Help for Android. Bet AAPL Gets There First

Your on a call - with customer service - and, after 5 minutes of waiting, you're talking to someone.

Now, he puts you on hold to check something, so you go back to speaker and put the phone down so you can lean back.

What should the UI do?

If you now press the hang-up button, it should ask you to confirm. Yes! Because you might press the hang-up button accidentally!! And you don't want to call support again!!

Better Google Maps

When you've gotten the destination, ask the user these quick questions (multiple choice) :

You want to park close to the location for free?
You want to park close to the location and pay?
You're using the destination as a landmark and not planning on parking or attending?
You plan to pick up someone from there?

That can save some grief in certain cases..

M$ Excel++

You start typing into a cell and, if what you type matches what you have in another cell in the same column, then Excel autocompletes and you can accept if you want. Okay, thanks Bill.

Now, you type something new and, halfway through, you realize you actually want to do something else for this row - maybe copy another row, or whatever..

So, you scrap what you just typed. Aha - smell opportunity M$?

LATER, after you take care of that detour, you now start typing again, what you typed before -- are you thinking what I'm thinking M$?

Exactly! What you scrapped should not be lost, but saved in a buffer and offered up again.

Save the file and exit, then you toss it out, but not until then!!

Get there first GOOG. Please..

No More Removing Your Address from Envelopes, Etc

Like me, you're paranoid about trashing something with your name and address on it - for whatever reason.

So, you lose time and energy getting those address labels off..

Now, wouldn't it be nice if the people who send you stuff agree to put your address on the cover using a special ink that becomes permanently invisible when exposed to special UV light? Then, all you need is to buy that gadget you can use to blank the stuff and then trash it in peace.

Get on it PrakashLab@Stanford.

Degree in Deception Engineering

What is it?

The art of making things that look sophisticated and expensive but are, in essence, worthless..

Like a fake surveillance camera, that poses, while the real one is not even visible.

How about National Semi teaming up with the trucking industry to make LED tail lights that looked like the old filament-bulb ones just to ward off theft - not worthless in this case, but you get the idea..

The Bullet Train Answer

Could Jerry Brown please tell us the cost that stopping at the stations between SD and SFO adds to the ticket price?

Maybe there's an engineering solution to the problem. If stopping to let people off and on is what is driving the time and cost up, maybe we can do something about it.

How about people wanting to get off being required to move to the last coach of the train. Naturally, you have to move away from there if you want to stay on the train. 

So, we need special coaches - engines combined - each coach can power itself. When you approach a station, you detach the last coach and it starts to slow down and stops when it gets to the station - that's easy. What about people getting on?

People wanting to get on will board a coach that's waiting at the station. It'll take off a few minutes before the bullet train arrives and the train will catch up with it.

A bit simplistic I know - when you're talking bullet train speeds, there's probably no way a coach can get there. And if it could, why a train anyways? You could just have coaches... Hmmm... It's a start..

Whey Station

Here's a concept - when you're driving across the country, you're bound to come across these Weigh Stations that trucks have to enter to be weighed and charged. How about a restaurant chain that you start of strategically placing close to these - and promoting with the idea the protein is important.

Of course, you must give people the choice between Soy and Whey..