
Ask HN: What's your "hair on fire" problem? - jlangenauer
There's been a few threads offering startup ideas here. In light of wePay's blog post on validation, perhaps it's better for people to post their problems, and see if perhaps someone else might see a startup in it?<p>So, what's causing you pain?
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mmaunder
I need a great rural wifi provider. In Colorado where I spend a lot of time
you have a choice of 1 or two providers (we can choose between mho.net or
skybeam) and their service is sub-par. MHO seems to work to lose you as a
customer with quotes like "Well I see that you're getting 1 Mbps instead of
the 5 we sold you but I just don't see a problem on this end". I've actually
confirmed the sucky bandwidth with iperf and one of their techs, but they
still won't fix it.

Skybeam seem to be the better provider and are booked a month out for new
installations. They all provide up to 5 mbps max.

It seems that there are a few legacy providers in the area that are resting on
their existing customer base.

All the technology is wireless with directional antennas that look like small
satellite dishes. Seems like a great oppty for recurring revenue with
relatively low startup costs.

~~~
zdw
I'm in southern arizona, and I've talked to a bunch of people who run WISP's.

The big issue is line of site, which is required to get a good connection with
the 2.4Ghz tech. In areas with large flat plains getting the signal out
without really tall towers is hard just due to the curvature of the earth.

The other problem is what people are willing to pay for - the equipment
required for the distances involved isn't that cheap. Plus, service and
maintenance is always an issue.

The last mile is hard to do, and often a regulatory monopoly. Honestly this is
one place where government intervention (requiring line providers be common
carriers, mandating and bankrolling network infrastructure projects, etc.)
could be helpful.

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jlangenauer
I'll kick things off: As an Australian company, there is no easy way[1] to
accept payments online in USD, which is kinda useful if you want to sell into
the US market.

[1] Well, there's PayPal, but I've always though one shouldn't build ones
house on quicksand.

~~~
olalonde
Self-promotion: We're working on that (among other things) @
<http://payfacade.com>.

~~~
Luyt
The type on that page is painfully small, and the page doesn't honor my font
preference settings. Hard to read! Other than that, PayFacade sounds good.

~~~
olalonde
I totally agree I'll fix it ASAP.

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EwanG
Two things I promise I'd pay for if you can offer them:

1) Site that would allow you to edit CR2 (Canon RAW) files online in a manner
compatible with use from an iPad. Bonus points if you can also allow the files
to be displayed directly (IOW - Flickr supporting RAW and using iPad Safari
controls)

2) Site that would allow me to track other sites that post links to
Anime/Manga available through MegaUpload and such, and then let me use my
premium account to initiate the DL away from home - but direct the file to be
DL to my home drive. IOW - uTorrent has a Web Interface, need something that
would work similarly for identifying MU and FileServe files, and let me start
the transfer using my iPad on the road, but DLing to my home machine.

Number 2 could also be used for other episodic type releases. Number 1 would
get you a whole slew of amateur and pro photographers who right now have to
wait until they get home to see what they got, and work with it. Imagine if I
could take a couple minutes during a shoot now, upload my files, and on a big
enough monitor decide if I need to reshoot something while I'm still there to
do it. (Or I could take a monster notebook - but an iPad would be SO much
friendlier for this).

~~~
joshwa
You don't need such a powerful notebook to do this. Just shoot tethered to a
macbook (or just download your cards periodically) and review/edit in your
software of choice. If you want to get really fancy, shoot wirelessly to a
macbook in a corner somewhere, and use your iPad to remote control it via VNC.

NB I am (occasionally) a profesional photographer.

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nailer
I can't edit my code on the internet. Mozilla bespin isn't good enough, I need
a web git client.

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pasbesoin
The world, including the work world, grows ever noisier and more closely
packed. I need peace and quiet to think effectively. I enjoy interacting with
people -- I need to interact -- when I'm doing so purposefully (whether in a
"planful" way, or spontaneously). At other times, they are a distraction that
keeps me from doing my best work.

TL;DR: Stop treating me like a veal calf.

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shalmanese
This is the wrong place to ask this question. The HN style audience is one
which has been combed over many times before for "hair on fire" problems. You
might happen to gain some additional insight but it's unlikely.

IMO, it's far better to talk to people that fewer entrepreneurs are already
targeting.

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Mz
Really, really, really trivial but I get annoyed when I have been upvoted (ie
my total karma has gone up) but I cannot find the post that got the vote.
Anyone know of a program that already exists for addressing this?

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damoncali
Cheap, relevant traffic.

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RiderOfGiraffes
So, how is this different from exactly the same question being asked
yesterday?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2018391>

~~~
Mz
People are actually replying this time so it might generate
useful/meaningful/interesting discussion? It would hardly be the first time
that a duplicate submission generated discussion when the original didn't. On
this site, 24 hours is (usually) dead and cold. 48 hours and rigor mortis sets
in. And threads can't be "bumped" like in other forums, so a duplicate is the
only real way around that.

~~~
DupDetector
So, just out of interest to understand your position better, would you
advocate that every time an item sinks without trace, the submitter should
subtly alter the URL and resubmit it every day until it gains traction?

ADDED IN EDIT:

From 5 days ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2002081>

From 4 minutes ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2020721>

Identical items. There are two reasons it didn't get traction last time. One
is that it wasn't noticed. The other is that it isn't of value. If it's not of
value, it shouldn't be resubmitted. If it simply didn't get noticed then the
chances of valuable items getting noticed would go up if people didn't
resubmit the same things over and over again.

Resubmission is bad. Helping people find decent things - even when old - has
to be better. Reducing the noise will help.

~~~
user24
> Helping people find decent things - even when old - has to be better

How are previous submissions with 1 point and 0 comments 'decent', exactly?
Because you frequently link to such posts.

Maybe you should tweak your algorithm to only detect dupes with >10 votes and
>10 comments. Linking to dead submissions is pointless.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
You seem to have misunderstood. I'm not saying that the DupDetector is helping
to find good, older submissions. The idea is to get help reduce the endless
repeats, to provide space, and then, instead of endlessly repeating the same
submissions, have a way that people can find the good ones that are already
there.

But what running DupDetector has shown me is that the problem is endemic.
There is no way that I can see to reduce the rate of re-submissions. People
have got very annoyed when the problem has been pointed out. Indeed, many
people don't see it as a problem. The very fact that people see an enormous
number of posts by DupDetector tells us two things: There are a lot of
duplications, and people don't want to know.

Some discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2013666>

So that's fair enough. As I say, I'm terminating the experiment. I've learned
that the current level of noise caused by constant re-submissions of the same
stories, and often the exact same items, won't stop. So instead I'm
concentrating on finding items that fit with PG's stated preference:

    
    
        Stories on HN don't have to be about hacking, because
        good hackers aren't only interested in hacking, but they
        do have to be deeply interesting.
    

(From <http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html>)

On any day, look at the "newest" page and ask yourself how many are really
"deeply interesting", how many are amusing diversions, and how many are
diverting, but useless. Ask how much you learn from each one. The answer I
suspect will be "not much".

Look at the "news" page and ask the same question. The problem is that if
enculturated "old hands" don't read the "newest" page, then the "news" page
will deteriorate, because the people voting on new items won't be voting the
right things for the right reasons.

We see that now. Lots of submissions get votes because they are, in PG's
words, "intensely but shallowly interesting."

So I'm going away for a while to see if I can do that. I'll still read stuff,
but every time I do I will consciously remind myself that I can get content-
free entertainment pretty much anywhere, and that I'm looking specifically for
stuff that's "deeply interesting." If I figure out a way to find it
automatically I'll certainly come back and share it, although I don't expect
I'll succeed. It's a hard problem, and I'm certainly no smarter than others
who have worked on it before me.

Currently the best option seems to be to have a small community of like-minded
people. That's what HN used to be, and I think that despite PG's excellent
efforts, it's getting too big to hold together.

But I'll work on it, and I'll certainly share any useful findings. If there
are any.

~~~
Mz
_But what running DupDetector has shown me is that the problem is endemic.
There is no way that I can see to reduce the rate of re-submissions. People
have got very annoyed when the problem has been pointed out. Indeed, many
people don't see it as a problem. The very fact that people see an enormous
number of posts by DupDetector tells us two things: There are a lot of
duplications, and people don't want to know._

It looks to me like this is an issue rooted in friction between those folks
who spend a great deal of time here and those folks who spend less time here.
Those folks who are here a great deal see all the duplicate submissions and
find them annoying -- "BTDT, got the t-shirt, can we puhleez move on??". Those
folks who spend less time here see it as a new submission or submit it without
having any idea it was previously submitted. It sounds to me a little like the
running battle you see on some email lists between folks who get digest (and
have hissy fits about people not trimming replies) and folks who get
individual emails (and feel that trimming replies is too time consuming and
loses too much context, thus hurts communication).

I'm sorry you are frustrated by this. And I'm sorry if this issue contributes
to "evaporative cooling" of this site (ie by you and others leaving -- my
general impression is that you are a significant contributor and that the
folks most annoyed by duplicates are usually also important, valued members).
But I don't think that vilifying individuals who have posted something in good
faith is a constructive solution to a systemic problem.

Please do let us know if you come up with something that might effectively
address this issue.

Peace. Thanks for all you have contributed. I imagine many people here will
miss you if you leave.

~~~
user24
> It looks to me like this is an issue rooted in friction between those folks
> who spend a great deal of time here and those folks who spend less time
> here. Those folks who are here a great deal see all the duplicate
> submissions and find them annoying

Yeah I think that's a lot to do with it. I've noticed time and time again with
online communities that the longer you use it, the more likely you are to
start complaining that it's not as good as it used to be. It happens
_everywhere_ , and the problem is almost invariably _you_ not _it_.

