Million Dollar Ideas

[Poboy kartman]

So....ever have a million dollar idea? I get them all the time.....some of them are so simple....but then again.....isn't that what you say about those successful inventions.....:"Why didn't I think of that?"

Soooo......Right now....there are severe thunderstorms in the area......

In the olden days.....the electricity would go out.....but you could still use your phone......

Now....if you have a landline.....it's most likely cordless.....so....the base station is plugged into an outlet....and when the power goes out.....it's dead....because the base station is......

Now...........how come there aren't back up batteries in the base stations?

I know.....everyone has a cell phone nowadays.....but even so.....not only would such a feature be helpful today.....how much moreso a few years back?

Makes you think....huh?



Could have been a million dollar idea at the right time....(Not everyone has cell phones....it's possible this is still a million dollar idea)....

Anyone else care to share?

 

[J_Walker]

Local places like libraries with public available tools. such as metal lathes, end mills, band saws, 3d printers, cncs.

**** i'd pay 20 bucks a month for one.. and im a stickler with my monies.

 

[chancer]

Thankfully I am not in Texas. (Hope all you Texans are safe tonight) but just for that reason (power outage) we keep an old corded phone on the shelf.
Also on that note (power outages) you still have gas, So your hot water heater would also work. Now here in Communist Ca the new water heaters are electric start and induced draft (electric exhaust) to "Save the planet) so no more hot water without electricity.

At least before you could call for help and smell good when they get to you!

 

[Poboy kartman]

Thankfully I am not in Texas. (Hope all you Texans are safe tonight) but just for that reason (power outage) we keep an old corded phone on the shelf.
Also on that note (power outages) you still have gas, So your hot water heater would also work. Now here in Communist Ca the new water heaters are electric start and induced draft (electric exhaust) to "Save the planet) so no more hot water without electricity.

At least before you could call for help and smell good when they get to you!

Yeah....that's kinda my point....I still have a landline....but I'm in the minority....and it's useless in a power outage...because it's cordless....so why don't they have battery back-up.....and it's still a good thing to have...cell phones only work if you have service.....


But.....there was actually a huge gap between the go to cell phone.....and the direct hook-up landline....where you were dead in the water if you lost electricity....why weren't and aren't base stations battery backed up????

EDIT: BTW: That's a heck of a good idea to have a direct landline phone for emergency use.....

 

[chancer]

During that gap. the technology was not up to snuff on lith ion batteries as it is now. The back up you are talking about would have been as crappy as the original 12volt Makita drill with the long skinny battery pack in the grip. And too expensive.

 

[Hursty]

During that gap. the technology was not up to snuff on lith ion batteries as it is now. The back up you are talking about would have been as crappy as the original 12volt Makita drill with the long skinny battery pack in the grip. And too expensive.

That was a 9.6 volt Makita. i still have mine. not sure why. it makes a great door prop in the garage.

 

[ML-TOYS]

Many moons ago i would have a cap for a soda bottle drilled out for a straw. Friends would tell me to patent and make them. About a year later i see these things in the store.
Uggghhhhh

 

[itsid]

..hehe.. actually currently working on one... hopefully it turns out to be one that is

I won't post details,

shortversion: new type of data compression,
slightly cheated tests*:
uncompressable png file, compressed (lossless) by 88%...
average on already compressed rars 25%. (that's actually the goal I'm trying to reach)

'sid

*: custom tailored code for those specific files

 

[chancer]

..hehe.. actually currently working on one... hopefully it turns out to be one that is

I won't post details,

shortversion: new type of data compression,
slightly cheated tests*:
uncompressable png file, compressed (lossless) by 88%...
average on already compressed rars 25%. (that's actually the goal I'm trying to reach)

'sid

*: custom tailored code for those specific files

Aha I just stole your idea As if we have a clue what any of that means. But hey thanks for sharing.

 

[itsid]

Well at least some of you should have an idea what I was talking about.

Think about it this way: my software speeds up your internet by 25%,
reduces the transfer costs by again 25% and
(in an end user scenario..which is not intended to be honest)
increases your harddrive storage by the same amount.

So if you ever want to download -say a linux distribution- from the internet, you do not have to download 4GB for the full DVD, but just 3GB.
Unpacked you'll still have the full 4GB on your harddrive to burn your dvd of course.
Or, you can store 1TB on your 750GB HDD

Nothing too relevant for end users I admit that,
but for datacenters saving ~25% of their electricity bill alone would be a huge benefit,
not to speak of what you can save "not buying" 25% of the hardware you would need without it

Like buying a truck with a 25% discount and increasing your MPG by 33% compared to the very same truck without discount.

'sid

 

[Badot]

Battery backup hasn't exactly worked on a consumer level because consumers demand cheap sh*t so the manufacturers give them sh*t.

Even the people that make the fancy UPS systems for computers just let the charge circuit dump current into the fully charged lead-acid until it slowly cooks itself to death. Maybe it's planned obsolescence, since really, how much would a voltage cutoff cost? 10 cents?

Maybe that's the million dollar idea -- make consumer level battery backup systems that aren't garbage.

 

[landuse]

not to speak of what you can save "not buying" 25% of the hardware you would need without it

'sid

Please excuse my ignorance, but won't companies still need that extra 25% storage space if they want to unpack and use the data?

 

[itsid]

Please excuse my ignorance, but won't companies still need that extra 25% storage space if they want to unpack and use the data?

Very valid question... the answer is no.

First, they wont unpack all data at once,
so they only need extra space for the one archive they unpack,
but the full content size not just additional 25%
(just as with any other archive format)

Although unpacking is really fast (as fast as copying a file)
I'm not targeting live data at all..
It's the backup storages that I'm after
The vast amount of files companies need to store for ten to twenty years for legal reasons.

But more importantly,
datacenters never run at max capacity.. typically they run at ~40% or below.
So technically, they run at 30% afterwards with the same machines, or reduce their count...

In any ways, there is typically more than enough storage to unpack whatever they need unpacked

You don't fill up your main harddrive on your computer either,
you store the data you may need/want one day (maybe burn it to dvd or get a backup hdd just for that) and delete what you think can go looong before the disc-space warning

'sid

 

[J_Walker]

I know this is family friendly, and I hope I'm not pushing it too far, but I was thinking about it this morning when I got up...

Condom packaging that changes color over time so you know when they've expired?

I assume most buy on a must needed basis, but someone showed me last night a brand new box they bought, and they where all expired!! if not for him being paranoid he would of never known to look.

that's my million dollar ideal, now someone go steal it cause I posted it on the internetzz

 

[porsche930dude]

I was thinkin a lifting trailer hitch would be really handy to dump stuff or load cars. It turns out somebody already made something like that called the tilt-a-hitch. it doesnt really lift that high and needs a screw jack feature built in but yeah. so much for that million dollar idea
https://youtu.be/TUB44ipq1EU