Built in Dock for iPad on TV

There should be a dock built into TV's where you can plug your iPad in and use the TV to stream video.  The problem is all the other companies that have tablets would get upset the the TV only worked with an iPad.  The solution is for companies to team up and offer the TV and the tablet together.  LG for example makes pretty good TV's and tablets.  Then LG has the advantage over Apple at that point because Apple doesn't make TV's, they would be forced to get compatible with a competing television.

Question:
Do you have some sort of tablet at home? If so what do you use and for what purpose?  Would you be more likely to but a TV if it came with a tablet?

Drive Tires vs. Break Tires

Friction is an enemy to MPG.  Friction is a friend to stopping.  Tires on the road are the friction that makes a car go and stop.  So how can you make tires that give you awesome efficiency while driving and stop you quickly when you need it?  Two sets of tires on the same car.  It would require a lot of engineering but the way I imagine it there would be a skinny motion wheel that would be on the ground at all times.  Skinny means less friction and greater MPG.  Then right next to it you would have the break wheel that would engage when the breaks or steering needed the added friction.  

Fleece Lined Dress Socks

Dress shoes are cold.  They look nice and are super thin and not very weather proof.  To make it worse you have to wear dress socks with dress shoes and they are super thin as well.  I need fleeced lined dress socks or really good looking winter socks that are black.  I have yet to come across a good option to look good and keep warm toes.

Trailer for Smart Car

The Smart Car gets 60 MPG and has room for 1.5 persons.  I suggest making a small drag-behind trailer that you could hook to the tail end to expand the cargo room of the car.  Even if you only needed it once a month it might be worth it to have a small trailer you could use to haul extra groceries or a chair or a giant teddy bear, etc.

Commuter Lane Tinting

I've suggested designs on tinting to a cars windows.  This is taking the same idea, using two different tint colors and applying it on the back window of the car.  The idea is the have a tint cut twice or three times darker than the rest of the car in the form of three shoulders and heads in the back seat.  That way when you look at the car from the back you would see the shadow of three people (thus allowing you to drive dishonestly in the commuter lane).  The same idea could be used for a cool marketing idea on city buses.

Audio Speed Adjustment in Car

I love to listen to audio books.  Sometimes I wish I could speed up the book to double time and listen to the boring parts twice as fast as the rest of the book.  It would be nice if my CD player had speed adjustment, even if it were just one or two options (twice as fast and 1/2 speed).

Auto-Drive

Google has had drivers behind the wheels of the cars they use to take the pictures that go on "street view" on their Google Maps.  The drivers don't drive though, they are just there to take over in an emergency if the auto driver wigs out at any point.  So cars that drive themselves exist.  Now with that advance lets say a car that drives itself isn't good enough.  I want a car I can shower in on my way to work.  That's right I want a self-driving shower car that allows me to roll out of bed late, hop in my car and look like a million bucks when I get to work.  You could have a small compartment for other bathroom necessities and the car would need very dark tinted windows.  Or I could just be happy I can read a book on family road trips from now on.

Lock Down on Your Computer

There are tricks to staying on task at work.  If I really need to focus I'll shut down my email and internet programs and just focus on my spreadsheet or word doc or whatever.  We had an internet lock down program on our computer at home that would allow us to "lock" the internet off for a specific time period.  This would help keep the kids from spending too much time on the web.  They should make the same thing for other programs.  E-mail is always a big one for me, I can be working hard on something, see an email come in and end up on a tangent.

Question:
Are there any programs you should lock at work or ones you wish you could put off limits for a time?

Run the Mail at Night

The USPS could save a lot of time and money if they ran their routes at night.  All businesses would be required to get outside, locking mailboxes.  The mail carriers would run into less traffic during the night hours and they wouldn't have any front desk people to stop and talk to, thus significantly speeding delivery up.  Then in the morning you could read your mail over breakfast.

Bullet Bike Paper Routes

This idea is more about efficiency than anything.  Most routes are run in the morning early in residential areas.  Take the classic over the shoulder, two pocket, paper carrying satchel and put it on a bullet bike and then drive through the neighbor hood.  You have two advantages 1) Bullet bikes accelerate quickly thus reducing the time between boxes and 2) bullet bikes are nimble so you can get close to the box without too much reaching.

Protect Your Driver Seat Like the MD Does

I have a tidy car, considering the normal state of chaos my desk and room are in.  I also have a job and hobbies that require I get dirty, dusty, muddy, wet, sweaty, etc. every once in a while.  I kick myself often enough that I don't have a towel to throw over my seat that I've come up with an alternative.  A paper roll under the seat that you could tear off like the tables at the doctors office.  Then when you caught in a jam you could just pull the paper out and block your seats from all the mud or whatever.  You could also do a retractable seat cover that would be water proof (read sweaty).  The problem with the retractable seat cover is what do you do with the stuff that has accumulated on top of the cover?

Marrige Certification

This idea comes to me from my good brother-in-law.  He suggested a certification that would allow those who date the individual with that certification to know they were getting the cream of the crop.  To get a Marriage Certification (MC) you would have to pass a psychological test, a basic IQ test and take elective courses that would be similar to "Man Camp" (posted 9-2-11).  My only problem with the test is I'm not sure if I could qualify for a MC.

iPad on the Fridge

They need to make a way you can stick your iPad to the fridge.  Then you could have a family calendar app (google calendar) that you could keep up there.  The everyone could enter stuff on their phones and then the fridge calendar would update.  You could have other fridge worthy apps like "how long has it been in the fridge" or "how many calories in..." app or "what goes well with what" app.

Age Suggestions on Clothing

I seem to post about clothing a lot.  I need to look professional at work and have come a long way from my first days in the career world.  Age suggestions on clothing would simply be a line on the tag that suggested what age group is most likely to wear that particular piece of clothing.  For example a pair of straight leg, light grey Calvin Klein's might have a suggested age group of 18-32.  An Tommy Bahama anything would probably say 40-60 on it.  Any pair of pants with pleats would say "40+ and anyone wanting to look like their hips has been replaced by a pumpkin".

Question:
What suggested age would you give a particular piece of clothing?

Silence Your Cell Phone on a Schedule

I struggle with my cell phone, either it's on full blast and the ringer scares the crap out of the people sitting around me in church or it's totally silenced and when an emergency comes up at work no one can get a hold of me because I forgot to turn it off silence mode after I scared the crap out of everyone in church on Sunday.  What I need is a phone schedule that integrates with my calendar.  I would then have the option of selecting what ring type I should have during that event.  I would schedule church for example and set the ring tone off.  Then if I schedule an important meeting during the week, I could do the same.  If I knew I was going to be someplace loud I could schedule max volume while I was there, etc.

Flying Bike?

Wings are great, they create lift.  Spoilers on cars are like upside down wings that keep the rear end of the car on the road at high speeds.  Well what if you could design a bike more like a wing and create lift while you ride it.  If you create lift it would potentially lighten the load being hauled and allow the rider to pedal harder longer.  Imagine riding a bike and having the same power you have in your muscles now but weighing 50 lbs lighter because of lift.

Nystatin Cleaning at the Gym

Nystatin is a drug that makes the cell walls of fungi fall apart (thus kill the cell).  It is used, as you would guess, combating fugal infections wherever they crop up on the human body.  I should remember my flip flops more often but for whatever reason I seem to be constantly walking around the gym barefoot.  I suggest they make a Nystatin floor wash.  Then the gym's slogan could be "Nobody ever gets athlete's foot here."

Pay Per Channel Online

I've touched on al la carte cable TV and have come to a better conclusion.  The answer is for each channel to offer subscription based online access.  I love Discovery and ESPN and would probably get USA just for Psych.  I would be able to go online set up a user name and password, pay $3.00 a month and then stream my favorite shows.

Empty Office Illusion

I seem to get a lot of work done when no one is around.  I think a lot of people feel that way with the socializing and questions and problems to group solve at work.  What I need is an insert in the window to my office that looks just like the inside of my office only empty with the lights turned out.  For the most part I can handle the interruptions and like to keep my door open so people feel welcome to come talk when they need it but the few times I've really needed privacy for focus time I've had to put up a stinky sign that says something like "Please do not disturb even if the building is burning, I'll figure it out eventually."  The funny thing about the sign is a lot of people would look at it and be like "Well that can't possibly be me, I'm sure he wants to talk to me." and in they'd come.  The other problem with the sign was people would see the sign, peek in the window and then do a little pointy finger dance to ask, "Did you forget to take the sign down or should I still not disturb you."  Yes, I could just get blinds but the problem is blinds present an unknown, am I in there or not?  With an empty office illusion everyone would know.

9/11 Remembered

I was in Italy when it happened.  I remember being on a bus at 3:00 in the afternoon when whispers about "The Towers" started circulating around.  It was horrible to see as every TV in Italy was tuned into the chaos of New York.  I felt so helpless so far away and so unable to do anything but pray.  So on this 10 year reunion I dedicate today's blog to those who lost their lives in the attack.  May God be with their families and may God be with those that helped in the rescue and clean up.

Shaved Ice from the Fridge

Most fridges come with cubed or crushed as an option on the ice dispenser.  After having my last Tropical Snow tigers blood/pink lemon aid/watermelon shaved ice of the season last night I think they should make "shaved" another button on your fridge.  Then you could save the $10's of dollars spent each summer on frosty treats.

Support in Men's Swimsuits

I don't want to get to personal here but it would be nice to get the support of a speedo in the package of a board short.  The present personal lining of most men's recreational (as opposed to professional) swim suits are made of a mesh of weak, way-too-see-through, weggie inducing nylon.

Use the Wii-Mote Tech in Fishing

I took the kids fishing recently and realized it was a good thing my wife wasn't there.  Think about it for a moment.  Take some dirty water add some sharp hooks and worms then tie the hooks to the end of an invisible line attached to a stick and then let your four year old swing it around.  Sounds like part of a haunted corn maze if you set it in the moon light.  I can see it now "The Swamp of Missing Eyes".  Anyway, as my three children cast backwards into the trees  (many of whom have done this for three of four years now) I had an idea.  What if you could harness the orientation device in a Wii controller to make sure you cast always went forwards?  You could set up a reel that would only release at a certain degree from horizontal and only if the reel were right side up.  You could also use an accelerometer to only release when the pole was flicked with enough speed, that way you wouldn't loose your line if you tipped your pole the wrong way walking from the car.

Sun Burn Stickers for Kids

We hit the pool one last time on Monday in celebration of the close of summer.  As I lathered up the kids with SPF I had a stroke of genius.  What if there was a color change waterproof sticker you could put on your kid before you put sun block on.  Then if at any time during the day the block wore off the sticker would change to a bright red, letting you know you needed to put more sun block on that kid.

A Window for Windowless Rooms

Windows are like gold in a building.  All the good office real estate is usually right by the windows.  That can be difficult when you need a lot of offices and there's only so many with windows.  So today's good business idea would be to have a large TV that emitted natural light that had a 24 hr loop of some wonderful vista.  One day you would walk into work and the view outside would be a green Scottish hill with sheep.  The next day you would walk into find an amazing vista overlooking the Grand Canyon.  You could probably come up with 100's of great views and coupled with the natural light the offices without windows would become the new coveted spots.

Free Market Day

I love Labor Day, don't get me wrong but I was a little upset to find the origins of Labor Day come from the labor unions.  The same unions that are helping to run the US auto industry into the ground and the ones that pay people (here in Idaho) to stand outside cathedrals, synagogues, temples, other sites of worship and businesses in town to picket because they didn't use union labor on their last remodel.  I therefore propose an opposing holiday to be held the first Friday in September called "Free Market Day".  It would be a day where we celebrate the free market and all it stands for.  We would have BBQ's and go swimming for the last time of the summer and we could have fireworks (see my post from July 4th on more holiday's with fireworks) and we could run anti-subsidy rallies.  Then those who celebrate Free Market Day could get a day head start to all the good camping spots and when the Labor Day guys show up on Friday night they'd have a good reason to switch.

Rank Your Stupid Comment

This would be a data base website where users would enter in their stupid comment with the situation surrounding that comment and then rank how bad the outcome was.  Then using statistical analysis you could rank the stupidest things ever said in a general situation and provide it to users for application in their personal lives.  For example after collecting data over a period of a year you find a lot of men used the line "What did you do all day?" after getting home from work as their pregnant wife rests on the couch and the house is a mess.  People could go to the site and click on Top 10 lists that had been collected.  The example above would go under "Top 10 Things Not to Say to a Pregnant Woman".

Sedation Dentistry? Old Hat. Try Sedation Exercise!

My bro-in-law and I were talking about this one today.  Sedation dentistry is where they use an anesthesiologist to knock you out while they pull your teeth.  Sedation exercise is where you are asleep while you are strapped into a machine that works your body out.  Just imagine getting an hour of exercise every morning while you sleep.

Man Camp

Man Camp would be a one week crash course in all the things it takes to be a good man.  There would be classes on basic and advance car repair, contracting for the home owner, self defense, grilling and proper weight lifting techniques.  Those would be the required coursed and then you could take elective classes like fire starting, fishing, hunting, camping basics, motorcycle riding (jet ski/snowmobile/4 wheeler), football rules and regulations (be the know-it-all at all the games), efficient lawn care, caber toss, etc.

Question:
What classes would you add to Man Camp?  I especially want to hear from you ladies, what makes a man a man in your eyes?

Ventilated Lockers and File Cabinet Drawers

After a long break I've started riding my bike to work again.  There is a gym close by where I can shower but when I get to work I have to hide my stinky cloths away in one of the utility rooms.  I thought the other day it would be nice to have a drawer that had a little fan to ventilate air from my file cabinet to the outside.  They could use the same technology to vent the lockers at the gym then the locker room wouldn't smell as bad.