A few suggestions for FeedBurner

I’m a very happy user of FeedBurner, the wonderful feed management service from Google. I’ve been using it since early 2006, and I log on multiple times every day to keep track of my feeds. I’d like to talk about some features and options that I’d love to see on the site.
Ability to splice [...]

A rule of thumb to help you avoid accidents

So many traffic accidents happen when we don’t keep our proper distance from the cars in front of us. Here’s a simple equation to help you do just that:
Distance (in car lengths) = (Speed/10) - 1
Let me explain it. Say you’re going along at 20 mph — the distance between your car and that in [...]

Taking foolproof photos

We read about software that can improve blurry photos these days, and about significant improvements to autofocus on even inexpensive cameras. We look at photos that we take, the washed out ones, and wish we’d have exposed them a little less, or a little more. We wonder how they can be improved.
My solution points to [...]

Minuscule headset powered by novel battery

I was in my car, driving back from lunch, when I got a call on my cellphone. I’m holding out on buying a Bluetooth headset, because they look ridiculous. So I still have to answer the phone the “old fashioned” way, by flipping it open and pressing Speakerphone. I know, what tough luck… But I [...]

A novel way to search music or movie files

I was in the bathroom, whistling a tune I’d heard in a movie last night (”Anchors Aweigh”, with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra,) and wishing I could find out its title, when it occurred to me. Why shouldn’t I be able to search for it?
I should be able to whistle that tune into my computer’s [...]

Music players should match genres with equalizer presets

This idea is so simple I can’t believe it’s not already in use! There I was during lunch, listening to my iPod in Shuffle mode, and it dawned on me how annoying it was that if I wanted to change the Equalizer present, I’d have to maneuver through several menus, then when it advanced to [...]

Speedometers should store speed for last 10-15 minutes of driving

I got a ticket on the 1st of December, a trumped up charge for reckless driving through the Virginia countryside. My wife and I both looked at the speedometer when the trooper started flashing his lights behind us, and we were doing 72-73 tops. We’ve got a MINI, and it’s really hard to miss the [...]

Google should offer web hosting

Google has been tinkering with the idea of immediate indexing of changed content in websites for some time. Its current solution is to have you place certain files and bits of code inside your site, that can notify the Google bots when your content has changed. But there’s a much simpler solution: why not offer [...]

The next media player

I sat down to breakfast this morning and kept thinking about my media and the problems I face when trying to get things properly cataloged, and realized the tools still aren’t out there to do things correctly.
Current media players (such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc.) are good for playing music, or for playing [...]

Using recycled plastic to minimize collision impact

My wife told me about the difficulties with recycling plastic, and that so little of it can be re-used for the same purpose. Most of it can unfortunately only be used for utility purposes such as benches, garbage cans, etc. Immediately I thought of its potential use to minimize collission impact on our roads. We’ve [...]

Audience-inclusive advertising

After the new video iPod launched, and the possibility to purchase and download ad-free TV shows came to light, I realized that the advertising industry would have to come up with some clever ways to keep their audience if they were to maintain revenues. The following ideas sprung to mind:

A site can be set up [...]

Gravitational propulsion-levitation vehicle

I’ve had this idea for quite some time - since sometime in 1997 - and I’ve carried it around in my mind, not knowing how to bring it to fruition, and certainly not knowing if I wanted to share it with anyone.
I’ve decided to share this idea with the world because I don’t have the [...]