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.
796 solutions
- 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: Which laptop for development?
Moved across the country for a startup and had to put my desktop in the office (the only machine I own) since they don't give you a computer. I feel like I'm missing out since the other devs take their shiny MacBook pros and sit around a table and work (and chat) while I'm tucked away in an obscure corner. Also, driving to the office everytime time something breaks on a holiday could be a major inconvenience. Still gonna keep my desktop in the office so looking for a cheap laptop. I work on python Django so as long as it can run PyCharm and slack and a few chrome tabs, I should be fine (no need to run VMs or anything fancy). I live in India so my options are somewhat limited since many models are either unavailable or simply more expensive than in the US. These are the models I narrowed down on to: 1. Refurbished Lenovo T420. 2nd gen i5, 16 gigs of RAM. Really cheap for 25
Why it failed: Moved across the country for a startup and had to put my desktop in the office (the only machine I own) since they don't give you a computer. I feel like I'm missing out since the other devs take their shiny MacBook pros and sit around a table and work (and chat) while
lonesword
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Is there a way we can prevent down-voting for disagreements?
My biggest gripe with HN is that it appears to me that comments are often down-voted over differing opinions rather than an issue with the comment as per the HN guidelines[0]. As someone who has unpopular opinions, this often leaves me fearful of participating in discussions. Maybe this fear effect is the very thing keeping our community more cordial though? :) I like HN a lot and it really is the only site where I regularly read comments. Keeping that in mind, I wonder if anyone has any ideas as to how we might improve this aspect of the community without also ruining it in the process? It is quite possible that any solution will wind up with worse adverse affects than benefits. One small idea I had was to add a section on "When Voting" to the HN guidelines[0]. I may have missed it but I do not believe there is anything pertaining to what one should be considering when voting.
Why it failed: My biggest gripe with HN is that it appears to me that comments are often down-voted over differing opinions rather than an issue with the comment as per the HN guidelines[0]. As someone who has unpopular opinions, this often leaves me fearful of participating in discussions. May
wuliwong
- startupShut down2017
Ask HN: Stories of startup persistence
I've recently closed the doors on my 6th bootstrapped startup in 15 years. This is in addition to many, many side projects that i wouldn't consider calling a startup. I've never been able to find product/market fit. I'm getting better, and thanks to ideas from lean startup, each attempt is taking less time and resources, but i cant help but wonder if I'm cut out for this. Are there any examples of founders who tried and failed multiple times before getting their big success?
Why it failed: I've recently closed the doors on my 6th bootstrapped startup in 15 years. This is in addition to many, many side projects that i wouldn't consider calling a startup. I've never been able to find product/market fit. I'm getting better, and thanks to idea
exampledotcom
- 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
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
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
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
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
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: 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
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
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: Is it just me or do a lot of people not know how stock options work?
I work in a startup in San Francisco. We're profitable & growing, about 30 people now. I'm one of the first engineers so I have a good chunk of stock options. A lot of times when I talk to my friends (mostly engineers, mostly in their middle 20s) about stock options they don't even know the basics. A few examples from my life: * A coworker left the company right before the end of his first year. He had ISOs, and it wouldn't be that expensive to buy them, but he still decided to leave right before the 1 year cliff date to go work in another company. * A friend of mine did not sign his stock options paperwork when his employer gave it to him more than 1 year ago. I guess he was just lazy, didn't want to sign something he did not fully understand. I don't know all the details but I assume if he signs it now he loses 1 year of vesting, the grant price will b
Why it failed: I work in a startup in San Francisco. We're profitable & growing, about 30 people now. I'm one of the first engineers so I have a good chunk of stock options. A lot of times when I talk to my friends (mostly engineers, mostly in their middle 20s) about stock options
stockoptionsta
- 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: I need advice, Mid-life crisis
I'm 26. No college degree no job no money single no kids and now a DUI on my record so hard to even hire. I'm not depressed but I feel like I can do better in life. I want to make something of myself but not sure where to even begin. I thought I would want to become a Web developer because I saw it as a way out of poverty for me and my family but I find it hard and give up at times because everything is so overwhelming and I don't have anyone to ask questions to because I have so many questions plus I can't afford bootcamps. I'm leaning towards becoming a PHP freelancer but even that seems hard to me. Because of my record of DUI I feel like being a freelancer is a good route With no money and lack of training I don't know how I'll succeed as a developer. Or get a decent paying job in general I just don't want to end up homeless or poor.
Why it failed: I'm 26. No college degree no job no money single no kids and now a DUI on my record so hard to even hire. I'm not depressed but I feel like I can do better in life. I want to make something of myself but not sure where to even begin. I thought I would want to become a W
alexhakawy
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: What is your viable aka money making startup or side project idea?
I want to be clear before we start. I am not looking for fantasy ideas. E.g. Uber for X , AirBnB for Y. No , it doesn't work that way. I do personally know 3 founders who tried this stuff and failed. Uber is Uber and AirBnB is AirBnb. No more this for that. Also, ideas such as AI, deep learning, space travel require more research work than near immediate monetization opportunities available for solo entrepreneur. Notes app , timetracker, project management software have tons of tools and app so I am reluctant to try in these areas. AI Personal assistant also have large blockade for monetization. At this point I don't have necessary skillset for building AI bots. I am looking for ideas like Improvely, ticket search, fashion cloths and marketplace optimization. I want to know what is your startup idea that could also make money ? We all have ideas but 90 % of them are fantasies o
Why it failed: I want to be clear before we start. I am not looking for fantasy ideas. E.g. Uber for X , AirBnB for Y. No , it doesn't work that way. I do personally know 3 founders who tried this stuff and failed. Uber is Uber and AirBnB is AirBnb. No more this for that. Also, ideas such
uibkend
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: Consider banning paywalled articles like those from wsj.com please
I can't read the paywalled articles on wsj.com anymore. So it's breaking my web experience of reading HN. The first post on the page is mostly a TLDR or a link to an alternative article instead of a real comment. For example the current #1 post : Samsung to Permanently Discontinue Galaxy Note 7 Smartphone (wsj.com) - https://gyazo.com/440858bfcc2f94d912a087ca2ef7ce26 There will always be a discussion about paywalled articles and or alternative sources, which takes the discussion away from the topic and there is a high chance that this will be a top comment ( because of upvotes). The current #1 link and #7 link are currently unusable to me : https://gyazo.com/578b105ce67f9b6d14cefe0dfeb43efb The trick with bypassing it through the web doesn't work for me anymore ( and multiple others). This was good in the past, but not anymore. An alternative
Why it failed: I can't read the paywalled articles on wsj.com anymore. So it's breaking my web experience of reading HN. The first post on the page is mostly a TLDR or a link to an alternative article instead of a real comment. For example the current #1 post : Samsung to Permanently
NicoJuicy
- 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
- 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: Good source code search engines?
I recently saw an article on HN about how to use GitHub's search as a starting point when writing code. That indeed is a great trick and it has already helped me save a lot of time. Unfortunately, GitHub's search is very lacking and most of the time instead of showing relevant search results it just shows lots and lots of duplicates for the main library. For example, I was searching for this[1], but the search results show the Main SDK files and not the files created with the SDK (which is what would've helped me). I couldn't find a way to suppress the files or duplicate searches. So I tried looking for a good source code search engine and I've find none so far. I've tried almost everything I could find on Google and Quora but most of these services are either discontinued (Google code, etc) or very bad. So, I was wondering what you guys use to search source
Why it failed: I recently saw an article on HN about how to use GitHub's search as a starting point when writing code. That indeed is a great trick and it has already helped me save a lot of time. Unfortunately, GitHub's search is very lacking and most of the time instead of showing r
supersan
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: Need advice.My story:Once an $90k jQuery developer,now a “useless lamer”
I worked as a web dev for 9 years and wrote my first website for money when I was 16. Yesterday, I came for a job interview and was called "a useless lamer" by unshaved, hoodie wearing CTO after a long argument about whether jQuery is obsolete. I finished last contract in April, and didn't manage to get a new one since then. Before, I thought that skill obsolescence is just an excuse to fire old, unproductive people, now it became my own issue. There were years when I was getting multiple calls from recruiters in single day,but I got only 3 calls in the whole 2015. I understand now that my past success was only thanks one trendy buzzword on my resume, and that the hoodie CTO who was interviewing me was 90% right. My weak sides: >I never learnt any real OOPL. I didn't even study JS as a programming language >Bad credentials: BCIT marketing and no-name college in
Why it failed: I worked as a web dev for 9 years and wrote my first website for money when I was 16. Yesterday, I came for a job interview and was called "a useless lamer" by unshaved, hoodie wearing CTO after a long argument about whether jQuery is obsolete. I finished last contract
baybal2
- startupShut down2016
Apply HN: Jobinder – checkr meets match.com meets career builder
jobinder.com Problem: The job search procedure is monotonous and job seekers are impatient, they despise the ineffectiveness of most job boards because of the fact that they spend hours on the computer searching without the assurance of a fairly good job coming their way. Employers are overwhelmed with the amount of unqualified candidates they get and look for ways to cut that number down without spending an arm and a leg because hey, they still have to spend on background checks and other essentials for the hiring process. Solution: So we came up with Jobinder a match system to combat the time consuming employment process by utilizing resume matching and the four steps in the hiring process (Personality test, Reference verification, Interview and Background check) PRIB. Job seekers simply upload their resume and instantly get matched to employers looking for their specific skills and qu
Why it failed: jobinder.com Problem: The job search procedure is monotonous and job seekers are impatient, they despise the ineffectiveness of most job boards because of the fact that they spend hours on the computer searching without the assurance of a fairly good job coming their way. Employe
adesuwa
- startupShut down2016
Ask HN: I'm depressed, what should I do?
I'm an active member of this community but I'm using a throwaway instead because I don't want this issue to be linked to my identity tl;dr: I graduated Software engineering 3 months ago and I'm currently without a job and back to live with my parents. During school I was always told that I was "brilliant and one of the best". I tried not to show it with any attitude, but after a lot of people repeating over a period of many years, I think it entered the back of my mind but still with impostor syndrome. On my final year I interned at a very prestigious company (not big 4, but still a huge one) with a great salary and an important project. Everything seemed to go the way everybody predicted and expected of me. At the end of my internship, my manger lets me know that I will not be hired because the company is not hieing junior engineers at this time, but he wou
Why it failed: I'm an active member of this community but I'm using a throwaway instead because I don't want this issue to be linked to my identity tl;dr: I graduated Software engineering 3 months ago and I'm currently without a job and back to live with my parents. During s
throwAwayXYZ69