It's out there, and apparently it's doing brisk business.

NPR Planet Money show about it.

Not sure if this exists anywhere but the way you pay to park in parking lots in my city (and plenty of others) is awful. Basically there's a little machine at the front of the lot that you pay at, it prints a ticket and you walk back to your car to put it on your front dash. Cops occasionally drive through the lot and check cars and write tickets.

I've realized cops really only check at prime times though. If I park in a lot at 3:00 pm on a Tuesday I never pay. I probably "owe" the city several hundred dollars doing this. So I see two issues:

1. It's very inconvenient/time consuming to walk to the machine, potentially wait in line, pay, walk back to your car and then finally leave the lot.

2. Tons of missed revenue from cops not checking these lots very often.

Should be pretty simple to create an app for this. It knows where you are already (or you select what lot you're in), select what spot you're parked in and pay with a credit card. You need some type of sensor or way to detect when there is a car in a spot that hasn't paid. Could be something small at the front of each spot or a sensor on the ground. Not really sure on this part but there's got to be a better way than how it is now. No chance I pursue the idea, just thought of it while I was standing in the cold waiting in line to pay in a lot the other night.

Edit: Forgot to add, obviously have to take notice of the car that is in a spot that doesn't pay. Security cameras could take pictures or however you recognize when a car is in a spot could also snap a pic of the license.

Parking with number plate recognition cameras already really common in the UK. You are usually offered the option to pay by some permutation of app, ticket, text, internet, mobile phone.

This is incredible.

Different cities do things differently and one of the biggest roadblocks is city government. You're basically talking about changing how big bureaucracy does business.

Here in DC, they're very good about giving out tickets. The whole city is monitored by meter maids - not by cops. It's a huge revenue generator for the city. Sure, sometimes you will discover through trial and error that the meter maid may not walk by through some area for some time, but that's a tough proposition.

And I have discovered that if I put a cover on my motorcycle, I will never get ticket. They will not uncover my motorcycle and I will never get a ticket. This is why I commute on a motorcycle.

Anyway... I was coming back home at 3-4am on Fri/Sat/Sun, and guess what I saw on my unlit, quiet, residential street? Freakin' meter maids checking parking stickers and writing tickets. lol. The coverage is excellent.

But yeah, eventually they will figure out some sort of EZ Pass for parking...

Atlanta outsources their parking enforcement to Duncan Solutions through a specially created company called Park Atlanta.

There are usually 1-3 meters per block and metal license plates on the curb by the spots that tell you what number your spot is. You go to the nearby meter, type in the number of the spot you're parking in, and pre-pay for X amount of time.

Those meters connect back to a network and enforcement officers get messages when spots in their area are about to run out of time or have just elapsed so they can go check to see if that space still has someone parked in it. I would be SHOCKED if they're not working on technology that allows them to know if a spot is full without having to check it with human eyes (similar to the sensors by stop lights or fast food ordering microphones).

I'd like to invent a website called CredibleSource.com.

It could have varying levels (or perhaps grades) of website credibility. These could be:

• Member of the field (for example, if an MD writes a blog about medicine)
• Peer Reviewed (the New England Journal of Medicine, for example; reviewed for accuracy by a panel of members of the field.)
• Fact Checked Journalism (I think most media outlets would fit under this branch, a large step up from a blog, is reviewed by an editorial board, and issues corrections when necessary ala 60 minutes)

There could be others I'm not thinking of.

This could be run non-profit style in the vein of wikipedia, where a series of volunteers reviews submissions and research a URL's credentials; or maybe ad-based--though that doesn't quite feel right. (Maybe both like 2+2, but we can all see how well that works.)

I feel like this is a thing that should exist. There's such a large amount of internet users that don't understand the concept of a credible source that it seems like this is something that could be of value.

Also: don't forget to save the endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

april fools day is still a few months away

couple thoughts i had detailed below. nothing i've ever really researched and they are outside my area of expertise so easily could be companies out there that already do this and certainly there are problems that would have to be countered in either of these ideas.

Commercial trivia app

I know there are apps out there like Viggle where you can check in to television shows and get points for watching, which you can them redeem for prizes. Some of these apps even offer real time trivia based on the show you are watching. This idea is a cousin to that app.

The idea is a real-time trivia game related to the commercials you are watching. Basically when a commercial comes up, a trivia question comes up related to the commercial (e.g. What brand is currently being advertised? a) Toyota, b) Best Buy, c) Coca Cola, d) Target). You then answer the question and receive points, which then can be redeemed for rewards. Lots of fun animations, music, etc. to make the game a more fun experience.

My thought was this provides concrete information that people are not only watching commercials, but digesting them enough to recognize the product being advertised. I would think, in theory, this should increase the amount of retention from commercials.

Modified wristbands

At least a couple times in a year, I go to some event/location/etc. where wristbands are required. The wristbands are nearly always the sticky type of wristband. I'm presuming button snap wristbands and the slide on wristbands (like the Livestrong wristbands) aren't generally used because they are expensive and/or more easily transferrable than the sticky wristbands?

Anyway, I hate the sticky wristbands. No matter how careful (or usually not careful) people are putting it on my wrist, the adhesive part of the wristband goes over the edge and ends pulling the hair on my wrists and it really hurts!

My thought is there has to be a way to modify this. Maybe instead of making the adhesive spanning the entire width of the wristband, it could be paired down a little bit to only cover ? 50% ? of the wristband? Basically the less adhesion, the better (as long as the wrist band still works obv.)

If you're talking about the link I posted, that's the point.

There was a group of middle school kids asked to write a report on "the pacific nw tree octopus," which is obviously made up. The kids took to google, and came up with the site, which was planted by the teachers, and then used the site in their research.

This intentionally absurd example is used to exemplify the fact that people in general don't know what to trust on the internet, thus illustrating the need for a tool such as a credible source website to provide this information.

One real life example (aside from the thousands daily on this site), is a mother friend of mine talked about why she didn't vaccinate her kid. I told her that was bull**** but she "knew what she read."

Being able to just email her a link that says something along the lines of:

• vaccinescauseautism.com: A discredited study performed by a discredited MD. The results were shown to be falsified.

could be valuable not just in that specific instance, but for her going forward in evaluating other things she reads on the internet.

if there's one thing immunization conspiracy theorists are known for, it's their willingness to take a hard look at their position and re-evaluate in the light of new information.

Firstly, it's a lot easier to sell to people who want to buy what you are selling. If they want apples, sell them apples instead of trying to persuade them that pears are superior and they actually want pears. People mostly get resentful and angry when you try to prod them in conflicting direction. Not only is it a really tough grind to "educate", you're probably not an expert on everything to actually write insightful educational answers on many topics anyway. Who wants to listen to you about the merits of some medical procedure?

Secondly, your example is not absurd and it is not limited to the Internet. People can't be experts on everything and it is hard to judge information presented by two sides. If anything, the more accomplished you are in one profession/task, the more likely you are to be dumb about other things. (because you focused so much of your life to be a really, really good specialist.)

This is why almost everyone uses social cues and filters to evaluate information instead of actually reading primary sources (often conflicting) to make up their own mind. We listen to the media and domain experts to see what they say and weight our opinions based on how much we like and trust each of those experts. When Taylor Caby/Galfond post something here, it's going to be taken as gospel and passed around by a lot of people. When some random guy says the exact same thing, chances are it will be missed and ignored. Media/people are filters for most of us - and ultimately we pick which side of the story we listen to.

I'm seriously thinking about starting a tutoring marketplace in the Netherlands.

There are a few website out there that do stuff like that, but nothing very good and professional IMO. Some of them are local and just active in a few cities, some of them have a very poor website or offer an overview of tutor institutes (that charge ~€50 an hour).

My idea is very simple and a lot like WyzAnt. A nationwide platform (nationwide is not that big here in the Netherlands;-)) where students in need of tutoring can find a tutor nearby for a specific course.

I would take 10% of the fee tutors charge and would take care of the payments (student buys 4 hours of tutoring at €10/hr -> pays me €40 up front -> after tutoring has been done, student confirms -> I pay €36 to the tutor)

A few business wise ideas:

- I was thinking on partnering with schools like Tutormatchingservice.com. This way I will gain credibility and lower the entry barriers.

- I was also thinking about emphasizing on digital tutoring via skype or another medium. This way tutors can offer their services nationwide.


So how do you guys think about this idea/minor business plan? Any tips, critics or things that I should keep in mind? I think the barrier is quite low to give this idea a shot so am seriously thinking about this being my first real entrepreneurial experience!

Just a reminder that tutoring services, especially marketplaces, are hard. You're dependent on search traffic, building out local markets so people can actually find a tutor, and there's little to stop them from transacting outside of your platform.

http://pando.com/2013/09/08/after-di...ee-shuts-down/

A Taco Bell franchise near east 86th street.

Hmm I guess you are right on the last part, thats a real liability.. Although there are a lot of succes stories like for example WyzAnt, who raised $100M lately..

Are they actually making a profit, gaining revenue, etc?

"Raised a lot of money from investors!" isn't profit exactly, and it's not really a business plan :/

I actually made a "small" mistake, they raised 21M after reaching 100M+ in revenue.. I don't know if they are profitable but I can imagine costs can be kept quite low..

http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/16/wyz...al-and-mobile/

If costs are quite low, they wouldn't need to raise 21M if they're doing 100M+ in revenue.

To me, it looks exactly the opposite. It sounds like it costs BIG money to recruit and bring this market together. That 100M+ revenue is going somewhere.

Does something like this exist? How would I search apps to see if there is something like this out there? Here it is:

This would be a smartphone app: you point the smartphone at the bar code of a product in a store, it gets scanned. Information is uploaded and your server price compares. In X-XX seconds, the user gets the results showing how much that product costs at Amazon/Newegg and a few other online retailers.

Why so negative, did you read the article? They founded the company in 2005 and realized that growth towards that 100M in revenue themselves.. Maybe the founders finally want to cash out some of the value they have created over the years?
Why would a well known VC fund invest 21M by themselves in a company that has a poor future outlook? There must be some earning potential right?

on the bright side, since it's so easy, i'm sure you'll be raking in the dough in a few weeks. be sure to come back and tell us how successful you are.

I believe you can do this within the Amazon app itself, but regardless there's at least one app called Quick Scan (and I imagine many more) on iOS that does exactly this.

There are several instances of this. In fact, a friend of mine had an app that did this and sold it to a bigger company.

I don't understand it, why would anyone want to post a great idea in this thread. I have a great idea that is similar to Draft kings that hasn't been done yet. Just need it find the right team to put it all together