Idea Man » Inventions/Ideas

xml language for mail filtering

ideaman — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 20:11:03 +0000

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 (:^)

shipping made easy

ideaman — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:53:53 +0000

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

ideaman — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 13:08:33 +0000

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

ideaman — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 19:23:17 +0000

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.

3G mobile phones using the PCMCIA slots on laptops

ideaman — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:18:47 +0000

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

ideaman — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:02:23 +0000

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.