things I thought of years ago and should be getting paid for

... texting on airlines.

I considered it just weeks ago as my mother flew solo, again, to her motherland, wishing I could send her an sms about the accident we almost had on the way home from the airport.

And that time when I thought some dude I had met in Europe was going to be on my flight home, I wished there'd been an onboard msn for us to talk of lattes in the red light district and our dreams of Mary Poppins bags and umbrellas.

But I first came up with the concept on a Year 9 trip to France. Sure, I was sitting next to my best friend for the 24 hour trip, but I had other friends rows back and I wanted to communicate. I wanted an instant messaging system to play with rather than the cards the air hostess gave us.

That was in 1999.

And now, in 2008 we have Air New Zealand installing an awesome new entertainment system that could have you talking lattes as you drink airline coffee and singing (by typing) your own version of Frenzal Rhomb songs as you're going home tonight from the land of cheese and champagne.

And I'm not getting a dime. Though it could take a while before we do some mile-high texting – I guess my cheque will be in the mail once it's fully operational.

You see, Mark Street (of Air New Zealand) had this to say to The Age:

It is something we will evaluate down the track. It does raise some questions as to whether you really want to be bugged by the person in seat '5b' behind you.

I'm not too impressed with his lack of enthusiasm. And as for that being bothered during a flight that you may just rather spend sleeping, I have a solution. Clearly, you can't be bugged if you're not "logged in", Mr Street.

To be honest, this whole flirting thing kind of bothers me a little too though. But I have been thinking. You know, FOR THE LAST NINE YEARS about this invention.

You could make it that only matches find out they have someone onboard that's keen. So, I enter that I think 16g is hot to trot. But if he thinks I'm dog ugly, or just hasn't noticed me, then he never knows. And is thus never bugged by my desire to flirt.

You just give your customer choice. Do they want to know who thinks they're cute? If so, you tell them. If not, they spend what time they would have been chatting up a milkshake, sleeping or just watching the same four episodes of Two and a Half Men over and over again.

It's simple (and totally my idea first!).

And so on.