There are probably millions of old Iphones out there lying in a drawer or being sold relatively cheap.

Why not use them in the industry as brains and GUIs? They are small, cheap, powerful and have a big developer community.

Hardware interfaces can be reused since Iphones are more or less identical.

There is more to this but it has to mature in my brain some more.

The title says it all.

Here comes an idea I have had for 20 years or more.

Create a wand with a laser distance meter.  The update rate must be quite high.

Have a device to put somewhere.  This device knows the position and orientation of the wand.  The wand sends data to the device.

As long as we keep the measuring fast we can “paint” the surroundings and store the data.  We can then do some smart calculations and figure out what the room/object looks like.

If we want to measure more than the distance between the wand and the device allows we can set the device in “moving mode” after putting the wand down; move the device, and then set the device in “measuring mode” again.  This way we can move the measuring through a whole multi floor factory or from a building to another.

If we have computer power enough, we can do it all real time.  It would be super to be able to see how one paints the objects to see if there are any forgotten areas.

There should be a way to help the computer calculate the data (afterwards).  One can give it hints about what is a corner and what is a pipe.  Or a nose on a statue.

Another solution which probably requires more computing power, is to do it with a (film-)camera.  Or a stereo camera to make the calculations easier.  Hold the camera in your hands, on a pole, on a vehicle or in a ball to through around.
Does the Microsoft Kinect solve this problem? It measures a room alright but at a high enough definition? At least it can be used as a proof of concept.

It already exist, Don’t forget the milk, Out of milk and more.

They synchronise nicely and allow the whole family use the same list; very good for updating the shopping list at work for the one at paternal leave at home.

What I miss though is:

I want it to reorder my shopping list to be a pickup list in the same order as in the store.  It could sense in which order I ticked off the items and make guesstimates the next time I fill out the list.  I don’t know exactly what the algorithm should like.  There are different list orders for different shops.

It should change behaviour when I enter the list and when I am in the shop.  It could be a switch or it could use geo info and automagically switch.

If it uses geo data it can also differ between different stores and alter the list’s order to the actual shop.

Ok, so now the app or html knows where we are and what to shop.  Time to get offers and alternatives.  The shop has offers, the suppliers might have offers, there might be third parties with offers, neighbouring shops might have offers.  Download and show.

Look at your keyboard and you know what I mean.

Why is there still no cleanable keyboard around?  That is nice to use at the same time I mean.

Some ten years ago I tried cleaning a keyboard thoroughly.  I popped 10 keys a day loose and cleaned.  After two weeks I was finished and the keyboard was only a tad cleaner.

Dishwasher cleanable, only the keys or preferably the whole keyboard.  Or washing machine washable even.

The keyboard for computers have got upgrades since the typewriter heydays, but they are still designed for text and spreadsheets.

Why not make a developer centric keyboard with easy-to-reach buttons for debugging by the left side (like the F1-F10 in old keyboards) but more ergonomic.  Wireless if needed.  Possible to pick to pieces and puzzle together again – think Lego, clay or magnets.  Make it washable.

The pragmatic choice for selecting language to learn programming in is javascript. It is not a Good language to learn programming in but it is easy to get stuff graphical, interactive and published. (Perhaps actionscript is better.)

After very little hacking in javascript a backend is needed for persisting data between sessions. Also other functionality is needed like user handling. So why not create a very simple server side app that does this? It can’t be used for serious applications but for simple html/javascript for youngsters wanting to learn it should do alright.