Whats your NEXT invention?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9711

by mauricecheeks • 19 years ago

7 28 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

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.

mauricecheeks4• 19 years ago

- 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

rms6• 19 years ago

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.

mauricecheeks4• 19 years ago

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.

yaacovtp• 19 years ago

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

juwo4• 19 years ago

that's easy. use Indian spices.

perhaps we can cook up something!

aristus• 19 years ago

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)

randallsquared2• 19 years ago

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.

mauricecheeks4• 19 years ago

yea i definitely want to see micro payments catch on. I've been ranting about this for months now. I think it is a much needed component of the new internet i want to see exist :-)

rms6• 19 years ago

So how do you solve micropayments?

randallsquared2• 19 years ago

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. :)

amichail• 19 years ago

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.

juwo4• 19 years ago

my next invention?

-deaf people communicate without sign language.

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

rms6• 19 years ago

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

juwo4• 19 years ago

We've all changed - haven't we?

rms6• 19 years ago

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.

zaidf2• 19 years ago

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.

rms6• 19 years ago

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.

zaidf2• 19 years ago

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.

dawie• 19 years ago

Build a Time machine

danw• 19 years ago

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.

Leonidas• 19 years ago

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.

mukund• 19 years ago

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 ;-)

theoutlander• 19 years ago

Online Collaboration Site

Hexayurt• 19 years ago

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.

smasse• 19 years ago

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).

Whats your NEXT invention?

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