As you can probably guess, with my background I spend a lot of time thinking about how technology can best serve this little business venture of mine. Lately, I’ve been focused on three things, each of which is useful in its own way.

Bitcoins

If you have no idea what these are, you’re not alone. Lately, I’ve been looking into the idea of accepting them as a form of payment for my work. Their existence has passed the five-year mark, so I’m not overly concerned about the level of adoption. What I am concerned about is the potential volatility of the currency. (More on Bitcoins here.) It’s something I am going to mull over for awhile and make a decision on near the end of December.

Kickstarter/Indiegogo

I’ve been debating using one of these two services to raise some cash via crowdfunding to expand the business. The most important part of this is getting the garage insulation finished and a natural gas heater installed so that I can start working through the winters. Secondarily would be the addition of some Anvil fixtures, and some other tools so I can stop mooching off of other local builders (A-Train and Peacock Groove, respectively). Again, this is something that needs a little bit of mulling over, but I’m going to try to make a decision on this sooner rather than later.

Garage Computer

This is something that’s going to happen once I have the place insulated and heated. I have an old Linux box that I want to put out there, so that I’m not putting my iPad at constant risk of damage or theft. A keyboard and mouse will be $15, but I’ll need to get a semi-decent monitor as part of this. Primarily, I want to be able to web surf (Chrome), pull up BikeCAD files, and maybe run a web cam out there.