Imagine a hard day at work is done, the fridge is full of beer, and you have a commitment free night ready for the taking … too bad all you have from Netflix are art films and documentaries. It seemed like a good idea at the time, a documentary about documentaries. If only you knew what your mood would be by the time the movies actually got to your doorstep.

Well, now you can. Part psychotherapy, part online scheduling, part new age luck, the Netflix mood ring actually predicts what your mood will be before and after watching movies in your queue. Adam Sandler movies have a right time and a right place – but only if you plan ahead.

Posted: May 15th, 2008 under 2.0, control, futureNow.
Comments: 3

It’s 2008, what’s your New Year’s resolution? Actually, what was yours last year? What about the year before? Do they relate? Have you made any progress? What have you learned from the experience? Well, we all want to lose weight, but what we really want is for Web 2.0 to save us from having to think too much. and that where My Resolutions comes into play. Welcome in 2008 with all the Tufte visualization goodness to keep off those unwanted 15 pounds and see how it’s inner-connected to staying up too late, not brushing your teeth enough and wanting to connect more with friends.

Posted: January 1st, 2008 under control, futureNow, holiday.
Comments: none

Sometimes you just know that you’re headed for headache danger … a meeting at work, a visit with in-laws, a noisy train ride. At that moment you wish with all your might that the Costco size bottle of headache pills that you picked up on sale was somewhere within arm’s reach. But unless you’re a raver, you’re probably not carrying a bottle that could choke a pharmacist. So what to do? Well, the first thing to do is make the pills wafer-thin and delicious. But why stop there? How about a wallet-size EZ-peel card containing 6 quick dissolving strips, all in a row? You can even throw on some Listerine and Benadryl to keep it company.

Posted: October 30th, 2007 under futureNow, pain killers.
Comments: none

Have you noticed that any modern electronic device that has a remote control is useless without that remote control? If you haven’t noticed that, you probably don’t have kids that hide the aforementioned remote control. So talking about this dilemma with another parent the idea came up, what if your T.V. or stereo had a paging button built in ( just like your cordless phone)? But let’s take it a step further, let’s just get rid of the remote and have your smart electronic device react to you and your preferences, just by you being in the room.

How does this happen, the wave of the future: Biometric Ass Recognition — sure there’s already fingerprint and iris scans but were talking about what shows you like T.V. not online banking. You sit, your ass is analyzed, your identity confirmed and with a few simple scans for temperature, spectrometric gas analysis and seat sweat pH, your home entertainment system knows who you are, what mood your in and whether you’re ready for Herbie the Love Bug or a marathon session of Law and Order.

Posted: September 27th, 2007 under control, futureNow, gear, time saver.
Comments: 1

do you have a heart rate monitor? What about a remote heart rate monitor so you can listen to someone else’s heartbeat in real time? What about a little, soft, bio-pod about the size of a plum, that beats with your loved one’s heartbeat? Wouldn’t you love to hold that in your pocket?

That would definitely be a lot better than the stress release boobie squeeze ball.

Posted: September 26th, 2007 under futureNow, gear.
Comments: none

Sometimes when I lay my head down on the pillow at night, I feel like I’m in an old-time Kate Hepburn movie where she holds a glass up against a wall to listen to what’s going on next door.  Only.. I really don’t want to listen in on the neighbors’ late-night conversation or the car playing music outside.  It seems that the vibrations in the floor or walls are being transmitted directly through the structure of the building, up into the bed, through the depths of the pillow and into my poor ear that only wants to keep dreaming.

Why not make a sound-isolating pillow?  A pillow made of some really cool, decoupling foam.  I see it as a lot of little chunky foam squares.  Maybe also the pillow emits some white noise of its own too, like a seashell.

Posted: September 18th, 2007 under control, futureNow, sound.
Comments: none

I seem to get a slight thrill of letting the gas gauge go down to “E” but if I had my way I would carry extra fuel in my car in a heartbeat ( and when I mean “my way”, I mean no danger of combusting into a extra large fireball, passing out from gas fumes wafting up from cheap plastic containers and using up all my trunk space with gallons upon gallons of liquid.) So veggie fuel almost makes this dream come true but what I really want is concentrated fuel cubes (kinda like Jell-O shots for your car.) Small, potent and fast acting.

Posted: September 12th, 2007 under almost green, control, futureNow.
Comments: none

Yes, climate change can be delicious! Here’s a simple solar muffin and coffee warmer: a window box with a closing door. Place your breakfast cakes or coffee cup in the window box, shut the door, and let the sun get its greenhouse on for a few minutes. Ding! It’s time for warm muffins!

Posted: September 12th, 2007 under food, futureNow, gear.
Comments: none

I wonder if there could be an inexpensive, environmentally safe additive to toilet water that would make it non-splashing. Maybe a plant-based substance that forms a thin film on the surface of the water? Then, when “object” is dropped into the water, it is safely carried down to the bottom of the pool, and nobody is subjected to a poor man’s bidet of splashing from below.

I want the news, not the weather!

Posted: August 27th, 2007 under futureNow, gear, public spaces, safety.
Comments: none

my dad knew the secret of always having matching socks – you just buy hundreds of pairs, all the same. with nanotechnology, we should make a universal sock. any sock can mate to any other sock, just by holding it next to the mate. Or, you can choose any design from your little book of sock designs. Swipe the sock over a sock image or sock pattern and sit back and watch your universal sock reorganize it molecules from sports stripes to argyle.

NANO SOCKS!

Posted: August 4th, 2007 under futureNow, gear.
Comments: 1