VenChar

Scott Adams and incremental innovation

Michael Schrage at Technology Review offers up this interesting anecdote:

Even before the Internet was a gleam in Jeff Bezos’s eye, Scott Adams—Dilbert’s creator—got his syndicate to agree to attach his e-mail address to the strip. The reason, Adams has explained, was to see what kind of reader feedback—if any—e-mail accessibility might generate. In fact, he still gets much of his best Dilbert material from reader e-mail... The simple act of tagging a comic strip with an e-mail address proved brilliantly innovative. Getting your fans to subsidize your creativity—for free!—is an enviably efficient business model.

Solar-powered wireless-enabled parking stations

Daily Wireless writes about wireless parking stations being rolled out in Montreal to replace traditional parking meters. You would pull in to a parking spot, walk over to the parking station, enter the parking spot identification code and pay with cash or credit. Meter maids would be able to query the parking station using a wireless handheld and determine which (if any) of the spots are illegally parked.

Benefits to the city:
* fewer parking stations required (each parking station replaces 12 parking meters)
* more convenient for the meter maids - they don't even have to get out of their vehicles to check the meters
* stations are solar-powered, so no access to regular power is required
* parking rates can actually be altered from a central location, allowing the city to charge a higher rate during sporting events, concerts, etc.

The parking stations are being developed by 8D Technologies in partnership with Cale Systems. The system runs Linux and uses GPRS for connectivity. Daily Wireless makes the point that when you tally up the access fees for GPRS, this begins to look like a pretty expensive solution. Yet another good application for ubiquitous WiFi coverage.