Archive for the ‘Ideas’ Category

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The Alphabet

May

22

2014

Encouraged by a comment from Ricky, I made an effort to write a children’s book. Here is my first attempt. It is in the form of an extended sonnet, keeping more or less with iambic pentameter (more pentameter, less iambic).

I noticed that a lot of children’s books are the ABCs of something. Most of the “something”s have already been used, except for that which is most important to the children of today – websites.

The Alphabet Book of URLs

A is for Amazon, they sell goods and bads

B is for Blogspot, opinions and tales

C is for Craigslist, all classified ads

D is for Dropbox, don’t clog up emails

E is for Ebay, the price might be right

F is for Facebook, waster of time

G is for Google, main search engine site

H is for Homestar Runner, cartoon sublime

I is for Instragram, ruin photos with filt’ring

J is for Jameco, electronics supplier

K is for Kickstarter, more funds it wilt bring

L is for Lycos, search engine old-timer

M is for Moniker, buy a domain name

N is for Netflix, watch films and shows

O is for Opera, browsers are not the same

P is for Priceline, solves travelling woes

Q is for QQ, who knows what they do?

R is for Reddit, vote on your favorite

S is for Snopes, if a story is true

T is for Twitter, short insights you’ll get

U is for Urban Spoon, meal option reducer

V is for Vimeo, simple film hosters

W is for WordPress, a blogging producer

X is for XKCD, web comics and posters

Y is for Yahoo, search, email, and news

Z is for Zillow, a new home you can choose

Now I know my TLDs,
Next time won’t you browse with me?

for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.

2 Corinthians 10:9

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Wall-Covering Invention

Mar

25

2014

Remember the adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

image showing eraser paper, the wallpaper made out of magic eraser sponges

If you can prevent their ounce of coloring on the walls, it’ll save you a pound of cleaning.

That is the downside of those Magic Erasers, right? It makes it too easy to undo damage done to the walls by kids. You reprimand them for coloring on the walls, then they see you just wipe it right off. And they wonder “what’s the big deal? I color on the walls, and it comes right off…”

Thus I will spend My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it over with whitewash; and I will say to you, ‘The wall is gone and its plasterers are gone,

Ezekiel 13:15

Posted in Ideas | 3 Comments »

Seating Configuration

Feb

27

2014

A recent department meeting was held in a conference room with dozens of folding chairs. I ended up near the back, and I found myself staring at the back of the head of the person sitting in front of me. There was no comfortable way for me to sit so that I could see the speaker at the front of the room.

That got me to thinking about how the seats could be arranged to improve sight lines.

Problem:

diagram of a bad arrangement of folding chairs for listening to a speaker

If the audience were somewhat transparent, it would be okay because you could see through them in order to see the speaker. Like this:

diagram of a bad arrangement of folding chairs for listening to a speaker

But they’re not, so sitting directly behind people is a problem.

One that can be easily solved though.

All you need to do is offset each row by half a chair.
Solution A:

diagram of a bad arrangement of folding chairs for listening to a speaker

Maybe it would be better to offset each row by a third of a chair.
Solution B:

diagram of a good arrangement of folding chairs for listening to a speaker

If you’re ever in charge of setting up a conference room for an audience, be sure to stagger the chairs a bit. Thanks.

They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.

Mark 6:40

Posted in Ideas | 4 Comments »

Scale Improvement

Jan

30

2014

The scale has gone through many iterations through the years.

First, the balance:

image of balance scales

No, not that balance – the balance for weighing a person:

image of balance scales

Next, the dial:
(more…)

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