Steal This Idea

Consider this: one month after only part of a song called “New Soul” by Yael Naim backed the first commercial for Apple’s Macbook Air, the song debuted at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Disregarding its precipitous tumble down the charts after that, it is easy to see that featuring music on TV can have a profound effect on sales. This brings me to my idea: illustrated radio.

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Hamster powered shredder - Put your hamster to good use!

Pictures on your bike tires - Using the phenomenon of persistence of vision, these guys sell a kit that makes images on your bike spokes when the wheels turn.

I find the Pac-Man demonstration particularly fun.

Watch the sun move over the earth on your desktop - The great thing about this is how much information it conveys without any explanatory text. Everyone understands what’s going on, intuitively. Plus, it provides support for weather patterns. Gorgeous. I’m sure I’ll get this when I finally get a Mac.

Inventing the smiley face - Way back in 1982.

Banana Guard - Plastic container storing and transporting individual bananas.

Rubber band shooting Lego gun - 64+ rubber bands all in a spinning Lego weapon of awesomeness. This guy is brilliant.

Amazing auto-stop table saw - Uses blade capacitance to detect when human skin is in contact with the blade, and immediately stops the saw.

The video is phenomenal.

Strap on wings that let your fly unpowered for 25 miles - Yes, jump out of a plane, and this special suit allows you to fly for long distances at high speeds before deploying your parachute.

Trading up from a paper clip to a house - Over the course of about 10 trades, this guy has gone from a large red paperclip to a year’s free rent in Arizona. He’s looking to continue trading until he gets a house.

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Brilliant Way to Preserve Snowflakes - Cold runny superglue and some microscope slides will preserve snowflakes indefinitely. This is so cool. Will try next winter. Remind me.

When you think ‘aerogel,’ think unbelievable - The most expensive chemical substance known to man, more than safron, etc. For example: “Silica aerogel holds 15 entries in the Guinness Book of Records for material properties …” and “it is very strong structurally, able to hold over 2000 times its own weight” oh … it’s “90-99.8%” air, so it’s also almost transparent. Unreal.

Great cheap steadycam - Uses a t-mounted counterweight to steady a camera for commercial-quality stabilizing with a college-student price. Link from Justin. Useful for Nils.

Check out the example footage - it really works!

Just One Little Feature

Why oh why oh why is there not just one simple little feature for cell phones: a skip-to-leave-a-voicemail­ function/key sequence? Lovely as my girlfriend’s voice is, I already know she is going to tell me to leave a message and that she will get back to me. I already know she is not available. And goodness, I already know (if I’m listening to a Verizon-serviced phone) how to leave a voicemail. Is this a money-making move? I suspect it is. Keeping customers on the phone longer (the call begins when voicemail picks up) allows phone companies to make good money in very small increments. Consider this: Cingular features a direct to web button on most of their phones which, if pushed, almost always transfers web data before the user can mash enough buttons to stop the transfer (or in my case, try to rip the battery out) before charges are incurred.

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Zubbles - Nearly opaque colored bubbles - took a guy at the U of M about 10 years to develop them. Wow.

My guess: Apple & eInk

Apple upcoming product speculation is mind-numbingly boring. Why am I interested, then, you ask? I am a perfectionist, and Apples are made by perfectionists. The fit and finish of the cases combined with the rendering of the text on the screen (literally 50% more readable than Windows XP’s text), is enough to sell the machines (for me). It is obvious that Apple is a company guided by people with ridiculously high expectations for the Apple Computer experience.

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Power Squid - Plug any number of bulky cords into this squid shaped thing. Genius.

Backpack that Charges Your Cell Phone - This takes the up-and-down movement of the load in your backpack and translates it into up to 7 watts of electrical energy. This makes so much sense for college students and city dwellers.

Telling the World Where I Am

This coming junior year, my AIM away messages are going to be the epitome of efficient communication. Through an organized code, they will convey my whereabouts effectively, accurately, and without excess nonsense.

c = class
l = lab
wo = workout
f = dining
s = studying
z = sleeping
hi = socializing (human interaction)

X# = where # is the number of times the thing will occur
(#h), where # is a rough time estimate in hours [optional]

• exclamation point is something i’m looking forward to
• pluses indicate concurrent activities
• arrows are discrete activities

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Comedy Scene

Most people who know me quickly learn I am a great fan of physical comedy: the bus rolls through the camera view, a crash is heard from screen left. Minister of Silly Walks. That stuff makes me laugh. In a departure from that usual style, I would like to formally recommend the following scene be added to whatever Stiller/Wilson/Vaugn/Ferr­el movie approacheth from Hollywood’s ever-predictable jukebox stuck on repeat.

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Left Right Left

What if, everyday, people went outside and did something physical? I bet our workforce would be twice as productive if everyone slaving 9-5 could take a run on their afternoon break. Or even just run around. People’d be happier, healthier, able to cope with stress. Anti-depressant prescription rates would fall. Sleeping pills would drop off the market. Orthoscopic knee surgery rates would soar (or sore, as it were). Everyone’d be happier because they’d be healthier, and healthier because they were happier.

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Elevation

While standing in an elevator does not exactly qualify as an environment condusive to scientific study, I did find out something interesting in one of my many trips up and down one particular elevator in our science buildings. Regardless, this little observation can be applied to any elevator you ever ride in, and I recommend it to stave off violent cases of Elevator Boredom (EB). See, everyone feels the acceleration and deceleration of an elevator moving in a shaft, but all one really senses is a slight increase in pressure on the bottom of one’s shoes. So, when you get the chance, give this a try.

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Shuffle Phones

Mark my words. I will tell you one more time - mark my words, this is what will be coming out so very soon I can taste it. Now, I have heard no industry rumblings about this idea, but one thing I have been inspired by was a wonderfully funny Do-It-Yourself Oakley Thump using the iPod Shuffle. Consider this, the iPod Shuffle is unbelievably small and light (and yes, it is just a glorified USB flash drive … but stay with me here), so this allows it to be used in ways music players have not been used before. People need to think outside of their “box” here (to borrow a corporate clichÉ). You see, the music player no longer has to hook to your headphones via a long, cumbersome cable that twists and turns its way up through every piece of clothing you are wearing - no, the music player can be your headphones now. Before we get to that, I must share my favorite two comments from that DIY Oakley thread I mentioned above.

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