Thursday, January 17, 2013

Open-Source Ideas

I just got access to my Twitter archive, so the first thing I wanted to do was look up all of my 'random idea of the day' tweets to see how good/bad they were.  Some of them I have later found as fully realized products (obviously completely independent of me), some of them are silly, some are dumb, and some still intrigue me.

I'm a firm proponent of the idea that ideas are free. And after spending the last few years fully-entrenched in open-source software development (see Tomahawk) - and seeing how that idea-transparency can lead to great collaboration and the realization of those ideas - I thought I'd repost them here and see if any of them spurs any other ideas from others. Alternatively, if anyone knows of anything that exists is similar to any of the below let me know. I love supporting projects that share common views of the world, and the problems to be solved.


36 results match ‘random idea’

J Herskowitz@jherskowitz
Random idea of the day: computer trackpad that measures pulse and heart rate. Map over browsing history. #quantifiedself


Random idea of the day (potentially evil): Mail client that lets *sender* reset the read/unread IMAP flag. Better than sending reminder?


Random idea of the day: gyroscopic umbrella stabilizer.


Random idea of the day: driver preferences transmitted via remote unlock signal so everything is set *before* you get in car. #doesitexist?


Random idea of the day: Super Mario World, the amusement park. Mario Kart would be an amazing attraction.


Random Idea of the Day: Google Stage View - photo from each seat/section of venue of stage.


Random Idea: upload your site's color palette and get returned a list other sites/companies (by industry) that use similar. #doesitexist?


Random idea: site to inventory personal electronics and appliances. Automatically finds manuals. Also avg. resale price. Include swap meet.


Random idea of the day: 1) create Facebook app that turns written status text into giant image of said written text, 2)???, 3) Profit!!!


Random idea of the day: baggage tag scanner (NFC) on baggage carousel. Big monitor calling your name once your bags come out. And seating.


Create an @IFTTT task that takes any #randomidea tweet of mine and adds it my Evernote "Random Ideas" notebook. (and test it with this)


Random idea of the day: cap and trade system for bandwidth. If I'm under my limit one month, I can sell excess to those hitting cap.


Random idea of the day: animated album artwork (aka visualizers). More interesting than static covers. Demand less attention than videos.


Random idea of today: Jogging stroller mounted to front of skateboard for all the hipster dads. (I might try to make this one)


Random idea of yesterday: Grocery shopping list app that knows what aisle each item is in so I don't wander aimlessly looking for Sriacha.


Random idea: iPad/Tabloid with a screen that multipurposes as a flatbed scanner. #thefuture


Random idea: a running/gps app that enables you to pick a route first, then gives you audible directions while you run. cc @RunKeeper


Random idea of the day: 1) buy biobreak.com, 2) make some sort of product to put there, 3) profit


Random idea: phone that vibrates in morse code so that you can discretely "read" tweets while seemingly paying attention to real world.


Not So Random Idea of the Day: a bot that lets you file bugs directly into Jira from IRC channel. #doesitexist?


Random idea: make a Kindle/Nook cover that displays title of what you are reading. Restimulate real-world conversations around eBooks.


Random idea of the day for terrestrial radio: use inaudible tones as a sort of audio QR code. Easily drive users to companion apps or URLs.


Random idea of the day: replace those restaurant "your table/food is ready" buzzers with simple SMS messages.


Random idea of the day: Set up free wifi hotspots. Sell the SSID naming rights daily (as ads). Voila'... trojan push ads. Your welcome.


Random idea of the day: Combo USB/mini-jack headphones/mic that I can easily use with both my Mac and my phone. Anyone make?


Random idea of the day: bike handlebar-mounted phone charger (with crank/pedal powered generator). Does it exist?


Random idea of the day: Feed the mayonnaise *to* the tuna. Oh wait...


Random Idea of Day: geo-aware barcode scanner. Build an inventory of physical things in a particular space. Integrate with Yelp/4sq.


Random idea of the day: create way to identify what game someone else is playing on their phone w/o having to asking them. #subwaygameplay


Random idea of the day: Pressure/key velocity-sensitive keyboard. Type hard = ALL CAPs. Hit enter key softly = "are you sure?".


Random idea of the day: put GPS in kids shoes. Not to track the kids per se, I just need a way to find the damn shoes every day. #fb


Random idea of day: Add latest tweet to email signature using Feedburner. "Headline Animator" creates dynamic GIF of last post from a feed.


Random idea of the day: Center for Disease control should use Twitter Search to plot and track cases of self-reported sicknesses. @ev


Random idea of the day: if I ever decided to open a smoothie store, name it "Juicetice". And Juicetice For All.


Some tweets were less ideas and of me asking for solutions. These are ones that went unanswered...

4 results match ‘#doesitexist’

J Herskowitz@jherskowitz
13 Jul
Looking for simple video mashup maker for my nephew. Give it 2 YouTube URLs then cut b/w them and output single video. #doesitexist?
View on Twitter


24 Feb
Want a way to automatically embed a tweet on a page just by favoriting it then replace it with the next one favorited. #doesitexist?
View on Twitter


6 Oct 11
Wanted: a way to search my Twitter connections for people that work at a specific company (e.g. mentioned in profile). #doesitexist?
View on Twitter


27 Sep 09
I want a kids TV remote that just has one giant button. Turns everything on, sets the volume, and changes to kids channel. #doesitexist


I'll close this by posing another Random Idea of the Day: An open-source respository for product ideas. Where people can contribute, fork and hash out new product ideas and find like-minded makers. #doesitexist?