Satellite TV for the Car

Now a days most mini-vans come with a DVD player in the back for the kids.  A lot of cars come with satellite radio.  Why not satellite TV?  Well here's what I found.  It's called the TracVision A7 from a company called Kvh.

Suggested retail price $3,995.  Depending on your children that might be a great deal for road trips.

Built-In Ramp for Truck

They make ramps to get your 4-wheeler in the back of your truck.  The thing is not every one with a truck has a 4-wheeler.  Everyone with a truck does however at some point in owning that truck have a need to roll something big and heavy into the bed.  Today's million dollar business idea is to create a ramp that folds or collapses into the tailgate or one you could pull out from under the truck.  I personally think the one under the truck would be a better idea.  You could make it longer and probably a little more heavy duty and if you lined it up right you could actually use it to make the undercarriage more aerodynamic thus increasing mpg.

Meditation in Place of Sleep

So there's a lot of mumbo jumbo around mediation and the way you do it and the way you think about it etc.  There are reports of monks in Tibet that can control their body temperatures using meditation along with the cadre of other physical controls that go along with meditation including heart rate and blood pressure.  I was once told, by a less then yogi level practitioner, that if you really trained you could meditate for a half hour and it would be like you had just taken a hour long nap.  Well dang I would totally jump on 4 hours of meditation vs. sleeping all night.  Think about all the crap on my "honey do" list I could get done (or how many blog post I could type up). What if there were a way you could replace sleep with a deeper form of rest through meditation training?  And (here comes the capitalism) what if you could take that training and teach it to busy executives and hurried moms and tired souls everywhere?  Even if you could just train people to meditate themselves to sleep faster you've got a great business idea.

Question: 

What would you do if you had 4 extra hours of quiet time in the day?

Orc for Dinner

Props to my sister who provided the inspiration for today's post.  You've heard (or even taken part) of a medieval feast.  It seems in any touristy area of the US you can partake in mutton while two struggling college students in chain mail go after each other with broad swords.  Take the mutton, name is something mystical and then change out the chain mail for elf and orc costumes and you've got yourself a Lord of the Rings Feast.  The entertainment could recap the story of Frodo and Bilbo and Dodo as they travel through Middle Earth.  The food and dinnerware could reflect the story, in fact I bet the movie studio still has a bunch of leftover props you could eat off of.  And just to make it fun every once in a while the orcs could win and chase the dinner guests out of the stadium after dessert.

Phone Remote

We are constantly looking for the remote.  Both for the TV and the DVD player.  I'm pretty good about knowing where my phone most of the time however.  It would be nice if you could set internet connected TVs and DVD players up so they could receive direction via a phone app.  Then when you eventually loose the remote you can easily replace it with a device that's off limits to the kids.

Acoustical Silence for Living Next to the Freeway

This business/engineering idea has to do with the nature of sound waves.  I know in some luxury vehicles and headphones the background noise is recorded and analyzed.  The sound waves that go into the system are zeroed out by the headphones/car as sound waves of equal but opposite frequency are created by the sound system.  You could do this for the homes that back up to the freeway.  That way people with those huge retaining walls in their backyard could enjoy a little more quiet.

3D Family Portraits

For my daughters birthday we got her some sidewalk chalk that comes with 3D glasses.  You drawn on the ground and then put the glasses on and the pictures pop up at you.  It's pretty cool.  Makes me think with all the 3D going on we should have 3D family portraits.  You could hang the glasses on the frame and pick them up whenever you really wanted to enjoy the picture.

Two-Man Wheelbarrow

This is great for the garden and lawn care.  This wheelbarrow would have handles that were extra long and strong so two people could stand one in front of the other to roll extra heavy loads.  Here's a complex design of the thing.

Pay Your Portion of the National Debt

This is more of a wish than an actual good idea.  The idea is you pay your portion of the national debt in one lump sum and you get tax amnesty for the rest of your life.  The government could then take that money and put it in an investment portfolio and make interest off the lump sum.  As I write this the debt per tax payer is around $129,000 and per citizen is about $46,000.

Fill in the Blank Bumper Stickers

Today's business idea is already in place.  I've been wanting to share this with the world but was afraid of copyright issues.  If you click on the link below it will take you to my online store.  I currently have two products for sale.  They are both fill in the blank bumper stickers that you can use dry erase marker on.  I have a number of other fill in the blank ideas that will be up shortly but check out my store.

http://www.zazzle.com/goodideaaday

Other fill in the blanks (coming soon!)
"My ______ can beat up your _______" (example: My kid can beat up your honor student)
"My ______ is a ______ at _______"
"I (heart symbol) _______"
"______ High School the ______"
"My ______ is smarter than your ________"
"My other car is a ______"

Interstate Bill Boards

"That's not a very good idea a day, that already exists."  You might be tempted to say something like that but here's the catch.  Bill boards are usually found inside city limits and on private property.  This would be a giant bill board right in the median on the interstate out in the middle of nowhere.  The idea is the revenue from the bill boards would go to offset the cost in taxes to each individual American.  Or better the government could lease the rights of certain sections of median to different billboard companies that could then put up huge double sided, well lit boards out in the middle of no where.  Even the most remote interstate is still getting quite a bit of traffic.  To make it simple the boards could be on a yearly contract so you only had to deal with it once a year.  A big company like Disney or Sony or Buy Idaho I think would love the annual exposure.  The best part is the more boring the scenery the better the board works.

Glow in the Dark Floatant

Floatant is the stuff you rub on dry flies to help them stay dry as you whip them against a river surface over and over.  The stuff I use is a type of gel you rub on the fly.  In Idaho there are a few times a year when the fish go crazy for a bug that hatches or is active close to sun down.  There needs to be a glow in the dark floatant you could rub on for those few times a year where you want to fish in the dark.

Planting Pot's with Directions

I bought a terra cotta pot for my parents who just put in a new patio in their back yard.  I wanted it to be more than just a pot so I grabbed some planting soil and started looking around for plants to put in the pot.  Then it struck me.  They should put suggested designs in a pamphlet and attach it to the pot.  Directions would include watering tips, plants that work well together, suggested replacements for weird growing zones and a diagram of where each plant should go.  You could also put in a checklist on the back of the flier so you could just run down the list really quick and grab what you need.  Or you could have three options with different price ranges on how expensive you wanted to go on the plants.

Taxidermy Replacements for the Zoo

Man, I hate it when you go to the zoo and the red panda (a nocturnal animal) is, surprise, sleeping at 10am.  I propose a motion sensor coupled with a taxidermy replica of the red panda in question.  You could find a stuffed example of each animal in the zoo and then set up a motion sensor to monitor action in the particular cages.  When an animal hides away or goes to visit the vet the motion sensor would recognize the cage was empty and "pop" out comes the taxidermy version.  You could even play audio for the animal to give the visitors a more realistic experience.

Half Way-Post 183: Sterile Mosquito

I read an article about a flesh eating fly that use to eat livestock in the southern states.  I say "use to" because in the 60's some scientists came up with the wacky idea of shooting flies with radiation.  They would breed the same flesh eating flies at a fly farm, irradiate them sterile and then release them into the wild.  The sterile (males only) farm flies competed with the wild flies for the ladies affections and soon the south was free of the pest.

Instead of paying for mosquito abatement every year we should start a sterile mosquito farm and do the same thing.  The males who eat nectar, not blood can be released into the wild to not procreate.  The females, who do drink your blood, would then give birth to nothing and we can all go camping peacefully. If satan had an insect it would be the mosquito and even the Wikipedia site for mosquito's states that many scientist believe total annihilation of mosquitoes would do little harm to the environment.  If you really needed mosquitoes for fish food we could just breed more sterile, flower feeding, males.

Cooler than High School: Life Skills

I think all kids should have to take auto shop, public speaking and personal finance in addition to the core classes.  Why not wrap them all up into one class and make every graduating senior take it?  On the auto side you can cover how to change a tire, if your air filter really does need replacing and how to jump start a car.  Public speaking should really be a requirement all four years of high school.  Personal finance should cover how credit cards work, how mortgages and loans work, investments, ROI, time value of money etc.

Question:
What would you add to a catch all Life Skills class?

Cooler than High School: US History in 2 weeks

I took history, yes, but the most I ever learned about US history was when I took a trip with my family to Virginia.  In a couple of days I internalized more about the revolutionary war and early settlements in the Americas then all my other classes taught me combined.  Teach the class on location.  Take kids from Boston through New York down to Washington DC.  Show them all the sights, make them tour the areas and study the facts and take little quizzes and I promise they will learn more in 2 weeks then they do in an entire semester.  Then on the way home follow the Oregon Trail or pass through the Alamo.  I think this idea would work for foreign language and culture as well.

Cooler than High School: Hacking

Yes, hacking.  Any computer security class will cover ethical hacking practices in order to test security on secured sites.  You want to get a group of teenagers excited about programming call the class "Hacking 101".  In the movie "Social Network" the guy who plays Mark Zuckerberg hacks into a number of Harvard's sites.  After being placed on probation during an academic hearing Mark asks the professors if they are going to thank him.  "For what?" they ask to which he responds, "I think I pointed out some pretty big security flaws."  I think providing the youth of America the opportunity to learn complicated programming including (but not limited to) ethical hacking would be great for getting our kids ready to face the well educated forces of the world.

Cooler than High School: Entrepreneurship

This would be a class where the students would be placed in groups that would come up with and execute a business plan.  The students would have to come up with a plan they could put into place quickly and then find funding (if they needed it), record all the accounting for their new business and run the thing through the year.  The final grade would be based off the amount of money made during the coarse of the year vs. the amount of used to get the thing started.  You would also be graded off of scalability and originality.

Cooler than High School: Guitar

They had choir, orchestra, marching band, jazz band and (I'm not making this up) bell ringing at my high school.  I think schools should provide students with the opportunity to take guitar.  Guitars are very popular among both the young and old and could cover all the musical theory and musical technicality of any of the other, already provided, music classes.  Then instead of saying, "Hey, Barry Tuckwell plays the French Horn" our children would be saying, "Hey, Hendrix/Clapton/The Edge plays(ed) the guitar."

Cooler than High School: Chemical Shop

Chemistry lab was pretty cool, I have to admit it, but mostly because my best friend and I would use the bunson burners to heat pennies up and then drop them through our lab sheets.  Chemistry is pretty cool to begin with so why not take the coolness and apply a little Bill Nye to the class.  Most of the lab would be focused on using chemistry to do a specific task.  Like shooting a rocket 100 ft in the air using the chemicals on the shelf of the lab (adult supervised of course) or perhaps the class could use chemistry to conduct random drug tests of a local business's employees (anonymous of course).  You could use a lot of the CSI stuff in class to teach the kids how molecules bond to one another or how they will react with one another.  A teacher could really get far using pyrotechnics to demonstrate a point and the best chemistry teachers do, lets make it mandatory.

Cooler than High School: Pimp My Ride Auto Shop

For the next week I will be posting GIAD's high school classes that should have been.    Some of you may have actually experienced classes along these lines but from my experience and information gathered from others the majority of classes all seem about the same and need a little spice to appeal to a broader range of students.  I personally feel all students should be required to take a basic auto repair class, personal finance and public speaking in addition to the core classes.

Today's topic Auto Shop.

But not just auto shop, auto shop with a sale in mind at the end of the course.  I'm talking stereo systems, custom paint jobs, lifts, drops, lights and turbo.  Most classes seem to take a rusted hunk of junk and turn it into a running rusted hunk of junk.  Why not do a total custom remodel?  Focus just as much on the outside of the car as you do on the inside and you've got yourself a winner.  The class would need a budget and might require funding during the semester but in the end they could auction the restored classic or pimped out modern car to cover most the cost of the class.

Question:
Did you take auto shop in HS and how was it?

Wrist Strapps on Wheelbarrows

I recently moved close to 6000 lbs on rock, sand and gravel from my drive way into my back yard.  By the end of the second day of hauling a couple hundred pounds of wheelbarrow load after the other, my skinny arms were starting to give way.  The problem was my forearms couldn't take the weight of squeezing the handles anymore.  So why not add wrist straps to the handles of the wheelbarrow?  I know I could have done twice the load if the weight of the haul was shifted from my fingers and forearms to my shoulders and upper arms.  Steering would be a little more difficult but the benefits would take over if you had to do lots of loads over relatively straight paths.

The Mall With it All

They should make a mall that has everything.  This mall would appeal to people who have a ton of stuff to do at lunch (other than eat).  I would suggest the following basics in addition to what already exist in a regular mall.
- Post office
- Dry cleaning place
- Pharmacy
- Banks
- Library
- Massage place
- Urgent care and/or general practice M.D.
- Day care center

Question:
What would you add to a mall to make it the "mall with it all"?

Spell Check for Twitter

If anyone has ever tweeted, you know what I'm talking about.  I hate to admit what a horrible speller I am.  I struggled with spelling for years and years and then technology caught up to my learning disorder and basically made it go away.  I have auto spell check on my email, spell check in my word and excel docs and I have spell check on my blog.  With all these advances I still find myself at times running into situations (hand written notes, Twitter,etc.) where I totally reword a sentence because I can't remember how to spell a bigger word I was going to use.  So today's idea isn't just for Twitter it's for everyone, if you have any online/computer application do our egos a big favor and plug in spell check.

Band/Ring/Bracelet Band-Aids

My kids, due to their age, are constantly scraping, cutting, rubbing, etc. wounds on their little bodies.  A problem we frequently run into is band-aids that don't stay on kid fingers.  The solution would be to invent a band-aid that was like a little ring that cinched down with a strap.  We have the same issues trying to keep wounds on the feet covered up.  Again a bracelet type band with a cinch to tighten the thing down would be great.

A True Bike Lane

On the topic of bikes, what if a city were to use the second lane of a road as a true bike lane.  Again, like yesterday, the advantage in commute time would favor the bikes thus "helping" people try the bike as a means to work.  I believe Portland, OR has some roads like this.  In addition to that I think gyms should offer "shower" memberships.  I have a gym and a tennis club right by work that have shower facilities but charge an arm and a leg for monthly memberships.  I would gladly pay just to use the showers.

Shut Down a Major City Road Bike to Work Day

I love to bike to work.  I've done it off and on in the past and have always loved how quickly the exercise clears my head after a busy day in the office.  I think the city should have one day a year where they close down a major road for miles so people can commute to work by bike.  The benefit of shutting down a major road would be people might actually try biking to work (traffic would be that much worse on the other streets) and find that it is quite nice.

The Super-State

We once got caught in traffic in LA on a Friday during rush hour.  It took us so long to get through traffic I had to stop and have our annual emissions check half way through.  I've been thinking about that experience and have come to the conclusion that some cities need a Super-State that cuts right through town.  It would work like so.  You would build a separate freeway that went directly through town without any exits or rest areas.  The speed limit would 75 MPH.  You could then speed your way through LA without dealing with all the local on-off traffic that only uses the interstate for 4-5 miles.  The other thing is it would only need to be a couple of lanes each way so you could construct the super-state elevated above the existing interstate.  Really, any city with more than 250,000 people in the area could use one, I would even be willing to pay a toll to get through quickly.

Awesome Neighborhood in the Middle of No Where

Props to my brother-in-law for this one.  He is a tech guy and with the number of technological advances that have occurred over the last ten years make him think that working from home will soon be the norm.  His suggestion is to make a super awesome neighborhood somewhere totally beautiful and secluded and then wire it up to the hilt with high speed internet.  Programmers, graphic designers, customer service reps and folks who make "$20,000 a month from home!" could move to a distant town on the coast, have super fast wireless and take long walks on the beach every day before logging on and getting a good days worth of work done.