A short post about interesting business ideas, I came across in the last week or so. Lost-key drop service A service, that sells numbered key chains, which has something like this written on it: When the key is lost, the owner will contact the service hotline to ascertain if the key, with id number 123654789 in the above example, has been returned. If yes, he can pick it up or have it mailed for a fee.
and pencil for jotting ideas [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“500” caption=“Try that electronically!"][/caption] A quick list of advantages of the good old way of taking notes: When ideas flow, only pencil can keep up with their speed. Doodling actually helps with the idea flow. Ideas are random, typing is linear. You can get away with drawing something on paper to depict a long sentence. Doing the same on a computer will mean sidetracking into finding a clipart.
Thanks to the company I keep, online and offline, the only entrepreneurial ventures I see are tech related. Everyone wants to be the next viral sensation and make pots of money. Hardly anyone wants to add real value to the life of others and improve the community as a whole. Rant aside, I recently came across a very interesting piece from Vivek Wadhwa titled Replicators, Innovators, and Bill Gates. The form of ventures I described above might be of innovative type, but there is no harm in starting a replicating venture.
Ever since the iPad was announced, the internet is clogged with updates, analysis and impressions on iPad. But I saw very little talked about what this means, or how this could affect the way we do business. The guys with the biggest megaphones are either reporters or tech gurus, who are far removed from the trenches of enterprise application development. Full disclosure The only Apple product I own is the iPod touch.
I am surprised that I haven’t come across a voice based classifieds system. Well creating one from scratch and reaching critical mass is difficult, but leveraging social media and Craig’s list should not be difficult at all. So, here’s the idea. User calls a premium number and speaks the advert. The server processes the voice and tries to understand the message. If the message is correctly understood, it will post an appropriate ad on Craig’s list, with the user’s phone number and an auto generated email id.
With Copenhagen behind us, it makes me wonder is there something we as individuals do to help the climate? On one such thought tangent I wondered if it possible to teach kids about climate using a simulation game like Civilisation? On cursory search I could not find anything that could entertain and educate kids. What would it be? An empire building game that needs to balance technology, way of life and climate to achieve sustainable conditions.
Well, I don’t need to beat the dead horse about why one needs to backup data. But with the explosion of digital assets, it is all the more important. What are my digital assets? The largest, of course, are photographs. Apart from these, I have a fair smattering of music, code, documents and others. How do I back them up? Currently, photos are backed up on DVD and in the cloud (picasaweb).
If there was ever a totally unqualified opinion, here it is. A blogger for 6 weeks and change, this is my thought what a blogging tool should be. Those who came here searching for the ultimate editor, I am sorry to disappoint, only ideas here. To start with; I have tried Wordpress online editor, Scribefire, Windows Live Writer and Drivel; and found them all lacking in one aspect or another. Currently I find Live Writer to be better than the rest.