April 2010
2 posts
2 tags
3 tags
Rent a dedicated ssl pipe for a day?
We have a problem at work, how to get a large amount of data from one distant location to another. We could dump the data one or more disks and either FedEx it to us or have someone carry it on a plane. Either is pretty expensive and, if you are bringing it internationally, runs the risk of getting stuck in customs.
We could set up a dedicated line between there and here, but the lead time is a...
March 2010
3 posts
Web service for "assemble-your-own-book" market? →
My friend and former co-worker, Dave, writes:
Many years ago, when I was a technical writer, my team explored the option of moving away from writing the source files for documentation as actual document files (FrameMaker, Word, etc.) and towards writing them as heavily-indexed articles in a database out of which we could assemble documents as needed. The idea being that if you wanted a ...
1 tag
A social network for close friends? [Updated]
Ok, last of the ideas for the night.
The thing I have noticed about social networks is that I have a lot of “friends”, but I cannot say I am terribly close to most of them. Seems like the connections are shallow and not deep.
Don’t get me wrong. It is nice to get status updates from classmates I haven’t seen in 20 years or co-workers who left the company a year ago. As a Gub noted when we ran...
1 tag
I moved Spontaneous Ideas again
I moved Spontaneous Ideas to another tumblr blog so that others can post to it and I can free up the old blog to be my lifestream. The domain and feeds and the like should update. If you get extra messages in your RSS feed besides this one, just ignore them.
February 2010
8 posts
1 tag
A Consumer Controlled Credit Reporting Coop (C3RC)
With the various cases of credit data getting lost or stolen (Social Security Administration, TJX among others), I have found that if I want to keep tabs on who is accessing my credit history, I have to pay one of the credit reporting agencies a monthly fee. This strikes me as strange considering it is my credit history. I generated it, thank you very much, and where fees and interest are...
1 tag
I have snow idea
It snowed about twelve inches in the Boston-area. Since we don’t have a garage, or indeed off street parking, I had to shovel out the car. Especially the snow that gathers under the car since it turns to ice and that can be very unpleasant to get caught sitting on when you are in a hurry to get out.
All this shoveling gave me that idea that if I put a fence, preferably one without any holes,...
1 tag
Research Topic: Does your blood type indicate how...
Thinking about my blood type got me wondering whether there is a relationship between your blood type and how willing to give you are. To refresh:
A’s can take blood from A and O, but can only give to A and AB.
B’s can take blood from B and O, but can only give to B and AB.
AB’s can take blood from AB, A, B and O, but can only give to AB.
O’s can take blood from O, but can give to anyone.
...
1 tag
Tickets for Parents Travelling Separately
My wife and I are going to a wedding in a bit, and since we have kids, thought it would be a good idea to go in separate planes. That way should, in the very unlikely event that the plane crash, only one of us would be lost. Finding tickets so that our departure and arrival times were similar proved rather difficult.
It may have been the times we wanted to travel, though there seemed to be lots...
1 tag
Shopping is a joy
My wife and I have a disagreement over the food shopping. I do the shopping and she maintains the list .. on her computer.
I like the items on the list to be organized by where they are in the store, roughly. Milk near the eggs and yogurt, vegetables and fruits in one section, etc. Since my wife doesn’t do the shopping, she doesn’t know where things are, so I have to periodically go onto her...
1 tag
So how does a brain know what memories to put into...
As I was going to sleep last night, I was thinking about not remembering many specific memories from childhood. Does the brain overwrite older memories to make way for new ones?
I then remembered an NPR story from a year or more back about some brain researchers who had determined in rats that while a rat sleeps, its brain plays back its short term memories backwards and places in the part of...
1 tag
Your source for songs about historical topics
One idea I keep thinking about, but which has captured my imagination is a website that people can post to and search for songs about historical events or periods of time. Want songs about the great depression, they would be there. Songs about Pearl Harbor, they would be there. Songs about Catherine the Great’s supposed horse fetish, yes that would be there too.
Initially, it could be just a...
1 tag
To start off ...
… this is my place to write down the spontaneous ideas that I have come up with and that have a measure of sense and usefulness to them, but which I am unlikely to pursue due to time or inclination. Mostly time.
If you like the idea, take it and run with it. Please be kind enough to cite my post and/or tell me if it provided you with inspiration or proved helpful. It is how you execute it...