My Inventions (I think!)

#1 – Life Tracker

A few years back I started thinking about my travels, data collection and visualisation of it.

I started to wonder… in my past had I perhaps come into close proximity to  my partner/friends etc before we had officially met?

The recent revelations about iphones tracking an owners location/travels, has re-ignited my idea from the dusty depths of my memory banks.

My idea was that from birth (or at consenting age if more suitable) people could buy a device (or perhaps tag) that tracks their whereabouts (realtime). They would then be able to see their travels on a world map (much like the app that was created to read the iphone data). My thoughts about this pre-dated the widespread usage of GPS enabled devices, so it was much more radical back then.

The specific usage I would be interested in, is finding out how close I had come to other individuals… so if I were to overlay my travel map (that contained timeline functionality) against my partner’s map – we could find out how close we had come to meeting before we actually had met… we could also discuss the places/items we had both visited (separately) in the past.

#2 – Reusable packaging

I am fairly confident that this is not my original concept, in fact – the very birth of the concept in my head was as a direct result of another companies idea. What I do know is that the idea hasn’t been implemented like my vision..

I’ll give you a very, very quick background story – I was listening to the radio on the way to the shops and commercials started playing- it was an advert for ‘Cartridge World’.
If you haven’t heard of ‘Cartridge World’ the concept of the store is that printer ink is expensive, so you can take your old cartridge back and get it re-filled for a reduced cost.

It got my brain-a-ticking, here I was – about to do the weekly shop and re-buy a heck of a lot of plastic packaging, when (predominantly) all I wanted were the products, not the containers.

So my idea… When I go shopping I can re-use/re-fill milk bottles, cosmetic packaging; toothbrush tubes, shampoo bottles and the like. I could walk up to the ‘re-fill’ section in my local waitrose/sainsburys/tesco etc and just re-fill the packaging and just pay for the product (or buy new – if I don’t have that product or the container needs replacing), This would mean I am not re-purchasing the container.

Even if that only saved pence – it would soon mount up, plus the environmental impact would be massive.

I see this as a win for a fair few parties:

1. The user: discounted products and also doing their bit for the environment (+ emptier house hold bins)
2. The supermarket: they are doing their bit for the environment and also offering choice (refill or new) and discounted prices to customers that want to recycle.
3. The suppliers: they can (in part) just send lorries of the product (saving packaging and therefore cost and space) meaning they are also being ‘green’. I would also foresee quicker unloading and placement of products into stores.

#3 – Theme park cueing

This idea has been in my head for a long, long time – and with ‘little-to-no knowledge’ of the theme park industry economics/workings – it could easily be flawed.

The worst thing in my opinion about theme parks is the cueing. My idea is to have a conveyer belt with seats on that take people to the ride, each seat would have a little screen on the back showing ride information and theme park info (and probably adverts!). So in essence it would be a ride to get to the ride, lazy perhaps – but I’d like it!

De-words, anti-phrases and plane wrong!

Personally, I am not fantastic at spelling and grammar – I consider myself condemned to be an eternal student of the English Language.

In fact, I am sure that if this blog post is read – glaringly obvious mistakes will be found. It’s probably a bad choice to blog about spelling and grammatical inconsistencies and errors – when my own writings surely contain the very thing I am blogging about! (blogging comes up as a spell check!)

That said, I wanted to raise a couple that I see day-in, day-out that frustrate me.

First up, re-iterate / reiterate.

I hardly ever hear anyone say “He iterated his point”.
The term ‘reiterate’ crept into the language through what’s known as ‘hypercorrection’: correcting something which is already right.

‘Iterate’, on its own, already means ‘to say or perform again/repeat something’. However, many people do not know this, so they add ‘re’ to the word, thinking that this will give them the ‘again’ element.

So, you would use ‘reiterate’ only if you were iterating again, for a second/third time.

Next, one that I constantly battle with, and get pulled up (rightly so) by my colleagues: ‘its or it’s‘:

its – this can mean only one thing: the neutral possessive – something which indicates belonging to

• This car and its doors are painted red.

it’s – this can mean only two things: ‘it is’ and ‘it has’

• It’s twenty-five to three. It’s been raining.

The confusion often arises (for me included) because we assume that we must have an apostrophe when talking of something belonging to someone or something. However, this is not always true.

Future Perfect (which these examples come from) shows us a simple rule to use for clarification: when you see ‘it’s’, say it in full, to check whether it is right.

• The computer and it’s screen.
• check 1: The computer and it is screen. WRONG
• check 2: The computer and it has screen. WRONG

So, this must be: The computer and its screen. (mental note… remember this!)

For a list of other grammar tips et cetera, see: http://www.future-perfect.co.uk/grammartips/index.asp

Passwords!

Just a quick blog posts about security…

A colleague yesterday mentioned that just to switch his computer on, he had to memorise 5 (or so) passwords/combinations, at first I thought he was being stupid, but he is right;

1 – Parking
2 – Office alarm (and another if lost key)
3 – BIOS
4 – Windows password
5 – Server password (to access work)

On top of this I personally have to enter my private key password (for ssh access) plus other various combinations to begin work (site passwords) etc.

Now, obviously I understand the rationale behind needing each password, and the alternative of no passwords is not an option.

Many promote password managers, but to my mind – they create a single point of failure, which I think is just as much of a flaw as having to remember them.

I feel I have a pretty good system for setting my passwords, so they aren’t “easily” guessable – but should I have to remember so many… I wish I knew the answer!

I guess I do know the answer, as it’s always the same: http://arniie.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/balance/

Interesting reading: RISK

I don’t read many books – to my own discredit, but recently I read:

risk – by Dan Gardner

It was recommended by my boss – Syd Nadim.

It is a superb book and I’d also recommend it unreservedly, Gardner cleverly and with good citation, strips bare the very shaky assumptions upon which much risk assessment is based – in the world.

It also highlights to the user with practical and working examples of how we are hard wired to react to given situations, and how the hard wirings are sometimes  flawed in the new societies and situations we find ourselves with surprising results.

He talks about how our so-called ‘gut vs head decisions’ influence many parts of our lives, and shows us that we may not be always using the best metric to form our opinions and answers.

I especially liked the little challenges he has aggregated, showing the reader evidence – such as:

A Cricket Bat Costs £1 more than a Ball.

Both Together cost £1.10,

How much Does the Ball Cost?

hint: it’s not 10p

It is well worth the invested time to read, and I urge you to give it a whirl.

A brain cleanse

The passing of a year end, brings the usual thoughts of a clean slate and a chance to cleanse one’s self.

This year I thought I’d embark on a mental cleanse, inspired by an XKCD cartoon – I read this list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions

So that I can remove the junk from my head that I thought were true, but now know to be incorrect.

Some key ‘misconceptions’ that I ‘suffered’ from were:

- There is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets.

- Mussels that do not open when cooked may still be fully cooked and safe to eat.

- The discovery of the spherical shape of the Earth does not date to the modern era or to the Middle Ages. It was wellknown throughout the Hellenistic period. See Myth of the Flat Earth.

- It is commonly claimed that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from the Moon. This is false. None of the Apollo astronauts reported seeing any man-made object from the Moon, and even earth-orbiting astronauts can barely see it. The misconception is believed to have been popularized by Richard Halliburton decadesbefore the first moon landing. Shuttle astronaut Jay Apt has been quoted as saying “…the Great Wall is almost invisible from only 180 miles up.

- Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children

- Prolonged exposure to cold weather such as rain or winter conditions does not increase the likelihood of catching a cold

- The notion that goldfish have a memory of only three seconds is false

- The flight mechanism and aerodynamics of the bumblebee (as well as other insects) are actually quite well understood, in spite of the urban legend that calculations show that they should not be able to fly. In the 1930s a German scientist, using flawed techniques, indeed postulated that bumblebees theoretically should not be able to fly, although he later retracted the suggestion. However the theory became generalized to the false notion that “scientists think that bumblebees should not be able to fly.”

- Bulls are not enraged by the color red, used in capes by professional matadors. Cattle are red-green color-blind. It is not the color of the cape that angers the bull, but rather the movement of the fabric that irritates the bull and incites it to charge

- Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet

- Guglielmo Marconi did not invent radio, but only modernized it for public broadcasting and communication.

But there are many more!!

I guess my head isn’t now cleansed – I have just added information to each of the so called ‘facts’

Table Golf!

I might be getting overly carried away – but I think a great game would be Table Golf!

Having searched the web, there are some table golf games, but my vision is slightly different…

I am thinking more like table football, bear with me, the pole would be able to move in stages from tee off and if the golfer figure can’t access the ball then the user gets a one stroke penalty.

The course would have a velcro bottom so that you can play 18 holes worth (rather than the same hole over and over.)

And perhaps hazards would actually drop the ball back to the start (via tubing)

I have done a childish mock-up:

I reckon I’d play it.

Perhaps the floors would get grubby, changing all the time and better to have something like this for the full 18!

Perhaps you wouldn’t have to stop at golf – maybe other sports would work just as well?

Whatdayathink?!

Receipts I do not need

Start of another rant… stop reading if you hate rants… I did warn.

Receipts  – seriously!

How, in this day and age, do I still need to be handed a small piece of paper to prove a purchase? when 2 traces already exist: the shops own records and my bank.

By now – I should be able to, if needing to return an item, hand over my card and the shop tell if I have purchased something from them (via either method described above).

Ok, so if I pay by cash – the little (and increasingly not-so-little†) piece of paper may be of use for traceability… but seriously if I pay by card stop wrecking the environment and filling my wallet/pocket/personal bin.

</ rant>

† – have you seen coffee shop receipts lately, my they are large. The worst culprit I have found lately is a Texaco garage – 2 pieces of A4 it felt like!

 

 

A look-back

If I were to say “Star Wars Kid”, “Numa Numa” and “Exploding Whale” would you know what I was talking about?

I guess it depends how “online” you are… and how much rubbish your friends have emailed you in the past.

Looking back there are quite a few ‘viral’ videos that have done “the rounds”, these are the top viral video’s that spring to my mind (the aforementioned included):

• Kolla 2001: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvNOwfAnWQQ
• JW Salmon ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FARnbRBWKGg
• Afro Ninja: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEtIoGQxqQs
• Dramatic Look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Kyi0WNg40
• Sneezing panda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRH3iTQPrk
• Laughing baby: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk
• Evil Eye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBSYD0dQCAw
• Charlie bit me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

If you have seen the all of the above – congratulations, you really should get back on with your work!

Severafew

I have only just realised a misconception that I have always had.

I thought that;

- A couple meant 2

- A few meant 3 or 4

- And several meant 7 or more

I have no idea why this seed was planted in my head or where it came from.
The reason I now know that I was wrong was an article in the paper that referred to several men and spoke of 3 men so I did some research and it turns out that;

A couple is indeed two but…

A few is “not many but more than one”

Several is “more than 2 but not very many”

I prefer my misconception!

p.s I also went approx 20 years before realising February had a ‘r’ after the b – I previously spelt it ‘Febuary’!

Speech Two Tech Dictation

or rather the title should be “Speech to Text Dictation“

I have never thought that speech to text dictation has been quite at the level to be usable as a substitute.

I saw ‘Dragon Dictation’ on the app store and thought I’d give it a whirl. The first test proved my point:

“Testing Dragon dictation walking down the table I can see rather disgusting nettles-obviously seawater I can see that type of with glorious motion passed and this one”

And what I really said:

“Testing dragon dictation walking down the toe path I can see grass, stinging nettles – obviously water.. I can see the M25 with lorries rushing past and I can see a swan.”

In the interest of a fair trial I gave it two more goes:

The above sentence came out as:

“In the interest of the third trial I go to more goes”

And then another source (in case it was my voice!):

“Stand back from the platform edge the next train at platform 4 does not stop here” came out as

“Stand out from the platform merge the next ramp up from four does not stop it”

I am not bad mouthing ‘Dragon Dictation’ as for a free app it functions fairly well (compared to others I have seen) but personally speaking they just aren’t quite at the level that takes the hassle out of alternative methods such as written or typed messages (as I don’t have to rewrite them having lost meaning in the process).

Maybe one day…