The graveyard of good ideas
Solutions that were tried, and what stopped them.
Patents that were rejected or abandoned, products that shut down, projects that went quiet. Borrow the idea, avoid the dead end.
4 solutions
- patentRejected2025
Show HN: Timep – A next-gen profiler and flamegraph-generator for bash code
Note: this is an update to [this]( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44568529 ) "Show HN" post. timep is a state-of-the-art [debug-]trap-based bash profiler that is efficient and extremely accurate. Unlike other profilers, timep records: 1. per-command wall-clock time 2. per-command CPU time, and 3. the hierarchy of parent function calls /subshells for each command the wall-clock + CPU time combination allows you to determine if a particular command is CPU-bound or IO-bound, and the hierarchical logging gives you a map of how the code actually executed. The standout feature of timep is that it will take these records and automatically generate a bash-native flamegraph (that shows bash commands, not syscalls). ------------------------------------------------ USAGE timep is extremely easy to use - just source the `timep.bash` file from the repo and add &quo
Why it failed: Note: this is an update to [this]( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44568529 ) "Show HN" post. timep is a state-of-the-art [debug-]trap-based bash profiler that is efficient and extremely accurate. Unlike other profilers, timep records: 1. per-command
jkool702
- patentRejected2025
Ask HN: MIT grad, junior dev layoffs – watching my daughter lose faith in merit
My daughter followed the playbook everyone here recommends. MIT. Programming olympiads. Strong internships. No shortcuts. She was hired as a junior developer and laid off in February. Since then, I’ve watched her confidence collapse in real time. She isolates herself. She barely talks. She spends most days in her room applying, waiting, and getting silence. I recently saw her crying alone, trying not to be noticed. That’s when it hit me how deeply this has affected her. This layoff didn’t just remove a paycheck. It removed her belief that effort correlates with outcomes. Every rejection reinforces the idea that none of what she did mattered. It’s Christmas and we aren’t celebrating. No decorations. No pretending things are okay. I’m completely shattered as a parent, mostly because I don’t have answers. I told her for years that merit would protect her. It didn’t. So I’m asking this commu
Why it failed: My daughter followed the playbook everyone here recommends. MIT. Programming olympiads. Strong internships. No shortcuts. She was hired as a junior developer and laid off in February. Since then, I’ve watched her confidence collapse in real time. She isolates herself. She barely
MITfather
- patentRejected2025
Show HN: Timep – a next-gen profiler and flamegraph-generator for bash code
timep is a TIME Profiler for bash code that will give you an accurate per-command execution time breakdown of any bash script or function. Unlike other profilers, timep also recovers and hierarchally records metadata on subshell and function nesting, allowing it to recreate the full call-stack tree for the bash code being profiled. If you call timep with the `--flame` flag, it will automatically generate a flamegraph .svg image where each block represents the wall-clock time spent on a particular command (top level) or its parent subshells/functions (all the other levels). Using timep is simple - just source the timep.bash file then add timep before whatever you want to profile. You do not need to change in the code being profiled - timep handles everything for you. Example usage: . ./timep.bash timep someFunc timep -flame someScript <inputFile timep will generate 2 profiles
Why it failed: timep is a TIME Profiler for bash code that will give you an accurate per-command execution time breakdown of any bash script or function. Unlike other profilers, timep also recovers and hierarchally records metadata on subshell and function nesting, allowing it to recreate the f
jkool702
- patentRejected2009
Tell HN: Dealing with VCs, my experience
There are a bunch of steps to dealing with VCs that you should be familiar with before stepping in to the fray. My background in this is that I did several pitches to VCs and have worked for several VCs in the last couple of years, mostly on the technical side but you get to see a good part of the process as perceived by the companies pitching. I also helped one company get seed capital, because I thought they showed great promise. So, the following is from personal experience, which is limited but it may be useful. Some VC's are more forgiving than others when it comes to following proper form, but even if they're forgiving they'll appreciate it if you know your stuff before you apply. Their agendas are almost always quite full and the amount of time they have to spend on you is limited, so you should use it wisely to maximize your chances of success. == before you start pitching == - F
Why it failed: There are a bunch of steps to dealing with VCs that you should be familiar with before stepping in to the fray. My background in this is that I did several pitches to VCs and have worked for several VCs in the last couple of years, mostly on the technical side but you get to see
jacquesm