Ask HN: What would you make if you had 1000 hours?

Depression.

A rube-goldberg machine who's only purpose would be to increment time only as I worked on it. The method of incrementation however would become increasingly complex and confusing... Seriously though, I'd try to come up with an app that would put the power of information into the hands of regular non-technical people. The "power of information" could be a very simple concept using public information with a simple web-based interface, for instance: a dynamic map of all board members of all US companies and their memberships on other boards. This could be expanded easily in a second stage to shed light on campaign contributions. Maybe data-retrieval exists for this but perhaps not as compelling as I'm imagining it.

An HN post that displayed * correctly.

Probably nothing. I usually dream of having weekends for myself but when I do, I don't do anything with them. It's pretty depressing.

A contraption let lets you record your dreams so you can play them back. I'm always dreaming of great ideas but when I wake up I totally forget them

Cool question. I've always wanted to record an album, I'd do that. Music, vocals, mixing, mastering, prepare some visuals to go with it. Invite some other people to join in where they could.

I niche product I know would generate some money, but just don't have the time or energy right now.

Another house

I'm into amateur electronics and I'd love to build a programmable automatic cocktail mixer/dispenser.

Alternatively a small 4 wheeled robot to tinker with.