This one is a typical party problem: the fridge is full of drinks, and on the outside they are all cold. But in reality, some have only been placed in the fridge 20 minutes ago, and you don't really want to pick one of those where the drink inside is still fairly warm. The solution: put a temperature sensor on the can/bottle with a thin wire towards the middle of the beverage. It would work like the modern batteries which have a power sensor built in. Of course the material used for...

Ever had Angina or some other illness where you had to take antibiotics? Antibiotics can be a great thing, but they always overburden your entire organism, and these days it happens pretty often that they don't work because what you are trying to cure is already resistant against this particular medication. So you have to try a different brand of antibiotics, do more harm to your body etc. I simply wonder why it's necessary to use your own body as a laboratory to test this. Should be...

Computer mice are cheap these days, and it's fairly easy to connect two or more mice to a computer. So why are there no games for multiple mice out there? I can imagine all kinds of setups: - A coordination game where you hold two mice, one in your left hand, one in your right hand. - Challenging games where each competitor controls his or her own mouse. - A collaboration game the player's movements are added up, so they need to coordinate with each other in order to not constantly...

Getting a caller ID on your phone display is a neat thing if the caller is already in your address book. However, if the number is unknown, it isn't exactly very helpful. It would be cool if the phone could do a quick lookup in an online phonebook database and display the caller anyway. Maybe this would be possible via Bluetooth technology?

When I write my email, I'm sometimes REALLY absent-minded. One of the worst mistakes I sometimes make is sending mails to the wrong people. This problem could be solved by an intelligent email client that does some basic checking and then outputs an appropriate error message (e.g. "Are you sure you want to be so rude to your GRANDMOTHER?" - "Do you really want to send this business letter to yourself?" etc. etc.) With 20-30% of the internet population ignoring unpleasant emails, I...

I'm one of those folks who are a true nightmare to businesses who try to cheat their customers. No matter what the issue, I always kick their *** until I get what I want (e.g. my money back). It would be nice to get some sort of certificate for these achievements. Such a "Don't mess with me!" certificate would save everyone a lot of time. Typically, you have to deal with some arrogant manager who simply doesn't expect you to go all the way to enforce your right, and it takes some...

Recently I've read an article that warned men who are currently trying to get their wives/girlfriends pregnant to spend too much time in car seats, especially when they have heating. The simple reason is that the increased heat in that sensitive area can reduce fertility. I thought if this is something to consider for folks who want kids, it might also be interesting for those who don't want them. So I did some more research, and found out that in the 80s, there was a group in...

The concept of democracy is a great idea, but recent trends have shown that it is a vulnerable one, too. It seems that all a leader has to do is cut the education and social security budgets and create a large mass of people that are poor and illiterate. Spend all the money you didn't spend for the sake of the people to finance a huge propaganda campaign instead, and once you have brainwashed the gullible 51% with your "new world" views, it doesn't matter at all what the other 49% say. ...

Have you ever been barbecuing or travelling with you bike or done some other outdoor activity, and you looked at the overcast sky worrying when exactly it was gonna start raining? Well, when the rain finally hits you, it has already been falling for some time (a minute or possibly more). So I'm wondering if it's possible to create a cheap device that'll detect the exact moment the rain starts falling and warn you. A minute advance notice can be extremely valuable - you can evacuate...

When you can't find what you're looking for in a shop, you'll ask the clerk. But what if the same thing happens to you at a fleamarket? The solution: special fleamarket guides who help you find what you're looking for. There could be specially trained people who are in charge of a certain stretch of the fleamarket and can tell you what's going on. If it's too much to remember (possibly!), the stands could also enter their stuff into a database, so everybody would know that e.g. stand...