Where
Things Work RightWhere
Things Work Right
** New ideas added 02/18/07 starting at number 299.
299. End of the World Calendar -
Past and future.
This would simply be a calendar showing all of the dates in the past that
the world was supposed to end and
all of the dates in the future when it's still supposed to end. Each
date in the past would have a brief description
of the reason it was supposed to end and what happened to the believers
if it's known (like the group in France
a long time ago that thought it would end in a flood and built themselves
a boat to escape only to have the boat
flip over, causing them to drown). Each date in the future would
have a brief explanation of why it was supposed
to end. (Example: 12/21/2012 would be on the calendar becuase that's
when the Mayans thought the world would
end.)
300. Public Service Spam -
For the old and/or naive.
Normally I wouldn't encourage any form of spam but after hearing about
elderly people who have fallen for the
Nigerian email scam I decided it might be a good idea for the ISP's to
send out a bulk spam every now and then
describing this hoax and others like it so people won't get robbed.
Who knows, if it cuts down on the number of
people falling for the scams then we might all benefit. Theoretically
if the scammers stopped finding victims they'd
stopped sending spam, there being no profit in it.
301. Early Warning System -
Spinoff from the public service spam idea.
As I was going through the annos from the aforementioned idea it occurred
to me that there are a lot of things I do
on a daily basis on the computer that involve more than one or two steps.
Inexperienced users probably take even
more steps. With that in mind it might be profitable for a company
like Symantec to add a fee-based feature to its
antivirus product that would let buyers automatically receive emails tailored
to their interests and location that are
sent to them when the LiveUpdate process takes place during the initial
signon.
For instance, the program could be set up so that if you set on a flag
for 'crime reports' and keyed in a distance you'd
automatically get a list of the recent crimes falling within the distance
you keyed. Another flag could be set on for
'traffic reports' that would look for accidents between a start and end
point you loaded into the program. If a feature
like this was offered then I wouldn't have to mess around with RSS or jump
from site to site to get all of the information
I'd like to get. I could just fire up my email program, click on the message
from Symantec and find everything all put
together for me in one spot.
302. God's Top Ten -
Songs that is, not commandments.
It occurred to me while sitting in church the other day listening to the
parishioners and choir sing a hymn that many people
there probably had a favorite hymn. That got me to wondering about
what other religions sing so I asked a Hindu I know.
Turns out they sing during their services too. Now this isn't a call
for a list but it might be interesting to have each religion
pick their top 10 hymns (or whatever the equivalent word for their sacred
songs are) and put them all together into a
common song book for the world to enjoy. We might have to substitute
the label their God goes by in different versions
(example - God for Allah and Allah for God) but musical praise is musical
praise and God might appreciate it if for once
we were all singing the same song.
303. Car Escape II -
Let's make your escape a little more likely.
They make awls, special hammers, etc.. for breaking a window to get out
of your car when it's underwater. What they
don't make is a a convenient way to store them so you'll probably drown
when you're digging around trying to find them.
A folded pick that could be attached to the inside of your visor would
take care of this. As the car went underwater you'd
pull the top bar out so that it was at a 90 degree angle with respect to
the bar still attached to the visor. Then you'd just
swing the visor towards your window as hard as you could to break the glass.
304. Xmas Tree Ice Cream Truck -
Another salute to my laziness.
Some enterprising company should set up a flat bed truck that would troll
through neighborhoods looking for people who
want to buy Christmas trees. The trees would be set up beforehand and come
with and without lights. All of the other
paraphenalia associated with the holiday would also be offered during this
ones-stop shopping. I know I'd be willing to
flag down the truck and have them stick the tree in my house for an extra
20 or 30 bucks. It would cut down on several
trips to various stores that I know have to make to put all the pieces
together.
305. Stay Warm in the Water -
An anti-hypothermic lifejacket.
A long time ago I took a trip up to Mt Washington in New Hamsphire.
The temperature at the top was a hell of a lot
colder than the temperature down below. A gift store up at the top
sold little packages whose contents, when crushed
inside the bag, would emit enough heat to keep your hands quite warm (they
were almost too hot to hold). The makers
of lifejackets could add something similar to their product. They'd
be embedded in the inner lining where someone treading
water could trigger them as needed to warm the core of their body.
It might just buy them enough time to get rescued
before dying of hypothermia.
306. Salad Shooter Plunger -
Don't read this if you get queasy easy.
This idea would take a regular plunger and attach a modified version of
a salad shooter (or mixer) to it. When turned on
the blades of the salad shooter would descend from the bottom of the plunger
that was sealing the opening and grind their
way through whatever obstructions it encounterd. The blades would
be encased in a plastic expandable hose with rollers
on the outside surface that keep pushing it forward. The whole contraption
would be narrower than the drain channel. After
snaking its way through the obstruction the plunger would open an intake
valve and send a jet of water rushing from the toilet
bowl down through the drain to clear out the debris. Once that process
was completed you'd flush the toiled and the clean
water would then be shot through the expandable hose to clear off any debris.
With this taken care of the hose could retract
itself back into the base of the plunger and the plunger could be set aside
until the next time it was required.
307. MIR in Progress - Don't Move
Help me hold still.
I recently had an MRI taken and didn't experience any problems until the
next to the last sequence when the technologist
said there was a little bit of motion on the previous run so make sure
not to move on the next one. Of course this instruction
made me self-conscious about moving which in turn made it even harder not
to move. Seems to me they could have a tube
that would inflate once you're inside the machine to keep you still so
you wouldn't have to worry about it - sort of a full-body
blood pressure cuff. It wouldn't inflate enough to cut off your circulation,
it would just keep you in one position. If they
couldn't do a one-size fits all inflatable then they could take a cue from
the toy shirts they sell kids that come with a Superman
insignia and inflate to give them fake musles. I'd be willing to
put on a shirt and pants that inflated once I was inside the machine
to hold me in place (it should be noted that I'm not claustrophobic - this
might not be a good idea for people who suffer from
that).
308. Starry Starry Night -
For lazy amateur astronmers.
This would be a subscription-based service that would let you see the night
sky above your house without any light pollution
getting in the way. To use it you'd just sign on, key in your address
(or let a GPS signal figure it out) and then the nearest
satellites would give you a view of the stars after programatically adjusting
the angle to match what you'd see if you were outside.
Not only would this get rid of the light pollution that keeps you from
seeing what's really out there, it would keep you from
having to go outside and fiddle around with a telescope lens to get a good
view. It would also make it easier to watch things
like the Leonid Meteor shower which typically occur at an inconvenient
time (the wee hours of the morning). You'd just sign on,
hit the record button, and watch the shower at a more convenient time the
next day.
309. Rescue Ropes -
Something to grab onto.
It seems like there are always reports on the news of people being swept
into rivers during heavy storms, especially during
flash floods in the southeast US. It doesn't seem like it would cost
all that much to have coils of rope positioned under bridges
in those areas. As soon as a dispatcher got a call that someone had
been swept into the water they could punch in a code and
all of the ropes would drop down, maybe with a small ring attached to them
that would inflate as soon as they hit the water so
the victim would have a better chance to grab on to it.
310. Blind Side Lane Lights -
For those of us with poor depth perception.
There are a couple of highway junctions I have to drive through each day
where 3 highways merge into one 5 lane road which
then splits back into 3 different roads, one of which has a signal on it
to stop traffic. All merging and lane changing takes place
within a quarter mile and can happen at any speed between 20 and 60 miles
an hour depending on how badly someone wants
to cross a number of lanes and how good they are at doing it.
The problem usually comes up for me when I'm merging to one of the left
lanes and someone in my blind spot two lanes over
and a little ways back starts to merge into the same lane. Lane markers
that could tell when a car was crossing into a lane and
light up both markers for that lane for 20 feet in front of the car would
let me know someone was trying to get into the same lane.
When no one was changing lanes the markers would stay green. This
would probably be a fairly expensive traffic control aid so
I'd suggest installing it only in areas where there's a lot of merging
going on and a high accident rate due to that merging.
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