Sitting through a web conference hyping Web 2.0 and web communities, I realize (yet again) how much I am not that demographic. I have rarely ever chatted, posted to newsgroups, hung out on blogs, etc. So, with the proliferation of MySpace, Facebook and Friendster, why isn’t there a Shutitster which would be a (parody) social network for people who don’t want to be in social network. Similar to some of the pages in those other social networks, the pages/profiles would be a wasteland of empty, default information, outdated items, etc.

The big pitch of the site would of course be the tally of how many millions of people felt compelled by the hype to visit, signed on, created as little of a profile as was required, looked around to decide it wasn’t worth their time, and never returned.

It could have “don’t bug me” buttons, forums/blogs with topics like “coming soon” and “welcome to your blog”.

There are a lot of sites that have tackled the “to do” list niche. Not sure if any of them is going into territories such as:

• Other items that a to do item is dependent on
• Other people that a to do item is dpendent on
• Any date ranges, deadlines, etc. that are involved

Taking these factors into consideration could allow for Gantt chart style output that helps see when to do items can actually be done.

You’re at work and you’re trying to locate someone. They’re not at their desk and you’ve asked the cubicle next to them to no avail.  What do you do?I bet if you did some traffic analysis (fancy term for snooping on people by pointing cameras around the office and hitting record) you could probably identify each person’s 1 or 2 most common routes through the office. That might be the path to and from the bathroom or maybe to the designated smoke area.  It could also be the path to the elevator as they sneak off to starbucks every ten minutes to get their fix.  Regardless of the why, you might be able to say with some degree of certainty, that if they are not at their desk, the next best place to find them is somewhere along that pathway.Now, if you actually went so far as to paint everyone’s pathways on the floor of the office, in addition to it looking funny, would it lead to a change in people’s behaviors? Would people change that route because they don’t want to feel predictable? Would they take a different route if they didn’t want to be found?

Okay, this one is destined for abuse. But why doesn’t an online store have a shopping spree - you get five minutes to click anything you want at tremendous discounts..  People would practice all sorts of ways to browse a site faster in order to get past slow download times. Or perhaps the site would be hyping its super-fast site/design.  Of course, bots and other types of automated programs would be an issue, but if the sites were trying to get rid of the stuff anyways… do stores really care when people are throwing items around in the aisles at box stores on those mass-savings days?  As long as things sell, no?

A site of just dead links. If the link becomes live again, it’s removed.

Helping to “fight back” on PageRank hogs?

Elementary school class shares the Nobel Peace Prize as they ended hunger in a small, developing nation with their contributions to the hunger relief program … with image of top ramen being delivered.

Forget how I came up with the name (wasn’t there something like Figlets?) but my definition was/is little bits of information which is non-germane to the context, yet “seems to follow” from the topic.

An example of this is when during a conversation which touches upon Latin and its use (or disuse) it’s inevitably mentioned that Latin is the still the language of the Roman Catholic Church/Vatican.

I’ve been a map nut since I was a kid. There’s just so much that can be seen. Every time you pick one up, you can see a whole new level of detail.

Sometimes all that’s needed is to see something in a slightly different whole. So why not take a different perspective on the geography of a place by creating maps that just show a sliver of the world - anything along a certain latitude or longitude.

Things you might see differently:

• All the different places that are at the same latitude and which should (in theory) share similar climates
• Get a better sense for how the world is curved… not as flat and gridlike as it seems on most maps.

That’s just for starters.

Do all criminals have an unfinished basement on their houses? Do all interrogations take place in a military bunker filled with all of the tricks of the torture trade?

Scene opens: In the empty dining room of a McDonald’s fast food restaurant. The restaurant has been cleared out of customers. Unfinished food still sits on trays across the room. Camera pulls back to find itself over the back/shoulder of someone who’s hands are tied behind his back, sitting in one of those swiveling plastic chairs. In the distance, in front of him are a handful of thuggish men who are obviously not happy and they are all focused on the tied-up man. In the further distance, over the shoulder of one of the thugs is a cardboard cutout of Ronald McDonald who happens to just be staring into the scene with a more menancing look than one would expect.

And it goes on from there.

I expect to see it in a theater near me sometime soon.

Why is virtual reality so unreal? Why are people escaping to online worlds which are never anything like the real world?

Virtual reality should be along the lines of real life, no? With its shares of disappointments, pitfalls, bad choices, all of the ramifications of those choices, etc.

I’m sure that “Ball & Chain” would sell - who wouldn’t want to experience in crisp HD the fun of sitting around in a loveless marriage watching reality tv.

But perhaps we’re actually already living our virtual reality when we sit on that couch and veg out.