I have created a new Twitter bot: @OfficeWorkout tweets a random workout suggestions every 30 minutes. It should remind you to move your body occasionally if you are a screen worker.
I am looking for more suggestions for workouts that mesh well with office life. Best way to tell me would be to tweet them to @OfficeWorkout (“suggest @OfficeWorkout yourWorkoutIdeaHere”).
Recently talked about this idea with a friend. I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing it.
The idea is simple: offer a service where people can queue songs into a playlist of an internet radio or audio stream by sending an SMS to some number. This could be used as a Jukebox in bars and restaurants.
The thought is not new, I remember pondering related ideas years ago, when Bluetooth was coming up. However, by now the conditions make it easier than ever to create such a service. I think making it based on a website would be best, because clients could easily put up a computer display somewhere to display the jukebox options. It is easy to sign up for SMS services, so that customers could pay small amounts of money to play a song. SMS is much more reliable and easier to use than bluetooth.
A fun side effect could be to create a playlist of “music you might like”, like last.fm, that would automatically adapt to the taste of the venues customers.
A problem could be that random people could send SMS and make the jukebox play nasty music, even if they are not at the venue. Probably there would have to be a feature where the owner of the bar creates a selection of appropriate music that people could choose from.
Another question would be if a website would be enough (customers would have to use the terminal to see what music is available), or if a mobile website would be called for that customers could browse on their phones.
The biggest problem is getting rights to the audio files, and paying appropriate taxes for playing music in public places. I know nothing about this. Maybe for a simple version music from Seeqpod or Skreemr could be used, or an online radio like Last.fm. It would be cool if there already was a service where people can create their own internet radio streams, that could be controlled from the service. Probably there is – if so, I estimate the SMS Jukebox could be programmed within weekends time
It is too bad that there is no wholesale for online music (that I know of anyway), so that people could create interesting services around music. As it stands, probably a lot of money has to be paid to lawyers to make deals with the music industry. Apple and Amazon could do it, but for smaller businesses, it is hard (I think). Or they just scrape by in the grey areas of unclear legitimacy, like the aforementioned seeqpod and skreemr. Not something I would recommend, although I applaud their chutzpah.
By internet search I found only one existing SMS Jukebox project, which seems to be provided by the mobile phones operator Orange in France. This is also a reason that I think my friend will not mind me sharing the idea.
Another caveat of the idea is that I have no idea how to market it to bar and cafe owners. Anyway, that is why I file it under “throwaway ideas”, because it is unlikely that I’ll tackle it myself for the time being. Older throwaway ideas of mine can be found at Cambrian House.
On the other hand, maybe I should just go around and ask in bars in my city if they would be interested. I am still looking for a nice project for the summer.
…in the hope that they might experience at second-hand the delights and dangers of adventure” (Agatha Christie)
That is the dedication Agatha Christie wrote for her book “The Secret Adversary”, which I spontaneously bought at the train station yesterday. I thought it is brilliant, both the dedication and the book. I don’t think I have actually read her books in English before, and now I really look forward to reading more of them. “The Secret Adversary” might have some unlikely twists in the story, but it is very well written.
In fact, I think I’ll add “own all Agatha Christie books” to my list of things I want to achieve in life, next to “all the Adventures of Tintin” by Herge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be so easy. What I found on ebay here is quite fragmented (ie no collections, and buying them one by one on ebay seems ineffective), and books currently sold are outrageously expensive (like 25€ for a rather thin collection of four of her stories – consider that the complete Sherlock Holmes is available for 10€). Also, she apparently wrote more than 100 books (I guess I will also count ebooks towards my goal). It is also not obvious what editions I should get.
The local library was quite a letdown, too. Besides “The Secret Adversary” they only had “Murder On The Orient Express” in my local branch – much as I like it, I must have seen it about a million times as a movie on TV.
I am not sure how exactly I’ll carry out that goal. Of course I could buy all the Tintin cartoons and Agatha Christie books right away, but somehow it doesn’t feel right. I guess I have to collect them by and by. Something to look forward to.
most recent german posts Recent Tweets