Have You Ever Had a Brilliant Idea

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I once had the brilliant idea to become a billionaire by finding someone who had two billion and convincing them to give me half.

Alas, Bernie Madoff beat me to it.

Boru

[Seraphina]

No brilliant "eureka" moments here but I encounter things on a day to day basis that I think could be better designed. The lights in my kitchen, for example. When I'm standing at the counter, I cast a shadow making it harder to see what I'm chopping or stirring. I would rearrange the lighting to where I need it.

That's just one small example. I see and use things all the time that make me think "Who the hell designed this?".

-Teresa

[vorlon13]

it's called under cabinet lighting . . .

[Seraphina]

it's called under cabinet lighting . . .

Thanks, vorls
I would change my kitchen but, alas, I'm a renter at the moment.

-Teresa

[vorlon13]

When ever I get the phone calls trying to sell new windows or new siding or bathroom remodels, I tell them I'm a renter and that takes care of that.

[SteelCurtain]

As a man who trims his beard on a daily/bi-daily basis, one of the biggest problems I have is the beard clippings that get everywhere. I thought: I need to invent a barber's cape, but a little one that catches your beard clippings.

I'd call it the "Beard Bib," I tells meself.

Yep. Already exists.

[JackRussell]

My new brilliant idea. All theist posters have to actually evidence their positions without response to special pleading, arguments from incredulity or just being absolutely batshit insane bots with less imagination even than I have.

Could that work?

[vorlon13]

Probably not unprecedented, but when I wired a house many years ago, I put in a couple plugins around the place that came on when the doorbell or phone rang. The occupant was quite hard of hearing and loved the feature. People don't press doorbell buttons the same way phones ring, so he could always tell what was up when the lamps came on.

Another house had an attached garage and the homeowner really wanted a working smoke detector in the garage but with his work on small engines and such, the false alarms were more than he could deal with.

I found a bathroom heat lamp timer wall switch (to cite something every one is familiar with as all motel bathrooms seem to have them, the devices are generic in their utility, BTW) and by utilizing the relay contact other than the one you're supposed to use (setting the timer turns connected device 'on') had one that works 'backwards', that is when the time interval elapses, it turns whatever is connected to it back on.

So, when he went to the garage to work on something, he'd set the timer for however long he intended to be there, and regardless, the smoke alarm would eventually come back on.

Probably violates national electrical code, but alternative was no alarm at all. So there, safety people!

[I_am_not_mafia]

I've had some far out scientific ideas, but my scientific publications mostly contain rather conservative material. I invented a fun experiment to disprove that neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light involving a giant prism, but then it turned out that it was a simple measurement error.

You should try doing science without funding. It allows you to do research and publish all kinds of batshit ideas. But when you present them no one knows what to make of it.

[JackRussell]

Probably not unprecedented, but when I wired a house many years ago, I put in a couple plugins around the place that came on when the doorbell or phone rang.  The occupant was quite hard of hearing and loved the feature.  People don't press doorbell buttons the same way phones ring, so he could always tell what was up when the lamps came on.

Another house had an attached garage and the homeowner really wanted a working smoke detector in the garage but with his work on small engines and such, the false alarms were more than he could deal with.

I found a bathroom heat lamp timer wall switch (to cite something every one is familiar with as all motel bathrooms seem to have them, the devices are generic in their utility, BTW)  and by utilizing the relay contact other than the one you're supposed to use (setting the timer turns connected device 'on') had one that works 'backwards', that is when the time interval elapses, it turns whatever is connected to it back on.

So, when he went to the garage to work on something, he'd set the timer for however long he intended to be there, and regardless, the smoke alarm would eventually come back on.

Probably violates national electrical code, but alternative was no alarm at all.  So there, safety people!

I just worry about what you were trying to plug in

---

Probably not unprecedented, but when I wired a house many years ago, I put in a couple plugins around the place that came on when the doorbell or phone rang.  The occupant was quite hard of hearing and loved the feature.  People don't press doorbell buttons the same way phones ring, so he could always tell what was up when the lamps came on.

Another house had an attached garage and the homeowner really wanted a working smoke detector in the garage but with his work on small engines and such, the false alarms were more than he could deal with.

I found a bathroom heat lamp timer wall switch (to cite something every one is familiar with as all motel bathrooms seem to have them, the devices are generic in their utility, BTW)  and by utilizing the relay contact other than the one you're supposed to use (setting the timer turns connected device 'on') had one that works 'backwards', that is when the time interval elapses, it turns whatever is connected to it back on.

So, when he went to the garage to work on something, he'd set the timer for however long he intended to be there, and regardless, the smoke alarm would eventually come back on.

Probably violates national electrical code, but alternative was no alarm at all.  So there, safety people!

I just worry about what you were trying to plug in

Hate self quoting, but just thought, over here you would have got 240V. Is that more fun?