Category Archives: Thought Experiments

Ideas and Thought-related blog posts for things that could be done with technology – or can’t, but should be.

IDEA: Location Announcing Security System for Computers

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Source: visionmobile.comI know there are ideas like this, but this is just another way to approach the issue.

I want to create a “Security Virus” (a virus, in that it can’t easily be removed/disabled) that when the computer is turned on tries to ping a known locally-hosted IP and verify the MAC address of the target. If it can’t verify/ping the target, it disables any usage of the UI, sends location data through Google Chrome, Firefox, or IE9′s location sharing capability to the owner’s email, and then turns itself off.

It would be even better on laptops with a 3G/Mobile data plan that it could automatically connect to in order to send the location data.

The purpose would be to help recover stolen computers. I know there are location-aware services for mobile devices and creative people have been able to recover stolen computers that have stupidly been put on the network. I’m also sure there are some pitfalls to this idea…what do you think?

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If I can block spam email, why not spam commercials?

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MyCleanPC.com installs spyware and viruses

This is spyware. Don't install anything you see a TV commercial for that will "clean" your computer

Over the course of the last 15 years I’ve learned a lot of tricks to keep spammers from getting my email, and spyware from getting installed. I do my best to create informative posts like these on this blog, but not everyone has access to it, and some don’t even realize how much they have put themselves at risk, and don’t consider it to be that big of a deal.

In my post about Improving Commercials, I take the position that commercials are useful to some extent, but have room to be improved. The other side of that coin are the commercials that are not useful: the ones that would be considered SPAM and SPYWARE-inducing if they were in email format.

I’ve seen the movie “Love & Other Drugs” – I know this is people’s livelihood to get the new drugs on the doctor’s shelf to give to patients, especially if it’s better, has fewer side-effects, or costs less. I get it. However, I don’t need it. I don’t even need to know about it.

There is no reason for a Cialis commercial after 5pm. Its target demographic is already in bed.

Asking people to treat their doctors as legalized drug dealers is one thing. Blatantly lying to people about what your service does is completely different. There is no software out there that will “double your speed”, there is no software that “fixes registry errors”, and there is no software that can “remove popups” that aren’t already removed by your browser.

All of these issues have real solutions, but they do not involve installing 3rd-party software.

Cable companies should allow user-feedback on the advertisers they sell spots to, or at least have some sort of ethics-in-advertising guidelines before letting someone come on. I know they can do this – I’ve seen the local broadcaster preempt national HD commercials with local SD commercials (And I hate it by the way – if it’s an HD channel, only HD commercials should be aired).

There should be a button on the remote that allows the viewer to mark this commercial as SPAM, False Advertisement, or (if you want to get granular) Irrelevant.

I realize this leaves the door wide open for every commercial to be marked as SPAM by some viewers, but the cross-sectional results of which commercials were marked as SPAM by *a majority* of viewers would have more value than the “dirty” data from abuse. And then commercials could be tailored to the household receiving them so that the ad-expense is actually worth the cost for the advertisers (and the ad-revenue can be increased due to the increased relevancy the cable company’s system can offer).

Seems like a win-win from my view. Customers don’t have to see SPAM commercials, and can vote-down false-advertisements, and potentially vote up relevant ads. Cable Companies can generate more ad-revenue from advertisers who would likely do better as a result of only broadcasting to interested customers.

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How Cable Companies could make Commercials more useful

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Perhaps it’s the state of things, but as I spend less time glued to the computer, and more time finding interesting TV shows to fill my evenings, I’m faced with seeing more and more commercials. Fortunately, I am able to time-shift most of my viewing choices to a more appropriate or available time-slot in my life, and can fast-forward through the commercials.

However, there are times when I’m there, the show is on, and there is nothing else to do but watch – and the commercials drone on like background noise for a bathroom break or a disappointing rummage through the fridge & kitchen pantry. Occasionally there will be an ad for an upcoming show on the network (History, SyFy & Science Channel are bad about this) that will air 2, 3 or 4 weeks out.

This is where the Cable Company could step in for the customers with DVR.

If I’ve got a DVR and digital cable, there should be a little icon for the advertised tv show in the watermark corner – or even toggle the watermark itself with a little message asking me if I’d like to set a reminder for this show.

Ideally, I’d be able to click the OK/Select button, and the cable box would set a reminder for the upcoming show. If that time-slot rolls around, and my attention is not on it, or I don’t respond to the reminder, it should automatically record the program for me.

Time Warner has already started (as of a couple months ago) a process (that was initially creepy) of changing the channel to some pre-determined channel they want to bring to your attention if your cable box is on, but your attention is not on, the channel it is *supposedly* broadcasting to your TV. I guess this is to prevent ratings padding for a particular channel. They then allow you to continue watching if you click the OK/Select button on the remote in the response time allotted.

This same type of system could be used to trigger a recording if, in fact, your TV happens to be tuned to the correct channel for the show, but it is not turned on. Thus:

  • If you don’t respond to the reminder when you’re on another channel: Record
  • If you don’t respond to the OK/Select request when you’re on the right channel: Record
  • If you do respond, offer the option to record, watch, or both.

Then, I wouldn’t mind sitting through a couple commercials, to ensure that I don’t miss a show I might actually want to see, in the midst of Cialis & Viagra spam ads.

Speaking of which, why are those blocked from our email, but not from TV? Seems like there should be a spam setting. But that is for another post.

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The EverCoupon: The last coupon you’ll ever need

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Today on Facebook, I saw one of my friends mention…

“I want to be an extreme coupon-er…”

My first thought: I don’t want to be behind you in line. My second thought: How do I solve this problem?

The Proposed Solution

The solution I’ve come up with is a smartphone app that lets you photograph coupons. It scans the photos, and credits them to your online account as available discounts, and automatically removes them when they expire.  Of course, you’d also be able to share the coupons with your friends as well. You then take your phone with you to the store, and pull up the app. It displays a scanable barcode for the clerk. When scanned, the store’s system contacts the cloud-based coupon-holding server, deducts the coupon values from your total, and they are then removed from your account.

No more waiting behind that one person who brought 30 coupons to the store. No more keeping up with which coupons are still valid/newly expired. Just a smooth shopping experience for everyone in line.

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Concept: DropBox API Integration, Webhost Sync

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I enjoy trying to find solutions to things that are difficult to accomplish, whether that is researching existing technologies to try and mash them together, or developing new ones to solve a problem. It’s rare that I have to create completely new things, so more often than not, all the pieces to solve the problem currently exist. This is one such occasion.

Here’s my dilemma:

  • I’m creating a web-based application for my company’s intranet. We’ll call the application “Jada”.
  • Jada is hosted on a computer that has a one-way connection to the internet: out. No one can get in from the internet.
  • I sync my files to the cloud with Windows Live Mesh 2011 on Jada, and that gives me a real-time backup, as well as a copy on my computers at home.
  • Windows Live Mesh 2011 does not have the ability to edit files in the browser. DropBox does not have the ability to edit files in the browser. But DropBox has an API.

My requirement:

  • I have a Cr-48 Chrome OS netbook, and must edit my codes inside a browser. When I save the file, it must automatically end up back on the Jada server, without installing software (since I can’t, on this laptop).

The file-editor of choice for my codes is to host them on Kodingen and use their Bespin integration (as the actual Bespin site doesn’t have an import/upload feature yet). I have uploaded a copy of the files via FTP, however, that is a single instance of those files…thus any changes I make there must then be downloaded onto the Jada server via an FTP client, or pushed. Either way, that would happen at intervals, and not instantly, and definitely not from the Chrome OS laptop.

The concept of webhost sync would be similar to this:

  • A user would set up their DropBox folder so that the files they want would be scraped up by the software, and sent to the DropBox website.
  • A user would then authenticate to Dropbox on the editor (Kodingen in this example), and then map a folder created on the Kodingen FTP server to say “this folder is where I want the Selective Sync of that DropBox store to be located” or a new folder option would be offered to say “make this a folder in my dropbox account, and sync it.”
  • Every X minutes of inactivity to the files (no files have been edited or modified), or the user being logged out/session expiration, the Kodingen would poll DropBox’s file metadata to see if any files have changed. If so, pull them over to Kodingen’s store.
  • While inside the editor, a Save action on the file being edited would activate a hook to sync that file and any other files that have been changed.
  • There would also need to be a manual sync button for posterity in environments where multiple people would be working in other locations. Such changes could exist in the span of X minutes between CRON jobs to sync the server, and one would want to make sure they have the latest version of the files before they get started.

This is a general overview of how I would envision something like this working – and would definitely be a huge step in the right direction for programmers who wish to keep all their files in the cloud, but don’t have direct access to the computers they are developing for…especially if the Cr-48 is going to be as limited as it is when it comes to file editing.

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