Monday, December 05, 2005

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Eliminating Mud Room Puddles Up here in Minnesota, snow melt from winter shoes and kids snow clothes becomes a nuisance. We are fortunate enough to have a laundry room entrance, and in that laundry room, we have a couple of industrial carpets. Still, after a morning of in-and-out, the carpets become quite damp, so that if you step on them in your socks, your socks get wet--always unpleasant, especially at the temp we keep our house! Anyway, this makes me think of an invention. It's a little fuzzy in my mind, but in its ideal form, it would involve having a gently grated, heated floor with drainage beneath. So that all the dampness and snow melt would quickly disapper. Maybe gentle fans to accelerate the process. 10:48:55 PM    comment []

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Idea for a quieter horn blast, for use at stoplights This morning, turning into our building, I was second in line at a left-turn signal. It turned, and the car in front of me didn't move. I wanted to give them a "friendly little beep", to alert them to the fact that the light had changed. But that typically takes a lot of finesse, and early on a cold morning, I wound up laying it on a bit more than I meant to. No big deal, but it was a co-worker, after all. It occurred to me, it would be really nice if horns had a chirp button, which when pressed, would cause them to emit a audible but not too loud or prolonged "chirp", like they do when confirming you have locked your car with the remote. It might have to be a bit louder for this purpose--maybe a bit louder, and three chirps in quick succession could be the universal signal of "go, the light has changed" 10:39:56 PM    comment []