Tom Printy’s Blog

Some may say that internet radio is dead. I don’t think it is. I am constantly listening to we radio when I am at home working on my computer. Sure there are alternatives like Last.fm and Pandora but I like opening a browser to Shoutcast and picking a station. Once xmms is playing I go about other things. Lately though I am tired of the shoutcast listing service. It feels out and outdated. It is one of those things that AOL has forgotten about. I think there is an opportunity for a new web stream listing service. There are still plenty of them out there that need help in being discovered. The new listing service should feel new and offer many ways for me to discover the stream.

While this is not a profound idea I think it is one that P&G could use to make a their dryer sheets stand out.  Divide a dryer sheet exactly in half with perforation such that you can use half the sheet.  Why use a whole sheet for a small load when half a sheet would do, or when you just want to use half the sheet for economical or environmental reasons. Sure you can rip it in half but wouldn’t it be nice if the manufacturer encouraged you to do so?

I think it might be neat to be able to get restaurant reviews if you were able to take a picture of the sign on your cellphone, and send it to a email address.  The picture could be geotagged or you could enter the zip code in the message.  The server would receive the message decode the location and give you the reviews via sms or sms a link to you where you could view the reviews on a WAP browser.  As a jump start you could hit Yelp’s api and pull back reviews.  Of course to make money you can either have restaurants advertise with you or implant ads in SMS responses or charge for access to your service.

So I have been using Evolution on my home computer, laptops and work computer for a while.  All the email servers that I use support imap as a mail protocol. This got me thinking that there should be a imap protocol for calendars and contacts.  I could create entries and these would follow me arround no matter what client I used. iCalander is great for sharing the data but I just want a common place to store it. Seems like a imap like protocol would fit the bill. Perhaps an imap that groks ical?

Everything seems to have some type of affiliate network right now. One space that doesn’t seem to have much coverage yet is used/new cars. It might be interesting to see if you could setup a PPC network that car dealers could submit their used car inventory to. These could then be aggregated through an API to anyone who wanted to make a used car website. Seems like a ripe place to start a new network.

This idea was inspired by another blog that I read. The author is in the process of setting up a new website and wanted a service where he could upload videos and embed this videos on his site. At the end of the video it would show similar videos from his other available videos only. He could then use these videos to help market his products inside his website.  You could mix in a little recommendation technology and you have a killer marketing app. You could charge users a nominal fee for hosting the videos.

At least once a week I deal with online product feeds from various stores. It seems to me that there needs to be a standard form for these files. The feeds should provide enough information to allow the products to be linked to a product file provided by the manufacturer.  Having a standard format for these product feels would make things a lote more acurate and easier for everyone involved.  I am not qualified to provide what this feed should look like but would be happy to give my input.

This is actually an idea that I would implement if I had enough capital. The concept is simple find a large storefront building to rent and turn it into a place where Geeks could congregate.  Ideally I would choose a building that had two floors. On the first floor I would setup cafe type environment where geeks from around the area could co-work during the day. There would be a coffee shop the would keep the caffeine going and to supply lunch/snacks. I might see if a local computer store would want to setup shop inside so people could buy parts or get things repaired. I might also setup a small lab that other people could lease time on if they didn’t have a laptop but liked the atmosphere.  The upstairs space might have some offices that people could rent and a very large open area to hold events like BarCamp or TechCocktail or for local user groups to hold events.

The purpose is to make the GeekSpace the center of the geek community in your area.If you get really successful you could incubate a new idea and become part owner of a new company.

Now that TomTom has bought Tele Atlas and there are rumors that Google may purchase Navteq, it may be time to consider a new mapping company at least in the USA. While this isn’t a new idea in itself I beleive that my method of collection the data is. Here is how I would do it.

First I would start with Tiger Data maps supplied by the US Census Bureau. While this data is not totally accurate or complete it would offer a good basis. Then I would develop a gps/gprs device that could track and report where is was. It should run off of twelve volts and be very compact. It will report its position, heading and rate of speed back to a server through gprs. Thirdly I would offer truck drivers 0.10-0.20 cents per mile for every mile they drive with the device turned on. If you get enough truck drivers or even a trucking company to have your device on their trucks. The reported GPS tracks would then be used to “correct” the tiger and bring it in line with what the gps actually reports. As an added bonus you can use the network of devices to start collecting traffic data.

So I wonder why none of the mapping companies are already doing this……..

Every Monday I plan to post a new idea that I have. Right now I have countless text files, couple of notebook and some email full of ideas that I have come up with over the years. While not all the ideas are great I will just put them up here for the world to see. I don’t claim that these ideas are original either. I hope that this helps open up a conversation on this blog with other idea people and perhaps collaborating with another person or people to see one of these idea to fruition. Another blog that used to post some neat ideas was Tequilashots.com but it has been dead for a while, besides these are my ideas.

Idea #1

I call this idea Campiste Review/ Campground review. The basic idea is that people who like to camp and often use campgrounds can go here to get information on the place where they are going to pitch thier tent or setup their RV. The sites that currently exist that show this type of information, usually show general informatio about the whole facility but rarely do they tell you which site or what location is best. Each campground that is in the database of the site would have a map associated with it. The map would indicate where the best spots are, along with description about the campsite. This would be similar to SeatGuru but only for camping. Users could leave comments about the various aspects of the park, and research potential vacation spots. To make money the site owner/create could of course run ads but they could also charge a listing fee that the owner of the campground would pay to be listed on the site, minus state parks for good karma.

So there is it idea #1 read, discuss, share, create, enjoy.