
Request HN: Tell us what to build. Or hire us. (Group of Stanford Students) - mercenarydevs
Summer internships are coming to an end.<p>Me and a group of friends, all Computer Science students at Stanford, are ready to build something.<p>Technologies we work with: iOS, JavaScript, Rails, Django.<p>What we do: Frontend and Backend. We aren&#x27;t photoshop wizards, but we can design a nice looking interface - we focus more on the UX than graphic design.<p>------<p>If there&#x27;s an interesting project posted in this thread that seems cool, we will build it and report back to Hacker News.<p>------<p>Also - we have some extra bandwidth - if you want to hire us to build your MVP, email mvp@alumni.stanford.edu with a rough project outline and a budget (we specialize in iOS and single page JavaScript applications).
======
mangeletti
Build an app which collects medical data, behavioral data (e.g., what did you
do today?), and dietary data from users who agree to a "do anything, as long
as my data is kept anonymous"-ish agreement, then use their data to figure out
correlations between serious illnesses, and the activities / diets that
"cause" them (yes, correlation == causation _once_ you have enough data points
- else, what _is_ "proof"?). You can provide a mobile app (HTML5 launcher to
get started more quickly) and make it easy for users to cram as much data into
the app as possible.

The goal of such an app would be to glean information from all the non-DNA,
non-race, non-age, non-economically influenced data points, since most every
other medical company (a "company" is what a startup used to be called - so
yesterday) cares about the bleeding edge of science. Applying science that
matters to data that matters means results.

------
mildavw
Here's an idea that has been on my list for years that is doable in a short
time but I just haven't gotten around to it:

Build a URL shortener for directions to physical addresses. Huh?

1) get a domain, say [http://right.to](http://right.to) (I'll give that to you
if you build this)

2) Users can register a nickname and location:

daves_house

123 Main St, City CA, 90210

3) When someone requests
[http://right.to/daves_house](http://right.to/daves_house) the page uses HTML5
to get the requestor's location and responds with a map with a route (and turn
by turn directions if you wish) from where the requestor is at that moment, to
the address that is registered. The directions come from Google or Bing maps
or any other open directions API that your back-end fetches.

The value is that I (your customer) will have a URL that I can always give to
people for directions to my house or business no matter where they are.

Bonus points: A phone app that sends SMS or email messages containing the URL
[http://right.to/p/xxxxx.yyyyy](http://right.to/p/xxxxx.yyyyy) where xxxxx and
yyyyy are not previously registered nicknames but rather encoded lat/long of
the sender. Huh?

1) I launch the app on my phone. It gets my GPS coordinates and creates the
encoded xxxxx, yyyyy. It opens my SMS interface with a pre-populated message:
"I'm right here:
[http://right.co/p/xxxxx.yyyyy"](http://right.co/p/xxxxx.yyyyy")

2) I enter the recipients for the text and hit send.

3) Each recipient, when they click on the link, gets located through their
browser and shown directions from wherever they are, to wherever I am.

value: With a few clicks I just sent a bunch of people directions from them to
me without knowing where I am, or where they are. Or maybe I tweeted that.
Every viewer gets a custom route right to me.

This idea was inspired by
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2093261](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2093261)
wherein I discovered that an app I wanted to build already existed, so I
tweaked it a little (directions instead of just locations).

*edits for spelling and formatting

~~~
adyus
I'm currently working on [http://ezsend.it](http://ezsend.it) but this sounds
like something fun and somewhat related.

It would be great if it also offered public transit directions. One could then
market it to businesses as a replacement for the static map on their contact
page.

Let's keep in touch once I'm done with ezsend.it

~~~
mildavw
Once you have the endpoints, you can return any data you can get your hands
on; map with route, transit options, bike paths, turn-by-turn, etc.

And yes, instead of generic directions "From I-5: take exit 999..." you can
have a link that gives specific directions from where the view actually is.

------
Mankhool
Please build an application that will allow someone to click anywhere on a map
of the world and view an aggregate stream of all photos and/or video
uploaded/streamed at/from that location. Content should be available from any
photo or video app. Streams should be from the nearest location (if it's
remote), or radius defined (if it's an urban location).

------
mknappen
How might we contact you outside of HN?

~~~
mercenarydevs
mvp@alumni.stanford.edu

------
ethanbond
Build something you care about.

