A couple more business ideas...

I think one could (somehow) put together a company that offers to host data for clients for free, in return for being able to datamine their data.  Obviously there would be privacy rules to consider and content with.  However, my intuition is telling me there are still opportunities in this area that are yet untapped.

My other idea would be to build light fixtures that incorporate a similar 'fan' model to the Dyson fan - in other words, no blades as part of the light fixture.  Rather, there would be a main hub that houses and hides the working fan.  The fan would blow the air at high pressure through slots in the light fixture.  The slots could be anywhere on the light fixture.  The fixture itself could potentially even move....

Based on the cost of these 'blade' fans, I'm sure a bundle could be made on similar light fixtures.

Adding another idea to this (Aug. 4).  I'm very surprised I don't see more rechargeable (hair) blow driers out there.  Along with that, hair clippers.  When I'm getting my hair cut, the stylist is always messing around because the cord isn't long enough, or the cord has knocked something over or gotten twisted or caught on something...   Isn't that what building contractors wanted cordless drills for?  They've been around for years. 

business idea - Muffin wrappers

Make edible muffin wrappers - My wife had a problem with some new muffin wrappers she tried sticking to the muffin.  Why can't they make edible ones?  If you get the texture just right, it could change the muffin/cupcake industry....

In fact, making products out of 'by-products' is good business.  Henry Ford did it with waste wood from his Model T's.  He turned it into charcoal bricks that ended up being used for fire fuel.  This side product eventually turned into a company called Kingsford Charcoal.  If you've ever had a charcoal BBQ, I'm sure you've bought a bag of their briquets.

Business Idea - Automated Lawn Mowers

Similar to my business idea regarding automated window washers, yet I think this one would potentially be even easier to implement. I was driving down our ring road here in Calgary and seeing all the grass growing very fast in the median and around the overpasses. I also saw a tractor/lawn mower left by the city over the weekend in one of the medians and it sparked a thought... Why couldn't lawn mowers be automated? It turns out somebody already has that idea. Check this link out: http://www.robomow.com/

These aren't industrial size/strength machines, though. I guess there are a couple of challenges with using an automated mower in an industrial/municipal context:
- Keeping them secure - they'd potentially be easy to steal. You could get around this by putting a GPS tracker on the unit something like this: http://www.gpspolice.com/
- More varied terrain - the mowers would have to content with steeper hills and soggy or muddy grass that they could get stuck in. The unit would have to be able to manage/mitigate these.
- Safety - The units would need to be well tested with emergency shut offs logic in a bunch of places to ensure the public's safety.

Two more business ideas

I've got two more business ideas.

1. I've seen and heard of several companies here in Calgary that have tried to outsource their software development to India and have failed for one reason or another. I think it would be interesting to offer one's services as a liaison between a local client and an overseas outsourcing company to help with communication, expectation setting, and overall project management. It seems to me like there could be a big opportunity there - reasonable and talented software development, and clients looking for cheaper ways to build and implement their software. A boutique firm that acted as a 3rd party to help manage issues related to challenges with outsourcing projects like this overseas would be interesting to try.

2. On a totally different vein, (this is going to sound a bit silly, but...) it bothers me when I throw away a perfectly piece of good seran-wrap/cling-wrap. I doubt this would be a big money maker, but putting together a little utility/tool that stores the clean sheet of cling-wrap for re-use was my idea. :-)

Hand-held application and smart board business ideas

I had a couple of new technology ideas recently.  In the last couple of weeks at work, all of our meeting rooms have been getting outfitted with Smart Boards - and quite a number of them with video conferencing features.  While we were trying to get set up for a meeting we were impressed to see the camera for the video conference realign itself after our PM had pointed it a different direction.  While he was continuing to get the display organized, I had the urge to help him from my seat using my fingers to zoom the image like it was an iPad or an iPhone.  Then I thought 'why couldn't I do that, given the Kinect technology now with the xbox?'  A touch-less touch screen?  Maybe in the future.....

It wouldn't surprise me if there is an app already for the other idea I had.  I was quickly going over a hard copy of a chart of geological formations looking for a particular name.  I thought 'wouldn't it be great if I could just hit ctrl-F and find the word I'm looking for?'  and then I realized that something like that would be a great app for an iPhone or similar hand held.  Take a picture of the document, and write some logic to parse the text in the image and then search for the search term entered.  The idea is similar to the 'Word Lens' app here, except that rather than translating text, your searching it.

The Phoenix and Projectors

Two business ideas in this post.  Actually one is a business model, the other is an idea.

The Phoenix
The business model that I ran across I'd like to call 'The Phoenix'.  Basically the idea is to take a dead business or business idea, and resurrect it.  The tale of the Twin Otter, a Canadian built Short Takeoff and Landing Utility plane is a classic example of this business model.  Details of it's life, death, and resurrection can be read on Wikipedia here.

In its first life, production ended on the Twin Otter in 1988.  The aircraft's versatility made it a bush pilot favorite and demand for the planes have increased.  Viking Air of Victoria, BC, picked up on this and bought the rights to build the plane again.  After nearly 20 years of being out of production, new Twin Otters are now being built in Calgary and the company has over 50 orders from all over the world.

Nov 14 update - I just ran into an article in The Globe and Mail about another brand that did something similar.  In fact, some work colleagues and I had been musing about this turn-around in the summer as we found some Pop-Shoppe bottles in a nearby convenience store.  Here's the link to the article in the Globe and Mail.


Projectors
The second idea isn't nearly as sexy.  Watching my project manager try juggle between a spreadsheet of software development stories and another of schedules and tasks, I got to thinking why can't there be a single projector with the ability to support and display like two monitors?  Or even right a button into the software/firmware of the projector so it can flip between screen instances.  For that matter, why hasn't windows come up with the ability to manage screen instances like Linux has? Maybe that functionality is there and I just haven't been paying attention...

Business Idea - Jam Joint or Practice Pad

I was getting into some music on the commute home the other day, lamenting the fact that I don't have a drum set to practice on anymore when I was struck with this business idea.  Rent a smaller stand-alone building and renovate it to have reasonably sound-proof practice rooms.  Furnish smaller rooms with drum kits, leave some empty (for electric guitar/bagpipe/tuba practice), and make some bigger for bands to jam in.

Many drummers, musicians in general have no where to practice in cities because it disturbs the peace.  Renting these practice/jam rooms out might be an interesting and franchise-able business opportunity.  My wife could only listen to me play the piano at home for so long (and I don't think I'm that bad - 11 years Royal Conservatory).  As soon as I started practicing technique, her patience got thin. :-)

Another business idea

One of my clients just moved into a brand new office tower.  Everyone was all pumped about the new digs - lights that have movement sensors that turn off automatically when no one is in the room and turn on when someone comes in, new desks and chairs, new faster elevators,etc.  However, upon using the 'facilities' for the first time, I couldn't help but notice a common problem I see in many public bathrooms around the city.  Paper towel fills up the garbage cans too fast.  Nobody wants to compact it with their hands.  Inevitably, it overflows before the janitors make their rounds.
My business idea this go round is to import/sell garbage can compactors to these public buildings in the city that have this problem.  Other places where I've seen this issue (besides busy office tower washrooms) are airports and universities.

More ideas

Business idea:  Create a computer screen with removable sides so there's not space when you put it against another computer screen - they'll almost look like one screen instead of having the 1-2 inch separation between the two.

Business idea: If I could create a machine/robot that would automatically wash windows I think I could make a lot of money. Every window I can think of besides one has to be washed manually by hand.  All the high rises downtown still have all their windows washed manually. The only place they use a different technique as far as I'm aware is with race cars where they use layers of thin plastic over the windshield.  They rip off a layer every time the car is in the pit and instantly the driver has a  clean windshield.

Business idea: A new service industry helping people/seniors navigate their way around the health maze we have created for ourselves.  You need a Personal Medical Manager!  Here's why: There are significant disconnects between specialists who analyze medical tests, the lap techs who perform/analyze the tests, and the doctors who originally asked for the tests.  Then there's another layer of indirection at the pharmacy.  How does an older person manage all their prescriptions and make sure they aren't 'colliding' with each other, or even just remember to take them all and follow all the directions?  I've had my wife 2nd guess a doctor's prescription, ask the pharmacist about it, and have him adamantly agree with her that the prescription  was wrong. 

Political idea: Why are we still running democracy the way we are?  The reason we elected people as 'representatives' long ago was so they could represent us in parliament (or the house, or congress) - or at least represent our vote.  Lobbyists have done away with our representation in the vote.  But why do we need a representative now anyway?  Technology could allow us to instantly vote on every single issue before parliament either using a computer or a phone.  We wouldn't need a representative to vote for us anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for democracy!  I just wonder if it can be done better now with technology and removing the 'middle man' and the lobbyists.

Param datatypes with Sql Server Stored Procs

I tried several times to save and post this blog entry earlier today and it would NOT save. I have no idea what is wrong as I tried to email it to myself so I could do it later and I couldn't email it either. I'm thinking there was a bad character in my original text, but I pasted in into (and copied it out of notepad) so...  I'm not sure what is going on.  Sometimes these tools in the 'cloud' seem to be in a 'fog'.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was....
I've been working with stored procs lately in Sql Server.  My stored procs take search parameters that I wanted to be very flexible - strings with wild characters on either end using a LIKE in the SQL.  Originally in my declaration for the parameters I used a char datatype.  What I didn't realize was if the param passed in is shorter than the length you specified, a char datatype will automatically add placeholder characters to fill up the rest of the space. So, if  you declared a char with 9 characters and passed the SP a 3 character string, SQL Server would automatically add 6 more characters to it.  I was then trying to prefix and append the percentage sign (wild character) on either end of my param, but it was getting ignored.

In the end (with the help of my more DB inclined colleague, Karlson) I changed the datatype of my param to varchar and I could happily prefix and append wild characters to it.

Got another interesting business idea over the weekend - it's based on a few assumptions, and it's for the investment/financial industry.  The assumptions are:
- history repeats itself.
- the stock market, like history, is cyclical in nature
- investment funds are just as much marketing as they are statistical science
- people will buy anything that is marketed well, whether it provides them with tangible value or not - (the value of stock is all about perception of value)
The idea is simple - create a fund that is based on the cyclical nature of the stock market.  Predictable things happen when interest rates go up, or when commodities or high.  Convince people that you can harness the 'value' in the history of what happens to the stock market with certain indicators are up, and you'll have a winner fund.

More Ideas

Here's some more business ideas that I've had lately. I want to write them down so I don't forget them as they are fun to discuss with people.
- An automatic window washer for houses. Living in Calgary with all the construction and wind, windows don't stay clean very long. Wouldn't it be nice to have a little 'thing' (like the robot vacuum cleaner) that you could run on your windows?
- A job website specifically targeted to the baby boomers and finding them good part-time work.
- Any kind of inventions/devices that will help baby-boomers stay in the workplace longer. I'm sure their feet would get sore after serving customers for a couple of hours in Tim Horton's. Wouldn't it be interesting if you could install 'chairs' that ran on a 'track' behind the counter in fast food restaurants for the servers to sit on?
- I learned at a conference this past weekend that apparently there is no Canadian company offering servers on demand in 'the cloud' like Amazon's EC2. There is a potential business opportunity here for a smart Canadian company with a bit of infrastructure in place. Eucalytpus is basically a freeware version of the same software that Amazon uses to run it's cloud. Set a few servers up with that and you're ready for Canadian customers. The advantage here is other Canadian businesses are hesitant to use American cloud solutions because of the American Federal government's attitude toward privacy. Host your cloud in Canada and don't worry about the American 'Fed's' keeping an eye on your business data. :-)

Random assimilations and Business ideas

Today I learned that you can pass in parameters to .sql scripts that are destined to be run with sqlplus. It looks like this: 'sqlplus -s dbuser/dbpasswd@dbname @scriptname.sql param1 param2' and then in the sql file you output the params using &1 and &2. I was finding though that for the replacement sqlplus was being verbose and telling me about every replacement it made. I didn't like that so much, but couldn't figure out how to turn it off. I've already got 'set headers off' and 'set feedback off' set at the beginning of the script. I tried 'set logging off' but it didn't like that (because logging is set to off as a default I believe). Anyhow, the replacements were working.

With Oracle SQL, if you want to select back by a time interval, do something like this: 'select count(*) from my_log_table where logdatetime > current_date - interval '15' minute;' or you can use '- interval '6' hour' ... or '- interval '2' day' etc. Single quotes around the number!

Back to cron: to set cron to run every minute go '*/1 * * * * /scriptToBeRun.sh' Every 3 minutes: '*/3 * * * * /script2BRun.sh'

One problem I've run into with FusionCharts is the limitation of the Flash plugin to handle a big data dump. Put more than a few graphs with, say, 50 datapoints each on a page, and the browser hangs and the plugin throws our of memory errors.

Interesting IT Business Ideas:
- Reusing software development tools for other industries/applications. For example: other than the obvious issue with binary file types, why don't architects and lawyers use a repository like SVN, or Monotone? ( I left out the ones you have to pay for :-) We've tossed this idea around wondering if anybody has tried to market repositories this way....
- Becoming a freeware software consultant for small businesses. You can get everything from a good OS to all the 'openOffice' applications for free, not to mention what Google and others are putting on line (word processors and spreadsheets, etc), and universally accessible too! Seems to me if you're good at training, you can really help small businesses save a buck on software by showing them how to use all the free stuff out there. It wouldn't surprise me if people are doing this one already.
- write a GOOD, scalable, secure, extensible front end framework for web applications. There's a tonne of them out there now, but it seems like every one of them (Ruby, JSF, Struts, Facelets, Tapestry, SpringMVC, etc) has a downside. I've had conversations with a number of knowledgeable architect types and they agree that there is no good front end web solution out there right now. So, one could code a good freeware framework, consult using it, and then sell it to Red Hat (like the JBoss consultants did).