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Brainstorm HN: Outlandish Startup Ideas Pool

86 points by dryicerx 17y ago

Pitch totally unrealistic Startup ideas. Why do this? Well think of it like a brute-force brainstorming method. Very low SNR but hopefully a few of these will inspire someone to come up with a realistic/sane/good idea.

dryicerx 17y ago
I will start: * Online Grocery shopping with Automated reordering. The service provides a small RFID scanner for the trash can, and all items are tagged with a RFID. Anytime it's thrown away, the items are reordered (such as milk/eggs/drinks). Would work with your local grocery shop. * A everything recommendations system (such as Amazon's you might also like) except spans all things (not just things to buy, but also places to go visit, people, idealogies, match making, hobbies, cars, music, etc). Data sources would include websites you buy stuff, social networks, your bank information, gps info, phone calls, browsing methods, your private data, your photos, music, everything. (heh, privacy nightmare).
- villiros 17y ago
  This for washing clothes would be good. Put a reader in the hamper and track all dirty clothes going into it. Notify me when there is enough similarly coloured stuff there to do a wash, or when I'm running out of clean necessary items. Also, tell me to start washing stuff in advance of long trips away.
- froo 17y ago
  I was thinking about this a few years ago, you probably wouldn't even need RFID, perhaps some barcode scanning grid around the rim, with beams pointing at different angles so that when something is placed in the trashcan, it can be potentially scanned already.
markessien 17y ago
Movie Software that provides stock footage of fixed sets (homes, gardens, etc) and places you in those settings perfectly. Also same with cars and so on - the software should be at a level where you could make a full movie without ever leaving your home.
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  Sort-of exists: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/y/yitm/ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/y/yitm/ and several others. I'm always into stuff like this as I'm in film/tv production...and things like this are a great excuse for, er, not going out of the house, raising real money, hiring real people. But there's a vaaaaast price vs. quality gap. As in, to look convincing you need a greenscreen studio and a team of professional CG technicians to come to your house :-)
- Remake 17y ago
  Great idea, I need this software right now. But I think it should be combination of Software, video cameras and green screen. Would pay a good money for that.
  - christopherolah 17y ago
    There is FOSS with this feature set. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software#Free_.2F_Open_Source_Software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software#... More specifically see these screen shots of Cinelerra in which it does the described... http://www.heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra_shots.php http://www.heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra_shots.php
- klein_waffle 17y ago
  you could make a full movie without ever leaving your home. That is approximately the most depressing idea ever.
  - ibsulon 17y ago
    Alternatively, very very useful. (I had this idea years ago, in a simpler form.) Imagine it more as a storyboarding utility.
mooders 17y ago
1. Go on a diet. 2. Open [web|desktop] app. 3. Select diet plan (atkins; south beach; XYZ etc). 4. Select number of people in household. 5. Select number of people on diet. 6. Select dietary options (eg gluten-free). 7. Select budget. 8. Add credentials and payment details for preferred online grocery store. 9. App notes diet plan and previous shopping activity to reduce duplication, finds recipes and extracts ingredients 10. App creates shopping cart automagically based on the above (and probably more besides) and purchases. 11. App records purchases. I've wondered for the last 4 or 5 years since I have had this idea whether this would actually be something to pitch to the retailers rather than the consumers.
- steveplace 17y ago
  Also, partner up with Whole Foods/Winn Dixie/Publix so they have your groceries packaged and ready to go, skip the actual shopping part.
- froo 17y ago
  I pitched this idea to YC last year, basically. Mine also had "GPS on phone to monitor person's level of physical activity to help tailor diet to their dietary needs" We even worked on putting this together so that the algorithm could work automatically for a family who had different dietary requirements. The problem we found is that it doesn't work for the consumer market. We focussed too much on the idea and not enough on consumer behaviour, which if we had done our market research would have shown this to be not so good an idea. We found that the dietary consumer market is focussed on selling you early into things you wont use, because the people that generally need these products have low motivation. Those people who buy dietary books, supplements, exercise equipment etc generally purchase them and might use them for a month or two before essentially "giving up" at best. That's why most businesses targetting that large market are focussed on getting your money early, because relying on longterm revenue is a bad idea. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig use a similar model, although the diet plans they use are actually loss leaders so they can sell you their other products, which is where they actually make their money. The diet plans in the long run is where people stop going, but they've already extracted value out of you by purchasing their material.
makeee 17y ago
Hire a bunch of people to walk around large markets in other countries, such as India, with wireless webcams attached to their heads. Shoppers can then direct these people to various stands, barter, and purchase stuff through a web interface.
- raquo 17y ago
  that doesn't really sound unrealistic though! :)
  - aditya 17y ago
    yeah, justininindia.tv?
    - maggie 17y ago
      Depending on what 'large markets in other countries' you're talking about, I see a few immediate problems: -monetizing: a lot of these people don't have the money for additional services like this. Additionally, they /know/ the markets well, they're their markets! It's home! -customer base: this is similar to monetizing. How many people are you going to reach that would actually want your service? This is an interesting idea, but it seems like we're too far away from the potential userbase to make something that people would actually want. Now, if you're actually in India, I apologize for the last critique, but my first two statements stand.
      - makeee 17y ago
        I meant out-door shopping markets, and the customers would most likely be people in wealthier nations purchasing the goods online.
      - rythie 17y ago
        People in home markets would definitely pay a big premium and often do verses the cost price. I've seen many americans who come down to Guatemala or mexico for a day or two and pay 10x the price I paid and not question it. They could do the same thing from home without the cost of the flight (not to say they would, since they like the holiday)
alexkearns 17y ago
Patented training method for teaching pets to do house work.
alexkearns 17y ago
Plastic bags that are not a pain to open.
- timdorr 17y ago
  Or those hard plastic cases that don't involve cutting with scissors or a knife and possibly slicing off a finger.
  - mhb 17y ago
    That's called cardboard.
    - alex_c 17y ago
      So, what we want is transparent cardboard.
- neilk 17y ago
  Especially the ones in the produce section of the grocery. Why aren't these dispensed like Kleenexes or something, where just pulling one out automatically opens the mouth of the next one?
vaksel 17y ago
A washer/dryer combo that works as a single unit, so that you don't have to move things manually from one to the other. I see it as a 2 story contraption, washer on top, dryer on the bottom. After the washer is done, a trap door opens and the clothes fall into the dryer, which then auto-starts. As you can guess, I was doing laundry recently
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  Already exists. These are the norm in Europe, I have no idea why they're not popular in the US. We Europeans enjoy mocking antiquated American home appliances and can't believe you still use stovetop kettles and blenders from the 1950s. http://www.gelighting.com/apo/products/appliances/clothes_care/02.htm http://www.gelighting.com/apo/products/appliances/clothes_ca... It looks like a regular washing machine, you just put your clothes in the front, set the buttons, and 2 hours later they're clean and dry. It's awesome.
  - staticshock 17y ago
    What kind of kettles and blenders do you guys use in Europe? I want in :(
    - eru 17y ago
      Stuff like http://images.google.de/images?q=wasserkocher http://images.google.de/images?q=wasserkocher is common.
  - davidw 17y ago
    Here in Italy, people mostly use solar power to dry clothes, rather than a dryer, which very few people possess.
    - qw 17y ago
      That wouldn't work in northern Europe for large parts of the year, because of the climate. There are both advantages and disadvantages by air drying. By drying them outside, you get a more "fresh" smell. But if you use a dryer, the clothes are often "softer".
anigbrowl 17y ago
Wikiocracy: instead of electing legislators, you use a wiki environment to build a corpus of legislation and manage legal cases, with limited commit ability (eg no more than monthly or so...don't want to make long post). For a small fee, contracts can be registered and arbitrated like a private arbitration service, minus the expensive pay-to-play which usually decides on behalf of the larger entity. It quietly supplants the the private and later the public legal system by providing a superior open source alternative.
amichail 17y ago
Build an iphone app to alleviate OCD: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=601648 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=601648 In particular, such an app would help alleviate problems with repeated checking. The user would use the app to take a photo/video of something instead of checking it repeatedly (e.g., you locking the front door). The photo/video would be tagged with the time and place. To actually try to cure OCD, one might introduce a probability that the photo/video will not be taken. One can have this probability increase over time as the user's condition improves. Another possibility is to delete the photo/video automatically after some time interval, which decreases as the user's condition improves. This is something that I might actually consider building if there is sufficient demand.
- Zev 17y ago
  What happens if someone's OCD ends up turning into taking pictures to make sure that they did something?
  - kleevr 17y ago
    That's why I use a second iPhone to take pictures of the first iPhone taking said pictures...
  - amichail 17y ago
    It's better than having continuous anxiety or returning to your house to check whether the door is locked for example.
    - kleevr 17y ago
      as an every-guy, who only at various times has "suffered" mild OCD fits: I can see the value to be had by the clinically compulsive.
- puffythefish 17y ago
  Wouldn't they just end up compulsively checking the photo?
callmeed 17y ago
A Woot.com for travel Unlike other last min travel sites, this would offer just 1 product per day with 0 or 1 options Example: "2 nights at the Edgewater Seattle 6/1-6/3 for $179 total" OR "2 RT tix LAX<->Vegas + 2 nights at Bellagio for $379 total 6/1-6/3" Just need to find some travel companies who are willing to work with you. They just need to agree to block off X number of rooms/flights for that date. If the site picks up steam, maybe offer products for diff regions each day (west coast, east coast, midwest, south)
- sachinag 17y ago
  Groupon.com actually does this - not travel, but experiences/discounts.
- arfrank 17y ago
  In New Zealand/Australia there is a site for one of the airlines that sort of does this: http://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/vgrabview/en_NZ/ http://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/vgrabview/en_NZ/ Its specific to only that airline, but they sometimes have packages too and refresh every night, kiwi standard time i think
anigbrowl 17y ago
A small game programming library/module which just exports your score, and allows you to see your rate of progress in different games over time.
diego 17y ago
A search engine for your house. Tag every object that you care about with a tiny electronic label (could be an rfid chip). Some objects could come pre-tagged and added to your library the first time they cross your door. When you can't find something, find the object on your computer and start walking around the house with a wand that beeps louder as you get closer to the object. Would also work when you lose something outdoors and you can more or less retrace your steps.
- noamsml 17y ago
  Alternatively, just sell matching pairs of electronic tags (sticky) that both have buttons and beep when the other one is pressed.
  - cubicle67 17y ago
    Yep. I'd be sticking them on my kids shoes
    - lacker 17y ago
      My girlfriend says she would stick them on her shoes too, and that's a lot of shoes.
    - wlievens 17y ago
      So that they go beep-beep-beep when they walk? That's cruel.
- ambition 17y ago
  It's been done and you can read all about it: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1169006 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1169006
  - lacker 17y ago
    That has been done in the sense that it has been designed, not in the sense that I can buy a pair of beep-stickers to put on my shoes.
staticshock 17y ago
Cars that drive without a human at the wheel. This is the norm for sci-fi movies, and we still don't have it.
- myoung8 17y ago
  We do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_(vehicle) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_(vehicle)
  - lacker 17y ago
    But I can't buy one. A startup that solved this problem would have to solve a lot of legal issues as well as technical ones. Also Stanley can't drive in traffic. What I really want is something that can commute for me from San Francisco to Silicon Valley while I play video games.
    - ibsulon 17y ago
      We have that too: http://www.bart.gov/ http://www.bart.gov/
      - lacker 17y ago
        Bart doesn't go to Silicon Valley, just to Millbrae. Even in SF Bart only goes through the Mission and downtown. If you don't live and work near Caltrain then public transportation between SF & the south bay is more or less not an option.
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
  - alexgartrell 17y ago
    We do too http://www.tartanracing.org/ http://www.tartanracing.org/ And for the serious enthusiast: http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/projects/crusher/ http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/projects/crusher/
alex_c 17y ago
Set up inexpensive wireless cameras pointed at all street parking spots in the city. (doesn't have to be wireless cameras - pick any method or device that can reliably detect whether a parking spot is empty, cameras are the most flexible). Feed that data to a server, then dish it out to mobile devices (iPhone, etc.) combined with GPS to find the nearest street parking spot. Bonus points for intelligent behavior like not sending two cars to the same spot, or considering which spots are likely to be filled by the time you get there and what other spots are around. Mad bonus points if you work at a high enough level that this feature gets built directly into new cars. I guess "outlandish" is a bit strong, it feels like it's only a matter of time.
- rjett 17y ago
  On a related note, for the past year I've lived in a city with time-limited parking spaces on the street (i.e. "Two hour parking this block this day" or something similar). I would love to have something that detects when the meter maid comes by the first time and notifies me via sms so I can stay parked for the extra time between when I park and when the mm first comes by. I've racked up way too many $15 parking violations in the past year.
  - cubicle67 17y ago
    Only $15? Last parking ticket I got was for $85
- mhb 17y ago
  Additional bonus points for predicting when a spot or one of a group of spots is likely to become empty.
- prawn 17y ago
  Set it so that you can book a parking space (for a fee) ahead of time while you're driving there. Instead of wireless cameras, I thought of some sort of sensor(s) embedded in the ground that could detect something about it (by sight, magnet, etc). If they were embedded poles, they could raise up once the spot was booked to prevent it from being taken, until you arrived, entered your booking code and lowered the barriers. I think a city might need to be designed in advance for something like this though!
alexkearns 17y ago
Glasses that make everyone look attractive.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
  Glasses filled with beer seem to work.
ram1024 17y ago
Steam/iTunes type deal where you have the movies you own hosted online, except work it to where licenced/purchased movies are p2p shared off the computers logged into the network so you don't have to pay too much to funnel the movies down the pipe. say i buy ID4. it starts downloading P2P onto my system at home. once it's downloaded i can watch it there, of course. but any time i'm on the network that particular movie is also shared P2P to other people who want to purchase it. i can go to a friend or family member's house, download the software, log into my account, and watch my home movies from that remote location if i want (barring the download time). i would also push to get theatre releases on the release date for this service if made. if you don't want pirates stealing screenercam shit, create an avenue where they can legitimately purchase and view movies the day they're released. at least you'll make some of that money back :|
deutronium 17y ago
Nuclear powered laptop never needs recharging
- diego 17y ago
  Fat-powered laptop (iphone, etc) plugs into your stomach and makes you lose weight.
  - kajecounterhack 17y ago
    A screen-less laptop that projects images into the mind so as not to make us all blind That rhymed!
  - wlievens 17y ago
    Amazing.
- klein_waffle 17y ago
  Or a windup netbook? The next generation of Intel mobile chips are supposed to run on one watt. They already sell windup flashlights that run on one watt.
  - jlefo7p6 17y ago
    I totally bought a wind-up OLPC laptop last Christmas, with one extra feature: vaporware crank.
  - khafra 17y ago
    I've attempted to use a windup flashlight with a 12v port to recharge my iPhone; I get about one minute of 3g use for 5 minutes of winding. Now, if you had a footpedal, or some other way you could charge it while using it, that'd work.
- dryicerx 17y ago
  Kinetic Recharger for Laptops. A laptop with a shake-to-recharge system. You can make them fit in your CD Drive bays. Since you carry your laptop around a lot, it's constantly moving, the kinetic-drive keeps on charging the battery. Actually would be badass for cellphones (their ALWAYS being moved around).
bbuffone 17y ago
I have three great ideas for startups that fit this request. 1.) scambledporn.com - If you can remember tv before it went digital, porn used to be scambled by varying the horizontal sync of the tv signal for that channel. This made it unwatchable, unless you were really really patience. My idea is to create a website that has porn that works on the same concept; it would be scrambled until people pay to have it unscrambled. The more you pay the more unscambled it would be. 2.) Fire Energy Convertor (FEC) these are self contained devices that can be dropped into wildfires. Once placed into the fire; the device would convert the heat of the fire into electricity. After the fire subsided, the device would be placed into a grid that would provide electricity. Let's stop wasting all the energy that is release by forest fires. Eventually the device (FEC 2.0) could be placed into active volcano as well. 3.) An exercise device that can be used while you shower. It would be like killing two birds with one stone. People wouldn't have to worry about having to take a shower after working out, because they would already be in the shower and can soap up when done. The marketing plan for this device is a 30 minute infomercial that walks people through its use, with several nice looking and in good shape people. When you purchased the device, you will also receive a instructional video of your choosing (Male, Female).
- jjs 17y ago
  All of these ideas could lead to serious injury. :)
- zackattack 17y ago
  You actually just gave me a great idea...CPA porn. Complete CPA offers, get access to porn. Perfect, because that way no credit card is involved...
  - pookleblinky 17y ago
    Why not extend it into a Cory Doctorow Woofie system? I do a favor for you, woofies.com gives me a couple woofie points, which I may redeem for pron. My favor backfires (buggy code, typos, etc) and my woofie karma suffers and I must suffer pron of worse quality. Viva la Bitchun society irl! Note that this is completely unrealistic because no one pays for pron anymore anyway.
windsurfer 17y ago
Create an online AJAX IDE for developing flash using the haXe language. It would be compiled and put together on the server, but the client would be open source and free as a desktop app too, by the magic of haXe. Services could include webhosting and automatic upload of your app, as well as stock flash animation media and sounds.
chaosmachine 17y ago
A digg-style grocery store, where customers can vote online for new products.
- endtime 17y ago
  Just to play devil's advocate, how much more information would this offer over purchase data?
  - chaosmachine 17y ago
    The idea is to find out what people want ahead of time, rather than buying a bunch of product only to find out that nobody wants it. Of course, just because people vote for something doesn't mean they'll actually go to the store and pick it up.
    - endtime 17y ago
      Oh, I thought you were talking about something for consumers to get new product recommendations, rather than something to help the supermarkets target their inventory. So...how often do people know new products exist, let alone whether they want them, if the supermarket isn't already selling them? Not trying to shoot you down, I think it's an interesting idea, just trying to make sure I understand it.
      - chaosmachine 17y ago
        One possibility: The grocery store seeds the site with product data from their suppliers, and customers vote up what they want to see on the shelves. New product lines could be "featured" weekly, and the ones that pass a certain vote threshold get ordered. If a product you voted for gets added, perhaps you get an email with a coupon.
antidaily 17y ago
every day one person dies in a high speed chase. street spikes work if you can get them down and back up again before the chase car runs over them. there must be a way to shut a car down by addressing its computer system with rfid or something.
- DTrejo 17y ago
  Check out the shoot-able car-stopping nets developed for the military: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/04/xnet_car_arrest/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/04/xnet_car_arrest/
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  EMP guns FTW - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/jul/12/sciencenews.crime http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/jul/12/sciencenews.cr... Bonus: they scare luddites, who are convinced these are used all the time to kill people the Illuminati hate by making them fly in a small plane during bad weather first.
teehee 17y ago
The next big user interface: your car windshield. The windshield communicates with billboards that look empty from outside your car to beam images appropriate for your consumer tastes and demographic. In addition you will be able to interact with various mediums: webmail, ipod, video conferencing etc when your car is fully stopped. It goes on from there.
dryicerx 17y ago
A compartment inside a car's engine to keep food warm while travelling.
- icefox 17y ago
  Like the glove compartment? At least on some cars it is very warm in there.
dryicerx 17y ago
A DBUS like system for the internet (for message passing and multi casting events to registered handlers). It's like twitter, except for application to application/people communication. You first visit the site and create a data structure and register it at the X service website. Then a application can send messages in that data structure to the X service. Other services/applications/websites/people can register (like following on twitter) various handlers on the X service. Any time the main application publishes a event to the X service, it's pushed out to all the listening handlers... I guess when I write it down, doesn't so outlandish. Anyway, up for grabs.
- klein_waffle 17y ago
  That's not insane at all. That's just a generalization of Facebook/FriendFeed/Aardvark/etc. I've thought a lot about that too.
- lacker 17y ago
  I would use it. Can you also include a cross-browser javascript library to listen for these events? Push over http sucks and this could fix it.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
  We already use a system like that for anonymous message passing between processes running on an internal network.
- mbrubeck 17y ago
  Check out http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/ http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/ (by Brad Fitzpatrick and another Google engineer).
pookleblinky 17y ago
Think pmsbuddy.com meets Babelfish meets the Mechanical Turk. The idea is simple: submit transcripts of your conversations with your wife to the site, and women will translate for you. "she said "fine." She really means she is pissed off." For a fee, the site may also offer real-time chats for those situations where you need to figure out what a woman is thinking NOW.
- windsurfer 17y ago
  We have that already: http://www.fmylife.com/ http://www.fmylife.com/ ;)
  - pookleblinky 17y ago
    "Today, while powerwashing my deck, a bee flew and landed on my leg. Thinking I'll just wash it away before it stings me, I aimed the powerwasher nozzle at the bee. A bee sting isn't nearly as painful as powerwashing your leg. FML" http://www.fmylife.com/work/1818559 http://www.fmylife.com/work/1818559 Ok, new idea. Mix this with the idea for an OCD iphone app, and you get a Mechanical Turk capable of giving SMS advice in real time to potential Darwin Award winners. "should i try to skateboard off my roof?" "62% say no." This would also work as I originally imagined it. "I just got a kevlar vest on eBay and I told my wife I was planning on fighting crime. She said 'whatever makes you happy'" "She meant she's planning on collecting your life insurance."
dryicerx 17y ago
A startup factory. A collection of hackers, marketing people, business minded people, and their product is making startups. The basic infrastructure very very fast. Then selling them out.
- rnugent 17y ago
  This is a really good idea. VCs sort of do this but they exact to high a price. YC sort of does this but they are more focused on funding. Then there are the legions of consultants that do some part of this but not the whole thing.
  - petervandijck 17y ago
    It's a bad idea. Reason: the value doesn't come from implementing the FIRST idea, the value comes from iterating on the idea until it really fits the market. So you can not just throw out ideas every month and see which stick, you need to throw out an idea, iterate on it until it sticks, or abandon it and move to the next one.
- klein_waffle 17y ago
  That's an incubator. Been done.
  - dryicerx 17y ago
    The current sense of Incubators are a bit different, they look for groups with ideas, take them under their wing for a fraction of stakes, and let them go. The ideas always come from the outside. What I am saying is, even the ideas are brainstormed inside. Imagine 100 great minded people every month sitting down and choosing a good idea (that originated from the inside), and all of them putting their efforts in to implementing it. You do that every month.
- secos 17y ago
  http://gangplankhq.com/ http://gangplankhq.com/ kickass guys and gals doing this in Phoenix, and http://jailbreakomaha.com http://jailbreakomaha.com getting started in Omaha, NE.
arfrank 17y ago
A online grocery store comparison shopping. Data is customer driven and pulled from the weekly shopper. Reciepts can be scanned in and processed to keep track of shopping. Shopping lists can be entered online to be cross checked against the closest grocery stores (you get to decide if going to 2 stores is worth saving $10 extra) and sent to your phone. Online grocers(amazon) even get in the mix to provide deals and free shipping. And why stop there, why not alcohol too...
- kiwidrew 17y ago
  Shameless plug that you (being, presumably, a kiwi based on your grabaseat comment earlier) may find interesting: www.boozr.co.nz I've decided to start with alcohol and work my way backwards towards groceries, but the idea is roughly the same as what you've outlined. :) Luckily here in NZ everyone except Foodstuffs (NW, Pak'n'save, Four Square) is online so getting the prices isn't too tricky...
  - arfrank 17y ago
    Actually I just lived there for a half a year, but miss NZ and the special brand of beer there dearly. I like app, only we always bought our beer/wine from the grocery stores. But for any liquor this looks sweet as. What did you write it in?
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
Alex3917 17y ago
I'm tired of sex shops that ship their products using discrete packaging. I want a store that ships products in packaging purposely designed to be as embarrassing as is plausibly possible. Charge double what a normal sex store does, and even if you only get a few hundred orders a day via Google you still have a decent business.
- jgilliam 17y ago
  The perfect gift for the person who has everything! This startup needs one hacker, and three dozen lawyers.
- klein_waffle 17y ago
  > I'm tired of sex shops that ship their products using discrete packaging. I agree. Down with discrete; we need continuous packaging. http://everything2.com/title/discreet%2520vs.%2520discrete http://everything2.com/title/discreet%2520vs.%2520discrete
  - eru 17y ago
    Just speak German. We have the same distinction, but only one word for both meanings.
- oldgregg 17y ago
  Yes, and a 100% chargeback rate because apparently "Moot" is not the real cardholders name.
x37llnoise 17y ago
develop a crossplatform webinterface to read any and every format of text conceivable in its most CONVENIENT form possible.
- davidalln 17y ago
  Sort of like Readability by Arc90? http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
randomwalker 17y ago
Train chimps to break CAPTCHAs. My guess is that it's feasible. E.g, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgeLEWr614 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgeLEWr614 It is, however, unethical, and isn't something that benefits society, despite the fact that a viable business model might exist in the short term. Note that this would give a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Captcha farm' :-)
- rms 17y ago
  Chimps are way too expensive
  - eru 17y ago
    Use ravens.
ivankirigin 17y ago
A music service that actually reflected the reality of today's tech: ubiquitous access to all the music ever made. My iphone should be able to store or stream anything. I should be able to send anything I'm listening to to a friend. Bullshit about limits on the number of computers connected to my iphone, illegal file sharing, DRM, $1 for a download that has $0 marginal cost, etc. -- all of it out the window. Give creators tools to directly engage with their audience, make all their content free and easy to consumer & share, and make money from live shows, special physical goods, and patronage.
dkasper 17y ago
A law firm connected to a school where the lawyers make $30/hour and the teachers make $200/hour. ;-)
rokhayakebe 17y ago
5 Star Jail Hotel (good for procrastinators). Pay us and we will lock you up for as many days as you paid. You get one hour per day to hang out within our establishment. Breakfast, Lunch and Diner are eaten with other prisoners. The rest of time we will lock you up in your room (with internet connection). Phones lines are only open for x hours. Emails programs are blocked most of the time... You see where I am heading with this. It could be good for someone with a deadline to accomplish something.
- dxjones 17y ago
  Can a boss send an employee to procrastinator jail to make sure they finish their task by deadline?
  - rokhayakebe 17y ago
    yes, you can.
  - pierrefar 17y ago
    Can you send the boss so you can get on with work?
- randomtask 17y ago
  With internet connection? I see a major flaw in your plan...
mrduncan 17y ago
A twitter clone that requires you to pass a spelling and grammar check and use more than 140 characters
- zackattack 17y ago
  This actually is a good idea for something like a bloglines subscription where you have to read everyone else's posts before you can post...
- mstevens 17y ago
  Maybe check posts using http://stupidfilter.org/main/ http://stupidfilter.org/main/
klein_waffle 17y ago
Form a consortium that aims to get drugs decriminalized as long as the government approves certain suppliers, and get them to write the law such that your clients are the likely beneficiary. This is worth billions in investment. Target an American state which seems to be on the tipping point and you could be very rich. Except for the fact that existing drug cartels would kill you before you could succeed.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
neilk 17y ago
Rental for moving boxes. Whenever I move, which is fairly frequently, I have to make some trip somewhere just to get boxes. Then there's the effort of breaking them down and then either storing them or throwing them away. How about some boxes which are just a little bit sturdier than normal, which could be rented? They are delivered to your home and then picked up again (perhaps part of the moving service) and reused for other customers.
- cubicle67 17y ago
  We've moved a number of times, and always bought 2nd hand boxes and then sold them again when done. No middle man, no hassles if boxes get destroyed or you want to keep them, and comes out net cost of $0 (2nd hand boxes have a constant value)
kiba 17y ago
An online wargame in reality using geolocation and mobile phones. Build game servers that serve as wireless mesh network and locate them throughout the city(Partnering with local businesses such as coffee shops). They can also store the company's weapon hardwares and suits to loan to player. Players can also build their own weapon system and suits.
neilk 17y ago
Kidnap vacations. The ultimate thrill ride. You pay them some amount of money and they will arrive at your home, blindfold you, put you on a plane, and then take it off once you are in the foreign country. Then you have to work out where you are and how to get back. I believe the government has been doing this for a while now.
- dxjones 17y ago
  Can you give this as gift? You pick someone else to go on a "kidnap vacation" ?
- damovisa 17y ago
  Wow, that actually sounds awesome to me!
- oldgregg 17y ago
  Apparently you've never tried one of those timeshare vacation deals, huh? I'd rather be waterboarded than fight those sharks.
- wlievens 17y ago
  There was a CSI Miami episode depicting this when it went wrong.
- rythie 17y ago
  I would seriously do that, it sounds fun.
- samueladam 17y ago
  You might like "The Game" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/
neilk 17y ago
Video Twitter. Post updates of 10 seconds or less. I have a feeling people are already working on this, though.
- gsmaverick 17y ago
  http://12seconds.tv http://12seconds.tv
- joshsharp 17y ago
  It already exists: 12seconds.tv ;)
neilk 17y ago
A pen-sized device which gives you cleaning advice. It has various chemical sensors built in to the tip and then displays a readout of what cleaning product to use.
neilk 17y ago
Kindle-ize all your books (in a DRM-free form, guaranteed accessible for 25 years). I want a service which is both legal and easy to use. Don't make me sit there and laboriously use some CueCat thing and make a huge bibliography. If this means that someone has to cart them away and destroy them, I don't really care; actually it's kind of a benefit if you live in a small apartment. Most of them are not remarkable as far as physical form goes.
neilk 17y ago
An alternative internet for file-sharers, using line-of-sight radio communications and other methods. There are enough people in many urban areas to make this work. Perhaps implausible since you can already do most of that with VPNs on the regular internet, and hardware is expensive and obvious.
neilk 17y ago
Since the newspapers are about to die, we need something to replace the government/corporate watchdog function of journalism. (sensational news, sports, classifieds, entertainment, and celebritard news have already migrated elsewhere, so let's not consider them.) Some form of hyper-customizable newsletter service, providing updates on upcoming legislation or business deals. There are large firms who already subscribe to such things in the form of clipping services; this goes one level deeper. The target market should be small business owners and people who have some interest in local politics.
- eds 17y ago
  replace the government/corporate watchdog function of journalism I think you misspelled lapdog
- jay_kyburz 17y ago
  I would love to see a news service based entirely on fact. No journalist emotional interpretation. Headlines would be generated based on user criterion. A search. Give me headlines new headlines (today) sorted by number of deaths in incident. Filtered globally, by country, or by city. etc etc.
- philwelch 17y ago
  That'll never sell. Instead there should be a news site that gives you a brief quiz to determine your political bias, and then serves you biased news stories that agree with your preconceived ideas. It takes a task that people already do by hand, and automates it!
alecst 17y ago
A junk gym, wherein all equipment would be gathered from a large junkyard, and could be housed within a cheap warehouse. Bench press could be a small bench with perhaps an axle and two tires on each side, or metal plates, all with weights marked. Various other car parts could be transformed into different exercise machines. Dumbbells would be various pieces of metal with marked weights.
- dryicerx 17y ago
  This makes for quite the manly place to work out. I mean think about the costs here (no need for expensive equipment either, their junk!)
markerdmann 17y ago
RentADesignatedDriver.com
- andylei 17y ago
  that's just taxis online
- trafficlight 17y ago
  I believe these are called Taxis.
khangtoh 17y ago
Twitter for all things non-human. Like my coffee machine tweeting me that the pot's empty or the new brew's ready.
- petervandijck 17y ago
  I like that. But the real idea is then to have some physical thingie for a few $ that can send tweets.
- khafra 17y ago
  Thinkgeek already sells some device that lets your plants tweet.
dryicerx 17y ago
This is for advertising: Have devices in public places where people are likely to sit down (bus steats, benches in Airports, bus stops) that listen in and automatically pick out keywords from conversations. Ads are displayed directly in front that is relevant to the conversation.
- petervandijck 17y ago
  Hahaha that's just crazy enough to get loads of funding.
vsingh 17y ago
An engine that scans forum posts for factors like "emoticon content", builds a network of who replies to whom, and uses that information to establish a hierarchy of social status among the participants.
jimmybot 17y ago
Device where every time you mutter a complaint it records it and attempts to match it up and send it to the correct recipient. The complaints are anonymous, but tracks whether the complaint was responded to or not. If so, the complainer gets more karma and is prioritized higher. There could be the opposite marking of spam or unreasonable. The eventual goal is to identify complainer pundit wizards that will make the world better by walking around and muttering (bitching) about their dislikes.
- eru 17y ago
  You should include praise as well.
quizbiz 17y ago
In an experiment, formed a line in front of a random doorway. After a whole, the line grew. Nobody knew what they were waiting for. What about hiring people to make a store front of parking lot or booth look busy?
aupajo 17y ago
Gentlemen, I refer you to the ineffable Halfbakery for a more complete list: http://www.halfbakery.com/ http://www.halfbakery.com/
Evgeny 17y ago
I want to see a smart traffic control system. Currently I'm only aware of the traffic lights which can sense when the car stopped next to the line and switch the lights accordingly. I would like to see more. I would like the system to identify how dense the traffic is in all directions, including the right/left turn lines. It would then adjust the duration of the green light according to the number of cars travelling in corresponding directions. It should also identify if all the cars that were waiting for the green light have crossed the intersection, and if there are no more cars it could turn then red light earlier. So often I see the following: a jam is on a major road. A red line turns on, and a lonely car crosses a major road. The light is still red though for some time, with dozens of cars waiting for nothing ...
- ralph 17y ago
  It's called a roundabout. ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout They help traffic flow lots in the UK and elsewhere around the world. Not a panacea though.
  - mrduncan 17y ago
    I've never seen a roundabout work well with high traffic though (in the US anyway), it has always seemed to me that they work amazingly well with low and medium traffic, but once they are full you end up with a single inbound street hogging it since everyone else has to yield.
    - kchecker 17y ago
      Well you can have roundabouts with traffic lights. They work well in Chandigarh, India.
    - ralph 17y ago
      Everyone else would have to yield only if all traffic entering from that single busy inbound road was going all the way around the roundabout and exited onto the road it entered from. Since few cars do this, the odd single car on other entrances gets a gap where they pull out, often causing the busy road to queue while they pass, which in turn lets others out, etc. I agree though, the heavier the traffic the less they work. Especially when morons pull out onto it despite seeing the exit is jammed and without leaving room for other lanes to cross in front and behind of them. Also, in the UK, many drivers fail to signal correctly, giving less clues to other drivers as to when they can pull out, e.g. if you're not signalling left as you exit a roundabout, you're doing it wrong! :-)
VonGuard 17y ago
Similar to kidnap vacations: larger scale version of JeJune Institute. It's in downtown SF, and is a physically immersive alternate reality game. It's based on cults that have committed mass suicide. So, along those lines, rent a large building and turn it into a hub of some wild new ARG, with scavenger hunt aspects, physical world puzzles, and community activities.
dryicerx 17y ago
Car Net. A information network between vehicles that share information about what their destinations and routes are. Specially for congested areas, they would all work together to find the optimal route with the least congestion. Instead of everyone trying to take the shortest path, all the vehicles will work together to figure out the shortest-time-path based by distributing the road load levels evenly.
kokofoo 17y ago
A chip that implants inside your brain so that you can surf the web with sheer thought.
cflee 17y ago
This just reminds me of the Half Bakery, it's also got a whole ton of crazy, outlandish, unrealistic ideas that won't work. Otherwise known as brainstorming, yes? www.halfbakery.com
philwelch 17y ago
An alarm clock with a numeric keypad so I don't have to sit there mashing the "down" button.
webstartupguy 17y ago
Any "serious" web programmers looking for new web startup ideas, contact me at quasi.entrepreneur@gmail.com This is more than just the idea and includes some proprietary assets. Please only those who are "serious" or serial entrepreneurs respond, preferably with a Bio.

86 points by dryicerx 17y ago

dryicerx 17y ago

I will start: * Online Grocery shopping with Automated reordering. The service provides a small RFID scanner for the trash can, and all items are tagged with a RFID. Anytime it's thrown away, the items are reordered (such as milk/eggs/drinks). Would work with your local grocery shop. * A everything recommendations system (such as Amazon's you might also like) except spans all things (not just things to buy, but also places to go visit, people, idealogies, match making, hobbies, cars, music, etc). Data sources would include websites you buy stuff, social networks, your bank information, gps info, phone calls, browsing methods, your private data, your photos, music, everything. (heh, privacy nightmare).

villiros 17y ago
This for washing clothes would be good. Put a reader in the hamper and track all dirty clothes going into it. Notify me when there is enough similarly coloured stuff there to do a wash, or when I'm running out of clean necessary items. Also, tell me to start washing stuff in advance of long trips away.
froo 17y ago
I was thinking about this a few years ago, you probably wouldn't even need RFID, perhaps some barcode scanning grid around the rim, with beams pointing at different angles so that when something is placed in the trashcan, it can be potentially scanned already.

markessien 17y ago

Movie Software that provides stock footage of fixed sets (homes, gardens, etc) and places you in those settings perfectly. Also same with cars and so on - the software should be at a level where you could make a full movie without ever leaving your home.

anigbrowl 17y ago
Sort-of exists: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/y/yitm/ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/y/yitm/ and several others. I'm always into stuff like this as I'm in film/tv production...and things like this are a great excuse for, er, not going out of the house, raising real money, hiring real people. But there's a vaaaaast price vs. quality gap. As in, to look convincing you need a greenscreen studio and a team of professional CG technicians to come to your house :-)
Remake 17y ago
Great idea, I need this software right now. But I think it should be combination of Software, video cameras and green screen. Would pay a good money for that.
- christopherolah 17y ago
  There is FOSS with this feature set. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software#Free_.2F_Open_Source_Software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_editing_software#... More specifically see these screen shots of Cinelerra in which it does the described... http://www.heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra_shots.php http://www.heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra_shots.php
klein_waffle 17y ago
you could make a full movie without ever leaving your home. That is approximately the most depressing idea ever.
- ibsulon 17y ago
  Alternatively, very very useful. (I had this idea years ago, in a simpler form.) Imagine it more as a storyboarding utility.

mooders 17y ago

1. Go on a diet. 2. Open [web|desktop] app. 3. Select diet plan (atkins; south beach; XYZ etc). 4. Select number of people in household. 5. Select number of people on diet. 6. Select dietary options (eg gluten-free). 7. Select budget. 8. Add credentials and payment details for preferred online grocery store. 9. App notes diet plan and previous shopping activity to reduce duplication, finds recipes and extracts ingredients 10. App creates shopping cart automagically based on the above (and probably more besides) and purchases. 11. App records purchases. I've wondered for the last 4 or 5 years since I have had this idea whether this would actually be something to pitch to the retailers rather than the consumers.

steveplace 17y ago
Also, partner up with Whole Foods/Winn Dixie/Publix so they have your groceries packaged and ready to go, skip the actual shopping part.
froo 17y ago
I pitched this idea to YC last year, basically. Mine also had "GPS on phone to monitor person's level of physical activity to help tailor diet to their dietary needs" We even worked on putting this together so that the algorithm could work automatically for a family who had different dietary requirements. The problem we found is that it doesn't work for the consumer market. We focussed too much on the idea and not enough on consumer behaviour, which if we had done our market research would have shown this to be not so good an idea. We found that the dietary consumer market is focussed on selling you early into things you wont use, because the people that generally need these products have low motivation. Those people who buy dietary books, supplements, exercise equipment etc generally purchase them and might use them for a month or two before essentially "giving up" at best. That's why most businesses targetting that large market are focussed on getting your money early, because relying on longterm revenue is a bad idea. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig use a similar model, although the diet plans they use are actually loss leaders so they can sell you their other products, which is where they actually make their money. The diet plans in the long run is where people stop going, but they've already extracted value out of you by purchasing their material.

makeee 17y ago

Hire a bunch of people to walk around large markets in other countries, such as India, with wireless webcams attached to their heads. Shoppers can then direct these people to various stands, barter, and purchase stuff through a web interface.

raquo 17y ago
that doesn't really sound unrealistic though! :)
- aditya 17y ago
  yeah, justininindia.tv?
  - maggie 17y ago
    Depending on what 'large markets in other countries' you're talking about, I see a few immediate problems: -monetizing: a lot of these people don't have the money for additional services like this. Additionally, they /know/ the markets well, they're their markets! It's home! -customer base: this is similar to monetizing. How many people are you going to reach that would actually want your service? This is an interesting idea, but it seems like we're too far away from the potential userbase to make something that people would actually want. Now, if you're actually in India, I apologize for the last critique, but my first two statements stand.
    - makeee 17y ago
      I meant out-door shopping markets, and the customers would most likely be people in wealthier nations purchasing the goods online.
    - rythie 17y ago
      People in home markets would definitely pay a big premium and often do verses the cost price. I've seen many americans who come down to Guatemala or mexico for a day or two and pay 10x the price I paid and not question it. They could do the same thing from home without the cost of the flight (not to say they would, since they like the holiday)

alexkearns 17y ago

Patented training method for teaching pets to do house work.

alexkearns 17y ago

Plastic bags that are not a pain to open.

timdorr 17y ago
Or those hard plastic cases that don't involve cutting with scissors or a knife and possibly slicing off a finger.
- mhb 17y ago
  That's called cardboard.
  - alex_c 17y ago
    So, what we want is transparent cardboard.
neilk 17y ago
Especially the ones in the produce section of the grocery. Why aren't these dispensed like Kleenexes or something, where just pulling one out automatically opens the mouth of the next one?

vaksel 17y ago

A washer/dryer combo that works as a single unit, so that you don't have to move things manually from one to the other. I see it as a 2 story contraption, washer on top, dryer on the bottom. After the washer is done, a trap door opens and the clothes fall into the dryer, which then auto-starts. As you can guess, I was doing laundry recently

anigbrowl 17y ago
Already exists. These are the norm in Europe, I have no idea why they're not popular in the US. We Europeans enjoy mocking antiquated American home appliances and can't believe you still use stovetop kettles and blenders from the 1950s. http://www.gelighting.com/apo/products/appliances/clothes_care/02.htm http://www.gelighting.com/apo/products/appliances/clothes_ca... It looks like a regular washing machine, you just put your clothes in the front, set the buttons, and 2 hours later they're clean and dry. It's awesome.
- staticshock 17y ago
  What kind of kettles and blenders do you guys use in Europe? I want in :(
  - eru 17y ago
    Stuff like http://images.google.de/images?q=wasserkocher http://images.google.de/images?q=wasserkocher is common.
- davidw 17y ago
  Here in Italy, people mostly use solar power to dry clothes, rather than a dryer, which very few people possess.
  - qw 17y ago
    That wouldn't work in northern Europe for large parts of the year, because of the climate. There are both advantages and disadvantages by air drying. By drying them outside, you get a more "fresh" smell. But if you use a dryer, the clothes are often "softer".

anigbrowl 17y ago

Wikiocracy: instead of electing legislators, you use a wiki environment to build a corpus of legislation and manage legal cases, with limited commit ability (eg no more than monthly or so...don't want to make long post). For a small fee, contracts can be registered and arbitrated like a private arbitration service, minus the expensive pay-to-play which usually decides on behalf of the larger entity. It quietly supplants the the private and later the public legal system by providing a superior open source alternative.

amichail 17y ago

Build an iphone app to alleviate OCD: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=601648 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=601648 In particular, such an app would help alleviate problems with repeated checking. The user would use the app to take a photo/video of something instead of checking it repeatedly (e.g., you locking the front door). The photo/video would be tagged with the time and place. To actually try to cure OCD, one might introduce a probability that the photo/video will not be taken. One can have this probability increase over time as the user's condition improves. Another possibility is to delete the photo/video automatically after some time interval, which decreases as the user's condition improves. This is something that I might actually consider building if there is sufficient demand.

Zev 17y ago
What happens if someone's OCD ends up turning into taking pictures to make sure that they did something?
- kleevr 17y ago
  That's why I use a second iPhone to take pictures of the first iPhone taking said pictures...
- amichail 17y ago
  It's better than having continuous anxiety or returning to your house to check whether the door is locked for example.
  - kleevr 17y ago
    as an every-guy, who only at various times has "suffered" mild OCD fits: I can see the value to be had by the clinically compulsive.
puffythefish 17y ago
Wouldn't they just end up compulsively checking the photo?

callmeed 17y ago

A Woot.com for travel Unlike other last min travel sites, this would offer just 1 product per day with 0 or 1 options Example: "2 nights at the Edgewater Seattle 6/1-6/3 for $179 total" OR "2 RT tix LAX<->Vegas + 2 nights at Bellagio for $379 total 6/1-6/3" Just need to find some travel companies who are willing to work with you. They just need to agree to block off X number of rooms/flights for that date. If the site picks up steam, maybe offer products for diff regions each day (west coast, east coast, midwest, south)

sachinag 17y ago
Groupon.com actually does this - not travel, but experiences/discounts.
arfrank 17y ago
In New Zealand/Australia there is a site for one of the airlines that sort of does this: http://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/vgrabview/en_NZ/ http://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/vgrabview/en_NZ/ Its specific to only that airline, but they sometimes have packages too and refresh every night, kiwi standard time i think

anigbrowl 17y ago

A small game programming library/module which just exports your score, and allows you to see your rate of progress in different games over time.

diego 17y ago

A search engine for your house. Tag every object that you care about with a tiny electronic label (could be an rfid chip). Some objects could come pre-tagged and added to your library the first time they cross your door. When you can't find something, find the object on your computer and start walking around the house with a wand that beeps louder as you get closer to the object. Would also work when you lose something outdoors and you can more or less retrace your steps.

noamsml 17y ago
Alternatively, just sell matching pairs of electronic tags (sticky) that both have buttons and beep when the other one is pressed.
- cubicle67 17y ago
  Yep. I'd be sticking them on my kids shoes
  - lacker 17y ago
    My girlfriend says she would stick them on her shoes too, and that's a lot of shoes.
  - wlievens 17y ago
    So that they go beep-beep-beep when they walk? That's cruel.
ambition 17y ago
It's been done and you can read all about it: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1169006 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1169006
- lacker 17y ago
  That has been done in the sense that it has been designed, not in the sense that I can buy a pair of beep-stickers to put on my shoes.

staticshock 17y ago

Cars that drive without a human at the wheel. This is the norm for sci-fi movies, and we still don't have it.

myoung8 17y ago
We do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_(vehicle) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_(vehicle)
- lacker 17y ago
  But I can't buy one. A startup that solved this problem would have to solve a lot of legal issues as well as technical ones. Also Stanley can't drive in traffic. What I really want is something that can commute for me from San Francisco to Silicon Valley while I play video games.
  - ibsulon 17y ago
    We have that too: http://www.bart.gov/ http://www.bart.gov/
    - lacker 17y ago
      Bart doesn't go to Silicon Valley, just to Millbrae. Even in SF Bart only goes through the Mission and downtown. If you don't live and work near Caltrain then public transportation between SF & the south bay is more or less not an option.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
- alexgartrell 17y ago
  We do too http://www.tartanracing.org/ http://www.tartanracing.org/ And for the serious enthusiast: http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/projects/crusher/ http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/projects/crusher/

alex_c 17y ago

Set up inexpensive wireless cameras pointed at all street parking spots in the city. (doesn't have to be wireless cameras - pick any method or device that can reliably detect whether a parking spot is empty, cameras are the most flexible). Feed that data to a server, then dish it out to mobile devices (iPhone, etc.) combined with GPS to find the nearest street parking spot. Bonus points for intelligent behavior like not sending two cars to the same spot, or considering which spots are likely to be filled by the time you get there and what other spots are around. Mad bonus points if you work at a high enough level that this feature gets built directly into new cars. I guess "outlandish" is a bit strong, it feels like it's only a matter of time.

rjett 17y ago
On a related note, for the past year I've lived in a city with time-limited parking spaces on the street (i.e. "Two hour parking this block this day" or something similar). I would love to have something that detects when the meter maid comes by the first time and notifies me via sms so I can stay parked for the extra time between when I park and when the mm first comes by. I've racked up way too many $15 parking violations in the past year.
- cubicle67 17y ago
  Only $15? Last parking ticket I got was for $85
mhb 17y ago
Additional bonus points for predicting when a spot or one of a group of spots is likely to become empty.
prawn 17y ago
Set it so that you can book a parking space (for a fee) ahead of time while you're driving there. Instead of wireless cameras, I thought of some sort of sensor(s) embedded in the ground that could detect something about it (by sight, magnet, etc). If they were embedded poles, they could raise up once the spot was booked to prevent it from being taken, until you arrived, entered your booking code and lowered the barriers. I think a city might need to be designed in advance for something like this though!

alexkearns 17y ago

Glasses that make everyone look attractive.

RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
Glasses filled with beer seem to work.

ram1024 17y ago

Steam/iTunes type deal where you have the movies you own hosted online, except work it to where licenced/purchased movies are p2p shared off the computers logged into the network so you don't have to pay too much to funnel the movies down the pipe. say i buy ID4. it starts downloading P2P onto my system at home. once it's downloaded i can watch it there, of course. but any time i'm on the network that particular movie is also shared P2P to other people who want to purchase it. i can go to a friend or family member's house, download the software, log into my account, and watch my home movies from that remote location if i want (barring the download time). i would also push to get theatre releases on the release date for this service if made. if you don't want pirates stealing screenercam shit, create an avenue where they can legitimately purchase and view movies the day they're released. at least you'll make some of that money back :|

deutronium 17y ago

Nuclear powered laptop never needs recharging

diego 17y ago
Fat-powered laptop (iphone, etc) plugs into your stomach and makes you lose weight.
- kajecounterhack 17y ago
  A screen-less laptop that projects images into the mind so as not to make us all blind That rhymed!
- wlievens 17y ago
  Amazing.
klein_waffle 17y ago
Or a windup netbook? The next generation of Intel mobile chips are supposed to run on one watt. They already sell windup flashlights that run on one watt.
- jlefo7p6 17y ago
  I totally bought a wind-up OLPC laptop last Christmas, with one extra feature: vaporware crank.
- khafra 17y ago
  I've attempted to use a windup flashlight with a 12v port to recharge my iPhone; I get about one minute of 3g use for 5 minutes of winding. Now, if you had a footpedal, or some other way you could charge it while using it, that'd work.
dryicerx 17y ago
Kinetic Recharger for Laptops. A laptop with a shake-to-recharge system. You can make them fit in your CD Drive bays. Since you carry your laptop around a lot, it's constantly moving, the kinetic-drive keeps on charging the battery. Actually would be badass for cellphones (their ALWAYS being moved around).

bbuffone 17y ago

I have three great ideas for startups that fit this request. 1.) scambledporn.com - If you can remember tv before it went digital, porn used to be scambled by varying the horizontal sync of the tv signal for that channel. This made it unwatchable, unless you were really really patience. My idea is to create a website that has porn that works on the same concept; it would be scrambled until people pay to have it unscrambled. The more you pay the more unscambled it would be. 2.) Fire Energy Convertor (FEC) these are self contained devices that can be dropped into wildfires. Once placed into the fire; the device would convert the heat of the fire into electricity. After the fire subsided, the device would be placed into a grid that would provide electricity. Let's stop wasting all the energy that is release by forest fires. Eventually the device (FEC 2.0) could be placed into active volcano as well. 3.) An exercise device that can be used while you shower. It would be like killing two birds with one stone. People wouldn't have to worry about having to take a shower after working out, because they would already be in the shower and can soap up when done. The marketing plan for this device is a 30 minute infomercial that walks people through its use, with several nice looking and in good shape people. When you purchased the device, you will also receive a instructional video of your choosing (Male, Female).

jjs 17y ago
All of these ideas could lead to serious injury. :)
zackattack 17y ago
You actually just gave me a great idea...CPA porn. Complete CPA offers, get access to porn. Perfect, because that way no credit card is involved...
- pookleblinky 17y ago
  Why not extend it into a Cory Doctorow Woofie system? I do a favor for you, woofies.com gives me a couple woofie points, which I may redeem for pron. My favor backfires (buggy code, typos, etc) and my woofie karma suffers and I must suffer pron of worse quality. Viva la Bitchun society irl! Note that this is completely unrealistic because no one pays for pron anymore anyway.

windsurfer 17y ago

Create an online AJAX IDE for developing flash using the haXe language. It would be compiled and put together on the server, but the client would be open source and free as a desktop app too, by the magic of haXe. Services could include webhosting and automatic upload of your app, as well as stock flash animation media and sounds.

chaosmachine 17y ago

A digg-style grocery store, where customers can vote online for new products.

endtime 17y ago
Just to play devil's advocate, how much more information would this offer over purchase data?
- chaosmachine 17y ago
  The idea is to find out what people want ahead of time, rather than buying a bunch of product only to find out that nobody wants it. Of course, just because people vote for something doesn't mean they'll actually go to the store and pick it up.
  - endtime 17y ago
    Oh, I thought you were talking about something for consumers to get new product recommendations, rather than something to help the supermarkets target their inventory. So...how often do people know new products exist, let alone whether they want them, if the supermarket isn't already selling them? Not trying to shoot you down, I think it's an interesting idea, just trying to make sure I understand it.
    - chaosmachine 17y ago
      One possibility: The grocery store seeds the site with product data from their suppliers, and customers vote up what they want to see on the shelves. New product lines could be "featured" weekly, and the ones that pass a certain vote threshold get ordered. If a product you voted for gets added, perhaps you get an email with a coupon.

antidaily 17y ago

every day one person dies in a high speed chase. street spikes work if you can get them down and back up again before the chase car runs over them. there must be a way to shut a car down by addressing its computer system with rfid or something.

DTrejo 17y ago
Check out the shoot-able car-stopping nets developed for the military: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/04/xnet_car_arrest/ http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/04/xnet_car_arrest/
anigbrowl 17y ago
EMP guns FTW - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/jul/12/sciencenews.crime http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/jul/12/sciencenews.cr... Bonus: they scare luddites, who are convinced these are used all the time to kill people the Illuminati hate by making them fly in a small plane during bad weather first.

teehee 17y ago

The next big user interface: your car windshield. The windshield communicates with billboards that look empty from outside your car to beam images appropriate for your consumer tastes and demographic. In addition you will be able to interact with various mediums: webmail, ipod, video conferencing etc when your car is fully stopped. It goes on from there.

dryicerx 17y ago

A compartment inside a car's engine to keep food warm while travelling.

icefox 17y ago
Like the glove compartment? At least on some cars it is very warm in there.

dryicerx 17y ago

A DBUS like system for the internet (for message passing and multi casting events to registered handlers). It's like twitter, except for application to application/people communication. You first visit the site and create a data structure and register it at the X service website. Then a application can send messages in that data structure to the X service. Other services/applications/websites/people can register (like following on twitter) various handlers on the X service. Any time the main application publishes a event to the X service, it's pushed out to all the listening handlers... I guess when I write it down, doesn't so outlandish. Anyway, up for grabs.

klein_waffle 17y ago
That's not insane at all. That's just a generalization of Facebook/FriendFeed/Aardvark/etc. I've thought a lot about that too.
lacker 17y ago
I would use it. Can you also include a cross-browser javascript library to listen for these events? Push over http sucks and this could fix it.
RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
We already use a system like that for anonymous message passing between processes running on an internal network.
mbrubeck 17y ago
Check out http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/ http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/ (by Brad Fitzpatrick and another Google engineer).

pookleblinky 17y ago

Think pmsbuddy.com meets Babelfish meets the Mechanical Turk. The idea is simple: submit transcripts of your conversations with your wife to the site, and women will translate for you. "she said "fine." She really means she is pissed off." For a fee, the site may also offer real-time chats for those situations where you need to figure out what a woman is thinking NOW.

windsurfer 17y ago
We have that already: http://www.fmylife.com/ http://www.fmylife.com/ ;)
- pookleblinky 17y ago
  "Today, while powerwashing my deck, a bee flew and landed on my leg. Thinking I'll just wash it away before it stings me, I aimed the powerwasher nozzle at the bee. A bee sting isn't nearly as painful as powerwashing your leg. FML" http://www.fmylife.com/work/1818559 http://www.fmylife.com/work/1818559 Ok, new idea. Mix this with the idea for an OCD iphone app, and you get a Mechanical Turk capable of giving SMS advice in real time to potential Darwin Award winners. "should i try to skateboard off my roof?" "62% say no." This would also work as I originally imagined it. "I just got a kevlar vest on eBay and I told my wife I was planning on fighting crime. She said 'whatever makes you happy'" "She meant she's planning on collecting your life insurance."

dryicerx 17y ago

A startup factory. A collection of hackers, marketing people, business minded people, and their product is making startups. The basic infrastructure very very fast. Then selling them out.

rnugent 17y ago
This is a really good idea. VCs sort of do this but they exact to high a price. YC sort of does this but they are more focused on funding. Then there are the legions of consultants that do some part of this but not the whole thing.
- petervandijck 17y ago
  It's a bad idea. Reason: the value doesn't come from implementing the FIRST idea, the value comes from iterating on the idea until it really fits the market. So you can not just throw out ideas every month and see which stick, you need to throw out an idea, iterate on it until it sticks, or abandon it and move to the next one.
klein_waffle 17y ago
That's an incubator. Been done.
- dryicerx 17y ago
  The current sense of Incubators are a bit different, they look for groups with ideas, take them under their wing for a fraction of stakes, and let them go. The ideas always come from the outside. What I am saying is, even the ideas are brainstormed inside. Imagine 100 great minded people every month sitting down and choosing a good idea (that originated from the inside), and all of them putting their efforts in to implementing it. You do that every month.
secos 17y ago
http://gangplankhq.com/ http://gangplankhq.com/ kickass guys and gals doing this in Phoenix, and http://jailbreakomaha.com http://jailbreakomaha.com getting started in Omaha, NE.

arfrank 17y ago

A online grocery store comparison shopping. Data is customer driven and pulled from the weekly shopper. Reciepts can be scanned in and processed to keep track of shopping. Shopping lists can be entered online to be cross checked against the closest grocery stores (you get to decide if going to 2 stores is worth saving $10 extra) and sent to your phone. Online grocers(amazon) even get in the mix to provide deals and free shipping. And why stop there, why not alcohol too...

kiwidrew 17y ago
Shameless plug that you (being, presumably, a kiwi based on your grabaseat comment earlier) may find interesting: www.boozr.co.nz I've decided to start with alcohol and work my way backwards towards groceries, but the idea is roughly the same as what you've outlined. :) Luckily here in NZ everyone except Foodstuffs (NW, Pak'n'save, Four Square) is online so getting the prices isn't too tricky...
- arfrank 17y ago
  Actually I just lived there for a half a year, but miss NZ and the special brand of beer there dearly. I like app, only we always bought our beer/wine from the grocery stores. But for any liquor this looks sweet as. What did you write it in?
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

Alex3917 17y ago

I'm tired of sex shops that ship their products using discrete packaging. I want a store that ships products in packaging purposely designed to be as embarrassing as is plausibly possible. Charge double what a normal sex store does, and even if you only get a few hundred orders a day via Google you still have a decent business.

jgilliam 17y ago
The perfect gift for the person who has everything! This startup needs one hacker, and three dozen lawyers.
klein_waffle 17y ago
> I'm tired of sex shops that ship their products using discrete packaging. I agree. Down with discrete; we need continuous packaging. http://everything2.com/title/discreet%2520vs.%2520discrete http://everything2.com/title/discreet%2520vs.%2520discrete
- eru 17y ago
  Just speak German. We have the same distinction, but only one word for both meanings.
oldgregg 17y ago
Yes, and a 100% chargeback rate because apparently "Moot" is not the real cardholders name.

x37llnoise 17y ago

develop a crossplatform webinterface to read any and every format of text conceivable in its most CONVENIENT form possible.

davidalln 17y ago
Sort of like Readability by Arc90? http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

randomwalker 17y ago

Train chimps to break CAPTCHAs. My guess is that it's feasible. E.g, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgeLEWr614 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgeLEWr614 It is, however, unethical, and isn't something that benefits society, despite the fact that a viable business model might exist in the short term. Note that this would give a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Captcha farm' :-)

rms 17y ago
Chimps are way too expensive
- eru 17y ago
  Use ravens.

ivankirigin 17y ago

A music service that actually reflected the reality of today's tech: ubiquitous access to all the music ever made. My iphone should be able to store or stream anything. I should be able to send anything I'm listening to to a friend. Bullshit about limits on the number of computers connected to my iphone, illegal file sharing, DRM, $1 for a download that has $0 marginal cost, etc. -- all of it out the window. Give creators tools to directly engage with their audience, make all their content free and easy to consumer & share, and make money from live shows, special physical goods, and patronage.

dkasper 17y ago

A law firm connected to a school where the lawyers make $30/hour and the teachers make $200/hour. ;-)

rokhayakebe 17y ago

5 Star Jail Hotel (good for procrastinators). Pay us and we will lock you up for as many days as you paid. You get one hour per day to hang out within our establishment. Breakfast, Lunch and Diner are eaten with other prisoners. The rest of time we will lock you up in your room (with internet connection). Phones lines are only open for x hours. Emails programs are blocked most of the time... You see where I am heading with this. It could be good for someone with a deadline to accomplish something.

dxjones 17y ago
Can a boss send an employee to procrastinator jail to make sure they finish their task by deadline?
- rokhayakebe 17y ago
  yes, you can.
- pierrefar 17y ago
  Can you send the boss so you can get on with work?
randomtask 17y ago
With internet connection? I see a major flaw in your plan...

mrduncan 17y ago

A twitter clone that requires you to pass a spelling and grammar check and use more than 140 characters

zackattack 17y ago
This actually is a good idea for something like a bloglines subscription where you have to read everyone else's posts before you can post...
mstevens 17y ago
Maybe check posts using http://stupidfilter.org/main/ http://stupidfilter.org/main/

klein_waffle 17y ago

Form a consortium that aims to get drugs decriminalized as long as the government approves certain suppliers, and get them to write the law such that your clients are the likely beneficiary. This is worth billions in investment. Target an American state which seems to be on the tipping point and you could be very rich. Except for the fact that existing drug cartels would kill you before you could succeed.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

neilk 17y ago

Rental for moving boxes. Whenever I move, which is fairly frequently, I have to make some trip somewhere just to get boxes. Then there's the effort of breaking them down and then either storing them or throwing them away. How about some boxes which are just a little bit sturdier than normal, which could be rented? They are delivered to your home and then picked up again (perhaps part of the moving service) and reused for other customers.

cubicle67 17y ago
We've moved a number of times, and always bought 2nd hand boxes and then sold them again when done. No middle man, no hassles if boxes get destroyed or you want to keep them, and comes out net cost of $0 (2nd hand boxes have a constant value)

kiba 17y ago

An online wargame in reality using geolocation and mobile phones. Build game servers that serve as wireless mesh network and locate them throughout the city(Partnering with local businesses such as coffee shops). They can also store the company's weapon hardwares and suits to loan to player. Players can also build their own weapon system and suits.

neilk 17y ago

Kidnap vacations. The ultimate thrill ride. You pay them some amount of money and they will arrive at your home, blindfold you, put you on a plane, and then take it off once you are in the foreign country. Then you have to work out where you are and how to get back. I believe the government has been doing this for a while now.

dxjones 17y ago
Can you give this as gift? You pick someone else to go on a "kidnap vacation" ?
damovisa 17y ago
Wow, that actually sounds awesome to me!
oldgregg 17y ago
Apparently you've never tried one of those timeshare vacation deals, huh? I'd rather be waterboarded than fight those sharks.
wlievens 17y ago
There was a CSI Miami episode depicting this when it went wrong.
rythie 17y ago
I would seriously do that, it sounds fun.
samueladam 17y ago
You might like "The Game" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119174/

neilk 17y ago

Video Twitter. Post updates of 10 seconds or less. I have a feeling people are already working on this, though.

gsmaverick 17y ago
http://12seconds.tv http://12seconds.tv
joshsharp 17y ago
It already exists: 12seconds.tv ;)

neilk 17y ago

A pen-sized device which gives you cleaning advice. It has various chemical sensors built in to the tip and then displays a readout of what cleaning product to use.

neilk 17y ago

Kindle-ize all your books (in a DRM-free form, guaranteed accessible for 25 years). I want a service which is both legal and easy to use. Don't make me sit there and laboriously use some CueCat thing and make a huge bibliography. If this means that someone has to cart them away and destroy them, I don't really care; actually it's kind of a benefit if you live in a small apartment. Most of them are not remarkable as far as physical form goes.

neilk 17y ago

An alternative internet for file-sharers, using line-of-sight radio communications and other methods. There are enough people in many urban areas to make this work. Perhaps implausible since you can already do most of that with VPNs on the regular internet, and hardware is expensive and obvious.

neilk 17y ago

Since the newspapers are about to die, we need something to replace the government/corporate watchdog function of journalism. (sensational news, sports, classifieds, entertainment, and celebritard news have already migrated elsewhere, so let's not consider them.) Some form of hyper-customizable newsletter service, providing updates on upcoming legislation or business deals. There are large firms who already subscribe to such things in the form of clipping services; this goes one level deeper. The target market should be small business owners and people who have some interest in local politics.

eds 17y ago
replace the government/corporate watchdog function of journalism I think you misspelled lapdog
jay_kyburz 17y ago
I would love to see a news service based entirely on fact. No journalist emotional interpretation. Headlines would be generated based on user criterion. A search. Give me headlines new headlines (today) sorted by number of deaths in incident. Filtered globally, by country, or by city. etc etc.
philwelch 17y ago
That'll never sell. Instead there should be a news site that gives you a brief quiz to determine your political bias, and then serves you biased news stories that agree with your preconceived ideas. It takes a task that people already do by hand, and automates it!

alecst 17y ago

A junk gym, wherein all equipment would be gathered from a large junkyard, and could be housed within a cheap warehouse. Bench press could be a small bench with perhaps an axle and two tires on each side, or metal plates, all with weights marked. Various other car parts could be transformed into different exercise machines. Dumbbells would be various pieces of metal with marked weights.

dryicerx 17y ago
This makes for quite the manly place to work out. I mean think about the costs here (no need for expensive equipment either, their junk!)

markerdmann 17y ago

RentADesignatedDriver.com

andylei 17y ago
that's just taxis online
trafficlight 17y ago
I believe these are called Taxis.

khangtoh 17y ago

Twitter for all things non-human. Like my coffee machine tweeting me that the pot's empty or the new brew's ready.

petervandijck 17y ago
I like that. But the real idea is then to have some physical thingie for a few $ that can send tweets.
khafra 17y ago
Thinkgeek already sells some device that lets your plants tweet.

dryicerx 17y ago

This is for advertising: Have devices in public places where people are likely to sit down (bus steats, benches in Airports, bus stops) that listen in and automatically pick out keywords from conversations. Ads are displayed directly in front that is relevant to the conversation.

petervandijck 17y ago
Hahaha that's just crazy enough to get loads of funding.

vsingh 17y ago

An engine that scans forum posts for factors like "emoticon content", builds a network of who replies to whom, and uses that information to establish a hierarchy of social status among the participants.

jimmybot 17y ago

Device where every time you mutter a complaint it records it and attempts to match it up and send it to the correct recipient. The complaints are anonymous, but tracks whether the complaint was responded to or not. If so, the complainer gets more karma and is prioritized higher. There could be the opposite marking of spam or unreasonable. The eventual goal is to identify complainer pundit wizards that will make the world better by walking around and muttering (bitching) about their dislikes.

eru 17y ago
You should include praise as well.

quizbiz 17y ago

In an experiment, formed a line in front of a random doorway. After a whole, the line grew. Nobody knew what they were waiting for. What about hiring people to make a store front of parking lot or booth look busy?

aupajo 17y ago

Gentlemen, I refer you to the ineffable Halfbakery for a more complete list: http://www.halfbakery.com/ http://www.halfbakery.com/

Evgeny 17y ago

I want to see a smart traffic control system. Currently I'm only aware of the traffic lights which can sense when the car stopped next to the line and switch the lights accordingly. I would like to see more. I would like the system to identify how dense the traffic is in all directions, including the right/left turn lines. It would then adjust the duration of the green light according to the number of cars travelling in corresponding directions. It should also identify if all the cars that were waiting for the green light have crossed the intersection, and if there are no more cars it could turn then red light earlier. So often I see the following: a jam is on a major road. A red line turns on, and a lonely car crosses a major road. The light is still red though for some time, with dozens of cars waiting for nothing ...

ralph 17y ago
It's called a roundabout. ;-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout They help traffic flow lots in the UK and elsewhere around the world. Not a panacea though.
- mrduncan 17y ago
  I've never seen a roundabout work well with high traffic though (in the US anyway), it has always seemed to me that they work amazingly well with low and medium traffic, but once they are full you end up with a single inbound street hogging it since everyone else has to yield.
  - kchecker 17y ago
    Well you can have roundabouts with traffic lights. They work well in Chandigarh, India.
  - ralph 17y ago
    Everyone else would have to yield only if all traffic entering from that single busy inbound road was going all the way around the roundabout and exited onto the road it entered from. Since few cars do this, the odd single car on other entrances gets a gap where they pull out, often causing the busy road to queue while they pass, which in turn lets others out, etc. I agree though, the heavier the traffic the less they work. Especially when morons pull out onto it despite seeing the exit is jammed and without leaving room for other lanes to cross in front and behind of them. Also, in the UK, many drivers fail to signal correctly, giving less clues to other drivers as to when they can pull out, e.g. if you're not signalling left as you exit a roundabout, you're doing it wrong! :-)

VonGuard 17y ago

Similar to kidnap vacations: larger scale version of JeJune Institute. It's in downtown SF, and is a physically immersive alternate reality game. It's based on cults that have committed mass suicide. So, along those lines, rent a large building and turn it into a hub of some wild new ARG, with scavenger hunt aspects, physical world puzzles, and community activities.

dryicerx 17y ago

Car Net. A information network between vehicles that share information about what their destinations and routes are. Specially for congested areas, they would all work together to find the optimal route with the least congestion. Instead of everyone trying to take the shortest path, all the vehicles will work together to figure out the shortest-time-path based by distributing the road load levels evenly.

kokofoo 17y ago

A chip that implants inside your brain so that you can surf the web with sheer thought.

cflee 17y ago

This just reminds me of the Half Bakery, it's also got a whole ton of crazy, outlandish, unrealistic ideas that won't work. Otherwise known as brainstorming, yes? www.halfbakery.com

philwelch 17y ago

An alarm clock with a numeric keypad so I don't have to sit there mashing the "down" button.

webstartupguy 17y ago

Any "serious" web programmers looking for new web startup ideas, contact me at quasi.entrepreneur@gmail.com This is more than just the idea and includes some proprietary assets. Please only those who are "serious" or serial entrepreneurs respond, preferably with a Bio.