Just name it -- something you want to see solved but hasn't been yet. Political, technology, scientific...anything.<p>I hope to spark a discussion like the original version of this topic - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442571. More importantly, maybe someone will do something about your problem.
Safe liposuction. (Going to be a few self-righteous "just eat less and exercise" replies to this one by metabolically advantaged folks who haven't got the slightest clue how difficult it can be to lose weight when your body doesn't want to cooperate.)<p>Alternatively, put some rats on Seth Roberts's set-point diet (aka Shangri-La diet) and figure out the path of action, then develop it in pill form for those of us where Seth Roberts's diet didn't work / didn't work well enough.<p>To make a lot of money, ask yourself where people aren't looking. Often the place they're not looking is a place of moral blindness. Plenty of us would pay just about anything to look normal. The moral blindness part is the people being sanctimonious about fat being a sign of weak willpower and having no concept of the actual science involved.<p>Another place to look would be fast, accurate molecule recognition array tests for venereal diseases. Get it down to something the size of a vending machine, $20, and thirty minutes (results sent via text message) and you'll get people paying you every night. Again, moral blindness may be a reason why people aren't looking as hard in this direction as they should to create lots of hedons - sex is sinful.<p>Speaking of not looking where everyone else is looking, would it be too crazy to ask people to do something that actually creates large amounts of value instead of throwing sheep? Even if it involves doing something other than computer programming?
"De-manufacturing" instead of throwing away things. A company that sells you an item must take it back at the end of its life and break it down into constituent parts to be re-used/recycled. i.e. cars, phones, computers, fridge, house, office fitouts etc. Companies will seek to maximise profits and so make things that are easily re-used/re-sold.<p>An example of a product like this is the 1981 Jeep CJ-7 I had when I was young. I could swap in pieces from around 4 other models from a range of 15 years of production and they would work... nowadays the door panel from a 2009 BMW 323 won't fit a 2010 323, its ridiculous and leads to a lot of unnecessary waste.
I'd like to see a way to get a non-government based passport for travel, where the organization issuing it does basic checks and certifies you're not a criminal and can take care of yourself. It's a bit of a catch-22, but if you could get enough places to start taking this sort of passport for entry, then soon most places would have to. This would be good for people who like to travel to interesting places that are dangerous to travel with their native country's passport, and for talented people with dysfunctional/oppressive governments.
Corruption.<p>It is a huge problem in India, I wish it is solved using transparent processes, aided by software tools.<p>RTI (Right to Information) act helps in bringing out issues to an extent, but those who file RTIs get threatened or can even end up being killed..<p><a href="http://www.google.co.in/search?q=RTI+activist+killed" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.co.in/search?q=RTI+activist+killed</a><p>Something like anonymous or proxy RTI filings can help and all the results should be cataloged.
Digital receipts - I hardly need to carry cash anymore, pretty much everywhere I shop takes chip-n-pin cards so I use my debit card to pay for most things.<p>However, what you end up with is silly bits of paper that I end up carrying round in my wallet or stuffed into folders at work or at home.<p>Why can't my payment card contain an identifier that allows the bank to send me a digitally signed receipt - I could get notification by SMS or email that this is in place before I leave the shop.<p>There is a lot of crypto tech that could be thrown at this problem and it would end up more convenient and better.
Online elections. Think of how many more people would actually vote in the US if it were <i>online</i>. The 2008 election had 63% voter turnout, which is historically high, but is nothing compared to countries like Italy with 90%.<p>Obviously, there are huge security concerns and it would be a logistical nightmare, but that's what someone needs to solve.
A better way to meet co-founders. Almost like a dating website but instead of going on a date you work on an Open Source project together with someone who would be a good match.
Job search is very broken. Monster/Dice/Craigslist &c are broken. Not sexy, I know, but I imagine the people who solve that problem will become quite rich.
A practical, robust method for separating essential complexity from accidental complexity in software engineering.<p>Trevor Blackwell has written about something like this: <a href="http://tlb.org/busywork.html" rel="nofollow">http://tlb.org/busywork.html</a>
Making Scholar articles open to public access.<p>Google scholar returned references are mainly to journal articles requiring a fee. This is useless.
Science should be a collaborative work like wikipedia but with referees (not the narrowed minded one).
Something (website) to replace my new car's manual with something that's actually useful: teach me about my new car, common probloems, how to maintain it myself, etc...
A <i>good</i> photo management system for Windows that is designed to be useful over 10, 20 years (ie. keeps your photos stored, backedup, organized in a way that's not too proprietary). Picasa is powerful but has a CRAP ui, iPhoto is much better, but Mac only.
Easy to use tracking of stolen car (I live in Colombia): put small device that costs about 60$ somewhere in your car. If it gets stolen, activate via internet service and it tells you where your car is.
"Deprecate the base of Maslow's pyramid"
Inventing cheap and healthy concentrated 'food' that would allow people to eat once a month or even more rarely. Almost all other problems have a root in our needing to eat (work and cars, pollution, corruption, fighting for social status and it's consequences). You'd have the autonomy and time to take long trips without needing to carry much.
- negation of the UN Human Rights' council obsession with Israel<p>- Cold Fusion<p>- medical imaging that can detect emotional patterns and spiritual energy
I'd like to see someone solve the problem of (snail) mail.
Its the one thing that is really preventing me from living a digital nomad lifestyle. I still have to visit my office at least once a week just to pick up mail, half of which is often junk and half of which im normally too late for.
I want to be able to use the internet without being really worried about installing the operating system, maintaining and updating it. Heck, I don't want to SEE the OS. Just abstract it away from my view. I don't want to see it any more. (The same can be said about web browsers)
How about improving medical forms. I recently signed up with a new doctor and literally filled out 5 pages, which all asked for the same information. Name, address, social sec. #, insurance, signature etc... I felt like I was back in 1980. SO frustrating!
Problem:
Status updates and notifications from my bank, facebook, meetup, server crashing etc.. aren't really e-amils but are being sent to to my inbox because there isn't a better place to send just the updates. Also, if I want to say, temporarily turn off status updates from facebook going to my inbox, this involves going into my facebook profile and turning notifications off there and then going back in there in the future and turning it back on.<p>My membership and communication information for many websites is also burried deep inside my inbox somewhere when that isn't really email either.
I'd like to be able to have lunch and chat one-on-one with a dozen or more angels that have mutual interests and experiences as me, without having to move to California or win some startup beauty contest.
An <i>easy to use</i> tool to connect my blog to all my various accounts (twitter, facebook, buzz, bla). that really focuses on letting me post easily. The current crop doesn't really seem to work for me.
University Research 2.0. It seems like universities are so lateeee on adopting new technologies. Most of them are still working with printed scientific journals / email / static HTMLs + GIFs from the 90s. They still do a lot of stuff through the mail and the count goes on... If you don't trust me, just take a look at <a href="http://arxiv.org/" rel="nofollow">http://arxiv.org/</a> or MIT's website. I'm pretty sure there's room for amelioration! If anyone wants to brainstorm on the topic, feel free to contact me.
Lowering the barrier to share data and information between my different telecommunication tools (phone, PC @work, PC@home, lap tops, internet caffe, ...).
The problem of induction. No one has answered Hume, except Kant and he dodged the question. This is the big question, underlying integration of QM/GR, the nature of time, P=NP?, AI, a stable credit-money system, scientific ethics, chicken or egg?, etc, etc. Once this is resolved, I feel sorry for future generation (not really) because its "only" applications forever after.
Establish conventions for academic publications that maximize easily machine-readable content instead of looking good when printed to a paper journal. Build a search engine that can answer advanced queries about existing research based on the citation links, machine-readable datasets and formal description language descriptions of the main contents of the articles.
Disclaimer: most of these aren't anything new or earth shattering things that need to be solved.<p>I dislike having a gazillion different Instant Message accounts with contacts that "only use MSN" or "only use AIM". SMS messaging may be a rip-off but there is one thing it has achieved: uniformity.<p>Craigslist is great but it caters to the lowest common denominator - which can be frustrating.
A better online shopping experience.<p>One area especially is customer reviews and feedbacks. I don't want to read a review by anyone who buys the products.. that doesn't help me. I want to know if that someone is like me. has the same taste in music, or food or whatever variable that is closest to my interests.<p>This will help me speed up the decision making on the purchase in question.
Personalized Movies.
Based on your past viewing history, it creates a new movie that no one else has seen and you can possibly share with your friends.<p>So it will notice your love for sci fi but it will notice you like comedy too, but you dont like your comedy mixed with your sci fi. :D Using this info generates a hollywood standard movie
Cheap and thin electronic paper. I'm talking about e-paper as thin as regular paper and bound into notebooks. Then I can buy ~5 notebooks that each have to ability to display any e-book or text based file. I also need the ability to write in these notebooks so that I can store my notes electronically.
easy to setup music system: buy x speakers, just put them where you want them (connect to electricity), decent music quality (varying sizes of speakers), they all play music from one computer somewhere in the house (wifi). About 80$ per average speaker (not 3 or 400$ as the current systems)
(this may exist) for teaching to drive a car, a way for the person in the passanger seat to see exactly which pedals the person driving is pushing. Should be cheap (50$) and easy to install/uninstall (10 mins)
It's a problem that I can no longer find the 'save' link on HN stories - where is it? That's one of my favorite HN features, even though I use it rarely. I'd like to see someone bring it back.
a) an open source software repository of all programming languages/operating system software implementations. (Note: <a href="http://catb.org/retro/" rel="nofollow">http://catb.org/retro/</a> is a good start, but there needs to be more)<p>b) improving democracy by reasonable application of at least some of the technological advances of the last decade; why hasn't that happened yet?
reliability data for consumer products. while the internet brought great transparency for the whole purchasing process, this is really the missing piece for good buying decisions.