I would love to hear what the community has on their minds that truly unique
I had an idea years ago that I was able to share but it never came to fruition. I work for a large financial institution. (I know...). Anyways, I pitched the idea of a high-end rewards card, kind of the opposite of the Amex Black Card. Instead of accruing points that you could use to buy things for yourself, my card would allow you to adopt a specific child. Let's call her Maria. Every point you accrued would go to help out Maria. Maybe it pays for books, schooling, clothes, food, a savings account accessible to her after she finishes school, etc. Your card would literally have Maria's face on it. I called it the Care Card and the tag line was, Spend With Purpose. I was able to get the idea to the upper echelons of my company but the response I got back was that while people say they care about helping others, their behaviors show different. However, nothing like my idea had ever been done before. Companies have had cards that help organizations, like cancer, hiv research etc. But NEVER a specific person. That's the difference and it changes a consumers perception of their own behavior. All of a sudden, you want to pick up the bill at the restaurant because you are helping Maria. Your altruism is worn on your sleeve. People are vain, why not play in to that AND help someone in need? Anyways, that's my idea. I think I'm going to pitch it to another bank.
I like your idea a lot. The idea that people don't really care about helping others is hard to square with the amount of charity people give, as well as the cards supporting institutions you mention. It seems like the challenge would be to convince a bank to extend into such a specific and personalized form of charity. Did you envision a partnership with a charitable institution that would handle Maria's end, so the bank could just cut them an occasional check?
Glad you like the idea.Did you envision a partnership with a charitable institution that would handle Maria's end
-Yes.
Oh man. When I was a little kid (~5 years) I had the best idea in the world... THE QUADRATANK! This baby was 4 steel cannons of pure freedom on treads. Did they all face the front? Fuck no. They were pointed in a cross. Because you never know when you'll get surrounded by enemy tanks and have to kill 4 of them at the same time. Of course they'll be at those exact angles! My little heart swelled with so much pride that I actually mailed my idea, complete with a sweet drawing, to the US Army. Never did hear back though, so they must have their black ops guys working on it, deep in some top secret bunker. Any day now...
They only want to whip out the Quadratank when the shit really hits the fan. One day, you'll see...
God help us if we ever have to deploy such a destructive weapon.
There's probably some engineers somewhere who thought of them, but I had a few ideas for various things: Instead of directly motorizing joints or using hydraulic pistons for exosuits/exoskeletons, why not mount motors where it's convenient and use the same system that muscles use by attaching the wire on the target limb from the front of back? For instance, leg movement. There could be four, six motors mounted on the thigh - two or three per direction. Each motorized group drives a spool/arm to which some steel wire (possibly knotted if it's a single strand for both directions) is connected - one anchor point about two or three inches below the front of the knee, one anchor in the middle of the calf at the back. The motors move the bar/wheels, which pull at the limb. More efficient than motorizing joints, less bulky than pneumatic/hydraulic systems. It would still need a power source, but unless I'm missing something a good power pack could power it for a few hours (or maybe even a small streamlined engine, or something related to my ideas below) considering that, since it doesn't pull close to the joint, it should require less power to do work. Plus, with this system, it should be relatively easy to implement a lock system - just immobilize the bar or wheel and the thing stays as it is, without needing power. And for heavier applications? The motors, instead of driving the pulley directly, drive a flywheel - for instance, on legs, the flywheel to put the legs 'down' could rev up while the leg goes up. And I'm not entirely sure that it's not possible to use gravity or inertia to have regenerative recuperation somehow). Another idea is general spring-power. I have no idea how efficient or energy-dense it would be, but I was thinking we could use springs (considering we already use flywheels) for energy storage. For that, I specifically thought of a few nested or stacked torsion spring designs. The first one was, in essence, solidly linking the ends (middle or outer) of oppositely-placed torsion springs (because I noticed that, in torsion springs, linking two aligned springs is much like moving the middlepoint of two stacked linear springs) and continuing to place them in series to make what is, in essence, a more compact and manageable but still huge torsion spring. Varying the girth and length of springs could power different applications - you could place a 6-inch spring along almost the whole length of a car, connected to a gearbox. Rewound by a port at the front, and it EASILY could implement regenerative braking by having a system either have another, lighter drive bar underneath it that feeds the spring back when the drive is disengaged and the car is still moving, or simply having a system put the gearbox in reverse while trying to stop. A smaller but wider two-layer spring, coupled to a small gearbox (or flywheel system) to produce power. Third idea was for several form of wheel-motors for vehicles, and how to make them usable in areas laden with potholes, or offroad, or other suboptimal conditions. I probably have the concept drawings somewhere... Also, somewhere I have some documents on theories on how we could make cars that handle like the ones in 'I, Robot'. Along with a nifty three-wheeler three-to-five seater sedan concept to go with it, including a few configurations (most of them electric, but I managed to klugde an engine drive in there somehow - most of the ideas on having universal steering aren't friendly to driveshafts) ALSO, I once thought about the EMdrive and I realized that the reason why it might just work is because of radiation pressure - it literally uses photons/an electromagnetic field as a propellant (since it's open only on one end, IIRC, it pushes asymmetrically on the container which causes thrust - the particular shape might just be the ideal shape for containing and amplifying (perhaps even causing resonance) at the given frequencies. And if that's the case - pumping enough energy into it might just make it a vacuum laser). Also, while I didn't have the mathematics down and there was a few flaws, I came to the conclusion that the reason our mathematics were all wrong is because we adhere to a vehemently cartesian point of view - while we should at LEAST use a polar, if not angular point of view - since everything is relative, we should use relative measures (and from close enough, any curve becomes straight, and because of optics any 'straight' line is actually the curve to an unfathomably large curve (and that was also the solution to the coastline issue - it's not that the coastline was infinite, it was just that our measurements weren't curved) that changes according to your point of view - and constant velocity in a straight line just does not exist in the universe - anything going at a constant cartesian speed finds itself either accelerating or part of a curve around something). Then I realized that most, if not all astronomical (including GPS) calculations were made by using angles... and converting it to cartesian metric when possible. Another of my musings: there is life, in the galaxy, without any doubt. However, I learned somewhat recently that relativity broke simultaneity - which means that, if FTL is truly impossible, the reason why we never have and most likely never will encounter alien life is that for all we know (and I'm pretty sure it's the case, considering the whole galaxy spins like a disk instead of like orbits) the other star systems/the whole galaxy is going 'faster than c' in classical physics, which means that we're all going at relativistic speeds, which itself means that it's not impossible that by the time anyone gets anywhere (even at close-to-light speeds), everything has already either died or left... which is also why I do not believe that extra-solar colonies will, at best, become a new Earth (because by the time they get there, Earth will most likely be vacant again) and they most likely will have tremendous issues, if not be unable, to contact the other colonies. At worst? Well there IS a theory about extra-terrestrial origins for humans... On a more lighthearted note, it just makes more sense to me that the velociraptor (and other feathered raptors) had them for aerodynamics and controls (I mean - if I had to design a vehicle that couldn't entirely depend on traction, had to deal with very rough terrain and had to make relatively sharp turns at 60 km/h, plane control surfaces DO seem like a good idea even if the thing isn't going to fly). And on an even more 'lighthearted' note, the song "What if God was one of us" never EVER mentioned that if God really was roaming among men, he could totally be an African warlord, the President of China, a Saudi oil tycoon or the CEO/a chairman of Wal-Mart/Monsanto/Exxon depending on how fancy he felt. Or he could be a famous actor ... OR maybe that song was not just a song but a statement, and God got tired and passed away in 2003 who knows. Just saying - if God was roaming among men, it doesn't mean he's going to be an average person.
1. Yep, that is pretty much how finger movement would have to be done. And probably other joints where practical. 2. Springs have a very poor energy density compared to other methods and this would not be practical. Relevant here to point out I have a BSME degree. Sorry. 3. EMDrive: Probably doesn't work. There needs to be a lot of evidence before it can be accepted. Photon propulsion is well known, the problem is that they are claiming a much higher force / efficiency than could be achieved with radiation pressure. Which is why it basically appears to violate the first law of thermodynamics. 4. " I came to the conclusion that the reason our mathematics were all wrong is because we adhere to a vehemently cartesian point of view " There are at least three statements in that sentence that are totally incorrect. 5. Relativistic speeds. We are going relativistic speeds - relative to the other side of the universe. It's moving away from us at nearly the speed of light and we are from it. Look up the Hubble Constant.
1. That's mostly where I got the idea, really. That's how most of our muscle groups work AFAIK. 2. I figured as much. Still a fun thought experiment. 3. I know it probably doesn't work. I'm saying that if it does, that might at least partially explain why. The EMDrive's shape would be to light what the cone shape is to chemical propellant. 4. Never said I was correct - that was me delving in things beyond my comprehension most likely. 5. Will do. Thanks!
The leg-joints solution you've described is pretty-much exactly how it's done in the Rex exoskeleton (I worked there a few years back).
The actuator motors push and pull like muscles do - 10 in all, 2x2 for upper leg, 2x2 for lower leg, and another pair near the hip for lateral motion. The motors were made by the same crowd that made the motors for the Mars rovers. Hydraulic power is out, due to risk of hot fluid / patient proximity, so it's all-electric. No actuator wires though (motors were directly connected to the skeleton), there were enough problems with system-slack as it was; wires would make the problem worse (it's critical to know physical leg position pretty exactly).
Not saying actuator wires, though. I'm saying wires attached to actuators - the actuators pull the wires, and instead of pushing back, to do the opposite movement you pull the opposite. Except that I can see actuators being a bit harder to use, so I was thinking more along the lines of a stepper motor assembly driving a bar (not unlike bicycle brakes) or a pulley (not unlike securing cord on flatbeds) that would pull the steel wire. Though I'm glad I actually did figure out something that actual, certified engineers have been using. Makes me feel clever.
I got what you meant; maybe I wasn't clear. The problem is that wires stretch. These are stepper motors.
Now I have a question. Just how much weight/force is involved into that suit for steel wire/cable stretch to be a considerable issue?
I'm a software guy so this isn't my area of expertise; I can't give you a numbers answer. The motors are quite powerful though, they can easily break bones, so user-safety was an important concern (especially since most users of the devices had no feeling and wouldn't know they'd been injured right away). However, in general terms - you command the motors to go to a particular position and stop; in zero-G, that would be the end of the story, but under gravity, there will be "sag" or "slack" in the system - it moves a little bit. It takes very little difference between "where I am" and "where I believe I am", to affect the machine's balance. Every linkage adds a bit more "looseness". As far as I know, wires were never even considered, because it's a pretty high-spec'ed wire that doesn't stretch at all. Hope that makes sense.
That can't possibly right, though. No matter where I look, the math doesn't support it - using 1x7 galvanized, according to this page, and assuming an extreme load of 600 pounds, it would still only stretch by ~0.01% of the cable's length - which, for a cable of let's say 18 inches for measurement, has about the same stretch as it has diameter - a quarter inch. For stretch-proofed cable, this calculator (assuming eighth of an inch diameter, 18 inch long 1x7 cable and generous 120 pounds-force load) gives an even drastically insignificant stretch - 4 millimetres. And unless they used slow, screw-gear actuators, I'm pretty sure that the inaccuracy is in similar numbers.
It would need to be accounted for, sure. I'm not saying it's not. But it's accountable for. And hence why I say it's not an issue. Hell, the control systems might not even have to deal with it if you design your thing so that the cable stretch is beyond negligible. Then again, I realized we were talking about two completely different systems. He was talking about exosuits to practically replace people's mobility. I was more thinking of strength amplification where the suit makes your movement stronger - but the accuracy is still governed by the human.
I'm not a mech, but 4 mm is far from insignificant. Also, you'd probably be surprised at how much force goes through the hip joints - I don't know the numbers, but that hip joint really had to be made tough. We destroyed a number of them.
4mm out of 460mm is not insignificant? It's less than 1%. Most people I know would call that number a rounding error. As for how much force goes through the hip joints - I am aware, that is why I was suggesting to apply the force away from the joints. Do you not know of the lever principle?
This is going to get you into trouble: you're talking to someone who was actually involved in systems very similar to your ideas, and is giving you boots-on-ground examples of why the things you haven't considered are preventing your ideas from becoming reality. Your response is to argue with his reality. I am a mech so I'm going to give you some homework. Take a look at your hand. In particular, take a look at your index finger. Point it, then make a fist. Take note of where the extensor tendon anchors to your wrist. Point your finger and measure from your wrist to your second knuckle. Now make a fist and measure the same distance. What percentage difference are we talking about? I measure about 4 1/2" and about 5". That's a difference of about ten percent... and that difference governs 90 degrees of flexion of the knuckle joint. 1% stretch, then equals a loss of ten degrees of precision in positioning your finger - that's parkinson's territory. And that's just a finger. Imagine trying to run if you could only plant a leg within about 10% precision. Beyond that, motors don't lend themselves well to linear torque. As demonstrated, your total flexion for a rotational motion of 90 degrees is about ten percent... and the distance extended is handled much better by a linear ram (ANY linear ram). Motors are designed to spin, not rotate through a limited arc. And if you're actually moving your cables enough that they're being spooled, they've just become braided or twisted and are undergoing substantial deformation, which means their failure rate just skyrocketed. briandmyers didn't have to tell you this. He's seen it and knows there are problems. He's worked on this, and he's a clever dude. You, on the other hand, chose to dive into sarcasm in a comment thread where you disavow MATH for fuck's sake. You can choose not to believe in math but I'm here to tell you, friend, math believes in you... and when you whip out "the lever principle" in a discussion of mechanical engineering in which you don't know the players, your interests are best served by not being a smartass lest someone comes along to demonstrate your dearth of knowledge.
It's not going to land me in trouble for a few reasons: first, I don't particularly plan to implement those in a lifetime. Second, and it's something I apologize for, there's a point I overlooked: I realized that we were talking about two completely different applications. He was talking about replacing an user's mobility in medical fields. I was talking about augmenting an user's already existing mobility - this idea was mainly to amplify the strength of an user that already had full mobility. As for that stretch - that's 10 degrees only if you use a very basic driver. The wonderful thing about electronics is that you can account for that stretch. Or you could use materials science and use, as I mentioned, pre-stressed cable that does not stretch as much, or even design your system so that the cable is already under a tension high enough that any further stretch is even less of an issue (though I do acknowledge that this is not a fail-proof execution either). And as far as your example go - I also have issues with it. The one percent stretch I mentioned was in the case of an extreme load on a thick cable at a very high weight - something that would be found only in very overweight people or military applications. The aforementioned finger would, in all likeliness, never even reach 0.5% of that load. Using that same linked calculator, with a 6-inch 0.11 inch cable under 30 pounds-force of load, it's 0.02% of cable length - an accuracy of about 0.018 degrees, which I do believe is on par, if not finer than human motor control. For the motor issue, I'll give you that - but with a stepper motor (or an array of stepper motor) you could have enough control to make it useful. And I used the term spool to refer to a circular thing that turns and affects the "length" of a cable - or, as I mentioned, a bar. As for the "lever principle" thing, it was not sarcasm. I have honestly seen people with higher education, like software engineer, that forget about such basic principles. And I did not disavow math - math is the only thing that matters in engineering - I just consider all the options, like actually designing things to avoid the bigger math problems like stretching. But yeah - the lever principle comment was not sarcasm - it was merely to ensure that we had a similar knowledge base. It's not because he's clever that he didn't forget about things. Sorry if I came across as a smartass.
I don't know if it's an original idea, but I spend a lot of time in the non-profit world. They build programs that structure children's time in all these constructive ways - learning, building, educating - all stuff that's really mentally intensive and educational. But most at risk youth seem to have a time problem where they just need something to do. I'm of the opinion that if you just have programs where people work and work and work they are going to eventually get tired. My idea is to make a lan bar. Most people pay for membership but every membership pays for yourself and someone else who otherwise couldn't afford it. This kind of plays into two ideas - the first is the time thing, finding a way to just eat up the time of at risk youths to keep them off the street, and the other being a way of creating a space where folks from different classes and of different races come together under a shared hobby. I don't know if it would work, but it would be fun.
Capital and connections. I'm working with a few non-profits to try to get the idea in places, but none are really willing to front the costs for the computers and games. I also need to find a "cosmopolitan" area that rides the line between a lower level affluent area and a higher level at risk area. There are a lot of moving parts, but I'm hoping to fill in the gaps.
How about a new system of funding government. It is a simple system. Thoroughly explaining all of its permutations would not be practical. But here is an overview of how it may work in the United States. Its a rough example of the underlying principles for customizing a formula to fit most forms of government. Of course laws would have to be modified to fit this kind of system. The federal, states, counties, and local governments would each continue to collect fines and user fees such as tolls and license fees from within their respective jurisdictions. But sales taxes, value added taxes, capital gains taxes, both personal and business income taxes, and all of those kinds of taxes that require government administration for loads of invasive auditable documentation, would be gone. Instead private entities would pay a voluntary fee to a local level of government. Higher levels of government, such as counties, states, and the federal government, would receive a share of those fees collected by lower levels of government within their jurisdiction; perhaps by voluntary payment too. Everyone can choose to not pay anything too! Wait!!! You are probably wondering why would anyone volunteer to pay taxes. That may become more true after considering how the government would exert no duress under this system unlike many of the taxes currently paid 'voluntarily' by most Americans today. The reason is simple. If you won't help pay for government, then it won't be there for you. Now you are probably wondering about the age old question which asks what is an appropriate amount someone should pay to their government before they can expect it to work for them. This system provides an answer. Renegades, who most directly create the need for government, would continue to pay an involuntary fee for government according to penalties imposed by government for breaking laws. Think of speeding tickets as a mundane example of that. Of course the government would continue to prosecute all criminals to the best of its ability even if the criminal cannot pay restitution. But lawbreakers alone cannot be expected to pay for government. Everyone should pay for government according to how much we have to lose without the peace and stability offered by government. For the voluntary funding system I am trying to describe here, people and businesses would pay to a local government a percentage of the value of each transaction they may want enforced. To do that the value of the transaction would be declared in the form of a contract and registered with the local government. Each participant in a contract registers their part independently. Participants of a contract who do not register their part of the transaction within a period of time would not be able to sue if another participant breaks the contract. Damages awarded by the government would be based on the value registered. By the way, real property taxes can be similarly replaced using an annual claim fee. Essentially, taxes on private entities would be replaced by user fees. Local governments would pay a percentage of the transaction fees they collect to the next higher level of government, such as counties. Counties would pay a percentage of their share of that income to their state government. States would pay a percentage of that again to the federal government; and so on. In return, the higher levels of government would honor and help enforce the transactions registered by the local governments within their respective jurisdictions if there is a dispute. Funds not used to enforce contract law would be used to fund other functions of government. The main benefit for current tax payers to having higher levels of government collect taxes from only lower levels of government is more powerful representation. Besides the direct effect voters may have on each level of government, constituents get a well organized advocacy system, which are their more local governments, for controlling spending by higher levels of government. Local, county, and state governments would also get a direct incentive for helping to keep overarching government spending under control rather than just trying to get access to so called pork barrel spending. Keep in mind that government is supposed to have a monopoly on the use of force. That means private entities would not be able to do things such as confiscate property or evict anyone without the government's authorization. That also means gangsters cannot go around 'breaking kneecaps' to enforce contracts. So anyone who does not register their part of a transaction cannot expect satisfaction if they feel wronged by other participants in a transaction. There would probably be communities formed either virtually or on real properties which trust each other enough to forgo paying for the government to enforce their transactions. That should not be considered a problem. In theory such friends do not create a need for the basic functions of government. Nevertheless they risk being defenseless when unfriendly people decide to try taking advantage of their vulnerability. Relatively small transactions such as those involved for most retail sales can be registered in bulk by a middle party. Consumers could enter into a registered contract with a credit/debit card company who, for example, agrees to register all transactions they facilitate on behalf of their customer. There are endless ways consumers can be protected without having to individually register every single purchase. So for the most part the government would truly be voluntarily funded by a decentralized collection system which gets a share of almost all economic activity. The government would not need to track income or hunt for tax evaders. Local, county, and state governments would be incentivised to help keep government spending from becoming bloated. People and businesses would have more financial privacy.
Though what would prevent corporations from purposefully starving certain areas to kill off the government in that place and then take over as a corporate governing entity? Unless the Federal government enforces it. But then there isn't actually THAT much preventing companies from starving ALL governments and take over the whole country. And there's no way that there's enough people willing to pay enough to keep a whole country afloat.
Corporations cannot exist without government. Of course there can be a revolution which replaces the government with an existing organization such as a corporation. But then that corporation becomes the government. It will need to be funded too. Currently corporations which are larger than many governments are funded only by voluntary participants, if you don't include government subsidies. So it is not difficult to imagine governments too being supported strictly by voluntary payments from 'customers'.
I never said that it couldn't live without government. Notice the end of my first paragraph - I know that. "Corporate governing entity". And of course they need to be funded - but operating on soil you own and govern is, without a doubt, going to be a LOT cheaper than operating withing US regulations. And then they can provide a police force that keeps the peace and furthers their agenda and interests. And subcontract a medical company to take care of the wounded - which of course will be at a slim cost since they can always merge with a medical company for the purpose. And saying 'corporations which are larger than many governments' isn't hard considering that most African countries have a small GDP. And hell - for comparison, my CITY has more budget than Vatican City (which IS a country) by an order of magnitude. Now - if you can get me numbers on how many companies are larger than a DEVELOPED, PRODUCTIVE country, I'll agree with it. Because as far as I know, only the top 11 companies in the world have a revenue that can challenge the GDP of the developed countries with the lowest GDP - and four of them are 'western' oil companies, one of them is a Saudi oil company, three of them are owned by China. Then there's the Samsung Group. The only two companies which I could see could fit is Vitol, which manufactures commodities (and I don't have much info on it) and Toyota (which I can see fitting into the 'voluntary payments' part as they ARE stellar cars). And ignoring the government subsidies doesn't do much to help.
When I am bored and I have no access to distractions, then I try to keep my sanity by identifying and solving problems. I arrived at that particular idea about 20 years ago while working as a technician in a high speed automated process. By the way, I started doing that after I ran out of ideas for improving the job I was doing. Edit: I like your post which you linked. I will try to imagine a good contribution for it.
Live Posting. You have a blog on the site, and you can write anything your mind desires there. The poster uses Markdown to style their posts, which means that they can include audio, video, images, quotes, links and so on. They can time it (write fully and post later, or schedule a time and day for when they are to start writing it) or start spontaniously, with those who follow their writing being notified either way. The difference beign - once you make a new post, people can join as spectators: watch how you lay down ideas and comment on it live, with the poster being able to see them and respond, both in the post and in the comments. The poster has the option to hide the comments, but the brilliance of the idea is the interaction between the poster and the spectators/watchers/whatever you call them. It's the YouTube for writers and poets. I thought about making it happen, but for the moment it's just on the fringe of my web programming skills, and right now I'll spend to much time coding it. If nothing like this will appear on the Internet when I'm a more mature web programmer, I'll surely make an attempt at making it happen. I think it's a great idea that deserves at least a try.
I have an idea for a book. It's a cliche YA fantasy novel, where a group of kids are picked by prophecy to fight an ancient threat. The spin is that the ancient threat was a little late, fifteen or so years late. So the teenagers have all become middle aged. Just the thought of a pudgy accountant swinging an ethereal claymore warms the cockles of my heart.
Probably not original, but I'm surprised more solar implementations don't use a simple passive fresnel lens for a concentrator. Seems like a no-brainer for solar-thermal, and possibly a good idea for PV too, as long as the PV units are capable of handling the extra heat and energy; but I know nothing about PV tech.
Worked on thermophotovoltaic cells back in the '90s and holy fuck did we have lensing. It's really easy with a fresnel to push surface temperatures into "rapid mechanical breakdown" territory. I had a bitchin' 9x11" one as a kid that would not only fry ants, but if you held it right you could crack concrete like popcorn. That shit breaks down electronics about as fast as it breaks down ants. If you're going to concentrate light like that, it's much easier to pump it into a heliostat. In fact, that's pretty much a heliostat in a nutshell.
I had an idea for a startup in February of this year after I listened to some of my favorite content creators gripe about their troubles and taking an entrepreneurship class. It's a video sharing website anyone can upload to. I started learning how to code because of it. I even made some simple layouts for pages and stuff. The major problems I'm having right now are funding and servers.
Gods, I have notebooks upon notebooks filled with ideas for inventions, schematics, blueprints, architectural drafts. Very hard to pick one. The most recent one, from today: Problem:
Rulers, the kind used in offices and schools. Currently: flat sticks of wood, with numbers printed along the edge. Takes up too much space, always hard to find the right size storage space, is too oddly shaped for everything else it gets stored with. And it's so restricted, it can only measure set amounts, can't adjust for larger or much smaller distances. Very primitive. Solution:
Very tiny, smaller than an eraser, device. Lay it flat on a surface, and it has a tiny appendage jutting out from the bottom that you place over the point where you want to start measuring. An additional piece (most likely fitted into a storage slot on the eraser-sized device for safe-keeping, and you can press a button to locate the additional piece if it gets lost)... Set it where you want to stop measuring. Press a button, and a display in the side of the eraser-sized device displays the length, in whatever units of measurements you choose. You compensate for the two units being placed at odd angles by rotating the the top half of the eraser-sized unit until it aligns correctly with the endpoint set by the other device. Laser or similar line of light displays the path that's being measured. This only works for measuring flat surfaces, of course. The usual kinds of surfaces you encounter in an office, at a desk, and related.
There is an app for that
--- splitwise !! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Splitwise.SplitwiseMobile&hl=en
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/splitwise-split-bills-expenses/id458023433?mt=8
I have an idea for a music streaming service that I think would be better than the ones that exist now. Imagine a service like bandcamp.com (bc lets literally anyone upload and sell their music, and it's very successful with the indie scene), but with a library as extensive as Spotify or Google Play. Now, imagine that whenever you buy an album from this service, you also get access to stream every other song in their library for a month, like an added bonus. So not only do you get to permanently own the album you bought, you also get access to everything else, with the knowledge that your time will run out after 30 days. So you buy another album! And you get another month of streaming! 1) Anyone would be able to distribute their music on this platform. Taylor Swift and Kanye West are playing on the same stage as that kid from your highschool who just released his mixtape on facebook. 2) No "subscriptions." You buy an album, you also buy a month of streaming. You can buy two albums at once, and you get two months of streaming. Once your time runs out, you still have the albums you purchased. Albums today cost about ~$10, the same amount as a month of Spotify Premium. 3) Support Artists. When you actually buy an album, a larger share of money goes to the artist than if the album had been streamed. Because you can stream everything, people might choose to buy albums from lesser-known artists and then stream more popular ones, if it's all the same to them. This makes the little artists happy. 4) You don't need a label to become a trending artist. This is probably why we'll never see this. Today, music labels do litterally nothing (OK, they have connections and fancy recording studios, but this is the 21st century and their bullshit will come to an end eventually) and get nearly all of the profits. On this service, anyone could upload their music and they'd receive the same share from their sales as anyone else. I don't know if enough people really care about music to buy into it though. I would sign up instantly if someone came out with a service like this, assuming they had useable apps to make it worthwhile. Most people today are fine with internet radio through Spotify or Pandora and would rather have their music chosen for them. They don't care about albums. tries not to sound pretentious
If it still gave you flac files like Bandcamp does, I'd say that that's strictly better than both bandcamp and spotify and would probably use it. The main thing for me is the selection of music available - Any artist that's on there should have their entire discography available and in flac. The second thing is price. I'm not going to pay $10 for an album anymore unless it's literally not available elsewhere. Otherwise, I'm just going to torrent things. ------ My music-related idea is something that keeps track of what music you have already, and tells you if you're missing any albums/eps/etc from an artist (particularly, new releases - but older ones too). I've been making a script that fetches a list from Musicbrainz and you tell it what releases you have, and it'll output which ones you're missing, but the way you tell it is setting a number in a database. It'd be nice if there was a program that did this for you instead.
Legacy We have a lot of social networks. The thing is, it connects us with friends and family but most of the information on it is ephemeral. Legacy aims to let you share knowledge with your loved ones and grow together. It aims at aggregating content you find valuable and want to share with your kids, your brother, your best friends. Think of it as a portal. On it, everything you love. The sum of your knowledge, your favorite books, essays, movies, podcasts, series, your thoughts about relationship, life, fitness, politics, the universe, religion, friends. Think of it as Wikipedia but created by you and your family, or you and your friends.
There should be a "social network" of sorts that just lists all the different ways you can get in contact with someone. "My home phone is A, my cell phone is B, my email is C, here's a link to my twitter, facebook, reddit, hubski, website, etc. I prefer to be contacted on <thing> if you're a family member or friend, or <other thing> if you're a business contact." Stuff like that. No posting or sharing, just how to come in contact with someone.We have a lot of social networks.
Uncle Bob has created a new article: Why hasn't Obama shown us his birth certificate? That's a really neat idea though. You're right that every social network service seems to clear old content out of the way, never to be seen again. It would be cool to have a network where everything stayed in one place.
As I was writing these lines I was thinking about that. But my idea would be a lot more broad and in-depth. For exemple, say you like Carl Sagan in Facebook. What do you really know/like about him ? In my idea, you would have excerpts/books/videos about him that you think would interest your friends/family.
This might be unbelievable, but I straight up invented the iPhone like a year before it came out. I was in high school and one of the students in a pilot Digital Art class. The teacher gave us a project to design an ad for a product we'd make up ourselves. The product I made up was a touchscreen phone with WiFi and cellular connections that could play MP3s and movie files, with a camera, square icons, and a single navigational button. I didn't call it the iPhone, I don't actually remember what name I gave it, but the ad I designed was some pastel clouds with a gradient to them that dropped realistic looking rain into a puddle in the shape of the phone, with a stark white background and black text behind the rain drops that said, "It's raining possibilities." It used to be my twitter background for years 'cause I was so proud of learning how to make raindrops that had a shiny reflection and warped the text behind them. As far as more abstract ideas: What if Tekken (the live-action movie, not the animated movie nor the game) was a better parallel for the direction the world is taking than 1984 or Brave New World? I mean, like...in that world, corporations have become the governments and states/countries. Look at how much power Google currently holds, how much they control, and how much momentum they have. Oil companies, energy companies, all sorts that make things we absolutely can't live without and have what feels like limitless funds.
I don't, unfortunately. I had it as my twitter background, and saved it before changing my background, but the laptop it was saved on lost a fight with a jaegerbomb and I hadn't invested in a backup drive at the time. I'll dig around some of my abandoned social media accounts and see if it's hiding somewhere though.
I came up with the see-through toaster years before some knob really made it. I don't think they are selling well so it's good I didn't sink lots of time and money into it.
I bet you would've made one better and it would've sold like cold cakes that your toaster would turn into hotcakes.