Every once and a while I get to talking to the folks that manage our student information system (Banner) and man…. does it sound like a big mountain of complicated code and applications (with a hefty price tag to boot)! Student information systems have been in use for a long time now and I wondered if it might be the right time for an open source one to come along? Couldn’t enough people agree on what might be considered a set of best practices? I talked about it in passing with some people here, just as a “wouldn’t it be interesting if…?” conversation and one response I got was that many schools think that the way they do their processes is the right way (or better yet, the only way) so getting people to agree on something would be hellish. But… take a look at course management systems… Moodle is popular and so isn’t Sakai, maybe they could follow the trends set by those products? On a similar note, I just got the newest issue of Network Computing Magazine where they survey their readers for what erks them, one entry on the cover said “7% say open-source projects are run by sanctimonious elitists”!
Open source student management system
November 22nd, 2006 by ideaman · No Comments · Information Technology, Technology Links
Stop opening random TCP/UDP ports
November 17th, 2006 by ideaman · No Comments · Information Technology, Technology Links
Maybe I am naive, but I would think it would be a lot easier from a security monitoring stand point to stop have processes like rpc and ftp opening up random ports. I want to be able to take a baseline of what ports a server is listening on and if there are any new ports opened afterwards then there is a good chance it has been compromised. And it would make the firewall admins a life a lot easier too!
xml language for mail filtering
November 13th, 2006 by ideaman · No Comments · Information Technology, Inventions/Ideas, Technology Links
I want to be able to use any capable IMAP email client (okay, there aren’t too many capable ones I know…) and be able to manipulate my email filters at the server level instead of at the client level. A couple of reasons for this are…
If I set a filter (ex: a vacation response message) I don’t want to have to keep my local email client turned on to process the message.
If my computer croaks I do not want to have to rebuild all of my email filters.
Part of my job is testing different email applications, I should only have to create the filters in one place. Right now we use the CommuniGate Pro email server here at work and I am testing its MAPI connector for outlook and its pretty slick. Within outlook you can manipulate your server side email filters. I don’t think it would be rocket science to create an XML language that defines how a filter works (ex: the filter has a descriptive name like “Trash messages from Janet” and it has some parameters to follow like “If the senders email address is janet@interplanet-janet.com” then tie an action to it like “move to the IMAP ‘trash’ folder”. Of course you could have multiple parameters and actions and they just end up being more tags inside the XML for that filter. What would be great is if you could store these XML filters on a different server using https or something and just point your email server and your client at it (just like you can do with an address book in LDAP). The server can point to it to know how to process your messages and the client needs to point to it so you can use tools to add/edit/delete your email filters.
I think I’ll get started on it (:^)
reply and delete
October 3rd, 2006 by ideaman · No Comments · Information Technology
I think a “Reply & Delete” button in email would be helpful. Several times throughout the day I receive requests for tasks to be done and I have to perform the task, reply to the sender with a quick “all set” then delete the message. The “Reply & Delete” button would remove the original message after the reply was delivered.
DNS Mail – Fighting spam with Dynamic DNS
August 3rd, 2006 by ideaman · No Comments · Information Technology
Yeah, I know, I know, everyone has come up with their own FUSSP (Final Ultimate Solution to Spam Problem). Well, here is an idea I had that is losely based on SPF. It is called “DNS Mail”, see what you think.
————————————–
DNS Mail (stands for “Do Not Spam”).
DNS Mail is somewhat like SPF (Sender Policy Framework) in that it uses DNS TXT
resource records to assist in message verification. Where it differs is
how it uses TXT records (and how it allows you to forward email without
any issues).
Here is how it works.
martha@domain.com wants to send an email to claire@nonprofit.org.
When she sends her message to her outbound SMTP server, the SMTP server
dynamically updates DNS with a special TXT record for this message. It
would look something like this
1wsed45rtgyh5678.domain.com. TXT “To:claire@nonprofit.org*From:martha@domain.com*date=Thu, 03 Aug 2006 09:10:49 -0400″
Once DNS is updated with this temporary record, the SMTP server adds a header to
the email message that looks something like this
DNS-Mail-ID: 1wsed45rtgyh5678.domain.com
The outbound SMTP server then does a DNS MX lookup for nonprofit.org and once
it finds the server (ex: mx.nonprofit.org) it attempts to deliver
the message to that server.
If the server mx.nonprofit.org is set to use the DNS Mail protocol
it will look for a TXT entry within @domain.com DNS called
dnsmail.domain.com that lists the DNS server(s) that can be queried
to look for the TXT entry that corresponds to the message. Here is an
example.
dnsmail.domain.com. TXT “155.47.64.164,155.47.64.165″
NOTE: My guess is that most sites would have only one server listed (for
a couple of reasons).
1. They would most likely want to designate a separate DNS server. This
could be for performance reasons, security reasons, or to keep their
main DNS server zone files down to a manageable size.
2. Having one server eliminates a zone transfer timing issue.
If you have multiple DNS servers for DNS Mail, all the servers
would have to be updated pretty quickly via zone transfers
when the Outbound SMTP server updates one server with a new TXT
entry. If you have more than one DNS Mail server listed and
one of the servers is not up to date when an outside MX server
queries it, that server would have to wait to try again (causing
delays) or it might reject the message.
Once the receiving MX server finds the DNS server to query, it
does a lookup of the TXT record for that message ID (ex: 1wsed45rtgyh5678.domain.com).
If it can find the TXT record and match the “To:” and “From:” headers it
will know that the message was sent using an SMTP server that is “allowed”
by the sender.
As far as cleanup goes, either the Outbound SMTP server or the DNS server
can look for message ID TXT records that are older than “x” days or hours
and can delete them.
What if the recipient, claire@nonprofit.org, has her email forwarded
to her home address claire@my_isp.net? When the @nonprofit.org mail server
receives the message and goes to forward it, it should first make
a Dynamic DNS entry in its own DNS Mail DNS server(s) for this message
and append a new DNS-Mail-ID: header to the message. It will also include
the original DNS-Mail-ID: header in the message. When the @nonprofit.org
Outbound SMTP server connects to the MX server for @my_isp.net, the @my_isp.net
MX server will inspect the headers and verify both DNS-Mail-ID: headers.
Once you have something like this in place it makes reputation based subscription
services for spam a lot more effective.
shipping made easy
July 28th, 2006 by ideaman · No Comments · Inventions/Ideas
Buying stuff online has become SO easy but why hasn’t it become THE way I buy things I need/want. It is because of shipping! If you do get a bargain online is it still a bargain after you pay for shipping? And what if you had to be at home for the delivery of a large or expensive item? Was your time missed from work worth it? What if you could pay a yearly subscription to a delivery service that was as prevelant as PayPal on the Internet? I think the catch would be that the delivery service would have to be a warehouse-type location where you pick up the deliveries. I think the delivery service would make more profits if they didn’t have to find out where you live and trek out to the deliver the package. If there were enough of these delivery warehouse centers I bet it would be profitable to them and a cost saving measure for you.
wireless point of sale for rent
July 2nd, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Information Technology, Inventions/Ideas
When I pass a yard sale now I wonder if they make any money because I assume people driving by have less and less cash on them then in years back. I always try and put purchases on my credit card because it makes it convenient at the end of the month…. less trips to the bank and one bill to pay. What if you opened up a store where you rented out wireless broadband hand held credit card devices to people who, for example, were running a yard sale? They could tie it to an existing PayPal account so the device vendor wouldn’t have to deal with any of the financial dealings, the person renting it would just have to program it to point at their PayPal account. I am sure there would be a lot more uses for something like this, what about people outside the super market asking for donations (my excuse of ‘no cash’ would no longer work…. foiled by my own idea!!!!)
keyboard with LCD template
June 28th, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Information Technology, Inventions/Ideas
Have you ever seen a keyboard with a laminated piece of paper cut out like a long rectangular template to fit around the function keys? They do it here for Banner to help end users know what function keys perform what actions (like copy, paste, delete, help etc,…) Wouldn’t it be cool if you could have an external keyboard that had a small LCD panel underneath the function keys that changed the information according to what application was at the forefront? I know programmatically that a Windows machine knows what application has the window in the forefront, it would just be a matter of having a file it reads that maps the keys and have it print the information in the LCD.
Email password self-service
June 22nd, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Information Technology
I developed the password management system we use at the college and I want to revamp it to allow for self service. Let me explain, if a person does not change their password after 6 months it will be reset for them and they have to contact the helpdesk, prove their identity, then get a new password generated for them. I am kind of getting tired of resetting passwords but I never built in a self service module so people can get their new passwords because I never liked the systems that other sites use. Usually they have you set a predefined question…. you know, something like “What is your cats name?” or something goofy like that. Instead, I thought it might be cool (and maybe safer) to have people set up a password partner. While your password is still valid (and you are logged into the web interface) you enter in the email address of a trusted friend or family member within the system. When your password expires you go to the web site and enter in your login ID and it generates an ID that gets sent in the form of a link (with a detailed explanation) to your password partner. I assume you would give a heads up off line to your password partner that they will be receiving an email from our system. The password partner then clicks on the link and it generates a new password for their friend/family member.
Better yet, every one has a cell phone, why not have them enter in their cell phone number while logged in and we send them an ID to enter into a web form that will generate them a new password? The telecom people are always trying to get a hold of students at their dorm room telephone numbers but the majority of the students do not set them up or never check the voicemail, this way we would have their cell phones on record if we really need to get in touch with them.
I’ll run these ideas by the group and see what they think.
Stock Proxies – Is this legal?
June 20th, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Finance
Before I mention this idea I want to preface it by stating that it is probably not legal…. not sure. Anyway, I used to have a stock purchase plan at a company I worked at and it seemed like a good deal if you had money to invest from your paycheck. The way ours worked was you can take up to ‘x’ amount of your check (I think up to 15%) and have it put aside for the stock purchase plan. At the end of 6 months you get to buy company stocks at 15% of what the price was/is, either at the beginning of the 6 month period or at the end, which ever was lower. If you had say $1000 bucks put aside and the company stock was $5 a share at the beginning of the period and it was $8 at the end of the 6 month period, you would get it for $4.15 a share (that is 85% of $5 a share). That is around 241 shares (and I think we had to pay a small fee for the transaction… can’t remember). You can then sell the 241 shares at $10 a pop and it would be worth $2410 dollars…. that is one heck of a return! Even if the stock tanked I think you could still get the %15 profit.
I got to thinking, I work for a non profit so I do not have the ability to get into a stock purchase plan. There are also people within companies that do not take advantage of their stock purchase plans because they live paycheck to paycheck. What if you could enter into a contract with an employee of a privately held company to pay them what they would have taken out of their pay (plus a little extra) so they can max out their stock purchase plan and at the end of the 6 months they agree to flip the shares and give you the profit? I would think tax prep for the person working at the company would be an issue because they have to claim the earnings, you would have to compensate for that. Also, I bet the company wouldn’t be too thrilled about it either, they have better things to do than manage money for investors who use their employees as investing mules. Maybe non profits could get together and have someone run a mutual or hedge fund and offer that like a stock purchase program? Maybe it would be incentive for people to work there since the pay is usually a considerable amount less than in the private sector?
3G mobile phones using the PCMCIA slots on laptops
June 16th, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Information Technology, Inventions/Ideas
I noticed that I never use the PCMCIA slots on the laptops I have had…. not sure why, I guess the equipment I need has always been built in. I have a new razr phone (which I highly recommend for guys who do not want to look like a handy man carrying a phone on their belt, they fit perfectly in your front pocket). I was think that since phones are getting smaller and smarter it would be cool to have your phone plug right into your PCMCIA slot on your laptop. I then thought…. what if the phone rings while in the PCMCIA slot? Well you could eject it which would be the equivalent of answering the phone, or, maybe a computer based smart phone would pop up and you could interact through the microphone and speakers on your laptop?
What would be some other advantages or disadvantages…? You wouldn’t have the cabling issues that palm users have with toting around a USB (or even uglier a serial) adapter. Do Macs have PCMCIA slots? (Not a big Mac fan so I wouldn’t know….or care). Maybe it could double as a wireless broadband card so you could connect in your car to the Internet? I would think that the Windows Mobile phones would have an advantage in that they could tie into the OS (file and contact syncs etc….) What if hard drives are small enough and large enough that they are in the phone itself and it has the OS for the laptop on it? When the phone is in the PCMCIA slot it is the laptop’s harddrive, when it is out there is some solid state media in the laptop that keeps it going and synced? Now that seems like a stretch.
I wonder if power would be an issue? I would think that if the laptop is plugged into the wall it could charge the phone and the laptop…. not bad. But what if it is unplugged? Would the phone run on its own battery and the laptop on its own? Maybe some of the power saving options in the processors now a days could be used to say, throttle down the cpu in the laptop so it can give some battery resources to the phone?
Okay, I have rambled enough.
rfid, bar code, or bluetooth coupon device
June 15th, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Finance, Inventions/Ideas
I am always amazed at the people in line in front of me at the grocery store who have a bazillion coupons cut out and their $120 total comes to $4.20 when they are done. What I don’t get is how they found these coupons and is the amount of time they took to find and cut these coupons and cut them out worth the $115.80 they saved?
It got me to thinking…. all the devices in the store already have barcodes on them, I wonder if you could create a device (attachment to a PDA?) that scanned bar codes that was hooked up via a phone cell or through a local Wireless LAN in the supermarket that could connect to a database that checked to see if there was a coupon somewhere available for that item? The device could print out a small strip of scannable bar codes to hand to the cashier. Better yet, once people follow the Walmart ultimatum to have every item for sale tagged with an RFID tag you could simple walk close to the shelf and it could get a list of the unique items in that area, check the coupon database and do a price comparison for all the sale prices versus all the coupons available and see which is the best buy? I guess you could use Bluetooth for this if the store put a bluetooth unit on the shelf for all of one type of item (ex: one bluetooth reader for all the 12 ounce Skippy jars).
I used to know someone whose brother worked for a major newspaper in Boston but he would get copies of the Washington Post and other major newspapers rom around the country. He would then cut out all the coupons from the other papers and use them locally and save a fortune. I guess the coupon folks coordinate what coupons to print according to what is NOT already on sale in the area.
investing book that i like….
June 14th, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Finance
About 6 months ago a relative turned me onto a book by Joel Greenblatt titled “The Little Book that Beats the Market”. The book is short and is a quick read and is pretty informative for people like me with no educational background in finance (and no willingness to spend hours a day pouring over statistical information…. I’ve got better things to do with my time). I would suggest the book to anyone that wants to put some money aside for the long term, doesn’t want to spend hours a day tweaking their investments, and doesn’t flip out with the ups and downs of the market. I threw some money at this back about 6 months ago and it feels good to have a plan outside of my 403B and IRAs. The book is $20 but you might be able to find it used on Amazon or somewhere else for less.
measuring air in my sound
June 14th, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Trumpet
I was practicing this morning and I always have my tuner on the stand (I don’t always look at it or believe what I see but that is just my own baggage). I wish there were a device that could measure the amount of air in my sound. Sometimes when I am playing and the sound is airy I can definitely hear it but this past week in my lesson we got to talking about sound and my teacher asked how a passage I played sounded. I thought it was okay but he said there was some air in the sound. I wonder if it is possible to build such a device. Can you measure pure sound?
trick yourself into paying off the big items
June 13th, 2006 by ideaman · 2 Comments · Finance
I always thought that I would pay off my mortgage a lot quicker if I could chip away at it with the ease of using my credit card. This idea is not for those who have excessive credit card debt, I think this would be best served for those folks, like me, that live off their credit card, pay it off every month, but still find themselves buying some extra stuff on a whim. What if, when I make a purchase on my credit card and the item costs $5.00 I could tell the vendor to charge me $7.00 instead and at the end of the month they could send the $2.00 (or whatever had accumulated up) to my mortgage company towards the principal? As the monthly cycle goes on, I tend to have an idea of whether or not the upcoming credit card statement is going to be big. If I got in the habit of adding some extra money to my charges at the beginning of the month I would be less likely to buy some of the extra stuff on a whim later on in the monthly cycle. I usually pay all my bills at once when I get paid and by the time I go to write a check for my mortgage I have made a pretty big cut into my checking account with the other bills, one big one being the credit card. Maybe some of you out there think it is sad that I have to trick myself into being responsible with money but hey, there is a reason why credit cards are so convenient! I wonder if this would be a value add for the credit card company? They already hate people like me that pay off their monthly bills. The only benefit I can see for the credit card companies is that it is a service that might attrack customers. I think one point that would have to be ironed out is what percentage the store gets charged for the credit card transaction.
utilizing server rack space
June 12th, 2006 by ideaman · Comments Off · Information Technology
I had an idea the other day when we were looking at our Data Center racks, we were trying to figure out where we can locate some new systems. I thought…. we have lots of rack space but it is not contiguous. What if the major vendors rebuilt their larger rack unit models (ex: 7 unit storage appliance) into 2 or 1 unit ‘chunks’ that were interconnected somehow? I bet there are plenty of IT shops out there that can’t easily schedule enough downtime to move servers around enough to clear out some contiguous rack space. When they did eventually move the other servers around and had enough contiguous rack space you could then consolidate the interconnected 1 or 2 units pieces back together. I think in order for this to work you would have to have one section of the system power the other sections through the interconnect cables and to avoid an interconnect cable becoming a single point of failure you would need a redundant connection. Anyway, if a vendor hits it big with this idea then maybe I’ll be rich!
