Childhood home on Google Maps

Growing up, I lived on a half mile driveway. When the county added 9-1-1 to the area they also gave names to driveways that met certain conditions in length and number of houses located on them. Ours was one of them.

So, at the top of the driveway, there is a blue street sign showing it's a private driveway, but it's there for emergency vehicles to be able to quickly identify the location if they ever need to (again).

I remember when the sign went up, a lot of people ended up taking a scenic drive down our driveway out of curiosity for what might be at the end. I don't guess I can blame them, since I would have wondered too.

However, when looking at the Street View on Google Maps, I noticed the Google car only made it about two thirds the way down before turning around. I wonder if he got spooked. Since my family still lives there and it's not uncommon at all for them to shoot their guns periodically throughout the day, I'd like to think that's what caused the Goog to turn back. It makes me laugh to think that might be the case.

Anyway, here is a picture from Google maps showing how far the Goog made it. So, tell me. Would you have turned around or gone to the end?

Readers and Non-Readers

Image by ~ Phil Moore via Flickr

Over the last 5 years I have been intentionally reading more books related to business and leadership. It's difficult to read books that are intended to improve your thoughts and actions in these areas and not think of the people you are surrounded by everyday.

The more I read the more it becomes clear to me the people who don't. They sound stupid and desperate in conversations related to a topic at hand because all of their contributions are based on feelings and personal experience (which is usually limited). That would be fine if they didn't try to sound like an authority on the subject. They attempt to contribute to every conversation, yet they don't have any intention of reading to learn more about a specific topic. Essentially, they become posers.

It's easy to spot the readers in a group. They're okay with telling you they don't know much, but you also know that in a very short time, they will know more than the posers about a given topic.

Meeting Tracker Application

From time to time, you may find yourself in meetings where others lose track of time when they are talking. Whether it is a one on one meeting or staff meeting, some people have diarrhea of the mouth. They talk in circles and conclude what they are going to say 3 or 4 times before shutting up. Some people like hearing themselves talk and look for any excuse to say something. However, you have to sit there and listen while maintaining your insanity.

So, as a antidote to these situations, I developed a concept for an iPhone application that would allow you to time people when they talk in a meeting or takeover a phone conversation. You can then track how much of everyone's time they monopolized. Below is a screen shot of my prototype. I used the Firefox extension called Pencil Sketch to develop it.

Anytime someone is speaking, you simply push the "Speaking" radio button to start timing the person talking. It will keep track of the time the person talked for that session and you can keep a profile of total time talked over the course of several sessions or meetings.

Future versions would allow you to even track how much money this person is wasting you or the company for every minute they talk. You can also get an idea of the average talk time of a single person in a meeting. I might also include a dating system, that would create a graph letting you know which day of the week a given person is most likely to speak the most.

Would you buy this App for $0.⁹⁹?

Are there any developers or graphic artist out there who would want to help me out? This may already exist somewhere - I'm not sure.

Poop Free Zones

Image by philosophygeek via Flickr

Just like the H.O.V. (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane on the Nashville Interstates during rush hours, I think there should also be P.F.B. (poop-free bathroom) hours.

It terrible to walk into a crowded restroom and wait in line while someone is in the stall stinking up the room. I realize you have to go, when you have to go, but perhaps they could go somewhere else during posted hours?