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Ask HN: What startup/technology is on your 'to watch' list?

326 points| alienlid | 5 years ago

For me a couple of interesting technology products that help me in my day-to-day job

1. Hasura 2. Strapi 3. Forest Admin (super interesting although I cannot ever get it to connect to a hasura backend on Heroku ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4. Integromat 5. Appgyver

There are many others that I have my eye on such as NodeRed[6], but have yet to use. I do realise that these are all low-code related, however, I would be super interested in being made aware of cool other cool & upcoming tech that is making waves.

What's on your 'to watch' list?

[1]https://hasura.io/

[2]https://strapi.io/

[3]https://www.forestadmin.com/

[4]https://www.appgyver.com/

[5]https://www.integromat.com/en

[6]https://nodered.org/

248 comments

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[+] Fordec|5 years ago|reply
Terahertz technology. Has big potential in communications and sensing, particularly in the medical field.

Starship, $50 per kg absolutely changes a lot of assumptions and has definite 2nd order effects around transport, satellite orchestration, communication monopolies, network latency. A big "holy st" moment I had lately was pack a starship with autonomous drones, combine it with the Adama Maneuver from Battlestar Galactica. If you can drop a squadron, anywhere in the world for X $M within 2 hours, why would the US military ever need super-carriers any more? Or Island carrier theory if you stretch out that logic. Which then why would the US need as close relationship regional allies to contain neighboring countries? How does that affect the US-Israeli relationship with the middle east? Or the US-British with Europe one? Or the US-Japanese one with China?

Pure fusion weapons. It's a true pandora's box for nuclear proliferation if nuclear weapons no longer need enrichment facilities.

Atom Interferometry. Potentially, GPS level location tracking without the satellite / radio component.

[+] phreeza|5 years ago|reply
I'm not sure the price point changes that much for the US military. The same tactic would have been achievable for a long time by strapping drones + heat shield to a bunch of ICBMs. It just doesn't give you a sustained presence in the target location. A carrier is more of a logistical presence, not just a bunch of planes with a single load of fuel and munitions.
[+] garmaine|5 years ago|reply
> Pure fusion weapons. It's a true pandora's box for nuclear proliferation if nuclear weapons no longer need enrichment facilities.

Is this actually a thing? My understanding is that the fusion stage of a nuclear weapon is purely to generate neutrons to trigger the 3rd, fission based stage. The destructive power of the bomb comes from the fission reactions.

[+] checker659|5 years ago|reply
America could also be at the receiving end of said weapons. So, you’d need soft power in the region to monitor and control production. Back at square one.
[+] rklaehn|5 years ago|reply
https://www.unisonweb.org/

Functional programming language where the canonical representation is a content-addressed directed acyclic graph.

Solves all kinds of problems from dependencies to deployment and moving code between nodes in a principled way.

The language itself is inspired by haskell, but has a principled and clean solution to the coloured function problem of async programming, and a simpler way to compose effects than monad stacks.

[+] rewq4321|5 years ago|reply
Interesting! Deno's official module registry stores immutable tagged versions of open-source projects, but there's a project called Nest.land[1] that takes the immutability one step further by putting modules on the arweave[2] blockchain.

I'm not sure where the JS standardization process is at with import integrity checks for non-script-tag imports, but Deno has lock files and integrity checking built in.[3]

I like the idea of a language that's built with content addressing from the ground up. I dream of being able to import IPFS urls (or something like that) directly within JS. Although that wouldn't be as good as a language that forced usage of content-addressed imports, since that way you don't have to scour the code for any sneaky dynamic imports (especially since in JavaScript there's `eval` and the like, and they can be obscured).

I guess this is partially solved by Deno's ability to limit the network requests to specific domains like:

    deno run foo.js --allow-net=deno.land,foo.com
I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this project - thanks for sharing!

[0] https://deno.land/x

[1] https://nest.land/

[2] https://www.arweave.org/

[3] https://deno.land/manual/linking_to_external_code/integrity_...

[+] jpau|5 years ago|reply
Snowflake's `Snowpark` product that they recently announced, which is to bring Spark-like APIs to Snowflake.

Having a DS background, I love what SQL-orchestration tool dbt (and peers) have enabled: data consumers to rapidly create our own safe data pipelines. There's easily a 10x productivity improvement for most of my transformation pipelines vs. when I write them in Python or PySpark.

But batch ML and SQL are not that friendly (even BigQuery ML is too limiting). I end up butchering dbt's value (simplicity and iteration speed), splitting the DAG into pieces and orchestrating them with Airflow so that I can wedge in other non-dbt parts (like feature engineering, inference, logging, detecting stale models, ...). This isn't what the future looks like.

I've tried switching to Databricks, but do not see this as the path forward for unioning the warehouse + batch ML.

Hopefully Snowpark is a step forward :)

-------------------

Separately, https://materialize.com/ is something I'm paying attention to! Being able to implement all of my SQL-based pipelines as materialized views would be immensely valuable. They recently raised capital and they could become huge.

[+] dannyphantom|5 years ago|reply
Love that you brought up Snowflake. I've been wanting to get my hands on it to play around and learn more about a Salesforce integration with it.
[+] mr_toad|5 years ago|reply
And not something like Spark on EMR?
[+] tomashertus|5 years ago|reply
https://hotwire.dev/ - alternative approach to building modern web applications by sending HTML instead of JSON over the wire.

https://temporal.io/ - is the new kid on the block of state-dependent service-orchestrated application development platforms.

https://workos.com/ - is building enterprise-readiness as a service, enabling new companies to start selling to enterprise customers with just a few lines of code.

https://www.around.co/ - provides an AI-based camera framing designed for high-impact video calls. It helps users take video meetings less intrusive and less clunky.

Age of Empires IV (https://www.ageofempires.com/games/age-of-empires-iv/) - The next chapter in the Age of Empires series that will take us back to the Middle Ages

[+] progval|5 years ago|reply
> https://hotwire.dev/ - alternative approach to building modern web applications by sending HTML instead of JSON over the wire.

I find it funny that it's now considered a promising alternative approach; conceptually this is very similar to AJAX, which was the standard way to make pages dynamic ten years ago.

[+] Cyclone_|5 years ago|reply
Haven't seen an update for the release of AoE 4, really hoping they release a demo soon. Been dying to get back to a high quality RTS. I thought the AoE 2 games took a little too long, so hoping these ones are shorter on average.
[+] aabbcc1241|5 years ago|reply
Similar to hotwire, LiveView is also "server-side-rendered reactive webapp", written in Elixir and Typescript
[+] telesilla|5 years ago|reply
I tried to get my team using Around.co as I love it, but we're too entrenched in Slack, installing the app isn't catching on. It's a hard problem to beat 'good enough' with 'better'.
[+] da02|5 years ago|reply
https://fauna.com/ - FaunaDB: Evan Weaver and Chris Anderson were involved in created a distributed relational datastore. You can use it as an API and never have to think about provisioning or managing a server. It's proprietary, but the prices are insanely low for all the features and convenience you're getting.

Zinc Gluconate 15mg + Selenium + Quercetin 200mg (zinc ionosphere): For years I ignored the advice of knowledgeofhealth.com when it came to zinc and quercetin. I finally used it this year and it got rid of my cold in less than 48 hours with no side-effects. This has never happened to me before. Zinc-based supplements get rave reviews on Amazon and they seem legit. Google: selenium virus mutations. (I also took a new Vitamin C formula, Formula 216).

https://aureon.ca/ - Safire Project. Some claim it's a fraud, but I'm hoping something good will come out of it. They are using a different model of stars/suns to generate energy and other benefits. There's always molten salt reactors in case this one doesn't pan out.

[+] mercer|5 years ago|reply
Elixir's/Phoenix' LiveView (and clones/similar approaches). It's been discussed plenty on HN, so I don't think I need to elaborate too much. But I'll just say that as I'm using it in more and more new projects and adding it piecemeal to existing ones, I'm constantly amazed by how much complexity just disappears, and how pleasant it all is to work with.

I do feel that it'll take another year or two for all of it to 'mature', though.

For one, I'm not a big fan of how it still relies on 'old-fashioned' templating, but I've been looking into Surface [1] as a solution to that (it uses a more React-like component-based approach).

I also find that there's often confusion about best practices. About what goes where exactly, asking myself whether to keep state in the top-level LiveView is best, or perhaps too much based on the old client-side React/Redux paradigm and less necessary now that fetching data is a server-side-only DB call away (and using PubSub for any inter-LiveView communication).

But even with some of these 'issues', it's probably the most fun I've had building interactive web apps!

[1]: http://surface-demo.msaraiva.io/getting_started

[+] AhtiK|5 years ago|reply
Can you name a few of Phoenix LiveView clones/similar approaches in other languages that are actively developed and worth looking into?
[+] jimdavenport|5 years ago|reply
As an ethical vegetarian for the past five years, I've very interested in cultured (lab-grown) meat technology[1]. FWIW, I'm very happy with my diet and probably wouldn't switch back even if this does become affordable, but I'm 100% supportive of the concept of cruelty-free meat.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultured_meat

[+] dmje|5 years ago|reply
30 year pescetarian here. I mean, mainly vegetarian but some fish every so often.

I gave up meat at 17 on the basis of no reason whatsoever, I was just a contrary teen who liked giving things up.

Down the line a few years I find so many compelling reasons to not eat meat. Each individually may be argued out of the room but collectively it's pretty compelling.

Ethically: there's no arguing meat eating is better. None. However well you treat animals you're still ultimately going to kill them.

Environmentally: a hundred reasons to choose a plant based diet, all of which have been cycled here a million times so won't go back through it but we all know it's true.

Health: again, see pretty much all the research ever. Eating a plant based diet is so much better for weight, health, BMI, etc etc etc

Taste: this is the kicker imo. If you'd asked me 15 years ago when the vegetarian alternative was a crappy pasta with tomato sauce, I'd have been more tempted to chomp my way into a steak. Nowadays? There is SO much good vegetarian food. Loads of choice, huge range of flavours and in many places it's the vegetarian food that gets the chef's attention, rather than falling back on the Default Meat.

I totally support anyone making whatever decision they like about eating meat, but I'm completely unable to agree that it's a good idea.

Cultured meat in this context is a difficult one to parse. For people like me there's literally no point. I'm just not interested in eating steak, whether it's killed or grown. For your hardcore fleshy, a bloody slab of meat is all that's going to satiate them, so it misses that market too. I guess there's maybe a middle ground of people who could be convinced to stop eating killed meat if they see an alternative?

It'll be interesting to see where this one goes and how it is marketed...

[+] Funes-|5 years ago|reply
I'm interested in cultured meat as well, but also in cultured dairy. I follow an ovolactovegetarian diet, and I exercise heavily six days a week. I find it really difficult to take even the minimum 50 grams of complete (which is crucial) protein just from eggs, dairy, and plant-based foods. Having the chance of eating cruelty-free meat would save me from thinking so much about coming up with ways of fulfilling my nutritional requirements.
[+] danieltillett|5 years ago|reply
I am an ethical meat eater. I would rather eat grass fed beef and lamb than see the additional suffering of hundreds/thousands of rodents (let alone the tens of millions of insects) that me adopting a vegetarian diet would induce. Being poisoned or shredded in a harvester is not a cruelty-free way to die.

On a more philosophical note, I think it is better to have lived and died than to not have ever existed. Given very few cattle and sheep would be born if it wasn’t for meat/dairy production then a case can be made that meat eating is the more ethical option. I do admit that this view is incompatible with my first opinion as there would be many more animals born if I adopted a vegetarian diet.

[+] quiescant_dodo|5 years ago|reply
What is an ethical vegetarian and how is it different from veganism? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding.
[+] rdlecler1|5 years ago|reply
Mycoworks: which makes leather from mycelium. Will see products 2021.

Brightseed: uncovering the medicine that’s in our food. Uses AI to identify bioactive molecules found in common food crops that can regulate genetics associated with health. Imagine safe drugs that only take 24 months to get to market.

Atomo Coffee: Makes molecular without the coffee bean; made from sustainable agriculture side streams. Best coffee I’ve ever had.

Disclosure: These companies are in our portfolio so obviously on our watch list.

[+] slow_donkey|5 years ago|reply
Are you able to comment at all about Indigo's products? Is it something people should keep an eye on? I've interviewed there before and it was difficult for me to understand if what they were doing was actually beneficial to farmers.
[+] say_it_as_it_is|5 years ago|reply
It took some time to figure out what Atomo was offering based on an unclear landing page. Alt-coffee is an important category and worth the investment.
[+] dehrmann|5 years ago|reply
> Mycoworks

How did they trademark "reishi," a mushroom variety, for what's essentially mushroom leather?

[+] franciscop|5 years ago|reply
I also use some more mainstream things like Heroku, so these are my more-indie/alternative services I'm watching/playing with:

• Backblaze B2 https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage.html: super-cheap and straightforward data management. I made a Node.js library around it: https://www.npmjs.com/package/backblaze

• Bunny CDN https://bunnycdn.com/: it looks like a great indie CDN solution. The normal CDN is dead cheap, and the very wide CDN has great coverage. Self reported metrics are amazing as well. The company is based in EU, which is a plus on my book.

• Gandi https://www.gandi.net/: they have a lot of types of domains so you can search across many at a glance. They do show some unrelated panels and push for their own services but less than other registrars. Based in France (EU).

[+] absolutelyrad|5 years ago|reply
Would recommend Bunny CDN to anyone. It's super fast and super cheap.
[+] steve_taylor|5 years ago|reply
The market for self diagnostic medical technology is going to boom at some point. It will be a long time before we have an AutoDoc, but until then, diagnostic equipment and diagnosis automation are something to keep an eye on and possibly invest in. Very few doctors will see it coming, because they don't want to believe that they can be partially automated.
[+] ibeckermayer|5 years ago|reply
Except this is already heavily regulated and/or the AMA will lobby to regulate it, making it impossible/expensive in many cases, slowing innovation, and keeping doctor’s salaries and health care costs high
[+] red0point|5 years ago|reply
I find it odd that forestadmin boasts security, but requires you to setup your project over HTTP, although there is a HTTPS version available.

https://app.forestadmin.com/new-project redirects (via JS, if https is detected) to: http://app.forestadmin.com/new-project

[+] seyz|5 years ago|reply
I can understand your concern. But don't worry, there's no problem here.

HTTP is used when you create a localhost project. On a local server, API requests transit directly from the browser to the local server without going through an external network.

On a remote server, HTTPs is enforced to avoid security issues.

[+] kgin|5 years ago|reply
https://www.lifebiosciences.com/our-research

Research on epigenetic reprogramming of existing cells to restore them to youthful states, including the ability to regenerate.

[+] awillen|5 years ago|reply
This truly fascinates me... it's the potential for immense extension of human life that no one's talking about. If you're interested in this topic, I highly recommend the book Lifespan by Dr. David Sinclair.
[+] fb03|5 years ago|reply
- Rust + WASM

- WASM accessing DOM directly (and the subsequent explosion of front end frameworks completely bypassing JS)

I'm a simple person with mundane wants :)

[+] djeiasbsbo|5 years ago|reply
I want this so bad. I have compiled C code to WASM before but without knowing JavaScript of course there is little that can be done.

Unfortunately for us, I think that most people come from the other camp, and want parts of their JavaScript to be more efficient, thus turning to WASM.

[+] mrathi12|5 years ago|reply
WASM is definitely one to look out for.
[+] mikewarot|5 years ago|reply
Technology - Multilevel Security, which if widely deployed would solve almost all pedestrian IT security issues

There are systems that work on mainframes, but the only realistic (in my opinion) option coming down the pike for the rest of us is from

http://genode.org

[+] wlflnhrdt|5 years ago|reply
I am really looking forward to this product and the subsequent evolution of the tech: https://lookingglassfactory.com/

I would love a large screen version of it with an array of cameras that would allow people to communicate in some sort of futuristic FaceTime experience.

[+] offtop5|5 years ago|reply
Serverside ARM. So much power is used just keeping data centers up.

Gonna be a long time for legacy stuff to get ported, but some places are still running mainframes.

[+] mynegation|5 years ago|reply
Materialize [1]. I am a big fan of Frank McSherry’s work on Naiad, timely and differential data flow.

[1] https://materialize.com/

[+] unk1102|5 years ago|reply
Do you mind sharing details how do you use materialize especially if you already have Spark/Flink and Hive warehouse setup?
[+] nlstitch|5 years ago|reply
Was honestly looking for something revolutionary but did not find any here; Just some service/app to replace another service.

Where is my electric driverless car? Space travel or actual tech that prevents polarization and prevent narrow targeting of people that feel drawn to conspiracy theory rabbit holes? We should be aiming much higher.