Think cost might be too much for your average poor college student, and finding the real estate can also be an issue, but cool idea.

Doesn't B&N & Amazon do a lot in this space?

here is an idea I came up with, I think it has some sort of potential but ive had some mixed opinions so far.

Have you ever seen an Ad before a youtube video (or similar) that is extremely annoying and they make you sit through it? Or an ad you find distasteful, annoying, or offensive? I hate these Ads and when X companies Ad pisses me off enough times I make an effort not to support X company.

What my idea is, is to make a smartphone app which you can just point at the screen and press a button. The image, or sound would work, is recorded and matched with a created database of ads and figured out what company its from. If we don't have it in the database you could type it in manually or there may be other solutions to this.

What it does is creates a list of companies that you would prefer not to support because of their advertising methods. Users could access this list and see all of the companies and maybe even give them a rating based on how many ads you find bad from them. I might be overthinking now but there could be some options such as "Will buy from company again if Ad is removed". Maybe there could also be a rating on how much you dislike the Ad, but i think simplicity may be best here.. just point and shoot.

Once you have a large enough database of data I imagine it would be valuable to larger companies who want to see the results of their ads and what people are thinking about them. The annoying style ads which make you remember the company solely because they are annoying would fair poorly if people followed their "try to avoid" lists.

The app is not hard to make, the database would be difficult but once it got started it may be designed to be smart enough to figure out companies without large amounts of input (ie if 15 people dont like a billboard and all of them say it was Company X we can be some percent certain that it is indeed Company X) and then we dont need to ask the user anymore. I have no idea how valuable this data would even be, but my thought is that it would be worth something.

Not that it isn't a good idea, but a bajillion people have tried this before and will continue to try it.

You're going to have a lot of trouble offering a better solution than a lot of those already out there like http://www.bigwords.com/

Not saying you can't come up with something, but you'll need a differentiator past just that idea.

greenbast,

that's an interesting idea. I know that's a copout of an answer, but it's something I'd have to think about more.

My idea that I'm starting to work on is a site that features one simple task/activity a day that everyone in the world can do to make themselves/their communities/the world a better place. It would be integrated with all social media tools so members could share their stories with photos and videos.

A couple quick examples would be "turn off your electricity for an hour" or "write a hand-written note to someone", or "introduce yourself to someone new". Members could submit their ideas and if one of them is picked they could win a prize.

It would sort of be like a Woot.com (one thing a day) but with nothing for sale. The more people who pass along the idea and share with others, the bigger the local, national, or global impact.

I think the idea at its core has potential but obviously monetizing it would be difficult. Ideally it would collect a ton of traffic through marketing, but still not sure how to monetize.

Trying to figure out how to set up a site like this. I have no programming or design skills, so would either need a partner or someone to design it for me. I would be doing the marketing/content management.

Any thoughts on something like this?

A program that allows laypeople to easily code in various languages, like C++/Java/etc. Instead of having to learn the language, you select what you want to do and the program writes the code for you. Something like that.

A laundromat priced at 150% of the area average, only accepts credit and debit cards, and doesn't allow children in.

Not sure exactly about this idea, but I love the line of thinking. Maybe an upscale version targeting young adults, that has a cafe or lounge?

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking. I was walking by a newish laundromat today that looked really nice inside and had free wifi, but there were approx 80 young children running around. I thought it would be nice if i could go somewhere to do laundry that (to be blunt) isn't full of annoying poor people. Basically a higher end laundromat that would price-out the customers who normally travel in packs with 7 kids to do the wash.

I don't know if this would be viable anywhere outside of NYC, is there anywhere else where upper middle class people generally don't have washer/dryers?

LA for sure (from experience)
Probably SF (from friends' experience)

http://www.judegomila.com/2012/01/ch...ivelisted.html

random ideas

someone needs to teach that guy how to properly format numbered lists with sub-lists

going to start working on #3.

edit: joke applies to most of them.

i like the fact that he clearly didn't give a **** about making it look good. he's probably not interested in looking smart on the internet which is what a surprising amount of people really seem to care a ton about.

edit: wasn't trying to imply you were one of those people. just in general.

A "higher end laundromat" is competing with people paying for wash and fold service.

Sounds like a close variant of the capsule hotel/sleep box/podbox business. They are very popular in Japan, other parts of Asia, and at some international airports but have generally failed to get a footing in the West. I stayed at YOtel once at Heathrow after a cross Atlantic red-eye and thought it was pretty awesome. Stuck in my credit card, got a room key, slept in a bed for 3 hours, had wifi and a toilet and a sink, left feeling refreshed, didn't have to interact with a single human being. Seems like a nice business.

I later talked to someone in the hotel industry and wondered why they weren't more popular in the West and he wasn't sure.* If you can crack that nut, there's money to be made imo. As nyc999 says, I think college campuses are too far on the low-end of the market to be viable. The Japanese capsule hotels cater to business people with long commutes who want to crash for the night after working late and don't want to take a ~2 hour long subway ride home only to have to take it back to work 4 hours later. The clientele are business people on expense accounts, or have a professional salary, and will pay just for the convenience of having a bed. Same with the ones in airports.

Doubt the model is viable for a campus where kids can walk home to crash. Maybe a commuter school.


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*My own gut theory is that the business is viable in places where reliance on public transport is heavy and the potential customers doesn't have easy access to a car or traffic in the area is terrible. For Americans, you're likely only talking about NYC/LA. It may never work in the US because we're so invested in roads and automobiles, comparatively few people are relying on spotty commuter rail service to get home. College campuses and the accompanying off-campus housing are largely walkable from end-to-end by nature so I'd be hardpressed to see college kids shelling out $5/hr for a bed when they can walk to their own in 15-20 minutes.

I think it would be a good idea in theory in NYC, but any good location would be so expensive it would be hard to offer it at a reasonable price. i bet there's also all sorts of laws about lodging standards in the US that japan doesn't have (or the pod hotels are exempt from)

You may be right about the law/zoning being a barrier.

May also be some cultural resistance too. Here's a picture of some capsule hotels:







You wouldn't necessarily need tons of space to have this kind of business. You could start with ~10 on one wall like in the pic, and your "front desk" on the other side where you vend the keys from or whatever. I don't know what it would cost to rent a space like that in NYC, but it's not necessarily a huge space eater.

But I bet a significant % of Americans would be highly uncomfortable/claustrophobic sleeping in a place like that, even if you put a curtain on the window or whatever. I suspect the Asian market is more amenable to the space constraints.

You offer more privacy, but then you'd need more space and the costs for rent would go up with it, ldo.

Looks more like Tony P's laundromaut vs. a hotel.

Housing is a highly regulated industry.

Someone tried to open a capsule hotel in DC, and it was dead in the water. Local residents don't want to increase population density. And local hotels with very deep pockets and very good connections, don't want you undermining their interests.

It was a dream of a buddy of mine from college to open a laundromat/bar. Not sure how well it would do, but goes along the lines of 21+ and able to charge more for mix & mingle while you wait.

Confederate Railroad. Love that song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWOr9_VJnps

Something I've always thought should be standard in fantasy football is the "true handcuff." That is, if one of your players has to leave the game early due to injury, you can simply replace him with his backup - assuming you also have him on your bench. It makes your handcuffs more relevant, and you might be surprised how much it actually changes the whole league dynamic.

We've done this in one of my leagues for several years and there are always at least a couple games decided by it, whereas that manager would be screwed in his other leagues. Plus more people pickup handcuffs, sometimes leaving better players on the wire. We're lucky because our commissioner is very active, and doesn't mind making all the changes after the games. It would be nice if a FF website would kept track of injuries and then set up the option to replace injured players (or even just do it automatically, assuming the replacement scored more points).

I always felt, schools should just offer rooms with hammocks. They are clean, convenient, dont need to be washed really and fairly cheap. Really useful when you live like an hour away and have a 3 hour break or something. It would stop people from sleeping on desks in the library/free up space.

Great thread reading over it again.

Could anyone see a site like this taking off in the U.K? Don't you all have your personal doctors that you have for 5 + years or do you all just switch around for the best price each time you need an appointment?