Ideas & Thoughts (11/23-11/30/09)

1. This is more for my Maker co-op, and is an idea with :CueCat specifically in mind – Using barcodes on a card game. Yes, it’s been done, but it would be fun to build your own game and a system designed around it.

   How it would work: A slip of paper with a unique ID would be included in each pack of cards. After receiving the cards, you’d go online and register them using the ID. You can play the card game in person or online, but additional functionality would be added for online play.  The game would be played on pieces of land constructed into a larger continent or world, which you would acquire through gameplay.

   Online bonuses would include game saving and world building, but would not be limited to that. I’m still wondering about other options for enhancing the online experience while still making the game fun in person.

2. A baseload OS for kids. Does this exist?  Essentially, you’d pop a CD into a cheap laptop or computer, load the OS, and have a computer running that’d be kid-safe and easy to manage/monitor.
3. I had an interesting conversation with my father-in-law this weekend about cameras, cars, and radios.  The main thread?  You used to be able to fix all of these things yourself, and now, instead of doing that, you just garbage them and get a new one.  The idea: Getting back to open source hardware.

   You already see this some with things like the Arduino, but I’d like to see more stuff out there that you could take apart, fix, and modify without a hassle.  I’d especially love to see an open source car.  How cool would that be?!

So that’s just an abbreviated list of the junk I’ve got scribbled into my Moleskine.  What do you think?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 4:16 am and is filed under Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.