Category Archives: Ideas

random ideas that pop in my head…

My House Is My Ship

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Spaceship House

Spaceship House

After Christmas, my son put together most of his city Legos that he got as presents.  One of the gifts was a ship, and it started me thinking about how similar our house is to a ship.

So here are the ways that I think houses are similar to ships, whether spaceships or ocean ships!

Both ships and houses have an engine that make them functional.  The engine in a ship would be the motor that makes it move, and the equivalency in a house would be the furnace/air conditioner.

The electrical system on each do a similar function.  Yeah the house is connected to a grid system, but the use of electricity still does similar functions such as light the interior…

Both ships and houses protects the  people and contents inside each of them from the weather.  Okay, so a ship’s real purpose is to move on the water, but it protect the passengers from the weather too.

Okay, now on to a spaceship.  Again the purpose of a spaceship is to travel through space, where as a house is to not move at all!

Spaceships and house really have a lot of similarities when then come to protecting the people inside!  A spaceship needs to protect the people inside from the heat, cold and other such harsh elements.

Okay, I confess, I’m really typing this post because I would like to compare my house to a spaceship because I thought it would be cool to talk about the way the computer systems in houses will continue to develop into more complex systems that would rival such computer systems in as old classic films such as “Star Trek” and “Star Wars“.

Today, we have systems that automatically turn on lights when we enter a room and then back off after we leave a room, and there is also the programmable thermostats.  Someday soon I can imagine house doing much, much more!  I can see a computer system that would greet us like Hal in 2001.  Such system could make sure the garage door is closed and all door inside the house are locked after a certain hour.  These systems could automatically open the doors as we greet the house just by our voice (or other montoring criteria).  It could wake us up in the morning, and turn off the TVs when we aren’t at home.  I’m just scratching the service here, but I can imagine that it could be quite incredible.

-MR

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Creating An Entrepreneur Snowball

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A while ago, when I was still in college, for a short stint of time I was a computer consultant.  So I was an entrepreneur for a short stint of time (not even a full year).  I could have continued with this route, but I decided I would be better off getting a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

Four years ago, I got the entrepreneur bug again.  But this time I didn’t have the free time or money to start such an endeavor.  I didn’t have the free time because I had a full-time job, not to mention spending time with my kids.  I didn’t have the money because I was still paying the mortgage on my house.

So what I did I do?

I decided to start a small  business selling merchandise on eBay.  My spin was I bought the product online and would end up selling it on eBay where it would be bided up to a 50 to 100% premium over where I bought it.  I didn’t have time to sell many units, so I limited myself initially to two products a week.  Later, after I got comfortable with the process, I was selling four to five units a week.  I was fun, exciting and fresh!

I stopped selling stuff on eBay because the supplier I use to buy from discontinued selling the product I was selling.  I couldn’t find the product anywhere else for such a bargain price.

Next, I took some of the money from selling my product on eBay and started this blog (www.moneyreasons.com).  While not making as much as I use to make on eBay, it’s still a lot of fun, and by far the best hobby that I’ve ever had!  I will keep blogging for years, and any money that it generates will help fund future entrepreneur activities.

I’m not sure what the next entrepreneur activities I will be involved with.  It might be a simple expansion of my blogging activities with the creation of additional blogs, or it might be something all together different.  I may even use the money from blogging to help with the down-payment on real estate, if blogging starts to take off.

For the next few years though, I hope to continue to refine my writing and develop a following.  We’ll see, time will tell 🙂

Do you have any entrepreneur plans in the near future?

-MR

We Aren't We All Small Business Owners?

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Why Not?

With cheap computers and computing services, why aren’t we all entrepreneurs? 

Ten years ago, computers were still pretty expensive, but I thought if they become cheaper, I’d become an entrepreneur.  I noticed that there are now a few of businesses that have been created since then, filling some of my ideas, but there are still opportunities!  

I have to wonder if the bursting of the  dot-com bubble  scared away most of us from trying that medium?  Perhaps after seeing the death of so many online business, the population in general, believe that it’s an impossible way to make money?  If so, this is sad, especially today!  

There is so many almost free computing options out there for entry into the online (aka dot-com) arena.  Computer themselves have become practically commodities, hosting services are very cheap, free software has some rock solid products (like wordpress, ubuntu/linux, php, mysql, apache, open office, etc) and there are even a few free DNS (domain name service) provider that will handle your site name to ip address conversion for free (like ZoneEdit.com). 

Okay, typing that last sentence, I realize that there is still a technical barrier to overcome, but it’s not that bad!  Plus, I’m sure there are great tutorials and online blogs and other documentation sources to help people get past that technical hump. 

I don’t think you need to strive to be the next eBay, but why not give it a shot, especially in today’s job market?  I think if I recently graduated from college, and was having a hard time finding a job, I would look hard and long at trying to create an online business on a shoestring budget while looking for employment in parallel!  If you don’t want to be bothered by the techy stuff, go in with a few partners, maybe a techie like me and an accountant.  Even if it’s not highly successful, wouldn’t it look cool on your resume?  Plus, you could even demonstrate your website to your potential employer. 

The key is to try to innovate, expand your presence in the world.  Even if your business flops, it would be cool to tell your kids that you were  once a web entrepeneur in your day 😉 

-MR

A Frugal Solution To An Expensive House Problem

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I have a family member (lets call him Bro) with a small problem with the design of their recently purchased house.  You see, their house is a decently sized house (about 2,500 square feet), but their furnace/air conditioner is designed for a 1,800 square foot house.  So, the upstairs rooms are way too hot in summer and too way to cold (about 45 degrees) in winter.

A new furnace/air conditioner would cost thousands of dollars, which my Bro doesn’t want to pay for.  So instead, he is contemplating installing floor board heaters and room air conditioners.  This would make the rooms look presentable (although the room air conditioners wouldn’t be that nice looking)! 

But I think I know of a better solution!  What if instead, a small fan was place over the vents, then turned on to suck the air out from the vents.  When the fan is not in use, it can be stored under the bed or in the closet.  This would be the cheapest solution of all the options.

Perhaps there is a company out there that has a more elegant solution than my fan idea.   Maybe someone already makes a fan that replaces the grill so it’s is more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and less hassle!

In the rooms that are not in use, my Bro can just keep the fans stored away someplace until needed.

Do you think my frugal solution will work?  Have you ever come up with non-conventional solutions for major flaws?

-MR