Every appliance, every car, every person will come with a chip that wirelessly connects to the Internet. Then you’ll be able to Google everything in the world. Who else can has a Zearz Biogoat Grass-Chewing Mower? You can find out and contact them, form a club. Lose something in your house? Google it! Want to Read More …
Say at work, you don’t dare get caught checking out fun stuff on the Web. That boss is so strict, well, can’t even safely check out fark.com, ESPN, blogs or film reviews. Well, somebody could create a website just for you. Go to “fooltheboss.com” and you’re instantly redirected to “seriousbusiness.com” and the title displays “Statistical Marketing Analysis” and the big headline Read More …
Say you’re selling copies of your CD (like this one for my nephew Robert’s San Fran band, The Chop) but a potential fan asks, “Yeah, but what do you sound like?” Wouldn’t it be cool if your CD had a flap that played a song when opened? If this doesn’t exist, count on it, since we Read More …
Why is gum only a snack or candy substitute? Why can’t it replace an entire meal? You have your chips-and-dip gum for an appetizer. Or, if you prefer, your soup or salad gum. Want bread and butter gum with that? Next it’s steak and potatoes gum, broccoli with cheese sauce gum, and favorite beverage gum. Cap it all Read More …
Why should a watch only tell the time? We’d probably have watch-phones by now, if Dick Tracy’s wrist radio hadn’t overdone the idea to the point of hokey jokiness. How a digital screen, however? Movies seem obvious. But how about the picture-album watch? You push a button, see an image of your wife …your kids … your dog … your Read More …
When you write Part 1, you’re supposed to write Part 2. So here goes: A golf club you can’t destroy — it’s rubber-coated wire like those posable toys. Whack, smack, hurl, throw in the lake. It doesn’t break. (Plus, it’s got a string for reeling it in?) … Or how about the enviro-friendly disposable club? Stomp it, Read More …
One of J.K. Rowling’s geniuses is her gift for invention. Not real inventions, but ordinary things that become magical with a little wishful / twistful thinking. Hats that evaluate one’s brain. Portraits that move. Jelly beans that come in every flavor, even dirt. Brooms that fly, of course. It’s a child’s kind of imagining, and Read More …
We’ve seen battles between bots with whirring blades as they roll around on wheels. But far more interesting, I think, would be to see robots that run. On two legs. It’s such a tricky bit of engineering and computer savvy to make a machine that walks. So on your mark, get set, run! Just as Read More …
Let’s hope that ads eventually make all Internet sites free. But now you’ll find publications like magazines that charge dollars for reading current articles, or for accessing archives. How about some ecoonomy of scale? Charge way less, so you get more customers, producing as much revenue if not more. Here’s a way for Paypal, or someone other online paying Read More …
Rush-hour gridlock is as much fun as doing taxes. Especially peeving are those drivers who slide into the intersection before there’s room on the other side. “Don’t block the box,” say signs. But drivers do it anyway. Then the cars don’t move because of block-boxers at the next intersection, so everybody’s jammed. Here’s my solution: Sensors Read More …
Seriously, why should a big-time TV event like this fail to generate any revenue for anybody? The networks run no ads, the government gets no rights fees, and a handful of major networks alienate chunks of their TV-addicated audience. So revamp the speech to have commercial breaks, and sell the exclusive rights to one network, or one broadcast and Read More …
No, I’m not talking about burning off calories by talking. Just seems that exercise would be more fun if it had an element of socializing. Noisy machines, regimented classes, the need to grunt while weightlifting, the love of quiet in yoga … they all work against talking. So why not design routines to be compatible with conversation? First, have participants stand in Read More …
“Hello, Peter and Anne can’t come to phone right now, but if you have a question, just ask.” Well, where the heck are they? And you wouldn’t have a cellphone number I could try, would you? “Actually, they are home but they’re just too lazy and/or rude to answer the phone. So it wouldn’t do any Read More …
Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling Blink provocatively asks, how is it the mind sometimes understands in a flash highly complex situations that seem to defy rigorous analysis. No question that’s true. But so is the opposite: Sometimes, our minds lie to us, just can’t believe conclusions science tells us to be true. Flip five heads in a row, the odds Read More …
Build into each club a device that (a) senses where the flag is, (b) calculates where the clubface is actually aiming, (c) and tells aloud how much the trajectory is off. Super-deluxe version also (d) inertially monitors the swing, (e) tells you why you hooked or sliced, (f) is made of an indestructible material because, well, you know why, Read More …