
Ask HN: What company do you wish existed? - mroll
What is a product or service that would save you time and&#x2F;or money if it existed? It could be something you would work on, but don&#x27;t have the time. Or it might be something you don&#x27;t have the expertise to build.
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ambivalents
A service that could look up every online account I've ever created, probably
by email address, and allow me to completely delete it and all associated
data. Like Unroll.me, but for user accounts. Oh yeah and without the sketchy
data re-selling practices.

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cimmanom
A way to purchase pre-cut lumber in small quantities.

For instance, I need an 18-24" piece of 2x4 to prop up an air conditioner, and
a couple 30" lengths of 1x10 to convert steam radiators into makeshift
shelving. Oh, and four 36" lengths of 1/4" dowel to sew into the bottoms of
curtains.

Obstacles to my acquiring these:

1) The small corner hardware stores I can get to on foot or by transit don't
sell lumber, period.

2) I don't own a car, and hate driving (I do have a license, but many of my
neighbors don't, and I can get about my daily life 99% of the time without
one).

3) OK, let's say I take a cab to a big box store. They'll only sell me full 8'
lengths of lumber.

4) Fine, I rent a car or get a cab home, or maybe Home Depot has finally
worked out that New Yorkers will buy more if they provide delivery even for
small sales.

5) At this point, I've already spent $100 on taxis or more on car rental just
getting to and from the store.

6) I finally get the lumber home, and I can't cut it. I live in a New York
apartment, with no outdoor space for projects like this. I own a screw gun
because it's useful for assembling Ikea furniture and attaching stuff to
walls, but for obvious reasons I don't own a hand saw let alone a circular saw
or table saw. Neither do any of my neighbors. And even if I had a saw, no way
it's getting anywhere near my apartment's hardwood floors (do you have any
idea how much the security deposit was?)

7) By some miracle, I find someone to lend me a saw AND a space to cut the
lumber in (where??) -- I have nowhere to put the scraps and no sensible way to
get rid of them.

~~~
matt_s
You'd probably be surprised how fast a hand saw can cut through a board.

Buy a handsaw at the big box store when you buy your wood, cut it in the
parking lot before loading it into a cab/uber/rental car. Only do rough cuts
(e.g. a little longer than you need) unless you have 100% certain dimensions.
Buy sandpaper and sand your way to perfect fit at home, if needed.

The 4 36" dowel rods should be purchase-able in that size. You could ask the
big box store to cut larger boards, they do this in the lumber area for
plywood.

If this is too much to take on - hire a handyman to do the prop for the AC and
ask for them to get the other supplies.

~~~
Declanomous
There's a saw at home depot (and probably Lowe's) and they'll cut your lumber
for you. I think it's one cut per piece of lumber for free.

Home depot lumber is super expensive to begin with, so it's kind of baked in
to the cost.

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astrodev
Long-term rentals without the phone calls, in-person visits and dealing with
shady brokers. Airbnb was almost there but decided to focus on the mostly
illegal hotel-like short-terms.

~~~
ruairidhwm
In Europe we have Spotahome which i've used a few times and found to be
excellent.

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enrmarc
Capsule Corporation (from Dragon Ball): "a company that creates special small
capsules that shrink and hold objects of various sizes for easy storage".

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codegladiator
Some service which can take in my golang project from github and build static
executable for every possible target and upload it to github releases.

It will be using karalabe/xgo for building these static executables.

So it can build these for all operating systems

\- web servers

\- cli applications

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davidjnelson
A service to match people with jobs based on their Signature Strengths[1]

1\. [https://www.viacharacter.org/www/Research/What-the-
Research-...](https://www.viacharacter.org/www/Research/What-the-Research-
Says-About-Character-Strengths-Signature-Strengths)

~~~
davidjnelson
Then I learned career matching is not a great fit for that[1]. Rather, doing
whatever job you're good at and applying the strengths is more useful. So
maybe a service that automates helping you use your signature strengths in
your current position. That would be a hard problem, but seems like it would
benefit society an incredible amount.

1\. [http://www.viacharacter.org/blog/use-your-strengths-to-
furth...](http://www.viacharacter.org/blog/use-your-strengths-to-further-your-
career/)

~~~
imauld
A service that helps you use your strengths to excel at your job is called a
manager (good ones anyway).

~~~
davidjnelson
True, but for the other x% of the population it could be great ;-)

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andrei_says_
A company I can share a github repo and a description of a webpack config, and
will get back the github repo with a working webpack config.

“Here’s this new middlemanapp project running scss through sprockets. Set it
up to process scss through webpack, make sprite-based icons from images in
this folder, compile es6 and vue modules or coffee script and cue modules,
include lodash, set up the hot reload to work with middleman’s, and prep
production and Dev environments.”

I’d pay for something like this.

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ecesena
Folding laundry.

~~~
quickthrower2
You just need hired help. Probably find a cleaner on gumtree or similar, and
ask them if they will do this for you.

If you want the laundry ironed as well then a dry cleaner will do it for you.
Some of them pickup and drop off.

~~~
ecesena
On the same line, you just need a taxi or a limo service, you don’t need uber
& lyft. You can also call/book and have them pick you up.

I don’t think the problem is solved yet in a way that’s satisfying.

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potta_coffee
weyland-yutani

