1.1 --- a/org/ideas.org	Sun Apr 21 17:05:04 2013 +0000
     1.2 +++ b/org/ideas.org	Thu Jun 27 14:46:25 2013 -0400
     1.3 @@ -1,5 +1,121 @@
     1.4  * Good Ideas
     1.5  
     1.6 +- bitcoin wallet :: Part of "server culture", this would be something
     1.7 +                    like "coin.your-domain.com" which would serve as
     1.8 +                    your personal trusted access to your own bitcoins
     1.9 +                    from anywhere.
    1.10 +
    1.11 +- libpay :: this would be a free library which would enable
    1.12 +            micro-donations to software projects and other projects,
    1.13 +            so that you could donate a panny to "emacs" and it would
    1.14 +            be automitacally split up to every person who has ever
    1.15 +            contributed to emacs in proportion to the amount of
    1.16 +            community esteem, code quantity, bugs fixed, whatever the
    1.17 +            community decides. This might make it posibe for
    1.18 +            programmers to live entirely off of free programming.
    1.19 +
    1.20 +- pronouns :: use capital letters A-Z instead of pronouns. They solve
    1.21 +              pronoun referents and gender neutrality, are short to
    1.22 +              say, and you can encode useful information into the
    1.23 +              choice of letter. For example, instead of "Meetings
    1.24 +              shall be presided over by the president, unless she is
    1.25 +              absent." USE Meetings shall be presided over by the
    1.26 +              president, unless P is absent." We already use this a
    1.27 +              little, since I and U are reserved for the subject and
    1.28 +              object respectively.
    1.29 +
    1.30 +- phone DSP :: software app that inserts an audio DSP between the
    1.31 +               input to a phone and the output. The DSP is delicious
    1.32 +               and configurable, and can allow men to make their
    1.33 +               voices deeper, etc. The app would allow you to hear
    1.34 +               your own voice as others hear it. Most people hate how
    1.35 +               their own voice sounds. The app would also allow one to
    1.36 +               immediately change the paramaters of the DSP using good
    1.37 +               presets.
    1.38 +
    1.39 +- predestined body learning :: a good example of pre destined learning
    1.40 +     might be the mirror neurons.
    1.41 +
    1.42 +- resturant reciept :: use a carbon copy reciept instead of two stupid
    1.43 +     copies. 
    1.44 +
    1.45 +- wearable towel :: towel with clasp, velcro, whatever, that allows
    1.46 +                    one to wear the towel more securely than just
    1.47 +                    wrapping it tightly and hoping for the best.
    1.48 +
    1.49 +- book-mode :: intelligent color highlighting for books and
    1.50 +               articles. It would disambiguate pronouns and involved
    1.51 +               references. For example, if "Rachael" as red, and "the
    1.52 +               blonde haired girl" refers to "Rachael", then "the
    1.53 +               blonde haired girl" would he colored red. Also, you
    1.54 +               could disambiguate multi part runon sentences by
    1.55 +               highlighting each subcomponent. Maybe would also have
    1.56 +               appliations to scientific reading.
    1.57 +
    1.58 +- Handheld light Rain measurement :: this would be a clear, teflon
    1.59 +     coated plasic disk with a camera underneath the disk. You would
    1.60 +     be able to hold the device out and it would measure the rate of
    1.61 +     accumulation of water droplets from fine mists and light rain by
    1.62 +     using computer vision to measure the diameters of the drops.
    1.63 +
    1.64 +- Big Brother Farming :: This would be a vision system that would
    1.65 +     individually monitor each plant and turn on water, etc to ensure
    1.66 +     maximum/uniform growth for each plant. 
    1.67 +
    1.68 +- Discrete Faucet :: A faucet with discrete ticks instead of
    1.69 +     continous. 
    1.70 +
    1.71 +- Laser Circle :: take a glass microfiliment and shine a laser at one
    1.72 +                  end at an oblique angle. It will make a perfect,
    1.73 +                  large circle on the wall, converting a laser beam
    1.74 +                  into a laser cone, perserving most of the energy of
    1.75 +                  the laser.
    1.76 +
    1.77 +- Invisible Glass :: Take a container of liquid and embed a
    1.78 +     glass sculpture made out of glass that has exactly the same index
    1.79 +     of refraction and color of the liquid. Then the sculpture will be
    1.80 +     totally invisible in the container, and will only be revealed
    1.81 +     when the liquid is drained. The container might be a fancy
    1.82 +     wine/spirit bottle or an hourglass.
    1.83 +
    1.84 +- Caterpillar people :: A race of catepillar like creatures gains
    1.85 +     intelligence after eons of predation by birds, etc. These
    1.86 +     catepillar creatures still undergo metamorphosis into a large
    1.87 +     butterfly-like creature. The metamorphosis process turns the
    1.88 +     caterpillar's brain into mush and reforms it into a minimal,
    1.89 +     dumb, truly insect-like mind, completely destroying the person
    1.90 +     the catepillar was. The society develops all sorts of customs and
    1.91 +     religious interpretations of the metamorphosis. It is viewed as
    1.92 +     good and natural by some since it is part of their life cycle and
    1.93 +     necessary to propogate the species, as only the butterflies can
    1.94 +     mate. Some think that the butterflies are still the same person
    1.95 +     because they have the same soul, even they no longer posess the
    1.96 +     memories or personality of the original catepillar. Some see the
    1.97 +     butterfly form as the "true form" of the species, since the
    1.98 +     butterflies can fly, mate, and are beautiful. Many make a big
    1.99 +     deal out of the fact that 1-2% of the catepillar's mind is
   1.100 +     actually preserved in the butterfly. Some see it as a terrible
   1.101 +     tradgedy and argue that the catepillars should try to stop the
   1.102 +     metamorphosis by technology. Practically, some very important
   1.103 +     members of society undergo hormone therapy and/or surgery to
   1.104 +     prevent metamorphosis so that they can live longer as themselves.
   1.105 +
   1.106 +     This is a continuation of Marvin Minsky's ideas about pain being
   1.107 +     something that preserves our bodies while destroying our minds,
   1.108 +     something that is a remnant from our too harsh animal days that
   1.109 +     hasn't caught up to the fact that we have very complex brains
   1.110 +     now. It's a worst-case scenario about a maladaptive genetic
   1.111 +     legacy. Also, it's inspired by "There She Is!!!", which makes a
   1.112 +     compelling point about homosexuality by introducing a second
   1.113 +     gender characteristic (bunny/cat, male/female), which makes
   1.114 +     homophobia look very silly. Here, our own biological legacy of
   1.115 +     pain and death is made to look like the tradegy it is through the
   1.116 +     lense of the the caterpillar people.
   1.117 +
   1.118 +- http://betsofbitco.in/ :: what a great place for an AI/person to
   1.119 +     prove themselves as a good predictor. I wish this could be
   1.120 +     automated. 
   1.121 +
   1.122  - don't forget about that mirror in the student center!, it's two
   1.123    mirrors at right angles, like staring at a corner of a room. The
   1.124    light reflects so that it shows you what you actually look like,
   1.125 @@ -12,7 +128,7 @@
   1.126    enable automatic encryption.
   1.127  
   1.128  - every equivalent creature will see each others' eyes as black --
   1.129 -  it's universal. Even of the creatures see in radio waves, and their
   1.130 +  it's universal. Even if the creatures see in radio waves, and their
   1.131    eyes are 2m long pieces of jagged metal, when those creatures look
   1.132    at each other, they will see black, the absence of light and color
   1.133    (since it's being absorbed by the sensor array).
   1.134 @@ -99,7 +215,7 @@
   1.135    sphere (which could then be released slowly by frustrated internal
   1.136    reflection?
   1.137  
   1.138 -- movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. one way to
   1.139 +- movie screening :: Movies always are too long at first. One way to
   1.140       shorten them ``scientifically" is to record blink rate during the
   1.141       move and then remove / shorten the frames of the parts in which
   1.142       there are a lot of blinking (average this over multiple people)
   1.143 @@ -238,11 +354,8 @@
   1.144  - 3d printing with sound pulses (or just patterns) -- like the 8.03
   1.145    lecture
   1.146  
   1.147 -- lighter flint on spring :: make hot and it makes sparkles!
   1.148 -
   1.149 -- Use a nondeterministic sentence parser to understand sentences with
   1.150 -  multiple meanings. Perhaps use statistical language as a filter
   1.151 -  against unintended (or rather, uninteresting) interpretations.
   1.152 +- lighter flint on spring :: make hot, throw it at something, and it
   1.153 +     makes sparkles!
   1.154  
   1.155  - Rebranding New+Clear Energy with informational campaign and
   1.156    public debate forum to enforce its transparent and open
   1.157 @@ -260,4 +373,43 @@
   1.158       other discipline, etc. Content generated dynamically from
   1.159       knowledge base, along with questions that are moreover altered to
   1.160       guide knowledge acquisition. Motivation: One book of
   1.161 -     knowledge. /One./
   1.162 \ No newline at end of file
   1.163 +     knowledge. /One./
   1.164 +
   1.165 +- relationships as a business ::
   1.166 +  http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx
   1.167 +  is an excellent talk about the "culture of quitting," which is about
   1.168 +  better business by letting people go instead of keeping them around
   1.169 +  past their "apex". Focouses on information transfer. Cool idea of an
   1.170 +  alumni network, which for relationships would be a group of
   1.171 +  satisfied ex-lovers, who would recommend new people your way, and
   1.172 +  who might consider coming to you again, refreshed from their time
   1.173 +  away with new stories/experiences. I should look for examples of
   1.174 +  this and how they worked out.
   1.175 +
   1.176 +- coffe with tea :: /rlm-tea/ contains 2% sugar, 10% cream, and 20%
   1.177 +                    dylan coffee. /dylan coffee/ contains 5% sugar,
   1.178 +                    20% cream, and 10% rlm-tea. Start your mornings
   1.179 +                    with recursion!
   1.180 +
   1.181 +- psychic crystal :: in a science fiction story, this would be an
   1.182 +     object that is very easy to move physically but is extremely
   1.183 +     difficult to move with telekinesis.
   1.184 +
   1.185 +
   1.186 +
   1.187 +** From Jacob's idea list
   1.188 +
   1.189 +- Roommate-cancelling headphones: uses roommate's laptop mic to seed
   1.190 +  noise cancellation alg in your headzphones (would this
   1.191 +  work?). -Update on sound canceling headphones that take feed from
   1.192 +  tv: how about ones that cancel people talking on the phone by
   1.193 +  receiving the phone signals and playing inverse sound
   1.194 +  waves. #signalprocessing ~jcole@mit.edu
   1.195 +
   1.196 +- Browser based graphics-card accelerated distributed computing API. 
   1.197 +
   1.198 +- ClackerAlert -- tells if you slam the keys too hard using sound data
   1.199 +  (and speed/jerkiness data)!.Prevents RSI ~jcole@mit.e
   1.200 +
   1.201 +- Panic Pin :: separate pin that you can tell someone if forced to
   1.202 +               identify your PIN (idea from idea about credit cards