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..

Million Dollar Booty

Has the telemarketing industry addressed this one yet? I've experienced it, you've experienced it (unless your name is John Smith) and if you're John Knierimann, you've publicly admitted it : when you answer a call and the caller says may I please speak to Mr. John Kani...er eee mann, you know it's someone you don't know - aka a telemarketer.

So, why not someone create a website that these bums can use - they can put in the name and it'll tell them the phonetic spelling - and even give them an audio sample.

Better still - it'll give them a scientifically engineered sequence of everyday words they can first roll off their tongue to be able to get this one right.

This is 22nd century science people!

The Chipotle Millionaire

Here's something someone could invent to help Chipotle be faster with their service  - you've seen how lines can get out of control at peak hours.

What's slowing them down is the physical act of scooping out supposedly regulated quantities of food from their bins - rice, beans, etc..

Why not invent a ladle that gets itself ready? - leave it in there and 5 seconds later, it's ready with the offering. How hard would this be? Of course, you want the dispensing to be easy too..

And, another thing they might think about to help their struggling same-store sales is to offer a small discount when you visit outside of peak hours - something nominal - like 3% - which would be about 20c for a $7 burrito.

Besser Google Maps

They should have had this one nailed 10 years ago. Please...

You search for one thing and then another thing and then you look for directions from a frequently used starting point.

Maps guides you to your destination.

Next time you search, isn't it logical to offer suggestions starting with your most frequently used starting point? (As opposed to these most recent destinations which you've just finished visiting)

You got it - I have an unhealthy obsession with reducing keystrokes and mouse-clicks. Thanks Autohotkey. Thanks Rajat.

A Chance for Samsuck to Catch Up to Apple

Forget the phone, make it about something else.

How about a wireless charger that levitates the phone? And, while levitating, the phone spins, etc.

Cool?

Just put in some electromagnets and you're in biz. Come on Samsung, or do you want to suck forever?

Better Powerpoint

Listening M$?

Why can't we have polygonal text boxes?

You draw a rectangle, now, if the user holds the SHIFT key down and then drags a corner inwards, you start forming an L.

Why not? I wanted this the other day. I bet Mac Keynote can do this.

The Ultimate PDF Reader

Why can't Google get this done yesterday? Don't they have people smart enough?

Okay, the original author - or whatever tool dumped out the PDF didn't put in links. But, on the contents page, you have the text that "needs to be linked" and you should be able to look in the document for the target text.

So, please?

Better Uber

Allow directional ridesharing - as in, make it convenient for drivers.

If I'm driving south on 405, I'm happy to give people a ride as long as they're going in the same direction..

Get it? So, I may not get any rides at all, but if I get one, it should be the "right" one.

Google Chrome PDF Viewer - How About Some Keyboard Shortcuts Mate?

Why not provide what the Adobe Reader already does? Any reason not to?

Google : smart, but leaving money on the table. Here's an example. I've got a folder in My Documents : books > theses.

I think it should be straightforward from what I searched for and what link I went to and page content that I'm downloading a thesis. So, why not start with a meaningful location for the Save As location instead of some previous thing? Duh..

Dear Google, Please Help Us Be More Productive

I'd like to do the Seinfeld chain thing.. but I don't want to print stuff out.

Wouldn't it be nice if Google docs could give you a one-page full-year calendar on which you could put an X on every day that you did the thing you wanted to?

Oxygen Harvester Improves the Quality of Life for Rich Bangaloreans

I wonder how far-fetched such a gadget is - you process air and increase the concentration of oxygen inside the house - and keep the bad stuff out of course..

Will it take off do you think?

Better NEdit - Surprised They Don't Have This One Already

CTRL-l (el) will pop up a dialog where you can enter the line number you want to go to.

How about, if the user has selected a number, doing something similar to CTRL-h - go to the line without popping up a dialog.

Useful when a tool like the perl debugger tells you things about your code..

Simple Feature Makes Google Sheets 100% More User Friendly

Nuts - they have this for the Maps already. Why the * can't they make this available for sheets?

Night mode!

During the day, you may not mind most of the screen being white, but at night you do! Please provide a night mode that can be invoked with a simple keyboard shortcut!!

Please!!

Gesture Recognition Gives Uber Drivers Control Over Their Life

You've done 3 in a row and you want 10 minutes to unwind to a relaxation tape. How? If you're getting ride after ride, that's not possible..

The answer - instead of only  "tap to accept", how about also adding a gesture the driver can use to say "Accept this one, and, after I end trip, immediately send me offline - don't send me another ride immediately."

A Useful Chrome Add-On

You're viewing a PDF late at night and you're tired of bright background.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a hot-key to turn on a Night-mode so the text became white and the background dark?

Why can't Google think like Apple and make stuff possible? How about moving on from "Don't Be Evil" to "Be Cool"?

Impact!! Someone delivered!! Thank you!!

Cadence the First Software Co to Exploit Heat Concept in GUIs

What is Heat?

You have a windowing application.
You have menu-items - File, Edit, etc. Each of these, have sub-menus and those sub-menus have atomic menu-items (or sub-sub-menus). You get the idea.
So, the first time a user uses the product, each atomic menu item will have some heat.
Menus that provide access to a lot of atomic menu-items will have a lot of heat.
The heat appears visible to the user as a glow.
Heat exists till the menu-item has been used. It disappears after that.
So, as he uses menu-items during the life of the app, the glow on the root menu items will reduce.
Though there is averaging involved to provide glow to root menu-items, there is a minimum amount of glow that is clearly distinguishable to indicate to the user that there is an unexplored feature within the root menu-item.

This will, in short order, turn every user into a power-user.

XFAB's Plan for Explosive Growth in the Analog Design Market

1. Partner with LTspice (i.e., pay LT some money to get them to support encrypted spice models)
2. Get LT to support runtime loading of the encrypted model from the internet (i.e., even though encrypted, the model file cannot be possessed by the user on his computer - it will, however, be accessible to LTspice)
3. Get LT to enhance LTspice with some additional features that will make it more Cadence-like.
4. Sit back and rake it in as more and more college kids design and refine IP that everyone can use and that big companies then start to BUY!

A Better User Experience from US Airways Mastercard

Gots something in the mail that said, "Go Paperless statements and make a purchase by Dec 31 to get a $25 statement credit."

So I did. And? Phut. Nothing!

Calls customer service and they say that promotion ended Dec 31 and it'll take 6-8 weeks for you to get the reward.

Okay. Then, why not put the $25 credit on my account "grayed out" - you know what I mean - the statement balance won't reflect it, but, if you hover over it, you get info telling you what it's about, "thanks for participating in our Paperless campaign" or something.

Still, you got to be grateful for the dumbasses running these businesses. That's how we get to be here..