
Ask HN: If you had the time, what software would you build? - Nemant
Just curious to know what most HNers have on their minds.
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veddox
A 'realistic' simulation of an ecosystem. Three years ago researchers managed
to simulate an entire bacterium with every known gene and molecule, I'd like
to scale that up. (Though one could not keep same level of molecular
resolution when dealing with an ecosystem - too resource intensive.) Something
to keep in mind for when I write my PhD thesis...

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viraptor
Where do I even start...

\- graphical interface for neovim that looks exactly like sublimetext; ssh
channel for working with remote neovim in local ui

\- full range scanner / automatic database signal matcher for sdr

\- browser+server framework for board games that can abstract the display and
rules to the point where you can implement things from chess to warhammer

\- sane backend for the chef server

\- nicer interface / simplification for kvmtool so I could use it like unshare

\- python static type analyser

\- rc plane autopilot

\- python modules security checker like sensiolab security:check for php

\- some way of automatically namespacing apps started from home folder - for
example any steam games

\- everything that hurd needs to be as useable as linux at the moment

\- a modern version of bullfrog's syndicate

\- localised short-term weather forecast server using community supplied
weather data (mini-wunderground-at-home)

~~~
nstart
> browser+server framework for board games that can abstract the display and
> rules to the point where you can implement things from chess to warhammer

I've been wanting to do something like this for tabletop card games.

* Provide an open standard to define the design and optionally, logic related data for cards. I'll come back to this

* Provide an API for people to manage decks, draws, discards etc.

* Provide another API to manage distribution of cards amongst players via achievements or payments (collecting card decks basically)

The idea behind this would be to allow people to build card games that are
either played online or offline (by allowing people to download card decks).
Grand scheme of things would include a "github for card games" kind of system.
Big dreams, shit execution on my part :D

~~~
viraptor
Actually I read in the news before that gwent (card game from witcher 3) has
been implemented as a mod in tabletop simulator. I wanted to respond to you
with the link
([http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160](http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160))
- and I discovered it actually supports any board game!

~~~
nstart
That's really amazing. I never cease to stumble upon or be shown something
awesome each day. This is far more elaborate than anything I would have ever
imagined but wow. What a brilliant playground for makers and players. Should
introduce this to our local geek club. Pretty sure they'd enjoy this
thoroughly.

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unimpressive
A system that would tie software comments to 'blocks' of code. This way you
would be able to automatically detect the problem where comments/in-software
documentation becomes out of sync with the code it describes and correct it.

~~~
danieltillett
Even better a system that would not let you check in code if the comments were
not updated. Something simple like a section in the comment with a common tag,
a checksum on the code, a check sum on the comment, and a human readable
number that said how many lines the comment applied to. Something like:

//[common tag]-[code checksum]-[comment checksum]-25

This could be updated automatically and be backward compatible with current
system. You would just need some sort of hook in git/etc to calculate and
update the check sums and issue warning/errors if code checksum changed, but
the comment checksum didn’t.

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ilaksh
Distributed artificial general intelligence app, probably something like using
deep learning with a virtually embodied agent.

A digital circuit IP or maybe separate USB dongle that does path tracing in
hardware, maybe based on procedural generation from a built-in Forth.

Various business and government ideas built on Ethereum, promoted with the
intention of displacing existing more centralized institutions with
decentralized ones.

A backyard exchange website where people can rent out or share their backyards
for tiny house 'parking' and/or high-tech gardening like aeroponics or
aquaponics, or whatever they want besides being a big waste of space
collecting dog crap.

A unification of computer science, programming, and math. Or, a metalanguage
and representation tying together classical programming and mathematical
notation with interactive and/or visual programming, with the common part
reused in all types of informations systems.

A new operating system for virtual reality.

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hanniabu
If I had the time and money I would build a running cat-like robot. I've
always loved mechatronics, have a background in mechanical engineering, and
just recently started programming so I'm dying to give it a shot. I know it's
probably harder than it seems on the surface, but I have hope.

~~~
nstart
Heh. I always wanted to build a little robot that would sweep the house by
itself :D.

~~~
hanniabu
If you can find a Roomba that someone is getting rid of, that should make it
into a doable 3hr project or so by cannibalizing the brains and just modifying
the body. But depending on if you enjoy building the brains or the body more
then that may be a kill-joy and defeat the purpose.

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jchrisa
I've been thinking about this for a while [http://thenewstack.io/why-art-
could-become-currency-in-a-cry...](http://thenewstack.io/why-art-could-become-
currency-in-a-cryptocurrency-world/)

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lojack
A digital controller for my smoker that would control the temperature and
smoke output so that I could start cooking before bed and be done by the time
I woke up. Ideally it would keep a log of internal meat temperature and
internal smoker temp through time. I know you can buy commercial products that
do most/all of this, but I think it'd be a fun side project.

An isomorphic CMS built in react. This one I'll probably get to and leave as a
proof of concept. I'm personally fine with over-engineering things for my
amusement, but wouldn't want to subject clients to my woes. But, who knows —
could end up working better than expected.

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imauld
If I had the time (and let's be honest know how) I would patch Django to be
able to do server push notifications out of the box.

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nstart
A stylistic detector for writing. Basically software that can answer the
question of "was person X entirely responsible for a particular piece of
writing". To be applied in forensics, plagiarism detection, and as an
intelligent assistant to writers to ensure they maintain a consistent tone in
their writings.

~~~
unimpressive
See I wanted to make the opposite of this, software that would obfuscate your
writing style so that forensic analysis like that wouldn't work. It would be
able to analyze a corpus and give you suggestions on how to sound more like
say Leibniz or Hemmingway.

~~~
nstart
that's actually a really impressive idea (irony on username intended). Would
be interesting to run an idea like that on the entire Harry Potter text and
see what it would be like to change the tone to George R R Martin's writing
style.

Interestingly enough, you'd have to first build something that can identify
style right? So it would at least have to sit on top of a stylistic
identifier? Or is there a better way around this?

Side note. I built a prototype of the stylistic identifier as a final year
project. Never had time to pursue it afterwards.

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anarazel
A good open mail client with imap offline capabilities (right now mutt-kz
(mutt with integrated notmuch) + mbsync).

Other than that a bunch more features for postgres.

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sangupta
A really nice and powerful command line shell in Java with all the Linux
goodies specially for Windows.

~~~
MacAsm
It would be really nice. The closest we have, so far I know, is Cygwin (I
don't what it's like now, I used it a long time ago)

~~~
bbcbasic
Cygwin is pretty good. I am not sure how you can do much better it has a big
range of command line programs you can run, vim, git etc. The next step beyond
cygwin is to install a linux vm, then to dual boot, then to single boot and
chuck out Windows :-). Can't bring myself to do that though as a C#-ie.

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mzjs2
A natural-language search engine that turns sentences into facts, and can then
answer questions.

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Rmilb
A reference client for the Bitcoin Protocol written in a functional language
or a LISP.

