure too
A css assistant that can answer the question "why is this over here".
(for when some elementary appears where you don't expect it).
It could do stuff like try changing the size of various elements to see what rule changes move things.
(for when some elementary appears where you don't expect it).
It could do stuff like try changing the size of various elements to see what rule changes move things.
A Kinesis Freestyle2 tent accessory (or 3D printing plans for one) similar to the Ascent, for much less than $219: https://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/freestyle2-ascent-accessor..., https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Accessory-Freestyle2-Ergonomic...
A password manager that is open source, self hostable, works on all platforms, and most of all, is good. Even the 'good', proprietary ones (1Password, Lastpass), just aren't very good.
With a simple search, there aren't so many really:
* https://lesspass.com/#/
* https://www.passbolt.com/
* https://github.com/maklesoft/padlock/
* https://lesspass.com/#/
* https://www.passbolt.com/
* https://github.com/maklesoft/padlock/
Have you tried bitwarden? It's open source and self-hostable and I definitely prefer it over lastpass.
What about https://www.passwordstore.org/? Of course it depends on your definition of "good".
What's the problem with 1password?
Define "good", and how the best existing ones fail to be "good"?
Just the UX in general, 1Password is the best IMO. But it's still not great.
Have you tried KeePass?
Not OP, but i love KeePass. I'm not 100% sure what OP is looking for when they said self hosted, but I enjoy that the password database boils down to a single file that I can backup and share (albeit manually).
I am very surprised when people express dissatisfaction with their password manager, because KeePass and its ecosystem is basically perfect. Keepass2Android is especially good.
The problem is that there isn’t just one “KeePass”. There’s a bazillion of them, depending on the OS you’re running, the language it’s written in, the multiple keepass database formats, how recent the code has been updated and whether they continue to track developments from other members of the KeePass universe, and so on.
I’ve tried every single KeePass implementation there is/was for iOS, and most of them I couldn’t get to work at all. Some would actually launch, but then wouldn’t function. I think I found one that kinda-semi-sorta functioned, but then it had limitations in the database formats it supported and I couldn’t find a suitable counterpart on macOS.
But then I think the entire KeePass universe has probably changed a few times since then, so I probably need to go back and exhaustively re-try all the available programs over again.
But as that matrix gets bigger and bigger, the permutations and combinations of all the possible variants with all the other possible variants becomes impossible to test.
OTOH, 1Password has a local database, multiple options for sync’ing the database, a first-class UI, good support from a great company, and it “Just Works” on all the platforms I care about.
I’ve tried every single KeePass implementation there is/was for iOS, and most of them I couldn’t get to work at all. Some would actually launch, but then wouldn’t function. I think I found one that kinda-semi-sorta functioned, but then it had limitations in the database formats it supported and I couldn’t find a suitable counterpart on macOS.
But then I think the entire KeePass universe has probably changed a few times since then, so I probably need to go back and exhaustively re-try all the available programs over again.
But as that matrix gets bigger and bigger, the permutations and combinations of all the possible variants with all the other possible variants becomes impossible to test.
OTOH, 1Password has a local database, multiple options for sync’ing the database, a first-class UI, good support from a great company, and it “Just Works” on all the platforms I care about.
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A game like GTA, but open source, hackable, running better on Linux than Windows, so that users are finally attracted to Linux, making 2018 the year of Linux on the desktop.
If it is open source or hackable or both, it's going to be extremely difficult to work out an online multiplayer that works decently well.
I suspect this was said in jest, but have you tried steam lately? Nearly all indie games work in linux now, and even some major titles do (like Total War).
A story generator. So I can read procedurally generated stories and worlds rather than watch movies and novels.
So, dwarf fortress?
Exactly, but without having to manage an entire fortress. I would sit and read the civilization and artifact backgrounds, the histories, the forgotten beasts, but it's just not built for that.
It would also be nice if it didn't feel so random, like masterwork obsidian battleaxes that menace with spikes of orthoclase. Or 6 armed bat winged llamas that spit bile.
Rimworld tries to tackle the story part, but ends up being too dramatic instead.
There was a game called Firan MUX, which did an excellent job of generating families and backgrounds for each character and I would spend hours on that.
It would also be nice if it didn't feel so random, like masterwork obsidian battleaxes that menace with spikes of orthoclase. Or 6 armed bat winged llamas that spit bile.
Rimworld tries to tackle the story part, but ends up being too dramatic instead.
There was a game called Firan MUX, which did an excellent job of generating families and backgrounds for each character and I would spend hours on that.
An adblocker that's harder to detect.
Send a letter to the editor telling them to dump AdSense for something better.
Something that quickly cleans dog shit or whatever else I step in off the bottom of my shoes.
decentralized web, or, any semblance of escape from ad-based monetiztion models
The problem there isn't the distribution technology, it's the monetization technology. If you don't want to be advertised to, pay for your content.
iPhone 4S replacement board that runs Linux.