3 ms·

Bring your half-baked idea to the Half-Bakery

80 points by rfreytag 15y ago

nodata 15y ago
I remember this site from the beginning of the Internet - nice to see it still going!
- jefffoster 15y ago
  An excellent web site! I first came across it when the topic of my PhD thesis was noted as a half-baked idea! (http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/gait_20recognition http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/gait_20recognition).
  - Joakal 15y ago
    Would it be easily fooled with silly walking like smiling does for facial recognition?
  - nodata 15y ago
    If I remember correctly, the Chinese have a product that uses this. It's built into floor tiles.
amirmc 15y ago
A great site and I'm glad to see it's still going (although apparently it kind of died - and was revived - in 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfbakery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfbakery) I had several (ridiculous) ideas while I was an undergrad and I remember how pleased I was when I found other folks had posted similar ideas on Half-Bakery. In fact one idea actually did end up on supermarket shelves (albeit in a different form).
jemka 15y ago
Signal to noise ratio makes these sites hard to take seriously or to put in any time to read through the submissions.
- amirmc 15y ago
  I don't think it's meant to be taken that seriously. Hence calling it 'Half-Baked'.
a5seo 15y ago
The best use for HalfBakery.com in my experience, is as Snopes for Ideas. If someone guardedly shares their own half-baked idea over dinner (especially if they think they need to find a technical partner, investor, or get a patent), rather than give them a lecture about customer development, I tell them it sounds interesting and send them a link to Half-Bakery or http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/ http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/. The hit rate is shockingly high. And even if they don't find their idea, they'll realize ideas are a dime a dozen and start focusing on how to validate whether their idea actually has legs. edit: there->their
snorkel 15y ago
You know you've been on the Internet too long when sites you visited a decade ago pop up here as news.
- mtogo 15y ago
  It's not news, HN has only ever been about 50% news, the other half are just interesting links. Sure, i get annoyed every time the 500-mile email or more magic or some other classic story gets reposted, but that's what HN is about-- every time it's reposted, there are dozens of people that hadn't seen it before.
  - woodall 15y ago
    The cycle of life, or school as it may be. You have the freshmen, then come your sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Of course the freshmen are going to be immature. Yes, and the sophomores are going to be struggling to identify with something; new web fads. Juniors and seniors then become old people, "get off my lawn" type. But there is no real way to sort out the cruft. We are all in the same "class"(internet). I like to think of repost as re-education.
orenmazor 15y ago
this is what I visit www.reddit.com/r/somebodymakethis for :)

80 points by rfreytag 15y ago

nodata 15y ago

I remember this site from the beginning of the Internet - nice to see it still going!

jefffoster 15y ago
An excellent web site! I first came across it when the topic of my PhD thesis was noted as a half-baked idea! (http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/gait_20recognition http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/gait_20recognition).
- Joakal 15y ago
  Would it be easily fooled with silly walking like smiling does for facial recognition?
- nodata 15y ago
  If I remember correctly, the Chinese have a product that uses this. It's built into floor tiles.

amirmc 15y ago

A great site and I'm glad to see it's still going (although apparently it kind of died - and was revived - in 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfbakery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfbakery) I had several (ridiculous) ideas while I was an undergrad and I remember how pleased I was when I found other folks had posted similar ideas on Half-Bakery. In fact one idea actually did end up on supermarket shelves (albeit in a different form).

jemka 15y ago

Signal to noise ratio makes these sites hard to take seriously or to put in any time to read through the submissions.

amirmc 15y ago
I don't think it's meant to be taken that seriously. Hence calling it 'Half-Baked'.

a5seo 15y ago

The best use for HalfBakery.com in my experience, is as Snopes for Ideas. If someone guardedly shares their own half-baked idea over dinner (especially if they think they need to find a technical partner, investor, or get a patent), rather than give them a lecture about customer development, I tell them it sounds interesting and send them a link to Half-Bakery or http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/ http://www.cambrianhouse.com/idea/. The hit rate is shockingly high. And even if they don't find their idea, they'll realize ideas are a dime a dozen and start focusing on how to validate whether their idea actually has legs. edit: there->their

snorkel 15y ago

You know you've been on the Internet too long when sites you visited a decade ago pop up here as news.

mtogo 15y ago
It's not news, HN has only ever been about 50% news, the other half are just interesting links. Sure, i get annoyed every time the 500-mile email or more magic or some other classic story gets reposted, but that's what HN is about-- every time it's reposted, there are dozens of people that hadn't seen it before.
- woodall 15y ago
  The cycle of life, or school as it may be. You have the freshmen, then come your sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Of course the freshmen are going to be immature. Yes, and the sophomores are going to be struggling to identify with something; new web fads. Juniors and seniors then become old people, "get off my lawn" type. But there is no real way to sort out the cruft. We are all in the same "class"(internet). I like to think of repost as re-education.

orenmazor 15y ago

this is what I visit www.reddit.com/r/somebodymakethis for :)