Business Idea of the Day

Via: TechnaBob.com

Chris Schultz can divide his time in New Orleans into pre- and post-K periods: before and after Katrina reports Portfolio.com . For Schultz, founder of the technology incubator Voodoo Ventures, the difference is that stark. What Schultz—who founded and sold an Internet travel business, Destination V.I.P., before moving to New Orleans from Los Angeles in 2002—has seen in the last five years is new blood in the Big Easy. “We had an amazing ‘brain gain’ post-K of smart, passionate young people moving to New Orleans to make a difference,” the 36-year-old told Portfolio.com

If you’re having computer problems, who do you call? If your computer is outdated then tech support for your machine might be out of the question. However, to take your computer in to a repairman can cost $50 or more just for a consultation and if you want them to come to your home that fee only gets higher. One entrepreneur has found an alternative to the traditional tech support that allows you to pay for only the time spent helping you, whether it is 5 minutes or an hour. Computer Specialist Online was started by Ramanath as an alternative to fixed rate services that overcharged customers the only needed simple solutions

Tom Quinn isn’t the kind of entrepreneur who needs help getting his ideas in front of the right people. So why is he pitching his latest idea—a portable system to convert food scraps and other waste into ethanol—on a website frequented by basement tinkerers and dorm-room startups? Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Quinn’s E-Fuel is among more than 1,000 companies, inventors, and students vying for funding in a General Electric contest called the ecomagination Challenge

An entrepreneur from Brunswick is hoping to save a lighthouse and keep it in the hands of the locals reports Mainebiz . Bob Muller, a consultant with a background in IT and high-tech image mapping, is scrambling to crowd fund between $75,000 and $150,000 in individual $49 donations in order to buy the lighthouse in Casco Bay, which the U.S. General Services Administration is currently selling at auction. He launched a website yesterday and has begun a social media marketing blitz. His challenge is raising the money in a matter of days.

Who doesn’t remember Marty McFly’s power lace-up Nike kicks from the fictional year 2015? Well, the scene must’ve had a lasting effect on Nike, because as the real year 2015 approaches, the company has filed a patent for an automatic shoe-lacing system that eerily resembles the one scene here: Editor’s Note: Shouldn’t the movie clip be considered prior art and thus the patent could not be issued? Via: HolyKaw Photo by USPTO

TechEye.net is reporting that Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, has sued Apple, Ebay, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Youtube, Netflix, Office Depot and Staples – as well as the company formerly known as AOL – for allegedly infringing a number of patents he owns. Allen has not sued Microsoft. Technology which Allen says he owns was developed in a Silicon Valley laboratory called Interval Research and the patents are part of a large collection he owns. The four patents in question describe elements that let internet companies hint broadly at products they might like, or people they might become friends of. Other patents pull in stock market activity and news updates related to the stuff that someone is browsing on the interweb

Amanda Dorsey has spent dozens of hours categorizing search results on eBay, verifying search-engine links and doing other online jobs for CrowdFlower Inc. , a San Francisco employment agency.

If you find yourself in the Hattiesburg area and you’re interested in learning a little bit about entrepreneurship and how business works then head on down to Pearl River Community College. Working together with MyBizAM project, they are offering a 33 hour Southern Entrepreneur Program (SEP) reports hattiesburgamerican.com . The program will teach individuals the basics of owning a business, how to create a business plan, accounting and marketing. Cost is $25 for the participant workbook and jumpdrive. The program will be taught twice at the PRCC Lowery A