Find A Tasting
As my kids have grown older, my wife and I have been able to do more wine tasting. Living in the Santa Ynez valley has made this an easy weekend activity. We loved to try a new tasting room each weekend, there is an endless supply.
One of the challenges for us is that she love dry wines like Sauvignon Blanc (dry) and I like Chardonnay (buttery), basically opposites. You would think that local wineries would know what other wineries had. They do to an extent. It was actually very difficult to find places she would like despite the fact that Santa Ynez does a lot of dry wines.
This got me thinking. What if there was an app that was like Yelp, but solely dedicated to wine tasting. It could help locals or people coming from out of town find the places that suited them the best. The app would be comprised of two parts: consumer and winery. The consumer can search for varietals while the winery can manage what tasting and wines they had available.
Visit the web site: Find A Tasting
Pocket Coach
When my kids were younger, I did a lot of coaching in softball and baseball. What I enjoy about these sports is that they are more accessible to the less athletic kids where as sport like soccer and basketball require more athleticism to be halfway decent. Because of this, kids that didn't mind putting in more mental exercises were able to be just as good as kids that were naturally gifted.
Baseball, is like golf, there is a lot of downtime to plan your next play. Each position has a set of plays to run through before each pitch and it depends on what runners there are on base. It's also a great way to keep young players focused in the game, especially for those in outfield.
With my kids, I'd play a game where I'd quiz them on what their position plan was with certain runners on base. It was fun game, like a brain teaser and wasn't hard. It also made them one of the best players on the field. Doing this gave me an idea for an app to help other kids. The app would allow players to quiz themselves and learn what different position's plays. This also applied to base running.
I ended up building most of the app and letting my kids use it for a while. One of the challenges with finishing is the juggling work, school, sports, and family. Perhaps one of these days I will complete the app and upload it to the app store.
App allowed you to pick your division, t-ball, rookie, etc.
Softball divisions
Player can pick their position, i.e. pitcher, right field, short stop, etc.
Position selector
The plan for a position was based on what runners were on base, 8 possible combinations
Position also indicated what to do if runners were stealing bases
A country club
Site Travelers
After my trip to Europe, which pre-dates smart phones, I had an idea for a site that was like Trip Advisor mixed with a Google search, more simple and straight to historic information. The idea was to have filter categories such as historic landmarks, museums, parks, etc. You can plan your route, whether you are traveling by car, train, bike, or hitchhiking and print the routes to take. Now that smart phone exist downloading the entire can be possible in offline mode so if you are traveling in an area without cell service you can still have your information available.