My recent thoughts turned to airline security last night after learning of the flight coming in to Detroit in which a man tried to blow up the plane. (link and link, though I’m sure there’s thousands more now).
I’ve never subscribed to the theory that our US airport security did all that much in terms of preventing [...]

Posted in Business, Ideas, Society, Travel 3 Comments »

A few weeks ago, I posted a survey asking for input on the next magazine topic for Web Dev Publishing to pursue.  The results were interesting, but unfortunately the results were not definitive, and I’m left with the same quandry as before – which topic to choose.
The winner of the survey, selected at random, was [...]

Posted in Business, Development, Ideas, Java, PHP, Software, Web 6 Comments »

I’ve got a PDF watermarking web service I’m considering opening up as a service for others (currently using it internally for my own projects).  If this is something that sounds like it would be of interest to you, let me know.  It should be a pretty easy integration piece, but I’d be interested in getting [...]

Posted in Business, Ideas, Software, Web 2 Comments »

My first post back in August identified a project I was going to start, and my goal was to have it done in six weeks. I’m *close*, and closer than last week, but probably another week off. Not happy with myself for missing my initial deadline, and I know even when it ‘launches’ [...]

Posted in Business, Ideas No Comments »

I’m taking my own advice and plunging ahead with a small, focused six-weeker. I’m not sure this counts or not because A) I’ve had the idea for several months and B) I did a bit of work on it several weeks ago. With that said, perhaps I should only give myself five weeks [...]

Posted in Business, Ideas, Web 2 Comments »

I’ve been speaking with a number of local entrepreneurs over the past few weeks, and they all have a few things in common.  All are sharp, smart, have good taste (hey, they’re talking to me, right?), have some killer ideas, and seem to be stuck.  Taking definitive action on the ideas seems to be the [...]

Posted in Business, Development, Ideas, Software, Web No Comments »

Just saw on TechCrunch tonight that Justin.TV has taken a first step towards DVR functionality in their player. Good to see it, and I just felt like posting that I did call this out as a need last fall   It’s not quite what I was hoping for just yet, but it sounds like [...]

Posted in Business, Ideas, Web No Comments »

I’ve wanted a way to record cell phone conversations for *years*.  With the proliferation of smart phones, you’d think we’d have this by now, but it’s still not a feature widely available (and, reportedly, blocked by some device manufacturers).  So, to scratch my own initial itch, I’ve put together a service to allow me to [...]

Posted in Business, Development, Ideas, Software, Testing, Tools, Web 3 Comments »

Just saw a presentation on ’semantic web’ at our local user group, and some examples were about Amazon.  Not related to semantic web specifically, but I got to thinking about a couple things Amazon could do to enhance my experience and/or their bottom line.
First, when I buy something for someone – indicated by shipping it [...]

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Was talking with my brother today and got on the subject of tipping (apparently it was on NPR today). We discussed the lousy experience we sometimes get, and there’s no way to indicate that in any way that anyone will notice. I’d like to suggest restaurants start “line-item tipping”.
When you come to leave [...]

Posted in Family, General, Ideas, Society 3 Comments »