Fountain Sink Design

The other day I had the thought ... wouldn't it be fun to have an elegant  sink that send the water up into the air several inches. That a water fountain. So here is the design. A sink with the faucet in the center sending the water up into your lovely hands or visage. The faucet is slightly elevated allowing the drain to be below it. You are welcome to decorate the sink with the latest goodies, like glass rocks or stone or something else if that is already passe.


Example of a elegantly simple sink:




Example of classic bidet aka fountain:
 


 Merge the two and you get a fun new idea in sink design:

Waste Less Food - The 1% (or more)

Waste Less Food

Many of the old and new packaging have issues with wasting food. The traditional sauce jar results in 1-5% (I made up that number, do you like it ;) of the sauce being stuck to the jar surface. Many of you either wash it down the sink before recycling it or might even throw the left over and jar, no way, into a landfill. In an effort  not to waste which results in an increase cost of the product since you are not getting everything you paid for you try to get it all out. This issue has not improved with the new containers: juice carton with screw top, squeezey bottles, and so on. Many of these containers also get smaller and smaller, kid single serving, where 10-200% gets left behind (I'm not very good with numbers, I think I learned my percentages from the same mathematicians who try to sell annuities and tell you it is good for them, I mean you, dohhh).

Getting it all out (techniques)

Here are just a few techniques you might be using to prevent from loosing all the sauce, mustard, mayo, juice, etc. stuck to the walls of the container.

• Tomato sauce - once you get out all you can, add a little water and shake vigorously (best done while holding the jar). You can take it to a club and go dancing with the jar strapped on as decoration. You now pour out the remaining sauce which has a more fluid viscosity. You can repeat but each time you are increasing your water content and getting less sauce in return. Once is usually enough.
• Mustard squeeze bottle - Add some vinegar that you wanted to use for your home made salad dressing. Shake as in Tomato sauce but not the top is flip top and you might get mustard and vinegar all over the dance floor so best done in dim lighting or near someone else doing the same thing so you can blame it on them. Again, you can add a second round of vinegar to get out the rest.
• Juice carton - The screw top lid is way cool but it is in the center and not at the top of the carton. Result is juice gets trapped at the top and won't come out. Solution, flex the top so the lip of the opening can let out the remaining juice while holding it upside down over your glass and do a swish from left to right, can also be done on the dance floor. Also, I would say half gallon but they have slowly been making them smaller and smaller. Helps you save money and loose weight by having less product (59oz instead of 64oz). This will also let them later say new bigger size and make it 64oz again. Digression, ice cream half gallon is now only 1.5 quarts, really helping everyone with their math.

Introducing, Get It Out

Solution / product. First version is intended for sauce style jars. It comes in the shape of a lid for the jar. Attach it to the jar opening. Turn the jar upside down. It has a nozzle that sprays high force air on the surface of the jar starting at the top center and working down the surface to the lid. The "Get It Out" device / lid is not air tight so no pressure issues. Take off the lid and all the sauce has dislodged from the walls of the container / jar and are on the "Get It Out" lid for you to use.

Where did my Netflix Queue go?

Not an invention but helpful trick for your missing Netflix / Qwikster Queue.

Did your Instant Queue or your DVD Queue go missing?
You know that Queue you have spent years building and trusting would be there for you.
Don't panic, they have not been permanently deleted.

With the changes made by Netflix from one company to two companies, one for streaming (Netflix) and one for DVD rentals by mail (Qwikster); you might find that when you came out of vacation mode and changed your plan or if you switched to only streaming or only DVD that the other Queue has disappeared.

One solution is to reactivate both services and the queue will return. But, if you don't want to pay for both services just to get your queue back then do the following:

1. using a web browser
2. login to your Netflix account.
3. bottom right of the screen under community click RSS feeds
4. And there they are under Personalized Feeds your (Queue and Queue to Watch Instantly)

You might want to print or save your feeds to a file just in case.

Custom ring tones share with friends

Do you enjoy having custom ring tones for each of your friends and family. You can currently download sounds, music, personally made recordings and use them as your default ring tone or assign that ring tone to a given caller or group of callers. But maybe what you really want is your contact to select their own ring tone. ex: in your mothers voice ... "pick up the phone, it's your mother, I know your avoiding me again" or your hipster friend ... "it's the dude, pick up the phone man" or your hippie friend might have meditative music. Well the wait is over.

You create as many ring tones as you want. They get stored in one of your social network sites or maybe a custom site app which is then added to your phone. Now when your friends look at your contact they see you have a selection of ring tones to choose from. They can keep the default or what they have already chosen for you or select to use one of your ring tones. Using Facebook, Google+, or your favorite site to share and connect with your peeps you can share your custom ring tones. On your Android / iPhone smart phone you might have noticed that you already get extra information about people in your address book that comes from Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Google Voice, and other applications.This same interface is used to allow you to select that ring tone and have fun with every incoming call. Naturally you can select and save your choice or make a link so when your friend changes the ring tone you selected it changes automatically, that could be some dangerous politically incorrect fun the next time your phone rings.

Google Voice can also use this feature to select the announcement of a caller, how cool. Currently Google Voice reads the name to you as it appears your address book (can be funny) or when a caller is not in your address book the caller is asked to say there name and half the time they say "hi dude it" and they get cut off before they say there name and you have that one forever since they don't get a second chance.

Farmers Market fun, great meal, no cooking

Many people love going shopping at the farmers market. They meet their friends, make new friends, have samples, buy all those local yummy goodies. What a great day. The only issue is some people don't like cooking or have time or skill to make something happen with the great products they purchased.

You want the fun of your day at the farmers market and that great meal. You even found some cool recipes on-line (from home or via your smart phone while at the market). Here is how it works. You select your recipes or ask the chef to come up with a recipe based on the ingredients you bought and want to see in your meal. You check in with the chef stand at the farmers market. They take your goodies and a few hours later you pickup your meal (or it gets delivered).

All the fun, nutrition, and non of the cooking or cleaning.

Clothing/Stuff share co-op for your Stuff

Many of us having a clothing compulsion. We walk into a store and see so many great cloths we would love to have. So, we fill our closets with dozens, if not hundreds of dresses, shoes, shirts, etc. Life is great, ahhhh, we have all the great stuff until ... we go out again and see more great stuff that we don't have and so we buy more until we run out of money or space. George Carlin said it as only he can,  "Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore." full text version and video.

We don't want to admit it but we soon figure out that we have more stuff then we can wear in a year and maybe a lifetime. I go back to my first sentence. Do we really see cloths that we have to have or are they cloths we want to wear. If you fall into the group that actually needs to have stuff and not the group that wants to wear it then this co-op is not for you. You should click on the direct marketed ads next to this post and buy more stuff. For the rest of you, you have found nirvana on par with a car share or ladder share that you only need once and a while.

Here is how it works:
The clothing co-op will store all your stuff and even catalog it for you with pictures.  Don't have time to clean it, they will do that for you as well. Sounds great but there is more. By joining the co-op and sharing your goodies you get access to a great collection of other peoples stuff as well. So maybe you no longer need to buy all the cloths you will only have time to wear once and instead you can wear other peoples great stuff too. Simply reserve your stuff and other peoples stuff you want to wear. The rest of the time others are welcome to wear them and you do the same with their clothing/stuff. This might remove some of the spontaneity of going into your closets and looking through the hundreds of dresses and deciding which one you want today but wait, you can go on-line or down to the co-op and look at racks and racks of stuff and decide what you want to wear.

Share stuff, get a small house, reduce environmental footprint, work less hours, be happy.

storing data securely in an insecure cloud

Simple way to have secure and efficient storage in an insecure cloud environment.

If your goal is to store data files or  backups of your data to the cloud and have the security that the data is private, what do you do. There is always the option to encrypt each file stored in the cloud and hope the cloud storage provider does not crack the encryption. Some countries have laws on what data can be stored within and outside of the country.

Here is a simple solution using existing RAID striping technology across multiple cloud providers:
Whether the data is in the cloud or lives on a client user machine the solution is the same.
When the files are saved they are stripped across multiple cloud services that might be operated my various providers. The files are parceled so as to be encrypted / useless to any one cloud host server. Just like RAID protocol you can decide how many servers could be down before the data was not recoverable. This solution not only allows your data to be secure while stored in an insecure environment, off-shored, etc, but having some cloud hosts go down would not effect your ability to access your data.

Last issue, storing the secure data / key to where the pieces of the data are stored and the key to reconstituting the data. This data is small could be stored at multiple secure locations which require security but very little storage space. The result is you can have large inexpensive storage facilities for the data and high security more expensive facilities to store the reconstitution data.

Window Air-conditioner Noise Shield

Does your window air conditioner drive you crazy on rainy days and nights?
It is a big metal drum with a persistent musician playing away.
If your idea of music while you are trying to work / sleep /etc is not a Haitian or Caribbean steel drum then you had better keep the musician away from the drum.


Assuming you want something quick and easy. Solution is to create a tent that you can place over the A/C unit aka drum. It needs to handle the weight of snow and all that rain.

Try this easy cheap idea with things easy to obtain. Put a tray over the unit at a slight angle with some foam in the tray. The water should get absorbed and flow to the low point. It can then go over the edge onto your favority neighbor walking under it or send it towards the house, down the wall and into your favority neighbors window. At least you will sleep well until they come knocking.

Feel free to comment with your solutions - from wire mesh to slow down the water speed, placing a stell drum over the A/C and let the rain be in tune, to a funny solution on a chat group to create an electric field to scatter away the water. Loved it.

See My Race

I think this invention is needed and should be built and launched. It has a market waiting to use it and the technology is currently available.

well ... what is it you may ask.

Summary: It is a SaaS website where runners and their loved ones (fans) can go to see photos of the race from various spectator and runner perspectives. During the race viewers can see race times and photos as they are uploaded to the site and later can review the days event with more photos as they are added. The site can be used for everything from marathons, fun runs, bike races, charity walk-athons, and more.

Idea: Many of us love to see ourselves and relive those special moments. You access the site and see pictures people (spectators, professional photographers, other participants) have taken of the course, the fans, you and your fellow runners. You get to see all pictures taken at the time you where at that location during your race. Pictures where you have been identified will be highlighted and you can mark and tag additional photos.

Interface: You access the site and enter the name or bib number of the person who you want to see. You are then shown the course with runner information including where they are now if the race is not completed and times they where at each place during the race. Each place a pictures of that runner was taken will be marked and the images can be selected and viewed. Similar to Google Maps street view, you can move your viewing perspective along the entire course and the time will match up with when the runner was at that location. This allows you to view pictures taken of the route at the time you where there and maybe even find additional photos of yourself. The interface also allows you to move through time at the specific location you have selected. This feature would allow a fan to see all the pictures taken at that specific spot during the race so they could watch various runners coming across the finish line or struggle up a tough hill or maybe look at pictures of themselves being spectators.

Recap User Experience: This site will enable both time and location based viewing of photos of a race and of yourself. The user can attach themselves to a participant in the race or using a drag-able icon pick locations on the course. Move the time slider to follow the racer the length of the course seeing all the photos taken or move through time in the fixed location.

Technology: Some of the technology is already in place and others need to be developed.

• Looking up participants and getting initial information as to their location is commonly used in various races using RFID tied onto the shoe laces and collection points along the route (every mile or kilometer). You can use the NYC Marathon Athlete Tracker from TATA Consulting Service to shows times at each marker and do look-ups by First and/or Last Name, Bib number, City, Country, and Team.
• Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, and other sites allow you to post your photos and videos to the internet. They allow you to share these photos with your friends and if desired, the world.
• Many of these sites allow for GeoTagging of the photos using GPS information from your camera (or phone) or enter it manually when uploading the photos.
• The photographing devices also store time information as meta-data along with each photo which is available to these websites.
• A face recognition algorithm is a feature Picasa and monitoring software already has to recognize people that have been previously identified or tagged. Facebook has also gathered a library of over 500 million people and their faces as provided by user tagging of billions of photos.
  
• OCR (Optical Character Recognition), the oldest technology that has been around for decades is the last piece of the puzzle that can be used to identify bib numbers. It can also aid in identifying places (building numbers, street signs, etc) as Google uses with its street view and GPS information to validate locations. Image recognition technology can also be used for identifying landmarks.
  
• Google Maps, Google Earth, or other viewers can then be used as the viewing environment. You can setup a course flyby in Google Earth and use their time slider to see photos over time.

TADA - We have the pieces, now we put them together

• Using the RFID information we have a good idea where a runner is during the race and extrapolate times between check points.
• People upload photos in real-time or post race using their iPhone, Android, Blackberry, computers, cameras, etc. If in addition to the common time stamp information the location information is also provided, then we greatly reduce the set of valid Bib numbers the OCR system can select from.
  
• Once someone has been identified via bib number or manual tagging the face recognition algorithm will aid in additional identification, increase correctness, and cross checking against the bib identification algorithm.
• As the matrix of information grows. Photos without locations can be placed in the correct location, participants identified, incorrect photo times corrected.
• Using some of the interoperable applications, you'll be able to log into your Facebook account and see all the pictures people took of you during your race.
• Lastly, I tried out the low tech version manually and what fun. I had taken some great photos during the NYC Marathon and was able to lookup the runner by Bib number. From that information get their name. If their name was not too common, find them on Facebook or LinkedIn and contact them to share your photos with them. Like all information in our current age, use it for good. Does contacting some you thought was cute to ask them out count as good, I leave that decision to you, your peers, and match.com.
  

There you have the technology and the long awaited user experience. These images can then be explored through time and space.

Notice we have sponge-bob at two locations 40 minutes apart.

Throw a Tantrum

Some of the best inventions are so simple.
Throwing a Tantrum is a great energy release for children and adults.
My latest invention comes in the form of plush toys, napkins, balls, pillows, and more.
They all have Tantrum written on them with trademarked logo and font.
Now you can throw a tantrum, squeeze one, step on one, stomp on one, kick one, blow your noise into one and so much more.

Second million will be donated to adult anger release programs. First million goes to the inventor. This is not a contract and subject to change. Don't like it ... go throw a tantrum.

Here are some other suggestions:

• Huffington Post
• eHow
• Wikia

Here is the first prototype produced:

Camera lens shmootz cleaner for news and sports coverage

Many of you have been watching the 2010 winter Olympics. You have probably noticed the times the camera gets shmootz (water, snow, mud) on the camera lens. The current solution appears to be a hand that sneaks in and cleans the lens, when the camera is off-line (not the select shot for the network, between riders for snowboarding, etc).

This invention will save the day and work great for that automated camera that goes on a track and follows the event. Can also be used for those floating stadium cameras that are out of reach of a human wiper. It is a windshield wiper of sorts but with better cleaning and without the a wiper blade showing up in the screen view. A high speed wiper that goes by in under a 1/30 of a second to hide between frames is just not practical and won't do as good of a job.

Design
2 layers of lenses mounted in front of the camera's lens. Often cameras are already placed inside a box to keep them dry and protected from the elements. These 2 lenses are on a pivot and swing out of the way into a cleaning solution tank or sprayer. The exit from the tank has a squeegee on both sides that the lens passes through. This cleans off the lens upon swinging back into position. No blade passes in front of the camera view and the lens has no boarder so clear view during the short pivot process. The cleaning solution tank is optional but will produce better cleaning.

Why 2 layers of lenses, here is the best part of this design. As one lens is being cleaned the other is blocking new shmootz from getting on the actual camera lens. Once the front lens returns from cleaning the second back lens goes through the process and back into place waiting for the next time the front lens requires a cleaning.

System can be controlled manually by user trigger or automatically based on the patented laser guided shmootz sensor. OK, unpatented shmootz sensor but you get the idea. Record use of Yiddish for this post, just like saying shm... and ootz

PDA Smart Phone Stadium Size Display App

The Stadium Size Display App

Here is a great app to add to your various smartphones and PDAs. I'm sure we will find other uses for it but the initial idea for this application is to use to create a stadium size display. Each person in the stadium with this application installed on their phone / PDA will act as one pixel of this large display. They hold there display over their head or facing desired direction depending on the desired viewing (overhead camera for televised, across the stadium for live viewing, etc). Software is then used to change the display color of each phone individually. Can be used to do the wave, show images, and maybe even live video with frame level time sync accuracy.

Details of the application:

• The client application is downloaded and installed onto the PDA / smart phone (iPhone, Android phone, etc).
  
• The client application has a code or url data entered to specify the server to control the application.
• The client app is then configured to use location information. Either GPS information which can be used if the person is part of a display on the field or in large open field or moving around, etc. For higher accuracy and static position a user id may be specific by the server with the person in an assigned position or coordinate may be entered, for example the seat they are sitting in.
• The server can then in real time send commands to change the color of the screen on each PDA creating a large mosaic / display. Another option is to send a pre-created sequence to each phone and have all the phones start based on a timer / clock at the same syncronized time.
• The server software converts the image / image sequence / video to map pixels to phones and distribute the image / pixel assigned data to each device.

Idea was inspired by great food and company on night out with Carl, Sarkis, SOs, friends, and people using their phones as flash lights to read the menus. Good food is usually a critical part to stimulating invention.

Ways to Use Your Screen Real Estate

Ways to Use Your Screen Real Estate

Using the following tools has worked well for me to add functionality and solve problems. Some funky configurations were required to get them working the way I and you might like for them to work.

High resolution monitor that you can't drive using your laptop.
MaxiVista - allows a desktop to drive the high resolution monitor and the laptop to control it and place content on that monitor.
KVM and Multi Monitor software
http://www.maxivista.com/

Can also use RealVNC to control the remote computer. Provides the KVM control feature but does not allow for displaying laptop windows on the high resolution monitor.
RealVNC
http://realvnc.com/


Want to have your screen saver turn off your monitor without having to go into power saver configuration.
MonitorOffSaver
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#MonitorOffSaver

Want to shut off your monitor and don't have a power button - for example on a laptop.
PushMonitOff
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#PushMonitOff
Uses Shift-F1 to power off the monitor. On the remote machine I set it to Ctrl-F1 so can shut that one off in Remote Control Mode, did not work when both use Shift-F1 as the key is intercepted by this program before MaxiVista can pass it on.

Or just run whatever commands you want as a screen saver
RunSaver
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index.html#RunSaver

Extra multi-monitor features and task bar support for multiple monitors.
UltraMon
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

Virtual Desktops
VirtualWin
I tried many and this one was my favorite for usability and not loosing windows and minimum strange side effects (also tried - Reflection Virtual Desktop ,Vista/XP Virtual Desktop, and others)
The Reflection Vitrual Desktop was great but does not work with more then one physical or virutal monitor since instead of virtual monitors it really creates a virtual sized large monitor.
Check out the modules (KvasdoPager - but only shows primary display) and extra icons sets (I like 3x2)
http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/downloads.php


MaxiVista Version 3.0.28 - Extra configuration information
In the era of green most people have the monitors power off, not display pretty pictures from webshots.

MaxiVista has a few features useful in the Misc. section. One selecting "Disconnect secondary PC when" and select "Current session is locked" instead of the "Always keep MaxiVista activated" option. This will result in the features in MaxiVista that are preventing the Secondary PC from powering off the monitor to do so.

In the "Power related settings" where you would expect the feature that allows powering off the secondary PC monitors there are some features that might help as a word around.
MaxiVista behaves differently in "Extended Screen Mode" and "Remote Control Mode" for these features and expectedly so. Quick explanation, when in "Remote Control Mode" the keyboard and mouse events are being sent to the secondary PC. In these cases the secondary PC will power off the monitor when no events occur for given period, events on the primary PC are not seen by the secondary so it will do its own thing. In this mode the "Prevent hibernation/standby on secondary PC" will keep that machine from going to sleep by turning off that setting on the secondary PC until disconnection occurs. In "Extended Screen Mode", the same is true and it is important to understand that no keyboard or mouse events are going to the secondary PC and just the full size window showing the display coming from the primary PC is visible. To prevent the monitor power off or the screen saver from coming on in this mode

I also find that MaxiVista does not always find the clients when they come back from Stand By mode, so just restart MaxiVista on your primary PC.

Food Lover's Substitution Guide to ... but I can't Eat that

New Cookbook.
Food Lover's Substitution Guide to ... but I can't Eat that

A great cookbook idea.
The cookbook has a few sections.
One lists all the ingredients that people have allergies to (or won't eat, veg, vegan, etc) and gives possible substitution ingredients.

The rest of the book gives recipes of old favorites and new ones with various ingredient substitutions.

Chicken Parmesan might become eggplant or veal. The beef broth in French Onion soup might be replaced with vegetable broth and the bread replaced with gluten free matzo. The ice cream with coconut milk or goats milk instead of cows milk.

Chickens: Stop the Rooster Crowing and Still Get Eggs

Urban Chicken Farming dilemma .
2 issues: rooster crowing, chickens not laying

We have a rooster which keeps the other chickens quite and happy. The problem is the rooster likes to wake up the neighbors at day break. Solution was found. Make sure the chicken coupe does not let in the morning daylight that causes the rooster to crow. This was achieved in our case by using some old flannel bed sheets attached to the coupe so light would not get in through the various cracks. This solution allows for airflow while blocking the daylight from entering and has the added bonus of dampening the sound if the chickens or rooster make noise at night.

The rooster problem has been solved and the neighbors are okay with the rooster crowing at 8AM when the chickens and rooster are let out of the coupe. The next problem resulting from the first, the chickens are not producing eggs. It might be that they are simply late bloomers or after various research the answer I liked best was --- most chicken breeds need a minimum of 15 hours of daylight to produced eggs. Lack of daylight, not temperature is the reason chickens don't lay in winter. It could be argued that this requirement is rather suspect unless egg laying chickens and therefore chickens cannot exist near the equator where light stays at 12 hours a day. Maybe they need those special winter laying breeds. Anyway, returning from tangent land. I have inserted a full spectrum 75w bulb in the coupe and will turn it on at sunset and leave it on until midnight. Could leave it all night but why waste energy.

The theory is the rooster will still not crow leaving that problem solved and having 16 hours of light should allow all the chickens to lay eggs. Two week later ... have 12 eggs from 14 chickens. The rooster does crow when the light comes on but the sound muffled by being inside has satisfied all but the lightest of sleepers.

Plant Auto Watering System using Air Conditioner and Dehumidifier

You might have an window air conditioner or dehumidifier. Both result in the condensation of moisture from the environment into water that is collected. That water can be seen leaking down the side of buildings under these units.

Might as well make use of this natural resource. Have the excess run off go into a planter. This creates an automatic plant watering system. Easy to setup, no water lines need to be run to your plant, hang the planter below and near the unit and redirect the water to the plant.

The extra heat generated by the exhaust and reflective heat from the unit might help some plants, tomatoes for example, grow even better.

Focus and Lighting feature for Video Cameras

Have you ever videoed an indoor performance. You probably notice that the focus is unstable in poor lighting and the lighting is over exposed on the area of interest, the subject in the spotlight. These issues are easily managed by the professional and person willing to understand the camera. It requires their attention as they manually focus and control the exposure manually as well.

Now a solution for the general public that wants a simpler solution and requiring less concentration. Many camera are coming with a touch screen. Let the user utilize the touch screen to select the spot or region to be used for selecting focus. Same technique would be used to select area to use for deciding exposure.