Advertising in your .SIG

This is probably a bad idea, but what about an ad network, or Adwords connector that displays diffent advertising at the bottom of each email you send (ideally targeted around the keywords in the email).

HTML-less Web browser

I would like to see a "Web browser" that searches all the open-search search, and allows you to navigate Craigslist, and Ebay, and read RSS feeds without rendering html. It would more like Outlook, with a Tree View in the left hand pane, a list box for showing item titles, and a preview pane - that renders any actual Web pages.

Word Dictionary Community

I write lots of technical documentation in Microsoft Word, and the built in Microsoft dictionary can't keep up. I want a Word plug-in that allows me to choose and merge my custom dictionary with dictionaries created by others. I envision community created dictionaries for different professions or contexts. The plug-in should allow me to choose and subscribe to multiple dictionaries. I should also be able to contribute new words automatically to the dictionaries I participate in automatically when I add it to my custom dictionary.

"All your base"

Speculation is running wild about an interesting new service about to be released by Google. Check out Google Base: All your base are, in fact, belong to us.

Then go back and read "How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web", which I blogged about in July 2004.

The Significance of Flock

A friend asked me about the significance of Flock. Flock is a new Web browser based on Mozilla (the open source code base from which Firefox is also built) that includes support for shared internet bookmarks, blogging, photo sharing, and RSS feed consumption and remixing. The idea is that Web surfing should not be a solo and passive activity. Participating in today's internet is (or can be) an interactive and shared activity.

I guess I see Flock as the release of a whole lot of pent up creativity. As with alot of the "Web 2.0" applications, developers no longer have to wait for an established business to develop the features they want. Development tools are efficient enough, and hosting is inexpensive enough that "the community" can bang out code faster than the professionals. Additionally, services that provide an open API (such as those utilized by Flock) are the only choice for the "public web platform." Of course, the public web platform resides on someone's server at the end of the day, and the incentive for giving away a free API is often only to build a community that can be sold to an established closed business.

Wireless Home Audio

I have been trying to pick the best way to stream tunes around my house. I looked at the Roku Soundbridge, and the SqueezeBox2, but ended up witha simple FM Transmitter. It works great, I have been broadcasting my favorite British radio stations from a single PC to FM radios all over the house.

OpenOffice

Since I haven't bothered to acquire a copy of MS Office 2004 (or whatever the most recent version is), I have been using OpenOffice at home. I haven't pushed it to the limits, but the word processor and spreadsheet apps have been sufficient for my purposes. I mention it because Version 2.0 was released in the past week, and I look forward to trying it out.

Wired News: Report from PopTech conference

Wired News: Visionaries Float Big Ideas: "Author and journalist Suketu Mehta, whose first book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, described his father's native city Mumbai (Bombay) as 'the future of urban civilization on the planet, God help us.' "

Mumbai is the most densely populated region of the planet. At 45,000 people per square kilometer, Mumbai contains more than seven times the concentration of humanity than does the bustling city of Singapore (6000 per square kilometer).

Why additictive video games grow suddently tiresome

Wired News: The End of the Affair: " Ralph Koster argues in his Theory of Fun: We humans seek constant novelty, so only gameplay that has nearly infinite permutations -- like chess -- can hold our attention forever. "

Pixel Crazy

UPDATE: OK, I had to demonstrate how I would have done it. My version: PixelTycoon

I had this idea a year and a half ago about creating a Web page for a charity and selling pixels on it for each company that donated to the charity. I just wasn't involved with any charities, so the idea didn't go anywhere.

Well, it looks like this UK student, had the same idea - and the perfect cause - sending himself to school. He's been at it for a couple months now and just hit the sweet spot of the growth curve, he made over $50k this weekend. Selling pixels on his Web site. I did some research, and found these knock offs. (This list is dynamically maintained using Lookmarks, just add a link to Lookmarks with the tags "pixel advertising" and it will be added to this list).