IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Show HN: Jmail – Google Suite for Epstein files

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Praise for Jmail's Ingenious, Rapid Development

Users laud the project's parody interfaces for making Epstein's data accessible, built quickly despite massive traffic. "I'm impressed. You guys cloned a whole suite of products in a short period of time that cost millions of dollars." (muzani); "Incredible! Great work!" (tacker2000); "This is incredible. How are you hosting all this?" (joymonger).

2. Suspicion of Excessive Redactions and Planted Evidence

Debate centers on DOJ over-redactions, possibly framing figures like Clinton, with yanked or misleading images. "Images were also planted to falsely suggest incriminating evidence." (wahnfrieden); "the reason for the redactions are either that some drone in the DOJ just redacted all children out of habit, or that it was deliberately done in such a way as to frame Clinton." (Arn_Thor).

3. Debate on Gmail "Cloning" and Email Complexity

Correction that Jmail mimics UI only, not full backend; discussion of Gmail's history via acquisitions and ancient email tech. "the functionality isn't actually cloned, only the UI. The actual code powering Gmail probably dates back to the late 80s or early 90s." (Alex3917); "A full featured mailed client is insanely complicated." (wordpad).

🚀 Project Ideas

Epstein Files Version Tracker

Summary

  • A web tool that monitors official Epstein file releases (DOJ, House Oversight) for changes, yanked files, or over-redactions by hashing and comparing ZIP downloads over time.
  • Core value: Enables sleuths to detect planted images or suppressed evidence, like "Stuff released and then Yanked back" or redacted photos from charity events.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Journalists, researchers, HN users analyzing public dumps
Core Feature Auto-downloads ZIPs daily, computes file hashes/diffs, alerts on changes via RSS/email; visual timeline of alterations
Tech Stack Python (watchdog, cryptography for hashing), Vercel/Cloudflare for hosting, SQLite/Supabase for storage
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Addresses "Images removed from Epstein files less than a day after being posted" and "version history" requests; HN would love verifiable transparency on tampering.
  • High discussion potential as a "dead man's switch" for data integrity in scandals.

DocRAG: Self-Hosted LLM Analyzer for Leaked Archives

Summary

  • Open-source RAG pipeline for turning messy PDF/email dumps (e.g., Epstein files) into searchable, queryable knowledge bases with structured extraction and image descriptions.
  • Core value: Journalists sift "tons of data" instantly via natural language queries, bypassing manual parsing; exports schemas like flights/emails.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Investigative journalists, indie researchers without Reducto access
Core Feature Upload ZIP/PDFs, auto-extracts entities (names, dates, flights) via local LLMs (Ollama), vector search + chat UI; multimodal for photo analysis
Tech Stack LangChain/Ollama for RAG, Qdrant/Turbopuffer vectors, Next.js frontend, Docker for self-host
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium SaaS ($10/mo pro queries)

Notes

  • Solves "there's a lot to sift through" and "Jemini" expansions; quotes like "A job for an LLM…" and praise for Reducto would drive adoption.
  • Practical for any leak (e.g., Panama Papers); sparks HN threads on privacy vs. truth.

Mobile Doc Navigator

Summary

  • Progressive web app for infinite-scroll browsing of email/text/image archives with swipe navigation, prev/next, and captions; optimized for phone sleuthing.
  • Core value: Fixes "back button doesn't work", mobile burger menus, and "prev/next navigation on images/emails" for seamless mobile use.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Mobile HN users, journalists on-the-go reviewing dumps
Core Feature Import JSON/EML exports (e.g., from Jmail API), masonry galleries, threaded email views, TTS for texts; offline PWA caching
Tech Stack React Native Web/Tauri, Capacitor for swipe gestures, IndexedDB caching
Difficulty Low
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Directly fixes "The back button doesn't work", "prev/next on images", mobile issues; users noted "works better on mobile than Google suite".
  • Utility for any archive; HN devs would fork for custom datasets, fueling "build in public" shares.

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