Do it Yourself Hi-Speed Chase

The future of home-security.

You know the status quo - your home's broken into, alarm goes off, cops arrive, crooks have made off with the loot, they write you a report, you get your money back from insurance, but you don't sleep well anymore.

How about...

crooks bust in, sensors detect, and inform, you immediately (?) launch an RC helicopter out of one of those innocuous looking plastic storage bins in your back yard to follow the crooks. This needs a bit of video analytics - you need to detect that the crooks have started their getaway before you move.. maybe swoop down behind them and get their license plate too..

To think about...

How far can you follow them? i.e., if it were pure electric, what range could you have. You can actually get tiny gasoline engines (0.5 pounds weight!) that might give you virtually unlimited range.. (when you sense you're down to your last bit - aim at the stars to get max altitude and then glide back home!)

http://www.mecoa.com/kb/56/5680.htm

Zynga Stock Prop

How about something that takes a set of chess game moves and replays the game in animated fashion - letting you put in additional delays and commentary? Listening zynga? A thousand apologies, and praises to Chess Tempo and John Syer who contributed improvements : It exists!! http://chesstempo.com/pgn-viewer.html

Google's Big Miss

This is so simple (even to implement) that I'm surprised they don't have this one yet. Shame on Google. No wonder Apple's winning:)

Hokay, you go on Google Maps and get directions from A to B. But, you want to stop by an ATM along the way, or pick up pizza or a subway sandwich along the way. Wouldn't it be nice to have a field on maps.google.com that says "Highlight what along the way?"?

Then you enter subway or Wells Fargo ATMs or whatever.

Childishly simple. Duh!!
(as of Jan 2012)

And, with my Samsung Core Prime, with Maps, I see that this feature now exists - not on the desktop version though. Makes sense. If you're going somewhere and using navigation, it's not the desktop you're taking with you. So, thanks - you got there after 4 years Mr. Pichai. But the, why the f did you kill the turn-by-turn listing that was so useful? What the f is wrong with you guys? Is there some strange chemical spewing out in Mt. View?

But!! Why not make the "along the way" feature available on the desktop version also? *ds! Someone sitting at home might want to know about what's close to the route.

--And, 4 years later, Apple rolls it out on iOS :) They're not tech titans because they set trends. They're titans because they move as slow as a dinosaur.

How to Save America

What's better than dinnertime kiddy videos that keep them in one place to let you feed them? Kid videos that let you program embedded suggestions into them to inculcate the behaviours you want (and attitudes too). Maya loves algebra. Betty loves to eat vegetables.. You get the idea..

Firefox Previous<>Next

This should be easy for the geniuses to add :

When you're viewing an image in a directory with a lot of images, please fade-raise (the way Chrome does when rendering PDFs - when the mouse moves) a Previous and Next button to let the user navigate between files without needing to use the Back button. Even better, let the PgUp, PgDn buttons also do this...

Better Web Browsers

Anyone know how to add this to Firefox or Chrome? Also, for a given Linux version, is it possible to install a personal version of Chrome without being root?

Here's what I'd like (Shame on you GNU, M$-Sharepoint used to (thanks M$) provide this :

When you're displaying a path like

file:///Z:Desktop/blah/foo/bar/projects/whatever

Let each of those words in the path be a clickable link so the user can navigate really easily.

Should be a routine hack for a software type. What forum can I suggest this on?

Electronic Arts (Rats)

What we need is a high-quality video game environment and a realistic model for the rat(s) that society can use to devise means to defeat these pests. The US Army had success with recruitment after it created a free video game for young uns to play. Why not learn from that one?