Education Database

A while ago, my fiancee and I were talking about her job as a High School Guidance Counselor. We were discussing some of the downfalls and problems she faced and what she lacked in resources. In particular was the lack of background on students and the backup paperwork that showed their progression throughout their educational career. This is the part that interested me the most since, at the time, I was taking courses in Management Information Systems at college.

I talked to her more about the subject and what I found astounded me. The school systems do have a database for the students; however, there are several different ones to track different areas (i.e. grades, attendance, courses, etc). On top of that, different school systems use different database programs. So, a student transferring from School A to School B doesn't bring any backup education information along except for their transcripts which doesn't show everything about a student. More importantly, the backup they do bring is paperwork so it is not electronically stored, they just enter in the classes taken and throw out the rest. Furthermore, a student going from grade school to middle school or from middle to high school doesn't have his past keep up with him. Basically, there is very little tracking being done within the educational system for our students. Because of this, their needs and requirements are not met properly.

My proposed solution to this, one which I dont have the necessary skills for, is to make a database that tracks the student from the day he or she enters school to the day he leaves. The program would not just track classes but it would track grades, behavior problems, attendance, etc. This system would not just be for one school, it would be for practically the whole country. This way, when a student transfers to another school or district or state, the school administration can just reassign the student to the new school and allow the new school to have a better understanding of what the students needs are. Not only would this be beneficial to the school and the student but it would be a huge help for state officials to track each school districts requirements and make the necessary changes in allocating resources.

There is a lot more going on in my mind as to how this could work but this is the basic outline of the system I envision and how it would help alleviate a problem occurring in the school systems. Unfortunately, I have neither the time, money or the skills necessary to make something like this a reality. So, if anyone out there can throw this thing together, more power to you and I hope it works out.

Now down to the final part? Good idea or a load of rubbish? Any thoughts or modifications that you think should be made to the grand idea?

Thanks for reading,

Bob

Transferrable Christmas Gift Cards

Since it's that time of year for giving and sharing and since I recently just had a situation were I wished that something like this existed, I figured now is the perfect time to bring this one up.



Before I begin, I don't believe it exists yet. I don't know why because it seems very logical. However, I only searched for about 15 minutes when I was at work so I wouldn't say that my search was thorough. With that said, if someone can find this, I would love to know where it is.



The Gift Card that can be transferred!!!



Gift cards have become more and more popular over the years as a way to give without giving something the person wouldn't like. They're actually lifesavers in tough situations where your mind just goes blank. Billions of dollars worth of gift cards are sold every year. However, something like one billion dollars worth of gift cards go unused each year and that number is growing. That's insane!

Well, the day after Christmas, I became enlightened. I received 4 $50 gift cards this year. One of them I spent $7 for food at the mall. Several hours later, I used anotehr one for a pair of $40 sneakers. Another one I used for gas for the car and the last one I used $40 in taking Melissa out for some dinner. Out of the $200 I received in gift cards, I know have $68 left. However, that money is divided into four cards. Three of the cards have under $10 on them and the other one has close to $40.

Now, you might think that that is no big problem but in fact it is. Sure, you can go to stores and give them al four cards for them to swipe but not only does this hold up the other people in line, some stores either haven't taught their employees how to do it or their registers just can't do it. Another case in point is online shopping. Sure, you can use gift cards but I have yet to see a site that allows you to use multiple ones. For instance, Melissa went online the other day to purchase something for our upcoming wedding. She had several gift cards she was going to use. So, she entered the first gift card number and was about to go to the next when the website (a very prominent one) decided that just one card was good enough and charged the $100 purchase to the $30 gift card. The whole transaction went through! So, we got $100 worth of stuff for only $30. Of course, the next day, the website stated that there were insufficient funds but there have been other times that it has worked for us when we clearly didn't have the money on the card.

My random idea for today, albiet quite obvious but maybe not lucrative for gift card distributors, is to make gift cards transferrable. By that I mean that if you have two Visa Gift Cards and you want to take the remaining balance on one and bring it over, you should be able to do it. Essentially, a gift card is just cash thrown into a piece of plastic so why not treat it as such. I guess this hasn't been done because of potential losses to the gift card distributors? Maybe a possible solution is to charge a small transfer fee to offset the loss. I have no idea but I think it would be a great idea and save millions of people the hassle of dealing with multiple gift cards. Not only would it save on the consumption of plastic but it would also save a little space in your wallet.

So, what do you all think? Good idea or a load of crap? Let me know.

Happy Holidays and Hassle Free Shopping.

Regards,

Bob

Weather.com meets Tom Tom

It's a habit of my fiancee, Melissa, to check the weather for the coming week on Weather.com. Although I tease her about it, it is pretty useful in some situations. She mainly uses it to pick out her outfit for the day or maybe see what the weather will be if we are planning a trip. Either way, we tend to use it a lot.

Probably one of the most useful devices I have right now is my Tom Tom One GPS. I absolutely love it. Honestly, I don't know what I would do without it anymore. For instance, the other day I forgot it in Melissa's car which seemed like no big deal since I was just going to work; however, during lunch I needed to run an errand to a place in a town I knew very little about. Of course, I ended up getting lost and took about 15 minutes until I could figure out where the hell I was. I definitely regretted not having it.

Now for the newest random idea. On a recent road trip, I had a sudden idea. Why not combine the two and install them in cars. Now, I know this idea has been done in a way but this would be a huge modification. If the Weather Channel made a deal with one of the car companies and GPS companies, they would stand to be one of the most accurate weather stations in the country.

Here's the idea: install a GPS with a weather gauge (i.e. thermometer, barometer, etc). The device could be realtively small and installed in the car where it had access to the outside weather. The various gauges could constantly measure the many different aspects of the weather. The data would then be constantly streamed to a GPS which would be connected via satellite or wi-fi or whatever to the internet. The data would then be sent via internet connection to weather.com which compiles it. The compiled data is then displayed on their website. The website can then stream the information back to the GPS to give the driver the most accurate weather forecast for his/her planned trip.

Now to paint the big picture. Imagine just 1/10 of the cars on the road with this service. Hell, even less than that would be amazing. All of these various readings could be compiled every five minutes from coordinates all over the world. So, say 100 cars in the town of Belmar, NJ were outfitted with this device. Instead of the Weather Channel and it's website having a reading from just one location in the town, it would now have 100 readings and a very accurate one at that. It could also give a better reading on the current conditions and possibly come up with a better forecast of weather to come.

Sure, there are some things that need to be addressed. The internet service for one could be expensive; however, with the revenue generated from the extra traffic to the website and station, the company may either be able to subsidize the costs or even pay for the general service itself and additional features would be extra for the driver.

I think the possibilities are endless and could definitely help out the area weather forecasting since it is prety inaccurate as it is.

So, what do you think? Good idea, bad idea? Something that could be worked and tweaked a little to be a great idea?

Well, at least I got that one out there. That's been bugging me for a week.

Thanks for reading,

Bob

Morning Coffee

Good Morning and Hello to my new blog!

Every day, I drive 45 minutes to and from work along the same stretch of road with the same scenery and most likely the same northbound drivers. Nothing really ever changes. Sometimes the traffic might be a bit worse, there might be an accident or maybe it's summertime and the benny's (Central Jersey beach term for northern vacationers) are coming down to our beaches for a little vacation. But all in all, it's the same old stuff every day (except weekends).

Due to this monotonous routine, I have ample time to myself during my commute. And how do I spend it? I think. I think about the day ahead, the prior day events, what my lie ahead of me in the future but most of the time I just come up with random ideas. I am sure there are a few of you out there that do the same thing.

It's an odd habit actually. I'll use an item or perhaps just read about it and then my mind starts racing. I start imagining all the possibilites of what that particular item could do. Then I start thinking of slight modifications that could be made to make it better. Or, I decide that there might be another purpose for it. Other times, I just come up with random ideas that could be used in everyday life that may not be available now but could be with the current technology. Sometimes, I'll hear a problem someone is experiencing and think of something useful, either an item or service, that could be introduced to fix the problem.

This is how my mind works. It can be frustrating at times because it consumes me. I think of something I think would be very useful and then I think of all its possible applications, how itr would work, who it would be marketed to and what problems it may be able to alleviate. If the idea is really good in my opinion, all I do is think about it and sometimes rant on and on to my fiancee (poor soul) about it. This can go on for a day or a week and sometimes even a month. However, the most frustrating thing of all is that I can never do anything about it. I don't have the skills or the resources. The only thing I have is my mind.

So, with all that out of my system for the morning, I will get to the point of the blog. I decided to create this blog to get these random ideas out. I figure if just one person with the necessary skills or resources reads about it and likes it, they can take it and run with it. If you, the reader, likes an idea and knows someone that can do it, let them know. If you think an idea is good, tell me and vice versa. Hell, if you have the same problem as me, post your idea in a comment.

Whenever I think of something new, I'll make sure to post it. If nothing else, at least it will be a way to get it off my mind.

To those of you who decide you want to take the time to read my blog, I thank you and wish you the best of luck in perhaps making one of these random ideas a reality.

Regards,

Bob