OddThinking

As I have been working on the web-host transition, and bashing my head against Mod_Rewrite rules, I have been wondering why I am spending so much time on system administration tasks, when I am not being paid for it.

Here is my solution; how to monetize my elite web-skills.

I will host a web-site that offers to track mobile (cellular) phones.

The visitor will be presented with a short spiel describing how I’ve signed deals with all the major providers to gather signal strength information and triangulate the location of mobile phones to within metres. The spiel will talk about all the benefits this will bring to worried parents, to people who misplaced their phones and to the victims of phone theft. At the same time, there will be a clear subtext that the real potential benefit is in tracking your cheating spouse or stalking that cutie who works in head-office.

A free demo will be offered, where people can type in a phone numbers to trial the service.

When you enter a number, the service will use the country codes and local numbering plans to detect the area and provider of the phone. During the connection sequence, progress information will be displayed, reassuring the user that the correct provider has been found.

The system will then detect the location of the user via their IP address. That’s right, it ignores the entered phone number, and tries to guess the user’s location.

That’s the limit of the demonstration. The site will promise to provide more accurate data for a low, low yearly subscription, that will be deposited into my freshly laundered Paypal account.

Of course, it will offer no such service; it is a scam. If you are one of the (20% x 80% x 10% x 1% =) 0.016% of the visitors suckered by my scam, your money will be gone before you realise that!

If I was ever to use my powers for evil rather than good, I would be rich, rich I tell you!