Scamming Senior Citizens

A friend recently told me the story about how his father was scammed, and ended up in a spanish prison for drug smuggling. My own grandmother had been scammed (multiple) times, eventually causing my grandparents to lose their home. In this age of the internet, seniors are huge targets for being taken advantage of, for two main reasons: a) many of them come from an era where they tended to trust people more easily, and b) they are minimally familiar with the internet and how it works. Seniors …

Reselling billboards in Google Maps

I spend waaay too much time in Google Maps. I love it. Part of it is the history aspect. Part is the technology aspect. Part is just the ability to plan and know what an area or route looks like without having to go there. I used TerraServer and MapQuest before Google Maps, and they were amazing for their time. But Google Maps is the juggernaut. So much information about so many places in the world – with many of those places visible in Street View, as if …

MoviePass – Better Than a Gym Membership

I love business. Especially small business. And I love to see ideas grow from a couple of people at a kitchen table, to something that goes viral. And I especially love seeing one type of business plan applied to something that looks completely different (but actually isn’t.) That’s MoviePass. MoviePass is a month-to-month membership site that (now,) lets you watch an ‘unlimited’ number of movies in the movie theater for the low monthly price of… $9.95. Yes – less than the price of a single ticket. With e-ticketing, …

Old vending machine idea

I’ve wanted one of these old cigarette vending machines for years. I remember these as a kid, and there’s something magical about the mechanical pull that dispenses goods. Ideally, I’d like to get one and have it professionally stripped, cleaned, re-painted and have all the mechanicals cleaned up and well-oiled. Then, find an interested business where the machine would stand out and be a point of interest for their customers. Then, I’d like to engage someone like my friend Rick Boxeth and his delicious, hand-made, chocolate covered caramels, …

Alaskan Farms

As I was shopping for a new house, I saw some amazing photos of ‘open-air’ homes. Homes that have giant doors the size of walls that can be opened up and create an amazing open space feeling. I thought about cooling a space that size, and wondering if the right airflow design could keep an ‘open-air’ home cool, even on the hottest days. Being the geek that I am, I suddenly flashed over to server farms, and thought – ‘What if you had an ‘open-air’ server farm in …

Non-lethal take-down tool

Over the years we’ve seen dozens of videos of crazy, and dangerous people refusing to obey police orders. I remember when I lived in Seattle, a man with a samurai sword stopped traffic for hours in downtown Seattle as dozens and dozens of law enforcement tried many ways to subdue him. Today, we hear more and more about people who want ‘death by cop’ and refuse to put down whatever weapon they have in hand, and ignore police instructions. I’d like to make package an existing product that …

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