With two guys in my Entrecard queue who love to post about the food they eat and the restaurants they eat in (John Chow’s advertising here today, Alan from Affililate Confession is tomorrow), it seems like as good a time as any to post this…

From time to time, all of us eat out in restaurants.

I’d be willing to bet that you’ve had many experiences where you want something and your waiter or waitress is nowhere in sight.

Maybe you would like a refill of your drink. Maybe you’d like more bread. Maybe you just spilled something and need some more napkins. Maybe you have to leave but you can’t get anyone’s attention to get your check.

In my (fictional) restaurant, each table would have some sort of a switch built in. Keeping your switch in the “off” position means that everything’s great and would be akin to hanging a “do not disturb” sign on your hotel room door. Flipping your switch to the “on” position means that you need service. When your switch is flipped, a light with your table number would illuminate in the back and a server would immediately come to help. When they arrive at your table, they’ll flip the switch back to “off” and ask what they can do for you.

Think for just a minute how much better a simple little switch would make everything!

Whenever you want something - anything - just flip the switch and someone will arrive to your table within seconds. From the customer’s perspective, the service in this restaurant would be unparalleled.

The waiter/waitress would have better tips, due to the undoubtedly improved service they would be able to provide, not to mention the fact that they would be less stressed and actually be able to have some time to relax in the back instead of constantly walking around looking for people giving them the “we need something” look.

It would also be useful to keep servers away, because sometimes we all want and need a little bit of privacy. Have you ever been in a deep conversation or at the crucial point of a date or business meeting only to be interrupted by a talkative server?

Maybe it’s just me, but I would rather eat in a mediocre restaurant with instant on-demand service than a great restaurant where I have to wait 5 minutes every time I need something. And if you combine the great restaurant with on-demand service…hell I’ll go there every night!

Why doesn’t this exist? Or does it? I know I’ve never seen anything like it.

If you’re in the restaurant business, feel free to take my idea. Just invite me to the grand opening and credit me somewhere on your menu

If you’re anything like me, you frequently find a few stories in your feed reader that have been sitting there for a while, and you’re not sure what to do about them.

They don’t require your immediate attention, but you also don’t want to simply bookmark them and mark them as read, because you’ll probably forget all about them.

At the moment I have four posts like that in my feed that are relevant to this site.

Here they are in no particular order…enjoy!

1. Google employee and all around great guy Matt Cutts gives us three fantastic tips to protect your Wordpress installation, none of which I was currently doing. Fixed now. Thanks Matt!

2. If you’re doing any marketing with Google AdWords, there are some great tips to improve your quality score at a recent guest post on John Chow’s blog by Jonathan Volk. Jonathan, if you’re reading this, you might want to make the RSS links on your blog point to your FeedBurner URL. If someone clicks on the RSS icon in your address bar or the big RSS image under “RSS Subscribe” they’re not being included in your FeedBurner count. I’d be willing to bet you have a lot more than 122 subscribers (as of today).

3. Ever see the WordPress database error page (below)?

It’s displayed when you have an error with your database or if your server is down. If you have seen it before, it’s probably when a WordPress site succumbed to the Digg effect.

Not only is it ugly, but it can inadvertently expose some of your file structure. Earn Blogger shows us how to easily create a custom database error page, which is a new feature of WordPress 2.3.2.

4. I like premium WordPress themes, and have purchased a few of them myself. Blog Perfume just made me aware that WPDesigner has just launched a Premium Themes Club. It’s only $5 per year for unlimited access and downloads. The first theme is available now, and he’ll be adding one new theme per month. There will be no copyright labels and no links at the bottom of the themes.

I posted this article to another blog of mine on Saturday. It was very well-received and was picked up by StumbleUpon. With almost 10,000 views in the last 48 hours, I guess it’s pretty good, so I thought you’d like it as well…

• Wanna-be’s obsess about ideas. Entrepreneurs obsess about implementation. Don’t get stuck in Analysis Paralysis. Look at what the top income producers are doing and copy them. No need to re-invent the wheel.
• Wanna-be’s want more web traffic. Entrepreneurs focus on sales conversion. Use a marketing system that closes the sales FOR you! You do not want to be a sales person. You also want a system that will do this for your new members as well, giving you the ability to earn ridiculous amounts of residual income.
• Wanna-be’s focus on positive thinking. Entrepreneurs plan for multiple contingencies. Positive thinking is important but you are not a Jedi, yet. You cannot move things with your mind or conjure money out of thin air. Positive thinking will only get you so far. You must have Positive thinking combined with specific, targeted action.
• Wanna-be’s want to get on TV and get “famous.” Entrepreneurs build their businesses and their list. Let the ego go. Your only goal is to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible. This will inspire others to do the same.
• Wanna-be’s seek a perfect plan and wait for the perfect time. Entrepreneurs execute and take action when they see an opportunity. Entrepreneurs accept educated risk and are able to make big decisions quickly once they have all the information. Make a decision and take some risk. No successful entrepreneur accomplished any significant by playing it safe!
• Wanna-be’s wait for their lucky break. Entrepreneurs take responsibility and create their OWN circumstances.
• Wanna-be’s fear looking stupid in front of their friends. Entrepreneurs willingly risk making fools of themselves, knowing that long-term success is a good trade for short-term loss of image. Don’t listen to your friends and family-They are BROKE. They have zero credibility as far as financial decisions are concerned. Surround yourself with people who have results and do what they do. This is the only way to fast track your wealth.
• Wanna-be’s shield their precious ideas from harsh reality, postponing the verdict of success or failure until ’someday.’ Entrepreneurs expose their ideas to cold reality as soon as reasonably possible. Don’t be afraid to look stupid. That is just ego screwing with you. One way to know you are on the right track is when you lose anything in common with all of your brokes friends and family. They don’t count, unless you want their results! PERIOD!
• Wanna-be’s put off practicing basketball until they’ve got Air Jordan’s. Entrepreneurs practice barefoot behind the garage. Stop waiting for the perfect time, the perfect opportunity, the perfect situation. Take decisive action now and stop procrastinating.
• Wanna-be’s believe what they’re told. Entrepreneurs do original research and make their own decisions. Do your due diligence and follow you gut. It will rarely lead you astray.

You can have it all if you really believe you can. Figure out who you are, what you want, and stop settling for less!