cool stuff!

I was looking for a way to make a USB charger for my rio karma and, in my searching I found these neat idea. Did you know that you can run linux through gmail?

But this invention will blow your mind. A guy burned audio onto rfid tags. They play back when the tag is near the rfid reader. I'm imagining "Hello my name is... Floovio" name tags that play automatically when you're near the reader.

A great way to kick off a shy people's convention, or for the blind... or more apriopriately for the mute?

tax refund = plasma tv?

I admit it. I'm a big fan of uBid. They often sell new products with warranty for less than what the same used product goes for on eBay.

Check out these 21" plasma TV's for $549. Yup, $549 for a brand new Fujitsu 21" plasma TV monitor with progressive scan video. Cost $3,505 when it first came out.

It's not high-def and it has no audio -- but anyone buying a plasma TV should have a home-theater setup and a video source anyway.

Interactive google maps + NY apartment rentals

This really blows me away - such a great idea!

Someone has figured out how to hook these two things up, craigslist and google maps. I love it because these are so naturally related. I always google the location of any real estate ad. This is Craig's Google.

Of note, ubid.com is selling 2GB mp3 players for around $100 bucks.

I like to watch movies in spanish. No I don't mean spanish channel american movies dubbed in spanish, I'm talking about the ones where people's mouths actually match what they're saying. Last night I watched "En La Ciudad Sin Limites," a beautiful spanish movie set in Paris about a family and their dying father.

I admit that Sometimes I watch a show called 'the roof' on Mun2. It was there that I discovered the names of reggaeton and bachata artists that I actually like.

Until I moved to new york, I used to like this kind of music. But then living at 162 stanton street changed this. My then next door neighbors kids would blast this music all weekend at levels that made the walls shake (I imagine they had a 24" subwoofer or something insane). It usually started at 3pm on Fridays and ended at around 9pm on Sunday. So I got tired of it.

Recently I've searched i-tunes and I like these artists: Aguakate, Rubirosa. And I'm not sure but I might like these too: Nandee, Po fat, Dose, dj kazzanova.

If your spanish is really good, listen to aguakate's lyrics. They're unbelievable! I can't believe this doesn't have an 'explict' tag on it, becuase 99% of the stuff they sing and shout about is either directly sexual or some sort of innuendo. It's awesome!

Tell me whatcha want what ya really really want

AAASeller has been live for over a year now and I feel like a really truly understand all of the ins-and-outs of what sellers want. AND I WANT TO BUILD IT ALL INTO AAASELLER.COM! Problem is, it takes me longer to write the code than ever before. Answering phones, processing refunds, replying to technical support. Phew! Man! I don't mind doing that stuff it's just that it's so divergent from actually writing clean code.

Back to understanding all of the ins-and-outs... There are a lot of them. As a developer, it's not like you can just pick up a book and learn how eBay works. And as a seller, it's uncertain that you'll be able to build the right features that everyone can benefit from. My hunch is that there are developers and suppliers/sellers out there who have merged their skills. Still, I think the developer needs to understand how eBay works in greater depth than the seller.

Sure, you can get the gist of how to operate a business by purchasing Marsha Collier's eBay for dummies book, but that doesn't go into depth on things like how to customize your store, or the eBay fee structure. These could each have it's own book written about it. Insertion fees, reserve fees (hefty at 1%, but fully refundable if your item sells - there's a nice little gamble), final value fees, listing upgrade fees (i.e., $.40 for a 10 day listing), and the diminishing return of submitting your item with listing upgrades on a free upgrade day since everyone else is doing this too. Maybe I should try and write a book about it for developers, although eBay isn't doing a bad job with their developer's program.

What I really want to be able to do (and I think I know how to do it), is offer sellers a tool that’s easy to evaluate and has enough in-depth features to keep 'em busy for months. This means the ability to customize templates so sellers can choose a style and insert pictures however they please, any size they like, anywhere they want. I have a mockup for how to do this. This means the ability to craft semi-generic actions/macros to handle things like feedback. AAASeller has a feedback automation program works -- but it would be nice to have drop-down lists containing multiple choices for each automated response. Same applies to sales policy - why have just one? I'm not even a power seller and I have 2-3 sales policies. One policy for really nice stuff, another for regular stuff, and a third one for big bulky items that might require a local pickup.

Make it easy. Know where you stand. Macaroni and cheese. (I have to hire someone to help code all of this.)