[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation

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What part of your life could be improved with software? (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by boonhet@lemm.ee to c/casualconversation@lemm.ee

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I think many of us have noticed the trend that modern tech just... Doesn't make things better. There's little to be excited about, because anything even remotely innovative is going to be filled with tracking, ads, etc.

Let's say you had a bored software engineer or 2 at your disposal and the goal was to improve something you do often, by creating an application or website that isn't owned and enshittified by a megacorp looking to extract maximum short term value - what would your project be? Is it something you'd be willing to pay for, maybe with a free tier available?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm a software engineer and in the current hard-ass market, while I'm lucky enough to have a stable job, I know that experience alone isn't cutting it anymore in the recruitment process. You need to be able to show side projects too. Plus I have an unemployed software engineer friend who also has no interesting projects to show. So if we make any money out of it, that's awesome. If we don't, it's just something for our github accounts. Probably the latter.

PS: Yes, I know this is not a tech community - I want ideas from regular, non-techy people too.

PPS: This doesn't have to be something in your personal life, it could also be something that would help you at work if you had it.

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[–] lemmyng@lemmy.ca 22 points 11 months ago (5 children)

A lot of things that come with software that people despise would be fine if the software wasn't designed to monetize the fuck out of you.

Having a media center built into the TV and being able to control both with a single remote is nice. Having the media center push ads and tell me which applications it's allowed to run sucks donkey balls.
IoT devices that depend on someone else's online service can go die in a fire. Programmable devices that work with my own home server are awfully convenient.

The common thread here is not that there's a niche where software hasn't been introduced yet, but that there's a dearth of good software/firmware.

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I absolutely agree on this one! Your examples are good too! Unfortunately they require more resources to pull off than I could realistically amass, but I hope someone else will.

Really, I'd like to see more IoT products that can run completely locally myself.

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 months ago

I don't mind if an IoT device has the capability to use a SaaS service. But it shouldn't depend on it.

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