Many of my supplements have a desiccant bag hanging around in the bottle. This is great for keeping them from sticking together.  Some other things we all have, could use some of that de-humidification, but alas, it would not be convenient, and perhaps even unsightly.

For instance, the screw top container I put sugar in for my coffee could use some desiccant.  I prefer to use light brown sugar and it likes to clump together.  I have the solution, and I will be filing a patent on this one as well.

Instead of using a loose bag, put the desiccant agent into a round wafer shaped container, and on one side attach a peel and stick adhesive.  Take off the top of any container that needs humidity control, and stick the desiccant in a neat, clean and out of the way place that will never contact your goodies.

UPDATE – in the process of patent search I found this idea, circa 2006, Desiccant Bottle Cap – us patent US 6,986,807  As I mentioned at the start of this blog, it is a sharing and learning thing for me, so while I am disappointed to find this already filed, I will always feel validation when I see that others have had patents awarded for something that I genuinely thought of on my own.  My question now is why didn’t this idea reach mainstream?  I can’t say how many pill bottles I have opened, but I don’t recall seeing a desiccant cap in any of them.  This is the most disappointing thing.  I would assume the patent owner tried to make too much money upfront and people were content to use the standard bag-in-a-bottle.  This is a shame.

Anyway, there is always a solution.  🙂
My solution here is a small plastic clip, with an adhesive backing.  This would be an acceptable bypass to the intent of the patent referenced above, because it would not be a container attached to the adhesive, and it would not be limited to desiccant.  Perhaps another patent here, but I’ve got far bigger fish to fry.  (April 17)

The first if a few home improvement posts.  This is advanced level carpentry.

So you want to tile a floor, and you remove whatever you had to find a thin layer of plywood.  Not the 1+1/8″ of wood you typically should have.  Backer boards work great, but the fact is, the thinner the subfloor is, the more it will flex and the more potential problems your tile will have.  So you decide to add a layer of plywood.  If you add plywood and backer board, you could quickly find your floor over an inch or more, higher than it was.  That’s quite a step.  You could put a transition strip between the new floor and the nearby floor but that’s less than ideal and in some cases, completely unacceptable.  Ideally the finished floor height is the same throughout the house.

The solution, as I have found and used in many instances, is to remove the existing plywood and put a strengthening layer of plywood UNDER the base layer.  I use a nice fat 3/4″ cdx and then I can either put the existing ply back down, or if it is damaged or rotten in any way I just replace.

Its easy and fun to do, and its always better to do it right.  First cut a 1+1/2″ strip of the 3/4″ plywood about 5 inches long.  This will be a guide or scribe.  Cut a pair of 2x4s a few inches shorter than every floor joist you have exposed, with the exception of the outer floor joists as they need only one.  One at a time, and using either a buddy or a quick clamp, line them up 3/4″ below the top edge of the joist.  Now ideally you will be using a 2+1/2 deck screws and an impact gun to connect the 2x4s to the joists.  At each screw location hold the scrap piece of plywood you cut above the 2×4 to make sure it is exactly the right space for the plywood.  Get the scrap flush with the joist and screw the 2×4 to the joist.  Do that approximately every foot.

Now crosscut the plywood in strips that will fit between the joists.  (You MUST cut the plywood perpendicular to the grain.  Plywood is substantially stronger when the grain is oriented to run perpendicular to the joists.  These will be strips that are 48″ long by around 14+1/4″ wide.)  Attach the plywood to the 2x4s with 1+5/8 deck screws. 

You now have an additional 3/4″ plywood layer and not only does it not raise the level of your floor at all, it is STRONGER than if you had just laid that same layer of plywood, uncut, over the top of the joists in the standard way.  (This is because the only weak part of the plywood is the span.  With the 2x4s added to your joists, the plywood is only spanning a gap of around 11+1/4″.  This is 3 inches less than the existing joist span, which is around 14+1/4″.  This same benefit is extended to any material above the plywood as well.  In other words and without getting into some advanced math it is MUCH stronger than if you had done things the “standard” way.)

You like something on Facebook because you want to be associated with it.  It is your ego at work.  Millions of people like certain musical artists, and yet often times they have never bought even a single of theirs.  Artists should correct this.  The record industry should correct this.  Here is today’s hand holding.  Either with Facebook’s help or without, artists need to put in badges for their loyal fans.  These would be icons the user could put on their Facebook page that would associate them as a true fan of a particular artist.  Not just a like, which has no real value, this would have a stated value.  The artist could set up the guidelines.  Perhaps you got the word out in your area for the concert that was held, or you purchased every album they released, or you were the first of 10 of your friends to purchase their latest album.  The badge would be based on actual, verifiable data that is valuable to the artist.  The value to the person having the badge would not just be the association, but artists could give badge holders an unlimited variation of benefits, like preferred concert seating, or bootleg singles, for example.

So in spelling it out for those overpaid folks in positions to handle this business, I’ll say it as simply as I can.

“You CANNOT just connect the artist to the world via the web.  You must first connect the paying, purchasing fan to the artist, and give them the greater access.  This puts additional value back into the music and further justifies the sale.  This is the replacement for the artwork and liner notes of the physical disc of yesterday.  Come on guys.  This is 2012.  The data is there, and you are disregarding it at your own peril.  Wake up.”

Make it happen.

Given yesterday’s post as a basis, the next step is adding a built in cell connection.  This would offer you the ability to connect to your car remotely and see what is going on.  It would also allow you some additional functions.  If the system determined the car was stolen, in an accident or if you the driver were in some distress, it would automatically call the police, and begin uploading location information and camera footage to a cloud based storage at preset intervals.  This beats OnStar in terms of having footage of the villains or footage of any ongoing damage they might be causing.

Other possible functions could include checking in on junior, as he is 30 minutes past curfew, or simply checking in on your car, parked at the airport, whilst you are on vacation in Bermuda.   The service would cost roughly the same as a 4g laptop connect card would cost; around $40 a month, and would be invaluable on those occasions you needed it.

I am not talking about a YouTube thing here.  I’m not talking about making everyday movies to share with others.  I’m talking about a 4 camera system that would simply take constant photos and/or video from your car and save that temporarily on a small storage card on your car, or upload regularly to the cloud using a wifi connection.

If you have ever been in an accident and watched in disbelief as the person at fault described in great detail to the law enforcement agent, how it was your fault, this is the remedy.  If you have ever had a teenager tell you “how the dent happened” and you didn’t believe them, this is the remedy.  If you have ever returned to your parked car to find it damaged, and nary a note of explanation to be found, this is the remedy.  Yes, with this device running constantly, unobtrusively and quietly in the background, simply download the stored recent footage, which could be up to a month, depending on settings, and see for yourself what actually happened.  Send actual pictures or video to the insurance company and prove your side of the story.  Have peace of mind knowing that just because you are walking away from the car, doesn’t mean you will be blind to what goes on with it.

So my son and I got to watch the horrific display this morning of a man brutally beating his wife in the face, in public, to the point of blood.  He was able to witness me attempt to lend assistance, and call 911 and all that bs.  He watched as we waited, and waited, and no police showed up, the loser and his poor wife and child left the area.  I was able to express to him that not only were police typically slow to respond to 911 calls, (if at all), but that there wasn’t much that could be done.  I explained that even if we offered that woman and her child a room in our home, they more than likely would not take it. It’s a sad reality, and one that is worth some thought.

So what is the solution.  Well, it’s multifaceted.  There needs to be following-
1. Availability of assistance to the victims.
2. Protection
3. Punishment / Elimination of real threats to society
4. Fast response
5. Fairness and legitimacy.

That does not exist.  It should, but it just does not.  Between the human trafficking victims and domestic abuse victims, it is astonishing the amount of people who spend their lives as punching bags or worse.  What’s really sad is the fact that many women who have an out, choose not to take it.  That aside, I think it’s our responsibility to make it available to them, regardless.

Well, we now have the internet.  We have a community of hackers, who love to use their skills to protect the innocent and helpless.  We have people, like myself, who would love nothing more than to go all Dexter Morgan on the guy who could treat his wife like a punching bag, right in front of his kid.  By the same token, we have hatred for the woman who could file false charges against a good guy, simply because she wants a better divorce outcome.  Most importantly, we have a citizenry, that may be largely taken in by fast talking politicians and televised nonsense, but one that still would gladly notice domestic violence and look out for it’s victims.

So what is the solution?  The solution is someone setting up local independent networks of all anonymous contributors who are willing to chip in and resist the status quo.  Information and connection would be tiered. At the lowest level, neighbors could simply watch out for each other and make observations.  That information would be passed on anonymously to users who were prepared to lend assistance.  Any service could be included, from legal or financial service to support services like a temporary place to live.  The key is that the orchestrator would be the local hacker.  Largely unaccountable and untraceable by local law enforcement, or more importantly, by those who would seek to gain access to the system and seek out a victim.  The community effort, based largely on actual observances of others, will naturally be more reliable than the current, “legal” system, where a phone call can result in the unjustified ruination of a persons good name.

This doesn’t need to be a completely vigilante organization.  The police could be included by providing them with tips and information. The use of hidden cameras and investigative work, could easily provide solid evidence against culprits.  It’s simply a matter of the coordination and working as a group.  This is something I have covered with many solutions.  The internet community is a tool that needs to be used as much as possible.

So yeah, this is part solution, part rant. The thought that gets me the most was not the striking or blood of that woman today.  It was the despair in her face as she sat and sobbed in the car.  It was the realization that she spends every day of her life under a stress level and a fear I cannot imagine.  We have so many advancements, conveniences and connections.  We need to be using them for real purpose and helping each other.  How can you use your technology to help others?  Forming such a group or developing a product to address it?  Count me in.

Quick, fast and easy.  You are a musician.  You appreciate the reach of social networks, but do not have the time to keep after accounts on several different sites.  On the other side of the isle, is the die hard fan.  They would want nothing more than the ability to decorate, or update the page of their favorite band. Any established act has many such fans.  The problem is, Facebook, MySpace (did I just mention the m-word?) and the like do not allow for this to be handled in this way.  There are tiered roles on Facebook, for example, but decoration of the page is near the top admin level, (not that there is much decoration possible on a Facebook page anyway). 

The solution would be a decoration / content role, that would be available for certain users.  The band could allow these users the role, and they would be able to add content, decorate the band page, and a small addition built into the site could be at the lower corner of the screen, “XXX is the user responsible for the current page layout”  This could be done on a month by month basis perhaps, and could be set up as a reward for ultra fans of a particular musician.  The musician gets to have fresh content, and an easy to manage system of encouragement for fans to participate further.  The fan gets to have a really cool opportunity, if he or she is interested.  The social networking site would get to have increased traffic as a result, so it would easily be worth building the option into the API.   Everyone wins.  

Look to Tunegrow to be the site offerring this first in their 2013 launch, and in a dynamic and intuitive way.   🙂

This is a big deal for some folks, and surely some unpleasant stuff for the lot.  If there was a quick and effective way to eliminate the blood suckers from even being an issue, no matter where you were staying, I know some folks would buy in, but you would just have to prove it.  Perhaps you could prove that such a thing worked with a time lapse infomercial or just a time lapse youtube advertisement on the cheap.

Either way, it would go a little something like this.  You would bring a small travel bag, the size of a bowling ball bag with you into the room.  Inside it would be a special sheet, a 6 inch wide elastic/velcro belt, and a 110 plug in adapter.  Upon entering your room you would just pull everything off of your bed and set in the closet. You then take out the sheet, a california king size fitted sheet. This would fit a king and could also be used on queen, it would just have extra material. After covering the bed with this special sheet the hotel guest would then take out and apply the velcro belt. It is designed to wrap around the outside of the matress, pressing against the flat outer face of the matress. The sheet could have a velcro portion at various points to accomodate this belt, and make applying it easy for one person to do. After the belt was applied it would be connected to the 110v plug in, and that could then be plugged into the nearest outlet. The velcro belt would have a simple electric blanket type of heating wire running through it. Bed bugs, if present, would not be able to tolerate the raised temperature (heat is what hotel chains typically use to drive the bastards out). So you could be certain that once this device was setup on the bed, you could lay atop the bed and no bed bug would disturb your sleep.

I did consider a power outage or a failure to the heating element. The solution for the heating element outage or just a general power outage woud be an alarm that would sound when it sensed element failure. Now concerning the power failure, I know it’s possible to lose power. The solution here would be a small battery powered alarm built into the power adapter, such that if the power ever did go out for longer than 5 minutes the alarm would sound, and you wouldn’t worry about falling asleep and being attacked in your sleep if the power did go out.

This is not a product for everyone. This is a product for those who lose sleep at the idea of bed bugs and just the possibility of exposure to them.

Now, the sheets and blankets are a slippery slope, if you truly look thouroughly at the situation. You could easily put the sheets and blankets into the hotel dryer for 10 minutes and eliminate any would be hangers on, but you run into a problem when you fall asleep and a bit of blanket flops off the bed, providing a hypothetical ladder for some bloodthirsty traveller to navigate past your protection onto your carcass. Now, is it likely that they will be able to crawl past the heated belt area? No, but it is posisile. The solution would be to tuck the linens into the belt so that they would be far less likely to ever contact the floor,

The pillow? Well look, a pillow is a troubling bedfellow. A big bag of material that your typical foul organism thrives in. I would recommend having a microfiber pillow cover anyway, on any pillow you use, whether it’s at home or in a hotel. Just include 4 large cases in the kit, and instead of a zipper at the end, you would want a ziplock style seal.

Again, not for everyone, but someone asked me for a solution to this issue, and that would do it. I think it would be a viral video if you made a presentation including a underwear gilded maiden time lapsed on top of a bed which was specifically shown with magnified video to have been overrun with bed bugs. Then at the conculsion of the time lapse, you could show that none came near the heated belt region, the top region of the bed was clear of any, and it worked reliably.

There, I’m done with that topic. It’s giving me the creepy crawlies!

Very simple.  Every song, every video, every news story, comes in a capsule of sorts.  A label/tracker and an ad allocation, would be combined with each individual song, video, or story; designed around the streaming model.  Each capsule of content could go out into the world freely and be placed into any legal player.  Preset ad choices would be assigned into the ad allocation, and would provide direction to the player, instead of the other way around.

Each time a capsule gets played, it reports back a central database, which organizes the data for the content creator and the advertisers.

A couple of things to mention.  Just because every bit of media comes with its own ad allocation doesn’t mean an ad has to play every time.  Paid stream services may not have any adds played with it at all.  The tracker just brings real accountability to the players. Currently the media goes out naked, and the content creators must simply trust that they are being paid properly and that the tracking and accounting is done correctly.  There are several agencies, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC who are independents, supposedly representing the artists and ensuring everyone out there who is earning from their music is paying up the pennies to do so.

An interesting problem occurs with this model.  What about the DJ, mix tape, remix, or mashup of a song(any time a song is modified from the original).  This would obviously take the song out of the capsule to whatever degree, making it a new work.  YES, it absolutely becomes a new work, and instead of foolishly trying to regulate and stifle such things, my model would embrace it and encourage it.  When a remixer makes a track he or she immediately does one thing.  They put their name or stamp on it.  It is their original work, on top of the original.  Currently the music industry feels that they are just taking from and using that original work for their own benefit, but in reality it’s a two part contribution that they need to start encouraging, and I mean down to sharing some of the dividends.

The system needs to make it quick and easy for modifiers to identify and log their remixes with the system.  The database would be able to report in real time how many versions were out there of the original, and how they all were individually fairing. The simple mind looks at this and is concerned with the immediate loss of a group of their plays and revenue becoming this “modified” variety, and the temptation is to say, “if I have to share a small percentage with these other people, then I lose money.”  The reality is, a large portion of those plays currently offer you them no revenue, because they are underground and not tracked.  Additionally, the fact is, a portion of those plays are to the credit of the modifier, who has a big enough group listening, to amount to some measure of plays.

Each time a new song comes out,  there would be a immediate remix contest.  This only adds to the overall excitement for a new release anyway.  Modifiers would have a direct connection to the artist, which would only provide another opportunity for networking of talent and possible collaboration.

Those entities, currently claiming to represent artists and gather up their funds, could find a new line of work.  Human beings running around tracking who is playing what song.  Does anyone think that is a legitimate product in today’s environment?  With tracking built into the song, along with add revenue preferences, and music recognition software that’s now standard fare in most cell phones out there, the computers can give not only a better, accurate number, but do it more efficiently.  That means exponentially more data, being handled more efficiently and at less expense than the current structures out there.  That means more money to the content creators.

On the news story or video end, the capsule model’s value is even more apparent.  The ad in it’s entirety is built right in.  And don’t forget to think of this capsule as a living, breathing thing.  What do I mean?  Well just like with the updating of software on your computer, these works will be stored locally as well as in the cloud.  The system used to play and store the works will also be set up to update the files with the current ads.  If the ad is only viable for a short period, or if it expires, it is automatically updated and the players do not concern themselves with anything inside of “the capsule.”

Lastly, the thought does come into play, “well isn’t it easier for the players to just play the ads they want, and not worry about updating a library of content?”  I say no.  We make the updating process automated, so there is no work on their part in the ad mechanism.  They simply play the song.  The software built into the system handles all the ad decisions, tracking, and accountability.  This puts the power back into the hands of the content creators, in a fair and sustainable way.  This is a win.