Cool Idea #11: Japan Support of the Day (via The Graphic Side of Life)
Posted: March 27, 2011 Filed under: The Little Things Leave a comment »I probably haven’t mentioned it before, but good art is (to me) one of the greatest things since sliced bread. Here are some great takes on the Japanese flag.
Please donate to humanitarian efforts in Japan, North Africa, or anywhere else your help is needed.
Idea #19: A paperback book sleevecase
Posted: June 24, 2010 Filed under: The Little Things | Tags: book, case, paperback, pouch, protector, sleeve, slipcase, softcover Leave a comment »Though my school has let my classmates and me out for the season, I’m still recovering from the heavy spinal trauma of carrying several textbooks and other heavy items to and fro during the last few days of classes. The tomes including a 700+ page physics book, a Pre-Calculus text of similar length and with post-it notes protruding at every angle imaginable, and a skinnier but abnormally tall Spanish resource. In addition to several folders, two calculators, a clipboard with papers attached, a reporter’s notepad, and a Rubik’s Cube, I also carried three paperbacks: a class copy of The Kite Runner and my own editions of The Da Vinci Code and Unmasking the Face.
By the end of the school year, the carnage that had taken place within my bag was terrible. The textbooks, being hardcover, weathered the jostling pretty well. I easily marked “Good” or “Same” in the condition space right before my teachers collected them. However, this wasn’t so true for the other books. My calculators sank into the pages of The Kite Runner the day before I had to turn it in, and the pages ended up wrinkled and folded inward. The other two paperbacks were similarly afflicted, as was the notepad. I had recently paid roughly $30 for two books that were now fraying like string.
</Uppity Diction>
I’m sure that I’m not the only one who’s faced this issue. Plenty of students carry books in their backpacks, and this damage doesn’t occur exclusively when the bag weighs 30+ pounds–I’ve had the same issue without textbooks in my backpack. As long as a book opens enough to allow things to get lodged into its pages, it happens. To solve this is as simple as creating a small sleeve that’s just tight enough for a paperback book to fit into. Ideally, the sleeve would be adjustable so as to accommodate several different sizes, but the basic idea is to create an envelope for the item so that it doesn’t open. One example of this design is the be.ez notebook sleeve. Of course, zippers might be overkill for a book protector. As long as the case wraps tightly around the item, it should function perfectly.
Questions? Qualms? Ideas? Seen this in action and would like to let me know so that I may live a life less worried? Post any of these below or at the wiki. While you’re at it, don’t forget to rate this post. The buttons are near the top of this post.
Question: What happens to the vuvuzelas after the World Cup ends?
Posted: June 16, 2010 Filed under: The Little Things | Tags: disposal, FIFA, horn, recycling, sale, South Africa, trumpet, vuvuzela, World Cup 2010 Leave a comment »
Image uploaded by Manuguf
In case you don’t know this already, vuvuzelas are those love-them-or-hate-them noisemakers that you hear in the background during broadcasts of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. My guess is that thousands have been sold, and that people who bought them solely for the sake of the event will eventually get bored of them. What happens then? Will they get pitched (har har) into the trash? Recycled? Sold as collector’s items? Or something else entirely?
If you have any questions, suggestions, ideas, or facts about vuvuzelas post-2010, please post them below.
Idea #18: Use actual maps in race surveys
Posted: May 8, 2010 Filed under: The Little Things | Tags: census, ethnicity, map, nationality, race, scantron, shading Leave a comment »Premise:
Being a student, I’ve taken my fair share of standardized tests. ACTs, PSATs, SATs, and APs should really be called FAMILIAR2MEs. On many of these, I’ve had to fill out something stating my ethnicity and citizenship. I often leave ethnicity blank, only marking the “US Citizen” bubble. Don’t take that the wrong way–I’m fully capable of indicating where my ancestors were born, but I feel as though ethnicity shouldn’t play a huge role in my life. However, my guess is that a fair share of students may want to respond, but simply don’t know how to until they look it up after the test. For example, walking out of an ACT prep session, I had a Middle Eastern friend ask me what his race was. He wasn’t sure whether he should have marked Asian or White. A similar situation occurred on the 2010 US Census. In essence, the definitions of race on these questions.
The Concept:
Replace the questions about race with an outlined world map that asks something along the lines of “Where do you trace your ancestry to?” Instead of marking that they are black, white, etc., responders can shade the inside of a nation’s borders.
The Pros:
- Except in cases of disputed borders, there’s no ambiguity on the map. This solves almost all of the confusion that confronts analysts.
- This also works in relation to questions that ask not about nationality, but about state/provincial residency. “What state do you live in?” becomes “Please shade the inside of the borders of the state you live in.”
- This approach allows analysts to fine-tune their data much more than a choice of four or five races. It also nearly eliminates the hassle that I imagine there must be in handling the response “Other” for geographic/racial questions.
The Cons:
Enough said.
Just kidding. Some nations are so small (Liechtenstein, anyone?) that they may be difficult for responders to find and for machines to read. Other than that, though, I can’t really think of any major issues besides cost.
Cool Idea #2: Anti-theft sandwich bags
Posted: April 13, 2010 Filed under: The Little Things | Tags: clusterflock, lunch bag, mold, mould, sandwich bag Leave a comment »I’ve renamed “Check this idea out” to “Cool Idea,” as it’s much easier to remember.
Though I’m fortunate enough to have never dealt with gimme-your-lunch (or gimme-your-lunch-money) bullying, I imagine that it isn’t fun for victims.
This idea, up at Clusterflock, involves putting dark spots on traditional sandwich bags. The food inside looks moldy and therefore unappealing to lunch thieves. It’s probably not something that’ll work in the long run, but something about the idea makes it too cool to not post.
Again, the idea is posted at clusterflock.org. Enjoy.
Idea #14: Combine Mancala with a pool table
Posted: March 28, 2010 Filed under: The Little Things | Tags: board, mancala, pocket, pool, pool and mancala, table, wiki, wikia, wikideas Leave a comment »For ideas that pop into my head and require little clarification, I will likely not use the P-C-P-C format that accompanies most of my posts.
Before reading this, you should probably familiarize yourself with some essential background information. In case you don’t know how Mancala is played, here is a video guide to the method most players are familiar with. Just in case you’re not sure what a pool table looks like, here’s an artist’s representation.
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This is a standard pool/billiards table's layout. Recognize it?
Frankly, I’m not positive as to how exactly this might work. However, if one were to blend the two games together by adding enough pockets to a pool table, great things may happen.
Ideas as to how this might work? Let us all know in the comments. Alternatively, I’ve set up a wikia site where readers can discuss ideas and propose their own solutions to problems. The first official page corresponds to this, and the URL is wikideas.wikia.com/wiki/Combining_a_Pool_Table_with_Mancala. Check it out, and post any suggestions there.
Idea #12: A voice-activated iPhone camera app
Posted: March 11, 2010 Filed under: Technology, The Little Things | Tags: app, blurry, camera, iphone, jittery, shaky, sound, stabilization, touchscreen, unclear, voice-activated, yell 1 Comment »Premise:
I don’t own an iPhone and I’ve decided to hold off on buying an iPod Touch until it includes a camera, but it seems to me that there’s an inherent problem with putting a camera in any device that thin and light. Because pushing the button (or tapping the screen) has much more of an effect on movement than it would on, say, a digital SLR, shots likely come out with some shaky blur. Unfortunately, the final photos are usually not pretty.
The Concept:
Beautify iPhone photos by creating an app that takes pictures just as the iPhone does, but without the shaky pictures. Except in cases that involve the subject moving too fast for the camera’s shutter, blurriness is usually caused by the natural jerky motion that people create when they press and release the button that takes the photo. Some of that motion is inevitable, but a large part of it comes from the specific act of pressing the button. Instead of doing things that way, build an app that listens for a distinct sound (such as a key word or a very loud noise such as a yell). That sound triggers the camera to shoot.
The Pros:
- Because this idea is an app, there’s no extra equipment required. Just the iPhone (or another camera) and the app.
- This has applications for moments that would usually require a tripod. For example, if a person needs to take multiple shots (say to create, an HDR image), he/she needs to keep his/her hands still, or else the pictures will be very hard to edit together due to “frame shift.” Using this method, though, no contact needs to be made with the device, so jittery hands are not an issue.
- This opens up a whole new dimension of photography on the iPhone.
- I’m just throwing this out there, but a sound-activated camera may also be useful for surveillance or animal watching. For example, a specific birdsong could act as a trigger.
- The problem is that the sound may come from any source, whether it’s in the camera’s view or not. A bird chirping behind the device would trigger a shot without the actual bird.
The Cons:
- There’s a photographer-camera coordination issue here, so this isn’t a great idea for self-portraits, unless there’s a self-timer. Without one, the photographer/subject will be in pictures that feature his or her mouth wide open.
- This won’t do much to reduce blur in pictures of moving objects.
Bonus:
There are several tips concerning shaky photos written specifically for the iPhone. Check out one of the more comprehensive lists that I found at www.interrupt19.com.
Idea# 6.5: Give me a quick break.
Posted: January 12, 2010 Filed under: The Little Things, Uncategorized | Tags: blog, economics, school 1 Comment »Premise, Concept:
I’ve got to run a short (one or two weeks, hopefully) blog related to economics for my class. That’s most likely going to eat up the time I devote to drafting and publishing these posts.
The Pros:
- I’ll have time to think of more ideas (not that I’m running out).
- If you’d like to study for an econ. final by means of “internet immersion,” this is your chance.
The Cons:
Idea #6: Ask questions on Yahoo! Answers using pictures
Posted: January 10, 2010 Filed under: The Little Things | Tags: answer, ask, auditory, pictorial, picture, question, visual, Yahoo! Answers Leave a comment »Premise:
As a Yahoo! Answers (Y!A)user, I have been able to help people with over 200 questions, and others have done the same for me. However, I’ve both seen questions that are hard to understand and struggled to make my questions sound intelligible to readers. This difficulty in understanding inquiries makes the entire process of asking and answering questions inefficient, especially for the asker when s/he knows that his/her question is poorly worded.
The Concept:
Make it easier to understand questions by linking to a picture of the concept being asked about. This process is not very difficult to do, as Y!A requires a general Yahoo! account , which provides access to Flickr. A user with a question can take a screenshot of his/her computer, photograph a broken object or a drawing of some process, etc. Then, s/he just uploads it to Flickr and asks a question, linking to the picture. Answerers don’t have to waste time deciphering paragraphs that describe what the problem is.
The Pros:
- Integration with Flickr makes this a convenient process.
- If it takes off, Yahoo! could easily add an “upload picture” button in the ask page, skipping Flickr entirely.
- This concept can be just as useful for people who try to answer questions.
- For visual or auditory thinkers, a picture’s worth a thousand words. An image or a sound clip with a short description can be a much easier way to express thoughts and questions.
In addition to these benefits, here are links to some of the questions and answers that could be helped by this process.
Math problems, like How would you graph 2x+y=4?
Medical questions, like Toes swelling from broken leg cast?
Repair-related questions and answers, like please help! windows media player problem!?
For users with questions that involve mathematic equations, linking to Wolfram|Alpha may help. ((3^x)+52)-(9*(x^3)) becomes , giving answerers an easier time deciphering that.
The Cons:
- This can be a tedious process. Some people don’t want to take the effort to hook up their cameras, upload media, send the pictures to the cloud, find the URL, copy and paste it, doublecheck it, and so on, especially if there’s a risk that their questions might not even get answered.
- Linking to something uploaded on your Flickr account means strangers are one step away from your personal pictures. This could get inconvenient for privacy zealots.
