Ride on the coat tails of the entirely-too-hilarious Old Spice ad campaign with the site theinternetisnowdiamonds.com. I have purchased this URL for one year in a fit of dumb spontaneity so it must be put to use, perhaps as a ridiculously single-purposed tumblog in which you turn random internet images into diamonds (see image above) via a gross default 3d rendering. Or maybe its something like that bacon site thingy we all freaked out about a while back, except with diamonds. If you feel like implementing this, let me know and I’ll transfer the url to you. There is no real reason why this should exist, I just had a giggle fit buying the URL (which happens to me from time to time) and it should be implemented somehow. On a related, note: this happened today.
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Steal My Idea is a new addition to my blog in which I share ideas I have that I am unable to bring to life on my own. Some will be silly, some will be for the greater good, all are free for the taking if you have the desire and means to execute them.
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Steal My (dumb) Idea: “The Internet is Now Diamonds”
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Steal My Idea: “A Zipcar-like Gym Service”
A member based service you sign up for annually (paying a very low annual fee, like $25) in order to rent time on cardio equipment (treadmills, ellipticals, and stationery bikes) in gyms all over the city and in different cities nationwide. It would work very much like how zipcar does, you reserve time online, renting equipment by the hour.
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How it works:
You can search for machines online near work, near home, or near wherever you happened to be stationed that week and for $5/hour, rent exercise time. Participating gyms (normal commerical gyms, gyms within condo buildings, etc) would designate one or two machines to the program, which would be brightly colored to separate them from the other equipment. When you got to the machine, you would check in and unlock the machine with a small card that would attach to your keychain. You would be billed either with each use or monthly based on your preferences.-
Why it should exist:
How many of you have failed miserably at your “get fit” resolution by signing up for a gym membership that you end up NEVER going to—because you moved, you left your job, the subway is shit this month, the weather is too gross to warrant the 45 minute commute, etc—and each month you have to foot the $85 bill because of your year commitment? It’s horrible right? Makes you feel like such a putz for signing up in the first place. Yet, at the end of the year, you just find yourself a new gym that is temporarily more convenient and go through the same process all over again because “at least you’re trying”. We all know that only crazy people ENJOY working out (like really enjoy it, not just enjoy the benefits of it or the i’m-so-tired-and-laying-on-the-ground-in-air-conditioning-has-never-felt-more-awesome feeling), but we all also know that exercising is important and that none of us do enough of it.-
This service would be for those that can’t commit to normal year long gym memberships. If you used the service often (4 hours a week) it would cost you about as much as a normal gym membership per month, but you would have the flexibility of being able to adjust your workout locations. One day, it might be more convenient for you to work out during a lunch break near work, the next it might be easier for you to work out near your kid’s school before you pick them up, another it might be easiest near home. If this service existed, it would be like you had gym memberships in every neighborhood in your city. You wouldn’t have the excuse of “well it’s my day off today and I don’t feel like going into town” etc. It would be especially good for people that travel a lot. You could rent time in any city you traveled to.
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Why only cardio equipment?
While it is easy to buy a set of hand-weights and do toning exercises at home (I know there are people out there that do this, I am not one of them), getting a good cardio-vascular workout is much harder, especially if you live in a city. You might live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe running or walking at night alone, or you might just not have the knees to take pounding the pavement. Cardio equipment is expensive and we city dwellers don’t usually have the space for an adult-sized bed let alone a giant elliptical trainer. Also, some people don’t want to work out for total-body toning, they just want to sweat once in a while to purge some work toxins and not feel like such a lazy piece of shit.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-Someone please make this happen, I will be your first subscriber.
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Steal My Idea is a new addition to my blog in which I share ideas I have that I am unable to bring to life on my own. Some will be silly, some will be for the greater good, all are free for the taking if you have the desire and means to execute them.
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Steal My Idea: “Forwarded Emails from Mom”
a weekly emailed newsletter containing “forwarded mom content”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-You know what I’m talking about. All those “animals being friends”, “Look at these crazy animals!“, “WOW! Nature Photos!!” and “CRAZY 3D SIDEWALK CHALK ART!!!” emails that your Mom or crazy Aunt or internet savvy Grandma sends you. I personally have the fortune of receiving the “creative” emails—you know, because I’m an Artist—and they never cease to elicit a smile and an “oh, mom” eye-roll. I think those without the fortune of a google-happy parent should have access to these internet gems in the way that it is most natural: In emails disguised as forwards from Mom (rather than as a blog, which just wouldn’t feel as natural). Actual mom-content emails can be submitted by subscribers for inclusion in the newsletter. The site Postcards from Yo Momma is a great read for personalized letters and instant messages from people’s moms, but this would be strictly for the for the relatively generic (and oftentimes kind of gross) forwarded emails from the ones you love.
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-1. The email subject should always be prefaced with “Fwd:” even though it will be original content
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2. LOL’s and emoticons should be sprinkled throughout when appropriate
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3. Exclamation points should be used liberally
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4. Clip-art and comic sans encouraged
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5. All emails should end with some sort of inspirational quote even if it has nothing to do with the content of the email (e.g. “Life is like a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.”)) Here is a source for inspirational quotes.
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6. The email should be sent from an AOL account
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7. And on a serious note: no hyper-patriotic / borderline racist content (though I feel like these are usually sent by Dads and Uncles anyway)
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Pictured above: Hand Paintings by Guido Daniel. See other glorious examples here.
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Steal My Idea is a new addition to my blog in which I share ideas I have that I am unable to bring to life on my own. Some will be silly, some will be for the greater good, all are free for the taking if you have the desire and means to execute them.
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Steal My Idea: “Paypal it Forward”
A way to add passive charity donation to shopping cart transactions
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-Note: If any of these services already exist or a similar service exists, please alert me in the comments so that I can promote it and amend this post.
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Option 1
A shopping cart service (like Big Cartel or Shopify) that automatically adds an additional 1%-2% fee to each paypal transaction, which, at the end of each month, is donated to the sellers preferred charity. Buyers would receive a notice upon the completion of the transaction, that a small percentage of their total was donated to charity by the seller.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-Pros: If very user friendly and easily editable to match existing websites, it could easily take over the market as preferred shopping cart; by alerting consumers that even a small portion of their sale is going to charity, it will bring attention to the charity and positive press to the seller
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Option 2
Ideally—An option within paypal itself to use a portion of the percentage they already take and donate it to a charity (making it a write-off for paypal, not paypal users). For example, if your paypal fee is 2% + $0.30 USD, 1% would go to paypal and 1% would go to a preselected charity-
Realistically—An option within paypal itself to add an additional 1% donation fee to each transaction. (making it a write-off for the user not for paypal)
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-Pros: Easiest to integrate; would be the most widespread in all communities; would make Paypal seem like less of a necessary evil
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Cons: Transparency with Paypal, organization of information hierarchy to make this user-friendly to the masses (Paypal isn’t the most perfectly designed system by far); Paypal execs would have to have seriously big hearts to adopt the ideal method
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Option 3
A new paypal-like service in which all profit from fees would be donated to a charity of your choosing. This would be a much larger undertaking and because of the ubiquity of Paypal would be the toughest to sustain but in the end would be the most rewarding for charities.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-Pros: Most money donated (highest percentage going directly to charity), self-contained so startup would have most control over design and implementation.
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Cons: Paypal is so widely used that a completely new system may take years to be properly adopted
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Why it should exist:
There are currently not a whole lot of solutions for passive donation through online transaction. I believe that these afterthought tiny donations with each transaction could make a giant impact to many charities. While many charities offer a somewhat passive way to donate (signing up for monthly automatic donations) this still requires an upfront commitment and also limits the donation to a specified amount. People are also most likely to cancel this sort of transaction if they come upon tough times. If the donations were flexible based on how much money you are taking in, people are more likely to continue using the service. Also, individual one time contributions (or even monthly continual contributions), unless publicized by the donator, do not virally encourage other individuals to donate. Having a service that makes the buyer aware with each transaction advocates for the charity over and over again encouraging more donation and bringing visibility to the charity.
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Steal My Idea is a new addition to my blog in which I share ideas I have that I am unable to bring to life on my own. Some will be silly, some will be for the greater good, all are free for the taking if you have the desire and means to execute them.
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