
Whats your NEXT invention? - mauricecheeks

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rms
Cure HIV: Start with some adult stem cells from the HIV patient to be treated,
specifically the stem cells that produce T cells. We introduce the 32 base
pair deletion in the CCR5 gene and grow the cells in culture. These can then
be "transplanted" back into the patient. These transplanted stem cells will
create HIV immune T cells. Once there are enough immune T cells, the patient
will probably still have HIV, but it will not develop into AIDS. There will be
no chance of rejection since they are the patient's own cells. Furthermore,
since the body does produce antibodies to HIV, these modified T cells may even
be able to fight off the HIV.

To test this, we would get a mouse line, which are genetically very similar to
each other from inbreeding so we won't have to worry about rejection of the
transplants, and introduce the human CCR5 receptor into them. This, in theory,
will allow the mice to be infected with HIV since HIV attaches to the CCR 5
receptor to enter and infect the cell. If this works, we can then try the
technique of taking some of their stem cells, introducing the mutation,
transplanting them back in, and see if their T cell count increases or if the
levels of HIV decrease. It could also be used as a preventative therapy, which
we can also easily test on the mice.

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Leonidas
My next invention would entail reducing medication errors. Current available
applications are developed by hackers who make it too difficult for non-hacker
healthcare professionals to understand how to use. In addition, the logical
layout of lab values, prescriptions and so forth is not optimized for
decreased error. To have hospitals pay 40-60 million a year to license an
ineffective, flawed, application is ridiculous. I've been in one of the most
advanced hospitals in the United States and my gawd, they still use a "DOS"
system like interface ...wth...60 million a year for that?

Personally, my error medication invention will be a contribution I'd like to
make to patients and to my profession. You don't get second chances when you
deal with patients.. a first error can kill.

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zaidf
Once I have some money in the bank, I want to escape to an island, assemble a
small team of medical researchers and find a cure for a genetic condition I
suffer from.

Each time I get an episode of it I can't help but wonder why it is that much
harder to find a cure for it than fixing a broken computer:) May be I can use
this innocence and get somewhere. Medicine is the last thing of my natural
interest but in this context I really hope to take on this fun challenge at
some point.

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rms
With enough money in the bank, I'm sure you can make a serious impact on a
specific area of medical technology. The hard part is finding qualified people
that are brilliant enough to think outside of the box.

~~~
zaidf
True. That is the prime reason my business partner brother is going to med
school. His tech entrepreneurial background with a med school education should
at least give us a good base to start from whenever we do this.

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Hexayurt
Affordable biometric digital ID systems to enable people in the developing
world to get loans and other access to capital.

No patents.

I already more-or-less solved the first round of problems in doing affordable
housing for the developing word:

<http://Appropedia.org/Hexayurt_Project> \- and placed all that work into the
public domain. So now it's time to hunt bigger fish.

Reality is much, much clearer if you think about the needs of the very, very
poor, and the interaction between the shocking arrival of the cellphone and
solar panels or the national grid and the basal economic needs of a family.

Got the contract from the Federal Govt. to write the papers and prepare a demo
of the technology coming next week I'm told, and it'll be going into the
public domain shortly thereafter.

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amichail
It might be interesting to build a "first impressions" service where people
would give you their first impressions on all sorts of things including
startups and ads.

To encourage people to do this, you could build a game like this:

<http://listengame.org>

In a sense, this "first impressions" service would also provide a form of
advertising targeted at people who are willing to see what you have just for
fun.

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danw
The mobile industry needs to be fixed. The sooner the better. I know the two
major limitations are restrictive Operators and fragmented Handsets, I just
cant yet find the correct solution. The best I can see is to fix it in the
same way we made microsoft irrelevant. Ensure that phones have reliable fast
low latency internet connections and consistent web browser support accross
handsets. Its not ideal and it'll take another 5-10 years or so.

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mauricecheeks
\- revamp the music industry (big business is not invited)

\- political social network (get people talking)

\- revolutionize the structure of the internet (its a mess)

\- introduce new airline software (I'd sell that myself)

If anyone wants to do any of these things feel free, because they need to be
done. If you want to participate in my efforts to seem them happen in the
future - maurice@revvu.com

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rms
I worked for US Airways in maintenance/engineering and I think that most of
their problems stem from trying to run an enterprise on 70's era mainframes
and software. So much extra labor is required to do things that should be
automated but instead require lots of human hours. But, they're incredibly
resistant to change and spending money. So I think selling it would be
impossible.

~~~
mauricecheeks
Thanks for your input.

I'm sure it would be _nearly_ impossible to sell. ;-) Hence i volunteer to
sell it myself. I'm sure it would be a huge undertaking because of things the
hardware limitations & time it would take to update things... but once in
place, it'd be well worth it for everyone involved.

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mukund
Why think of the next? we would put our entire energy into running this
current one. There is no question of NEXT one unless we get this one up and
running successfully.May be we may need to modify or add more things but if
that is called NEXT thing then we will take it ;-)

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aristus
Archiving the web in a decentralized way. The idea is to define a format for
indexes that is both human and search-engine friendly, and coming up with ways
to encourage people to share their archives. (dowser.sf.net; dowser-
archive.org coming soon)

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randallsquared
Yet another micropayments startup. Unfortunately, my current thoughts on that
require several hundred thousand, minimum, so I'll need to get rich (relative
to where I am) before I can really get that done.

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rms
So how do you solve micropayments?

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randallsquared
I'm still working on the details, but the direction I'm moving mostly consists
of taking the best ideas of current payment systems and leaving the worst ones
out. The trickiest one involves email addresses as the payment identifier.
That seems like a good idea at first glance (and had me fooled for years; I'm
from a payment systems background), but I think it turns out to have been a
bust.

I'm also not particularly interested in P2P payments, as there are lots and
lots of systems out there for that, and it never has really taken off. The
dominant system is still merchant/customer, and I think it will continue to be
for a number of reasons: each person receiving payments needs a lot of people
paying to make any given activity worth doing, and people just don't seem to
pay each other tiny sums -- and paycheck-size sums are already handled well by
check/ACH, direct deposit, and so on.

But given the level of funding I'll need to get this started properly, it
certainly isn't a YC app, so I have to succeed with some other interesting
project first. :)

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smasse
a program to chat with dolphins using underwater whistles and that many people
can use at the same time (e.g., as a decentralized p2p IM conference session)
so that large groups of people can try to figure out in real-time the
meanings, if any, in a live whistle exchange. The working prototype has a user
guide at <http://leafyseadragon.blogspot.com/> \- the p2p components are not
completed - the prototype is a standalone application (i.e., laptop).

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mauricecheeks
I thought it'd be interesting to hear what project everyone wants to do next.
Or just ideas for things they want to see happen in the future.

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yaacovtp
Kosher for Passover food that tastes good. Big, hungry market for it.

~~~
juwo
that's easy. use Indian spices.

perhaps we can cook up something!

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juwo
my next invention?

-deaf people communicate without sign language.

I already have the ideas - but no prototype. would need funding.

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rms
Good luck going against "deaf culture." Deaf (with a capital D) people are
extremely resistant to change or anything that threatens their community.

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juwo
We've all changed - haven't we?

:)

~~~
rms
I'm not sure what you mean. Certainly, if your invention is good enough, I'm
sure you will be able to find some success, even if you don't change Deaf
culture as a whole.

~~~
juwo
I think it is more suited to a research project in a University. There are
still a few things to be figured out.

But to your point, I meant that cultures do change; willingly or unwillingly,
when faced with disruptive and effective technology. The strange thing is;
they sometimes willingly change for the worse.

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theoutlander
Online Collaboration Site

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dawie
Build a Time machine

