There are many ebook readers, several for every device.  But no one can synchronise my reading between the devices.  (i.e. none that I know of)

What I want is to read my book in bed on ebook reader hardware.  Then, while commuting, I pick up my phone and continue reading where I left off.  Back in my sofa at home I read on my tablet or TV.  Not to mention to be able to read at the computer.

I suggest skipping creating an app for every device but instead make it online.  I mean… what can’t be solved by HTML5 nowadays?

There is a solution, Ibisreader, which already today keeps some of my ebooks.  I can read my book at every web browser be it computer or phone.

What it lacks though is a better user interface and above all a better way to track where I am in the book.  It uses some kind of chapters? and they can span several screen heights.  I would like to have the browser know which page, screen wise – not paper page wise, I am on so it can open the right page when I continue reading on the next device.
There won’t be an exact match when moving from a bigger screen to a smaller, say a tablet to a phone, but unless I have a very big tablet with a very small font it won’t be far off; and probably not even then.

Ibisreader is F/OSS so I guess it would be a good place to start.  It could also be a nice way to learn Html5.

It would be useful with a client side logging solution written entirely in javascript.  With Html5 comes a client side database.  Already today we have cookies that could be used.

Logging could be done  in a round robin fashion where old logs are dropped so one always keeps the latest x logs in the database/cookie.  One could also send thelog back to the server if needed.

That way we wouldn’t need alert calls.  Especially forgotten alert calls that goes into production.

Think SMS and Twitter – simplicity on the verge of stupidity.

There are so many needs for just 1 page.  Be it a restaurant menu or a party specticulaire.  Create a simple site for creating very very simple pages.  Limit each project to 1 page.  Limit to already created templates.

In the simplest case one uses a URL like www.example.com/id=12.  It would be nicer though to have projectname.example.com.  One could buy a bunch of URLs and let the user choose from them.  myproject.otherexample.com or sunday-evening.has-the-menu.com.

Let advanced users upload PDFs or DOCs or ODFs and convert it.

One could, for the advanced advanced users, make it possible to upload HTML and CSS.

Just keep it stupidly simple, otherwise we will try to recreate the home pages of last century.

Anyone who has cleaned a room with wall mounted radiators knows the problem.  There is no way to properly clean the wrinkled surfaces.

Anyone who has painted a room with wall mounted radiators knows the problem.  There is no way to paint the wall behind the radiator without applying some on the radiator too.

On the radiators I am used to, it is possible to unfasten and tilt them slighty outwards; which might lead to a leakage in the radiator/tube joint since they are not constructed for movement.  Doable for painting, which is only done once every 20 years, but not applicable for cleaning.

Why not have soft tubes so the radiator can easily be detached?  I have such on my washing machine and dishwasher so the technique and material already exist.  There is no need to have soft tubes all the way, just lead the hard piping to behind the radiator and soft tubing from there.

As I have percieved (all) logging frameworks today work in a synchronous manner.  This means that logging comes with a performance impact.

One could create a logging client that sends its entries to a queue.  This queue is then fetched by another process.  The total processing power required is greater than a synchronous solution and issues might arise when time is a factor.  But for the other cases I believe this could be handy.
And one could build a switch into the framework that forces synchronous logging for the times it is necessary.

Then create a log viewer client with more intelligence than just listing text entries.  I plan to write about this, but don’t hold your breath.

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To start with I am thinking of a message queue.  Let the client write to the queue.  Then have another process read the queue, possibly from another machine.  Let the logging entries be identifiable by a guid.  Let the reading process be able to sort these guids to their respective category and present it in a readable way.

Get a spare monitor like a phone or usb and let a program continously show your log with a cool graph.  Add sound and a force feedback joystick and it will be more fun than a barrel load of monkeys.  All without drawing power from the production machine.

Investigating the event log in Windows is fiddly to say the least.  The list takes a lot of space but doesn’t show much.  It takes a while to load in Windows 7.  The contents of each event can only be seen after opening the event and only one at a time in WinXP and with too much wasted space in Win7.

If one exported the event log to a queryable database, an ISAM would suffice, it would be a breeze to search and list.  It shouldn’t be too hard to write such a program.  Either export when a button is pressed or set it to subscribe to event log events.

Then create a better viewer too.

If watching movies on mobile phones is on the rise I believe the film format should be smaller.  The 10 meter wide high resolution dream filled with 3D and details doesn’t make it to a smaller screen, the details will be gone or smoothed out.

Also watching a movie on a mobile isn’t an all night thing, unless you are hiding in your bed under your blanket, so the stories should be kept short.  Think 20 minutes train ride or 7 minutes with a tram.

There are already books being written on and for mobile phones, why not take the moving pictures there too?

I guess it can be less expensive  too, smaller images allows cheaper cameras and less resources for editing.

Bring on the story telling!

As a Devop we often hack the database.  I see the need for a simpler tool than Toad/MSSQLEnterprise or even Queryexpress.  One that does only very simple things but easy and quick and safe.

Updating schemas aside I have presently found use for a simple record editor.  The simplest solution would be a hard code primary key and one field to update.

Sketch for a simple record editor

Specify the connection string, the primary key and the field in the config file.

For one: do you even need a usr/pwd?

Demo site can be anonymous.  Unique user name can be enough.  Use login from OpenID or Google or Facebook or LiveID or other known site.  Use email to create one time URL.

Above all: make it simple.

A small, fast and simple site to set up voting.

One case is a conference room where, by some reason, ordinary pieces of paper doesn’t make it.  The voting might be secret.  There might be complex rules (messes with “simple” site).  Whatever reason I haven’t though of.

Another is 5 people going out for lunch.  Instead of wasting time by the elevator or in the rain outside – set up an easy voting page.

What to get for birthday present.  Which day is the best for meeting with relatives (relatives are not all on email).  Which time is best for floor ball (a team of 20 people).   A whole school can vote on bike shed colour.

Spice the site with a simple forum, especially for colouring bicycle sheds.

Make it simple enough to not require usr/pwd.