

Ask HN: Idea Sunday - livestyle

First week of May edition.
======
kr4
Already posted [0] and was killed [1].

I'd love to see this thread albeit less frequent (once or maybe twice in a
month). Let people give crazy ideas, and let other be motivated to build maybe
one of those. I found interesting and intellectually stimulating discussions
happening around some of the ideas posted on these threads which IMO alighn
with the core vision of HN.

0\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262)

1\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693640](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693640)

~~~
DanBC
I would really like a specific account to post one of these threads once per
month.

I am surprised that people post them themselves, and don't appear to be
checking for other threads posted the same day.

~~~
livestyle
I did check. Just didn't see it. My bad.

------
pallavkaushish
I`m starting to work on a marketing tool which will be a combination of
displaying popups like Bounce
Exchange([http://bounceexchange.com/](http://bounceexchange.com/)) and
Tweetganic([http://www.tweetganic.com/](http://www.tweetganic.com/)) or
[http://snip.ly/](http://snip.ly/).

Currently Social Media Management tools like Hootsuite provide a link shortner
so it's relatively easier for them to integrate a service like
[http://snip.ly/](http://snip.ly/) however they don't.

The product I'm thinking to create will allow anyone to manage, split test
their pop ups and promote themselves using a service like snip.ly. An
analytics module will accompany the product so all the data can be
meaningfully used to enhance the campaigns.

Hope I was able to clearly explain my idea. Would detail out some more if
anyone is interested.

------
zrail
Earlier today:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262)

Last month:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7541601](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7541601)

------
simondlr
VRCoin. It's a blockchain that simultaneously doubles as storage for items a
decentralized virtual space. You require the coin to store/remove items from
the space [namecoin for coordinates essentially].

I think once VR takes off there's going to be a desire for a virtual world
that's not owned by any one specific entity. The blockchain acts as
decentralized storage as well as spam control, so people don't just place
dicks everywhere (or rather it would be costly to do so).

------
dang
Burying as dupe. Please see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693640](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693640).

------
nl5874
I've been working on a kind of reversed wetransfer. You'll claim a domain, and
others can drop files at your personal url. It have been opensourced on github
([https://github.com/dutchcoders/dropit](https://github.com/dutchcoders/dropit)).
And running at [https://dropit.io/](https://dropit.io/).

------
greenwalls
Does anyone have any interesting Bitcoin ideas? I have a good Bitcoin domain
but I'm not sure what to do with it.

~~~
Scienz
I had two ideas, not exactly sure how to get them to work though:

1) Replace the pointless hashing with some actually useful calculation or form
of work. Trouble is, I'm not sure what kind of asymmetrically difficult
function could be used instead of hashing that would have some value for
society.

2) Replace the hashing with some kind of genetic algorithm or other AI
solution search. So instead of trying to find the proper hash, you're trying
to find the proper algorithm to some currently-posed problem. Miners who find
the current-best solution can then be rewarded with some form of bitcoin,
which can be traded among themselves as currency, or used to decide what the
next problem the network searches for a solution to will be. I figure this
would make the entire blockchain into a giant sort of AI/brain, with the
problems it tackles being more or less democratically chosen by whoever wants
to spend the most of their bitcoin for it. The spent bitcoin then goes to the
people who find the best solutions, in addition to whatever small amount of
new bitcoin is mined. And replace "bitcoin" with whatever the new name would
be, of course.

May be possible, maybe not. There's basically no chance I'll be able to
implement some version of either any time soon, so feel free to run with it if
anyone thinks they can.

~~~
unix-dude
This and similar ideas are often passed around. There are a few
cryptocurrencies which try to implement something like this (finding series of
primes, for example).

There are a few problems with actually implementing your suggestions. You call
hashing "pointless", but it is anything but that. Hashing, specifically SHA256
in bitcoin's case, has a well understood and possibly proven (?) level of
difficulty. There is no known way to gain an advantage, other than simply
throwing more computational power at the problem. Thus, because the problem
being solved is arbitrary, random, and difficult, it takes a huge amount of
computational power to make an invalid transaction.

Not only do you have to find initial "acceptable" hashes for your faked block,
you have to create hashes of all the following blocks up until the present
time, and push this version of the blockchain as legitimate until a majority
of the network adopts it as the correct branch. The absolutely ridiculous
computational power required to do this is what keeps transactions of
cryptocurrencies safe. You don't just have to fake one hash, you have to find
and fake an entire chain of them!

Many scientific problems don't have the same kind of guarantees about
difficulty. And even if they are really, really hard, what happens when you
find the answer? You'd essentially have to hard-fork all the clients. SHA256
and other hash functions used have a search space that is astronomically high,
and is guaranteed never to be "completed".

Hashing is a way to make transactions safe, permanent, and unmodifiable
because of the cryptographic properties which come with the field. There's
very little chance of someone stumbling upon sequential solutions, and
essentially impossible for someone to "derail" the blockchain due to those
properties. The value that hashing provides are those guarantees.

~~~
Scienz
This is why I'm just throwing the idea out there (though, as you say, it's
probably not even a very original one). It would take some thought to figure
out a way to make it work as well as the current hashing system. Perhaps
"pointless" was a careless choice of words, but the incentive is to put all
those cycles to a use that had more value for society, apart from the value of
creating bitcoin itself. I forget the exact order of magnitude, but iirc it's
something like tens of millions of dollars of electricity being used by miners
each year, for no other purpose than to verify the blockchain. It'd be
convenient if we could still have cryptocurrency, but all the computing power
was going into something like BOINC instead. Hashing is used for good reasons,
as you point out, but it's a wasteful use of resources, in my opinion. Even if
it wasn't the best cryptocurrency, something that would crash and die with new
scientific/mathematical advances, I'd still consider it successful if it got
all those resources working on more valuable problems for a while.

It's definitely a half-baked idea. I'd like to take a shot at seeing if I
could work out those details, but it's not the top priority on my list of
projects. Maybe in a few years, if it is possible and no one else has managed
it yet.

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mokkol
I don't know if it already exist but a password tool that automatically
changes your passwords and syncs it with your mobile/desktop every day.
(password for example: gmail, twitter facebook etc.)

something like 1Password but automatically changing the passwords every
day/week/month

~~~
pallavkaushish
Mostly these type of software provide a policy system where you can set a rule
so after every x days you'll be forced to change your passwords.

However, automating this process for 3rd party apps would require to connect
to the apps in a way that it allows the product to change passwords of your
other accounts.

I'm not even sure if 3rd party apps provide you the API to change password etc
from another product. If that can be done then this product is very feasible.

------
gus_massa
Current discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693262)
(150 points, 8 hours ago, 160 comments)

------
panon
[https://github.com/topdownburglar/globalu/blob/master/README...](https://github.com/topdownburglar/globalu/blob/master/README.md)

------
donniezazen
What would you like to see in a weight logging Android application?

~~~
27182818284
The next steps in fitness are going to come with device integration, not just
the app alone. The apps themselves, not coupled to devices, are converging on
ideal in my opinion. I can't think of other features that I would like more
for apps like MyFitnessPal other than more integration with the world around
me through devices.

~~~
donniezazen
You are right. Device integration is tricky as hardware manufacturers don't
play well with standards. And those hardware manufacturers that are ahead of
curve are out of reach of general consumers.

There are several apps in the market that do what I want a logger to do but
they tend to present the data in a form which is not very effective in
motivating me and reminding me the purpose. For example, There are a lot of
app that one can use for tracking activities but Moves take the whole paradigm
of activity tracking to the next level.

------
petersouth
Seeing less comments. It appears people are quickly running out of good ideas.

~~~
DanBC
This is a duplicate thread.

