Alarm Pants

They make a sheet that is attached to an alarm that goes off at night when water (urine) touches it.  The sheet is intended to help kids to learn not to wet the bed.  I propose pants with an alarm that does the same thing.  The second one drop of liquid hits the alarm pad, "BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!"

Flexible Holidays

Memorial Day is the day we remember those who have fallen in defense of our country, my hats off to those for whom we celebrate this day.

Today got me thinking of an idea that might be more applicable to Labor Day.  The weather has been pretty dreary this weekend and it made me think of a job I did a while back.  I worked in the securities trade and because of the way our company worked we had some holiday's that were considered 1/2 holidays, some came into work and others would take the day off and then the following Friday those that had worked during the holiday got it off and everyone else worked.  It was kind of nice and considering how great the weather is suppose to be next weekend and having paid respects on Saturday, I'm pretty sure I could have gotten a ton done at the office today.

The Flower Exchange

We have some fantastic yellow irises in our back yard.  They grow and we divide them and they get bigger and proliferate and pretty soon our whole back yard will be crazy full of the things.  As I drive through town I notice other people have blue irises or red/yellow combo etc.  I'm tempted at times just to dig up some of my yellow's and go door to door asking people with blue if they would switch me.  So why not come up with a flower exchange a little like craigslist where people could post photo's and details of flowers in their yard that they want to switch out.  You could have two categories one for those who want to exchange for another color of the same flower and those who want to exchange one type of perennial flower for another.

Turn an Empty State into the Nation's Prison

No offence to those of you who live in Nevada (sorry Dee), Wyoming or South Dakota.  Whenever I drive through Nevada I am amazed that such a large expanse of land could be so desolate and empty.  So why not use that to Nevada's advantage and turn the empty expanse of nothing into a giant prison facility for the nation.  Other states would contract with Nevada to outsource their medium and maximum security needs.  Those states would benefit by not having a prison dragging down real estate prices in the area, lowered costs due to the specialization of Nevada and, I would guess, lowered crime rates due to the potential to end up in the same desert where nuclear bombs were tested.

The Places My Children Have Peed

My wife and I have joked about writing a book called "The Places My Children Have Peed/Vomited/Pooped/Taken Off Their Cloths".  It would be a book full of stories from parents about the inappropriate places their kids have done their business.  I think to save the kids from the shrink you would need to change all the names for identity purposes.

A Fly that Looks Like Hatchery Food

Here in Idaho we have quite a bit of fishing around.  Despite fantastic and remote fishing, some of the best water for kids are the man made ponds right in town which are packed with hatchery fish.  If I could get my hands on a fly that looks like a small piece of dry dog food, I'm pretty sure I could teach a five year old to fly fish.

Hedge Trimmer Shop Vac Combo

I've seen a hedge trimmer that has a little compartment for collecting waste but it looks pretty wimpy.  I want a full suction hose attached to the end of my hedge trimmer with a grinder at the end of it that chips my waste as I cut it off the bush.  There would be a bag attached to the end of the vacuum/chipper machine that you could just empty into the trash.

Jonny Jump-Up for Adults

Wouldn't it be fun to watch TV suspended from the ceiling in a well cushioned harness that let you jump up and down?  If you need help the answer is yes.  Think about the increase in work productivity if you employees were happier because the boss replaced chairs with jump-ups and the decrease in health issues due to the added exercise everyone was getting.

Best Garage Sales in the U.S. Vacation

Garage salers are hard core.  My buddy did a garage sale the other day that was suppose to start at 8:00am.  Well around 6:00 am the door bells goes off and it's a shopper who wants to rummage through his garage before he sets up.  During the same neighborhood garage sale I noticed a ton of really crappy stuff and it got me thinking.  Where in the United States would you find the most outrageous, interesting, valuable or quirky stuff?  And if you could find those awesome sales could you talk the worlds cheapest people into paying to go on vacation to those sales.  I bet there are some cool sales in California near Hollywood, New York city probably has some amazing flea market stuff, Silicon Valley, New Orleans, etc.

Question:
What would you take a vacation to buy?

Soccer Golf

I've seen a few youtube videos of people playing this sport but they play either on a Frisbee golf course or use objects around a soccer field as targets.  I think they should develop an actual golf course you play with a soccer ball.  You would need par's for each course and lots of curves and trees to make it difficult.  You could have super technical holes that could resemble the hills and curves and walls you see on a mini-golf putt-putt course.

Retractable Blankets for the Couch

One problem I run into frequently is finding a blanket to cover up with while watching TV.  I propose a retractable blanket that pulls out from between the cushions and the back.  It would pull back like a retractable shade when you were finished with it and detach easily if you needed to wash it.

Pee-Camp

We have issues getting our kids fully potty trained.  My wife and I have frequently pined that there was a place you could send you kids for a couple weeks in the summer and when they get home they are potty trained.  Potty camp would be very expensive because of the nature of the parental outsourcing but totally worth it to your carpet.

Totally Weird and Unusual Stock Photos

I work in Yellow Pages and we are constantly looking for stock photos to use in the ads we put together for our clients.  It seems we have some very particular clients with very specific needs.  Many of those clients have seen something online that is copyrighted they want to use in their ad.  In response to that I say lets put together a huge database of inexpensive stock photos that are weird and unusual.  Here's the list I would start with and yes these are very close to some of the requests we get from clients.
A dolphin in a family swimming pool
A baby sky diving
A clown eating a huge bowl of pasta
A nun driving an Escalade

Can you think of any unusual images you have needed recently for presentations, advertising, etc.?

Using Surface Tension for Swimmers

Surface Tension is the force (usually in water) that keeps watter skipper bugs from sinking.  It's a molecular attraction between the oxygen atom of one molecule and the hydrogen of another.  Some liquids have greater attraction at a molecular level and thus a greater surface tension, other liquids have less.  What if there was a substance you could rub on your hands before a swim that would actually give you greater surface tension just in that area.  Or a gel you rubbed down on your body to reduce the molecular attraction between your skin and the water.  This way you would increase friction where you wanted it and reduced friction everywhere else.

All Placebo Drug Company

When was the last time you really new anything about the drug your doctor prescribed?  An all placebo drug company would avoid the FDA regulations and the research and development that make brand drugs so expensive.  The real trick would be getting smarties to look more like a pill.  It could be a last ditch effort for Dr.'s for patients that just don't react to anything else.  They could even tell people this is a placebo but for some reason it works in 50% of cases.

Rhino Line Your Garage

Today's good idea is pretty simple, even a caveman could do it.  They sell DIY bed liner applications at car stores.  Simply apply to garage floor for a hose-offable cover.

ClothesMatch.com

Blogger was down for a couple of days.  This was the post that was suppose to come up on the 12th.

This would be a web site or app that you would use to determine if your clothing matched.  It would be used mostly for men with no fashion sense before a date.  You would take a picture with your web cam or your phone of the clothing you plan on wearing that evening.  Then you would send the photo to ClothesMatch.com and either a person with good fashion sense or complicated program would assess how well those cloths match.  If it looked good you would get a thumbs up, if not the site would make suggestions on what to change.

Touch Screen at the Drive Through

Instead of trying to talk over the crackle of the drive through system they should put touch screens at the drive through and let you do all the work.  You could then take your own order whenever you wanted.

Grocery Store Kiosk

Wouldn't it be cool if you could go into a grocery store, sit down at a kiosk, order all your groceries and have them spit out onto a conveyor belt?  If you accessed the groceries with a machine you could store a lot more in a lot smaller space.  The kiosk would be easier for busy people and mothers with kids.  You could cut down on the people needed to run the store and save on labor costs.

Pre-Paid Floral Plan

Florists, you can thank me later.  The way a pre-paid floral plan would work is as follows.  Mr. Clueless walks in last minute on Valentines Day trying to get flowers for his sweetheart.  He purchases flowers and while he forks over his hard earned cash the florists suggest he join the pre-paid floral plan to avoid missing a special day.  The guy would pay $100-150 bucks and the florist would then send flowers to his sweetheart on Valentines Day, her birthday, anniversary and perhaps Mothers Day.  The florist gets cash up front, the guy gets his major holidays covered and everyone is happy.  You could even do an expanded package where the florist sends flowers at random times through the year or a package for just your mom, etc.

Rhino Lined Mini-Van

We have four kids and they have done a number on our mini-van.  The kids have spilled a number of liquids, ground in solids and drawn in marker, crayon and pen all over the place.  I think the answer is to spray the whole thing with a heavy duty truck bed liner.  You could mop or sweep up the floor messes and you wouldn't care if the kids drew on the bed liner.  On top of all that, how many mini-van drivers do you know that use the things to haul stuff you should only haul in the bed of a truck anyway?

Little Kid Seats for Airlines

No matter you mass, no matter your girth, no matter how wide or skinny you are all air line seats (coach that is) are the same size.  I've touched briefly on this matter in my post in my "Pay by the Pound Airline".  I think every plane should have a row or two close to the front of coach that has kid size seats for children under the age of 10.  Then you could fit 4 or 5 seats on each side of the aisle rather than 3.

Product Review: QR Codes

They've been around forever, I know, I know but I wanted to take some time and discuss a bit.  The example above will take you to my company website.  For those of you who don't know what "Quick Reference Codes" are it's pretty simple, it's a bar code with more information hidden in it than just numbers.  What's cool is you can just make your own here's the web site I used to generate the one above:

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

You do need a QR reader on your smart phone but here's another one to try out.

Question:  Have you seen and/or used a QR code?  When and where and for what purpose was it used?

Easier Way to Paint a Wall

Anyone who paints will tell you most of the job is the masking and prepping.  As I was thinking about painting a wall it came to light that not only the prep but the painting itself takes too long.  What I came up with is a tall (adjustable height) auto painter that has blocks on the bottom to prevent paint from getting on the carpet.  It would have large wheels on the floor and ceiling side and you would lock it into place so the wheels push off both to wedge the machine in.  Then you could have a metal or plastic plate that adjusts close up to the wall and block spray so you can paint without getting it on the carpet or ceiling.  Then running along the length of the bar that goes between the ceiling wheel and floor wheels you could have brushes, sprayers, etc. to dispense the paint.  It would need to be easy to move and set up or you might as well just spray the wall so you could have a handle to pick the machine up and move with just one guy.

Pay by the Channel Cable TV

I love the Discovery channel, I hate MTV.  I love ESPN, I hate CNBC.  I love DIY network, I hate Cartoon Network.  Cable providers should provide an option where you only pay for the channels you want.  My list would only be around 5 channels and I wouldn't have to slosh through all the other lame channels I don't need.  Can you imagine how simple your guide screen would look if you only had 5 channels?

Question:
Which channels would you pay al-a-carte for?

All your Teeth Cleaned at Once

I hate the dentist and thank goodness I've never had a cavity in my life because I hate the dentist.  I do go and see the dentist on a semi annual basis for a cleaning.  The hygienist usually spends 35-45 mins scraping, scratching, washing, etc and I get to actually see the dentist for about 3 min.  I'm uncomfortable anyway why not make a machine that you stick in your mouth that gets it all done at once.  I would probably opt for a 5 min cleaning even if it were 2 or 3 times more uncomfortable than the current process.  The machine would have high speed spinning bristles on each side and fit over your teeth like a mouth guard.  Then it would spray and spin and scrape the plaque right off those pearly whites.

3D Movies on the Plane

Nintendo DS now has little hand held devices that have 3D screens that don't require special glasses to see the third dimension.  I say lets put those little screens on the seats on planes.  That way you can watch Tron on your flight from Denver to Miami in 3D, like it was meant to be seen.

DVR for Network Television

If they can do it with cable and satellite TV, you should be able to purchase a stand alone box that records your favorite program on regular antenna TV.

Notes in the Shower

They say it's good to keep a pen and paper on your nightstand so you can record ideas you have before you go to bed or when you wake up.  I seem to have more good ideas in the morning when I'm in the shower where pad and pencil are sure to fail.  I'm thinking a white board with a marker that is waterproof but not alcohol proof.  You would be able to take notes in the hot water and when you need to clean off you board you could use isopropyl alcohol to erase your shower genius.

Tint Designs

Tinting windows in the application of a thin film of dark vinyl over your glass.  I propose cool designs on your tint.  They also use vinyl for car and bus advertising wraps.  You could put down a base layer of tint on all the windows and then put a darker design layer over the top.

Pirate Ship Vacation

I've heard of excursions to the sea where a group of inexperienced land lubbers get on a yacht and are required to pull, roll and crank their way across a stretch of water under the guiding hand of the yachts captain.  So why not take it to the next level and have that captain be the bearded captain of a pirate ship.  You would pay a bunch of money for working passage aboard the "Black Barracuda" a real life (restored) pirate ship.  The company could run boats through the Florida Keys.  During your trip you would "fight" with a ship of the British line the "HMS Blubber" and have to board and steal a treasure.  Then the pirate ship would sail to some remote island and you (the guy who paid for this whole thing) could help the other pirate tourist bury your treasure, including putting a treasure map together.