Learn how people expect you to behave in various situations.
Whether you’re getting a massage or gambling in an illegal poker room, now you can learn the protocol on the internet instead of plunging blindly into an unfamiliar social situation.
Also of interest are the protocols for familiar situations (getting the check at a restaurant, etc.) but in different places all over the world.
Metro stops can be quite long, sometimes taking several minutes to walk end to end. Experienced riders, while waiting for their train, will walk to a specific place, so that they can exit or transfer out of the station as soon as they step off the train.
But if you’re new to a line, you don’t know where the exits are. The proposal is to put “ghost” exits at every metro stop, so that you know where all the exits and transfer points are for all the stops on the line. Some sort of indicator saying “if you were at the Morgan Av stop, this would be the exit to Bogart St”. This could be a subtle sign or a drawn doorway like in Beetlejuice.
Domain names are cheap. So cheap that squatters will put together any words that make sense (or don’t) and sit on the dot-com.
Creative people are getting the picture. Many people I know have started buying fun domain names without any specific intentions, just to reserve the name in case a project comes up that needs it.
So I propose a domain trading website where people can post their “haves”. If you see something you like, propose a trade. Tell the current owner about the project you have in mind. Offer up some domains of your own, or recognition on the website-to-be. To protect the spirit of the site, monetary transactions are banned.
Paradoxically, I need to find someone with the perfect domain to bake this.
Flex your virtual muscles
To the best of my knowledge, the best selling computer game of all time is the Deer Hunter series. There are certain activities in real life that people just crave to simulate on the computer. Shooting guns is clearly one such activity, and my theory is that other activities that little boys have a fascination with would also make great computer simulations.
This is why it surprises me that there is no realistic construction site simulation. I want to operate a giant crane. Move large mounds of dirt. Erect a skyscraper. Let’s put those physics engines to work.
There might be two modes. In the first mode, you operate individual machines. Caterpillar could license their entire catalogue of current and past equipment; I’m sure the 3D files already exist. In the second mode, you take a more god-like perspective as in the other Sim- games. You’re assigned a project and have to complete it on schedule and within budget.
[This idea was already on Halfbakery]
Somehow you manage to drop your keys in the sewer. What’s worse, your wife is off in San Francisco on a business trip. You need to get into your house, your car, your boat, whatever.
The Key Teleportation Service can relieve your woes. Your wife brings her keys in to one of the San Francisco locations. Her copies of the keys are scanned and transmitted electronically to the New York location where the keys are cut for you.
Fees are on the order of what it would cost to overnight the keys. Except you get the keys instantly.
The economy has collapsed. Among other things, all railroad travel has ceased, leaving miles of unused tracks.
You and your companion wander the land, scrounging for odd jobs and food.
But at least on your nomadic journeys you enjoy a gentle bobbing sensation and scrolling vistas. That’s because you travel using a railroad seesaw cart.
The railroad seesaw cart works by the same mechanism as an old railroad hand cart, except the hand pump has been replaced by a playground seesaw.
Open source framework for selling music online
The (my?) problem with the online music marketplace is that almost all transactions go through a few large players (iTunes or Amazon, for example).
This state of affairs–the premise that large, centralized resources were needed to distribute music–is a legacy of the pre-Internet era.
I propose an open source project that makes it super simple to set up a self-hosted online music store.
There’s no reason this needs to be hard. Musician loads the software onto her website, opens up the admin UI. Uploads mp3s, graphics, etc. Sets prices. Save Changes and presto music store.
Now when her fans go to her website, they buy music directly from her. None of the money gets sucked into the vortex.
Well, there are still a few costs but there’s reason to believe these are trending toward minimal:
- She has to pay for bandwidth and web hosting.
- Out of convenience, she opts to use a third-party credit card processor. There is, after all, a plugin framework and a community of developers who make add-ons that let your music store integrate with other services.
Oh, and our musician is multi-media-talented, she also sells videos and other digits.
Auto-tune is pretty cool. You give it a list of acceptable pitches (ie: the key of the song). It then does a pitch analysis of your (usually vocal) track and pitch shifts every note to the nearest acceptable pitch.
The pitch shifting is quite subtle, but you can still hear it (it sounds sort of phaser-y). Moreover, the pitch shift removes character from the original track.
Better would be if you could record several takes of the track (as is usually done anyway). Auto-edit would then dynamically cut between takes, always choosing the one that is most in tune. The result is an in tune track without any pitch shifting distortion.
While your at it, the algorithm could be given other criteria for auto-editing, for example giving negative weight to pops (sometimes happens when you say b’s or p’s). It could also take parameters for when it’s allowed to cut (moments of silence, for example).
You could essentially use the algorithm that scores your vocals in Rock Band (video game).
Maybe you forgot to turn your music player off. Maybe you forgot to plug it in when you got home (habits are for suckers). If your device is anything like mine, the battery indicator doesn’t warn you until it’s too late.
There you are, volume pumped to max, body moving to the rhythm, unaware that anything is amiss. Just as your cardiovascular system becomes one with the elliptical cross trainer, your music player dies. Not even the endorphins can offset the shock. Boredom sets in. You quit early.
Too bad your gym doesn’t have USB chargers built-in to each exercise machine.
In my experience, at least 90% of gym goers have portable media players and 90% of portable media players can charge their batteries through a USB interface (although the plethora of adapters might be a problem).
Of course it’s only a great idea if the USB charger is powered by the calories you burn exercising.
An umbrella with an extra handle coming out from the top.
As you struggle home on a frightfully cold, rainy evening, the dreaded Boston wind flips your umbrella inside out. Normally this would mean getting soaked as you desperately attempt to correct the inverted joints. But not this time.
Good thing you brought your stylish Double Umbrella. One quick flip and you’re enjoying reversible rain blockage.
Now in dual colors!