

HN: Name a problem, any problem, you'd like to see someone solve - Mystalic

What's a problem that bothers you intensely? Any problem, as big or as specific as you'd like.<p>Who knows, maybe one of these ideas will turn into a YC company!<p>A continuation of a question I asked HN 3 years ago -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442571
======
krelian
Here's a problem that I just realized bothers me way too much. I despise the
SEO industry. It is polluting the web with useless content that shadows
actually useful one. Places like odesk/freelancer.com are bombarded with
requests for "article writers" to churn out "articles" with a level of writing
lower than the average highschooler. Massive amounts of fake facebook accounts
with fake friends, fake twitter followers, fake +1's, and fake links are
manufactured every day.

How do you make it unprofitable for SEO's to game the system?

/rant

~~~
canatan01
Maybe the new semantic Google update will solve your problem:
[http://www.seoconsult.com/seo-news/google/algorithm-
update-g...](http://www.seoconsult.com/seo-news/google/algorithm-update-
google-focusing-on-semantic-search-technology.html)

------
yjfrench
An alternative to incarceration or a better experience while incarcerated.
Something more humane, less costly or better yet, an alternative to the
current prison system that has a net positive effect on society and the
economy. Apparently, there's a lot of talent locked up - what a waste:
[http://www.quora.com/Prisons/What-are-some-aspects-of-
incarc...](http://www.quora.com/Prisons/What-are-some-aspects-of-
incarceration-that-could-not-possibly-be-guessed-at-by-someone-who-hasnt-
experienced-it/answer/Eric-Phil-Phillips)

~~~
read_wharf
It's _astounding_ to me that the US prison system is such a snake pit. The
inmates rule everything but the surface. It should be all but impossible for
murder and other major crimes to happen in prison; we already know where the
criminals are!

------
waterlesscloud
Substantially increased battery life. Seems to be one of the major factors
holding back energy solutions and a true explosion of mobile device use.

~~~
Mystalic
I think wireless power -- rather than more efficient batteries -- is the long-
term solution.

~~~
trbecker
Graphene seems promising too.

------
scheff
Finding users.

I'm constantly brainstorming ideas, and rapidly prototyping them, but without
being able to find the early adopters to begin the feedback loop, the ideas
die. What's the best way to find early adopters for my ideas? I'm based in
Australia, so meetup groups tend to be very lean around specific
interests/technology, but geolocation shouldn't be relevant to internet
startups.

~~~
AGRmenta
<http://betabait.com/> sends their newsletter subscribers (early adopters) a
daily email with a new beta invite to an internet startup or app. I am a very
busy college student but it's the only email I actually skim through every
day. I can't speak to the effectiveness completely since I don't have a
smartphone and only use the web apps but, it seems to be built around a
community of willing participants. Hope that helps.

------
tobiasu
Search - I'm even going to pay for it. Search for the damn terms I enter into
a search field. The "app" may at most have a CSS style sheet, 1993 look. No
Javascript, no images. Give me options to limit my search to date ranges,
domains, urls, languages, etc.

HTTPS basic auth. No cookies, no tracking, no country detection, no redirect
to see what I clicked, no guessing unless I add a flag in the search field.

There was a company once that provided something like this for "free". Then
they turned to SHIT.

~~~
mmedal
It's not EVERYTHING you want, but I started using <http://duckduckgo.com/>
about a week ago and it's probably the closest you're going to get to a useful
search engine nowadays. Full keyboard usage and zero tracking. Simple and
clean. I'm enjoying it thus far.

~~~
read_wharf
Love ddg.

As you become accustomed to using their bang codes, you'll find yourself
trying/guessing a new bang code because "that's what it should be," and
sometimes it works. That's how I discovered my pinboard tags are behind !pb

------
PaperclipTaken
Fluid/continuous education. For the first two weeks of my junior year of high
school, I was learning the same version of the scientific method in 3 classes.
I learned it again in two different classes my senior year of high school.

I would like to see education that is based on a knowledge map so that a
person never needs to learn something that they already know.

~~~
aDemoUzer
my opinion on re-learning - there were multiple subjects that I took in
college which went over same content that I had learned in High School. I
actually enjoyed re-learning them because the content was presented in a
different way, so it made more sense to me that it had before. It is one thing
to learn something once, but when I learn some concept over and over again, I
tend to discover something new about it or related to it. Even small concepts
can have greater meaning to it that I did not saw at first.

I have similar experience with movies - Dark Knight - I watched it 4 times and
each time I find it more fascinating because I saw new details in the movie.

------
DanBC
Here's a tiny thing:

The UK uses the concept of "units" for public health when talking about
alcohol. These aren't well understood. There's concern about binge drinking.
But there's also concern about non-typical groups.

Make a little web-app game. Display a variety of glasses, and wine bottles.
Include the ABV (alcohol by volume) rating. "pour" a glass of wine. tell the
user how many mls are in the glass. (125 ml at 8%ABV is one unit. It's rare to
see glasses that small, they're normally 175 ml or 250 ml. And wine is usually
much stronger.) Then ask them how many units are in that glass. Give them a
score. (and show them how much of that glass is just one unit) Repeat for 5
glasses. Show them the difference between what they guessed and true. Link to
some alcohol awareness sites.

"Drinking "just a little more than they should" puts people at risk of serious
illness including heart disease, stroke and cancer, the government is
warning." <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16869618>

Nice chart:
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Units_of_alcohol_char...](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Units_of_alcohol_chart.svg)

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16886547>

Young people, especially women, with alcohol related illness.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7092347.stm>

Rise in Cirrhosis. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17513505>

Baffling numbers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3303805.stm>

Record numbers. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13559455>

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16443240>

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15114325>

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4581530.stm>

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15997695>

------
unimpressive
1.) The average computer users fear of their own computer. It hurts me on a
deep level (Deeper than just seeing a business opportunity.) to see the
bicycle for the mind being marginalized in it's potential by people trying to
sell things. (Microsoft, IBM, and co. Have probably done permanent damage to
humanity by spreading the meme that computer knowledge is for 'nerds'.
Whatever those are.) As we move further into the 21st century, and computers
become ever more ubiquitous, it seems that computer knowledge becomes ever
more scarce. (I'd have to run the numbers to be sure, but while the number of
computer literate people has objectively gone up, I would think that the
percentage of people with any sort of understanding deeper than the surface of
point and click has gone down.)

I'm not even sure if it's a solvable problem. But if someone did it would be a
great service to humanity.

2.) I'm 99% sure that this can't be solved by an external third party. But my
1% nagging doubt is enough to make me list it.

Quite simply, I have problems getting things done. It's not necessarily that
I'm lazy, it's just that It takes more effort to figure out what I should be
doing right now than it does to just keep procastinating on the same task. To-
do lists help, but are ultimately inadequate. A pen and paper to-do list
always seems to evade my attention when I try one. Writing it out in a text
file usually works better, but it's still not a surefire thing. It's not
necessarily that I need better _to-do list software_ so much as it is that I
need a better way to manage my time in a way that either:

A] I don't have to manually write down and erase tasks as I do them. Besides
an erase shortcut I don't think that this is really feasible. Computers can't
read my mind yet.

B] It will make or convince me to habitually update and read it in such a way
that it's not annoying or somehow feels out of sync with my workflow.

Maybe I'm alone on this one, maybe I'm not. Maybe it's solvable, but I doubt
it.

I'd just like to remind anyone who's read this far that not every problem is
best solved by a start-up or business. If you feel strongly about anything in
this thread you should at least consider the possibility of other methods of
achieving your goals. (But being able to potentially make sizable sums of
money while you do is a sweet bonus.)

~~~
dshanahan
Really like this post; articulating something I experience and something I see
a TON of entrepreneurs quietly struggle with.

I share your intuition that it's not entirely a machine-ready problem;
productivity tools (using that term WIDELY) have certainly improved, corrected
in innovative ways for all of our typical human tendencies, and in some cases
work really well for "some" people.

I've been consulting lately on a project focused on providing human coaching
to this specific problem for big-thinking tech entrepreneurs. Also definitely
not for everyone, but after chatting with a number of investors about how they
might 'enhance' their influence on their portfolio founders, this was
something that always seems to be a "lightbulb". It's most surprised me that
entrepreneurs themselves seem to be very much interested in the idea: "Yes, if
my investors provided me with a productivity/well-being coach I'd take full
advantage".

Thoughts?

~~~
unimpressive
I'm far too young to be of any help demoing products for entrepreneurs.
However, I think that this and other problems are near or on what I like to
call the "Deviation barrier.".

Basically it goes like this: Theres certain problems that seem solvable from
your perspective, but the _real_ problem is that the way in which the problem
manifests itself deviates largely enough from one person to the next that it
makes any solution non-portable to someone else's instance of the problem. As
computer science techniques get better I would wager that this barrier gets
thinner. I know that if I spent enough time on it _I could solve this problem
for myself._ But solving it in a way that would help others too? That's a tall
order.

There's a lot of problems that right now are near or on the deviation barrier.
I like to think that as that barrier hypothetically thins that computers will
be able to help us with more unique aspects of our lives and account for
individual quirks.

But talking right here right now; I'm not sure that you would be able to find
effective productivity coaches. Feel free to prove me wrong on this.

~~~
dshanahan
I agree this is a problem that's near the "Deviation barrier". I also agree
it's narrowing, and admit that what I was suggesting is a 'low-tech' solution.
I suppose I was simply offering that I'm seeing empirical evidence that this
is a pain point in a particular market that's large enough that people look
willing to pay to try and fix it.

~~~
unimpressive
> I also agree it's narrowing, and admit that what I was suggesting is a 'low-
> tech' solution.

That's not in itself a reason to reject an idea. A lot of the time the best
solution is decidedly "Low Tech". Thinking that added complexity has any
correlation with the usefulness of a system is a fallacy.

(Example: [http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Classic-WTF-Lock-and-
Key.asp...](http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Classic-WTF-Lock-and-Key.aspx))

It's not even that your idea is _bad_. It's not. I'm just skeptical of the
availability of individuals who can make a difference without being out of the
price range of just about anything that could be defined as a "startup". In
fact, I'm skeptical of the availability of such individuals at _any_ price
range.

And I'm afraid that if you're serious about the idea that the onus is on you
to figure these things out and prove their worth.

------
KingTylerman
In North Korea, there are oppressed people who are brutally killed in actual
concentration camps. They are taught by the government that the American
people are evil. Is there a possible strategy for the U.S. to free the North
Korean people from the North Korean regime without killing most of them?

------
drowles
I would like to see our health care costs go down by an open source "health
care menu" system being created - where people can enter, for example,
"gastroscopy" into a field - tell where they got it, how long it took, how
much it cost, and a theory as to WHY...and then an opportunity for other
people to input their information on the healthcare costs...create an open
market so lower cost providers will steal business from more expensive
ones...and so we can actually LOOK at why a 30-minute procedure can POSSIBLY
cost $3,000.

------
the_watcher
Make television and entertainment an on demand system - I don't need Lifetime,
but want Longhorn Network and can't get it. I should be able to subscribe to
channels one by one. Similarly, why doesn't someone with a track record of
making quality entertainment (Mike Schur, Dan Harmon, Tina Fey) bypass
networks and middlemen, make a show, sell ads on it, and deliver it through
the internet

------
the_watcher
Introduce coding to public school curriculum at the middle school level.
Advanced middle school students can handle the basic concepts, and honestly,
they won't be any more disinterested than they are in poorly taught foreign
languages. It may even intrigue some who otherwise would not have gotten the
exposure. Also, I love what Codeacademy is doing, but it's hard to delete all
your work and start from scratch (which I find I need if there has been a long
layoff between my coursework.) Also, there aren't enough exercises/concept.
For me, I need 5-7 exercises to drill a concept into my memory, I get that
it's new, but they should consider adding more exercises at each stage as they
grow. I'd also love to see a brick and mortar Code Academy that offers some
form of certification after taking classes and passing tests (a more
traditional education approach). For those of us who have only learned in the
traditional classroom for 20+ years, I think some would rather pay to attend a
school like that.

------
read_wharf
I would like short url encoding to be an RFC, and every browser implement it
in the browser, encoding and decoding the url locally without having to query
some random .ly site.

In fact, if short url encoding were an RFC, you could compress all links on
your site to short, and the browser would expand them for display.

Other uses would probably reveal themselves.

------
D_Alex
How to acquire masses of medical data from patients' records for use in
medical research without causing concerns over privacy issues.

~~~
drowles
I don't know, but it's a brilliant idea.

------
bradleyland
Music genome project for food. There should be a restaurant genome project
where restaraunts and food types are linked in a way similar to how the music
genome projects works. That data should be available through an API, which
others can incorporate in to their foodie apps.

Speaking of foodie apps, I travel a lot, and while apps like AroundMe are
great, they have limited utility when I'm in central Georgia, driving south,
and want to know what's along the way. Do I stop now, or do I keep driving to
find something better than Chick-fil-a? What I'd really like is an app that
knows my route, and the time of day, and recommends restaurants based on where
I'll be at lunch/dinner time (give or take an hour).

I'd put considerable effort in to providing feedback to an app that provides
that level of utility, even at the expense of loss of privacy. I don't really
care if an app knows my dining preferences. I have nothing to lose and a lot
to gain.

~~~
dtromero
To piggy back off the restaurant genome project idea, it would be great if
food allergies and restrictions were incorporated as well. My girlfriend is
gluten free so we don't often eat out (or explore) because most restaurants
can't accommodate her needs.

------
the_watcher
When I'm in the grocery store, looking for an obscure item (cheese cloth is
the one that made me think of this). Build me a mobile app to search and get
info on where in the store the item is.

~~~
stdbrouw
Solving a problem is often about finding the right approach / fudging the
problem into something you _can_ solve. And there is actually a disruptive
solution to this: online shopping. Amazon has cheese cloth.

~~~
the_watcher
The problem is that it was a spur of the moment decision to try to make
ricotta, needed it then and there. Amazon solves this if you regularly need
cheese cloth, but not if you have never heard of it and all of sudden find out
you need it that night.

~~~
dshanahan
This is a problem we've assessed a bit at <http://foodtree.com> \- there are
some efforts in this space but none seem to have the penetration to make it
useful at scale. Our approach is to help grocers "spread their great story" as
an incentive to start mapping their inventory, both in the "where it's
from/who made it and how" perspective and the "what store near me has
OBSCUREITEM available right now" perspective, which is your problem but only
to store level. Getting to that level right now is tough with food retail
chains, but they're moving in the right direction.

So that we don't have to wait for them, we're trying to enable crowd-sourcing
as well; "I saw OBSCUREITEM here in case you're looking for it in town".

Again, very aware this is only your problem at the store's front door, but
maybe it's nice to know someone's working on it? :)

------
iceron
Free will, longer life span etc... :)

I would like an Android application that delays all notifications by a set
amount a time.

So if I want to do an hour of work I could set it to an hour and it wouldn't
notify me at all. After the hour is up, all the notifications appear as they
normally would.

------
jeffool
I'd like to see a home server. A central computer hooked to everything
shouldn't be a pipedream. It should be hooked to the media center, handheld
devices, thermostat and security.

Why shouldn't cable tv go to my computer, which then controls my dvr for the
home, and also incoming video/video/audio calls through the media venter, or
handhelds, as preferences determine.

Stream a desktop or any media to any hardware you have or buy with a login and
password.

(The deaf community already uses third party set top boxes for video calls. I
bet there's room for a platform agnostic solution there alone. Maybe a good
open source project for someone.)

------
designlatte
Why is it so hard to choose health insurance? And then, once you're in the
system, why is it so hard to keep up with all the paperwork, etc. I grew up in
Canada and after living in the States for 10 years, it's been so frustrating
to navigate the health care system, and I'm a healthy person. I can't imagine
how people who are sick have time and energy to put towards getting better
when they are consumed with just "getting through" the system.

~~~
jasonlotito
On this note, as someone who just moved _from_ Canada with a special-needs
child, and let me tell you, the US is light-years ahead of Canada. You
mentioned you are healthy, so I can only assume your experience is fairly
limited. Myself, and mostly my wife, have experienced both of these systems
(coming back to the US just last year), and she absolutely loves the American
system. Having seen the results myself, I can't describe the Canadian system
as anything better than outright child abuse.

~~~
designlatte
Hi there :) I wanted to clarify, I'm not talking about the quality of care.
I'm talking about just the act of choosing which health care you should get
and then keeping up with all the paperwork once you're sick. I've been outside
of Canada for the past 12 years, but when I've gone to the doctor in the
states for something as simple as stitches or a bad cold, I've always been
amazed at how complicated it is in terms of bills and co-pays etc. I know that
everyone things the system is so great, but I agre with you, it's not. It's
ugly. People wait months for critical cat scans. Surgery is often cancelled or
bumped. And patients regularly abuse the system rather than be proactive about
their health. So in summary (sorry this got so long!!) neither system is
perfect, but when I came to the states, I felt like I was just totally blind
as I was choosing which insurance to get. I'd love to see someone fix the
issue of helping people choose the right health care that's best for them,
make best use of the FSA system, and manage bills / paperwork in a more
efficient way.

~~~
jasonlotito
Gotcha. =) I have a knee-jerk reaction when someone starts promoting Canada
over US healthcare. I blame Canada for that, not the person.

As for the health care in the US, a lot of that is based on your carrier. Shop
around! You aren't stuck with a single health care provider, and you can
choose your doctors. My wife was amazed that after she went to one doctor, she
was asked if she wanted to continue to see that doctor, or wanted to try
someone else.

She's the one that deals with this on a day to day basis, so I trust her in
this department. She also mentioned that here, people are so much more willing
to help with any paperwork that might arise. And considering all the paperwork
she's done to get my son the care he needs, she knows what she's talking
about.

That's not to say things couldn't be easier.

> I was just totally blind as I was choosing which insurance to get.

So many choices! Yep. It can be overwhelming. My wife abused the help line of
our insurance provider, and our companies rep the first few months. She'd call
at least once a week with questions. However, she found that generally, they
were more than willing to walk her through everything, and in some cases, did
it right over the phone on her behalf.

------
gosub
1) I would like my car cleaned and refueled while I'm not using it, without my
intervention. During the night for example, or while at the gym.

2) I would like a unified api for events that happens and my computer can
recognize: pc turn on/off/sleep, received email, a rss feed updated, someone
from my contact list is online or goes offline, dusk/dawn, my presence in
front of the computer, the presence of someone else in front of the computer,
etc...

3) I wrote some scripts to scrape particular image-boards and blogs. I'd like
a tool that identifies duplicates and could categorize pictures, maybe with
some training (for example meme/macro images should not be too difficult).

4) a music tracker tool (like renoise) with some particularities: notes and
durations are not absolute values but relative to a root note, patterns are
per-instrument (like in buzz), patterns are zoomable or non-linear in size
(some parts have 1 note per measure, others 64 per beat)

5) a file system where I could simply indicate the redundancy I want for a
specific file or directory (like a per-file raid).

------
Suan
A controllable, smartphone-based car entertainment system.

Any smartphone could be plugged in via a USB-like cable which transfers I/O,
audio and power. The car's up/down/left/right "radio" buttons would then
control like/dislike/next/previous for Pandora-like apps running on the phone.
Throw in another 2 buttons or so for other functions. There would be an open
"key-mapping" standard which would be implemented in the OSes which music apps
could tap into. There would be a standard set of programmable-per-app buttons
(not unlike video game controllers)

Voice is unusable when music is playing and touchscreens are too dangerous.
Mobile and digital entertainment technologies move so fast, yet I only change
my car twice in 3 decades or so - I don't want to be constrained by what
technology was available when I bought it.

~~~
JonLim
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you would be looking for, but this popped
up on Kickstarter a while ago and it's a good start.

Dash: [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devium/dash-the-smart-
ph...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/devium/dash-the-smart-phone-car-
stereo)

------
Mikosia
A proactive security tool to protect computers from malware, perhaps using a
combo of Artificial Life, Genetic Programming and Artificial Immune systems,
with social networking and swarm computing thrown in for good measure.

cf. our current reactive approach of applying antivirus updates post hoc.

~~~
wladimir
This sounds both useful and futuristic. However, I think it's more like a new
field of research than something you could realize in a startup. We're not
even close yet.

------
deezcashews
Is there a way to stop this flood of accelators, incubators, and web startups
that add little value to the billions of people on this planet who don't care
about social media, apps, or tablets? Alternatively, why don't we focus on
overpopulation, cures for cancer, and real alternative energy?

------
terra3110
The major challenge for any photobook creation is the following:

An user has for example 100 images from vacation. Some choose nearly the same
object, if this is he case some will be better than others (sharpness,
contrast, and so on).

For an automatic creation process of a photobook without the need for the user
to "choose" images it is necessary, to identify images with similar objects.
Some attributes can be Location (if GPS Data available in the EXIF data) or
Time (if multiple images was taken within less than a minute), but this kind
of information are not very offen available or accurate. To analyse images to
identify similar images and find the "best of the image" with less risk of
false positive is a challenge.

~~~
true_religion
There's a guy who's working in this area on HN.

I believe his web app is called Inapic.com

~~~
terra3110
Thanks, seems to be the right think.

------
vijayt
How to disrupt enterprise software? Even with all the startups coming up in
cloud, enterprise sales is still largely relationship based and takes forver
to close... How does one convert the long sales cycles to rapid close?

------
frankydp
Stock room inventory/management for the small and large business.

Must include Point of Sale recipe management/tracking. Counting is worthless
without knowing what is leaving the store.

The problem with current "disruption" is that they think the cash register is
the problem. The ability to scale and integrate back of the house management
with front of the house interfaces is the only real way to disrupt the POS
industry. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an industry outsider that will never
really break in. aka Taking credit cards on an iphone is not disruption.

------
hutchike
Why is it still so hard to drop a file on a LAN from one laptop to another
(except for Apple's AirDrop goodness)??? I mean the easiest way to get a file
from my Mac to your Win7 laptop is still a USD stick. Sucks.

------
joannlefebvre
The technology exists, so why aren't more companies manufacturing motors that
don't require oil or electricity. Most of the machines we use can run on
solar, magnetic, or some form of hydrogen power.

------
ZenSurfer
Facebook filter:

Situation: I have over 1,000 friends and ff several hundred twitter feeds. I
end up seeing too much bs (spam ads, useless topics, and miss out on important
info. Good events, interesting posts) I want something that can sort out my
twitter feeds and facebook feeds and show me whats important while de-
emphasizing od even junking the rest. Sort of like a spam filter for facebook
and twitter

------
samcornwell
The archival of digital photography is unsafe. Photographs that are 100 years
old and made out of glass are more resilient that a photo that has been
updated to Facebook. I'd like to see a more secure form of digital archiving -
better than cloud computing as that is still data and moving parts.

------
DanBC
I want to pay when I've read a great article. I might even want to subscribe
to that newspaper / magazine / journal.

But I don't want a print edition mailed to me. I only want an online
subscription.

I want someone to make it easy for me to pay a dollar or so for a great
article.

------
the_watcher
A software that _successfully_ generates correct Bluebook citations (for
lawyers and law students - law students would pay at least $100 each to avoid
doing this, there are software's out there, the problem is they don't give
correct citations).

~~~
polyfractal
This intrigues me, since it looks like some of the offerings are pretty good
(e.g. Citrus _looks_ quite powerful).

Would you be willing to chat over email? Mine is in my profile.

------
Skyionx
Creating a substantial and culturally diverse world that runs without money.

~~~
read_wharf
Could you break that down into a few sub-problems?

------
luolimao
p = np? haha, just kidding. Actually, my issue is this: how do we get the
average Joe to understand (formal) logic and probability (so that we can get
people to understand the aspects of risk better)?

~~~
tensor
Participate in, promote, and fund skeptical societies and skeptical outreach
groups. This is one of many topics that these groups try to cover.

For example, these two podcasts have had positive influence: Skeptics Guide to
the Universe Bad Astronomy

This is actually one of those problems where an established solution
(outreach/education) with time and money would actually work well.

------
jonthedog
A way to automatically change double byte romaji characters to single byte

~~~
someone13
Try this in Python?

    
    
        import codecs
        
        fin = codecs.open('input.txt', 'rb', 'shift-jis')
        fout = codecs.open('output.txt', 'wb', 'utf-8')
        
        try:
            fout.write(fin.read())
        except ValueError:
            print "Not encoded using Shift-JIS!"
    

Not sure if that's what you mean - feel free to clarify, if not.

------
dbikard
I would like researchers to publish their results instantly so that they are
freely accessible through natural language. Like: give me all the proteins
that bind this molecule!

------
ddw
Yahoo! Pipes for web scraping. Don't have to write a line of code, just a GUI
that can even do complex things.

There's a lot of information out there that should be freed.

------
squadron
Political concentration camps in North Korea. I'm serious.

Mind you, I do have an idea for this. If anyone is interest (even you Ben),
hit me up on email.

~~~
chromedude
Well... there's no email to hit you up by on your profile

------
the_watcher
A mobile app to share resumes, so you don't have to carry paper resumes to
jobs fairs (thought of it at the SxSW Tech Career Expo)

~~~
mmedal
Powered by NFC. _tap_ here's my resume.

------
electrichead
Why ate we still ok with resumes and degrees when we can instead have a full-
breadth breakdown of skills and accomplishments?

------
Siliticx
Convince the general population that eSports are 1) an actual careeer and that
2) is a legitimate sport.

------
the_watcher
Anyone with ideas about how to solve the issues I proposed feel free to reach
out to me to discuss.

------
the_watcher
Build on the Sporcle app and make it head to head - Words with Friends for
Sporcle.

------
stevebhyve
a just in time computer. just load what i need when i want it.

oh and help mohammad rahimi teach the afghan women how to use computers for
life skills and education

------
sdfcom
Solve hatred violence corruption and war.

~~~
anthonycerra
Hatred leads to violence and war so if you could make a dent in the first, it
might pay off in the long run. What about a an app like chatroulette (text
only) that paired up people across the world from each other and translated
text into their native language? It might be interesting to get to know
someone from Iran and see their perspective on things.

Corruption - An anonymous whistle blower site would be interesting.

~~~
Carcamonster
Wikileaks?

------
Intermediate
Port emacs to clojure

------
Nikkau
How women's brain works?

------
bonnieclyde23
ok check it out i have bank accounts and the money is mine my grandpa had
passed away and he had left all is fundings to me ad my family had tkin the
papers adn destoyed now i ae all th information too get into the account like
routing number etc i jjst cant transfer the funds because i guess he needs to
approve whatever i am totalyl looking for some one who is a little more
advanced on the hacking into bank accounts i guess you can say welli willt
otaly apreciate if someone got back with me thank you lmuch bonnie

