Old stuff. Please refer to http://some-new-ideas.blogspot.com for new postings. Read for fun. Ideas not for sale. ********************************* Gadgets ************************************** A telephone that works with a clock. The clock automatically disables the phone ringer at night (or whatever time period you set) to avoid late night calls, and enables it in the morning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A TV with password control. Not all parents are willing to let their kids watch any channel at any time they want. There may be a niche market for the TVs on which a password is required to turn the TV on or to view certain channels. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A remote control for a TV (or any other entertainment equipment) can have a beeper that beeps when you press a button on the TV set. How many times have you looked for it? It's not always under the sofa. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lasers used in industry or academia need laser shot counters just like the counters on copying machines, so users don't need to count manually for maintenance purposes. ********************************* Traffic ************************************* Instead of horizontal speed bumps on road in your good neighborhood, make slanting bumps like this, //// or \\\\, or closely arranged verticals ||||. Cars have to align the wheels between the bumps to avoid the bump so they slow down, but the suspension system is protected. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prohibiting cell phone use in driving hurts business. Allowing it causes accidents. Why not allow its use only if the driver is not in the leftmost lane? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every mayor or mayor candidate promises to solve traffic problems, by using money. But one way to alleviate traffic jam without using money always receives much less attention, adjusting traffic light timing. (Do you often see 20 cars waiting for no cars in other directions?) Have high school students periodically report vehicle waiting time at all lights and have a real educated person do the math to minimize total waiting time. ******************************** Uncategorized ********************************* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To kill a fly the clean way, don't use a fly bat (fly swatter). You know why. Instead, use a foot-long plastic bag you use to put vegetables in at a grocery store. Hold it hollow inside, with the opening toward the fly resting on a surface. Slowly move it to the fly and let him fly up, well, into the bag. You close the opening then. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The only effective way to kill rats is poison", said the man at Home Depot. "And perhaps using a trap, too". I don't like poison. I don't even like to give rats free meal of cheese in case the trap is not well set. I put a trap with no food on attic. From that time on, I rarely heard rats happily and noisily galloping on the attic wooden board at night. I didn't catch any. But one trap in the dark in their major thoroughfare must be like an explosive mine forcing anyone to walk slowly. I plan to deploy more "mines" in the future. No, no food! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you get a telemarketing call without a person on that end, leave the phone on the table and hang up a minute later. If we all do this, they'll call much fewer households than expected in a day. ******************************** Observations ********************************** A rainbow is half circle in shape. What's the shape of a rainbow in the sky as you see it in an airplane? Is it a: (1) half circle; (2) circle; (3) half ellipse; (4) ellipse; (5) a straight line; (6) you can't see a rainbow at all unless the plane flies very low. The answer is the result of this calculation: (1.35 x 26 + 2.9) / 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We know yawns are mysteriously contagious. But they seem to be not contagious between an adult and a child. I haven't found from what age on I yawn and my kid will too, and vice versa. As of this writing, Crystal and Jasmine are too young. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Young children have trouble putting the left shoe on the left foot and right shoe on the right foot. But how do we explain that most children put the shoes on the wrong sides more than 50% of the time? Most parents report that most of the time (perhaps 80%), children perceive left and right shoes incorrectly. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When countries A and B are fighting each other in war, GDP per capita for A People of B that die -------------------- = -------------------- GDP per capita for B People of A that die -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Car A attempting to cut the line gets an OK from B in the long line. A shows gratitude to B, but not to drivers behind B. Chiang Kai-shek OK'ed dismissal of war compensation from Japan in 1945. Mao Tze-tung OK'ed again in 1950s. Japan showed gratitude to Chiang and Mao, but not to the 1 billion people behind them.