Department of Good Ideas

My wife complains frequently that some unnamed person in our household leaves tissues in their pocket that implode in the washer, the electro-plaster everything in the dryer (the inconsiderate cad!).

The obvious dawns on me - why not make a Kleenex that is washer-proof.   A better material?  Different weave (does Kleenex have weave?).   Maybe it breaks cleanly into a few large pieces?  Maybe it dissolves to nothing in hot water or air?   How many domestic engineers would stock a better Kleenex to avoid the mess?

Our nation is covered with blacktop. How much is hard to determine but the southern states bath these black strips in sunlight for 12+ hours a day. Why dont we tap this infrastructure for power?

Surely you chemists can come up with an additive to our asphalt that let’s it do some double duty for power generation. It might not be easy to figure out but a nice patent in this area could be worth zillions to the world wide energy and construction companies.

What’s up with dust on cars?  Why does it stick so well.   I have an old Porsche and after a few days in the garage it’s dusty.   Why doesn’t it just blow off when I tear down the street?

I did a little digging on dirt and didn’t find a satisfactory answer except its a bit sticky.  So what?   We have great slippery surfaces like Teflon and better.  These compounds are in car products so what else is the problem?  Electro-magnetic attraction?  That’s my best guess but this would be pretty easy to solve too with some conductance added to paint and a slight opposite charge applied.

Hey,  I know I can get my duster or hose out but seems this would be a huge selling point for a car - the dust blow right off.

What’s the deal here?

So the cool Blackberry Curve with Wi-Fi is out from T-Mobile. I ordered one and it arrived. Yeah!

Oops, spoke too soon. Someone opened the box and took the phone!

Darn, I know it’s a cool phone but I didn’t think it would get lifted in the mail!

What’s the world coming to?

What if you could just think and cause things to happen? Would you multi-taskers be unfettered by your lowly bodies abilities?

Looks like it’s coming. A report from New Scientist shows a new mind controlled wheelchair. This is great news for the handicapped and speechless. It works using subvocalization. You think of saying the words and it picks up the signals reaching the larynx, interprets them and executes. NASA has been working on similar ideas. You can check it out on Gootube also.

I guess this wont work for multi-taskers that chat on the phone and do five things at once but it’s a great start.

The iPhone reduces it’s price by 30% after 2 months. Here’s what happened:

Apple’s spin: “We wanted put some heat on the competitors.”

iFanatics: “Huh? Steve, you ripped me off - how could you (sniff)?”

Apple’s spin: “Here’s a $100 in iMoney. Have a good day.”

iPress “Front page news every day! We love Apple!”

Apple Spin Doctors: “Job well done team, buzz is at an all time high.”

Reality: Apple product marketing screwed up. Misjudged the market and priced iPhone too high. Did you notice there was no shortage of this product? No? There was no shortage. Too expensive, not enough sales.

Apple Spin Doctors are unmatched on this planet. Well done, indeed.

When our blue marble was created it’s geology gave us two fantastic gifts.  Our hot molten core gives us the magnetic field that defends us against solar winds that would turn us to corn flakes.  It also gives us a worldwide supply of heat that can be used to generate electricity - and I mean a lot of electricity.

A report from a panel of experts at MIT found that the US could tap this heat and create lots of clean electricity with little requirements for new technology.

The findings showed that drilling  wells to reach hot rock and connecting them to a fractured rock region that has been prepped to let water flow through it creates a heat-exchanger that can produce large amounts of hot water or steam.  These in turn run electric generators at the surface.   Even better, the drilling and prep work are very similar to techniques used in oil extraction today.   In the west there hot rocks are closer to the surface and easier to drill but the hot rocks are everywhere.

The 18-member panel reported that there is enough geothermal energy under all our feet to deliver the entire 27 trillion kilowatt-hours of energy we consume and support our energy consumption at its current growth rate for more than two millennia.

Rumors are still flying about Google’s phone. Is there really one? This sure is a crowded space - Goog - do you think you should focus a little? My search results aren’t getting any better …. What is the niche for Google’s phone? Google requested to the FCC to require the winning bidder for old TV airwaves create a network unlocked for use (no locked phone and no locked services).  The idea is a very interesting market changer.   Is Google trying to help us wireless junkies?   No, this is just part of their monopoly play.  They can’t let the big CellCo’s dictate which phones and services you can access.  That leaves the CellCo’s between the users and Google.   That’s bad for Google.   However, if this neutral networks is created I can see a big new niche opening - open airwaves and maybe a GPhone with an open OS on the phone.  That’s a new world indeed.

I have played with the iPhone. It has big cool factor and I was pretty happy with the ability to type on it. That was one of my biggest worries - no tactile feedback. But I’m a business users and that phone just doesn’t fit the bill on email use. I really don’t need to surf photo’s and Youtube on my phone. I used to complain about having too many devices but now my iPod is so unobtrusive and tiny, it’s not a factor. I joke with my friends, if they really want to integrate music on their phone to just tape their Nano on the pack of their Treo.   And there is that stupid AT&T lockin.  Wait for another generation and see.

Frankly, the best answer out there is the T-Mobile HotSpot @ Home with a Blackberry Curve this month. Free Wi-Fi calls from my house or office (that’s 80% of my calling) and the great email and keyboard of the Curve. Super! Still have to tape my iPod on the back…

Alternatively - Does your dog think you are a dog?

A man watering his yard asked the boy taking his dog for a walk “Cute pup, what’s his name?”   The boy replied “I dont really know but we call him Rover.”

Dogs don’t have self-perception like we ugly-bags-of-mostly-water, when they are 2-6 months old they appear to classify things.   Companion, threat, food.   Sheep can be companion or food depending on how you raise your pet carnivore.   If you go the companion route, they are loyal and protective.

Do they consider us dogs?   I don’t think they consider us Gods like White Fang.    We are companions to them, we protect them, we are loyal to them.  I think, yes, we are dogs to our dogs.

More insights on our broken world.

I have 4 years of college math under my belt.  3 years of biology, physics, chemistry, psychology, anthropology, and much more.   I’ve been studying Kung Fu for 3 years with paid instruction 2 days a week. Private tennis lessons.  Swim team training.
But what about these seemingly important topics:

• How to be married:  0 hours
• How to raise children: 0 hours

The average 16 year old soccer player has had 1500 hours of coached soccer practice, but only 50 hours of driving experience is require to get a driver’s license!