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.
1,395 solutions
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Can we find out why a specific ad appears in our Facebook feed?
Last week I went to a restaurant with some friends and while checking the menu we saw that there was a cocktail with Campari (alcoholic liqueur) - this triggered a 30 sec conversation about the drink. Following day I open my FB feed and something weird happened - there was a Campari ad just in front of me! In the last months of my online life I didn't search for Campari, cocktails, beverages or anything related so I think it would be great if there was a way of finding why that ad end up there!
Why it failed: Last week I went to a restaurant with some friends and while checking the menu we saw that there was a cocktail with Campari (alcoholic liqueur) - this triggered a 30 sec conversation about the drink. Following day I open my FB feed and something weird happened - there was a Camp
lampzzy
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Will we ever have affordable and attractive urban housing for all?
It seems every area of our lives has been improved through technology except for the cost of housing. Food and produce has reduced in price to the point where the average minimum wage provides a decent standard of living but the prospect of house ownership is a 25 to 30 year loan repayment (if you are able to get a loan). I know world populations are increasing causing scarcity and that we are also improving our transportation technology but human accommodation needs have not changed and we still seem unable to "hack" urban housing at scale. Do you see any changes coming down the line that will improve this situation?
Why it failed: It seems every area of our lives has been improved through technology except for the cost of housing. Food and produce has reduced in price to the point where the average minimum wage provides a decent standard of living but the prospect of house ownership is a 25 to 30 year loan
drcross
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Should I invest in a desktop PC in 2017?
I'm currently using a Thinkpad X201, with a first gen i7 processor, 8GBs of ram and an SSD. I want to purchase a new computer to own a faster machine. Currently I'm mostly using the thinkpad on my desk with two external monitors. On the other hand, the battery life of it is pretty good and I like that it's small and lightweight. I'm not a gaming person, so I don't need a discrete graphics card. I'm mostly using either Linux or FreeBSD with single-boot, but for Photoshop and school-work I sometimes need to work with windows. If I had two graphics cards I could forward one to QEMU and get near native response times on VMs. Last but not least, one part of me wants to experience building a desktop. Calculating the expenses, building a desktop would cost me arround 550 euros. But in the same price range I could buy a low-end 7th gen kaby lake laptop. I know that
Why it failed: I'm currently using a Thinkpad X201, with a first gen i7 processor, 8GBs of ram and an SSD. I want to purchase a new computer to own a faster machine. Currently I'm mostly using the thinkpad on my desk with two external monitors. On the other hand, the battery life of i
terminalcommand
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Where should a UK-based company move to if encryption is outlawed?
Throwaway account for probably-obvious reasons. We would be grateful if people avoided speculating about who this is in the comments :-) We're a UK-based PaaS. About 90% of our customers are from outside the UK. The party most likely to form the government after the upcoming election here is strongly averse to encryption. Although it remains to be seen what, if any, legislation they will actually enact if they get in, we need to do contingency planning. The worst-case scenario (which, to be clear, we think is very unlikely) is that they might pass laws that would mean we would not be able to offer a service with sufficient security for our international customers. In this - again, we think unlikely - event, we'd either have to close the business, as we can't keep going on our UK revenue only, or we'd have to move to another country. Our question for HN is: which count
Why it failed: Throwaway account for probably-obvious reasons. We would be grateful if people avoided speculating about who this is in the comments :-) We're a UK-based PaaS. About 90% of our customers are from outside the UK. The party most likely to form the government after the upcoming
throwawayblwBz
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Should I buy a boat and live off the grid?
The situation is as follows: I live in Stockholm but my current lease will run out at the end of August. Now it is entirely possible for me to get a new apartement. But a thought has lodged in my brain that I can not get rid of. I want to buy a boat, find a slip here in Stockholm and live on the boat for the foreseeable future. I'm sure I could handle the practicalities of it. On the pro side is the fact that I want to try to live on a boat (quite small sailboat in this case) and "off the grid". Sure it's a bit romanticised, but isn't your youth the time to make mistakes? On the con side I'm worried my social life will suffer, I might lose friends. Can't invite people home. People don't want to date a hobo living on a boat? So my questions is: How severe is the stigma around living on a boat? Does anyone have experience of living in a way that'
Why it failed: The situation is as follows: I live in Stockholm but my current lease will run out at the end of August. Now it is entirely possible for me to get a new apartement. But a thought has lodged in my brain that I can not get rid of. I want to buy a boat, find a slip here in Stockholm
danieka
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: How to find a wife?
There was a recent post on HN about marriage. An insightful hacker commented: What ends up happening is sooner or later one ends up pulling dating partners from eccentric and probably unhealthy places. And the ones most willing to engage have their own reasons for seeking out a lonely programmer. Generically, bad places to pull a spouse from: online dating sites/apps, bars, concerts, large parties, etc. Just about anywhere that attracts people from a variety of social strata and offers zero curation for common values, education or habits of mind, and/or doesn't sort people in any way based on useful proxies for those things. The trouble is that those sources are tempting if you are socially isolated (from the opposite gender) and perceive yourself to have few options, and/or because you're lazy or fatigued from the ever-frustrating chase. Always bad? No. But the
Why it failed: There was a recent post on HN about marriage. An insightful hacker commented: What ends up happening is sooner or later one ends up pulling dating partners from eccentric and probably unhealthy places. And the ones most willing to engage have their own reasons for seeking out a l
valueprop
- startupShut down2017
Dev Bootcamp is shutting down
The email sent out to alumni (closing paragraphs elided, in consideration of the character count): "I am reaching out to let you know of some very sad news. After considering all of our options, we have made the heartbreaking decision to wind down DBC operations. In other words, DBC's final cohort will start on July 17 and will graduate in December 2017. Campuses will officially close on December 8, 2017, as we are committed to providing our currently enrolled students with full delivery of the program, including seeing them through the entire curriculum and providing at least six months of career support for these students after graduation. Please know that we did not come to this decision lightly, and it is one that deeply affects us all. We’re so proud of what our students, alumni, DBC team (past and present), and community and employer partners have accomplished over the pa
Why it failed: The email sent out to alumni (closing paragraphs elided, in consideration of the character count): "I am reaching out to let you know of some very sad news. After considering all of our options, we have made the heartbreaking decision to wind down DBC operations. In other wo
Techowl
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?
We've seen a lot of posts about salaries these last few months on HN and I'm wondering if people are lying about their monthly paycheck. I have 10 years of experience in the field, I'm based in Silicon Valley. Worked in the city, south bay and the peninsula. I'm a full stack engineer, I switched employers 7 times in 10 years constantly getting pulled into another hot opportunity! Sometimes from ex-colleagues, most of the times from recruiters. Looking at glassdoor.com and my personal experience, salaries are much lower than what people are claiming on HN. There are exceptions out there, Google, etc. I've been their myself as well as another one of the big 5. Experienced engineers make a lot of money but it's mostly coming from Stock/RSU's and sometimes bonuses. I'd totally believe it if you tell me "my total offer was about $300-500/
Why it failed: We've seen a lot of posts about salaries these last few months on HN and I'm wondering if people are lying about their monthly paycheck. I have 10 years of experience in the field, I'm based in Silicon Valley. Worked in the city, south bay and the peninsula. I'
bsvalley
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: What old, discontinued desktop software do you still run?
What are your reasons for running it? Is it because you've never found a superior alternative? Is it because you know it inside out and it's the fastest way to do a task? Is it because it runs fast and with low-memory requirements? Or is it because it has the best interface for what you need to do, and it's never been bettered (in your view)?
Why it failed: What are your reasons for running it? Is it because you've never found a superior alternative? Is it because you know it inside out and it's the fastest way to do a task? Is it because it runs fast and with low-memory requirements? Or is it because it has the best inter
open-source-ux
- startupShut down2017
Tell HN: Yahoo Finance has apparently killed its API
Yahoo Finance has apparently killed is API. Zero warning. Lots of apps probably use this. Before, you could get stock information by using http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv Now, you get the following message: It has come to our attention that this service is being used in violation of the Yahoo Terms of Service. As such, the service is being discontinued. For all future markets and equities data research, please refer to finance.yahoo.com. What violation of TOS? People have been using this for years without any issues. If you are going to cut this off, how about a warning and heads up? Guess that's what we should expect from OATH / Verizon.
Why it failed: Yahoo Finance has apparently killed is API. Zero warning. Lots of apps probably use this. Before, you could get stock information by using http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv Now, you get the following message: It has come to our attention that this
php2011
- startupShut down2017
Show HN: PlaidML, open source deep learning for any GPU
Our company Vertex.AI has been working on this for a while but this is the first public release. We're starting with using PlaidML to bring OpenCL support to Keras and more frameworks, platforms, etc are coming. Yes, this means you can use use your AMD GPU for deep learning dev. Sorry, no Mac or Windows support yet although the brave can try building from source (it should work). http://vertex.ai/blog/announcing-plaidml https://github.com/plaidml/plaidml
Why it failed: Our company Vertex.AI has been working on this for a while but this is the first public release. We're starting with using PlaidML to bring OpenCL support to Keras and more frameworks, platforms, etc are coming. Yes, this means you can use use your AMD GPU for deep learning
hedgehog
- startupShut down2016
Posiba shuts down office in Vietnam without paying their staff
Company hasn't paid the staff since Jun 2016. Now CEO decides to close office in VN without clear path to pay us. PosibaVn is the core engineering team and it's not their failure. Is there anyone can help us?
Why it failed: Company hasn't paid the staff since Jun 2016. Now CEO decides to close office in VN without clear path to pay us. PosibaVn is the core engineering team and it's not their failure. Is there anyone can help us?
EDreicer
- startupShut down2016
Apply HN: Zippy, self driving sidewalk meal delivery robots
At Zippy, we're building self driving delivery robots that navigate the sidewalk to deliver meals from restaurants to homes. They use self driving technology including 3D cameras to go from a pizza/burrito place to the customer's front door, avoiding pedestrians along the way. The robot cart currently is driven via 3G connection remotely over the internet, so it can be in another suburb over, with it streaming live video back. We've driven it down to the end of the street & back remotely. And we're working with GPS, sensors etc for SLAM. (We'd love to work with Varden Labs to cross-pollinate our self driving tech, that golf cart looks rad. http://abc7.com/technology/driverless-shuttle-giving-students-rides-around-mt-sac/1229716/) Dominos recently launched a self driving pizza delivery robot in Australia, and other startups a
Why it failed: At Zippy, we're building self driving delivery robots that navigate the sidewalk to deliver meals from restaurants to homes. They use self driving technology including 3D cameras to go from a pizza/burrito place to the customer's front door, avoiding pedestrians al
tomjacobs
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: What to do when a Chinese startup clones your website?
Dear HN, I'm CEO of a Germany-based eSports startup and we have a problem. Today we were approached by a Chinese user of our website who told us that a China-based startup has launched a direct clone of our website aimed at the Chinese market. Our website https://strivewire.com is a host of for-money eSports tournaments in the Hearthstone vertical, but we are working on expanding to other games as well. The website in question is a very obvious clone of ours and has both .com and .cn domains: - www.haogegebisai.com - www.chosengamer.com Basically they copied all the design and even our logo down to the actual URLs. I've added their CEO on WeChat and inquired about this, and he said they are big fans of our startup. But he also mentioned that they already have investors. Their website launched two days ago and already has a bunch of activity. We've talked about th
Why it failed: Dear HN, I'm CEO of a Germany-based eSports startup and we have a problem. Today we were approached by a Chinese user of our website who told us that a China-based startup has launched a direct clone of our website aimed at the Chinese market. Our website https://s
bflesch
- startupShut down2016
Apply HN: Remember – Intelligently search all of your files from one place.
Hello HN! Remember is an intelligent personal search engine that lets you find every moment of your digital life. We connect to your computer, phone, wearables and the services you use (Facebook, Twitter, mobile apps, etc.) and make all of your data searchable from one place. Going a step further, we run machine learning algorithms on all of your files to understand context so you can search using natural language. We lose so much time looking for our files; be it notes, messages, photos, videos, audio recordings. "Let me show you a video I sent Jack it's hilarious!" Stares at phone for 15 minutes looking for it "I have a breakthrough idea about mitosis, let me write it down." Never gets back to that note again This must end. We want to help maximise human potential, and we think this as close as we can get to having perfect memory with today's technology. F
Why it failed: Hello HN! Remember is an intelligent personal search engine that lets you find every moment of your digital life. We connect to your computer, phone, wearables and the services you use (Facebook, Twitter, mobile apps, etc.) and make all of your data searchable from one place. Goi
merterdir
- startupShut down2016
Tell HN: Man, I quit
hey guys so I worked on this SaaS since 09. I've made probably 10k since then. Pathetic, yup. it took about 3 years to develop a mature product out but seems like there's just more and more SaaS charging cheaper and cheaper and there's just no more people that are sane as in they understand how much value they are getting but unwilling to pay for it (they can't).It seems that my product failed because I ended up catering and attracting people who didn't appreciate the value it brought them. There was just another guy around the corner who would heoretically do it for cheaper.So after 100k lines of code...I'm finally thinking of shutting down the Saas and I just had a super depressive period where I was in a full state of panic. I'm letting go of my 20s in it's entirety. I've sacrificed so much for so little in gain and it's so fucking dep
Why it failed: hey guys so I worked on this SaaS since 09. I've made probably 10k since then. Pathetic, yup. it took about 3 years to develop a mature product out but seems like there's just more and more SaaS charging cheaper and cheaper and there's just no more people that are
jorgecurio
- startupShut down2016
Apply HN: Gresham Dollar – Viral Currency for Basic Income
Gresham Dollar (GD) is a currency designed for the purpose of providing people a basic income (i.e. regular income independent of the labor market) without the need for government funding. Gresham Dollar is backed by the United States Dollar (USD). It is pegged to USD at par (one-to-one) using a novel mechanism such that it requires far fewer USD reserves than a central bank would normally need in order to sustain a new USD-backed currency. Gresham's Law is an economic principle describing the observation that "bad money drives out good." For example, when the United States discontinued minting silver quarters, people held onto their old silver quarters, preferring to spend the new less-valuable quarters. Thusly, the old silver quarters were quickly driven from circulation. Gresham Dollar's core mechanism uses a hack on Gresham's Law that causes people similarly
Why it failed: Gresham Dollar (GD) is a currency designed for the purpose of providing people a basic income (i.e. regular income independent of the labor market) without the need for government funding. Gresham Dollar is backed by the United States Dollar (USD). It is pegged to USD at par (one
Suncho
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: Do SMBs still care about their websites?
Do you see in your local market a movement of B2C SMBs shutting down their websites, leaving their web presence to Facebook/Instagram/Twitter only? Edit: added "B2C" context to question.
Why it failed: Do you see in your local market a movement of B2C SMBs shutting down their websites, leaving their web presence to Facebook/Instagram/Twitter only? Edit: added "B2C" context to question.
rodolphoarruda
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: If my startup fails, what are the impacts on my future career prospects?
For the seasoned startup vets out there, I was wondering about how working for or starting a failed startup would impact career prospects down the line. Thanks!
Why it failed: For the seasoned startup vets out there, I was wondering about how working for or starting a failed startup would impact career prospects down the line. Thanks!
uptownfunk
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: As a programmer do you have ups and downs and periods of intense doubt?
Hi all, Am a developer based in Africa and have developed small applications for the company I work for an airline ground handling company and have also created apps for sale on codecanyon. Am a competent programmer not necessarily a good one but am able to get things done when under pressure, For example I made the codecanyon application at a previous job as an intern when we were required to comply with certain ISO regulations within a month. I did it as I had no way out. It has earned me approximately 250USD per month which in Africa is enough to pay rent but not be self employed. The problem comes when I need to do something that I am 100% responsible for. For example create a SaaS app. The usual process goes like this Have an idea, Get excited, come up with all kinds of cool/new features that look marketable/useful, sometimes I go to the extent of buying a domain, when it
Why it failed: Hi all, Am a developer based in Africa and have developed small applications for the company I work for an airline ground handling company and have also created apps for sale on codecanyon. Am a competent programmer not necessarily a good one but am able to get things done when u
Madawar
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: Can I visit your startup in San Francisco?
Hi there, My name is Pedro, I am from ACESSO a Brazilian SaaS company which provides document management services to 30 from the 100 biggest Brazilian enterprises, including banks, telecommunications, retails and construction companies. ACESSO's growth is about 40%/year since 2011, built based in a single platform. Our founder(Diego), our Heads and I are coming to SF tomorrow to stay until may27th so we can make new friends and learn how companies like yours are managing products innovation. If you're doing something interesting, have an awesome company culture, or just like hanging with Brazilians, we'd love to meet you. You can find out more about ACESSO here (http://acesso.io) or https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/acesso-digital/press (crunchabase is with the old logo) , and you can found me at pedro.moreno@acesso.io / @
Why it failed: Hi there, My name is Pedro, I am from ACESSO a Brazilian SaaS company which provides document management services to 30 from the 100 biggest Brazilian enterprises, including banks, telecommunications, retails and construction companies. ACESSO's growth is about 40%/year
pedrohom
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: What do you do if you can't pass technical interviews?
I just received yet another rejection email, tonally similar to many of the others I've gotten. This paragraph in particular sticks out [problem details omitted]: "This was a tough decision. We enjoyed talking with you and saw strengths through various parts of the interview, in particular on the [design discussion] and [list traversal] problems. However we made the final decision because we didn't see the overall level of coding we're looking for, especially during the [interactive terminal-based application] problem. The rate of progress on this problem wasn't as fast as we'd hoped and we weren't able to build a nice, generic solution within the time available. There was also a fair amount of confusion on the out of bounds issue, which we feel was the type of bug that would have been caught faster by a more experienced engineer." This is a patter
Why it failed: I just received yet another rejection email, tonally similar to many of the others I've gotten. This paragraph in particular sticks out [problem details omitted]: "This was a tough decision. We enjoyed talking with you and saw strengths through various parts of the inte
Kapura
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: Am I expecting too much?
I work at a large, non-software company in the US as an entry-level software engineer, where I've been working for a little over a year, now. This has been my first job out of college, though I did do freelance work for a few years prior. I'm very unhappy at my company, and I'm wondering whether this is due to the company, or instead due to my own unrealistic expectations. In my organization at this company, each team is assigned one senior engineer, one or more non-senior engineers, and one or more offshore engineers. On my team, I am the only non-senior engineer, in addition to half a dozen offshore engineers. In the ~12 months that I've been on my team, 3 senior engineers have joined and subsequently quit, which has left me to learn the ropes of our (unnecessarily large and often undocumented) application and manage all of our offshore engineers on my own. This mea
Why it failed: I work at a large, non-software company in the US as an entry-level software engineer, where I've been working for a little over a year, now. This has been my first job out of college, though I did do freelance work for a few years prior. I'm very unhappy at my company,
throwawaypotato
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: What kind of projects should I build for a front-end portfolio?
I have no professional experience, so I'll be applying to junior positions. What kind of projects should I build to showcase my skills? I'm thinking of doing re-designs of a few popular websites (2-3 pages mobile & desktop, wireframes) that I think can be improved. And then coding them into life. Would that make a good front-end portfolio or are there better projects that I can be doing? Also, I'm new to github-- What could I contribute to on there?
Why it failed: I have no professional experience, so I'll be applying to junior positions. What kind of projects should I build to showcase my skills? I'm thinking of doing re-designs of a few popular websites (2-3 pages mobile & desktop, wireframes) that I think can be improved.
Calist0