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 they’re [...]

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 2 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 »

I got this rather random idea today, but it struck me as having a lot of potential, though perhaps its time may have passed.  
Sponsored copy paper for schools.
The idea is pretty much as it sounds - copy paper provided to schools (K-12, community colleges, universities, etc) would have sponsored messages on it, either on [...]

Posted in Ideas 1 Comment »

I’m re-announcing http://ewerl.com here with some new features added. I put together a couple screen shots of the functionality over at the website’s “about” page, but I’ll outline the highlights here:
1. User accounts - a lot of people wanted to be able to log in and keep track of their Ewerls. This [...]

Posted in Ideas, Software, Tools 2 Comments »

I posted over at http://mashable.com/2008/07/22/3-ways-to-make-more-money-blogging/ but wanted to expand on the idea there in more detail.  The mashable article was linked to http://www.centernetworks.com/online-advertising-interaction which has a few more comments on the same topic: Advertising as monetization for blog content.
The author from centernetworks does a reasonable job of pitching his case - the trend, especially in [...]

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

I’ve put together a small page with some notes which have helped me during my recent set up of phpUnderControl.  I will probably add more to the list in the coming weeks, but these are a couple stumbling blocks I hit the past few days.  If you’re not using phpUnderControl, you owe it to yourself [...]

Posted in Development, Ideas, Java, PHP, Software, Tools, Web 2 Comments »

TechCrunch has a story on a recently funded Facebook app which, frankly, seems stupid.  Buying and selling ‘friends’ as ‘pets’.  People have already sold me somehow on Facebook, and I just ignore it.  I don’t get it.  I thought MySpace was the place for stupid/flitty ideas, but it seems Facebook is moving in that direction, [...]

Posted in Blogging, Business, Design, Development, Ecommerce, Ideas, Society, Software, Web 2 Comments »

I just read a comment over on a blog at BusinessWeek and it got me to thinking about the car industry. Being from Detroi, I still have some friends there involved in the car industry at the Big Three - Ford, GM and Chrysler.  The Big Three are having their lunch eaten by foreign companies [...]

Posted in Business, Ideas, Society 4 Comments »