Problem solved:
Getting people in contact and in sync.
TL;DR
Say you sit at a pub and decide to do a small project or throw a party. You know each other but there might be more people to join.
Go to a site to create a mailing list. Everyone on the list has admin rights so when someone joins or someone leaves anyone can edit.
Throughout the years I have learned that the neck of an axe gets worn. In the end the whole handle has to be exchanged.
Since many years have I protected the neck with some metal and prolonged the life of the handle many years.
It isn’t expensive nor complex. I have cut an ordinary tin can, flattened it and then bent it again around the neck of the axe. I have then taped it together. The tape gets worn and has to be changed once a year, depending on how much the axe is used, type of wood and skill of axe handling.
Grilling, whether you call it barbie, barbecue, grill or whatnot still leaves a grate to clean. Often sticky and fat.
Can we make up a solution to have it clean again without destroying the grate, lots of work or forcing us to handle the problem immediately after grilling?
There are several solutions as per today:
Putting the grate in a soaped bath over night – now the grate is wet too.
Putting the grate in the vicinity of ants – doesn’t work.
Putting the grate in the coal to burn off residues – next time the grate will be rusty too.
Immediately scrubbing the grate with a metal brush – best so far.
Then there is a bit more tech: http://www.gizmag.com/
Ever worked for a company with people sharing the same file server? Then you have seen the spagetti-of-files it becomes after a while.
It can’t be regulated through IT department zombies either. All that happens is that creating a Shared folder for a Project takes 3 days and that is long enough to switch to Dropbox. Problem is not solved, just moved.
Even if the files were kept nice and tidy in structured folders it still sucks sideways. Because. We have. Authorisation. A company doesn’t have one structure of authorisation for files, it has several; one for every function to be almost exact. One for the brass; boss, second boss, smaller boss etc. Economy needs to work between offices and the controller has his own needs. Programmers can have a flat structure but don’t forget to shoe horn project leaders in there somewhere. All unaware of how the company’s organisational chart looks.
That was the problem; files and folders that exist but their raison d’être is forgotten. Also a problem is the rights to said files and folders.
Solution
Keeping files in hierarchical folders is not the best solution but keep that for now.
Create a good graphical UI for seeing and manipulating rights to the folders. Use the directory service as usual but keep the OUs orthogonal to the organisational topology. Like so: have one tree for boss, second boss, third boss und so weiter. Have another for economy where controllers need access to some information and mechanical turks to another. Developers can typically have a flat structure but project leaders need to get shoe horned in. You get it… every different functionality need their own structure and Do Not let the organisation’s economical structure of offices and group interfere.
This is possible today but there is not Good tool for it.
Keep a tab on the rights and files and folders. When they haven’t changed or even been read for a while they are probably stale. When they have been stale for a while, contact the owner (the one that created the folder for instance) or the ones that last used the folder/file or simply move them to a folder “AreTheseOld”.
Now back to the folder spaghetti I started with.
Ditch folders. Adopt tags.
Check out gmail, it has tags and no folders so the same email can have several tags associated to it. Looking for an email from your mother about your car? Either look in “mother” or in “family” or “rust bucket”, it doesn’t matter.
Apply the same thinking to files. Every file is associated with tags so it can go in two projects at once. Even two projects, economy department Z and customer A.
The above won’t solve the problem with people creating new files instead of updating existing so one after a while has six nearly identical files where all have their own version of last draft. But that is another story…
You know the small hard plastic cushions one can boil until they get soft to store energy in them to reuse later? Later, when cooled down, one bends them (bends a little metallic thingy in them really) and they heat up by themselves.
Why not make smaller such to insert into gloves and mittens? Especially for toddlers that don’t have the experience to keep hands dry and warm.
Sew a pocket inside the glove to keep the cushion.
SHORT:
Create a site that encrypts user/password combinations, or short pieces of text, through javascript before uploading them.
That way we can have a simple, and safe, way of handling passwords.
LONGER:
For storing passwords one can use for instance Keepass, which is a fat client. It can then backup and distribute its database through, for instance, Dropbox.
This solution is good in the way that the password only exists on your machine. If you have an open source encrypter (e.g. Keepass) you should be quite safe. Next step is the database backup and distributor (e.g. Dropbox) which lies outside your control. Here we rely on the encryption by the fat client being safe enough.
To use this solution one must install both Dropbox and Keepass and configure them both. Not too big of a job but still something that must be done.
Another solution is one of the web based password storage sites. But they all rely on us relying on them. Security wise this is considered a bad choice.
The installation for this solution is non-existant.
Why not use the web based solution but let your password be encrypted on the client, through javascript. Javascript is by its nature visible so it is not hard to check that the code looks ok.
I write “ok” because encryption/decryption is not something one learns over night and such code cannot be inspected and fully understood during a coffee break. But that is what internet is for. If a sites boasts about strong client side encryption it is not hard to inspect and if it gets some traction more eyes will inspect.
Update: it looks like Mega has done this.
AFAIK dating sites today concentrate on dating. Of course.
But this doesn’t cover everyone wanting to meet someone. One can think of people more interested in their hobbies than actually meeting someone.
So create a fishing site, or a horse site, or a role playing site with respective passtime as primary focus. Then add dating capabilities.
Problem:
When doing mechanics, like fixing a car, small parts are taken off and most of them need to go to their old places again. While not being in their right place they might get mixed and lost.
Solution:
First be thorough to Always put the parts in bowls.
Keep several bowls for different parts you are working on.
Here is what i have learned about these bowls:
They must be stable. It is way too easy to tilt a bowl, especially when lying under a car. A small dog food or a cat food bowl is perfect. They are stable enough to be pushed without tumbling over. They also have nice smooth edges around the bottom that makes it easy to hunt and grip screws and other small pieces with your fingers.
They must be several. One is not enough unless you do only a small work with few pieces.
Different colours is good but not critical.
I have sometimes wanted to cap them, like when putting them away for a while. This can just as well be done through moving their contents to other, cheaper, boxes.
One time or another i wanted to have them magnetic so their invaluable contents didn’t escape. Absolutely not critical.
More important then is to have the bowls square, or any other shape, and some sort of walls in the bowl to make it a bit chronological. Like the first parts that where taken out are leftmost.
Until someone creates an expensive bowl for die hard DIYelvers; use an old cat bowl. It has neen close to perfect for me.
Problem:
You’re having a potluck dinner.
You plan the contents.
You split the contents between the participants.
You email everyone.
You bask in the glory of a party with a fraction of the work.
Sometimes step 5 is preceded with email tennis about redeciding who’s bringing what.
Solution:
Create a site with the possibility to create a list of stuff to bring and make.
Invite everyone to the site.
Let people choose and pick. Alternatively, prime the list with responsibles; otherwise you might get all the boring stuff and you’re worse of than when you started.
Why don’t TV makers create an app for remote controlling the TV? Start right now!
The system camera can be remote controlled through a phone with bluetooth. And the camera can send its pictures to the phone to make for remote viewing.
