Flickr Tools

Stats on users, comments, pictures, tags, and create your own flickr book.

Casual Games

Easy, addictive online games.

TravelerIQ Challenge

Track Bit Torrents

Torrentspy.com, an International search engine that provides links to torrent files, has decided to stop accepting visitors from the United States. 

 Catalog torrents and serve ads. Definitely need to host this outside of the USA. 

The Secrets of a Running A BitTorrent Tracker 

Written by enigmax on September 14, 2008 

  

Most site admins go about their business in secret, which makes it difficult for enthusiastic outsiders to make the leap from user to site owner, since they can’t get the benefit of the accrued knowledge of others. Now that has changed with TorrentFries - a unique website demystifying the running of a tracker. ...

YouTube Statistics

Statistics and upload submission.

http://www.tubemogul.com/about/whatis.php
What is TubeMogul?
TubeMogul is the first online video analytics and distribution company serving publishers large and small who need independent information about video performance on the Internet and automated upload to the Web's top video sharing sites.

Winery Software

Replace "winery" with any manufactured food item.

Winery Software Company Expanding Scope
Posted By: Gary Robertson
Company: Vineyard2Door, LLC
Category: Funding Needed
Location: Mukilteo, WA (United States)
Post Date: 8/10/2007 11:52:06 AM
Vineyard2Door.com is up and running, acting as the "shopping cart" for almost 20 small family wineries in Washington State. Funding is needed to complete the final development of the management system that will assist their operations from A to Z. VineyardConsultant software is being developed to track the growth of their grapes, WineryManager software to track the wine production process, inventory management and sales/sales report management for state/federal tax requirements. The added benefit of the software is compliance with the Bio-Terrorism Act that requires traceability throughout the production process.

The program is pre-sold to 13 wineries, with many more in need of the service. There are over 500 wineries in Washington alone - over 80% produce 5000 cases or less.

Chart Government Data

Chart government stats, like transportation.

Show ads.

General Info - Minority Owned

Systalex is an 8(a) certified, minority-owned, small disadvantaged business

Useful for government set-aside contracts.

Political Contribution Data Mining

Mine federal election commission data. open secrets already does this.


Campaign Finance Reports and Data
* Search the Disclosure Database
Candidate, PAC, Party Summaries.
Who's giving?
Who's receiving?
* View / Download Electronic Filings:
View or download financial disclosure reports filed electronically by House and Presidential Campaigns, Parties and PACs. (As well as unofficial Senate Electronic Filings)
* View Images of All Financial Reports:
View actual financial disclosure reports filed by House, Senate and Presidential campaigns, Parties and PACs from 1993 to the present.
* Download Data Files from ftp.fec.gov
Data Files (Some very large) including contributor, candidate, committee and summary data.
* View Electioneering Communication Reports
24 Hour Notice of Disbursements / Obligations for Electioneering Communications
* View Late Independent Expenditure Reports
24 Hour and 48 Hour Reports of Independent Expenditures Made and Contributions Received
* Other Campaign Finance Data

Flight Travel Sites

airtroductions Meet people on same flight.
triphub Group trip planning.

mobissimo Big flight price search. farecast
wegolo Europe flights.
yapta Track price after purchase.

Blog Tools

Track and report on things.
Blog backup tool.

Module Call Dependency/Flow

QuickVision Starts at $9000.
Leveraging a sophisticated modeling engine, ClearApp QuickVision correlates the services provided by applications to the underlying code components supporting those services ...

A PLSQL flow chart could be useful.

RateMy...

Make RateMyAutoShop.com and RateMyHomeInstall.com like Rate My Professors.

Net-based Filesystem

Uploading of pictures and videos is useful. Could it also be useful to have a network file system that a user can mount from their PC to store and share pic/video/doc? NFS for everyone, on a secure link, with easy permissions for sharing.

Manufacture Video/Audio Cables

Highest-end audiophiles pay USD7K for these? Even the monster cables seem overpriced.
Make something similar to monster cables in a package for distribution in big box stores.



Ultimate Speaker Cable

Following in the footsteps of the highly acclaimed ANJOU Analog Interconnect, the ANJOU Speaker Cable strives to offer the highest quality speaker to amplifier connection possible. A no-compromise speaker cable optimized for the most accurate sound, the ANJOU Speaker Cable allows new levels of sonic accuracy to be explored. At almost 1 inch in diameter, the seemingly innocuous giant is a complex masterpiece beneath the deceptively simple outer layers of insulation.
...

Anjou Speaker Cable
3 foot pair - $2750
8 foot pair - $5250
12 foot pair - $7250




Monster Cable Ultra Series 600 4' HDMI A/V Cable
Model: U3 V600 HDMI-4
Our Price: $89.99



Ultra-Hi-Grade VGA Cable 6 feet (G2LVGAE006)
Ultra-Hi-Grade VGA Cable 6 feet
MSRP: $14.95

Online DB/spreadsheet

More than a spreadsheet, Trackvia takes a spreadsheet and converts it into a hosted database.  In 2007, apparently they have five full time employees.

To monetize, the report generator must be great.  Potential add-on for workflow.


$9.95 per month per user
- Month to month subscription, no contract required!
Included Account Features
Unlimited databases! Memorized views and reports (Unlimited!)
Custom fields (Unlimited!) Email support (Unlimited!)
1 Hour of phone support and hands-on set up help 10,000 database records
1 GB storage of attached files (.jpg, .pdf, .xls, etc!) Secure data backup of records and attached files
One-click emailing of records and reports Email distribution schedules of views/reports
Mail merge your database into your uploaded form letters You'll always have the latest version - no upgrade fees required!
_________________________________________________________________________ 

September 24, 2012
TrackVia won a $7.1 million venture capital investment that will help the company double in size.
... launched in 2007, makes cloud-based software that companies can use to build customized online spreadsheet and business-tracking tools they need.
... the company, which employs about 24 people today, will double its staffing, revenue and customer base over the next year.

Relationship Visualization

Tune Glue has an interesting music relationship viewer, with data from last.fm.




Could something similar be done with book reviews, people on linkedin, ebay sellers/raters, facebook friends, flickr images browsed or comments?

Email With Hooks - BlueTie, KickNotes

Small & Medium-Sized Business
As a small to medium-sized business owner (from one to 500 employees), you are looking for an affordable, secure, high-quality and reliable Web-based business-class email application that doesn't require a large investment in support or IT staff.

Internet Service Providers
BlueTie provides dozens of ISPs and other Service Providers with outsourced email for their consumer and business users. Our carrier-class, integrated portfolio of Web-based email, calendaring, file sharing and other Exchange™-like applications are combined to meet the unique needs of each of our Service Provider partners and their customers.

BlueTie Free
BlueTie now offers its full suite of business organization and communication tools free to new and growing businesses. Each account supports up to 20 users, supports email@yourdot.com addresses and is easy to use and manage.

BlueTie Pro
BlueTie Pro expands upon our core service offering with live/email support, Outlook integration, 10GB of storage per user, IM and more. BlueTie Pro supports unlimited users and is priced at only $4.99 per user, per month.


What is KickNotes?
KickNotes is a completely free service used to send and receive self-destructing online messages.

What are "self-destructing" messages, and how do they work?
Self-destructing messages are messages that are configured to delete themselves at a certain point. When composing a message on KickNotes, you can set the maximum number of times the message can be viewed, the amount of time that the message actually exists, or both.

Medical Transcription

As a profession.

While medical transcription does not mandate registration or certification, individual MTs may seek out registration/certification for personal or professional reasons. Obtaining a certificate from a medical transcription training program does not entitle an MT to use the title of Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT). The CMT credential is earned by passing a certification examination conducted solely by the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity (AHDI), formerly the American Association for Medical Transcription (AAMT), as the credentialing designation they created. AHDI also offers the credential of Registered Medical Transcriptionist (RMT). According to AHDI, the RMT is an entry-level credential while the CMT is an advanced level. In addition to their certifications, AHDI also offers training programs to aspiring transcriptionists. In lieu of these AHDI certification credentials, MTs who can consistently and accurately transcribe multiple document work-types and return reports within a reasonable turnaround-time (TAT) are sought after.

Stock Short Data Analysis

Collect and analyze from:
3. Where Can I Find Threshold Lists?

Each SRO is responsible for providing the threshold securities list for those securities for which the SRO is the primary market. You can obtain SRO threshold lists at the following websites:

Nasdaq: http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/aspx/regsho.aspx (includes Nasdaq issues, OTCBB, and other OTC issues)

NYSE: http://www.nyse.com/Frameset.html?displayPage=/threshold/

AMEX: http://www.amex.com/amextrader/tradingData/RegSHO/TrDa_RegSHO.jsp (Amex listed securities only)

CSE: http://www.chx.com/publications/reg_sho.htm

ArcaEx: http://www.tradearca.com/traders/regsho_th.asp


Am unsure if any useful info can be gleaned, though Short Squeeze sells a data analysis service.

Reporting - MS Exchange

Simple Exchange monitoring with decent reporting - one agent that reports to a web site - could be no-charge. Show ads for a bit of revenue.

NetVault: Report Manager for Exchange (NRME) integrates Exchange storage and management reporting so administrators can efficiently analyze and manage storage. Reports yield actionable information that enables storage forecasting, reduces storage growth rates, lowers administrative costs, increases security and enhances regulatory compliance. Space reports reveal how space is consumed, including information on public, private and dormant mailboxes and attachments. Traffic reports focus on flow and include number and size of messages plus sender, receiver, distribution list, quota and mailbox activity. NRME, as a component of NetVault: Report Manager offers backup reporting, file system reporting and data management in one console.

Life Insurance Analysis Service

Evaluate Life Insurance -- Cost: The cost for the analysis is $65 for the first illustration and $50 for each additional illustration submitted at the same time.




Could do analysis for any policy - health, life, car, mortgage, ...

Track Chores And Kid's Allowance

...

If you have kids and incentivize them to do chores then you will get Handipoints. Its a site specifically for managing chores done by kids and tying those to allowances.

...

Traveler Hook-Up

alarm:clock newsletter

TripLife vs. Dopplr vs. TripUp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Social networking to hook up travelers on the road has been a popular concept but so far nobody has been able to pull if off. Helsinki-based Dopplr recently raised an undisclosed amount of funding ... Dopplr will seek to hook you up with other members.

Across the Atlantic in Greenwich, CT TripLife has also raised funding for a very similar concept ...

Meeting Manager

Organize meeting info - calendar, agenda, attachments, action items. More than just a scheduler, with tight hooks into MS Outlook.

They offer free trial, 30 day money back, and apparently permanent list price reduction from $299 to $99. With a free trial and low price point, there needs to be a strong pull to get people to install and try - no sales/tech guy to help.


Getting started
MeetingSense installs in seconds without any system-wide touch points or IT impact. On first run, MeetingSense automatically pulls in your Microsoft Outlook meetings and begins working on its own.

Before a meeting
Leverage tight MeetingSense integration with Microsoft® Outlook® to drive best practices that translate into the most productive meetings possible.

During a meeting
MeetingSense allows users to easily capture all of the information shared in the meeting, including:

Participants
Agenda
Audio
Rich notes
Documents
Key points & decisions
Action items

Following a meeting
Customize and then instantly distribute all captured information via a comprehensive, organized email summary. This information is then archived in the dashboard for fast and easy retrieval at any time.


Yon Software MeetingSense 2.0
Availability: Now
Pricing: $99 for single seat; custom volume license packs available
Verdict: MeetingSense 2.0 provides an ingenious way to prepare for meetings, capture essential information during a meeting – including audio, notes, and action items, and then manage assigned tasks. Works seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook, MeetingSense doesn't inject any extra steps; rather it streamlines meeting workflow and reduces follow-up efforts.

-------------------------------------------------------------
2009.10
Price not known.

SIRE Agenda Plus
Pre-Meeting activities such as agenda creation; Meeting activities including taking minutes of the meeting; and Post-Meeting activities such as posting agendas with attachments, summaries, minutes and even posting video to the web.
SIRE Agenda Plus is an enterprise web-based, modular solution that allows city, county, state, and gubernatorial agencies the flexibility to meet legislative automation needs while meeting their budget.

-------------------------------------------------------------
2011.01
BookWhen.com
Free version, or $20/month.
... allow anyone to quickly and easily set themselves up a publicly accessible page that clearly lists their upcoming schedule of events or availability.

General Info - Why Most Websites Receive Failing Grades

Wall Street Journal Article:
value
navigation
presentation
trust

Mortgage - Rate Search

Compare the lowest home mortgage refinancing rates or home loan refinancing today and save.

Appear to be paid by referrals. Costs are setup and then buying search engine ad placement to drive traffic.

=========================
20080105
Aggregate bank account interest rate and credit card interest rates. Bank-a-holic does this.

Compliance Check (Oracle, JDEdwards, ...)

Check Oracle DB for auditing compliance. Probe DB then create a report.

bv-Control for Oracle:
* Provides extensive reporting on database configuration - OS and database settings, network settings and password management
* Offers detailed access control reporting to assess segregation of duties in the database, a critical element for demonstrating due care in meeting regulatory compliance mandates
* Delivers comprehensive reporting on audit configuration and audit trail
* Offers remediation guidance for reported vulnerabilities
* Provides a lightweight, non-intrusive footprint

---------------------------------------------------------

JD Edwards "cut you compliance costs by 80%".

The Problem: Security Analysis and reporting
Reporting in JD Edwards is cumbersome & limited, and those who need to test, review and report on business controls, may not be familiar with JD Edwards. They will be more familiar with browser based tools.


The Solution:
SEC-Qure® ComplianceManager
provides secure data extraction tools and browser based dashboard, analysis and reporting tools for on-screen analysis, secure report file production for printing and sign-off, and export to Microsoft Excel for further analysis by auditors.






http://safestone.com/detectit-security-manager
With over 500 customers worldwide, Safestone’s business solution for the System i, DetectIT, has been specifically designed by security experts to improve the management of security and compliance across the most complex System i environments. The DetectIT security and compliance solution is fully audited software providing comprehensive policy compliance, intrusion detection, auditing management, exit point security, access control facilities, password management, profile management and centralized administration.
Starts at $3000.

Electrified Jacket

Does this also protect from being hit by a taser?
Claimed to run on a 9 volt battery.



# ADVANCED TASER M26 (Law Enforcement) - 26 watts; 0.50 joules per pulse; and 3.6mA average current
# ADVANCED TASER M18L/M18 (Civilian) - 18 watts; 0.50 joules per pulse; and 2.7mA average current
# TASER X26 (Law Enforcement) - 7 watts; 0.07 joules per pulse; and 2.1 mA average current
# TASER X26C (Civilian) - 7 watts; 0.07 joules per pulse; and 2.1 mA average current
# TASER C2 (Civilian)- 7 watts; 0.07 joules per pulse; and 2.1 mA average current


Note: the TASER X26 and C2 systems disperse lower current. The advancements made in technology since the ADVANCED TASER M18/M26 debuted in 1999 have improved substantially. Each new generation TASER device has increased the efficiency of using smaller sources of battery power. For example, the ADVANCED TASER M18/M26 requires eight double AA batteries, while the TASER X26, X26C, and C2 only require two lithium 123 batteries.


Would a metal weave in a vest short-circuit or diffuse the electric pulse?

General Info - How It Will Make Money For Customer

Newfoundland Real Estate

Canadian Ski Area Real Estate

Revelstoke is supposed to be up and coming.

Supposedly is currently blue-collar.

Legal-To-Work Doc Storage

Scan docs, name, taxpayer ID. Maybe a simple workflow or checklist. Easy reports/lookup facility. Additional data element to store employee number.

Share Pics/Video With Families

This is upgraded photo sharing, and they are shunning advertising to go for a subscription model. They allow sharing by invitation.
EnjoyMyMedia brings the power of broadcasting to everyone in its Private Netcasting™ service; the worlds first and only personal broadcasting system. For the first time, individuals can broadcast live, private channels filled with their personal media to their friends & family over the Internet.


Sounds great, but how much does Private Netcasting cost?

Nothing, nada, zilch! EnjoyMyMedia Private Netcasting is:

* Free to Subscribers.:
o Unlimited private Channels
o Unlimited media in the Channels
* Free to Netcasters:
o Unlimited private Channels
o Unlimited media in the Channels
o 200 MB of most recent and popular media are always available On Demand.



Netcasters may instead opt for EnjoyMyMedia Premium Netcasting:

* Free to Subscribers:
o No advertising in the Channels
o Unlimited private Channels
o Unlimited media in the Channels
* Netcasters:
o No advertising in the Channels
o Unlimited private Channels
o Unlimited media in the Channels
o Two different On Demand levels:
+ On Demand 1: 10 GB of most recent and popular media for $4.99 per month
+ On Demand 2: 40 GB of most recent and popular media for $9.99 per month
o
o Please contact us to learn more about Premium Netcasting.

Municipal Apps

Hosted apps for small municipalities. Include a home page/domain hosting, staff email, citizen comment/question area.


The Community Development software streamlines government business applications and provides citizens and business "self-service" access points using the web and kiosks.
Features:
* Building Permits to manage the residential and commerical permit processes.
* Occupational Licenses to track and issue business licenses.
* Planning and Zoning to streamline a city's development review process.
* Code Enforcement to manage code infractions and generate required inspections as part of the license review process.

=======================================================
20070926
EnerGov's License Manager allows districts to simply and efficiently manage business licenses, liquor licenses, trade licenses, temporary licenses, marriage licenses, animal licenses and any other licenses needed.

Organic Fertilizer

Possible placement in 2nd-tier hardware stores.

TerraCycle products.
Annual Sales $1,500,000
Online prices:
African Violet Fertilizer - $6.95
Qty.
All-Purpose Fertilizer - $6.95
Qty.
Orchid Fertilizer - $6.95


What do certified organic farmers use for fertilizer?

Facebook Applications

Where I've Been has 1M+ users.
Update: We have now confirmed that this deal has not happened and is in the discussion stage only. Inside Facebook pulled the trigger on their post a little too soon.

whereivebeen.pngTripAdvisor has acquired Facebook Application “Where I’ve Been” for a reported $3 million.

Where I’ve Been allows users to share where they have been in the world from their Facebook profiles and has approximately 2.3 million users.

Inside Facebook notes that the $3 million purchase price values Where I’ve Been users at around $1.30 each.


Facebook Application Development Services


About six weeks ago, one of our TechStars teams this summer called J-Squared Media launched the Sticky Notes Facebook app. Sticky Notes took off like a rocket and has just crossed the one million user mark today. This has made J-Squared Media immediately profitable - they’ve signed interesting ad deals with several ad networks and it’s paying off for them quite nicely. It’s been said that a Facebook user is worth at least $0.30, and J Squared has data and impressive early revenues showing this is actually quite conservative.


Make other apps that will be updated frequently or daily:
+ where i am - xy readings from phones to leave crubms on users maps. allows users to alert when they will intersect other users. already done.
+ post current system status for user with colored faces
+ post current trades

==================================
20070906
Wall Street Journal article about Facebook.


==================================
20101129
This firm is advertising in California airports for their Facebook tools.

Datacenter Asset Tracking

A relatively simple site. There are plenty of products to do this, so this would be a learning project.
Revenue could potentially show some ads.

Get and store information about how to track hardware/software updates on your systems.

From sun.com: Stop writing serial numbers on a spreadsheet, and let your system do it for you. Use the free Sun Connection Inventory Channel to see at a glance what you have.

==================================
2008.02.25
Novell today purchased PlateSpin.

PowerRecon Features and Requirements
Standard Features

Remote Data Collection
PowerRecon remotely collects inventory and performance data with no need to physically touch data center servers. PowerRecon's run-once inventory collector gathers comprehensive server inventory data while performance data is collected agentlessly via standard OS instrumentation capabilities.

Rich Data Modeling
Make better consolidation choices based on sophisticated analysis of resources, workloads and utilization trends. Tight integration with VMware VirtualCenter provides greater visibility into your virtual infrastructure, improving data center management and operations.

Custom Report Creation
and Delivery
Define resource and workload parameters and generate custom visual reports to accelerate data center assessments and server consolidations. Quickly identify consolidation candidates based on resource utilization trends and compare workload characteristics before and after consolidation. Scheduled report delivery via email or FTP ensures easy access to remote data and provides up-to-date information for decision making.

Flexible Data Capture and Export
PowerRecon data can be easily exported to a number of formats including HTML, PDF, Word, CSV, Excel or images for flexible report creation. Raw data can be extracted directly from the database and delivered to business intelligence applications for statistical analysis.

Enterprise-Level Scalability
Robust data collection, analysis and planning for all servers in the network puts PowerRecon in a class all its own for large-scale data center consolidation projects. Each instance of PowerRecon can monitor up to 1,500 servers to ensure scalability for the world’s largest data centers. Data can be aggregated from multiple PowerRecon data collectors for centralized data warehousing, analysis and planning or to accommodate larger enterprises.

Multiple-Data Center Support
Distribute PowerRecon to different geographical locations to remotely collect data and schedule updates to a master PowerRecon installation, enabling centralized analysis and planning for initiatives like server or data center consolidation

Flexible Chargeback Reporting
Because virtualization creates a pool of computing resources, it can be difficult to manage and monitor how virtual resources are being used and by whom. PowerRecon allows organizations to effectively allocate and share virtual resources across various business units and departmental owners. PowerRecon’s flexible chargeback reporting capabilities improve virtual infrastructure management and financial accounting by allowing organizations to calculate IT costs based on actual resource usage.

VM Growth Reporting
Run virtual machine growth reports to monitor the proliferation of virtual machines and avoid the administrative headaches associated with virtual infrastructure sprawl.
Planning Module Features

Planning
Automatically generate server consolidation and disaster recovery plans based on detailed workload analysis to ensure the optimal fit between server workloads and virtual resources. The ability to use forecasted data ensures that plans will accommodate future growth.

Workload Analysis
The PowerRecon Planning Module automatically analyzes the five critical dimensions of workload – CPU, disk, memory, network and
time – across thousands of servers simultaneously, providing plans that maximize utilization while minimizing resource contention.

Scenario Modeling
Create custom scenarios with user-defined target server specifications including server templates or existing virtual machine servers to create an optimal consolidation plan.

Power and Cooling Analysis
Compare and contrast potential power and cooling cost savings and ROI derived from different consolidation scenarios. Custom fields allow power and cooling requirements for major hardware platforms to be maintained in a central database, enabling organizations to analyze and cost-justify green computing initiatives.

Time-Based Analysis
Stagger multiple workloads evenly across virtual hosts and account for hourly peaks and valleys inherent in server utilization trends.

Workload and Utilization Forecasting
Predict future workloads and resource utilization based on historical trends to better plan for server consolidation and infrastructure growth, and enable more proactive systems management. Forecasting data on CPU, disk, memory and usage trends is presented in easy-to-read charts, reports and plans.
System Requirements

PowerRecon Server
Multiplatform Monitoring
Microsoft Windows
* Windows NT 4.0
* Windows 2000 Server
* Windows 2000 Advanced Server
* Windows Server 2003
* Windows XP

UNIX*
* Sun Solaris 8, 9, 10
(Sparc and x86)
* Sun Solaris 7 (Sparc)

Linux
* RedHat 7.3, 8.0, 9.0
* RedHat Enterprise Linux 2.1 AS/ES,3.0 AS/ES,
4.0 AS/ES and 4.4 AS/ES
* Novel SuSE 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 10.0, 10.1

Virtual Machines
* VMware Infrastructure 3
* VMware ESX Server
* VMware Server
* Microsoft Virtual Server
* Virtual Iron
* Xen Enterprise

======================================================
2008.03.31
Pointdev's IDEAL Administration simplifies the administration of your NT and Active Directory domains by providing in a single tool all the necessary features for managing domains, servers, and users.

==================================
2008.09.12
Peruse_IT documents configurations and enables audits from the documentation book.

==================================
2009.03.20
sysCompare Lite $99
sysCompare Pro $1499
Inventory, report, compare.

http://mtmsoftware.com/syscompareproinfo.html
Local and network scanning - including the ability to save scans and compare over time
Automatic detection and reporting of configuration differences
Report creation, print layout control and exports to PDF
User controllable UI elements and display properties
...
Hardware Components
System Information - BIOS, Power on Passwords, Manufacturer and Memory Details
Processors - ID, Manufacturer, Clock Speeds, Cores, Logical Processors, Voltage, Cache Size and Revision
Memory - Bank Labels, Capacity, Type, Form Factor, and Speed
Plug and Play Devices
Network Adapter details
Hard Drive details
Problem devices
Printers

Software Components
Operating System Properties - OS Version, Machine Name, Build Number, Service Pack Level, Domain Membership, Virtual Memory and Windows Activation
Services - Name, Description, State, Start Mode, Service Account, and Starting Path
Running Drivers - Name, Manufacturer, Version, Time/Date Stamps, State and Startup State
Running Processes
Unsigned Drivers in use
Startup Applications and Tasks
Environment Variables
System Patches and Hotfixes
Shared files and folders
Page File Configuration
Windows Debugging and Memory Dump Configurations
Installed Applications

--------------------------------------------

$800 base + $3/node.



==================================
http://mcmtechnology.com/content.asp?id=97966
Asset 360°™ Solution is structured to track the following information about each individual asset:
date of acquisition
purchase cost / funding association
real-time location and status
transfer history
maintenance and warranty status
repair history

Highlight Features:
Organize assets by relating them to the Agency to which they are assigned
Maintain a real-time record on each individual asset
Search your asset inventory by any desired criteria through a powerful browse tool
Create work orders against an Agency or Asset(s)
Monitor your service productivity
Track assets and service work related to a project
Relieve and replenish your parts inventory via work orders and purchase orders, respectively
Bill individual Agencies / Departments for labor and materials
plus much more!

--------------------------------------------

2919.09
IBM purchased MAXIMO asset management. Being implemented in 25 DISA data centers, presumably under GSO contract. Implementation overruns and data conversion is not done.
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/maximo-asset-mgmt/index.html?tactic=featuredhome

--------------------------------------------

Scrape Foreclosure Sites

Scrape the countrywide REO web site. Save to DB. Reports to highlight additions and price changes.

The functionality would be broad and shallow - good for a first online application. No revenue potential.

====================================================
20071219
If HUD-1 statements are availabe, match them up with county filings.

Quotes For Credit Cards And Insurance

Annuity quotes.

CreditCards.com Files For $115M IPO
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Austin, TX-based CreditCards.com has filed for a $115M IPO. The site allows consumers to search, compare, and apply for credit cards.
It plans to trade on the Nasdaq, with Credit Suisse and Citi as co-lead underwriters. Austin Ventures sponsored a recap of CreditCards.com in 2006 and holds a 65.6% pre-IPO position. It paid $133.8M at the time. Internet Real Estate Group sold the domain to Click Success in 2004 for just $2.75M. Daniel Smith pocketed $97.7M from the sale to an Austin Ventures.

During the six months ended June 30, the company's earnings lowered to $2.8M, from $9.6M in the prior-year period. During the same period, CreditCards.com revenue grew to $27.4M, from $18.7M. The company's revenue come from credit-card issuers or their affiliate marketing agents, who pay leads.


==============================================
20070925
Credit card comparison and application submission.
Our newest credit card comparison report rates credit cards that offer online credit card applications. It is quick and convenient to apply online. Some cards offer expedited online credit card application processing-also known as instant approval credit cards.


==============================================
carInsurance.com
what are the setup costs to get state approval to be an insurance broker?

Requirements Authoring And Validation

Do similar (simpler) functionality completely online.

Requirements Authoring and Validation Environment
Requirements errors are the primary cause of application development project failure, missed deadlines, and budget overruns. In today’s mission-critical IT projects, requirements errors are most costly to fix if they are not detected and corrected before design or coding begins.

RAVEN is an automated collaborative solution for detecting requirements errors early. It enables enterprises to elicit, specify, analyze, and validate requirements. RAVEN produces functional specifications, both graphical and textual, that everyone can understand.

Contact Management

Prophet 4.0 Professional

Avidian's Prophet 4.0 is a well-designed, easy-to-use contact management tool that works directly in Microsoft Outlook.

Easy to use. Quick, simple contact navigation. Streamlined Outlook synchronization.

Requires Microsoft Exchange for effective sharing. Can't customize layouts. Limited data input-field customization. Minor UI issues.

Price As Tested: $199.95 Direct


By Robert P. Lipschutz

Many growing small businesses need to implement customer-relationship management (CRM) solutions but have neither the time nor the expertise required to migrate their contact lists and train users. Prophet 4.0 Professional presents an appealing solution. Where ACT! is a complex tool that provides only mediocre integration with Microsoft Outlook, Prophet easily integrates directly into Outlook 2000 and Windows XP/2002 and 2003. Furthermore, Avidian's add-in gives the omnipresent e-mail and calendaring app improved opportunity management and sales-process automation without requiring users to learn a complex new application.

CorporateTime-Off Planner

WhosOff provides an advanced calendar/team tracking feature.

No charge.

WhosOff.com makes easy work of staff holiday planning applying restrictions between staff where applicable, application followed by approval by manager and a transparent view to all those involved within the organisation online anywhere.


This idea could be expanded into a full comp-time and time-recording system. In other words, time-off planning and tracking is a feature of a time entry system.

-----------------------------------------------------
20070822:
My company ezwebcalendar.com, is based in Northern VA. We provide a web based scheduling system, generating monthly hosting revenue.Â

We also offer a downloaded version that targets the cold fusion developer market. This provides license and consulting revenue. We plan to extend this to a different platform so it can be purchased and installed on any server, (windows or unix based) without cold fusion, providing a solution for a client side intranet.  Providing the cold fusion independent version will target a larger audience and provide more consulting income.

We plan to add features to enhance the products with web 2.0 features, cover customer relations management and task/action item tracking.

If you are interested in viewing my executive summary, investor presentation, and or full business plan, please let me know.

Thanks

Greg Benson
703.501.0300

Schools use our non profit pricing plans:
Name # Users Cost / User Monthly Fee MB Space
Non Profit 1 1 $1.99 $1.99 5 MB
Non Profit 2 2 $3.00 $5.99 5 MB
Non Profit 10 10 $1.00 $9.99 10 MB
Non Profit 20 20 $0.75 $14.99 20 MB
Non Profit 50 50 $0.40 $19.99 50 MB
Accounts are required for users that will be adding and editing events or scheduling resources on the calendar.
All prices in USD. Add additional users to the Non Profit 50 plan for only $.39 per user per month

Reminder Email To Others

MonkeyOn allows setup of tasks and reminder email to other people to do the task. This seems like a feature of a calendar/task application.

You're currently on our free plan, which limits you to 5 active monkeys at any one time.
Just $20/year will let you send as many monkeys as you like.

DB Utility Appliance

The low-end Oracle database has a no-cost license on low-end hardware. (Maybe it even allows RAC.)

Create license-free appliance (Solaris, Oracle) to manage Oracle database by providing RMAN repository, OEM, Oracle Internet Directory (naming), along with a read-only share for software, docs, whatever.
Then add-on typical software management items such as version control, wiki for documentation editing, on-call support calendar.

Charge an up-front fee to cover hardware costs, with a monthly subscription.

===============================================
20071008
Push stats/reports to participatory web site for help by others in public.

General Info - What Causes Success

...

And so you start to wonder -- what correlates the most to success? Or, more bluntly, what causes success? And, for those of us who are students of startup failure -- what's most dangerous: a bad team, a weak product, or a poor market?

...

Do whatever is required to get to product/market fit. Including changing out people, rewriting your product, moving into a different market, telling customers no when you don't want to, telling customers yes when you don't want to, raising that fourth round of highly dilutive venture capital -- whatever is required.

When you get right down to it, you can ignore almost everything else.

(I'm not suggesting that you do ignore everything else -- just that judging from what I've seen in successful startups, you can.)

Whenever you see a successful startup, you see one that has reached product/market fit -- and usually along the way screwed up all kinds of other things, from channel model to pipeline development strategy to marketing plan to press relations to compensation policies to the CEO sleeping with the venture capitalist. And the startup is still successful.

...

User Reviews

Photobucket is a one-stop site to upload photos. Other online photo services use photobucket images. This allows the user to keep photos in one area.

User reviews stored at shopping sites (amazon, circuit city) could be consolidated on one user reviews site. This would allow the review submitter to control/save all of their reviews, with a feature to submit the review to other sites.

General Info - Write A Short Book

Pragmatic Programmer has short "Friday" PDF publishing, along with full-length books.

Track Utility Costs

Track/trend/forecast utility bills. Potential customers are high-bill utility customers such as associations and governments. Could offer free version for consumers if the bill can be scraped from a web site.
Could be expanded to include other utilities such as phone/internet/cable. Could be internationalized.


UM Server is an analytical and reporting tool for the management of utility bills from receipt through payment.

... store information about each of your sites, utility vendors, utility accounts, & utility bills. Data entry is made easy since templates can be customized to precisely match the layout you see on your bills.

With hundreds of built-in reports, analysis tools, and import/export features, The Utility Manager Version 4.1 helps you:
• have accurate and detailed utility information at your finger tips;
• compare the relative efficiency of your various sites;
• find billing errors;
• forecast and budget utility costs; and
• monitor the results of energy and water saving projects.

Pricing
$3,900: K-12 School Districts
$7,000: All other customers


This requires user to enter bill line items. This clerical work could be outsourced or possibly the bill could be scraped from the vendor's web site or EDI.

-----------------------------------------------------------------













-----------------------------------------------------------------
Metrix 4 Utility Accounting System normalizes your energy usage for weather and other variables (such as number of cars produced), and presents your true energy savings. Now, variations in weather or production schedule, occupancy or schedule will no longer compromise your energy savings numbers.

Benchmarking
Load Factor Analysis
Rate Analysis
Determining Changes in Energy Usage Patterns
Setting Savings Targets and Tracking Your Progress

-----------------------------------------------------------------
$9,995 Utility Manager Pro
For a multi-building school district, implementation and training was 39,000.  Yearly support is 4500.

General Info - Delivering Software As A Service

Traditionally, companies buy software and then install and maintain these applications on their own machines. That model is giving way to one where companies will buy subscriptions and access services over the Internet from software developers that host their own applications.
Some applications will migrate to the new delivery model faster than others, but all software makers should begin to explore the economics and necessary capabilities for online delivery.
Revenue models for these developers will change, since software as a service delivers fees over time rather than large up-front license purchases.
Customer service and R&D capabilities will also need to adjust to the reality of ongoing relationships with customers rather than periodic upgrades.

Hiring Compliance

A service to provide guidance, and to allow interview follow-up documentation.

1. If this is your first time hiring an employee, make sure your insurance policy covers worker's compensation and any other liability before you even begin. You don’t want to be stuck paying out of pocket.

2. Make sure your hiring process is legal. If a candidate feels that he or she has been denied a job because of discrimination, he or she can file a suit against you with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

3. Avoid this problem by creating a criteria matrix that defines the functions of the job, so that you can prove that you denied someone employment because he or she wasn’t qualified and not because you’re biased. Also, don’t throw away anyone’s paperwork for two years, just in case they come back with a claim.

4. Advertise the position in a wide range of places, so that you don’t get caught in the EEOC’s “systematic discrimination” initiative, which preys on companies that don’t look into a large enough pool.

5. Don’t ask inappropriate questions both on applications and during interviews. You may think you’re being friendly, but asking personal questions can be illegal. 
________________________________________________________
201109
Service to provide:
Resume / work history verification.  Look for lies, distortions, omissions and exaggerations.
Typical background check / credit check / motor vehicle check / offender check.
Train interviewers to be less likely to be manipulated and conned.

Work (Maintenance) Order Management

CorrigoNET Key Features
Corrigo's service management and work order software provides a rock-solid foundation, to which you can add exactly the features and functionality your business needs—no more, no less—to build a streamlined service dispatch and maintenance management solution tailored to your needs. Bells and whistles where you need them, not just extra noise.



Maintenance scheduling:
http://gamma-software.com/htdocs/html/mssbullet.pdf

Property Management

DIY is a fully featured property management software system for the owner or property manager with 1 to 1000 apartment units or single family rental homes. This web based system allows you to manage your properties from anywhere there is an internet connection.
Monthly service fees are $25 base subscription fee plus 30 cents per unit.

Rent Manager is an intuitive, out-of-the box solution for residential and commercial property management companies. Designed from the ground up by property managers and computer professionals, our experience has made us a leader in our field. With over 21 years of experience and thousands of companies currently using Rent Manager, you can rest assured that our software will help your company become more organized, more efficient, and increase your bottom line.
Designed for properties of any size, Rent Manager XP helps you increase your productivity by organizing your rental information, reducing the number of delinquent accounts, and automating your accounting.
Ideal Software for:
Apartment Communities
Manufactured Home Communities
Student Housing
Commercial Properties
Condominiums
Single Family Homes
Storage Facilities
Homeowner Associations
Rent Manager Xi Property Management Software - 10 Rental Unit License
Price $149.95
Allows up to 10 rental units

Requirements Management

Telelogic DOORS®, the market- and technology- leading family of solutions for Requirements Management, improves quality by optimizing communication and collaboration, and by promoting compliance and verification through the following capabilities:

* Intuitive interfaces that encourage adoption of Requirements Management
* Scalability for any project size with any number of users
* A flexible, up-to-date, easy-to-use requirements traceability matrix
* The most comprehensive support for recording, structuring, managing, and analyzing requirements and their traceability
* Unparalleled integration with Telelogic's other solutions and third-party tools to increase requirements visibility and to drive their traceability throughout the development lifecycle
_____________________________________________________
http://www.casecomplete.com
"gather, organize, and communicate requirements."

Project Management

Unfuddle is a secure, hosted software development environment and project management solution for small software development teams.



===========================================
20070907
His startup plans to launch its hosted, Ruby On Rails project management suite shortly.

About the product Seybold says: "It offers an innovative system for capturing estimates and creating probabilistic schedules that teams can actually trust. LiquidPlanner blends social networking features with project management to help teams stay connected, and its analysis features help teams focus on the key metric -- meeting promise dates."


===========================================
20071215
Axosoft
Track everything from bugs to software requirements, team member tasks, and more with up to 100% project visibility.


===========================================
200805
task management
Tasks Pro™ or Tasks
All the great task management features.

Choose from these account options:
Tasks Pro™: Unlimited

A Tasks Pro™ (info) installation for use by your entire organization.

$26.95 / month
Features:

* Unlimited Users & Groups.
* 100 MB for File Uploads

Optional Add-ons:

* Additional disk space for file uploads: $2.50/month per 10MB
* Secure access via SSL: $5/month

Tasks Pro™: 25 Users

A Tasks Pro™ (info) installation for 25 users, perfect for small teams.

$17.95 / month
Features:

* Up to 25 Users with Unlimited Groups.
* 50 MB for File Uploads

Optional Add-ons:

* Additional disk space for file uploads: $2.50/month per 10MB
* Secure access via SSL: $5/month

Tasks: Personal

A Tasks (info) installation with everything you need to stay organized.

$3.95 / month
Features:

* Single user/personal installation
* 20 MB of space for File Uploads

Optional Add-ons:

* Additional disk space for file uploads: $2.50/month per 10MB (up to 100MB)
* Secure access via SSL: $2.50/month



Tasks Pro™: 10 Users

A Tasks Pro™ (info) installation for 10 users, perfect for small teams.

$12.95 / month
Features:

* Up to 10 Users with Unlimited Groups.
* 30 MB for File Uploads

Optional Add-ons:

* Additional disk space for file uploads: $2.50/month per 10MB
* Secure access via SSL: $5/month

Tasks Pro™: 5 Users

A Tasks Pro™ (info) installation for 5 users, perfect for families.

$8.95 / month
Features:

* Up to 5 Users with Unlimited Groups.
* 25 MB for File Uploads

Optional Add-ons:

* Additional disk space for file uploads: $2.50/month per 10MB
* Secure access via SSL: $5/month


================================================================
200810
Tungle simplifies an office assistant setting up meetings with multiple people's calendars.

Vendor Payment

Electronic vendor payment. Concur is a publicly traded company.

Concur Vendor Payment enables organizations to electronically capture vendor invoices and invoice data quickly and easily, using three
primary methods:

There will always be paper invoices. These invoices – even those with no fixed layout – can be electronically scanned into Concur Vendor Payment using Concur’s advanced Intelligent Capture functionality. This exclusive feature captures and extracts the appropriate data to essentially convert a paper invoice into electronic invoice data, eliminating tedious re-keying and reducing errors.
Images of paper invoices can also be captured by Concur Vendor Payment and electronically linked to the appropriate payment request, providing instant access to any invoice image for further review or audit.
Working through our partner OB10, your vendors can submit their invoices electronically to Concur Vendor Payment. The invoice data is automatically captured and is ready for routing for approval and payment processing.

Health Department Patient Tracking

Envision Technology sells to government agencies. Reasonably easy functionality. Could be a long sales cycle.

WebIZ
Web-based Immunization Registry System
WebIZ is a high-performance Web application designed to meet all clinical needs for State and County immunization registries including a client/patient registry, billing and inventory tracking, and a powerful immunization 'Recommend' feature.

WebCIM
Web HIV Client Information Management System
WebCIM is a Web-based HIV Client Information Management system used by providers, nursing services and social services in an EMA. WebCIM improves the health status of low-income HIV clients by coordinating the support services given to HIV clients using a central patient registry.

MCH
Web Maternal Child Health Encounters and Assessments
Maternal Child Health (MCH) is Web-based and allows for the entering and tracking of patient encounters and patient assessments. Nurses and other users can download patient data to a laptop to perform encounters and assessments in the field. Results can then be uploaded to a centralized patient registry.

WEST
Web Equipment & Software Tracking System
WEST is a Web-based Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) system that allows organizations to track, inventory, and audit all of thier important assets and equipment.


Note they all sell asset tracking.

Proposal Management

Pitch to 100 sponsors in minutes

Many sponsors receive thousands of proposals a year. How well does your proposal measure up? How can you test your proposal for effectiveness meeting sponsorship objectives? Quickly and at little cost?

For a mere $80 USD, SPONSÉ gives you the tools to pitch to 100 different sponsors. You'll receive immediate feedback on the effectiveness of your proposal.

SPONSÉ really works. It offers you superior "Sponsor Intelligence." It helps you stop wasting time, money and resources starting today.


Who are the sponsors in the database?

The majority of the sponsors in SPONSORIUM'S extensive database are Fortune 1000 companies.

Social Networking Site For Recovery/12-Step

Daily Strength is doing a broad health issue networking site.

• Get immediate support from others like you
• Create and share an anonymous journal
• Learn about treatments and ways to cope
• Get recommendations of medical professionals

Do accounts cost anything?
DailyStrength is free for members. There are no costs or fees of any kind.



DailyStrength of course has competitors, like MDJunction but the site clearly has a growing user base and a focussed niche where advertisers will pay top dollar for. They also have natural partnerships that they can use to get greater distribution.

============================
2007.06.09
Allow users to:
create their own "my story".
daily journal for the steps and whatever else
notes on group meetings and sponsor meetings
inventory / amends

============================
2007.09.27
Confession sites.

============================
2008.12
Like a closed meetup.com group, without the fees.

General Info - Ruby On Rails Presentation Notes

Minutes of the 8 May 2007 meeting, "Ruby on Rails: The Good, the Bad
Posted by: JZapin
Date: Wed Jun 6, 2007 8:46 pm ((PDT))

I'm sorry for the delay in getting these out.

I will follow up with a link to the speaker notes.

JZ

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
About 50 people attended tonight's meeting. Josh Zapin facilitated and
Jeremy Kohler recorded the minutes.

----------
MEETING SPONSORS

Microstaff (www.microstaff.com) provides refreshments, Copy Diva
(www.copydiva.com) provides the audio-visual equipment, NCAR
(www.ncar.ucar.edu) provides the facility, and ONEWARE
(www.oneware.com) sponsors these minutes.


---------------
ANNOUNCEMENTS

Josh welcomes suggestions for topics and speakers for future meetings,
please email Josh with your ideas.

Derailed is an RoR user's group in Denver, and there's also a Ruby
user's group that meets at Collective Intellect. Google it to find out
more.
---------------
INTRODUCTION (Josh Zapin)

Ruby On Rails (RoR) has taken the programming world by storm since it
was released to the public in July 2004. RoR combines Ruby, an object
oriented programming language with super-clean syntax, with Rails, an
open-source Model-View-Controller (MVC) based framework that enables
development, according to rubyonrails.org, ten times faster than
typical frameworks. The two together enable programmers to create
fully functioning websites in a fraction of the time. There are demos
on rubyonrails.org allowing you to build five-minute websites.
Sounds too good to be true? Consider the following:
- The official RoR website features two almost-too-good-to-be-true
demos: Creating a Weblog in 15 minutes and a Flickr interface in 5
minutes. (I've personally tried them and it's true)
- RoR has built in AJAX libraries such as Script.aculo.us to make very
slick user experiences within a typical web browsers, enabling a high
level of usability.
- Apple will be adding RoR as part of their next version of OS X (due
in October).
But how many times have we heard and tried new development platforms
only to have them not meet up with the hype, and is RoR all what it's
cracked up to be? Well maybe not, as fantasy doesn't always match
reality. So let's put our geekiness hats on.

----------------------
ABOUT THE SPEAKER

David Gustafson (mailto:dave.gustafson@wyantdata.com) is Vice
President of Technology and Product Development for Wyant Data
Systems, Inc. Dave joined WDS from his position as Founder and Chief
Architect of Cold Mountain Software, a provider of software services
and products for project management and enterprise knowledge
management. Prior to Cold Mountain Software, Dave was Chief Architect
and Co-Founder of Accumedia.com, Inc., a provider of hosted and
managed content management, control, and delivery systems targeted to
the media and entertainment industries. Dave holds a BA in Physics
from Middlebury College and has done graduate study in Computer
Science at Worcester Polytech and the University of Colorado.

---------------------
LINKS

wyantdata.com
rubyonrails.org


------------------------
DAVID GUSTAFSON

Ruby on Rails in Context: Should we care?

Where does RoR fit in the context of the programming world at large?
Yes, We should care.
If you don't remember much of this presentation, or if you completely
forget that you were even here, just remember these two things:

1. How to peel a banana. Seems absurd. Well, monkeys peel it
differently. They pinch the bottom to split it open, and that's the
proper way to peel a banana. Go try it, but do it first at home where
no one can see...you might make a mess.

2. Ruby and Rails are Real! You can't just dismiss the hype, so make a
small investment to see how it might fit in the context of your work.

I'm not an expert on RoR, but I manage complexity and risk. I deal
with problem spaces and solutions. What I do for a living: last week I
testified before the CO legislature, doing IV&V for a voter
registration system. So I have to testify about how well millions of
dollars are being spent on this system. Would I advocate using RoR for
implementing voter registration? Forget about it. It's just not mature
enough for that.

I have a passion for programming languages. I was managing a Java app
and a .Net app. The Java was a disaster, .Net was working well. So I
did some experiments comparing productivity of various apps, timing
how long it took to do a mini project. I threw Ruby into the mix. The
result: What took 2.5 hours in Java took 15 minutes in Ruby.

Philip Greenspun says, "Java is the SUV of programming tools" It's
like driving your giant SUV just to go to a 7-11.

Risk: "There are old climbers, there are bold climbers, but there are
no old bold climbers."
Climbing gear is heavy. Are you going to carry 60 pounds of gear just
go bouldering? So Java is too heavy for some stuff.

Why should we care about RoR?

- In the right circumstances it gives you a 5- to 10-fold increase in
productivity.

- It is subject to programmer motivation. Linus's Law: programmers go
through Survival, Social Life, and Entertainment (the highest
pinnacle). RoR can help them get there.

- It is subject to business motivation: productivity = $$

WHAT IS RAILS?

Rails is a full-stack framework for developing database-backed web
applications. This is what most web apps are now. Database, reports,
and forms. That's it. Based on Model-View-Controller pattern, which
came out of Smalltalk. It all happens in the browser as part of Ajax.

Convention over Configuration: this is controversial. Instead of
having a way to configure everything under the sun, you have to follow
conventions. But if you do follow the conventions, everything just
falls into place.

Meta-programming: This is generating dynamic code on the fly (you
never see it) to process the tables you tell it about. It finds all
the columns, like magic.

A language for mapping: It's very easy to specify class relationships.
Little statements like "has many pictures" tells it about a
one-to-many relationship, which saves you a lot of time.


WHAT IS RUBY?

Ruby is an interpreted scripting language for quick and easy
object-oriented programming. It was created by an amateur who put
together some small stuff to make Ruby: combining features of
Smalltalk, Perl, and Lisp.

"High-level languages are often all treated as equivalent. They're
not" --Paul Graham.

Using Lisp, Graham said he could add new features faster than his
competitors could announce them. This is a historical example of using
a language as a "secret weapon" to gain significant competitive
advantage.

What's it like?

Convention over Configuration: Say here's a table, and it will go off
and find all the columns. Not like XML which you configure like crazy.
Don't get me started about XML. You screw up there and you could be
chasing down issues for days.

With Ruby, it just feels like configuration, but you're really writing
code. Like Emacs.

LANGUAGE INTERLUDE

Embedded DSLs.
Rails is a domain-specific language specifically in the domain of
creating database web applications. Ruby is very well suited to
creating DSLs. It's not like Python, where there is only one way to do
things. Ruby gives you a zillion ways to do things. Totally object
oriented. "33.multiplynext" for example, is an object in Ruby if you
want it to be.

Thoughts on Languages: The highest correlation between implementations
is the programmer. Wide range of skills and speed. The difference
between programmers is larger than the difference between languages.
Usually the guy that knows more languages is going to be more
productive.

RoR BUZZ

Productivity questions: performance, scalability, legacy integration,
range of application. It can't handle multiple-column primary keys,
so often you must create views to handle legacy integration. So that's
a bit tricky.

Should I bet my job on RoR? Go to my boss and take a stand?

CROSSING THE CHASM

Marketing and selling disruptive products to mainstream customers: for
high technology, any successful item must cross the chasm between the
"early adopters" and the "early majority" starting to adopt the
technology. It's very difficult for a language to cross that chasm.
Fortran, Cobol, C, C++, Java all did it. Now what's the next language?
Will Ruby cross the chasm?

It needs critical mass of a programmer community, people who will bet
their jobs on learning this language. Or a "killer app" can do it. Is
Rails the killer app that will help Ruby cross the chasm?

Before Rails, I thought Ruby lagged behind Python and Perl because of
less complete and less mature libraries.

Ruby Risk vs. Java Risk.
Ruby risk is going down, and Java risk is going up (because of its
increasing complexity over time). Java generates confusion over which
framework to use. But it's very hard to sell Ruby to someone who has
already bet their job and critical software on Java.

EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS

- JRuby: a jar you put into your Java application, to quickly map out
business rules. Running Rails on top of Java should soon be an
alternative.
- Ruby on the CLR (Microsoft common language runtime)
- Microsoft is joining the party by announcing Silverlight and DLR
(Dynamic Language Runtime), based on Jim Hugunin's work with
IronPython, faster than CPython, made a DLR on top of thatCLR, that
runsin the future should be able to run Ruby in the browser: no more
javascript!

Pitfalls and Opportunities

It's simple and easy to get started, but subtle to achieve the kind of
power that Rails displays. See the Ruby Quiz on rubyonrails.org.

When you create a Rails application you could approach it in a variety
of ways. #1(good) Build your application on top of the Rails
framework. #2(great!) When you build a Rails app, think how to extend
Rails to build your own dynamic language for your specific domain.

This might be the most valuable recommendation you hear tonight…
Implement your app as a DSL that extends the Rails framework. Make a
DSL for your business domain.

Get Started!

Learn Ruby!

Explore Rails as an implementation for internal tools.

Make quick demos to get early validation of your ideas.

Parallel Development: Go have a horse race. Race the Java team to get
attention. Do it for free to start.

Embedding Ruby: Scripting inside of other apps, like JRuby inside
Java. Helps you streamline your development.

CASE STUDY

JokeVision.com was a perfect opportunity to try RoR. They were
producing comedy video, originally targeting the cable TV market. Lots
of content, but no buyers. They needed a database-backed website to
engage viewers and gather new content. So they did it with RoR. It
remains to be seen whether JokeVision will succeed.

Remember the banana? We think we know how to do something, and we are
creatures of habit. But try something different. RoR should be taken
seriously. It's not a silver bullet, it hasn't crossed that chasm
beyond the early adopters, and so has a lot of risk. But it's a lot of
fun too.

Q & A

Q: Is it scalable?
A: It's more scalable for the size of apps that people would do in
short order. But there are going to be integration problems with more
complicated stuff. So I don't know. I was using an RoR based project
management website called Basecamp (basecamphq.com): SomeoneI
overloaded it because we they had too many milestones. The service was
basically unavailable for a day. That hurt my confidence in its
scalability. They did solve it, but you can find yourself outside RoR
technology pretty quickly when trying to scale.

Q: You can break the conventions if you really want to.
A: Yes that's true, it requires some extra effort to do so.

Q: What doesn't scale well?
A: Adding functionality to apps and changing requirements tends to
create scaling issues. Like when your requirements for performance,
volume, etc. change. For example, suddenly you find you have to handle
huge image files and suddenly there's no infrastructure to handle it.
More people can be trouble too: things don't scale easily to handle
more people working on a project.

Q: How do you use AJAX and libraries to make it look pretty?
A: I'm still exploring this stuff. Libraries like Prototype can give
an object-oriented feel to the javascript. RoR doesn't necessarily
have a clear advantage, library-wise.

Q: Any high-scale web apps out there?
A: Basecamp is big, and I hear Amazon and Yahoo are using it
experimentally.

Q: When do you know something can't scale any more? Where is the limit
point?
Audience Comment: Ruby is single-threaded, handles one request at a
time. So user scaling backed people up quickly, and you have to deal
with the single-threaded problem using other technology like
ApacheLib. This could change in the future.
A: This is one of the interesting things: like starting up the Ruby
interpreter in fast-cgi to solve problems, and this chips away at your
10x productivity. But the same tricks you've used before will work
here.
Audience Comment: There are some evolving technologies and people are
coming up with solutions for scaling issues. It's a hot issue about
RoR scalability.

Q: How mature are the tools for developing Ruby, other than Emacs?
A: All the usual tools work pretty well. I use RadRails which is a
module for Eclipse. TextMate in Mac OS is good. More and more
environments are out there to help you be productive. Create the
database, create a Rails app, then create a migration. It's very
rapid. It automatically creates unit tests. So you're using standard
extreme programming tools to build things.

Q: What do you use for Ruby development?
A: Emacs and Eclipse. And a lot of command lines.

Q: What about IntelliJ?
A: It's a great environment, so keep an eye on it. Rails generates a
console for you to allow you interactively create instances of a class
and manage them.

Q: Any famous Ruby failures?
Audience Comment: It's too new.
A: Worst I know of is my own experience with Basecamp, but that was
just a blip. I don't know how they resolved it, but they did.

Q: How about Rails as a cost-effective beta?
A: It's all about evaluating market acceptance. If you try something
and mess up, you get bad press and it's hard to come back. So you need
to build enough foundation to get started and to stay ahead of it.
It's risky.
Audience Comment: You can't afford to go dark for six months while
you're rebuilding.

Q: After the database is developed, do you still have the 10x
advantage?
A: No, not in my experience. In Java we had to build some code
generation to get it to work like Rails. Do I just switch to RoR? It
depends on how much pain you're experiencing in your current process.
Right now you need be in quite a bit of pain before risking a switch.
It's risky to do wholesale switches; better to ease into it with
something new.

Audience Comment: We're building a public site to track all CO
legislation. We'll see how it goes with scaling.

Audience Comment: I started a website starting in PHP and then JSP and
then stopped because it was just too hard. Then we switched to Ruby
and suddenly we found ourselves doing things we couldn't even have
imagined before. It sure got us off a plateau.

Q: Can you call DLL's and other compiled things?
A: Yes, you can extend Ruby with C extensions, embed Ruby in C. It's a
pretty good technology for building in those kinds of things.

Q: Any good books and tutorials?
A: That depends on your learning style. The "bible" is the Picaxe book
by Dave Thomas. Typographically strange, but pretty good. Also "Ruby
For Rails": good for understanding Ruby as you need it for working
with Rails. Also "Enterprise Integration with Ruby".

Audience Comment: Check out tryruby.hobix.com. It's got interactive
cartoon web pages on Ruby that guide you. It's very good.
Audience Comment: There are also good resources at rubyonrails.org.

A: Continuations and Closures and Blocks take some time for you to get
your brain around.

General Info - Web Site Items

A business site should have the following:

1. A multi-step strategy to generate sales
2. A major initial benefit/offer
3. A sign-up form or box to get onto a weekly mailing list
4. A good reason to sign up
5. Freebies for visitors
6. Premium membership (for information sites)
7. Ways to contact someone at the business
8. A Privacy statement and a Terms of Use statement

It should be updated frequently with benefits-oriented
information. This gives visitors reasons to return.

Getting Things Done Item Tracking

Getting Things Done, commonly abbreviated as GTD, is an action management method, and the title of a book by David Allen.

GTD rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.


GTD: A New Cult for the Info Age
A holy book for the information age is turning stressed-out worker bees into members of an unlikely new cult obsessed with keeping an empty inbox.

To converts, popular time-management manual Getting Things Done is a way of life and its author, personal productivity coach David Allen, leader of their flock.

click to see photos
See photos
Allen gained notoriety in corporate circles when the hardback was first published in 2001, proposing a new philosophy for slicing through tasks, managing projects and boosting efficiency.

But the mentor's teachings have taken on a life of their own, thanks to online buzz from a devoted movement of fans who say the way of "GTD" has helped them do more stuff with less stress.

"It has changed my life irrevocably," said Marc Orchant of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who calls Allen "my guru" and who uses time saved by following the doctrine to earn extra income from writing five blogs and hosting a weekly technology radio show.

Many who have reaped a streamlined work life and extra family time by singing from the GTD hymnal are now using web tools to spread the word with an almost evangelical zeal.

...


There are already stand-alone and email plug-ins to track the items and tasks. Could be a simple web site to allow users to create account, track items, and display relevant ads.

The web-based app is already done (with Ruby On Rails) though apparently it is for download and not hosted anywhere.
Tracks is a web-based application to help you implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done™ methodology. It was built using Ruby on Rails, and comes with a built-in webserver (WEBrick), so that you can run it on your own computer if you like. It can be run on any platform on which Ruby can be installed, including Mac OS X, Windows XP and Linux. Tracks is Open Source, free and licensed under the GNU GPL.

Light-weight TaskToy.

Sold - FeedBurner $100M

Google acquires Web media distributor Feedburner



By Eric Auchard Fri Jun 1, 3:35 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. said on Friday it is acquiring Feedburner Inc., bolstering the Internet advertising leader's capacity to distribute both media and advertising to blogs via Web syndication technology.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, a Google spokesman said. Various blog reports in recent weeks had put the price of a potential deal at about $100 million, but those reports could not be confirmed.

Feedburner is a pioneer in the market for delivering the latest updated information to other Web sites using technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Customers include the Wall Street Journal, BBC and Amazon.com Inc..

...

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2008.05
FeedLounge shut down. It was supported by monthly/yearly fees.

Spectra "visual news reader"

Sold - StumbleUpon.com $75M

eBay buys recommendations website

EBay has $3.5bn in cash and has been on a spending spree
Internet auction site eBay has bought StumbleUpon, a website that recommends other websites, for $75m (£38m).

The deal means eBay will get access to almost 2.5 million registered users, who recommend sites to each other.

Users get search results that are based on their profiles, which the site says gives them more relevant results than a regular search engine.

...

Sold - Last.fm $280M

CBS buys online music site Last.fm

By Kate Holton and Kenneth Li

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS Corp. said on Wednesday it bought Last.fm, the online music service that allows fans with similar tastes to connect, for $280 million in a bid to attract young audiences.

The London-based service has more than 15 million active users in over 200 countries, CBS said, and has earned praise for a system that recommends songs by tracking users' music-playing habits and linking them to other fans with similar tastes.

...

General Info - Costs

JUNE 4, 2007
Crunch Time At A Web Startup
Fast-growing Meebo has VC backing, great ideas, and rivals nipping at its heels

...

It doesn't take much for a typical Web 2.0 media startup to reach breakeven--only around $2.8 million of revenues to cover expenses, estimates Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. But to get a $500 million market capitalization--the kind of valuation that would justify a public offering and provide a good return to venture capitalists--revenues need to hit around $130 million.

...

Right now the most hotly discussed topic among these friends is how to spend the money their companies have raised. Meebo has $12.5 million from two rounds of venture funding from Marc Andreessen, Sequoia Capital, and venture-capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. That's about in line with the $15 million to $25 million some VCs estimate it costs to build a highly profitable Web-services company. For the moment, Meebo's fastest-growing expense is salaries. The company has 16 employees but expects to have 30 by yearend, with each new employee adding about $10,000 a month to costs.

...