and other general nonsense
Quick one that I thought was interesting..
http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html
I’ll have to read again later, but the general feeling is that you shouldn’t sit around trying to come up with ideas for a business. You should be solving existing problems that you run in to every day.
Awesome.
Myspace should be distributing music - shake it up and get the music to the people. Whether it’s for sale or not is up for discussion, but it makes sense to bring something to the table that the existing community likely wants. It also gives huge exposure to bands who would otherwise be pushing their content through less travelled channels. Bands who don’t already have a myspace page (most do or should) will soon.
Interestingly enough, it allows bands associated with Snocap (which appears to be an online indie label) to sell music to this audience for whatever price they want. Hmmm.
The music industry is facinating..
You can read further details of the myspace music moves here.
While walking to lunch the other day, I saw a car being washed in an outdoor public parking lot. The washer had a pickup with a big water jug on the back, a soapy bucket, and some rags - he worked for zipcar and was washing rentals. I ground some gears and thought - Wouldn’t it be great if you could order a carwash online, instead of driving to the gas station?
This kind of service is available all over the place, but not quite delivered in the right way. In underground parking around Toronto, there are self washing stations available. Some even have special spots you can park in to have your car washed while you shop for groceries. I’ve seen them, and never used it because it required me to figure something else out while I was rushing around doing errands. The other hurdle for me is trust. I want to know the person washing my car isn’t going to scratch or dent it.
So, wouldn’t it make sense to have a mobile car washer? You can order your wash online, tell the mobilewash employee where your car will be within a certain time window, and presto, you’ve got a clean car.
Getting over the trust issue isn’t so bad either. The truck can have a webcam on it, so you can actually SEE your car being washed (or a prerecorded version of it). The video works twofold, security, and legal for both parties.
I think it would make sense. Whenever I’m driving, I’m late for something, so have little time to deal with gas nevermind a wash. While he’s at it, he can fill up my tank with gas and be done with it. Everyone hates the gas station. Why not bring full service to your doorstep.
The gas delivery already exists for commercial trucking fleets (delivery vans, etc.), so it wouldn’t be a stretch to bring it to the consumer.
Interesting idea: sustainable apparel. Finally we have someone pushing the limits on sustainability, and filling the void for the globally aware consumer.
Checkout the details here. You can also checkout blog.nau.com and their website nau.com.
I’m sure there are more links and details, but here’s the digg for it.
Idea of the day: Allow users to unselect an elevator button.
Doesn’t it just make sense? People, myself included, hit the wrong floor ALL the time and have no way of fixing it.
Easy solution: If alternate states of the button. If it’s on and you touch it, it goes off. If it’s off and you touch it, it turns on.
?
Relevant, localized information is the bain of my existence. You can never quite find what you’re looking for, but sites like ibegin and flagr are trying to close that gap. toronto.com always seems like a good choice, but it can never quite show me the information I’m looking for. Community driven sites might be what I’m looking for to fill this void… only time will tell.
Apply google maps to the grocery store, and you’ve solved 50% of the populations problems with shopping. Most people can’t find what they are looking for, and leave frustrated. Even more frustrating is leaving with a whole pile of stuff you never intended to purchase in the first place…
Which is likely why they don’t map the store.