Personal PBX / Answering Machine Apr.10.2004
Take a cheap computer, such as a MiniITX, throw in a few modems. Have one connect to the outside world, the house phones connect to the others.
Incoming Calls
"normal" - ring all the phones on incoming calls
"do not disturb" - go straight to voice mail
"route" - caller uses a voice menu to route to specific phones (or specific rings)
"record" - record (all) incoming calls
"tap" - outgoing only to another number, to tap the conversation
Outgoing Calls
"normal" - connect directly to the outside
General
"record" - record outgoing call
"forward" - forward call to another number
"transfer" - transfer call to an internal extension
Business Idea: NetFlix but for books Apr.3.2004
Thought: I was in Borders looking at the books. I thought "hey, I don't really want to pay $25 to read this book, and I don't plan on keeping it forever, it seems like a waste of money." So, why support the system where everyone has to buy any book that they want to read, skim, reference, or even just glance at. New book stores let you browse and reference books, but they only have current inventories. Used book stores will buy your old books off you, but at a big loss of value. They also offer cheap resales and have an inventory of older books, but they don't have new releases. Places like Amazon sell new and used books, but you're still buying a copy, new books are still expensive, and it's not as easy to sell your own stuff.
Solution: So, let's create a company with an automated warehouse that shares an inventory of books. Members pay a monthly fee (say $5 for paperbacks only, $10 for everything else. College textbooks could also be offered, but they would tend to be expensive items all checked out at once by a lot of people, and then returned at the same time. Perhaps a "college plan" with a different pricing plan. The books would be sent out in boxes via USPS (media post is cheaper). The box should be resealable and nearly completely reusable. Include a sticker that the customer can apply to the package when they return it. Do a "postage paid" to make it really easy.
Potential customers:
1) Kids (well, parents of kids) who want short books, and high turnover. They'll rent a book, read it within a few days, and return it and get another.
2) Teens. They'll commonly want the "young adult" type books, reading time would be 1-3 months. Probably only one or two out at a time.
3) Students: Textbooks. Checked out for 3 months at least, some for 9 months. The books are expensive, so $50 for a term for a book is still affordable for them. They need several books out for the whole period.
4) Adults: Popular books, trendy, book groups. Reading time is 1-3 months, only one or two checked out at a time.
5) Travellers: Travel guides, maps, foreign guides and language guides. 1-6 months if they want to read it and then take it with them.
6) Professionals: Want reference books, things to work on a project with and then return.
7) Home Improvement: Want books for the length of a project.
There are many markets for books. Many people do not want to pay $20-50 for a book that they're going to read once and then stick on a shelf. Used book stores work well because they're cheap, but things are often hard to find. Even if you find it (say, with amazon), you still are buying a book. Having the ability to rent a book for as long as you want allows you to have a higher turnover at lower cost, without feeling like you paid a lot to read a book.
Potential Problems:
- is it legal to share books like this? Does "first sale" apply?
- Can we charge whatever we want? New book prices are fixed, but since we're not selling I don't think it matters.
- Customers may sign up with fake info / prepaid anon card to get $200 worth of school books for the $20/mo (once) fee. Maybe have extra info needed for expensive books.
- if the book comes with a CD, what's the legality of that?
- Damages
- Public libraries offer a similar service, but have limited inventories and are inconvenient for most people Libraries also have free DVD's for rent and people don't generally take advantage of that. Big complaints are selection, hours of operation.
Ideas:
- Include a bookmark which doubles as an ad/gift/reminder. It also discourages corner-folding which damages the book.
- Smaller books maybe able to be shipped in an envelope, or FedEx or something.
- Offer the option "buy this book", they don't have to return it. Legal?
- Special instructions for books with "sample tests" that people would write in.
- Books on CD (piracy problem?)
- Books on Tape (shorter turnaround, people use them on long trips)
- Incentive for people to donate their books to us.
- old magizines? definately not new stuff.
Research:
- gamefly - netflix for video games (consoles mostly), RedOctane, GameLender
- netflix has 600,000 subscribers @ $20/mo
- "Netflix shows what economists have known for years: that consumers think beyond simplistic value propositions such as a flat monthly fee divided by number of movies watched. They consider flexibility a value that's worth paying for, says Jim Griffin, CEO of Cherry Lane Digital, a specialist in rights management for songwriters and movie studios. "They're paying a flat fee for the anarchistic use of the content," he says. "That's an important part of the system.""
- "The only late fee is the rather abstract opportunity cost of not being able to order more films."
- a 40,000 sci-fi book library would cost $4*40k=$160,000 to procure (used books) and take up (1 shelf = 8'x5"x4', 20 books per shelf, 8 shelves per rack = 160 books per rack = 250 racks. @3' between racks, that's 3000 sq ft. for storage.
- Amazon/B&N coulld offer a competing service, netflix investors are from both those companies?
- Netflix is geared to CD sized items, don't try to compete with that
BooksFree.com:
- "Booksfree.com has 4,000 members, 93 percent of them women, who pay $6.99 to $14.99 a month to rent from the start-up's online library, which is stocked with 34,000 paperback titles."
- booksfree.com - $8/mo
- "The company started in September 2001 with $1 million in capital raised from friends and former business associates. Since then, it has raised just short of $1 million more and has operated with four full-time employees, plus six or eight part-timers who take inventory and package the books."
- "Booksfree customers can take out as many as six books at a time, depending on their membership level. The company trades mostly in mainstream books that it orders from distributors Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor Inc., but it also boasts a limited number of out-of-print books by romance novelist Nora Roberts, for example, that Ross or Bilinski brought back from book shows. Its most popular book, with several hundred copies circulating, is Carly Phillips's "The Bachelor.""
- "The company is not yet making a profit, although it only needs to sign up 3,000 more subscribers to break even, Bilinski said, and its goal is to reach 100,000 subscribers. With enough money to last through next year, the company's modest goal is "to grow and be profitable as soon as we can," Ross said."
- $8/2, $13/4, $18/6, $30/12
- only offers paperback fiction, no self help, etc.
Status: Unfortunately, the profit margin doesn't seem to be there. When you can buy just about any book on amazon for $5 (including shipping) it's just not cost effective to join a book club except for the most expensive books, which would take forever to recoup the investment on.
Clones (Feb.11.04)
Grow the clone at the normal rate without a mind. Even though it may take 16 years for the clone to get ready, if you plan ahead you'll have a body ready to be transferred into. So say you start one when you're 25, by the time you're 40 your new 15 year old body is ready for you.
VR (Feb.11.04)
Use a gym, field, etc. as the "field". hook everyone up to mobile VR, have the VR system track everyone to make sure people don't run into each other. maybe have "reorient" points where you have to physically turn, but the view still stays the same. That way you can do bigger areas (say, everquest) without actually having the bigger area. You could do multi-level stuff by simulating stairs (the ground always feels the same, just the image appears to be a cliff)
z position: keep track of movement up/down lifts
x,y position: overhead camera, numbers on heads, gps?
crouch position: mercury switches on the thigh/hip. || = vertical, /| = crouch, -- = prone
torso position: compass?
head position: + painted on helmet, camera on the back, interpret to determine x,y,z angles
Position conflicts (x,y): they should be shown on the heads-up, if not then show a wall? emergency's can be shown as a red "stop" sign
Position conflicts (z): when someone is above someone else in the game, same plane in reality... wall? at least a stop but that gives away a vertical position
Parasitic Filmmaking (Feb.11.04)
Find a set where a movie is being filmed and sneak in, posing as extras, crew, etc. Once the films starts to shoot (say, a car explosion, etc) you whip out your camera and have your actor start acting in your movie while the real movie pays for the effects.
Search Engine (Jan.15.04)
instead of using crawlers, have the servers tell the engine when they update. For sites that "sign up", content index will be immediate.
Video Games (Jan.5.04)
Insead of $5/5 minutes, say $5/first 5 minutes, free until someone else gets in line. use a pressure pad/whatever. This lets people get a lot more bang for their buck when the game isn't all that popular, or at off hours. Keeps people around to buy drinks, etc. but doesn't lock up the machine when it's busy/popular.
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