What xAAS (x-As-A-Service) would you like to build? | Hacker News Reader

What xAAS (x-As-A-Service) would you like to build?

8 pointscodegeek12 comments

Developers are always innovating on converting software into SAAS. What are some things you would like to build or see being built as a service ? For example, FFMPEG as a service etc ?

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Peace of Mind as a Service: PoMAAS (aka: cheap online personal assistant)

So, I pay you to take care of aspects of my life I find tedious to deal with but which I cannot ignore. Examples:

- taxes

- insurances

- doctors (e.g., my tooth aches: get me an appointment with a decent odontologist ASAP. A better example: I have symptoms of something I have never experienced before: get me an appointment with some decent Doctor ASAP)

- I'm moving out. Sell all my furniture for a decent price... And find me a decent apartment according to the following criteria:...

- I want a white t-shirt that is not too loose nor too fit; one that looks just like this one I have here (sadly this precise model is not made anymore)

- I need new soccer shoes. Could you purchase this model I saw on a Japanese tv show?

I know you can hire a personal assistant... But they are damn expensive. I'm willing to pay at most a few hundred dollars per month for around 4 requests per month (this is, I'm entitled to request you 4 tasks per month... As usual, the more you pay, the more you can request).

I can imagine this kind of business may get cheaper at scale (e.g., a company can share their personal assistants among many customers).

I'd like to open a small machining job shop. Focusing on smaller things, stuff that doesn't require a crane or forklift to move. Stuff that you can put in a box and deliver by hand.

Machining As A Service

I’ll come sweep the shop if you teach me techniques here and there

I’ve done this, but with printing. Let me tell you, running a traditional business profitably is _hard work_ compared to computer touching.

ffmpeg as a service seems neat... ffmpeg itself isn't super intuitive and beefier files heat my laptop up pretty bad. The only issues would be the usual ones regarding figuring out load distribution between servers, figuring out how to process DMCAs so as to make Disney and others' leeches happy, figuring out how to process requests to snipe illegal content, etc. (issues are plenty, but surmountable).

Bonus points for a FOSS self-hostable site. The thing that keeps me from using other sites is the awful and proprietary JS/etc there. If I have a laptop that can't run ffmpeg very well why am I expected to be able to run Chrome with more than 4GB RAM?

I believe there are already multiple AWS backed services doing this. (Minus the FOSS self-hostable part).

If you want a service to run other programs (it is generally better to run on my own computer, but sometimes some cannot for some reason including not enough RAM or not enough speed or package conflicts or whatever), I would want the possibility to use by command-line (e.g. by nc or curl) rather than by the web browser. FOSS self-hostable like mentioned in other comments is good idea though. Also mention in other comments "beefier files heat my laptop up pretty bad"; that would be a reason to offer a service I suppose (especially to use with files that are public anyways), but still can be run using command-line is better than requiring the web browser, especially as they say, "why am I expected to be able to run Chrome..."?

Ffmpeg can run in any browser now… https://github.com/ffmpegwasm/ffmpeg.wasm

Maybe can package that up and monetize but… maybe hard to corner a market

Thats neat.

hardware development as a service. atleast a virtualized micro-controller so that people can build tiny devices with sensors, peripherals etc like we build web apps on AWS. As a software engg. I'd like to get more hands on with processors/controllers and peripherals etc and this is by far the most frustrating part for me as I have no idea how to debug electronics or solder beyond basics. I would absolutely love to work with someone on this, if they can provide a basis for this.

Something I’d like as well as like to work on is automatically creating a branch with Python Hypothesis introductions and CI. Some projects will have higher B/C than others.

Money as a service - MaaS Which is what Ethereum is doing.

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