A friend called me the other day and said "What if I had a few hundred dollars, and wanted to go on vacation - where could I go?"
So I gave it some thought, and realized that I had a pretty good idea how to build something like that. A simple google-like site where you put in your starting city and a $ amount, and it would find you flights, hotels, activities, all kinds of stuff. Silly, yes, profitable - I'll let you know. A man can dream, can't he?
Without the modern "programmable" internet, it would be impossible to build such a thing. Essentially, just about everything you would ever want to know (and some things you wish you didn't) is out there basking under the warm green glow of an ethernet cable.
I made my first localhost TCP connection on a SCO unix shell account, via dialup from an Amiga 500 back in 1993 or 1994 (amaranth.com, I believe) using Berkley sockets in good ol' C, and a health dose of man() and apropos() commands. I used Lynx to browse the web. Netscape ( 1995? ) was mind blowing. Every new thing, every little discovery just astounds me. Its like being in a continual state of awe.
The Internet, at its fundamental level, is really cool. And can be pretty frightening as well. This isn't a news flash, just wanted to let you all know I share the sentiment.
Oh, and go checkout Skeedaddle, and we'll talk about profits later 