Awesome idea to product website

Found this recently as Kluster.com went out of business, and got merged into this company. Cooler idea - people submit product ideas, people vote on them, then winning ones actually get made into products and then sold. The idea generator has to pay $99 to get the idea in, then they get some of revenue as the product is sold. People who vote and comment also get some of the revenue. Looks like they are also generating a lot of data.

Quirky.com


Pretty darn cool.

Friend Notes

I'm working with my friend Eric Allen on a facebook application that let's people take notes about their friends, whatever kind of notes they want!

I think it's really cool because it lets you now build your own content about your friends. They present themselves, and you record and interpret it through your own lens. For now, all notes are confidential to the user, so the friends and others can't see them, but we're thinking about creating some sort of sharing or collaboration capability in the future... thoughts?

Here's a link!
http://apps.facebook.com/friend_notes/

Self-Marketing Idea

Ok so thinking about jobs now - there is so much great creative and idea work that can be done when you are part of a larger whole, and you can work in an area you enjoy. Everything doesn't always have to be completely independent.

Anyway, in getting a job, or even work as a consultant, I had an idea for an interesting way I could market myself:

In New York City there are billboards and signs everywhere to compensate for the fact that people don't watch as much TV. Many of these take the form of maybe 2'x3' posters pasted on walls or the plywood barriers outside construction sites. here's the kicker...
I advertise myself on them. 3-5 different photos of me, with my name, a tagline (possibly "for creative business success"), and a website that leads to a portfolio page of my projects, or simply a resume. It would be fun, funny, and in peoples faces. I could post them outside of leading advertising firms, to advertise back to them that I can come in there and kick ass. The photos would have variety too, one would be of me in a business suit, and depending on how far I wanted to push it, it could range to me in paint splattered clothes as an artist, or me as a rap star with a diamond toothed grill and lots of bling.

A step further would be to cut the tagline and website (or make the website name really small) so it is more of a mystery, and then I just promote myself making my name and face famous. That oughtta generate some valuable opportunities.

Sandpaper Gloves

The process of sanding wood with a piece of sandpaper can be long, laborious, and very tiring on the hands. I think that in many applications, gloves that have sandpaper surfaces would make the whole process faster, easier, more convenient, even more fun! So, it would be a set of gloves that was either sprayed with glue then sand to make the glove surface itself abrasive, or it would be gloves with areas where special sandpaper pads can be affixed. These could take the place of the electric mini sanders in many applications as well. When a job is too detailed/complex to use an electric sander, but too large to make hand sanding practical or pleasant, the abrasive gloves would really come in handy (no pun intended, though it's a good one). They would be amazing for sanding joint compound on drywall seams, given the proper abrasive surface on the gloves.

thanksforthefavor.com

A website where people can go to give nice things to people who did nice things for them. It is a gift shop, but its not for giving our gift baskets or bottles of wine or anything like that, it's for when people do nice things, you do nice things in return.

For example, someone helps you out because they are being nice, you can go to the website, type them a message, and a handwritten note will be sent to them from you.

If they do something really nice, there will be a wizard interface that will help select something that they really might want. For example, someone lets you use their parking space for a couple weeks because your car is having issues. You want to get this person something they will really like. The interface will ask: "what does this person like", with responses like their car (and they can select specific types), their home, their kids, various hobbies, movies and celebrities, etc. The site has an automatic link that allows the users to buy from established sites like Amazon.com, and gives additional personalization options. Since the person who lent their parking spot loves Porche cars, you get them a sweet picture book about Porche.

Name This

have I ever shared this website? I think it is very good... earlier this winter I made about a hundred bucks naming things, not much money for sure, but it was only a few hours of time, and lots and lots of fun!!

www.namethis.com

cooltech idea

get some small flat led lights and arrange them in such a manner that they are like a very rudimentary tv screen that can be mounted on a flexible surface like a shower curtain. this could display images but could also get up to a reasonable resolution for basic images. concise description... superbasic large flexible tv screen with led lights for pixels. much credit goes to seth madison, classmate at RPI since this is essentially his idea for a light pattern shower curtain.

research idea

do wacky research projects that people find funny irreverant, offbeat, silly whatever. present the findings as psuedoscientific. make them things people really might like to learn about anyway but just because they are silly or fun. examples:

which can run faster cats or dogs?
will picking your nose make you fat?
are some people afraid of beach balls?

certainly there are some better topics as well which i will post as comments if i think of them.

cool trick to catch a fly

ok so i just did this and it worked so i figure i'd post it. a fly was in my bathroom flying around and hitting the window. i wanted to get it out without killing it or squishing it on the window so i took a clear plastic disposable cup and wham put it over the fly as it was flying against the window. it was in there but now how to get it outside? if i just took it off the window the fly would fly out, so, instead, i turned the cup around slowly so that the fly kept flying into the window but first the wall of the cup was in the way then the bottom of the cup was in the way. when the fly was flying into the bottom of the cup, it's like there was a top on the cup since it didn't know it could fly out the other way. ok so maybe a convoluted description but cool!

funny word idea

with the amont of play that collaboration gets and how can be a buzzword, i think a new word can be created: collabortation
this is when collaboration goes wrong, or when it is forced in the wrong situation and to ill effect. example: that group meeting wasn't helpful, it was just a collabortation session.

toy idea

rc helicopter that holds water and can fly around. can be used to play in waterfights (with supersoakers). someone can sit in the house/out of reach and run the water air support.

game idea

crowd bingo. like regular bingo or in car bingo but to play with your friends while people watching.