The following is a list of cool ideas that I had for things to make, do, research, work on, etc. Not all of them are polished or thought through, and not all of them are serious or realistic. Please feel free to use any of them! If you do make something cool out of one of them please send me a link to it. If you make a ton of money with one you have to buy me something nice.
Email service where it costs to send a message and the recipient keeps the money.
This would slow or stop scams because it would be more expensive to send out massive email campaigns
Could allow users to send the money back to the sender of the email if the email was something they wanted. That way it would punish spammers.
Could be used for phone as well
Reverse engineer Facebook API's and use them to create a version of Facebook without some of the negative social problems.
Have a linear timeline with only posts by friends, etc.
Cryptocurrency with hard cap on mining power. Coins not awarded past the cap. This would allow a limit on the amount of energy used by the system
Would be really interesting to see how this would work out in practice.
Could either have it so that additional hashing power is wasted. Or that additionally power makes no rewards given out.
Password database site
Sites submit hashed passwords to check if they are in the database and get a score for them
Like VT, but for passwords
Can tell if user/pass is used on other sites
This idea is old, HaveIBeenPwned is basically this
Do vulnerability research on the Widevine decryption module. It is in all browsers and required for netflix and other services.
Create a large E-ink calendar for the wall.
Currently difficult to find reasonably priced E-ink panels that are large
Create a site for scammer email and phone numbers
People that create fake ads on ebay/cl/fb market have to use a phone number or email for you to contact them on.
This site would allow marketplace sites to submit and receive numbers/emails from this service.
Could have a list of when that number/email was flagged and whether a user or admin flagged it.
UI ideas
Clicking on a mobile link would turn into a progress bar. When page is loaded (in the background) it would appear immediately.
Better HTML combobox. Option fan out to the side of what used to be the dropdown instead of just going down.
Improving public transit and bicycle infrastructure.
In areas where biking in a full lane is legal, pay bikers to go slow and slow down traffic.
This will lead to more biking as car travel becomes more difficult.
Potential issues: car drivers getting mad and hitting cyclists.
Create a company similiar to OpenDNS that combines their filtering and content blocking with the Pihole dns blocking for ad domains and sell at a very low price like $1 a year per IP.
Investment idea: Long term bet against auto parts places
Electric vehicles will require a lot fewer parts.
Encrypted messaging app that only works for in person contacts. Exchange keys once via QR codes that also transfer name info. Then can be sent via TCP,SMS etc.
Create a cryptocurrency where every year a certain small amount of the money supply is removed across the board from all accounts. That money is deposited in equal amounts into all the accounts. Could also remove some of the currency for government expenses
Create a cryptocurrency tied to the US dollar
This has been done a few times now
Bitfinex (scam)
Coinbase (USDC)
Create a cryptocurrency where miners are selected at random.
The idea would be to reduce the usage of electricity by not having everyone mine. How would this be done though?
Create a service to combat content that exploits children on torrent sites. The service would copy or create videos that look like they are legitimate content, but when downloaded would not play.
Create a service that allows you to have a letter/email/recording delivered at some point in the future.
Game app that gives users a section of road and a list of items and pictures to try and find as they drive.
Create a service that screens callers for you by making them type in a code or something if they are calling from a number that is not in your contacts and has not called before.
Create a blockchain based app that works like a phone book and allows you to call other users through a sip connection. Would allow a decentralized phone system.
Site that could be used for CTFs that includes lots of utilities for commonly used things.
Exists: Cyberchef from GCHQ
Create a site where people upload pictures of things that they don't know what it is and people tell them what it is.
Set up a camera overlooking an interstate with a lot of lanes. Stream the video to a server that hosts a frogger game that people can play where the real life cars in traffic will squish the frog.
Write a screenplay for a movie where someone plans a robbery during a total solar eclipse
Don't really know if it ever gets dark enough for this to be realistic
Build a device that shows QR codes that pairs with an app. The QR code would be unique to each device and each location. The code could unlock different things in a game or be used for marketing
originally was thinking of this as a scavenger hunt game.
Could use e-ink screen to build the QR display
Build a website component that will let admins place a chat box or message box on their website and have the messages sent to their phone or inbox.
Wix sorta has this already
Probably others out there.
Build a site where users can save up to buy a certain item.
Show a progress bar and have weekly/monthly saving goals with amount of time left
Could automatically buy once goal reached.
Create a site/app for college students that has their online class schedule and an easy was to enter all assignments per class and due dates
This has to already exist by now.
Create an app for a phone that runs when the phone is lost or stolen that pretends to allow the phone to be "set-up" after being wiped. Asks to connect to wifi for setup and then uses that/or cell data to send back location.
This would be difficult for a lot of reasons
Create an app/plugin for phone so that when the users phone and computer are together neither of them lock.
This is made obsolete by fingerprint readers / face unlock since it is easy enough to unlock phone that this doesn't matter.
App that lets users compete with each other in a bracket style tournament in photography. Users are given a catergory or phase and given a certain amount of time to take a photo to submit.
Create a scavenger hunt app where users can create challenges along a certain section of road/in a park/in a certain area and then users can participate in these challenges in a group or by themselve.
When competing in a group everyone takes a picture of the object when found and the group can ensure it was correct.
Create a debugger that runs from the hypervisor of a VM. Instead of debugging the entire VM, it just debugs a single program. This way you can debug a program without being caught by any anti-debugging techniques.
Build a USB device that sits between a keyboard and a computer and translates the keys from one keyboard layout to another.
Useful for using other peoples keyboards when you type colemak/dvorak.
Build a forensics device that clips onto standard ram chips from the side.
Clip onto RAM, then shut off the computer.
The clip would supply its own power and allow the RAM to be extracted
Display news stories from google news or other sources overlayed on a map
In the future self driving cars will need to broadcast location, speed, bearing, etc. to other cars all around them. However, those broadcasts will also need to be trusted. Create a PKI infrastructure and issue root certificates to car manufacturers. The manufactures will then create intermediate and leaf certificates for individual cars.
Create a home automation system that uses 3 cameras to get a sense of the 3d space in a room and then uses that to track individuals throughout the house.