Kinetc

[isolio-blog]

I'm absolutely loving the resurgence of interest in low-end hardware, and hacking modern software into the smallest possible resources.  Karmel brought home a Raspberry Pi and the linked project takes this idea one step further!

[isolio-blog]

Idea For a Startup: Make the Entire Body of Laptop Into Wireless Charging Pad

A simple idea for a (primarily) single product startup occurred to me the other day: make the entire body of a laptop into a wireless charging base.

The intent would be to have the technology acquired by a major PC manufacturer (Apple, HP, Samsung, et al) and incorporated into that manufacturer's product lines.

In the coming years, as all of our phones, activity trackers, and myriad other gadgets attain the ability to be wirelessly charged, it will become highly desirable to have charging stations built into desks, and other fixtures. Since many of us already carry laptops for business reasons, having charging stations built directly into them could be a major boon. You could just place a phone on the surface of the laptop itself, and it could begin charging immediately. Only one cable to remember for your business trip, and more opportunities to top off your phone and other chargeables.

[isolio-blog]

Idea For a Startup: Reverse Image Search To Detect Anomalous Facebook Accounts

During a 3 week stint that my wife and I spent living in the Downtown San Diego Westin hotel, I re-learned what it was like to have cable. I think we’ve spent about 10 years now without cable, so having it for more than a day or two was an eye opener.

I learned about Little Honey Boo Boo, Toddlers and Tiaras, and Teen Mom 2. Awesome. I also learned about MTV’s Catfish.

Since all the Catfish guys do is use Google and TinEye for fun and profit, it seems like a great idea for someone to build a Facebook app or Startup Weekend competition company around the same basic concept: detecting the “real-ness” of people’s online identities.

The first step would be to develop some sort of metric for similarity between profiles. Using reverse image search would be a good way to start.

The best part is that there are several possible exits for a company in this arena: Facebook invests a lot of money trying to prevent fake profiles from proliferating. The FBI, CIA, and NSA are keenly interested in determining the reality of online identities. And to develop revenue, one could sell (for $4.95 or $9.95) a measure of how likely it is that your online girlfriend or boyfriend is real (or at least not an amalgamation of other profiles).  

It could be like a truthiness score for an online identity ;)