Ask HN: What is a problem you want to see solved?
15 comments
- Hearing aids - Battery life SUCKS. Someone please make hearing aids that run off body heat (or whose batteries are at least augmented by body heat). Changing batteries is expensive and annoying, especially if it dies while you're far from a spare set of batteries.
- Subtitles / Closed Captioning - some sort of HUD (Google Glass-esque) that shows subtitles only to me, and not to those around me. Especially useful in movies or when watching Game of Thrones with friends that don't like subtitles.
- Better door buzzing - I don't have a landline, and my landlord won't connect the buzzer to my phone. I have to have friends call or text me, and then I have to run down to the front door and open them up. Totally inconvenient during parties. There's gotta be some way to get around my landlord's dumb rules and have the buzzer send a text to my phone, where I can reply with a code and it'll open the door.
- Auditioning -- there's gotta be a better way to find out whether an actor or musician is good enough for a role other than a 60 second monologue. This also applies to job screening in general. If you can cut out the middleman (casting directors, recruiters), you'll make a fortune.
I can probably think of some more later.
- Subtitles / Closed Captioning - some sort of HUD (Google Glass-esque) that shows subtitles only to me, and not to those around me. Especially useful in movies or when watching Game of Thrones with friends that don't like subtitles.
- Better door buzzing - I don't have a landline, and my landlord won't connect the buzzer to my phone. I have to have friends call or text me, and then I have to run down to the front door and open them up. Totally inconvenient during parties. There's gotta be some way to get around my landlord's dumb rules and have the buzzer send a text to my phone, where I can reply with a code and it'll open the door.
- Auditioning -- there's gotta be a better way to find out whether an actor or musician is good enough for a role other than a 60 second monologue. This also applies to job screening in general. If you can cut out the middleman (casting directors, recruiters), you'll make a fortune.
I can probably think of some more later.
Subtitles - we are doing something like that with Epson's BT-200 (also for audio description). Also, RNIB ran a trial in the UK with Games of Thrones :) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8jyRwZjn1M]
(disclaimer - I work on this stuff)
(disclaimer - I work on this stuff)
I have my cell hooked up to my door buzzer and it's handy until I'm at work (where I do not get a signal) and my SO is expecting a delivery.
Distributed p2p filesystems & compute nodes are currently too immature to install & are practically useless in their current state. I'd like to be able to backup my files in the cloud & not have to worry about paying a monthly fee as long as I'm contributing more to the network than I'm using.
Have you looked into http://ipfs.io ? I suppose it fits the bill for "too immature to install", but might be something you'd want to track.
I wish there were a FUSE-based file system for testing the consistency and durability of arbitrary applications. Surprisingly there doesn't seem to be such a thing.[1]
There's also a list of other things that could be built with FUSE.[2]
[1] http://sourceforge.net/p/fuse/wiki/FileSystems/ [2] http://sourceforge.net/p/fuse/wiki/Filesystem_Suggestions/
There's also a list of other things that could be built with FUSE.[2]
[1] http://sourceforge.net/p/fuse/wiki/FileSystems/ [2] http://sourceforge.net/p/fuse/wiki/Filesystem_Suggestions/
> testing the consistency and durability of arbitrary applications
Could you go into more detail about what you mean here?
Could you go into more detail about what you mean here?
You'd configure the application to write to the FUSE mount, then run it through an average workload. The FUSE module records the e.g. writes and fsyncs and can simulate a crash at any point during the run. Perhaps there'd be some sort of framework for automating the application to have it attempt to restore from each point, and do an integrity check to make sure all of the guarantees are met.
SQLite does basically the same thing using a virtual file system layer that SQLite explicitly uses.[1] With a FUSE module, any application could receive the same level of testing without needing its own VFS.
[1] https://sqlite.org/testing.html
SQLite does basically the same thing using a virtual file system layer that SQLite explicitly uses.[1] With a FUSE module, any application could receive the same level of testing without needing its own VFS.
[1] https://sqlite.org/testing.html
This one: https://www.google.pt/search?q=too+many+cars&tbm=isch
Excluding these atempted solutions: Driverless car, Uber
Excluding these atempted solutions: Driverless car, Uber
Solution: Remove all private ownership of vehicles in an urban and suburban area. Have reasonable leases for rural areas and specialized vehicles. Remit 99% of the urban vehicles to municipal level. Somewhere between (car2go/modo/etc) and taxis and busses.
I'm not sure why you're excluding driverless cars. It seems like a clever solution to me. And it leaves the door open to a car monoculture, which I think would help things a lot.
But I'm highly skeptical and think it'll never fly because people love THEIR cars. Even though they sit on the street 95% of the time. The fact is Henry Ford and the rest of the car-world founders never designed their systems to be sustainable. They were designed to make their makers money.
I'm not sure why you're excluding driverless cars. It seems like a clever solution to me. And it leaves the door open to a car monoculture, which I think would help things a lot.
But I'm highly skeptical and think it'll never fly because people love THEIR cars. Even though they sit on the street 95% of the time. The fact is Henry Ford and the rest of the car-world founders never designed their systems to be sustainable. They were designed to make their makers money.
-E-payment for my country indonesia which only require bank account to start an ecommerce business
-make Immigration more Easy 'cause many tech people living in developing world want to work in Europe or US(developed world)
-make Immigration more Easy 'cause many tech people living in developing world want to work in Europe or US(developed world)
We have a software ecosystem that in its middle and often top is unnecessarily built from unsafe languages, C/C++, which results in flakiness and constant security problems. An alternative with sufficient uptake to be viable would be nice.
(I quibble using "middle" because at the bottom you have to go "unsafe".)
(I quibble using "middle" because at the bottom you have to go "unsafe".)
The water crisis.
The problem entails complex issues like climate change, over-consumption, wastage, unplanned urban growth,food security, excessive industrial development, geo-politics and pollution.
Let's hope mankind can figure this one out.
The problem entails complex issues like climate change, over-consumption, wastage, unplanned urban growth,food security, excessive industrial development, geo-politics and pollution.
Let's hope mankind can figure this one out.
For developing countries, a technology that will enable rapid laying down of roads. Roads that will last for a long time. This will improve lives of so many.
Death.
That's a feature, not a bug.
That's just like, your opinion, man. Sign me up for version 2 or 3 of cybernetic enhancement suite (sorry, not gonna be an early adopter of robotic limbs - clumsy enough as it is).
Involuntary Senessence
A (safe) pill that removes social anxiety with no side-effects
earth like simulation on distributed commodity computers, with 3D interactive visual.
Aging.
Waiting in lines.
Boredom.
Boredom is not a problem :-|
Why not?
Because only boring people get bored. And that's not just a pithy maxim. I find most situations people become "bored" in are just a moment of peace, a chance for creativity, a need for a challenge, and a chance to be alone with one's thoughts. Though, it's been found that many would rather be in acute physical pain than be alone with their own thoughts. I wonder why.
The bourgeoisie
And what would take their place?
Sorry for my glib post. (I deserved the down vote)
I am not convinced that the bigger problems to the world have answers which can be provided by a 'start up', and feel that the tendency toward "X-is-broken" type start up pitches tend to suggest techno-fixes to problems of social structure.
only the organised struggle of the disenfranchised of the world can end class society, eliminating both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, providing a ground on which these problems can be usefully approached. No venture capitalist is likely to invest in this, unfortunately.
In direct answer to your question: voluntary associations of the toiling masses
I am not convinced that the bigger problems to the world have answers which can be provided by a 'start up', and feel that the tendency toward "X-is-broken" type start up pitches tend to suggest techno-fixes to problems of social structure.
only the organised struggle of the disenfranchised of the world can end class society, eliminating both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, providing a ground on which these problems can be usefully approached. No venture capitalist is likely to invest in this, unfortunately.
In direct answer to your question: voluntary associations of the toiling masses
Thanks for pinging back with attention.
> voluntary associations of the toiling masses
With the mighty overhead of just-plain-survival (the main reason that the poor tend to stay poor), I'm sad to say that's never going to happen.
I think what humans as a species really needs is a planet wide support system that takes care of the food/shelter/clothing/sewage problem. But we're so deeply wired for paranoia, group think, and solipsism that that's impossible too.
> voluntary associations of the toiling masses
With the mighty overhead of just-plain-survival (the main reason that the poor tend to stay poor), I'm sad to say that's never going to happen.
I think what humans as a species really needs is a planet wide support system that takes care of the food/shelter/clothing/sewage problem. But we're so deeply wired for paranoia, group think, and solipsism that that's impossible too.
Who knows, maybe some ideas could spawn a few startups.